Keats And Yeats Are On Your Side, Oscar Wilde Is On Mine

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
I mostly really enjoyed this proper Friday fare, with its nods Shakespearean, Shavian and Orwellian and its take-no-prisoners attitude to cluing classical words and phrases with anagrams… lots of this kind of thing in the Championships would be just peachy, if you’re reading this, ed.! I do predict a modicum of grumbling in the comments though…

Every weapon in the devious setters arsenal of tricks was deployed to the max here, which had the unfortunate effect of causing me to biff some of the most intricate bits of cluing, and only fully appreciating them later – 17ac, 1dn and 4dn spring to mind. If I were a carping man I’d say that the love of tricksy wordplay may have resulted in some surfaces ending up sounding overly like crosswordese gobbledegook: for instance by rights 1dn should be my favourite clue for being its own AHA MOMENT, but I find myself having some trouble understanding just what that “sign” is doing in the surface reading.

8+9ac FOIs, LOI was I think 28ac once I finally discovered a much better alternative to TEMPLATE. COD to 4dn where the surface *is* impeccable and “tanner” for UV seems very good indeed. (Honourable mention to “three couples” for VI.) Thanks setter, devil take any naysayers, this is what Fridays in the Times should be all about!

1 Back among top celebrities, article names recordholder (8)
ANNALIST – inside A-LIST [top celebrities], reverse A N N [article | name | name]

5 Each going on with honeymoon, finally, in S American location (6)
ANDEAN – EA [each] going on AND [with], + {honeymoo}N

8 Some philanthropic backing for old ringmaster (3)
ALI – hidden reversed in {ph}ILA{nthropic}. One-time master of the boxing ring.

9 Thus some footwear quotes read out (6-4)
SQUARE-TOED – (QUOTES READ*) [“out”]

10 Was in red to welcome girl, lost in admiration (8)
OVERAWED – OWED [was in red] to “welcome” VERA [girl]

11 Ill-fated lover, not that able to ignore the odds (6)
THISBE – THIS [not that] + the even letters of {a}B{l}E.
Nowadays you will know her from the shambolic play-within-a-play in Midsummer Night’s Dream.

12 Start shunning either of two poets, and scoff (4)
EATS – {k}EATS or {y}EATS. Scoff as a noun, not a verb.

14 Hassle involving one Great Britain runs as powerful spy (3,7)
BIG BROTHER – BOTHER [hassle] “involving” I GB R [one | Great Britain | runs].

17 Eastern country cheers one chap protecting couple after I set about one (10)
TAJIKISTAN – TA I STAN [cheers | one | chap], “protecting J K [couple after I] “set about” I [one]

20 Spurs for one game, originally heading for Stoke (4)
EGGS – E.G. [for one] + G{ame} + S{toke}. Spurs and eggs as verbs here, not nouns.

23 Braided uniform hasn’t this? Probably not (6)
SUNHAT – (U HASN’T*) [“braided”], semi-&lit. You can see how the last two words were probably tacked on for safety’s sake!

24 Opinion linked to popular case (8)
INSTANCE – STANCE [opinion] linked to IN [popular]

25 Three couples marrying, madly worshipped mother (6,4)
VIRGIN MARY – VI [6 = 3 * 2 = three couples] + (MARRYING*) [“madly”]

26 Hard class to prepare (3)
SET – triple definition

27 Feel like hugs: is making up! (6)
ATONES – TONE [feel] that AS [like] “hugs”

28 Record winning move after man finds a wife? (8)
HELPMATE – LP MATE [record | winning move (in chess)] after HE [man]

DOWN
1 Occasion for Penny to drop Mark sign, suitably attired for wedding? (3,6)
AHA MOMENT – M OMEN [Mark | sign], in A HAT = suitably attired for wedding

2 Most missing art teacher, at first, after church body’s absorbed one (7)
NAIVEST – T{eacher}, after NAVE’S [church body’s] “absorbed” I [one]

3 Tips exchanged by tinker and sailor (6)
LASCAR – take {R}ASCA{L} [tinker] and reverse its tips

4 Old tanner from France in among teacher’s mementos (9)
SOUVENIRS – O UV EN [old | tanner (as in light that tans) | from France, in] among SIR’S [teacher’s]

5 Drink hosts dry in pursuit of a partner! (7)
ABETTER – BEER [drink] “hosts” TT [dry, as in teetotal], in pursuit of A

6 As reported, mainly idle pupil of professor (9)
DOOLITTLE – homophone of DO LITTLE [mainly idle, where idle is a verb].
Eliza Doolittle was Professor Henry Higgin’s pupil in Pygmalion aka My Fair Lady.

