FOI 13ac, LOI 10ac. Very hard indeed I thought, and fatigue must have set in as I managed to submit with RADETSKY instead of RADETZKY, even though I’d worked out how it all worked. Solidarity with those who grumble about foreign names clued by anagrams (“how was I supposed to choose between RADETZKY and REDATZKY?”) perhaps.
COD to the somewhat madcap 19dn, though 15ac also gets points. For a while I thought “pop” referred to “granddad” and considered the clue a little risque! A very good workout all in all, so thanks to the setter. Let’s hope that all three puzzles in the imminent Online Championships are at least as hard as this one, to make things challenging! At 2.30 in the morning my time, groan…
ACROSS
1 Tips from writer with daughter in America (6)
UPENDS – PEN [writer] with D(aughter) in US
5 Say nothing about preference for nagging (8)
SHREWISH – SH RE WISH [say nothing! | about | preference]
9 Weakness that’s not hard to see (4,4)
SOFT SPOT – SOFT [not hard] + SPOT [to see]
10 Being out of place in harbour, finally sailor returned (6)
STUPOR – PUT in {harbou}R + O(rdinary) S(eaman), the whole reversed
11 Transport add-on, one given to appropriate vehicles? (8)
JOYRIDER – JOY [transport] + RIDER [add-on]. “Appropriate” as in “steal”.
12 Reverses and runs down (6)
KNOCKS – double def, in the senses of “misfortunes’ and “disparages”
13 Aussie skipper adding a run to total in chase (8)
WALLAROO – add A R(un) to ALL [total], and put that in WOO [chase]
15 She had pop award reduced (4)
GRAN – GRAN{t}. She had pop, as in, she gave birth to dad.
17 Boy back in detention at school (4)
STAN – hidden reversed in {detention}N AT S{school}
19 Hiding, maybe, in service area (8)
MASSACRE – MASS ACRE [service | area]
20 Moon, mostly, keeps spinning around in space (6)
LACUNA – I think “moon, mostly” is LUNA{r}, thinking of “moon” as a loose adjective as in “moon lander”; though it seems to me that LUNA could just be “moon”, without qualification. In any case! LUNA{r} must keep reversed C(irc)A [“spinning” around]
21 Dispatching letters from UN, a minor foreign correspondent? (3,3,2)
OUR MAN IN – (UN A MINOR*)
22 Lose track of exceptionally fine port (6)
VENICE – take VERY NICE [exceptionally fine], and lose its R(ailwa)Y “track”
23 Revelation in tweet set back husband — and then some! (8)
EPIPHANY – reversed PIPE [tweet] + H(usband) + ANY [some]
24 Austrian count’s last letter, dark, yet animated (8)
RADETZKY – (Z + DARK YET*)
25 Boring article, on golf, they’ve permitted me (6)
GIMLET – on G(olf}, I’M LET [they have permitted me]
DOWN
2 One supplying plug for engine you can pick up? (8)
PROMOTER – PRO [for] + homophone of MOTOR [engine]
3 Rubbish won’t burn in the shade (8)
NUTBROWN – (WON’T BURN*)
4 Raised a large cover over father’s tree (9)
SAPODILLA – reverse all of A L(arge) LID [cover] O(ver) PA’S [father’s]
5 Earmark hypermarket, perhaps, to give huge value (3,5,5,2)
SET GREAT STORE BY – if you earmark something you SET it BY, and a hypermarket is a GREAT STORE
6 Use a lot of each colour filling in box (3,4)
EAT INTO – EA(ch) + TINT [colour] + {b}O{x} [the “filling” of the word BOX]
7 Home, compact in size, for the richer (2,6)
IN POCKET – IN [home] + POCKET [compact in size, as in Peter’s Pocket Grandpa]
8 Chap managed to collect medal for serving livestock owner (8)
HERDSMAN – HE RAN [chap | managed], “collecting” D(istinguished) S(ervice) M(edal)
14 Fido at last caught, dog collar is going on (9)
OCCURRING – {fid}O + C(aught) + CUR [dog] + RING [collar]
15 Person who offers to hold case for cockney traveller (8)
GULLIVER – GIVER [person who offers], “holding” ‘ULL [case, unaspirated]
16 Maybe tick playing card in a hand, initially (8)
ARACHNID – (CARD IN A H{and}*)
17 Outside right, cunningly, apes the fellow top wingers (8)
SERAPHIM – outside R(ight), (APES*) + HIM
18 Union spent to bring in a civil engineer (8)
ALLIANCE – ALL IN [spent], “bringing in” A, + C(ivil) E(ngineer)
19 Peel the source of this pus? (4,3)
MANX CAT – so Peel is a seaside town on the Isle of Man, where you could presumably find a PUS{s} – a cat without a tail, for which the IOM is so very famous.
I had the right idea for pretty much all of the wordplay, I just couldn’t come up with the right pieces. My last two were KNOCKS, which felt like a flimsy guess — and STUPOR, which seemed like it was the only word that fit, and sort of fit the definition, but I was having a bear of a time with the wordplay. Turns out I’d forgotten the handy O.S. abbreviation, which I do have kicking around in there. (D.S.M., I didn’t.) Thanks to Verlaine for setting me straight on my STUPOR.
