A trademark challenge from GAFF this Friday.
FF: 9 DD: 9
The preamble to the crossword says its an 85th anniversary tribute. I didnt know the theme and had to google to find out that its the 85th birthday anniversary of welsh singer, Tom Jones ( a day in advance since wiki tells me he was born on 7th June 1940 ). There are multiple clues which refer to his songs or to him:
Songs:
- Its not unusual
- Whats new pussycat
- Delilah
- Green Green Grass of home
- Till
Other References
- He was Welsh (16d onion ) , born in Treforest
- Joneses
Given my lack of knowledge about Tom Jones, am sure others here will be able to connect even more clues to the theme. And in all this, Gaff dishes out a pangram as well!!
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | SQUARE ONE |
Conventional individual’s starting point (6,3)
|
| SQUARE ( conventional ) ONE ( individual ) | ||
| 10 | UTERI |
Places for growing being in computer industry (5)
|
| hidden in “..compUTER Industry” | ||
| 11 | AUSTERE |
Sober half-European prior (7)
|
| AUSTrian ( european, half ) ERE ( prior ) | ||
| 12 | DELILAH |
I’ll head off to the barber (7)
|
| [ ILL HEAD ]* ; reference to samson and delilah | ||
| 13 | SEC |
Dry for a short time (3)
|
| double def | ||
| 14 | GOD KNOWS HOW |
Turn extremely dark today and demonstrate method is divine (3,5,3)
|
| GO ( turn ) DK ( DarK, extremely) NOW ( today ) SHOW ( demonstrate ) | ||
| 17 | TETRA |
Two out of four players turn swimmer (5)
|
| reverse of quARTET ( four players, without first two letters ) | ||
| 18 | COO |
How lovers connect with bill (3)
|
| cryptic def; referring to the idiom “bill and coo” – learnt about this for the first time today | ||
| 19 | LOWED |
Cattle called Loggerheads tied (5)
|
| LO ( LOgger, heads ) WED ( tied ) | ||
| 21 | OVERSTRETCH |
Topless couple start telling gag and go too far (11)
|
| lOVERS ( couple, topless ) T ( Telling, first letter ) RETCH ( gag ) | ||
| 23 | AVE |
Short street address (3)
|
| AVEnue ( street, short ) | ||
| 25 | SYMPTOM |
Indication that Tommy’s confused about cup final (7)
|
| [ TOMMYS ]* around P ( cuP, last letter ) | ||
| 27 | JONESES |
People to keep up with unless regular guys are around (7)
|
| NES ( uNlEsS, regularly ) in JOES ( guys ) | ||
| 28 | RENAL |
Learn about kidneys (5)
|
| [ LEARN ]* | ||
| 29 | TREFOREST |
Judge rock during trial of village (9)
|
| [ REF ( judge ) OR ( rock ) ] in TEST ( trial ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | USUALS |
Setters repeatedly admit to Spanish regulars (6)
|
| US US ( setters, repeatedly ) containing AL ( to, spanish ) | ||
| 2 | PUSSYCAT |
Tom’s a sweetheart (8)
|
| double def | ||
| 3 | GREENGRASS |
What gardener wants from young snake (10)
|
| GREEN ( young ) GRASS ( snake ) | ||
| 4 | HOME |
Familiar central characters of show Kiss Me Kate (4)
|
| HO ( sHOw, central characters of ) ME ( kiss ME kate, central characters of ) | ||
| 5 | WEEDING OUT |
Small sound appetite is thinning (7,3)
|
| WEE ( small ) DING ( sound ) OUT ( appetite ) | ||
| 6 | BULL |
Rubbish investor (4)
|
| double def | ||
| 7 | WEALTH |
Worth injury to get empty triumph (6)
|
| WEAL ( injury ) TH ( TriumpH, without inner letters ) | ||
| 8 | TIGHTWAD |
Scrooge drunk at ball (8)
|
| TIGHT ( drunk ) WAD ( ball ) | ||
| 15 | DICHROMATE |
Criminal hit comrade with salt (10)
|
| [ HIT COMRADE ]* | ||
| 16 | WELSH ONION |
Cheat over charge for herb (5,5)
|
| WELSH ON ( cheat ) ION ( charge ) | ||
| 17 | TROUSERS |
Chaps get up in turns, oddly (8)
|
| ROUSE ( get up ) in TRS ( TuRnS, odd letters of ) | ||
| 20 | WHATS NEW |
Confused at first why he wants to request update (5,3)
|
| [ W ( Why, first letter ) HE WANTS ]* | ||
| 22 | ERMINE |
Fur of royal animal (6)
|
| double def; ER is royal, but i couldnt figure out how MINE fits with the clue | ||
| 24 | ERSATZ |
Fake tazers exploded (6)
|
| [ TAZERS ]* | ||
| 26 | TILL |
Harrow song register (4)
|
| triple def; the song bit is here Till (song) – Wikipedia | ||
| 27 | JEER |
Mock job entry exam rattles leaders (4)
|
| starting letters of “..Job Entry Exam Rattles..” |
This was a proper headscratcher, most suitable for a Friday.
