A very lively puzzle that took me far longer than it should have done, around 70 minutes. I’m not sure whether the nursery rhyme references are known universally, nor the bit of slang that’s been thrown in for good measure. There’s an old singer and an old song to keep me happy and a bit of physics to cheer up Jimbo.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BARB,A,DOS – DOS = sod (rev) |
| 9 | ANGLE,SEY – SEY = yes (rev) |
| 11 | DING(o), DONG, BELL(e) – The nursery rhyme is Ding, Dong, Bell, Pussy’s in the Well. The Lear character is the Dong with the Luminous Nose |
| 13 | ATHROB – (to bar + H)* |
| 14 | ANGST,ROM(e) – According to my dictionary this is a unit of length equal to one hundred millionth of a centimetre. |
| 15 | TOP,ON,YM – YM = my (rev) |
| 16 | ROBES,ON – A reference to the great Paul Robeson possibly best remembered now for his recording of Ol’ Man River. I imagine it’s mainly church choirs who wear robes. |
| 20 | P,H(Y)LLIDA – P, piano/quietly, then (hid all)* around the last letter of nudity |
| 22 | 0(F,F) PAT – F(ine) F(emale) surrounded by 0 (love) then (Postman) Pat. I think OFF PAT came up in a recent puzzle and caught me out. |
| 23 | A, PRETTY, PENNY – A large amount of money |
| 26 | L,AND,F(ascism),I,L,L |
| 27 | M(I,LIT)ARY – Another nursery rhyme needed here, the question being “Mary, Mary, How does your garden grow?” |
| Down | |
| 2 | A,M(ARE,TT)O – This almond flavoured liqueur seems to crop up quite regularly now. TT for teetotal is an old favourite. |
| 3 | BORDER, COL,LIE – March in the sense borderland |
| 4 | DANNY BOY – (Anybody + N)*. Today’s old song title otherwise known as The Londonderry Air. |
| 5 | SAND,BAG – George Sand followed by the schoolboy slang “bag” meaning to claim |
| 6 | E.G.,GNOG – GNOG = gong (rev) |
| 7 | (r)ASHE(r) – This was my last to understand fully having assumed it referred to US motor sport of which I know nothing. Then the penny dropped that it’s Arthur Ashe, the great tennis player and this is the only sport in which I have any interest. Self-kicking time! |
| 8 | CY,C(LAME)N – LAME inside C(it)Y, C(onstructio)N. With only the Y in place I wasted ages trying to make HYACINTH work, |
| 15 | BUTTER(FLY) NUT – Another term for a wing nut. Butternut squash is a vegetable I have never eaten. |
| 17 | O’CONNELL – Daniel O’Connell 1775 – 1847 |
| 18 | O(R,A)CULAR |
| 19 | W(AX), PAL,M – Virginian here indicates the US spelling of axe |
SONNY BOY was my air for a while just to make it tougher.
I presume “For one” in the EGGNOG clue is yet another version of EG?
Yes, Barry, that was my take on it. I’ve added the full-stops now to make it clearer to those who come later.
I was not sure about ‘wax palm’ either, it was my last in. Everything else I understood.
I would say that each clue, including those not blogged, was a masterpiece. It was very tough to get started, although I did see ‘amaretto’ as the puzzle was printing, only to not put it in until 20 minutes had elapsed.
I did have most of it in about 50 minutes, but the NE proved very tough. ‘Anglesey’, ‘cyclamen’, ‘angstrom’, and ‘eggnog’ were especially elusive, but getting ‘angstrom’ proved the key.
You could pick any clue, and make it the COD – there is endless quality here.
ignoring the odd letters gives NULL.
Two mistakes for me, ‘Donny Bay’ (it does sound like it could be a song – and I did correct it before finishing), and ‘Fan Palm’ (which I justified by thinking that West Virginian must be slang for a 4 letter word starting fan)
First in 22ac, last in 24dn.
W
A tough but very rewarding puzzle which took 33 minutes but with a little electronic nudge to get Angstrom which opened up the NE corner. I put in cyclamen based on checkers and def and half of the wordplay as I’m not sure how halt = lame. I also had a QM against 7 where I’m not convinced that first and last letters can be “corners” (although to be fair it didn’t stop me getting the answer quite quickly).
As Vinyl1 says there are very many superb clues here, but I’ll single out athrob for the smooth surface and for being a nice woody word (George will understand).
Jack, you should try butternut squash. Lovely flavour of its own but also takes on the flavour of innumerable herbs and spices very well. In fact I’ve got one in the fridge. Hang on…
…there, I’m holding it up to the monitor now.
Paul Robeson was my favourite singer in the distant days of my youth, but I imagine that would be a tough one for many younger solvers.
A vision so clear
I gotta learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you”
Any younger (or indeed older) solvers who are fans of the Manic Street Preachers may recall this great tribute to PR by the Welsh band.
Penfold’s question mark about “corners” indicating extremities (as in 7dn) seems justified, but it didn’t give me pause when solving, and the link with the brilliant misdirection in “rallying” is enough to vindicate it for me. My only quibble is with 15dn (TOP TABLE), where the cryptic part (“League champions do”) is incomplete. Those on my side of another fence would no doubt have preferred “fencing” to “fences” in 27ac, but you can’t have everything.
The conventional use of “touring” as a containment indicator (as in 23ac A-PRETTY-PENNY) relies on the transitivity that I’ve complained about before with reference to “without = outside = surrounding”. Here, the two-step thought is “touring = going around = surrounding”, and if you think for a moment about touring (say) Italy, you’ll see why this just doesn’t work. Given the convention, though, 23ac is a great clue.
Clue of the Day: 16ac (ROBESON). Thanks to Anonymous for the Manics reference, which would have helped me if I’d been tempted to listen to Know Your Enemy more than once.
The Lear character has disappeared for obvious reasons: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dong.
Singers sing (5)
Birds lay eggs in (5)
Rich people have lots of (5)
Answers: SONGS, NESTS, MONEY
In the examples you quote there is no “other bit” and so therefore the clues read bizarrely (and incorrectly)
Let Robeson Sing was also a single, of course.
I think you should dust off your copy of Know Your Enemy btw 🙂
Saturday solvers saw Pussy in the Well in January (24119):
Stout assistance needed for such a comfortably-settled cat, nevertheless! (4-6)
(it was Little Tommy Stout who pulled her out)
The rhyme also popped up in August (24302).
Inventor of phone with ringing tone: that’s a rhyme! (4,4,4)
Ah, Google..
First in LAIR, last INTUIT (after realising it’s PHYLLIDA, not Phylidda).
Off to book a holiday now… Barbados or Anglesey? hm…
Sadly, as my last entry, I went for the vaguely botanical bay palm, having failed to lift and separate West Virginian.
I think you should dust off your copy of Know Your Enemy btw 🙂
From wordplay: OCONNELL, ROBESON, TOPONYM. Last in TOP TABLE.
I meant, of course, that jackkt has clarified the other clues I was not sure about, not that he has confused me over this particular clue.
I thought it tough but fair and an enjoyable 35 minutes.