Independent 10148 / Radian

by

Radian has set Tuesday’s puzzle.

 

 

 

My enthusiasm for, and knowledge of Shakespeare is somewhat limited but I did manage to spot references to the soliloquy spoken by Gloucester in the play Richard III.  This is the speech that begins:

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that…

and goes on for many more lines.

I reckon there were at least twelve full words from the speech in the grid plus a couple more that were variants of words in the speech.  There were also allusions in the clues.

In the clues there were many references to first or last letters.  Indeed there were three separate uses of the first letters of two consecutive words – RATHER SMALL, DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY and RARE MIRACLE in three of four clues from 15 to 22 across.

It was interesting to see a homophone clued at 6 down with the caution that not everyone will see it as an exactly similar pronunciation.

I got off to a good start with GLORIOUS, TRUE and DISCONTENT but slowed down a bit after that.  My last one in was MURDERER once DEFORMS had been solved.

Across
No Clue Wordplay Entry
8 Fine left troops in Gulf with debts (8) (L [left] + OR [other ranks; troops]) contained in (in) G [gulf – given in Collins] + IOUS [debts])

G (L OR) IOUS

 GLORIOUS (fine, especially when talking about the weather)
9 Start struggle to seize Richard’s crown (6) FIGHT (struggle) containing (to seize) R (first letter of [‘s crown] RICHARD)

F (R) IGHT

 FRIGHT (scare; start)
10 Correct time to show regret (4) T (time) + RUE (show regret)

T RUE

 TRUE (correct)
11 New temporary accommodation after club’s unrest (10) DISCO (DISCOtheque [club where music is played]) + N (new) + TENT (temporary accommodation)

DISCO N TENT

 DISCONTENT (unrest)
12 A foreign youth rounds Cape in the raw (6) (UN [French {foreign} word for ‘a’] + LAD [youth]) containing (rounds) C (cape)

UN (C) LAD

 UNCLAD (without clothes; nude; in the raw)
14 Scottish town didn’t at first like clothes on line (3-5) AIRDRIE (Scottish town in North Lanarkshire with a population of just under 70,000 people) + D (first letter of [at first] DIDN’T)

AIR–DRIE D

 AIR-DRIED (towels on a washing line are DRIED in the AIR)
15 Drink with king eating first of rather small nuts (7) (BEER [drink] + K [king]) containing (eating) RS (initial letters of [first of] each of RATHER and SMALL)

BE (R S) ER K

 BERSERK (violently frenzied or angry; nuts)
17 Buckles primarily designed exclusively for M&S (7) DE (first letters of each of [primarily] DESIGNED and EXCLUSIVELY) + FOR + MS (M & S)

D E FOR M S

 DEFORMS (warps; buckles)
20 Young Henry hosts quite posh set (8) HAL (reference Prince HAL; young King Henry) containing (hosts) (A BIT [quite] + U [upper-class; posh])

H (A BIT U) AL

 HABITUAL (in a usual way; in a set manner)
22 Win over Germany is a rare miracle for starters (6) D (Deutschland; Germany) + IS + A + RM (first letters of [starters] each of RARE and MIRACLE)

D IS A R M

 DISARM (placate; win over)
23 Pretty messy dull fight with close finish (10) Anagram of (messy) DULL FIGHT and E [last letter of [finish] CLOSE)

DELIGHTFUL*

 DELIGHTFUL (pretty)
24 Cut down a lot (4) SLEW (killed; cut down)

SLEW

 SLEW (large amount; a lot)  double definition
25 Swarms could possibly start to shrink (6) Anagram of (possibly) COULD + S (first letter of [start to] SHRINK)

CLOUD* S

 CLOUDS (Bradfords gives CLOUD as a synonym for swarm)
26 Middle East bound to cut limits of arms amounts (8) ME (Middle East) + (SURE [certain; bound to] contained in [to cut] AS [first and last letters of {limits of} ARMS])

ME A (SURE) S

 MEASURES (amounts)
Down
1 Carriage enclosure in Irish county (8) ENC (enclosure) contained in (in) CLARE (an Irish County)

CLAR (ENC) E

 CLARENCE (four-wheeled carriage, having interior seating for two or more persons)
2 River swallows up golf drive (4) URE (reference the river URE rivers in North Yorkshire) containing (swallows up) G (Golf international radio communication code for the letter G)

