There were at least five clues here where I thought, well that must be the answer, although I can’t explain it! I’ll put it in and look up how, who or why before I write the blog. Despite that, it was all solvable (bar the explanations) in reasonable time. Lots of fun, and expansion of my general knowledge. Thanks to the setter for a very enjoyable puzzle.
Notes for newcomers: The Times offers prizes for Saturday Cryptic Crosswords. This blog is posted a week later, after the competition closes. So, please don’t comment here on the current Saturday Cryptic.
Clues are blue, with definitions underlined. Deletions are in {curly brackets}.
Across | |
1 | Damage resistant couch — one may be on it (7,7) |
SCATTER CUSHION – anagram (‘damage’) of RESISTANT COUCH. Apparently you can put scatter cushions anywhere, not just on couches. | |
9 | Picture wins international prize finally (9) |
LANDSCAPE – LANDS=wins, CAP=international (representative), E=(priz)E ultimately. | |
10 | Beg to avoid two directions in wood (5) |
BEECH – BE(SE)ECH=beg. | |
11 | Excellent hairstyle returns to a region of Africa (5) |
NUBIA – an A1 BUN, ‘returning’. I didn’t know where Nubia is/was – it’s along part of the Nile river – but vaguely remembered Mandrake the Magician, comic strips that included Lothar the Nubian. | |
12 | Doesn’t accept condensation corrodes (9) |
MISTRUSTS – MIST=condensation, RUSTS=corrodes. | |
13 | By end of term I will make rapid progress in the fast stream (8) |
MILLRACE – M=end of (ter)M, I’LL, RACE. | |
15 | Most casual officer arresting fellers (6) |
LAXEST – LT=lieutenant, ‘arresting’ AXES=fellers of trees. | |
17 | At leisure, one’s put together lecture about India, great stuff to begin with (6) |
JIGSAW – JAW=lecture, ‘about’ the first letters of I(ndia) G(reat) S(tuff). Jigsaws are definitely great stuff for surviving lockdowns. | |
19 | A few accepting guidance for solemn oath (2,4,2) |
SO HELP ME – SOME=a few, ‘accepting’ HELP=guidance.
Doesn’t the solemn oath need to say, so help me, God? To my ear, ‘so help me’ sounds more like an angry parent’s threat. |
|
22 | Pope’s emissary embraced by cardinal and sent down (9) |
RELEGATED – LEGATE ‘embraced’ by RED. | |
23 | Matting material covers hard area in cathedral (5) |
CHOIR – COIR covers H=hard. | |
24 | A disreputable girl back in OK place (5) |
TULSA – A SLUT, ‘back’. An immediate write in for me, since Tulsa is just about the only place I know in Oklahoma. | |
25 | Discharging manager, jolly, but losing head (9) |
EXECUTING – EXEC=manager, (o)UTING=jolly. One of the obvious answers where I needed help for the blog. This meaning of ‘jolly’ escaped me! | |
26 | Painter’s remarkably warm bond with Oxford (4,5,5) |
FORD MADOX BROWN – anagram (remarkably) of WARM BOND OXFORD. Once the helpers suggested ‘Brown’, I guessed the rest, since I vaguely knew the name of Ford Madox Ford, the writer. I had no idea Ford Madox Brown, the painter, was his grandfather! |
Down | |
1 | Unheard of numbers in units briefly given officer rank (6,8) |
SILENT MAJORITY – S.I.=(the modern international system of) units, LENT=given, MAJORITY=rank. | |
2 | Miss Lee, aspiring starlet, losing head and gaining pounds (7) |
ANNABEL – the aspirant is a (w)ANNABE. Add L=pounds (sterling). I’ve since discovered that Annabel Lee is the subject of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. | |
3 | Scientist almost entirely fixed up (5) |
TESLA – AL=‘almost’ AL(L)=entirely; SET=fixed: all ‘up’=backwards. | |
4 | Get more weapons, to kill? That’s bats (8) |
REARMICE – REARM=get more weapons, ICE=to kill. I’d never heard of ‘rearmice’, but it is indeed an archaic name for bats. | |
5 | Difficulty presumably felt by crowned head? (6) |
UNEASE – uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Henry IV, Part II. I read the clue carefully to convince myself the answer should be a noun: so, unease, not uneasy. | |
6 | Pass winter quietly, ordering herb tea in (9) |
HIBERNATE – anagram (ordering) of HERB TEA IN. | |
7 | Manage to get eyestrain? (7) |
OVERSEE – nice pun. Use your eyes too much and look out! | |
8 | Take heroin, Charlie and ecstasy, and (magically) Puff! (5,3,6) |
CHASE THE DRAGON – in my innocence, I didn’t know this expression. CHAS=abbreviation for Charles, E=ecstasy, Puff=THE (magic) DRAGON. Puff the Magic Dragon was sung by Peter, Paul and Mary. Peter wrote the song. | |
14 | Right muff of a military formation? (9) |
REARGUARD – R=right, EARGUARD=muff. | |
16 | Who mixed colour to make trouble? (3-3-2) |
HOW-D’YE-DO – HOW = anagram (mixed) of WHO, DYE=colour, DO=make. | |
18 | Ship leaving the north carrying one scientist (7) |
GALILEO – GALLEO(n) ‘carrying’ I. | |
20 | Old bombs in possibly poor condition (7) |
PROVISO – V1 was the old (WWII) bomb. So, two VIS in an anagram (possibly) of POOR. | |
21 | Successive top marks for Olympian (6) |
ATHENA – a goddess, not an athlete. Her marks were A, THEN A. | |
23 | A bit of bread is not much comfort? (5) |
CRUMB – a crumb of comfort, as the saying goes. |
I think it was the slightly unusual (in a good way) style of clueing that held me up most.
