With blogger’s caution, I took a leisurely 16.41 for this, though early results suggest it might be another quick solve for many regulars. There’s some discrete advertising across the upper middle which Nestlé presumably paid for having wrested the product it from Rowntree, and younger viewers might not remember the fabulous John Curry blazing a trail for his sport and for Britain at the winter Olympics. I spotted a couple of slightly naughtily capitalised words, but I liked the two clues employing reverse cryptic devices and the “master of fishing”, adding pleasant touches to a workaday puzzle.
Definitions underlined in italics, excluded letters in [square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Wader limb dips periodically (4) |
| IBIS – Alternate letters of lImB dIpS. A bird of the family Plataleidae a fact you may never need. | |
| 4 | Read an involved letter that stimulates (10) |
| ADRENALINE – An anagram (involved) of READ AN plus (drop me a) LINE for letter. | |
| 9 | Information with note helping peer group (10) |
| GENERATION – Information is GEN. Add one of eight note choices E, and RATION for helping. | |
| 10 | Where man might eat dog’s breakfast? (4) |
| MESS – Two definitions, the first assuming (probably) a military man. | |
| 11 | Curry was one of fish and rice originally (6) |
| SKATER – Reference to John Curry, who revolutionised ice skating in the 70’s by combining great technique with balletic, artistic expression. The wordplay attaches the SKATE fish to the first letter of R[ice] | |
| 12 | City chap shot around noon (8) |
| COVENTRY – COVE for chap and TRY for shot encompassing N[oon] | |
| 14 | Sweet cold wine lacking finish (4) |
| CHOC – C[old] plus the wine HOCK, as it says lacking its finish. | |
| 15 | Dating app perhaps pairing Lucifer with God? (10) |
| MATCHMAKER – A lucifer (strictly without a capital) is a type of MATCH immortalised in the WW1 song Pack Up Your Troubles; “while you’ve a lucifer to light your fag, smile boys that’s the style”. God as characterised in the Creed: “MAKER of all things, seen and unseen”. | |
| 17 | Officer vain at heart gave up backing a politician (4-2-4) |
| AIDE-DE-CAMP – The heart of vain is AI, gave up is CEDED which must be reversed (backing) and then A and politician MP are added. | |
| 20 | Drunk wanting to destroy (4) |
| BLOT – Druk is BLOTTO, remove the TO. | |
| 21 | Sons in slippery conditions turn Zephyr (4,4) |
| WEST WIND – I lost time trying to find a gentle breeze sort of definition, but it’s as it says, and with the capital (technically) the god of the west wind. S[ons] inserted into WET, slippery conditions and WIND for turn. | |
| 23 | Gloomy note written about world and its end? (6) |
| MORBID – The note this time is from sol-fa, and is MI. Write it around ORB for world and add world’s last letter to finish. | |
| 24 | Master of fishing vessel we’re told? (4) |
| ERNE – An erne is a sea-eagle, here poetically described. Sounds like (we’re told) URN for vessel. | |
| 25 | Boss reported Irish county club (10) |
| KNOBKERRIE – A South African throwing and clubbing stick. KNOB is boss as on the centre of a shield. Then the Irish county Kerry donates its sound to the mix (reported). | |
| 26 | Saw that could be done easily (4,4,2) |
| LAID EYES ON – An anagram (could be) of DONE EASILY. The more prosaic meaning of saw. | |
| 27 | Degenerate bore (4) |
| SINK – Two definitions. Took me a while to match both. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | How to make techie start conversation? (5,3,3) |
| BREAK THE ICE – Like this one. You make “techie” when you BREAK “THE ICE”. | |
| 3 | Spot crown jewels kings must leave for display (9) |
| SPECTACLE – Spot is SPECK and both crown jewels and TACKLE are euphemisms for a chap’s bits. Both K[ings] are removed. | |
| 4 | Squeeze beneath a horse: it makes gelding niggled (7) |
| ANAGRAM – So how does gelding become niggled? ANAGRAM it. Additionally, it’s RAM for squeeze (into a confined space) below A NAG or horse. With the previous clue’s references fresh in mind, I rather thought a gelding would be less niggled by such squeezing than a stallion. | |
| 5 | Dancing dad sang with cast iron bucket (4,4,3,4) |
| RAIN CATS AND DOGS – An anagram (dancing) of everything else except with and the definition. Extra marks if you checked. Even more extra marks if you took it on trust. | |
| 6 | Glory in making return to sack Assad’s capital city (7) |
