Like London buses, you wait ages for an Imogen Prize puzzle to blog, and then two come along in quick order… Lucky me…this one is a treat…
…with some quirky clue types, neat surface reads and a wide range of references, from Shakespeare’s Verona VALENTINE to ‘WALTZ’ Disney; Babylonian King BELSHAZZAR to US President Calvin COOLIDGE; horror movies (Texas CHAINSAW Massacre) to pantomime’s Cinderella (RAGS TO RICHES); David’s Psalms to modern day homosexual slang (POLARI).
In terms of clues, there was:
- a one-word clue – ‘Whippet?’ for CAT. I used to refer to this type as a ‘lift-and-separate’ clue, but I used to get told off for that, so I am trying a new coinage – ‘divide-and-conquer’!
- a triple-definition with wordplay for TURN
- a mid-clue definition for ORFE
Too many goodies to pick any favourite clue, but contenders include: the surface read of 1A LIONESSES; the image of GOYA cycling whilst doing Yoga backwards at 25D; the Gentleman of Verona receiving a VALENTINE card at 12A…I’m sure many solvers will have others on their ‘tick lists’.
I scanned the grid a few times for any Nina/theme-ette, but couldn’t really make anything stick – a smart ALEC might GET WISE TO something?; a COOL(idge) Jazz CAT might play a RAG on a THEORBO and buy RECORDS?…if there is something, then someone more observant and in tune will probably mention it below…
My thanks to Imogen for yet another high quality and enjoyable puzzle, and I hope all is clear below.
[I will, as usual, be playing some mediocre golf on Saturday morning, so will monitor from afar but probably won’t be able to come back to any comments until late afternoon – I am sure the usual community spirit will help to clear up any quibbles or questions…]
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 9A | LIONESSES | Football team 1-1 after leading at first, idiots missing header (9)
L (Leading, at first) + I ONE (one – one!) + ( |
| 10A | USHER | Old teacher’s pronouns (5)
US + HER (two pronouns) [Chambers has usher as ‘historic’, so ‘old’, for teacher] |
| 11A | CHAOS | Charlie brings in bowl for dog’s dinner (5)
CHA_S (Charlie) around (bringing in) O (round letter, bowl?) |
| 12A | VALENTINE | Card for One Gentleman of Verona (9)
double defn. – a VALENTINE is an example of a card; and one of Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ is called VALENTINE! |
| 13A | THIN AIR | Feature of High Peak in which to disappear (4,3)
double defn. – if you climb a high peak you might find THIN AIR; and people/things can metaphorically vanish into THIN AIR |
| 14A | IMPOSED | Imogen’s model daughter required to be paid (7)
IM (I am, contracted, from our setter Imogen’s point of view) + POSE (model) + D (daughter) |
| 17A | WALTZ | Dance music from Disney on air (5)
homophone, i.e. on air – if something belongs to or is created by Walt Disney, it could be WALT’S xxx, which can sound like WALTZ |
| 19A | CAT | Whippet? (3)
a divide and conquer clue – divide WHIPPET into WHIP and PET and it becomes a double defn…a CAT can be a lash, or whip; and a CAT can also be a pet |
| 20A | NEWEL | Changing hands, more recent post (5)
NEWE( |
| 21A | THEORBO | Boot her out? There are strings attached to that (7)
anag, i.e. out, of BOOT HER |
| 22A | RECORDS | Regularly take free measures of wood cut as logs (7)
RE (regular letters from fReE) + CORDS (measures of – 128 cubic feet of – cut wood) |
| 24A | SWINGEING | Huge energy in description of 60s London (9)
SWING_ING (description of 1960’s London!) around E (energy) |
| 26A | LOCAL | A number in the vicinity (5)
double defn. – a LOCAL anaesthetic could be described as a numb-er; and anything in one’s vicinity is LOCAL |
| 28A | WISPY | Flimsy Caribbean agent (5)
