This is my first blog of a Spectator crossword and my first blog of a puzzle by the setter La Jerezana
The preamble for this puzzle told us that ‘eight unclued entries include the name of an event and six who took part, and a memorial to one of them.’
I started solving the clues and hoped that the theme would become clear as I went along.
It took a while before I had enough entries to deduce what was going on. It was the likelihood of NELSON (30 down), VICTORY (27 down) and TRAFALGAR (13 across) that gave me the penny drop moment. Some of the other thematic entries became clearer after I did a bit of research on the battle.
The Battle of Trafalgar, part of the War of the Third Coalition, took place between the forces of the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of French and Spanish vessels on 21st October 1805, approximately 220 years before this puzzle was published on 23rd October.
The thematic entries and their relevance are shown in the table below:
| Clue | Entry | Reference |
| 12a | BUCENTAURE | The BUCENTAURE was the flagship of Vice-Admiral VILLENEUVE (19 down) |
| 13a | TRAFALGAR | Site of the battle, between Cadiz and Gibraltar |
| 16a | COLUMN | NELSON‘s [36d) COLUMN was erected in London between 1840 and 1843 as a memorial. |
| 22a | GRAVINA | Federico GRAVINA (1756 – 1806) was the most senior Spanish commander at the battle. He died of wounds incurred at the battle. |
| 16d | COLLINGWOOD | Vice-Admiral Cuthbert COLLINGWOOD (1748 – 1810) was second-in-command of the British fleet at the battle. He died of cancer. |
| 19d | VILLENEUVE | Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles VILLENEUVE (1763 – 1806) commanded the Frenchships at the battle. Wikiopedia tells me that VILLENEUVE committed suicide or was murdered the year after the battle. |
| 27d | VICTORY | Name of NELSON‘s ship |
| 36d | NELSON | Admiral Horatio NELSON (1750 – 1805) commanded the British fleet. NELSON died of wounds sustained at the battle. |
I found this to be a puzzle of two halves where I made good progress solving the clues initially, but then slowed down considerably until the theme became apparent and gave me many more crossing letters. We have the name of the event (TRAFALGAR), six entries that ‘took part’ (BUCENTAURE, GRAVINA, COLLINGWOOD, VILLENEUVE, HMS VICTORY and NELSON) and a memorial to one of the participants (COLUMN).
The detailed table below shows the definitions and wordplay for each clue.
This was an enjoyable puzzle where I learnt more about the Battle of TRAFALGAR than I knew before I started solving.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Cushions lacking covers in many cases (5)
OFTEN (in many cases) sOFTENs (cushions) excluding the outer letters (covers) S and S OFTEN |
| 6 | A postscript in court case with three recesses (8)
TRIAPSAL (having three apses [recesses]) (A + PS [postscript]) contained in (in) TRIAL (court case) TRI (A PS) AL |
| 14 | Druggie runs to the back in deceptive manoeuvre (4)
USER (informal term for drug addict; druggie) RUSE (deceptive manoeuvre) with R (runs) becoming the last letter (to the back) to form USER USER |
| 15 | Declares bananas changed size (8)
RESCALED (change size) Anagram of (bananas) DECLARES RESCALED* |
| 17 | Program united international military defensive support (5)
APPUI (defensive support for a military force) APP (program) + U (united) + I (international) APP U I |
| 21 | Song in favour of cage for birds (11)
PROCELLARIA (the petrel genus [birds]) PRO (in favour of) + CELL (enclosure; cage) + ARIA (song) – read as ‘PRO CELL’ ARIA we have a song that is in favour of cage PRO CELL ARIA |
| 24 | Alternately sulky and sneaky (3)
SLY (sneaky) SLY (letters 1, 3 and 5 [alternately] of SuLkY) SLY |
| 26 | Thugs regularly absconding with very large truck (3)
HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle [large truck]) HG (letters remaining in tHuGs when TUS [characters 1, 3 and 5 {regularly}] are removed [absconding]) + V (very) HG V |
| 28 | Reportedly chivalrous at the end of each day (7)
NIGHTLY (at the end of each day) NIGHTLY (sounds like [reportedly] KNIGHTLY [chivalrous]) NIGHTLY |
| 29 | British cooking guru tucked into French onion braised in red wine (11)
BOURGUIGNON (descriptive of meat dishes stewed with onion, mushrooms and Burgundy [red] wine) B (British) + (an anagram of [cooking] GURU contained in [tucked into] OIGNON [French word for onion]) B O (URGU*) IGNON |
| 33 | English queen’s revolutionary laxative (5)
SENNA (laxative drug obtained from its dried leaflets and fruits of a tropical shrub of the genus Cassia) ANNE’S (English Queen’s) reversed (revolutionary) SENNA< |
| 34 | Hamlet’s old friend’s ignoring rider’s initial hunting cry (6)
YOICKS (old foxhunting cry) YOrICK’S (reference the friend of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play of the same name) excluding (ignoring) R (first letter of [initial] Rider) YOICKS |
| 35 | Dried at first, then overflowed and spilled out (8)
TOWELLED (dried) TO (initial letters of [at first] Then and Overflowed) + WELLED (poured forth; spilled out) TO WELLED |
