A very enjoyable puzzle from Gaff which was sometimes easy and sometimes infuriating (in a good way). Thank you Gaff!
Thanks to Pandean for uncovering the six characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PARTITA |
Disaster of a royal patient not having en suite (7)
anagram (disater) of A R (royal) and PATIenT missing EN. I wasted a lot of time here trying to remove TOILET from A ROYAL PATIENT without success. |
| 5 | NIAGARA |
International border falls (7)
cryptic definition – waterfall on the border between USA and Canada |
| 9 | NIECE |
Issue of brother from Europe having a German backer (5)
EC (Europe, European Community) having EIN (a, German) all reversed (backer) |
| 10 | SHORTFALL |
Lack of a shower? (9)
SHORT FALL (shower, of rain) |
| 11 | HOMOPHOBE |
Laughter about clean badinage ends for hater of gaiety? (9)
HO HO (laughter) containing MOP (clean) then BadinagE (ends of) – hater of gay people. A nicely cryptic definition. |
| 12 | RONDO |
Caught by rotor on downward movement (5)
found insdie (caught by) rotoR ON DOwnward |
| 13 | RATED |
Opens report archive that Europol deemed classified (5)
first letters (opens) of Report Archive That Europe Deemed |
| 15 | DEVOTEDLY |
Chose to enter shop we hear, showing loyalty (9)
VOTED (chose) inside (to enter) DELY sounds like (we hear) “deli” (shop). Works if you pronounce as deh-votedly rather than dee-votedly. Homophones are notoriously personal, so I say this as a comment not a criticism. |
| 18 | MOCK-TUDOR |
Kid with house building style (4-5)
MOCK (kid) with TUDOR (royal house) |
| 19 | CHESS |
The mating game (5)
cryptic definition – I think this sort of clue either fools you completely or seems barely cryptic depeding on which reading comes into your mind first. |
| 21 | ALAMO |
In the fashion of the French missing battle (5)
A LA MOde (in the fashion) missing DE (of, French) |
| 23 | THE OLD MAN |
Novel addition to the sea height in Cumbria (3,3,3)
add to THE OLD MAN to ‘the sea’ to get The Old Man of the Sea, novel by Hemmingway – The Old Man of Coniston is a mountain in The Lake District |
| 25 | MIDSUMMER |
Identity’s concealed by masked performer today (9)
ID’S (identity’s) inside (concealed by) MUMMER (masked performer). It is a cold grey wet day today here in Scotland so I guessed it must be mid-summer immediately, a write-in. |
| 26 | BRIBE |
Pervert with money beholding Eve’s base (5)
BE holding RIB (Eve’s base, made from Adam’s spare rib) – nice! |
| 27 | SATCHEL |
Bag prizes at Chelsea shows (7)
shown inside prizeS AT CHELsea |
| 28 | ENAMELS |
Return lots of sleek horsehair coats (7)
SLEeek (lots of its letters) and MANE (horsehair) all reversed (return) – coats of paint etc |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PANTHER |
Cat woman’s after singular underwear (7)
HER (woman’s) following PANTs (underwear, singular) |
| 2 | RHEUMATIC |
Spirit overwhelms diplomat with a spasm of extreme pain (9)
RUM (spirit) contains (overwhelms) HE (His Excellency, diplomat) with A TIC (spasm) – pain in the hands and feet possibly (extremes) |
| 3 | ICE-UP |
Freeze so-called Gaff drinks (3- 2)
ICE UP sounds like (so-called) I sup (Gaff drinks) |
| 4 | ABSCONDED |
Did a runner collapse to bad second? (9)
(BAD SECOND)* anagram=collapse to |
| 5 | NOOSE |
Tied for the finishing line (5)
cryptic definition – tied in the rope (line) than kills (finishes) |
| 6 | ANTARCTIC |
Trick to maintain spark temperature below 60 degrees (9)
ANTIC (trick) containiing (to maintain) ARC (spark) T (temperature) – degrees lattitude |
| 7 | AGAIN |
Once more going left from the start (5)
triple definition – again can mean “in reverse”, going left as one reads – and now the real explanation: reading across the grid backwards from the starting letter of AGAIN we get AGAIN again. |
| 8 | ALL-HOLY |
Absolutely pure learner leaves unimaginative Christmas decoration (3-4)
ALL HOLLY (unimaginative Christmas decoration) missing L (learner) |
| 14 | DO TOO MUCH |
Over-exert and stop mid-jog with cry of pain, clutching my head (2,3,4)
DOT (full stop) jOg (middle of) with OUCH (cry of pain) containing (clutching) My (head, first letter of) |
| 16 | VERTEBRAE |
Ever bet foolishly with a rascal? Start showing some backbone! (9)
anagram (foolishly) of EVER BET with A Rascal (startinf letter of) |
| 17 | DREAMLIKE |
Performance of tonight’s six characters is surreal (9)
