At the time of writing, I am within a few ticks of my clockwork timing device of the average time for solving this at 12.25, and I rather suspect this will produce some PBs. It’s got rather an old-fashioned flavour to it, what with the wartime conference, daddio words for with it, and the blast from the past fog. Apart from the program, the Pixar reference and Bart Simpson, there’s nothing in here that a Sixties solver would find unfamiliar. I know. I was that solver. I’m not knocking it: a measure of nostalgia wrapped up in mostly innocuous clues leads to a pleasant, if, for me, undemanding solve and a chance to finish blogging early. Though I have spent time trying unsuccessfully to find a video of the relevant late 60’s Barker/Corbett sketch to confirm my title for today prompted by 15 across.
Definitions underlined in italics, removed and unnecessary letters are shown in [square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Perhaps watch video that may rain on your parade (6,4) |
| TICKER TAPE – A wind-up watch is one thing that ticks, so a TICKER, and a video used to be on TAPE. Back in the day, ticker tape parades welcomed returning astronauts and sports heroes. | |
| 6 | Tunisia’s capital missing from book of maps, regrettably (4) |
| ALAS – Remove the capital T of Tunisia from an A |
|
| 10 | Regularly leave key equestrian competitor (7) |
| EVENTER – The odd (even) letters of lEaVe plus your ENTER key. | |
| 11 | Break shoe, run and throw? (7) |
| UNHORSE – An anagram (break) of SHOE and RUN. | |
| 12 | Evaluates software associated with lifts (9) |
| APPRAISES – Software, I’m reliably informed, is an APP and lifts gives RAISES | |
| 13 | Empire in complete mess at the outset (5) |
| REALM – My best try: he’s a REAL idiot might be rendered he’s a complete idiot. Add the first letter of Mess. | |
| 14 | Detest drab horticulture displays (5) |
| ABHOR – Displayed in drAB HORticulture | |
| 15 | Games a police chief overheard in thick fog (3-6) |
| PEA-SOUPER – Games in school are/is/were PE. A police Chief Superintendent can be abbreviated to A Super. Which sounds like a SOUPER. In the days when everyone had a coal fire, the resulting mix of fog and smoke led to particularly impenetrable miasmas, likened humorously to pea soup. | |
| 17 | Tell me, using your brain, best sock (3,4,2) |
| OUT WITH IT – This has best in its meaning of beat, defeat, so using your brain to that effect is to OUTWIT. Sock gives HIT to complete the entry. | |
| 20 | Be overwhelmed with new information from the east (5) |
| DROWN – N[ew] WORD as (on the streets) information read from the right/east. | |
| 21 | US college briefly thanks conference venue (5) |
| YALTA – Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in February 1945 at this Crimean resort to fix the shape of post war Europe. YAL[E] is the mutilated college and TA is thanks. | |
| 23 | Champion rugby player playing in French team initially (9) |
| PROPONENT – An advocate version of champion. Your rugby player is a PROP (front row of the scrum supporting the hooker), playing renders ON, in (in) French gives EN, and complete with the first letter of T[eam] | |
| 25 | Doctor urged on to get experience (7) |
| UNDERGO – Ann anagram (doctor) of URGED ON. | |
| 26 | Rely excessively on old and extremely vulnerable scheme (7) |
| OVERUSE – O[ld], the extremes of V[ulnerabl]E and RUSE for scheme. | |
| 27 | Level of drop in sound (4) |
| TIER – Another sounds like: this time of TEAR drop. | |
| 28 | Persistent about fast time? Not so much (10) |
| RELENTLESS – About: RE. Fast time: LENT. Not so much: LESS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Articles about Bart’s last letter to Homer (5) |
| THETA – This Homer’s Greek. Articles are THE and A and the enclose T comes from the end of BarT | |
| 2 | Personal insult loved by a miserly director? (5,4) |
| CHEAP SHOT – A skinflint film director would prefer a SHOT that doesn’t cost very much. | |
| 3 | Spare gold coin one splits with European is remarkable (14) |
