Guardian Cryptic 29,640 by Brockwell

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29640.

Not the puzzle I wanted when Daylight Saving Time disturbed my routine, cutting off an hour (at least, I did not get hit with an Enigmatist). Brockwell sets a fine puzzle, which started off easily enough, but slowed me down in completion. There are wisps of themes – vampires, films, books – but nothing really pans out. I have not even had the time to do a proper proofread of the blog, yet alone to savour the crossword.

ACROSS
1 VAMPIRE
Transfer over a million pounds at first for 17/6 (7)
An envelope (‘over’) of ‘a’ plus M (‘million’) plus P (‘Pounds at first’) in VIRE (verb, ‘transfer’ – funds, to where they are more needed, or to erase a debit).
5 TSETSES
Last lines of sonnet recalled trapping end of penis in flies (7)
An envelope (‘trapping’) of S (the first in the answer, ‘end of peniS‘) in TETSES, a reversal (‘recalled’) of SESTET, the second half, six lines, of an Italian ‘sonnet’, following an octave, eight lines. Shades of There’s Something about Mary – well, too close for comfort.
10 BATS
Bonkers attempt to make a comeback (4)
A reversal (‘to make a comeback’) of STAB (‘attempt’).
11 MAX SCHRECK
Marx brothers finally check out star of 19 (3,7)
An anagram (‘out’) of ‘Marx’ plus S (‘brotherS finally’) plus ‘check’, for the star, not of the 2024 film, but the 1922 film directed by F W Murnau (full title Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror – or in the original German Nosftratu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens, but often referred to just as Nosferatu).
12 MINA
Bird mum keeps at home (4)
An envelope (‘keeps’) of IN (‘at home’) in MA (‘mum’).
13 OPERATIC
Are Converse stocked by dispenser of style at Covent Garden? (8)
An envelope (‘stocked by’) of ERA, a reversal (‘converse’) of ‘are’ in OPTIC (‘dispenser’ of alcoholic spirits, a trade name which has become generic).
14 KEEP FAITH
English footballers entertained by Rolling Stone’s version of Don’t Stop Believin’ (4,5)
An envelope (‘entertained by’) of E (‘English’) plus PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association, a trade union, ‘footballers’) in KEITH (Richards, ‘Rolling Stone’). EPFA is the European Powerchair Football Association, which does not quite fit the clue; the English organisation is WFA, the Weelchair Football Association.
16 MIDGE
Digger regularly on motorway is a nuisance in Scotland (5)
A charade of MI (M1, ‘motorway’) plus DGE (‘DiGgEr regularly’). Many small flies are called midges, but the reference here is the the Highland Midge, which, although by no means confined to Scotland, is a particular pest there.
17 BLOOD
Kids swapping sides to make descent (5)
B[r]OOD (‘kids’) with the R replaced by L (right by left, ‘swapping sides’)
19 NOSFERATU
17/6 for Austen novel (9)
An anagram (‘novel’) of ‘for Austen’.
23 AMARETTI
Hack maybe with Times tucking into top-notch biscuits (8)
An envelope (‘tucking into’) of MARE (‘hack maybe’ – not all horses are hacks, and not all are mares) plus (‘with’) TT (‘times’) in AI (given the recent attempt, reported here, to use AI to solve a crossword clue, probably not Artificial Intelligence, but A1, ‘top notch’)
24 LICE
Walker is one with no answer for parasites (4)
A subtraction: [a]LICE (‘Walker is one’ – the author Alice Walker is best known for The Color Purple) minus the A (‘with no answer’).
25 BRIDGERTON
Republican heavyweight following game show on Netflix (10)
A charade of BRIDGE (‘game’) plus R (‘Republican’) plus TON (‘heavyweight’).
26 EELY
Slice from return of Kyle Edmund is like 18 (4)
A hidden (‘slice from’) reversed (‘return’) answer in ‘kYLE Edmund’.
27 WYNDHAM
Writer of Lady In Red ultimately inspired by pop duo (7)
An envelope (‘inspired by’) of NDH (‘ladY iN reD ultimately’) in WHAM (‘pop duo’), probably for Max Wyndham.
28 LEGHORN
Noel Gallagher on vacation abroad eating hot chicken (7)
An envelope (‘eating’) of H (‘hot’) in LEGORN, an anagram (‘abroad’) of ‘noel’ plu GR (‘GallagheR on vacation’).
DOWN
2 AVARICE
Greed of girl going both ways with 1 author (7)
A charade of AVA (‘girl’), also a palindrome (‘going both ways’), plus RICE (‘1 author’ – Amme Rice, the author of Interview with a Vampire, the first of her series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles.).
3 PASTA
Dad consuming endless wine and food (5)
An envelope (‘consuming’) of AST[i] (setters’ favourite tipple, ‘wine’) minus its last letter (‘endless’) in PA (‘dad’).
4 ROMANIA
Traveller collecting a stamp in country (7)
The best I can do: an envelope (‘collecting’) of ‘a’ plus NI, an anagram (‘stamp’) of ‘in’ – that’s the awkward part, of course – in ROMA (gypsies in general, or one in particular, ‘traveller’, so the singular is valid).
6 SUCKER
Shoot gull (6)
Double definition.
7 THROATIER
Deeper level supporting cast in audition (9)
A charade of THROA, as pronounced in the answer (‘in audition’) sounds like THROW (‘cast’) plus (‘supporting’ in a down light) TIER (‘level’).
8 ETCHING
Female leaving attractive impression (7)
A subtraction: [f]ETCHING (‘attractive’) minus the F (‘female leaving’); the answer as a print made as an ‘impression’ of the original plate.
9 EXTORTIONISTS
Retired people bending over backwards perhaps to expel Tory 17/6s (13)
A charade of EX (‘retired’) plus [con]TORTIONISTS (‘people bending over backwards perhaps’) minus CON (‘to expel Tory’).
15 PROTRUDED
Stuck out reminder about pastry’s filling (9)
An envelope (‘about’) of [s]TRUDE[l] (‘pastry’) minus its outer letters (‘filling’) in PROD (‘reminder’).
18 LAMPREY
Sea creature picked up young victim (7)
Sounds like (‘picked up’) LAMB (‘young’) plus PREY (‘victim’).
20 FLEANCE
Doctor can feel Banquo’s issue (7)
An anagram (‘doctor’ as imperative) of ‘can feel’, for Banquo’s son in Macbeth.
21 TICKLER
Heart is broken by Brockwell’s latest puzzle (7)
An envelope (‘broken by’) of L (‘BrockwelL‘s latest’) in TICKER (‘heart’).
22 ATHENA
Attributes of Gaia, the nature goddess (6)
A hidden answer (‘attributes of’) in ‘GaiA THE NAture’.
24 LEECH
Old doctor from General Hospital snorting cocaine (5)
An envelope (‘snorting’) of C (‘cocaine’) in LEE (Robert E, ‘General’) plus H (‘hospital’).

