[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Very enjoyable puzzle with clues ranging from the very simple to the very difficult. There is one solution I still can’t explain.
This puzzle is in memory of Andy Williams the easy-listening singer who died one year ago today. My mum and dad were great Andy Williams fans and played his records often. This was not really a help as for some reason I seem to have erased all trace of his singing from my childhood memory. Andy Williams recorded dozens of albums and hundreds of songs, so this did not become a tick list as some themed puzzles can be. Thank you Gaff.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EBBW VALE | Footwork was practised here for many terms (4,4) |
| 6 | GHETTO | Area for those deprived of hospital within reach (6) |
| H (hospital) in GET TO (reach) | ||
| 9 | STAVED | Broke into cask and retrieved last of claret inside (6) |
| clareT (last letter of) inside SAVED (retrieved) – to brake the stave of a barrel | ||
| 10 | ECONOMIC | Dandy online maybe keeps on being viable (8) |
| E COMIC (online version of The Dandy maybe) containing (keeps) ON | ||
| 11 | SEISMOGRAM | Record of quivering produced by semi-orgasm (10) |
| (SEMI_ORGASM)* anagram=produced by – definition is ‘record of quivering’ | ||
| 12, 15 | ANDY WILLIAMS | Large sail may flap with wind for expert in light airs (4,8) |
| anagram of L (large) SAIL MAY and WIND, flap=anargam – popular singer, airs=songs | ||
| 13 | EFFETE | Spent like a woman without the least bit of anxiety (6) |
| EFFEminaTE (like a woman) missing MIN (least) and A (bit of anxiety) – definition is ‘spent’. A very tricky clue. | ||
| 15 | See 12 | |
| 18 | SYNOPSIS | Rundown relation’s holding £25 back (8) |
| SIS’S (sister’s, relation’s) holding PONY (£25) reversed – definition is ‘rundown’. I liked this one, at first glance it seems very unlikely that PONY reversed is going to be part of a word. | ||
| 20 | VICTOR | Champion of civic Tories (6) |
| hidden in ciVIC TORies | ||
| 21 | THAI | Asian speech of allegiance (4) |
| sounds like (in speech) “tie” (allegiance) | ||
| 23 | HEMISPHERE | Edge is said to be dread part of the world (10) |
| HEM (edge) and ‘IS SPHERE’ sounds like (said) “is fear” (to be dread) | ||
| 25 | OPEN CAST | Flowing cape’s not mine (4,4) |
| (CAPE’S NOT)* anagram=flowing – definition is mine, as a verb pehaps | ||
| 26 | OCTAVE | No warning about time of interval (6) |
| O (zero, no) CAVE (warning) about T (time) – musical interval | ||
| 27 | EYELET | Means of securing study grant (6) |
| EYE (study) LET (grant) | ||
| 28 | ANYWHERE | To some degree disastrous start to Happy New Year (8) |
| anagram (disasterous) of H (start of happy) NEW YEAR – definition is ‘to some degree’ | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | BUTTERFLY | 12, 15’s royal stock led to career (9) |
| BUTT (stock, of a gun) ER (royal) FLY (career) – Andy Williams song. I think ‘led’ indicates that stock was in front of royal. | ||
| 3, 4 | WIVES AND LOVERS | 12, 15’s mates with inept solver (5,3,6) |
| WIVES (mates) AND (with) SOLVER* inept=anagram – Andy Williams song | ||
| 5 | EYEBROW | Feature report on East End’s intellectual (7) |
| sounds like (reported) ‘ighbrow (intellectual) in East End Londoner’s accent – a facial feature | ||
| 6 | GROOM | One who brushes up on his speech? (5) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 7 | EGOMANIAC | Passionate believer in everything about him (9) |
| cryptic definiton – does not seem very cryptic to me, maybe I have missed something? | ||
| 8 | TRIAD | Could be major gang (5) |
| double definition – musical terms and chinese gangsters | ||
| 14 | EMOTIONAL | Loo inmate may cause gushing (9) |
| (LOO INMATE)* anagram=may cause (may be arranged to make…) – definition is ‘gushing’. I spent a long while attempting to parse ’emotional’ as the answer to 7dn, so it was a shoo-in for me here. | ||
| 16 | LOVE STORY | 12, 15’s enamoured of Cameron? (4,5) |
| LOVES (enamoured of) TORY (David Cameron) – song by Andy Williams | ||
| 17 | MOON RIVER | 12, 15’s display of cheek to banker (4,5) |
| MOON (show one’s cheeks, buttocks) to RIVER (something with banks) – Andy Williams song | ||
| 19 | SUMATRA | Start a musical turn featuring island (7) |
| featured in stART A MUSical reversed (turn) | ||
| 22, 23 | HAPPY HEART | 12, 15’s started having alternative physio-therapy treatment (5,5) |
| Having Alternative Physio (starting letters of) THERAPY* anagram=treatment – Andy Williams song | ||
| 24 | HITCH | Make fast interruption (5) |
| double definition | ||
*anagram
Michael Foot represented Ebbw Vale as an MP for many years. It used to be said they weighed the Labour vote rather than count it.
Thanks, PeeDee, especially for 13ac, which I didn’t get.
I really enjoyed this, once I got started. 17dn was my way in to the theme – eventually: I spent several minutes wondering why HENRY MANCINI didn’t fit into 12, 15.
I loved the ‘earth-moving’ clue to 11ac! [PeeDee, your modesty has led to a typo in your anagram fodder. 😉 ]
Other favourites: 1ac, 18ac, 6dn and 22, 23dn.
Many thanks to Gaff for the memories.
Thanks Conrad and Eileen. I completely failed to notice the surface reading of 11ac at the time. Earth moving – very good Eileen!
Just curious, but it seems like the 18ac clue above is missing an “s” in the explanation.
Brian……the extra S comes from the end of relation’s, hence sis s with pony in, all being reversed.
Fixed now.