Good morning fellow solvers
A themed grid from Methuselah, with working out the theme arguably more fiendish than the crossword itself. Never have I been more grateful to be part of the Indy blogging team, who have the pleasure of receiving these a bit in advance of publication!
The grid itself was a bumper one: 33 clues in total, but a real pleasure to complete, with only a few GK stumbles requiring online assistance. As I’ve come to expect from Methuselah, there were some lovely surfaces and wordplay, although (to my personal taste) a little over-reliant on hidden word clues.
The first two across answers gave the theme: the BBC quiz show Only Connect. As I’m not a watcher of this show I’m at a slight disadvantage, but I am aware of it and most importantly for this part, the concept of the show. I’ve put my attempt at this extra puzzle below too avoid early spoilers.
Thanks to Methuselah for the hard workout.
Definitions are underlined
ACROSS
1 Never miss quiz show which inspired four in this grid (4,7)
ONLY CONNECT
Double def
9 Lump of something turning young horse’s stomach (9)
CLOT
Young horse [COLT] with central characters [“stomach”] turned around
10 Avoid the missing vowels round? Great resolution! (1,1,1,1)
HDTV
Avoid the missing vowels [AVOID THE] round [rearrange]
HDTV an acronym for High Definition Television
11 Excuse getting both Caliban and Cain out of prison (5)
ALIBI
Removing CAN [“prison”] from CALIBAN and CAIN
13 Something in your eye when drinking last of precious wine (7)
RETSINA
Something in your eye [RETINA] when drinking [around] last of precious [S]
14 Two informants – one going underground (4,3)
MOLE RAT
Double def
15 Several points covered in oddly airy response (6)
ANSWER
Several [compass] points [N S W E] – covered in oddly airy [odd letters in AIRY = A R]
16 Footballer put off outside goal (8)
DEFENDER
Put off [DEFER] outside goal [END]
18 Politician’s lying finally finished – and also not (8)
GOVERNOR
Lying finally [G] finished [OVER] and also not [NOR]
21 Dahl character – a Salt knocked back after seeing some geese? (6)
VERUCA
a Salt [A CURE] knocked back [reversed] after seeing some geese? [V]
Quite a lot going on in this clue. Salt curing is a way of preserving meats, often ham, fish and beef. The V = geese is a reference to the commonly observed formation flocks of geese (and other birds) adopt when flying together as a way of saving energy. Definition reference here is to Veruca Salt, a character in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
25 Foot spy dipped into water? On the contrary (7)
SPONDEE
Spy [SEE] dipped into water [POND]? On the contrary [POND put into SEE]
I think setter is using FOOT SPY as a spondee: a phrase of two equally stressed syllables.
26 Unprofessional cop openly pockets a little drink (7)
ALCOPOP
Hidden word [“pockets”]: UNPROFESSIONAL COP OPENLY
28 Organs of state heartlessly start on immigrants (5)
UTERI
State heartlessly [UTTER] start on immigrants [I]
29 One bouncing off the walls ultimately became lethargic couch potato (4)
ECHO
Last letters of [“ultimately”] BECAME LETHARGIC COUCH POTATO
30 Get shot of initially agreeable relative (4)
PAPA
Get shot of [PAP = “paparazzi”] initially [first letter of] agreeable [A]
Being photographed by the paparazzi now so well known it hasbecome a verb: to be “papped”
31 Students of French enthralled by derrieres (7)
READERS
Of French [DE] enthralled [surroundedd by] by derrieres [REARS]
32 Pop art? (4)
DADA
Double definition [POP = DADA = Dadaism]
DOWN
1 Prestigious award presented by no-mark? (5)
OSCAR
No [O] mark [SCAR]
2 Shakespearean king determined by Christmas must be overturned (7)
LEONTES
Determined [SET] by Christmas [NOEL] must be overturned [backwards]
4 Maybe Methuselah cracked almond (3,3)
OLD MAN
Anag [“cracked”] ALMOND
5 Happening around the fifth, something burning this month (8)
NOVEMBER
Happening [ON] around [backawards] the fifth [V = Rom Num] something burning [EMBER]
6 King casually calls for toast with pork pie (7)
CHARLIE
Casually calls for toast [CHAR] with pork pie [LIE]
7 Legendary hunter mounting leopard or minotaur hides (6)
NIMROD
Hidden word [“hides”] backwards [“mounting”]: LEOPARD OR MINOTAUR
8 Leading lady disseminating OC trivia (8)
VICTORIA
Anag [“disseminating”] OC TRIVIA
12 Top spy replaces lead for fancy audio equipment (4)
MIKE
Top spy [M] replaces lead for [replace first letter of] fancy [LIKE]
15 One who founded dynasty in America after gold rush (8)
AUGUSTUS
America [US] after gold [AU] rush [GUST]
17 After bungling order, he’d be on a plank (8)
BONEHEAD
Anag. [“after bungling order”] HED BE ON A
19 No end of nutrition for wild flower (6)
VIOLET
No end of nutrition for wild [VIOLENT]
20 Socialist policy which may be a deal breaker (3,4)
RED LINE
Socialist [RED] policy [LINE]
22 I could go on horse to make an impression (4)
ETCH
I could go on [ETC = etcetera] horse [H]
23 Slap-up spread somewhere in Scandinavia (7)
UPPSALA
Should be an anag. [“spread”] of SLAP UP but can’t work out where the extra A is coming from?
