Solving time: 9 minutes. Welcome to Trelawney, a new setter today! Wiki advises his is “a habitational surname of Cornish origin, meaning a person from a town with a church”. Above all I associate it with ‘Squire Trelawney’, a character in R L Stevenson’s Treasure Island which first captivated me in 1957 as a BBC TV serial and then prompted me to read the novel. This was an exciting world away from my previous reading material such as Famous Five and similar stuff. The Squire was played on TV by the actor Raymond Rollett – now there’s a name to conjure up the past for Brits of a certain age!
There are many other Trelawney’s in fiction from Bram Stoker, through Anthony Powell to J K Rowling. There’s also Trelawney of the Wells, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. Anyway, enough of that except to say that I looked for something significant to the name in today’s puzzle and found nothing definite, however if one continues thinking about Treasure Island there are perhaps a few sea-faring and other relevant references. I may be missing something though.
I don’t think there’s anything to frighten the Squire’s horses here as the bulk of the clues and answers are pretty straightforward, and those that are marginally more difficult will become easier once their checked letters are in place.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Display a list of everyone on board (8) |
| MANIFEST – Two meanings, the second being a list of passengers and/or cargo aboard a ship or aircraft, details of destination etc. I’m not sure if Hispaniola would have had a manifest but I’ll count it as the first in our possible theme. | |
| 5 | Cook soup for work (4) |
| OPUS – Anagram [cook] of SOUP | |
| 9 | Body initially concealed in murderer’s hut (5) |
| CABIN – B{ody} [initially] contained by [concealed in] CAIN (murderer). The eldest son of Adam and Eve slew his brother Abel though his motive for doing so is apparently not explained in the Bible. Ships have cabins so we’ll count that one and mention Jim Hawkins who I’ve always thought of as Cabin Boy although I’m not sure if that was his official status. | |
| 10 | Precious stone dealer scrambled to receive first piece of malachite (7) |
| EMERALD – Anagram [scrambled] of DEALER containing [to receive] M{alachite} [first piece]. I don’t know that the treasure is ever specified other than references to ‘pieces of eight’, but it may well have contained precious stones including emeralds. | |
| 11 | One welcoming guests into set-price resort (12) |
| RECEPTIONIST – Anagram [resort] of INTO SET-PIECE | |
| 13 | Sudden bar redevelopment put off (6) |
| ABRUPT – Anagram [redevelopment] of BAR, anagram [off] of PUT. In my blog for last Tuesday’s 15×15 I wrote that it is rare to see two anagram indicators in the same clue, but here less than a week later is another example. | |
| 15 | Slowly and evenly, maid hangs icon (6) |
| ADAGIO – Every second letter [evenly] of {m}A{i}D {h}A{n}G{s} I{c}O{n}. One of many Italian words used as directions in music. | |
| 17 | Where one can get a spare dish in ship’s kitchen (7,5) |
| BOWLING ALLEY – BOWL (dish), IN, GALLEY (ship’s kitchen). I’m not an expert on 10-pin bowling but I gather that a ‘spare’ is scored when a player takes two rolls of the ball to knock down all the pins, whereas a ‘strike’ is when it’s accomplished in one. The galley on Hispaniola was under the command of the pirate Long John Silver hired as the ship’s cook and played by Bernard Miles in the TV serial. | |
| 20 | Woke up late, let’s nip out (5,2) |
| SLEPT IN – Anagram [out] of LET’S NIP | |
| 21 | Long period of time before end of Ramadan (5) |
| YEARN – YEAR (period of time), {ramada}N [end] | |
| 22 | Old sailor starts to serve another long tour (4) |
| SALT – First letters of [starts to] S{erve} A{nother} L{ong} T{our}. Plenty of these in Treasure Island! | |
| 23 | Head of hospital, stuffy and bald (8) |
| HAIRLESS – H{ospital} [head], AIRLESS (stuffy) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Make fun of dress? Don’t start! (4) |
| MOCK – {s}MOCK (dress) [don’t start]. Do old salts wear smocks, or is that just farmers and the like? | |
