To celebrate the centenary of the first Sunday Times crossword, a number of old puzzles have been published today. This is puzzle 1565 from 1955. Unfortunately, in the print from the Crossword Club, and both the interactive and the print in the newspaper, only the first 3 down clues of the 1955 puzzle appear; the only place to see all the down clues is the Crossword Club interactive.
It is an interesting challenge! After about half an hour I had about half the answers. It was only when I revealed the answer to 2 down and looked it up that I thought to work out what day it was published. The 100 years book of puzzles has for 1955 puzzle 1591 from 31st July, so I was able to work out this one was published on Sunday 2nd January, which is of relevance to a few other answers.
Clues without definitions, and wordplay without wordplay indicators all make this a bit tricky. It gives us lots of practice at cryptic definitions! I had one answer wrong when I submitted, but the right answer was obvious in retrospect. Here is what I made of it. How did everyone else get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | To the May Queen it was still this on April 30 (3,4,3,4) |
| THE GLAD NEW YEAR – Cryptic definition. A quote from the poem by Tennyson, The May Queen. One of the answers that relates to the date of publication. | |
| 10 | Sisterly state (7) |
| NUNHOOD – Cryptic definition. I did consider SORORAL, but that is rather less cryptic. | |
| 11 | Effect of sunshine on an Indian city in figures (7) |
| TANAGRA – TAN (effect of sunshine) AGRA (Indian city). One I could put in with confidence. | |
| 12 | Verbose, as one may say (7) |
| OBSERVE – (verbose)*…. but no anagram indicator. | |
| 13 | But such needlework is not so hard as it sounds (6) |
| CREWEL – Sounds like CRUEL (hard) [as it sounds]. | |
| 15 | Take the first step towards putting on 26 (6) |
| ENLIST – Cryptic definition, with the answer to 26 being UNIFORM. | |
| 16 | Day by day some do on the calendar (5,3) |
| CROSS OFF – Cryptic definitions. | |
| 18 | Completely decoded (3,5) |
| ALL CLEAR – Cryptic definition. | |
| 20 | Is his the club for one’s money (6) |
| BOODLE – Double definition. Boodle’s is a Private Members’ Club, founded in 1762 by the Earl of Shelburne, later the Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister. | |
| 23 | Our cricketers are being in Australia, no doubt (6) |
| TESTED – Cryptic definition. England were in the middle of an Ashes Test Match series in Australia at the time. They won the series, and the Ashes 3-1. See here. | |
| 24 | Deferred article in the church (7) |
| LATERAN – LATER (deferred) AN (article). Relating to the Church of St John Lateran at Rome, the Pope’s cathedral church, on the site of the splendid palace or basilica of Plautius Lateranus (executed 66AD) | |
| 26 | Monotonous claim by a founder of the United Nations (7) |
| UNIFORM – The founder might have said… “UN I FORM”. Ho ho. | |
| 27 | Tip me, no, it’s a bit hot (7) |
| PIMENTO – (tip me no)*. No anagram indicator again. Former name of cayenne pepper. | |
| 28 | & 14: A service we may wish you today, or in any issue (8,6) |
| PLEASANT SUNDAY – |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | A seasonable gift (7) |
| HANDSEL – A gift given on the first Monday after the New Year. It was revealing this answer that led me to tracking down the date this puzzle was published. | |
| 3 | And these are seasonably subject to breakage (4,11) |
| GOOD RESOLUTIONS – Cryptic definition that became obvious after the revelation of 2D. | |
| 4 | Saint of those who really do celebrate 1 (6) |
| ANDREW -St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.. where they really do celebrate The Glad New Year. | |
| 5 | Golfers’ total when it’s ten up? (3,5) |
| NET SCORE – TEN [up] -> NET. Add SCORE to get the total. | |
| 6 | The harder the conditions the more they enjoy themselves (6,9) |
| WINTER SPORTSMEN – Cryptic definition. | |
| 7 | Domenico Theotocopuli (2,5) |
| EL GRECO -The real name of the painter known as ‘El Greco’. | |
| 8 | There are alternative ones to Scotland (4) |
| ROAD – Reference to the song The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond. | |
| 9 | There are many demands for this at present (6,3) |
| INCOME TAX – Get your tax return in! Not INCOME DAY as I initially pencilled in and then didn’t revisit. | |
| 14 | In the land of the Lotophagi it seemed always this (9) |
| AFTERNOON – Another Tennyson reference. this time to the Lotos Eaters. | |
| 17 | Can a foot soldier be such a fellow? (5,3) |
| HANDY MAN – Whimsical cryptic definition. | |
| 19 | Eels die when in shelter (7) |
| LEESIDE – (eels die)*. By now I’d realised anagram indicators weren’t used in 1955. | |
| 21 | Novel Daniel (7) |
| DERONDA – Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. | |
| 22 | Inclines to run away (6) |
| SLOPES – | |
| 25 | What’s the pudding without fish? (4) |
| DUMP – No definition, but the answer is surely DUMP{ling} (pudding) without the LING (fish). | |
Well done for getting through this one, especially without the month. In the printed paper, “January 1955” is part of the heading, and I forgot to emphasise the importance of this to the people creating the online version.
28 & 14: there was once a “Pleasant Sunday Afternoon movement”, which was an attempt to make Sunday Services in some non-conformist churches attractive to more people. But it seems to have started in about the 1880s, so this seems about as ancient in 1955 as something like “actor” indicating (Beerbohm) TREE is now.
Aha. Thanks. Blog updated.
in the Android tablet version most of t Down clues are not accessible, nor is it possible to enter anything in the Down squares.
Yes. As I said in the intro, the only place to see all the down clues is the Crossword Club interactive, which you can find here.
Can’t see Down clues after 4d in IPad version either
When reviewing crosswords for the 100 years book, I found the 1950s the most difficult decade by some considerable distance. I was grateful to have started solving The Times cryptics only in the 1960s.
I have not tried this one, and have no intention of doing so!
I got about 2/3 of these, though revealing some of the ones I wasn’t making headway with either saved going down a dead or two, or gave useful crossers. Nice blog, John. Devilish selection, Peter.
Very disappointing not to be able to see all the down clues, even though a full subscriber.
Spoils the whole point of even referencing the 1955 puzzle, imho.
It can’t be that difficult to fix, surely.
Hi Mark,
It has been fixed.
You can find the print version here….
and the online version here
Enjoy!
P.S. You need to be aware the puzzle was published on the first Sunday of 1955 (i.e. 2nd January) to make sense of some of the clues and answers.