WI (West Indies, loosely the Caribbean) + SPY (agent) |
| 29A | GET WISE TO | See to twig confused for a different twig (3,4,2)
anag, i.e. confused, of SEE TO TWIG |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | ALEC | Total eclipse enthralling smart guy (4)
hidden word in, i.e. enthralled by, totAL EClipse’ |
| 2D | POLARI | Star’s name shortened, in slang (6)
POLARI( [Polari being an English slang brought back by sailors from the 16th C onwards, partly surviving in modern male homosexual slang – from italian ‘parlare’ – to speak] |
| 3D | BELSHAZZAR | Feasting king has a small herbal brew, interrupted by short nap? (10)
BELSHA_AR (anag, i.e. brew, of A + S (small) + HERBAL) around (interrupted by) ZZ (cartoon representation of sleep, a longer sleep might be ZZZZ!) [not Balthazzar, as your blogger originally – and lazily – entered!] |
| 4D | AS EVER | Like the usual answer (part) (2,4)
A (answer) + S_EVER (part) |
| 5D | PSALMIST | For one, David succeeded opening a handy reader (8)
P_ALMIST (hand reader) around (opened by) S (succeeded, genealogy) |
| 6D | TURN | Opportunity coming round to change colour, artist has no hesitation (4)
(JMW) TURN( [this clue has three definitions! – opportunity (e.g. my turn); coming round (e.g. turn a corner); to change colour (e.g. turn green)] |
| 7D | CHAINSAW | Round hospital, murderer noticed massacre weapon that was filmed (8)
C_AIN (biblical murderer) around H (hospital) + SAW (noticed) [weapon filmed in ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’!…] |
| 8D | ORFE | Penalty would be fit, if this swimmer knocked out (4)
F-ORFE-IT (penalty) removing (knocking out) ORFE (fish, this swimmer) leaves FIT [a rare-ish example of a clue where the definition is not at either end…] |
| 13D | TO WIT | In other words, what to do with broken-down car (2,3)
if your car breaks down you might need to TOW IT! |
| 15D | PENICILLIN | Writer covering India with nothing about treatment for infection (10)
PEN_CIL (writer) around (covering) I (India), plus LIN (nil, nothing, about) |
| 16D | DOLES | Mostly ease off work, getting handouts (5)
if you ease off work you might DO LES( |
| 18D | LEERIEST | More wary than anyone of lake, most unearthly (8)
L (lake) + EERIEST (most unearthly) |
| 19D | COOLIDGE | Calvin’s business giving off bad smell gets halved (8)
CO (company, business) + OLID (giving off bad smell) + GE (half of GEts) [US President, Calvin Coolidge] |
| 22D | RAGS TO (RICHES) | & 23 Chorister sang out, missing note in the story of Cinderella (4,2,6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. out, of CHORISTER SA( |
| 23D | RICHES | See 22D (6)
see 22D |
| 24D | SEWN | Stitched up by all the cardinals (4)
SEWN is made up of the four cardinal points of the compass! |
| 25D | GOYA | Artist’s ascetic discipline: cycling backwards (4)
YOG( |
| 27D | LOOM | Come close, perhaps threatening weaver (4)
double defn. – to LOOM can mean to come close, often in a threatening way; and a LOOM is a weaving machine |
A bit of a slow burn. I managed to finish eventually with ORFE and DOLES unparsed. ORFE was a hard clue for an unusual word. OLID, ORFE, THEORBO and USHER (as teacher) were new to me though achievable from the clues. I enjoyed the obscure references which I did get. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I was defeated by ORFE, which was an obscure answer on top of an obscure construction.
Tough as always for me when it is Imogen but satisfying to (eventually) solve albeit with help. Couldn’t parse ORFE, COOLIDGE, TURN.
Liked: SEWN, WISPY, TO WIT, THIN AIR, CHAINSAW, LOOM
Thanks Imogen and mc_rapper67
My faves: LIONESSES, CHAOS (bowl=O used before, I think), BELSHAZZAR, TURN, ORFE and DOLES.
GET WISE TO
I think it’s a CAD.
