25 May 2020

Sweet Listening

Pubished by CrOZworld, 1/5/2020 in Slot 5


Seven clues lead to answers connected with their respective grid entries.  Collectively, these entries form the (otherwise unclued) 11, 25 down by 17.

Solution Grid


This puzzle celebrates The PLANETS SUITE (11, 25 down) by Gustav HOLST (17),   
the seven movements of which are:-

(6) MARS, the Bringer of WAR
(18) VENUS, the Bringer of PEACE
(25 across) SATURN, the Bringer of OLD AGE
(12) URANUS, the MAGICIAN
(19) NEPTUNE, the MYSTIC

The title refers to the homophone of SUITE as SWEET.

There were only 59 entries, of which only 35 were correct, which scored by far the lowest in the first five slots (and the lowest I can remember for a while full stop to be honest).

 

Puzzle No                  1             2              3              4              5             Total

Entries received           93            94           74            83            59            403

Correct entries             73            76            56            78            35            318

Success rate (%)          78.5         80.9         75.7         94            59.3         78.9

 

Slot 5: This puzzle produced copious comments and lots of errors. Not

an easy puzzle to be sure, but once one planet was discovered, the penny

dropped for a few. Almost half the clues produced some sort of error, but

the greatest offender was 22dn, with 16 members settling for NUTATES,

probably on account of the planetary theme of the puzzle. But sadly,

NOTATES was called for.

 

May 5-2020: Sweet Listening by Eclogue (Eddie Looby & Keith Williams)

• Particularly liked SASSENACH & the use of "setter" to clue PECTIN

in SUSPECTING. Suggest you might try to reduce the use of obscure

words eg SEW (drain), MAG (chatter), WAR (worse), THUS (censer).

Ian McKenzie

• Too hard for me. It's fi lled in, helped by knowing of Holst's work

and having a Chambers dictionary, but no idea what is going on in

about ten clues. Rob Moline

• Very enjoyable puzzle and interesting theme. Had no idea of the

theme until I saw that JUPITER had to be an entry. Ian Thompson

• It is "suite" listening, indeed, Gustav Holst's Planets Suite. My

favourites are Jupiter and Mars. An extract from Jupiter (called

"Thaxted") formed the basis for the patriotic hymn I Vow to Thee

My Country and was also, if I recall correctly, the theme music for

the 1990 Rugby World Cup, World in Union. I enjoyed the clueing of

EMPIRIC, STRONGMEN and RAPTURE. I don't think the integrity

of the puzzle would have suffered had 10 & 18ac been indicated as

theme clues from the outset. I could not follow the parsing of 23dn's

signpost answer MESSENGER – is it ("food") MESS+GREEN*? How

does "cloud" fi t into the defi nition? In 28ac, does "communicating" =

IN TRUTH? In 25ac, is the superior time a GOLD AGE? I had these

few residual queries but, on the whole, thank you for an enjoyable

challenge referencing some favourite music. Andrew Miles

• Hope I got all the "entires" right. Roy Taylor

• Very clever concept, which appeared early when I had to delete

JOLLITY to enter JUPITER. Not keen on uncommon abbreviations

even if they are in Chambers. Len Colgan

• I learnt a lot about the planets from this! Tony Dobele

• For a long time this crossword made no sense. It was not until I

worked out 'Holst' and then looked him up on the internet that it all

clicked into place. This was a worthy Slot 7. Ulla Axelsen

• Liked EUROS, RAPTURE, SASSENACH. Max Roddick

• I found this very diffi cult and still don't understand parts of it.

Fingers crossed! Ann Millard

• I was feeling very frustrated with this puzzle, until a good friend

pointed me in the right direction. It all made sense then, thank

you. Joan Smith

• A very clever puzzle. I wasn’t familiar with Holst’s Planets Suite, so

it took a while to twig to the theme. I had trouble parsing a couple

of the clues, so am not totally optimistic. Thoroughly enjoyed the

process though. Julie Crowe

• Great theme, great clues I really enjoyed solving this crossword

puzzle! Bev Cockburn

• When I couldn't solve 10across, and the only word that would fi t

was JUPITER, I decided to write the name of a planet for every clue

that didn't make sense to me. It seemed to work, and led me to Holst

..... So at least I know those answers are right. But, looking back, I

don't see the point of writing a clue only to ignore it!?? Nea Storey

• Most of the clues made no sense to me. When in doubt I entered a

planet, as JUPITER was the only answer I could see for 10ac!!

Anne Simons

• I found this one very hard and send it in with fi ngers crossed!

Robyn McKenzie

• Great puzzle, and a great orchestral work! James Leaver

• Excellent fi rst class puzzle. Doreen Jones

• Thank you for a Magical Mystery tour of the PLANETS. Ron Jarman



12 May 2020

Billet-doux

Appeared in the i Newspaper as  Inquisitor number 1645 on 2nd May 2020


All clues are normal but should be entered without a letter wherever it occurs.  Those letters should be placed in the corresponding border cell in the same row or column as the entry.  When complete, reading clockwise from the top-left, the perimeter provides a couplet (in ODQ) minus four words.  This verse will indicate to solvers what they must delete and what they must highlight. Enumerations refer to clue answers.

Solution Grids 

Initial Grid
Final Grid

The perimeter reads “L’absence est a l’amour ce quest au feu le vent; Il eteint [le petit], il allume [le grand]”, by French soldier and poet Comte de Bussy-Rabutin (1618-93). This translates to “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; It extinguishes the small, it kindles the great.”  Solvers are therefore required to delete PETIT from the grid and highlight GRAND.