A good work out from Crosophile today.
This puzzle was one for the horticulturalists with its homage to GARDENERS QUESTION TIME (29 across, 17 across and 25 down). The programme was first broadcast on the Home Service in April 1947 and it survives to this day on Radio 4 having spent a short time on Classic FM. I understand that each programme can also be downloaded as a podcast now.
One of the original panelists was Bill SOWERBUTTS (28 across concatenated with 6 across). Long serving panelists included DAPHNE (19 across) Ledward, CLAY (24 across) Jones and Bob FLOWERDEW (14 across concatenated with the first three letters of 15 across). Indeed, CLAY Jones was also chairman of the programme for a time. One of the current panelists is Pippa GREENWOOD (1 across).
In addition to the panelists there were plenty of horticultural entries including COTTAGE (10 across) and SCENTED (8 down), types of garden. Closer to the soil we have GREENWOOD, FLOWER, DAPHNE, CLAY and SOWER doing double duty on top of their panelist references As a fruit we have QUINCES (17 down). . I think ACRE (11 across) could claim a place in the horticultural theme as well. There were also gardening references in the clues.
I wondered whether NHRB in the unches in the middle row referred to National Horticultural something or other (Research Board?) but I can’t find a suitable reference, so I’ll put it down to coincidence.
I always enjoy clues where the wordplay is built up from a number of different parts, so I was very happy with this puzzle.
It was a fairly steady solve today, but the full breadth of the GARDENERS QUESTION TIME theme didn’t become apparent until quite late. The most obscure entry for me today was BUTTERY BAR at 6 down – easy enough to get from the clue if you already have 6 across, but two intersecting entries dependent on each other could cause a problem if you struggle with the common part.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
It’s beneficial to collect newer nuts in a leafy forest (9)
|
GOOD (beneficial) containing (to collect) (an anagram of [nuts] NEWER) G (REENW*) OOD |
GREENWOOD (leafy forest)
|
|
6
|
Reservations full of tare – receptacles for 29 required (5)
|
BUTS (objections; reservations) containing (full of) T (tare) BU (T) TS |
BUTTS (large casks of varying capacities often used to store rainwater for use by GARDENERS [29 across])
|
|
9
|
The point when writing book and article’s French hors d’oeuvres (7)
|
NIB (the writing point of a pen) + B (book) + LES (one of the forms of the definite article in French)
|
NIBBLES (small items of savoury food eaten at parties, as snacks or appetizers; hors d’ouevres)
|
|
10
|
Dwelling too much in prison (7)
|
OTT (over the top; too much) contained in (in) CAGE (prison) C (OTT) AGE |
COTTAGE (dwelling)
|
|
11
|
Essentially holy piece of land (4)
|
ACRE (middle letters of [essentially] SACRED [holy])
|
ACRE (piece of land)
|
|
12
|
Bits of dust everywhere below stairs – it’s a disgrace (10)
|
DE (first letters of [bits of] each of DUST and EVERYWHERE) + BASEMENT (the storey of a building beneath the ground floor; below stairs)
|
DEBASEMENT (degradation; disgrace)
|
|
14
|
On pack animal’s back, the delight of 29? (6)
|
(RE [concerning] + WOLF [an animal for whom the collective noun is pack]) all reversed (back) (FLOW ER)< |
FLOWER (GARDENERS [29 across] take great delight in a beautiful FLOWER)
|
|
15
|
Fresh flower next to yard is protected by legal document (4-4)
|
(WYE [reference River WYE, one of which forms part of the border between England and Wales] + Y [yard]) contained in [protected by] DEED (legal document) DE (WY E Y) ED |
DEWY-EYED (fresh, innocent)
|
|
17 / 25
|
When to ask for quiet love, isn’t complicated to me (8,4)
|
Anagram of (complicated) QUIET O [zero; love score in tennis] and ISNT + ME QUESTION TI* ME |
QUESTION TIME (when to ask [for])
|
|
19
|
Acid level measure seen in earth and ground for shrub (6)
|
PH (measure of acidity or alkalinity) contained in (seen in) (an anagram of [ground] E [earth] and AND) DA (PH) NE* |
DAPHNE (any plant of the DAPHNE genus (family Thymelaeaceae) of shrubs)
|
|
23
|