Tonight is midsummer night. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream six of characters are The Mechanicals, a local acting troupe, put on a performance of Pyramus and Thisbe which is so incompetent that it could only be described as surreal or dreamlike. Easier to solve than explain. Six characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are hidden in the grid. |
| 18 | MIASMAS |
Fumes about 1am Mass (7)
anagram (about) of I (one) AM MASS |
| 20 | SANDERS |
They’re used to smooth old actor George (7)
double definition – former English actor and voice of the tiger Shere Khan in Disney’s The Jungle Book |
| 22 | AUDIT |
German model misses time check (5)
AUDI TT (German car, model of) mising T (time) |
| 23 | TAMIL |
Asian dog eats lambs’ heart (5)
TAIL (dog) contiains (eats) laMbs (middle, heart of) |
| 24 | LIBRA |
Sign of Blair trickery (5)
BLAIR* anagram=trickery |
definitions are underlined
Yes – an excellent puzzle. Last couple of Gaffsters I’ve found easier and less Gaffistical than usual – for me this represents a return to form – bigtime – Gaff being one I always look out for.
I wrote 7d in but didn’t really understand “reverse”. Not sure that I do now. I’m thinking that it’s like “He sat down again.” – ie he was previously sitting and he *went back* to doing that. Bit of a stretch for me if that’s it.
Thanks Peedee and Gaff for a great blog and a good workout.
Ref 7d – I don’t think it’s a triple ref – if you read left from where the clue starts, it is AGAIN (as part of Niagara). Gaff being devious as usual.
Cheers
TL
Ref = def of course. Perils of typing on an iPhone.
JS @1 – I didn’t understand again=in reverse either but it was in the dictionary so it must be true!
@PD – I think I like TL’s explanation (#2) – very much a Gaffism.
Great blog PeeDee – you explained my clues much better than I could have done!
Glad you enjoyed it.
TL @2 is correct about 7d
But at 17d, these are not the six characters I meant. You need to look harder!
Cheers
Gaff
Thanks Gaff for dropping in. I hadn’t spotted Turbolegs’ comment until now, but certainly correct even without verification from yourself.
I will look again for the six ‘characters’!
17d
I’ll try
DREAM – luvviespeak for the tonight’s play
Six characters – V.I. – vide infra – or maybe videlicet (but that’s normally viz)
to give LIKE
Beyond that I’m stumped. There’s “Six characters in search of an Author” by Pirandello but I couldn’t make anything out of that.
I’m stumped too.
I can think of 5 characters in MSND that believe they have awoken from dreams: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Bottom.
Possibly in Six Characters in Search of an Author the director believes that his day might have been a dream as he is unsure whether what just happened was real.
The hidden six characters from AMND each appear split between two solutions in the same row or column, eg 1ac & 5ac.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
I already thought this was a delightful puzzle from Gaff – having come in from a delightful Midsummer’s Day walk, in Midsummer weather, for once [sorry, PeeDee] – but Pandean’s revelation has increased the pleasure no end. A real feat – thank you so much, Gaff.
Favourite clues: PARTITA, HOMOPHOBE and BRIBE. [I have one small quibble with ‘the’ in 21ac but loved the rest so much I really shouldn’t mention it.]
Thank you so much for a great puzzle, Gaff. Special thanks are due to Pandean@10 for pointing out the clever way in which you hid the characters’ names.
As usual I did the puzzle over my very early breakfast and, again as usual, it was much too early for me to register anything special about the day, so I completely missed the reference to one of my favourite plays! Reading the blog and comments this afternoon has really enhanced my appreciation of the puzzle – that’s what I enjoy most about this site.
Thank you for the blog, PeeDee.
What load of obscure references and awful puns!
I give it 5 out of 10
Thanks Gaff and PeeDee
Did this one early on Thursday morning and found it an enjoyable, if a little more gentle, solve than previous puzzles by this setter. Missed the theme completely, although knew that there was something going on with midsummer somehow – very clever way of doing the ninas of the six Mechanicals from Midsummer’s Night Dream.
Finished up in the NE corner with RONDO and ALL HOLY the final couple to go in.
Hi Bruce, my blog is misleading, actually none of the characters in the Nina are from the the Mechanicals. That was just my first and failed attempt at an explanation.