27466 Thursday, 26 September 2019 And in other nose…

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice, because I’ve not been crosswording much of this past week, but I struggled through this over 45 minutes (and four seconds), hoping that it was tricky, and not just me. Early entries included odd letters where they could be deduced and not much else. There seemed to be rather a lot of reversals, particularly in the down clues where there was quite a bit of upping involved. There’s also the rare sighting of (almost) the same word providing two definitions

My usual custom puts clues in italics, definitionsin underlined italics, and SOLUTIONSin bold capitals

Across

1 Sob stuff from sailor, by the way(6)
PATHOS My last in today, perhaps not the most obvious definition. The wordplay is the relatively easy O(rdinary) S(eaman), a sailor, by the way which isn’t ST or RD or AVE but PATH.
5 Unmask Tories perhaps there and then (8)
OUTRIGHT  One definition of our entry in Chambers is “at once” which takes care of there and then. OUT for unmask, and RIGHT for Tories, currently not much “perhaps” about the right bit
9 Highly inaccurate description of pauper (5-3)
BADLY-OFF Double definition, the first whimsical
10 A singular gesture brings delegate (6)
ASSIGN Simple enough: A S(ingle) SIGN
11 Isolated dispatch received by French company in recession(8)
EREMITIC Think hermits or Obi Wan Kenobi on Tatouine. A French company styles itself CIE when we might say Inc, just a contraction of Companie. Reverse it and insert REMIT for dispatch. Think transfer or send money.
12 Get wind of doctor breaking law(6)
RUMBLE Another easy one pretending to be tough, the doctor being an MB, and the law broken thereby a RULE
13 Specially adapted troops shadowed guards(8)
TAILORED Shadowed: TAILED “guards” OR, other ranks, troops
15 Using last of inherited money, break the bank (4)
DYKE The last letters only of inheriteD moneY breaK thE
17 Support holiday deferment (4)
STAY  A triple definition, for which my first guess was REST, perhaps a bit shaky for the third, but not impossible if you squint a bit (and are desperate enough)
19 Notice investment of 50 made to settle account(8)
PLAYBILL Settle account is PAY BILL, insert the L for 50
20 Deceptively simple forces (6)
IMPELS First anagram, “deceptively” SIMPLE
21 Former knight abandoning leader’s standard (8)
EXEMPLAR Our former knight is an EX TEMPLAR, who loses his head
22 Temporary work on set? (6)
ACTING  A double definition well disguised.  An acting prime minister (for example, is a temporary one. We can but hope
23 A large deer in the midst of very small flies (8)
VAMOOSES A large deer, MOOSE set between two common abbreviations, V(ery) and S(mall)
24 Force displaying which female MP has issues(8)
EMPHASIS Could I spot the hidden? Not until it kicked me where it hurts. Its in femalE MP HAS ISsues
25 Like croissant idiot picked up and consumed?(6)
LUNATE My recent French breakfasts made the crescent shape of croissant pleasingly familiar, and that’s what lunate means. LOON for idiot supplies its sound only, plus ATE for consumed