picture of the completed grid

98 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,640 by Brockwell”

  1. I think if you had had more time, PeterO, you would have seen how pervasive the BLOOD SUCKER theme is beyond the obviously flagged 17/6s. It is not just VAMPIREs (related answers include BATS, ROMANIA, MINA (Harker from Dracula), but blood-sucking creatures – TSETSES, MIDGEs, LEECHes, LAMPREYs, LICE, I’ve probably missed some.

    And I think it more likely that John WYNDHAM (The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, etc) is intended at 27.

  2. Thanks, PeterO. Gosh, you’re up early. Or perhaps late to bed. I’d thought of John Wyndham as the author, as he enjoyed things of the night and horror, but yours is good too. A fine puzzle.

  3. ROMANIA
    Stamp
    (Collins)
    British informal
    a national insurance contribution, formerly recorded by means of a stamp on an official card

    Is the stamp in the clue possibly referring to NI? And the ‘in’, just a link word?

    Thanks Brockwell and PeterO.

  4. Me @1 I should, of course, have thanked you for your efforts under unpropitious circumstances, Peter. Don’t take my comment as a form of sniping.

  5. I’m not normally a fan of interlinked clues, but that was a real humdinger from Brockwell. The old grey cells were fairly buzzing for a long time as everything slowly, but inevitably, fell into place. As an old film fan (in both senses) I knew the star of NOSFERATU, but would not have got there otherwise. Favourites were NOSFERATU (after far too long thinking of Jane Austen’s oeuvre), VAMPIRE, BLOOD SUCKERS, MINA (so neat), OPERATIC and BRIDGERTON. Failed to parse, as well as the actor, were PROTRUDED and ROMANIA. Many thanks Brockwell for the thoroughly enjoyable workout and PeterO for explaining PROTRUDED as well as the rest of the blog PS, The novel is “Interview with the Vampire” (not a).

