Wimbledon lingo and elusive catchphrases in the pick of the cryptic clues
Towards the end of June, some solvers keep an eye on the Financial Times, hoping to see one of the sporadic appearances of the setter Courtier. He wasn’t with us last year, but he was this time. If clues like this one ...
5ac The starting point in court proceedings (8)
[ cryptic definition ]
19d A leading racketeer who dined with the Queen a couple of times (7)
[ synonym for ‘dined’ + abbrev. for ‘the Queen’, twice ]
[ FED + ER + ER ]
Courtier is happy to be revealed as John Barrett, Davis Cup and Wimbledon player in the 1950s and 1960s, TV commentator for the BBC and other networks, now retired, author of several books on tennis and for many years the FT’s tennis correspondent.
Thirty years ago, towards the end of the first act of one of those footling country-house comedies that passed in the 1920s for social satire, a juvenile in an Ascot and a blue blazer loped through the french windows and tossed off the immortal invitation: ‘Tennis, anyone?’
I had just turned 21 years old, but my bosses had taught me enough about reporting to cause me to put the question to the source directly: did he, Humphrey Bogart, ever use the words ‘Tennis, anyone?’ on stage? His unequivocal reply: ‘The lines I had were corny enough, but I swear to you, never once did I have to say Tennis, anyone?’
My daughter Kate came up to me and said, ‘Ma, isn’t it great on Wombledon Common’ and I thought, that’s it, that’s where the Wombles come from.
8d Leader to lead a fool (3,6)
[ ‘to’ + symbol for ‘lead’ + ‘a’ + synonym for ‘fool’ ]
[ TO + PB + A + NANA ]