| NINEVEH – A city of ancient Assyria, famous for quinquiremes and and a fishy-smelling reluctant prophet. HEAVEN stands in for glory, add IN, remove the capital A of Assad, and reverse what’s left | |
| 7 | Still upset — not very (5) |
| INERT – Upset gives INVERT. Remove the V[ery] | |
| 8 | Content of less articulate literary work (5) |
| ESSAY – I assume we’re meant to spell out the letters S and A enclosed in lesS Articulate. There’s no “sounds like” indication. | |
| 13 | Persuasive speaker can hire trio to play (11) |
| RHETORICIAN – An anagram (to play) of CAN HIRE TRIO. | |
| 16 | Scent stabiliser from Big Ears and Mr Messy (9) |
| AMBERGRIS – From the guts of a sperm whale, once used both as a fixative and for its surprisingly pleasant smell in perfumes. An anagram (messy) of BIG EARS and MR. | |
| 18 | Close to safe area in dangerous Hebridean island (7) |
| ERISKAY – The last letter of closE, then A[rea] in RISKY for dangerous. | |
| 19 | Persistently ask relatives for fruit (7) |
| PUMPKIN – PUMP for persistently ask, and KIN for family. | |
| 21 | Despicable person supporting women’s revolution (5) |
| WHEEL – HEEL is despicable person who counterintuitively supports W[omen] | |
| 22 | Offence reduced financial support for part of Asia (5) |
| SINAI – SIN for offence and AID for financial support cut short | |
DNF
NHO Curry, ERISKAY, KNOBKERRIE. I looked the island up to make sure, got nowhere with the club. I thought of ERNE, but failed to see how it would work. And biffed a bunch more, without parsing. All in all, a very unsatisfactory performance.
DNF. I found this very difficult with too many unknowns, but that’s just me. NHO the skater but it went in after seeing the reverse cryptic in 2d. Bunged in ‘morose’ instead of MORBID. NHO KNOBKERRIE but I had the ‘Kerrie’ bit, just couldn’t think of the beginning. Liked CHOC and BLOTTO. Had LAID EYES ON pretty early which helped with SINAI. COD to RAIN CATS AND DOGS.
I saw ESSAY as the centre/content of lESs followed by SAY/articulate.
Thanks Z and setter
Now you come to mention it…
l[ES]s SAY is clearly the better solution, and accounts for “articulate”. I still got there!
I found this quite hard and had to use aids on several. No idea how to parse many. thus for example I had to guess between NINEVEH and NINEVAH which seem to be variations. I guessed between REVELATION and GENERATION. NHO Curry as SKATER but put it in. Had to check ERISKAY. COD ERNE.
Thanks Z
I remembered Curry, but I did not remember KNOBKERRIE although I’m sure I’ve seen it before. I was convinced Knock was a county in Ireland but it’s only a town, which didn’t help. I couldn’t see how EARN was a master of fishing until the penny dropped. But DNF due to KNOBKERRIE. I have cycled the length of the Western Isles, so I have been through ERISKAY so that one caused no problem. I also though ESSAY was contents of less (ES) and SAY (articulate).
I was misled by Knock, also, until I checked and found it’s in Mayo. But it’s famous because there’s a shrine there, where someone or other saw the Virgin once.
Another DNF, giving up at the half-hour. NHO the club, was fooled by the sea-eagle and simply didn’t understand how BLOT = destroy and SINK = whatever it was meant to equal. I liked the ANAGRAM clue but the wp for NINEVEH was way too convoluted for me to unpack. Thanks Z, glad you found it a doddle because I sure did not!
From Red River Shore:
Well I knew when I first LAID EYES ON her
I could never be free
One look at her and I knew right away
She should always be with me
Well the dream dried up a long time ago
Don’t know where it is anymore
True to life and true to me
Was the girl from the Red River shore
Galspray won’t be commenting today as he’s been sent to his room for swearing loudly at his computer and making rude remarks about “unsolvable clues”.
Signed, Galspray’s Mum.
😂
Lol
Whizzed through this, 12′, but no ERNE. So another (breezeblocked) dnf….
Thanks z and setter
I started rather well, but after my trials with today’s QC I was in no mood to extend my encounter with this one beyond my half-hour target by which stage I had all but one answer, ERNE. I somehow doubt I would ever have come up with it.
I had no idea about the wordplay at 6dn but biffed the city, misspelling it NINEVAH in the process.
Ditto with NINEVAH.
I’m sure it’s an acceptable spelling when transliterated from the original cuneiform.
It’s just not correct though is it?
