One of the Indy’s newer crossword setters today, with a fun puzzle to wake us up after the bank holiday.
For a change, we have a visible theme rather than a hidden one. If you were anywhere near British pop culture in the latter half of the 1990s, you wouldn’t have been able to avoid the Spice Girls. Today’s grid includes the nicknames of all five band members (POSH, SPORTY, SCARY, GINGER and BABY), and the wordplays include all of their names (Victoria, Mel C, Mel B, Geri and Emma), along with surfaces that frequently suggest information about the singers or references to musical tracks.
Beyond the thematic clues, there are some great surfaces, particularly 11a. I’m not always a fan of cryptic definitions but I did like 7d. The misdirection of Y-fronts in 4d is very neat, and the awful-pun prize has to go to 22a. Thanks Methuselah for the puzzle (if not for the inevitable earworms).
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPORTY |
Spice Girl‘s bit of leopard print clothing radical? Originally, yes (6)
|
| SPOT (a bit of a leopard-print design), around (clothing) the first letter (originally) of R[adical] + Y (abbreviation for yes, as in yes/no votes).
Sporty Spice = Melanie Chisholm, or Mel C for short. The surface is misleading, deliberately I assume, because the Spice Girl known for wearing animal-print outfits on stage was Mel B, known as Scary Spice – see later clues. |
||
| 5 | EUPHORIA |
“Eh up!”, pants Spice Girl appearing halfway through Glee (8)
|
| Anagram (pants = rubbish) of EH UP, then [vict]ORIA (Victoria Beckham = Posh Spice) without the first half of the name (appearing halfway through). | ||
| 9 | STILETTO |
Disease from Congress allowed to spike (8)
|
| STI (short for sexually-transmitted infection = disease caught from sexual congress) + LET (allowed) + TO. | ||
| 10 | GINGER |
Some girl’s name describing one short Spice Girl (6)
|
| Just the first letter (some) of G[irl’s] + N (abbreviation for name), around (describing) I (one in Roman numerals), then GER[i] (Geri Halliwell = Ginger Spice) without the last letter (short).
Clue-as-definition for Ginger herself. “Short” isn’t obviously right because I think all five Spice Girls are much the same height; but perhaps our setter intends “one short” as a reference to Geri leaving the group in 1998? |
||
| 11 | CLASSIFIED |
CIA’s files reviewed and ultimately marked confidential (10)
|
| Anagram (reviewed) of CIA’S FILES, then the last letter (ultimately) of [marke]D.
As in “classified information” = restricted. |
||
| 12 | POSH |
Hot scoops regularly knocked back Spice Girl (4)
|
| H (hot) + alternate letters (regularly) of S[c]O[o]P[s], all reversed (knocked back).
Posh Spice = Victoria Beckham. |
||
| 13 | NOBLEMEN |
Aristos glower when interrupted by Spice Girl in retirement (8)
|
| NEON (as in neon light = a thing that glows = glower), interrupted by (containing) MEL B (Melanie Brown = Scary Spice), all reversed (in retirement). | ||
| 16 | SKIING |
Coming down rapidly, thousands flee Reading in haste (6)
|
| SKI[mm]ING (reading in haste), without MM (two thousand in Roman numerals = thousands).
Cross-country skiers and water-skiers may dispute the definition, but other forms of skiing generally involve coming down hills rapidly. |
||
| 17 | NEVADA |
State secrecy provision covers dictator’s wife (6)
|
| NDA (non-disclosure agreement = a provision to ensure secrecy), covering EVA (otherwise known as Evita, wife of Argentinian leader Juan Peron: dictator or popular leader, depending on your point of view).
UPDATE: as DavidO @7 points out, this is more likely to be a reference to Eva Braun, who married Adolf Hitler shortly before they died. |
||
| 19 | DAMPENED |
Writer’s block starting – editor is discouraged (8)
|
| PEN (writer), with DAM (block, as in a watercourse) before it (starting), then ED (short for editor). | ||
| 21 | BABY |
Spice Girl starts to booze aboard Becks’ yacht (4)
|
| First letters (starts) of B[ooze] A[board] B[ecks’] Y[acht].
Baby Spice = Emma Bunton. The surface suggests David Beckham (Becks), who is married to Posh Spice – but no doubt they could invite Baby and the others to a yacht party if they wanted to. |
||
| 22 | SELFLESSLY |
For others’ benefit, saloon’s opening without Sprite? (10)
|
| First letter (opening) of S[aloon], then ELFLESSLY (which, if it means anything at all, might mean “without an elf” = “without a sprite”). The question mark at the end presumably means “yes, I know this is silly”. | ||
| 25 | DOMAIN |
Complete postgrad degree covering empire (6)
|
| To complete a postgraduate degree covering a specific subject could be to DO an MA (Master of Arts, or originally the Latin Magister Artium) IN that subject.