7 Yours truly had turned up in gold and black, extremely late for hearing (7)
AUDIBLE – reversed I’D [yours truly had] in AU + B [gold + black], + L{at}E

13 Sent choir off to find hymn (9)
STICHERON – (SENT CHOIR*) [“off”]. Tough and obscure vocab that “looks right” if you know a bit of Ancient Greek, but still, yeesh!

15 Something inspired primarily by wet weather, with hail (9)
BRAINWAVE – B{y} + RAIN W AVE [wet weather | with | hail]

16 Exploits poor eager Tess (3,6)
RES GESTAE – (EAGER TESS*) [“poor”]. Two anagrams in the space of three clues pandering to the classicists in our midst? Setter, you are spoiling us!

18 To show spirit, answer as quickly in French, briefly (7)
AQUAVIT – A QUA VIT{e} [answer | as | quickly, in French, “briefly”]

19 Time for filling northern people’s senses (7)
INTUITS – T [time] “for filling” INUIT’S [northern people’s]

21 Edinburgh’s goes towards, mostly, music (7)
GANGSTA – GANGS TA{e} [Scottish for “goes towards”… “mostly”]

22 Remain standing to drink, taking in Flower of Scotland (4,2)
STAY UP – SUP [to drink], “taking in” TAY [flower = that which flows = river of Scotland]

66 comments on “Keats And Yeats Are On Your Side, Oscar Wilde Is On Mine”

  1. Well done jack for finishing. I stopped after 35 minutes without STICHERON or ATONES. I was very pleased to get RES GESTAE, which was unknown but an informed guess based on having read P.C. Wren. Liked the construction of TAJIKISTAN. Had an 1d for 1d as soon as I took a pause. 25a would have been more appropriate for yesterday, le quinze aout.

    A good crossword, thanks verlaine and setter.

  2. Interestingly… the clues read acrostically read BEST WISHES BOTH FROM TODAY’S SETTER. Another wedding perhaps?
  3. Well, I don’t know about mum and dad but this did it for me.
    DNF after 45, leaving Lascar, sun hat, sticheron.
    Thanks clever, clever setter and V.
  4. 24;31 … but I did another pre-submit check on STICHERON, where I was equally tempted by SCITHERON. In hindsight, the former does sound Greeker and that should have clinched it.

    STICHERON seems to have appeared before only in a 2012 Club Monthly, as blogged by the estimable jerrywh: https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/797481.html

    As jackkt says, ‘something rather special’ in the way of fiendish definitions. “Most missing art …” is a thing of evil genius which I doubt I would have seen in my first, oh, ten years or so of solving puzzles.

    bravo, the setter. cheers, v

    Edited at 2019-08-16 07:58 am (UTC)

    1. I got the answer but missed the “art” bit tagged on to “most missing” and had to come here to be enlightened. Fiendish indeed!
  5. Friday, all right, with knobs on. I think I had a similar reaction to Jack; this certainly felt like something different. Nothing stood out, though, except of course STICHERON; just about every clue took time. I biffed LASCAR, not knowing that ‘tinker’ could be a rascal, but assuming that post-biff. Never did get the UV. And I had a longish senior moment trying to remember the STAN, even with the TA-. 13d my LOI, natch; and I’ll confess to checking it once I typed it in. I took ‘sign’ to go with ‘Mark’ in the surface; M being the sign for the mark. I especially liked THISBE, ATONES, AQUAVIT, & VIRGIN MARY.
      1. M + Omen. I would ask similar about what ‘from’ is doing in 4D? Is it merely to make a reasonable surface? Mr Grumpy
  6. OMG, that’s ridiculous. This puzzle was quite clever enough without that! I’m in awe.
  7. It was apparent to me very quickly that there was something rather special going on here with regard to tricksy definitions and I wallowed in appreciation of these, completing all but the SW quarter in about 25 minutes. My only (partial) guess was at 15dn where I knew the answer was a Latin expression that had caught me out previously, but I couldn’t remember it so I arranged the remaining anagrist in what seemed the mostly likely order and scored a hit with RES GESTAE.

    The remaining quarter was more problematic as there was clearly going to be at least one answer completely unknown to me (STICHERON) and 4 or 5 other clues where I had very little idea what was going on. It says something for my enjoyemnt of the puzzle to that point that I was determined not to give up on it and resort to aids, so I persevered and with a little more guesswork I eventualy completed the whole thing correctly in 61 minutes.

