Falcon advises: “Today marks the end of the Yule season.”
If this legend suggests a theme, I am missing it, apart from (possibly) 16D. A solid puzzle nonetheless.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SHARP |
Small instrument for piercing (5)
|
| S (small) + HARP (instrument) | ||
| 4 | BALACLAVA |
Battle of Bacall playing opposite Gardner? (9)
|
| Anagram of (playing) BACALL + AVA (Gardner), October 25, 1854 | ||
| 9 | LIE DOWN |
Rest unhappy after cock-and-bull story (3,4)
|
| LIE (cock-and-bull story) + DOWN (unhappy) | ||
| 10 | APPAREL |
Clothes are put to use, mostly outside (7)
|
| APPL[Y] (put to use, “mostly”) around (outside) ARE | ||
| 11 | IN POINT OF FACT |
Really bad deed by popular head (2,5,2,4)
|
| IN (popular) + POINT (head) + OFF (bad) + ACT (deed) | ||
| 14 | OPAL |
Old comrade’s precious stone (4)
|
| O (old) + PAL (comrade) | ||
| 15 | A CUT ABOVE |
Better than the others, broadcast about cave (1,3,5)
|
| Anagram of (broadcast) ABOUT CAVE | ||
| 18 | HOPSCOTCH |
What’s bound to put an end to children’s game? (9)
|
| HOP (bound) + SCOTCH (to put an end to) | ||
| 19 | WRIT |
Ingenuity required to secure right warrant (4)
|
| WIT (ingenuity) around (required to secure) R (right) | ||
| 21 | THE GONDOLIERS |
Looted her in G&S comic opera (3,10)
|
| Anagram of (comic) LOOTED HER IN + G + S | ||
| 24 | CASINOS |
Money husband lost in extremely ostentatious gambling clubs (7)
|
| CAS[H] (money, minus [“lost”] H [husband]) + IN + O[STENTATIOU]S (either end of [“extremely”] “ostentatious”). There is a typo “hushand” [sic] in the published clue. | ||
| 26 | YEARNED |
Longed for holiday finally merited (7)
|
| [HOLIDA]Y (last letter of [“finally”] “holiday”) + EARNED (merited) | ||
| 27 | SUPERNOVA |
Star in USA, proven in variety (9)
|
| Anagram of (in variety) USA PROVEN | ||
| 28 | OMEGA |
A diamond ring, returned in the end? (5)
|
| A + GEM (diamond) + O (ring) all reversed (returned) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SALT |
Experienced sailor’s dry wit (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | AMERICAN PIE |
Epic, Marnie, a staggering film (8,3)
|
| Anagram of (staggering) EPIC MARNIE A | ||
| 3 | PROMPT |
Quick pint following concert (6)
|
| PROM (concert) + PT (pint) | ||
| 4 | BON VIVANT |
Examination in German city, difficult ultimately for epicure (3,6)
|
| VIVA (examination) inside (in) BONN (German city) + [DIFFICUL]T (last letter of “difficult” [“ultimately”]) | ||
| 5 | LEAST |
Smallest in trouble astern (5)
|
| Hidden in [TROUB]LE AST[ERN] | ||
| 6 | CAPE FEAR |
Picture of primate in dreadful farce (4,4)
|
| APE (primate) inside (in) anagram of (dreadful) FARCE | ||
| 7 | AIR |
Make public appearance (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | ALLOTMENTS |
Measures completely OTT, imprisoning soldiers close to Christmas (10)
|
| ALL (completely) + OTT around (imprisoning) MEN (soldiers) + [CHRISTMA]S (last letter of [“close to”] “Christmas”) | ||
| 12 | À VOTRE SANTÉ |
French toast, a toast never spread (1,5,5)
|
| Anagram of (spread) A TOAST NEVER | ||
| 13 | POOHSTICKS |
Bridge game? (10)
|
| Cryptic definition, i.e., a game played by dropping sticks into a stream off a bridge | ||
| 16 | UP-HELLY-AA |
At college Halley reorganised a winter festival (2-5-2)
|
| UP (at college) + anagram of (reorganised) HALLEY + A | ||
| 17 | SCHOONER |
Type of glass church put in earlier (8)
|
| CH (church) inside (put in) SOONER (earlier) | ||
| 20 | PEDALO |
Hawk heard landing on old pleasure craft (6)
|
| Homophone of (heard) PEDDLE (hawk) + O (old) | ||
| 22 | DISCO |
Nightclub’s jarring? Not half! (5)
|
| DISCO[RDANT] (jarring, minus [not] [the second] half) | ||
| 23 | IDEA |
Clue could be perfect, if shortened (4)
|
| IDEA[L] (perfect, “if shortened”) | ||
| 25 | SOP |
Hence parking concession (3)
|
| SO (hence) + P (parking) |
I too was expecting more references to “the end of the Yule season”, but found only one, and it was a doozie. It took me a while to find it on the web. My French wasn’t adequate to get 12d, despite it obviously being an anagram (of which there were quite a few). I thought “comic” in 21a was doing double duty, as G&S, though good fun, would hardly be thought of as serious opera. Poohsticks & pedalo have entered my lexicon (for only a day or two, probably!), and I’d not heard of the film Cape Fear.
