Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 5, 2020
A puzzle from Julius often means one with a theme and this one is packed with the unannounced theme of Nellie the Elephant.
Nellie the Elephant is a British children’s song from 1956 originally sung by Mandy Miller (and produced by George Martin!) which you can hear on Youtube. It tells of an anthropomorphic elephant who gets fed up with the circus, packs her trunk and leaves. I know this song from my childhood but it took some time to drag it out of my memory. Researching the song now, I came across a mind-blowing version by the Toy Dolls from 1984 which you can also find on Youtube (with over 9 million views!). The song could be seen as having topical significance for the last line in its chorus which goes like this:
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump!
The full lyrics can easily be found on the Web.
The theme is exposed in 24,28 (NELLIE THE ELEPHANT) while extracts from the lyrics find their ways into:
1dn and 7dn. PACKED and TRUNK (“Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk”)
2,17. THE ROAD TO MANDALAY (“They meet one night in silver light, On the road to Mandalay”) which is also a quote from Rudyard Kipling’s poem Mandalay.
9dn. JUNGLE (“And trundled off to the jungle”)
23dn. TRUMP (“Trump, trump, trump!”)
And 4dn (CAPTIVE) and 18ac (AMOROUS) seem relevant too. Have I missed any?
Thank you Julius for the puzzle and for reminding many of us about Nellie!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PATIENCE | Forbearance exhibited by VP getting a titanium implant (8) |
| A (a) + TI (titanium) together in PENCE (VP) | ||
| 5 | TSETSE | One gets off to a flying start participating in three sets (6) |
| Hidden word (in SET SET SET). I find it interesting to come across an indirect hidden-word mechanism. And I think it works well. | ||
| 10 | CREPT | Salesman in court moved cautiously (5) |
| REP (salesman) in (in) CT (court) | ||
| 11 | PLUS FOURS | Spurs’ foul new sports kit (4,5) |
| Anagram (new) of SPURS FOUL | ||
| 12 | ENOUNCING | Speaking clearly, deploring departing daughter (9) |
| [d]ENOUNCING (deploring departing daughter). I think ‘enunciate’ is more common but ‘enounce’ is good. | ||
| 13 | RAKES | Sir Francis’s day off? Works in the garden (5) |
| [d]RAKES (Sir Francis’s day off) | ||
| 14 | ADHERE | Dread her egg sandwiches? Show faith! (6) |
| Hidden word | ||
| 15 | ENGAGED | Working, as one intended? (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | AMOROUS | In the mood for love, alpha male old Proust undressed (7) |
| A (alpha) + M (male) + O (old) + [p]ROUS[t] | ||
| 20 | CANINE | Doggy’s stick to carry home (6) |
| IN (home) in (to carry) CANE (stick) | ||
| 22 | DATED | Lawrence, boring old man, rather passé (5) |
| TE (Lawrence) in (boring) DAD (old man) | ||
| 24, 28 | NELLIE THE ELEPHANT | She received a trunk call from outside The Circus (6,3,8) |
| Cryptic definition. I imagine that, in the surface reading, Julius intends “The Circus” to be understood as the Secret Intelligence Service (a.k.a. MI6) as used by John le Carré. | ||
| 25 | LAUDATION | Praise Austrian driver into flying (9) |
| LAUDA (Austrian driver, as in Niki) + anagram (flying) of INTO. The surface is especially appropriate and fine as Lauda was a pilot who started his own airline after retiring from motor-racing. | ||
| 26 | HASTE | Speed, heroin & ecstasy going round varsity every now and again (5) |
| [v]A[r]S[i]T[y] in (going round) H (heroin) and E (ecstasy) | ||
| 27 | YIPPEE | Year One’s protective equipment here finally, hooray! (6) |
| Y (year) + I (one) + PPE (protective equipment) + [her]E | ||
| 28 | See 24 | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PACKED | Prepared case, having got verbal agreement (6) |
| Homophone (having got verbal) of “pact” (agreement) | ||
