Independent 9322 / Kairos

by

Well – a nostalgic theme from Kairos today.

This brought back memories of ‘Children’s Favourites’ from the 1950s – a ‘cumulative’ song recorded by Burl Ives which regularly featured on the programme. Click here if you’ve never heard it!

All eight animals in the song appear in the grid, each one 15D by the old lady in an attempt to catch the one before. An interesting idea for a theme, and Kairos has succeeded in fitting them in without having to resort to too many unusual words, but we’re not really sure that ‘swallowed’ (15D) works as their definition. 3D had us baffled – does anyone have a better explanation?

Across
1   Celtic pair regularly playing in circle (8)
ECLIPTIC An anagram of CELTIC and PaIr (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) – anagrind is ‘playing’
5   Shape of coffin trimmed around with pine (6)
OBLONG BOx (coffin) with the last letter omitted or ‘trimmed’ and reversed or ‘around’ + LONG (pine)
9   Risk assessors welcome soldiers 15D? (5)
HORSE HSE (Health and Safety Executive – ‘risk assessors’) round or ‘welcoming’ OR (soldiers) – first of the thematic references – and first in the pecking order
10   Reportedly look thoroughly for shaft? (9)
STAIRWELL Sounds like (‘reportedly’) STARE (look) WELL (thoroughly)
12   Transfer a vehicle (10)
CONVEYANCE Double definition
13   Spotted dogs swallowing tuber (4)
EDDO Hidden in or ‘swallowed by’ spottED DOgs
15   Ape screamed dreadfully seeing flasher? (5,6)
SPEED CAMERA An anagram of APE SCREAMED – anagrind is ‘deradfully’
16   Leader with 15D? (3)
COW CO (commanding office – ‘leader’) W (with) – second thematic reference and second in the pecking order
17   Knowing 15D? (3)
FLY FLY (knowing) – third thematic reference, but last in the packing order – the cause of the entire farce
18   Maybe picture how Tartar becomes a sailor! (8,3)
ABSTRACT ART If you ABSTRACT (take away) ART from ‘tartar’, you get ‘tar’ (sailor)
20   Pass a drink (4)
COLA COL (pass) A
21   Penny will spoil embroidered bedding (10)
PILLOWSLIP P (penny) + an anagram of WILL SPOIL – anagrind is ‘embroidered’
24   Quiet and shy about medical slapstick (3,6)
LOW COMEDY LOW (quiet) COY (shy) round MED (medical)
26   Quick to criticise papers (5)
RAPID RAP (criticise) ID (papers)
27   Dignified boyfriend from Home Counties (6)
SEDATE SE (south-east – ‘Home Counties’) DATE (boyfriend)
28   Lively person sups small drink with rumour-monger (8)
GOSSIPER GOER (lively person) round or ‘supping’ S (small) SIP (drink)
Down
1   European Catholic’s involved in this system of values (6)
ETHICS E (European) + C (Catholic) ‘involved’ in THIS
2   Emperor stands up to support Latin actress (5)
LOREN NERO (Emperor) reversed or ‘standing up’ and ‘supporting’ L (Latin)
3   Go before someone buys the farm (10)
PREDECEASE We’re totally at a loss with this one – it must be PREDECEASE (go before), but as to the wordplay……. Our best guess is that it is a reference to the theme, where each animal ‘predeceases’ the next. ‘Buy’ can be a synonym for ‘swallow’ in the sense of ‘to fall for’, so perhaps Kairos is referring the the old lady ‘swallowing’ the entire farm – horse, cow, goat, dog, cat, bird, spider and fly – although it would be a very unusual farm with one of each!  A little bird or should we say a barn owl, suggested we look in Chambers and there it was – ‘buy a farm’ meaning ‘to die’. Where that came from, heaven knows. In the end, there doesn’t seem to be any word play as such as the whole phrase means PRE-DECEASE. Well, you learn something everyday doing cryptic crosswords.
4   About time for 15D? (3)
CAT CA (about) T (time) – fourth thematic reference – 5th in the pecking order
6   Heard composer’s 15D? (4)
BIRD Sounds like (‘heard’) BYRD (composer) – fifth thematic reference – 6th in the pecking order
7   Sign of financial difficulties – advert for resolution (9)
OVERDRAFT An anagram of ADVERT FOR – anagrind is ‘resolution’
8   George for one is a beef producer (8)
GALLOWAY A reference to George GALLOWAY (the notorious politician) and the breed of cattle
10   Make uniform from flag and oddly discarded tissue (11)
STANDARDISE STANDARD (flag) + tIsSuE with the odd letters ‘discarded’
11   Mischievous supporter describes gallery in an old fashioned way (11)
ARCHAICALLY ARCH (mischievous) ALLY (supporter) round or ‘describing’ ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts – ‘gallery’)
14   Slow market affected foundry (10)
METALWORKS An anagram of SLOW MARKET – anagrind is ‘affected’
15   Accepted overturning of rules by immoral pressman (9)
SWALLOWED LAWS (rules) reversed or ‘overturned’ + LOW (immoral) ED (editor – ‘pressman’)
16   What dentists dislike – a branch of mathematics (8)
CALCULUS  Double definition
19   Rest for 15D? (6)
SPIDER SPIDER (rest – in snooker and billiards) – the sixth thematic reference – 7th in the pecking order
22   Eagerly accept the French whelp (3,2)
LAP UP LA (‘the’ in French) PUP (whelp)
23   Vigorously attack 15D? (4)
GOAT GO AT (vigorously attack) – seventh thematic reference and 3rd in the pecking order
25   Maybe Jesus resurrected 15D? (3)
DOG GOD (‘maybe Jesus’) reversed or ‘resurrected’ – eighth thematic reference and 4th in the pecking order

 

9 comments on “Independent 9322 / Kairos”

  1. Thanks to B&J for the blog (and to la chouette, of course).

    The gateway clue was almost last in, and when I twigged the theme I did smile, because it is indeed childhood memories time; I’d never heard the Burl Ives song, though. I was okay with SWALLOWED.

    I’m often not a fan of these themed Tuesday puzzles, but I thought this was very good. My fave was CALCULUS, because it taught me something.

    Bravo, Kairos.

  2. “Buy the farm” is US military slang. Soldiers might plan to “buy a farm” when they get out of the army, so if they are killed, they have “bought the farm”.

  3. Yes, a very original theme, plus gateway clue, after I had finally cottoned on. Some good non-theme clues as well including GALLOWAY, and a few new words including ECLIPTIC and ‘buy the farm’ for PREDECEASE.

    Thanks to Kairos and B & J

  5. My thanks to B&J for the excellent blog and to all for the comments. Apologies to anyone who suffered from an ear worm for the rest of the day.

  6. Started this very late, what with one thing and another, but it went in very quickly, one of my quickest completions for a long while. Got 15d very early, but then took ages to twig the theme.

  7. Ah.. thanks for the “buy the farm” bit.. totally new and hilarious too 🙂 i suppose if one wants to live one has to inherit rather than buy a farm ha ha

  8. Did as well as I could with this, given I had no idea what the theme was (and still didn’t until I looked here). Fell down in the end on 6 because I thought it might be bark (Bach) and 3, for which I put pre-release.

  9. In the early days of flying it was normal to pay for any crops damaged during a forced landing. If one did not survive one said to have bought the entire farm, or ‘bought it’.

Comments are closed.