Sorry, PC problems have prevented me posting today. Following a hasty rebuild I should have it up later tonight. Well, that was the plan anyway, but I also managed to break my keyboard (and the PS/2 port), and my almost-completed blog report was only available on this box, in memory as I hadn’t saved it. So I now have a nice new wireless keyboard and mouse, and here it is, better late than never. Quite a lot of GK required for this one – lots of proper nouns, a couple of literary references, Greek words and geography.
Across |
1 |
CONSTANTINOPLE – CONSTANT (firm) + (line)* around OP (work). Name of Istanbul from 330AD to 1453, when it was capital of the Byzantine empire. |
9 |
DEVELOPED – DERV (fuel) without the R (run out) + ELOPED (left secretly). |
10 |
DIPSO – O (duck) next to DIPS (sauces). |
11 |
RELAX – ALE (beer) inside X (by), R(olling), all reversed. |
12 |
LEND AN EAR – N(ew) + DANE (Hamlet perhaps), inside LEAR (King Lear, another tragic figure). |
13 |
IRONWOOD – IRON, WOOD (golf clubs). A generic name for a number of different trees renowned for the hardness of their wood. |
15 |
JORDAN – OR (golden) + (see)D inside JAN (month). The River Jordan, which is 156 miles long and for much of its length is the border between Israel and Jordan. |
17 |
HECATE – HEATE(r) (stove minus the last letter) around C(old). |
19 |
WRITE OFF – double definition. |
22 |
OVEN-READY – (year do)* around VEN (abbreviated title of an archdeacon). |
23 |
GATOR – ROT (corrupt) + AG (chemical symbol of silver), all reversed. |
24 |
IONIA – alternate letters of “disowns Ivan”. Ancient region of what is now Turkey, bordering Lydia. |
25 |
HOI POLLOI – Greek for “the masses”, both words of which rhyme with “enjoy”. By the way, HOI means “the”, so please feel free to correct anyone who refers to “the hoi polloi”! |
26 |
KICK IN THE PANTS – (Kerosene, kept in this can)*. |
Down |
1 |
CIDER WITH ROSIE – (writer chose, 1 I’d)*. 1959 book by Laurie Lee. |
2 |
NOVELLO – NOVEL (original) + L(eft) + O(ver). Ivor Novello (1893-1951), Welsh composer, singer and actor. |
3 |
TELEX – TEL(ler) (half of narrator) + EX (other half one’s separated from). Old messaging system – what we had before fax or email was invented. |
4 |
NAPOLEON – NON (French opposition member) around A POLE (a stick). Napoleon was one of the pigs who took over George Orwell’s Animal Farm. |
5 |
INDENT – IN (home) + DEN (study) + T(utor). |
6 |
ODD MAN OUT – the answer could be a cryptic indication for “amount”. |
7 |
LIP-READ – LIP (backchat) + RE (on) + AD (trailer). |
8 |
ROARING FORTIES – RARING (keen) around O(ld), + FOR (pro) + TIES (matches). |
14 |
WATERMARK – ARK (box) below W(ith) + A TERM (a handle). |
16 |
CRAYFISH – IF (condition) + Y (variable), reversed inside CRASH (accident). |
18 |
CHENNAI – HENNA (stain) + I (one), beneath C(ape). The new name for Madras (since 1996). |
20 |
ORTOLAN – hidden inside “Luxor to Lanzarote”. Type of bunting, a French delicacy. |
21 |
CASH IN – CA (calcium) + SHIN (scale). |
23 |
GLOOP – LOO (little room) inside GP (Grand Prix, racing cars). |
Worked through it steadily from SE corner outwards. Took a while to deduce Cider With Rosie but once in the starting letters helped on the left-hand side.
Constantinople took a long time to come – for ages I was looking at an anagram of O + City + Spun + Firm + L. Once I saw the answer my last three (Novello, Napolean and LOI Developed) quickly followed.
Liked the literary references for Napolean (Animal Farm) and Lend An Ear (Julius Caesar). Thanks setter.
Edited at 2013-03-24 09:09 am (UTC)
I’m pleased to see old Ivor is not forgotten. It’s interesting you mention that he was a singer and indeed he wrote many of his musical shows for himself to star in so he must have had a voice, yet there do not appear to be any recordings available of him singing and I don’t recall ever hearing one.
CIDER WITH ROSIE strikes me as verging on the obscure. I know it, but only because it was on my parents’ bookshelves. I may even have read it. But it’s not exactly an enduring classic.