It’s over a year since we were last treated to a Raich puzzle to blog and although this was a very enjoyable solve, it didn’t seem as challenging as we had expected.
From past experience, we should have realised of course that there was likely to be a ghost theme and it wasn’t until Bert was completing the blog that he spotted it!
The King (—– the 31ac) would have been 1ac today 4ac he had lived! 11ac 14ac and 25ac 30ac gave the game away. It also explains the reference in the clue for 23d. We should have remembered our last Raich blog (8437), which also featured a contemporary music theme from our era (although we were much bigger fans of the previous theme than of this one!)
By-the-by, the grid produced no less than 35 clues (with only one 3-letter word) – is this a record for a 225-cell cryptic? (We ‘complained’ in our last Raich blog that there were not many clues and a lot of black squares!)
| Across | ||
| 1 | Cardinal from Spain, powerful, needs no introduction | |
| EIGHTY | E (Spain) + |
|
| 4 | Would that fresh info leads to locating you? | |
| IF ONLY | An anagram of INFO (anagrind is ‘fresh’) + first letters or ‘leads’ to Locating You | |
| 9 | Printing style rector brought to Sultanate | |
| ROMAN | R (rector) + OMAN (sultanate) | |
| 10 | Page one is turning seeking information | |
| ESPIONAGE | An anagram of PAGE ONE IS – anagrind is ‘turning’ | |
| 11 | Fellow, rake, brat, sadly brings this? | |
| HEARTBREAK | Cryptic definition – HE (fellow) + an anagram of RAKE BRAT – anagrind is ‘sadly’ | |
| 12 | Diplomacy cheers court | |
| TACT | TA (cheers) + CT (court) | |
| 14 | First of all, hear out the elegant lady, guest here? | |
| HOTEL | First letters of Hear Out The Elegant Lady | |
| 16 | Repeated notes about a conversation | |
| TETE-A-TETE | TE (note) repeated four times around A | |
| 18 | Smashing rare eggs – why? To begin with he’s arrogant | |
| SWAGGERER | An anagram of RARE EGGS W (first letter or beginning of Why) – anagrind is ‘smashing’ | |
| 22 | Securely fixes hair | |
| LOCKS | Double definition | |
| 24 | Present female’s English | |
| HERE | HER (female’s) + E (English) | |
| 25 | Questionable South American film is covering Open University | |
| SUSPICIOUS | S (south) + US (American) + PIC (film) + IS round or ‘covering’ OU (Open University) | |
| 29 | Something initially hard to believe – they’re electrically charged creatures? | |
| STALLIONS | S (first or ‘initial’ letter of Something) + TALL (hard to believe) + IONS (electrically charged particles) | |
| 30 | Notices doctor embracing popular son | |
| MINDS | MD (doctor) round or ‘embracing’ IN (popular) + S (son) | |
| 31 | The Spanish six put in extra note showing bony frame | |
| PELVIS | EL (the in Spanish) + VI (six in roman numerals) in PS (extra note) | |
| 32 | Time to resume work? Many do anyhow | |
| MONDAY | An anagram of MANY DO – anagrind is ‘anyhow’. Fortunately we don’t any more!! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Near Thames showing our home | |
| EARTH | Hidden or ‘showing’ in nEAR THames | |
| 2 | He works out how my angst may be after treatment | |
| GYMNAST | An anagram of MY ANGST – anagrind is ‘after treatment’ | |
| 3 | Principle unaffected by revolution | |
| TENET | TENET is a palindrome – unaffected by reversal or ‘revolution’. Any mention of a palindrome always reminds us of the dead parrot sketch in Monty Python! | |
| 4 | Note about factory material (medical) | |
| IMPLANT | MI (note) reversed or ‘about’ + PLANT (factory) | |
| 5 | Player – Oscar captivated by award | |
| OBOE | O (Oscar in the phonetic alphabet) in or ‘captivated by’ OBE (award) | |