  6. Looked at the fodder for the film — starred in by?? and itself an example of a ? ? — and thought This is going to be a pain in the whatsit. Add in some gk gaps — eg the verb vire (nho), optic (forgotten) and football acronyms — and it was all a bit bloody. Well you get that in cwland sometimes. Thanks both anyway.

  8. Thank you PeterO for going above and beyond.

    The themesters culturally mostly left me in the twilight zone, but I did get the blood-sucking creatures, the bane of my life down here. As well I’ve been bitten by an EEL, and the effects lasted for ages. Same sort of thing, anticoagulants and a lot of itchiness afterwards.

    I’ve seen TSETSE clued several times, but found the wordplay here difficult. Didn’t know there was a plural TSETSES until today. I would have thought it was TSETSE flies. The more obvious testes (rather than the reversal of sestet) may have set Brockwell on the path to penis and flies.

    There was also a FLEA in FLEANCE, which I didn’t know but got from a search on Banquo’s children (issue). Fair clue.

    I’ve found that MINA is an alternative to MYNA or MYNAH which are more familiar to me.
    My fav was KEEP FAITH, non themed, and EXTORTIONISTS, for a themester.

  9. Agree that John WYNDHAM was probably the author in Brockwell’s thinking for 27 as I haven’t heard of PeterO’s choice, but both fit of course. Didn’t know the verb vire, so didn’t enter 1 until the theme made it certain. Took me a long time to see BLOOD for 17, but once I got that then SUCKER followed on and the rest fell into place. Didn’t believe that EELY was actually a word. MAX SCHRECK needed Google. Liked KEEP FAITH and EXTORTIONISTS. Thanks to Brockwell and to PeterO for producing the blog despite your time constraints.

  11. I had ROMANI for the travellers in ROMANIA, another term for one of the GRT (gypsy, Roma, traveller) communities.

    I really enjoyed this. Lots of blood-sucking references.

    Thank you to PeterO and Brockwell.

  12. I struggled til about half way through with 17/6 having eluded me and the theme not quite visible. I suspected the actor in NOSFERATU might be from the original version of the film which I have once seen. I confess to looking that one up and it was the solution that opened everything up. Suddenly there were all these blood suckers staring me in the face. I’m not sure whether John WYNDHAM wrote specifically about blood suckers – triffids, of course, were carnivorous.

    OPERATIC, MIDGE, NOSFERATU, BLOOD, KEEP FAITH, WYNDHAM and SUCKER my faves today. Thanks Brockwell and PeterO.

  13. Completed this, unlike the last Brockwell IIRC. I don’t generally care about themes but enjoyed this one. Favourites include KEEP FAITH and NOSFERATU. I was less keen on ROMANIA – it works without ‘stamp’ as noted by Shanne@11; otherwise either PeterO’s or KVa@3’s explanations work but neither is very satisfactory IMO.
    EELY reminded me that the crossword staple cathedral city of Ely is so named because there used to be a lot of eels, which were an important source of food, in the marshes there.
    Thanks PeterO and Brockwell.

  14. Favourites: BRIDGERTON for being an up to date TV reference rather than a little known 1960s or 1970s show; EXTORTIONISTS; KEEP FAITH.

    I could not parse the VIRE bit 1ac.

    New for me: PFA = Professional Footballers Association.

  15. PeterO, a slight typo in your spelling of Anne Rice.
    I really enjoyed the theme as pointed out by Balfour @1; I often pass Bram Stoker’s house near the Kings Road in Chelsea when out walking. I would also add THROAT(IER) and LEE(CH) for Christopher, probably the most famous of the Count Draculas. I too thought of John Wyndham of Triffids fame and also thought of Audrey II, the blood-sucking Venus flytrap in the Little Shop of Horrors. Lots of favourites but I thought EXTORTIONISTS, FLEACE and KEEP FAITH were the standouts.
    The setter is fast becoming one of my favourites.

    Ta Brockwell & PeterO.

  17. paddymelon @8
    That rare spelling of Mina gave me the answer from the blood sucker theme.
    Mrs Mina Harker being the ‘love’ interest in Dracula.

