Firstly thanks to Cagey for bringing a puzzle along last Saturday. Given the fact that there was obviously a theme to it, we thought it would be helpful to provide a blog.
THIS is Cagey’s puzzle.
The preamble states:
Having seen 1, unreferenced entries show the subsequent line as described in 36 by 16, 32. To fully appreciate the scene one row must be regarded in its entirety, but ignoring the contributions from the two unreferenced verticals.
One clue comprises wordplay only.
With thanks to ‘Bertandjoyce’ for organising the event and to Karla and Shark for testing this.
We’ve had a really busy week so have only just found time to sort this out.
We have to admit that we could not finish it in the time that we had. We were unaware of the 1973 Disney Film which featured the song by Roger Miller. Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman is more our scene! We also remember the TV series – The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955 -59).
The lyrics of Oo-De-Lally starts like this:
Bert is out at a meeting this evening but I have decided that I would publish this regardless. Any errors or omissions are all down to me!!
A (area) IN G (Gabon) around or ‘rented by’ LIGHT (ray)
RE SO (notes) RT (right)
SET (group) around or ‘split by’ L L (50 50) reversed or ‘over’
BOa (snake) missing last letter or ‘tail’ with O (nothing) instead
ShELLS (myriad cowry – in other words – more than one cowry shell) without H (hot) or ‘hot to trot’. I have never heard the expression ‘hot to trot’ before but it appeared in the book I have just been reading – Blue Sisters.
An anagram (‘upset’) of THE and CS (Christian Science)
T’AINT (short for it is not)
R H (initial letters of Red Has) at the beginning with Y (year) ME (one). We have to admit that were unable to solve this clue .
A homophone (‘to be sung’) of OWED – our favourite clue
RAN (hustled) and last letters of myriaD cowrY – a duplicated clue
Double definition
Wordplay only – O ODE (28) aLl (middle letter only or nude – 30d) ALLY (mate). Another one that we couldn’t parse. We sort of worked out what was going on in the parsing but we tackled this over several sessions and forgot that one clue had no definition.
Double definition
HEAD (chief) ED (editor) around or ‘pinching’ BUTT (American for bum)
ELD (an archaic or old word for old age) +I (the setter) all reversed or ‘retired’)
FAR (is not close) sO missing s (south)
TIP (end) TOE (end)
WILLiam (as in ‘Just William’ in the books written by Richard Crompton) missing I AM or ‘leaving’
A (accepted) GIST (point)
U R (sounds like you are) F (fine) inside or ‘aboard’ SS (ship)
An anagram (‘tied up’) in EXPO (exhibition) and deRby (centre letter only)
An anagram (‘after stewing’) of EATS and L (first letter or ‘head’ of lamb)
Double definition – we were unaware that humble means ‘hornless’ in Scotland. We did manage to sort this out with the definition once we had _ _ M _ L _
A clue as definition nARROW (thin) missing first letter or ‘tip that’s shot’
An anagram (‘dressed’ of UNDEr) missing last letter or ‘mostly’
A clue as definition – YeLlOw (alternate letters or ‘regularly’) and K (middle letter of caKes) – essential as in the ‘essence of’
Double definition
ERIC (as in Eric Idle – 3d) an anagram (‘fried’) of RICE and ERIC (fine) – two definitions and 1 wordplay
What a splendid puzzle, if initially pretty baffling. I completed this in one sitting, helped along tremendously by guessing ROGER [somebody with an L in the middle of the surname] pretty early on, which led me to the song (which I do not remember, although I must have seen the Disney film as a boy), which led me to the lyrics online. I liked that the characters are literally “running through” THE FOREST. BOW, ARROW, STEAL, DAY, WILL and THIEF are also thematic. Well done.
Thank you Bertandjoyce. We brought this on holiday to spend some brain time while roasting in the heat. We really enjoyed it, but have very little knowledge about the Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood. Certainly didn’t know Roger Miller had sung the theme so would have struggled without help from this blog.
And thank you Cagey.