Domain = empire = the range of someone’s responsibility. |
||
| 26 | MIDLANDS |
Ozzy Osbourne’s home taking LSD in mad cocktail (8)
|
| Anagram (cocktail = mixture) of LSD IN MAD.
The rock singer Ozzy Osbourne comes from Birmingham, in the Midlands area of England. I don’t believe his record of taking illegal drugs is any worse than that of most heavy metal bands. |
||
| 27 | BRASILIA |
City supporters having trouble getting back after international (8)
|
| BRAS (supporters), then AIL (trouble, as a verb) reversed (getting back) after I (abbreviation for international).
Federal capital city of Brazil. |
||
| 28 | CRYING |
Charlie replaces Snoopy’s lead in tears (6)
|
| [p]RYING (as an adjective = snoopy = inquisitive), with the first letter (lead) replaced by C (Charlie in the radio alphabet). The surface suggests Snoopy and Charlie Brown from the Peanuts cartoon strip. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | PETAL |
Bit of a bloomer after Home Secretary’s A&E mix-up (5)
|
| PATEL (Priti Patel, the current Home Secretary), with the letters A and E swapped (mixed up).
A bit of a flower (bloomer). No comment on any “bloomers” in Patel’s career, though as far as I know she hasn’t been involved in the running of hospital Accident and Emergency departments. |
||
| 3 | ROLES |
Turns on the radio leading to theatre jobs (5)
|
| Homophone (on the radio) of ROLLS (turns).
Roles = characters that an actor might play on stage = theatre jobs. |
||
| 4 | YTTRIUM |
Y-fronts of yuppies threaten to rip if unwisely manspread (7)
|
| First letters (fronts) of Y[uppies] T[hreaten] T[o] R[ip] I[f] U[nwisely] M[anspread]. (Manspreading = the supposed male habit of sitting with legs apart, which might put a strain on Y-fronts or equivalent underwear.)
Metallic element whose chemical symbol is Y. (Named after the Swedish mining village of Ytterby, where several similar chemical elements were discovered.) |
||
| 5 | EMOTION |
European gesture shows passion (7)
|
| E (abbreviation for European) + MOTION (gesture). | ||
| 6 | PAGODAS |
Somewhat cheap, a god asks for temples (7)
|
| Hidden answer (somewhat) in [chea]P A GOD AS[ks].
Towers in East Asia, usually with a religious function. |
||
| 7 | OENOPHILE |
One may go white when questioned about poison (9)
|
| Cryptic definition. When asked “what’s your poison?”, a slang phrase for “what would you like to drink?”, an oenophile (wine-lover) may go for white wine. | ||
| 8 | IN ESSENCE |
During outrageous scenes, get naked at bottom (2,7)
|
| IN (during) + anagram (outrageous) of SCENES + [g]E[t] (naked = outer letters stripped off).
At bottom = in essence = basically. |
||
| 14 | OPERA-GOER |
Patron of the arts cutting fancy rope – time to get to work (5-4)
|
| Anagram (fancy) of ROPE, with ERA (time) + GO (go! = get to work!) inserted (cutting). | ||
| 15 | LEAP YEARS |
Numberless aches following long jump when Olympics are held (4,5)
|
| YEAR[n]S (aches) without the N (numberless), following LEAP (a long jump).
In normal circumstances the Olympics are held every four years, in leap years. The most recent instance was called Tokyo 2020 (even though it took place in 2021) in an attempt to retain the sequence. |
||
| 18 | ARSENAL |
Shunning red, Chelsea ran around their rivals (7)
|
| Anagram (around) of [che]LSEA RAN, shunning the CHE (Che Guevara = Marxist = red).
Extended definition: Chelsea (usually playing in blue) and Arsenal (usually playing in red) are rival London football teams. |
||
| 19 | DILEMMA |
Cover’s upset Spice Girl – it’s problematic (7)
|
| LID (cover) reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), then EMMA (Emma Bunton = Baby Spice). | ||
| 20 | MELODIC |
Spice Girl goes over old hit, occasionally sounding tuneful (7)
|
| MEL C (Melanie Chisholm = Sporty Spice), containing (going over) alternate letters (occasionally) of O[l]D [h]I[t]. | ||
| 23 | SCARY |
Spice Girl‘s a little sad about track (5)
|
| First letter (a little) of S[ad] + CA (ca = short for Latin circa = about) + RY (short for railway = track).