Practically impossible, what I do mostly when holding the pack and then getting pontoon? (10)
|
(I DEAL [what I do when holding the pack) + (I STICK [what I do when getting 21 points or pontoon when playing the game of the same name] excluding the final letter [mostly] K)
|
IDEALISTIC (describing a view or a target that is close to perfection but realistically unattainable; practically impossible)
|
|
24
|
Cold remained in earth that’s challenging for 29 (4)
|
C (cold) + LAY (remained)
|
CLAY (a type of soil that is very challenging for GARDENERS [29 across])
|
|
26
|
Vehicle on fairly good short cut avoiding new arterial route (7)
|
CAR (vehicle) + (ON + TIDY [fairly good] excluding [avoiding] N [new] and also excluding the final letter [short cut] Y)
|
CAROTID (relating to the two great arteries that supply blood to the head and neck; arterial route)
|
|
27
|
Director on fiddle drinking wine? Then he shouldn’t be doing this (7)
|
D (director) + (RIG [manipulate unscrupulously; fiddle] containing [drinking] VIN [wine]) D RI (VIN) G |
DRIVING (something that shouldn’t be done after drinking)
|
|
28
|
One of the 29 in spring rain after end of March has passed? (5)
|
SHOWER (rain) excluding [after … has passed] H (last letter of [end of] MARCH)
|
SOWER (descriptive of a [one of] GARDENER(S) in Spring)
|
|
29
|
Ends of soiled fingers are mostly green after working for these? (9)
|
Anagram of (working) (DS [last letters of {ends of} each of SOILED and FINGERS] and AR [most of the letters of ARE] and GREEN) GARDENERS* |
GARDENERS (people who work for GARDENERS are likely to have green dirt on the ends of their fingers after working for GARDENERS)
|
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Wizard prang’s ending – after wings break off landfall goes slightly awry (7)
|
G (last letter of [ending] PRANG) + ANDALF (a minor rearrangement [goes slightly awry] of the letters remaining in LANDFALL after the first and last letters [wings] L and L are excluded [break off])
|
GANDALF (wizard in The Lord of the Rings)
|
|
2
|
Master holds lamb’s tail and so it follows around barrier (7)
|
ERGO (therefore; so it follows) containing (around) (MA [Master {of Arts}] containing [holds] B [last letter of {tail} LAMB]) E (M (B) A) RGO |
EMBARGO ([trade] barrier)
|
|
3
|
Duck on far side of the river (4)
|
NIL (zero; duck score in cricket) + E (last letter of [far side of] THE)
|
NILE (reference the River NILE)
|
|
4
|
Boy’s terrapin’s eaten shellfish (6)
|
OYSTER (hidden word in [eaten] BOY’S TERRAPIN)
|
OYSTER (a shellfish)
|
|
5
|
Bright girl dressed in scarlet coming up – she might select diamonds (8)
|
CLARE (girl’s name. In Chambers the derivation of CLARE is defined as the Latin for bright) contained in (dressed in) (RED [scarlet is defined as a brilliant RED] reversed [coming up; down clue]) DE (CLARE) R< |
DECLARER (In the card game Bridge, the DECLARER may bid in the suit of Diamonds)
|
|
6
|
Singular 6A with a berry in ferment where the tankards are stored (7-3)
|
BUTT (singular of the entry at 6 across) + an anagram of (in ferment) A BERRY BUTT ERY BAR* |
BUTTERY BAR (BUTTERY is a room in especially an Oxford or Cambridge college where food and drink are supplied to students. The BUTTERY BAR is the ledge for holding tankards in the BUTTERY)
|
|
7
|
Attempt to restrain old King Lear perhaps (7)
|
TRY (attempt) containing (to restrain) AGED (old) TR (AGED) Y |
TRAGEDY (Shakespeare’s King Lear is considered to fall into category of a TRAGEDY)
|
|
8
|
Sniffed out loose ends etc (7)
|
Anagram of (loose) ENDS ETC SCENTED* |
SCENTED (sniffed [out])
|
|
13
|
Even with the lid off for the time being, say, it’s refreshing (10)
|
EVEN excluding the first letter (with the lid off) E + TILATOR (sounds like [say] TILL LATER [for the time being])
|
VENTILATOR (device for introducing fresh air)
|
|
16
|
Pet hotel put to surprisingly good use (5-3)
|
H (hotel) + an anagram of (surprisingly) GOOD USE H OUSE DOG* |
HOUSE DOG (pet)
|
|
17
|
Fruit – five delivered in a day around church (7)
|
QUINS (QUINtuplets, five babies [delivered] at the same time [in a day]) containing (around) CE (Church of England) QUIN (CE) S |
