Monday Prize Crossword/Mar 2, 2015
Gaff provided us with a challenging puzzle to mark ‘a musical anniversary’.
My first entry was PIANO (7d), so I thought that’s already a good start to the theme. Bad luck. It took me a long time to discover what was going on here, actually it wasn’t until my penultimate entry that bells started ringing. I admit, I needed some googling to find out that on the day that this crossword was published it was exactly 50 years ago that the film premiere of ‘The Sound of Music’ took place. People who know me will not be surprised that I needed to google as ‘musicals’ are not my cup of tea, to say the least. I find it always a bit odd that performers start to sing when they should be talking. Like recently, the brave women from Dagenham and even Adrian Mole. Why must everything be turned into a musical, it seems? Don’t worry, it’s only me. And true, musicals gave us some wonderful songs.
Gaff’s puzzle is built around ‘My Favourite Things’, made immortal by Julie Andrews (who will be 80 this year).
The full text of this Rodgers & Hammerstein song can be found here: My Favourite Things .
Ten of these ‘favourite things’ were included in this crossword, mostly in their singular form and one (6d) implicitly.
All in all, a very fine Gaff crossword (though certainly not one of his hardest), for which thanks.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MARIGOLD |
Bloomer causes a fix in Welsh town (8)
{A RIG (fix)} inside MOLD (Welsh town) |
| 5 | SWIPED |
Stole used credit card (6)
Double definition |
| 9 | TESSERAE |
See aster designed in mosaic (8)
(SEE ASTER)* [* = designed] |
| 10 | VIRAGO |
Aggressive woman’s way of taking right turn (6)
{VIA (way of) around R (right)} + GO (turn) VIA is either a (Latin) word for ‘way’ or it means ‘by way of’. It looks like Gaff chose something that’s in between. |
| 12 | EERIE |
Top psychic that is scary (5)
[s]EER (psychic, ‘topped’) + IE (that is) |
| 13 | STINK BOMB |
Practical joke involving high explosive? (5,4)
(Cryptic) Definition |
| 14 | COUSIN |
Openings in court could be envy of one with common ancestors (6)
COU[rt] + SIN (could be envy) I am not a fan of using ‘Opening (in)’ for taking an unspecified number of letters at the beginning of a word. In my opinion, a word has only one opening (or beginning or start) i.e. the first letter. Perhaps because of selecting more than one letter, Gaff decided to use ‘Openings (in)’ (plural). Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it better for me. COU is even more than half of the word ‘court’. Or does Gaff allude to the fact that both ’court’ and ‘could’ have the same trio of letters in what I wouldn’t call the opening of a word? In that case ‘could’ does double duty as it is also needed to define ‘sin’ (as a dbe). I am sure that most solvers cannot be bothered too much as the solution unfolds itself rather smoothly, still (as a solver, not a blogger) I would like to understand what was Gaff’s intention here. |
| 16 | STRUDEL |
German result – flaky pastry (7)
(D (German?) + RESULT)* [* = flaky] I think this is not right. D stands for ‘Germany’ (IVR) while G (or GER) may stand for German. |
| 19 | EARTH UP |
What Atlas kept to protect King Edward (5,2)
Double definition – King Edward is, not for the first time in the last few months, a potato |
| 21 | PODIUM |
Open passenger hatred on platform (6)
P[assenger] (open = take first letter) + ODIUM (hatred) |
| 23 | MESSIANIC |
Crusading is cinema’s downfall (9)
(IS CINEMA’S)* [* = downfall] |
| 25 | CABLE |
Members of RSPCA blessed with 600 feet (5)
Hidden solution (‘members of’): [rsp]CA BLE[ssed] The solution CABLE is a nautical length being 200 yards. |
| 26 | ABLAZE |