    Edited at 2019-08-16 06:52 am (UTC)

  8. Very enjoyable, and quite fast at 30-odd minutes. 150 on my personal nitch, which I don’t actually have. Beaten in the end by the NHO anagram guessing stichoren. Should have recognised eron from other words, but know no Greek or Latin.
    All parsed except the O UV EN in souvenir.
    Have seen res gestae as a legal term – perhaps in Perry Mason books? But it still was 2LOI, took a long time to remember.
  10. Enjoyable and stretching, but for me ultimately unsatisfying as, at an hour and five minutes, I finally plumped for SCITHERON. Bah. Neither my answer nor the correct one sounds more Greek than the other to me, but then I only know a smattering of modern Greek.

    Edited at 2019-08-16 08:25 am (UTC)

  11. Phew that was tough! I’m afraid I resorted to a dictionary trawl with 2 left to find STICHERON and then couldn’t parse my LOI ATONES (or SOUVENIRS or TAJIKISTAN for that matter). Successfully guessed RES GESTAE. I loved the PDM at 1D, and also liked LASCAR, ABETTER and BRAINWAVE. Thanks V and, as Myrtilus says, clever, clever setter. 44:57 (with aid).
  12. Wonderful crossword. The acrostic (unnoticed by me, thanks V) is a masterstroke. Complex but hugely satisfying clueing. Thank you setter for a very enjoyable challenge.
  13. The daughter of one of the regular commenters on The Daily Quiz, “Firefly”, is getting married this weekend. Maybe that’s it.
  14. That was really tough! Thank you, verlaine for 17ac,25ac,1d,2d,4d,18d!
    I think 4d, NAIVEST, was the most fiendish for me. For ages I thought the definition was ‘most missing’. For ‘art’ I wondered if the setter might be thinking of the French ‘es’.
  15. Very, very clever (if a bit clunky). Not sure if the married couple are Anna and Dean? Ali? Mary? Tim? Congratulations anyway … “for abetter or worse.”
  16. Quirky stuff, indeed. My last in we’re the very artful ATONES (even when AS was obvious the literal still made it tough to crack) and, of course, the hymn. I rather liked the SUNHAT clue, so there, V!
  17. Wow, that was hard but I got there. Like everyone else nho STICHERON but guessed right. I had no clue how SOUVENIR worked since I assumed “old french tanner” was SOU, on the basis that it used to mean sixpence in the UK so maybe it just meant a small coin.

    Even some of the words I biffed were worth working out the wordplay just to marvel at the skill. I loved “couple after I” for JK, for example. I don’t remember seeing that before.

    No time since I solved it in Horryd land, some on the maglev to the airport on my phonr, some on the plane on my computer.

  18. Greek O level to the rescue with STICHERON. First year law students will know RES GESTAE as a Common Law exception to the hearsay rule. The US adopted it and then ditched it for a more streamlined version governed by statute. Isla is on the money with Perry Mason. Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial Your Honour – and also hearsay. Hells teeth that was hard. Magoo had his usual awesome time – I wonder what his error was. 30.58
    1. Or as the Mad Magazine version had it, incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and besides, it would ruin my case.
  19. Well, unsurprisingly, I struggled mightily with this puzzle, which was so cunning that finishing at all felt like an achievement. 1dn at every turn, indeed. Still, at least I won’t spend the day wondering if it’s Friday or not.
  20. No AHA MOMENT for me – I gave up in the 16th minute with that, OVERAWED and LASCAR all blank. Tough one.

    The SUNHAT definition was pretty weak. But a masterful puzzle otherwise.

    1. Apparently they are ANNA and ALI and there are other hidden words in the rows as you read down… I will leave them as an exercise for the curious!
  22. 17:15. I thought this was an absolutely magnificent puzzle.
    Of the anagram-clued obscurities, RES GESTAE was reasonably deducible from the fodder, STICHERON was not. Normally I would complain vociferously about this (and I would think it a bit thick in a competition context) but the rest of the puzzle was so good that I can’t bring myself to. Like sotira I checked it wasn’t SCITHERON in the dictionary before submitting and the world didn’t end.
    Thanks setter.
  23. I struggled mightily with this, eventually looking up STICHERON, which then gave me ATONES. I worked out SOUVENIRS without spotting UV as the tanner, but managed to mistype it as SOUVENIES. I worked out RES GESTAE and looked it up to confirm, but managed to mistype that too as RES GEATAE. I was then left with 5a and 6d at 67 minutes and counting, and lost the will to live, using a wordfinder on 6d which gave me an anvil drop moment, but allowed me to spot ANDEAN. I feel like I’ve done 15 rounds with 8a, and it was all in vain due to typos. I didn’t bother with proof reading as I was already on the ropes! 69:44 and a fail. Grrhh. Clever setting though, and congrats to the happy couple. Thanks for the blog V.
  24. I managed to guess a few such as STICHERON correctly and finished without aids in 82 minutes, though with SOUVENIRS and TAJIKISTAN unparsed and with the Nina not spotted.