| EXTRAORDINAIRE – Spare is EXTRA, gold is OR, coin is DINAR. Insert I in the last and add E[uropean]. You’ll soon notice that extraordinary doesn’t reach the end. | |
| 4 | Arrives and spoils Pixar movie (5,2) |
| TURNS UP – When milk goes sour it spoils or TURNS. The 2009 Pixar movie advertised is UP, which is actually rather good in a sentimental way. | |
| 5 | Old kingdom’s power over large country (7) |
| PRUSSIA – P[ower] over RUSSIA, which is still pretty big. | |
| 7 | Grub is something very hot, reportedly (5) |
| LARVA – Another sound like (reportedly). LARVA is indeed hot stuff. | |
| 8 | What “decreases” rations — me unfortunately (5,4) |
| STEAM IRON – Not so much a UED as a Christmas cracker definition: generous of the setter to put it in inverted commas. And an anagram (unfortunately) of RATIONS ME. | |
| 9 | Fresh food and shower before nap? Tuck in here! (8,6) |
| SHERWOOD FOREST – That’s Friar Tuck – ho ho! An anagram (fresh) of FOOD and SHOWER plus REST for nap. | |
| 14 | Columnist from Guyana not wrong (5,4) |
| AGONY AUNT – “Dear Marj. My husband cares more about this crossword clue than me…” “Tell him it’s an anagram of GUYANA NOT. You can show him it’s an anagram by pointing to the word wrong. His love for you will be instantly rekindled”. | |
| 16 | Wage produced from plain writing? Sweet! (9) |
| PROSECUTE – This is wage as a verb. Plain writing is PROSE, and sweet is CUTE. | |
| 18 | Cool to live without working body part (7) |
| HIPBONE – Cool is HIP, and to live is BE. Working is ON, and BE goes without it in the old fashioned, outside, sense of the word. | |
| 19 | Couple raised farm animal during work (7) |
| TWOSOME – I’ll admit that when solving I thought the raised (upside down) farm animal would be COW, but I see now it’s SOW which fortunately is what I entered. The work into which it’s placed is a TOME, usually a large book. | |
| 22 | Enter gate-keeper’s residence (5) |
| LODGE – Two definitions. | |
| 24 | Be anxious when losing opener for lock (5) |
| TRESS – Lock of hair, of course. Be anxious is STRESS. Remove its opening letter. | |
I’d already reprinted this once after making a mistake on the first printout and then I got to 3D, EXTRAORDINAR – Aaagh! Panic didn’t last though when I read the wordplay properly and got EXTRAORDINAIRE. Everything in this seemed to just fall into place, nice change after a difficult start to the week, for me anyway.
COD to OUT WITH IT.
Thanks Z and setter, amusing blog.
29 minutes with PROPONENT as my LOI – oh that meaning of champion!
This wasn’t quite a PB, but I suspect it might’ve been if I’d known that was a possibility in advance and got on with things a bit faster. As it was I had everything parsed from TICKER TAPE to LOI SHERWOOD FOREST with its cute def. in 17 minutes to the second. I now have quite a lot of surprisingly hot tea left over, though I did at least finish the Crunchy Nut along the way.
43:31. 18 minutes looking at the last quarter. LOI were SHERWOOD FOREST and DROWN.
I was rather thrown by PROSECUTE as a verb but it makes sense of course. I liked the Simpsons/Homer juxtaposition, which I think we’ve had before and was looking out for. Thanks Z and setter!
Apart from one freak sub-10 score a few weeks ago, my 12.16 was one of the PBs that Zabadak predicted. I started with ALAS in the top line and picked up momentum quickly. Thanks to Z for explaining a few whose subtleties I missed on the way through, such as EXTRAORDINAIRE (another fail at extraordinary and I never noticed the dinar part) and TURNS UP. NHO the movie I’m afraid. That was a fun puzzle but I’ve had to cheat on Bob by cutting 2dn in half.
From Idiot Wind:
They say I SHOT a man named Gray
And took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks
And when she died it came to me
I can’t help it if I’m lucky
6:37. My fifth fastest time as recorded by the SNITCH and maybe a welcome morale boost before the championship, having been over par for all bar one puzzle so far this month. I slowed slightly at the end, finishing with SHERWOOD FOREST, solved solely from crossing letters – it was the trickiest clue of a gentle bunch.
