Tuesday fun from Math.
A few tricky clues here, but everything made sense in the end. I liked the misdirection of a “long walk over hills and dales”, and laughed at the suggestion of what to wear on a motorbike (though of course we should have the ‘Ealth ‘n’ Safety warning that you definitely shouldn’t do this).
There’s a pretty obvious Tuesday theme in that every clue features some element of archetypal Cockney pronunciation: generally the dropped initial H, but a few other dropped letters too. I haven’t noted every instance of this in the explanations below because it got a bit repetitive, but I hope I’ve indicated it where necessary for the wordplay. Appropriately, the pattern of black squares features a line of four letter H shapes “dropping” across the middle of the grid. But I got some way into writing up the blog before I spotted the Nina in the first and last columns: obvious when you see it, of course. Thanks Math for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIADEM |
Crown princess owned those things in ‘ackney (6)
|
| DI (tabloid newspapers’ abbreviation for the late Diana, Princess of Wales) + ‘AD ‘EM (Cockney pronunciation, as in Hackney in East London, of “had them” = owned those things). | ||
| 5 | ANGELICA |
Plant‘s ‘ealing mixture with added calcium (8)
|
| Anagram (mixture) of ‘EALING, then CA (Ca = chemical symbol for calcium).
Flowering plant, used as a herb or candied for cake decorations. |
||
| 9 | ROYALISM |
Support for King ‘enry is following Yorkist leader invading most of capital (8)
|
| ‘AL (Cockney pronunciation of HAL = nickname for King Henry) + IS (from clue text), following the leading letter of Y[orkist], all inserted into ROM[e] (capital city) with the last letter dropped (most of . . .). | ||
| 10 | BIKINI |
Ridin’ an ‘arley? Put on one’s 2-piece suit! (6)
|
| BIKIN’ (Cockney pronunciation of BIKING, for example riding a Harley = slang for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle) + I (one, in Roman numerals).
A two-piece bathing suit. |
||
| 11 | BALANCED DIET |
After renovation it ‘ad clean bed and good food to eat (8,4)
|
| Anagram (after renovation) of IT ‘AD CLEAN BED. | ||
| 13 | OTIC |
For the ear is sexy, but not ‘er (4)
|
| [er]OTIC (sexy) without ER. | ||
| 14 | SPECIFIC |
‘e’s cleaner in second movie in particular (8)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) + CIF (brand name for household cleaning products), inserted into S (abbreviation for second) + PIC (slang shortening of picture = movie). | ||
| 17 | PRISONER |
Captive‘s lying about ‘is rank at first (8)
|
| PRONE (lying down) around ‘IS, then the first letter of R[ank]. | ||
| 18 | SINH |
Misbe’ave, lacking character after function (4)
|
| SIN (as a verb = misbehave), with H (the character lacking in Cockney pronunciations of words such as “misbe’ave”) after it.
Mathematical notation for the “hyperbolic sine” function. It’s a long time since I studied pure maths and I won’t attempt to explain what this means; I suspect most readers of this blog won’t want a long discussion on the subject. This Wikipedia article may or may not help. |
||
| 20 | PAVING STONES |
Flags ‘n’ signpost ‘ave blown about (6,6)
|
| Anagram (blown about) of ‘N SIGNPOST ‘AVE.
Another name for flagstones = flat stones used as flooring. |
||
| 23 | EIFFEL |
Tour of Paris ‘e’s provided freely on odd occasions (6)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) + IF (provided) + odd-numbered letters of F[r]E[e]L[y].
“La Tour Eiffel” is the French name for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. |
||
| 24 | OMELETTE |
‘ouse rented by Taiwanese on vacation wanting egg fu yung? (8)
|
| ‘OME (‘ouse = Cockney pronunciation of house) + LET (rented = hired) + T[aiwanes]E (on vacation = after emptying).
