Guardian 28,813 – Pasquale

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As we brace ourselves for the hottest recorded day in the UK, can Pasquale help to keep us cool? I found this a satisfyingly steady solve, right in the Goldilocks zone. As usual, a few slightly unusual words to keep us on our toes, but all clearly clued. Thanks to Pasquale.

 
Across
1 SKIDDY Second child likely to cause an accident? (6)
S + KIDDY
5 MISSHAPE Avoid awful heap that is deformed (8)
MISS (avoid) + HEAP* (edit: definition amended to make the grammar work)
9 INTIFADA At home having endless quarrel, woman in rebellion (8)
IN 9at home) + TIF[f] + ADA
10 GODWIT Bird, the reverse of animal with intelligence (6)
Reverse of DOG + WIT
11 FONT It could be Roman feature just inside a church (4)
Double definition – Roman is a normal upright typeface, as opposed to Italic, and a font is generally found near the entrance to a church (inside, of course) – I see this is intended “to remind believers of their baptism as they enter the church to pray, since the rite of baptism served as their initiation into the Church.”
12 ADMITTANCE Entry made by Walter shortly appearing in a social gathering (10)
MITT[y] (Walter Mitty, character invented by James Thurber) in A DANCE
13 STERNE Serious English author (6)
STERN + E
14 ROGATION Supplication helping to restrict return of travel (8)
Reverse of GO (travel) in RATION (helping)
16 NEUROSIS Psychological problem that could make us nosier (8)
(US NOSIER)*
19 TOLEDO City that has modern light source in also (6)
LED (light-emitting diode) in TOO (also)
21 BANOFFI PIE Restriction lifted — that is, for eating good creamy dessert (7,3)
BAN OFF + PI (good) in I.E.
23 NANA Senior relative not completely bananas (4)
Hidden in baNANAs
24 STRICT Uncompromising princess leaves the region (6)
DISTRICT less DI[ana]
25 ARIETTAS A fantastic artiste offering short songs (8)
A + ARTISTE*
26 KEDGEREE Greek weed not the first to be cooked in dish (8)
Anagram of GREEK [w]EED
27 DECOKE Decarbonise road vehicle finally? Drink to that! (6)
[roa]D [vehicl]E + COKE (drink)
Down
2 KING OF THE CASTLE Strongest in group takes flight, once beaten (4,2,3,6)
(TAKES FLIGHT ONCE)*
3 DRIFTER Fault seen in the German male who wanders aimlessly? (7)
RIFT in DER (German masculine “the” thanks to commenters for pointing out the significance of “male”)
4 YEA-SAYERS You idiot — old philosopher’s taken in uncritical enthusiasts! (3-6)
YE + AYER (A. J. Ayer, philosopher) in ASS
5 MYANMAR Gosh, a number coming to ruin in the country (7)
MY (gosh!) + A + N + MAR
6 SIGHT Place reportedly something worth looking at (5)
Homophone of “site” (place)
7 HYDRANT Worse than dry? I’ll supply water (7)
(THAN DRY)*
8 PRINCE OF DENMARK Exceptional performance, kind rendered in Shakespearean role (6,2,7)
(PERFORMANCE KIND)*
15 GOT BEHIND Failed to keep up and was supported (3,6)
Double definition – but why “was supported”?
17 ROOTING England cricketer batting — good, getting established (7)
[Joe] ROOT + IN (batting) + G
18 SEPTATE Partitioned gym’s set up over gallery (7)
Reverse of PE’S + TATE
20 LUNATIC Maniac left in charge, upper-class Nationalist having got in (7)
U + NAT in L + IC
22 FETOR Some high-life Tory creating a stink (5)
Hidden in high-liFE TORy – not the commonest of words, but clearly clued; it’s a noun form of fetid or foetid

99 comments on “Guardian 28,813 – Pasquale”

  1. Never seen banoffi with that spelling, but clearly clued. In my, admittedly rare, visits to a church, the font has always benn well into the building. In 3 down, I took male to be an indicator to use der rather than die.

  2. As usual I was pressing Reveal to avoid putting my fork down when scoffing breakfast and confidently pressed it for 26, with no crossers to help. Not what I was expecting. I knew the correct answer, but my effort parses pretty well, except for the last two words in the clue. Anyone else put GRIDDLED?

  4. I’m with Crispy @1. The word is a contraction of BANANA and TOFFEE.

    Other than that an enjoyable solve.

    Thanks both.

