Kruger sends his ‘GREETINGS’ – will EV solvers return the hand of friendship? I think they should!…
I thought this was a wonderful and (eventually) accessible puzzle – bit of a slow burner to start with on my part, but once the penny, or rather the centime, dropped it fell into place, albeit with a bit of work still to do. And a fortuitous coincidence made it sort of topical…more later…
Having started on the Tuesday after publication, it took me a few sessions here and there, chipping away, before the PDM came on the train home from work on the Friday. The clueing was firm but fair, and the number of crossing letters on unclued entries was certainly in our favour… The first one I saw was AR?OIS at 31D, which made me wonder about lager and maybe some sort of drinking salutations?…. Cheers, down the hatch? But then GR?BER and F?I?K finally pointed me in the right direction…
Herrs Gruber and Flick, and René Artois, are characters from the classic BBC comedy ‘Allo ‘Allo – a now fairly politically incorrect (but then more a product of more innocent and less enlightened times) sitcom based on the wartime resistance movement in a town in occupied France. I’m sure most UK-based solvers of a certain generation will have long and maybe fond memories of this – our more scattered brethren (and sister-en) may not be so familiar…in which case, I’d recommend getting hold of a box set, or trawling through You-Tube to try a few episodes.
So the GREETINGS are in the title, the unclued entries are various characters – and the extra twist is the two hidden ‘contributors’, CARSTAIRS and FAIRFAX, two British airmen who (if memory serves me right) were kept hidden in the attic or cellar, and kept popping out at inappropriate times, fnarr, fnarr!
Lastly, the extra letters from wordplay gave the classic phrase, repeated ‘ad infinitum’ by the rather fruity Michelle Dubois, local resistance leader: ’LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY, I SHALL SAY THIS ONLY ONCE’ – or, more phonetically, ‘Leesen varry caerfooly, Ah shall say zees ownly wance’ . (Thinking about it, it may have been the phrase that actually triggered the PDM for me, but it was nearly two weeks ago now…)
As for the ‘topicality’, I was solving this at the time of Madonna’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ at the Brit Awards, where she fell off the stage when somebody pulled her cape off too quickly, and the UK tabloid headlines went along the lines of ‘The fallen Madonna and the big boob’ – a coincidental reference to a running plot line from the series, around Nazi-stolen art … amazing what you can make comedy out of…
Anyway, it is also amazing what you can make a thematic crossword puzzle out of – nice one Kruger!
Hopefully the below is all present and correct – 8D was trailed in the preamble as not in Chambers, but I spent too long trying to convince myself it was HOTLINE…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Extra letter | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (extra letters in brackets) |
| 1 | CRABTREE | – | CRABTREE | Unclued (8) / Thematic deduction |
| 7 | BAHIA | – | BAHIA | Sailor capsized saving one part of Brazil (5) / BAH_A (Ahab, sailor) around (saving) I (one) |
| 11 | GHERAO | L | GHERAO | Strangely her goal is to trap someone and make demands (6) / anag (i.e. strangely) of HER GOA(L) |
| 12 | LABONQ | – | LABONQ | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
| 13 | SOCS | I | SOCS | Socialists conceding accepted border rights to hold court locally (4) / SOC(I)(ALIST)S – losing (conceding) A (accepted) and LIST (border) |