  18. Thanks for the blog and crossword – one to get your teeth into. Assuming that the author is John, could Triffids also count as blood suckers? I can’t quite remember what they do after stinging their victims.

  19. Thanks PeterO for the parsing of KEEP FAITH. With hindsight I should have noted the position of the apostrophe…

  21. I’m with Dod@10. Guessed several answers successfully with no idea how to parse, so many thanks to Peter O. Hard work, little joy.

  22. First bits went in fairly easily but then so much crap followed that I’m sorry I wasted my time on this.

  25. McCourney@17. That’s interesting about MINA. Haven’t read Bram Stoker. I think we’ve had that clued recently. Can’t remember, of course, let alone find it.

  26. Ah, vampires and blood-suckers in general.
    Although, sadly, no sign of Buffy, nor her equally enjoyable spin-off Angel, nor the great Christopher Lee, nor Gary Oldman – nor even Alfie Bass’ unforgettable Jewish take in Polanksi’s Great Vampire Killers (if you’ve never seen it – check it out!!).
    I never cared for the Rice books: a tad tame by comparison. Still, hello to NOSFERATU & MAX SCHRECK from Murnau’s stratospherically-better 1922 original, plus all the others – and I’d include an honourable mention to THROATIER.
    Getting SUCKER and then BLOOD got me started, after which VAMPIRE was a straight guess – so big thanks to PeterO for the parsing: I wouldn’t have got that in a million years. And I live in France, where “virement” is commonly used.
    Thanks too for explaining the parsing of LICE: “Alice” is a very very long way down the list of words I’d think of in connection with “Walker”….
    My fave was ATHENA, for being so very well hidden.
    Thank you Brockwell, for a crossword that certainly didn’t suck.

  27. In 1, I took ‘transfer’ to be ‘wire’ (to wire someone some money, say), but pronounced ‘vire’, as Bela Lugosi would say it. But it was late, and my dictionary was oh so far away.

  28. Thank you beaulieu, unfortunately placed@13. Never knew that Ely was EELY. I’ve caught Moray eel from the sea and barbecued it, and eaten smoked riverine eel. Quite liked it. Would rather bite into them than they bite into me.

  29. I liked the SE corner, with MIDGE, FLEA(nce), LICE, LEECH and TICK(ler) all adding to the Bloodsucking theme.
    Wellbeck @26, Wikipedia has the Polanski as The Fearless Vampire Killers. Or Dance of the Vampires in the UK.

  30. This was quite hard, I thought. Things opened up quickly when I saw the Austen anagram but then decelerated again. Leghorn and Keep Faith were the last ones in. Thanks Peter and Brockwell, good brain protection today.

  31. It wasn’t until I got NOSFERATU that I realised there was some kind of sinister theme in play. Didn’t realise 17/6 referred to those clues as key, rather vaguely wondering if some kind of knowledge of old English currency was required. Seven half crowns making up this amount. Completely daft of me…
    Struggled with the parsing of many that I had tentatively inserted, particularly VAMPIRE, which of course was key, as I didn’t know the Vire wrap around component.
    Last few in in the SE corner, but found this really rather difficult this morning…

  32. Thanks Brockwell and PeterO

    Really enjoyed this.

    As well as the wonderful Murnau original, can I throw in a shout for the excellent Herzog 1979 remake, which starred the great Klaus Kinski (for some reason the German version is slightly longer than the (dubbed) English one).

  33. Good one from Brockwell. I am regularly blind to themes, often forgetting each solution as it reveals itself. So although I had VAMPIRE early, and many other of the haematophagous entries fell out, the linked clues were amongst the last to yield, which then rapidly gave me NOSFERATU and MAX SCHRECK. D’oh!

    All parsed except for ROMANIA, because I took the ‘traveller’ to be ROMANI. Once again, I’ll second AlanC’s choice of the (non-themed, as it happens) solutions, plus NOSFERATU – a cleverly misleading and unexpected anagram, and EXTORTIONISTS (LOI, which I only subsequently saw was theme related).

    Re works about VAMPIREs, I consider Bram Stoker’s novel the best. It wasn’t the first – Polidori and Le Fanu got there before him – but nothing later can match it, IMHO.

