Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 30, 2013
It falls to me to blog John Graham’s final puzzle. And what a typically Cinephilean crossword it it! Like many of his it has a theme, and one of a slightly cryptic nature: “old pieces” referring to obsolete British coins. And, in addition to clues that use the theme directly with answers that are names (or nicknames) of such coins, he includes several others that play off the theme such as 2D (OBSOLETE), 15A (NOTE), 20A (BRITISH) and 27D (COIN). It has a few clues that shine, my favourites being 15A (NOTE), 2D (OBSOLETE), and 5-23 (HALF A CROWN). And there are a few clues that are a bit loose in either definition or wordplay such as 9A (RESIST) and 24D (GROATS). I am uncertain of my understanding of 1A (FLORIN).
John Graham had a magnificent run with over 50 years of professional puzzle setting and over 30 as Cinephile in the FT. Some people enjoyed his work; some were exasperated by it; and some fall into both categories. He could be erratic, thematic and enigmatic. He could be dazzling, inventive and funny. As I have noted here many times, I liked him very much. And I shall miss him.
By the way, this blog will be published on Wednesday this week since the deadline for entries is Tuesday (as opposed to the usual Wednesday).
ACROSS
1. Old piece of pound exposed on ice (not sovereign) (6)
FLORIN – anagram of OF L (pound) + RIN[k] (ice not sovereign). My original interpretation of this clue was different. I saw it as: L (pound) in FO (exposed, i.e. “full on”) + RIN[k]. I could not see ‘exposed’ as an anagram indicator and F.O. seemed justified as an abbreviation for full on as it is in my Chambers. However, after reading some comments (below), I am fairly satisfied this was wrong.
4. Old piece of raised ground in identical part of prison (8)
SHILLING – HILL (raised ground) in SING [sing] (identical part of prison)
9. Refuse to accept one’s time off? (6)
RESIST – IS (ones) in REST (time off)
10. Welsh town injudiciously backed to grasp more than an inch (8)
LLANELLI – AN ELL (more than an inch) in ILL (injudiciously) backwards
12. 999, say, for underground tree with twisted centre (8)
HELPLINE – HELL PINE (underground tree) with the L and P in the middle twisted around
13. CHANGE – double definition
Little pieces are protean (6)
15. Not a piece and not English (4)
NOTE – NOT (not) + E (English)
16. Dog for hire unlike these pieces (7)
CURRENT – CUR (dog) + RENT (for hire)
20. Like these old pieces, it is hot after brief comment on cold? (7)
BRITISH – BR (comment on cold) + IT IS (it is) + H (hot)
21. Old piece of arachnid (4)
MITE – double definition
25. Killer concealed by flower (6)
ORCHID – ORC (killer) + HID (concealed)
26. I printed out “Brave” (8)
INTREPID – anagram of I PRINTED
28. Maybe Murphy’s radical hairstyle? (4,4)
ROOT CROP – ROOT (radical) + CROP (hairstyle). ‘Murphy’ is an informal term for potato. And I found this clue difficult because I did not know that.
29. Old piece for the sun? (6)
TANNER – double/cryptic definition. This is one of those rare clues that have two perfectly sound solutions. While I am very familiar with the term ‘tanner’ from my boyhood, it did not immediately occur to me when I read this clue. Instead, ‘for the sun’ made me think of ‘shiner’ which seemed a plausible slang term for a silver coin. I looked it up and found that it used to be exactly that, most usually referring to a sovereign.
30. 40.5 gallons of beer and skittles (8)
NINEPINS – double definition. A ‘pin’ is a volume of beer measuring 4.5 gallons. So nine of these pins would make 40.5 gallons.
21. Come up with exotic dances (6)
ASCEND – anagram of DANCES
DOWN
1. Old piece of remote object (8)
FARTHING – FAR (remote) + THING (object)
2. Old boots Lee might have repaired (8)
OBSOLETE – anagram of BOOTS LEE
3. Starts of sequential months as affront (6)
INSULT – INS[tant] (starts of current month) + ULT[imo] (starts of previous month)
5,23. Old piece attained by William or Mary?