Definition by example: egg fu yung is a Chinese version of an omelette with vegetables and sometimes meat. |
||
| 25 | DEGRADES |
Puts down university qualifications the second ‘e ‘ad succeeded (8)
|
UPDATE: Thanks to KVa and Hovis for a better version. |
||
| 26 | SET-TOS |
Front of ‘ouse filled 20 rows (3-3)
|
| Front letter of ‘O[use] inserted into SETTS (another word for 20a = paving stones).
Set-to = slang for an argument = row. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | IRON |
One’s not normally for putting ‘eadless ‘orseman of legend without an aitch (4)
|
| [c][h]IRON (centaur in Greek mythology = horse-man of legend), without the first letter (head) and without the H.
Iron, in golf = a club normally used for long shots along the fairway (or for getting out of trouble) rather than for putting on the green. |
||
| 3 | DRAWBACKS |
‘ard up. With support, finally overcomes disadvantages (9)
|
| ‘ARD reversed (up, in a down clue) + W (abbreviation for with) + BACK (support, as a verb = give one’s approval to) + final letter of [overcome]S. It’s very unusual to see a full stop in a cryptic clue, which is normally a single sentence or sentence fragment; I’d expect a semicolon or dash instead. | ||
| 4 | MAINLY |
Lay ‘im out with third of punches for the most part (6)
|
| Anagram (out) of LAY ‘IM + third letter of [pu]N[ches]. | ||
| 5 | ADMINISTRATIONS |
Small broadcasting companies ‘ad first run in with governments (15)
|
| MINI (small) + STATIONS (broadcasting companies), with ‘AD at the start (first), and with R (abbreviation for run, in cricket scoring) inserted. | ||
| 6 | GIBBETED |
In Britain I wager ‘e’d get ‘anged (8)
|
| I (from clue text) inserted into GB (abbreviation for Great Britain), then BET (wager) + ‘E’D.
Hanged (‘anged in Cockney pronunciation) = executed by hanging on a gibbet, or suspended on one after execution as a warning to others. |
||
| 7 | LIKED |
Enjoyed long walk over ‘ills ‘n’ dales initially (5)
|
| L (abbreviation for long) + ‘IKE (Cockney pronunciation of “hike” = walk over hills) + initial letter of D[ales]. | ||
| 8 | CONVENIENT |
It’s ‘andy ‘e’s been found in … in … in a nunnery! (10)
|
| ‘E (from clue text) inserted into (found in) IN (from clue text), all inserted into CONVENT (nunnery).
Handy (‘andy in Cockney pronunciation) = slang for convenient. |
||
| 12 | ETERNALISE |
Make endless changes salient ‘ere (10)
|
| Anagram (changes) of SALIENT ‘ERE.
Well, it’s a logical enough word and it’s in the dictionaries, but I’m not sure I’ve seen it before; “immortalise” is perhaps more usual. |
||
| 15 | INSISTENT |
Demanding old Bob gets under ‘is canvas for cover (9)
|
| S (abbreviation for shilling, known in slang as a “bob”; this is obsolete currency in the UK, hence “old”), inserted into (gets . . . for cover) IN ‘IS TENT (under ‘is canvas). To be strictly correct (not that it affects the wordplay), S = shilling is actually an abbreviation for the Latin coin solidus; the £sd of old currency stands for librae, solidi, denarii. | ||
| 16 | SNUGGLED |
Ran em out ‘n’ got in ‘n’ settled in nicely (8)
|
| S[m]UGGLED (ran, as in “rum runner” = smuggler of alcoholic drinks), with the M (em = a name for the letter M) taken out and ‘N (from clue text) put in its place (got in). | ||
| 19 | ANGERS |
Makes mad cloakroom things to put ‘oodies and ‘arringtons on (6)
|
| ‘ANGERS = Cockney pronunciation of “hangers” = where you might put your hoodies and Harrington jackets in a cloakroom. | ||
| 21 | INFER |
Deduce no much-quoted poem’s been written about ‘er (5)
|
| N (no = abbreviation for number) with IF (a much-quoted poem by Kipling, a favourite with crossword setters) written around it, then ‘ER. | ||
| 22 | OTTO |
Fragrant oil ‘eated at temperature above zero (4)
|
| ‘OT (Cockney pronunciation of “hot” = heated) + T (abbreviation for temperature), before (above, in a down clue) O (zero).