I spotted the birthday boy and a few of his hits but the well crafted theme was actually less of a help than the mistaken belief that there was a pangram which helped me to land SQUARE ONE.
But with an ‘x’ still to be found and only two answers left, it was clear the search was over. That said, it amuses me to think of that missing ‘X’ (or KISS) as Jones’s memorable cover of the Prince song.
I took a right royal age to solve AUSTERE as I duly trotted down the path of misdirection (or a too literal reading of ‘half European’)!
Still, it was a challenge I relished, not least for some very witty clues like that for DELILAH, PUSSYCAT, COO and the unconventional HOME.
I was eager to see how Turbolegs would explain a few half-parsed answers (not unusual, ha ha!) and our blogger has not disappointed.
Thanks to both him and Gaff.
ERMINE is, I think, a double definition: ‘fur of royal’ and ‘animal’.
TOM JONES runs across the centre of the grid: [symp]TOM JONES[es].
I don’t see an ‘x’, though.
TOM JONES appears across 25A/27A, and not quite a pangram (as Diane@1&2 notes). I took TIGHT(wad) TROUSERS as thematic, too. I remember my family watching his TV variety show when I was a little boy, with him speaking Welsh. I thought “about” was doing double-duty in 28A, since surely it has to be part of the definition, too? Not an easy solve.
If you squint, KISS appears bent backwards near the middle.
ERMINE
Agree with Diane.
RENAL
Agree with Cineraria.
UTERI
Should the def include ‘being’?
WEEDING OUT
WEE+DIN(sound)+GOUT(appetite/taste)
TREFOREST
rock=OR? Someone may help.
If ORE, then one more E is required.
Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs.
Ah yes, Cineraria, the TROUSERS thing occurred to me too but I tried to chase that image away! I also remember his shows as a child (open shirts, medallions, tan and lots of chest hair – shudders!) I agree with you and KVa on the parsing of RENAL.
Kva, I shared your parsing of wee/din/gout. I wasn’t sure of this but I don’t understand ‘out as ‘appetite’. And yes, on a second reading, I would include ‘being’ in UTERI’s definition.
I’m stumped, too, on OR (e?) in TREFOREST. OR as gold, found in rocks but is not actually rock? See, a headscratcher!
Lovely crossword, and blog, and posts; lots of fun.
One gaff(e), Turbo: ” he was Welsh”…. the sainted and knighted Tom is still Welsh. ( I sincerely hope!)
I agree all comments, TREFOREST doesn’t quite scan, for me.
GOUT, part of 5(d), is a rather obscure synonym, of the noun “taste”, so by extension, “appetite”; a pesky French etymology. UTERI, 10(ac), “places for growing being” seems the full def.
What a nice spot, Diane@1, that the pangram needs a X/kiss.
I think the lyrics, include ” I just want your….KISS”. ( I have a photo of Tom kissing my sister, somewhere; Wales in the 60s, my mum and sis were equally besotted).
Seems to be mainly ladies posting on this one? Not that I’m jealous, or anything.
Great stuff, all round, a lot of enjoyment, Thanks, Gaff, Turbo and posters
I had a few queries, some of which are resolved here – thanks to blogger and commentators. I still don’t get “or” = “rock” (as KVa also says) – is an “e” missing?
I also think “about” is doing double duty in “renal” as the definition is surely “about kidneys” and “about” is also the anagrind. Some people think that’s unacceptable, I think I would err on the side of “fun wordplay” but renal, for me and my dictionary, is an adjective not a noun.
Also a bit non-plussed by the non-word “tazer”. “Taser” is a brand-name and derives from “Tom Swift’s Electric Rifle” (with an added “A” to make the acronym work as a word). A nice try for the anagram, but I think inventing or misspelling words is a bit unfair!
The theme was beyond me – I even forgot to look it up after solving. Kudos to the setter for including the references.
REF + ORE + TEST must be an editing goof. I did not even notice the extra “E.”
As usual, I marvel at Gaff’s cleverness but felt a few clues didn’t work for me. I was confused with the GOUT or OUT in 5d but, I guess, the unknown to me meaning for GOUT works. TREFOREST just seems wrong. Also, to me, GRASS SNAKE is a snake but GRASS by itself isn’t. As many others, I don’t like double duty.
Hovis@10 I think it’s Grass as in one who betrays others. Thanks, all.
I passed through Treforest every school day for seven years on my way to Pontypridd Boys Grammar School……
I met loads of people who claimed to know the young Tommy Woodward……
I finished the crossword……
I puzzled why on earth Treforest featured……
But I still didn’t spot the 85th anniversary😂😂😂😂
There was a lot of solve first parse later for me.
