Adrian Bailey’s Easter Puzzle Blogged

Author   vinyl1Posted on Categories Other Crosswords
Solving time: 45 minutes

Music: Ted Shumate/Ira Sullivan – Gulfstream

I found our Easter treat a little tough in various ways. With multiple setters, you never know exactly what you’re going to get, and no one can really say they are on the wavelength when the waves are flying in all directions. I did think most of the clues were pretty good, but maybe a little rough around the edges compared to the top professional setters. But if we managed to sneak this puzzle onto the Times web site, I don’t imagine anyone would find much amiss.

If any of the setters want to discuss their clues, feel free. I will own up to the reverse hidden in 21, which was a bit of a last-minute rush job. For that matter, so is this blog, as the originally scheduled blogger turned out to have a conflict and asked me to take it instead.

Across
1 NIGHTSTICK, anagram of SKIN-TIGHT + C from Charlie, the Nato phonetic alphabet character.
6 TSAR, where Nicholas is said to be knickerless, if you happen to be non-rhotic in your speech. Or maybe he’s just roamin’ off….
9 SINCERE, SINCE + RE[gent].
10 DREYFUS, anagram of FRY USED.
12 AKELA, AK(EL)A, i.e. Also Known As. The cryptic should give you the answer if you don’t know the literal.
13 TELESALES, anagram of STALE EELS – what a great product to hawk over the phone!
14 GIVE THE GAME AWAY, double definition.
17 ACCOUNTING ERROR, anagram of RARE GIN + COCONUT + R[um].
20 ECLIPSING, CLIP + SINGE with the E moved to the front.
21 GROSS, backwards hidden in [haple]SS ORG[inization].
23 ANAGRAM, definition by example, where THE NICK becomes KITCHEN. A device we may have seen before, but which will catch many solvers out.
24 TSUNAMI, T(SUN)A + MI. Presumably, a ‘monotone’ means a single note from the scale, but the setter is welcome to elaborate.
25 THEW, hidden in [wha]T HE W[ants].
26 INTERTWINE, sounds like INTO TWINE???
 
Down
1 NOSTALGIA,NOS + T’ALGIA, I believe. In any case, the only English word that fits the checkers. The setter is free to elaborate if I’ve missed something obvious. Aha! It’s far from something obvious, but it’s a substitution clue phrased as a reverse cryptic. If you took the answer ‘nostalgia’, and replaced the French ‘our’ (nos) with ‘love’ (O), you’d have an earache, ‘otalgia’. Very clever, but the checkers make this a write-in.
2 GUNGE, last letters of [cookin]G [yo]U [begi]N [makin]G [souffl]E.
3 THE LAST SUPPER, anagram of HELPS PUT [on e]ASTER. The literal, however, is a somewhat lacking, unless we take this as a semi-&lit.
4 THEATRE, T + RE HEAT reversed.
5 CEDILLA, anagram of I CALLED.
7 SAFFLOWER, SAF(FLOW, i.e. WOLF upside-down)ER.
8 ROSES, SE SOR[e] upside-down.
11 EASTER EGG HUNT, EAST + ERE + sounds like GEEGEE HUNT. Most solvers will not appreciate the wordplay.
15 VACILLATE, VAC(I’LL)ATE, with ’empty’ as a verb.
16 YORKSHIRE, YORK’S HIRE.
18 THIAMIN, THI[s] + AMIN. Although deposed in the late 70s, he’ll be around as long as Beerbohm Tree with a useful name like that.
19 NIGHTIE, anagram of GI IN THE, a great clue using inconspicuous connecting words.
20 EXALT, EX + ALT in entirely different senses; your old girlfriend and the key on your computer.
22 OKAPI, [l]O[c]K[e] + A PI. Not a very good surface, unfortunately.

26 comments on “Adrian Bailey’s Easter Puzzle Blogged”

  1. Well done everybody, especially Adrian and Vinyl.

    20a was my favourite, although I rather liked 10a, 23a, 18d and 19d too.

    I didnt finish the NW corner, due to having Neuralgia at 1d and trying to work out how the resulting Ukelele could possibly fit 9a. I’m happy that Nostalgia is the answer, but hopefully the setter can elaborate for me, isn’t earache otalgia?

    I thought 11d and the geegee was OK to confirm your answer, but I think you’d struggle to get it from that end of the clue.

    In 25a, I’m unclear on what indicated a hidden?

    I’ll own up to 20d by the way.

  2. My late thanks to Adrian for organising, and to you, Vinyl, for the blog. It really was a lot of fun playing setter for a day, not to mention solving a uniquely challenging puzzle. I didn’t parse 3dn until reading the blog, and still don’t get 1dn – looking forward to enlightenment! My favourite was 23ac with special mention to 13ac, 21ac, 15dn, and 19dn, and I hadn’t heard of THEW until Sunday, so thanks for that too.

