W have Io today – not for the faint hearted…
…and what a super puzzle this was!
I am not sure if this puzzle has a theme or not. I am reminded of some Araucaria puzzles in years gone by where the words seemed to have serendipitously dropped into the grid as the setter’s mind rambled from one topic to another. Something that grids filled using modern software tools seem to lack. Still, you are now reading from the man who once blogged a puzzle containing the entire England World Cup winning team and failed to notice, so perhaps I am not the best person to identify a theme. It was nice to see an unusual grid being used too.
In summary, a most challenging and enjoyable puzzle from a master of his art. Thank you Io.
| Across | ||
| 5, 9, 10 | THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL | That day you put in down below a pointer to eventual success (3,5,2,3,3,2,3,6) |
| I don’t understand this one. Something cryptic about putting in a day’s work in a mine?
MONDAY is the day you entered into the grid under THE MERSEY (look at the grid above). So this is the light (grid entry) at the end of the tunnel (below The Mersey). Thanks to Dis for this explanation. An improved version: MONDAYMORNING pictorially represents the Mersey Tunnel, written under THE MERSEY (in contrast the FERRY CROSS is written across THE MERSEY). So MONDAY is the light at the end of this (the tunnel). |
||
| 11 | QUAY | It’s rumoured to be the way in which sailors approach to land (4) |
| sounds like (rumoured) “key” (the way in) | ||
| 12 | SCHMOOZERS | Social group’s distribution of z-scores hospital medic’s found boring (10) |
| H (hospital) and MO (medic) inside (found boring) Z-SCORES* anagram=distribution of | ||
| 14 | FERRY | Little things written about Queen singer-songwriter (5) |
FRY (little things) containing ER (The Queen) – Bryan Ferry, Mr Cool |
||
| 16 | CROSS | Get over upset (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 20 | See 8 | |
| 21 | SHAW | Literary giant has worried women (4) |
HAS* anagram=worried then W (women) – George Bernard Shaw. I was hoping to find some Sandie Shaw reference somewhere in the puzzle but failed. |
||
| 22 | See 8 | |
| 24 | SUNSHINE | Ignore symptom reported by Spooner, the reason for 19 (8) |
| Spoonerism of “shun sign” (ignore symptom) | ||
| 26 | MONDAY MORNING | I’ll take leave of mon ami to represent the week’s 19 (6,7) |
| MON AMi is Monday morning missing (taking leave of) I | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | THINK UP | Concoct watered-down drink we hear (5,2) |
| sounds like (we hear) “thin cup” (watered-down drink) | ||
| 2 | BLOODY | Extremely cruel (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 3 | STET | Bosses in store took eons to mark items for restoration (4) |
| first leters (bosses) of Store Took Eons To | ||
| 4 | CHINTZES | “Glazed cottons” (compiler’s first clue, written with much enthusiasm) (8) |
| Compiler (first letter of) HINT (clue) with ZESt (enthusiasm, much of) | ||
| 6 | GIT | Playing a game, touch up ass (3) |
| TIG (to touch, when playing a game) reversed (up) | ||
| 7 | TEETHE | To begin cutting a set from timesheets, miss out (6) |
| anagram (from, implied not explicitly indicated) of TimEsHEETs missing (out) MISS | ||
| 8, 22, 20 | GERRY AND THE PACEMKERS | For us, hit here may diffuse with dark centre “gap” square (5,3,3,10) |
anagram (diffuse) of HERE MAY with DARK CENTRE GAP then S (square) – writers of Ferry Cross The Mersey |
||
| 12 | SYRIA | Astronomer’s given up this troubled country (5) |
| AIRY’S (astronomer’s, Sir George Biddel Airy, astronomer Royal 1835-1881) reversed | ||
| 13 | ORRIS | Traditional dancing master’s taken root (5) |
| mORRIS (traditional dancing) with M (master) taken away | ||
| 15 | EJECTION | Discharge jet with bubbly on ice (8) |
| anagram (bubbly) of JET with ON ICE. Just a teensy point, but this does not suggest to me that JET is part of the anagram, only ON ICE is bubbly. | ||
| 17 | VAUNT | Boast of very sympathetic woman (5) |
| V (very) with AUNT (sympathetic woman, agony aunt) | ||
| 18 | MERSEY | The writer’s stalling old Irish runner heading for Irish Sea (6) |
| MY (the writer’s) contains (stalling, like a horse) ERSE (old Irish) – the River Mersey, somethng that runs
|
||
| 19 | DAWNING | Corruption of Wig and Gown – at last, the realisation (7) |
| anagram (corruption) of WIG AND gowN (last letter of) | ||
| 21 | SPHINX | Someone enigmatic setting puzzles (hard) for beginners in Times (6) |
| first letters (for beginners) of Setting Puzzles Hard then IN X (times) | ||
| 23 | EDDY | Grant Nelson a spiritual healer for 3? (4) |
a triple definition (for three, three examples of) Eddy Grant, Nelson Eddy and Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Scientists). My three fantasy dinner party guests:   |
||
| 25 | NEO | I refuse to accept base words from Arturo Alfandari (3) |
| NO (I refuse) containing E (base, of natural logarithm) – a language created by Belgian diplomat Arturo Alfandari | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
The construction around the “centre square” of Ferry Cross The Mersey (by Gerry and the Pacemakers boviously) is genius.
