Today’s puzzle (from 2002) is in memory of John Young (DOGBERRY) who died in May.
Quite a challenge for Monday morning I thought, Great clues all round, and an enjoyable solve. Some of the parsing was a little tricky, especially 9ac, which I’m really not sure about. (Brucew@aus explains it better in the first comment below)
Thanks DOGBERRY!
(TAE (to, Scots) on VAC (holiday))< (<to return)
(CIDER)* (*drunk) during ACT (performance)
L (No., 50 in Roman numerals) + IS + TEN (X, Roman Numeral)
This is better explained by Brucew@aus in the first comment below
(LEFT)* (*out) by CHER (singer)
RIDING (old district) back (the ING) to front
LIRE (old currency) adopting (VIEW)* (*new)
“type in” (enter text, “told”)
PUT (set) + RID (free)
(IRE (rage) + B[laze] (beginning)) in FUG (stuffy atmosphere)
RM (sailors) boarding MOON (satellite)
K R (two kings) supplying AKA (alias) + TO + A
AD (modern) + DUCE (Italian leader, Mussolini)
(ET (and) + ARK (classical boat) and ROW (how to propel one))< (<backwards)
J’s being Joules, the measurement of work
CENT (coin) found after (L (left) + U (turn))
(WRONG)* (*badly) within RIM (boundary)
(THEIR + W (women))* (*become)
CALL (summon) and I + OPE (grant access, as the poet said)
GO (game) interrupts VISIT (call) to H (hospital)
APE (to copy) + IT in RIF (the mountains, in Northern Morocco)
COL (pass) on LIE (tale)
RAT (less than dependable character) + HER (female)
(AI (first-class) + L (student) + HAD (owned))< (<up)
TAR (seaman) + GET (to attain)
L (left) + IBERIA (part of Europe)
DIM (not smart) + SUM (calculation)
GUSH (copious issue) involving (OLD (former) + R (S. African currency, Rand))
IMP (devil) + (DENT (impression) on U (university))
IN VEST (sporting underwear) + OR (alternative to)
Double definition
A skewer being something that skews
RE (soldiers) in BARN (farm building)
FAR (distant) + ROW (dispute)
Farrow = Give birth to a litter of pigs
POSER (model) embracing T (another model)
Hi Teacow
9a was brilliant – LISTEN = L IS TEN – no L is 50 … X is 10 !
This is exactly why we miss this setter.
Ah, thank you Brucew@aus, that is far more satisfactory!
Great fun. Along with today’s independent, a harder than normal start to the working week. LISTEN was my FOI and what a beaut. I wasn’t sure about WORK RATE but had the same reasoning as in the blog. Had to guess that RIF was some mountain range.
Thanks Dogberry and Teacow.
28ac: While I see what was intended, work is indeed measured in joules, but work rate is measured in watts (joules per second) or other units that have an element of “per unit time” in them. Incidentally, I think ET is meant to be “and classical”, with ARK being sufficiently defined by “boat”.
A lovely, though poignant, surprise this morning. I think this puzzle bears out my impression that Dogberry / Shed puzzles were getting easier more recently. I found this a bit of a challenge – and a most enjoyable one.
I had ticks for LISTEN (excellent), FLETCHER, for the definition, TIE PIN, CALLIOPE and DAHLIA, both for the surface.
One tiny point: I think ‘classical’ goes with (Latin) ET, rather than ARK, which was a biblical boat. (I’d initially been trying to work ARGO in, before I realised what Js stood for.)
Many thanks to the Editor for giving us this treat and to Teacow for blogging it.
Pelham Barton – you just beat me to it.
Pelham Barton@4
I was going to type something on Joule and Watt. Just then read your explanation. 🙂
LISTEN is just superb.
Liked TIE PIN and INVESTOR quite a bit.
Tripped up by the various Britishisms that I can never remember — tae, RM, RE. I wasn’t aware of the missile manufacturer, the Moroccan mountains nor the Italian leader. Odd that “on” in 19d means “surrounding”. Re 1d, do poets have a habit of omitting final letters?
GDU@8!
On in 19d is just on, I think. DENT on U.
1d 🙂
Best of the day and an appropriate way to remember Dogberry/Shed with a puzzle that read as if it could have been set last week, not twenty years ago. I agree with the praise for LISTEN and the ‘largely defunct island’ for KRAKATOA wasn’t far behind. A geography lesson as well, with the never heard of RIF mountains.
Thanks to the FT crossword editor and Teacow
Thanks to Teacow, and to Colin for selecting such a lovely puzzle for this memorial.
This was the first I knew of John’s passing. Over the years I’ve solved 114 Shed cryptics and a further 45 of Dogberry’s. Nowhere near enough if the truth’s known; always a treat, always impeccably fair, he will be much missed. RIP
Thank you so much, team for this lovely reminder.
A nice surprise on a Monday
Others have said it all for me – RIP Dogberry and thank you to Teacow
Thanks for the blog, a very nice touch from the FT to print this. Shed was one of my favourite setters in the Guardian when I was learning cryptics.
Maybe for WORK RATE it is just a misprint ? J/s would work fine. In the SI system J=Joules so we never add an s to make it plural.
Thanks to the FT for this tribute to Dogberry’s memory and printing such a worthy example of his skill. My first pass yielded fairly little; LIVE WIRE got me going. It took awhile to see the clever LISTEN, one of my favourites. Others included KRAKATOA (great read by Simon Winchester), RINGWORM (good surface), TARGET, DIM SUM, and POSTER. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
Thanks Teacow as I didn’t get the “J’s” (and agree with quibbles above, I think Roz’s suggestion of typo with J/s intended is plausible).
Like Geoff Down Under@8 I did not follow “OPE” and have not found a specific reference, can anyone help?
This was tough and entertaining, shame that I have missed Mr Young’s output but there’s always the archives. Thanks FT for making this available as a taster of his abilities!
Gazzh @16. Oddly, the only Shakespeare I have read is Julius Caesar. One of the bits we had to learn at school was a speech by Marc Antony over Caesar’s recently slain body which has over thy wounds now do I prophecy, which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips… (hope I remembered that correctly). The same speech mentions the goddess Ate, who often appears in cryptics.
Hovis @17 – that’s the very quotation I would have given: I learned that speech, too. 😉
John Keats Ode to Psyche
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm love in” is another example.
I suppose these and other lines rest in oblivion nowdays.
We found this relatively easy after the toughie in the Indy – but by no means a walkover. We liked FIREBUG and KRAKATOA, but failed to parse INGRID (to our shame as one of us hails from the former West Riding).
A satisfying solve; RIP Dogberry and thank you to Teacow.
Thank you Hovis and SM (and Eileen!), While vaguely familiar with some Shakespeare and rather less Keats I certainly don’t have enough learned off by heart. I will try to remember Ate, too.
Gazzh@21
I am just delighted that I could dredge up the quotation from the depths, some 62 years after I studied the poem at school!
Hovis and Gaza, I remembered “ope” from 71 years ago when Julius Caesar was the Shakespeare play for O-level. Thanks all.