Kairos has provided today’s medium-difficulty puzzle, on what is traditionally theme day.
This puzzle has been compiled on a grid that accommodates a very large number of clues, many of which give short grid entries. This can often spell trouble for the solver, given the abundance of possible solutions, but not particularly today.
I think that I am happy with my parsing throughout. My favourite clues today were 15, 19, 21 and 29, all for smoothness of surface; and 17 and 30, both for construction.
As for the theme, the entries at 1A, 11A, 27A and 28, coupled with 4, 9, 12, 24 and 31, got me thinking that we might be in Shakespeare territory. Indeed, the completed grid is teeming with references to characters from King John, at 13, 15 and 28 in addition to the aforementioned. Interestingly, this play was published in the First Folio in 1623, i.e. 400 years ago this year.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PRINCE | Perhaps Katie welcomes new musician
N (=new) in PRINCE (=Katie, i.e. the celebrity Jordan); the reference is to the American singer-songwriter Prince (1958-2016) |
| 04 | PEMBROKE | Redundant UK politician returns penniless to Welsh town
PEM (MEP=redundant UK politician, i.e. since Brexit; “returns” indicates reversal) + BROKE (=penniless) |
| 09 | ESSEX | County involved in reckless expenditure
Hidden (“involved”) in “recklESS EXpenditure” |
| 10 | ENCOUNTER | Battle with broken spacebar!
EN (=space, in printing) + BAR (=counter, e.g. in pub); “broken” implies that “en-counter” needs to be split into two parts in the wordplay |
| 11 | EARL | Cordelia’s father cycled to see nobleman
L-EAR (=Cordelia’s father, in Shakespeare’s King Lear); “cycled” means first letter moves to end of word |
| 12 | JOHN | American facilities // for evangelist
John is a colloquial term for a toilet in US English, hence “facilities” AND Saint John’s Gospel is part of the New Testament, hence “evangelist” |
| 13 | BIGOT | Tom Hanks film with Old Testament religionist?
Big (=Tom Hanks film, from 1988) + OT (=Old Testament) |
| 15 | ELEANOR | One dancing with real wife of Roosevelt
*(ONE + REAL); “dancing” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the former American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) |
| 16 | LASH | The Spanish hospital strike
LAS (=the Spanish, i.e. a Spanish word for the) + H (=hospital) |
| 18 | IWI | Couple from Rome protecting western Maori group
W (=western) in II (=couple from Rome, i.e. two in Roman numerals) |
| 21 | POMP | Principality of Monaco’s political leaders in ceremonial splendour
P<rincipality> O<f> M<onaco’s> P<olitical>; “leaders” means first letters only |
| 22 | BLANCHE | Tennessee Williams’s anti-heroine almost turned white
BLANCHE<d> (=turned white; “almost” means last letter is dropped); the reference is to the character Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire |
| 25 | ICHOR | Sacred flower eaten by domestic horse
Hidden (“eaten by”) in “domestIC HORse”; ichor is the ethereal juice in the veins of gods, in mythology, hence sacred “flower” |
| 27 | LORD | Expressed praise for God
Homophone (“expressed”) of “laud (=praise)” |
| 28 | KING | German following tribe’s leader
KIN (=tribe) + G (=German) |
| 30 | SALISBURY | See burials organised in the Seychelles
*(BURIALS) in SY (=Seychelles); the “see” of the definition refers to the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury |
| 31 | HENRY | Dance around near horrid person?
NR (near) in HEY (=(country) dance); the reference is to the UK TV series for children Horrid Henry (2006-19) |
| 33 | REPORTER | Old person coming back for cub?
RETRO (=old(-fashioned)) + PER (=person); “coming back” indicates reversal; a cub is a young or inexperienced reporter |
| 34 | SWEDEN | Opponents meeting former prime minister in European country
S W (=opponents, in bridge) + EDEN (=former prime minister, i.e. Anthony Eden) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PIE | Welcome luxury // food
Double definition: a pie is a welcome luxury, prize or spoil, in Chambers AND a type of food |
| 02 | INSERTED | Introduced funny resident
*(RESIDENT); “funny” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | COXA | Joint director over academy
COX (= “director”, i.e. one steering a rowing crew) + A (=Academy, as in RADA); the coxa is the hip bone |
| 05 | EX-CON | Inmate previously caught visiting Exeter
C (=caught) in EXON. (=Exeter, from Exonia in Latin) |
| 06 | BLURB | Debut of boy band originally gets publicity
BLUR (=band, i.e. English rock band) + B<oy> (“debut” means first letter only) |
| 07 | OUTAGE | Cut away silver plate’s base
OUT (=away, as in throw away = throw out) + AG (=silver, i.e. chemical symbol) + <plat>E (“base” means last letter only); an outage is a power cut |
| 08 | EGRETS | Welcomes relocating last of game birds
GREETS (=welcomes); “relocating last (=letter) of game” means a letter “e” moves to a different position |
| 10 | EGO-TRIP | Say nothing before jolly self-indulgent experience
E.G. (=say, for example) + O (=nothing, zero) + TRIP (=jolly, outing for pleasure) |
| 11 | EXEC | Business leader’s vote blocking old alliance
X (=vote, i.e. a cross) in EEC (=old alliance, the predecessor of the EU) |
| 14 | INFO | Doomed to receive detailed news
IN FO<r> (=doomed to receive, as in to be in for a shock); “de-tailed” means last letter is dropped |
| 16 | LIBERTY | Leisure // store
Double definition: liberty is freedom of action, leisure AND Liberty is a high-end department store in London |
| 17 | SEAL | Two types of water animal
SEA (=type of water) + L (=type of water, i.e. lake) |
| 19 | ACTIONED | Start of play a director put into effect
ACT I (=start of play) + ONE (=a) + D (=director) |
| 20 | BERG | Wimbledon champion has note for old barman!
