Not a tricky puzzle overall, but there is one clue I can’t solve. Thank you Gozo.
The grid is a simple pangram. Gozo grids usually contain more than this, have I missed anything? The grid contains every letter of the alphabet preceded by an E:
EA, EB, EC…
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PEAHEN |
Enclosure housing a male bird (6)
|
| PEN (enclosure) contains (hosting) A HE (male) | ||
| 4 | TENDERED |
Offered care to wild deer (8)
|
| TEND (care) with anagram (wild) of DEER | ||
| 10 | EQUABLE |
Easy-going match has Belgium against Spain (7)
|
| EQUAL (match) contains (has) B (Belgium) then E (Espana, Spain) | ||
| 11 | INSIDES |
Fashionable teams showing guts? (7)
|
| IN (fashionable) SIDES (teams) | ||
| 12 | IBEX |
High liver from Central Tibet? Wrong (4)
|
| the centre letters of tIBEt then X (wrong) – something that lives in a high place | ||
| 13 | BEFORE LONG |
Poor loner in obscure surroundings soon (6,4)
|
| anagram (poor) of LONER inside BEFOG (obscure) | ||
| 16 | COCKER |
Familiar term for spaniel (6)
|
| “COCKER” is an informal address to a friend (familiar term) | ||
| 17 | HEMLOCK |
Border security can be fatal (7)
|
| HEM (border) and LOCK (security) | ||
| 20 | DEVOURS |
Swallows drove us wild (7)
|
| anagram (wild) of DROVE US | ||
| 21 | SNEEZE |
Small joints, we’re hear, will indicate cold (6)
|
| S (small) then NEEZE sounds like (we’re hear ?) “knees” (joints) – I think there is probably a typo in this clue | ||
| 24 | EXTRANEOUS |
Crowd actor, sadly no use and irrelevant (10)
|
| EXTRA (crowd actor) then anagram (sadly) of NO USE | ||
| 25 | ETRE |
Oh, to be in France . . . .!” (4)
|
ETRE means “to be” in French, so this is a cryptic definition. It is unusual to see a foreign word as a solution, but this is prompted by the need to find an ET to complete the EA,EB,EC… pattern. The surface reading paraphrases a line from Robert Browning’s poem Home Thoughts From Abroad (note the exclamation marks):
|
||
| 27 | REWRITE |
Odd characters missing from Greek work in the new adaptation (7)
|
| every other letter (odd characters missing from) gReEk WoRk In ThE | ||
| 29 | OREGANO |
Eoin Morgan drops most of mint chopped herb (7)
|
| anagram (chopped) of EOin mORGAN missing MINt (most of) | ||
| 30 | PATTERNS |
Designs for new transept (8)
|
| anagram (new) of TRANSEPT | ||
| 31 | BEHEAD |
Make a drastic capital cut (6)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PRECINCT |
Ward and wayward prince by court (8)
|
| anagram (wayward) of PRINCE then CT (court) | ||
| 2 | ACUTE ACCENT |
Mark has a quaintly charming way of speaking (5,6)
|
| A CUTE (quaintly charming) ACCENT (way of speaking) | ||
| 3 | EBBS |
Declines, as Stanley and Beatrice lose their head (4)
|
| wEBBS (the husband and wife |
||
| 5 | EPISODES |
Record one’s poems as parts of a serial (8)
|
| EP (Extended Play, record) I’S (one’s) ODES (poems) | ||
| 6 | DISNEYLAND |
Dylan dines out at theme park (10)
|
| anagram (out) of DYLAN DINES | ||
| 7 | RED |
Beware – danger! Contents indicated by this! (3)
|
| found inside (contents of) bewaRE Danger | ||
| 8 | DESIGN |
Purpose of blueprint (6)
|
| double definition | ||
| 9 | JEREZ |
Sherry prize rejected – some upset (5)
|
| found inside (some of) priZE REJected reversed (upset) | ||
| 14 | ORCHESTRATE |
Arrange part for three actors in play (11)
|
| anagram (in play) of THREE ACTORS | ||
| 15 | PEJORATIVE |
Private joke, funny, but not with king – it’s insulting (10)
|
| anagram (funny) of PRIVATE JOkE missing K (king) | ||
| 18 | FREE REIN |
Carte blanche when poor refereeing, say, is dispensed with (4,4)
|
| anagram (when poor) of REFEREeINg missing (is dispensed with) EG (say, for example) | ||
| 19 | HEREFORD |
Cattle crossing in this place? (8)
|
| HERE (in this place is…) FORD (… a crossing) | ||
| 22 | LET RIP |
Act violently on the French outing (3,3)
|
| LE (the, in French) and TRIP (outing) | ||
| 23 | EUROS |
In due course regret upsetting money (5)
|
| SO (in due course) RUE (regret) all reversed (upsetting) | ||
| 26 | PEKE |
“The Dog and Gander” is mentioned (4)
|
| sounds like (mentioned) “peek” (gander, look) | ||
| 28 | WET |
Moderate Tory trebled for group (3)
|
| trebled WET would be Wet Wet Wet, a Scottish pop group |
I put in ETRE too , this was faux de mieux . Sorry can’t help with parsing.
