Unusual definitions and plentiful misdirection made this tricky. A sting in the tail without a doubt. Thanks Scorpion.
The grid contains the names of the 1966 World Cup-winning England football team. A fact that I completely failed to spot.
| Across | ||
| 7 | STAR GAZE | Perhaps look at white dwarf grasses around summerhouse, smell leaves (8) |
| RATS (grasses) reversed (around) then GAZEbo missing BO (smell) | ||
| 8 | HURST | Spades forced in damage group of trees (5) |
| S (spades) in HURT (damage) | ||
| 10 | FLUGEL | Through short upland tract, carry grand piano (6) |
| LUG (carry) in FELL (upland tract) missing last letter (short) | ||
| 11 | EQUIPPED | Did arm crack, training in middle of Sweden? (8) |
| QUIP (crack) and PE (training) in swEDen (middle of) | ||
| 12 | OSSA | Pop star regularly eats starter of spare ribs, say (4) |
| pOpStAr (regularly)contains (eats) Spare (first letter, start of) | ||
| 13 | CASABLANCA | Film about graduates recalling construction of canal (10) |
| CA (circa, about) then BAS (graduates) reversed (recalling) and CANAL* anagram=constructionof | ||
| 15 | TWITCHY | Nervous wife brought in miniature (7) |
| W (wife) in TITCHY (miniature) | ||
| 17 | INJURED | Harmed native American cut and bloody (7) |
| INJUn (native American) cut short and RED (bloody) | ||
| 19 | ESPLANADES | English pals spread litter around walking areas (10) |
| E (English) PALS* anagram=spread and SEDAN (litter) reversed (around) | ||
| 22 | HUNT | Dog lead for Newfoundland kept in shed (4) |
| Newfoundland (leading letter of) in HUT (shed) | ||
| 24 | CHARLTON | Daily officer serving London district (8) |
| CHAR (daily, cleaner) LT (officer) and ON (serving) | ||
| 26 | WILSON | Left-winger dominating victory embraces players (6) |
| WIN (victory) contains (embraces) LSO (London Symphony Orchestra, players) – Harold Wilson, former PM | ||
| 27 | MOORE | Sculptor‘s way of working with brass abroad (5) |
| MO (modus operandi, way of working) with ORE (foreign money, brass abroad) | ||
| 28 | ABOVE ALL | A loft towards the front stores meat primarily (5,3) |
| A then LOB (loft) reversed (reading towards the front) contains VEAL (meat) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | STILES | Features of a country walk perhaps lit up in three directions (6) |
| LIT reversed in SES (south east south, three directions) | ||
| 2 | FRAGRANT | Cologne can be so loud, with student festivity and shouting (8) |
| F (loud) RAG (student festivity) and RANT shouting | ||
| 3 | BALL | Left party upset, but another one’s found (4) |
| L (left) and LAB (Labour, political party) reversed (upset) | ||
| 4 | PETERS | Tills continually annoy latest of customers moving to the end (6) |
| PESTER (continually annoy) with customerS (last letter of) at the end of the word | ||
| 5 | CHOU | Bun hairstyle, unfamiliar on celebrity, turning heads (4) |
| anagram (turning) of the first letters of Hairstyle Unfamiliar On Celebrity – a difficult clue | ||
| 6 | GRAPPA | Good music (pop) is something Italians devour? (6) |
| G (good) RAP (music) and PA (pop) | ||
| 9 | TREACLE | Intolerable sentimentality that becomes Electra? (7) |
| anagram (that becomes) of ELECTRA | ||
| 13 | COHEN | A pair of hecklers entering deceive Canadian singer-songwriter (5) |
| HEcklers (pair of letters from) in CON (deceive) | ||
| 14 | BANKS | Contemporary artist dismissing unknown moneylenders (5) |
| BANKSy (contemporary artist) missing Y (unknown, algebra) | ||
| 16 | WEST HAM | Football team of 4, 8 and 27 saw the millions being mishandled (4,3) |
| anagram (mishandled) of SAW THE and M (millions) – players in former West Ham sides | ||
| 18 | UPHOLDER | One supports high-class pub with more senior following (8) |
| U (high class) PH (pub) then OLDER (more senior) | ||
| 20 | LARDON | Regular donations include a piece of bacon (6) |
| foundinside reguLAR Donations | ||
| 21 | DENIAL | No telephone boxes – little space (6) |
| DIAL (telephone) contains (boxes) EN (little space, printing) | ||
| 23 | NOODLE | Given dope, play jazz aimlessly (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 25 | T REX | Character introducing The King, a musical act ending in 1977 (1,3) |
| The (first letter, character introducing) and REX (king) | ||
| 26 | WOOL | Material John Wayne originally rejected (4) |
| LOO (john) and Wayne (first letter, originally) reversed (rejected) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
A sting in the tail?