(‘a different twig’ is nounal whereas the solution is verbal)
Thanks Imogen and mc_rapper67
Vaguely remembered usher as teacher, probably from Dickens, and did the nho theorbo via the instructions, but had absy no idea about orfe, so a dnf. Likes the odd bit of arcane or erudite, does Imogen. Fun though, thx to him and rapper.
Just finished. Very enjoyable but as expected of Imogen, not easy. Held up at the end by PSALMIST, BELSHAZZAR and my last in ORFE (even though I’d cottoned on to the def not being at either end) but other tricky ones along the way including ‘Whippet?’ (you probably wouldn’t see that in The Times!) and the rarely (if ever) spotted triple def plus wordplay TURN.
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Imogen
Imogen at their very best, with many clever and entertaining clues. Just about every clue was a favourite, but especially 9a LIONESSES (readable surface), 11a CHAOS (“bowl…dog’s dinner”), 19a CAT (clever one-word fission(?)), 22a RECORDS (“wood…logs”), 28a WISPY (“Caribbean agent”), 29a GET WISE TO (“twig…twig”), 1d ALEC (“Total eclipse”), 15d PENICILLIN (wordplay), 25d GOYA (cycling combined with reversal)
For 10a USHER I had MEHER, having found reference to Meher Baba, old Indian spiritual master, which led to the usual Tracey EMIN as the artist at 6d, unparsed, so dnf
NHO 24a SWINGEING, 2d POLARI, 8d ORFE, but all gettable
Couldn’t parse 16d DOLES, 19d COOLIDGE, so thanks mc_rapper67 for the clarification, and for a great blog, and for suggesting RAGtime played on a THEORBO — that I’ve got to hear! 🙂
13a reminded me of INTO THIN AIR, a sad book about a particularly bad climbing season on Everest
Thanks for the blog , LOCAL was clever , number is nearly always ether . ORFE a very neat clue , a sort of inverse subtraction . I have only seen THEORBO in cross
words and reCORDS was new to me as a measure . POLARI was famously used in Round the Horne to avoid BBC censors . CAT an unusual one-word fission as Mig@7 notes .
Mig@7 Meher Baba famously the guru for Pete Townshend and honoured in Baba O’Riley , I would put a link but my IT skills are roo advanced for the primitive version of the internet in use today .
I would have completed this faster if I could spell THEORBO. That mispelling held me up on BELSHAZZAR for ages (irritatingly, I have a few albums by Belshazzar’s Feast and saw them a few times live and when we were children we were called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego by one of my grandmother’s friends, so I looked that one up and absorbed it young).
I’m feeling smug because I did parse ORFE, eventually, yesterday, determined to finish.
Thank you to Imogen and mc_rapper67.
I’m trying to relocate to this weekly puzzle from the Everyman and am finding it a challenge. Base camp has been passed but I’m a long way from the summit. Thanks for the blog it helps!
The problem with 17A is that the T in WALTZ is silent when you pronounce the word. It doesn’t sound like WALT’S. It’s “wolss”.
ORFE & POLARI finally cracked last night after staring at them blankly all week. I’m sure we’ve had POLARI before so kicking myself for not remembering that one sooner
CAT was superb
M@11 I’ve never heard waltz pronounced without the T – maybe it’s a regional thing?
Cheers MC&I
WALTZ
Chambers indicates both options (with and without the t sound).
However, a is more like o. Close enough for a crossword soundalike,
I guess.
I have heard people pronounce the t like the t sound in pizza.
Was I the only one to put FREE instead of ORFE? I couldn’t parse it, of course, apart from the last word of the clue, ‘out’, being the definition. I’d not heard of ORFE, so am not beating myself up about this.
B@12: maybe pronouncing the T in WALTZ is a modern “spelling pronunciation”. My Chambers’s of 1960 and my Collins of 1994 do not include a T in the pronunciation. I could never imagine pronouncing it with one. Try asking an Australian to sing Waltzing Matilda for you.
What a lovely crossword.
Also 13A – to continue the Shakespeare theme “into thin air” come from The Tempest
Excellent puzzle. Favourite by a distance was CAT, but many other good ones.
Realised this morning I hadn’t quite finished, and revealed ORFE though I had heard of the fish (another vg clue).
