It has been a while since I blogged a Bannsider and though I have a notoriously bad memory, he still engenders a sense of trepidation…
… and then he went and gave me a false sense of security. Ban Ki-moon was the first answer in, largely from the definition and enumeration, yielding a goodly clutch of cherished first letters, from which Imam and Nonet easily fell. This led to Kofi Annan and the mini-theme was apparent (surely a triplet of Secs-Gen only counts as a mini). So I scanned for more and looked at 29A for a very, very long time. After a while I cracked and looked up a list of UN Secretary-Generals. Of course I should have waited till I had a few crossing letters and deduced it from the wordplay, but I doubt I would have believed the answer if I had deduced it – never having seen such a name I would not have believed it pronounceable till checked. That was not the case with Kudzu, but with a hidden (even a hidden reversed alternate) the wordplay is definite so you go to the dictionary with some confidence.
For a while I thought the pangram was possible, and even hoped it would help me find last few answers by imagining them with the missing tricky letters, till it was obvious the Q and J could never fit in any of the remaining blanks.
And those last few answers certainly took some finding. One of the last handful to fall was 1A which was my favourite for the usual reason – best sense of achievement when it was solved. Amongst the others was 15A Kawasaki – that hidden avoided detection till I had researched brands of vodka and failed (only in print you understand). The end came a few short minutes ago when I finally understood the import of 1925 – effectively another hidden. Sometimes the apparently simplest of clues devices can be the most intransigent.
There are bound to be other loose ends to tie-up.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GORBLIMEY | Gracious old Russian leader affectionately hugging Green (9) LIME (green) inside GORBY (old Russian leader – affectionately). Def. and answer is the exclamation as in “Oh my gracious!” or “Gorblimey guv’nor!” What I want to know is what are Gorblimey trousers? |
| 6 | KUDZU | Regulars turning in quiz a drunk climber (5) Alternately reversed in qUiZ a DrUnK. Spotted and checked after getting the K. Kudzu aka Japanese Arrowroot (wiki) |
| 9 | ANDRE | Australian who sings a number with rapper (5) A N[umber] DRE (Ref. rapper / producer Dr DRE (wiki)). Andre who? Googling “Andre Australian” hints we’re talking about this one: Peter Andre (wiki) Who? |
| 10 | HIGH-FIVES | Heartily welcomes school introducing game (4-5) HIGH (school – High School) FIVES (game: sport like squash without racquets (wiki)) |
| 11 | STRING VEST | Following row, customs finally stops check revealing underwear (6,4) STRING (row) [custom]S inside VET (check) |
| 12 | CYST | Bag of fluid emptied completely and unfastened at the centre (4) C[omplete]Y [unfa]ST[ened] |
| 14 | BARBIE | Figure girl might dress up for meal out (6) DD. Trying desperately to stop the pop song by Aqua out of my mind … |
| 15 | KAWASAKI | Vodka was a killer in that company! (8) Hidden in vodKA WAS A KIller. How that hidden resisted being found. Whole clue is a semi-&Lit really |
| 18 | NAPOLEON | Cake appearing when Christmas Ball roast’s over (8) NOEL (Christmas) O (ball) PAN (roast – as in criticise) all reversed. What is a Napoleon cake? Turns out to be the same as Mille-feulli |
| 19 | ACTING | Cockney unable to stand grabbing cape and putting it on (6) C[ape] inside ‘ATING (hating – unable to stand – in unaspirational tones) |
| 21 | IMAM | An hour after Midnight Mass interrupts prayer leader (4) M[ass] inside 1 A.M. |