    I loved the ‘Most missing art’ def, the ‘Start shunning either of two poets’ wordplay and the ‘easy’ triple def. for SET.

    Thanks to blogger (and well done for picking up the clue, not answer, dependent Nina – never seen one before) and to setter.

      1. Are they marrying in the Virgin Islands, and will need a SUNHAT? DEAN is the BIG BROTHER?
  25. An excellent puzzle even if I crashed in flames with STICHERON and ATONES. The nina was the icing on the (wedding?) cake,
  26. To the setter, for both an awesome puzzle and the NINA in the clues initial letters; quite a feat.

    And to Verlaine for unravelling it all.

    Plugged away with many Penny moments until finally defeated by ATONES (couldn’t see why) and the unknown Latin at 16d, and GANGSTA put in but not understood. Too many fine clues here to pick a favourite. No, I’ll pick TAJIKISTAN for being a toughie to construct.

  27. OK, I’m a dissenting voice, but I’d already decided after 10 minutes that I would give up if I hadn’t nailed this in 20 minutes, and duly did so after staring at the last three clues for 4 minutes and failing to alpha-trawl any of them.

    Thanks to Verlaine for parsing TAJIKISTAN and SOUVENIR. I parsed NAIVEST post-solve.

    NHO AHA MOMENT, RES GESTAE, or STICHERON (although I successfully biffed the first two), and failed to get SUNHAT and ATONES.

    I don’t even feel inclined to nominate a COD. If Verlaine gets his wish, and there’s one of these when (if) the Championship eventually happens, I’m not going to be remotely happy.

    1. Impossible to have an AHA MOMENT about this puzzle if you’ve never heard of an AHA MOMENT I guess! It’s just a more concise PENNY DROP MOMENT (or a less concise PDM),
  28. There are actually two Ninas today, just when you thought it was safe to look away 🙂

    The other (hard to spot) gives the people involved, the event, date, location and time.

    1. That is astonishing! Wherever it is. Brilliant. I’ll be suitably floored when (if) it’s revealed. Thanks and regards.
    2. Wonderful crossword which I shall savour. Thank you and congratulations to all involved in the wedding.
  29. And glad I finished! The clue for TAJIKISTAN, for example, was genius. Also checked STICHERON before putting it down in ink, as well as RES GESTAE (had heard of “beau geste”…_), the other visitor from Mephistoland. Didn’t notice the acrostic or the Nina, that’s really too freaking much! My LOI was, appropriately enough, AHA MOMENT (also the only one I forgot to parse).

    Now I have to look over the comments again to make sure that no one complained that HELPMATE is a sexist term (though it is, rather…).

    Edited at 2019-08-16 01:42 pm (UTC)

    1. Not much point in marrying if that is not the attitude of either partner, methinks. I would be honoured to be addressed as such…
      1. Point taken. I guess the question mark implies a definition by example, so the term wouldn’t have to be “spouse” rather than “wife”. I think, though, that the term had traditionally (going back to the KJV of Genesis) been applied more to the wife than to the man.

        Edited at 2019-08-16 02:27 pm (UTC)

  30. Unfortunately I didn’t see the anagram for SUNHAT which made STICHERON even harder to get .. Utterly amazed at this one. Spent at least 10 mins on the last 3 to go in.
  31. ‘Tother Nina is hidden in across answers methinks. Have found some of it.
    Perhaps. ANNA IS TO WED … IN ST MARY’S AT ONE …

    ICURYY4ME

      1. Excellent! Between “wed” and “at St Mary’s” you could also include “this Sun”
    2. I wonder if that might be St Mary’s ‘London’ (AKA Bryanston Square). I once had occasion to remind the rector that it was Charles, not John, Wesley who had penned the hymn ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’, contrary to what he had said in his sermon.
  33. DNF. Could not finish SW corner (Sticheron!!, Atones, Sunhat).
    Very clever puzzle – too clever for me.
    That’ll teach me to buy the Times on a Friday.
    Thanks to the Setter and congratulations to the wedding couple.
  34. I could grumble about this one pandering yet again to the classicists, but it would be mean to spoil someone’s wedding. Frankly, I thought I was doing pretty well with RES GESTAE, but I plumped for the wrong option at 13d.

