Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable and nostalgic puzzle, with some familiar names in the clues…
… and in some of the answers. It’s a tribute to A A Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, which was first published 100 years ago today.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | RUMINANT | Piglet grabbing time with a sheep, say (8) MIN[ute] (time) + A in RUNT (piglet) |
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| 6 | WORTHY | Solver’s after scrap, then seeking reflection – admirable (6) Reverse of ROW (argument, scrap) + THY (solver’s) |
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| 9 | LOVAGE | Silver honey pots for something fragrant to eat (6) AG (silver) in LOVE (honey, as an endearment) |
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| 10 | GLOATING | Rubbing it in, first of ointment absorbed by tongue in horse (8) O[intment] in LATIN (tongue) in GG (horse) |
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| 11 | INHERITED | I had cakes in there, fancy was left (9) (IN THERE)* in (“caked by”) I’D |
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| 13 | SCORN | Pooh-pooh s-schmaltz (5) S + CORN |
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| 15 | WOMBAT | Antipodean native in flap, cut after tripping over (6) Reverse of TAB (flap) + MOW (cut) |
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| 17 | UNCLAD | Notice alongside short relative bear being picked up? (6) UNCL[e] + AD (notice) – the definition indicates a homophone of “bare” |
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| 18 | ECLAIR | Something sweet in hideaway found by bare neck (6) [n]EC[k] + LAIR |
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| 19 | RUBRIC | Instructions Kanga’s house builder read out? (6) Sounds like “roo brick”, which might be used to build Kanga’s house |
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| 21 | CRESTFALLEN | Top loose, feeling like one’s balloon has burst? (11) CREST (top) + FALLEN (loose, as in a “fallen woman”, perhaps) |
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| 22 | LADIES MEN | Studs made lines all over the place (6,3) (MADE LINES)* |
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| 25 | ESPOUSAL | Unruly lass, nameless one, up for adoption (8) Anagram of LASS O[n]E UP |
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| 26 | HEIFER | Cow with lump of Pooh, might he say? (6) Sounds like “heffa”, as in Pooh’s “heffalump” |
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| 28 | EXCEED | Run over pip that’s been dropped, by the sound of it? (6) The dropped pip is an “ex-seed” |
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| 29 | NED KELLY | Notorious Australian journalist, hack ultimately spearing elephant (3,5) ED (journalist) + [hac]K in NELLY (elephant in the song, although it seems the name should be spelt as “Nellie”) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | UFO | Three of four proving cryptic, observed puzzler? (3) Anagram of FOU[r]. A UFO is a puzzling observed thing |
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| 3 | INANE | Very little brain, an eejit – so? (5) Hidden in braIN AN Eejit |
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| 4 | ACETIC ACID | One on prickly cacti I found on surface of desert – that’s sharp! (6,4) ACE (one) + CACTI + I + D[esert] |
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| 5 | TIGGER | Right from start, wonderful thing? (6) TRIGGER (start) less the first R; a reference to the song from the Disney film |
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| 7 | RETICULAR | A curler swerved around it upwards, netted (9) Reverse of IT in (A CURLER)* |
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| 8 | HUNDRED ACRE WOOD | Criminal minds and rude criminal gang in cuddly characters’ manor? (7,4,4) This took a bit of working out: it’s (AND RUDE)* CREW (gang) in HOOD (criminal). The Hundred Acre Wood (based on part of Ashdown Forest in Sussex) is the setting of the Pooh stories |
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| 12 | NOW WE ARE SIX | Nothing about don that’s boring is in the red poetry book (3,2,3,3) And another: WEAR (put on, don) in OWES (is in the red), all in NIX (nothing). Now We Are Six is a book of poems by A A Milne, some of them vaguely related to the Pooh stories |
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| 14 | UNPUNISHED | Without ramifications, joke locked in redbrick outhouse? (10) PUN (joke) in UNI (redbrick describes some universities) + SHED (outhouse) |
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| 16 | MILLSTONE | Author’s written about lost wandering albatross (9) LOST* in MILNE (the thematic author) |
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| 23 | SWINE | Small drink for Piglet, say (5) S + WINE |
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| 24 | USED | Old doghouse, draughty kennels (4) Hidden (“kennelled by”) doghoUSE Draughty |
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| 27 | EEL | Fish eagle’s wings above lake (3) E[agl]E + L[ake] |
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Somewhat easier than the average Paul, I felt, and after struggling on Monday and Tuesday, that was very welcome. Despite the obvious theme, I convinced myself that there was an unaccounted-for L in MILLSTONE, having parsed it as MINE around LOST*. Mea culpa, and no other quibbles here — not that I would expect to have any on a Paul puzzle!
Thank you Andrew and Paul.