  5. In 5a, I’d have thought that “deformed”, being an adjective, would clue “misshapen”. Isn’t MISSHAPE a verb?

  6. I was with Crispy@1 taking the definition of DRIFTER to be ‘who wanders aimlessly’ and male to belong with the. A drifter doesn’t have to be male. Oh, here we go again! 😉
    Nice puzzle. Thanks to Pasquale.

  8. I agree with banoffee(i), die/der male and was a bit confused about misshape(n). Nice puzzle though.

    The male thing reminds me of he/ambassador. I imagine this has been discussed before. Is there a good reason and not just historical sexism?

  9. Same quibble as Geoff @5 and also enjoyed the anagrams as referenced by Encota @3. ROGATION and ARIETTAS were new.

    Ta Pasquale & Andrew

  10. The two long anagrams are exceptional, as Encota says. And GODWIT and YEA-SAYERS (not a phrase one often hears) also earned ticks. NANA hidden in Bananas earned less of a tick and there are two I don’t fully understand. Both MISSHAPE and GOT BEHIND confuse me: the former feels like it should be MISSHAPEN if it’s being defined by the adjective ‘deformed’ rather than ‘deform’ and the latter, whilst I appreciate that ‘getting behind’ is supporting, doesn’t feel right. But I am not a strong enough grammarian to say why. Hopefully others will be able to explain. Most likely I’ve got it wrong.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

  12. Geoff @5 and AlanC @9: we crossed – there is a nounal version of MISSHAPE: Chambers gives Deformity or A misshapen item but I’m not sure that helps.

  13. I also agree about DRIFTER and BANOFFI. I didn’t like SKIDDY much, or MISSHAPE as a noun. But otherwise a good solve, with the unknown words well enough clued for some guesses and dictionary checks.
    GET BEHIND someone is to support them, so GOT BEHIND must mean was supported, surely, Andrew?
    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

  14. Thanks Alan, yes I see that now! I knew it was a recent puzzle, and one for which I hadn’t visited the blog, but I was thinking maybe it was the everyman.

  15. Unable to sleep with the dreaded Lurgi, I finished this at 3.00. The first time I’ve been ahead of the blogger. Several words I didn’t know, but Pasquale’s usual excellent cluing helped. Agree though about Mishape. I was another who found the spelling of the pudding odd, but having eaten in a restaurant that advertised “Shoe Pastry”, that seemed a minor quirk. Thanks to Andrew and Pasquale.

  16. SinCam – my thinking was that “get behind” = “support”, so “got behind” = “supported”.
    It’s just occurred to me that the clue might be better as “Failed to keep up but was supportive (3,6)”, though I hesitate to correct the Master.

  17. Thanks Andrew for clearing up the odd parsing.
    I think the definition in 13 should be “author”.
    And thanks to Pasquale.

  18. I liked NEUROSIS.

    New BANOFFI PIE (I had heard of banoffee in the past); FETOR; SEPTAT; philosopher AYR; ROGATION.

    I was not sure how to parse 15d GOT BEHIND – thanks SinCam@13; or 5ac MISSHAPE = deform not deformed? Thanks for the explanation Postmark@12

  19. A masterclass in how to clue obscure words fairly. I couldn’t even get Google to give me banoffi as a spelling but I’m sure it’s our there somewhere – maybe it’s a healthier version made with figs?

  20. SinCam @13, my reading was that “got behind” means supported (“he got behind his man”) and ‘was’ is part of the architecture (sorry; can’t think of proper word) of the clue.

  21. If you take the definition of MISSHAPE to be “that is deformed” then it could be seen as a descriptive definition rather than a simple synonym?

  22. When I was a child, many years ago, we could sometimes buy, at a reduced price, sweets or biscuits that had not been manufactured quite correctly and were described as misshapes. I still don’t like the clue though

  23. I remember buying a pennyworth of MISSHAPEs when I was a child. They were sweeties (chocolates I think) which hadn’t come out quite right, so we’re sold more cheaply. So I am quite happy with it is a noun.

    And I think if someone Was Supported then someone got behind them. i.e. they were GOT BEHIND.

  25. Quite a few words here that were in the further reaches of my vocabulary. I don’t think I knew what ROGATION meant, but I have heard of Rogation Sunday, so that made sense. Never seen FETOR before, and INTIFADA took a long time to recall.

    I would also expect to see Banoffee, but I Googled, and Nigella has BANOFFI, so it must be acceptable!

