A fun challenge from CHALMIE this Friday which some might describe as war on the waters.
Central theme is the long standing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge at the annual Boat Race. I had to google to confirm my parsing for some of the clues.
FF: 10 DD: 8
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ACCOST |
Buttonhole Bill Price (6)
|
| AC ( bill ) COST ( price ) ; I was iffy when I got this in midway through the crossword ( I usually have bill for ‘AD’ but in this case it has to be ‘AC’, short for account ). | ||
| 4 | BOAT RACE |
Slight evidence of snake in Cockney’s visage (4,4)
|
| BOA ( snake ) TRACE ( slight evidence ) ; boat race is cockney slang for face ( visage ) | ||
| 9 | RUMBAED |
Regretted inspiring business expert to have danced (7)
|
| RUED ( regretting ) containing MBA ( business expert ) | ||
| 11 | FLOWING |
Circulating victory whip-round (7)
|
| FLOG ( whip ) around WIN ( victory ) | ||
| 12 | BUS DRIVER |
Transport worker initially brings us down to venue for 4 (3,6)
|
| B ( Brings, initially ) US D ( down ) RIVER ( venue for 4 ) | ||
| 14 | STEER |
Young couple from 5 like 20 does in 4 (5)
|
| cryptic def; couple from 5 is OXford ( 5a, first couple of letters ), the young of which is called a steer; a coxswain would steer the boat in a boat race | ||
| 15 | CHISWICK |
16 at end of 4 is weak, protected by young woman (8)
|
| [ IS W ( weak ) ] in CHICK ( young woman ) | ||
| 16 | BRIDGE |
Game dog’s skin covered in cheese (6)
|
| DoG ( skin i.e. end characters ) in BRIE ( cheese ) | ||
| 18 | CRISIS |
Credit reserve for 5 in 4 reaches turning point (6)
|
| CR ( credit ) ISIS ( reserve for 5 in 4 ; the name of the reserve boat for oxford in the boat race vs cambridge ); something new i learnt today | ||
| 20 | COXSWAIN |
Melt wax icons of smallest participant in 4 (8)
|
| [ WAX ICONS ]*; refer 4a | ||
| 24 | MAGES |
Issues about European sorcerers (5)
|
| MAGS ( issues ) around E ( european ) | ||
| 25 | UNDERPLOT |
Second narrative theme disturbs old punter (9)
|
| [ OLD PUNTER ]* | ||
| 26 | SWEAR IN |
Formally inaugurate Pride, possibly without clothes (5,2)
|
| SIN ( pride, possibly ) containing WEAR ( clothes ) | ||
| 27 | ESKDALE |
Last of 5 daleks destroyed in northern valley (7)
|
| [ E ( last of fivE ) DALEKS ]* | ||
| 29 | OUT TRAYS |
Cook trout, say, from which letters can be taken (3-5)
|
| [ TROUT SAY ]* | ||
| 30 | PSALMS |
Son with hand out beginning to sing songs (6)
|
| [ S ( son ) in PALM ( hand ) ] S ( Sing, beginning letter ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AEROBIC |
Chocolate bar writer’s form of exercise (7)
|
| AERO ( chocolate bar ) BIC ( writer ) | ||
| 2 | CAM |
Eccentric 16 in 4 (3)
|
| double def; | ||
| 3 | SPARROW |
Pirate captain to fight over what they do in 4 (7)
|
| SPAR ( fight ) ROW ( what they do in 4 ) | ||
| 5 | OXFORD |
Nothing gets two crosses for 1 in 4 (6)
|
| O ( nothing ) X ( cross ) FORD ( cross ) | ||
| 6 | TROUSER |
Help yourself to wake up in Turkey (7)
|
| ROUSE ( wake up ) in TR ( turkey ) | ||
| 7 | ANISEED BALL |
Got it in conjunction with dance – sweet! (7,4)
|
| [ { I SEE ( got it ) } in AND ( conjunction ) ] BALL ( dance ) | ||
| 8 | ENGORGE |
To swell recycling, go green (7)
|
| [ GO GREEN ]* | ||
| 10 | DEVICE |
Scheme to eradicate sin? (6)
|
| cryptic def; read as DE-VICE ( eradicate sin ) | ||
| 13 | SLIDING SEAT |
Misprinted signs detail equipment for 4 (7,4)
|
| [ SIGNS DETAIL ]* | ||
| 17 | GOLDIE |
German pensioner, 4 reserve for 2 16 (6)
|
| G ( german ) OLDIE ( pensioner ) ; name of the reserve boat for cambridge ( answers to 2d 16a) in the boat race vs oxford | ||
| 18 | COMES TO |
Wakes up, thus grabbing tail of space traveller (5,2)
|
| COMEt ( space traveler ) with [ T ( tail of comeT ) in SO ( thus ) ]; slightly tricky in writing the parsing but i hope what i have outlined is clear enough | ||
| 19 | INSURER |
Sun Life possibly admitted being more certain (7)
|
| IN ( admitted ) SURER ( more certain ) | ||
| 21 | STROKES |
Caresses men at the back in 4 (7)
|
| double def; i wasnt sure about the second def but did find out from chambers that ‘stroke oar’ refers to the rower at the back and i assume this is sometimes shortened to just ‘stroke’. | ||
| 22 | NUTTERS |
Note says “Lunatics” (7)
|
| N ( note ) UTTERS ( says ) | ||
| 23 | PUTNEY |
Urge sheep turning up at 16 where 4 starts (6)
|
| YEN ( urge) TUP ( sheep ), all reversed; the boat race starts at the putney bridge | ||
| 28 | AWL |
American with large bore (3)
|
| A ( american ) W ( with ) L ( large ) |
This super themed offering from Chalmie made fitting entertainment for a Friday.