| 2, 17 | THE ROAD TO MANDALAY | On which 24 28 had a moonlit rendezvous in the Burmese way? (3,4,2,8) |
| Double definition. “The road to Mandalay” is part of the lyrics of Nellie the Elephant. | ||
| 3 | ENTENTE CORDIALE | English conservationists, doubly green, railed about Anglo/French agreement (7,8) |
| E (English) + NT (conservationists, i.e. the National Trust) + ENT (doubly) + ECO (green) + anagram (about) of RAILED | ||
| 4 | CAPTIVE | One in jail caught Señora Peron climbing quietly inside (7) |
| C (caught) + P (quietly) in (inside) EVITA (Señora Peron) backwards (climbing) | ||
| 6 | SUFFRAGAN BISHOP | I brush pagans off nonchalantly, being a man of God (9,6) |
| Anagram (nonchalantly) of I BRUSH PAGANS OFF. I guessed the BISHOP part but had to look up SUFFRAGAN. A Suffragan Bishop turns out to be, essentially, an assistant bishop. | ||
| 7 | TRUNK | Chest beginning to throb, jog back in last place (5) |
| T[hrob] + RUN (jog) + [bac]K | ||
| 8 | EAST SIDE | Manhattan district steadies corruption (4,4) |
| Anagram (corruption) of STEADIES | ||
| 9 | JUNGLE | Swiss psychiatrist left base in tropical forest (6) |
| JUNG (Swiss psychiatrist) + L (left) + E (base, of natural logarithms, that is). | ||
| 16 | GONE TO SEA | Having set sail, catch large bird circumnavigating America (4,2,3) |
| NET (catch) in (circumnavigating) GOOSE (large bird) + A (America) | ||
| 17 | See 2 | |
| 19 | SIN BIN | Skinny bairn regularly chucked in the naughty corner? (3,3) |
| S[k]I[n]N[y] B[a]I[r]N | ||
| 20 | COLONEL | Senior officer: Ewell must be evacuated (7) |
| COLON (:) + E[wel]L | ||
| 21 | REGENT | Split involving George – gutless as he was – in 1815 (6) |
| G[eorg]E (George gutless) in (involving) RENT (split). The definition refers to George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, who became Prince Regent in said year. | ||
| 23 | TRUMP | Weekend golfer partial to sweet rum punch (5) |
| Hidden word | ||
Why would anyone write a song with ‘Trump Trump Trump’ in it?
Excellent crossword.
I was delighted to see that this weekend’s offering was signed Julius. And how could you not love a clue like 24/28 ac, my FOI, or the connected 2/17d (yes, I
thought of Kipling too)?! Besides which, the grid contained more worthies than you could shake a stick at: Lawrence of Arabia, Jung, Lauda, Drake and Evita. Of course, I wouldn’t include 23d in this grouping though, preferring it as an allusion to Nellie’s parting.
I was on a roll with this puzzle, with two thirds of it a write-in. The time I might normally spend poring over and checking possibilities was much more happily spent unravelling the neat cluing and excellent wordplay. As an LFC fan, I appreciated 11ac (!) as well as enjoying 1d and 19d. Harry Kane might just carry them off!
Strangely, I’d plumped for ADULATION before spotting my error at 25ac and I’m more familiar with ‘enunciate’ than ‘enounce’ but the latter was clearly what was required.
I slowed in the NE quadrant, making a lucky guess with the type of ‘bishop’ 6d’s anagram represented (new to me) and finished with the sly fly at 5ac.
Thanks, Julius, for a very satisfying solve and Pete for your amusing blog.
Diane has said it all. It made the weekend.
24, 28 I thought “the Circus” was simply where Nellie was, and which she left because of “a call of nature” as you might put it. can’t see how it might relate to MI6
Thanks Julius and Pete
A fun solve that I was able to do last Sunday across a couple of sessions during the evening. Some excellent clues and a clever nostalgic theme which I didn’t see apart from the obvious two clearly defined clues.
Think that I have seen the SET SET SET trick to hide that fly in before, but think that it is a very neat way of clueing it. Thought that the Niki LAUDA clue was another very good one.
Finished in the right hand side with SUFFRAGAN BISHOP (which needed to be looked up here as well), ENGAGED and GONE TO SEA the last few in.