Regarding pronunciation of WALTZ, the first two Australian versions I found on YouTube (here – recorded 1938) and here both to my ears have a distinct T sound in the word. (If you want to check either, you will of course have to put up with 20 seconds of banal advertising at the start.)
Thanks Imogen and mc_rapper67.
I think TURN has two definitions, not three. Grammatically, “coming round” does not equate to “turn”; I think it attaches to “opportunity”, although arguably it could be omitted altogether. I also had a question mark against “bowl” in the clue to CHAOS.But a great puzzle, so thanks to Imogen and the blogger.
I split the double definition at 12A differently: “card” for “one gentleman of verona”.
A nice weekend workout.
Jorums (jora?): olid, theorbo.
Thanks to Imogen and mc_rapper.
b@17: I accessed the link you kindly provided and it gave me a performance of Waltzing Matilda (from 1938, as you say). I must say that, each time, I didn’t hear any T in Waltzing: for me, the TZ came out as S. I was interested, though, in the slight change from the normal rhythm, with an exra beat after ‘Coolibah tree’ and similar lines.
Like our blogger I had failed to confirm the anagram fodder for 3d, so had an A in the middle of 9a for an awfully long time. Like the whole week.
I had a dozen clues unsolved when I caught my train to Newcastle this morning, and I only completed the puzzle before reaching York because there’s another train broken down in front of mine.
I’m sure I’ve seen ORFE in crosswords, but if I’ve seen THEORBO before then I’d forgotten it. Luckily the crossers and fodder made it solvable. Likewise co(OLID)ge, though not recalling the 30th president until pounding my head on the seat in front of me would have attracted comments on this LNER Azuma, if I hadn’t just made it up.
Thanks to Imogen for a witty and challenging puzzle, and to mc_ for your habitual erudition.
b@17: sorry – I didn’t spot your second link. Just now listened to this other version of Waltzing Matilda. Same result for me, I’m afraid: I hear no T. The rhythm this time, though, is the normal one, with no extra beat ater the Coolibah tree.
Thanks Imogen and mc. Beaten by ORFE and COOLIDGE. I fell for the Balthazzar mistake also.
I made hard work of this but that’s usual for me when tackling Imogen’s crosswords. I liked the AS EVER usual answer, the PSALMIST handy reader, the ORFE swimmer, which I think is one of the usual four-letter crossword fishes, and the broken-down car having to TOW IT. I missed the DO LESS trick for DOLES.
Thanks Imogen and mcr.
This was a good workout. It fitted into my standard “before I get up” Prize slot but there were some chewy bits.
Having had zero trouble with the recent female dentist, I don’t think unconscious bias held me up with LIONESSES, it was more thinking of club names. It was a good and fair clue. It took me a long time to parse LOCAL (I’ve seen a few “numbers” in puzzles this week) and the CAT only sprang out late on. THEORBO was a new one, an ungainly looking thing, not Antagonistic Undecagonstring complex, but a bit unnecessary.
An ideal Prize, I thought. Plenty to get stuck into.
Thanks Imogen and mc_rapper67
I never time myself but had the impression that this took less time than the average Vulcan, perhaps because I had all the necessary GK, except Valentine which I got from the crossers. ORFE crops up occasionally in crosswords and Word Wheels.
As usual with Imogen there was plenty of clever wordplay. Thanks to him and to mc_rapper67
Oh, and COOLIDGE always reminds me of Dorothy Parker’s remark when informed that the famously taciturn President had died “How could they tell?”
Roz@8 I’ve encountered plenty of THEORBOs in the wild, and even know not one but two players personally. Beautiful instrument. The long neck allows it to have a very wide range
Never heard WALTZ pronounced without the T. I guess I don’t get out enough 🙂
I had the same sticking points as many on here, but one by one they fell, and what started as a somewhat vexing puzzle became a very satisfying one to complete.
I don’t think that the definition for ORFE not being at an end is unfair, as the whole clue as read makes it pretty clear where the likely solution is, I’d say.
