Mev has provided this Tuesday’s puzzle to get our teeth into. This appears to be only the second crossword by this compiler that I have blogged, and last time I needed quite a bit of help with the parsing.
This time, I think that I have managed to make sense of the wordplay throughout, although I found the puzzle to be quite challenging overall. The NE quadrant in particular proved to be fairly stubborn, since 5 and 6 were both new to me and I struggled to understand what was happening at 8.
Tuesday is theme day and here we have the ultimate ghost theme, since the clues and solutions alike are peppered with references to the ingenious 2019 British sitcom Ghosts (=entry at 1A): Alison Cooper, Mike Cooper, Kitty, Thomas (Thorne), Julian (Fawcett), Lady Stephanie (Button), Robin, …. There are doubtless more that I have not spotted. As this is a ghost theme, you could complete the puzzle and be blissfully unaware of the theme’s existence!
As for the individual clues, many of which contain cricket references, I particularly liked 1D and 26, for making me smile and/or squirm; and 7 and 13, both for surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | GHOSTS | Grand party-thrower has a bit of skinny people’s leftovers?
G (=grand, i.e. 1000 dollars) + HOST (=party-thrower) + S<kinny> (“bit of” means first letter only) |
| 04 | SKIMMERS | Winter sportswomen capturing a thousand male seabirds
[M (=a thousand, in Roman numerals) + M (=male)] in SKIERS (=winter sports(wo)men); skimmers are seabirds of the genus Rhyncops, related to terns, that skim the water |
| 10 | ISOTOPE | One possible elementary form of love inspired by delirious poet after Alison’s heart
<al>IS<on> (= “heart” means middle 2 letters of 6) in [O (=love, i.e. zero score in tennis) in *(POET)]; “delirious” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | TORNADO | Donor at dance to make a big whip-round?
*(DONOR AT); “dance” is anagram indicator; cryptically, a tornado could be described as “a big whip-round” |
| 12 | GUSTATORY | One conservative on blow is concerned with matters of taste
GUST (=blow, of wind) + A (=one) + TORY (=conservative) |
| 13 | JOINT | Place bits of banjo in trash
Hidden (“bits of”) in “banJO IN Trash”; colloquially, a joint is a (meeting) place |
| 14 | EMMY | Ultimately acknowledge Mike with setter’s award
<acknowledg>E (“ultimately” means last letter only) + M (=Mike, in radio telecommunications) + MY (=setter’s, i.e. Mev’s) |
| 15 | COMPONENTS | Parts of contests about a set of books
[ONE (=A) + NT (=set of books, i.e. New Testament)] in COMPS (=contests, i.e. competitions) |
| 19 | POLITICIAN | House-sitter perhaps supposed Valium stultified acid band’s core line-up
<sup>PO<sed> <va>LI<um> <stul>TI<fied> <a>CI<d> <b>AN<d>; “core line-up” indicates that the middle letters of each word are put together; cryptically, a politician could be described as a “house-sitter” since he sits in the House of Commons! |
| 21 | BONE | Middle of wooden object rejected as material for hammer
Hidden (“middle of”) and reversed (“rejected”) in “woodEN OBject”; the hammer is a small bone in the ear |
| 24 | RAGES | Cellar area housing plague victims finally floods
<cella>R <are>A <housin>G <plagu>E <victim>S; “finally” means last letters of each word only are used; in Shakespeare, rages are floods |
| 25 | TOMBOYISH | Grave old yankee, one quiet and not conforming to a certain stereotype
TOMB (=grave) + O (=old, as in OT) + Y (=yankee, in radio telecommunications) + I (=one) + SH (=quiet!) |
| 26 | BUTTONS | Panto character’s revolutionary container for bodily effluvium?
SNOT TUB (=container for bodily effluvium!!); “revolutionary” indicates vertical reversal |
| 27 | CAPTAIN | Team leader occasionally lacks a bipartisan view? No!
<la>C<ks> A <bi>P<ar>T<is>A<n v>I<ew>N<o>; “occasionally” means every third letter only is used |
| 28 | NONSENSE | Nothing in noblewoman’s coat seen floating beside spectre’s face? Tosh!
