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. ‘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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

  5. 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…!
  6. 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

  7. 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.

  9. Okay, maybe, but if that’s the case then what exactly is it that is “suitably attired for wedding”? The occasion? The sign?
  10. Took an hour. Good fun. Congrats to the couple. Lovely tribute to them, setter. Thanks v.
  11. “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.
  12. 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
  14. 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

Comments are closed.