Stamp is an infrequent setter in the Independent but previous puzzles have been interesting.
Tuesday is theme day in the Independent and Stamp has shown a fondness for themes in the earlier puzzles. Today the theme was defined by the central down entry – FULL OF BEANS.
I counted fifteen obvious BEANs or BEAN compounds in the grid.
We had the edible ones – BUTTER, BLACK, BROAD, FRENCH, BAKED, PINTO, RUNNER and COCOA BEANS.
Then there were some human ones – SEAN BEAN, MISTER BEAN [Rowan Atkinson character] and OLD BEAN [affectionate form of address to a man].
There was also a JUMPING BEAN [the seed of a Mexican euphorbiaceous plant containing a moth larva which causes it to move or jump.
Then there were entries that could be preceded by BEAN – BEAN CURD and BEAN SPROUTS.
I found that an AINTREE BEAN is a variety of RUNNER BEAN
Clutching at straws a bit, I saw a reference to a VULCAN coffee BEAN, but I can’t find it in a dictionary. There is also a food dish called AFRICAN BEANS.
I was convinced that the entry at 9 across had to be SEAN because of the actor SEAN BEAN, but I struggled with the parsing. I have given a couple of ideas in the detailed table below, but I can easily believe there is a more obvious parsing that someone will point out.
I got slightly thrown at 24 across because FRANCAIS is an anagram of AFRICANS and I foolishly entered FRANCAIS first as a vague reference to a continental person.
This was an enjoyable crossword.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Vaulting judge controlling contest in heartless fashion (7) JUMPING (leaping; vaulting) J (judge) + UMPIRING (controlling contest) excluding the central letters (heartless) IR J UMPING |
| 5 |
Spreads offered by boring building society, say (7) BUTTERS (spreads) UTTER (say) contained in (boring) BS (Building Society) B (UTTER) S |
| 9 |
It could be Penn and Teller’s cut short? (4) SEAN? – not sure what is going on here. I am aware of a SEAN BEAN [actor, born 1959] and SEAN PENN [actor and director, born 1960], but I can’t add a letter to SEAN to get a word that means teller. I could add two letters and get SEANCE which might be an example of a deceased person telling the living some message. Alternatively a SNEAK is someone who tells tails and if it is one letter short SNEA is an anagram [cut?]of SEAN SEAN? Note that FrankieG at comment 1 has come up with the obvious parsing that ‘Teller’ is a homophone indicator and SHORN [cut short] sounds like SEAN |
| 10 |
Fish with reason to change, changes (10) REFASHIONS (adapts; changes) Anagram of (to change) FISH and (with) REASON REFASHIONS* |
| 12 |
One cutting Ancient Egyptian exam class (8) TUTORIAL (a study meeting between one or more students and a college tutor; class) I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (cutting) (TUT (TUTenkhamun [ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt] + ORAL [type of examination]) TUT OR (I) AL |
| 13 |
Man is entering name back to front (6) MISTER (title prefixed to a man’s name; man) IS contained in (entering) TERM (name) with the final letter, M, moved to the beginning [back to front]) M (IS) TER |
| 14 |
Player in game, fly- half possibly, crossing line (5) BLACK (designation for one of the players in a game of chess) BACK (in Rugby Union a fly-half is one of the BACKs) containing (crossing) L (line) B (L) ACK |
| 16 |
Very becoming knight, most attractive – or least popular? (9) LONELIEST (person with fewest companions; the least popular) LOVELIEST (most attractive) with V (very) changing to (becoming) N (knight) to form LONELIEST LONELIEST |
| 18 |
Byzantine atlas bore model of the heavens (9) ASTROLABE (an instrument used for taking altitudes above the horizon. It also serves as a star chart and physical model of the visible half-dome of the sky) Anagram of (byzantine) ATLAS BORE ASTROLABE* |
| 20 |
General offensive undone by men retreating (5) BROAD (general) BAD (offensive) containing (undone by) OR (Other Ranks; men) reversed (retreating) B (RO<) AD |
| 23 |
Force Yank to censor wife’s language (6) FRENCH (a language) WRENCH (twist with force; yank) with F (force) replacing (to censor) the W (wife) to form FRENCH FRENCH |
| 24 |
Car fans excitedly describing current Continentals? (8) AFRICANS (people who live on the continent of Africa) Anagram of (excitedly) CAR FANS containing (describing [outlining]) I (symbol for electric current) AFR (I) CANS |
| 26 |
Treated with sulphur, alien dies horribly (10) VULCANISED (to treat with sulphur or sulphur compounds) VULCAN (person from the mythical planet of VULCAN; alien) + an anagram of (horribly) DIES VULCAN ISED* |
