It’s a year since we last blogged a Grecian puzzle – we were looking forward to this challenge.
As Tuesday is theme day in the Indy, we were on the lookout for some connections as we worked through the clues, but nothing leapt out at us.
Having filled the grid, we began to wonder if this might be a rare occurrence of a themeless Tuesday, but then Bert wondered about combining 15ac with 12ac for Charles Dickens ‘Hard Times’. We are not well up on Dickens, but recognise the titles of his novels, if not the storylines. With some electronic help, we found out that the novel is set in COKETOWN (1d/23d), a northern industrial town, possibly partially based on Preston. The story is centred around Mr GRADGRIND (10ac), a teacher who is only interested in teaching children FACTS (14d). When we checked 10ac in Chambers (having never come across the word before) while solving the puzzle, we failed to notice that the word is derived from the Dickens character and has been adopted to describe someone only interested in facts. If we had noticed this at the time, it would have saved a lot of time searching for a theme!
Other characters in the book also appear – Mr BOUNDER(by), CECILIA (SISSY) Jupe and Stephen BLACKPOOL. We can’t see any other connections, but it is quite possible that there are more.
Thanks to Grecian for the education.
BO (body odour – ‘personal problem’) UNDER (down below)
An anagram (‘composed’) of ALICE and I C (first or ‘original’ letters in ‘in chains’) – the long version of SISSY (16 across)
bELL (ring) with the ‘b’ (leader) changing to H
GRAD (graduate – ‘bachelor’) GRIND (crush) – a new word for us – someone only interested in FACTS (14 down)
Hidden (‘factor’) in complainT I’M Escalating
TAR (sailor – ‘jack’) T (last letter or ‘back’ of Sprat) + middle letters or ‘stuffing’ of bUFFEt (‘smörgåsbord’)
H (husband) A RD (road – ‘way’)
An anagram (‘fantastic’) of S (southern) and SKYSCAPE IS
Triple definition – the middle one being the forwards in a rugby team
S (sun) in or ’embodied by’ THE and A (articles) + lURId missing the first and last letters or ‘endless’
O (love) ON (working) in LS (Lesotho)
B (middle letter or ‘heart’ of lovebirds) LACK (want) POOL (somewhere to swim)
pLATH (Sylvia Plath, ‘poet’) missing the ‘p’ (first or ‘initial’ letter of poker)
DETER (put off) round or ‘tackling’ ME (Grecian, the setter)
BOWS (bends) round or ‘over’ WOW (impress)
K (last letter or ‘bottom’ of Dimmock) in or ‘pinched by’ COE (Lord Sebastian Coe, ‘Tory peer’)
MED (Mediterranean – ‘sea’) after or ‘supporting’ an anagram (‘swimming’) of FINAL
W (wife) EDGES (moves very slowly)
B (British) + GG (‘goods’) in or ‘breaking’ EARLY (too soon)
A reversal (‘upside down’) of I’M (my name is) + LIEU (place)
KIN (family) D (last letter of feud)
An anagram (‘around’) of MO ALI SITS
A reversal (‘up’) of HART (buck) round or ‘winning’ S (last or ‘final’ letter of tennis)
F (folio) ACTS (book – in the Bible)
SR (sister) round or ’embracing’ PUNK (style of music) IE (id est – ‘that is’)
A Spoonerism of LORE (learning) PORES (passages)
LOLLipOP (sucker) missing or ‘dropping’ 1p – a bounder (7 across) could be someone who ‘bounds’ or lollops along
Double definition
TON (‘heavyweight’) round or ‘boxing’ W (with) – Blackpool (21 across) is a TOWN
Nice to see Grecian again and, yes, it feels like a while though I see it’s only been a couple months. I read Hard Times for GCSE – Samuel GRADGRIND and FACTS (Horse – quadruped etc etc etc) – are probably the only two nuggets I could recall so the other references were lost on me but I suspected they would be there. COKETOWN, eh.
Thanks to our bloggers for parsing LOLLOP – I was looking for a word with two P’s, one of which I was needing to drop. I also failed to grasp the second part of the Spoonerism – passages = pores is pretty tough. Otherwise, faves inc BOUNDER, TIMES, TARTUFFE, LATH, WEDGES, BEGGARLY and FACTS.
Thanks Grecian and B&J
Grecian on a Tuesday theme day – a treat in store!
I was hoping it might be a Dickens puzzle: Grecian has given us several before (‘A tale of two cities’, ‘David Copperfield’, ‘The Pickwick Papers’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Great Expectations’ et al) all of which I’ve enjoyed very much, being familiar with all of them. Today, I was in the same boat as B&J, not having read ‘Hard Times’ and followed much the same googling journey – I didn’t find any more references than they did but enjoyed the search. My way in was 14dn FACTS, which led to GRADGRIND, which I did recognise, then spotted HARD TIMES.
A really enjoyable solve – my favourites were 7ac BOUNDER, 16/19 SISSY SPACEK, 22ac LATH, 24ac DEMETER and the three lovely ‘lift and separates’, 13ac TARTUFFE, 1dn COKE and 2dn INFLAMED.
I made hard going of the Spoonerism, too, despite knowing a lot about the wretched Poor Laws from O Level History.
Many thanks to Grecian and B&J.
I enjoyed this installment of the Dickens series, although I too struggled with the Spoonerism, even though the solution was clear. Sometimes in crosswords the Rev Spooner produces some very peculiar utterances. Thanks both.
I thought the spoonerism for POOR LAWS was a “moor patch ” to the actual terms. The required pronunciation is very forced. Haven’t read HARD TIMES so was always going to struggle with GRADGRIND even given the crossers. Enjoyable, nonetheless.
Thanks Grecian and Bertandjoyce for the elucidation.
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the excellent blog (it’s been far too long) and to the “faithful four” for the nice comments. It was not a great Spoonerism to be honest. Believe it or not, it went through a few iterations and I wasn’t particularly happy with any of them. I would have dumped it, had it not been thematic. Will try and “boo debtor” next time 😉. G
Sorry to see you under-commented-on G 🙂 Perhaps the sun has taken people outside.
I have read Hard Times. A grim read but worth the trouble. There’s a clue in the title. Knew Gradgrind but failed to realise he was thematic.
BLACKPOOL and BOUNDER made me smile.
Thanks GB&J for the entertainment
Too late to add anything but praise.
I have read Hard Times only five years ago and I enjoyed it, but I there was a lot I couldn’t remember.
..though for a while I thought the theme was going to be literary epitomes like Gradgrind and Tartuffe.
Rather surprised that Blackpool is still an ‘umble town after so many places have been elevated to cityhood. It didn’t help that I first looked at 21d instead 21a to solve 23d. My own fault for attempting to solve without my glasses.
I don’t think the Spoonerism is so bad now I see it’s pores not paws or pause.
Thanks Grecian and B&J.
Thanks Grecian, late to solve and comment. The theme passed me by as I’ve never read it. I’m pretty poorly read in truth which is fine in general for the Indy which rarely requires it.
I loved the way the theme unfolded . It was only when Gradgrind appeared that a bulb lit up
I had FACTS and HARD by then
In 2021, missus and me decided to read CD books for his bicentennial starting with Bleak House and hard times was next
I already had BLACKPOOL but it didn’t ring a bell and I had TOWN and HARD and a quick check on the work helped finish.
Full marks again. COLETOWN seems ironic now!
Thanks all.
COKETOWN-cant type -the keyboard has been drinking