24657

Author   daveperryPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
More of a Supremo than a Schmuck

Solving time: Stopped the clock just under the hour at 59:50. Three-quarters of it went in quickly and smoothly, but as is often the way with me, the last dozen or so went in painfully slowly.

I found it an enjoyable solve with some nice surfaces and a few clever constructions. 11, 19 & 24 stand out as the best in my book, with 19 being my COD for its originality.

The only clue I didn’t like was 7 because of the apparently superfluous word ‘shows’ at the end. It only seems to be there for the surface reading and plays no part in the wordplay. Indeed you have to ignore it for the wordplay to work. But then, I’m probably missing something clever.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this

Across
1 OFFICIAL = II (Roman couple) about C, all in OFFAL
5 P(HOE)B + E
8 AIR HOSTESS = HOST in (RAISES)*, ‘attendant up’ is the definition
9 SlicK + E/W – No cricket references today, but we do get a bridge one instead. East & west make up a team in bridge, and this requires them to bid together
10 LEWIS AND HARRIS – A + R in (IRELAND’S WISH)*
11 SqUaRe IsN‘t ArMy – Devious use of ‘uneven’ to mean ‘remove the even letters’
13 W + HIS + PER – The PER comes from ‘a’ as in ‘100 words a minute’
15 SCH + MUCK
18 SOPRANO = RAN O (nought) after SO + P
21 PUBLIC SPIRITED = (CRIPPLED BUT I IS)* – I wasted a lot of time trying to get the anagram from … BUT ONE before I cottoned on
22 dd
23 FRIENDLIER = END + LIE + R after FRIday
24 UNISEX = Sixth + EX after UNI – Nice example of a lift & separate in ‘sixth former’
25 C(OTT)AGEY – Once I had the checking Y, I was convinced it was going to be SHY around something.
Down
1 ORACLES = (bAR CLOSE)*
2 FO(Rep + TWO)RTH – Flower = river of course
3 COOKS ON = Is potboiler still – Catherine Cookson is the authoress
4 rev hidden word
5 PISTACHIO = SIP rev + I in TACHO
6 OF SORTS = Show in phOne + FORTS
7 BLESS ME! = LESS + M in BE – Unless I’m missing something, ‘shows’ only seems to be there to make the surface read OK, and adds nothing to the cryptic at all.
12 ARC + TIe + C + FOX
14 PL + AY + THING – Where a ‘thing’ is an obsession
16 CAPTION = CA + (PIN TO)*
17 Deliberately omitted as a baby could see this!
18 SU(PRE)MO
19 PERIDOT = PERIL with the L (50) increasing to D (500) + TO rev – A peridot is a precious stone
20 OR + DEaRLY

43 comments on “24657”

  1. I think ‘shows’ in 7 is that the cryptic bit shows the answer, forgiveable for the surface I think.

    I was going to complain about ‘tacho’ in 5d until I realised that cab does not mean taxi, nice misdirection. Very enjoyable overall.

    sidey

  2. A classic Friday — if we’re allowed to say such a thing — with some tantalising clues of the “It can’t be that” variety, a few give-aways, and a few utter stinkers (in the nicest possible sense. A case of the latter is PERIDOT. (Thanks to Dave for the exact parsing here, which had me beat.)
    46 minutes and much working-out around the page.
  3. Like you Dave just a shade under one hour to finish unaided…a brilliant puzzle. thought that 19 was superb like you…very clever construction.
    COD probably agree
    really liked 1 across and 5 across too
    thanks for a good blog
  4. Took me a long time to unravel all the very tough clues (looks very much like a Henderson puzzle) but like all tortures, once solved, the feeling was great. Dave, I think you should change the heading since it contains two answers. I did that once and received quite a lot of flak.
    1. You’re probably right – I have moved the offending description out of the title and into the body of the blog.
  5. Found this pretty tough – 17:56. One simple answer eluded me – I needed checking letters to remember what to add to SCH at 16. Similar experience to Dave at 21, but having thought of the right answer, decided it had to be PUBLIC something. Eliminating that from “crippled but” showed that what you needed to make SPIRITED was there after all. I wondered about “champion” at 18D, but there’s enough in the ODE def to justify it.

    Good bits of deception: “up” in 8, “bidding team” (lift and join rather than lift and separate) in 9, “wide boy” in 13, “true power” in 18 (L&S this time), “Police statement” and “damage” at 22, as Dave saysat 24 – and that’s just the acrosses. So another clear thumbs up to the setter.