Wake up, PeeDee.
8ac, 22ac, 24ac, 26ac, 27ac, 1d, 3d, 4d, 13d, 14d plus 28d to make it 11.
16d, of course – not 28d …
And a pangram. The app came up with the down clues first, so 1d gave the game away. Here’s to the next 50 years of trying….
And here’s me thinking the celebrations for a certain sporting event 50 years ago were over and done with! A bit of a pity that the game was given away somewhat by 16d, but it was still fun trying to identify everyone as they are names which I, as a non football follower, have become very familiar with in the last couple of weeks.
A few other really good clues, including the misdirection of “The King” at 25 and STARGAZE. Didn’t know LARDON, or FLUGEL for a grand piano, though had heard of a ‘flugelhorn’.
We can obviously look forward to plenty of similar themed puzzles in 2053, the 50 year anniversary of the next England side to win a major World Cup sporting contest.
Thanks to Scorpion and PeeDee.
Ah, Football. I noticed some old players in there but assumed it had something to do with the West Ham clue and didn’t look any further. I don’t have a TV so avoided all the football celebrations going on this year (and many previous ones), but even non-football fans should have noticed that. I was solving and writing this up at midnight last night, so that’s my only excuse.
Thanks to all who pointed them out.
Well played, Scorpion, though I note that, as on the day, poor old Alf Ramsey doesn’t merit a walk up the steps.
A neat puzzle even without the theme. DENIAL was my favourite for a really pretty surface.
And thanks to PeeDee. An Astle-quality miss there, but hey, it’s only a game.
Well played, Scorpion, though I note that as on the day poor old Alf Ramsey doesn’t merit a walk up the steps.
A good puzzle even without the theme. DENIAL was my favourite for a really neat surface.
And thanks to PeeDee. An Astle-quality miss there, but hey, it’s only a game.
Apart from 16, not a mention of the dreaded game, so thanks Scorpion for that -though saying that doesn’t mean I had any less admiration for Jambazi yesterday. I like the implied reference to Eugene O’Neill in 9 (‘Mourning Becomes Electra’)and the reference to jazz in 23. In one of my books I decry a well known American jazz educator who said ‘anyone can play jazz’ by saying it was only true that ‘anyone can noodle’.
Thanks PeeDee.
To Conrad:
Don’t decry noodling.
The riffs from “New York, New York”, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Layla” and “Stairway to Heaven” – none of them anything to do with the melody – are all, as cheerfully confessed by their writers and arrangers, the result of blameless noodling and the world would be poorer without them.
If you fancy a jam or a noodle at any time, I’m on.
Gx
Grant, nice offer thanks, but I’m way past my playing days.
(I stand by my point about jazz though.)
Sorry to anybody who thinks this is off topic. It is Scorpion’s fault. 🙂
The first clue I looked at was 1d, which I solved and thought “surely not….?”
But the sense of “deja vu all over again” (Gazza) didn’t stop me enjoying the excellent puzzle.
Tanks to Scorpion and PeeDee
“Thanks” to S&B, even; apologies for the unwarranted military manouevres there!