Tees fills the Wednesday slot this week.
Last week Tees filled the Thursday slot when I was the blogger. I am very happy to blog another Tees offering. We had a battle between Sparta and Persia as the theme last week, but today we are looking at more modern events with the LOCOMOTIVES of SIR NIGEL GRESLEY. Tees did manage though to get an ancient reference into the puzzle with HECTOR.
There were some quite complex constructions today including FLYING SCOTSMAN, SIR NIGEL GRESLEY and LANDMARKS.
Apart from the LOCOMOTIVES there was a wide mix of topics covering the various entries. I don’t think wither SIDE CHAIR or PASANDA are to be found in Chambers or Collins, but the clues were very clear in each case..
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1/28 |
Fast one of 14’s 22, Chuck, having yen to embrace Dundonian? (6,8) FLYING [SCOTSMAN] (fast LOCOMOTIVE [singular 22 across] designed by GRESLEY [14 across]) FLING [chuck] containing [having … to embrace] Y [yen; Japanese currency] + SCOTSMAN ( A Dundonian comes from Dundee, one of the biggest cities in Scotland) FL (Y) ING SCOTSMAN |
| 4/14 |
Engineer, single eccentric, keeping Irish horse seller occasionally feeds (3,5,7) SIR NIGEL [GRESLEY] (reference SIR NIGEL GRESLEY [1876 – 1941], engineer best known for designing railway engines in the age of steam) Anagram of (eccentric) SINGLE containing (keeping) IR (Irish) + (SLE [letters 1, 3 and 5 [occasionally] contained in [feeds] GREY [generic name for a greyish coloured horse]) S (IR) NIGEL* GRE (SLE) Y |
| 10 |
Share opinion with one occupying cleaner seat at table (4,5) SIDE CHAIR (seat at a table) SIDE (ally oneself with a particular party in an argument; share the same opinion as a particular party) + (I [Roman numeral for one] contained in [occupying] CHAR [cleaner]) SIDE CHA (I) R |
| 11 |
Asian vehicle concealed in Kensington Gardens (5) TONGA (light two-wheeled Indian vehicle; Asian vehicle) TONGA (hidden word in [concealed in] KENSINGTON GARDENS) TONGA |
| 12 |
When Independent replaces article, all is not well (3) ILL (not well) ALL with I (independent) replacing (replaces) A (indefinite article) ILL |
| 13 |
Rotten dogs devouring male — and 14’s nuts? (3,3,5) OFF THE RAILS (mad, deranged; nuts) OFF (gone bad; rotten) + (TRAILS [shadows; dogs] containing [devouring] HE [male]) There is also an allusion to GRESLEY‘s (14 across) career in RAILways OFF T (HE) RAILS |
| 14 |
See 4 across [SIR NIGEL] GRESLEY |
| 16 |
Old woman left with fat duck, or faster one of 14’s 22 (7) MALLARD (name of the fastest LOCOMOTIVE [singular 18 across] designed by GRESLEY [14 across]) MA (mother; old woman) + L (left) + LARD (fat) MA L LARD |
| 18 |
Indian dish of arsenic that bamboo-lover ingests (7) PASANDA (a meat Shahi Mughalayi dish from the Indian subcontinent) PANDA (an animal whose diet is 99% bamboo; bamboo lover) containing (ingests) AS (chemical symbol for arsenic) P (AS) ANDA |
| 20 |
Hidden in underground cell, edging away from mice (7) CRYPTIC (hidden) CRYPT (underground cell) + IC (letters remaining in MICE when the outer edges M and E are removed [edging away]) CRYPT IC |
| 22 |
Insane reasons to provide engines with wheels (11) LOCOMOTIVES (wheeled railway engines) LOCO (insane) + MOTIVES (reasons) LOCO MOTIVES |
| 25 |
Climber in training area (3) PEA (a climbing plant) PE (physical exercise; training) + A (area) PE A |
| 26 |
Singer finds meaning (5) TENOR (adult male voice between bass and baritone) TENOR (meaning) double definition TENOR |
| 27 |
One’s achievement in not missing a trick? (5,4) GRAND SLAM (notable achievement in many sports careers where one individual or team wins a series of events) GRAND SLAM (a contract to win every trick in a hand in the card game of bridge) double definition GRAND SLAM |
| 28 |
See 1 [FLYING] SCOTSMAN |
| 29 |