BORG (=Wimbledon champion, i.e. the Swede Björn Borg); “has note (=E, i.e. a musical note) for old (=O)” means letter “o” is replaced by “e”; the reference is to the Austrian composer (“bar (of music) man”) Alban Berg (1885-1935) |
| 23 | KISSER | Lightly touch queen’s face
KISS (=lightly touch, of e.g. two balls in snooker) + ER (=queen, i.e. Elizabeth Regina); kisser is slang for the mouth or the face |
| 24 | PHILIP | Reportedly incite old Spanish ruler
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “fillip (=(to) incite); Philip is the name of numerous kings of Spain |
| 26 | RISER | Section of Tigris River containing terminus of waste pipe
<wast>E (“terminus of” means last letter only) in [<tig>RIS (“section of” means part of word only) + R (=river)]; a riser is a vertical pipe in a building or oil rig |
| 27 | LOUSE | Contemptible person disturbed Seoul
*(SEOUL); “disturbed” is anagram indicator |
| 29 | CHEW | Cold cut, a dog will like it
C (=cold, e.g. on tap) + HEW (=cut, carve) |
| 32 | YEN | Revolutionary French marshal’s money
NEY (=French marshal, i.e. Michel Ney in French Revolutionary Wars); “revolutionary” indicates reversal |
Tough but mainly due to knowledge gaps i.e. the HEY dance, EXON, pie’s second def, the redundant pollie and ‘jolly’ for trip. Grist to the mill. Favourite would be ENCOUNTER. Blog came in very handy. Thanks both.
Thanks, Kairos and RR!
We see
EARL, COUNT, LORD, PRINCE and KING. Given the theme, these are to be expected, I think.
Sorry RR!
You have included these words in your opening lines.
Quite hard. I spotted the royal and other titles and wondered if the theme could be a Shakespeare play, but had no idea which. I didn’t know the Horrid Henry reference, PIE as a ‘Welcome luxury’, EXON(IA) as the Roman name for Exeter, “fillip” as a verb and COXA rang only a very muffled bell.
Needed a couple of goes at this and happy to see the confetti at the end.
Thanks to Kairos and RR
Hi, RR – decoding your preamble – “… 1A PRINCE, 11A EARL, 27A LORD and 28 KING, … 4 PEMBROKE, 9 ESSEX, 12 JOHN, 24 PHILIP and 31 HENRY … 13 BIGOT, 15 ELEANOR and 28 KING” – you have KING twice and no 22 BLANCHE – was this a typo?
Somehow or other I managed to complete this, though not sure how as I was floundering much of the time, to the extent that the theme passed me by. Despite which, thanks Kairos and RatkojaRiku.
I don’t think ‘medium difficulty’ describes my solving experience – it was darned hard work here!
Realised there was a theme but didn’t manage to actually identify the play – thank you for doing the homework RR.
Favourite was EGO-TRIP with a mention for LIBERTY.
Thanks to Kairos and to RR for the review.
Think that setter was cool by not including Harry in view of speculations re the Earl of Pemroke was possibly his father
But we did have HENRY
Nice puzzle.
Thanks to Kairos and RR. We were unfamiliar with a few of the answers, or meanings, largely as noted by WordPlodder @4.
Can I ask a question about 26d? Do people think that “Section of Tigris”, leading to RIS (as stated in the blog), is specific enough? Or does the clue only really work because “Section of Tigris River” can lead to RIS_R, into which the E can be inserted?
DavidO @9: I parsed it as RISR into which I inserted E, with RISR being the section of tigRISRiver rather than as per the blog but it is not my favourite construction, either way, tbh.
Thanks both. Too many unknowns and obscurities to be fully enjoyable for me e.g. PHILIP whereby I thought ‘excite’ rather than ‘incite’ might be a synonym for fillip, and for a Spanish ruler I was expecting a name….well, more Spanish. Also e.g. COXA – the answer was hard enough without the misdirecting ‘director’ (see what I did there?)
My initial parsing was RIS_R with E inserted but I didn’t like it and went on to parse as in blog, which I prefer. Different strokes for different blokes, as they say.
Quite tricky in places but we finished. And we saw PRINCE, EARL, LORD and KING but didn’t pursue the ides of a theme beyond titles of nobility. A satisfying solve, though.
Thanks, Kairos and RR.
Thanks for the comments, PostMark and Hovis.
Thanks Kairos and thanks also RR for the explanations .. I along with may others dnk COXA and struggled to explain PIE.Likewise IWI. Liked SWEDEN, loved ENCOUNTER and OUTAGE. 10a reminded me of Sandy Balfour’s (charming) book I Say Nothing(3).
Am I the only one whose mind went (after having the crossing X) straight to the director Alex Cox?
Thanks Kairos and RR.
Once again Chambers has a definition, without citations, that no other dictionary seems to have – 1d – PIE – “…; a welcome luxury, prize or spoil (colloq).”
Does that come from “pie in the sky when we die” or “as easy as…” or “as nice as…” or “…anything else is pie”.
Maybe it’s a cricket reference – ‘7 (cricket) An especially badly bowled ball.’