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!
Roz at #9…22D refers to Joe Root, England and Yorkshire cricketer, so an edge sky-ed off the bat…
Crab-wise there is also “CATCH A” crab, as part of 18 down. It being a rowing expression.
Good fun. FACED and DAPPLE were tricky, but satisfying when the pennies dropped.
[Roz @10, hard to conceive, such a mass spinning so fast. What could possibly impart such momentum? Hmm, conservation of w as huge thing rotating slowly collapses]
[… looked it up …]
mc_rapper67 @13: as ever, thoughtful and helpful to solvers … but I suspect Roz is well aware of Joe Root and that the last sentence of #9 is mischief!
A delightful puzzle and it was nice to spot many of the crabs though I was never going to spot the SEBASTIAN connection. As others have said, some splendid surfaces in here.
Thanks both
I thought that this was great, never looked for or spotted the theme though did note a few connections.
Trump’s apparent climbdown – probably temporary, alas – over Greenland might be attributable to the Greenlanders’ threat to rename it Not Jeffrey Epstein Island if he didn’t? Who knows?
My favourite was MITTEN.
Cheers one and all.
Thanks Brockwell and mc_rapper67
Lots of fun. I thought STICK was a great clue.
Minor hold up – I had SIDEWALK for SIDEWAYS first. I’m sure that Wall Street has them!
I had Hermione instead of Hermia – more seasonally appropriate, but less of a lover. SEBASTIAN my pick of a good bunch of clues.
Thanks for the advice MC@13 but I do find it hard to believe that any setter would make a reference to such a dull hobby .
[Grant@15 , yes think of ice skaters . Typical neutron star diameter about 25km formed from a supergiant with diameter over 1 billion km and already rotating . ]
It was fun to solve. I liked the good anagram for SEBASTIAN, the strip clubs needing to DEFROCK, the sex toy that was a MITTEN (!), the cocaine-sniffing broadcaster in a CABLE CAR, Pete Seeger’s EPITHET, the CATCH-ALL blanket, and the MAYHEM caused by Root. I did spot CRAB, SIDEWAYS and CANCER but failed to find others in a cursory glance.
Thanks Brockwell and mcr.
Didn’t like the absurd CABLER as a cable company. Not in Chambers, though apparently in Collins. 999 times out of a 1000 one would take it to mean ‘a person installing cables’.
I foolishly had DECAF at 4a, which banjaxed 5d and 6d.
Roz@9
22@a “in pieces” usually indicates an anagram so another clever misdirection. Oh, and “originalĺy” could have clued the “f” ìn “found” so altogether a clue full of tricks.
Returning 12 hours after my original contribution @2, it strikes me how similarly the theme here operated to that in Brockwell’s previous Prize on 3rd January. There the protagonist was SNAIL, with various snail-y references in other solutions and part-solutions throughout the grid. B seems keen on things with shells. – what next? Turtles?
[I have always been rather predisposed towards crabs. I think this dates back to Noddy at the Seaside, the seventh of the Noddy books (‘I always meant / To live in a tent / Wherever I went’), where a crab grabs the objectionable hero by the toe. I found this hilarious at the age of 3 or 4 and had what I think must have been my first experience of shadenfreude. Decades later I had to reconcile this predisposition in their favour with their undoubted deliciousness when cooked. Once, for a special birthday dinner, I went completely impro and devised a crab lasagne which was so spectacular that I have never been tempted to try to replicate it. My crab cakes, though, are pretty good, albeit not as good as in Baltimore.]
Balfour @25 https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/05/23/guardian-cryptic-29390-by-brockwell/?highlight=Turtle
Gosh, Grecian/Brockwell @26, I had entirely forgotten about that one. That’s funny. Thanks for reminding me.
In yesterday’s Guardian a correction was announced to an article about Ronald Blythe: they had meant to say he was HERMITIC, not hermetic. Too late to hepp, as I had already solved that one, but I didn’t solve 16d, which rather hampered me in the theme-spotting stakes. And not having solved CRAB also made SIDEWAYS impossible for me. Just an insufficient flexibility of my brain, I suspect.