34 mins and no real probs other than a bit of a head scratch when ETRAORDINARY didn’t fit. Oh, you want me to put the French version in!
I liked SHERWOOD FOREST, and PEA-SOUPER. I still well remember the shocker of 1963 in London.
Thanks Z and setter.
Yes 11:25 and if I’d known it was going to be so easy I’d have gone at it harder and maybe got my first sub 10 minute time! That was definitely a chance missed. Oh well.
LOI was EXTRAORDINAIRE as I started to write in EXTRAORDINARY and then realised it wasn’t working so left the last half blank until the end.
Thanks setter and Z
16.08. I thought that I was on for my first ever sub-10 minutes, but hit a couple of stumbling blocks in my excitement.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
(She Walks in Beauty, Byron)
15 mins pre-brekker. Very gentle, neat and tidy. I liked “watch video” mostly.
Ta setter and Z
26 minutes but then I’m well too old to be in Z’s category. I did enjoy this though, even though for the umpteenth time in my solving career I missed the reference to Friar Tuck until it screamed out at me. LOI TIER, COD to TICKER TAPE Good puzzle. Thank you Z and setter.
14:17
So not a PB, but pretty good for me (62 NITCH). Biffed a lot, like SHERWOOD FOREST from Tuck and a couple of checkers. Sort of boring, actually, or would have been if I’d gone slower.
7:45, with only the smart SHERWOOD FOREST providing much resistance. Good fun.
Thanks both.
21.36 a PB for me by a good margin.
LOI – UNHORSE/PRUSSIA
Joint COD to SHERWOOD FOREST and STEAM IRON
18:42
FOI: THETA
LOI: TIER
Pleasant solve with SHERWOOD FOREST providing amusement.
Thank you to Zabadak and the setter.
Around 35 minutes which is good for me. Quite easy and straightforward. Worked steadily through it with no problems. Able to parse most during solving and parsed all post-solve. No need to biff any. FOI TRESS LOI TIED
11:59
Not quite a PB but worthy of an entry in the top 10. No problems aside from fat-finger-ism costing me a shot at the title.
I did double-check I was doing the right crossword but no complaints from me as a confidence builder is always appreciated.
Thanks to both.
23.54. A puzzle with a couple of crackers I thought. Sherwood Forest, my second LOI and steam iron. Prosecute was pretty good too.
About 10 minutes, one of my fastest ever solves.
Only issues were confidently starting to write ‘extraordinary’ before realising it wasn’t long enough – eventually the checkers pushed me towards EXTRAORDINAIRE – and needing an alphabet trawl to get TIER.
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
FOI Alas
LOI Tier
COD Sherwood Forest
9:12. NHO the Pixar movie at 4D, but the answer had to be TURNS UP. I stumbled over EXTRAORDINARY as others had done before seeing I need the French spelling and then bunged in PROCEDURE from the checkers for 16D to , as I thought, finish… and then read the clue to discover I hadn’t which added another 30s. A morale booster before Saturday as my form has been pretty inconsistent recently. Thanks Z and setter.
9’13”, no issues.
Do AGONY AUNTs still exist? Or is it all psychologists and child behaviour experts now?
On another point, this appears to be my 11th-best time, although easily the best on a Thursday.
Thanks z and setter.
The Times has one …
Whipped through this in only 18 mins, v fast for me. Only TIER had me thinking for any length of time.
19:01
Not quite as easy for me as some. I was delayed at the end by LOI T_E_.
Thanks all.
8:17, which I thought was fairly nippy but I see now that I was well off the pace. I didn’t find this especially easy, and got stuck at the end on the forest and UNHORSE, both very obvious in retrospect.
About half an hour.
Took ages to see Sherwood Forest.
Thanks, Z.
Good stuff, easy but fun. 20 minutes watching cricket. I liked the “tuck in here” best.
About 30 minutes over a couple of visits while doing touristy stuff. stared for a long time at SHERWOOD FOREST before it fell into place with a Doh! Liked the PIXAR reference and “decreases”… yes the the inverted commas helped. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
An enjoyable romp from THETA to DROWN with SHERWOOD FOREST POI. 12:39. Thanks setter and Z.