    Thanks to Brockwell and the quasi-jet-lagged PeterO

  34. [Hi Hornbeam @29
    Yep that sounds right: The Fearless V Killers. I was going by memory.
    At one point, when someone brandishes a crucifix at him, Bass shrugs and responds, “Oy have you got the wrong vampire!”.
    Though my teenaged self loved the OTT gothic horror melodrama of Stoker and Murnau, as an adult I much preferred the dark humour of vampire-spoofs, and the layers of social comment in True Blood and Buffy.]

  36. @35 Oakville Reader it’s the clues 17 and 6, Blood and Sucker, which give us vampires, biting insects etc.

  37. What a clever crossword! Much thanks to PeterO for some of the parsing and to Brockwell for the challenge.

  38. Thank you, PeterO, for the blog, and congratulations to Brockwell on this brilliant puzzle – the inclusion of so many extra bloodsuckers was a real coup!

  40. John Wyndham also wrote ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’, a novel about a village that is taken over by aliens who implant the women with their eggs. These grow up looking like normal children (although with some sinister idiosyncrasies) – an example of ‘brood parasitism’. It is not quite blood sucking, but close enough to fit the theme.

  41. It was such a pleasant surprises to open my paper this morning to see Brockwell’s name on the puzzle, only three crosswording days since his Prize offering and after his Grecian in the Indy yesterday, along with the brilliant Tramp puzzle here. For me, it’s as if the crossword gods were conspiring to fill the Picaroon / Buccaneer / Rodriguez – shaped hole: at this rate, they’re doing a grand job.

    I found today’s puzzle sheer delight from beginning to end, starting with the brilliant ‘Jane Austen novel’, which set the scene, in preparation for the gradual revelation and expansion of the theme, so reminiscent of Brendan’s style. (I remember Brockwell once expressing his admiration for Brendan here.) What started off looking like a literary theme developed into so much more, as listed by Balfour @1, with the central EXTORTIONISTS tying it all together.

    I finished the solve ages ago but have taken quite a while going back over the puzzle, savouring each clue and not finding a dud one among them – themed or unthemed: ingenious constructions, interesting references (Kyle Edmund, Banquo, Keith Richard, the Marx brothers …) superb surfaces throughout – and the wonderfully ironical clue for 21dn!

    Many thanks to Brockwell and to PeterO (at least you don’t have to wait until midnight before you can start solving. 😉 )

  42. Thanks Brockwell for a fine crossword with a wide-ranging theme, and PeterO for blogging so well in difficult conditions!

    VIRE and the PFA were new to me, and I missed the strudel in PROTRUDED. I was another who had the traveller as a ROMANI and then couldn’t account for the stamp. Favourite clue the splendidly misleading NOSFERATU (isn’t there a Jane Austen film spoof with vampires somewhere?).

    Re eels, EELY and Ely: I live just down the road from Eel Pie Island in the Thames, famous in olden times for the eel pies sold there, and in later times for the many British rock stars who played at the Island Hotel in the early stages of their careers, including Keith (Richards) of 14a.

  43. Wellbeck@26. |Likewise living in France] I suspected VampIRE as the obvious bloodsucker. I think it’s the third time recently that I’ve come across what I thought of as a purely French word as part of the wordplay, checked the dictionary, and found it is also (but probably only occasionally!) used in English.

  44. I took the parsing of KEEP FAITH to be E for English and PFA for footballers. The PFA is the representative body for the players themselves: the Professional Footballers Association. I think this is the more mainstream approach.

  45. Parsed 4d ROMANIA with a National Insurance stamp (1948-?), as KVa@3.
    For 1a VAMPIRE, oed.com only has virement, but not vire. “It’s in Chambers“, of course, and wiktionary has citations. They can’t all be misspelt wires.
    Jorge Ramon@27 😀 — ronald@31: ditto on the “Seven half crowns” 🙂

  46. PROTRUDED: I thought TR (pastry filling) in PROUD (stuck out) but that left me with ED and (reminder) that I couldn’t find uses for

  49. I agree with KVa@3 – stamp = NI ie national insurance. Stamp was the old name for it.

    Thanks Brockwell and PeterO

  50. Gladys@42…yes, many was time in the 1960’s, on cold winters’ nights, when we paid the old lady sitting with the brazier some kind of small token toll to get across from the Twickenham side into that Island Hotel. Not sure in what official capacity she was in situ. Saw Noddy Holder playing there in his pomp…

  51. A mixed bag, though mostly enjoyable. I managed to complete it despite not a chance of parsing a good few of them. KEEP FAITH, in particular, looks tortuous to me. I got BLOOD and SUCKER after having twigged a couple of the clues that referenced those answers, I’m not sure I would have done otherwise.

