It’s my second time to be blogging a MyCrossword Featured puzzle, and this time we have an apt theme, although I only spotted it restropectively.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of English artist L. S. Lowry. I must admit that I didn’t spot him in the nina in the bottom row until I was preparing this blog, but having done so I had a hunt for themed answers and found quite a few. There may well be more so please do comment if you spot any.
Many of Lowry’s works depict INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES in his home of LANCASHIRE. His works include several portaits of ANN, [Man] LYING ON A WALL, GOING TO THE MATCH and COMING FROM THE MILL. Apparently there is no record of Lowry serving in the GREAT WAR. Interestingly, per the Wikipedia article he holds the record for rejecting British honours – five of them.
I’ve also realised that CAROL and/or CAROL ANN (Lowry) are thematic – a close friend, unrelated, to whom he bequeathed his estate.
I found this a fun puzzle to solve, by no means easy for me. FOI was 9a OINK and when I got to 21a MILLETS and the Miss Widdecombe reference in 11a ANN I thought this might be a very British/English oriented puzzle, which given the theme I suppose it was, until I got stuck and had to word-search to find 6d COCKAMAMIE. I believe I’ve parsed everything satisfactorily but of course I’m open to corrections or improvements.
Many thanks to Fez for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8, 25d | GOING TO THE WALL |
Tonight, we screwed up at end of game – everyone failing (5,2,3,4)
|
| Anagram (screwed up) of TONIGHT + WE after (at end of) GO (game) Thanks PostMark for the superior parsing! |
||
| 9 | OINK |
Fine to check home report from Tamworth? (4)
|
| OK (fine) surrounding (to check) IN (home) for a sound made by, for example (?) the only red-coloured British breed of pig, as I’ve just learned. | ||
| 10 | MATCH |
Light suit (5)
|
| Double definition – noun/verb. | ||
| 13 | INVOKERS |
Solicitors perhaps reading over Knives Out (8)
|
| Anagram (out) of R (reading, as in the 3 Rs), O (over, cricket scoring notation) + KNIVES. Soliciting as in asking/seeking. | ||
| 14 | INLYING |
One finishes off marathon rail journey in Grand Central (7)
|
| I (one) + NLY (marathoN raiL journeY) + IN (from surface) plus G (grand).
This took me an age to see even with four crossers in! |
||
| 17 | COMING |
Disentangling non-British approach (6)
|
| COMBING (disentangling) minus B (non-British). | ||
| 18 | ODONATA |
Order including dragonflies and originally alderflies too, surprisingly (7)
|
| Anagram (surprisingly) of AND (from surface) + A (originally/first letter of Alderflies) + TOO, for the biological order of which dragonflies are members (but alderflies are not).
Dragonflies have been around since before the dinosaurs and can have a hunting success rate of 95%. |
||
| 19, 23d | FROM THE TOP |
Frustrated mother of vacuous twerp back to square one (4,3,3)
|
| Anagram (frustrated) of MOTHER OF + TP (vacuous twerp).
I couldn’t find a definitive etymology, but ‘back to square one’ may have originated from Snakes & Ladders, where square one is actually at the bottom of the board. |
||
| 20 | OSASCO |
Old South American, head of steel company in São Paulo municipality (6)
|
| O (old) + SA (South American) + S (head of steel) + CO). Not a place I’d heard of but very clearly clued so easy to get/check. | ||
| 21 | MILLETS |
Shop where you might get fleeced is still, maybe, extremely busy (7)
|
| Anagram (busy) of STILL + M E (maybe, extremely – the outer letters), for the outdoor clothing and equipment retailer, where one may purchase a fleece jacket and therefore ‘get fleeced’. | ||
| 24 | GREAT WAR |
Framework announced by Washington initially reduces global conflict (5,3)
|
| GREAT (sounds like/announced ‘grate’ i.e. framework) + WA (Washington, US State) + R (first letter of/initially reduces). | ||
| 26 | CORPS |
Private secretary’s after my body! (5)
|
| PS (Private secretary) after COR ([oh] my!). Body as in a military corps or another group e.g. press corps. | ||
| 29 | TAPE |
Record to listen to secretly: Close to Me (4)
|
| TAP (to listen to secretly) + E (Close to Me). | ||
| 30 | LANCASHIRE |
Has nicer crackers to accompany the French cheese (10)
|
| Anagram (crackers) of HAS NICER + LA (feminine French word for ‘the’).
