Saturday Vintage “29582”

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Weekend Cryptic
No reason to wait a week to blog this one, as it’s not a prize puzzle (even though the solution hasn’t appeared yet). I wish they’d tell us what the original number was – they always used to when publishing vintage puzzles. Anyway, 1982 – I’d just started attempting the Times around then (I was 18 or 19), and may well have solved it when it came out … or at least tried to. I remember I was already hooked on them though.

What strikes me now is the loose definitions and the literature, although there was nothing too obscure. Having said that, I didn’t know the Henry V reference in 1ac, but that was the only one I had to check.

Across
1 Cheer imitated at Harfleur (5)
TIGER – double definition that probably needs a bit of explaining: Chambers has “a yell to supplement a cheer (US)” for the first, and the second is from Shakespeare’s Henry V, in his speech before the Siege of Harfleur:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility,
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:

4 Recover from knockout blow in corner (4,5)
COME ROUND – another double definition, with corner as a verb, a bit loosely I thought.
9 No squash in this scene of action (4,5)
OPEN COURT – squash being played in a closed court.
10 Features of straightforward leaders (5)
NOSES – you go straight ahead if you follow your nose.
11 Mind out – a society can provide such amusement (9,6)
SITUATION COMEDY – (mind out a society)*.
12 Boy inserts parts of ad in this, for example (6)
CLAUDE – A and D (parts of ad), separately inserted into CLUE (this, for example).
14 Timepiece unable to strike one? (8)
REPEATER – if it repeats, the minimum it can strike is two.
17 It proves unusually playful (8)
SPORTIVE – (it proves)*.
19 Lord’s house (6)
TAVERN – cryptic definition: the Lord is Thomas Lord (1755-1832), who founded Lord’s cricket ground. The Tavern no longer exists, but the Tavern Stand at the ground is on its former site. The Lord’s Taverners charity also take their name from it.
22 One takes interest in helping to accommodate members (8,7)
BUILDING SOCIETY – cryptic definition.
24 It’s found in Texas, Alabama and Missouri (5)
ALAMO – two state abbreviations, ALA + MO. Some US states seem to have two acceptable abbreviations – the official two-letter one which is always capitalised, and the shortened form of the name, which isn’t. We have an example of each here.
25 Water for a mother pig (5,4)
ADAM’S WINE – A + DAM (mother) + SWINE (pig).
26 Make disclosure on number of deliveries – extra population (9)
OVERSPILL – SPILL (make disclosure), next to OVER (number of deliveries, in cricket).
27 Minor official in French bank, say (5)
REEVE – sounds like rive, French for a riverbank.

Down
1 In which rash Scots may go astray (9)
TROSSACHS – (rash Scots)*, anagram &lit. An area of woodland, glens and lochs in Scotland.
2 Broke down after midnight in Wales (5)
GWENT – WENT (broke down) after G (mid-niGht). Not a clue that would pass muster in the Times these days.
3 Roe, for example, from one fish? In a way (7)
RICHARD – I (one) + CHAR (fish), inside RD (a way). Richard Roe is a second unknown man in a court case, after John Doe. Chambers, however, has them as the “imaginary plaintiff and opponent in the old legal action for ejectment, proverbial as a legal fiction.”
4 Relative‘s money split by us (6)
COUSIN – COIN (money) around US.
5 Jack supporting Christian, for example (8)
MUTINEER – cryptic definition, ref. Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. Coincidentally he popped up in last Saturday’s puzzle too.
6 Writer did a bit of smuggling (7)
RANSOME – RAN (smuggled) SOME (a bit). Arthur Ransome, who wrote the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s books.
7 Remove from cover in sun’s heat here (9)
UNSHEATHE – hidden in sun‘s heat here.
8 Attractive little girl has a fling (5)
DISHY – DI (little girl) + SHY (a fling).
13 Hate putting a lot of money in crew, so to speak (9)
ABOMINATE – sound like “a bomb” (a lot of money) IN “eight” (crew).
15 Free-flowing drink, we hear, on Thames (9)
RUNNYMEDE – RUNNY (free-flowing) + sounds like “mead” (drink). Famous for being the site of the signing of the Magna Carta.
16 Performer he managed sang with evil manipulation (8)
SVENGALI – (sang, evil)*. A fictional character in George du Maurier’s 1895 novel Trilby (the eponymous performer who he exploited).
18 Boring outside broadcast (7)
TEDIOUS – (outside)*.
20 Zola was one such in charge (7)
ACCUSER – another cryptic definition. This is to do with the Dreyfus case, where a French officer was falsely accused of treason and sentenced to life on Devil’s Island. Émile Zola took up his cause and J’Accuse, an open letter from Zola, was published in the press.
21 Country is overthrowing unfortunate monarch (6)
ISRAEL – IS + LEAR (unfortunate Shakespearian monarch) reversed.
22 Said to applaud a hired ruffian (5)
BRAVO – double definition. Chambers has “a hired assassin”, which seems a bit stronger!
23 Best type? That’s the size of it (5)
ELITE – double definition. The type size is one allowing 12 letters to the inch.

10 comments on “Saturday Vintage “29582””

  1. Another enjoyable Saturday. The Henry V reference I knew as a young ( <12) player of the Constable of France (squeaky ‘Let us on heaps go offer up our lives’). I also have the pleasure of being a member of the Lords Taverners.

    Edited at 2014-06-22 04:18 pm (UTC)

  2. Thanks for explaining TIGER, I couln’t get it or GWENT.

    There are two separate sets of state abbreviations in the US – the Post Office uses the two-letter ones and the the US Government ones are two or more letters. Look out for FLA and FL or CAL an CA sometime

  3. I really enjoyed this crossword. I thought it a fine example of how a slightly more relaxed approach than setters seem allowed to get away with nowadays (in the Times) can pay dividends.

    Also, some very elegant clues; eg 17ac, 18dn…

    Water seems to have been downgraded from wine to ale status, since this was published..

  4. This is very clearly much closer to today’s style than any of the previous ‘oldies’ I’ve attempted. I did most of it pretty quickly, but then got completely stuck with three left:
    > TIGER: I even remembered the Henry V thing but couldn’t see how ‘cheer’ could possibly work. Perhaps this meaning was (better) known back then.
    > TROSSACHS. Never heard of it. But certainly gettable with the T from 1ac…
    > …and the C from 12ac. This isn’t a particularly difficult clue, but I suspect the separation of the A and D would be more clearly signalled in today’s more Ximenean style. There’s no real reason why it should be, of course, but it threw me.
    1. Horatio Hornblower, being a popular captain, was always being given “Three cheers, an’ a tiger” by his crew..
      1. Perhaps that made it more familiar at the time? I didn’t remember this, but I read the Hornblower books when I was a kid, and enjoyed them enormously. They’ve sunk without trace now, sadly. Perhaps I should get my kids to try them: you never know, I might start something…
    2. For some reason (possibly a faulty memory) I always associate the Trossachs with the Two Ronnies. It’s certainly the kind of name that would lend itself to one of Ronnie Barker’s signature double entendres.
      1. A quick google suggests that being kicked in them may have featured at some point.
    3. Back in the day (late 60s-70s), joshing along meteorological lines – “It’s going to be a bit nippy in the Trossachs” – was not uncommon.
  5. 8:26 for me. Like Jerry, I enjoyed it very much. At one point I thought I might post quite a decent time. However, I got stuck for a good half-minute on CLAUDE, and then dithered for considerably longer over GWENT, worried the answer might be some Welsh location I simply didn’t know. (I was relieved that GWEPT didn’t exist!)

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