    On another day I might have commented here that this was a joyless slog, but somehow today it wasn’t, and was fun regardless of my above comments.

  52. Tough. Despite spotting Nosferatu early, it took me ages to get the bloodsucking theme. Fell into place quickly after that.
    Thanks both.

  53. Excellent puzzle,. MIDGE was my second entry and BLOOD the third, so they put me straight onto the theme and raced through. I liked the subtle solutions such as FLEANCE and MINA.

  54. MAX SCHRECK’s character in NOSFERATU, though the names were changed for copyright reasons, is much closer to Stoker’s description of the VAMPIRE than the debonair versions of more recent films and novels. There is an erotic undercurrent in ‘Dracula’, but it is sex as something powerful and terrifying, rather than naughty but nevertheless attractive. Take Harker’s description of the Count: ‘It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion’. That’s not very sexy, is it? I prefer my undead to be like this – less domesticated 🙂

  55. Top ticks for EXTORTIONISTS, OPERATIC and KEEP FAITH – I’ll spare you both the Journey and George Michael earworms 🙂

    I’ve somehow managed to get through 60 years without ever seeing Hamlet so FLEANCE was a guess & google

    EELY – really!? Loved it

    Cheers B&P

  56. I have to confess that I looked up the Austen novels for NOSFERATU, a brilliant clue. I did have to look up FLEANCE as well, and because I put in AMoRETTI I was looking for a hack called MORE, doh! I liked the wordplay but not the image for TSETSES, the descent of BLOOD, and the (con)TORTIONIST. I’m not sure that a LEECH was an old doctor, more like a treatment to me unless I am misunderstanding it.

    Thanks Brockwell and PeterO, and KVa @3 for the stamp.

  57. Robi @56/ Because bleeding the patient using leeches was in olden times a kind of default initial treatment for any complaint and because official medical qualifications did not exist, LEECH was the usual name for a practitioner. See, for example, this speech by Alcibiades from Timon of Athens: I did in my youth play Alcibiades in a production which perhaps accounts for this rather esoteric Shakespearean snippet.

    Bring me into your city,
    And I will use the olive with my sword,
    Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each
    Prescribe to other as each other’s leech.

  58. Thanks for the blog , very clever set of clues with original ideas , for once an easy theme for me , I put in MAX SCHRECK without even looking at 19 and all the links turned up later .
    The PPP used to show NOSFERATU every Halloween .
    Only quibble is the grid, three unchecked letters in a row makes it look like an amateur puzzle.

    Agree with KVa @ 3 about NI , very important to get your yearly “stamp” for your pension .

  59. Phew! That took a lot of work but I liked the bloodsucking theme. Thanks Brockwell and Peter O.

  61. Thanks Balfour @57, I should have consulted Chambers! Roz @58, the triple unches are not very elegant but this grid is in the permitted Guardian library.

  62. As KVa @3 says, UK national insurance contributions were recorded (until 1975) by employers sticking stamps on cards, which were sent to the Ministry at the end of the year. If you left a job mid-year, you took the card with you to hand to your new employer. Even today you might hear “He was given his cards”, meaning he had been sacked!

  63. Another John WYNDHAM fan here – I guess I’m not out of order in inserting a gentle plug for my fanfic sequel to The Chrysalids (regarded by some as his best work…). If you dare, you can find it here… (written under my alter ego ‘Lewis Berneu’).

    Well it didn’t take long to spot the VAMPIRic theme welling out here, so BLOOD and SUCKER were early write-ins. And I know only too well about the Highland MIDGE Culicoides impunctatus – aaarrrggghh! Bitten many times and don’t I know it! I’ve seen folks tramping around the HIghlands decked out in full beekeeper’s kit. I guess that offers some protection, but what does it do for their enjoyment?

    I’ve had a moan about this grid before – three consecutive unches in 4d and 20d not exactly welcome! FLEANCE was easy enough (is there a connection with MIDGE via – errrm –The Scottish Play?). But ROMANIA was debatable, though I could see how it fits the theme obviously. I vaguely recall how in the past one paid one’s National Insurance with an actual ‘stamp’ in a book – but surely that’s history?! The other possibility was ROMANI + A, but then the ‘stamp’ is superfluous.