| 15 | PROBITS | S | PROBITS | Statistical units assist regularly in small problems (7) / PROB_S (small, abbreviated, problems) around (S)IT (regular letters of aSsIsT) |
| 16 | AEON | T | AEON | No tea counter for a very long time (4) / anag (i.e. counter) of NO (T)EA |
| 17 | ALLOA | E | ALLOA | Beer and bread left unfinished in Scottish town (5) / AL(E) (beer) + LOA(F) (bread, unfinished) |
| 18 | AIA | N | AIA | Scotsman’s own adult waiting-maid (3) / AI(N) (Scottish, own) + A (adult) |
| 19 | GRUBER | – | GRUBER | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
| 21 | CION | V | CION | Young member of family in LA backing new church member, virtually (4) / NO(V)IC(E) (virtually all of novice, new church member) backing = CION |
| 22 | ECHOISE | E | ECHOISE | Send back early English personal property I collected (7) / E_E (Early English) around CHO_S(E) (item of personal proeperty, legal), itself around (collecting) I |
| 24 | PRONTO | R | PRONTO | Ferry-boat takes posh car over quickly (6) / P_ONT (ferry boat) around R(R) (Rolls Royce, posh car), plus O (over, cricket) |
| 27 | NIGHT?HAWK | NIGHT?HAWK | Unclued (9, two words?) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 28 | LEONIE | Y | LEONIE | Only IEE trained girl (6) / anag, i.e. trained, of ONL(Y) IEE |
| 29 | BATHYAL | C | BATHYAL | Regarding depth of water, Linton’s wife is submerged in western half of Baltic (7) / B_AL (Western, leftmost, half of BALtic) around (submerging) (C)ATHY (Linton’s wife in ‘Wuthering Heights’) |
| 32 | ACTS | A | ACTS | Influences those resolving disputes – about time (4) / AC(A)_S (UK industrial dispute arbitration service) around T (time) |
| 33 | STOGIE | R | STOGIE | Soldier’s hiding in warehouse for a smoke (6) / STO(R)_E (warehouse) around (hiding) GI (solder, American) |
| 34 | IRA | E | IRA | Troubles involved them in Ireland, mostly with initiation of atrocities (3) / &lit-ish – (E)IR(E) (most of Eire, Ireland) + A (first letter of Atrocities) |
| 35 | FLICK | – | FLICK | Unclued (5) / |
| 36 | CYST | F | CYST | Membrane covering for costly flat-screen TV (4) / CY (‘covering’ letters of CostlY) + FST (abbreviation, Flat-Screen TV) |
| 38 | ETHICAL | U | ETHICAL | Decent, honest husband is taken in by American cult i.e. manipulated (7) / anag, i.e. manipulated, of A (American) + C(U)LT + IE, around H (husband) |
| 39 | DSOS | L | DSOS | Crosses sold specially on Sabbath (4) / DSO (anag, i.e. specially, of SO(L)D), on S (Sunday, Sabbath) |
| 40 | TRIFLE | L | TRIFLE | To amuse, the Parisian male follows pert girl back (6) / TRIF (F(L)IRT, or pert girl, back) followed by LE (masculine ‘the’ in French) |
| 41 | AENEID | Y | AENEID | Adult longing to die horribly in classic tale (6) / A (adult) + (Y)EN (longing) + EID (anag, i.e. horribly, of DIE) |
| 42 | SCALL | I | SCALL | To some extent, physical labour is no longer mean (5) / hidden word, i.e. to some exent, in ‘phyS(I)CAL Labour’ |
| 43 | EXERCISE | – | EXERCISE | Study tax – including European rates to begin with (8) / EX_CISE (tax) around E (European) + R (first letter of Rates) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Extra letter | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (extra letters in brackets) |
| 2 | RHOTIC | – | RHOTIC | Corresponded, we hear, with current leader of council – emphasising one letter (6) / RHOT (homophone, i.e. ‘we hear’ of wrote, corresponded) + I (current, physics) + C (leading letter of Council) |
| 3 | AECIA | S | AECIA | Retired marine spies fructification in fungus (5) / AE(S) (sea, marine, retired) + CIA (spies) |