  27. I am with Andrew rather than SinCam and Moth on 15D, though I share Moth’s appreciation of Thornton’s accidents. Where does ‘was’ come from in 15? I suspect something got mistranscribed and that we’ll see an adjustment. ‘Has’ rather than ‘was’ would do it – particularly if, as I suggest, the puzzle is a ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ valediction to One Who Must Not Be Named: that would make the paradox in the clue a comment on the 4. I love Norman’s alternative for 26. Last time I multitasked successfully was – sorry, can’t remember, I’m typing this.

  28. Don’t find SKIDDY very appealing as a word, but it’s fairly clued.

    If The Don will indulge a little impertinence, for me, the GOT BEHIND clue would have been better without the was. Something like “Supported but failed to keep up”.

    Couldn’t find the BANOFFI spelling anywhere.

    Minor quibbles of an otherwise excellent crozier. Many thanks both.

  29. I find some anagrams hard to believe even when solved – king of the castle/takes flight once is a classic example. Not difficult once you’ve guessed “of the” and taken the letters out though.

  30. Komornik @26: we make similar points re 15d but you were slightly ahead of me! The Don often drops in so no doubt he’ll clarify.

  31. Got the two long anagrams early which made life easier. Didn’t know GODWIT, SEPTATE or FETOR so needed to check Chambers for them. I had a good laugh at ROOTING because of the Australian meaning.
    I liked INTIFADA, ADMITTANCE and BANOFFI PIE despite the strange spelling which isn’t in C2014

  32. Thanks Don & Andrew
    14A – we are probably more familiar with the word interrogation which comes from the Latin for to ask.
    But I remember Rogation Sunday from my childhood where we used to ask for God’s help with the harvest.

  33. I agree with moth @23. A MISSHAPE is a biscuit sold off cheaply because it does not conform to the normal size/shape requirements. Perfectly happy with it as a noun.

  34. I had discovered that “misshape” can be a noun in England (not in use here), but this still didn’t fit with what is surely an adjective in the clue. I guess it can be justified if we try hard enough, but I still don’t like that clue.

  35. Quite happy with misshape as a noun, if it’s good enough for Pulp…
    “Misshapes, mistakes, misfits
    Raised on a diet of broken biscuits, oh
    We don’t look the same as you
    And we don’t do the things you do
    But we live around here, too, oh really”

  36. Knew of AJ Ayers, but missed him today, so yea sayers was a bung and pray. Further doubtfuls were as for others above: rogation was a total jorum, the pie was a nho, fetor and septant were like hmm, have I heard this? Kedgeree is the sort of dish I’m sure I’d love, must rustle some up sometime. Al goodl fun, ta both.

  38. Thanks Andrew, i liked this one too for reasons all mentioned above with some qualification also discussed, but surprised it took until DrMike@35 for the excellent Pulp song to be introduced!
    I don’t think I have seen “worse” as an anagram indicator and am not sure it makes any sense (how is HYDRANT worse than “than dry”?) but liked the misdirection of the “supply” in that clue.
    Most of all delighted to get 21a thanks to finally remembering PI = good!
    As usual I feel like this was a good lesson in crossword solving as well as introducing me to some new words so thanks Pasquale.

  39. Beautiful clueing for Pasquale’s usual selection of assorted rarities (and MISSHAPES?) I hadn’t seen the BANOFFI spelling before, but I’m willing to believe it’s legit. SEPTATE was a jorum: ARIETTAS was also new. Like others, I remembered ROGATION from the church calendar, but didn’t know what it meant. Wasted time trying to fit WAT=Walter into ADMITTANCE, and trying to make the “Roman feature” into NOSE.

    I enjoyed the two big anagrams – had to get the pencil and paper out for those.

  40. Never seen that spelling of banoffee before. As a child I used to buy misshapes (bags of misshapen biscuits) using my busfare at a 1d a bag. If enough Tories get behind a candidate to support her for leadership she will be elected.

  42. Became initially fixated on the NW corner and rather blunted my teeth on that for quite some time. However, after I finally sorted things out there, the rest flew in in no time at all. Early on, with O as a crosser in place for 11ac, I thought Nose had to be the Roman feature, but it turned out to be a clueless attempt on my part. And with GOD in place for 10ac for a fleeting moment I thought, surely not Godiva, that would be truly awful. Anyway, got the feathered bird very soon after, but not quite the T-Shirt today, as I couldn’t work out last one in FETOR (which was a new one for me too) as of course I had also misspelled BANOFFI. All around the houses today, but nearly got there…

  44. Always happy when I see this setter’s name.

    Like others never heard of FETOR, ROGATION, SEPTATE but was able to parse them. Also not heard of the philosopher but then there are many philosophers I haven’t heard of.