I assume that POLARI comes from “parlare”, and never realised its actual spelling until the wordplay for the clue forced it on me. It also involved reading a list of the brightest stars…
Cheers one and all.
Big Maz @14. No, you are not the only one to bung in “free” unparsed! Kicking myself that Ginger Tom and I didn’t get orfe as we have a school of them in our pond!
Thank you mc rapper for the excellent blog and Imogen for the workout.
Like Mig #28 I have met and heard a THEORBO player. My crossword brain wants to refer to the instrument as The Orbo, just like another instrument, The Remin.
An enjoyable Prize, though only attempted today and didn’t have bandwidth to invest in it properly to do it justice. The highlight was teasing out CAT without checkers. The NW was where I ran out of time, with CHAOS, POLARI, the nho BELSHAZZAR and the excellent PSALMIST all eluding me. I got the nho ORFE almost immediately though (thanks to its impeccable grammar), so there’s that.
KVa@4, I take GET WISE TO as a DD, with the second definition being just ‘twig’ (verb) albeit “a different ‘twig’ ” from the one mentioned earlier in the clue. I enjoyed that one.
FWIW I’ve always pronounced Waltz with a T, but I now assume that that’s out of ignorance 🙈
Anyone else who wanted LIONESSES to be LEVERKUSEN and be a bit frustrated, even annoyed, when a checker came along to rule it out? Funny how our crossword minds work!
Thanks both.
Princess V @30 , yes ORFE are popular in ponds , unfortunately very popular with heron . They are the same species as ide which also like to gather in crossword grids .
Mig@28 , I will visit the Music Faculty on Monday and see if they have a THEORBO and a student to play it for me .
A very satisfying prize. I do prefer the setter in Imogen mode rather than Vulcan.
TURN was a brilliant concept with the triple definition and wordplay to produce a convincing surface, but it certainly threw me – that and USHER being my last-ins. I also spent a while Googling MEHER for the latter. Don’t think I ever knew the teacher definition of USHER.
A bit surprised by the couple of doubts about bowl for O. As crockery, it’s dubious but not as wood used on a bowling green, I think. Much like ball is used in crosswords for an O.
BELSHAZZAR took some careful parsing. WHIPPET was my favorite for the succinctness and because, if you think of a quick-style crossword, it is as wrong as it is right in a cryptic!
Great stuff. Thanks, Imogen and MC. Hope the birdies were out in abundance on this fine spring day!
AP@32
GET WISE TO
That def works for me (twig as a verb)
Does ‘twig’ as a noun mean ‘understanding’?
Otherwise, ‘a different’ doesn’t fit well in the cryptic reading.
My reading.
KVa@35, I just take “for a different” as a link phrase, i.e. it’s there for the surface and it doesn’t hurt the cryptic reading (“for a different meaning of”) because the second twig (a verb) really is different from the first one mentioned (a noun, but really just anagram fodder). Of course, that link phrase only works because another twig was indeed mentioned earlier. Clearly it wouldn’t work (couldn’t be assigned meaning) in any other context.
In fact I think the clue would be even more elegant – albeit harder – as “See to twig confused for a different one”.
AP@36
I am missing something.
Thanks anyway for your explanation.
To give other examples: assuming there was antecedal context to make them make sense, “a different go” could be “leave”, and “a different throw” could be “shy”, when the def isn’t the nounal “a different x” but rather just the final word interpreted in “a different” way from however it was used before.
An engaging challenge, although a dnf – defeated by ORFE. Some of the others (THEREBO, USHER) required a guess and check today, so not my cleanest solve. Thoroughly enjoyed it, though; thanks Imogen and MC.
To really labour the point, “《wordplay》for《def》” really means “《wordplay》produces a word which means《def》”. Here, def could be a verb or anything you like.
And in this clue, “《wordplay》for a different 《def》” really means “《wordplay》produces a word which means《def》when the latter is interpreted differently from before”.
6D, agree with triple definition (TD), but then why the fodder that follows. I have never seen a DD or TD with fodder for parsing as best as I can remember.
