Deri is an Independent setter with only one previous crossword I can find on fifteensquared. That was in January when the puzzle had a Led Zeppelin theme.
I have computing problems this week as I am away from home and my laptop won’t connect properly to the local WiFi.
Fortunately, my IPad has connected frequently enough for me to write a blog on that device. Consequently this blog has been written without access to all the usual tools I use normally, so it is likely that there will be more typos or incorrect formatting than usual. With hindsight, I wouldn’t recommend writing a blog on an Ipad
Because I don’t have access to my usual method of creating a grid, I have dropped in a photo of my handwritten solution.
Like Deri’s January puzzle, this too has a music theme. Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of HENRY MANCINI. His name, his anniversary (I think, as I can’t parse HUNDRED at 25 across) and the titles of some of songs he has written or film soundtracks he has scored are featured in the clues and the grid.
In the clues we have Summer Love and Moonriver. In the grid we have The PINK PANTHER, HOUSE CALLS, The RAIDERS, S.O.B, The PARTY, DAYS of WINE and ROSES, and HIGH TIME. There may be more.
I found the clues quite challenging, but the theme helped a bit towards the end when I was struggling the South West corner. Eventually HENRY dawned on me as the entry at 25 down and a couple of other entries flowed from that.
As mentioned earlier, the parsing of 25 across, HUNDRED defeats me. I think the definition is Cardinal, but I can’t see what to do with cape, primate or Rome, even though they link to Roman Catholic cardinals. I look forward to the parsing being explained.
SHTUP is a new word to me although the wordplay was clear once I had got HENRY at 25 down.
1. Salmon perhaps that’s potted for six (4)
PINK (PINK Salmon is a Pacific species of the fish)
PINK (Salmon is a shade of PINK colour)
PINK (colour of a ball in snooker with 6 points when potted legally) various definitions
PINK
3. Welsh male leaving pit for a drink (4)
WINE (drink)
W (Welsh) + MINE (pit) excluding (leaving) M (male)
W INE
6. Hack covering for editor is a bounder (5)
LOPER (a person who seems to bound along when running)
LOP (cut; hack) + ER (outer letters of [covering for] EDITOR)
LOP ER
9. Hugh Laurie character, Stuart (5)
HOUSE (reference the surname of the character Hugh Laurie plays in the eponymous television series)
HOUSE (the HOUSE of Stuart was the Royal HOUSE of the United Kingdom from 1603 to 1714) double definition
HOUSE
11. People in line overheard signal for action (3)
CUE (call or signal for action)
CUE (sounds like [overheard] QUEUE [people win line])
CUE
12. Cheever and Lessing like subtle openings; does Bellow? (5)
CALLS (does bellow)
CALLS (first letters [openers] of each of CHEEVER, AND, LESSING, LIKE and SUBTLE)
CALLS
13. I must infiltrate merchants heading off marauders (7)
RAIDERS (marauders)
I contained in (must infiltrate) T RADERS excluding the first letter (heading off) T
RA (I) DERS
14. Charlie’s Angels finally stopped by British TV network (1,1,1)
CBS (American commercial broadcast and television network)
(C [cocaine; Charlie] + S [last letter of {finally}]) containing (stopped by) B (British)
C (B) S
17. Leopard without spots, one breathing heavily, biting hard (7)
PANTHER (a large black leopard, without spots)
PANTER (one breathing heavily) containing (biting) H (hard, when describing pencil lead)
PANT (H) ER
18. Italian manager in India getting behind his former team (7)
MANCINI (reference Roberto MANCINI [born 1964), Italian football manager)
MAN C (Manchester City Football Club: MANCINI managed the Club from 2009 to 2013) + IN + I (India is the international radio communication code word for the letter I )
MAN C IN I
21. Barrier in dim mall that’s abandoned (7)
MILLDAM (barrier of a MILL pond)
Anagram of (that’s abandoned) DIM MALL
MILLDAM*
23. I climb mountain close to Tibet, with a lot of expertise provided (7)
SKI-LIFT (equipment that takes skiers up a mountain; I climb mountains) – All the dictionaries I have access to just now list this as two words.
