TfTT Christmas Turkey 2017
Most of this was done fairly easily for a “mixed setters” puzzle. After 10 minutes I was left with 7 clues, solved in this order (time not noted – maybe another 10 minutes): 13, 4, 10, 9, 8, 5, 6. First-look solves in printed clue order were 1, 11, 12, 14, 18, 24, 1, 2, 3, 7, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22. Definitions in clues are underlined.
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Across |
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|---|---|
| 1 | Where children’s presents are filling the aisles (8) |
| STOCKING – A fairly straightforward double definition for those used to ignoring the overall story. Do you fill the aisles or shelves in a shop? Well, as you would probably be directed to an aisle if you asked where to find a particular product, I’m not troubled by shelf-filling being the real-life norm. | |
| 5 | Content about double-length poem being rejected (6) |
| FILLER – second half of “stocking filler” across the top, just to confirm that I noticed. “Re,L,L,If” all reversed. Familiar ingredients combined together quite well, but a surface meaning with a contradiction, if “content” was meant to mean “happy”. | |
| 10 | Short local criminal and old man kept behind bars?(7) |
| ALCOPOP – LOCA(l)* plus POP = dad = “old man”. For the def we really need something like “that’s kept behind bars”, and I would be reluctant to use the final question mark as an excuse for dropping it. | |
| 11 | I see Dan smoking herb (7) |
| ANISEED = (I see Dan)* – mild reservations about an arbitrary name as part of the fodder, but otherwise nicely done. Herb or spice? Both, according to the ODE defs. | |
| 12 | Net profit finally extracted without limits (5) |
| TULLE – which according to both Collins and ODE, is “like net” but not actually net. But as I struggled to see exactly how it’s different, and “net” has broader meanings, “net” seems a fairly deceptive definition (when next to “profit”). I’m happy with extract (a tooth) = pull (a tooth), and the surface story is pretty good | |
| 13 | In business, try to embrace idiot nobody recognizes (9) |
| INCOGNITO – a mixture of additive and sandwich wordplay – IN, Co., G(NIT)O. All of this is fairly indicated in words that start a good story, but the definition doesn’t work for me. I don’t insist that definitions always have to pass the “substitution test”, but if they do, they’re very likely to be OK. In this case, “s/he travelled incognito” can’t be replaced by “s/he travelled nobody recognizes”, so something like “secretly” is fairer, though you’d obviously want it to be a bit more deceptive. |
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| 14 | Front row of the Harlequins scrum initially fizzes(6) |
| FROTHS – first letters of “Front … scrum” – perfectly fair, and Google searches suggest that “fizz” appears a bit more often in rugby reports than I was expecting, so the surface story is more plausible than I initially thought. | |
| 15 | One Direction thrown out of purple hotel (7) |
| AUBERGE – the purple here is aubergine, with (1,N=north) removed. As there seems to be at least one “Purple Hotel” in the real world, I wondered whether capitalisation would have made the pop band vandalism story a shade more convincing. | |
| 18 | River engulfs English politician in violent storm (7) |
| TEMPEST – apposite surface story in the wake of Storm Eleanor. (E,M.P.) in the river Test. Some routine components but combined well, with a good story – the sort of quiet but well-crafted clue that can get overlooked. | |
| 21 | Australian state survey backs Big Bash? (6) |
| WALLOP – W.A., reverse of POLL. The “Big Bash” could be a party, but that makes a state survey seem a bit strange. | |
| 24 | Bit of fun one adapts for crackers? (9) |
| F,I,REWORKS with an implication of a different kind of cracker. Nicely done. | |
| 26 | Gripped seeing first moments of Chelsea Ladies under nineteen game (5) |
| CLUNG – another first letters clue with a realistic sporting reference – under-19 seems to be a real age group in soccer. “First moments” is a bit unusual for the initial letters indication, but in the cause of some variety rather than overworked ones, I’d be happy to go with it. | |
| 27 | Anger as incendiary obliterates log schoolhouse’s exterior (7) |
| INCENSE – war or terrorism in the back country in the surface meaning. INCEN(diary),S(choolhous)E in the wordplay. Mild surface reading issue which I think quite often applies with indications like “exterior”: it would be a strange incendiary that could obliterate the exterior but not the interior, so “obliterates log schoolhouse” is far more likely in the real world. | |
| 28 | Wisher washer’s brother (7) |
| ALADDIN – I was puzzled at first by this, thinking “it’s Wishy Washy!”. The idea must be that Aladdin is someone who wishes, and that his laundry assistant brother is a “washer”. All of which makes sense when you see it, but if you’ve had other thoughts first, it falls a bit flat. | |
| 29 | Wow! Almost nothing for the old man! (6) |
| GEE,ZER(o). There’s a hint of dad or grandad with no presents as a surface reading, but only a hint. | |
| 30 | Gain ally – turns out to be calming (8) |
| ALLAYING = (GAIN ALLY)* – there’s a story, but it needs a dash between definition and wordplay in the clue. Ceteris parabus, something that makes the join harder to see would be preferred. | |
