[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
The usual excellent crossword from Phi, who never seems to miss a Friday. Apparently there’s nothing about which I’m uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t misinterpreted something somewhere.
The unchecked letters at the top and bottom suggest a Nina, but evidently not. Anyway Phi’s Ninas are always far more obscure than this and will probably refer to some work of literature that I’ve never heard of, so there’s no point in looking. I’ll leave that to the hunters.
Definitions in italics.
Across
8 Stick piano hard by golden Greek statue (8)
CANEPHOR
cane p h or — only vaguely familar to me, but simple enough wordplay I suppose
9 Some acute rigidity observed in body cavities (5)
UTERI
Hidden in acUTE RIgidity — I never think much of ‘some’ as a hidden indicator — it’s an absolute giveaway and anyway ‘some’ only means ‘some of the letters of’ at a stretch that I always find uncomfortable
10 Run after bishop, providing bag (7)
BLADDER
b ladder
11 Drum rolls brought in Republicans – sweet (7)
GUMDROP
(drum)* in GOP — Grand Old Party, a nickname for the Republican Party — I had the R and thought the clue was leading to a word containing RR
12 Recalled desire to embrace Edward, clinging (5)
NEEDY
(yen)rev. round Ed
14 Title that hurts shrine rebuilt by priest (9)
OWNERSHIP
ow (shrine)* p
15 Mare disfigured on chest – symbol of 14? (7)
EARMARK
14 is ownership, so the definition is symbol of ownership — (Mare)* ark — earmark as a noun, a distinctive mark, rather than the probably more commonly used verb meaning to set aside for some future use
17 Well-off advanced after reduction in work (7)
OPULENT
opu{s} lent
18 Blades 24s used in struggle (5-4)
SKEAN-DHUS
Since 24 is Khan, it’s (Khans used)* — Scottish daggers that sometimes appear in crosswords
20 Backed one note in medical material (5)
DENIM
(m(1 n)ed)rev.
22 Soccer team showing skill in Rome, way back (7)
ARSENAL
ars (lane)rev. — ars is the Latin for art
23 Information’s located about knockout US states (7)
DAKOTAS
da(KO)ta’s — North and South Dakota
25 Caught nude by lake – some swimming? (5)
CRAWL
c raw l — the swimming stroke
26 Time before book’s covered by special offer is readily forgotten (8)
ERASABLE
era sa(b)le
Down
1 Make example of a Director involved in cut (6)
PARADE
par(a d)e
2 Direct target visible under sun (4)
SEND
s end
3,19 Female right to secure houses after intrusion by lecturer and detective (8,6)
SHERLOCK HOLMES
she r lock ho(l)mes
4 Intimidating figure‘s to keep going (6)
DRAGON
2 defs, one of them to drag on
5 Sound of one arriving: friend sporting new sash (10)
CUMMERBUND
“comer” bu(n)d — that waistband that some men wear with dinner jackets
6 Seem upset about bridge support – I don’t know why (6,2)
SEARCH ME
(seem)* round arch
7 Big grey creature, one with power to move suddenly, surrounded by worried mahouts (12)
HIPPOPOTAMUS
(1 p pop) surrounded by (mahouts)* — pop = move suddenly isn’t the primary meaning that occurs to me, but it’s in Chambers
10 People who join together (of course) to do for mythical monster (12)
BANDERSNATCH
banders natch — banders looks like a slightly made-up word but the sense is obvious — ‘natch’ is a slang version of ‘naturally’ — the Bandersnatch is a mythical monster invented by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass and The Hunting of the Snark
13 Pulling in line between yards with great desire (10)
YEARNINGLY
y(earning l)y
16 Others upset at variable resistance (8)
RHEOSTAT
(others)* at — an instrument for varying electrical resistance
17 Glass is raised by detective in Scottish town (8)
OBSIDIAN
Ob((is)rev. DI)an
21 Latticework headgear not one to annoy (6)
NETTLE
net t{i}le
24 SF film villain: King taking on Solo? (4)
KHAN
K Han — two references here: the SF film villain is Khan Noonien Singh (from Star Trek) and it’s Han Solo (from Star Wars)
*anagram
There’s a bit of Benedict Cumberbatch here in Khan , Sherlock and 5d, possible more
Another enjoyable Friday Phi puzzle. I finished in the NW and only got my LOI, CANEPHOR, after I got PARADE and SEND. I didn’t know the word but stick=cane was my best guess from the ?A?E checkers.
He was also the 4d in a recent film.
And (thanks to Google) he was in a mini series called 1d 2d.
I was going to observe that 5 and 10 would almost make fodder for a play on Cumberbatch, but on checking first I see it’s already been done—in the Washington Post, no less.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Oh dear. Sorry to lower the tone, especially as Ford Madox Ford, of ‘Parade’s End’ is my favourite author. But I kept seeing body parts in complete and partial answers.
Uteri, bladder, gum, ear, arse, snatch (maybe). Signs of a mis-spent youth I fear.
And hip, and probably more that I haven’t seen. Perhaps I’m being like the patient who blamed the analyst for what he saw in the ink blots?
10d (Bandersnatch) came more readily to those of us who also did the Codeword puzzle today for it contained Jabberwocky. Apologies if I’ve spoiled that for some.
And craw.
Maybe I’ll go home now. But can Phi not have realised?
Well, I started from BANDERSNATCH CUMMERBUND on the grounds that they’d be interesting to clue (a wrong assumption re the latter) and went from there. Body parts are in the mind of the beholder.
We remember BC when he was merely a beamish boy in a belt playing one of the lovers in Midsummer Night’s Dream.