    Really enjoyed this – lots of clues that gave me “aha” moments. All named already so I won’t repeat.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

  45. Thanks for the blog, good to see each obscurity having very clear word play. I did not worry about BANOFFI for this reason. I think the main problem with 15D is the WAS .
    ” The QPR goalkeeper was supported/ got behind by the crowd even though he had let in seven goals ”
    Nice to see YEA-SAYERS , the opposite is often used but not this.

  48. Surely the definition for 13A should be “author” with the wordplay being STERN (Serious) + E (English)

  49. To add my pennyworth (1d), I have only seen BANOFFI spelt this way, although as a banana/ toffee concoction, I suppose it started as BANOFFEE

  52. I had much the same reservations as others, though I did enjoy the puzzle as usual with Pasquale. Had SCENE instead of SIGHT in 6d for a long time, which held me up.

    BANOFFEE is a portmanteau of banana and toffee. I can’t see any justification for this alternate spelling.

  54. crispy @1. The holy water font in a catholic church was always at the entrance when I used to attend. Does that help?

  55. Several words here that I had to think hard about, but nothing completely unknown to me, fortunately.

    Long anagrams nicely done. I’m comfortable with MISSHAPE as a noun, but no amount of grammatical twisting can make the ‘was’ in 15d work for me. ‘Worse’ is a bit off-centre as an anagrind but made for a good clue and great surface.

    After KEDGEREE and BANOFFI/EE PIE I think I have mental heartburn 🙂

    Thanks to S&B

  56. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
    I did find BANOFFI through Google, but it is surely a mistake.
    I wasn’t keen on SKIDDY either; the clue seems to require a noun as the answer rather than an adjective – the accident would be caused by a skiddy surface. Also, isn’t “kiddie” the more normal spelling?
    When I played “King of the castle” as a child, the person getting to the top was only there temporarily, being displaced by one of the “dirty old rascals” left below!
    Favourite was ROGATION – a word that I knew from Church calendars but didn’t know what it meant. The clue allowed me to construct it.
    I thought a FONT was a Roman fountain, but I was mixing it up with the Italian fontana. The typeface works better.

  57. Generally answers went in smoothly and satisfactorily but held up a bit by INTAFADA SEPTATE ARIETTAS (despite being a chorister) and YEA SAYERS. Heard of nay sayers but never these folk.
    Also the tense of MISSHAPE still looks wrong to me.
    Thanks both

  58. Good cryptic with enjoyable long anagrams.

    The ODE has this: ‘banoffi pie /b??n?f? ?p??/ ? (also banoffee pie)
    ? noun a pie or tart made with toffee, bananas, and cream.’

    From Wiki: Fonts are often placed at or near the entrance to a church’s nave to remind believers of their baptism as they enter the church to pray.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

  59. Incidentally, although FETOR is fine (‘mephitis’ is better), I have a sneaking preference for the spelling ‘foetid’ rather than ‘fetid’ although this is actually erroneous [like ‘sulphur’ which is now officially ‘sulfur’ in Royal Society of Chemistry publications]

  60. Oh sad as we are restricted to BANOFFI (sic), ARIETTA, YEA-SAYER (in Collins as a ‘new word suggestion as the opposite of nay-sayer’), SEPTATE and FETOR for today’s trawl of the obscure, but as always well-clued. I don’t know why he adds in these monstrosities, as he certainly needn’t.

    Thanks to Andrew.

  61. Khayyam@8 The proper title (does anyone still use it) for an ambassador is His or Her Excellency, or HE for short. No sexism needed.

    Never heard of this pie with either spelling. Jorum for me.

    Gladys@39 I was with you on both NOSE and WAT.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew.

  63. I got the two long anagrams from the definitions and so missed out on the fun of untangling the anagrams… but then again I only got INTIFADA, ROGATION and SEPTATE from wordplay and crossers as they were new words for me.

    Very annoyingly a DNF for me as I was stumped by FONT! Kicked myself repeatedly afterwards, I should have got that. My excuse is that as an atheist the layout of churches eludes me.