[O (=nothing) in N<oblewoma>N (“coat” means external letters only)] + S<pectre> (“face” means first letter only) + *(SEEN); “floating” is anagram indicator |
| 29 | CREASE | Care about the Home Counties’ line on cricket pitches
*(CREA) + SE (=the Home Counties); “about” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | GOING DEEP | Dog peeing wildly is heading towards the boundary
*(DOG PEEING); “wildly” is anagram indicator; the reference is to a ball struck in cricket |
| 02 | OPOSSUM | Animal’s in soup Mo’s stirring
*(SOUP MO’S); “stirring” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | THOMAS | Telford tattooist at last has covered over mark
<tattois>T (“at last” means last letters only) + {[O (=over, in cricket) + M (=mark, i.e. former German currency)] in HAS}; the reference is to the Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834) |
| 05 | KITTY | Fund gear – treasury exhausted
KIT (=gear, equipment) + T<reasur>Y (“exhausted” here implies empty, used up, hence no middle letters) |
| 06 | MARY JANE | Grass // shoe
Double definition: Mary Jane is a slang word for marijuana, hence “grass” AND a type of women’s shoe |
| 07 | ELATION | Delight in kinsman losing head
<r>ELATION (=kinsman): “losing head” means first letter is dropped |
| 08 | SCOUT | Finch found in book published by special constable
SC (=special constable) + OUT (=published, of book); “Scout” Finch is the protagonist of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 09 | MESOZOIC | Some lunatic zealous order initially in charge of an era
*(SOME) + Z<ealous> O<rder> (“initially” means first letters only) + I/C (=in charge); “lunatic” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | PHARMACY | Chemist’s fast taking ill
HARM (=ill, as in to do someone no ill) in PACY (=fast) |
| 17 | STEPHANIE | Measure fabric square that king’s left for European princess
STEP (=measure, as in to take steps to) + HAN<k>IE (=fabric square; “that king (=K, in cards)’s left” means letter “k” is dropped); the reference is to Princess Stephanie of Monaco (1965-) |
| 18 | OTOSCOPE | Medical instrument to put into large singer Julian
[TO in OS (=large, i.e. outsize)] + COPE (=singer Julian) |
| 20 | LIGHTEN | Lift, and make straighter with the other hand
RIGHTEN (=to make straighter); “with the other hand” means that letter “r” (=right) is replaced by letter “l” (=left); to lighten e.g. the atmosphere is to lift it |
| 22 | OKINAWA | Fine batting on a wide Australian island in the Pacific
OK (=fine) + IN (=batting, in cricket) + A W (=wide, in cricket) + A (=Australian) |
| 23 | COOPER | Blimey, a funny magician!
COO (=blimey, i.e. expression of surprise) + PER (=a, each); the reference is to Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper (1921-84) |
| 24 | ROBIN | Bird’s run out, then bowled at home
RO (=run out, in cricket) + B (=bowled, on cricket scorecard) + IN (=at home) |
| 25 | TESTS | Tries a different pole in camp shelters
TENTS (=camp shelters); “a different pole” means that letter “n” (=north) is replaced by letter “s” (=south) |
Loved the GHOSTS ghost theme. Quite a few answers I had to check due to lack of the appropriate knowledge: GUSTATORY, MARY JANE (shoes), SCOUT (Finch), SKIMMERS & THOMAS (Telford), making for a fairly tough solve.
Not easy. Some of the parsing as well as the theme (nho) escaped me but I was mistake-free on the app so that was a small victory. With COOPER I had ‘cor’ for ‘blimey’ and then nothing so the blog helped. Didn’t pick the ‘core’ reference for POLITICIANS. The def for ISOTOPE seemed vague but with ‘people’s leftovers’ for GHOSTS and ‘big whip-round’ for TORNADO off-beat seemed par for the course. I liked the hidden clues – JOINT and BONE which was the last to drop. Needed Google for SCOUT and the shoe. Enjoyable tussle. Many thanks.
