A fun workout from NEO this Friday.
A mini-theme on Twelfth Night.
FF: 9 DD: 7
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | OZONE |
Magical land with a certain bracing air (5)
|
| OZ ( magical land ) ONE ( a ) | ||
| 10 | EDITORIAL |
Trade and oil supply stopped by international leader (9)
|
| [ TRADE OIL ]* containing I ( international ) | ||
| 11 | ELECTRA |
Mycenaean princess to choose Egyptian god (7)
|
| ELECT ( choose ) RA ( egyptian god, sun ) | ||
| 12 | MUSIC |
Greek character, second in charge, strains (5)
|
| MU ( greek character ) S ( second ) IC ( in charge ) | ||
| 13 | SEAMY |
Disreputable yes-man not entirely corrupt (5)
|
| [ YES MAn ( not entirely i.e. without last letter ) ]* | ||
| 14 | LEAFLET |
Grassland allowed to cover fine tract (7)
|
| [ LEA ( grassland ) LET ( allowed ) ] containing F ( fine ) | ||
| 15 | ROLLS |
Luxurious vehicle moves along smoothly (5)
|
| double def | ||
| 17 | PROXIMA CENTAURI |
Expert horseman in team, Neo is returning star (7,8)
|
| PRO ( expert ) [ CENTAUR ( horseman ) in { XI ( team, eleven, cricket ) MAI ( reverse of I’AM, neo is ) } ] | ||
| 20 | DRAMA |
US lawyer astride sheep in exciting situation (5)
|
| DA ( us lawyer ) around RAM ( sheep ) | ||
| 22/25 | TWELFTH NIGHT |
Glorious day almost here: time for 20 in which 12 be the 28 of 1 (7,5)
|
| cryptic def; with a reference to glorious twelfth which i found is the start of the grouse hunting season, aug 12th; shakespeare’s play with clue itself reading DRAMA ( 20 ) in which MUSIC ( 12 ) will be the FOOD ( 28 ) of LOVE ( 1 ) | ||
| 24 | RANGE |
Singer’s asset managed by vacuous Genoese? (5)
|
| RAN ( managed ) GE ( GenoesE, without inner letters ) | ||
| 26 | RIDGE |
Hill chain, cooler, at first obscured (5)
|
| fRIDGE ( cooler, without its first letter ) | ||
| 27 | CARDIFF |
City road: upright character in greasy spoon (7)
|
| [ RD ( road ) I ( upright character ) ] in CAFF ( greasy spoon ) | ||
| 29 | SUNBATHES |
Tries to bronze, but ashen son fails (9)
|
| [ BUT ASHEN S ( son ) ]* | ||
| 30 | SALVO |
Saint in Lisbon swallows fifty-five shots (5)
|
| SAO ( saint in lisbon , portuguese ) containing LV ( fifty five, in roman numerals ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LOVE |
Nothing thrown skyward in active volcano (4)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..activE VOLcano” | ||
| 2 | MODERATO |
Earth in doormat shifted with steady beating (8)
|
| E ( earth ) in [ DOORMAT ]* | ||
| 3 | VESTAL |
Chaste person canonised cutting meat (6)
|
| ST ( person canonised ) in VEAL ( meat ) | ||
| 4 | SEBASTIAN |
Brother of 5 mashed beans, adding in wine (9)
|
| [ BEANS ]* containing ASTI ( wine ) | ||
| 5 | VIOLA |
Sex with Nordic king endless for sister of 22 25 (5)
|
| VI ( sex ) OLAf ( nordic king, without end letter ) | ||
| 6 | TOMMY ROT |
Absolute nonsense from Yaxley-Lennon? (5,3)
|
| TOMMY ( yaxley-lennon ) ROT ( nonsense ) | ||
| 7 | DIESEL |
Engine conks out on elevated railroad (6)
|
| DIES ( conks out ) EL ( elevated railroad ) | ||
| 8 | BLACKSMITH |
Bans legend in speaking for Wayland? (10)
|
| BLACKS ( bans ) MITH ( sounds like MYTH, legend ) | ||
| 14 | LAPIDARIST |
Gems expert left — beekeeper seizing day (10)
|
| L ( left ) [ APIARIST ( beekeeper ) containing D ( day ) ] | ||
| 16 | PENTECOST |
Confined prior to Green Street Festival (9)
|
| PENT ( confined ) ECO ( green ) ST ( street ) | ||
| 18 | I DARE SAY |
Year’s aid distributed: it seems likely (1,4,3)
|
| [ YEAR’S AID ]* | ||
| 19 | UNFAIRLY |
Lunatic in a fury boxing learner? So hit below belt! (8)
|
| [ IN A FURY ]* containing L ( learner ) | ||
| 21 | ARDENT |
Region once densely wooded, forest ultimately burning (6)
|
| ARDEN ( region once densely wooded ) T ( foresT, ultimately ) | ||
| 23 | EGRESS |
Going out for example on steamship (6)
|
| EG ( for example ) RE ( on ) SS ( steamship ) | ||
| 28 | FOOD |
Chow, no-good woofer old female raised (4)
|
| DOg ( woofer, without G – good ) O ( old ) F ( female ), all reversed |
Good puzzle and blog. Thanks both.