Well, it all went in, but never having read the bear, not without a fair bit of Googling.
Thought CRESTFALLEN a bit of a stretch.
Thanks, both.
Lovely. Thanks both
I usually give Paul a wide berth, and did so today, as I know it may end in tears. But when I discovered the FT’s setter was Io, I hurried back. I’m glad I did so. Many smiles were elicited from some great clues as it took me back to my childhood. I’m pleased to report I’ve taken Paul off my “Don’t attempt” list!
I didn’t know why TIGGER is a wonderful thing and hadn’t heard of Nellie the elephant. The wordplay for HUNDRED ACRE WOOD was beyond me, and I had difficulty equating loose with fallen. (Good try, Andrew!)
The theme is so much part of British culture that most of the answers went in despite never having read the books – but the Roo Brick gave me trouble.
Thought this was delightful tribute to A A Milne and I really enjoyed this. Have always been a great admirer of this multi talented man. Last one in after rather too much head scratching was actually the fairly straightforward SWINE. RUBRIC my favourite clue, somehow in the best Paul tradition…
My knowledge of the topic is based on my mum introducing the books 50 years ago, rather than the films. In the books, Tiggers were not “wonderful things” and heffalumps were hunted but not visualised…and that’s my excuse for not parsing HEIFER and for TIGGER being my last one in, not that it took me long.
A theme that rather jumped out and helped a great deal with HUNDRED ACRE WOOD, MILLSTONE and NOW WE ARE SIX.
I could understand a questioning of UNCLAD, although I won’t go there.
I expect someone will go for WORTHY too, and even RUMINANT, where the Venn diagram doesn’t quite stack up.
I liked it though, with some favourites being RUBRIC, INHERITED and UNPUNISHED.
Thanks Paul and Andrew.
Is anyone going to cite the Chambers entry for ECLAIR, I wonder?
I did a recent crossword elsewhere commemorating the same anniversary, so the topic came to mind quickly — which helped a lot with MILLSTONE and NHO NOW WE ARE SIX.
Not the smoothest of surfaces today, I thought. Oh, bother (someone had to). I’m proud of mostly finishing it, but redbrick=uni and heffalump were beyond me. And what’s “then” doing in 6ac?
Thank you Paul and Andrew!
Very nicely put together. Like Tom@1 I had MILLSTONE as mine around an anagram of lost, but unlike him failed to spot the extra l.
Calabar Bean@9
WORTHY
Agree that ‘then’ seems redundant.
does it work if ‘then’ means ‘at that time’?
THY after ROW reversing at that time………not very convincing…eh?!
Enjoyed the puzzle and theme, but failed on the parsing of several
In particular Hundred Acre Wood. Obvious from the theme, but other than RUDE being in there I had no idea, so thank you kindly Andrew
And I got Now We Are Six from knowing/having the Steeleye Span album, though it did ring a slight bell regarding a book
Thanks for the reminiscing Paul
This could only have been set by Paul: the split entries and all those bizarre surfaces. I found this rather tricky, and very few of the answers came from the construction rather than the definition and a few crossers, which I always find a bit dissatisfying. (One of the few solutions which I got from the wordplay was UNPUNISHED – to be pedantic, a ‘redbrick’ is a definition of UNI by example, so ought to be marked as such!).
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the exercise.
There’s a notable variety of unusual containment indicators here, which I liked. Favourites – ACETIC ACID, MILLSTONE and RUBRIC.
Thanks to Paul and Andrew
William@8 it did enter my mind as soon as I wrote that one in!
Well I have to say I thought this was absolutely joyous. So many funny and super clever clues. I think the only gimme was EEL! I couldn’t parse HEIFER (so thanks to the blog) but now I love it so much. What was wonderful was how the theme was so subtly woven in. For instance the ‘very’ in the clue for 3d was bothering me. Can it really be a hidden with a redundant ‘very’ at the beginning? And then I remembered that Pooh is ‘a bear of very little brain’! So not redundant at all! Vital in fact. Oh so lovely. Brings tears to my eyes (almost). Very happy morning:)
Found this quite difficult, not knowing anything about Winnie the Pooh!
Didn’t know Piglet is a RUNT, could maybe have guessed that Kanga = ROO I suppose?
No clue on TIGGER or MILLSTONE (how is an albatross related?)
HUNDRED ACRE WOOD was impassable for me, and NOW WE ARE SIX and HEFFALUMP – well, I have never heard of either.
Sorry Paul, did not click with this at all.
Golly, Andrew! Congratulations for working out the parsing of HUNDRED ACRE WOOD. It had to be the answer, but after several minutes of staring at the clue I was none the wiser.
Geoff Down Under @4 I thought of a loose/ fallen bra strap maybe? Or hair I guess?
