(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) The last couple of answers to be entered proved to be a challenge. Thanks to Nutmeg. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Dedicated traveller dismal after border setback (7)
PILGRIM : GRIM(dismal) placed after(after) reversal of(… setback) LIP(the border;the edge of).
5 Old woman‘s predicament on following us (7)
FUSSPOT : SPOT(a predicament;an awkward situation, as in “the question put him on the spot”) placed after(on) F(abbrev. for “following”) + US.
9 Trip over in bowler’s approach (3-2)
RUN-UP : RUN(a trip, say, in your motorcar) + UP(over;finished, as in “the game’s up”).
10 Killing man’s heading off back — beat it! (5,4)
SNARE DRUM : Reversal of(… back) [MURDER(a killing) + “man’s” minus its 1st letter(… heading off) ].
Defn: An instrument that is beaten.
11, 24 Marked beast, much loved, taken round Britain on display (10,4)
SPECTACLED BEAR : [ DEAR(refering to someone or thing that is much loved) containing(taken round) B(abbrev. for Britain) ] placed after(on) SPECTACLE(a display, especially a showy one).
12 Private sector’s tax (3)
VAT : Hidden in(… sector) “Private“.
Answer: Abbrev. for Value Added Tax.
14 Capital market‘s amount of business conducted before alleged scandal? (12)
BILLINGSGATE : BILLINGS(a measure of goods and services sold;the amount of business conducted) plus(before) -GATE(the suffix used to indicated an alleged scandal, originating from the Watergate scandal).
Defn: Fish market in the capital city of London.
18 Force rodent outside small flat (12)
CONSTABULARY : CONY(or coney;rabbit, a mammal which shares a common lineage with rodents) containing(outside) [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + TABULAR(flat like a, well, table surface) ].
Defn: A force consisting of, well, constables and the like.
21 Female animal almost turned into a male (3)
RAM : Reversal of(almost turned) “mare”(a female animal) minus its last letter(… almost).
Defn: … animal.
22 Construction worker‘s course? (10)
BRICKLAYER : Cryptic defn: A course in a (brick) wall consists of a horizontal layer of bricks.
25 Being a member, where one expects to be? (2,3,4)
IN THE CLUB : Double defn: 1st: … of a club; and 2nd: Expression indicating a woman is pregnant;expecting, as in “they just found out that she was in the club”, or more expressively, “in the pudding club”.
26 Raised bank within garden’s borders (5)
GROWN : ROW(a bank of similar things) contained in(within) the 1st and last letters of(…’s borders) “garden“.
27 Screen man who rides again bearing old dispatch (7)
DESTROY : DESTRY(Tom, Jr., the onscreen character in the Western movie, “Destry Rides Again”) containing(bearing) O(abbrev. for “old”).
Defn: …, as a verb.
28 Missile destroyed depot storing gold (7)
TORPEDO : Anagram of(destroyed) DEPOT containing(storing) OR(the colour yellow; gold in heraldry).
Down
1 Expression shows the effects of strain on air (6)
PHRASE : Homophone of(… on air) “frays”(shows the effects of strain, as in “it doesn’t take much to fray his temper”)
2 Ran through church in country (6)
LANCED : CE(abbrev. for the Church of England) contained in(in) LAND(a country).
3 Agent worried about reduced hearing to return home (10)
REPATRIATE : REP(short for “representative”;an agent) + ATE(worried, as in “his self-doubt ate at him”) containing(about) “trial”(a hearing in court) minus its last letter(… reduced).
Defn: … to one’s own country.
4 Series of notes reflecting one problem with chapter (5)
MUSIC : [ Reversal of(reflecting) [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + SUM(an arithmetical problem) ] plus(with) C(abbrev. for “chapter”).
5 Value our sailors in river like brothers (9)
FRATERNAL : [ RATE(to place a value on) + RN(abbrev. for the Royal Navy, consisting of British sailors) ] containing(in) FAL(the river in Cornwall).
6 Keep back support (4)
STEM : Double defn: 1st: As in “to stem the tide of illegal immigrants”; and 2nd: The supporting stalk.
7 South American jockey in rave-up (8)
PERUVIAN : Anagram of(jockey) IN RAVE-UP.
8 Salad items needed: cooked meats, too (8)
TOMATOES : Anagram of(cooked) MEATS, TOO.
13 Forecaster who goes round the houses? (10)
ASTROLOGER : Cryptic defn: A “predictor” of the future with the help of the 12 houses;divisions of the celestial sphere depicted on the astrological chart.
15 Baron in story meeting magnanimously (9)
LIBERALLY : B(abbrev. for “Baron”) contained in(in) LIE(a story;a fabrication) + RALLY(a mass meeting in protest or in support of a cause).
16 Scrambled last of eggs, highly seasoned (8)
SCURRIED : The last letter of(last of) “eggs” + CURRiED(of food that is highly seasoned with hot spices).
17 Elevated resilience, energy-packed, is inspiring (8)
ANIMATES : Reversal of(Elevated, in a down clue) STAMINA(resilience;staying power) containing(…-packed) E(abbrev. for “energy” in physics).
19 Previous drink knocked back amid cheers (6)
BYGONE : Reversal of(… knocked back) NOG(formerly, a kind of strong beer, or short for “eggnog” an alcoholic drink with beaten egg, milk and sugar) contained in(amid) BYE(short for “goodbye”;cheers! as said when leaving).
