Tuesday fun from Math.
A few tricky clues here, but everything made sense in the end. I liked the misdirection of a “long walk over hills and dales”, and laughed at the suggestion of what to wear on a motorbike (though of course we should have the ‘Ealth ‘n’ Safety warning that you definitely shouldn’t do this).
There’s a pretty obvious Tuesday theme in that every clue features some element of archetypal Cockney pronunciation: generally the dropped initial H, but a few other dropped letters too. I haven’t noted every instance of this in the explanations below because it got a bit repetitive, but I hope I’ve indicated it where necessary for the wordplay. Appropriately, the pattern of black squares features a line of four letter H shapes “dropping” across the middle of the grid. But I got some way into writing up the blog before I spotted the Nina in the first and last columns: obvious when you see it, of course. Thanks Math for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIADEM |
Crown princess owned those things in ‘ackney (6)
|
| DI (tabloid newspapers’ abbreviation for the late Diana, Princess of Wales) + ‘AD ‘EM (Cockney pronunciation, as in Hackney in East London, of “had them” = owned those things). | ||
| 5 | ANGELICA |
Plant‘s ‘ealing mixture with added calcium (8)
|
| Anagram (mixture) of ‘EALING, then CA (Ca = chemical symbol for calcium).
Flowering plant, used as a herb or candied for cake decorations. |
||
| 9 | ROYALISM |
Support for King ‘enry is following Yorkist leader invading most of capital (8)
|
| ‘AL (Cockney pronunciation of HAL = nickname for King Henry) + IS (from clue text), following the leading letter of Y[orkist], all inserted into ROM[e] (capital city) with the last letter dropped (most of . . .). | ||
| 10 | BIKINI |
Ridin’ an ‘arley? Put on one’s 2-piece suit! (6)
|
| BIKIN’ (Cockney pronunciation of BIKING, for example riding a Harley = slang for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle) + I (one, in Roman numerals).
A two-piece bathing suit. |
||
| 11 | BALANCED DIET |
After renovation it ‘ad clean bed and good food to eat (8,4)
|
| Anagram (after renovation) of IT ‘AD CLEAN BED. | ||
| 13 | OTIC |
For the ear is sexy, but not ‘er (4)
|
| [er]OTIC (sexy) without ER. | ||
| 14 | SPECIFIC |
‘e’s cleaner in second movie in particular (8)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) + CIF (brand name for household cleaning products), inserted into S (abbreviation for second) + PIC (slang shortening of picture = movie). | ||
| 17 | PRISONER |
Captive‘s lying about ‘is rank at first (8)
|
| PRONE (lying down) around ‘IS, then the first letter of R[ank]. | ||
| 18 | SINH |
Misbe’ave, lacking character after function (4)
|
| SIN (as a verb = misbehave), with H (the character lacking in Cockney pronunciations of words such as “misbe’ave”) after it.
Mathematical notation for the “hyperbolic sine” function. It’s a long time since I studied pure maths and I won’t attempt to explain what this means; I suspect most readers of this blog won’t want a long discussion on the subject. This Wikipedia article may or may not help. |
||
| 20 | PAVING STONES |
Flags ‘n’ signpost ‘ave blown about (6,6)
|
| Anagram (blown about) of ‘N SIGNPOST ‘AVE.
Another name for flagstones = flat stones used as flooring. |
||
| 23 | EIFFEL |
Tour of Paris ‘e’s provided freely on odd occasions (6)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) + IF (provided) + odd-numbered letters of F[r]E[e]L[y].
“La Tour Eiffel” is the French name for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. |
||
| 24 | OMELETTE |
‘ouse rented by Taiwanese on vacation wanting egg fu yung? (8)
|
| ‘OME (‘ouse = Cockney pronunciation of house) + LET (rented = hired) + T[aiwanes]E (on vacation = after emptying).
Definition by example: egg fu yung is a Chinese version of an omelette with vegetables and sometimes meat. |
||
| 25 | DEGRADES |
Puts down university qualifications the second ‘e ‘ad succeeded (8)
|
| DEGR[e]E (university qualifications), with the second E replaced by ‘AD (from clue text), then S (abbreviation for succeeded). I think “university qualification” in the singular would work better for “degree”; it looks as though we need “degrees” but then “succeeded” is superfluous. | ||
| 26 | SET-TOS |
Front of ‘ouse filled 20 rows (3-3)
|
| Front letter of ‘O[use] inserted into SETTS (another word for 20a = paving stones).
Set-to = slang for an argument = row. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | IRON |
One’s not normally for putting ‘eadless ‘orseman of legend without an aitch (4)
|
| [c][h]IRON (centaur in Greek mythology = horse-man of legend), without the first letter (head) and without the H.