I never really take or let myself take more than an hour these days on a puzzle, but this one felt like a matter of pride.
EDIT: Holy moly I just got the subtlety of MANX CAT. Thanks, V!
Edited at 2020-10-30 02:19 am (UTC)
Difficult but worth the time spent. The ‘top wingers’ def and surface for MANX CAT were my picks.
Thanks to setter and blogger
The first I looked up was EPIPHANY as the only outstanding answer in the SE quarter. I should have got this one and was annoyed that I didn’t.
My next cheat was MANX CAT as I knew I was never going to work it out from wordplay. It hinged on knowing PEEL as a place on the I.O.M. which I didn’t, ‘Douglas’ being the only town there that I have heard of. After spending so much time thinking about ‘pus’ this morning I’m not sure I want any breakfast!
My final cheat was VENICE after which the other two missing answers, GULLIVER and LACUNA fell into place.
Like our blogger I errored on the Austrian count, but on the basis that ‘count’s last letter’ was S. I’ve seen the name so many times in the title of Strauss the elder’s ‘Radetzky March’ I really ought to have got it right.
After 35 mins I decided to give up on the last several.
My difficulties were the In Pocket/Knocks crossers and the whole Gulliver, Manx Cat, Lacuna, Venice group.
Excellently chewy. Thanks setter and V.
Thanks verlaine and setter.
I knew RADETZKY from his march, but he deserved unambiguous wordplay if you ask me. Otherwise this was mostly a case of everyday words clued with extremely devious wordplay. That’s usually my favourite kind of puzzle but this was a case of exquisite torture.
I’d love to know who the setter is: whoever you are, thanks you b******.
Edited at 2020-10-30 10:28 am (UTC)
Edited at 2020-10-30 09:47 am (UTC)
Corridor, Undoes, In profit and Radetsky.
Tough!
COD: Mass Acre
Liked MANX CAT and GULLIVER although it took an age to get them.
Edited at 2020-10-30 01:47 pm (UTC)
Neither flippancy or sarcasm are tolerated nor understood in these parts, as I was recently informed by the ‘rhotic’ Mr. Riddlecombe.
VENICE obviously IS a port, but that’s not really how most people think of it, and the wordplay was brutal.
MANX CAT is brilliant verging on the desperately unfair: for a long time I thought “Peel the source of this” hinted at MET, and the definition (pus!) being itself a defective word didn’t help much.
Very, very hard without any MCS words to speak of, a considerable achievement by the setter. If Championship puzzles hit this level, some of us will find it very hard to resist the temptation to “accidentally” let the dictionary fall open a few times.
Edited at 2020-10-30 10:34 am (UTC)
I’d never heard of Peel so I’d thought we were looking for something relating to the Bow Street Runners – that SW corner also took an age, but getting GULLIVER helped the others to fall.
Edited at 2020-10-30 12:46 pm (UTC)
Didn’t get SHREWISH, STUPOR, KNOCKS, IN POCKET (though pencilled in the first word) – guess if this had gone in then 10a and 12a would have been guessable?
In the bottom left, had both GRAN and RADETZKY but nothing between.
At least I learnt a new word (LACUNA) and that a tick is an arachnid – every day’s a school day.
After 37 minutes, I just couldn’t get GULLIVER, VENICE or MANX CAT – that tricky SW corner.
I also biffed KNOCKS (I didn’t know the ‘reverses’ connection) and STUPOR (very tough clue) although I did manage to guess SAPODILLA and ARACHNID from the definition.
Amongst my favourites were PROMOTER, SET GREAT STORE BY and OCCURRING – and my COD has to be MANX CAT now that I understand it.
Thanks to the setter for the challenge even though I didn’t rise to it!
Liked ARACHNID and GRAN.
But wasn’t so lucky elsewhere. This has to be tough as Kevin is absent. Meldrew DNF with bar and Oak Leaves.
FOI 17ac STAN (Laurel?)
COD not 19dn MANX CAT yuk! but 24ac REDATSKY which eluded me.
WOD 5ac PRIGGISH
When it come to ARACHNIDS – I’m with Little Miss Muffet
Edited at 2020-10-30 04:41 pm (UTC)
Well blogged V, glad it was not my turn today.
A MER for IN POCKET, I know OUT OF but never heard that.
Peel is an altogether lovely seaside town, or was when i spent two holidays there back in the 1960s. I remember that the water in the harbour was so clear you could see the fish swimming about, thirty feet down. I wonder if it still is.
To express sincere thanks to the setter
I thought LACUNA was best
Now my brain needs a rest
But crosswords can seldom be better
Eventually did fill grid, after realising that 5dn wasn’t SET … ON, so that 24ac could be an anagram (I’d been trying to get TYROLEAN). However, I did find LUCINA for 20ac, who ia moon goddess, so seemed possible.
Thanks Verlaine for explaining all those I couldn’t parse!