20 Expert locks up old books without delay (6)
PRONTO : PRO(short for “professional”;an expert) containing(locks up) [ O(abbrev. for “old”) + NT(abbrev. for the New Testament books in the Bible).
23 Copper coin couple found in yard, perhaps, long ago (5)
CUBIT : CU(abbrev. for the element copper in chemistry) + BIT(a coin of low value, as in “thrupp’ny bit” or threepence in British currency pre-decimalisation.
Defn: A unit measure, long ago, of length of about 18 inches, two of which could therefore be found in a yard length, the equivalent of 36 inches.
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The following pictures have unidentified links to the puzzle (its NOT MUSIC for the last 2 pics).
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.)
and I guess it’s not BILLINGSGATE for Pic.1
nor, for that matter, RUN-UP for Pic.3
Pic.1, an “oyster” seems to form part of the SNARE DRUM
Pic 6- The Gershwin song “lets call the whole thing off” was sung by Astaire & Rogers (in Shall We Dance), and features the word TOMATOES
pic 5 – since the items look a bit Chinese, and there are 16 years in Chinese astrology, I’m guessing a link to ASTROLOGY
pic 1 – there is a variety of oyster called rock, and that is a type of MUSIC
pic 1: Oysters are said to be aphrodisiacs as are TOMATOES
pic 4 is Sydney Olympics. Paddington is a suburb of Sydney, and is the name of a PERUVIAN BEAR
Pic 4, Old BILLINGSGATE Market was the French House for the Olympic games
Another one for pic 4. The most successful athlete was swimmer Ian Thorpe, known as the “torpedo”, a corruption of TORPEDO
sorry – spellcheck again. His nickname was “thorpedo”
Pic 5, what can this be, there are 16 “discs”, not 12 as for the “houses” in ASTROLOGY, Korea and some other eastern countries have alternative signs for the Zodiac, could one of these be RAM?
Pic 5, in fact Japanese Zodiac, 10 STEMS, 12 branches
To Cookie@13, not Japanese Zodiac, they are Chinese chess pieces but I haven’t figured out the connection to the puzzle.
And pic 3 is steroid-fuelled Ben Johnson defeating Carl Lewis but also no connection I can see.
Shirl@8 – great guess! Some of these answers have as many indirections and your connections are spot on.
HKrunner @14, so they are, stacked on top of each other, well spotted.
Pic 5, in PTLGRIM chess one or two spare pieces are put aside for each player.
Shirl, well done – you’ve got TOMATOES (tomahtoes;tomaytoes) and ThORPEDO.
And that is Ben Johnson in Pic3, and chess and its variants is an international game.
HKrunner @ 15 thanks but we shall see when scchua gives his answers. I use the Infinite Number Of Monkeys Technique, giving loads of answers in the hope of getting one right.
Pic 5, there is the PERUVIAN immortal chess game…
Cookie@20, you’re heading in the wrong direction.
Pic 7 (wild stab coming up) a connection between Louis Armstrong and LANCE(D) the cyclist?
Shirl, there are two in Pic7.
Sorry scchua, spot of weeding
The pic is Satchmo and Ella Fitzgerald. Professor Google tells me there is a cyclist called Matt Fitzgerald
After midnight here so I give up once again. I wish these were more in reach – nice idea but I find them impossible.
There are 2 duos.
#7 – all-time jazz greats Pops & Ella – whose (fictional) relationship in the song Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off might have foundered on the difference in their pronunciations of TOMATOES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIYS9EQWkXg
in fact the pic there looks to be the same one.
Looks like that was already used for #6 – it still fits – but not sure whether we’ve ever had two pics for the same answer before.
Not sure what else is still unsolved.
Pic #5 shows Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) pieces. Comment #5 didn’t get a tick but might be warm – the designs, ancient as they are, having been derived from those used by earlier ASTROLOGERS
One of the piece is known (in western terminology) as an advisor – maybe they were ASTROLOGERS.
Scchua would never give us something as obvious as RUN-UP for #3 – I fancy it more for #4 – part the preliminaries (=lead-up = run-up) for the Olympic Games – that triumph of marketing which succeeds (for some – not me) in making track and field events appear interesting.
#1 Oysters are reputed to have aphrodisiacal properties – never worked for me – I find beer works better; the woman has to drink the beer.
I could build several schoolboyish (oops – that’s sexist) connexions to various answers on that – but I refuse to go there.
You’ve got it, Jolly Swagman. Like Fred and Ginger, Ella and Louis sang the “tomahtoes/tomaytoes” song. And I quite often give more than 1 pic to a particular answer. Pic4 was solved by Shirl with Ian the ThORPEDO, highly successful in Sydney 2000.
As for the rest:
Pic1 Those aphrodisiacs, or food of love if you will, together with Shakespeare’s “if MUSIC be the …”
Pic2 George Smiley was featured in John Le Carre’s The Secret PILGRIM
Pic3 Ben Johnson was stripped of his awards, as was LANCE Armstrong, following drug tests
Pic5 In Japanese chess, one of the pieces is called the LANCE.
Thanks scchua
Thanks scchua for the fun – I had been looking at the terms for Japaneses chessmen a week or so back!