‘Chapstick’ by Tangram
Posted by Encota on 15 Dec 2017
Well timed to be published to coincide with the week of this year’s first Test against Australia, we seem to have a celebration of cricketing batsmen – the overlapping CHAPS (men) and STICK (bat) of the title. I had, as a minimum:
- (WG) GRACE
- (Allan) STEEL
- (Bill) EDRICH*
- (John) EDRICH*
- (Dean) ELGAR
- (Viv) RICHARDS
The hidden statement refers to a poem by Lang to be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (ODQ) which, it turns out, is called ‘Brahma – after Emerson’. [As he’s the resident Emerson expert, I’ll have to ask Oyler about that ;-)] And given the poem’s fifth line says: “I am the batsman and the bat”, is this trying to be the bat talking, saying: “I am the batsmen and the bat”, I’m assuming?
But I am getting ahead of myself. The clue that gave a clue (to the theme):
- England batsman once, one with energy round wicket (5)
was a delightful description of the once brilliant David GOWER, parsed as W in GOER. I recall him and Derek Randall being entirely watchable for their fielding alone, before David’s shoulder injury, that is. Gower wasn’t too shabby with the bat too, if I recall correctly!
Nice Easter Eggs in various columns in the puzzle, too: I could find CAP, BOWL, BAT, TEST and NETS.
And what’s that four-letter word – SCUT – doing hiding on Row 4?
Tim
* I can see from Wiki (repeated below) why I thought there were more Edriches!
William John Edrich DFC (26 March 1916 – 24 April 1986) was a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Marylebone Cricket Club(MCC), Norfolk and England.[1]
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