    Given the perfectly honest analysis above, I’ll take the triple question mark! It wouldn’t be a Times (inspired) crossword without a dodgy homophone.

    Until Christmas…

    1. I think “nos” {“our” in French(plural)} becomes “o” (love) to give otalgia-earache-Charlie O-Canada
  3. Many thanks to Adrian and Vinyl. I took my usual 30 minutes with only THEW unknown. Liked 1a, 6a, 17a, 21a, 23a and 18d. I’ll own up to DREYFUS.
    1. My non-anagram offering was, “Zola defended Dumas at first on unknown short trip”.
  5. I’ll own up to adding “monotone” to 24ac. Since one definition of the word is “a single tone without harmony or variation in pitch” I think it’s okay to use it to clue a tone of the scale, like “mi”. Do others (dis)agree?

    I was initially sceptical about “into twine” being a homophone of INTERTWINE but when I said them both aloud, they were indeed the same.

    3dn is a semi &lit, yes.

    1. Yes. 3d was mine. Originally I had “meal for 13”, but Adrian, rightly, thought that was a bit too much of a giveaway. Easter is, of course, doing double duty as part of the anagram fodder and part of the definition, which is maybe a bit frowned on. Incidentally, at the time of writing, it was a bit of a prophecy about my Sunday dinner – which turned out to be correct. Everyone enjoyed my cooking, though.

      Edited at 2017-04-19 07:10 am (UTC)

  6. I’m guilty for 15d VACILLATE. I couldn’t find a really good short definition, so it’s a bit wordy, but I did manage to get the adjective in the clue needing to be read as a verb thing with “empty”
  7. And I plead guilty to Thiamin. I had given the editor a choice of two – here is the reject: It helps us but is, however, opposed to him (7).

    As an avid reader of cornflake packets at a tender age (the Enid Blytons and “Topper” were not allowed at the breakfast table) I distinctly remember “enriched with Niacin, Thiamin and Riboflavin”. I suppose they still are – haven’t read a decent cornflakes packet in ages!

    1. Cornflakes-packet-reader! Me too. And I was always so disappointed that the delicious strawberries depicted never turned up in my bowl. Battle Creek Michigan sounded so exotic and I thought Kelloggs was a generic part of the cereal.
  8. … to AKELA.

    I wanted to avoid Kipling and go back to my days as a Cub (= baby Scout).
    We’ll dib, dib, dib, usw.
    Then I remembered that I got a dishonourable discharge from the Movement.
    (I won’t say why but it involved Girl Guides!)

    It seems strange to me that Kipling calls Akela the “Lone Wolf” when he’s also leader of a pack.

    First pass was: Seeonee leader taking a leak in vain (5)
    (A clue I thought was almost worthy of Anax.)

    But our good editor had too many anagrams and wanted an alternative. Sorry.

  9. Since others are fessing up, 13a was mine. If my memory serves me well, A P Herbert’s Albert Haddock once won a case by arguing that a fishmonger didn’t have to shout “stinking fish” but couldn’t claim them to be fresh if they weren’t. I’m not sure how that would appy on a telesales call, and no doubt the Sale of Goods Act 1893 or whatever has since been supplemented. “On the line” was meant to be a smooth surface between telephone and fishing rod, but if you’re like me and see the anagram screaming at you, that doesn’t get noticed.

    Edited at 2017-04-20 06:03 am (UTC)

  10. A good effort by the “team”, well herded by Adrian. I didn’t time the solve but found it quite tricky at times, probably because of the obvious difficulty of having to tune into so many different wavelengths.
  11. Thanks to all. I was not a contributor this time, merely a solver. Got them all in about 15 minutes, ending with what was, I confess, a guess at the TSAR. I didn’t get the knickerless joke, but it’s pretty good – thanks for that and thanks to all again.
  12. I can’t give a time but I certainly enjoyed this. My fave was 17a – made me laugh. I thought VACILLATE was very professional and AKELA was good. Didn’t get TSAR but never mind. Nice work indeed.
  13. Since there were many comments about 1d I thought I’d fess up too. I started with ‘Worryingly, giant also is a seductive liar’. Thinking that was too easy, I offered ‘The yearning of our French for love is giving me earache’ which got metamorphosed on discussion to the given clue.
    Found the whole thing fairly tough so well done to everybody. LOI THEW which I didn’t know
  14. I’ll claim responsibility for the ANAGRAM clue. With a crossword favourite like that, you always worry that you’re just unconsciously regurgitating someone else’s work. No idea if I was.

    Nice job all round. Well done, Adrian, especially for the impressive feat of co-ordinating two clues by different setters!

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