baerchen @1-seconded
Oh my this was indeed a very clever and quite obscure (for a non localite) .. still I got all except Git / Tig is a term thats unfamiliar so went with Tag (game) 🙂 .. even Eddy tho i have no idea how to parse it or who these 3 ppl were.. Gerry and the pacemakers i have vaguely heard of .. but google helped. The light at the end of the tunnel.. guessing light refers to “day” and yeah down under something to do with mine but what the “you put in” refers to no idea
26 ac is under the Mersey and schematically therefore the Mersey tunnel. One part of the answer (light) you put in is a day.
Thanks to Dis for explaining THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. A petty quibble I know, but isn’t the end of the tunnel above the Mersey?
Brilliant deduction Dis @4 – it was driving me mad. I don’t think ‘Monday’ being under ‘Mersey’ is significant for tunnel, more that Mersey is a tunnel as well as a river, and ‘Monday‘ is at – ie against – the end of Mersey.
So fiendish, that. But how many casual solvers know that ‘light’ means an answer in a crossword?
Light is given in Chambers as an entry in a crossword grid, so it is an established word not just jargon. I think casual solvers will be out of their depth in an Io crossword full stop. I only just keep my head above the water myself.
PeeDee, you’re right, this isn’t a beginner’s crossword. (Given that another of the setter’s pseudonyms is Enigmatist, I guess 21d is a wink to experienced solvers.)
Re 21dn: I wonder if Io intended the enigmatic/Enigmatist connection or if it was just chance. John H sometimes pops in to the discussion, so lets hope he has a look in today and can tell us.
Thank you for the blog, PeeDee – didn’t envy you your task today! Thought the same as you about 21d, by the way.
This was indeed “not for the faint hearted”, but none the worse for that – lots of fiendish misdirection (especially 23d – had forgotten about Mary Baker!) and some great clues. Liked 21ac & 4d particularly. For once I managed to spot the theme quite quickly, which helped greatly with the rest.
Many thanks for the challenge Io.
Thanks PeeDee and IO, of course.
I thought I was getting nowhere after looking at these long ones [again! I actually do not like puzzles with such long ones very much].
But Gerry Marsden and his friends went in relatively quickly and when I spotted Ferry Cross The Mersey, it wasn’t that bad after all.
Quite ingenious to write a clue like 8,22,20 with its brilliant reference to where we can find the hit song.
Special thanks to Dis @4 for shining a light on 5,9,10.
Whether it fully works for me, that’s another matter.
Two out of three Eddys were enough to justify 23d which was my last one in.
Very good crossword (with a nice nod at 21d) and … a pangram!
Thanks Io and PeeDee
I found this hugely enjoyable despite the difficulty (and the parsing being even harder!). Spotting that it was a likely pangram helped with a couple.
I think you can add 11 to the themers, as the ferry leaves from a quay.
Thanks for all the kind comments, folks. Brilliant blog as ever from PeeDee, who must dread Wednesdays. Also thanks to him for inviting me in (you clocked the clue for Sphinx correctly BTW and the clue for EJECTION is indeed an Oops).
This started with the idea of referencing a “light” (Chambers def as noted @7)at the end of a (THE MERSEY) tunnel but (also as noted @6), I didn’t think it fair just to have any old entry there, so I looked for something with DAY in it with the intention of referencing ‘day’ in the first clue. SUNSHINE and DAWNING were, as the Great Master would have said, serendipitous.
Incidentally, those horrid but necessary 5s and 7s with under 50% checking demanded some extra help, hence (first) FERRY ‘CROSS and (second) the pangram.
Cheers!
J/Io
Thanks Io and PeeDee
A really difficult but enjoyable puzzle that took an elapsed 24 hours and several sittings to finally nut out – well nut out without understanding at all what was going on with:
– the long first clue (except that it fitted into to all of the gaps when I wrote the known letters out on to a piece of paper);
– the thematic song from GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS;
– the pangram.
There was a fair bit of general knowledge required with an astronomer, a couple of musical artists and the triple EDDY’S (my last one in). Knew the ‘Nelson’ and ‘Mary Baker’ ones but did not know of the ‘Grant’ one until I looked it up and saw his hit “Electric Avenue” and then I could stop wondering what the heck the clue was referring to STET for !
A lot of clever constructions used throughout the crossword overlayed by the brilliant placement of the theme words that would have helped if I could have seen the forest instead of just the trees …
Hats off to you PeeDee to be able to have solved this and prepared a blog of this quality so quickly !!
Brilliant! Never got close to finishing it but a great challenge.