While I avoided the trap of looking specifically for a French cheese, I did spend quite a few mouth-watering minutes browsing types of cheese with one A and two Es before realising the error of my wheys (sorry). |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FORM |
Title of retracted document (4)
|
| MR (title) + OF (from surface), all reversed (retracted). | ||
| 2 | KNIT |
Think about removing hot woolly jumper? (4)
|
| Reverse (about) of TINK, which is THINK with the H (hot) removed. Knit here is a noun, an example of which is a woolly jumper. | ||
| 3 | ITCH |
Irritate the other children (4)
|
| I think here IT is referring to sex as in ‘having a bit of the other’ + CH for children. | ||
| 4 | STRING |
Procession from stone circle (6)
|
| ST (strong) + RING (circle). | ||
| 5 | DERV |
Finally replenished the motorhome fuel (4)
|
| D + E (final[ly] letters of replenisheD and thE) + RV (recreational vehicle), for a (new to me) term derived from Diesel Engine Road Vehicle.
After checking I read that this term for ‘white diesel’ distinguishes the fuel from the red/pink dyed, tax-reduced kind for agricultural use, which I had come across in my rural youth. |
||
| 6 | COCKAMAMIE |
Turn up repeatedly in the morning? That is ridiculous for Trump (10)
|
| COCK (turn up, as might be done with an ear or a leg) + AM AM (in the morning, repeatedly) + IE (that is). ‘for Trump’ as this is apparently mainly a US slang word meaning ridiculous. Definitely new for me! | ||
| 7 | ENTRENCHES |
Courses served around noon, chaplain digs in (10)
|
| N (noon) + CH (chaplain) surrounded by (around) ENTRE ES (courses).
I don’t think I’ve seen that abbreviation for chaplain before, it seems to be an American usage. |
||
| 11 | ANN |
A new name for Miss Widdecombe? (3)
|
| AN (a) + N (new), for the given name of the British politician and television personality. | ||
| 12 | COY |
Ape hiding to begin with, probably shy (3)
|
| COPY (ape) with P (to begin with, probably) subtracted. | ||
| 14 | INDUSTRIAL |
Is the middle of ancient Rutland possibly appropriate for factories? (10)
|
| Anagram (possibly) of IS + I (middle of ancient) + RUTLAND. | ||
| 15 | LANDSCAPES |
Improves garden with sun penetrating shady places (10)
|
| AND (with) + S (Sun) inside (penetrating) LCAPES, an anagram (shady) of PLACES. | ||
| 16 | INTRO |
Opening sequence from Fortnite is revolutionary (5)
|
| Hidden in (from) a reversal (revolutionary) of fORTNIte.
Fornite is a very popular online computer game, but that knowledge is unnecessary for solving the clue. |
||
| 17 | CAROL |
Song about naked troll (5)
|
| CA (circa, about) + ROL (naked troll, i.e. removing the outer letters). | ||
| 21 | MERINO |
Farmer in Ontario looks after sheep (6)
|
| Hidden (looks after) in FarMER IN Ontario. | ||
| 22 | LEO |
Oddly deficient clue for Tolstoy, say (3)
|
| Alternate letters removed (oddly deficient) from cLuE fOr) giving the forename of, for example Leo Tolstoy. | ||
| 23 |
See 19a
|
|
| 25 |
See 8a
|
|
| 26 | CLAW |
Claim I’m out with nipper (4)
|
| CLA (claim with “I’m” subtracted/out) plus W (with). | ||
| 27 | RUHR |
Regularly avoided rougher part of Germany (4)
|
| Every second letter removed (regularly avoided) from RoUgHeR, for the German region. | ||
| 28 | SPRY |
Agile ninja captures Emperor at last (4)
|
| SPY (ninja) capturing R (Emperor at last). |
I think GOING TO THE WALL parses as anagram of (tonight we) at the end of GO (a game) + ALL
And ANN is A = A new = N name = N
Thanks Postmark @1, that’s much smoother. I’ve updated the blog, and also added some trivia about the unrelated but relevant Carol Ann Lowry.