It has been quite some time since I did battle with Scorpion on a blogging day.
As is often the case with this setter, there’s a theme today. It may not be to everybody’s tastes, but there didn’t really seem to be any specialist knowledge or indeed interest needed to complete the puzzle.
It became apparent early on that something was going on, as a surprising amount of names started to emerge. STRAUSS, COOK and HICK were enough to confirm that we’re looking at a whole list of England test cricketers, along with a former coach, I think.
Perhaps those more knowledgeable could clarify whether the chaps involved have anything more specific in common. Scorpion has certainly squeezed a good number of them in there.
Just one question mark at 27 across, where I’ve been staring at the wordplay to no avail.
| Across | ||
| 7 | CARTWRIGHT | Coach initially told by wife to get proper job (10) |
| CAR + T[old] + W + RIGHT. Tom Cartwright. | ||
| 9 | HICK | Rustic type removing head from young animal (4) |
| [c]HICK. Graeme Hick. | ||
| 10 | FLETCHER | One skilled with arrows following goat audibly (8) |
| F + homophone of “lecher”. Take your pick: a Google search throws up various candidates, including former coach Duncan Fletcher. | ||
| 11 | DICER | Culinary device used in reserve to cut through bones (5) |
| ICE in DR. | ||
| 12 | MYOPIA | Writer’s work class brought about complaint (6) |
| MY + OP + A1<. | ||
| 14 | ETHELRED | Old king extremely emotional drinking the wine (8) |
| (THE in E[motiona]L) + RED. | ||
| 16 | STRAUSS | Note-writer to find out about craft reversing (7) |
| ART< in SUSS. This one can only be Andrew Strauss. | ||
| 18 | SMITTEN | Onset of smallpox in Germany, with x number affected (7) |
| S[mallpox] + MIT + TEN. | ||
| 19 | TRUE BLUE | Very faithful type not lying down (4,4) |
| TRUE (not lying) + BLUE (feeling sad, thus “down”). | ||
| 21 | SUNDRY | Part of the week, river’s overpowering American divers (6) |
| From SUNDAY, but with R instead of A. “Divers” in this case is the archaic spelling of “diverse”. | ||
| 23 | AMISS | Martin perhaps sighted at the entrance? It’s wrong (5) |
| Martin AMIS + S[ighted]. | ||
| 25 | CLIP-CLOP | Sound of trotter caught short tucking into prunes (4-4) |
| C in (CLIP + LOP). | ||
| 27 | CORK | Joe leaves dog lead in Kildare, an Irish location (4) |
| … + K[ildare]. The “joe leaves dog” bit puzzles me, but I’m fairly sure of the answer, because it probably refers to Dominic Cork. | ||
| 28 | ON THE ROPES | Deck hand might be so desperate (2,3,5) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BAILEY | Protective structure‘s sound guarding French island (6) |
| ILE in BAY. Possibly Rob Bailey who played a handful of tests a few years ago. | ||
| 2 | AT IT | Active in crime, head of arsonists is given bird (2,2) |
| A[rsonists] + TIT. | ||
| 3 | AGORAE | Spartan marketplaces maybe gone, diverting attention (6) |
| AGO + EAR<. | ||
| 4 | STUD | One’s often 2 stone above mid-range in judo (4) |
| ST + [j]UD[o]. A stud horse is often two years old, I infer. | ||
| 5 | SHACKLETON | Newsman beginning to look into jottings about explorer (10) |
| (HACK + L[ook]) in NOTES<. Whilst I can’t swear that there has never been a cricketer named Shackleton, we’re mainly talking about Ernest Shackleton here. | ||
| 6 | SCORSESE | Filmmaker I’m amazed gets through five courses (8) |
| COR in (S + S + E + S + E). Martin, of course. | ||
| 8 | REHEARSAL | Hands primarily covering lugholes in presence of concrete drill (9) |
| (H[ands] + EARS) in REAL. | ||
| 13 | PLACE KICKS | Chooses housing to do up, with grand conversions? (5,5) |
| (LACE + K) in PICKS. A new term to me, but apparently it’s one used in a number of sports. | ||
| 15 | HAMPSHIRE | County representatives welcome to participate in run (9) |
| (MPs + HI) in HARE. Arguably a potential cricket reference too. | ||
| 17 | TARRAGON | Flavouring rib and leg with salt (8) |
| TAR (as in sailor) + RAG (as in tease) + ON (the leg side in, appropriately enough, cricket). | ||
| 20 | EXCITE | Fire jerk demanding rise in South West Water? (6) |
| TIC< in the River EXE. | ||
| 22 | RHODES | Gardeners touring idyll perhaps somewhere in the Med (6) |
| ODE in RHS. | ||
| 24 | SNOW | Some weather broadcast around noon (4) |
| N in SOW. | ||
| 26 | COOK | Captain‘s doctor (4) |
| Two definitions: Captain Cook, and doctor, as in to cook the books, say. Also a reference to current England captain, Alastair Cook. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
27ac: cor(gi)
There are some more England cricketers: AMISS, RHODES, John HAMPSHIRE, SNOW. BAILEY could be Trevor who is more prominent than Rob. There is Derek Shackleton and there is Keith Fletcher.