SKIL L (experience) excluding the final letter (a lot of) L + IF (provided [that]) + T ( last letter of [close to] TIBET)
SKI L IF T
24. Keen bass follows the intro to Summer Love (3)
SOB (wail over the dead; cry; SOB)
S (first letter of [intro to] SUMMER) + O (character representing zero [love score at tennis] + B (bass)
S O B
25. Cardinal’s cape left by primate in Rome (7) HUNDRED (example of a cardinal number)
I don’t really understand what is going on here. HUNDRED is a cardinal number and HUNDRED fits the crossing letters (HONORED is another possibility). Given that today is a HUNDRED years since Henry MANCINI was born, I reckon HUNDRED is the right entry.
28. Planetary orbiter, one that flies by central belt of Uranus (5)
TITAN (the largest satellite of Saturn; planetary orbiter)
TIT (bird; one that flies) + AN (middle letters of [central belt] of URANUS)
TIT AN
29. Perfect score for some sport, with no error recalled (3)
TEN (example of a perfect score, in gymnastics for instance)
TEN NIS (sport) excluding (with no) SIN (error) reversed (recalled)
TEN
30. Imaginative genre featured occasionally in Psychic Fair (3-2)
SCI-FI (imaginative genre of literary or cinematic works)
SCIFI (letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 of PSYCHIC FAIR)
SCI-FI
31. Beano section: Snotty’s back! (5)
PARTY (a beano is a rowdy jollification or party)
PART (section) + Y (last letter of [back] SNOOTY)
PART Y
32. For more than 48 hours, stagger broadcast (4)
DAYS (a period of more than 48 hours covers a number of DAYS)
DAYS (sounds like [broadcast] DAZE [stagger])
DAYS
33. Cry of delight from Clouseau’s certainly on the soundtrack (4)
WHEE (a cry of delight)
WHEE (sounds like [from, spoken by] OUI (French for yes, certainly – Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films spoke French)
WHEE
Down
1. Shapps ignoring last two flipping expressions of contempt (4)
PAHS (expressions of contempt)
SHAP PS excluding the final two letters [ignoring last two] and reversed (flipping)
PAHS<
2. Common sense in Pointless seen only briefly (4)
NOUS (common sense)
NO US E (pointless) excluding the final letter (seen only briefly) E
NO US
4. More irritated by technology, singer cans electric current (7)
ITCHIER (more irritated)
IT ([Information] Technology) + (CHER [singer born 1946] containing [cans] I [electric current])
IT CH (I) ER
5. The old smile after joke’s conclusion, look (7)
EYE-BEAM (glance of the eye; look)
E (final letter of [conclusion] JOKE) + YE (a former [old] form of ‘THE’) + BEAM (smile)
E YE BEAM
6. Best bit of sax in jazz musician’s phrases? (5)
LICKS (in jazz or rock music, short instrumental passages or flourishes)
LICK (defeat; get the better of; best) + S (first letter of [a bit of] SAX)
LICK S
7. Humourless cynic ill, snarling in medical centre (10)
POLYCLINIC (medical centre)
PO (humourless) + an anagram of (snarling) CYNIC ILL
PO LYCLINIC*
8. Kentish society’s yellow climbing flowers (5)
ROSES (flowers) (SE [South East, descriptive of Kent which is located in the SE of England] + S [society) + OR [yellow tincture used in heraldry]) all reversed (climbing)
(RO S ES)<
10. Like fox driven underground, extremely exhausted, heart fluttering (7)
EARTHED (a fox’s den is known as an EARTH, so if driven underground to its den, it will be EARTHED)
Anagram of (fluttering) ED (outer letters of [extremely] EXHAUSTED) and HEART
EARTHED*
15. Son in the morning quietly opens junk mail (4)
SPAM (junk mail)
S (son) + (P ([piano; quietly] contained in [opens] AM [ante meridiem; morning])
S (P) AM
16. Sacked Brent-alike, infantile crawler (5-5)
ANKLE-BITER (Australian slang for a child, presumably very young if he/she is an infantile crawler)