HALF A CROWN – double/cryptic definition. This refers to the only royal couple to have shared the throne. And they shared much more than that being first cousins as well as spouses.
6. It’s normally written of most of African country in most of capital (8)
LONGHAND – GHAN[a] (most of African country) in LOND[on] (most of capital)
7. Lives left with traffic about (6)
ISLAND – IS (lives) + L (left) + AND (with)
8. Old piece of country — or new? (6)
GUINEA – triple definition
11. Any grabbing of a night in Paris for regular payment (7)
ANNUITY – NUIT (night in Paris) in ANY (any)
14. It’s given now (7)
PRESENT – double definition
17. One in racing turned up with prize drink (5,3)
FRUIT CUP – I (one) in TURF (racing) backwards + CUP (prize)
18. Old piece crossing itself below (8)
SIXPENCE – double definition (the second referring to 29 across, TANNER)
19. Proffered number of foreign coloured (8)
TENDERED – TEN (number) + DE (of foreign) + RED (coloured)
22. River Avon’s funny old piece of literature (6)
SOVRAN – anagram of R AVONS
24. John’s old pieces? (6)
GROATS – cryptic definition. This refers to the Scottish town of John O’Groats, which is well known for being the most northerly settlement on the British mainland (in spite of the fact that, if we can believe Wikipedia, it actually is not).
27. Two proverbially at home with piece (4)
COIN – CO (two proverbially — i.e. as in “two’s company…”) + IN (at home)
Lucky you, Pete!
A very nice farewell puzzle by the much missed Cinephile.
Could it be that in 1ac FLO is anagram of “of” plus “L” (pound) with ‘exposed’ as the indicator?
I am not yet convinced by the explanation for INSULT (3d).
That said, I don’t know anymore what I thought about it ten days ago.
Very nice. How we’ll miss him. Thanks to PM
Thanks Pete and to Cinephile, who is much missed.
I agree with your parsing of 3d INSULT.
I thought FLORIN was made from flo(g) and rin(k), but I prefer Sil’s parsing @1.
I loved the recurrent, whimsical theme.
Sil, It is something that had not occurred to me but, given that ‘expose’ can mean to place in difficulty, yes, I think your explanation of 1ac is very viable. Thanks.
I feel rather confident of my explanation for INSULT.
Re 1a I also took “expose” as the indicator. I think Cinephile often went back, slightly cheekily, to the derivations and component parts of words. I interpreted it as ex = out plus pose = put, i.e. put the letters out (of order). Re 3d I too see no reason for doubt – very clear wordplay, a great snappy clue, and very typically Araucarian, I thought at the time. It went straight in – after some time wasted going through Janfeb, Febmar, Marapr etc., of course. But my favourite was 5,23, which I just had to read out loud to my partner. This really seemed like a setter still at full strength, didn’t it? One recalls the final couplet in his poem to Roger Squires (Rufus, on his 80th birthday):
Remember this, young master Squires –
No cruciverbalist retires!
I think my parsing of 3d would be:
INS[tant] (starts of current month) + ULT[imo] (starts of previous month)
Herb, Good point about ‘expose’. Thank you.
JollySwagman, Thanks. I have updated my explanation of 3d.
Many thanks Pete & Cinephile – wherever you are.
I have always enjoyed The Rev’s puzzles and I have now bought one of his books: ‘The Guardian Monkey Puzzles’ (2002) which I intend to dip into from time to time.
Pleased to say I solved all of this one except “mite”, helped in part by being a coin collector so admit that in some instances I thought of a coin and then looked for the clue to fit. Hence I got “florin” but could not work out why. Thanks for the explanation.
31ac I think you mean ASCEND is an anagram of DANCES -an understandable typo.
Malcolm, Thank you. I have fixed the explanation of 31ac. I have never been a coin collector but for a number of clues, notably for FLORIN, I worked backwards as you did.