Liked POLITICIAN, BONE, SCOUT and STEPHANIE.
Thanks, Mev and RR!
Thanks for the blog, RR. Yes, you parsed it all. Minor error in that “funny” should also be italicised part of the def in 23D. (Any chance of having “by Mev” in the blog title – that’s usual, isn’t it?) Cheers to the commenters so far, glad you all got through it.
Title: “Nasty Tales” ‘cos it’s made by the same team behind Horrible Histories.
For anyone unfamiliar, and to fill in a couple of gaps: In the BBC comedy series GHOSTS, {Alison} COOPER unexpectedly inherits BUTTON[s] {House} which she moves into with husband {Mike}. After a bump on the head, she starts seeing the {spectre}s of its former inhabitants: THOMAS, the {delirious poet} who falls for her, KITTY the Georgian {noblewoman}, MARY the witch-hunt victim, Pat the SCOUT {leader}, {Julian} the [gusta]TORY POLITICIAN, Sir Humphrey BONE the decapitated Tudor nobleman who’s always {losing [his] head}, the CAPTAIN a buttoned-up military man, Lady STEPHANIE “Fanny” BUTTON, and ROBIN the caveman. There is also a {cellar area housing plague victims}.
Thanks to everyone who gave it a shot.
Thanks both. Unaware of the BBC series, and had assumed this was cricket themed, which seemed unfortunate timing given events in New Zealand this morning. Politician took nearly as long as all the rest combined, and I still could not parse it, although I did have ‘righten’ instead of LIGHTEN initially, and believe either could work. Knew neither meaning for MARY JANE, perhaps based on a lack of personal experience of either
I clearly know more about drugs and panto than shoes and princesses, but I enjoyed this, especially the moment when I thought, “The only Finch in a book I know is Atticus. Oh! Hang on.”
My kind of puzzle. Challenging. Inventive cluing. Fan of the series (and its US version) but completely missed the theme.
I was sure the surface of GUSTATORY was alluding to Michael Gove, famously a Tory “on blow”, who has pontificated on “matters of taste”, such as whether one scotch egg or two would constitute a substantial meal, and whether Byron, Keats, Austen, Dickens and Hardy should be taught in schools.
The HANIE parsing of STEPHANIE defeated me: “square that king’s left” had to be a chess reference e1 = ei / eone, or e8 = eate. My COTD
POLITICIAN as “House-Sitter”: Here’s one who adopted a more prone position:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkogmYkfhUQ
Thanks Mev & RR
We needed a wordfinder for STEPHANIE, and that plus SCOUT and the ‘Cope’ element in OTOSCOPE needed googling to confirm who the people were. But the theme was totally lost on us, never having watched the series. We didn’t know the shoe definition for MARY JANE but incidentally it’s also the name of a beer brewed in Ilkley (referring to the song On Ilkla Moor Baht’at).
We found some of the parsing a bit tricky, but we liked TOMBOYISH, and the reminder that what people call a chemist’s is actually a PHARMACY.
Thanks, Mev and RR.
Never seen the TV program so was obviously unaware of any help available. All in and parsed nicely with the SE corner holding out the longest.
Not seeing/knowing the theme didn’t spoil a good puzzle for me at all.
Thanks to Mev and RR as ever.
I’ve seen the show but completely missed the theme! This was a fun tussle – with some tricky words quite neatly clued.
Thanks Mev and RR.
The blog looks a bit back-to-front for this one. Maybe the template had an outage?
In the Across clues alone we had clues that consisted of taking all the core letters of the wordplay, all the final letters of the wordplay and all occasional letters of the wordplay. Is this a record?
I did enjoy the puzzle though with TESTS, COOPER, PHARMACY and TORNADO getting my ticks of approval.
Many thanks Mev and RR
Didn’t see the theme but thought it was a really good puzzle and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks, S&B.
Another one here who loves the TV show but completely missed the theme.
FrankieG @7. You may speculate on that surface, but I couldn’t possibly comment. And I certainly wouldn’t mention Charlie if I did.
Thx all!
Hi Mev 🙂