Bright sort of seaman entraps extreme characters (6)
ABLE (sort of seaman) around A,Z (extreme characters) |
| 27 | RAINDROP |
Paranoid runs for a different part of shower (8)
PARANOID with R (runs) for A, becoming PRRANOID, then an anagram [* = different] Good clue! (not the only one today) |
| 28 | KETTLE |
What boils restrict marchers’ movement? (6)
Double definition I am not sure whether the KETTLE boils or the water in it, but anyway, the second part of the clue is about being confined to a small area by the police when demonstrating. |
| 29 | BETEL NUT |
Coleopterist reported for Asian addiction (5,3)
Homophone (‘reported’) of BEETLE NUT (coleopterist) Learnt a new word today. Had to look it up after which the solution became a giveaway. It’s the seed of the betel palm which is considered to be a mild stimulant, when chewed in combination with the betel leaves and lime . |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MITTEN |
Digital temperature regulator needed when head lost in love (6)
SMITTEN (in love) minus the first letter (‘head lost’) A nice cryptic definition. |
| 2 | RESERVOIR |
Dogs screened for build-up of water (9)
Double definition The first part of the clue refers to the Quentin Tarantino movie ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Dare I say, I don’t like this director’s films at all – too American for me, and too much violence. |
| 3 | GEESE |
Express surprise at direction of birds (5)
GEE (express surprise) + SE (direction, southeast) |
| 4 | LIAISON |
Fling soil in a tantrum (7)
(SOIL IN A)* [* = tantrum] |
| 6 | WHISKERED |
Like Santa Claus to marry his king and queen inside (9)
WED ((to) marry) around {HIS + K (king) + ER (queen)} Bit of a vague definition but it is probably true. |
| 7 | PIANO |
Maybe upright and devout, an Orthodox leader (5)
PI (devout) + AN + O[rthodox] This was my first one in which I thought would be a gateway clue given the musical theme. Alas. |
| 8 | DOORBELL |
Used to seek opening in party sphere before primary elections loomed large (8)
DO (party) + ORB (sphere) + E[lections] L[oomed] L[arge] (only first letters, indicated by ‘primary’) Very original definition! |
| 11 | KISS |
Embrace runners first to last (4)
SKIS (runners) with the first letter (S) moved to the end Is ’embrace’ really the same as KISS? If so, I kissed a lot more people than I thought ….. |
| 15 | SCHNITZEL |
Crook sent zilch for German course (9)
(SENT ZILCH)* [* = crook] |
| 17 | DRUG BARON |
Speed king could be ruin of our grand British capital (4,5)
(OUR GRAND B[ritish])* [* = ruin of] Another fine definition – ‘Speed king’ always reminds me of Deep Purple (in Rock), music very far from today’s theme. |
| 18 | RE-EMBARK |
First rate album oddly raised stink about board again (2-6)
Reversal (‘raised’) of {R[ate] A[l]B[u]M} inside REEK (stink) I will not comment on ‘First rate’ for R. Oops, I did. Sorry! |
| 20 | PONY |
Welsh pit could be saddled with few hands (4)
Double definition (plus) Pit ponies were originally used in coalmines, poor creatures. These ponies were not very high and to saddle them one needed only 12 hands. A hand is a measure of height (for horses) equal to 4 inches. This clue was my penultimate one in. |
| 21 | PACKAGE |
Postman’s delivery or collection (7)
Double definition |
| 22 | DESPOT |
Ruler erodes potential internally (6)
Hidden solution (‘internally’): [ero]DES POT[ential] |
| 24 | SPLIT |
Tear may be spilt (5)
(SPILT)* [* = may be] A really easy anagram, for a change. |
| 25 | CANOE |
Dug out old letters from pet? (5)
CANOODLE (pet) minus (‘from’) an anagram of (‘letters’ of’) OLD
|
Thanks Sil and gaff,
I really enjoyed this.
Re 25 dn CANOE – def = dug out.
Thanks Muffyword for pointing out my ‘mistake’ in 25d.