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Down |
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| 1 | Every second counts with such a knotty brief (6) |
| Alternate letters of “SuCh A kNoTtY”. As the first hit for a “knotty brief” Google search is currently a page about this crossword, it’s a bit too exotic as a phrase for an ideal clue. | |
| 2 | Callous, heartless Romeo in a flurry of kissing (7) |
| OSCULAR = (CAL(l)OUS,R)*. Using more than one adjective for the same noun is a bit of cryptic crossword language that I sometimes moan about in the ST clue writing reports, but here, the “Callous, heartless Romeo” works well. | |
| 3 | Former swimmer initially trained in early 70s style garment (6,3) |
| KIPPER = former swimmer, T,I,E — careful treatment of the fish that never swam, and a pretty good surface reading for this clue about a possible Christmas present of the past. My favourite was worn by a fairly outgoing trombone teacher in my schooldays, with the ample width accommodating a picture of a pool table, with the lamp to illuminate it placed just under the knot, and the stylised light from it closely matching the tie’s shape. On a fussy level, “kit” possibly preferred to “garment” which seems a bit odd for a tie. | |
| 4 | Dreadful spanking after shredding good table linen (7) |
| NAPKINS = SPANKIN(g)* — I can’t see that “shredding” works as well as “shedding” as a deletion indicator. Any of cutting, losing, scratching or scrubbing seem to tell an equally good story. | |
| 6 | Murder in the USA? Listen – I confess! (5) |
| ICING = “I sing”. A homophone that works, but for me the indication gets in the way of the story a bit. | |
| 7 | With more caution, General approaches German city as time runs out (7) |
| LEE,(t)RIER. Pretty good story, though you might wonder whether shortage of time allows extra caution. Capitalising “general” isn’t wrong, but in this case seemed unnecessary and a bit strange. | |
| 8 | Glowing description of one of Cupid’s companions? (3-5) |
| RED-NOSED – nicely done cryptic definition with Rudolf reference. File Cupid with names of some other reindeer (and the seven dwarves). | |
| 9 | Oddly, spam sandwiches and endless chestnut stuffing given away in refuges (6) |
| SANCTA – which I suspect was a word that chose itself in the grid build, and a short straw in the dishing out of the clues. So despite the surface reading being a dodgy recipe/menu item (another thing I moan about sometimes in clue writing reports), a pretty good go at a surface reading about a Christmas lunch for the unfortunate. In the wordplay, AN=“and endless”, and CT=“chestnut (with) stuffing given away”, are “sandwiched” by SA from “spam”. | |
| 16 | Helmet found in overturned naval calaboose (9) |
| BALACLAVA – before I got to wear any kipper ties, I had a dark green one, knitted by my mother or some other relative. It’s hidden backwards, but as a calaboose is a prison, “overturned” is a shade implausible. If you want “overturn” to mean the same as “turn over” = ransack, you need both Chambers and a phrasal verbs dictionary for confirmation, which is too much of a stretch. | |
| 17 | Packing crazy gift’s fun (8) |
| STUFFING = (gift’s fun)* — a straightforward but nicely done clue. | |
| 19 | Motorway clear – curious phenomenon (7) |
| MIRACLE = M1,(clear)* – another well-crafted clue, with a surface story to justify the fairly vague definition. | |
| 20 | Failure on Broadway, yet still a Christmas favourite? (6) |
| TURKEY – double definition – nicely done | |
| 21 | Krakow assailant packs a punch (7) |
| WASSAIL – hidden word, and I’m wondering a bit why Krakow was more appropriate than Moscow or Glasgow, not that it really matters. | |
| 22 | To varying degrees, defrocked Pope roused eldest child for Catholic activities (4,3) |
| OPUS DEI – “work of God” in translation, but really an organisation that reckons to do it. (p)OP(e), (ro)US(ed), (el)DE(st), (ch)I(ld). The defrocking and child suggest to me that we’re talking about child abuse issues, and in a newspaper puzzle I’d prefer not to. | |
| 23 | Drink for one flipping medal (6) |
| EGGNOG – e.g. = for one, GONG=medal revered. I wonder if the surface would have been improved with “Celebratory drink” or similar, which seems fair in the context of a seasonal puzzle. | |
| 25 | Quail caught in sack? (5) |
| WINCE = show fear = quail (vb). Of course it’s a noun in the surface, captured – presumably for consumption. Nicely done. | |
I couldn’t help but wonder Peter, why child abuse references are (rightly imo) taboo, but yet solvers are nowadays expected to have available quite a large vocabulary relating to the casual use of hard drugs, such as jargon words for heroin, cocaine, crystal meth etc. Though not in the Turkey, of course 🙂
There’s perhaps a difference between self-inflicted trouble and other kinds too, as well as drug history going back to Sherlock Holmes and others.
Edited at 2018-01-04 01:33 pm (UTC)
As for the content, the setter did have another version which we both felt was beyond the pale. We thought this one was a bit less contentious, and neither test solver objected. But it’s clearly not Times material. Interesting point, though, Jerry.
Incidentally, the two test solvers did a great job and made good suggestions for improvements to various clues. My thanks to them, though I won’t name them unless they want to reveal themselves.
