Haven’t seen Lato here for a year or so.
Preamble: Thematic clues are listed in alphabetical order of their solutions which must be paired off and entered incompletely where they fit. Extra single letters given by wordplay in half the remaining clues spell out advice to solvers as to how this should be done. All resulting entries are real words or, in one case, two.
Ignored the thematics to begin with, and made a start on the rest. At the end of a medium-length session I’d filled in all bar two of those answers and sorted out the advice: WE DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION (Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall). Thought I’d leave the thematics for later – smart move, as it took me three times as long to winkle all of them out.
First up was marrying HOOPLA with TOCH, resulting in the entry HOOCH after leaving out PLATO. Next was DOBRO plus DIETING, Jean BRODIE being fictional though based partly on a teacher of Muriel Spark. Others dribbled out and any flow pretty much dried up with 6 or 7 thematics left unsolved and so entries unmatched.
At some point I had three left to sort out: BO?ES, which turned out to be a second Harry Potter reference I’d never heard of; BR?T, which I maybe should have got earlier – memorable production of Nicholas Nickleby at the Aldwych in 1980 with the young Roger Rees as Nicholas, but I’d forgotten Ben Kingsley in the role of Squeers; and that left MA???EYRIE. So, I was looking for 3 letters which when tagged onto the end of MA gave ‘Spanish capital’ and when succeeded by EY gave a (well-known?) teacher. A long time later came MAHON (capital of Menorca) and HONEY (from Matilda): not well known in this household unfortunately – and my partner was a primary school teacher for pretty much all of her career.
I’d have saved a lot of time if I’d found The World’s Favourite Fictional Teachers Ranked much earlier.
ENTTEACHERRY: reference
BOSNAPEXES: Harry Potter
BRUSQUEERST: Nicholas Nickleby
DEBARLOWCAL: Coronation St
DOBRODIETING: Prime of …
ENOWHITECH: Breaking Bad
FORSAKEATINGLE: Dead Poets …
HOOPLATOCH: some Greek
LEARNOLDMAN: headmaster Rugby
LOGCHIPPINGOS: Goodbye, Mr …
MAHONEYRIE: Matilda
POTHEADSTONEAGE: no idea (see Comment #1: Our Mutual Friend)
PULLUPINLET: Harry Potter
Thanks Lato – not my cup of tea I’m afraid.
| Thematic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue | Answer | Wordplay | ||
| • | Mock relations over crowns (6) | APEXES | APE (mock) SEX< (relations) | |
| • | Excited beating Leeds? Not entirely (7) | ATINGLE | (be)ATING LE(eds) | |
| • | Good welcoming Second Officer on board (4) | BO’S’N | BON (good) around S(econd) | |
| • | Equus directed by brother Curt (7) | BRUSQUE | [EQUUS]* after BR(other) | |
| • | Don’t admit book has expensive cover (5) | DEBAR | B(ook) in DEAR (expensive) | |
| • | Hassle I’d get in attempt to slim (7) | DIETING | [I’D GET IN]* | |
| • | Brood playing guitar (5) | DOBRO | [BROOD]* | |
| • | Sweetheart’s present sufficient earlier (4) | ENOW | (sw)E(et) middle letter NOW (present) | |
| • | Rest involved once a long time ago (4) | ERST | [REST]* | |
| • | High spot of year visiting lake (5) | EYRIE | Y(ear) in ERIE (lake) | |
| • | Ask jockeys in front to give up (7) | FORSAKE | [ASK]* in FORE (front) | |
| • | Egghead in difficulty using very sophisticated electronics (6) | HI-TECH | E(gg) first letter in HITCH (difficulty) | |
| • | Bear going round Californian city’s fair game (6) | HOOPLA | POOH< (bear) LA (Californian city) | |
| • | Reversing order, allowed to enter bay (5) | INLET | LET IN (allowed to enter) all< | |
| • | Pick up lecturer near building (5) | LEARN | L(ecturer) [NEAR]* | |
| • | Charlie and Phil go to change attachment on ship’s line (7) | LOG-CHIP | C (Charlie, Nato alphabet) [PHIL GO]* | |
| • | Women in pub unlikely to put on weight (6) | LOW-CAL | W(omen) in LOCAL (pub) | |
| • | Spanish capital backed professional (5) | MAHON | NO HAM (professional) | |
| • | Father roasted almond (6, 2 words) | OLD MAN | [ALMOND]* | |
| • | Posing around mounds (6) | PINGOS | [POSING]* | |
| • | Smoker’s articles found in school (7) | POTHEAD | THE A (articles) in POD (school) | |
| • | Stop going back and forth (6, 2 words) | PULL UP | definition leads to palindrome | |
| • | Figure in present or past time (8, 2 words) | STONE AGE | ONE (figure) in STAGE (present) | |
