[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
A rare appearance from our editor, who has produced an enjoyable medium-difficulty crossword that must have been … (see below). There are a few terms that were new to me and not evidently in the mainstream but which were located after a search.
Definitions in some colour the precise name of which I can’t now remember, redorange or orangered or some such, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
… produced very recently, with its references to Emily Maitlis and Prince Andrew.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ANDREW | Prince warned about … (6) |
| (warned)* | ||
| 4 | NO SWEAT | … body part possibly dripping, I hear – not a problem (2,5) |
| “nose wet” — although why ‘possibly’? Surely a nose is just an example of a body part; if ‘a body part’ had been clued by ‘nose’ then it should quite correctly have been ‘nose possibly’. But after all, Eimi’s the editor and it’s not for me to tell him what to do [Indeed, as Ian SW3 implies, the ‘possibly’ can go with ‘dripping’, so we have ‘possibly dripping’ = ‘wet’, which as he says is OK] | ||
| 9 | TRAMP | Vagrant male in role reversal (5) |
| m in (trap)rev. | ||
| 10 | APPRAISAL | Dismay about Italian TV station’s evaluation (9) |
| app(Rai’s)al — yes, the Italian TV station is Rai (Radiotelevisione Italiana), although I had thought it might be RAIS | ||
| 11 | NIL | Penniless, essentially, having nothing (3) |
| {Pen}nil{ess} | ||
| 12 | STRESS SHEET | Emphasise these changes in engineer’s drawing (6,5) |
| stress [emphasise] (these)* — the term doesn’t seem to be in any of the usual dictionaries, but Merriam-Webster says that it is ‘a skeleton drawing of a structure (such as a roof truss or a bridge) showing the stress to which each member will be subjected’, so it’s perhaps American | ||
| 14 | ADRENALINE | Hormone replacement initially covered in a study leading to some dishonest statement (10) |
| a d(r{eplacement})en a line, as in “the dodgy car salesman spun a line” | ||
| 15 | ANDY | A duke seen in New York? (4) |
| a N(D)Y — &lit., although the connection with New York seems a bit odd — pathetic, I found this impossibly difficult and now it seems to be as easy as anything in the whole crossword | ||
| 17 | EDGY | Seedy guy regularly getting nervous (4) |
| {s}e{e}d{y} g{u}y | ||
| 19 | HATCHET JOB | Severe criticism of chopper’s role (7,3) |
| 2 defs, the second one perhaps not really a definition but a description of a hatchet job | ||
| 23 | COMMON SCOLD | Complaint about Maitlis at last: “A troublesome woman” (6,5) |
| common ({Maitli}s) cold — as with 12ac, this doesn’t seem to be in any of the usual dictionaries but seems to be an outdated legal term | ||
| 24 | COG | One playing a small part in Scrooge regularly (3) |
| {S}c{r}o{o}g{e} | ||
| 25 | PALM BEACH | Live in Clapham, perhaps – a major resort and tourist centre (4,5) |
| be [live] in (Clapham)* — if Eimi were to enter an Azed clue-setting competition this would fail, because for reasons best known to him he doesn’t allow ‘perhaps’ as an anagram indicator | ||
| 27 | PIZZA | Some paparazzi phoned back to get something to eat (5) |
| Hidden reversed in paparAZZI Phoned | ||
| 28 | EXPRESS | Fast, say (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 29 | WOKING | Surrey town without a royal personage (6) |
| w/o king [a royal personage] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ANTENNA | TV presenter upset sister of 1 Across, one feels (7) |
| Ant [as in Ant and Dec] (Anne)rev., Anne being the sister of Andrew | ||
| 2 | DIALLER | One calling Liverpool fan up about score draw? (7) |
| (red)rev. round (1-all) | ||
| 3 | EXPOSING | Revealing postal orders kept by former Dutch bank (8) |