    I would like to think that, at some point in the future, people will be complaining about the unfairness of answers such as exosome, Young’s modulus, or charm, but somehow I don’t see it happening.

  35. Sorry I’m late. I did this early and clean forgot to post! Honest Injun! Busy day on ‘The Labyrinth’.
    Paul I saw you plash fast at 425kmph.

    It was for me was unputdownable! I did not like the last wedding greeting, but this was a master class. (I never spotted the Ninas) Wickeeed! And I finished, having checked, of course, on 13dn. Chambers states small hymn.

    FOI3dn LASCAR (fat rascal anyone?)

    LOI 1dn truly an AHA MOMENT as I was set for SEA MOMENT (SEA CHANGE!)

    COD 25ac VIRGIN MARY

    WOD 13dn STICHERON

    That’ll get The Championship juices rising! Or was that it!?

    1. Oh I do hope that was the Championship, because it would have been a most pleasing repeat of last year for me – Magoo with the fastest time but Verlaine in the prizes on a second technicality in a row…!
  36. If nothing else, I was determined to get 1d – and, eventually, I did! No aids, no parsing tbh, just a genuine Penny Drop Moment 😊

    Otherwise too hard for me. I probably did about half of it before deciding I couldn’t spend any more time. I realised 13d and 16d were anagrams but don’t have the wherewithal to solve them.

    My son is one of three best men today, but just the one couple! Congratulations to Anna and Ali – I hope the sun shines on you.

    Penny

  37. 56:39 though I did Google sticheron pre-submission. I thought this crossword was just superb (and that’s before I even heard about the NINA). I don’t think I was able to biff a single answer. I needed to turn each clue upside down and inside out several times over to find the tricksy wp and cunning defs. LOI was 23ac where I just failed to spot anagrist and anagrind. A pleasure from start to finish. I loved the couple after I in 17ac, 25ac, most missing art in 2dn, the tanner in 4dn, wet weather with hail in 15dn, aquavit, er all of it in fact.

    Verlaine re. the query in your preamble about what “sign” is doing in the surface reading of 1dn. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood you but I read the surface reading as Penny dropping Mark a sign or hint via a look or nudge possibly to suggest that their own nuptials are somewhat overdue and he should jolly things along.

  39. Okay, maybe, but if that’s the case then what exactly is it that is “suitably attired for wedding”? The occasion? The sign?
  40. Took an hour. Good fun. Congrats to the couple. Lovely tribute to them, setter. Thanks v.
  41. “Setter, you are spoiling us” – indeed, for those of us who dabbled in Lit Hum at a place not unadjacent to where I understand Verlaine studied, it was nice to have those classical entries (I eventually dropped the Greek, reverting to a French/Latin combo instead) – even if it didn’t avail me so much in beating the SNITCH. STICHERON is known to me, but more commonly seen in my Scrabble studies in the plural form (alongside CHARIEST and THERIACS). Nice to have the acrostic and hidden content pointed out – one of those extra touches that can elevate a puzzle.
  42. Well, I’m here a day late because I couldn’t finish it at first shot, put it to one side and only got back to it at bed time .. it was a hard one for me, with all that lit. and classics and no science, but I got there in the end. It is a very impressive feat of setting but if I am honest I admired the crossword rather than loved it, and I hope Anna and Ali are not that way inclined! Best wishes to them both, anyway
  44. A classic puzzle, given the Ninas . Thanks for sorting them out Verlaine & anon. When first tipped off about the wedding theme in the blog , we had a fresh look at our solutions, and speculated that Anna might be Andean and Ali from Tajikistan , or perhaps Ali was to marry Mary? Had they met on a reality TV show?
    Took 71 mins , with one wrong ‘Stichören’ ‘ sounded as though it might be a Germanic hymn, so in it went. Sticheron was considered but didn’t sound as pleasing.
    1. can’t see what all the fuss is about – it’s not even a pangram

      OK, apart from that, it is Utterly Brilliant

      How the setter gets all that in there without clunkiness is amazing; that most of us solved this without twigging that something was up is testament

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