Getting stuck on top of chimney, Father Christmas retreats.
Which is the sort of thing I think you must have had in mind but it felt a bit too easy to me and I’m not sure retreats and sancta are sufficiently synonymous, so I’m glad Sotira went for one of my other efforts even if it needed a bit of a tweak to improve it.
Edited at 2018-01-04 01:55 pm (UTC)
I will admit to the net profit (something I have managed to avoid in 35 years of running a business).
Edited at 2018-01-04 03:30 pm (UTC)
In 21a you have missed the statutory Cricket reference Peter. The Big Bash is Australia’s 20/20 competition. The WA side are the Perth Scorchers I believe. Not sure they had a stateside poll about them though?
Edited at 2018-01-04 05:25 pm (UTC)
By the way have you ever wondered who the happy Larry was?
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lar1.htm
Yes, loads of thanks to Sotira for sorting us all out. And to Mr Biddlecombe for taking the time to blog it all so beautifully. And to test-solvers and all other setters. Was pleased to see that mine got a “Nicely done” from Peter. His comments make me realise just how much work goes into telling a good story, most of which I miss as I often tend to read the clues mechanically for the cryptic. Oh, and I didn’t get the two teasers in the top and bottom rows. Oops!
My own effort was apparently the short straw, SANCTA at 9dn, although I don’t think of it as such because I had a lot of fun trying different definitions and word play out. I came up with 6 attempts for the ed, a couple were a bit weak and a couple I don’t think really worked so that would have helped narrow it down.
My original effort was: “Half-eaten spinach sandwiches and endless chestnut stuffing given away in refuges”. I saw this as half of SAAG to give you the SA sandwiching the AN(d) and the C(hestnu)T. However, the ed gave me fair warning that the indirectness of the thing being half-eaten (SAAG not actually being in the clue itself to be half-eaten therein) might require some tweaking. It was the ed or one of her Christmas elves who came up with the oddly spam device. I liked the half-eaten device because it is more natural for the surface and “oddly” always sets off the solver’s alarm bells. However, I think spam a much better sandwich filler, and “oddly spam” gets round the indirectness problem making it fair to the solver.
I spent far too long wondering if SANCTA could be defined as “private parts” and so trying combos like “private parts caught in fly as Ant…” but not really getting anything decent. Other efforts I’ll admit to are:
Getting stuck on top of chimney Father Christmas retreats.
Playing Canasta with only two aces in private rooms.
And, thinking that if one could define a sanctum as a room in a church or temple for private study of scripture, then one might be able to define sancta as “religious studies”, I came up with the rather un-Christmassy:
One sacrificed by Satanic deviant in Religious Studies.
But I think the ed felt that definition was a stretch too far, the surface reading may also have been in dubious taste.
Great fun.
My COD goes to ANISEED as I thought it was a great surface enhanced by its brevity. I also liked WASSAIL as it remained hidden from me for quite some time, and I thought SANCTA was very cleverly put together.
I contributed the clue for CLUNG which I found tricky, the word not lending itself readily to anagramming, double definitions or being hidden backwards or forwards. My alternative clue was ‘Stayed close to fantastic lung donor’, but I wasn’t sure that donor was a good enough hidden word indicator. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has other ideas (as I’m typing it’s just occurred to me that a play on CLUING could have worked!).
My own contribution was the clue for TURKEY, but the clue was improved by sotira by the addition of the question mark. A small thing perhaps, but it shows how a careful editor can make a difference.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Very interesting to hear an ed’s commentary, and to have the bottom row pointed out! I always seem to miss the extras…
Thanks to everyone for the fun!
Years ago I went to class with an art-major friend. The assignment had been a drawing, and there were 40 or more examples posted. The professor critiqued each in turn, and I learned more in that hour about how to view a piece than I had in years of otherwise looking.
Same today, regarding seeing a first class editor weigh strengths and weaknesses of what I thought was a pretty strong set of clues. Thank you, Peter.
At 21d Peter “Krakow” actually served as misdirection for me – seeing “Krakow assailant” and “…punch (7)” my immediate thought was that it had to be POLEAXE.
Well done to Sotira for herding the cats, thanks to the gridmeister, all the cluesmiths and my fellow test-solver 🙂 and thanks to Peter for the honest critique which everyone involved can learn from.
I was responsible for OSCULAR. I spent a long time trying to do something with ‘jocular’ (since ODE tags the ‘of kissing’ def as “(jocularly)”), then had a go at a definition of the zoological sense: ‘relating to a mouth-like hole, typically that through which a marine sponge expels water’. But I gave up on that!
I was delighted to be able to contribute to this bit of festive fun. My thanks for PB’s thorough and analytical blog, for Sotira’s time in organising the whole shebang, and to the test-solvers.
For the record, mine was the straightforward ALLAYING; I had at least one alternative submission which would have involved geese, but having seen the full puzzle, I now realise that would have been gilding the lily in the bottom row (interesting grid, this one, where I ended up solving in quarters). Thanks, and well done, to all responsible.