All Greek to Me
A puzzle of average difficulty with a leaning towards Greek fairy stories. Years of doing crosswords meant that luckily I knew all the references. A smattering of nice clues and one, DORP, that I solved easily because I knew dor for mockery but would not have understood without Google.
For new solvers (C) = Chambers used to verify part of a clue (S) = starter clue (see tips and tricks on this site)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PEWTER – PE(W)TER; safe=PETER; PEWTER is slang for the pot=prize money (C) |
| 6 | ARMLET – A-RM-LET; A=Australian; RM=Royal Marine=commando; a brassard is armour for the arm; (C) (S) |
| 12 | HERESIARCH – HERE-(IS reversed)-ARCH; architect=ARCH; a leader of a heretical movement (see “heresy” in C); a reference to the formation of The Church of England by much married King Henry |
| 13 | AHOY – A-HOY; absent=A; HOY=sloop; classic guess the answer and reverse engineer the wordplay; (C) (S) |
| 14 | SABREUR – SAB-R-(RUE reversed); SAB=to sabotage; a cavalry officer (see “sabre” in C); |
| 15 | POLITIC – (I plot)*+n(IC)e; (S) |
| 18 | PRESA – PRESA(geful); a musical symbol – nothing to do with Animal Farm and nu-labour; (C) |
| 20 | STELA – S(TEL)A; SA=Saudi Arabia; TEL=tell-2=debris; a stone tablet (see “stele” in C); |
| 22 | CATCHFLY – CAT-CH-FLY; grimalkin=CAT; chapter=CH; a species of campion (a plant); (S) |
| 24 | DOOMSTER – DO(OMS)TER; gongs=medals=OMS; DOOMSTER=dempster=a Scots court officer who repeated the Judge’s sentence; (C) |
| 25 | ARMET – AR-M(odern)-ET; commit=ARET; an old helmet for a sabreur to wear with his armlet; (C) |
| 27 | UNLID – (t)UN-L-I-D; tun=216 gallons of ale; L=lecturer; ‘D=did; the definition is “open”;(C) |
| 30 | SEASIDE – SEAS-IDE; SEA=a seemingly limitless mass; IDE=id=a carp; Poole Quay perhaps; nice clue |
| 32 | OLD,SALT – OLD-S-ALT; familiar=OLD; section=S; ALT=a Milton rest; Odysseus=mythical sailor who took ten years to sail home to Penelope. What she thought of his excuse involving lotus eaters, sirens and an old wind bag is not recorded; (C) |
| 33 | TAAL – (natal – n)*; n=name; Afrikaans; nice clue |
| 34 | RELEGATION – D-elegation becomes R-elegation; sporting reference to eg football leagues (S) |
| 35 | PISTIL – P(rune)-IS-TIL(l); the style, stigma and ovary of a flower (S) |
| 36 | EDITOR – E-DIT-OR; DIT=poem; OR=old word for before; the blue pen wielder; (C) |
| Down | |
| 2 | EPHOR – hidden word (st)EP-HOR(ribly); a Spartan magistrate (Menelaus was mythical king of Sparta, first husband of Helen thanks to Odysseus. It’s fun isn’t it – all this old Greek stuff) (C) (S) |
| 3 | WHOLESOME – W(HOLES)OME(n); dailies=women; Waggledagger for propitious; (C) |
| 4 | ERST – ERS-T; vetch=ERS; troy (weight, not Helen’s pad)=T; the definition is “formerly”; (C) |
| 5 | RESINATAS – (in tears)*-A-S; (S) |
| 7 | RIBES – (o)R(n)I(b)B(l)E(r)S; black and red currant plants |
| 8 | MARATHON – MARA-T-HON; MARA=Patagonian hare; T’=to; more Greek legend. Pheidippides was allegedly the first man to run a marathon and thus has much to answer for; (C) |
| 9 | ECUELLE – ECU-ELLE; ECU=French silver coin; ELLE=French for she; terrine de soupe; |
| 10 | THRO – THRO(at); throat=end of a gaff; THRO=(you’re) through=(you’re) connected in the UK not you’ve finished (US); |
| 11 | NAPPED – N-APP-ED; APP=apparently; spieler=DEN; perversely=mirror image (maths); racing tips that cant fail until you put your shirt on them (C) |
| 16 | COTELETTE – COTE-LETTE(D); Rosalind is cross-dressing heroine of As You Like It who sheltered in a COTE; letted= hindered (see let-2 in C); a cutlet or chop; |
| 17 | DEFOLIANT – (fined a lot)*; Agent Orange for example; big fines for using such on farms; nice clue; |
| 19 | SOMERSET – SOME-R-SET; one or other=SOME; Romeo=R; stud=SET; not Dorset’s sister but see somersault in C; |
| 21 | LORELEI – LORE-LEI; LORE-3=leese=lost; LEI=a wreath; a mythical siren of the Rhine for a change;(C) |
| 23 | YODELS – Y(our)-ODE-L-S; L=Latin; S=special; peculiar sounds created by Slim Whitman, Gene Autry, etc; |
| 26 | THAGI – THA-(poisonin)G-I; Asian=THAI; the practices of the Indian thugs (see thug in C); |
| 28 | IDAHO – (OH-A-DI all reversed); gosh=OH; A=are; DI=plural of deus=god; the Gem State |
| 29 | DORP – DOR-P; DOR=mockery; P=page; a provincial, backward, town; a reference I think to John Buchan (1875-1940) in his book Greenmantle where he uses the phrase “a one-horse dorp” (thank you Google). I can’t explain “famously”; a nice surface reading but not my favourite type of clue. It’s too close to the old “fill in the gap in the quotation” clues we used to suffer in the daily cryptic; (C) |
| 31 | AVID – AVID(in); avidin=protein found in egg white; scramble=take off; (S) |
My (1988) Chambers does not have SABREUR but it seemed logical.
There were a few which I had not fully explained, so thanks Jim.
My only query is at 26dn. I assume “mugger” is the definition, but THAGI or “thuggee” is the practice, not the person (which is “thug”).
The D of DORP was last in. It was a bit of a lucky guess – I had just done TAAL so my mind was on Afrikaans. I was thinking of a “one-horse town” and looking at “?ORP” suddenly “dorf” came to mind (which I think is German, but it was close enough to get me home).
I still remember Pheidippides from primary school, so 8dn was easy!
35a I was not happy with just=till in the wordplay and so parsed this as P IS TIL[t], with just=joust=tilt being justified in Chambers.
GRM
I don’t know if I was just on song but none of this gave me any trouble, particulary 32A, 34A, 35A (did O Level biology), 21D and 26D. Overall I found the top harder than the bottom.
I thought you would be just the chap to explain what was famous about DORP.
Yes, I think PM must have revisited his Homer before compiling this one and where he got DORP from I have no idea.
PM is, perhaps boringly, one who deals with Homer and his ilk on a daily basis. ‘Dorp’ and more precisely ‘one-horse dorp’ has been echoing around his head since English lit. classes some thirty-odd years ago… He’s glad to have got it out of his system eventually!
He thanks you all for your most generous blogs :o)
Paul McK