Two unclued entries (top row right, bottom row left) separated by a third (~middle row), and then six links (40 other cells) to be highlighted; extra single letters in the wordplay of 15 clues spell “those similarly separated”.
A rather asymmetric grid, with the two-letter entry at 41d immediately catching my attention …
… which has to be DA (or AD), but ODD at 40a implies the former.
After the first pass I looked at the unclued bottom left entry: GA_E_HE__, which promised to be GATESHEAD, confirmed by the unclued top right entry: _E___A__L_ destined to become NEWCASTLE, of course separated by THE RIVER TYNE across the middle.
Resisting the temptation to Google “Tyne bridges” I cracked on with solving the clues – none really that difficult.
The bridges to be highlighted are REDHEUGH, KING EDWARD, QE II (abbr.), HIGH LEVEL, SWING, and MILLENNIUM; there is a seventh bridge spanning the river – the TYNE bridge – which is nearly present in col.10, but that is not in the right sequence anyway. “Those similarly separated” are GEORDIES and MACKEMS, the latter being from Sunderland (as far as I can tell) rather than Gateshead, but they are similarly separated.
Thank you to Samuel for an entertaining (but brief) solving experience (and a very well-engineered grid).
{Minor quibble with 43a: see table below.}
{Small observation: RAG, with essentially the same meaning, in the wordplay for both 11a & 1d – I thought setters avoided this. Am I wrong?}
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Letter | Wordplay (Extra letter) |
| 10 | T-CLOTH | CLOT (idiot) in TH(ursday) | |
| 11 | ORATOR | G | O (love) RAG (ridicule) + ROT< (tease) |
| 13 | ROUGH IN | [RHINO + (b)UG]* | |
| 14 | UNHAT | [AUNT]* around H(enry) | |
| 15 | AUK | E | A(ccepted) UKE (ukulele, musical instrument) |
| 18 | GRINCH | GRIN (smile) + C(atc)H {ref.: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr Seuss} |
|
| 19 | INKOSI | I + [IKONS]* | |
| 20 | VEND | O | V (five) + DONE< (completed) |
| 22 | DRAWL | DR (doctor) AWL (pointed instrument) | |
| 24 | EDGE | R | ED(ucated) GER(man) |
| 25 | EEN | (s)EE(k) N(orthern) | |
| 29 | EDDIE | homophone EDDY (current) {ref.: Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy} |
|
| 31 | DOING | DONG (ring) around I (one) | |
| 32 | HUW | HUG (embrace) W(ife) − G(ood) | |
| 34 | CLAP | C (circa, about) LAP (circuit) | |
| 35 | KON | K(night) ON (about) | |
| 36 | IGAD | D | DIG (study) AD (Alzheimer’s disease) |
| 38 | DIVI | DIVINE (search) − NE (North East, theme’s location) | |
| 39 | ARIARY | ARIA (solo) RY (railway) {ref.: “in Africa, ready” = currency in Madagascar} |
|
| 40 | ODD | I | ODDI(e) (Bill Oddie, Goodie) |
| 42 | VITRIFORM | E | [RIVER MOTIF]* |
| 43 | ISM | S | I (one) SMS (text) {Clue: “Practise one text” – “practise” is a verb; “ISM” is a noun} |
| Down | |||
| No. | Answer | Letter | Wordplay (Extra letter) |
| 1 | STRAG | ST (street) RAG (tease) | |
| 2 | SCOURED | SCORED (slated) around U(nionist) | |
| 3 | FLUKING | FLING (taunt) around UK (home nations) | |
| 4 | ETHIC | (g)ET(s) + HIC (this) | |
| 5 | WHIG | M | WHIM (fancy) G(erman) |
| 6 | CONSIGNED | CON (prisoner) RESIGNED (gave up) − RE (on) | |
| 7 | ARUM | A(cting) RUM (odd) | |
| 8 | SANSKRITIC | SANS (without) + homophone CRITIC (reviewer) | |
| 9 | LOADS | LO (behold) ADS (commercials) | |
| 12 | THROATY | THROW (chuck) − W(eight) + AT Y(oung) | |
| 16 | UNDERDO | A | [(m)ADE ROUND]* |
| 17 | MILLENNIUM | C | MILL (press) + [MEN C(a)U(t)I(o)N]* |
| 21 | LEVEL WITH | [WHILE VET L(eft)]* | |
| 23 | WINGOVERS | K | W(ith) KING OVER (across) S(weden) |
| 26 | TROPARIA | TRO(t) (toddler) + PARIA(h) (outcast) | |
| 27 | HEUGH | E | HUGH (Grant, perhaps, British actor) around EE (early English) |
| 28 | PHIZOG | PHI (Greek character) + ZOG (Albanian king) | |
| 30 | ICER | (d)ICER (risk-taker) decapitated (executed) | |
| 33 | WARD | M | WARM (amorous) D(irector) |
| 35 | KIKOI | K(n)I(t) K(o)O(k)I(e) | |
| 37 | FARE | FAR (distant) E (base … of natural logarithms) | |
| 39 | AVE | RAVE (party) − R(ight) | |
| 41 | DA | S | SAD< (unhappy) |
|
|
|||
I made a right mess of this one despite living with Geordie and spending a lot of time in NewcastleGateshead ™. I assumed the abbreviated bridge was the KING EDWARD, it needs a qualifier since that isn’t its name as even the Mackem train guards know. I couldn’t work out how to lever VII into the blank cell. I assumed TYNE was in there and so botched the bottom right corner – i.e. assumed answers to fit rather than properly solving clues. I was then ready to be annoyed at (a) the incorrect order and (b) the missing METRO bridge (what any local would call the QEII). I saw TRO crossing the divide and so assumed Samuel had tried and failed to include them all. Of course I should have known better and apologise to him now for what was going on in my head and any doubts I had about his ability to construct this puzzle. I will now return to the world of quick crosswords for 40 days and 40 nights as a penance.
