Another Tees puzzle for our Sunday entertainment. As always, I learnt something (and was entertained by a tractable and pleasing cryptic crossword).
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Friend round to study has everything prepared
ALL READY
An insertion of READ for ‘study’ in the university sense in ALLY.
5 Uproar where old woman needs heart transplant
BEDLAM
New word time for me – not for the answer, but the route to it. My LOI: it more or less had to be BEDLAM, and the ‘heart transplant’ instructions were clear enough. So my route to parsing it was to stick BE??AM into my wordsearch of choice, and, like magic, up came BELDAM. Out with lifting device and magnifying glass, and the old technology that is my SOED says:
beldam (noun, archaic) an old woman; a hag; a virago
So there you go. Its etymology is Old French bel and then dam, so ‘beautiful + woman’. Why it came to mean ‘hag’ is a mystery, the like of which you don’t come across solving a Sudoku.
9 Character in scrum with toe crushed
CUSTOMER
(SCRUM TOE)* He’s a slippery customer, that Tees.
10 Great desire suspended by monarch
HUNGER
A charade of HUNG and ER for Brenda.
12 Beast’s loved one strips, turning to bed early for this
BEAUTY SLEEP
A charade of BEAUTY for ‘Beast’s loved one’ and SLEEP for PEELS reversed (‘turning’). The reference is to Beauty and the Beast, which is based on 23dn’s novel.
15 Small animals we love reversed dance moves
STEPS
A charade of S and PETS reversed.
17 It sustains teachers with old poetry books
NUTRIMENT
A charade of NUT, RIME and NT for New Testament. NUT (National Union of Teachers) has been crosswordspeak for ‘teachers’ for ever, but just for the record, it doesn’t exist any more. It was founded on 25 June 1870 and dissolved on September 1, 2017, when it was merged into the National Education Union. Once everyone’s used to that, NEU is going to be potentially quite useful to setters, I would have thought.
18 Countermands orders I’ve circulated
OVERRIDES
(ORDERS IVE)*
19 One as eligible keeps artistic support
EASEL
Hidden in onE AS ELigible.
20 Those up with the locals?
TOWN AND GOWN
A cd. The phrase is used in university towns to describe the two elements of the population: those who are ‘up’ at university and those who are not, the ‘locals’.
24 Dive forward to catch duck in passenger area
LOUNGE
An insertion of O for ‘duck’ in LUNGE.
25 One writes news about beer
REPORTER
A charade of RE and PORTER.
26 Ulysses hero initially shy comes out
BLOOMS
Talking of ‘porter’ leads on seamlessly (but unintentionally on Tees’ part) to 16th June 1904:
Blind to the world up in a shebeen in Bride street after closing time, fornicating with two shawls and a bully on guard, drinking porter out of teacups
The protagonist in Joyce’s seminal work is Leopold BLOOM, and if you put an S for the first letter of ‘shy’ on that you’ve got your answer. It is four decades since I read the book (and I seem to remember not finishing it), so I can’t tell you whether there is an element of extended definition in the clue.
27 Fixture on flight seeming to come down in heavy rain?
STAIR ROD
A cd cum dd, referencing the phrase ‘it’s coming down like stair rods’. The French have a more evocative way of expressing the same thing: il pleut comme les vaches qui pissent.
Down
1 Cunning black rat traps one primate
ARCHBISHOP
A charade of ARCH and I inserted into B and SHOP. If I were being picky, I might say that ‘rat’ and SHOP are not quite interchangeable. You can say ‘I shopped him’, but you’d have to say ‘I ratted on him’. But I’m not in a picky mood this morning.
2 Disease beginning to spread, harmless in seaweed
LASSA FEVER
An insertion of S for the first letter of ‘spread’ and SAFE in LAVER, the seaweed Porphyra umbilicaulus, which the Welsh insist on boiling, dipping in oatmeal and frying to make LAVERBREAD. It’s allegedly a 17ac. I tried it once, again four decades ago. The kindest thing I can say (sorry, Welsh readers) is that it tastes nowt like bread.
3 Snake in alien surroundings — through water it sped
E-BOAT
An insertion of BOA in ET.