| 23 | ON THE ALERT | Looking out possible dry clothing for shaman (2,3,5) ON (possible?) HEALER (shaman) inside TT (dry) “The alert” was clear enough, but was 50:50 On the A or At the A |
| 26 | OBNOXIOUS | Nauseating refusal by Indian to swap sides after he departed (9) NO (refusal) SIOUX (Indian) with the S and X swapped, all after OB (he departed – obit). A wordplay device I don’t recall seeing before. |
| 27 | HIT ON | Discover driver being instructed to leave Paris (3,2) This is ‘hit on’ as in understand, thus discover, so the def. is clear enough. Is the wordplay HI TO N, i.e. Hie (go in haste) to the North? I’m sure there’s other ways out of Paris. I bet it’s the other Paris (the Greek, not Texas) in a way I don’t understand. Help needed please. |
| 28 | NONET | Group of players footballers are reluctant to play with? (5) NO NET – how can you tell when you’ve scored? |
| 29 | TRYGVE LIE | Hear education minister, with nothing to lose, attempt to deceive Secretary-General (6,3) TRY (hear) G[o]VE (Min of Ed.) LIE (attempt to deceive). Trygve Lie: First Sec-Gen (wiki) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | GRASS | Shopper understands when parking’s not available (5) GRAS[P]S Shopper as in some sneaky two-faced scrote shopping ‘is mates to the rozzers for a few quid |
| 2 | RADAR TRAP | Area periodically leading to speed charge? (5,4) [a]R[e]A (Area periodically) DART (speed) RAP (charge) &Lit. It took me ages to work out that wordplay |
| 3 | LEE ENFIELD | Repeatedly supplying ecstasy for one in Belfast club gets one fired (3,7) Ref LINFIELD F.C. Belfast swap I for EEE lots of Es Linfield is one of the Belfast “Big two” Football clubs (wiki). |
| 4 | MOHAVE | Tips for managing one’s own place abroad, largely unproductive (6) M[anaging] O[nes] HAVE (own) |
| 5 | YUGOSLAV | Split with this person? Perhaps once girl’s old boyfriend turns up (8) VAL’S O[ld] GUY all reversed. Split in Croatia wikilink |
| 6/22 | KOFI ANNAN | Fail to leave Irish party after defeat by new Secretary-General (4,5) KO (defeat) FIANNA [Fáil] N[ew] This Sec-Gen (wiki). This Irish party Irish party (wiki) |
| 7 | DIVVY | Whack dipstick (5) DD your whack as in your share; dipstick as in stupid person (I thought this use of Divvy is very un-PC?) |
| 8 | UPSETTING | Tipping: what’s ex-crossword compiler given? (9) An ex-crossword compiler has given-UP SETTING |
| 13 | CAR-CRASH TV | Cold with nasty catarrh’s very disturbing thing to view (3-5,2) (C[old] CATARRH’s V[ery])* AInd disturbing |
| 14 | BAN KI-MOON | Restrict what can be worn in Japan, depressing the last Secretary-General (3,2-4) BAN (restrict) KIMONO with the last two letters swapped. Ban Ki-moon: Current Sec-Gen I’m not sure how “depressing the last” gives that manoeuvre . I see it as “uplifting the last” to raise the O one position? Anyway that’s all thinking after the event, as this was the first answer entered mainly from the def. and enumeration. |
| 16 | ALIMENTAL | Sustaining an all-time high (9) (AN ALL TIME)* AInd: High |
| 17 | COUNT OUT | Careful thing to do to change, perhaps, or exclude (5,3) DD |
| 20 | WHISKY | Greeting a thing we always look up to, following with spirit (6) HI (greeting) SKY (a thing we always look up to) after W[ith] |
| 24 | TINGE | A flavour of 1925 (5) I have spent all week wondering what this was and what flavour had something to do with 1925, and on the final look through this blog I have just seen it: Hidden in the answers to 19 and 25 ACTING EXIT. That’s definitely the latest of last answers entered. |
| 25 | EXIT | Film covering team’s departure (4) XI (team – eleven) inside ET (that film) |
PARIS HILTON explains that one, I think.