| ex (POs) ING — the ING group, a Dutch organisation | ||
| 4 | NIP | Pinch a little bit of booze (3) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 5 | SPARSE | Scattered boxes on base (6) |
| spars [boxes] e — for once ‘boxes’ doesn’t indicate surrounding — e is the base of natural logarithms | ||
| 6 | EPSTEIN | Sculptor putting extreme pressure on mug (7) |
| EP stein [mug] | ||
| 7 | TOLSTOY | He wrote play after opening retracted (7) |
| (slot)rev. toy | ||
| 8 | PATROL CARS | Carol’s part in training pandas perhaps (6,4) |
| (Carol’s part)* | ||
| 13 | SYNECDOCHE | Brass or strings, for example, synthesised on cheesy CD (10) |
| *(on cheesy CD) — a synecdoche is the use of a part to signify the whole: thus the brass section is signified by a single brass instrument, similarly with strings | ||
| 16 | LEAD UP TO | Act as a preliminary for a unionist party statement finally being accepted by Varadkar (4,2,2) |
| Le(a DUP {statemen}t)o — Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach | ||
| 17 | ESCAPEE | Go after key article for one who’s got away (7) |
| Esc [the Escape key on a keyboard] a [article] pee [urinate, go] | ||
| 18 | GYMSLIP | At first girl simply removed item of clothing (7) |
| g(irl) (simply)* | ||
| 20 | JACUZZI | Bath copper getting into music that’s on Island (7) |
| ja(Cu)zz i. | ||
| 21 | BIG BANG | Cosmic event covered in large report (3,4) |
| big [large] bang [report] | ||
| 22 | FOIBLE | Weakness of one former car manufacturer assimilated by rival (6) |
| fo(1 BL)e — if you are not of a certain age, British Leyland | ||
| 26 | ASS | Pompous fool one found on ship (3) |
| a SS | ||
Thanks, John.
The opening pair of clues, with the splendid ellipsis, was enough to alert the 1dns to a brilliantly themed puzzle. I don’t think it’s particularly UK General Knowledge [!] but, if our Transatlantic or Antipodean friends missed some of the allusions in 1,4 [+ 14!], 15, and superbly 27, 28, 29ac – and 6dn, they’re all explained here . And there are other possible references, too.
Apart from the theme, I enjoyed SYNECDOCHE and PANDA CARS.
Huge thanks to Eimi for a rollicking puzzle which has put me in a good mood for at least a week.
Thanks Eimi and John
I think the ducal connection to New York is that it’s where Andrew (who’s presumably a duke of somewhere) was photographed walking with Epstein.
I think “possibly dripping” is fair for “wet.”
Simon S @2 – Duke of York [!] – and he used to be known as Randy Andy.
Ah well – I suppose someone was going to make a crossword out of the debacle. Reading through the review, I found far more references to Andrew than I’d originally spotted so thank you for that, John.
I didn’t know either the engineer’s drawing or SYNECDOCHE. Favourite was PATROL CARS.
Thanks to Eimi and to John for the blog.
Excellent! Thanks Eileen for the explanations, as not all of them registered with me. I wonder if HRH (Duke of York incidentally) will get to hear about this and have a wry shrug of the shoulders. I had to wordsearch Synecdoche as I’d never heard of it and couldn’t make work out how to fill the unches. Thanks also Eimi and John.
This was good fun, and an excellent themed puzzle. I needed to check various sources for STRESS SHEET, COMMON SCOLD and SYNECDOCHE.
Many thanks to Eimi and John.
Thanks John and Eimi.
Sometimes the boss has to show why he is the boss! But I don’t know who has the sadder life, me or Eimi, for knowing all this trivia. 🙁
What Eileen said @1 I also agree with Conrad @8 about how sad we are knowing all this ‘stuff’
I believer Her Majesty does the Telegraph cryptic – I wonder if anyone at the Palace will be daring enough to draw her attention to this one.