Anagram of (sacked) BRENT-ALIKE
ANKLE BITER*
19. Superb poster plugging new French art portraying river nymphs (7)
NAIADES (alternative spelling of NAIADS [river nymphs])
AD (advertising poster; bill) contained in (plugging) (N [new] + AI [A one {excellent; superb}] + ES [French of equivalent of ‘art’ as in ‘thou art’])
N AI (AD) ES
20. Keen on mackintosh coats (4)
INTO (enthusiastic about; keen on)
MACKINTOSH contains (coats) the hidden word INTO
INTO
22 Made note of Lilliputian island’s far side (7)
MINUTED (made a note of)
MINUTE (very small, possibly Lilliputian) + D (last letter of [far side] ISLAND)
MINUTE D
23. Straggling orchestra section, second soprano by 25D at last(7)
STRINGY (with lots of untidy threads; straggling)
STRINGS (section of an orchestra) with the second S (soprano) replaced by Y (final letter of [at last] HENRY, entry at 25 down) to form STRINGY
STRING Y
24. Puts up with 25D in bed (5)
SHTUP (to have sexual intercourse with; to bed)
PUTS reversed (up ; down entry) containing (with in) H (symbol for the derived SI unit of inductance [HENRY, entry at 25 down)
S (H) TUP
25. Guy’s expression of surprise about the end of Moon River (5)
HENRY (male [guy] name)
HEY (expression of surprise) containing (about) (N [last letter of {end of} MOON] + R [river])
HE (N R) Y
26. Old politician dumps wife by hotel on a trip (4)
HIGH (on a drugs trip)
(WHIG [member of an old parliamentary party of the 19th century; old politician] excluding [dumps] W [wife]) + H (hotel)
HIG H
27. Setter supports appeal over jail sentence (4)
TIME (another word for a sentence, as in the prisoner is serving TIME)
IT ([sex] appeal) reversed (over) + ME (the crossword setter) – as this is a down entry, the letters ME are supporting the letters TI
TI< ME
HUNDRED
Cape left by ape (primate)=C
C in Rome
Thank you KVa!
This was a curate’s egg puzzle for me. I enjoyed parts of it but I couldn’t get on the right wavelength for some of it. I didn’t finish, with the bizarre 24d left unsolved. I did actually spot the theme, which is quite unusual for me, although I didn’t identify all the examples listed by Duncan.
Some of the surface readings, notably 4d, were rather odd, which never helps me to warm to a puzzle.
I would have thought that “after” would have been a better link word than “with” in 23a, and I would have preferred “at least” to “more than” in 32a.
When the parsing penny finally dropped, HUNDRED was my favourite.
Thanks to Deri and to Duncan.
Parsed HUNDRED (100) as KVa@1 — TEN – 10(1979) — Bo Derek – a “perfect” ten — H.M. wrote the “score” and released Ravel’s Bolero as a single (1).
DS – you’ve misspelt Lord SnoOty from The Beano 🙁
Are these all films directed by Blake Edwards?
Thanks D&D
KVa @ 1
Thanks for the parsing – it’s obvious now you have explained it.
FrankieG @ 5
I mentioned in the preamble that there would probably be more typos than usual today. I’ll try and correct it later this afternoon.
nho SHTUP and, even though I considered ‘puts up’ in plain sight, the resulting word looked so implausible I did not think to check it in the dictionary. I also could not see the NHO POLYCLINIC but then I was trying to put the anagrammed fodder inside something meaning medical centre. EYE-BEAM also new and I see duncan has hyphenated it in the blog which is how my Chambers has it. Looking for a 7 letter word, as enumerated, had me mystified for some time. And I didn’t parse HUNDRED. So, ’twas not all plain sailing.
duncan – I am wondering whether the definition of TEN should include the words ‘for some’? Otherwise we have ‘def for WP’ which is contrary to convention though, as discussed recently on GD and today on the G thread, that is not an issue for most solvers.