    Re the BANOFFI/EE furore, I have seen it both ways, and recalled reading somewhere that the originator of the dish coined the misspelling deliberately, for reasons unknown. Wikipedia backs up my recollection.

  64. [AlanC@62 I was just after the shortest name, 3 letters always the best . Anything else is just coincidence and my innocence is beyond doubt of course. ]

  65. Up to 65 and it’s only lunchtime! Are we on course for a record?

    Another Roman NOSE here.

    Does anyone else remember attempting Haydn’s ARIETTA con Variazioni when learning the piano?

    I agree with ravenrider’s comment @29 about some anagrams being ‘hard to believe even when solved’. For me, this is often linked to the sounds in the jumbled-up version being so different. If we look at the sounds in KING OF THE CASTLE, only three consonants (K, S, and L) are sounded the same as in ‘takes flight once’ – and none of the vowels. (And here in Essex many would say the L very differently too.)

    I’m with Andrew et al re the pesky ‘was’ in the clue for GOT BEHIND. GillGamesh’s interpretation @20 is interesting, but it means reading ‘and was’ as the linking phrase between the two definitions. The logic of the clue would then be, it seems to me, ‘These two definitions used to lead you to the same solution – but they don’t any more!’ 😉

    If the spelling BAN OFFY were allowed, it could be clued as ‘temperance pie’. Thanks P & A.

  66. Very enjoyable. Like others I am not too happy with BANOFFI PIE. Unlike everyone else, I didn’t understand why PI = good but see from Wikipedia’s page of crossword abbreviations that PI is an abbreviation for pious. Useful to know. Many thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

  67. Collins has ‘banoffi’ as a legitimate alternate spelling. As does Nigella.
    Really enjoyed this crossword, a couple of new words but well signposted.

  69. Thankyou Andrew. Agree with Lin@48. Tweak to the blog for STERNE is needed.

    After looking up the recipe for BANOFFI PIE, I found the surface really funny. You would certainly need to lift a dietary restriction to eat it, and I would hardly call it a good creamy dessert. Yuk!! What a terrible thing to do to good bananas. From a toffee/caramel-maker I learned that I’m one of 25% of the population who hates the stuff.

  70. Gazzh @ 38. I took it to mean “the worse for wear” which can be paraphrased as “all over the place”.
    And I have also enjoyed a misshape or two over the years – same taste at half the price!

  71. MISSHAPE reminds me of the shopkeeper who had run out of half-price broken biscuits being asked to break some more for the customer…

  72. But worse means more bad in that phrase. I’m amazed that Don has used it in that way as an anagrind.

  74. the last plantagenet@60: No, of course Pasquale doesn’t need to include his “monstrosities”. He does it on purpose because he thinks we should enjoy being introduced to new words. Now that I know what to expect, I mind it much less than I used to, though I can’t say I enjoy it.

  75. Thanks Pasquale, that was enjoyable. I liked the oddities such as SKIDDY, GODWIT, BANOFFI PIE, KEDGEREE, and SEPTATE because these unknown words emerged from the wordplay. My top choices, however, were ADMITTANCE, STRICT, and DRIFTER. The surface and anagram at 8d were also impressive. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

  76. One of the advantages of living in the US and being able to tackle the puzzle hours before the blog arrives is the opportunity to think through or look up the clues that didn’t seem quite. So for example I discovered the noun form of MISSHAPE, and dictionary entries for FETOR and BANOFFI, confirming my guesses..

    I was also a bit unsure at first about SEPTATE, which dictionaries tell me means divided by septa. A house is divided by rooms, but you wouldn’t use “divided” to clue a house. A bit more checking reveals that septate is also a verb, meaning to form a division into septa, so it could be clued by “divide”. It’s probably close enough.

    [P.S. Sympathies to all those suffering from the heat. Here in the South we typically get days on end around body temperature (clever avoidance of choosing units there) but the infrastructure can cope.]

  77. Technically a DNF for me because I had STARKE not STERNE. Wondered if anyone else had the same problem but apparently not from the comments above. Have to concede STERNE works better so can’t grumble. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Many thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

  78. Fun puzzle, the long anagrams we’re a real help.

    The font was always just inside the door so you could bless yourself. The baptismal font was larger and could be anywhere in the church.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

  79. Ark Lark @78
    I would have called that a “stoup”, but it seems that “font” is an alternative name.

  80. PaulineiB @77,
    I also thought of Starke for 13 but fortunately thought of Sterne shortly after and decided the latter was more likely. But I reckon you should claim the finish because of this.

