Even in the FT there’s no escaping the 50th anniversary of …
… Love Me Do. So plenty of unclued Beatlesiana here, plus, I’m sure, a few allusions that I’ve missed. A pretty good puzzle, leaving aside the loveable mop-tops: a nice mixture, and some first-class surfaces.
ACROSS
1. THE BEATLES Anagram of late within the bes(t) [number one]
7. HA-HA Hidden in dacHA HAs
9. JUNG N(ight) within jug [gaol]
10. REX Hidden in oveREXcited
11. CREAMY (Trifl)e within cram [stuff] + (sherr)y
12. MARTIN Rt [right] within main [first] – George Martin was the Beatles’ producer
13. CLEAN-CUT Anagram of bouncy castle minus the letters of boys
14. WELLBEING Be [is] within wellington [boot] minus ton [weight]
16. CAGE C [Catholic] + age [times]
18. SPED PE [Physical Education, gym] within SD [South Dakota]
20. QUARRYMEN Quarry [target] + men [soldiers] – this was the Beatles’ original name
24. LOVE ME DO Love [emotion] + anagram of demo to give the Beatles’s first single
25. EXCESS Anagram of Essex C [Conservative]
27. CAVERN Cave [Latin for beware, warning] + RN [Royal Navy, sailors] – the Cavern Club in Liverpool was where the Beatles made their name
28. IDO Looks like I do [wedding vow]
29. ABED A + BEd [Bachelor of Education, graduate]
30. BEST Double definition, alluding to Pete Best, the Beatles’ first drummer
31. ENTREATING Anagram of argentine t [time]
DOWN
2. HAULAGE Reversal of gal [US girl] within Ha(g)ue [Tory minister William]
3. BEGET Cryptic definition, with father as a verb, not a noun
4. ARRANGER Arran [Scottish island] + ger [German, one in Hamburg (see 8dn.)]
5. LEXICON XI [eleven, side, team] + co [company] within Len [boy’s name]
6. SECRET Cr [credit] within reversal of Tees [river]
7. HUE AND CRY Anagram of handy cure
8. HAMBURG Ham [amateur] + reversal of grub [food] – the Beatles played a series of gigs in Hamburg before they were famous
15. LODGEMENT Lodge [shelter] + (regi)ment [army unit]
17. FREE LOVE Free [unattached] + love [darling] – an allusion to the Beatles’ hippy phase?
19. PROFANE Prof [teacher] + a + n [new] + e(nquiry)
21. UTOPIST Anagram of its up to (the allusion is to Thomas More’s Utopia)
22. EPSTEIN EP [Extended Play, record] + anagram of I sent – Brian Epstein was the Beatles’ first manager
23. MEANIE Mean [intend] + alternate letters of fIrE – the Blue Meanies were the villains in the Beatles’ film Yellow Submarine
26. CHART Ch [check] + art [talent] – one last Beatles reference to finish
Many thanks Ringo, you are a real STARR!
This was very enjoyable so many thanks to Hamilton.
This is a brilliant puzzle from Hamilton and I am sorry that it has received so little recognition. My heart sinks when I see the words “anniversary puzzle” but, even I could not miss this, especially when the enumeration of the entry clue led to Love Me Do. I thought it would be a doddle but I struggled to finish because some clues were undefined and quite tangential such as those for Hamburg and Cavern. Thanks Hamilton, and thanks to Ringo. Was that one of Hamilton’s tangential clues? Did he know that it was your day to blog?
Sorry I’m late posting, but many thanks Ringo for your blog and Bryan and Lenny for your comments. I had a lot of fun setting this and I specifically chose 11 October because that was the day Love Me Do entered the charts, as opposed to the release date fifty years ago last Thursday which was the focus of the media attention. Lenny @ 2 – I partially defined some of the themed clues because I thought The Beatles’ early history was pretty well known, and yes, I knew it was likely that Ringo would blog the puzzle, but my early attempts to get all four names in failed, and I settled for the group name at 1 across instead.