Guardian 24,597 – Brendan

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Lots of clues which should be connected by 17ac.. got it from the chess set and the football set plays then got the theatrical ones but still don’t see how the others qualify.

Across
1 SEQUEL S[outh] and E[ast] are opponents in Bridge, and QUEL[l] is “almost overcome”.
4 LANCET Is a type of window as well as the surgical tool that can be used to open people up in an operating theatre.
9 TUBE “however” gives BUT, which runs west i.e. is reversed, and then E[ast]
10 TIEBREAKER cryptic double def.
11 CORNER A heartless CORoNER.
12 FREE KICK KICK for thrill, but “Unconventional” = FREE?
13 STABLEMEN hidden
15 GAME Clue seems a little familiar..
16 PROP =support, and is short for propeller, which revolves on a craft.
17 SET PIECES
21 ELEMENTS The basics, and the weather.
22 BISHOP Is a mulled wine. I in B[ook] SHOP? Maybe works better if read as book [space] store.
24 TICKED OVER TICK=second, E[nglish], DOVER
25 FLAT
26 SCREEN To show e.g. a film, or in the sense of sorting through – a riddle is a sieve.
27 HYSSOP (shops)* holding Y=unknown
Down
1 SHUT OUT could be a cryptic indicator for (shut)* = thus
2 QUEEN Will win a trick over a knave/jack in whist/bridge/etc.
3 EUTERPE The muse for music. (repute)* + E=note
5 AGREED A GREED
6 CHALKFACE Can describe the White Cliffs of Dover I guess, but I don’t get the “Where master performs” part.
7 TREACLE (electra)*
8 SELF-DEFENSIVE crypticish double def
14 BOOKMAKERS Refers to betting and also to binding books before sale.
16 PULPITS (split up)*
18 PUBERTY (bury pet)*
19 EXOCARP E[nglish] rev(OX) CARP. Part of a fruit.
20 ON EDGE A volcanologist would be if they were. If that makes sense.
23 SOFAS hidden

25 comments on “Guardian 24,597 – Brendan”

  4. Thanks manehi. We’ve been asking for a tough one all week and this was it I thought. I didn’t help myself by putting JOKER for 2d at first. Overall challenging and satisfying.

    PS. don’t know if chalkface might have something to do with blackboards and school masters?

  5. 6dn – in ye olden days we had schoolMASTERS who wrote on blackboards with CHALK.

    I interpreted the thematic words thus:
    2/22 – pieces from a Chess set
    9/26 – parts of a television set
    10/15 – things related to tennis, which has sets
    11/12 – “set pieces” in football
    16/25 – parts of a theatrical set
    21 – sets in mathematics have elements

  6. Tie-breaker and Game are parts of Set of tennis
    Prop and Flat are parts of a theatre set
    Elements are part of a set (mathematically).

    Took me ages to get that lot, but what a fun crossword! I really like 14d…

  8. Thanks, Manehi. Super puzzle – Brendan just gets better .

    TIEBREAKER and GAME are both parts of a set in tennis
    TUBE and SCREEN are parts of a TV set.

    6dn: it’s a long time since teachers used chalk but it refers to schoolmasters.

  10. Thanks all for the clarifying comments… I really should have got at least the mathematical set one, as I’ve been working on them all this past week.. and blackboards? what are they? 😉

    PS forgot to apologise for a lateish post – a fire alarm separated me from my computer.

  12. Apologies for superfluity at 3 above. Re 2d, I didn’t get the anagrind, which is clever. Chambers gives ‘shut out’ as a bridge term, preventing opponents from bidding, and consequently from scoring I suppose. I have a feeling it’s used in another context to prevent scoring directly.

  13. And I meant to add – SET is famous for having an exceptionally large number of definitions, and has many pages devoted to it in the OED, so Brendan had plenty of scope for set-related words.

  14. I struggled with the top half and didn’t get lancet 🙁

    Found it fair, being able to work out the likes of 22 Across (bishop = mulled wine?) and others, and hence enjoyable.

    Thought 3 Down was very clever – and amusing!

  15. Enjoyed this one, had to wait until I got home to get 19ac and 3dn, not terms that trip of the tongue, and a little google based research was in order, all well and good for a Thursday puzzle.

  17. I was out until 6pm today, so have only just got round to today’s puzzle. Consequently, there is not much to add!

    Splendid crossword – very ingenious and entertaining use of a theme. I managed it without help (I can just about recall the names of most of the Muses, though I can never remember who was supposed to inspire what). Unlike some correspondents, I found it very straightforward indeed. Perhaps I should always wait until early evening for my brain to warm up properly!

    As Eileen points out, it is a long time since teachers used chalk (‘at the chalkface’ was a common metaphor for teaching), but ‘masters’ for ‘teachers’ is also somewhat old-fashioned, so Brendan has clued this one in a very cleverly subtle way.

  18. I think ‘schoolmasters’ are even more archaic than blackboard and chalk – though I take Geoff’s point about Brendan’s subtlety. [He’s rapidly becoming one of my top three / four.]
    When I began teaching, my professional association was the AAM [Association of Assistant Mistresses], which we found amusing. [It was the ‘assistant’ that particularly tickled us.]

  19. Shut out – I’d heard of this in terms of ice hockey and possibly baseball, but haven’t seen it used over “clean sheet” for football, though I’m sure it is.

    As for chalk, my teachers and now my lecturers still use(d) chalk fairly regularly, but I’d never heard of the “at the chalkface” expression. Other than that, I also found it fairly straightforward (apart from putting the theme together). Still, great fun.

  20. Manehi: I’ve always thought [though I’ve not found any actual evidence] that the expression [working] ‘at the chalkface’ was derived from ‘at the coalface’, meaning actually ‘on the job’ rather than theorising about it – as George said in comment 1, ‘teaching in the classroom’.

  23. In 17 ac, I thought “25, or 21” might refer to rugby, where the 25 yard drop-out has become the 21 metre one. Another set piece.

  24. As there were five sets of pairs I had put ‘ten pieces’ for 17Ac. Luckily this did not impede adversely.

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