Solving time: 28:43 (1 answer wrong)
I’m pretty sure this puzzle will not have appealed to everyone as it lacks the precision of modern-day Times crosswords and breaks a fair number of Ximenes’s rules. There are plain definitions, plain anagrams and unindicated anagrams, indirect quotations, clues with no definitions (including one which looks as if it might have a definition but doesn’t) or with definitions which are veiled (sometimes quite heavily), and clues requiring knowledge of art and literature (but no science). I thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the one clue I failed to solve which turned out to be an indirect quotation from a poem by Newbolt which I hadn’t come across before and was delighted to discover.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CASTLE IN SPAIN – the Falange is the name of the fascist movement in Spain which was eventually united with other groups under Franco; Gibraltar was part of the price Franco demanded for Spain to enter World War II on the side of the Axis, but Hitler wasn’t buying |
| 8 | MONEYBAGS – slang (rather outdated?) for a rich person; BAGS = trousers (more outdated slang?) |
| 10 | CANTO – (NO CAT)*; no definition |
| 11 | RAIN – from Portia’s Act 4 speech in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: “The quality of mercy is not strained / It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven / Upon the place beneath …” |
| 12 | SHEM – one of the sons of Noah in the OT; SH + ‘EM |
| 13 | TRUST – two meanings |
| 15 | LOCKE – the philosopher John Locke wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding |
| 16 | CHILHAM – a village in Kent; the wordplay uses CHILL and HAM in a rather woolly way (not terribly helpful if you’re trying to fit AMPS into 17dn!) |
| 18 | EMBROIL – BRO(ther) in LIME (reversed) |
| 21 | RAPID – a plain definition |
| 23 | HILLS – a reference to Rudyard Kipling’s Plain Tales from the Hills |
| 25 | FOUR – four-by-two will be familiar to anyone who’s ever cleaned an army rifle |
| 26 | ENSA – the Entertainments National Service Association (aka Every Night Something Awful :-), which provided entertainment for the troops during the war |
| 28 | RHONE – HERON*, though with no anagrind (and the definition doesn’t exactly leap out at you) |
| 29 | SPAGHETTI – (THE GAP IT)*, again with no anagrind |
| 30 | SOMNAMBULISTS – cryptic definition |
| Down | |
| 1 | CAMBRIDGESHIRE – (AH, CRIME)* around the poet (Robert) BRIDGES |
| 2 | SUNDIAL – William Willett is best known for advocating daylight saving time, but it’s difficult to put a sundial forward in spring and back in autumn (Willett is actually commemorated by a memorial sundial, but this is set permanently to daylight saving time); Hilaire Belloc: “I am a sundial, and I make a botch / Of what is done far better by a watch.” |
| 3 | LAYS – hm! could this be because hens “lay” eggs which have shells? (better suggestions invited) |
| 4 | IVANHOE – Walter Scott’s eponymous hero, who sounds like “I’ve an hoe” |
| 5 | ARCOT – an indirect quotation clue referring to a poem by Newbolt which I’d not come across before; however, I was delighted to discover it on Project Gutenberg, and to find out all about Rollo Gillespie and his exploits from wikipedia and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (available online, courtesy of my local public library :-); my best guess was ASCOT, though once I’d looked it up ARCOT sounded vaguely familiar from somewhere (but I’ve no idea where) |
| 6 | NONSUCH – double definition (pretty much everything I know about black medick, aka Medicago lupulina, aka non(e)such, and purple medick, aka Medicago sativa, aka lucerne, aka alfalfa, is down to crosswords!) |
| 7 | CONTEMPORARIES – anag. (as it says) |
| 9 | SUMAC – US (reversed) + MAC (no definition) |
| 14 | ECHO – cryptic definition |
| 17 | IMPS – I’M + PS; no definition (nowadays this clue would lead to AMPS – making use of I as the symbol for electric current – but not in 1946) |
| 19 | BELLOWS – cryptic definition, possibly making use of “bellow(s)” meaning “a bull’s roar(s)”, but an organ’s bellows can still be disconcerting if you can hear them during a quiet passage |
| 20 | LOFTS – haylofts presumably |
| 21 | RHUBARB – an indirect anagram of (Ben) HUR + BARB |
| 22 | DENOTES – another plain definition |
| 24 | STEAM – referring to Turner’s painting Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway in The National Gallery (whose website includes the Oxford comma in the title) |
| 27 | PHIL – who might drink his fill |
Apart from those mentioned I found it more accessible than I expected. Must be all that practice with the TLS crossword!