“Annabel Lee” was Poe’s last poem and has been oft anthologized and sometimes included as well, I’d guess, in textbooks. Wikipedia notes that it was an inspiration for Nabokov, especially in Lolita, and the list of adaptations there is quite extensive.
Thanks, Bruce for the blog and for explaining ‘jolly’ in 25ac. I thought, first, of ‘jolly’ referring to the Royal Marines and wondered how that fitted in.
I agree that the phrase in 19ac should be ‘so help me God’.
Didn’t know that about FORD MADOX BROWN!
NUBIA in 11ac puts me in mind of Alan Coren’s “Bulletins of Idi Amin” wherein he sometimes referred to “de damn’d Nubians”.
Plenty of ear worms in TULSA in 24ac: Eric Clapton’s version of “Tulsa Time”, “Tulsa Queen” by Emmylou Harris and the ridiculously titled “24hrs from Tulsa by Gene Pitney. Even in in the early to mid 60s you could be just about anywhere in the world and still be only 24hrs from Tulsa.
Another ear worm in CHASE THE DRAGON. I know the phrase from the Steely Dan song “Time out of Mind”.
In 22ac I spent too long wanting the emissary to be nuncio.
In this puzzle we had WHOOPEE CUSHION. The previous week we had SCATTER CUSHION.
FOI HIBERNATE; LOI PROVISO; COD SILENT MAJORITY
Nice surfaces and a good puzzle overall.
What is it about Tulsa?
Edited at 2021-01-30 07:32 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-01-30 08:07 am (UTC)
I went the wrong way with 1dn, taking “in units” to be inside two 1s=Is giving ILENT MAJORI with apparently part of the clue (all in pigs place) missing. An example of why it’s so great to have the blog to come to. Many thanks.
I did know FORD MADOX BROWN, but not strongly enough to stop myself rejecting it at first on the basis that there can’t possibly be two people called FORD MADOX SOMETHING. I wasn’t helped by having, for too long, the T from CRUST instead of the B from CRUMB.
And REARMICE, for heaven’s sake! At least the wordplay delivered it. COD PROVISO, not difficult but somehow satisfying. An enjoyable workout.
FOI LANDSCAPE
LOI ATHENA
COD JIGSAW
TIME 10:44
This needed several sessions and a lot of hard work but I got there eventually. Not sure what was last in as I went online halfway through.
DNK ANNABEL. I think HOW D’YE DO was last in needing all the checkers. UNEASE and REARMICE depended on the cryptic and guesswork.
I liked this as the unknowns to me were indicated by the cryptics, in other words, as it should be. And liked the JIGSAW clue.
David
Chambers lists SO HELP ME as a variant on the version with God on the end, and it didn’t worry me. So help me, I’ll stick to that opinion whatever you may say!
I don’t think I know ANNABEL LEE as a poe/m, but the name was nonetheless familiar. Wife/sister of Laurie? One of Betjemen’s fancies? Some folk song? Unresolved while solving, as the wordplay was neat.
CHASING THE DRAGON is also the title of an unusually inspiring book about one woman’s faith inspired crusade against drug addiction in Hong Kong, which is where I think I knew the phrase and what it meant.
Thanks B for a thorough blog with some apposite added extra details.
Edited at 2021-01-30 12:50 pm (UTC)
What’s wrong with Saturdays? At least it only took me a few minutes to absorb all the comments, and 50 on the puzzle. Mainly of interest was Gene Pitney, who didn’t do it for me, as my Dad liked him!Teenagers!
Mr. Browndog seems to be out of sorts.
FOI 23dn CRUMB
LOI 15ac LAXEST
COD 25ac FORD MADOX BROWN who was known.
WOD 24ac TULSA – I liked the way it was 24 – nice one Setta!
Edited at 2021-01-30 06:11 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-01-30 07:28 pm (UTC)