This was a challenging puzzle – thanks to Bannsider, and to beermagnet for the blog. I had similar experiences on the penny-drop moment with GORBLIMEY, and the never-heard-of-him-but-it-must-be TRYGVE LIE. Crazy name, crazy guy! And the conjunction of ‘1925’…
Another mini-theme – Peter ANDRE in GORBLIMEY trousers and a STRING VEST on his KAWASAKI, with his latest BARBIE doll girlfriend (Paris HIT-ON) on the back, riding through a RADAR TRAP – now that would make some OBNOXIOUS and UPSETTING CARCRASH TV!
Hopefully not too off-topic, but which muppet in the Independent design department thought it would be a good idea to put their two ‘cut-out-and-send-in’ prize crosswords back-to-back on the same sheet?! Caused some cruciverbal consternation in this household. Do we need a campaign to move them apart?…
Well it helped I knew Trygve Lie (but had to look up how to spell it), but I quickly became stuck with this one and only got about half of it all week.
Bizarrely, I had heard of Peter Andre but didn’t know he was Australian and that was one of many I didn’t get.
To “flesh out” my comment at #1, “driver being instructed” = L (learner driver) leaving HILTON. Excellent blog, beermagnet.
I thought this was tough. I’m a little disappointed that I got the difficult ones and parsed them all with the exception of TINGE (I’ll look out for that device in future, but it is a bit naughty IMHO), but then I needed aids for my LOI, the comparatively easier COUNT OUT. My excuse is that my brain was fried by then.
Unless my memory is playing tricks this is the second puzzle I’ve done in the last year that contained a theme of UN Secretaries-General, although the other may have been a Guardian puzzle.
I will whisper once again that I still appear to be on Bannsider’s wavelength although I will admit the theme helped enormousy. Hadn’t heard of 29a but the wordplay was all there.
Thanks to Bannsider for the challenge and Beermagnet for the explanations.
Andy B: yes, there was a UN-themed Tyrus puzzle in the Indie in August, with all the Secretaries General either appearing in the grid or spelt out in the initial letters of the down (I think) clues.
My second encounter with Bannsider, and nice to get on the board after a thorough trouncing last time around.
Thought this was terrific. He’s got his own way of doing things, hasn’t he? Great fun.
I shall look forward to the next encounter, but with a certain degree of trepidation.
Thanks to beermagnet for the blog. I needed help in parsing one or two of these. Hadn’t the faintest how TINGE worked.
Thanks to nmsindy for sorting out which Paris. If I had thought of Driver as L, maybe I would have twigged.
Polly. I haven’t found the Tyrus puzzle you mention, but prompted by your comment I have found Guardian 25,282 Araucaria from Tuesday 29 March 2011, (here’s the blog), with the same three Sec-Gens and very much the same construction for K.O. FIANNA N though with very different cues of course. Talk about great minds…
Hmm. that blog-link didn’t work. Let me try again:
Blog for Guardian 25282
9/10 Beermagnet: It was Tyrus’s puzzle of 3 August (8363) that I – and presumably Andy B, who contributed four posts to the blog – was thinking of. The unchecked letters across the top read UNTHEMED, as neat a piece of misdirection as ever was.
Thank you Polly. I had missed that, both at the time (on hols) and when searching just now. Looks like that was an even harder puzzle.
Yikes! Another error, this time in the Ban Ki-Moon clue. I’d like to pretend that what I meant was that “depressing the last” meant the the last letter was the one that had been depressed, but that would not be honest.
I was going to put some more Secretary Generals/Secretaries general into the puzzle but decided to stick with the nine-letter ones and not to make too much of a thing of it, although I could have saved space with Boutros Boutros Ghali 🙂 and U Thant is (or was) “that UN” bloke
Thanks to beermagnet for such a great blog.
@Bannsider
I suppose you could have had a general secretary or two as well, just to confuse things. Bob Crow might have potential 🙂
Well there was one general secretary in Gorby …
Thanks to Polly for the info on the previous UN Secretaries-General puzzle. I can’t believe it was only just over three months ago, and I had to go back to the blog to see why I had made so many comments.