    Didn’t quite parse PROTRUDED – I was fishing around for what TRUDE could stand for but didn’t twig.

    But plenty of ‘ticks’ (yes, another BLOODSUCKER, in TICKler) for the clues. Liked NOSFERATU (good misdirection); KEEP FAITH; MIDGE; AMARETTI; WYNDHAM; EXTORTIONISTS; ATHENA – and others.

    Thanks to Brockwell and Peter.

  64. Thanks KVa @3 for the stamp and JudithG @62 for the origin of ‘given one’s cards’. Would never have crossed my mind, although I’m well aware of the phrase.

  65. Robi and Balfour passim: LEECH, the bloodsucking invertebrate and LEECH, the old term for a doctor seem to have convergent etymologies. From Wiktionary:

    Leech (animal): From Middle English leche (“blood-sucking worm”), from Old English lǣċe (“blood-sucking worm”), akin to Middle Dutch lāke (“blood-sucking worm”; > modern Dutch laak

    Leech (doctor): From Middle English leche (“physician”), from Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”), from Proto-West Germanic *lākī, from Proto-Germanic *lēkijaz (“doctor”), of disputed origin, but usually thought to be connected with Proto-Celtic (compare Old Irish líaig (“charmer, exorcist, physician”)); perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”).

    Perhaps the meaning of bloodsucker comes from that of physician, rather than vice versa. The standard term for a doctor in Swedish is ‘läkare’ whereas the animal is ‘igel’ or more graphically ‘blodigel’ (cf German ‘Egel’).

  68. Robi @56: “I put in AMoRETTI I was looking for a hack called MORE, doh!”

    Me too, but almost as a mad stab at a knowingly incorrect guess to speed things along, a cheat just short of a reveal. It worked, and the rest fell into place.

    The puzzle was challenging enough, but surely presumes we will resort to google, rather than word play and memory of films and actors and books from a century ago? If it requires google, is it actually fun?

  69. Great fun today! A little suprised at “vire” in 1 across. I had thought this was a purely Civil Service term meaning to shift money from one part (subhead) of a Departments allocation (Vote) to another without the need for Parliamentary approval – often done late in year as spending never quite as planned.

  71. How strange I just watched NOSFERATU (the original) whilst eating home made AMARETTI last night.

    Managed to get to all the referential clues the opposite way to intended.

    I assumed the theme was vampires. Wyndham being a vampire from ‘Being Human’ as well as an author.

    Liked EXTORTIONIST. Seemed a tough clue at first reading but was actually fairly straight forward.

    Couldn’t parse TSETSES so took a guess on the setters’ favourite fly. Thanks for the blog explaining.

    Great puzzle, tough in parts, but no groans when they clicked.

  73. Life is far too short! Struggled for half an hour or so to crack less than 25% of this one, and one that I got from word-play was a fortuitous guess (I’ve never looked at Netflix). As soon as I saw the setter’s name I knew this was likely: somehow, Brockwell and I just don’t click. C’est la vie!

  74. Many thanks to PeterO for the excellent blog and sorry for any headaches it caused you. Thanks to all of you for giving the puzzle a go and for sharing your feedback. This one obviously divided opinion a little, but I’m so happy that many of you seemed to love it. This was probably the most fun I’ve had compiling a puzzle. I wrote it immediately after seeing my daughter and her orchestra play the soundtrack live during a screening of the original Nosferatu at the Ritzy, in Brixton. Sorry about the triple unches, but you know that vampires don’t like crosse(r)s 🧛‍♂️😉. B

  75. Grecian @74: Thanks for dropping by – it’s always appreciated when setters do this. I had an ‘unch that you might have enjoyed compiling this one (BTW, I didn’t notice that the grid wasn’t kosher 🙂 )

  76. Grecian/Brockwell @74: that is the best defence of triple unches I’ve ever seen. Bloody well done!

  79. 😊 PostMark @76. I’ve probably used the two most unpopular grids out there on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Clearly, I’m a sucker for an ugly duckling 🐥

  80. brandom@68 – I *didn’t* have to resort to Google; I thought I might need to with Max Schreck – and then it just couldn’t be anything else. If you know anything about the vampire genre, if Nosferatu falls into place, then all the rest follows … [Confess I walked out of the 2024 remake of Nosferatu.]
    Many thanks to the setter for dropping by, always a most welcome intervention, and thank you again for a super puzzle.