| 37 | Component of aluminium car (4)
MINI (brand of car) MINI (hidden word in [componentsof] aluMINIum MINI |
| 38 | Souls come to be tortured in Roman amphitheatre (9)
COLOSSEUM (Roman amphitheatre) Anagram of (to be tortured) SOULS COME COLOSSEUM* |
| 39 | First impression of ruined Aleppo fort (5,5)
PLATE PROOF (first impression taken from a printing plate) – in Chambers as a hyphenated word Anagram of (ruined) ALEPPO FORT PLATE PROOF* |
| 40 | Religious festivals completely numb the senses, we hear (4,4)
HOLY DAYS (religious festivals) HOLY (sounds like [we hear] WHOLLY [completely]) + DAYS (sounds like [we hear] DAZE [numb the senses]) HOLY DAYS |
| 41 | Nancy’s one swan let loose (5)
UNPEN (let loose) UN (one of the French [Nancy is a city in France] words for ‘one’) + PEN (female swan) UN PEN |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fire beyond mountains south of Forth (8)
OUTRANGE (descriptive of weaponry whose payload goes further than another ; fire beyond) OUT (go out; go forth) + RANGE (mountains) OUT RANGE |
| 2 | Soon prefer different overseer (10)
FOREPERSON (overseer) Anagram of (different) SOON PREFER FOREPERSON* |
| 3 | Drinks case of tolerable Asti, half-cut (4)
TEAS (drinks) TE (outer letters of [case of] TolerablE) + AS (letters remaining in ASti when 2 of the 4 [half] letters TI are removed) TE AS |
| 4 | Fungus extremely effortful amateur removed from football trophy (3,3)
ELF CUP (any of several cup-shaped fungi; fungus) EL (outer letters of [extremely] EffortfuL) + Fa CUP (football trophy) excluding (removed from) A (amateur) EL F CUP |
| 5 | Male visitor cycling round operational ploughs in cotton fields (4,7)
BULL TONGUES (A heavy plough used in growing cotton [definition in Collins]) BULL (male bovine animal ) + (TGUES [cycled version of GUEST [visitor]) containing [round] ON [operational]) BULL T (ON) GUES |
| 7 | Prepares dough (7)
READIES (prepares) READIES (ready money; dough is a slang term for money) double definition READIES |
| 8 | Musketeer’s mount (5)
ATHOS (a Musketeer in the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas [1802 – 1870]) ATHOS (reference Mount Athos in North East Greece) double definition ATHOS |
| 9 | War artist’s exclamation of disgust, burying bones (4,4)
PAUL NASH (reference the First World War artist PAUL NASH [1889 – 1946]) PAH (expression of disgust) containing (burying) ULNAS (bones in the arm) PA (UL NAS) H |
| 10 | Whisper of usurers at Barking (9)
SUSURRATE (whisper) Anagram of (barking) USURERS AT SUSURRATE* |
| 11 | Sailors entering field in Slough, near Argos (5)
LERNA (a swamp [marsh; slough] near Argos, supposed to be the home of the Hydra killed by Hercules) RN (Royal Navy; sailors) contained in (entering) LEA (meadow; field) LE (RN) A |
| 18 | Peeled local South American tuber (3)
OCA (a South American wood sorrel with edible tubers; tuber) lOCAl excluding the outer letters (peeled) L and L OCA |
| 20 | Malta unit mobilised early in the day (9)
MATUTINAL (happening early in the day) Anagram of (mobilised) MALTA UNIT MATUTINAL* |
| 23 | Insatiability of Victor and Oscar, rude about sex (8)
VORACITY (insatiability) VO (Victor and Oscar are international radio communications codewords for the letters V and O respectively) + (RACY [risqué; rude] containing [about] IT [sex]) VO RAC (IT) Y |
| 25 | Some fussy, sad, minor IT expert (8)
SYSADMIN (computer system administrator; IT expert) SYSADMIN (hidden word in [some] fusSY SAD MINor) SYSADMIN |
| 28 | Try supporting Macmillan at last, or Oxfam? (3)
NGO (Non Governmental Organisation, of which Oxfam is an example) N (final letter of [at last] MacmillaN) + GO (attempt; try) – as this a down entry, the letters GO are ‘supporting’ the letter N N GO |
| 31 | Bodily fluid largely drained by postgraduate (5)
LYMPH (colourless or faintly yellowish fluid collected into the lymphatic vessels from the tissues in animal bodies; bodily fluid) LY (letters remaining in LargelY when the central letters argel are removed [drained]) + MPH (Collins lists MPH or MPh as an alternative presentation of MPhil; Master of Philosophy; postgraduate) LY MPH |
| 32 | Hit high, edge finally caught by slip (5)
SKIED (hit high) E (last letter of [finally] edgE) contained in (caught by) SKID (slip) SKI (E) D |
| 36 |
Jump of English ace breaking record (4) LEAP (jump) (E [English] + A [ace]) contained in (breaking) LP (long playing record) L (E A) P
|
La Jerezana is Sarah Hayes, perhaps better known to solvers on this site as Arachne (Guardian) and Rosa Klebb (FT).
I enjoyed this and appreciated the timing to coincide with Trafalgar day.
Many thanks for the blog, especially the historical notes accompanying each of the theme words.
Indeed other than Nelson, HMS VIctory, Collingwood I knew nothing!
Also, thanks for the parse of PRO,CELL,ARIA which had me wondering as well as OUT,RANGE likewise.
I couldn’t find MPH as MPhil since I was lazy and didn’t check Collins. The Spectator is more catholic I guess wrt its dictionaries.