Liked WELSH ONION despite it being unknown to me, and SYMPTOM.
I had the same questions about the home town, RENAL and WEEDING OUT. And isn’t the expression “keeping up with the Jones”?
Thanks Gaff and Oriel
Thanks Turbolegs. I am used to imprecise cluing from Gaff, and I think all the ones I spotted have been sufficiently discussed in the earlier comments.
27ac: I go first to Brewer 2018 for expressions like this, and it has Keep up with the Joneses, To (p.768). In fact the form with Joneses is also given in Collins 2023 p 1070, Chambers 2016 p 836, and ODE 2010 p 945. ODE has Joneses as a headword in its own right, meaning “a person’s neighbours or social equals”, and puts the expression under that headword. The others all have it under keep.
We took the hint before starting and googled to see who might be 85 this weekend; the prime suspect was, of course, Tom Jones. Nevertheless this was quite a challenge but we got it all in the end, only needing to remind ourselves of the fish at 17ac. Apart from SQUARE ONE and JONESES, about the only write-in for us was DICHROMATE – one of us being a chemist. We did, though, recognise the themed answers (including 29ac short of an E in the clue) once we got them.
Thanks, Gaff and Turbolegs.
Kva@5 and C@9 OR is in Chambers as an alternative spelling of ORE (rock). New to me too 🙂
Total theme bypass but now I’m marvelling at “it’s not unUSUAL” being a ghost cryptic instruction to remove the UN
Cheers G&T
I should have followed allan_c@15 but I like to think I like a challenge! First scan of NW gave zilch, but eventually started with the ‘salt’, thank the Lord for anagrams! Things went smoothly until I was caught between the ‘rock’ and a hard place.. having to reveal most of it… it was LOI and I was getting hungry…. much enjoyed OVERSTRETCH, COO, DELILAH amongst many. RENAL is easily replaceable by KIDNEY as in RENAL stones = KIDNEY stones, so I don’t feel ‘about’ has to do double anything, certainly not enough to grumble about. Equally GOUT isn’t an enormous stretch.
Thanks Gaff n Turbolegs, n Happy Birthday Tom!!
well, i did get it, but i’ve never considered a welsh onion (or any allium for that matter) to be a herb before :-/
The so-random-it-couldn’t-be-random Welsh village was my key to Googling the theme. The only thing I know about Tom Jones is that I don’t like his music much, so the theme was of no help. I tend to take anagrams on trust more often than I should, so I didn’t notice the missing E issue.
[I’m MUCH fonder of the Fielding novel–that’s a theme I’d embrace.]
Thanks PBA@14 for clarifying the Joneses. I do not remember hearing that before but maybe I was not listening hard enough
MarkA@18 I think chives count as a herb, so I guess it’s whether you eat the green leafy bit or the bulb?
I Googled famous birthdays before I started. It’s my second cryptic of the day so no point messing about! I’m no Tom Jones expert but this was mostly basic general knowledge for me. It was useful as reassurance as I largely solved without thinking about it.
I looked up the Welsh onion to check if it was consisidered a herb. Like mrpenney, once I can see the anagrams or charade, I tend to take it on trust so didn’t get held up with anything like that.
I thought this was good fun. Quite slow and steady, but never uncomfortable.
Thanks Gaff, Turbolegs and everyone else.
Along with those who question whether Welsh onion is a herb, I question whether ION is a charge, as opposed to a charged particle.
Missed the theme, didn’t parse JONESES (which is rather clever), missed the appearance of Himself in 25a and 27a, but it was a pleasant enough diversion before going to sleep.
Thanks to Gaff and Turbolegs
Late comment on parsing of TREFOREST: REF and ORES (rock) in TT (as in Isle of Man tourist trophy = trials…)? Can you get a plural ORES from rock?
28a RENAL is an excellent example of double duty as an excellent cryptic device. What’s all the fuss ABOUT?
I’m with mrpenny @19 about the music, but it was so unavoidably ubiquitous in its day that the titles were familiar. And I too much prefer the Fielding TJ.
Thanks Gaff for the well-constructed puzzle, and Turbolegs for the much-needed blog.
28ac: The word “about” is used once in the definition and once in the wordplay. I call this free overlap between definition (“Learn about”) and wordplay (“about kidneys”), but do not claim that to be a standard crosswording term. It goes beyond the normally acceptable complete or partial “& lit” type of overlap, but I have no serious problem with it. It is very different from the type of double duty where a clue word is used twice within a single indication, and I think it is important not to argue that the form used here provides a justification for all types of double duty.
Correction to comment 26: In the second sentence, of course I meant definition (“about kidneys”) and wordplay (“Learn about”). My substantive argument is not affected by this error.