Like the other puzzles in prelim 2, I solved this one late on the Sunday night. I failed to record my time in the usual way, so this is a rough estimate. This puzzle seems a very fair one for championship purposes, and I can’t see any traps except for a bit of potential mental agony at 6D.
On the day, this puzzle created a bit of extra drama – a short while before this prelim started, people in the scoring room were preparing completed answer grids to compare the scripts to, using the 4-page booklets provided to contestants. The person preparing the grid for puzzle 3 soon found their task impossible – despite all the work that goes on to check the championship puzzles, the wrong grid appeared above the clues in the booklet. (I heard the pained words “The proofs were right!” from the crossword editor – I suspect next year he’ll be opening one of the boxes for each round early just to be sure that the final product is the same as the proof, and I’m reminded of working back in the 1980s on an insurance company’s Department of Trade Returns – the actuarial equivalent of an annual Report and Accounts. Correcting a mistake on one set of proofs and seeing the correction made on a later set was no guarantee that the mistake would not mysteriously reappear in another set.) Somehow, within 20 minutes or so a respectable copy of the the full grid and clues page was produced, and copies were run off on the school photocopier, which seems to have been a bit short of toner judging by the one I picked up. If contestants knew the exact problem, I’m sure most of them just folded the A4 sheet so that they could put the right grid over the wrong one and read a clearer set of clues. Old hands might have wryly enjoyed a reminder of the championship as it used to be – up to 2000, clues and grids were always on separate sheets. “Does everyone have grid number two and a set of clues on yellow paper? (Pause) Then three, two, one, Go!”.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FRET LESS = be more tranquil – and a fretless guitar (e.g. some bass guitars) or similar instrument has a smooth neck. I don’t know enough about the bass guitar to find you a meaningful sound-clip for a fretless bass, but did find this curiosity for anyone needing help remembering this meaning of “neck” |
| 5 | SHA(DO=perform)W – shadow (vb.) = dog (vb.) = follow |
| 10 | R.U. = rugby, NA(TEMPERA)TURE – tempera can mean a painting in that medium – here’s a famous example. |
| 11 | UNFETTERED – fen* in UTTERED = spoke |
| 13 | SMUT = “blue material” – hidden. I might have chosen this as the clue to leave you to explain, but wanted the setter (if reading) to know that I’d spotted the “unfettered smut” in this row of the grid |
| 15 | APR 1 = “tricky time”,COT |
| 17 | BRI(O,CH.)E – Brie is probably second only to Edam as the crossword setter’s favourite 4-letter cheese |
| 18 | STELLAR – ALL reversed in REST* – and all perfectly clearly indicated once you get past the surface meaning that might just reflect the feelings of the spouses and other supporters of championship contestants – for one whole hour, they don’t have to listen to people banging on and on about crosswords. |
| 19 | ELEGIAC = (gale, ice)* – did you want to write “elegaic”? That’s a mistake I had to train myself out of. |
| 21 | NU(M)B – this seems like a clue that must have been used before, but I can’t claim to actually remember it |
| 22 | DEN = end*,OU((th)E,MEN)T – a nicely done &lit/all-in-one which, if you see the clue itself as the crossword clue equivalent of unravelling a complicated story, suggests the answer in three different ways |
| 25 | WIND CHILL FACTOR – CD wanting you to see the wrong meanings of “current” and “bitterness” |
| 27 | DI(THE)R(t) |
| 28 | TRIP = journey, TYCH = “tick” = short time – a triptych is a threefold painting – often one that can be folded, as it happens. For future reference, diptych and polyptych have the guessable meanings. |
| Down | |
| 1 | FO(RM.)UL,A=area – this one is presumably intended to confuse – with “from” in the clue, it’s hard to stop your brain’s anagram-spotting cells getting in on the act |
| 2 | EON = one* – in certain fields, eon is a precise amount of time, not just a scientific term for “donkey’s years” |
| 3 | LATE = dead, TACKLE = lifting apparatus (recognisable from “block and tackle”, but I can’t quickly find an illustration that distinguishes the block from the tackle. Help gratefully accepted from any passing sailors.). Back at the clue, “sent off” is in the football rather than mail-order sense. |
| 4 | SOMME = battlefield – M = millions in SOME = “a remarkable”, as in “that was some puzzle”. The whole clue is a grim reference to the battle, though not quite an all-in-one. |
| 6 | HOAX – this is the most puzzling clue for me – “Fool Henry beheaded to win round”. Given the checking letters, HOAX seems the only choice with a clear definition in the clue. It’s got an O (often clued by “round”), in H = Henry + AX, which I guess could represent “Henry beheaded”, as H = the head of “Henry” is taken off by an AX, and these “win” (= possess = hold) the O. But I’m open to suggestions for a more orthodox explanation. … which is H + (c)OAX as explained below by david_ch and Jimbo below. |
| 7 | DRUM MACHINE = (march menu I’d)* – a drum machine is an electronic percussion instrument, so the clue is another all-in-one. Another instrument I know little about – I found the user guide for one famous model, but no “march” in its list of factory pre-programmed rhythms. Later models might differ, but if not, it still works as a bit of crossword whimsy. |
| 8 | W(R)EATHE(r) – wreathe = wind (vb.) |
| 9 | RE(as)SEMBLE – to rally is to reassemble when troops are involved |
| 12 | today’s omission – should be easy from checking letters including the first letter of each word |
| 14 | AIDE = idea*, DECAMP = sneak off – “Forces PA (=personal assistant)” being the def., with the surface encouraging you to think “forces” is a verb |
| 16 | TUR(n) = “short revolution”,(a)MERIC(a) – here is turmeric for anyone who doesn’t know it from curry. |
| 18 | SINE = function, WED = tie the knot – sinew meaning tendons = “strong cords” |
| 20 | CAT = nasty woman, ARR.,H – catarrh being a cold symptom. Having a cold at present, I appreciated the “spelling tip” provided with this definition |
| 23 | O.(GLE(e))R. – old favourite OR = “men” should be the way into this one, the first of three final easy clues |
| 24 | ACNE = “spotty coverage” – (ENC.,(medi)A) all reversed |
| 26 | TOY = trifle, from last letters of “geT nO sherrY” – the whole clue giving us a nice mental image of some kind of contest at the kind of school attended by Billy Bunter. |
I found this quite easy and ran through it in about 20 minutes without any real problems. I thought 22A DENOUEMENT an excellent clue. I continue to be struck by the gap in level of difficulty between these prelim puzzles and the monsters that were used in the finals.