Sounds like I must’ve been on the wavelength today, coming in at about 17 minutes. KNOBKERRIE has come up a few times before, I think, otherwise I might’ve been slower. I’d very much like to have a few post-puzzle Matchmakers now; it’s nice to know they still exist.
KNOBKERRIE doesn’t show up in a search of the archive here.
I must be getting confused with the Guardian, then. It did come up in a Jumbo Concise in 2013 (537), and the main 15×15 in 2004 (22825, “Hear aristocrat’s to join county club”), but I can’t see anything more recent from a quick hunt around.
It appeared in John Henderson’s March 1 Guardian puzzle. I got it then – the clueing was a little easier – but still failed to achieve what would have been my, what?, fifth all-correct Hendo puzzle in 15 years!
Ah, yes, that’s the one I chucked in the towel on after about three hours. On the other hand, I probably got KNOBKERRIE, as it’s likely what helped me today…
49m 12s
I was pleased with myself for getting 4d ANAGRAM as I don’t often spot that sort of clue.
With 25ac KNOBKERRIE, I was obsessed with the Irish county being KNOCK!
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing
(Shelley)
30 mins pre-brekker. I liked it. “Master of fishing” was LOI.
I got Nineveh quickly, but needed the other clues to where the ‘city’ might be.
Ta setter and Z.
DNF. Missing BLOT and ERNE which I don’t think I’d have got in a month of Sundays. I’ve always been meaning to check out what AMBERGRIS did, Shame, as otherwise I liked it. Thank you Z and setter.
So many Scottish islands end in ‘say’, but this one didn’t. Even had I got it, Galspray’s mother would have been busy giving me reassurance about the ‘knob’ clue.
I have a rather boring and unproven idea that ‘ay’ or ‘ey’ once meant island. Eg, Eriskay, Orkney, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Nordeney (Riddle of the Sands). And, inland, Sheppey, and Muchelney, in the Somerset Levels, where my in-laws live and complain about the floods.
You’re correct – and I think some of the small islands in the Thames are called “Eyes”.
Update – Just checked on Wikipedia – Sonning Eye comes from the Anglo Saxon eye = island.
I enjoyed this more than some appeared to have done, despite taking a rather adagio 27.56. ERNE and ANAGRAM were particularly appreciated.
DNF. Pretty straightforward until suddenly impossible.
Exactly!
24:51. I found this pretty tricky and was surprised and pleased to see no pink squares. NHO Knockerrie. COD: SPECTACLE.
Edit: I went with KNOBKERRIE in the end but was sorely tempted by Knockerrie
I enjoyed this, not easy but a steady solve. No unknowns although in the end I put in ERNE more on the grounds that nothing else much fitted, so no pdm until coming here!
Well I got there in a long while. Had to check the Scottish island which gave me the confidence to put in the unknown KNOBKERRIE. Some clever clues.
Thanks Z
About 40 minutes, where I made steady progress until coming to a halt in the SE corner.
– Didn’t know Curry the SKATER but the wordplay was kind
– Thought the chap in the clue for COVENTRY could be Dave, but then Daventry isn’t a city
– Dimly remembered lucifer as a match for MATCHMAKER
– Took ages to realise ‘master of fishing’ was the definition for 24a and get ERNE
– Agree with other commenters’ parsing of ESSAY
Then I got stuck:
– Worked out that 16d was an anagram but took ages to think of AMBERGRIS (and I couldn’t have told you that it’s a scent stabiliser)
– That finally unlocked BLOT and SINK, where I’d struggled with the various meanings of degenerate and bore
– That left 25a, where I put KNOBKERRIE with little hope that it would be right despite seeing how it parsed
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
FOI Mess
LOI Knobkerrie
COD Break the ice (though I wish it didn’t have the question mark)
I had Daventry for a while with a big question mark as to its status as a city.
Harder puzzles later in the week by Thunderer tradition, and this was quite a tester, but I really enjoyed its numerous twists and turns.
Not exactly my fastest time on this, as biffing was all but precluded (even with just KNOBKERRIE being a DNK for me), but the parsing seemed consistently entertaining. On which score lots to like, inc. SKATER, (my COD) MATCHMAKER, BLOTTO, BREAK THE ICE, NINEVEH & clever LOI ESSAY.
Ta Zab and compiler.
32 mins. This one just happened to suit me but I agree with some of the complaints.
I remember John Curry but its unfair to younger solvers, not GK these days.
Thought a KNOBKERRIE was from Mr Punch. Seems I was wrong but it helped me anyway.
NHO ERISKAY but lots off them do end in AY.
RHETORITICIAN is a horrible clunky word.
