The preamble said that “The twelve unclued answers (a complete set) have something in common”, andwere given their unchecked (and mutually checked) letters.
Twleve unclued answers seemed quite a lot but there was help – as the grid was 13×13 and there were shorter answers than usual, there were 37 clues to solve, and many of these turned out to be quite easy. After a while the checkers for 9D suggested ARMSTRONG. There may be 12 US cyclists who have won a Tour de France stage, but as ALDRIN could fit at 32, it was pretty clear that we had to remember or find the other 10 astronauts who set foot on the moon in the Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 missions. As a member of the genertion of children woken up in the night to see the first moon landing, I had a bit of an advanage and eventually got the full set of names without books, but forgot the variant spelling SCHMITT, so had to look them up when the unches didn’t quite match the list.
The twelve are:
| Entry No. | Name | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | Alan B. SHEPHARD | 14 |
| 6A | Charles “Pete” CONRAD | 12 |
| 10 | James IRWIN | 15 |
| 13 | Alan BEAN | 12 |
| 27 | Edgar MITCHELL | 14 |
| 30 | John W. YOUNG | 16 |
| 32 | Edwin A. “Buzz” ALDRIN | 11 |
| 43 | Eugene CERNAN | 17 |
| 44 | Harrison H. “Jack” SCHMITT | 17 |
| 6 | Charles DUKE | 16 |
| 9 | Neil ARMSTRONG | 11 |
| 35 | David SCOTT | 15 |
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 11 | PUR(SUE)R – sue (vb.) = woo |
| 15 | A DEMI – hiddden, and for once “half-heartedly” is the def, not an indicator of a halved double letter mid-word |
| 16 | ESCAPEE – C in SEA*, PEE = water |
| 18 | SA(TAN)IC – saic = E. med boat |
| 20 | S(WE)ETS |
| 21 | C(oif),REST – anyone else tempted by CTENE from “comb” and C?E?? ? |
| 23 | TREASURE – SURA rev. in TREE = to corner |
| 23 | OGLE – (e.g. oeillade – ideal)* |
| 24 | PER,C(ompan)Y, ref. P Shelley |
| 26 | SO,ON |
| 33 | JETLAGS = let* in Jags |
| 37 | STRAIKS – A in SKIRTS rev. |
| 39 | TIN(T)Y |
| 41 | TEAR GAS = (gats are)* |
| 42 | SURAT – RA for I in suit. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SI(BB)S – W Scott variant |
| 2 | E-WASTE – sat* in ewe |
| 3 | P(INCAS)E – PE = IVR for Peru |
| 4 | ANNAN – reverse hidden. I wondered whether annan and ban were letters of the Irish gaelic alphabet, but it’s UN Gen. Secs Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon |
| 6 | CREESE = kris, = “crease” = to graze, e.g. with a glancing bullet |
| 7 | NUDGES – (need I guess – I see)* |
| 8 | (g)REEK |
| 12 | GINS,ENG. |
| 14 | S(P)ITE |
| 17 | TWAY – I wondered whether Bob Tway had “Senior” in his name, but he’s simply a player on the Senior Tour |
| 19 | A,R(GILL)ITE – Lavabo is, in the Mass, “the ritual act of washing the celebrant’s fingers while he says Lavabo inter innocentes” – and a gill is a projecting rib of a heating surface |
| 21 | COMARTS = Shak. contracts – MAR in Scot* |
| 24 | PHIZ = “fizz” |
| 25 | C,L,ERK |
| 26 | S(OLID)UM |
| 28 | CRETAN (hidden) |
| 31 | (b)EN(S)IGN |
| 34 | TA,IS.,H – a Scots apparition |
| 36 | ONER = swinger = any great or astonishing person |
| 38 | TEAS, which can become “east” with the described letter move |
I enjoyed this- a first ‘themed’ puzzle for me. I had CORAD first and was desperately trying to find LORD JIM, KURTZ etc to no avail. My AZED guru then said: ‘think of other Conrads’ and it suddenly clicked.
I enjoyed COMARTS and ANNAN (spent ages thinking about synonyms of ‘Ban’)
Sorry.. CONRAD- typo
I too was at school for the landings but I certainly couldn’t remember all the names. Getting Aldrin first was a bit worrying http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrin
Good stuff as ever though.
I cracked the theme very quickly, being a bit of an anorak on the Apollo missions – Mitchell came first with most of Aldrin and I immediately thought of the 12 moon walkers, which then filled the grid quickly.
BTW, the best site for info on all this is below – I spend many hours on here sometimes:
Apollo lunar surface journals
Nick