Down

2 A definition — lowering constant speed (8)
ALACRITY You need the A, then think CLARITY for definition, and drop the C(onstant) a couple of places
3 Be sick of entertaining the Spanish premier’s wife (8)
HELPMATE Developed from the creation of Eve in the AV version of Genesis “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” We create the same from be sick of: HATE surrounding the Spanish EL and PM for premier. Currently the Presidente del Gobierno de España is the rather dashing  Pedro Sánchez
4 Screen test where exposure prevails over justice? (4,5)
SHOW TRIAL I take this to be a double definition of sorts, the first for cinema or such, the second for the kind of situation where the trial is for show and justice can go hang
5 A pair of transmitters and convertor safely relocated (9,6)
OLFACTORY NERVESWell, it’s an anagram (relocated) of CONVERTOR SAFELY. These nerves “transmit” smell sensation to the brain, and, depending on how you v=count them, you’ve go two (one per nost ril, natch) or loads
6 Ring head of state up, showing good judgment (7)
RESOUND The head of state is our gracious ER, here unceremoniously tipped up. SOUND for showing good judgement
7 Smoothest tripe served up almost unsurpassed (8)
GLIBBEST Tripe here gives way to BILGE, itself then only almost complete and reversed (another “up”) followed by BEST for unsurpassed
8 Showy TV full of error, beginning to end(8)
TINSELLY The TV is the demotic TELLY, replete with SIN for error with the S dropped to third place
14 “Skinny” male swimming with pride (9)
EPIDERMAL I hope I’m not the only one who toyed with lions, but it’s a straight anagram (“swimming” of MALE and PRIDE
15 Overrule order in stopping assignation(8)
DOMINATE Order is OM (Order of Merit), in is IN, both together “stopping” DATE for assignation
16 Tipped favourites look to maintain the pace (4,4)
KEEP STEP
Another reversal, tipped (up) of PETS for favourites and PEEK for look
17 Comrades rolling up blue carpet (4,4)
SLAP DOWN Carpet as in berate etc. Comrades are PALS, and, my oath, another up, this time rolling. Add DOWN for blue or depressed
18 Joining a presenter with hardly any foreign capital(8)
ADJACENT A presenter becomes A DJ, possessing A CENT, which is generally as small an amount of foreign currency as can be imagined
19 Italian dish from area south of local river supplied (7)
POLENTANice of the setter to qualify the river with local, as it allows us to remember the PO, the Italian river that isn’t the Tiber. Supplied gives LENT, and the A comes from Area, which is placed south of everything else.

43 comments on “27466 Thursday, 26 September 2019 And in other nose…”

      1. Would have been me too had I thought of it, but I got to the answer the way I did and was content to stay there, even if it felt like a bit of a skate.

  2. I’m with Kevin. Except I had SHOT pencilled in for exposure (photograph, on old-fashioned film), which never got corrected. Oops.
    Otherwise mostly straightforward, but a long time bringing alacrity to mind even though I knew what word I was searching for. Badly-off LOI with a shrug.
    Quite liked “skinny”, the olfactory nerves, and the hidden. And Lunate: with L_NATE in place an alphabet trawl of the verbs was required 😉
  3. 29:55 … A proper beast. I managed three clues in the first ten minutes, so getting under the half hour feels pretty good. Clearly one of the things that separates the solving rock stars from the rest of us is that they don’t have these agonisingly slow starts on the tough puzzles.

    The clue I spent the most time staring blankly at, even with the checkers in place, was TINSELLY, though PATHOS and EREMITIC weren’t far behind.

    COD to HELPMATE (and thank heavens it had come up recently — in another tough puzzle) for the smashing surface

  4. Too tough to complete without aids, but rather unusually for me they were employed part way through the solve to get myself off the rocks, rather than at the very end when I’m sometimes left with one or two unknown answers.

    I can’t say there was anything completely off my radar here apart from CIE as a French company (I was simply playing with FR and CO) but expressions such as OLFACTORY NERVES and words such as EREMITIC (not recognised by my newly installed spellchecker) are not exactly in daily use in my household.

    I had the same parsing as Kevin for SHOW TRIAL.

    MER at SLAP DOWN for ‘carpet’. The first, for me, is to deploy a sharp retort in response to something stupid but ‘carpet’ is to deliver a right old telling off.

    Edited at 2019-09-26 10:38 am (UTC)

  5. If this had been a football match between Manchester United and Rochdale, I would have been Rochdale, on the end of a terrible thrashing. Well, that was ten years ago.

    I’m not sure I got 20% of it before giving up and giving Solskjaer the job.

