An excellent themed puzzle from Merlin, quite hard, solving time 38 mins.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 CUD DIE A horse, like many of the across answers
4 C (dUCK) OO A fool, ditto
9 E (CLIPS)E
10 BOB TAIL refers to the phrase rag-tag and bobtail = the rabble
11 TOUCHSTONE (Count those)*
12 CALF cf Calif
14 Eric A(M)BLER Also a horse
16 PALOMINO ditto (main polo)*
19 DART MOOR (room trad)<
20 CL (Sri Lanka) OWNS Fools
22 (l)OAFS fools
24 WOODENTOPS (two posed on)* Fools, contemptuous slang name for guardsmen
28 SUCKERS More fools but wordplay not understood. “Shoots Soprano sidekick’s head off” suckers = shoots Soprano may be S or may refer to TV series.
29 T RIGGER Character in 7 down, also Roy Rogers’ horse and the name may have derived from that.
30 SILVER Lone Ranger’s horse I for O in ‘solver’!
31 JE (NNE) T Another horse
DOWN
1 COL OUR BAR
2 DEPTH DEPT H! 8th section
3 I D(E)ATE
5 (j)UMBO
6 K OAL A (a Lao k)<
7/14D ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES Very popular TV series. (London’s loafy)* Trotters = horses. Refer to the characters in the series and the anagram fodder is brilliantly relevant so that is very good indeed. This gives the theme with ‘fools’ and ‘horses’ in the acrosses.
8 BENT Darren Bent footballer, plus two other definitions. Anyone write in Best?
10 B (ANT) AM Small combative = boxing weight Ant from Ant and Dec (TV presenters), I think
13 BOWL Double definition
15 EM MY Em = space (printing)
17 IN (W ROUGH) T
18 BO (S) OMS Booms appearing as themselves! Great surface.
21 ODETTE “Owe debt”!
23 FO(C)AL Another clue I liked a lot
25 NA ( I R) N
26 SORE (Eros)< This was my last answer
27 MERE Double definition
Hi nms – thanks for the blog. I enjoyed this a lot. 7/14 was brilliant!
28ac I read as S[oprano] + [m]UCKERS [sidekicks].
I think there’s another one: both Collins and Chambers define ‘bobtail’ as an animal with a bobbed tail but my SOED specifies a dog or horse.
I’m presuming ALL the across answers were either fools or horses?
I think I could justify all except Ambler. (I know it can mean to walk like a horse…)
Eclipse was certainly a famous horse.
…indicated by “coming across here” in 7/14d.
Before blogging, I looked at the HORSES entry in Bradford’s and saw AMBLER there.
Thanks nms, I’m sure you’re right, but I can’t find it in Chambers or Wiki…
IanN14
Your presumption is correct. Touchstone was another racehorse (19th century) and ‘ambler’ is defined in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) as “a horse or a person that ambles”. My later version of Webster’s gives “one that ambles, especially an ambling horse’.
Thanks Gaufrid, I believe you.
I had Touchstone down as a fool…
You’re right, IanN14 – it just gets better! Of course – it’s *only* fools and horses!
SOED: AMBLER: a horse, mule etc or person that ambles
Chambers: CALF: a stupid or loutish person
and Touchstone is the Fool in ‘As you like it’.
Brilliant!
Sorry for all the crossings in the post!
And still that’s not quite all …
1ac – two for the price of one! CUDDIE: Chambers: a donkey; a horse; a stupid person.
Yes, I should have noticed the ALL and hunted them down further, and in particular should have remembered TOUCHSTONE from a Shakespeare play I knew quite well… As you say, the puzzle gets better.
Nice one, old friend!
Thank you for the blog, nms, and belated congrats on your Indy debut yesterday – you produced a tough but enjoyable puzzle which eventually defeated me, but when I saw the blog I couldn’t really understand why (the mark of a well-constructed crossword, perhaps?)
Merlin’s offering today also got the better of me, although only in the NE corner, where BANTAM and BOBTAIL were beyond my ken. But talking of the NE, great to see CUDDIE at 1ac – my first to go in after about two seconds’ thought – it’s also a term from my native North-East, although I think we spell it CUDDY. And Cuddy’s Duck is the Northumberland term for an Eider, if memory serves – after Saint Cuthbert, although what Cuthbert has to do with horses I’m not sure.
And to make my day, Darren BENT makes an appearance at 8dn, he being the prolific striker for by far the greatest team the world has ever seen …
Thanks for the congrats, Kathryn’s Dad.
I would not dissent from the last para either.
Kathryn’s Dad,
Sorry, but I think you’ve somehow missed the fact that Darren Bent was transferred to Sunderland in the summer…
I didn’t spend enough time on this and missed quite how good it was, shame. Surely most people have heard Camptown Races?
Gwine to run all night!
Gwine to run all day!
I’ll bet my money on de bob-tail nag,
Somebody bet on de bay.
Surprise me, both of you (before Gaufrid sends us into the naughty corner for being off-topic), is N14 the postcode for Tottenham by any chance? Talk to me on April 3rd around 1655 GMT when the boy will have done good …
Almost, K’s D.
Close enough.
April 3rd, eh? Perhaps he won’t miss a penalty this time?…
Bottom left tough.Love anagrams and Only fools etc. helped.Would never have gotten 19a,10a,28a and really annoyed I didn’t get 23d.Pleased with the rest though