Solving time 25 minutes
Quite a lively puzzle with a wide range of clue structures that include only one anagram. There's a levening of general knowledge required but no real obscurities with the possible exception of "quint" that should be familiar to card-playing anoraks. Good to see a mention for Alan Turing, to whom a lot of people owe a great deal.
Quite a lively puzzle with a wide range of clue structures that include only one anagram. There's a levening of general knowledge required but no real obscurities with the possible exception of "quint" that should be familiar to card-playing anoraks. Good to see a mention for Alan Turing, to whom a lot of people owe a great deal.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | POSTMISTRESS - POST-MI-STRESS; after motorway journey=POST MI; |
| 9 | TURIN - TURIN(g); reference the immortal Alan Turing 1912-1954 code breaker extraordinaire; |
| 10 | RIDGE-POLE - RID(G)E-POLE; |
| 11 | MANDALAY - (a)MANDA-LAY; where Kipling's road goes to; |
| 12 | QUAINT - QU(A)INT - a five card sequence in piquet is a QUINT; |
| 13 | COCK-EYED - CO(C-KEY)ED; clubs=C; COED=school; |
| 15 | LARVAE - LA(R)VA-E(ndanger); |
| 17 | AMERCE - A-MERCE(r); |
| 18 | WATERLOO - W(ATE-R-L)OO; |
| 20 | TENNER - note=TENNER (ten pounds); sounds like "tenor"; |
| 21 | BOOK-REST - B(O-OK)REST; over=O; right=OK; BREST is a French naval base on the coast of Brittany; |
| 24 | CONDUCIVE - plot="connive" then replace "n"=knight by DUC=French nobleman; |
| 25 | NIECE - NI-(t)E(a)C(h)E(s); NI=Northern Ireland=province; |
| 26 | TRAIN-SPOTTER - T(RAINS-P)OTTER; an anorak is somebody who has a dull and unsociable hobby; Begbie's father's question of his son; |
| Down | |
| 1 | POTOMAC - PO-TO-(CAM reversed); |
| 2 | SPRING-CLEANING - SPRING-C(hars)-LEANING; |
| 3 | deliberately omitted - if puzzled seek help in the usual manner; |
| 4 | SERRATED - SE(R-RAT)ED; |
| 5 | RIDE - RID-(hous)E; answer used in 10A; |
| 6 | SPECULATE - ("use past clue" without "us")*; |
| 7 | NON-INVOLVEMENT - NON-(INVOLVE(d))-MEN-T(rue); women=NON MEN; |
| 8 | GENTLE - GENT-L(ikeabl)E; |
| 14 | EXCHEQUER - EX-CHEQUER(s); Chequers is the PM's official residence at the foot of the Chilterns; |
| 16 | BARONESS - BAR-ONE-SS; start to composition=BAR ONE; ship=SS; |
| 17 | ATTACK - A-T(T)ACK; |
| 19 | OUTWEAR - OUT-WEAR; not allowed=OUT; the Wear is a well known river in Durham; |
| 22 | KENDO - hidden (bro)KEN DO(or); Japanese sword fighting; |
| 23 | GIGI - GI-GI; 1958 movie starring Leslie Caron with music by Lerner and Loewe; |
Comments
There was a fascinating TV documetary some years ago in which he participated that went into all this and his wartime activities and this encouraged me to read his autobiography Between Silk & Cyanide.
There was a new TV documentary about the SOE on the History Channel last night of which so far I've watched the first hour but his name hasn't come up yet. He used to set Times cryptics.
Sadly we know hardly anything about the early days setters other than Adrian Bell and Ronald Carton (the first xwd editor - the information about him in the 75th anniversary book strongly implies that he set puzzles). In the BBC One Show item with Mark Goodliffe a few months ago, there was a tantalising shot of a crossword in an archive copy of the paper, with "Adrian Bell" written next to the puzzle as if the accounts department might have used these copies to calculate payments to setters. If that little guess is right, someone could at least collect their names.
http://www.64-baker-street.org/organisa
Anyway, looking forward to reading it.
And thanks to the bloggers btw - I read you every day even if I don't often have anything to add :)
I've seldom been so grateful to a blog as this time, having solved the puzzle without figuring out WHY e.g. 'serrated', 'Waterloo', 'cockeyed', and--I blush to admit--'Turin' were the solutions. If one can call that solving.