Trawling back through my (and others’) previous Brockwell blogs, they often seem to contain a theme…
…but I am not sure if I can see one here…unless he is telling Trump where he can STICK GREENLAND…
This took a couple of sessions – after putting in SEBASTIAN (lovely definition/anagrind with Saint-Saens!), FACED/DECAF and DUB-LINERS and thinking I was on a roll, things slowed down a bit, and it needed picking up again to fill in a few stragglers.
There are some lovely surface reads – Root’s ‘skied edge’ causing MAYHEM at 22D; the aforementioned ‘Saint-Saens a bit lively’ anagram at 7A; Pierce Brosnan’s ‘heart-beat’ at 26A – to name but a few.
In fact, looking back as I write this up, there are several musical references in the clues, rather than the answers – Pete Seeger a 15D; Hazel O’Connor at 11D; Saint-Saens at 7A; Buddy Ho(l)ly at 25A; Echo Beach (by ‘Martha and the Muffins’) at 24A; a spot of Jazz from Duke (Ellington) at 5D…but maybe not quite enough to constitute a theme?…
All in all – a fun Prize puzzle to entertain those who aren’t on January solving detox (I prefer to celebrate ‘dry January’ as dry Gin-uary) and my thanks to Brockwell for the diversion and entertainment…and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 7A | SEBASTIAN | Saint-Saëns a bit lively (9)
anag, i.e. lively, of SAENS A BIT [Saint and Saens have to be decoupled!] |
| 8A | FACED | Looked at coffee on the counter (5)
DECAF (decaffinated coffee) ‘on the counter’ (reversed) = FACED! |
| 9A | DUBLINERS | Name ships after people from city (9)
DUB (confer a name upon) + LINERS (ships) |
| 10A | SPUME | In the mirror, Big Bird starts to prepare shaving foam (5)
EMU (big bird) + PS (starts of Prepare and Shaving) all ‘in the mirror’, or revesed = SPUME |
| 12A | CANCER | May Queen overtaking close to traffic sign (6)
CAN (may, is able to) + C (close, or last letter, of traffiC) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, former queen) [zodiacal sign] |
| 13A | PERMEATE | Go through in style introducing wingers for extra time (8)
PERM (hairstyle) before (introducing) EA TE (wingers, outer letters of ExtrA and TimE) |
| 14A | DEFROCK | Strip clubs having forked out for protection (7)
DEFRO_K (anag, i.e. out, of FORKED) around (protecting) C (clubs, notation in card games) |
| 17A | SEACOCK | Home counties member eating a fish (7)
SE (the South East, Home Counties around London) + A + COCK (penis, male bodily member) |
| 20A | SIDEWAYS | Wall Street’s direction of travel for 16 (8)
SIDE (wall of a house) + WAYS (streets) [a 16D CRAB usually travels sideways] |
| 22A | MITTEN | Manual covering sex toy originally found in pieces (6)
M_EN (chess pieces) around IT (euphemism for S-E-X) + T (original letter of Toy) |
| 24A | SHORE | Stripped briefly in front of Echo Beach (5)
SHOR( |
| 25A | HOLY GHOST | Buddy possibly disheartened by German army showing spirit (4,5)
HO( |
| 26A | STICK | Pierce Brosnan’s heartbeat (5)
S (middle letter, heart, again, of broSnan) + TICK (beat) |
| 27A | GREENLAND | Young boy touring Northern Territory (9)
GREEN (young, naïve) + LA_D (boy) around (touring) N (Northern) [topical!] |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | NEBULA | Unable to fly in cloud (6)
anag, i.e. to fly, of UNABLE |
| 2D | CABLE CAR | Broadcaster snorting cocaine – a means of getting high (5,3)
CABLE_R (broadcaster? Cable TV company?) around (snorting) C (cocaine) + A |
| 3D | STONER | User of special make-up (6)
S (special) + TONER (make-up) [user of drugs] |
| 4D | LARRUPS | Hides recipes in Paul’s cryptic (7)
LA_UPS (anag, i.e. cryptic, of PAULS) around (hiding) RR (r, Latin, recipe, plural) [hide as a verb, to thrash, or larrup] |
| 5D | DAPPLE | Spot of Jazz perhaps led by Duke (6)
D (duke) before (leading) APPLE (Jazz is a type of apple) |