| 6 | Unwelcome flow in field close to brook – anger follows (put right off) | |
| LEAKAGE | LEA (field) + K (last letter or ‘close’ to brooK) + |
|
| 7 | City rebuilt in new style not including lake | |
| BEIRUT | An anagram of REBUI |
|
| 8 | They don’t believe poultry need race first? | |
| HEATHENS | HENS (poultry) after HEAT (race) | |
| 13 | Letters man picked up | |
| Sounds like (‘picked up’) MALE | ||
| 14 | Our group visiting hospitals twice in secret | |
| HUSH-HUSH | US (our group) in or ‘visiting’ HH (hospitals) twice | |
| 15 | Emblem – part of tree ring | |
| LOGO | LOG (part of tree) + O (ring) | |
| 17 | Animal takes seaweed regularly | |
| EWE | Alternate (‘regular’) letters of sEaWeEd | |
| 19 | A sabre I refashioned – military use it | |
| AIR BASE | An anagram of A SABRE I – anagrind is ‘refashioned’ | |
| 20 | Artist, second to munch couscous not half loud! | |
| RAUCOUS | RA (artist) + U (second letter of ‘mUnch’) + COUS (half of couscous) – thanks to Abhay @2 for pointing out my error in the original parsing – Bert | |
| 21 | Some share pastrami meal | |
| REPAST | Hidden in (or ‘some’) shaRE PASTrami | |
| 23 | Flier on retreat needing lift like the King? | |
| CROWNED | CROW (flier) + DEN (retreat) reversed or ‘lifted’ | |
| 26 | Having arrived, love short performance | |
| CAMEO | CAME (arrived) + O (love) | |
| 27 | Cheeky – for example concealing vessel | |
| SASSY | SAY (for example) round or ‘concealing’ SS (vessel) | |
| 28 | European Society overseeing facilities | |
| SLAV | S (society) + LAV (facilities) | |
Player would be oboist.
Quite enjoyed the puzzle – thanks to Raich, and to Bertandjoyce!
Your parsing of RAUCOUS doesn’t account for the second U and provides an extra S. I parsed it as
RA (artist) + U (second to mUnch) + COUS (half of couscous).
@1
Oboe is a synonym of oboist, as well as referring to the instrument. This applies to most orchestral instruments and is quite often exploited by setters. See e.g. Collins.
@Herb- sorry- dont have a Collins-Chambers is my bible
Ah well, that explain’s Raich’s appearance on a Thursday. I did vaguely see an Elvis theme when I’d finally got it all out, but I’m not a big theme person, so it didn’t really matter. I’m sure (or as sure as I can be at my age) that Raich gave us an Elvis-themed puzzle a while back.
No matter, I enjoyed it, and liked MONDAY in particular, mainly since it wasn’t (DYNAMO)*
Thanks all three.
The use of the instrument for the player is well established, even outside crosswordland. ‘She’s first violin in the orchestra.’
Thanks b&j as you say not the hardest we’ll get this year. Only spotted the theme post solve and even then missed a few.
Am I the only one who tried Erin as a hidden in 15d?
A very pleasant antidote to today’s Guardian struggle!
Wonder what Elvis would have looked like at eighty.
Thanks to all three.
Many thanks, Bertandjoyce, for the excellent blog and thanks also to those who have commented. I think all points have been covered. Re #5, yes, this is not the first Raich Elvis-themed puzzle but they have been very different from each other. Re #7. Googling “Elvis at 80” should bring up a pleasing image of how he might have looked. The two songs chosen book-ended his singing career in a way – one from near the very start which first brought him to major notice and changed music forever, the other near the end.
Interesting. I love those sort of pictures – although I can’t help thinking he might have afforded better dentistry, and would probably have kept dying his hair!
I wonder if anyone has ever got someone to do one of those for somebody who actually did live to eighty (using an early photo), and then compared the result to the reality.