Scary Spice = Melanie Brown (Mel B). |
||
| 24 | LED ON |
Deceived duke trapped in Spanish province (3,2)
|
| D (abbreviation for duke) trapped in LEON (province in north-west Spain).
Led on = deceived = encouraged to believe something that isn’t true. |
No setter name online which means I’m bound to enjoy it more, but this was great. I wondered if it was Punk.
SELFLESSLY and OENOPHILE both v good.
I couldn’t fathom GINGER, but probably lack of effort.
Thanks S&B
Brendan in the Graun demonstrated how to work a themed puzzle
Whereas this showed how not to.
Fwiw, the originally in 1ac goes with the yes rather than the radical, for which the abbreviation R is listed in Collins.
A compliment to the setter (name not visible to me when doing the puzzle either) in that I was able to complete this despite knowing next to nothing about the Spice Girls. Took a long time, but eventually got there, albeit not perfectly parsed, eg GINGER.
Favourite was the OENOPHILE cryptic def. Almost went white myself in celebration after getting DAMPENED, my last in.
Thanks to Methuselah and Quirister
James @3: I wondered about that, but you could also say that “y” for yes is common enough not to need a “first letter” indicator. I thought “R” for radical was more obscure and could do with the extra help, but “originally” could go either way – or it could be superfluous.
A clever puzzle but with a mix of nimble and clumsy clues. BRASILIA was perhaps my favourite, but ‘elflessly’? Really?
Nice to see DOMAIN clued without the usual reference to matricide.
[Chelsea and Arsenal rivals? Hardly, not this season]
FWIW, we took EVA to be a reference to Eva Braun.
OENOPHILE was v. good, but I’m not sure I would ever have got it without my co-solver.
I don’t understand the comment from Copmus @2; we enjoyed this a lot. Thanks to Methuselah and Quirister.
DavidO @7: yes, you’re probably right about EVA. Blog amended – thanks.
Copmus @2, could you expand a bit on that, please?
Thanks Methuselah and Quirister. I don’t normally do the Indy but I’m off work today so have some time on my hands, and a certain comment BTL on the Guardian piqued my interest… I thought this was fun, with some lovely clues – STILETTO, YTTIRUM, BRASILIA stood out. 7d is a neat cryptic definition. ELFLESSLY raised a smile too. Someone seems to lack a sense of humour.
Never heard of oenophile, so needed a bit of online help to get that one. James@1, setter name is currently being obscured by ads (I think) but you can get it from menu/puzzle info. Useful where setter’s name is referenced in a clue.
Thanks for the very thorough blog, Quirister. Ginger is just about the shortest of the bunch, according to Google. I realised when setting that there were two Evas. I’d actually say Peron is the better fit since the other was mostly a girlfriend, but it’s an eva/or situation.
How quickly things change… when I first set this puzzle the Olympics were on track for 2020 and Arsenal had rivals outside the relegation zone.
I’m glad some people enjoyed it. I promise it won’t be Sugababes next.
A very well clued crossword with a theme that would need some GK for those who weren’t/aren’t that much interested in the Spice Girls.
Not a problem for me – I was more surprised by the rather vague definition of 26ac (MIDLANDS) – got it, though.
I can see what Copmus @2 means but I don’t think Methusaleh deserves this kinda ticking-off.
My only quibble today was ‘some girl’ = G.
So, ‘some’ is now also a first letter indicator?
Many thanks to Quirister for a fine blog & Methusaleh for a fine puzzle.
OENOPHILE was good, but, to be very pendant, a true OENOPHILE would be the last person to request a generic white, rather than, say, a Chablis.
I found this rather difficult. There were many answers I could only guess and not parse, and 7dn and 19ac totally eluded me. Back in 1998 I was visiting Baltimore and took a water taxi to Fort McHenry, as per the Star Spangled Banner, and on the way back I asked the driver a question. A little girl heard me and asked if I was English. I said I was. “Do you know the Spice Girls?”
@4 Usually we struggle with themes as they are often about thongs classical composers and Greek mythology (especially with our favourite setter Phi). It was therefore a rare occasion where we got several of the themed clues quickly (despite being unable to parse Sporty and Ginger).
@2 This was a fine puzzle. Very hard at first, but once we got going it got easier.