I always have a chuckle when I see (as in 5d) EP for record. Is this evidence that most, if not all, cryptocruciverbalists are getting on a bit? I’d never heard of JEREZ. Nor either Webb in 3d. Couldn’t work out WET. Otherwise a pleasant diversion, no particular favourites.
PeeDee, I don’t think you’ve missed anything in 25a. The “oh” is simply for the surface, and yes, it’s odd that it’s a French word.
Geoff@2 now you mention the Webbs surely Beatrice’s brother was Sydney not Stanley?
Sorry Sydney was Beatrice’s brother but where does Stanley fit in?
Husband rather ! Confused myself
The same “??” about ETRE; I wondered if the ellipsis (though four dots) or the exclamation mark might have something to do with it, but not that I can see.
I liked the misdirection of PEAHEN and the the idea of Bob ‘Dylan’ at a ‘theme park’. Didn’t know COCKER for ‘Familiar term’ but good to see our two canine friends too.
SM @3-5: Oh, what a tangled Webb we weave apparently!
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
A fun pangram from Gozo.
31a had a neat surface, likewise the ‘cattle’ (19d) and ‘insulting’ (15d). I also liked 28d in its ‘trebled’ format but my favourite was 1a for its misdirection.
Many thanks to Gozo and PeeDee (specifically for clarifying the Webbs in 3d and the ‘be’ chunk of ‘befog’ (13a). I agree with Geoff @2 re être and the wishful ‘oh’ ? just barely ? disguising its real intention.
Wordplodder, we crossed in the ether.
Well spotted SM re Webbs. I saw what I wanted to see there, not what was written!
I think ETRE must be right, but it seems a weak clue to me. Adding “Oh” to the front breaks the cryptic definition. Also it seems very odd for a setter to include a foreign word in the grid without a compelling reason.
Plus what look like two typos in the clues. Perhaps the crossword editor is on holiday at the moment?
I’m reminded of Robert Browning
“Oh, to be in England
Now that April’s there. . . .”
Browning ends the verse (and the following one) with an “!”
Hi Jay – very good! I expect this was deliberate, and it makes the clue more coherent. “Oh” is not just any old word tacked on the front, at least there is a reason behind it.
Thanks Gozo for a masterful crossword. I spotted the pangram but not the significance of the letter E. There were many good clues as usual with my top choices being REWRITE, PEJORATIVE, and LET RIP. I couldn’t figure out WET, I didn’t know the poetic framework for ETRE, and I needed a word finder for BEHEAD; otherwise this seemed easier than the standard Gozo fare. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Oh, I missed those preceding Es. Thank you eagle-eyed PeeDee.
Thanks for the blog , I will second Diane , truly brilliant spot for the letter E.
Also Jay@ 10 for solving the mystery of “Oh” , I never thought of it at the time but your post shows me that I have been misremembering it for years as – Oh………..England, Now that spring is here.
The misprints did not seem to matter, sometimes we see what we expect to see.
The ‘prefixed pangram’ was brilliant; just a shame that it was spoiled by the inclusion of ETRE. And we can see at least one way in which that could have been avoided – simply by changing a couple of words elsewhere in the grid (and of course providing new clues). Pity about the typos and one of the Webbs being wrongly named, too.
Plenty to enjoy, though. We particularly liked OREGANO, ACUTE ACCENT, EPISODES and ORCHESTRATE.
So thanks, Gozo and PeeDee.
Although it was a DNF for me, I really enjoyed the puzzle and the blog was even better! Thanks all.
There’s an ET in LET RIP and WET
Hi James, so there is, well spotted. I had an email conversation with Gozo after writing this blog and comments, and he confirmed that looking for an ET was the reason he chose the French ETRE rather than the more obvious English word STYE. It seems like Gozo had overlooked that too.
I have to say that when trying to highlight all those two letter pairs it got very confusing, I frequently confused AEs with EAs etc. It is not surprising that something got overlooked.
James/PeeDee – we never spotted those either when we suggested changes. It just goes to show we see what we want to see yet don’t always spot the obvious.
Very late thanks Peedee as I only looked at this yesterday, was baffled by EBBS so thanks for the distinguished couple and the E.. pangram spot, and thanks Jay for the cultural background to ETRE.