| • | In contact with children’s charity (4, 2 words) | TOC H | TO (in contact with) CH(ildren) | |
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue | Answer | x | Wordplay |
| 5 | Talked with bowler maybe after century (7) | CHATTED | HATTED (with bowler maybe) after C(century) | |
| 9 | Great distress when Henry gets in scrape (3) | HOE | W | WOE (great distress) around H(enry) |
| 10 | Beer drunk by German winger (5) | GREBE | [BEER]* after G(erman) | |
| 11 | Fish plate, small and delicate (5) | ELFIN | E | EEL (fish) FIN (plate) |
| 12 | Sent back ordinary sweet sherries (8) | OLOROSOS | SO-SO (ordinary) ROLO (sweet) all< | |
| 14 | Dry wit in last novel (4) | SALT | [LAST]* | |
| 15 | Sturgeon, perhaps, or another fish in strait (4) | SCOT | D | COD (fish) in ST(rait) |
| 17 | I’m surprised about article being cut (4) | GASH | O | GOSH (I’m surprised) about A (article) |
| 18 | Philosopher from north always right (4) | AYER | AYE (always) R(ight) | |
| 19 | Top agent’s somehow recipient of confidence (8) | GATEPOST | N | [TOP AGENT’S]* |
| 22 | Turning round, cross into West where there’ll be questions (4) | EXAM | X (cross) in MAE (West) all< | |
| 26 | Was still eating leftover food brought back (8) | RESTORED | T | RESTED (was still) around ORT (leftover food) |
| 27 | Bones returned – body’s inside (5) | SACRA | (c)ARCAS(e)< (body) | |
| 28 | Wish to have New Version discussed (4) | ENVY | homophone NV (New Version) | |
| 30 | Assume lieutenant’s stupid fellow (4) | DOLT | N | DON (assume) LT (lieutenant) |
| 32 | Believed director’s promise (4) | WORD | E | WORE (believed) D(irector) |
| 34 | Recalled a little information (4) | DATA | A TAD (little) all< | |
| 35 | Bring on cocaine? So stupid! (8) | OCCASION | E | [COCAINE SO]* |
| 36 | Run fast to old airport (5) | O’HARE | HARE (run fast) after O(ld) | |
| 37 | Shoe for runner (3) | SKI | D | SKID (shoe) |
| Down | No. | Clue | Answer | x | Wordplay |
| 1 | Supermen foolishly take it (7) | PRESUME | N | [SUPERMEN]* |
| 2 | Old soldier’s foreign haul? No (5) | UHLAN | O | [HAUL NO]* |
| 3 | Settled round Eastern border in Irish county (7) | LEITRIM | LIT (settled) round E(astern) RIM (border) | |
| 4 | Print measure upsetting for one Royal Family member (6) | ENNAGE | EG (for one) ANNE (Royal Family member) all< | |
| 5 | Actor George’s making passes (4) | COLS | E | COLE’S (actor) |
| 6 | Pick up wrong fish (4) | TROT | TORT< (wrong) | |
| 7 | Irritable still about hiding embarrassing infection (5) | TESTY | D | YET< (still) round STD (embarrassing infection) |
| 8 | Run off desolate (6) | DESERT | double definition | |
| 13 | Dirty old man goes to northern French city (5) | ROUEN | ROUE (dirty old man) N(orthern) | |
| 16 | Times in Nassau really uplifting (4) | ERAS | U | (Nas)SAU RE(ally)< |
| 20 | Recreation’s no good for soul (3) | ÂME | GAME (recreation) ¬ G(ood) | |
| 21 | Company car breaking down is the main danger (4) | ORCA | C | CO(mpany) [CAR]* |
| 23 | Lad worked with lots of plugs here (6) | ADLAND | [LAD]* AND (with) | |
| 24 | Extremely immoral duke invited round on Saturday (7) | BADDEST | A | D(uke) in BADE (invited) SAT(urday) |
| 25 | Girl covered in flipping butter – language! (7) | TAGALOG | GAL (girl) in GOAT< (butter) | |
| 26 | Jumper in soak – fellow’s put a different top on (6) | RE-ROOF | T | ROO (jumper) in RET (soak) F(ellow) |
| 27 | Boss’s one round workplace (6) | STUDIO | STUD (boss) I (one) O (round) | |
| 29 | Preacher’s weakness – clipped voice (5) | VICAR | I | VIC(e) (weakness) AIR (voice) |
| 30 | Drive Dicky’s coach (5) | DRILL | DR(ive) ILL (dicky) | |
| 31 | Mark is not a criminal (5) | STAIN | O | [IS NOT A]* |
| 32 | They may be civil alerts (4) | WARS | N | WARNS (alerts) |
| 33 | Acceptable start to dirty joke (4) | DONE | D(irty) ONE (joke) | |
|
|
||||
I haven’t the skill to attempt these crosswords but have nothing better to do I Googled Headstone and it turned out that Bradley was a schoolteacher in Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend”
My overriding memory of this was of struggling badly, in particular with the thematic clues. Oh, and the parsing too, which meant that the advice I got from extra letters was first garbled, and then mainly guessed. Oh well, I got there in the end.
