(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) As usual, with Gaff, the crossword marks an event, in this case a death anniversary. It brings back memories of the Swinging Sixties. Thanks Gaff. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Clear picture? (5,3,5)
BLACK AND WHITE : Double defn: 1st: Without any ambiguity; and 2nd: An old picture;movie not in colour.
Also a cryptic defn. for Cilla Black, whose real name was Priscilla White. Today’s crossword commemorates the 1st anniversary of her death (1 August).
9 Test expert in bar trade (7)
BOYCOTT : Double defn: 1st: Geoff, very successful opening batsman in England’s Test cricket team; and 2nd: To ban trade with a certain organisation or country.
10 Denouement for checker’s mate, perhaps (7)
ENDGAME : Cryptic defn: Reference to the end of a chess game where one player has been checkmated.
11 Sheets maybe a bit small in envelope (5)
LINEN : Hidden in(a bit) “small in envelope “.
Defn: Bedsheets, and other cloths, made of linen or a substitute fabric.
12 Publicity is all leading back to 1 across (9)
PRISCILLA : PR(abbrev. for “public relations”;publicity) + IS + reversal of(… back) [ALL + IC(abbrev. for “in charge”;leading) ]. Thanks to passerby@1 for the latter part of the parsing, which I couldn’t get.
Defn: Cilla Black (1 across)’s forename in full.
13 With warm rub, athlete’s foot turned pale brown (3,5)
RAW UMBER : Anagram of(… turned) [WARM RUB plus(With …) the last letter of(…’s foot) “athlete“].
15 Cutter sailing boat The Queen loses bow (6)
ETCHER : [ “ketch”(a 2-masted sailing boat) + ER(abbrev. for Elizabeth Regina, the Queen) ] minus(loses) its 1st letter(bow).
Defn: One who might actually mean it when he says “Want to come up and see my etchings?” or, on the other hand, he might say:
18 1 across’s tongue stew (6)
SCOUSE : Double defn: 1st: Cilla Black’s Liverpudlian dialect;tongue, you might say; and 2nd: A lamb or beef stew.
19, 23 Rivals playwright forger for 1 across player (8,5)
SHERIDAN SMITH : SHERIDAN(R.B., playwright who wrote “The Rivals”) + SMITH(short for a blacksmith who forges iron implements).
Defn: Actress who played the role of Cilla Black in the television mini-series “Cilla”.
22 1 across’s from one passing receiver (3,3,3)
ITS FOR YOU : Cryptic defn: A comment from one passing the telephone receiver to another to take the call.
Defn: One of Cilla Black’s hit songs.
24 Present contains surprise? Emphatically not! (5)
NOHOW : NOW(the present time) containing(contains) OH(an expression of surprise, amongst other strong emotions).
25 Prevent from seeing chocolate Derek has hidden (5,2)
BLIND TO : BO(Derek, the “10” sex symbol of the 80s) containing(has hidden) LINDT(brand of Swiss chocolates).
Defn: Shouldn’t this is “Prevented from seeing”?
26 Appointment one expects to lead to congress (3,4)
HOT DATE : Cryptic defn: Reference to congress of a sexual kind.
27 Hurriedly gutted teal overwhelmed by smells returning after high water (6-7)
HELTER-SKELTER : Reversal of(… returning)[ “teal” minus its inner letters(gutted …) contained in(overwhelmed by) REEKS(smells of) ] placed after(after) [ H(abbrev. for “high”) + ELTER(Water, the lake in the English Lake District) ].
Down
1 Brook‘s Brothers are into farm equipment (7)
BABBLER : B,B(twice the abbrev. for “brother”) contained in(are into) BALER(farm equipment used to bale hay).
Defn: What you would say a brook is, based on the sound it makes.
2, 16 1 across’s who should have followed suit? (6,3,3,1,5)
ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART : Cryptic defn: Reference to a card game like bridge, where a player has to play a card of the same suit as the previous player.
Defn: Another of Cilla Black’s hit songs.
3 Men have understood (5)
KNOWN : K,N(abbrev. for “king” and “knight”, respectively, men on the chessboard) + OWN(to have;to possess).
4 No recordings, no sound (3,1,4)
NOT A PEEP : NO + TAPE, EP(two forms of recorded media, the latter abbrev. for “extended play”, a disc containing more recorded music than a single but less than an LP).
5 Welcome extremely bad pest (6)
WEEVIL : The 1st and last letters of(… extremely) “Welcome” + EVIL(bad).
Defn: Any one of a family of beetles that feed on plants and plant products.
6 Sign in designer pet boarding (9)
INDICATOR : IN + DIOR(Christian, fashion designer) containing(… boarding) CAT(a house pet).
