A favourite setter of mine, who I have enjoyed many a tussle with over the years. His final EV.
Seems a bit pointless to thank someone after they have passed on, but Schadenfreude/ Oxymoron started as, for me, a dreaded name to see on a crossword and as my experience grew, became one I looked out for. I have had hours and hours of fun from John Harrington’s puzzles, in all manner of publications – the Independent, Times – the Listener, Telegraph – EV, Guardian and the CAM spring to mind. Such precise clueing that could always be checked in a dictionary and the man who loved to to define cat as vomit or vice versa are what I remember. It was an Independent magazine crossword (now the Inquisitor) of his that I first won a prize with in the early 2000’s. A retrospective glass of champagne to you – Cheers.
As to this puzzle – 23 answers to be entered with a letter omission and 15 rearranged. The removed letters spelling 5 names and their surnames need to be found. Finally 2 letters to be changed in the same column to
The 5 names were GUY, JOHN, DONALD, ANTHONY and KIM
BURGESS, CAIRCROSS, MACLEAN, BLUNT and PHILBY being the surnames visible in parallel NE to SW diagonals in the completed grid. All members of the Apostles – and a CAMBRIDGE SPYRING (visible in the top and bottom rows) following a change of Scar to SCAM and Class to CLASP (to be highlighted).
Also, the final column could reveal APOSTLE from Thecla/postday to Thecla/POSTLEY but would fail to meet the need for all final entries to be real words. There was a secret left wing Cambridge university club called the Apostles, that they were all alleged members of. Something I did not know 30 plus years ago when someone asked me if I had been a member!
Many posthumous thanks Oxymoron for this and all the others over the years. You will be missed.
Key:
Rev. Reverse; DD Double definition; Underline definition;
| ACROSS | |
| 2 Cape headland cliffs (5) | |
| G | C(cape) + ras (healand) = CRAGS = SCAR |
| 5 Wrinkles on baron’s nose parts (7) | |
| ridges(wrinkles) after b (baron) = BRIDGES | |
| 11 Flattened spoon left in mixed paste (7) | |
| U | (l + paste)* = SPATULE = STAPLE |
| 12 Malicious little children (6) | |
| Y | ibit (little) + ch (children) = BITCHY = BITCH |
| 14 Fellow (possibly Old Norse) managed with recurrent contagious illness (6) | |
| ran (managed) + Rev. flu (contagious illness) = RANULF | |
| 15 Supposed emanations outside or atmospheric phenomena (7) | |
| aurae(supposed emanations) around or = AURORAE | |
| 16 Hill men seen in Turkey (4) | |
| or (men) in Tr (Turkey) = TORR | |
| 18 Public school’s tokens (6) | |
| J | DD JETONS = ETONS |
| 20 A latent spread of bacterial disease (7) | |
| (a latent)* = TETANAL | |
| 21 Jock’s joint base a little supple (9) | |
| lith (Jock’s joint) + e (base) + some (a little) = LITHESOME | |
| 22 Female star that’s variable (5) | |
| O | DD MOIRA = MIRA |
| 23 Screw steamer loaded with finished shafts (7) | |
| H | SS (screw steamer) around neat (finished) = SNEATHS = SNASTE |
| 25 Improve appearance of sailor with striking face (6, two words) (6) | |
| tar (sailor) + tup (striking face) = TART UP | |
| 28 Seaman meeting a Spanish patriarch (5) | |
| AB (sailor) + una (a Spanish) = ABUNA | |
| 31 Children on time – they may tell gee-gees to move on (7) | |
| chicks(children) after t (time) = TCHICKS | |
| 33 Poison discharge overcoming whale (7) | |
| N | arc(discharge) around sei (whale) = ARSENIC = CARIES |
| 34 Battle previously expected by lines before start of offensive (6) | |
| due(expected) + ll (lines) + o (start of offensive) = DUELLO | |
| 38 Move to the right carrying round lump of ironstone (5) | |
| D | gee (move to the right) around o (round) = GEODE = OGEE |
| 39 Small amount of food stocked by old Rutherford went round (7) | |
| bite (small amount of food) in o (old) + Rd (Rutherford) = ORBITED | |
| 40 US golfer won in Sweden and Norway (6) | |
| O | w(won) + at (in) + s (Sweden) + n(Norway) = WATSON = WANTS |
| 41 Vale for example acceptable to a deity of Egypt (8) | |
| say (for example) + on (acceptable to) + a + Ra (deity of Egypt) = SAYONARA | |
| 42 Society talk about variable mixture of CO and H (6) | |
| N | s (society) + gas(talk) + y (variable) = SYNGAS = GASSY |
| 43 Vacant wag returning in windy rainy boulevard (7) | |
| (rainy + wg)* = RINGWAY | |
| DOWN | |
| 1 Dishes from home in South-east turned up (7) | |
| A | Rev. lair (home) in Se = AERIALS = ISRAEL |
| 2 Scary beginning (9) | |
| L | DD STARTLING = STARTING |
| 3 John with close-cut hair is unable to … (6) | |
| can (John) + not (close-cut hair) = CANNOT | |
| 4 … answer positive American stars (4) | |
| a(answer) + p (positive) + us (American) = APUS | |
| 5 Does obscure Field Officer detained by Turkish governor start to squeal (6) | |
| FO (Field officer) in Beg (Turkish officer) + s (start to squeal) = BEFOGS | |
| 6 Gloomy tower (5) | |
| D | DD DREAR = REAR |