Thanks Samuel for what was a very nice puzzle.
Colin
Well, nearly completed this. I didn’t solve 25ac, and I can’t remember now if this is because I couldn’t solve it, or because I failed to notice I hadn’t solved it. And I didn’t get the missing letter. Failed to see any of the bridges, not helped by entering WHIM for 5dn; not sure if this is because I misread the clue or because I was thinking of the word play when entering the answer, but it is obvious now.
And had great difficulty working out what the extra letters were, so I must have guessed many of the answers without working out the word play.
Got nearly all the way there, but fell at the final hurdle. I only knew the bridge as the “Metro” bridge and like CB found the TRO – but couldn’t go further. Bother! Thanks HG.
Sorry, I should also have thanked HolyGhost for the blog since it showed me the light under the bridges, thanks HG! I do wonder if both TRO and TYN were deliberate red herrings.
And for anyone who hasn’t visited Newcastle (or Gateshead) this sequence of bridges is worth the visit alone. Well, that and a few pubs. I was there on Saturday (walking) and my train crossed the King Edward VII Bridge on Monday. Magnificent views from both aspects.
Colin
Thanks HolyGhost for the blog and in particulat for the parsing of 17d. We’d worked out the alternate letters etc but hadn’t picked up on the anagrind.
We needed some help with the local term for people south of the river as we’d never come across the word. Bert guessed the theme reasonably early on once we had a few crossing letters.
We started looking for different sorts of bridges after we found SWING. Once we realised that 17d was one of the bridges we realised we were barking up the wrong tree. Electronic assistance was then needed again to check on the bridges that crossed the Tyne and we were both amazed when we found the bridges in the grid and also in the correct order.
Quite an amazing puzzle. Thanks Samuel for another classic Inquisitor!
From the above comments, I think being a soft southener helped with this one, as I had no previous idea of bridge names, and when I (finally) clicked it they all slotted into place as per the Wikipedia page. Struggled with ‘Mackems’ for a while, and the final blank (Q) didn’t make sense until right at the end. It’s always nice when a geography lesson is thrown in for free!
Thanks to Samuel and HG
Dan @6 seems to have hit the nail on the head with the observation that little local knowledge was, in this case, a benefit. (A number of times I have struggled with ambiguities or possibilities in maths/scientific-oriented puzzles, where a person less informed in these areas would have simply sailed through.)
But no comments so far on my minor quibble with 43a, or the small observation regarding the repeated use of RAG …
I too had a quibble about Samuel’s use of the verb “practise” in 43a across instead of the noun “practice” (HolyGhost@6), but sadly it is such a common mistake these days that there is not much more to say about it. Otherwise I found this one of the easier offerings from Samuel, although I couldn’t parse 17d and, like Dan@6, had to use Wikipedia to help fill in the names of the bridges.
I support your quibble. It is more than a quibble, it is a serious grammatical error. I learned at school (some considerable time ago!!) that you can tell the difference between the two forms (verb and noun) when they sound the same, by thinking of advise and advice – the same rule for the c and s but you can hear the difference!
I wasn’t too worried about the double use of rag, though it is not of the highest Inquisitor standard that we have come to know and love under the present editor and his team.
First of all Thank you Samuel – a lovely pictorial representation of my town and the adjacent city in which I now live. Being a native of Gateshead, the theme was marvellous and to get the bridges in the right order in the crossword was a mark of pure genius. as to the Great divide, Gateshead is indeed Newcastle’s poor little brother, rarely talked about nationally BUT in these days much more progressive than it’s more affluent neighbour. It was Gateshead who commissioned the Angel of the North, opened the Baltic art gallery and the Sage, the location of the ground-breaking, if not exactly my cup of tea, Metrocentre and the Millenium bridge and it’s precise engineering is also Gateshead’s. If anyone had said in my youth that Gateshead would have a Hilton hotel, I would have laughed – but now it does.
I do hope the Mackem reference in the down clues was not intended to refer to us natives of Gateshead, though it’s possible origins in we mack (make) ’em and the people from Newcastle tack (take) ’em would be as appropriate to Gateshead as to Sunderland – the people of Gateshead have no particular name associated with them. The football supporters proudly sing ‘Heed army’ and also play in black an white like their more neighbours. Some day Gateshead folk may take a name but for the moment we are Geordies like the people in Newcastle, but ever so slightly different.
Thanks also to Holyghost for the blog.
I guessed the Newcastle and Gateshead bit early on but for some reason thought the thing between must be Hadrian’s Wall. D’oh, as the phrase goes. Once I’d got that sorted out I got so far with it as to fill most of the boxes, but I had trouble deriving the clues from the answers to the extent that I never got the extra letters to form Geordies and Mackems.
No matter. An entertaining little xword.
This weekend’s is going to be the last I get to see for a while, till xmas; I’ll be out of the country and with no time for doing xwords in.
Being a fan of Tyneside, I really enjoyed this. Was let down by the Geordies and Mackems, given that they are not the peoples separated by the River Tyne, though I now realise that depends on how you read “similarly separated”. What with the omission of VII from King Ed’s bridge, I was too eager to accept TYN(E) as the abbreviated missing bridge, even though the down-river sequence would then be wrong. I guess I ought to have had more faith in Samuel’s geographical knowledge and craft. Some brilliant clues.