| 2 | Bishop leaves to unfairly influence aristocrat (5) |
| NOBLE – NOB{b}LE (unfairly influence) [Bishop leaves]. Nobles were old English gold coins which may have been part of the treasure along with the Spanish pieces of eight. | |
| 3 | Digital evidence used to catch criminals? (12) |
| FINGERPRINTS – Barely cryptic Straight definition | |
| 4 | Nap in noisiest apartment (6) |
| SIESTA – Hidden [in] {noi}SIEST A{partment} | |
| 6 | Heard of spying when reaching the top (7) |
| PEAKING – Sounds like [heard of] “peeking” (spying) | |
| 7 | Second volume is something revolutionary (8) |
| SEDITION – S (second), EDITION (volume). Mutiny is a form of sedition and Mutiny on the Hispaniola is part of the original title of Treasure Island | |
| 8 | Best-performing chicken receives piano and gramophone (6,6) |
| RECORD PLAYER – RECORD (best-performing) + LAYER (chicken) contains [receives] P (piano) | |
| 12 | Criticises business degree during final semester, primarily (8) |
| LAMBASTS – MBA (business degree – Master of Business Administration) contained by [during] LAST (final), S{emester} [primarily] | |
| 14 | Harsh treatment resulting in bad hand? (3,4) |
| RAW DEAL – Two definitions of sorts, the second being vaguely cryptic with reference to a hand as dealt in a game of cards. Brewer’s defines RAW DEAL as ‘a transaction that is harsh or unfair to a person’ and goes on to suggest that it comes from the idea that the person is left feeling ‘raw’ or hurt. What the mutinous sea dogs felt they got in the end, I expect. | |
| 16 | Get old and incorrect schedule (6) |
| AGENDA – AGE (get old), anagram [incorrect] of AND | |
| 18 | Cross out times table, finally (5) |
| ERASE – ERAS (times), {tabl}E [finally]. MER at the definition here as ‘erase’ means to rub out or obliterate something completely, whereas ‘cross out’ is just to put a line through it as in my comment at 3dn. | |
| 19 | Burden that’s our responsibility (4) |
| ONUS – ON US (our responsibility) | |
I had the whole top done in two and half minutes, but the bottom proved just slightly more difficult, resulting in a time of 8:03.
Inevitably some puzzles are harder than others: it’s not possible to marry “quick” and “cryptic” perfectly
Editor
Sal
COD to Bowling Alley.
A nice puzzle and welcome to the new setter.
David
Templar
I seemed to be ‘on the wavelength’ which is unusual for a new setter, but I thought Trelawney’s surfaces were excellent. I think 3D is fine, on first reading ‘digital evidence’ suggested something on a computer, it was RAW DEAL that I thought was a bit weak.
Thanks and welcome to the setter, and to Jack (Jim-Lad) for the blog.
Brian
Edited at 2019-08-19 07:53 am (UTC)
Thanks for the blog
Jack harsh!? Not a bit if it! And…..
am I the only one who thinks ‘anonymice’ should at least put a ‘nom’ after the end of their comments, Snowflake?
Ten minutes and small change
FOI 25ac OPUS
LOI 6dn PEAKING
COD 1ac MANIFEST nice DD
WOD TRELAWNEY
Edited at 2019-08-19 09:59 am (UTC)
Edited at 2019-08-19 10:20 am (UTC)
In the interests of equality, it would be interesting to find out if any ladies are presently employed as setters? They surely cost less to employ!!? As per NWFA?
And I’m not entirely sure the Margaret of Bob and Margaret is female either 🙂
Am I the only one who thinks jackkt was a little harsh on a new setter?
Nice puzzle welcome Trelawney, and more of this please !
FOI OPUS
LOI MOCK
COD BOWLING ALLEY
TIME 4:48
Big thanks to Jackkt for the nautical commentary! Appropriate given how often Jack, tar, AB etc make an appearance. Even if it’s not what our setter intended, your interpretation is a treasure in itself 😊
FOI Opus
LOI Receptionist – I knew it was an anagram but just waited for the checkers to fall into place!
COD Onus – simple and effective
Edited at 2019-08-19 04:50 pm (UTC)
I guess this was about 35 minutes and delighted to finish, so I thought it was an excellent first contribution.
But also it has been a terrific read of all the regular contributors and so a thoroughly entertaining hour.
Thanks all
John George
This kind of level encourages us beginners to hang in there!