Apologies for the lateness of the blog. A well-constructed themed crossword from Gaff.
The special instruction is simply “A sigh of relief…”. Once you have the theme, the meaning of ‘relief’ is clear.
We are looking at LIVE AID, the 1985 benefits concert (across two venues) organised by BOB Geldof and Midge Ure. Performers included The Style COUNCIL, The Boomtown RATS, SPANDAU BALLET, DIRE STRAITS, Tina TURNER, FOUR TOPS, Rick SPRINGFIELD, The CARS. Great fun from Gaff, and this has put me right in the perfect weekend mood.
[h]UMAN (person, takes lead from) + [st]O[ny] (hearted) + TATA (goodbye)
VOL. (little capacity) to go in O, O (circles)
VOL as an abbreviation of VOLUME, hence ‘little’
(RECANTS)* (*order)
Double definition
Note from do RE mi, in plural; ‘Res’ as the abbreviation for resolution
(CIGAR AD[d]ICTS)* (drop D (dead), *reformed)
Double definition
[m]AID (girl, expel head)
Cryptic definition
The OCHE is the line behind which a darts player must stand when aiming a dart in FLIGHT towards the dartBOARD
Field (runners) are after SPRING (source of water)
Double definition
PANDA (bear) to be held in U.S. (country, <backward)
“COUNSEL” (advice, “sound”)
ICI (here, in France, i.e. in French) + E[clai]R (empty)
(TURTLES IN)* (*distress)
TUNER (maybe fork) out R[upees] (initially)
(RAIN IS C[alamitou]S (extremely))* (*irregular)
(LATER ON VEG)* (*prepared)
STAR< (celebrity, <rising)
Double definition
Edited: CATS (litter maybe) + CRADLE (source)
‘Source’ as in ‘cradle of mankind’ – thanks to Cineraria @5
(RU (sport, Rugby Union) + OF)< (<climbing)
The FOUR horsemen of the apocalypse
AC (account) following Z (final) ODI (cricket match, One Day International)
Double definition
Cuts of meat for the first definition;
For the second: the ‘topsides’ refers to the portion of a boat’s hull that sits above the waterline
(TRUSTS FAIR)* (*ground)
(LOUD (noisy); CB (radio, Citizens Band) outside) on UR (old city) + ST (street)
AS (when) + SAS (soldiers, Special Air Service) get SIN (wrong)
HI (welcome) + BA (academic) + CHIS (characters, from the Greek letter CHI, plural)
ROAD (course) + I.E. (that is, id est)
A roadie AIDS the BAND on musical tours
BALL (dance) + [nin]ET[ies] (mid)
(ARTIST RIDES)* (*wobbly)
C[hildren] A[waiting] R[efugee] S[tatus] (principally)
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog. Both great.
Thanks Gaff and Oriel.
Top faves: OVOLO, OCHES, GASTRIC ACID, STAR FRUITS, CLOUDBURST and ROADIE.
A couple of doubts:
UMA NOTATA
stony-hearted: Is this the same as ‘stony’s heart’?
TURNSTILE
Does ‘distress’ (noun) do its job all right?
Or should we read it as ‘turtlesin’-distress (verb)?
Thanks Gaff and Oriel. I found this one brutally hard – in hindsight, some of that was me being slow, but there are a fair few here which I think are either very difficult or a little doubtful.
5d: surely the string of players is a reference to the game played with a length of string, not the (fairly obscure) music venue?
One of those puzzles which appear simple after you struggled to solve it
. Great theme and loads of fun. I needed a word finder for the nho UMA NOTATA.
Surely CATS CRADLE is a triple definition?
Thanks Gaff and Oriel.
Yes Tom @2, it was the game of making a net or ‘cradle’ between the hands by looping string through the fingers that occurred to me too. Elsewhere, the lizard was a nho, as was lovat green. No theme, though I solved Spandau, fleetingly thought “Ballet” (our boys had the vinyl), went on to later solve 25d ballet, and still didn’t wake up, talk about dense! Never mind, enjoyed the puzzle, ta Gaff and Oriel.
For 5D I had: CATS (litter, maybe) + CRADLE (source, e.g., of civilization), with “string of players” as the definition. Hard puzzle, made a little easier once I cottoned on to the theme. Was it 40 years ago already?
Fond memories of outstanding shows at Cat’s Cradle, the club, still going strong at its “new” venue.
The possibility never entered my mind that the puzzle might be built around a concert so long ago, so I struggled through it without seeing the theme.
I too found this difficult, due to more than a few NHO words for answers, a lot of unusual plurals, and several very very vague definitions (cuts = TOPSIDES as an example). I just was not on Gaff’s wavelength.
I ticked RATS
Thanks Gaff and Oriel
Cineraria @5 – thanks for your input (and everyone else of course). I think that makes the most sense. I will amend the blog.
A struggle without any enjoyment and no idea of the theme. NHO uma notata and ‘tuner’ for ‘fork’ may be fair enough but simply ‘out’ for ‘outside’ is sloppy cluing at best and unfair at worst.
Sorry, Gaff, this didn’t float our boat, but thanks, Oriel, for the explanations.
Agree with Tom@2 and Martyn@6
Did not like this puzzle.
Hmmm. Sure, a venue ([The] Cats Cradle) can be said to promote or ‘produce’ a string of players, but isn’t the def then “source of string of players”?
This is a dreadful puzzle. I wasted two hours of my life and gave up with 6 to go all in the top half.
I spotted the theme, but I didn’t help much.
Most I had never heard of.
Disgraceful to publish such rubbish.