| 27 |
Cheesemaker using rennet, delivering primarily this (4) CURD (milk thickened or coagulated by acid; the cheese part of milk; cheesemaker) CURD (first letters [primarily] of each of CHEESEMAKER, USING, RENNET and DELIVERING) C U R D |
| 28 |
Disparage Anglo-Saxon prize when it’s announced (7) ASPERSE (defame; disparage) A.S. (Angle-Saxon) + PERSE (sounds like [when it’s announced] PURSE [prize]) AS PERSE |
| 29 |
Lacking sponsorship, Charlie’s dropped not fired (7) UNBAKED (not cooked; not fired) UNBACKED (lacking sponsorship) excluding (dropped) C (cocaine; Charlie) UNBAKED |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Biased article appearing in Paris Match (7) UNEQUAL (not evenly balanced; biased) UN (French [Paris] for the indefinite article) + EQUAL (match) UN EQUAL |
| 3 |
One’s attached to horse (5) PINTO (piebald horse) PIN (one’s attached [?]) + TO PIN TO |
| 4 |
Lexicon or dictionary? It’s more than enough for Scandinavian (6) NORDIC (Scandinavian) NORDIC (hidden word in the phrase [it’s more than enough] LEXICON OR DICTIONARY) NORDIC |
| 6 |
Museum moving diamonds, admitting number yet to be counted (8) UNSUMMED (not counted [summed {up}]) (Anagram of [moving] MUSEUM + D [diamonds]) containing (admitting) N (number) U (N) SUMME* D |
| 7 |
Increasingly dry river being crossed by this stage (9) THIRSTIER (increasingly dry) (R [river] contained in [being crossed by] THIS ) + TIER (stage) THI (R) S TIER |
| 8 |
Surgeon in Guard regularly fixed up messengers (7) RUNNERS (messengers) RUNNERS (letters 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1 [regularly] reversed [fixed up [{down entry}] of SURGEON IN GUARD) RUNNERS |
| 11 |
Lively around mid- May, like the Highlands? (4,2,5) FULL OF BEANS (lively) FULL OF BENS (the Highlands of Scotlands are full of BENs such as BEN Nevis, BEN Macdui etc) containing (around) A [central letter of [mid] MAY) FULL OF BE (A) NS |
| 15 |
Student constrained by awful English record (9) CHRONICLE (continuous record of events in order of time) L (learner; student) contained in (CHRONIC [awful]) + E [English]) CHRONIC (L) E |
| 17 |
Experts maybe freezing bananas if Celsius drops (3,5) OLD HANDS (experienced people; experts) (COLD [freezing] + HANDS [bunches of bananas]) excluding (drops) C (Celsius) OLD HANDS |
| 19 |
Proust’s works: a Christmas tradition? (7) SPROUTS (vegetables traditionally served at Christmas) Anagram of (works) PROUSTS SPROUTS* |
| 21 |
Somewhere in Liverpool area, where branch might be located (7) AINTREE (village and racecourse six miles north east of Liverpool city centre) A (area) + IN TREE (where a branch might be located) A IN TREE |
| 22 |
Poet‘s daughters penning lines with nurse (6) DRYDEN (reference John DRYDEN [1631 – 1700], English poet) (D [daughter] + D [daughter] giving daughters) containing (penning) RY ([railway] lines) + EN (Enrolled Nurse) D (RY) D EN |
| 25 |
Given a clown as bedtime comforter? (5) COCOA (bedtime drink; bedtime comforter) COCO (reference COCO the clown) + (given) A COCO A |
“SHORN”
I thought some of the clueing was clumsy and a bit contrived and for these reasons it was not an enjoyable puzzle, I got half way through and came here for the rest of the answers.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Many faves. Top ones: JUMPING, MISTER, LONELIEST, FULL OF BEANS and OLD HANDS.
Thanks Stamp.
Great blog. Quite detailed and clear. Thanks duncan.
SEAN
Parsed it as FrankieG@1
CURD
An &lit, I think.
Another one here who struggled to get into this, and I impatiently revealed a few in the top half, thinking that if I wasn’t going to make the effort anyway then I might as well see the answers. When it turned out that most of the clues were in fact approachable, I applied myself better to the bottom half and ended up enjoying it. I can’t explain why I struggled to get on the wavelength; something about the clueing kept puzzling me! Perhaps a sign of clever setting.
I see that in my hurry I misparsed CURD, thinking it an insertion of R for rennet in CUD for cheesemaker. Don’t ask. I also failed to spot the theme. I admit I wasn’t looking for it – though as so often it now seems funny to have missed it.
Favourites were NORDIC, COLD HANDS and (now, with the hindsight of FrankieG’s parsing) SEAN.
Thanks both.
I had to smile at SPROUTS as Proust’s works (rather than boil them, throw them in with the roast for the last half hour… yumm). This was very PostMark for me although I was eventually defeated (thanks FrankieG @1 for the brilliant explanation of Penn & Teller) I really enjoyed it.
