An appropriately themed puzzle from La Jerezena.
The special instructions to this puzzle read:
A quote (ODQ, 8th edition) runs around the grid’s perimeter, beginning at 3. It is preceded by the first name of its author, whose surname is an unclued entry. Four further unclued entries consist of two leaders, a receptacle, and its contents; letters of the five unclued entries unchecked by clue answers may be rearranged to spell out ‘BASK IN CHANTS’. Two sides, in short, should be highlighted.
Although I’m a Scotsman, I did play cricket for more than 35 years, so this was not as alien a theme as it may heve been for some of my countrymen. I did get held up a bit when I found BRADMAN and assumed he was one of the leaders, so when I had __MM_N_, i convinced myself this was Wally Hammond. Once the penny dropped that Bradman was the person being quoted and that it was CUMMINS that was required, the rest of the puzzle slotted in nicely. There were a few vague solutions, KAZACHOK and KAURI for example, but nothing too difficult to work out and all well clued.
Theme words – STOKES and CUMMINS (current Test captains of England and Australia)
ASHES URN – receptacle and its contents.
DON BRADMAN (famous Australian batsman who said “When you play Test cricket you don’t give Englishmen an inch.”
I also should have highlighted the string AUSENG on the 7th row, but forgot – apologies.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DON WHEN YOU PLAY |
Name and quote
|
| 10 | AO DAI |
Regularly avoid man in exotic female attire (2,3)
|
| [regularly] A(v)O(i)D (m)A(n) I(n)
An ao dai is a Vietnamese tunic. |
||
| 11 | AMNION |
Returned home within a day for baby’s protection (6)
|
| [returned] <=IN (“home”) within A + Mon. (Monday, so “day”)
The amnion is a membrane enveloping an embryo. |
||
| 12 | CUMMINS |
Theme word
|
| 14 | BARE |
Naked boozer, close to collapse (4)
|
| BAR (“boozer”) + [close to] (collaps)E | ||
| 16 | SLIP STONES |
They sharpen points less clumsily (10)
|
| *(points less) [anag:clumsy]
Slipstones or slip stones are used to sharpen hooks or points. |
||
| 17 | IDENTITY |
Instincts + body = who one is (8)
|
| ID (“instincts”, in psychianalytic theory) + ENTITY (“body”) | ||
| 20 | SHONE |
Buffed front of sideboard with polish (5)
|
| [front of] S(ideboard) with HONE (“polish”) | ||
| 21 | MESONIC |
Comes in after splitting of subatomic particle (7)
|
| *(comes in) [anag:after splitting] | ||
| 22 | ATTAR |
Brought back most palm oil (5)
|
| [brought back most] <=RATTA(n) (a “palm” tree) | ||
| 24 | USE |
Mothers of 4 reportedly take drugs (3)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [reportedly] of EWES (“mothers of 4”, ie the solution to 4dn (eanlings)) | ||
| 27 | URN |
Theme word
|
| 31 | STASI |
Briefly arrest former secret policemen (5)
|
| [briefly] STASI(s) (“arrest”) | ||
| 32 | STOKES |
Theme word
|
| 33 | EIRENIC |
Promoting peace in both parts of Ireland, optimistic at last (7)
|
| EIRE + NI (Northern Ireland) (“both parts of Ireland”) + (optimisti)C [at last] | ||
| 34 | KAREN |
Range of knowledge enthrals Arkansas woman (5)
|
| KEN (“range of knowledge”) enthrals Ar. (Arkansas) | ||
| 35 | KAZACHOK |
Boy recalled a short clog dance (8)
|
| <=ZAC (“boy”, recalled) + A + [short] CHOK(e) (“clog”)
The kazachok is a Russina folk dance. |
||
| 36 | HYDRICALLY |
Heated chilly yard using water (10)
|
| *(chilly yard) [anag:heated] | ||
| 38 | SAMI |
Lapplanders in salt mine, both half-cut (4)
|
| SA(lt) + MI(ne) [both half cut] | ||
| 39 | TIERCET |
Triplet crept out periodically after row (7)
|
| C(r)E(p)T [out periodically] after TIER (“row”)
A tiercet is a group of three rhyming adjacent lines in a poem. |
||
| 40 | GAOLER |
Old lag, retired, embraces extremely eager warden (6)
|
| O (old) embraced by <=LAG [retired] + [extremely] E(age)R | ||
| 41 | STYLI |
Some dusty little old writing implements (5)
|
| Hidden in [some] “duSTY LIttle” | ||
| 42 | OU DON’T GIVE ENGL |
Quote (cont)
|
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LISHMEN AND INCH D |
End of quote
|
| 2 | NAME |
Call European male up (4)
|
| <=(E (European) + MAN (“male”), up) | ||
| 3 | WOMAN-HATER |
Wife running marathon to shut up eastern misogynist (5-5)
|
| W (wife) + *(marathon) [anag:running] to shut up E (eastern) | ||