Otherwise rather enjoyable esp ANAGRAM and Bucket = Rain.
Thanks both.
DNF- No such thing as a KNOCKERRIE after agonising over the best guess. NHO KNOB=boss although probably refered to many bosses that way in my past.
Found a lot of the rest a slog so sad to get a DNF by one.
Lots unparsed especially MATCHMAKER so I got my fill from the blog.
Liked SKATER (am I not a younger viewer then?) and MORBID.
I think this one was right on the cusp of crossword talent.
Thanks blogger.
That’s exactly what I did, although I *have* heard of the club, vaguely. And I knew I had, but couldn’t bring it to mind.
In hindsight, I should’ve realised I needed K_O_, because it’s clear that it’s not a full homophone, and so the K in KERRIE is not part of the synonym for ‘boss’. I also didn’t know boss=knob, but it’s clearly there in Chambers.
Oh, I mis-parsed as the homophone applying to both nob and Kerry.
In the end I assumed it was going to be KNO_KERRIE and went through the alphabet and just opted for what I thought was the most likely word.
Would I have got it if I had gone the KNO_ = boss approach? I’m not sure.
A fine puzzle. Was held up on my LOI for the best part of three minutes. My downstairs neighbour knocked on her ceiling, clearly disturbed by the resounding clang as the penny finally dropped.
FOI IBIS
LOI/COD ERNE
TIME 11:16
An entirely unforced error gave me a DNF, but I enjoyed the puzzle.
Thanks setter, blogger, and editor.
15,32 but with NINEVAH. Bah humbug! Thanks setter and Z.
8 down in the cryptic is simply “es” the content of less plus say (articulate).
Fairly easy except for the SW which wasn’t.
4a Adrenaline; I wasn’t at all sure it ends with “e”. I see that Wiktionary allows both options.
21a West Wind, biffed and only half parsed. Confused by the plural sons=S not S+S.
24a Erne, only 4 letters but a lot of thought required. COD.
26a Laid eyes on; took a while to see the anagrind and anagrist.
3d SpecKtacKle, ho ho.
8d Essay; like Quadrophenia et al I parsed as (l)ES(s) and “say”=articulate.
NHO 18a Eriskay, cheated by checking its existence.
22d Sinai, surprised that an integral part of African Egypt is recognised in Wiki et al as Asian. Israel is in the Eurovisions, as is Oz, so I think I’ll just stop worrying about the boundaries of continents : -)
Knobkerry added to Cheating Machine. Knobkerrie already there.
Thanks Z and setter.
I tried harder and did better.
Rather disappointed to see the snitch rating as I thought the puzzle on the tough side.
Knew that AMBERGRIS was a constituent of scents but not that it was a stabiliser. Old enough to remember Tim Curry’s achievement. Muddled through to find KNOBKERRIE. Had to expunge COVE as an inlet before cove as a chap popped into my mind. And was unduly pleased with myself to revisit NINEVEH – even spelled it right!
Time nothing to write home (or here) about.
Thanks to blogger and setter.
I think Tim Curry is a different bloke, the skater was the late John.
Oh yes, thank you.
Finished, happy to have invented the unknown and unlikely crossing pair of ERISKAY and KNOBKERRIE, guessed Torvill’s first or last name or partner was Curry, and getting the three lame ones BLOT, SINK and ERNE. Only to discover the dreaded error: parsed NINEVAH correctly, heaven without the A, but automatically wrote in the “correct” spelling. Bugger.
Pleased to get this in about 30′. Constructed KNOBKERRIE when “boss” came to me, as I couldn’t make sense of “knoc” – then I felt I’d heard of it, maybe on antiques roadshow??? LOI ERNE, which doesn’t work for me as a homophone, but I had a PDM with “master of fishing”. Enjoyed Big Ears etc. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
Enjoyed this but guessed knockerrie instead of knobkerrie.
DNF. My terrible run continues. Started well, but failed to get KNOBKERRIE (which I think appears in a Sherlock Holmes story), INERT and SINAI (I thought that was in Africa, but I suppose it’s the wrong side of the Suez Canal).
Many thanks to blogger and setter.
It is with trepidation I await my fate tomorrow!
I’m with you on that last comment!
About half an hour.
Tough!
Thanks, Z.
DNF after 16 mins and opting for KNOCKBRAIN as sounding very slightly less improbable than all the other improbable answers I could think of.
This was a weird one for me. I just happened to know the GK (KNOBKERRIE and ERISKAY took time to emerge, but they were in there). So it all seemed surprisingly easy for a Thursday puzzle, the easiest in weeks for me. Probably around 20 mins which is pretty fast by my standards. So I was surprised to come here and see peoples’ comments.
