What has Fieldfare ‘SPELLED OUT’ for us this week?…
The (short and sweet) preamble states that:
“Unclued lights (one of two words, the others paired) at length have something in common.”
Usual modus operandi for Spectator puzzle with unclued lights = just get solving, fill as much of the grid as you can to get some crossers on those lights. The top right-hand corner had three of them, crossing each other, but the rest were pretty well crossed by clued entries.
Quite a slow grid fill, with quite a few new/obscure (to me) words – PELERINES, AVENTURE, SPRATTLE, LIMACINE and WHEEN (which I have only seen as a surname before) to name a few. Mostly gettable from wordplay and crossers, but needed verification to confirm. I also didn’t help myself by lazily putting in RETUNE at 5D – only realising and managing to parse it later when 1A wouldn’t fit.
And I still can’t parse TREE-LINED at 26A. It might come to me before the end of the blog, and I could have put out a plea to my fellow bloggers, but if not I will leave it for commenters (and/or the setter?) to enlighten me below…
Anyway, the first PDM was that 7D looked like THOMAS, and 10D could be STEARNS, and even my threadbare literary knowledge includes T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot’s first and middle names. C(live) S(taples) Lewis and A(ntonia) S(usan) Byatt followed, then P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse…with W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden last (after a little e-research!)
So the ‘something in common’ is that they are all famous double-initialled literary figures, with their initials SPELLED OUT:
An interesting (and educational, in the case of Wystan Hugh) diversion, for which my thanks to Fieldfare, and I trust all is clear below.
(A quick Parish Notice – I know we aren’t supposed to comment on other ‘live’ puzzles, but this is just a logistical reminder – Spectator 2730 has a shortened deadline of ‘by 3-Dec’, due to ‘Christmas publishing schedules’. If you’ve solved it but missed that nugget of information, you’ve probably missed the chance to post it in, but you should be able to e-mail a scanned/photo’d copy before Wednesday…good luck! The blog of that puzzle will also be brought forward and published on Thursday 4 Dec.)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | VISAGED | Faced bombs near end of life (7)
VIS (V1s, WW2 bombs) + AGED (near end of life) |
||
| 11 | OEUVRE | Museum spending pounds to acquire English works (6)
( |
||
| 12 | EPHRAIM | European body said to be a biblical tribe (7)
E (European) + PHRAIM (homophone, i.e. said – PHRAIM can sound like FRAME, or body) |
||
| 14 | ESTRO | Losing sides destroy poetic inspiration (5)
( |
||
| 15 | LUMME | First person on chimney reaching heavens (5)
LUM (chimney pot) + ME (first person) |
||
| 16 | CRANNY | Shrewd to hide roubles in crevice (6)
C_ANNY (shrewd) around (hiding) R (roubles) |
||
| 17 | MASALA | Mum unfortunately sent back spicy paste (6)
MA (mum) + SALA (alas, unfortunately, sent back) |
||
| 18 | VINTAGE CAR | In which to deliver good wine? (7,3)
punning CD? ‘You might use a VINTAGE CAR to deliver good, or vintage, wine? |
||
| 20 | ENQUIRE | Given day off, study papers for research (7)
( |
||
| 23 | PELERINES | In sleeper perhaps women used to wear these (9)
anag, i.e. perhaps, of IN SLEEPER |
||
| 26 | TREE-LINED | Pristine yellow filling cryptically suggests having green edges (4-5)
?? |
||
| 30 | ESTONIA | Land collapsing into sea (7)
anag, i.e. collapsing, of INTO SEA |
||
| 33 | NATION | People’s offering party refused (6)
( |
||
| 36 | AIOLI | Ace, one taking a bow, stripped for dressing (5)
A (ace) + ( |
||
| 37 | BEELINE | What goes straight into the trash: slipper with hole in the back (7)
B_IN (the trash) around EEL (something slippery!), plus E (back, or last letter, of holE) |
||
| 38 | OSTEAL | Huge duck, bony (6)
OS (outsize, huge) + TEAL (duck) |
||
| 39 | RISSOLE | One entitled to send back fish and meat dish (7)
RIS (Sir, one en-titled, sent back) + SOLE (fish) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 1 | VOUCHER | Very revolutionary, dividing our ticket (7)
V (very) + OU_R around (divided by) CHE (Che Guevara, revolutionary) |
||
| 3 | AVENTURE | Greeting character, not a remarkable incident once (8)
AVE (Latin, greeting, hail!) + N( |
||
| 5 | DETUNE | Adjust engine, taking effort to the limits through slippery hill (6)
D_UNE (moving, or slippery, hill of sand!) around (taking) ET (limits, or outer letters, of EfforT) |
||
| 6 | SPRATTLE | Struggle to speak at first, then talk non-stop (8)
S (Speak, at first) + PRATTLE (talk non-stop) |
||
| 8 | PAUSES | Assistant takes advantage of breaks (6)
PA (Personal Assistant) + USES (takes advantage of) |
||
| 9 | LIMACINE | Left one engine off-centre and sluggish (8)
L (left) + I (one) + MAC( |
||
| 13 | IRON-GREY | Neutral tone of mild sarcasm holding work up (4-4)
IRON_Y (sarcasm) around (holding) GRE (erg, unit of work, up) |
||
| 19 | AMERICAN | A Midlander once, one moving from another country (8)
A + MERC( |
||
| 21 | TRITHEIST | Tense, modifying this rite for unorthodox believer (9)
T (tense) + RITHEIST (anag, i.e. modifying, of THIS RITE) |
||
| 22 | BEASTIES | Siesta ruined by live insects (8)
BE (live) + ASTIES (anag, i.e. ruined, of SIESTA) |
||
| 24 | ENSHRINE | Cherish sinner: he reforms (8)
anag, i.e. reforms, of SINNER HE |
||
| 25 | IF ONLY TO | I wish tour halved, for no other reason than … (2,4,2)
IF ONLY (forlorn expression of regret, ‘I wish…’) + TO( |
||
| 26 | TOWN CAR | Admit caught in sticky stuff in limo (4,3)
T_AR (sticky stuff) around (catching) OWN (admit) + C (caught, cricket notation) |
||
| 27 | HARMALA | Rue damage; no room for panic (7)
HARM (damage) + ALA(RM) (alarm, panic, with no RM, room) |
||
| 28 | ST IVES | Seaside town is stifling (2,4)
double defn. (ignoring punctuation) – ST. IVES is a seaside town in Cornwall; and to STIVE is dialect for to suffocate, or stifle) |
||
| 29 | UNNAIL | Get out a spike, sunk in the middle part of hand (6)
( |
||
| 30 | EUBOEA | Let us book in alternation each Greek island (6)
EUBO (alternate letters of ‘lEt Us BoOk’ + EA (each) |
||
| 32 | WHEEN | Some overcrowded city visited by ambassador (5)
W_EN (crowded city, London, ‘the great wen’) around HE (His, or Her, Excellency, ambassador) |
||
26 PINE and YEW “line” the words in the clue. Hence, “tree-lined”.
Fieldfare is better known to Guardian solvers as Imogen/Vulcan.
I enjoyed this, many thanks to setter and blogger.