  6. Once again I’m thankful it was not my Friday to write the blog. I took a full 10 minutes to find my first answer, SOPRANO at 18ac, and after 90 minutes I resorted to gentle use of aids to get me started again as I had run out of ideas. I’m particularly annoyed with not pursuing my odd letter theory at 11ac – I got as far as SUR and missed the remainder. Also with missing a hidden word at 4dn – a clue with ‘hiding’ in it, FGS!
  7. I thought this was a puzzle with (as they say) a high degree of technical difficulty which didn’t translate into much fun. While admiring the setter’s work I found it a bit of a slog.

    “Food” seems rather an inadequate definition of PISTACHIO. Am I alone in not having heard of Ms Cookson?

    1. OK – “food” is rather broad. Catherine Cookson is definitely a British reference – a hugely successful author judged by book sales. I’m pretty sure NE England has some “You are entering Catherine Cookson Country” road signs, though I couldn’t find you a picture of one to link to. Hampshire responded a year or two ago with “Jane Austen country”, and I suspect there are some DH Lawrence ones in Notts (or will be soon).
  8. Time split by stations and other interruptions, but for sure over 30′.Almost all the sort of clue where you can understand it once you’ve got it, but can stare at it for ages not with no idea of what is and is not definition.
    Even the (reverse) hidden at 4 was no giveaway, and the odd letter hidden for SURINAM was well – erm – hidden. CoD, for the 10X device, to PERIDOT. Phew!
  9. A stinker yes, but contrived, verbose, unfunny and unclever. Got there in 66 min with much cheating, but wish I hadn’t bothered.
  10. Just over the hour. Found this excruciatingly difficult but admired the setter’s ingenuity and tightly crafted clues. I must be getting old as I thought that Catherine Cookson was still with us and so ineligible for inclusion in the crossword. It wasn’t till the checking letters left no doubt that I realized she must have passed on (1998!). Must have a look at this site more regularly.
  11. This is the first daily puzzle in ages that has taken me over 30 minutes (about 35 in total) so many thanks setter just for that. I was beginning to despair that we would ever see a tougher one in amongst the average fare.

    My only real hold-up was BLESS ME where I could not fathom the “shows” at the end (and I do think it’s padding). It was my last in after the rest was solved in steady if unspectacular fashion top to bottom with some excellent clues to admire along the way. 13A is typical with the clever use of “wide boy”, the often difficult to spot “per=a” and the economy of the whole thing. First class value all round.

  12. 22:23 here. I very quickly filled in the top half and the left hand side of the bottom but then came up against a brick wall, and really had to tease out the last few answers one by one. COD to 13, not a syllable wasted. I was another one surprised to learn of Catherine Cookson’s demise. I thought she was still churning ’em out!
  13. Made a bit of a mess of this one. Finished all but the SE corner and 11ac in about an hour, but then got badly stuck. Resorted to aids to get 11ac, and only then noticed how simple the clue was! Finally realised that I’d entered PUBLIC INTEREST for 21ac, for no apparent reason (a mind storm I suspect is the most likely answer!) Amended to read the answer I’d meant to write in the first place, and 14d / 20d / 18d / 25ac immediately became apparent. 19d required another trip to the Chambers Word Wizard…

    Lots of nice clues, favourite was 18ac.

  14. An interrupted solve, I would guess at least 30 mins. I thought it was great fun, with lots of imaginative wordplay, and don’t have a problem with ‘shows’ as a link-word in 7D. Several contenders for COD, I’ll go for 4D ANTONYM.

    Tom B.

  15. Well, there goes my evening. Thought I was making some progress this week, but I fell for everything the setter threw at me today. Took an excruciatingly long time to get through it – let’s just say it was about four times longer than usual. Biggest problems in the SE and the NW, but eventually the rather nice AIR HOSTESS came to my rescue and the rest fell into place.
  16. I’m glad I’m not the only one to have found this difficult. By far the toughest daily puzzle I can remember.
    It took me 1h17m of concentrated effort in three sessions. My determination not to be defeated was to my employer’s detriment but I’m glad to say I got there in the end without aids, PERIDOT and COTTAGEY going in last.
    Some very good clues here and I am full of admiration for the setter but it was a bit too hard to be described as fun.
  17. This was for me the best puzzle for a long time. Extremely well constructed and some brilliant clues. Took me 34 mins. I like the ‘shows’ in 7d because ‘bless me’ is what shows when you ‘take away millions’ (lessm) in ‘live’ (be). Note I am no apprentice blogger!
  18. 20 minutes. Having got 3 of first 4 across answers pretty quickly I sound found I was in the wrong gear and stalled completely. After a couple of minutes staring at clues and blank spaces I got 2 and 15 which set me on my way. A really good challenge today. I recall seeing ‘Catherine Cookson Country’ signs around the southern approaches to the Tyhe Tunnel – so South Shields and Jarrow would typically be her settings (although I do confess to never having read her!)
    A lot of good challenging clues – last in ANTONYM – didn’t spot the hidden word …. again!!!
  19. A great puzzle. Hadn’t got too far after the first half-hour, had to go to work, teased out the rest with pleasure over the day in between barking at children. Probably an hour plus in all. Can’t say I care for Cottagey as a word regardless of validity. Otherwise A*.
  20. Phew!