Thanks to Brockwell and good luck to mc_ in that sand trap.
Many thanks to mc_rapper for the typically excellent blog. Most people would count themselves lucky not to have got crabs 😉. Thanks also to the solvers for your comments on the puzzle. I’m glad that it seems to have gone down well 🦀. All the best, B
Grecian #29. May I add to the chorus of approval. First pass was virtually impenetrable then it just unfolded. Great crossword.
I’m still perplexed at 17a SEACOCK and can’t understand why no-one else seems as confused as me! As far as I can see a SEACOCK is a fitting on a boat not a fish. Am I missing something? I’ve only been doing Guardian crosswords for a year or so and still learning the ropes but previously had 50 years of doing Observer Everyman.
Hastings Honey @30
If you enter “seacock fish” into Google, the AI will tell you that it’s an alternative name for a number of (not very closely related) species of fish.
HH@30; looks like you need a copy of Chambers: SEACOCK: seaˈcock noun
A gurnard, a type of fish
A valve communicating with the sea through a vessel’s hull
A bold sea rover
Thanks both. I use DuckDuckGo and OED and Collins! Glad to have my confusion resolved ☺️
I failed to solve 24ac and 15d and I did not even look for a theme.
New for me: LARRUPS; SEACOCK fish.
I could not parse 22d the MAY bit and I also wondered about 2d cabler = broadcaster
Thanks for all the comments so far – especially Grecian/Brockwell for popping by at #28.
Glad to see a few others also failed to spot the theme…my excuse is that I solved this last weekend and then had a hectic week of work and stuff and only came back to it last night to prepare the blog…maybe the CRABs would have sidled into my head if I had spent longer grid-staring…
Apart from a few grumbles about CABLER I don’t think there is anything getting people exercised about.
[sheffield hatter at #27 – I talked myself into a (sand) trap – specifically 4 shots to get out of a bunker on the first hole leading to a 9 (;+<). In golfing terms, that is a 'double-Hitler', as a Hitler is 'two shots in the bunker'…I'll get my coat…]
[mc_rapper67
A “Hitler” on the golf course is new to me. Of course, it has never happened to me (!). I’ll see if my golf buddies have heard it.]
This one fell in a gradual and satisfying way. Managed to complete it today, after getting through a backlog…except I misspelled 6d HERMITIC, so dnqf
I agree with mc_rapper67’s favourites, though I couldn’t parse 22d MAYHEM (“Root’s skied” = MAY?). Thank you for the enlightenment. I’ll have to watch out for “skied” as a reversal indicator
Very enjoyable solve (with a tiny bit of cheating) possibly because I smugly spotted the theme quite early. Thanks Brockwell and mc.
Enjoyable crossword, but not convinced by:
hides = larrups or thrashes (the teacher “hides” the bad pupil?) – not idiomatic
stoner = user – again not idiomatic
I was a bit dissappointed to find that I’d had the answers all along but had rejected them thinking they were wrong.
Excellent puzzle with lots of misdirections and wonderful surfaces. We started well with SEBASTIAN and NEBULA with steady progress via CRAB to EASING, noting the potential conjunction of two of those answers. Like mc_rapper67, we were anticipating popular music as a theme, so thought that this could have been a further ingenious misdirection when the pd moment of the ‘obvious’ theme actually emerged from its shell.
FACED, PERMEATE and L.S.LOWRY were clever with HOLY GHOST and MAYHEM close to my own interests. However, anagrams disguised in EPITHETS and the lovely dialectical LARRUPS were unusually at the top of our list.
Many thanks to B and m.
Loved this puzzle. Ginger Tom and I spotted the theme early which helped. Thanks to blogger and setter
MJ … I’m afraid I know and have heard both “stoner” and “ larrups” (in the context of “a good larrupping” admittedly). Evidence of a misspent middle age perhaps….