Well I never. Next you’ll be telling me about a regular centurion named Paul Clip-Clop, and of course Dave Ontheropes, who bowled a respectable leg break.
I think those probably don’t exist, like Cecil Tarragon. There is an Indian called Atit Sheth ….
In 27A it is COR(GI) (dog, with ‘GI Joe’ leaving)
As a bit of a cricket fan, embarrassed to say I hardly spotted any of the cricket references beyond ‘Captain Cook’…
I think I must have been too busy scratching my head trying to parse all the clues to even notice the preponderance of names. There were some clever and well disguised clues here, I thought. 8D, 19A and 25A were all particularly cunning – ‘prunes’ to indicate two methods of pruning in 25A especially so. And was I the only one to have initially entered RAIN at 24D? (An anagram of AIR for broadcast, though in my head I think I had it as AIR reversed, followed by N.) I also had a question mark, understandably, about my parsing of DICER, which I was convinced must somehow be R, for reserve, in DICE = bones.
A high quality puzzle.
(Steve) Rhodes at 22 down is another England cricketer. Bailey might also refer to the more famous Trevor Bailey.
great puzzle; right up my street. I imagine K’s dad is doing the killer sudoku.
Thanks to Scorpion and Simon for the blog.
I was out most of last Saturday and didn’t get round to starting this until late and immediately hit a wall. Took me several attempts before I nearly completed it. Just couldn’t see 26dn for some reason. Maybe if I’d spotted the theme it would have helped as I’d heard of Alistair Cook. Mind you, reminds of the joke that was doing the rounds when I was at school which identified Captain Cook as the first Yorkshire captain to visit Australia.
Thanks Scorpion and Simon. On the theme,Rhodes could be Steve (more recent) or Wilfred (who played more Tests). I think Fletcher must be Keith as suggestef by Muffyword, as he actually played for England.
I typed my previous comment while on a bus journey, quite a bit of it while the bus had stopped opposite the Cricket Ground at Edgbaston. Now I am back using a computer, can I apologise for the typo in “suggested” and the lack of a space after my first comma?
Having corrected my own errors, can I point out that the current England Test captain’s first name is Alastair, with three As and only one I?
I think there is a bit more to 4d than suggested by SH in his blog.
@11Rullytully – quite so, the 2 in the clue refers to 2D “At it”, which a stud (lothario) often is. Racehorses do not go to stud at the age of two.
Excellent puzzle, and although I am steeped in cricket lore, did not even notice the theme.
Thanks to Scorpion and Simon Harding.
Apparently my limited knowledge of the horse breeding world has been rumbled. The shame.
Thanks PB, I’ve corrected Mr. Cook’s name now.
I was slow in getting the theme too, but some of those old names brought back a few memories from long ago eg John Snow. Quite apart from the theme, I found this had many good clues including those for CARTWRIGHT, FLETCHER, CLIP-CLOP (best of the lot) and TARRAGON. No, OPatrick @5, you’re not the only one to have entered ‘rain’ for 24d which held me up for ages for 23 and 28, my last two in.
Thank you to Simon and Scorpion