| 4 | TAMARI | H | TAMARI | Rita, cooking, covers ham in sauce (6) / T_ARI (anag, i.e. cooking, of RITA) around (covering) (H)AM |
| 5 | ROPE | A | ROPE | Stoutly twisted wire about to restrict senior citizen (4) / R_E (about) around (restricting) O(A)P (senior citizen, old-age pensioner) |
| 6 | ENROBE | L | ENROBE | At first, expect Queen to appear in excellent dress (6) / E (first letter of Expect) + NOB(L)E (excellent), around R (Regina, queen) |
| 7 | BABAR | L | BABAR | Elephant curtailed trumpeting noise after heading to better area (5) / B (first letter of Better) + A (area) + B(L)AR(E) (trumpeting noie, curtailed) |
| 8 | HOT LINK | S | HOT LINK | It helps updating of documents ruined by torch long ago (7, two words) / (S)HOT (ruined) + LINK (obsolete for torch) |
| 9 | INSOOTH | A | INSOOTH | Really old swear-word dogs member of ruling party thus (7) / IN (member of ruling party) + SO (thus) + O(A)TH (swear-word) |
| 10 | AQUA | Y | AQUA | Stern of proa beside wharf is pale blue (4) / A (last letter, or stern, of proA) + QUA(Y) (wharf) |
| 13 | SEA EEL | T | SEA EEL | Bristle to strip the skin off decapitated marine creature (6, two words) / SE(T)A (bristle) + (P)EEL (strip skin off, decpitated) |
| 14 | SAGOINS | H | SAGOINS | Monkeys from South America on mound of earth in some places retreated inches (7) / SA (South America) + GO(H) (hog, or mound of earth, dialect, retreated) + INS (inches |
| 20 | EPHA | I | EPHA | Letter for Archimedes hidden in each quantity of dry goods (4) / E_A (each) around (hiding) PHI (Greek letter, i.e. for Archimedes) |
| 21 | COWHERD | S | COWHERD | He watches neat yacht beside harbour (7) / (S)COW (yacht, American) + HERD (to harbour) |
| 23 | SHET | O | SHET | Those out to forbid entrance to local (4) / anag (i.e. out) of TH(O)SE |
| 25 | OFLAGS | N | OFLAGS | No ship carrying admiral starting to shell POW camps (6) / O (nothing, no) + FLAG (the flagship of the fleet usually carries the admiral) + S (starting letter of Shell) |
| 26 | LECLERC | LECLERC | Unclued (7) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 27 | NOTITIA | L | NOTITIA | It could make oil taint register (7) / anag (i.e. it could make) of OI(L) TAINT |
| 29 | BOYAUX | Y | BOYAUX | Young man starts to accept usual extremes of xenophoby in trenches (6) / BOY (young man) + AU (first letters of Accept Usual) + X(Y) (extreme letters of XenophobY) |
| 30 | TITFER | O | TITFER | Hat for ET – it looks ridiculous (6) / anag (i.e. looks ridiculous) of F(O)R ET IT |
| 31 | ARTOIS | ARTOIS | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
|
| 33 | SKILL | N | SKILL | Ability to stop the flow of oil in Senegal (5) / S_L (Senegal) around KIL(L) (stop the flow of oil) |
| 34 | ISSEI | C | ISSEI | Timid boy docked with East Indian immigrant (5) / (C)ISS(Y) (timid boy, docked) + EI (East Indian) |
| 35 | FATS | E | FATS | Exploits opportunities to display talent (4) / double defn. FEATS = exploits. A ‘FAT’ is a theatrical role, an opportunity to display one’s talents |
| 37 | SLAE | – | SLAE | Ian’s black servant gets no introduction to visitors (4) / SLA(V)E – servant, without V (introductory letter of Visitors) |
Enjoyable puzzle from Kruger. I suspect that like many I was pleased to be reminded of the programme. Am now working my way through the DVD box set, which is very cheap to buy.
I enjoyed being reminded of this programme too. I’m not sure how the title works, unless it’s Crabtree’s “good moaning”. The two airmen’s names forming the shape of an aeroplane was a nice touch.
Tony, I could be being overly simplistic, but doesn’t “Greetings” simply refer to the title of the sitcom?