| 4 | EANLING |
Bleating newborn in Gin Lane, abandoned (7)
|
| *(gin lane) [anag:abandoned]
An eanling is a newborn lamb. |
||
| 5 | YAPPY |
Talkative and cheerful after change of leader (5)
|
| (h)APPY (“cheerful”) after change of leader could become (Y)APPY (“talkative”) | ||
| 6 | UNITISES |
Makes one model suit in middle of Folkestone (8)
|
| *(suit in) [anag:model] + [middle of] (folk)ES(tone) | ||
| 7 | LOANING |
Tendency to sacrifice energy for love, making advances (7)
|
| L(e)ANING (“tendency”) sacrificing E (energy) for O (love, in tennis), becomes L(O)ANING | ||
| 8 | Y TEST CRICKET YO |
Quote (cont)
|
| 9 | PUNDIT |
Expert detective boarding boat (6)
|
| DI (“Detective” Inspector) boarding PUNT (“boat”) | ||
| 13 | ASHES |
Theme word
|
| 15 | REMIT |
Brief Encounter’s ending upset one Italian (5)
|
| (encounte)R [‘s ending] + [upset] <=ME (“one”) + It. (Italian) | ||
| 18 | TEA |
Time each meal (3)
|
| T (time) + ea. (each) | ||
| 19 | MONTE CARLO |
Move on to calmer Riviera resort (5,5)
|
| *(on to calmer) [anag:move] | ||
| 23 | RUNCIBLE |
Relative hiding one billion under King Lear’s coinage (8)
|
| UNCLE (“relative”) hiding 1 B (one billion) under R (Rex, so “King”)
The nonsense-word runcible (as in a runcible spoon) was coined by Edward Lear |
||
| 25 | LIBYA |
Young adult supporting library in country (5)
|
| YA (young adult, as in young adult literature, eg) supporting Lib. (library) | ||
| 26 | BRADMAN |
Theme word
|
| 28 | RICCI |
Actress Christina appearing in Capriccio (5)
|
| Hidden [appearing] in “capRICCIo”
Christina Ricci’s most notable role was probably as a child actor, playing Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family movie in 1991. |
||
| 29 | SKA |
Finally appreciates Frank Zappa’s offbeat music style (3)
|
| [finally] (appreciate)S (Fran)K (Zapp)A | ||
| 30 | HAZLITT |
Vocal Meatloaf critic (7)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [vocal] of HASLET (“meatloaf”)
William Hazlitt was an English essayist and critic, active in the early 19th century. |
||
| 35 | KAURI |
Mollusc caught in antipodean tree (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay of COWRIE (“mollusc”)
A kauri is a tall coniferous tree of New Zealand and a cowrie is a mollusc. |
||
| 37 | ACID |
Heartless, bitter and acerbic (4)
|
| [hearltess] AC(r)ID (“bitter”) |
I recall this coming out at the beginning of the second test so depression hadn’t fully set in at that stage.
La Jerezana is Sarah Hayes of course, perhaps better known to many here as Arachne (Guardian), Rosa Klebb (FT) and Anarche (Independent). I mention this in the hope we can encourage a few more solvers over to the Spectator as I note there don’t seem to be many comments each week.
There are two antipodean trees that fit in 35d, KARRI and KAURI, but only the latter is a homophone of a mollusc, which caused some extra checking. According to Chambers the shell of the mollusc has “magical properties” which I thought was a curious detail.
I didn’t know YA as a single abbreviation and it’s not in Chambers, but I see now it does have an entry in Collins. I’ve never been sure if the Spectator uses a particular reference dictionary.
Looking forward to the blog of the jumbo Christmas special, though I don’t envy the blogger’s task!
Thanks to La J. and loonapic.
thanks LJ and LP! I solve the Spectator regularly – it’s published at the beginning of the cryptic weekend (thursday, followed by Friday afternoon’s Listener, then Saturday’s IQ, with the Sunday EV).
Anyway, I thought this was fairly challenging theme (I had heard of Bradman but none of the others.
That said, may I use this platform to make a plea to the Spectator editors to adopt IQ style highlighting (in silver) of unclued entries? I spend the first 10 minutes of a Spectator busily doing this my hand.
Spotted this by chance after checking out our Guardian cryptic. We are fans of the Spectator Crossword and do it on the Sunday before it closes because checking our answers the following Thursday means that we still remember them.
Always missed not being able to discover some of the trickier parsings.
Regret in our entry for this one, I too forgot to highlight the AUSENG.
I will be a regular Tuesday visitor here from now on.