… or so said Nimrod by e-mail when it turned out that I’d found an extra bit of thematic material.
Solving time: 11:27
A fairly easy but well-crafted example of the multi-cross-reference puzzle as seen in the Guardian when I was cutting my crossword teeth. I took the time to jumble the anagram fodder in 21/1 on paper on first look, got the answer quickly from {something SPONGE}, and soon established the theme – though I didn’t realise there were six cakes scattered through the answers until looking back at the clues for blogging purposes and having to explain the clue to 17/4.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | See 21D |
| 5 | M,AM(ASBO)Y – “little woman” is Amy, one of the March sisters in the Louisa May Alcott book – and for any overseas solvers, order=ASBO comes from “Anti-Social Behaviour Order”, a New Labour measure supposed to combat yobbery. |
| 9 | AG,LITTER |
| 10 | D(WARF(are))S – “hors de combat” = (literally) outside of combat |
| 11 | BAN(d)ANA – one of six cakes among the answers to clues |
| 12 | EPI(SO,DI)C – Di = Diana Spencer = “The Queen of Hearts” – EPIC = “heroic work” |
| 13/19 | THE QUEEN OF HEARTS – (theft he, Square one)* |
| 15 | A(YES)HA – even my poor knowledge of pop includes Iceland: Bjork, Norway: Aha |
| 16 | CLUE UP – CD with very broad hint from “crosswords” and “not Down” |
| 22 | STOREMAN = “shop steward” – rev. of “name rots” = “authority corrupts” |
| 23 | R(ASHE)R – {Tennis champion = ASHE} seems top be getting nearly as common as {composer = ARNE} – time to give Pat Cash a few turns? |
| 25 | CHEESE – another cake, with a meaning of “anything of excellent quality” – watch out for “to grovel” as well |
| 26 | THE(ODIC)Y = vindication of the justice of God in creating a world in which evil exists |
| 27 | E(MISS=Spinster,I)VE |
| 28 | DUNDEE – end* in due – and another cake |
| Down | |
| 2 | PUG,W=”first to widdle”,ASH=tree – Captain Pugwash was on TV for about two decades starting in 1957, and was apparently in the Eagle comic before that. |
| 3 | NAIRA – hidden word, and currency of Nigeria |
| 4 | See 17 |
| 5 | MARIE ANTOINETTE = (I rent one at a time)* – defined by 13 = “The Queen” |
| 6 | M,A,DIER=”dear”,A – another cake |
| 7 | SO=very,A,(POPE(R),A) |
| 8/20 | OFF WITH HER HEAD – The Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has “Off with {possessive pronoun} head” as her catchphrase and I’m sure asks for Alice’s excecution in the same fashion – hence “lice”. |
| 14 | QUE,ERNE=bird,SS=steamship=vessel – a catchphrase from Fawlty Towers this time |
| 17/4 | LET THEM EAT CAKE – the mistranslated quote from Marie Antoinette – if memory serves, she really said “let them eat brioche”, and brioche was sold cheap by French bakers in the same way as out-of-date food at your local Tesco’s. The “in places here” part is Nimrod’s way of making sure that we notice all those cakes. |
| 18 | POMP = “It’s august”,I(E)I – “burial site” = rather brutal def |
| 21/1 | TREACLE SPONGE – (gal, open secret)* – and two cakes in one answer – “treacle cake” being the one that Nimrod didn’t know about – what we might call a jammy fluke (gets coat) |
| 24 | SEDAN = litter – reverse hidden in “lemonade shandy” |
This was a very enjoyable puzzle indeed with, as you say, all those various ideas nicely interconnected.
Having made some criticisms of thematics from colleagues recently, let me be positive and say that I thought this one got it just right. What a Saturday puzzle ought to be.
Minor point, but I thought 23 across had three parts – more hasty, slice, and then the wordplay that you have explained.
Absolutely, nms.
I seem to remember Gordius doing this very recently, with the same word…
I really enjoyed this last week, but I did wonder at the time if Diana was ever known as the “queen” of hearts?
I thought she was always the “Princess of Hearts”(TM), but I could be wrong…
There’s a cake of soap too…
Sorry.