Harmony by Dysart

PDF version

Each down clue has an extra letter, to be removed when solving the clue (always leaving real words). The letters give a phrase with which one person hidden in the grid is closely associated. Two others who have pronounced on the theme are also hidden (25 letters in all). Solvers must highlight all of them. They must also highlight a hidden musical group (8 letters) that uses the thematic phrase as a title Solvers must complete 22 (unclued) by filling the blank cell with an appropriate letter to form a word.

5d is a variant spelling of a Chambers word, confirmed in ODE

Across

1    Class of racing with agent getting us initially to become enthusiastic (6, 2 words)

6    Rough bay, as reported (6)

12    Account involving examination to send away once more (8)

13    Smart snappy American shoots across the entry to the crossroads (13)

14    Had to censure a fool (4)

16    Small key remains obstructed (5)

17    Weapon on grass over in Aussie's shelter (6)

18    The German trench impedes miner (7)

19    Worker tipped to fence in policeman, say (6)

20    Leave wasteland (6)

21    Occasionally meets Henry for match (4)

25    The leftovers of blind sent back (4)

27    A rogue tracks treasures in Greek region as described by Sassoon (6)

31    Introductory musical sections in the style of a Psalm (6)

33    Surprises with retirement of group of old hands (7)

34    Without outlines, dark space is invisible (6)

35    A circuit with champion level (5)

36    King John’s read over writer’s support (4)

37    Local piece to be reviewed in relative's exhibition (13)

38    Medical equipment with controls set around variable base resistance (8)

39    City in France close to Saint-Malo with no parking housing tenor, one of the best (6)

40    Slow passages in choppy Solent (6)

Down

1    Two days stay flipping cooler (6)

2    Electronic trains shorted- they're sensitive to light (7)

3    Dines with expert in foreign statuary periodically (7)

4     Chambers seem inspiring though after the event (7, 2 words)

5     Buy alarm that’s current for area, line’s top (6)

7     Man from Eastern Cape, when given time to rest, camps on the odd occasion (6)

8    Stairs cut by length- number in flight? (6)

9     Crook extremely bowled over by the French grub (6)

10    Expulsions from head of school, with some going north before us, first of eight soon (10)

11    Executive overlooking apparatus getting fright - section bulges (7)

15    Smooth trip bringing person on board - a comic character (10, 2 words) 

21    Region of Poland with many lakes, a thousand, has uranium, and gas to the north (7)

23    Made what wraps usual plate of sea creatures (7)

24    Soldiers given brief call about electronic restraint (7)

26    One using blades wet, with tips damaged by earl (7)

28    Thin and mostly narrow angles (6)

29    American rages wildly, blocked by old assemblies (6)

30    Misrepresent dead communist, red revolutionary (6)

31    Hollow pie stuck in dough trimmed by the local (6)

32    Sprinters still short, with 70 kilometre stops (6)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format,  to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th September 2024. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers

 

Crossword News July 2024

 Crossword News July 2024      

I was shocked to hear of the death of Andy Stewart, better known as the setter Dysart. He produced 18 Listener crosswords and appeared in the Inquisitor, Enigmatic Variations, the Magpie and the Crossword Centre. When he retired from teaching in 1990, he moved to Pattaya in Thailand where he enjoyed his hobby of bird-watching, taking thousands of photos. He suffered from a lung disease last year and died in hospital from a heart attack on July 14, aged 79.

I have been emailing him in recent months while editing a crossword that he submitted. We have decided to publish his puzzle in August.
***
The June Prize Puzzle was Sage Derby by Vagans. Letters on the leading diagonal spell the schoolroom rebus YYURYYUBICUR and YY4ME is to be written beneath the grid to complete it. The rebus decodes to “Too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me”. CLEOBULUS and PERIANDER were two of the Greek Seven Sages (as listed under that heading in Chambers), and the extra letters generated by the across clues spell out WISE MEN FROM THE EAST, geographically true from a UK point of view. The extra words in across clues were all cheeses (BLUE, SWISS, COMTE, KILLARNEY AND CREAM but not GOUDA) and those in down clues were the remining five Sages (PITTACUS, BIAS, SOLON, CHILON and THALES).

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

The cheesy red herrings fooled me for a while and, though I got to CLEOBULUS and his mate PERIANDER after some effort, it took me a while to extract the sages from the down clues. The whole puzzles was a satisfying solve with a theme new to me - thanks to Vagans.  I am delighted to hear that there is now a stock of puzzles for coming months and I look forward to tackling them in due course. A Crossword Centre puzzle is keenly anticipated each month.