FrankieG @ 1
Thanks – that makes a lot of sense, far better than my tortuous efforts. I have watched SHAUN [shorn] the Sheep Ardmann cartoons a few times with my grandchildren but I still didn’t make a similar connection for the similar sounding SEAN or realise that ‘Teller’ was a homophone indicator.
Setter popping in early to thank duncan for a super blog and for spotting all the themers. And, of course, to thank FrankieG for spotting the homophone in SEAN. I knew that one was potentially tricky with -E-N being less than helpful crossers but could not resist the potential for including the performers. Thanks also to posters for their comments; MK, I can assure you every one of these clues was, indeed, contrived 🙂
duncan – just one thing is a tad awry in the blog with the clue for ASTROLABE which reads Byzantine atlas bore model of the heavens in the published puzzle? Not sure where Byzantinean instrument came from.
A theme even I couldn’t fail to spot! Nicely done. 11d amused me.
Stamp @ 7
Another senior moment I’m afraid. I started blogging this away from home on a device I don’t often use and I was making a lot of typing errors which required correction. When I was working, I was a Land Surveyor who did some star observations so I knew an astrolabe was a form of surveying instrument and somehow I must have typed instrument into the clue when trying to correct some other error or edit a bit of parsing. The clue is correct in the blog now.
CURD is a semi &lit rather than an &lit. Really ‘this’ is the definition with the rest of the clue qualifying it.
I found this a fairly tough but enjoyable challenge.
A real tour de force to include so many theme words, without being intrusive or forcing the inclusion of obscure words.
Particularly impressive was the central positioning of FULL OF BEANS – very satisfying.
As always with Stamp’s puzzles, there were, indeed, some very cleverly contrived clues! I had too many ticks to list, really – but I’m going to: REFASHIONS, TUTORIAL (particularly loved the surface – but they were all good), ASTROLABE (ditto), the amusing FRENCH, VULCANISED (for not, after all, being an anagram of S ALIEN DIES!), UNEQUAL (I’m a sucker for ‘lift and separate’), NORDIC , CHRONICLE , OLD HANDS, SPROUTS and DRYDEN.
I smiled at (Scottish) Duncan’s gracious acceptance @6 (‘similar-sounding’) of SEAN for ‘shorn’ – I think the rhotic discussion’s ship has perhaps now finally (mercifully) sailed. I’d never heard of Penn and Teller, so the surface was lost on me, until I googled.
I guess he enjoyed, like Widdersbel and me, ‘full of bens’.
Many thanks to Stamp and Duncan.
Unexpectedly gentle and expectedly lovely. I especially enjoyed TUTORIAL, UNEQUAL, FULL OF BEANS, DRYDEN and OLD HANDS. Teller’s cut short, undone and censor were all super touches. And a theme even I could clock! Many thanks to Stamp and Duncan.
A remarkable achievement to have included so many themed items – almost 57 varieties?!
I found parts of this quite tough, but I did enjoy the fight.
Many thanks to Stamp and to Duncan.
A pulse-ating puzzle from Stamp! CHRONICLE, THIRSTIER and UNBAKED my picks. Thanks S&D.
Worked my way through this one without spotting the theme and had to laugh when it latterly became so flipping obvious. Like others, I failed to parse the ‘teller’ part of 9a and I thought the answer to 6d was somewhat overly contrived – does anyone actually use the word?
Having said that, I thought this was a very enjoyable solve – many thanks to Stamp and also to Duncan for his succinct review.
jane @15: Hi jane – I’m dropping back in earlier than usual, hopefully to give you a chance to see the post. I totally agree that UNSUMMED is not a nice word to solve (or clue!) and I can’t pretend I’ve ever heard it used in the real world. One of the things I find astounding when filling a grid, given the number of words in the language, is just how rapidly options diminish once crossers are in place. That solution was forced by the themers around it – it is the only word that will fit – and then one has to make the best of it.
Stamp is King of the Bean today. I don’t know whether it was clever misdirection from the setter or this solver’s muddled thinking, but I went down so many wrong avenues. Museum moving diamonds had to be Vanad or Vanad and I tried inserting all the crossword fish into REFASHIONED before it dawned on me., not to mention wondering whether Stupors were a Christmas tradition. Great stuff all round.
Bert thought he remembered something about Penn and Teller being magicians but it was Joyce who realised that it could be SEAN. It was our LOI and we realised we were correct when we entered it but not why. We needed to come here to check the parsing.
Thanks to both Stamp and Duncan.
Thanks Stamp. I found this on the tough side but ultimately satisfying. Spotting the theme certainly helped. My top picks were TUTORIAL, AFRICANS, VULCANISED, RUNNERS (great alternating reverse hidden), and FULL OF BEANS. Thanks duncanshiell for the blog.
Thanks very much Duncan for a lovely bright blog and Frankie G for making full sense of the excellent SEAN, luckily I had spotted the theme by then. Maybe this says too much about me but STUPORS felt like a very plausible entry at 19d for a while. Thanks Stamp for a meaty bean feast!