But as I know from experience it won’t be long before I struggle with one that most other people find very straightforward.
16.50 with LOI sink which didn’t particularly appeal but was correct after all. Started well but faded on the RH side till adrenaline gave me some impetus.
COD shared between morbid and matchmaker .
All done in about half an hour. Enjoyed this one.
LOI, as with several of us, was ERNE. I got it purely from the word play; I have heard of “erne” meaning sea-eagle, but I didn’t make the “master of fishing” connection. Next to last in was SINK, but once I had thought of the word, I could see that it worked as a double definition. Unusual for me to have more trouble with the short answers than the long ones.
Liked SPECTACLE; I put it in because it was obvious from the checkers and “show” in the clue, but when I subsequently parsed it, it made me chuckle.
I suppose I should have worked out KNOBKERRIE from wordplay, since I’d very vaguely heard of it, but I was fixated on the Irish county being Cork, which I was trying to include somehow. The parsing of 8dn has to be the [l]es[s] one because otherwise ‘articulate’ is doing double duty. In 6dn I’m not comfortable with heaven = glory. 32 minutes.
36’10”
Fortunate to get a clear run.
Sub-Nitch but not quite sub-snitch, but clearly I’ve been lucky to complete the course.
I have to thank an old chum; he grew up on Uist and named his elder daughter Eriskay.
Thank you setter and Z.
Raced through this, but completely flummoxed by ERNE.
“Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!”
Discreet?
I commend you all to the Eriskay Love Lilt, a poignant folk song
DNF.Life’s too short.
Ta Z.
18.00 WOE
Couldn’t get the club, also convinced it must start KNOCK.
ERNE was okay though didn’t parse SINAI properly and had no idea what was happening with NINEVEH. Otherwise reasonably smooth solve here, and much quicker than the QC…
Thanks Z and Setter
24 mins. I also toyed with KNOCKBRAIN, but knowing that Knock is not a county and a boss is a KNOB, I still couldn’t get it and for the second day running my scrabble app came to the rescue. COD ERNE.
20 minutes for all bar Knobkerrie where I gave up – I was convinced it began with Knock. I’m disappointed because belatedly I realised that I do know the word – I should have persevered.
23:52 but…
… a disappointing finish with the unknowns ERISKAY and KNOBKERRIE both requiring lookups – can’t see how one would get the second without filling in the first, which I couldn’t, so I looked both up. Other parts of the puzzle were really good.
Thanks for unravelling Z
Insanely tricky, disgusting that the snitch is only 90 as it deserves to be much higher (DNF if you didn’t guess!).
An enjoyable puzzle, all done in 31 minutes. It might have been a bit quicker had I not tied myself in knots in the SW corner, having biffed SAUDI at 22dn and then understandably having trouble trying to fill in the gaps in E-U- for 24ac. Was ERUS an English word as well as a Latin one? Fortunately it dawned on me that SAUDI could not be right, even if it is a bit more Asian than SINAI, and all came good in the end. NHO KNOBKERRIE but the clueing was generous.
FOI – IBIS
LOI – ERNE
COD – MATCHMAKER
Thanks to Zabadak and other contributors.
All done apart from ERNE.
I think erne is pronounced “earn”, which is not a homophone of urn.
Maybe I’m wrong: this is my first post!
This may depend on which part of the UK or English-speaking world you come from. My recollection of previous debates here on homophones suggests you enter the lists on this subject at your peril!
Good point and good advice.
Welcome!
You’re certainly not the first person to comment on potential issues with homophones. I would pronounce those two words the same way, but then I come from the south east of England so I think my accent is the same as the accent used by The Times, if you see what I mean. As Ucalegon says, it’s a thorny subject!
Thanks Chris.
I’m from Glasgow, so that probably explains it!
Definitely explains it! Homophones are generally weighted against the Scottish, who, apart from the rhotic, generally have more distinctive vowel sounds than the rest of us. I feel your pain…
Thanks! 😄
Yep, as another resident of south-east England, down here “erne” and “urn” (“earn” as well) are complete homophones, no difference in pronunciation whatsoever.
I took 38 minutes of which the last 10-15 were on KNOBKERRIE.
It’s funny looking here that at around 25 minutes I was also considering that well known word KNOCKBRAIN!! Then an age later and well into desperation / DNF time KNOB for boss finally came to mind, and then I thought immediately of Kerry but I was still slightly amazed when my finger hit the final E and it was correct.
Thanks setter and blogger