Sadly, no Pooh on the bookshelf chez the young ginf. Not sure why, everything else from Blyton to Biggles was. But he’s such a phenomenon that one has absorbed him by cultural osmosis, so no probs filling the grid. Very nice job Paul, and thanks Andrew.
Comment #20
Imaginary Cerebellum @16 ‘a milestone/ albatross around his neck’? Thought this was another peach of a clue btw for its anagram misdirection. No it’s not something complicated involving taking ‘l-o-s-t’ out of ‘albatross’ or what have you. No, albatross is the definition not the word play. Great stuff. I’ll shut up now.
What an absolute pleasure it was to solve this puzzle. I still have the A.A. Milne books that I was given 60 years ago, and I must now go and read them yet again!
An odd coincidence is that one of the answers (not exactly an everyday word) also occurs in today’s Independent cryptic. Many thanks, Paul and Andrew.
@Protase 13, agreed re redbrick needing the usual ‘e.g.’ or ‘say’. And as others have pointed out, ‘then’ in 6A is a hindrance to solving. The other one I wrinkled my nose at was UNCLAD – which had a wordplay for ‘bare’ in place of a definition (something I think should be avoided). Otherwise thought nearly all of this was fantastic.
Like some diseases, you have to be exposed to Winnie the Pooh as a child to be able to tolerate it later in life. I wasn’t, and can’t, so I’m generally with Dorothy Parker on this (“Tonstant Weader Fwowed up”). But it’s pervasive in the culture, and so the references weren’t too difficult. Thanks, Paul and Andrew.
Mostly enjoyable, though the RUBRIC clue really doesn’t make any sense if you think about it.
I initially thought that 2d would be an anagram of the third letter in each of ‘four proving cryptic’, i.e. YOU (the puzzler), but it doesn’t completely work.
Couldn’t parse HEIFER and the hormophorne didn’t help. This being Paul, I was expecting a more scatalogical derivation.
…and never too late to mention this – one of the very best and most entertaining autobiographies I have ever read is A A Milne’s “It’s Too Late Now”, written in 1939 and describing the first 50 years of his life…
I’m in the Tonstant Weader camp when it comes to Milne, but a slight acquaintance with his work did help me to get HUNDRED ACRE WOOD (which I couldn’t parse – thanks, Andrew) and NOW WE ARE SIX. HEIFER last in as a guess, because I’d forgotten about “heffalumps” and also because I’d forgotten to switch into RP mode.
All in all I enjoyed the puzzle, though I did raise an eyebrow at “studs” for LADIES’ MEN. A bit too 1972 Leslie Phillips sitcom for me.
Whether you like it or not, it’s genuinely baffling to me that you can be an adult in the English speaking world and be unfamiliar with Pooh and the characters
Lovely tribute to the 100 year old Aker Wood and its denizens (although I had thought only Owl lived there).
I had to “think, think, think” about a few but I liked ‘honey pots’ and ‘very little brain’.
Thanks to Paul and Andrew
After months of silent lurking I have to break cover in order to put a question. Why, in 14 down, does UNPUNISHED mean ‘without ramifications’? What am I missing? Could somebody explain it to me please?
@wynsum #29
From Wikipedia: “In A. A. Milne’s books, the term “Hundred Acre Wood” is actually used for a specific part of the larger Forest, centred on Owl’s house … However, in most of the adaptations, and in general conversation with most Pooh fans, “The Hundred Acre Wood” is used for the entire world of Winnie-the-Pooh, the Forest and all the places it contains.”
I figured out the HUNDRED ACRE WOOD after my only reveal of WORTHY, and even then couldn’t remember where it came from.
It is curious that cuddly children’s stories were themed on an animal that was driven to extinction, and then only imported for blood sport…
Squealer@30 – Footballers seem to spend a lot of time throwing themselves to the ground , usually this is UNPUNISHED/ without ramifications .
Thanks for the blog , HUNDRED ACRE WOOD and NOW WE ARE SIX are very good constructions but a theme like this just ruins them , we do not need to think .
One good thing about these books was that they were an excellent warning sign for potential boyfriends , along with Tolkien , Pratchett etc .
Not sure it’s quite cricket to have a definition shrouded in a homophone as in the case of UNCLAD, but I guess I’ll have to expand my creaking brain to accommodate that possibiliy in future.
I usually recommend IO Wednesday once a month in the FT but not today .
It tickled me that Piglet is referred to as a swine and a runt. I hope Paul didn’t suffer some childhood trauma with a piglet toy.
Geoff Down Under #4: The song from the Disney movie of Pooh begins “The wonderful thing about Tigger / Is Tigger’s a wonderful thing”.
When I was about six or so, the soundtrack album was on constant replay for as long as my parents would tolerate it.