I didn’t automatically land 4 and 16 so steered my away through the non-themed clues until it became blindingly obvious.
Like our blogger, I was just unaware of the ‘reserve’ names so 18 especially, being my LOI, needed online confirmation of my guesswork.
The theme was great fun and there were very fine clues besides, my favourite being 7’s ‘sweet’.
Thanks to Chalmie and Turbolegs who has cleared up a number of my parsing questions. 18d reads fine by me.
Thanks for the blog, no surprise that I agree with Diane, ANISEED BALL is brilliant. COMES TO is really clever with SO grabbing the tail of the comet.
ISIS comes fro the name of the Thames at Oxford, I used to swim in the Isis every day when I was a student.
Lucky you, Roz, to have enjoyed the river in a cleaner state than is perhaps currently the case following the heavy rains!
Not being that familiar with the event in question, I had to use an Internet search for 17D and 21D.
Re 7D, I don’t remember these from my English childhood but I doubt that I would like them, I do remember “midget gems”.
I learned to swim in the River Thames: there was a cordoned-off area at Henley, just at the place they used to set off fireworks.
P.S. Is 9A really a word? Isn’t “rumba” a noun and not a verb?
20A – why is the coxswain the “smallest” member of the team?
Peter I did wonder about RUMBAED it does look strange, Chambers does give it as a verb to dance the rumba. In a rowing eight the rowers are usually huge and very powerful, the cox is just being carried along, the smaller they are the less weight to carry. A men’s eight will often have a female cox.
Diane@4 it used to be lovely and clean before the wonders of privatisation. Today even some of our beaches are closed.
Yes, Roz, it’s a great pity.
RUMBAED sounds fine but looks strange, I agree; RUMBA-ED, perhaps?
Roz
one of the female eights in the european champs had a male cox 🙂
Thanks Mark@9 it does work both ways , the female rowers are usually tall and powerful.
Thanks Chalmie. I was pleased to have solved most of this puzzle given that I dislike crosswords that contain large numbers of clues that reference other clues especially when I know little about the theme in question. I enjoyed SWEARS IN, COMES TO, and the simple NUTTERS. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
I enjoyed this one. A nice, steady solve which fell into place comfortably.
LOI was Underplot, which I missed as an anagram until very late. Big Doh when the penny dropped.
PS. I read Psalms as an anagram of Palm (hand) plus S (son) plus S from Sing. Why else is “out” in the clue?
Peter@5 The cox doesn’t row, so should be as light as possible
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
30ac answering Moly @12: the word “out” is the inclusion indicator telling us that PALM fits outside the first S (indicated by son).
Not all the oarsmen are necessarily brawny. The bow oar and the 2 and 3 are somewhat slighter so as not to push the bow of the boat down. For me this was a fun theme as some 70 years ago I rowed with Vesta Rowing Club in Putney.
As a born and bred cockney I’ve never circulated in the Boat Race circles, but bar the reserve boats found this surprisingly easy.
Feel I should have struggled more although needed Turbolegs to explain 14a.
Used to live in Oxford and when we saw the rowers out on the river we used to shout: “Show us your cox” or “We can see your cox” and we thought they’d never heard that before.
I was Young then.
@pelham barton
Thanks for the “out” explanation
Late thanks Turbolegs as my wife brought this home from the UK and I only got round to it today – very good, couldn’t parse ANISEED so especial thanks for that (agree very clever, as was 18d and the little misdirection in 27A, and the palm out which has grown on me having also first thought it was a dreaded indirect anagram). [Martin Brice@17: Surprised nobody has mentioned the famous Harry Carpenter quote, perhaps the FT crowd is above such things?] Thanks Chalmie!