  82. A quibble with Andrew’s reading of 8D: does he want the anagrind to be “exceptional” or “rendered”? Whichever his answer is, what is the other word doing in the clue? I can only make this clue work if the anagrind is “exceptional” and the meaning of the answer is not “Shakespearean role” as Andrew has it. Instead, his underline should be extended to be “rendered in Shakespearean role” on the basis that the actual role is “Hamlet”, which happens to be a part through whom a Prince of Denmark is rendered.

  83. Malken @54. My church visits are rare, so I’m happy to believe that fonts are nearer the door than I thought.

  86. Andrew@82: I saw “exceptional” as the anagrind for performance and “rendered” as the anagrind for kind leaving “Shakespearean role” as the definition.

  87. Goujeers@43 — Thanks for the link! (The pie pictured looks much simpler than other versions I’ve found pictures of). The story and the recipe were interesting as well). Sorry so many later posters didn’t look at it.
    I found the pie by quickly plugging in “ie” at the end of the word, and then searching for English cream pies. Checking Collins OL gave me the alternate(original) spelling, then discovered it was the wrong “i” 🙂

  88. Maybe I don’t have my x-word had on straight this week, but with yesterday’s puzzles, I completely gave up before finishing. With this puzzle, I ended up with 2 reveals (11 and 14) but then was able to parse the answers except for 7d where I got stuck on HYDRA as a monster (could be worse than something?) and completely missed the anagram. [Usually it’s the words that hidden in plain site that have me lashing myself with a wet noodle!]

    Thanks to Pasquale for the fun challenge and to Andrew for the blog.

  89. Tony@86 – but the letters of the two words are intermingled. *PERFORMANCE + *KIND would not work here. “Rendered in” is a link phrase telling us the definition follows. Perhaps rendered is superfluous?

  90. I struggled to finish as I had so many possible solutions to the anagram A + ARTISTE*. Eventually I got my brain into gear and recognised what had to be the Italian diminutive of ARIA, with an English plural. No one else, as far as I can discover from the 80 comments, found this difficult or obscure. I did a quick search of this site for previous appearances of the word ARIETTAS, but only found ARIETTE (in an Araucaria Christmas special in 2009) which at least has the Italian plural.

    Ah well, as always with Pasquale, we live and learn.

    Thanks to setter and blogger for the education and explication as ever.

  92. Sheffield when I looked at the letters, I saw arias first, then guessed the answer from the remaining letters. Since I’d not heard the word, I looked (and found ARIETTA in both Collins OL and Chambers OL.

  93. Calgal @89: You’re correct. My parsing would only work if the last 4 letters of the answer were an anagram of “kind”. Not the 1st time I got the right answer with the wrong parsing. Now I think “rendered” is a bit awkward and “seen” would have been better but that’s really a minor quibble in an otherwise great clue.

  95. Exceptional has to be the anagrind for 8d, with ‘rendered in’ as the link between cryptic elements and definition. Perhaps not as neat as a postman’s knock, but hey.

  96. Calgal @94: I did see Andrew’s comment. It makes sense but I thought it was a stretch. I’m satisfied with paul b @95 saying it’s just a link. And I still think it’s a great clue.

  97. Surely Andrew @ 82 has the right explanation . PRINCE OF DENMARK is “rendered ( delivered) in Shakespearean role” i.e. Hamlet.

  98. Many thanks Phitonelly@80, that was who I had in mind, and I am reassured I was not alone 🙂

  99. Very late to this one, but in case anyone is still reading (hello Andrew, thanks for the blog!), I feel the need to pitch in to the BANOFFI/BANOFFEE debate…

    Many years ago, I worked on a restaurant guide, in which the Hungry Monk in East Jevington was a regular entry. The restaurant’s claim to fame was being the origin of this dessert, and BANOFFI was the spelling that we had in our house style guide, precisely for the reason given by Goujeers @43 – namely, that is how the inventor of the dish styled it. Those who can’t find evidence to support this spelling need to refine their Googling skills.

    Yes, it’s a portmanteau of banana and toffee, so BANOFFEE might seem a more logical spelling, but when was English spelling ever known for being logical? If that’s how the dish’s creator wants to style it, so be it.

    And while I’m here, thanks Pasquale for another excellent-as-ever crossword. I found it quite tricky, which is why I’m so late to comment, but it was very satisfying to solve and well worth persevering with.

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