42:21 with no errors, and my 9th best time as well. FOI – ALAS, LOI – TWOSOME, COD – TICKER TAPE and SHERWOOD FOREST both made me smile. Thanks setter and Zabadak.
Pleasant solve, spoiled by a careless pink square in Eventor (doh!). I submitted without checking the clue, as I had queried the wordplay when I’d solved it. Silly me! Grew up near Sherwood Forest (well Clumber Park is almost part of it.
Thanks for the entertaining blog and the puzzle.
13.40 Maybe a PB, making me think that 10 minutes might be achievable if I improve my phone finger skills.
19 – Who knows? I may have been on course for a PB until I came to a juddering halt at the unsolvable 20ac, D-R-N, having carelessly written in PERSECUTE without checking the parsing properly (or at all, really).
The SHERWOOD FOREST clue was beautiful, I thought.
Not as quick as yesterday, but still sub twenty at 19.25 which for me is a fast time. My LOI was SHERWOOD FOREST which took a while even with all the checkers in place. At last good old Friar Tuck came to mind (the reverend Spooner’s nightmare), and the answer was then obvious.
A sub-20 time for me which could well be a PB -I don’t keep close record. NHO the Pixar film (do we have to call it a movie?) and only just HO Pixar. I associate the name with cartoons.
I enjoyed the witty blog almost as much as the puzzle, so thanks all round.
I was doing well, but unfortunately at the end I was thinking Billy Bunter, not Robin Hood. What kind of tuck box is this? Then everything became clear. The rest was super-easy.
Time: 20:33
Did no one else put in tied? Another homophone for something that drops for half the time. I agree tier is somewhat more convincing.
I did, for the same reason, and of course never looked for an alternative. Very annoying!
Crikey, mid 12 and outside the top 100!
SHERWOOD FOREST LOI
12:43
Thought I had completed it in 10 minutes until I realised that I had 3 dn as EXTRAORDINAIRY instead of EXTRAORDINAIRE. Shouldn’t the compiler have hinted that this was the French version of the word, or is that just me being petulant? Anyhow, I liked TICKER TAPE which was quaintly evocative of Lindberg etc.
To be fair, you don’t have the English version there either 🙂
Nothing there to frighten the horses, though I’ve never knowingly come across UNHORSE until now. I’ve lost a few quid backing unseated riders but unhorsed? No. It feels a bit like ‘deloused’, though I’m not sure even the most medicated of soaps could handle the challenge. NHO the Pixar masterpiece but didn’t need to. 25 mins plus change.
One of those days where the brain was not engaged. 65 mins and an error! All crossers on 18d and realised hip to start and still five mins for the penny to drop. Yesterday 16 mins flew through. And so it goes.
Pleasant, not hard, possibly a PB. COD 9d Sherwood Forest; tuck shop, tuck in shirt, ah Friar!
NHO the Pixar film.
Just under 15′ for me, which is close to a PB. My LOI was STEAM IRON. I don’t remember being held up much anywhere except discovering that EXTRAORDINARY was a letter short and having to think how the clue really worked.
Was hoping for a rare sub-20 but came in at 21. Spent too much time wondering if there were more letters in ‘extraordinary’ than I’d previously been aware of.
23:57
Same stumble over EXTRAORDINAIRE as others.
My last two were SHERWOOD FOREST and REALM.
Thanks Z and setter
I put in ‘tied’ too. You’re not alone…
A gentle offering, which I was glad of so late in the day.
FOI ALAS
LOI EXTRAORDINAIRE
COD TICKER TAPE
TIME 6:23
22.49 Pretty quick for me. Friar Tuck came to mind quite early on but I absent-mindedly thought he lived in Nottingham Forest. I got there eventually and finished with DROWN. Thanks Zabadak.
27:57
Minor help of someone spoiling EXTRAORDINAIRE not being -ARY in the QC blog but also it come up in the Express Crusader this morning where I took considerably longer to unravel it.
Probably my second fastest time ever on the 15×15. Nothing too complicated in the words used or clueing. Enjoyed SHERWOOD FOREST clue; some amazement that UNHORSE is really a word and finished off with PRUSSIA
Haven’t done so well recently so I was pleased to finish this. But took ages over my last three SHERWOOD FOREST/UNHORSE/PRUSSIA.