    For a relative novice/plodder like me this one was definitely in the “forget about the time” category! A month or two ago I would have given this one up after 45 mins with only about a third filled in, but I kept at it (luckily had two long tube journeys between offices today!) and finally finished unaided. Probably spent about 90 mins in total but with lots of going away and coming back.

    Didn’t see the word play for “OF SORTS” until I came on here but it couldn’t have been anything else.

    Very satisfying end to another good week for me!

  21. AFter spending two hours in a bar in Wan Chai watching five and a half holes of golf, I came home to more torture in the form of this puzzle. Got most of the hard stuff without aids, but got plugged (without a free drop) in an innocuous looking bunker in the north-east – unable to get ‘of sorts’, even though I saw the definition immediately.
  22. This was really hard work, even after resorting to help from my trusty Franklin. COOKSON was last in as for some reason I kept trying to think of a French writer who was lurking at the back of my mind. Eventually realised this was Colette, who didn’t fit at all! And I hadn’t heard of LEWIS AND HARRIS, which didn’t help.
    No time as I did it in bits and pieces, but it must have been well over an hour, and I was quite pleased to get to the end at all.
  23. Wow… I couldn’t finish this last night, nor over breakfast, but after lunch today sat down and struggled through the last and found I’ve gotten there.

    I didn’t know any of the UK-centric answers (10, 3, 22), and needed wordplay, though in return FORT WORTH is hardly a major city (most of it is an airport serving Dallas).

    So let’s call it (I downloaded the crossword about 8pm last night) a 19-hour solve, with probably 45 minutes of it looking directly at the crossword.

  24. This was very good, I thought. Favourites WHISPER, BILL, FORT WORTH, ANTONYM, PLAYTHING, CAPTION. 39 mins.

  25. 39:03 .. didn’t get around to this until Friday evening but it was distinctly tough. At one point I thought I’d never finish. Now for the Saturday challenge…
  26. Late commenting as two clues had to be left until bed time, when all was revealed..14dn and 25ac being the last in.

    Overall this might have taken me almost an hour. I am firmly in the “top class effort, setter” camp. More please!

  27. Found this pretty tough and didn’t manage to complete bottom right-hand quarter. “Recalling” in 25 seems superfluous. Have I missed something?
    1. I believe “recalling” serves to turn COTTAGE, the “modest accommodation”, into an adjective (COTTAGEY).
  28. Pure torture, but I did manage to finish correctly (only after a night’s sleep), using aids just for COOKSON (after trying CHOWSON and CHOPSON without really being convinced). The “shows” in 7 is really not acceptable, since it doesn’t even fit in smoothly as an indicator of any sort — for that the clue would have had to read “I never did such things as to take away millions in live shows!” or something of the sort. While solving, the wordplay for several clues was beyond me, and I still don’t understand the wordplay for OF SORTS: what has FORTS got to do with “ringing” or “keeps ringing”?

    COD to the absolutely audacious PERIDOT, which I did manage to get solely from the wordplay.

    1. Thanks for your explanation of my query, hydrochoos. I think OF SORTS is S (show’s start) with O (phone in centre) and FORTS (=keeps) ringing (=surrounding) it.
      1. Now that you put it that way, it’s obvious, of course — I was hooking on to the wrong word. Thank you for the explanation.
  29. More commonly SHMUCK but it certainly doesn’t mean DUNCE. Shmuck is a PUTZ, an obscene term for PENIS and you do know the many English equivalents.
    Yiddish is deliciously precise in its terminology and turn of phrase.e.g. NEBBISH…when a nebbish leaves the room it feels like someone just came in.

    http://thomer.com/yiddish/

    Give a kick.

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