Today in 1921 John Galbraith Graham was born. He’s better known in Crosswordland as the Guardian compiler Araucaria. Though he is sadly no longer with us, he was a prominent exponent of the “libertarian” style of setting (in contrast with the “Ximenean” school that the Times tends to follow). He influenced a number of current compilers and was perhaps the only crossword setter of recent times who might possibly have been heard of by people outside of the crosswording world. One of his most famous clues is “Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating” (3,3,8,12) for THE OLD VICARAGE GRANTCHESTER, which combines an excellent anagram, a reference to a Rupert Brooke poem, and a topical (at the time) reference to Jeffrey Archer and his abode.
I thought this puzzle was maybe slightly harder than average while solving, then upgraded it to definitely harder than average while attempting to blog it. There are several bits of crosswordese that might catch out beginners, and a couple of the parsings make me feel as though I’m missing something. I’ll be interested to see people’s comments on it. I’ll also add a comment later about the difficulty of the main cryptic, when I’ve attempted it.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | No-one up for this social event? (7,5) |
| SLUMBER PARTY – a sort of cryptic definition in which the surface encourages you to think of “up for” in the sense of “willing to take part in”, whereas you need to read “up” as in “out of bed”. Both Chambers and Collins, but not Oxford, have this as North American usage – it’s not a phrase I can recall hearing in the UK, though I haven’t been teenage for quite some time. | |
| 9 | Light brown mist beginning to lift (5) |
| HAZEL – HAZE (mist) + L (beginning to lift, i.e. the first letter of lift) | |
| 10 | Filthy relative, man short of capital (7) |
| UNCLEAN – UNCLE (relative) + AN (man short of capital – this could be either man without its first letter, with capital used in the sense of the head of an architectural column, or a three-letter man’s name (e.g. Dan/Jan/Van) without its capital letter. It could even be man without the m where m is an abbreviation for money, which is another word for capital, but that would be completely out of order in the Quicky.) | |
| 11 | Forbidding rate, use different (7) |
| AUSTERE – anagram (different) of RATE USE | |
| 12 | Libertine admits good to be a cad! (5) |
| ROGUE – ROUE (Libertine) around (admits) G (good). Roue seems to be encountered mainly in crosswords and The Sound of Music (viz “Eager young lads and roues and cads will offer you food and wine” from Sixteen Going on Seventeen. There seem to be more incorrect than correct versions of those lyrics on the web, with “rogues” and “grueways” (!) being the usual errors instead of “roues”.) | |
| 14 | Date twin? One might after blow to head (3,6) |
| SEE DOUBLE – SEE (Date) + DOUBLE (twin) | |
| 18 | Private meal, no starter (5) |
|
INNER – |
|
| 20 | Prowler spotted heading for despair after parole reviewed (7) |
| LEOPARD – D (heading for despair, i.e. the first letter of despair) after anagram (reviewed) of PAROLE. A rather vague definition, especially if you don’t see that “spotted” is part of it. I Googled “leopard prowl” to see if I was missing something here, and the first result was a picture of Myleene Klass in a bikini. I then Googled “prowler”, and the first result was an online gay sex shop. I then realised that the Internet just wasn’t in the mood for cooperation, and moved on to 21A. | |
| 21 | Jazz lover embracing naked entertainment (7) |
| CABARET – CAT (Jazz lover) around (embracing) BARE (naked). Experienced crossworders will automatically think “cat” when they see “Jazz lover”. | |
| 23 | Top people on fire among fringes in electorate (5) |
| ELITE – LIT (on fire) in (among) EE (fringes of electorate, i.e. the first and last letters of electorate). A rather odd surface reading, which stands out as it’s sandwiched between two very good ones. | |
| 24 | Don’t get Times printer upset! (12) |
| MISINTERPRET – anagram (upset) of TIMES PRINTER. Nice anagram. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Girl unwilling to work as server in a restaurant? (4,5) |
| LAZY SUSAN – LAZY (unwilling to work) SUSAN (girl). Once I had the first S and the N, I assumed that the second word of this would be spoon, but when the Z appeared the correct answer came to mind. A Lazy Susan is a rotating device in the middle of a table that facilitates access by all diners to all the dishes contained thereon – perhaps most often seen in Chinese restaurants. | |
| 3 | French dramatist further encapsulating story (7) |
| MOLIERE – MORE (further) around (encapsulating) LIE (story). Moliere was the stage name of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, with tomorrow being the 342nd anniversary of his death. I don’t know what his best-known work would be regarded as in real life, but in Crosswordland it’s Tartuffe hands down. He was clued very similarly in Quicky 221 as “French dramatist’s further entertaining story”. | |
| 4 | The scent of a French lavatory? (3,2,8) |