| 6D | HERMITIC | Solitary Shakespearian lover dumping a jerk (8)
HERMI(A) (Shakespearian lover, dumping A) + TIC (jerk, bodily movement) |
| 11D | TREE | Is that Hazel O’Connor finally wearing shirt? (4)
T_EE (t-shirt) around (worn by) R (final letter of oc’onnoR) |
| 15D | EPITHETS | Descriptive words lit up Pete Seeger’s first hit (8)
anag, i.e. lit up, of PETE + S (Seeger’s first letter) + HIT |
| 16D | CRAB | Sea creature caught by Scotsman (4)
C (caught, cricket scoring) + RAB (example of a Scottish name) |
| 18D | CATCH-ALL | Cry of derision about hospital blanket (5-3)
CAT C_ALL (cry of derision) around H (hospital) |
| 19D | L S LOWRY | Painter left snail-like tracks (1,1,5)
L (left) + S_LOW (snail-like) + RY (railway, tracks) |
| 21D | ENRICH | Piece from Henri Charrière in supplement (6)
hidden word in, i.e. piece of, ‘hENRI CHarriere’ |
| 22D | MAYHEM | Root’s skied edge produces chaos (6)
MAY (yam, root, upwards, or skied) + HEM (edge) |
| 23D | EASING | Sedative drug offence divides American golf (6)
E (ecstasy tablet, drug) + A_G (A, American, G, golf, phonetic alphabet) around (divided by) SIN (offence) |
Thanks mc_rapper67.
There are a lot of references to 16d in the grid.
Yes, Dunc T, the theme is CRABs. Apart from SIDEWAYS, which is overtly linked to it, there is CANCER, the C NEBULA, C-FACED, C-STICK and C-APPLE, then STONE, SHORE, HERMIT, GREENLAND, GHOST and TREE CRABs. And others, I’m sure.
Doh! I will just crawl away sideways and hide in the sand (or more likely a golf course bunker in the morning) – thanks to DuncT and Balfour for pointing out what is now obvious in plain sight!
Thanks mc-rapper67. Don’t feel too bad about it, the theme, as usual, escaped me completely too. I found it hard to get a start and it took me some time over several sessions to get there. Looking back on it now it shouldn’t have, most clues were fair and reasonable. I’ve given up complaining about synonyms but a house has walls at front and back too. I did like the many smooth surfaces.
I actually saw the theme! Balfour@4 has some I missed, but I’d add that MITTEN and ROCK are types of crab and SEBASTIAN is the name of the crab in The Little Mermaid (the Disney version). Even with the theme I struggled in the north-east corner, but was sure ‘hermit’ must be there somewhere and finally saw how the clue worked. Apart from being quite chuffed to spot the theme, I really liked a number of the surfaces. Thanks to both Brockwell and mc.
Also wondered about 2d, unless a broadcaster that uses cable is a cabler?
Collins has “Cabler (n), a cable broadcasting company”.
Also omitted from Chambers is HERMITIC (it only gives “hermitical” as an adjectival form). However, Ollie’s, ODE and OED all confirm).
Didn’t finish this getting stuck with a few in the NE
Liked: HOLY GHOST, CRAB, LS LOWRY, CATCH-CALL
Never heard of SEACOCK
Thanks Brockwell and mc_rapper67
Thanks for the blog , rather surprised that I saw the theme , NEBULA gave it away , and others did not , must be a first .
Very neat set of clues , STICK my favourite for the clever use of fission , MITTEN very good with a misleading “covering” .
Puzzled by – Root’s skied edge – roots have positive gravitropism but I suppose aerial roots behave differently .
[ CRAB NEBULA interlude , sorry can’t resist , it is so special .
First nebula to be traced back to its supernova SN1054 , recorded in China .
It is M1 , prestigious first entry in the Messier Catalogue .
Has a Pulsar at the centre , about 1.5 times the mass of the sun and rotating 30 times EVERY SECOND .
Does not look like a crab , perhaps vaguely in the x-ray band . ]
A good puzzle though I missed the theme. Had to search for J S LOWRY. Liked SEBASTIAN and DUBLINERS. Thanks Brockwell and mc_rapper67!