A themed puzzle from Gozo this week. A little specialist knowledge is required, but by no means experts only. Thank you Gozo.
The across entries are all types of DANCE (26 down). Some of these entries do have additional definitions to help (or to misdirect?) but as the instructions state these definitions where present are not thematic.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EXCUSE-ME |
Copper’s in river with Gozo (6-2)
|
| CU’S (copper is) inside EXE (the River Exe, in England) with ME (Gozo, the setter) | ||
| 5 | SMOOCH |
Mark loves being in school (6)
|
| M (mark) O O (love, twice) inside SCH (school) | ||
| 9 | GALLIARD |
Lad and a girl gyrating (8)
|
| anagram (gyrating) of LAD with A GIRL | ||
| 10 | PAVANE |
Virginia entered through the window (6)
|
| VA (Virginia) inside (entered through) PANE (window) | ||
| 12 | ECOSSAISE |
Parts of Polynesia’s so celebrated, on reflection (9)
|
| found inside (parts of) polynESIA’S SO CElebrated reversed (on reflection) | ||
| 13 | POLKA |
About a thousand left work (5)
|
| a reversal (about) of A K (thousand) L (left) OP (work) | ||
| 14 | JIVE |
Leaders of junta initiated violent extremes (4)
|
| first letters (leaders) of Junta Initiated Violent Extremes | ||
| 16 | MUSETTE |
Silent hiding place for bagpipe (7)
|
| MUTE (silent) contains (hiding) SET (place) | ||
| 19 | ONE-STEP |
Edited notes and record of Armstrong’s first couple of words (3- 4)
|
| anagram (edited) of NOTES then EP (extended play, a record) – an edited record of Neil Armstrong’s “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” | ||
| 21 | REEL |
Restormel doesn’t have wet weather (4)
|
| REstormEL missing STORM (wet weather) – in case you were wondering, Restormel is a castle in Cornwall | ||
| 24 | SHAKE |
A second milky drink (5)
|
| double definition – a short moment (slang) and a milk shake drink | ||
| 25 | PASO DOBLE |
Booed pals performing (4,5)
|
| anagram (performing) of BOOED PALS | ||
| 27 | MINUET |
It’s not Max that’s rudest, regularly (6)
|
| MIN (it’s not max) with (that has) every other letter (regularly) of rUdEsT | ||
| 28 | HORNPIPE |
Casually pop in with her (8)
|
| anagram (casually) of POP IN with HER | ||
| 29 | DO-SI-DO |
Parties vow (2-2-2)
|
| DO’S (parties) then I DO (a vow, in a wedding ceremony) | ||
| 30 | MERENGUE |
Poor Mr Eugene (8)
|
| anagram (poor) of MR EUGENE | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EAGLES |
Raptors recorded on course (6)
|
| double/cryptic definition – birds and two under par on a golf course | ||
| 2 | CALLOW |
Naive actor having to visit town- centre (6)
|
| CALL (to visit) and tOWn (centre of) – two definitions, the actor Simon Callow | ||
| 3 | SLIPS |
Lapses by the wicket keeper (5)
|
| double definition – errors and fielders located next to the wicket keeper in cricket | ||
| 4 | MORAINE |
Debris or gold found in state (7)
|
| OR (gold) inside MAINE (a state) | ||
| 6 | MEAT-PASTE |
Sandwich spread and spam served with tea, note (4,5)
|
| anagram (served) of SPAM with TEA then TE (note, in music) | ||
| 7 | ON A PLATE |
Easily the most convenient way to collect church funds (2,1,5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 8 | HEE-HAWED |
Male, then turned up in fear and laughed rudely (3-5)
|
| HE (male) then HE (then another male) reversed this time (turned up) and finally AWED (in fear) | ||
| 11 | TERM |
Some semester mainly (4)
|
| found inside (some of) semesTER Mainly | ||
| 15 | IN THE LEAD |
Tail end? He sadly isn’t there! (2,3,4)
|
| anagram (sadly) of TAIL END HE – the tail ender isn’t there (in the lead, the solution) | ||
| 17 | CONSUMED |
Exhausted by the intake? (8)
|
| double/cryptic definition – eaten and tired by the eating | ||
| 18 | REPAINTS |
Refurbished pantries – with these? (8)
|
| anagram (refurbished…with these letters) of PANTIRES |
||
| 20 | PAPA |
Doc’s father (4)
|
| double definition – infamous Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier known as “Papa Doc” | ||
| 21 | RISSOLE |
Knight rejected fish breadcrumb cake (7)
|
| SIR (knight) reversed (rejected) then SOLE (a fish) | ||
| 22 | EBBING |
Declining renovation of Big Ben (6)
|
| anagram (renovation) of BIG BEN | ||
| 23 | SERENE |
Composed, having dry quarters (6)
|
| SERE (dry) then N and E (two quarters, points of the compass) | ||
| 26 | DANCE |
Old tribe at church function (5)
|
| DAN (old tribe, in the Bible) then CE (Church of England) |
Sometimes don’t bother with these Gozo themed crosswords but gave this a go and managed to finish having only to check the various unknowns. Glad I met EXCUSE-ME in a cryptic some time ago.
