February and Chalicea provides our neural stimulation. Normal clues apart from some unclued ones (18 led to 1ac and 38) and four unclued needles also to find. Finally a name needs to be highlighted of someone who overcame the problem. Sounds like a puzzle reasonaly accessible to all.
And it proved to be on the easier side. Though quite a few obscure words are included, but all impeccably clued and easily confirmable with reference books.
The 18ac proved to be the THAMES, 1ac THE GREAT STINK and 38ac CHOLERA. I’ll avoid the obvious remarks about the capital still having one of those two afflictions, or maybe not. The unclued answers were brick sewers (x1) and sewers(x3). The title providing an oblique refernce to sewers (as in neeedlework)
As for the hidden name BAZALGETTE (diagonally one cell down from the main NW to SE diagonal) as in Joseph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bazalgette) whose sewers reduced the smell in London.
And that was that.
Thanks Chalicea for good fun and some education – even with the sewers, I’m not planning on visiting the place this side of my death, or the other side for that matter. A less welcoming place, even with brick sewers, is hard to imagine.
Key: Rev. Reverse; DD Double definition; Underline definition; * anagram
ACROSS
9 Romps of birds circling old yard (7)
hens (birds) around o(old) + yd (yard) = HOYDENS
10 Father no longer obese in regressive primarily abdominal medical condition (6)
father – fat (obese) + Rev. in + a(primarily abdominal) = HERNIA
12 Down with black cloaks for women (4)
DD Abas A bas
13 Part of quadrangle beside church land (5)
Hidden quadranGLE BEside = GLEBE
14 Prompted, not like 1ac with missing line (4)
clued (not like 1ac) – l (line0 = CUED
15 Notes trees (3)
DD TIS
16 Crosses territory for ancient Greek waistbelt (6)
Zos (crosses) + ter (territory) = ZOSTER
17 Issue when sentence is overturned (4)
Rev. time (sentence) = EMIT
21 Speak insolently in Perth without turning back on husband, (5)
REv. sans (without) + h (husband) = SNASH
22 Give spherical form to space before gathering for dance (6)
en (space) + balll (dance) = ENBALL
23 With stealth regularly involved, cry plaintively for sweet tuber (6)
sTeAlTh in baa (cry plaintively) = BATATA
26 A tedious business returning for police officer (5)
Rev a drag (tedious business) = GARDA
29 Southern hemisphere trees running wild in Saigon (6)
(saigon)* = NGAIOS
30 Ace in Nevada’s gambling resort making a comeback (4)
Rev Reno(Nevada’s gambling resort) = ONER
32 Parking outsize waste containers (3)
p(parking) + os (outsize) = POS
33 Returned left over European tuberous plant (4)
Rev. odd (Left) + e (European) = EDDO
34 Deal with negotiation that’s truncated (5)
treaty(negotiation) – y = TREAT
35 Suitable tense for archaic song (4)
fit(suitable) + t (tense) = FITT
36 Stinging plant unsettled tolerant men (11, two words)
(tolerant men)* = ROMAN NETTLE
39 Musician and French horn welcomed by player of low-pitched instrument (13)
et (and French) + horn in Bassist (player of low-pitched instrument) = BASSET HORNIST
DOWN
1 People at the Globe, say, working together are ultimately actors (12)
(together are)* + s = THEATRE-GOERS
2 Rustic British belief system in political philosophy (7)
hob(rustic) + b (british) +ism (belief system) = HOBBISM
3 Now and then very great success at last for American wildcats (5)
vErY gReAt + s (success at last) = EYRAS
4 Establish unlimited area for leisure-time activities (3)
erect (establish) – ends = REC
5 Hound not initially thing worth having (5)
basset (hound) – b (beginning) = ASSET
6 African bread seen originally in ancient Egyptian city (6)
thebe (African bread) + s (seen originally) = THEBES
7 Temperature of immediate past essentially echoing Italy’s fourteenth century (8)
t(temperature) + recent (immediate past) + o (essentially echOing) = TRECENTO
8 Children of immigrants from Spain do wrong to upset internal security (6)
Rev. e (spain) + sin (do wrong) then IS (internal security) = NISEIS
11 At hand, has broadcast with Three Tenors I don’t want to hear any more (12, three words)
(at hand has + ttt)* = AND THATS THAT
13 Ambition of convict holding nothing back (4)
Rev. lag (convict) around o (nothing) = GOAL
19 Possessed Italian capital’s means of conduction in vessels (8)
had (possessed) + rome’s (Italian capital’s) = HADROMES
20 Say foremost of gaffes is mine (3)
eg (say) + g (foremost of gaffes) = EGG
24 Sturgeon’s direct publicity time (4)
air (publicity) + t (time) = AIRT
25 Excessively brusque, cut short people playing pipes (7)
too (excessively) + terse (brusque) – e = TOOTERS
27 Popular type of sword blade with Ferrara, for Bocelli or Del Sarto, maybe (6)
Triple definition = ANDREA
28 Fred, missing Ginger’s second, in a state of fixed glaring once (6)
Astaire – i (Ginger’s second) = ASTARE
29 Name German developer of Dadaism and physicist (6)
n (name) + Ernst (developer of Dadaism) = NERNST
31 Young girl’s separation that’s painful, losing Romeo (5)
wrench (painful separation) – r (Romeo) = WENCH
32 Mushroom caps in heap on island (5)
pile(heap) + i (island) = PILEI
37 Prominence of tipped-over rubbish (3)
Rev. rot (rubbish) = TOR
A gentle and elegant puzzle from Chalicea, as one has come to expect from this excellent setter. Given her tendency to add neat thematic touches, I wonder if there is any special significance to SEWER appearing three times (after all, it’s unusual to have words repeated in the grid) and BRICK SEWER just the once? I tried to match up the positions of these words in the grid with the geographical locations of the sewers as described in the Wiki article, but failed to come up with anything conclusive.
Very enjoyable, with an interesting theme that did not all come at once. First came the multiple instances of SEWERS (as per the title!), then I saw CHOLERA, which seemed relevant, closely followed by THAMES, and finally the word STINK following THE GREAT along the top.
I had to look up and read that interesting bit of engineering history to find the relevant name, but when I found it I recognised it.
The theme aside, the crossword was a delight to solve, with some new words to learn, as one expects in this series.
Thanks to Chalicea and twencelas.
Many thanks, as always twencelas. Indeed, cruciverbophile, putting all those sewers into the grid went against all the repetition rules. My intention was to have a somewhat graphic representation of what Bazalgette achieved, with sewers interconnecting and directed towards the River Thames but there was a limit to how many sewers I could include in a smallish grid.
Another educational puzzle from Chalicea, who comes up with an amazing variety of themes. All very neatly constructed as you’d expect. Thanks to her and to twencelas
I’m not quite clear from reading the blog how this works (sorry, didn’t do the puzzle but like reading about them). Is it the case that the entirety of the thematic material, save for the hidden name Bazalgette, is contained in entries for which there is simply no clue, that all the clues are normal, and that there is nothing else to it?
James, basically yes. All the clues are normal. 7 answers are unclued. 3 derivable via the 18 led to 1ac and 38 and 4 with no indicator at all. (The sewers)
Thanks
thanks twencelas for the blog and Chalicea for reminding why I’m glad I was born in London in the 20th century rather than the 19th. And Chalicea being Chalicea delivered on a diagonal!