My experience similar to HG’s. I waded through it and eventually found all the omitted educators but had trouble identifying the sources of them. Then someone kindly posted this list (below) which cleared it all up. Bit of a struggle though. Endgame took much longer than the grid fill!
PLA-TO (Teacher of Aristotle)
Thomas ARN-OLD (Tom Brown’s Schooldays)
Jean BRO-DIE (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
John KE-ATING (Dead Poets Society) or Annalise KE-ATING (How To Get Away With Murder)
Severus SN-APE (Harry Potter)
Remus LUP-IN (Harry Potter)
Charles, Mr CHIP-PING (Goodbye Mr Chips)
Ken BAR-LOW (Coronation Street)
Wackford SQUE-ERS (Nicholas Nickleby)
Bradley HEAD-STONE (Our Mutual Friend)
Walter W-HITE (Breaking Bad)
Jennifer HON-EY (Matilda)
Although I’d filled the whole thing in I was frustrated by the front half of Marie and had to ask a friend, since the search I did only showed the capital of the Baleares as a whole, not each b—-y island.
No double entendre intended with Marie’s front half, of course. What were you thinking?
Although I see that I got a couple of clues wrong (IOTA for DATA, and BABIEST for BADDEST), I thought that this puzzle was more enjoyable than the comments above suggest. The clues were all very concise and I found the endgame challenging but achievable, once I worked out what needed to be done. Of course, Thomas Arnold and Plato were real teachers, and I never did work out who White might be.
I really enjoyed this. I didn’t have too much trouble pairing up the thematic clues, even though I didn’t know some of the schoolmasters and had to check online. Well, no trouble except for solving the clue to MAHON which was unforgivable given that I live in Spain. This clue gimmick can end up a pain in the wrong hands, but these were safe hands of course and it just added to the fun of solving. Thanks very much.
I thought this puzzle was excellent and enjoyed it much more than some of the commentators above did. It is very satisfying when the full working out of the theme is integral to the gridfill rather than tacked on as an extra at the end. Many congratulations to Lato and thanks to HolyGhost.
I also thought that this was an excellent puzzle. Once I had enough to see the advice, getting the first “unwanted” exemplars, Plato and Arnold, was a delight. Until then I’d assumed it would be synoyms of ‘teacher’,’educator’, etc. I did struggle with some of the pairings since the thematic clues seemed tougher than the others. To add to the difficulty, Lupin, Headstone, Honey, and White were complete unknowns to me. Honey was particularly troublesome because, like the blogger, it was ages before I got MAHON. I might have completed the endgame more quickly if I were a film buff.
I was struggling to finish this, and required help with MAHON to get me over the line. I only knew 2 of the themesters, PLATO and BRODIE, so the pairing up was very difficult.
But I did complete it, and enjoyed the tussle. Very clever gridfill.
Very much enjoyed, but yes, the endgame was in part a struggle. I knew the bookish ones — Dahl (but as others have noted, the MAHON construction was a bit of a bastard), Dickens x 2, Rowling x 2 (for my sins I once wrote a whole book on the Harry Potter thing) and Spark — but had to work a bit at Barlow and Keating, and put White down as the generic Chalky White teacher (once there was one in every school; well there certainly was in mine) in the absence of any personal knowledge of Breaking Bad.
Thanks to Lato and HG.
Two toughies on the bounce! (this one and the Harribobs) – I doff my cap to anyone who has done the double!
Well, it’s horses for courses. I am with @6 to @12 with this. It was a bit of a struggle in places but I enjoyed the journey. Pink Floyd has been a theme in quite a few IQs, although this time only peripherally with the reference from their classic rock opera The Wall. At first, I was looking for schools to eliminate until I found SQUEERS, which put me on the right track to help solve the remaining thematic clues. A bit of inter-netting was needed but not enough to put me off. I am another who was stuck on solving MAHON as I only looked for regional capitals on the mainland. There was no excuse, especially since I’ve been there! Anyway, I was still able to complete the grid as the entry had to be MARIE.
Thanks to Lato for an entertaining puzzle. Also to HG – sorry you didn’t enjoy it.
Great to see Squeers and Headstone lined up with Snape. We certainly dont need edukaters like that
Like others, it took me a while to get Mahon – I only twigged because I was looking for somewhere to fit the “hon” from Honey. I enjoyed solving the theme, but had to research online to solve Keating and Honey, not known to me. That was fine though, and I agree it was an enjoyable solve – a just about doable level of challenge for me. NB I think Harribobs’ Heavy Metal Band was waaay harder than this, intriguing though it was!