I felt Gozo was using REPAINTS as a plural noun, which would fit in with “refurbished pantries”, effectively “these” is the definition and “refurbished” is the anagram indicator. Bit loose perhaps but worked for me.
Thanks Hovis, that explanation of REPAINTS works for me. I could only see it as a verb.
Getting EXCUSE-ME straight away gave an inkling of what was going on and although the unheard of SMOOCH then gave me some doubts, the other DANCE(s) went in OK with the help of the wordplay and the occasional second definition. I’d at least vaguely heard of the all of the rest of the thematic answers (some courtesy of previous crosswords), except MERENGUE. I agree about the parsing of 18d with REPAINTS as a noun.
I liked the two definitions plus wordplay for CALLOW and two definitions plus unstated thematic defintion for SHAKE. The PAPA ‘Doc’ reference was also very neat.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
I knew MERENGUE from hearing the lyrics of the 1980s Barry Manilow song Copacabana. For years I thought it was spelled meringue, like the dessert. If a Pavlova was a dancer then a meringue would be a dance. It seemed to make perfect sense at the time.
I’m not a fan of the themed puzzle because they’re a bit too easy. I didn’t even have the rubric for this but spotted that there was a theme – and what it was – almost immediately so the A crosses were practically all write-ins.
Having said that, I was seriously held up in the top right by having not POLKA but GALOP, which is perfectly valid: A G (a thousand bucks in US), reversed, + L[eft] + OP[us].
Grr, but thanks to both.
Great job, PeeDee, but I have a minor issue with your version of 25A. “Booed pals” has two O’s and only one A which makes the correct answer PASO DOBLE, not PASA DOBLE.
Thanks Peter, I have a typo there. I will fix the blog in a minute.
I enjoy the occasonal themed puzzle … this was thankfully not too testing altho I spent more time watching YouTubes of the various unknown dances.. check out the one-step, looks like a dance custom-made for me… basically walking… fortunately the down clues were straightforward which helped a lot… especially when I’d set my heart on MADRIGAL for 9ac… POLKA was a favourite as was MUSETTE.. remembering too late that that refers to actual bagpipes.. I’d taken SET to be the bagpipes, MUTE being the ‘hiding place’.. MUSETTE is actually the dance! interesting how many musical terms I had not previously associated with actual dances… all good learning…
thanks GOZO n PeeDee
Spam and meat paste had my looking for a spittoon .
Ditto that, Copmus!
It’s a Public Holiday (Buddha’s birthday) here today so Gozo was excellent company, as usual.
Entered MOCHA for SHAKE as my FOI and was about to start looking for drinks when IN THE LEAD forced a rethink and got me back on track with JIVE next.
Straight-forward after that and nothing else to add besides a shout for my own particular favourite, DO-SI-DO.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee.
at 18D, PAINTERS fits the clue at least as well as the given answer.
MERENGUE was the only one I had to check. To a former barn dance caller, folk dance fiddler, and Renaissance lutenist, the themed answers mostly fell out very quickly, especially as DANCE was FOI (old solver’s trick – look at the last own clue first).
To Goujeers @11:
Ditto re the music, all pretty familiar. I’m a pro folkie meself. We shd have a session next time we’re on the same continent (no idea where you are).
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. I’m not knowledgeable about dances so I struggled here but did get a good start by getting JIVE and MINUET. My LOI was ECOSSAISE where I kept looking for a reversal but could not spot it. ONE-STEP was my favorite.
I thought {like Goujeers} 18d was PAINTERS and had written it in before spotting the theme {via POLKA and REEL}, so that held me up for a bit! Needed help to get MUSETTE and MERENGUE, the other dances went in easily enough. Liked CALLOW and RISSOLE.
Despite having two left feet when on the dance floor (I’m with you on the one-step undrell@8 – very amusing) I got through this without too much difficulty with REEL and MERENGUE giving the game away before I’d solved DANCE. I only saw REPAINTS as a verb so thanks to Hovis for the enlightenment. CALLOW was my favourite. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
GB @ 12- I’m in Lewes in Sussex, England, but I don’t play any more, though if you find yourself anywhere near us there are a lot of regular session in the area, largely organised by Mrs Goujeers and her coterie.
Got 1a immediately and spotted the theme. NE corner held me up, last in was 8d which took me a while to parse. Got held up with 16a, because it says every across clue lacks a definition, so what is bagpipes doing in the clue?
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Only started this one last night and finished off during the day today. EXCUSE ME was the first in and the theme pretty much worked out immediately, and quickly confirmed with PAVANE and SMOOCH (although that needed to be checked).
Liked the ‘help’ with the second clues (like having ‘bagpipe’ in the clue at 16a, NNI) but did miss the ‘actor’ CALLOW at 2d.
Finished in the SW corner with CONSUMED (taking longer than it ought), SHAKE (as my last dance) and REPAINTS (easy enough from the anagram fodder but not so with the definition).