Tees stands in for Phi this Phi-day after Phi’s celebratory puzzle number 10000 on Wednesday.
We struggled with this for a while, mainly figuring out the parsing of several clues where definitions and /or synonyms seemed somewhat tenuous. All the clues were fair, though – perhaps we weren’t on the right wavelength.
Joyce had never heard of the 1930’s Hungarian / American ‘Dracula’ film star at 14ac, but Bert had a vague memory of the strange name, and with the crossing letters we managed to sort out the straightforward anagram fodder. Not being ballet fans, we hadn’t heard of the entry at 8d, but again it was a straightforward anagram and once the crossers were in place it was not too tricky to sort out the unches.
Thanks Tees for the work-out.
| Across | ||
| 9 | One can relate well to race run poorly (9) | |
| RACONTEUR | An anagram of TO RACE RUN – anagrind is ‘poorly’ | |
| 10 | Port initially judged acceptable as wine (5) | |
| RIOJA | RIO (port) + ‘initial’ letters of Judged Acceptable | |
| 11 | God’s contact book? (7) | |
| NUMBERS | A cryptic definition – A contact book would contain telephone NUMBERS – also a book in the Bible | |
| 12 | Alpha male on the spin clubs Hebrew character in drama (7) | |
| MACBETH | A (alpha) M (male) reversed or ‘spinning’ + C (clubs, in card games) BETH (2nd‘character’ in the Hebrew alphabet) | |
| 13 | What’s low with depression’s onset? (4) | |
| MOOD | A clue-as-definition – MOO (low – as in a cow’s sound) D (first letter or ‘onset’ of ‘depression’) | |
| 14 | Louis Gable made up as horror movie star (4,6) | |
| BELA LUGOSI | An anagram of LOUIS GABLE – anagrind is ‘made up’ | |
| 15 | Anger to burden the country (7) | |
| IRELAND | IRE (anger) LAND (burden) | |
| 17 | Country work unit returned nothing (7) | |
| GRENADA | ERG (work unit) reversed or ‘returned’ + NADA (nothing) | |
| 19 | Concert hat that clashes with garment (6,4) | |
| TRENCH COAT | An anagram of CONCERT HAT – anagrind is ‘that clashes’ | |
| 22 | One hammered being wrong about Republican (4) | |
| BRAD | BAD (wrong) round R (Republican) | |
| 23 | Put at risk removing article from beard (7) | |
| IMPERIL | IMPERI |
|
| 24 | Rail popular with 5 and 8 given time off (7) | |
| INVEIGH | IN (popular) V (five) EIGH |
|
| 26 | Eponymous heroine houses one in high fortification (5) | |
| EYRIE | EYRE (Jane Eyre – ‘eponymous heroine’) round or ‘housing’ I (one) | |
| 27 | He paid through the nose for his pork pies (9) | |
| PINOCCHIO | A cryptic definition – Pinocchio’s nose grew when he told a lie (‘pork pie’ in Cockney rhyming slang) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Allowed state to intervene in such schools? (5-10) | |
| GRANT MAINTAINED | GRANTED (allowed) round or ‘intervened by’ MAINTAIN (state) | |
| 2 | Companion in Spain speeds up chat (8) | |
| SCHMOOZE | CH (companion – Companion of Honour) in E (Spain) ZOOMS (speeds) reversed or ‘up’ (in a down clue) | |
| 3 | Previously held in detention centre (4) | |
| ONCE | Hidden or ‘held’ in ‘detentiON CEntre’ | |
| 4 | Bachelor sedated out in base used for rest (8) | |
| BEDSTEAD | B (bachelor) + an anagram of SEDATED (anagrind is ‘out’) | |
| 5 | Initially prevented, America razed Black Sea region (6) | |
| CRIMEA | An anagram of |
|
| 6 | Ultimately wanting grass found among fine speed and crack (8) | |
| FRACTURE | TUR |
|
| 7 | Short jacket for dance in Madrid (6) | |
| BOLERO | Double definition | |
| 8 | Ravel has Dolphin Dance in ballet (7,3,5) | |
| DAPHNIS AND CHLOE | An anagram of HAS DOLPHIN DANCE – anagrind is ‘ravel’ | |
| 16 | Wretched dogs restrained by Great Dane’s lead (8) | |
| ACCURSED | CURS (dogs) ‘restrained by’ ACE (great) D (first letter or ‘head’ of ‘Dane’) | |
| 17 | Peter out in allotment finds incline (8) | |
| GRADIENT | DIE (peter out) in GRANT (allotment) | |
| 18 | Exhibiting no weak point, excellent fitting holds tons (8) | |
| AIRTIGHT | AI (excellent) RIGHT (fitting) round or ‘holding’ T (tons) | |
| 20 | Politician comes into 15 in supreme control (6) | |
| EMPIRE | MP (politician) ‘coming into’ EIRE (15ac – Ireland) | |
| 21 | Religious leader shows a brashness in church (6) | |
| CALIPH | A LIP (brashness) in CH (church) | |
| 25 | Evil succeeding (4) | |
| VICE | Double definition | |
Clobbered by this one, never figured out the ballet. alothough since by ravel himself a double pointer in retrospect.
Enjoyed though (for the most part)
thanks tees and B&J
Or Ravel even. O to be able to edit a post.
Challenging puzzle for which the illuminating blog greatly appreciated – I disagree only that 8dn was a straightforward anagram for those unfamiliar with the word ‘Daphnis’ in any context. Still kicking myself that the penny didn’t drop sooner re Pinocchio – I had a whole Sweeney Todd thing going on
I wasted a lot of time trying and failing to construct the ballet. Also failed to SCMOOZE. Well, I never was one to work a room.
Very much enjoyed what I could do though, especially INVEIGH where I meowed up the cross-references tree at first. Thanks Tees and Bertandjoyce.
We found this on the easy side, one of our quickest solves of late. Perhaps it helped that Wiglaf used ‘Ravel’ as an anagrind yesterday so we saw DAPHNIS AND CHLOE at once. We did wonder briefly if 26ac could be ‘Usher’ (hidden in ‘eponymous heroine’ and an obscure reference to The Fall of the House of Usher) but 1dn soon disposed of that idea. But we did need a wordfinder for SCHMOOZE, a new word to us.
We liked MACBETH and INVEIGH but our CoD was the aforementioned DAPHNIS AND CHLOE.
Thanks, Tees and B&J
Been out all day, ut managed to do this in the half-hour trip into London. Went in very easily. It helped that Radio 3 played the sunrise section of DAPHNIS AND CHLOE on their morning programme.