Another name for attar: an essential oil from flowers, especially from roses, used in perfume. |
One of those puzzles where one’s admiration for the setting isn’t totally matched by the pleasure in solving, as the trick became a little tiresome. I liked EIFFEL, PAVING STONES and SNUGGLED, once I saw how it worked.Excellent blog as always.
Tricky at times and, yes, perhaps the relentless aitch-dropping eventually became a little wearisome – but, then again, with a surface theme like this, I guess you’ve gotta go for it and commit yourself to going the whole hog and Math deserves full credit for finding so many ways to utilise the device. I did not spot the ETERNALISE anagram right at the end – I eventually put the letters into an anagram solver – and it did not come up with the word! And I had an unparsed SINE for the nho SINH – which is quite a cunning construction. Hard to nominate favourites in a set of clues like this so thanks for the overall puzzle, Math, and the helpful blog, Quirister.
DEGRADES
Maybe ‘succeeded’ indicates replacement of e with ad? Otherwise, there is nothing to show that we have to remove the second ‘e’.
Re 25a. A meaning of ‘succeeded’ is ‘took the place of’. So AD took the place of the second E in DEGREES.
KVa @3, Hovis @4: thanks, I think this use of “succeeded” works better than my parsing because it allows DEGREES plural to match “qualifications”. I’ll update the blog.
It’s very rare to come across a new concept like this, with the whole puzzle based on the Nina, and exceptionally clever to use the familiar “4 H” grid.
I confess, the device, like an over-used catchphrase, started to wear a bit thin, but I am still in awe of this feat of compiling. Plus, the clues, for me, maintained high quality throughout.
In fact, there are some real winners.
Like PM@2, I bunged in SINE, and SINH is a new one. I read Ms.Q’s cross-reference, so I get it, but I won’t remember it!
I am also proud to say, I had the exactly the same parsing as Q, for DEGRADES 25(ac); if you’re going to do wrong, do it in good company.
Congratulations to Math: hats off. Thanks to Ms.Q and posters.
A first for me. I read half the clues and didn’t bother even trying to solve. Obviously my loss, but maybe using the clever device on all acrosses or on all downs and giving regular clues elsewhere would be better. For me anyway.
My heart sank when I saw this – a first glance at the clues reminded me of the tedious way Dickens (and others) portrayed cockney speech, rather than letting the reader do it for themselves. However, the style grew on me and I enjoyed the tussle. Spotting the extra added Nina was a bonus, which I needed to turn SINE to the nho SINH. Thanks to Math and to Quirister
Thanks to Quirister for the detailed blog and all for the feedback. My process for this one was:
1) spotting the descending H’s in the grid and thinking to myself “it’s dropping its aitches”;
2) noticing that the grid would accommodate “dropped aitches” as a Nina;
3) deciding that I must include at least some dropped aitch clues in it; and
4) as PostMark noted at #2, thinking that only doing some seemed a bit ‘alf ‘earted and deciding that I would instead go the ‘ole ‘og.
Sorry if that put you off or meant you felt you were being ‘it over the ‘ead with the hidiom. I did try to vary the way in which they were used at least, and hendeavoured to hensure that they weren’t hentirely gratuitous (i.e. that at least one of the dropped letters was necessary for the clue mechanics and any others dropped along the way were just to maintain a consistent mode of speech).
Also apologies for the inclusion of the obscure maths function but I felt that leaving it out would have taken the sinh off it (sorry, as an ex-mathematician, I couldn’t resist).