Check story contents, revealing Trojan prince (6) HECTOR (In Greek mythology, HECTOR was a Trojan prince) HEC (central letters of [contents of] CHECK) + TOR (central letters of [contents of] STORY) HEC TOR |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Taking no food following a painful little wound (7) FASTING (abstaining from food completely) F (following) + A + STING (painful little wound) F A STING |
| 2 |
Those making peak calls so elderly must suffer (9) YODELLERS (singers [or shouters as well, according to Chambers] who change frequently from the ordinary voice to falsetto and back again; the media like to portray them as alpine singers who call from the high peaks) Anagram of (must suffer) SO ELDERLY YODELLERS* |
| 3 |
North American food wife leaves as snack (5) NACHO (tortilla chip, usually topped with cheese or beans and flavoured with chilli, jalapeno peppers; snack) NA (North American) + CHOW (food) excluding (leaves) W (wife) NA CHO |
| 5 |
Top taken from sign greeting married Muslim man? (7) IBRAHIM (Muslim name for a male) LIBRA (sign of the zodiac) excluding the first letter (top taken from) L + HI! (a greeting) + M (married) IBRA HI M |
| 6 |
King Cole united assembly as anticipated (9) NATURALLY (in the normal way; as anticipated) NAT (reference NAT King Cole [1919-1965], American singer and jazz pianist) + U (united) + RALLY (assembly) NAT U RALLY |
| 7 |
Spirits and dope used by team? (5) GENII (good or evil spirits) GEN (information; dope) + II (characters representing the number eleven [number of players in many sporting teams]) GEN II |
| 8 |
Rubbishy dailies were in contact (7) LIAISED (were in touch) Anagram of (rubbishy) DAILIES LIAISED* |
| 9 |
Exclude secretively deceitful drinker (6) BARFLY (a drinker who spends his or her time in bars) BAR (exclude) + FLY (surreptitious; secretly deceitful) BAR FLY |
| 15 |
Identifying features with millions in exaltation (9) LANDMARKS (conspicuous objects marking a locality or serving as a guide; identifying features) (AND [with] + M [millions]) contained in (in) LARKS (EXALTATION is a collective noun for LARKS) L (AND M) ARKS |
| 17 |
George in seventh heaven almost opening a packet (9) AUTOPILOT (GEORGE is Royal Air Force slang for the automatic pilot of an aircraft) UTOPIA (any real or imaginary state or place believed to be ideal, perfect or excellent; seventh heaven) excluding the final letter (almost) A contained in (opening) (A + LOT [packet of land for instance or an object drawn out from a collection]) A (UTOPI) LOT |
| 18 |
Exercise hard with a cheek raised (7) PILATES (an exercise system intended to stretch the muscles, improve the posture, etc) (SET [turned hard] + A + LIP [insolence; cheek]) all reversed (raised; down entry) (PIL A TES)< |
| 19 |
One island against another? Not entirely (7) ANTIGUA (an island in the Lesser Antilles, part of the wider State of ANTIGUA) ANTI (against) + GUAM ([another] island in the Pacific Ocean) excluding the final letter (not entirely) M ANTI GUA |
| 20 |
Warning at Caped Crusader’s residence earlier (6) CAVEAT (notice or warning) CAVE (reference the Bat CAVE, Batman’s headquarter’s and residence) + AT CAVE AT |
| 21 |
Sir Keir’s companion, not good man, influencer? (7) CHARMER (influencer) STARMER (reference Sir Keir STARMER [born 1962], current leader of the Labour Party) with CH (Companion [of Honour] in place of [not] ST [saint; good man]) CH ARMER |
| 23 |
Roman censor to entertain new division in poem (5) CANTO (division of a long poem) CATO (reference Marcus Porcius CATO [234 – 149 BCE], known as CATO the Censor in ancient Rome) containing (to entertain) N (new) CA (N) TO |
| 24 |
Small border for growth in wet ground (5) SEDGE (grass-like plants that thrive in wet ground) S (small) + EDGE (border) S EDGE |
I found this quite challenging but I did enjoy it.
Even given Duncan’s explanation, I don’t understand how “and 14’s” contributes to the wordplay in 13a. Perhaps it’s just surface padding providing a comical image – albeit a painful one for Sir Nigel.
Thanks to Tees and to Duncan.
Thanks Tees and DS
In 17 I thought ‘lot’ was from the more prosaic “In his new job he earns a packet”.
