Not Bingo but Bungo! Welcome to a new Listener setter – and new to the various series indexed in Dave Hennings’ Database too
When one of us typed in “Who is the crossword setter Bungo” into a search engine, the AI assistant informed us, po-faced as ever that Bungo is Robert Smithies, who set for the Guardian. Well – no, his nom-de-guerre was of course Bunthorne of blessed memory. More careful research, however, revealed that the real Bungo has had three puzzles in Big Dave’s Crossword Blog “Rookie Corner” – and this is perhaps his first outing into the weekend papers. So how did it go?
The Dash team were as usual solving in parallel, and happily came up with same solution, with not too much of an effort, but not a completely straight run either. The preamble was quite chewy, with three clueing devices in play – four extra words to reveal the theme, eight clashes to show elements of it, and twenty extra letters to spell out a “threatened scenario”. Plus, a rather under-specified instruction to show its consequences, and to highlight the work’s two creators. So – probably a story, play or opera; but which, and by who?
It would have saved time at this point if our thoughts didn’t stray to a G&T but G&S, as the extra words were FLOWERS OF PROGRESS, which with a bit more Googling led to the G&S opera Utopia Limited of which they formed the sub-title. That was indeed progress, though not immediately, as neither of us had heard of it. (It was the comeback opera after G&S had mended their bridges, sort of, after their fall out, and got mixed reviews, which with a high production cost meant it was not often performed.)
So, a lengthy read-up on the plot followed, which can be summed up by saying that King PARAMOUNT of a tropical island sends his daughter to school in Britain. She returns with a group of gents who inspire the King to go Progressive and turn his island into a Little Britain (including making it, its inhabitants and himself into Joint Stock Companies – with therefore Limited Liability). This matters, as the traditional rules of the island require two Wise Men to command the Public Exploser TARARA to blow the King up with DYNAMITE if he becomes a rascal. As they disappprove of his actions they are about to do this when the King informs that a JSC cannot be blown up, so there.
Back to the crossword. The message from the clues turned out to be WISE MEN ORDER CDEEGIIR (REGICIDE exploded). And looking into the grid the clashes showed PARAMOUNT and DYNAMITE in the 5 and 6 respectively which we guessed had to be removed. The preamble stated that real words would be left – but they weren’t. At this point we were on our own and got a bit stick, but checking what letters would produce real words, and re-reading the synopsis, finally led to the PDM of entering TARARA where PARAMOUNT was, as the island’s rules gave him the succession. Oh – and yes – GILBERT and SULLIVAN were hiding there, reading vertically in columns 1 and 13.
Phew! In drama terms, that was a lot of “business” going on to let the plot thicken and then resolve. How solvers react to that may depend on how much they like G&S, which could be fairly described in the same terms; but it was fair (since we found the solution), even if that last step was, as in the preamble, rather unspecified at first.
And what of the clues along the way? They read well, but perhaps pad the surface reading sometimes, with a possible mix-up too. 13a “Something in vegetable sheep regularly ravage or guzzle fast (7)” {RavAgeOrgUzzLefAst = RAOUL[I]A = “vegetable sheep”} is neat and the vegetable sheep are fun, but does it need the first two words? And 12d “Sporangial study of old I covered up (8)” {DEN I LAID< = CONIDIAL}. But why “of old” – and Chambers defines CONIDIUM as “An asexual fungal spore produced exogenously from a hyphal tip, not in a sporangium” which reads as the negative of the given definition. But we carp: it’s a good set, and we enjoyed them and the whole puzzle all the same.
We were also pleased to see that HAYDN (24a) was “Handy if tipsy, he;’s not Brahms and Liszt (5)’ (great clue!) so membership of the Oenophiles Club is duly awarded, and we hope Bungo will be back to visit us there soon.
Have been awaiting the Dash verdict with interest, since in a way it competes the circle; it was these blogs over at “Listen with Others” which first inspired me to have a go at solving the Listener, which led in turn to my trying to set one.
For 13a, my reading of the definition of “vegetable sheep” in Chambers was that you’d find raoulia in a vegetable sheep but not necessarily that the two were exactly synonymous. Originally this was “Many grow vegetable sheep…” etc. but the second vetter clearly had the same concerns over the definition and tweaked it for the puzzle.
The wordplay for 12d is (i) the work of the first vetter, not me, and (ii) CON (archaic word for study) I LAID<, hence the "of old" indicator. I did wonder if the definition would be queried, although in fact both vetters let it pass without comment; my justification was that a conidium was a type of spore, and sporangial could surely cover all types of spore, not just those produced from a sporangium (at least as far as Chambers definitions go – experts in spores are welcome to correct me!).
Many thanks indeed for the blog – I do read it weekly, even if I don't always comment.
"Bungo"
Jonathan Broad