Overall quite enjoyable, with AIR probably my favourite for its simplicity. (The sort of clue that would cease to be cryptic with the insertion of a semicolon.)
Thanks Falcon & Cineraria.
I consistently enjoy Falcon’s puzzles and this was no exception.
A VOTRE SANTE was my favourite of a good crop for its neat surface.
I can’t find other yule season references either but did enjoy the handful of films, opera etc
Thanks to Falcon and Cineraria.
I remember seeing something about the 16d ‘winter festival’ in Shetland on one of the many “Scottish Highlands and Islands” TV programmes we’ve had here over the years, but I had no hope in spelling it correctly, even with the crossers in place. That was the only thematic entry I could find.
Good to see a couple of new crossword land films (makes a change from ET) and I liked the cinematic surface of BALACLAVA.
Thanks to Cineraria and Falcon
I’m fairly new to the FT crossword, but it’s fast becoming my first stop of the day in crosswordland with it’s so far reliably entertaining offerings.
Curiously UP-HELLY-AA was very quick to fall, by chance I’d seen it in Chambers very recently when a word search returned it as a possible solution for the crossers I had. I remember thinking at the time I’ll not try and clue that thank you very much. So well done Falcon on a concise clue with a sensible surface.
Thanks Falcon and Cineraria
Thanks, Falcon and Cineraria. This was a gentle but enjoyable start to the day. All very neatly clued.
According to wiki, UP-HELLY-AA does indeed mark the end of Yule. In Lerwick, it takes place on the last Tuesday in January, ie today. I expect the special instruction was simply an extra hint to point us towards this obscure term. I’ve seen it in crosswords before though, so no problem for me.
Geoff, “Cape Fear” was made twice: once in the 60’s with Gregory Peck and again in the 90’s with Robert de Niro. I may be wrong but I seem to remember that Robert Mitchum was also in both versions.
16D was unknown to me and I only solved it after the cross letters were in. I originally thought that the last two letters had to be “AY” as I could not think of any world in which “AA” could be a word.
12D is better known to me as “a ta sante”. It’s usually a more familiar toast than the more formal answer.
Thank you, Cineraria.
Bye bye 2D.
Thanks Falcon and Cineraria
21ac: I would say that this clue has helpful wordplay rather than “comic” or even “G&S comic” doing double duty. The single word “opera” is a sufficient definition.
16dn: I liked the way in this clue that Falcon guided us towards the correct spelling by keeping the final A out of the anagram.
A fairly quick and satisfying solve for us. We did know UP-HELLY-AA and it was a write-in from the enumeration. We’d heard the name CAPE FEAR but had to guess it was the name of a film (such is our ignorance of cinema). BALACLAVA and POOHSTICKS were our favourites.
Thanks, Falcon and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog, I have only seen UP-HELLY-AA in a documentary but it was very impressive. A lot of good clues and quite a few film references dotted around.
Star=SUPERNOVA is rather dubious.
Very enjoyable – thanks to Falcon and all you bloggers.
I thought 21A was reasonable with comic meaning funny/strange = anagram.
Re 13d: a very clever clue.
the game of Pooh Sticks is reported to have taken place at a specific bridge that is called the Pooh Sticks bridge. It was played by Winnie the Pooh. Hence the name. This bridge is here:
Pooh Sticks Bridge
https://maps.app.goo.gl/kb4QoEYoP3VgRS2o9