Another very convincing guide to the art of writing proper crossword clues, even when you know the temptation for the solver, with the long ones, is to let the wordplay go hang. Very smooth and generally misleading surfaces throughout, together with the occasional exceptional clue that supplies complementary depth, such as 14. Within my almost 40 minutes, I demonstrated an inability to spell in my entry to 10, despite generous wordplay that should have made it impossible, possibly confused by a side thought, wondering if the indicated Germaine does the TLS (I do hope she does) and how she might react to the surface of the clue. A boomerang across the bows, perhaps?
Reverie aside, here’s how to put all the right answers in, with comment and the usual clue, definition and SOLUTION coding.
Across
1. A bishop visiting an isle south of Harris and Lewis (7)
CARROLL A Bishop qualifies as A Right Reverend, and COLL is indeed an Island (some considerable way) south of Lewis and Harris, the normal designation reversed to misdirect us from the immortal creator of Alice.
5. Who wrote of Sam McGee’s funeral for example? (7)
SERVICE in this case Robert W, whose “Cremation of Sam McGee” is as fine a piece of rum-ti-tum poetry as you’ll ever see. Funeral does a touch of double duty, but ‘tis an elegant clue.
9. What’s inside pills passed around frequently outside a party (5,2,8)
TABLE OF CONTENTS Matrioshka time: CON(servative) party inside OFTEN frequently inside TABLETS pills. Hold up your hand and swear you paused to parse.
10. English university rings one abroad to check Germaine’s female (6)
EUNUCH The bits are E(nglish) UN, one in, say, French, U(niversity) and CH(eck). Germaine is Greer, and her seminal feminist work the Female Eunuch. I of course, spelt it with an O: that, and being male, was my mistake. Happily, Germaine has not (yet) fallen victim to 2016 syndrome and lives near Saffron Walden
11. Sentence say, without appeal, is able to be extended (8)
STRETCHY Not a homophone clue: the SAY is there, without its (S(ex)) A(ppeal) only to provide the Y after STRETCH for sentence.
13. Unions kept secret suggestions about work (10)
ELOPEMENTS In Chamber’s Thesaurus, I got to suggestions=ELEMENTS via hint, as in an element of truth. Anyway, insert OP for the Gretna Green getaways.
14. A knight’s mate in between idylls (4)
ENID is the much-put-upon wife of Sir Geraint in the Arthur legends, hidden in betweEN IDylls. The pretty conceit of this clue is that it’s a précis of the story, which began and ended in happiness with a lot of nastiness in between.
16. Old poems recalled summer almost (4)
EDDA Your summer is ADDER, which reaches not its end and suffers reversal.
17. Mum stops drink reaching her boy: he had over 80 cases! (5,5)
PERRY MASON. MA gets between PERRY (such as Babycham, other revoltingly sweet drinks are available) and her SON. Black and white courtroom dramas on one channel 9” TV
20. Title of Tremain’s sparsest novel (8)
TRESPASS by Rose Tremain, 2010, and a novel version of sparsest. Another non-victim of 2016, Rose lives in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich.
21. Saint hosts an old group, gathering for devil worship (6)
SABBAT Also not dead yet are ᗅᗺᗷᗅ, providing the filling for S(ain)T for a witches’/pagans’ convention. Berlioz’s version is simply Fantastique.
23. Sapper hero (kind of) clips drill to two short days (7,8)
BULLDOG DRUMMOND Again, holdup your hand and swear you paused to parse. For the record: BULLDOG is a “kind of clip”, DRUM is drill (had it drummed into me in cadet corps) Mon is one day, D the other. Herman Cyril McNeile, MC created the gentleman adventurer in 1920.
24. Who made up Harry Devlin’s last 2 of 8 charges? (7)
EDWARDS Martin Edwards made up Liverpool detective Harry Devlin. I made up EDWARDS from the last two letters of entry 8, ED and WARDS for charges. Martin escapes 2016 syndrome by living in Lymm, Cheshire.
25. Part-time chemist is miles off turning tungsten into diamonds (7)
FARADAY Miles off is FARAWAY, tungsten is W(olfram), which you convert into D(iamonds). Faraday is a part-time chemist in the same way that Leonardo da Vinci is a part-time painter.
Down
1. Middle-of-the-road Atwood book? (4,3)
CAT’S EYE by Margaret Attwood (another 2016 survivor, lives in Toronto). And the celebrated invention of Percy Shaw, of course.
2. A sprite, wood elf or goblin originally (5,10)
ROBIN GOODFELLOW How to do an anagram, everybody. Every word fits the theme.
3. Play that’s short of a certain vocal performer (3-5)
ONE ACTER Split the clue properly, and after a certain ONE, listen to ACTOR. Still looks wrong written down.
4. A sentence in an old magazine (4)
LIFE A double definition. Life magazine has been through several incarnations since 1883, which I guess qualifies it as old. It lives on at Life.com. I treasure the August 1969 edition, which features the spectacular Apollo 11 photographs, more than making up for those wonderful but foggy TV pictures.
5. Pants with blue yarn, but no embroidery? (5,5)
SHORT STORY Pay attention. Pants is/are emphatically not “rubbish”, nor long trousers except across the pond. They are SHORTS, as in “boxer”. A TORY is politically blue. Assemble to match a fancy definition.
6. Port mother left out for Coe’s club mate (6)
ROTTER This could be Rotterdam or anywhere (in this case just Rotterdam) with the DAM mother missing. The Rotter’s Club is Jonathan Coe’s 2001 creation. 2016 status: unclaimed, living in London.
7. More than one new pilgrim turned into an absconder (9,6)
INNOCENTS ABROAD “or The New Pilgrims’ Progress” by Mark Twain, and if you need it, an anagram “turned” of the rest of the clue. 2016 status: let’s not be silly.
8. Tried scattering seed around perhaps? (7)
ESSAYED How to mess with a veteran crossword solver’s brain. Use “perhaps” to indicate just “SAY”. Scatter SEED around it
12. Olympic sport a long time after Thales, Chilon, et al (5,5)
SEVEN SAGES The et al were Pittacus, Bias, Solon, Cleobulus, and Myson.
Sevens (Rugby) became an Olympic Sport this year, and hopefully will be for AGES after.
15. Gantry holding up a medicine graduate such as cured Lincoln? (8)
EMBALMER A slightly ghoulish definition. Gantry provides ELMER from the 1926 Sinclair Lewis novel and the more famous (I’ve seen it!) 1960 film, inside which place A B(achelor) of M(edicine) “held up”.
16. Briefly go into decline over an African town … (7)
ENTEBBE Repays careful division of the clue. Briefly go into ENTEr, decline EBB, which must be reversed “over”. Scene of one of the all time great rescue missions.
18. … famously old, spread out and left in a state! (7)
NOTEDLY O(ld) TED for spread out (hay to dry), L(eft) all inside NY state.
19. Maybe Shelob’s one like the rest, but taller (6)
SPIDER No problem if you know Tolkien’s arachnid, or that in snooker a spider is a rest with long legs to support the cue above an intervening ball. Pleasingly, Tolkien’s arachnid was also normal except for its size.
22. He scored runs in a cricket side (4)
ORFF Karl, who scored Carmina Burana, which I will be singing next All Fools’ Day, derived here from R(un) in OFF, both cricket terms.
Thanks, Z,especially for the elaboration of the ENID clue, Enid being one of many Arthurian characters to have passed me by.
Thanks for your comments. I am really grateful for your support over my debut year. It is very valuable, especially in trying to gauge the degree of difficulty.
I wish you a very happy new year.
Bob