As for the theme, I am unfamiliar with Mancini though aware of his name/prominence and I’ve certainly encountered his works. I saw PINK PANTHER and, given the Clouseau allusion in 33a, I assumed a theme around either those movies or Peter Sellers but couldn’t identify the other themers.
Thanks Deri and duncan
Answering myself@5 – No, Howard Zieff directed House Calls(1978)
And Lesley Selander directed The Raiders(1952). I liked your ‘handwritten solution’ – BBC, PBS, CBS
https://www.henrymancini.com/ has a playlist of 100 songs; links to an all-star tribute remake of Peter Gunn on CBS, and Beyoncé singing Moon River.
What a composer Henry Mancini was
Quite tricky but worth it in the end
Thanks D&D
Give me Led Zep any day of the week! First in being Pink I was hoping for some Floyd. Oh well.
Defeated by 7d and 24d was the archetypal bung and hope.
Thanks Deri and duncan.
Spent a long time wrestling with this one and still fell a few short of completion so many thanks to our reviewer for getting me across the finish line. My favourite was SKI LIFT and it was really nice to see the tribute to the wonderful Henry Mancini.
Thanks to Deri for the battle and to Duncan for his assistance.
Foxed by 14d – I took the final S from both Charlie’s and Angels: with a B in between, it made SBS, which appears to be a real (Australian) TV station. Thus 7d had an incorrect S. Nho POLYCLINIC anyway. Otherwise, all good.
Thanks to KVa@1 re HUNDRED.
Thanks Deri and Duncan
RD @3, I always balk at puzzles being described as a curate’s egg, as the curate’s egg was actually *all* bad – that’s the joke. But maybe that’s what you meant. 😀
Thanks to all who commented and solved, and a special thank you to Duncan for composing a great blog in difficult circumstances.
Just about everything has been covered except for Charlie’s Angels, whose original theme was Mancini conducting his orchestra.
‘TEN’ was a bit of a cheat of course as the movie was ’10’, as FrankieG points out @5.
I wish I could have accommodated two of my Mancini favourites, the Peter Gunn theme – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oysMt8iL9UE – and the Baby Elephant Walk from ‘Hatari’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RPQKV6ijBY
Thanks both. I did put in CBS but as with Nudge@13 I read the ‘s as superfluous in the clue. HUNDRED and TEN both defeated me in the parsing, and perhaps little wonder given their intricate construction. I sort of spotted the musical theme, but beyond PINK PANTHER I lack the knowledge, though MANCINI sits well with me, with happy memories of 2012 when the Man C main man more resembled Basil Fawlty than a man of art until a very late winner
TFO and Nudge, the ‘s in 14a isn’t superfluous when it’s the familiar crosswordese of the possessive ‘s in the surface becoming ‘s as short for ‘has’. Charlie has [Angel]s finally stopped by B[ritish]. Never particularly elegant, but generally accepted as legitimate.
Deri @14. I didn’t know that about the original “curate’s egg” and have only ever understood “the good in parts” meaning (as per Chambers, for example). In this specific case, I would like to take the opportunity to amplify that the majority of this particular curate’s egg was good!
Slow to finish this around doing other things. I didn’t spot the theme (which is not unusual), although I spotted a lot of PINK things, including the PANTHER. But I did solve and parse everything except the HENRY, which I should have, as I did get SHTUP (comes of not paying full attention at the time).
Thank you Deri and Duncan Shiell for a good tussle, and for Duncan building the blog under challenging conditions.
Deri@14 – Here are a couple of videos from CBS News Sunday Morning:
This has Lizzo and Sir James Galway’s Pink Panther, and Bublé’s Moon River and…
…This has Arturo Sandoval, Herbie Hancock, and Quincy Jones remaking Peter Gunn with John(ny) Williams on piano as he was on the 1958 original.
Loved the puzzle.
^ Those two CBS pieces are great. Thank you, FrankieG.