  6. Far too tough for me this morning. After an hour I was about half-done, then a late rally took me to about the three-quarter mark. Then I stared for a while at the rest and threw in the towel. Probably a good decision, especially as I didn’t know either EREMITIC or CIE, so the chances of me coming up with 11a seem to have been rather slim…
  7. …Held in a lunate synthesis, Whispering lunate incantations…
    40 mins to leave 11ac. After a couple of dramatic, aromatic alphabet scans, I gave up.
    Apart from that, I loved it. Mostly I liked: Keep Step, Slap Down, but COD to the ‘skinny’ swimmer.
    Thanks setter and Z.
  8. …Johnnie Ray or the Ronettes depending on how much of a geriatric you are. I’m in both camps. It was pouring down again in North London this morning, so I decided to do the crossword before my constitutional. 15 minutes later and only four clues solved, I decided I’d be better off getting soaked. After so doing and then a warm shower, I returned to the task. I’ve finished in just under the hour with LOI TINSELLY. I did’t parse EREMITIC but I knew the lifestyle from being the only idiot out this morning. In the UK, we wouldn’t use ‘Inc’ either, Z. It would be ‘plc’ for larger companies. I liked BADLY-OFF but COD to EMPHASIS, seeing that I didn’t spot it for ages. I’d describe this puzzle as more worthy than enjoyable. I’ll no doubt find the classical concert Mrs BW is taking me to tonight as in a similar category. Thank you Z and setter.

    1. Curiously, Inc was the equivalent offered in my version of Chambers. Perhaps the efitors thought another foreign version would be more appropriate.

  9. Stopped after thirty minutes, without BADLY-OFF, despite all the checkers. Good puzzle.

    Liked EXEMPLAR, TINSELLY, POLENTA.

    Incidentally the story of the creation of Eve, as received, is a mistranslation which has been used to help justify patriarchy for thousands of years.

    Thanks z and setter.

  10. BADLY OFF, HELPMATE and EREMITIC stubbornly refused to yield. Quite liked the skinny male but I was having to concentrate so hard throughout that any wit or cleverness was wasted on me.
  12. 18.58 and – for once – actually checked before submitting, meaning I caught a stray eremEtic just in time. Possibly just had EMETIC stuck in my mind while typing, as I’d spotted REMIT (although didn’t know CIE).

    NHO HELPMATE either, so had to rely on wordplay there.

    Enjoyed the deer and the shininess, and I think I groaned out loud (sorry to a train full of people in the Leamington Spa area) at “skinny”.

  13. Testing, but in a satisfying way. Everything was there once you saw it, and fell nicely into place, though obviously not at any great speed. Fine example of how to set a difficult puzzle.
  14. 15:55. This was a curious experience in that it felt very hard and I was sure I would get completely stuck but somehow the answers kept coming.
  15. ….as I battled with this beast. NHO BADLY-OFF in the sense of inaccuracy, and dismissed “hate” at 3D since “be sick of” implied to me that a degree of repetition should be involved, whilst one can hate something after experiencing it just the once.

    I biffed EMPHASIS, and had to come here for the parsing, and also biffed “olfactory senses” until VAMOOSES alerted me to the error of my ways. Even then I had write out the anagrist, which got on my NERVES. Not my favourite puzzle I’m afraid.

    FOI OUTRIGHT
    LOI PATHOS
    COD ADJACENT
    TIME 18:41

  16. After getting the hard ones threw in polenca without thinking, though why I treat this place as a confessional beats me. As a penance, an anagram of Hail Mary, though I find it doesn’t do the 5 down any good. A little under an hour.
  17. Agree with topicaltim, testing but enjoyable. for me a game of two halves, had the RHS done and dusted while 1a, 15d and 22a held me up. 3d and 11a from wordplay and eremetic sounded a likely thing from hermit. 35 minutes. Surprised the SNITCH is so high.
  18. I gave up after 20 mins and tried IRIMETIC. Never heard of CIE or EREMITIC, and REMIT didn’t come to me.

    Even before that it was tough, with ADJACENT and almost all the NW corner taking an age to fall – apart from BADLY-OFF, which was my FOI.