I was clearly misled by ‘dug out’ as the CANOE really is a ‘dugout’ (one word) – fair?
Thanks Gaff and Sil
Afraid that I was ‘beaten’ in a few areas with this one:
– had an unparsed GODSON instead of COUSIN at 14a – see how clever it was now;
– didn’t know that KETTLE was the restricted area formed by a police force;
– ‘Reservoir Dogs’ sort of loitered in the periphery of the brain, but didn’t fully emerge;
– wouldn’t have seen the theme in another moth of Sundays.
Was doing this whilst getting a double crown built and inserted – so I’ll use that as a defence 🙂
Still enjoyed solving and understanding what I did though.
Not a bad effort by me but defeated in the NW
1a Only had ??????l? and never thought of mold -in fact I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of it.
I really should have got 2&3 d.
Missed a sitter with 24d -I just couldn’t see it . Got fixated by salut for some reason.
If you’d offered £1m if I could spot a theme, your money would have been safe.
Evening all.
The editor likes Mondays’ puzzle to be towards the easier end of the spectrum, so I wanted the puzzle to be solvable even if the solver didn’t spot the theme. I know that my reputation is for being hard, but I hope I got close to the brief with this one.
On a couple of specifics : yes, Sil, 14A COU is ‘openings in cour’t. I have sympathy with your objection. My excuse is that I do like a nice surface, but perhaps this is a bit of a stretch.
28A – ‘The kettle has boiled’ from the missus means ‘stop dicking around with that crossword and make us tea’, so yes, a kettle does boil!
24D – bamberger, I too miss ones like this when I’m solving – it’s as though the brain somehow goes straight into a search for the complex and, as you say, misses a sitter. I shall put more like this in in future!
[And by the way, I LOVE musicals! I once heard someone defend ballet by saying ‘ haven’t you ever seen someone walk into a room and wanted to jump around and roll on the floor?’ Some moments just need singing!
And brucew, doing crosswords to take your mind off dentistry? Respect!]
Cheers
Gaff
Excellent puzzle – usual Gaff wit and not too much of a tussle – I remember this one well.
I’m increasingly finding it well worthwhile to take a peek at the FT after knocking over the Graun’s two easy ones of a Monday – even the Dantes have that bit more going on.
@Sil – you start off really cheerful in the preamble – then get grumpy in the actual comments. Suggest take Gaff’s advice – next time the missus says that the kettle’s boiled just make the tea – don’t tell her what the boiling point of aluminum is. It’ll work out better in the long run.
Many thanks both.
Me grumpy?
Don’t think so.
I am actually quite a cheerful person (‘despite’ perhaps some of my contributions here).
That said, what happens in 14ac and 18d is not really my cup of tea.
But, unlike hedgehoggy, I do not put these things in the Error category.
It’s just a matter of taste and I know Gaff’s opinion (as he made his view very clear in a previous blog).
The ‘kettle’ comment was just one that shouldn’t be taken too seriously – of course I know that there are times that the kettle boils.
However, D for ‘German’ is a mistake, I fear.
But as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, one mistake doesn’t mean that this was a bad crossword.
As you say, JS, it was actually excellent.
ps, I hope that FT solvers really appreciate the fact that our beloved Sarah Hayes (as Rosa Klebb) made her comeback .
Well, I did!
All ye Guardianistas, don’t miss out on this weekend’s FT prize puzzle!!
There are other roads to it but D is short for Deutsch – the guy who classified Schubert’s works – Deutsch meaning German of course.
To we internationally minded guardianistas that’s only one jump – little Englanders may call it two.
I see the abbreviation D most times when I get into may car – where it means “drive” – but hardly any dictionaries give that.
My view is that dictionaries should be a back-stop by which a setter can justify a disputed “synonym”. Everyday usage should serve in the first instance. Dictionary-writers claim that they are not giving definition – that they are describing usage – but they frequently leave gaps – and feed off one another’s errors.