A middling sort of puzzle, not a pushover but not going to upset your Sunday lunch plans either. Thank you Phi.
There are quite a few names in the grid, maybe this is significant, I don’t know. Luckily for one reason and another I had heard of them all.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HADES | Ghost, first to last, in Hell (5) |
| SHADE (ghost) first letter to last place | ||
| 4 | MONARCHIC | Ruler’s adapted Roman style (9) |
| anagram (adapted) of ROMAN then CHIC (style) | ||
| 9/7 | DOUGLAS-HOME | What could make House go mad, involving Liberal politician of the past (7-4) |
| anagram (what could make) HOUSE GO MAD containing L (Liberal) | ||
| 10 | CRANMER | Religious reformer organised millions in church, right? (7) |
| RAN (organised) M (millions) in CE (Church of England) R (right) | ||
| 11 | ALLITERATION | Term to typify “Troubled toenail trial”? (12) |
| anagram (troubled) of TOENAIL TRIAL | ||
| 14 | LAPIDARY | Like memorial words daughter inscribed in large beehive? (8) |
| D (daughter) in L (large) APIARY (beehive) | ||
| 15 | BERTHA | Big user of ammo, live – artillerymen accepting that (not half) (6) |
| BE (live) RA (artillerymen) containing THat (not half) – Big Bertha, a WWI gun | ||
| 17 | CARDIN | Character, fashionable? That’s fashion guru (6) |
| CARD (character) and IN (fashionable) – Pierre Cardin | ||
| 19 | MISSPELL | Girl’s lines added to exercise put down wrongly (8) |
| MISS (girl) has L L (two lines) following (added to) PE (exercise) | ||
| 22 | SPECTRAL TYPE | How star’s seen – touring pretty places? (8,4) |
| anagram (touring) of PRETTY PLACE | ||
| 25 | LACOSTE | Company’s acquired by recently successful tennis player (7) |
| CO’S (company’s) in LATE (recently) | ||
| 26 | GUTHRIE | Theatrical director, instinctive, to move quickly to secure run (7) |
| GUT (instinctive) HIE (to move quickly) containing (to secure) R (run) – Sir William Guthrie | ||
| 27 | VELVETEEN | Very like some fairies to cover shirt in soft fabric (9) |
| V (very) ELVEN (like some fairies) contains (to cover) TEE (shirt) | ||
| 28 | HESSE | German writer pinches several bottles (5) |
| found inside (bottled by) pincHES SEveral – Hermann Hesse | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HYDRAULICS | Study of waterworks beginning to help lady’s uric failing (10) |
| anagram (failing) of Help (first letter of) and LADY’S URIC | ||
| 2 | DOUBLE-PARK | Two fairish holes, say, by end of work help to block the road (6-4) |
| DOUBLE (two) PAR (a fairish hole) by worK (end of) | ||
| 3 | SALUTED | Paid tribute to having the blues involving stringed instrument (7) |
| LUTE (stringed instrument) in SAD (having the blues) | ||
| 4 | MISERERE | Church music is covered by simple scripture lesson (8) |
| IS inside (covered by) MERE (simple) RE (Religious Education, scripture lesson) | ||
| 5 | NICETY | Scottish one engaging detective showing rise in distinction (6) |
| YIN (Scottish one) containing (engaging) TEC (detective) reversed (showing rise) | ||
| 6 | REAWOKE | Are bubbling pan and casserole finally getting stirred again? (7) |
| anagram (bubbling) of ARE then WOK (pan) and casserolE (final letter of) | ||
| 7 | See 9 Across | |
| 8 | CORK | Irish city‘s two-word reinterpretation of shamrock? (4) |
| shamrock in two words is sham rock, anagram of rock | ||
| 12 | STEELYARDS | They weigh horses, restraining flanks of lively Arab (10) |
| STEEDS (horses) containing LivelY (flanks of) AR (Arab) | ||
| 13 | PAUL REVERE | Patriot‘s worship given to Biblical figure (4,6) |
| REVERE (worship) following (given to) PAUL (Biblical figure) | ||
| 16 | NITROGEN | Gold metal picked up with information indicating another element (8) |
| OR (gold) TIN (metal) reversed (picked up) then GEN (information) | ||
| 18 | IMPASSE | Here’s me behind the times, showing inability to move forward (7) |
| I’M PASSE (here’s me behind the times) | ||
| 20 | SPLOTCH | Plan in school making a mark (7) |
| PLOT (plan) in SCH (school) | ||
| 21 | SCHEME | Plan in school: English supported by the writer (6) |
| SCH (school) and E (English) on (supported by) ME (the writer) | ||
| 23 | SLAV | Southern gents possibly doing for East European (4) |
| S (southern) LAV (gents possibly) | ||
| 24 | ACOL | Bridge system, all but nearby to the North (4) |
| LOCAL (nearby) missing last letter (all but) reversed (to the north, up on a map) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a theme connecting all those names, but I can’t spot it.
I liked the alliterative and &lit-erative 11ac. Couldn’t parse NICETY as I didn’t know either of the constituent terms. ACOL was a new word for me, but readily suggested by the wordplay and confirmed by Wikipedia.
Thanks Phi and PeeDee.
Have to admit that there were a couple of names I had to check and I was unfamiliar with 22a plus 12&24d – hopefully I’ll remember them for the future.
Thanks to Phi for the workout and to PeeDee for the explanations.
Blimey, bit quiet in here today – is it one of those Sunday parties were everyone has been invited but me, PD, Swatty and Jane?
Anyhoo, this was another puzzle with quite a few new words for me which defo slowed my solve and I didn’t do so well in the end, but enjoyed what I did do.
Themewise, on Friday when Mr C proposed Phi would be in on Saturday with a Canada Day puzzle, Phi responded:
“More No Canada than O Canada, I may say. You need to be mindful of the day that John Adams, in his writings, noted would be remembered in the annals of American history and would be marked with fireworks and celebrations (according to the US National Archives, at least).”
So I fancy it could be American Independence, but seeing as one of the degrees I hardly studied was in American studies and I only connected Paul Revere and possibly Monarchic to it I could be wrong (though I did say hardly studied, of course). Oh, got a bit distracted with possible fashion label theme, too so will be good to find out what’s what.
Cheers to Phi for the puzzle and PD for the enlightenment.
No real problems though a bit of head-scratching on the way, and our last two in were the LAPIDARY/DOUBLE PARK crossers.
Found this reference to Phi’s Friday comment, though like Hoskins I can’t see an American theme beyond Paul Revere. But there may well be some devilish theme/nina lurking there and if so Phi may drop by to show us just how simple it really is.
Anyway, thanks to Phi and of course PeeDee.
Thanks for the link Mr C @4, interesting stuff. You don’t think the theme could be something like people who have done things or predicted things on certain dates that have then gone down on different days in history to those planned/scheduled? Either or anyways that was a helluva sentence of mine and I am just thinking aloud wot with it being five hours past the yard arm. P.s – this is no time for the captcha to be 4x? = 33 as I’m a drunkard not a mathematician, Jim!
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Alec, Thomas, Pierre, Henri, Tyrone and Hermann
happy birthday to you
And someone else, of course, which is why I didn’t get around to commenting yesterday. For some reason Christoph Willibald, who usually makes it to the party, went astray this year.
Congratulations to allan_c for finding the reference I had in mind.
Che farò senza Christoph Willibald?