  81. Well we’ve just got back tonight from seeing a one man show called Buffy Revamped, so this puzzle could hardly have been better timed to get us in the mood for it. Great puzzle, with the very clever “for Austen novel” being my way into it. (Though I could really have done without the surface for 5a.)

    Thanks Brockwell and PeterO.

  82. Really pleasing theme, worked all the way through. Great fun.

    Jorge Ramon @27 – glad to see I wasn’t alone in summoning my worst Transylvanian accent!

  83. 5a I am no expert but the the parsing does not make sense to me.

    The solution says the testes are the end of penis.. The scrotum is that end of penis, and it contains the testes. And penis is doing double duty.

    My (not very satisfactory) parsing
    Last lines of sonnet – letters ET (a stretch for me, but the letters are more than one line when written). (reversed) TE Trapping end of penis – S thus TSE. Obviously intended as a fly [So Recalled (called again)] doing double duty?] – TSETSE. Plural so a final S is needed but no indicator.

  84. Jabiruinoz@83
    I parsed 5a as last lines of sonnet giving sestet. (One sonnet form has the 14 lines separated into 8 and 6, the octave and the sestet/sextet.) Recalled suggests a reversal, so sestet becomes tetses. End of penis is s (last letter) and that is trapped within tetses to give tsetses.
    That is the same parsing as PeterO, but spelt out differently to explain how I got there.

    Thanks to Brockwell and PeterO (especially for the explanation of vire which was new to me.)

  85. jabiruinoz@83. See our blogger PeterO ‘s parsing at the top of this page. It works on a reversal of sestet, the last lines in a sonnet.
    And Eoink @84.

  86. This puzzle reminds me of the irascible old man who ran the corner store of my teenage years. When he thought anybody was taking advantage of him (children, for instance, taking too long to choose the candy they wanted) he’s say in a voice filled with rage, “Whaddya want, my blood?”

  87. eoink@84 and paddymelon@#85
    Thank you for the response. This puzzle revealed vast gaps in my knowledge of the classics, literature, the macabre, etc, which may be in my forgettary, but remain well hidden.
    Brockwell is way above my abilities, but you don’t learn if you don’t try

  89. I wasted time looking for some significance of 17s 6d. (Seventeen shillings and sixpence).

    I found this harder than the recent Enigmatist Prize, but not as satisfying on completion, owing to the the amount of searching involved, although that’s down to my never having read novels or watched netflix.

    Many thanks all.

  90. I know I’ll regret this but I’ll ask anyway. What are unchecked letters/unches? And why are they a bad thing?

  91. Hi Rogerpat.

    This issue had never crossed my mind until you asked.

    I think that some solvers perhaps take the word “crossword” in its most complete sense. That is, that each solution should ideally be crossed by others, resulting in alternate letters being shared between across and down solutions.

    So if, say, only every fourth letter were so shared, then it would be less of a “cross”word for that. But perhaps I’m wrong?

  92. My daughter (whom I’m coaching) noted that 17/6 (17th June) is National Strudel Day. I wonder if Brockwell was aware of this??

  94. @Etu. Thank you.They’re 4 and 20 down, and 14 across, right?
    As 14 down was the only clue I solved, I can’t get too angry about it being an unch.

  95. Did any mention LAMPREY as a parasitic blood sucking eel?
    Probably.
    Enjoyed the BLOOD SUCKER theme.

  96. I gave up after several hours which yielded nine answers. I thought Mina sounded familar, having read the original Dracula, and I spotted that 19a was possibly an anagram, but I admit defeat. Resounding defeat.

  97. Missed a handful of these, and couldn’t parse many of them. For VAMPIRE, I was trying to make an anagram (“transfer”) of “over a m” for VAMPORE, but that’s not a word!

    Still have trouble seeing THROA as a homophone of “throw”

    Should have DuckDucked MAX SCHRECK, which would have opened up a lot

    Worth underlining, as suggested by Eileen@41, that EXTORTIONISTS is part of the theme

    Enjoyable theme and puzzle

  98. Rogerpat@90, further to Etu@91, three “unchecked unches” refers to the three squares in a row with no crossers. In this puzzle they’re at 4d (squares 4,5,6), and 20d (squares 2,3,4)

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