7 Suffer under a measure of junk, maybe (1-4)
E-MAIL : AIL(to suffer pain or ache) placed below(under, in a down clue) EM(a linear measurement used in printing).
8 Make good salesman strain (6)
REPAIR : REP(a salesman;a representative of a sales company) + AIR(a tune;a strain).
14 Confuse maids with a lot of milk producers (9)
MASTOIDAL : Anagram of(Confuse) [MAIDS plus(with) A LOT].
Defn: Descriptive of nipples.
16 See 2
17 While Eliot dreams (8)
THOUGHTS : THOUGH(while, as in “though money can’t buy happiness… “) + TS(initials of the English poet, Thomas Stearns Eliot).
18 Stealthily avoid Spooner’s spot of light breathing (4,2)
SLIP BY : Spoonerism of “blip”(a spot of light on a radar screen indicating the position of an object) + “sigh”(deep and audible breathing as an expression of weariness, regret, relief, etc.).
20 Warn eye make-up will require change at end of date (3,4)
NEW YEAR : Anagram of(… make-up) WARN EYE.
Defn: What will require you to change the last part of a date in general. Unless it’s in the form “yyyy-mm-dd”.
21 Former characters from Whitby go needy (6)
BYGONE : Hidden in(characters from) “Whitby go needy “.
23 See 19
24 Fool about with explosive material (5)
NITRE : NIT(a fool) + RE(with reference to;about).
Answer: Another name for potassium nitrate, used in making explosives.
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The following pictures have unidentified links to the puzzle.
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.)
Pic 3, “The Birdcage”, “La Cage aux Folles”, and “The Adventures of PRISCILLA, Queen of the Desert”, “PRISCILLA, Folle du Désert”, are often compared with each other, both being about drag queens.
Pic 5 is a BLACK AND WHITE mock Tudor building…
You’re right, Cookie with PRISCILLA, and the BLACK AND WHITE bungalow, a favourite design of houses for colonials in S.E.Asia.
Ah good – I thought I’d missed this – still some to do.
#1 is a BLACK AND WHITE (surley that won’t do) shot of the pre-Ringo Beatles – from Liverpool – so maybe SCOUSE.
#6 -if you own those properties in Monopoly you dread getting hit for street REPAIRs.
HELTER SKELTER is also a Beatles original.
Struggling now – PRISCILLA (and Elvis) Presley’s daughter married Michael Jackson – but that’s Diana Ross on the left in #4.
Maybe something to do with Michael Jackson’s folling around with his natural complexion to make himself look white – or both at once – ie BLACK AND WHITE.
Could #2 allude to Myles na gCopaleen’s description of a piano soloist having “played with equal facility on the black notes and the white”?
I do that myself a bit still but now also include some of the ones in between.
Pic 2 is director and star of “The Pianist” – a reference to the BLACK AND WHITE keys on a piano?
Pic 4 – M Jackson had a song called BLACK or WHITE?
Hi Cookie, Jolly Swagman, Shirl.
Hints:
Pic1 Weren’t there only 4 Beatles?
Pic2 It’s the director
Pic4 They were in the same movie
Pic6 One of the properties not in the pic.
Pic 4- They appeared in “The Wiz”, a reworking of “The Wizard of Oz”, featuring the Tin Man, who didn’t think he had a heart. “ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART “?
Pic 2 – there have been calls to boycott Polanski’s work because of his admitted rape of a 13 year old girl
Pic 6 – Liverpool St Station = SCOUSE?
So The Beatles at that time were actually The Quarrymen – cutting into rock – maybe ETCHERS.
I thought ENDGAME must figure somewhere – the model (Beckett’s play) for any later parody of theatre of the absurd and the luvvies’ love of black paint and dustbins generally – rich with possibilities but couldn’t link it to anything – just maybe the way the early combos that eventually led to The Beatles fell out with each other a lot. Their big breakthrough actually came under the appellation Johnny and the Moondogs.
I’m backing Shirl on the others.
Shirl, you’re right about the Tin Man and his search for A HEART.
The other answers:
Pic1 Tony SHERIDAN was backed by the Beatles (or the Beat Brothers at that long ago time) on his recoding, My Bonnie
Pic2 HELTER SKELTER is a book about the murder of Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, and others by the Manson “family”
Pic6 One of the pink-coloured properties in the UK version of Monopoly is Pall Mall, homophone for “pell-mell”, a synonym for HELTER-SKELTER.
Thanks scchua
Thanks scchua – one day – one day.
Thanks scchua, love the “pell-mell” connection we missed, Eileen explained it a year or two back!