Thanks to Eimi for making me smile more and more as I kept solving and to John for the blog
Thoroughly enjoyable and funny. I wondered if hatchet/chopper related to the great man’s Falklands adventure which caused the alleged adrenaline rush but can’t be sure. Thanks to Eimi & John
@Conrad
You must have thrown a few shapes on the floor at Tramp
My first two in were PIZZA and WOKING – bingo!
What a lovely crossword!
Many thanks to John for the blog & Eimi for an overdose of fun.
What an amazing, apposite and timely crossword! I’m still relishing the consecutive words at the top (ANDREW NO SWEAT) and those at and near the bottom PIZZA EXPRESS WOKING. And I appreciate the other links too.
I don’t often get to do the Indy crosswords, and I’d like to say how enjoyable this was quite apart from the clues and answers that gave me a whole day’s amusement. I particularly liked TRAMP, SYNECDOCHE, LEAD UP TO and COMMON SCOLD. I could hardly believe there was such a thing as a common scold (communis rixatrix, according to a Wikipedia site).
I failed on FOIBLE – I just couldn’t think of FOE for ‘rival’.
Thanks to Eimi and John.
We thought we were in for a topical theme as soon as we saw 1ac, and weren’t disappointed. We got it all without help, although it took a while to see the parsing of ADRENALINE. LOI was WOKING.
Thanks, Eimi and John.
Absolutely brilliant Eimi, a joy throughout with ace clues and loads of laughs. Many thanks for this, and thank you John.
Superb construction, elegantly and wittily clued.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
Brilliant. 4ac was particularly evocative.
Might be best to put the MBE on hold for a while.
JIm T @17 – exactly!
If Tatrasman @6 and, particularly, crypticsue @ 9 are on the right track, we might need a campaign to save Eimi from a literal 19ac. [I’m up for it!]
What fun! I am not a royal watcher at all but even being in Oz I knew enough about this fiasco to enjoy Eimi’s puzzle immensely. Sure, I missed some of the subtleties, so reading John’s blog and others’ contributions only added to my appreciation. Thanks for the linked article too, Eileen.
Favourite definitely 4a NO SWEAT – so very droll!
Well done on a memorable puzzle, Eimi, and an excellent blog, John. And thanks to other contributors for joining in with your wit and insights.
Thanks to John and Eimi
Yes, good fun and very witty.
I’ve not seen E = extreme before, but no-one else has mentioned it so I assume it’s in Chambers.
From the bowels of the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, thanks to everyone for the kind words. I didn’t really have time to set this while trying to get ahead for Christmas, but it was such an extraordinary interview that I couldn’t resist. I’m really glad it gave people a laugh or two, given the political torture we’re having to go though. I’d happily swap the relinquished MBE for a couple of second half goals
@Dansar ep=extreme pressure (used in grading of lubricants)
Thank you @baerchen, I did try that in Collins online but came up blank.
I’m with Eimi on the second half goal thing.
Ok three goals then – good day!
@Gaufrid
More spam @ 25
Brilliant! I’m sure this would have been scheduled in even if the setter didnt double as editor.
I thought HATCHET JOB was a themer too, referring to the interview itself, and as for “chopper’s role” in the story (post-Tramp), surely it’s of the essence?
Could “COMMON SCOLD” be a description of the journo in the clue? She did seem to issue a bit of a scolding and is apparently the first person in her role not to have attended public school. Btw, there was a special piece of equipment common scolds were made to wear:
http://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/further-articles/the-scolds-bridle/
As for the purported victim, didn’t 15 and 6 probably think she was a cute piece of 26?
I’m sure there’s more …
Btw, @John, in 13d, “thus the brass section is signified by a single brass instrument, similarly with strings”
No, it’s that instruments made of brass are signified by the substance they are made of and the stringed instruments by the part which is acted on to produce sound.
Also, in 9a, you mean:
‘m in (part)rev.’, not ‘m in (trap)rev.’