QUINCES (fruit)
|
|
18
|
‘Amsptead intellectual’s heard of facial feature (7)
|
EYEBROW (sounds like [heard] ‘IGHBROW [intellectual] where the leading H is silent as in ‘AMPSTEAD)
|
EYEBROW (facial feature)
|
|
20
|
French lover seen in the Loire topless, leaving river to catch sun (7)
|
THE LOIRE (excluding the first letter (topless) T and then excluding (leaving) the R [river] and replacing it with [to catch] S (sun) HELOISE |
HELOISE (reference Héloïse d’Argenteuil, a French nun, writer, scholar, and abbess, best known for her love affair and correspondence with Peter Abélard)
|
|
21
|
Needing no introduction very unusual song for The Sea Hollies (7)
|
VERY excluding the first letter (needing no introduction) V + an anagram of (unusual) SONG ERY NGOS* |
ERYNGOS (sea hollies)
|
| 22 | Last of the Scotch in hamper (6) | HINDER (Scottish word meaning last; last of the Scotch. Chambers says this usage of Scotch is valid, but it also says many people prefer Scots or Scottish in this context. I’m with the many. I’ve always used Scotch only to refer to whisky or other products from Scotland) | HINDER (hamper) double definition |
Quite a few clues were behind me but that didn’t spoil the fun. Filling in the five missing across clues let me finish all but two of the down clues. Thanks to both!
Oops! I meant ‘beyond’!
Thought it was going to be impossible (and not even idealistic!) I think ‘idealistic’ comes from what I do (mostly, less the ‘k’) when getting pontoon AS DEALER, rather than as a player. Buttery bar was a brief problem – never heard of it in my College, even though we had a Buttery. And I might have gone for ‘erygons’ until I looked it up. Thanks to duncanshiell for the parsing of ‘carotid’, the one that escaped me; I think tidy = fairly good is a bit weak, especially with all the work you have to do with the words. Thanks to both.
The GQT theme went completely over my head even though I connected the two answers. I needed all the checkers before I was happy to enter ERYNGOS.
I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish this but persistence and a couple of goes got me there eventually. Carotid and Decorator (the bright bit) were the only two I didn’t follow. I’m still not sure I entirely get carotid – I can see tidy=fairly good, but where does short cut come into things? The clue seems a bit too verbose. I don’t listen to GQT (don’t get round to gardening much, full stop), so the theme went over my head.
Well, that theme completely passed me by. I was wondering if there was a character somewhere called Gandalf Quince.
Is ‘t’ a usual abbreviation for ‘tare’? In 6 across.
jp @ 7
I don’t know how common t is as an abbreviation for tare, but it is listed as such in both Chambers and Collins which makes it fair game for setters.
Thanks for a super blog, Duncan. Much appreciated.
#3. Chambers defines tidy as ‘fairly good’ so I think this is OK.
#5 The ‘short cut’ of tidy was simply a way of indicating tid(y) [while allowing the surface reading to work better, of course].
#6. If I ever need a new setter name, Gandalf Quince will be high on my list. Thanks for the suggestion. 🙂
And thanks, as always, for all comments
We were late finishing this and despite listening to GQT on a regular basis, the theme passed us by!
We couldn’t parse 26ac so thanks Duncan although it is still our least favourite clue. We didn’t look up HINDER in the dictionary but thought it had be the correct answer.
Thanks Crosophile – we should have been more awake when we were solving this one. We’ll remember to look more closely next time.
Very late to commenting, but I did like this one a lot. Well done, Crosophile, and thanks to Duncan for his usual comprehensive blog. Got the gardening bit, but GQT passed me by, despite having listened to the programme in an earlier life (when I had a big garden).
And I look forward to the next puzzle from our setter Crosphile at no 9. What is it with compliers who can’t even spell their own names on this blog?
Glad I don’t misspell [let alone mispell] words in the grid too often, K’s Dad! 🙂 Thanks, and to B&J, for those comments.