I took 22/25 to be:
Glorious day – twelfth
Almost here – nigh
Time – t
Usually I only spot the themes afterwards but the second part of the clue gifted us three answers from one of the most famous lines in all Shakespeare and unlocked a rapid solve for me.
Other theme words: Viola, Sebastian, but not Arden
Thanks Neo, super stuff as always. Even with only a peripheral Twelfth Night familiarity I was able to complete this with my favourites being ROLLS, PROXIMA CENTAURI, DRAMA, DIESEL, PENTECOST, UNFAIRLY, and ARDENT. My only parsing question is VI=sex. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Re #2–sex is Latin for 6 (VI).
That serves me right for never reading or seeing TWELFTH NIGHT. I went anti-clockwise, starting in NW corner and making steady progress.
I liked LOVE, OZONE, I DARE SAY, PENTECOST and ROLLS
I did not do too well on the non-Shakespeare GK either, which meant a few lucky guesses and no hope of parsing. Thanks Turbolegs for the assistance.
I see “hit below the belt” as different to UNFAIRLY, but I am probably missing something obvious. Can anyone provide an example where the two are interchangeable?
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
The Bard aside, an interesting smattering of myth, Greek, Roman and Norse (not to omit the more recent Oz 🙂 ).
Martyn I’m no expert but I believe hitting below the belt is considered most ungentlemanly in boxing in particular, which is where the phrase originates. But I wouldn’t think any sport would condone it!
Thanks James P@6. I agree, but in my mind that describes the word “unfair”, not UNFAIRLY.
All I know about Twelfth Night, I have gleaned from crosswords and Sandman comics but it got me all the way there.
I thought EDITORIAL was a wonderful (and, unfortunately, apposite) clue.
Agree with James P@1 on TWELFTH NIGHT.
UNFAIRLY
I think ‘so’ should be part of the def.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs. Fortunately for me, Twelfth Night was one of my set books for English Literature O level (in 1973, if anyone is interested to know that). I also agree with James@1 on the parsing of 22 25.
19dn: I agree with KVa@9, and I think that deals with the difficulty raised by Martyn@4,7 and gives us a fair definition for the adverb UNFAIRLY.
The wordplay must be good – I had no knowledge of the wayland, twelfth night, proxima centauri, and several more and yet still managed to get the answers. Good work Neo 🙂
TOMMY ROT the pick of a fine bunch for me
Cheers T&N
James @ 1 is correct in noting that Arden is not a theme word. However, the Forest of Arden is near Stratford and it is said that Shakespeare drew inspiration from the forest. One might imagine that he did so for Twelfth Night.
There is also the Arden edition of Shakespeare’s works, which are very well annotated.
I am also reminded of Auden’s comment that Twelfth Night is an “unpleasant play”. W.H. Auden, Lectures on Shakespeare.
[bodycheetah@11: Wayland’s Smithy is worth a visit along with the White Horse of Uffington if you are ever in that part of the country. It is early NEOlithic but I suspect that’s a coincidence! We are beginning to learn a lot more about ancient barrows with modern genetic analysis – I am currently buried in a set of Alice Roberts books about exactly that!]
Good fun but unfortunately I solved “twelfth night” before “food”, “music” and “love” (and “viola” – “sebastian” came first there) so several answers went in before I could enjoy trying to solve the clues. Not a lot the setter can do about that and the mini-theme is fun, so thank you Neo and Turbolegs.
For once, I enjoyed the linked clues, which were very cleverly done. I was half expecting “play on” to appear in the grid. “Unfortunate way of getting out following 12 being the 28 of 1”
The ‘Forest of Arden’ is the setting for AYLI, which therefore, as you note, has nothing to do with Twelfth Night. Based on the Ardennes, it also references various Warwickshire woodlands, which may be somewhat decimated these days. Shakespeare’s mum’s maiden name was Mary Arden.
I resisted the tempation to reference the Reading-based neo-prog band Twelfth Night, who were comtemporaries of Marillion in the prog revival of the early 1980s. TN were quite good.
NB in 9A, ‘a certain’ = ONE.
Cheers Turbs et al.
Oldham @3: Thanks. My two years of Latin in high school was many decades ago. I can remember some but not all of it.
One of our quickest solves ever as we spotted the theme before even starting, so 22/25, 20, 12, 28 and 1 were write-ins straightaway, with 5 and 4 quickly following. All the GK was within our capabilities, too. So much to enjoy, we couldn’t possibly nominate a favourite.
Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs
Thanks KVa@9 and PB@10 – I agree that adding “so” to “hit below the belt” answers my question@4, whether the phrase is actually used or not.
Agree with the plaudits for puzzle and blog. One small gripe on the blog for 22/25. It is the grouse shooting season . We shoot game in the British Isles; the USA hunts it.
SM#19, I’m hunting for something I can shoot down in the blog, so I’ll grouse about Turbolegs parsing of 22/25. 🥸(I won’t be a grouch about it, though.)