UR (G) E

 URGE (drive)
3 Sleazy soprano cheated winning gold (6) (S [soprano] + DID [cheated]) containing (winning) OR (the tincture gold)

S (OR) DID

 SORDID (sleazy)
4 Typically a South American university call centre (2,5) A + S (south) + US (United States; American) + U (university) + AL (middle letters of [centre] CALL

A S US U AL

 AS USUAL (customarily; typical)
5 Female leaves, getting lost as expected (2,6) OFF COURSE (getting lost) excluding (leaves) F (female) – either F can be omitted

OF COURSE

 OF COURSE (by natural consequence; as expected)
6 Triumphant Queen’s broadcast to some (10) VICTORIOUS (sounds like [broadcast]) VICTORIA’S (Queen’s) –  Radian seem to be indicating that only some people will see this as an exact homophone.  Others will not pronounce the two words identically

VICTORIOUS

 VICTORIOUS (triumphant)
7 Coins are suspended in church (6) HANG (suspend) contained in (in) CE (Church [of England])

C (HANG) E

 CHANGE (loose CHANGE is made up of coins)
13 Lusty social complex hosts six from the States (10) (Anagram of [complex] SOCIAL containing [hosts] VI [Roman numeral for six]) + US ([United] States)

LASCI (VI) O* US

 LASCIVIOUS (wanton; lustful)
16 Long grass on course is hard and rather uneven (8) ROUGH (long grass on the golf course) + IS + H (hard when describing pencil lead)

ROUGH IS H

 ROUGHISH (rather uneven)
18 Assassin beat up first woman twice (8) DRUM (beat) reversed (up; down clue) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen / first lady of the United Kingdom) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Queen / first lady of the United Kingdom) i.e twice

MURD< ER ER

 MURDERER (assassin)
19 Discredit English mob briefly upset about lines (3-4) (E [English] + MAFIA [mob] excluding the final letter {briefly} A]) all reversed (upset; down clue) containing (about) LL (lines)

(I (LL) FAM E)<

 ILL-FAME (disrepute; ill-repute; discredit)
21 Ancient silver lode plundered (3-3) AG (chemical symbol for silver) + an anagram of (plundered) LODE

AG E–OLD*

 AGE-OLD (ancient)
22 Greens tipped to control large city built on oil (6) SALAD (green vegetables; greens) reversed (tipped; down clue) containing (to control) L (large)

DAL (L) AS<  Either L could be the one contained

 DALLAS (a city in Texas that was built as a result of the development of and  revenues generated by the oil industry)
24 Person has little money by end of April (4) SOU (tiny amount of money) + L (last letter of [end of] APRIL)

SOU L

 SOUL (person)

 

9 comments on “Independent 10148 / Radian”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Duncan. I had a hunch [ouch, that wasn’t intentional, honestly] that this might be the next speech.

    Once again, I’m full of admiration for the way Radian managed to get so many references [I counted twelve, too] seemingly effortlessly into the grid.

    I can’t think of anything  to add to the comprehensive blog. Many thanks to Radian for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  2. Yes, we thought it’s Tuesday, it’s Radian, and Shakespeare’s birthday to boot.  GLORIOUS and DISCONTENT so near the start quickly sent us scurrying to Richard III. We actually counted 14 references if one allows CHANGE and DEFORMS for ‘changed’ and ‘deformity’.

    But, 5dn, it wasn’t necessary to know the theme, 4dn it just added to the fun of this 23ac puzzle.  Favourite was one of the non-themed answers, AIR-DRIED.

    Thanks, Radian and Duncan.

  4. Entertaining crossword that I solved without noticing the theme.

    I ticked AS USUAL, FRIGHT and AIR-DRIED. VICTORIOUS is a pretty dodgy homophone for VICTORIA’S IMHO but I guess it’s catered for by the ‘broadcast to some.’

    Thanks Radian and Duncan.

  7. The twelve words in the speech and grid I had in mind when I wrote the blog were:

    GLORIOUS

    FRIGHT

    TRUE

    DISCONTENT

    DELIGHTFUL

    CLOUDS

    MEASURES

    CLARENCE

    VICTORIOUS

    LASCIVIOUS

    MURDERER and

    SOUL

    The two words in the grid that were very similar to words in the speech were DEFORMS and CHANGE

  9. Very late to this one but had SHED for 24 ac which seems to work OK to me.

    i.e. cut down as in shed weight and a lot as in ‘shedloads’

Comments are closed.