24 Clergyman’s a bit of a booby, possibly dropping a tablet (6)
FATHER
A bit of a booby, possibly [FEATHER] dropping a tablet [remove an “E”]
27 Frolic on adult beach in Spain (5)
PLAYA
Frolic [PLAY] on adult [A]
THEME
We’re looking for four sets of four connected answers, and here’s my attempt at it:
1 Sequential NATO phonetic alphabet:
MIKE, NOVEMBER, OSCAR, PAPA
2 Names for fathers
FATHER, PAPA, DADA, OLD MAN
3 Rulers
VICTORIA, LEONTES, AUGUSTUS, NIMROD
4 Terms for someone stupid
BONEHEAD, CLOT, CHARLIE, NIMROD
Hi Leedsclimber, reckon you have to take the PAPA out of the phonetic alphabet group and replace it with ECHO. Under the rules of ONLY CONNECT you are not allowed repeated words in two groups
Thanks Methuselah and LC
I had “King casually” as definition for CHARLIE. My printout has ‘A slap-up …’ in 23d. In 19d, I had “flower” as definition with ‘wild’ = ‘violent’ (missing last letter of nutrition).
Plank meaning bonehead isn’t in Chambers. Guess it can be found elsewhere.
Another group could be characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Charlie Bucket, Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregard. They do like a bit of misdirection on Only Connect. Many thanks to LC and Methuselah
My take on the connections:
CHARLIE, NIMROD, BONEHEAD, CLOT – words for an idiot
AUGUSTUS (Gloop), VERUCA (Salt), MIKE (Teevee), VIOLET (Beauregarde) – Charlie and Chocolate factory characters
OLD MAN, FATHER, DADA, GOVERNOR – father/elder
NOVEMBER, ECHO, OSCAR, PAPA – NATO Alphabet
One of the features of Only Connect relies upon finding groupings of four words – but, as here, some of those could appear in more than one category. As Flea points out, PAPA is duplicated and so is NIMROD in the fools section. I am struggling to find a fourth fool.
I do also note that CHARLIE, AUGUSTUS, VERUCA and VIOLET are all Roald Dahl characters. Which complicates things.
Cracking puzzle. Methuselah on great form. I will even forgive him the rather disconnected grid he needed to get them all in. And a very nice interlinking with the TV programme.
Thanks Methuselah and leedsclimber
[Yes, JP@4, that’s the wall that VICTORIA gives us three minutes to solve. (There’s an extra clue for MIKE in HDTeaVee.)]
Reckon JP has it right. The four ‘tour of the chocolate factory,’ characters are the eliminated ones and so makes for a more logical grouping. Charlie has to go into the “fools’ category rather than alphabet as there appears not to be another fool in the puzzle solution.
[1a should read “Never miss quiz show which inspired four groups of four in this grid (4,7)”]
It’s clever that CHARLIE isn’t a Chocolate Factory character, and PAPA isn’t a dad. Great fun! 😉 Thanks M&LC
That’s brilliant with distractions in the wall as well. I agree that JP has the right version.
Lovely puzzle. I got the groupings as per JP – though was almost bamboozled by the words for idiot, appropriately enough.
For those who don’t know, Methuselah’s day job is being one of the question researchers on Only Connect.
This was fun, though I struggled in the SW corner and so had to reveal a couple to keep moving.
Favourites were ETCH and GOVERNOR for the two lovely misdirections, and ALIBI for the ingenuity.
I vaguely know the Open Connect thing from the puzzle in my mum’s Radio Times… I tend to skip over it as it’s not my cup of tea – which I confirmed here when I failed to spot the Chocolate Factory characters! It was a clever feat to set up a good wall like that.
Thanks both
I’m a day late but I should clear up the intended solution. ONLY CONNECT is a BBC Two quiz show hosted by VICTORIA Coren Mitchell. In the third round of each episode each team gets a Connecting Wall, a set of 16 jumbled up words which must be sorted into one perfect solution comprising four groups of four (with no overlaps). The wall hidden in this grid can be resolved into the following groups of four:
AUGUSTUS / MIKE / VERUCA / VIOLET – Children from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’
BONEHEAD / CHARLIE / CLOT / NIMROD – Words for a fool
DADA / GOVERNOR / FATHER / OLD MAN – Words for one’s father
ECHO; NOVEMBER; OSCAR; PAPA – Letters from the NATO phonetic alphabet
So well done JP. 🙂
But also well done to Leedsclimber for spotting an unintentional group of 4 rulers in AUGUSTUS, LEONTES, NIMROD and VICTORIA, which would allow an alternative solution with VIOLET/VERUCA/CHARLIE/MIKE for the kids, DADA/OLD MAN/FATHER/GOVERNOR for the daddies, ECHO/NOVEMBER/OSCAR/PAPA for the phonetic alphabet, and no group of fools necessary. On the real show if you spot a solution the question setters didn’t intend then you’re given the chance to put your case – luckily that’s a rarity with the walls!
I hope people enjoyed the slightly different challenge. Thanks everyone
Just in reply to Methuselah, yes, I really enjoyed the double challenge.
Thanks to all.