4 Covering on the floor is carpeting
DRESSING DOWN
A charade of DRESSING in its ‘bandage’ sense and DOWN.
6 Balance in supply provided by French banker
EQUIPOISE
A charade of EQUIP and OISE for the river that rises in Belgium but has most of its length in France.
7 Blocks stars in group drinking gallons
LEGO
An insertion of G for ‘gallons’ in LEO for the constellation. LEGO comes from leg godt, which means ‘play well’ in Danish; but you knew that already.
8 Horse and English sheep turned up
MARE
A reversal of E and RAM.
11 Books we sent out with positive response time after time
NEW TESTAMENT
The Christian holy book is getting a bit of an outing this morning. A charade of (WE SENT)* and AMEN inserted into two Ts. This crisis will be over soon. Amen to that.
13 Missile-launcher that gets the pulse going
PEASHOOTER
A cd. PEAS are classified as pulses.
14 Swimmer in famous commercial battle
STALINGRAD
A charade of LING in STAR followed by AD.
16 Mark employed in developing master plan
STRATAGEM
An insertion of TAG in (MASTER)* with ‘developing’ as the anagrind.
21 Cloth one wraps around copper piping inside
DHOTI
An insertion of HOT for ‘piping’ in DI for Detective Inspector. A male garment mainly worn on the Indian subcontinent.
22 State secrets?
BLAB
A cd. If you BLAB, you give away/state everyone’s secrets.
23 Victor perhaps in embrace when given Oscar
HUGO
A charade of HUG and O gives you the French author, perhaps best known for Les Misérables. As some wag suggested this week, in the current crisis the long-running London production might have to be restaged as Le Misérable.
Keep staying safe and thank you to Tees for the puzzle.
Thanks, Pierre, for the witty and informative blog.
A DNF for me. Didn’t know the Ulysses hero but, after reading the blog, realised I had heard the name before. So failed to get the crossing 26a and 22d. E-BOAT was also new to me and have never heard of “stair rod” in reference to heavy rain. As for the French version, yikes! TOWN AND GOWN was also new to me and didn’t parse BEDLAM. So very much a learning experience for me today.
The Ulysses hero has been around elsewhere fairly recently so he wrote himself in, and there weren’t any other unknowns for me this time.
Thank you to Tees for another great crossword and to Pierre for the equally great blog
Morning Hovis. I was aware of the ‘stair rod’ connection to heavy rain, but I think I’ve heard it more often in the phrase ‘it’s rodding down’ (round these parts, anyway).
Pierre, thank you for the usual excellent blog.
5a. The OED takes a different tack on beldam. Under BEL B they argue that bel- in beldam derives from the English term relationship, ancestry rather than the French belle.
Thanks to Pierre and Tees. Not too difficult but I was held up by a few, including initially putting in an unparsed ‘strategic’ for 16d, and DHOTI was no write-in.
I vaguely remembered the word ‘beldam’ (spelt as ‘beldame’) but had never heard of STAIR ROD, either as part of a flight of stairs, or in an expression for ‘heavy rain’. I liked the PEASHOOTER cryptic def.
Sorry to be picky for something so minor, but ‘Balance’ should be underlined as the def in 6d.
That’s interesting, Trenodia – I got the bel- derivation from my SOED. That’s why words and etymology are interesting, I think – it’s not always clear what the origins are.
WordPlodder: it should, and it now is. Tks.
We found this a pleasant stroll – no problems, nothing we didn’t know ?
Not sure about a DHOTI being worn on the Indian subcontinent – we thought it was worn around the waist!
I’ll get my coat.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
… and that ? was meant to be a smug face emoji.
Pierre, indeed. That is why I used the word “argued” as their explanation was far too long and uncertain to copy and type. Perhaps that is why the editors of the “shorter” edition chose to ignore it!
“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is a ballad written by John Keats.
…or as Michael Flanders translated it “the beautiful girl that never said thank you”
Very good. I almost DNFed, for some reason couldn’t get Equipoise or Peashooter, then saw them just as I was about to run out of time. Thanks Tees and Pierre.
Hello. Thank you all for your comments, and to Pierre for his usual excellent blog.
Ignore the Government, stay safe. We will Co-drink beer soon, when the time is right.
Best, Tees.