Iron, in golf = a club normally used for long shots along the fairway (or for getting out of trouble) rather than for putting on the green. |
||
| 3 | DRAWBACKS |
‘ard up. With support, finally overcomes disadvantages (9)
|
| ‘ARD reversed (up, in a down clue) + W (abbreviation for with) + BACK (support, as a verb = give one’s approval to) + final letter of [overcome]S. It’s very unusual to see a full stop in a cryptic clue, which is normally a single sentence or sentence fragment; I’d expect a semicolon or dash instead. | ||
| 4 | MAINLY |
Lay ‘im out with third of punches for the most part (6)
|
| Anagram (out) of LAY ‘IM + third letter of [pu]N[ches]. | ||
| 5 | ADMINISTRATIONS |
Small broadcasting companies ‘ad first run in with governments (15)
|
| MINI (small) + STATIONS (broadcasting companies), with ‘AD at the start (first), and with R (abbreviation for run, in cricket scoring) inserted. | ||
| 6 | GIBBETED |
In Britain I wager ‘e’d get ‘anged (8)
|
| I (from clue text) inserted into GB (abbreviation for Great Britain), then BET (wager) + ‘E’D.
Hanged (‘anged in Cockney pronunciation) = executed by hanging on a gibbet, or suspended on one after execution as a warning to others. |
||
| 7 | LIKED |
Enjoyed long walk over ‘ills ‘n’ dales initially (5)
|
| L (abbreviation for long) + ‘IKE (Cockney pronunciation of “hike” = walk over hills) + initial letter of D[ales]. | ||
| 8 | CONVENIENT |
It’s ‘andy ‘e’s been found in … in … in a nunnery! (10)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) inserted into (found in) IN (from clue text), all inserted into CONVENT (nunnery).
Handy (‘andy in Cockney pronunciation) = slang for convenient. |
||
| 12 | ETERNALISE |
Make endless changes salient ‘ere (10)
|
| Anagram (changes) of SALIENT ‘ERE.
Well, it’s a logical enough word and it’s in the dictionaries, but I’m not sure I’ve seen it before; “immortalise” is perhaps more usual. |
||
| 15 | INSISTENT |
Demanding old Bob gets under ‘is canvas for cover (9)
|
| S (abbreviation for shilling, known in slang as a “bob”; this is obsolete currency in the UK, hence “old”), inserted into (gets . . . for cover) IN ‘IS TENT (under ‘is canvas). To be strictly correct (not that it affects the wordplay), S = shilling is actually an abbreviation for the Latin coin solidus; the £sd of old currency stands for librae, solidi, denarii. | ||
| 16 | SNUGGLED |
Ran em out ‘n’ got in ‘n’ settled in nicely (8)
|
| S[m]UGGLED (ran, as in “rum runner” = smuggler of alcoholic drinks), with the M (em = a name for the letter M) taken out and ‘N (from clue text) put in its place (got in). | ||
| 19 | ANGERS |
Makes mad cloakroom things to put ‘oodies and ‘arringtons on (6)
|
| ‘ANGERS = Cockney pronunciation of “hangers” = where you might put your hoodies and Harrington jackets in a cloakroom. | ||
| 21 | INFER |
Deduce no much-quoted poem’s been written about ‘er (5)
|
| N (no = abbreviation for number) with IF (a much-quoted poem by Kipling, a favourite with crossword setters) written around it, then ‘ER. | ||
| 22 | OTTO |
Fragrant oil ‘eated at temperature above zero (4)
|
| ‘OT (Cockney pronunciation of “hot” = heated) + T (abbreviation for temperature), before (above, in a down clue) O (zero).
Another name for attar: an essential oil from flowers, especially from roses, used in perfume. |
One of those puzzles where one’s admiration for the setting isn’t totally matched by the pleasure in solving, as the trick became a little tiresome. I liked EIFFEL, PAVING STONES and SNUGGLED, once I saw how it worked.Excellent blog as always.
Tricky at times and, yes, perhaps the relentless aitch-dropping eventually became a little wearisome – but, then again, with a surface theme like this, I guess you’ve gotta go for it and commit yourself to going the whole hog and Math deserves full credit for finding so many ways to utilise the device. I did not spot the ETERNALISE anagram right at the end – I eventually put the letters into an anagram solver – and it did not come up with the word! And I had an unparsed SINE for the nho SINH – which is quite a cunning construction. Hard to nominate favourites in a set of clues like this so thanks for the overall puzzle, Math, and the helpful blog, Quirister.
DEGRADES
Maybe ‘succeeded’ indicates replacement of e with ad? Otherwise, there is nothing to show that we have to remove the second ‘e’.
Re 25a. A meaning of ‘succeeded’ is ‘took the place of’. So AD took the place of the second E in DEGREES.