If you’re remembering the old-style championship where the puzzles in a regional final could be really tough (my first qualification for the National final was as one of three out of 250-odd to get through 4 30-minute puzzles with no mistakes), then there is a recognisable difference, but the competition is different too.
If you expected 160-odd people to travel various distances to solve puzzles for an hour and gave them prelims that only 20 or so could finish inside the time limit, I don’t think many would come back the next year. The simple fact is that there are not that many people who can reliably finish 3 puzzles in 60 minutes. (Or if there are, they’re not travelling to Cheltenham – next year, back in London, it might be different.)
CoD nonetheless to the smooth and simple NUMB.
At 6d I reasoned H=Henry with AX taken to him (beheaded) takes in (wins) O (round) but David’s and Jimbo’s explanation is obviously the right one.
Thanks for the explanation.
22ac absolutely has to be clue of the day. It’s a tremendous piece of work and personal for me. I first heard the word in connection with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and then, natch, had to go and count all the denouments in the final act. Can’t remember how many there are: but lots!
FRETLESS: check out the absolute master in this clip.
I can’t find the comment you’re referring to. I’ll happily accept that finishing the puzzles within the time limit was harder for Prelim 2 than Prelim 1. But I don’t think it matters whether the prelim puzzles are a doddle, mostly easy but with traps, moderately difficult or very difficult – the same group of a dozen or so people will consistently make the final, and the same group of 40 or so will be chasing after the other places.
Lots of ticks against the clues, in particular 15ac, 21ac, 25ac, 14d, with 21ac getting my COD nomination.
The rest of it was not so bad, although I had carelessly penciled in ‘my’ in 12 down, holding me up. I did have the right answer but wrong explanation of ‘hoax’, and did spell ‘elegiac’ wrong,
So although I can solve most of them eventually, it doesn’t seem like I’m cut out for Cheltenham.
I did indeed want to write ELEGAIC. I wanted to do it so much that I did it, which took a bit of sorting out.
Pretty much an entire band here: a drum machine, a fretless bass and, of course, Pete B on catarrh. There’s even a dither, as played on the theme from The Third Man.
The American trailer for The Third Man included these words:
featuring the famous musical score by ANTON KARAS – He’ll have you in a dither with his zither.
And what an ending! The long, final take: would the audience remain seated or rush out before the National Anthem? They stayed.
I didn’t understand HOAX or DENOUEMENT before coming here, but I like to think I could have done if I’d tried a little harder. I loved the surface in 26, so that gets my COD.
Enjoyable puzzle though. I loved tricky time for APRI but the surface isn’t the best so I’ll give my COD to sinewed. Dither and resemble were last in.
On the topic of triptychs, the great American statistician John Tukey (OK, so not a household name, but he did coin the term “bit” and possibly “software”) used a sample as triptych metaphor when he named the lower and upper quartiles (alias the 25th & 75th percentiles) “hinges”. See, statisticians can have wit beyond their discipline.
On the unfettered smut tack, what about apricot brioche? Yum.
Regards Martin Pooley (from The Times Cossword Club)
“End worked” = anag. of ‘end’ = DEN
out = OUT
with last of the pieces slotted in = insert (E = last of ‘the’, and MEN = pieces) giving …
DEN,OU(E,MEN)T
There seems to be nothing left as the definition, but the whole clue is the def. – describing the kind of denouement where Hercule Poirot fits all the pieces together and dramatically identifies the murderer.
If this kind of clue is new to you, it’s called “&lit” (for “and literally so”) or “all-in=-one” if you want a more modern name.
Thank you once again
MartinP