Baritone is between bass and tenor-choir parts are SATB but in view of Frank Sinatra dropping from tenor to baritone and Gerry Mulligan the word gains esteem
Oh-nice theme-the days when coal was cool-all you had then
Thanks Tees and Nigel and Dunc
Agree with Simon re LOT. For RD, as OFF THE RAILS is the ‘locomotive’ version of ‘mad’ in UK idiom, I’d say that’s why it has been included, Gresley being a train designer inter alia. I read too that the MALLARD has held the steam locomotive speed record for UK, since 1938 when is got up to 202.6 km/h. Wow!
Nice puzzle, and as you may have guessed I enjoyed the theme for this one. Many thanks to Duncan and Tees.
Good e-steam joke copmus 😀 (apologies).
Watching all those British railway history programs does have its rewards; I would never have got 4a/14a otherwise. This and 1a/28a helped to open things up as some of the wordplay was tricky. The MALLARD is a beautiful creation to behold and its performance was amazing, as lady gewgaw @4 points out.
Having read RD @1 and LG @4, I sort of (but don’t completely) get the appearance of ‘and 14’s’ in the clue for 13a. BTW, I think 16a is a wordplay + double def (‘duck, or faster one of 14’s 22’) clue. TONGA and the exact meaning of SIDE CHAIR were new.
Thanks to Tees and Duncan (and to copmus @3 for SATB – another TILT)
Lovely crossword with a theme which I both knew and enjoyed
Thanks to Tees and Duncan
Once again, what crypticsue said.
First time to get a theme and its component parts (with a little help from Wikipedia). Stoked (like a steam train). Filled the grid without fully understanding the parsing but the blog cleared things up.
Second themed puzzle for me today, and one easily recognised, whereof something successful is associated with UK for a change, even if we must return to 1936 to do it. I agree with Plodder about 16 across, which he says is wordplay followed by two definitions, and with LGG about the ‘nuts’ joke.
Thanks Duncan for a colourful blog, and compiler.
I could only get AUTOPILOT with a wordfinder, and even then didn’t totally understand it, so thanks for the explanation. I liked the sort of double bluff in NATURALLY where I was tempted into treating King and Cole as separate elements.
Nice to get a theme that I easily understood – not a regular occurrence!
I did need to check on the Indian dish and the Asian vehicle but no problems elsewhere.
My favourite was the old woman with the fat duck.
Thanks to Tees and to Duncan for the review.
A real penny-drop moment when 1dn and 2dn gave us crossing letters F and Y for 1ac and 1/28 and 4/14 were immediately obvious with 16ac soon after – incidentally we thought the clue should have had ‘fastest’ rather than ‘faster’. And Mallard‘s record is a world record (not just British) and still stands.
Elsewhere PASADA was unknown to us but easily got from the wordplay and confirmed by googling. And seeing ‘exaltation’ in 15dn we immediately thought of larks, so LANDMARKS was a bit of a write-in for us.
Plenty to enjoy but no particular favourite – it was the theme that made our day.
Thanks, Tees and Duncan.
Adios a la pasanda then allan_c? Dieting is tough.
Thanks Duncs for blog in THAT format, and to all commenting. I thought a madness to do with railways could be Gresley’s, and someone else thought nuts would be funnier than bananas (thanks Mike!).
There’s a band out there somewhere called Big Big Train that did a song about the Mallard (yes it is the fastest), which is called East Coast Racer, and it’s fab. This xwd goes out to them, as they lost their (bloody fantastic) singer and multi-instrumentalist David Longdon in an accident just recently. If you go here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saA2bMLvD2g&ab_channel=EnglishElectricRecordings
you can see them playing it. RIP DL.
Cheers
Tees
Mainly fun but for those of us not up with the theme it was impossible to get Sir Nigel Gresley without cheating!
Ericw @ 15
I respectfully disagree. I built up the answer from crossers and wordplay, and then looked up the result. As with checking an unknown word in a dictionary, I don’t regard that as cheating (where searching for ‘designer of Mallard / Flying Scotsman’ would have been).
You wait for a public transport theme and then two come along at once … bloody typical!
Thanks Tees. I attempted a railway themed crossword in the FT today and it was a train wreck for me. I found this one more to my liking; despite ignorance of the theme, the solid cluing allowed me to nearly complete this. I feel better now. Thanks Duncan for the blog.
Well done Tony, though m’colleague (when I’m a Neo) Gozo is for me a wonderful compiler on every occasion.
So mad (or off the rails) that the two puzzles have arisen (rather than collided) on the same day, as poster @ #17 observes.
I’d have to query T o nbridge Wells though.