8D, I got this one, but that structure is weird. I suspect that there is a bit more to this one that we are not getting. Why not a clue such as “Swimmer knocked out, penalty seemed fit” – it would be by the book!
Knew FETID meant smelling bad, but I learnt a new word, OLID as a result of parsing the answer – with CO and GE being obvious and Calvin the definition, there was no other explanation 🙂
Shafar@41, in both cases, it’s just the setter choosing to be playful. Both clues are perfectly valid in the cryptic reading. “The book” unfortunately tends to become oversimplified through repeated republishing 😉.
Nobody mentioned William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast? It’s a stirringly great choral work. (And Mr. P has sung in it.) Would’ve thought that would be more well known than Shanne’s folk duo (@9).
Loved the whippet clue and remembering a sweet cat named Theorbo (owned by an instrument maker).
Enjoyed it overall. Quite pleased to confirm that there was such a thing as a THEORBO. Couldn’t figure out some of the explanations, until put right by mc_rapper. They were all good in the end, including Walt’s on air and Do less.
Most enjoyable puzzle. For “O” level Eng Lit we did Browning’s “The Glove” where the last two lines are: Venienti occurrite morbo! With which moral I drop my THEORBO. Some things just stick in the brain. BTW, the OED gives both pronunciations for Waltz and as it’s from the German, I’ve always given it the T. And, yet another view of TURN, as in turncoat, change sides/colours politically.
pianola @44 Indeed, it was Walton’s spelling of the feasting king that determined my own in this instance.
Also, if anyone is still visiting, the earlier commenter who said he possibly knew USHER=teacher from Dickens was probably remembering Nicholas Nickleby, where Nickleby is employed as an USHER in Squeers’s school:
… a proud usher in a Yorkshire school was such a very extraordinary and unaccountable thing to hear of,—any usher at all being a novelty; but a proud one, a being of whose existence the wildest imagination could never have dreamed—that Miss Squeers, who seldom troubled herself with scholastic matters, inquired with much curiosity who this Knuckleboy was, that gave himself such airs.
Greetings from The Outer Hebrides. Being on holiday caused a late, but surprisingly successful solve, of a very challenging puzzle from The Master Imogen. We finished, paradoxically on ORFE, explained by Mrs M, having started on THIN ICE. Strictly, we had a few questions with parsings (corrected unfortunately to partings by the technology!), but less effectively than mc for DOLES.
New words were THEORBO, POLARI and CORDS, with USHER vaguely remembered and LIONESSES just favourite among many contenders. We welcomedTURN as a genuine quadruple clue (not often seen) and felt that WALTZ does require the possessive suggested by ‘from’ by mc, whether the ‘t’ is silent or not.
As usual, many thanks to I and m for entertainment and explanation.
Sorry, I’m a bit late back to the party, but thanks for all the comments and feedback so far, and to all ‘first responders’ for clearing up any quibbles and questions…
There doesn’t seem to have been too much consternation…seems like the puzzle was generally well received, and glad to see a few others falling for Balthazzar!
I usually think of WALTZ with a T, as in the Aussie Matilda version, rather than a more Germanic ‘valse’ or ‘wolss’…I have had my fingers burned on homophones many times, so I now just cop out and say ‘could sound like’ or ‘depending on your accent’…
Thanks to phitonelly at #34 for pointing out that a ‘bowl’ can be a sphere on a crown green, rather than something closer to two dimensions on a table…
Martin at #25 – I believe there is a club team, the ‘London City Lionesses’ as mentioned several times on Radio 5 Live one afternoon this weekend.
Anyway, onwards and upwards – plenty more puzzles have been published since this one!….
By coincidence, I see in the Guardian today an article about Jozef Van Wissem playing rock music on the lute (including a THEORBO). Microphones inside the instrument to make it loud…
Serendipity, indeed, Mig!
Curious to know if Roz (@33) found a THEORBO?
There’s an additional element in the clue for LOOM that you may have missed. Yes it could be seen that to loom is to come close in a ‘perhaps threatening’ manner. But what’s neater, surely, is a reference to the threatening role of the loom, as perceived by weavers Ludd + co.