  20. Forgive me if I am telling you the bleeding obvious, but it’s the OFF that marks the inaccuracy and the BADLY that is merely intensifying it.

    ulaca (I’m told my IP address is temporarily banned)

  21. If it hadn’t been for the long anagram bang down the middle this would have been a dnf for me. EMPHASIS must be one of the best hidden clues we’ve had in a while. I managed to get the middle parts of the thing done in reasonable time but finishing off the edges was another matter. 31.07 P.S. Z, minor typo with bilge in 7d and Anon is right about pace/step in 16d. Good blog for a very hard one.
  22. I got seriously becalmed with about 2/3 of this done in about 25 minutes. It didn’t help that I wrote out the anagrist for 5D wrong, so when I thought of OLFACTORY NERVES it didn’t seem to fit. Grr. LOI EREMITIC the only one not parsed and I can’t see, in retrospect, why I found it so hard when my last 10 or so suddenly came in a relative rush. It felt pretty chewy at the time though, and I see I’m not alone in struggling and was relieved to finish without resorting to aids. I liked VAMOOSES, GLIBBEST and RESOUND among others. Thanks setter and Z. 48:34

    Edited at 2019-09-26 12:20 pm (UTC)

  23. I saw that OK, and could see it made sense, but I only knew the expression in connection with poverty.
  24. Felt tougher than perhaps it actually was. (Which, to be fair, is how a good puzzle should probably be: one has to work out solutions, not just write them in, and then think DOH! should have got that sooner….no?)
    Excellent workout in the end, and (soemwhat) encouraged that it even took the mighty Magoo more than 10 mins
  26. No not easy but got through it, toughest for me being TINSELLY. Just not a word I’d commonly think of. Best was EPIDERMAL as skinny. Regards.
  27. Beaten today, which is worrying as David Parfitt has confirmed on the Crossword Club forum that the Championship Finals will take place on 7 December.

    Full details in the paper & online tomorrow.

    Those of us who made a decent fist of things last year should be receiving our “complimentary tickets” soon.

  28. V late solve after a long walk. Now more exhausted than ever. Well, I had to use help, especially for EREMITIC and TINSELLY. Couldn’t see the last, even with TELLY in place.
    Thanks for all the comments, I wasn’t the only one then…
  29. …all seemed possible answers until I got more checking letters and understood the parsing.
    The NW corner was the last to fall for me.
    Loved skinny.
    A real challenge and I had to admit defeat on 9a. Great puzzle.
  30. I found this puzzle very tough but in a good, stretching sort of a way. Sadly, my time of just under 49 mins is null and void because following the wp at 11ac led to an absolute howler, FREMITOC. I forgot CIE though I am sure I have seen it in crossword land before.
  31. Possibly the mark of an excellent crossword: seemed very hard at all points (and the Snitch bears this out across the board) but it’s kind of hard to see why with the parsings in front of me!
  32. Slept like a log last night, having risen at 5:45 UK time and travelled back from Nerja to Northampton via Luton Airport(a cattle yard if ever there was one!). I started Thursday’s 15×15 on Thursday and after 45 minutes, on and off, (Beth, (my niece) needed the laptop for her lessons at regular intervals) had about 4 answers. I tried it again last night and could make absolutely no progress until I cheated and looked at Z’s blog for a couple of answers. That got me a bit further but I ran into a brick wall again and had to look up another couple. My LOI was ADJACENT and I’ve just found I forgot to hit submit, so the clock is now at 3:30. I’ve just submitted(off leader-board) and found it’s correct, but I had to look up 1a, 9a, 11a(despite having _REMIT__ and had to check 8d as I couldn’t see the parsing. I would’ve blamed travel weariness(I don’t suppose you can blame jet lag if you’re travelling up a line of longitude), but having looked at the SNITCH, my mind doth boggle! Thanks devious setter, and to Z for filling in the blanks and giving me the inspiration to carry on.

    Edited at 2019-09-29 09:32 am (UTC)

  33. Late to the party, having been away walking. I am now all caught up again, and just wanted to record that of the 20 or so crosswords i had to complete to clear the backlog, this was the best one by quite some distance. Nothing unknown but nothing easy to find, including a very fine hidden. Thank you setter for a masterclass, and sympathy, esteemed blogger!

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