| 7 International tender excluding Siemens to come into effect (5) | |
| I(international) + nurse (tender) – s (Siemens) = INURE | |
| 8 US soldiers receiving zero discounts (5) | |
| A | Gis (US soldiers) around o (zero) = AGIOS = GIOS |
| 9 Perverted rascal no longer acts sexually (7) | |
| N | (rascla)* = CARNALS = SCALAR |
| 10 Champion wearing dead old thong (7) | |
| T | ch(champion) in late (dead) = LATCHET = THECLA |
| 13 Pair of triplets taking one vasodilator (9) | |
| Trin + Trin (pair of triples) around i (one) = TRINITRIN | |
| 17 Some fast engines speed up (6) | |
| H | Hidden = HASTEN = STEAN |
| 19 West country mining lease argument (5) | |
| O | SET-TO = SETT |
| 20 Substantive witty saying about monuments (5) | |
| Rev. Sb (Substantive) + mot (witty saying) = TOMBS | |
| 23 Expelled from university put in writing (8, two words) | |
| N | DD SENT DOWN = SET DOWN |
| 24 Places welcoming extremes of total ascetics (8) | |
| Y | sites(places) around tl (extremes of total) = STYLITES = STILETS |
| 25 Cook finally sliced up eatables (4) | |
| Rev k (cook finally) + cut (sliced) = TUCK | |
| 26 Time for the mail to arrive after 24 hours (7, two words) | |
| post(after) + day (24 hours) = POST DAY | |
| 27 Lady observed keeping husband active (6) | |
| Seen (observed) around h(husband) + a (active) = SHEENA | |
| 29 Heather hugging a Romeo having fun (7) | |
| K | Ling (heather) around a + R(Romeo) = LARKING = LARING |
| 30 Climbers heard struggling across far side of ridge (6) | |
| (heard)* around e = HEDERA | |
| 32 Aberdonian spills a litre in self-catering section (6) | |
| I | A + l (litre) in sc (self-catering) + s (section) = SCAILS = CLASS |
| 35 Ailsa’s fluffy duck joining goosey, regularly (4) | |
| O (duck) + gOoSeY = OOSY | |
| 36 Iain’s odd guessing game (5) | |
| M | DD MORRA = ORRA |
| 37 Old boy climbs inside nut tree (rarely) (4) | |
| En (nut) around Rev. ob (old boy) = EBON |
A great puzzle from a master setter. A bonus in a way to see this one, as I’d thought we’d had them all, but also a sad reminder of what the crossword world has lost.
The 15 clues that led to an incomplete jumble of the answer made this a difficult crossword to complete, and at one point I was tempted to let it go. I had a lucky break, however, when I had found only about six of the 23 letters I had to collect. The sequence of letters began ‘?UY’, and I guessed GUY as the first of the names. I had only recently completed a crossword themed on The Cambridge Five, and, with the word CELL also looking significant, I totted up the letters in the first names (23) and surnames (35) of the Five. K and M confirmed KIM, and all the remaining letters in the sequence of first names then fell into place and helped greatly in the solving of the trickiest clues.
When the grid was complete it was very satisfying to find the five surnames all pointing in the same direction (which I thought might have had some significance). I looked for ‘The Cambridge Five’ (also 16 letters), but ‘Cambridge Spy Ring’ was clearly what was wanted.
I very much appreciated the fact that all word-lengths related to the answers and not the grid entries. Without that helpful information I may not have been able to complete this puzzle.
This quality puzzle is a fitting tribute to the setter. I have solved only one other puzzle by him (EV 1448), which I enjoyed even more than this one, and it is a shame that there are no more.
Thanks to twencelas for the introduction and blog, and posthumous thanks to Oxymoron.
A beautifully elegant construction, typical of the man. Just consider the constraints on the grid imposed by the message gimmick and admire the skill involved. And – as always – precise and utterly fair cluing.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with him in his Schadenfreude guise. Thoughtful and utterly unpretentious; I regret never having had the chance to meet him in person, as he wasn’t one to frequent crossword events and the like. A sad loss to the crossworld.
I too thought we’d had all of John’s posthumous puzzles, so this was a lovely surprise. His puzzles were always scrupulously fair in terms of both clueing and thematic implementation, which meant they were always doable even though they were never easy. That’s the mark of a great setter.
Thanks to Twencelas for the blog too.
It was a pleasant surprise to see another Oxymoron puzzle. I admired the grid especially, less so some of the ambiguities (or nearly so) in clue answers/entries. Did anyone else notice HICKS included in the final grid? Were there any other of their codenames I missed?
It is a great sadness to know that we will not see any more puzzles by Oxymoron or Schadenfreude. I was amused by John’s reference to his own hairstyle in 3D. John hated making small talk with strangers and would never go to a hairdresser or barber as a result. Instead, he always cut his own hair using electric clippers, but with only one style available his hair was always very close-cut!