| EAU DE TOILETTE – this clearly fits the definition, but I can’t find a satisfactory parsing of the wordplay. The phrase translates as “water of the toilet” or “toilet water” – (of a) French lavatory takes care of the translation and toilet parts, but where does the eau/water come from? | |
| 5 | Horse, one in the middle of Cyprus (5) |
| PACER – ACE (one) in PR (the middle of Cyprus, i.e. the middle letters of Cyprus). Another crossword staple that perhaps doesn’t occur as often in real life. Chambers has “A horse whose usual gait is a pace” and “A horse trained to pace in harness racing”. Basketball fans will know of the Indiana Pacers – the team’s name is a reference to both harness racing (which has a history in Indiana) and motor racing (pace cars in the Indy 500). | |
| 6 | Cinque Port in Dover? Yes! (3) |
| RYE – hidden (in) in DoveR YEs. Wikipedia tells me that the Confederation of Cinque Ports is a set of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex that was originally formed for military and trade purposes but is now entirely ceremonial. Dover was one of the original five (along with Hastings, New Romney, Hythe and Sandwich), with Rye replacing New Romney when New Romney was damaged by storms and silted up. A good surface reading. | |
| 7 | Bet it’s American! (6) |
| YANKEE – double definition, the former referring to “a multiple bet on four horses in four races, consisting of six doubles, four trebles and one accumulator” (Chambers) | |
| 8 | Talk about the ultimate in fake con artist (5) |
| CHEAT – CHAT (Talk) about E (the ultimate in fake, i.e. the last letter of fake) | |
| 13 | I need gran to stir the syrup (9) |
| GRENADINE – anagram (to stir) of I NEED GRAN. Grenadine is a deep-red syrup commonly used in cocktails, e.g. the Tequila Sunrise. | |
| 15 | Slime in tavern up for drinking session (5-2) |
| BOOZE-UP – OOZE (Slime) in PUB (tavern) reversed (up) | |
| 16 | TV programme – minimum of chuckles in most, I suspect (6) |
| SITCOM – C (minimum of chuckles, i.e. the least you have to write in order to be on the way to writing “chuckles”) in anagram (suspect) of MOST I. This “minimum of chuckles” kind of construction is generally used when there is no standard abbreviation (in this case, for c) that will make a good surface. I don’t think I’ve seen it in the main cryptic, but you’ll certainly see it elsewhere, e.g. in the Guardian, on occasion. To my mind, it could be argued that any single letter in the word “chuckles” could be described as the minimum, not just the first letter, but I don’t think I’ve seen that interpretation anywhere. I’m assuming that the setter has a somewhat jaundiced view of sitcoms. | |
| 17 | Does one count as a reptile? (5) |
| ADDER – double definition | |
| 19 | About to rush for second viewing (5) |
| RERUN – RE (about) + RUN (to rush) | |
| 22 | Not entirely bankrupt transporter (3) |
|
BUS – BUS |
|
I thought the clue to AUSTERE was worthy of the main crossword (not that some of the others might not also be), which is pretty straightforward today, if folks want to give it a go.
“Eau de” this and that (e.g. Cologne, Parfum) is common terminology in the world of fragrance so I have no problem at all with 4dn where I’d say the whole clue is a cryptic definition of the answer.
Edited at 2015-02-16 06:59 am (UTC)
Agree with Jack et al re. E de T – bunged straight in as a jokey cryptic.
Joint COD to LAZY SUSAN and the elegant RYE.
Pity “pyjama party” didn’t fit in 1a as I then needed some checkers for the right answer. I also thought the cluing in 16d a bit dodgy. No problems with 4d, just witty wordplay.
Moliere’s most well-known play is probably Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme which used to be quite popular with amateur groups in particular but is little heard of these days. Le Misanthrope is another famouse one.
Unclean is a family giggle – some of you may know that Z8’s first name is Ian; so as soon as our nephew Mike was born in 1976 he became ‘Unclean! He is now Great Unclean several times over (as well as Granddad).
I have 2 CODs EAU DE TOILETTE and SEE DOUBLE; the latter is really clever wordplay and the former is en français! I am an unrepentant Francophile.
LOI was ADDER, just couldn’t see it till I twigged the ‘count’ and groaned. I’m very tempted to try the biggie today as I have time!!
I think ‘faceofboe’ has it when he/she says it’s a homophone of ‘odour’.
Satisfies me, anyway!
I completed it in 30 mins which was satisfying as I had two clues after c12 minutes. Persistence was rewarded.
My take:
Moliere seems to be the only French playwright known to (easy) cryptic setters. Which is good because I only know two others.
I thought eau de t rather schoolboyish – which again I guess is fine being a not fully grown up schoolboy.
Slumber party definitely US but we get everything of theirs in the end. We will soon be celebrating “Independence”.
My favourite was see double which I didn’t see until near the end
Thanks for the very informative blog.
Didn’t see any real problem with EAU DE TOILETTE, and with daughters SLUMBER PARTY was quite simple once a couple of checkers were in place. LOI was MISINTERPRET and demonstrates my usual problems with working out long anagrams. But maybe I’m a little too picky with definitions as I wouldn’t have guessed it would be a synonym for DON’T GET and needed all the checkers in place to get the correct answer.