The grid itself was a pleasant solve spread over a weekend. Then 3 weeks, on and off, trying to find the 12 characters and … nothing.  It couldn’t be individual cells, it would have said cells, if it was cells, I reasoned.  Last night in (not quite) desperation I started saying the main diagonal, amongst other lines, out loud, in the hope inspiration would hit. They all sounded like words, so a quick Google, and bob’s your uncle. It was not something I was familiar with, but now will probably never forget.

A neat use of the sages and cheeses with an enjoyable denouement in recognizing the saying, which I don’t think I’ve seen for about half a century.  Thanks to Vagans for the entertainment – and good to see the bishop making the usual appearance in the clues.

There were 51 entries, of which 2 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner picked from the electronic hat was David Beamish, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by Chambers.

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/07/sage-derby-by-vagans-solution-y-y-4-m-e.html

There is still time to complete the July Prize Puzzle, White Label by Henri. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/06/july-2024-crossword-centre-prize-puzzle.html

And do try our July special, Mate in Two by the Badger. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/06/crossword-centre-july-2024-special.html

The August challenge will be Harmony by Dysart.

We would welcome submissions for publication this autumn.
***
The Cracking the Cryptic channel on YouTube, founded by Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony, has continued to flourish and has recently recorded over 600,000 subscribers. It is always a treat to see them dissect and solve puzzles.
https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic

Although they mostly do sudokus, Simon has started solving the Friday Times cryptic, which is usually the toughest of the week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_yKD3k4ou8
***
In the Magpie magazine, Mark Goodliffe announced that, following the sad demise of Richard Rogan, Shane Shabankareh has taken over the role of interim crossword editor of The Times. Shane is already editor of the Listener crossword and the Magpie, as well as setting puzzles as Tiburon.
***
There was a lot of interest in our toughest crossword on the Crossword Centre. A Chessword Puzzle by Radix only received a handful of entries and only one correct solution from A J Moore. I am indebted to AJ and Larry Baum for helping me to construct the solution. It is now available at the link below.
https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/p/solution-to-our-toughest-crossword.html
Numbers in bottom left of cells indicate the moves of the pieces( or answers).
***
The Azed Slip for clues to LITTÉRATEUR is now available on the Crossword Centre. http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azed2711.pdf

M Barley won first prize with this clue.

Term for author, French one, turning out title after title possibly?

(anag. + r + auteur less U2, & lit.).

Best wishes
Derek

 

 

 

 

SAGE DERBY by Vagans

SOLUTION

Y Y 4 M E 

Letters on the leading diagonal spell the schoolroom rebus YYURYYUBICUR and YY4ME is to be written beneath the grid to complete it. The rebus decodes to “Too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me”. CLEOBULUS and PERIANDER were two of the Greek Seven Sages (as listed under that heading in Chambers), and the extra letters generated by the across clues spell out WISE MEN FROM THE EAST, geographically true from a UK point of view. The extra words in across clues were all cheeses (BLUE, SWISS, COMTE, KILLARNEY AND CREAM but not GOUDA) and those in down clues were the remining five Sages (PITTACUS, BIAS, SOLON, CHILON and THALES).

Across: 1 W: TOYS* [W]T   {BLUE}, 5 I: GAL I TOP[I]<   {SWISS}, 10 S: (DESERT BOY[S])*, 11 E: B[E]IRUT*, 12 M: MIT R[E]AL(m) , 14 E: REIGN IT E[E], 15 N: I[N]NLY(nchmob)   {COMTE}, 16 F: [F]F AIR   {KILLARNEY}, 17 R: ST[R]EEL YARD, 20 O: (G[O]UDA UNDER)*, 23 M: ([M]A BUT)<, 24 T: SEK[T]< H, 26 H: (T[H]E BLUEST)*   {CREAM}, 28 E: SOIL>OILS round ER[E], 29 E: IN CAR[E], 30 A: O L[A]IT in PIQUE, 31 S: ESSEN [S]EC<, 32 T: STAR[T] R.

 

Down: 1 BOY< BISH, 2 TYR AN(onymous), 3 S RIT<, 4 TRY in TEL, 5  (DRY EGG SUET)*  {PITTACUS}, 6 I in LEGER, 7 CORIANDER - CO + PE   {wordplay only}, 8 (EMIT A NO)<, 9 TALER*   {BIAS}, 12 AUDEN with N raised in MIR IE, 13 (LOB US CLUE)*  {Wordplay only}, 18 AIL< in THUS, 19 AD HER ER, 21  N(e)A(r)T(o) (t)RON(a)  {SOLON}, 22 AB SITS, 23 B in TONE   {CHILON}, 25 Double definition, 27 I TIN<    {THALES}.