The usual good crossword from Phi. I am bewildered by 22dn but no doubt it will be explained.
As usual I can’t see any Nina, although my search usually doesn’t go far beyond the unchecked letters in the rows and columns and I can’t see anything there. Do 1ac and 29ac/24dn have something in common? Evidently they met in 1946 and discussed Clarke’s essay ‘The Challenge of the Spaceship’, but perhaps this is a false lead.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ARTHUR C CLARKE — Arthur [the mythical king] (crackle)* |
| 10 | {f}AIRER |
| 11 | PRINCIPAL — p(r)in c (laic)rev. around p — pin = point, def ‘main’ |
| 12 | C(H{eat})AMBER |
| 13 | EVELINA — (I leave)* around n |
| 14 | DESICCATED — (decide cast)* — a trap for the unwary speller |
| 16 | {p}AGES |
| 21 | KETTLEDRUM — {s}ettled in (murk)rev. |
| 24 | RE VIE W S |
| 26 | {w}INNINGS |
| 27 | PANATELLA — (plant a lea{f})* |
| 28 | S{uffering} CORE |
| 29/19 | GEORGE BERNARD SHAW — (Heard Bragg son were)* — I don’t quite understand the question mark here: either Shaw was a Nobel winner (as he was), in which case it is unnecessary, or he wasn’t, in which case why was there a reference to the Nobel prize? [Nobel winner? Heard Bragg and son were, possibly] |
| Down | |
| 2 | REREADS — (are)* in reds |
| 3 | HARD BACK |
| 4 | R(E PORT)AGE |
| 5 | C LIVE |
| 6 | ARCH ER — def ‘man with weapon’, so that arch = ‘most important’ not ‘most important man’ |
| 7 | KIPLING — kipping with the second p replaced by l |
| 8 | BAR CODES — cod in bares — def ‘strips on grocery products?’ |
| 9 | F(LE)A |
| 15 | EXTR(1 C)A T {phas}E |
| 17 | SE(ME ST)ER |
| 18 | TEN(NY’S)ON |
| 20 | A D(V)ANCE |
| 22 | RANCOUR — ran [did some training] cour, where cour = ‘London area?’ — at least that’s what it seems to be, but I can’t really parse this: what on earth is going on? Is it cour{t}? |
| 23 | V {r}ECTOR |
| 24 | ROPE — a twist in the first three letters of ‘pore’ I think |
| 25 | SOL(V)E — the second letter of 13ac is V — without = outside |
Thanks, John! I think 22 is RAN COUR[se] – can’t say I’m wild about it. Still can’t make out 24D. I liked 11, once I worked it out.
On reflection, I can see you’re probably right about 24D. Nuff said.
Usual fine puzzle from Phi, not too hard. I got the answers for RANCOUR and ROPE long before understanding the wordplay, but eventually I did.
I suspect there may be a theme with all the writers present and the unusual answer EVELINA but I don’t know what it is either. Many thanks for the blog, John, and Phi for the puzzle of course.
Thanks, Phi and John, for puzzle and blog. I particularly needed some of the explanations, John, even though I solved the clues. Also to yvains for explaining 22d.
7d had me puzzled as I read the clue the wrong way round, as it were. I took it to mean that if you replaced the P in Kipling with an L you would get something meaning “in dreams” and (obviously) couldn’t understand how “killing” could mean that.
As to the question mark in 29/19, I think it’s just to improve the surface reading – but it does also strengthen the misdirection towards Sir W H Bragg and his son W L Bragg, joint winners of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1915.
Very nice thank you Phi and John. My problem is that even with all the anagram letters, I still have trouble spelling 14a.
Thanks Phi for an enjoyable puzzle and John for the blog. Too many good clues to single out a favourite.
13ac: Slightly awkward to indicate this name with an anagram, but compensated with the extra confirmation given by 25dn – a neat touch and thanks Phi for that in particular.
14ac: Considerable sympathy with crypticsue @5. I think the problem is the short E in the stressed first syllable followed by a single consonant and then another vowel.
22dn: I read this the same way as yvains@1 and was completely happy with it. “London area” for SE could refer either to London being in the south east of England or to the postal area within London. I took it as the former, but perhaps Phi will drop in and tell us which one he meant – or indeed if he deliberately gave us both options.
I’ll go for the latter, SE being a London postal district.
Fine puzzle, and I appreciated the idea behind making DESICCATED an anagram! Crafty old Phi will have caught some solvers out with that I fear.
Many thanks
Rowly.
Seem to have had many of the same problems as everyone else with this, with the addition that I just couldn’t see 26ac without a wordsearch. The bottom right corner was what held me up the most.
Thanks, John.
Usual good Friday stuff from Phi, which I enjoyed, but like others there were a couple I couldn’t parse. Seems like there should be a theme, but I can’t see anything. DESICCATE is a tricky one, but one of the advantages of remembering a bit of Latin from school is that SICCUS is the Latin word for ‘dry’.
Good weekend to all.
Don’t usually do these, but I had time today. Thanks for the illuminations from all and sundry, but I’m still unsure about 21. Calm = Settle and Calmed = Settled. So where does the D come from? It isn’t in the clue.
re #10, calm = settled (adj) I thought.
This puzzle was for a book magazine but was never used, so when I unearthed it a while back I decided to let it see the light of day. Can’t remember which of the Burneys wrote EVELINA but hers seemed to be the best V to use when I needed one.
I always thought SE = London was a bit of a chestnut myself.
GBS was tricky to clue, as he could be glaringly obvious with those letter lengths. Stumbling on BRAGG and SON lurking in there (still the only father-and-son pair to win, I think) pushed me to the Nobel definition, through recalling GBS to be the only individual winner of both a Nobel and an Oscar. (There is a trophy cupboard in America with both in it, but its owner shared both wins, I believe.)
Thanks Phi – another enjoyable Friday evening solve. Too tired (again!) so finished it this mrning. Very pleased to know that we didn’t miss a nina!
Some tricky ones to parse but thankfully we were more awake ths morning and able to sort them out.
Thanks John for the blog.
For the sake of clarity: My dislike of ‘ran course’ at 22 had nothing to do with ‘se’ (indeed, an old chestnut) but everything to do with my dimwittedness in taking 3 days to realise what sort of course was being run. I apologise, Phi, for doubting you 🙂