18.33 Most of this I found relatively straightforward, and the geographical and literary references were known to me, even if I misremembered the nationality of the writer at 4. Where I hit a bit of a wall was with the unlikely looking dog which has only entered the modern era as a word in a couple of clues in normal crosswords to indicate either its nationality or just to provide its initial letter, and once in a Monthly Special as an answer. Back in 2009, apparently Vinyl’s brother owned one.
I show definitions underlined in italics, excluded letters in [square brackets] and generally try to make clear how everything else works, sometimes successfully.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sends out one’s appeals (6) |
| ISSUES – One’s becomes IS, and appeals (presumably in a legal context) becomes SUES. Chambers gives “entreat” under sue, and “to make supplication or earnest request” under appeal, so a non-legal equivalence is also available, which I prefer. | |
| 5 | Strong defence of royal assistant from reporter (8) |
| PALISADE – A reporter might be (mis)heard to say PALACE AIDE for royal assistant. | |
| 9 | Appliance for cooking tough rabbit heads (6,4) |
| WAFFLE IRON – Tough is IRON (like a lion in Zion? -thanks Bob) to be headed or preceded by WAFFLE for rabbit (see under Chas and Dave) | |
| 10 | Stone arguably regularly deficient (4) |
| RUBY – The odd letters of aRgUaBlY go missing. | |
| 11 | Voluntary work, a lot in labouring (8) |
| OPTIONAL – Work is OP and then add an anagram (labouring) of A LOT IN. | |
| 12 | One of us English showing compassion (6) |
| HUMANE – I assume most of us are HUMAN (AI’s not yet good enough!). Add E[nglish]. | |
| 13 | Prime minister of northern country forgetting first two points (4) |
| EDEN – Anthony of that family, luckless successor to Churchill whose downfall was precipitated by the Suez crisis of 1956. Remove the first two letters of SWEDEN, which happen also to be compass points. | |
| 15 | Fabulous creature’s alien character grasped by child (8) |
| MINOTAUR – The alien character is the T from the Greek alphabet, TAU, surrounded by a MINOR child. It made sure I got the spelling right. | |
| 18 | City companion wearing a short outfit (3,5) |
| ABU DHABI – Companion is the (US) BUD. Clothe him with A HABIT for outfit shortened by removing the T. | |
| 19 | Easily cowed, I’m alarmed by motorway (4) |
| MEEK – Might be easily cowed but not a bad price to pay for inheriting the Earth. If I’m alarmed, I might utter EEK(!) here by M[otorway]. “By” allows you to place the letter before or after. | |
| 21 | Dog that is mainly East European (6) |
| VIZSLA – The checking letters are not encouraging, and the wordplay isn’t that much help. VIZ (not the magazine) is the abbreviation for videlicet, which translates from Latin as namely, as does the more familiar i.e. Most of an Eastern European is SLA[v]. The result also doesn’t help by looking unlikely. | |
| 23 | I depend on girl related to astronomer (8) |
| GALILEAN – I LEAN for I depend (on) attached to GAL for girl. | |
| 25 | Good feeling for music equipment (4) |
| GEAR – G[ood] EAR translating feeling for music. | |
| 26 | Prepare old crime boss for catastrophic conflict (10) |
| ARMAGEDDON – Prepare old crime boss shades into ARM AGED DON. Allenby fought a battle against the Ottoman army in September 1918 partly near Tel (Har) Megiddo, and used the name for the Biblical connection (Revelation 16.16), though it fell rather short of that climactic, world shattering battle. | |
| 27 | An urgent call about top-quality fireproofing (8) |
| ASBESTOS – An urgent call is A S.O.S. Insert BEST for top quality. | |
| 28 | Restricting crossing river is causing strain (6) |
| TRYING – TYING for restricting with R[iver] inserted. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Small instrument out of tune (5) |
| SHARP – S[mall] plus HARP. Out of tune unless its supposed to be sharp. | |
| 3 | Not affected by exhausted urchin feeding in frenzy (9) |
| UNFEIGNED – Exhaust or empty your urchin to produce UN, then add an anagram (in frenzy) of FEEDING. | |
| 4 | Austere European novelist (6) |
| STERNE – Laurence, author of Tristram Shandy. STERN for austere plus E[uropean]. | |
| 5 | In sporting contest a cramp simply worsens with age (10,5) |
| PARALYMPIC GAMES – An anagram (worsens) of A CRAMP SIMPLY and AGE | |
| 6 | Be keen to pass on writing with pen (8) |
| LONGHAND – Be keen gives LONG, and pass on gives HAND. | |
| 7 | Jostling crowd’s right to enter film (5) |
| SCRUM – R[ight] takes its place in SCUM for film. | |
| 8 | Girl presented risk, squandering initial security (9) |
| DEBENTURE – Chambers “a security issued by a company for money borrowed on the company’s property”. A girl presented is a DEB[utant]. Contributors from higher levels of society than me can let us know if it still happens. Add VENTURE for risk with its first letter deleted. | |
| 14 | Name ships in book (9) |
| DUBLINERS – By James Joyce. To name is to DUB, add LINERS for ships. | |
| 16 | Realised line may achieve the same as doing this? (6-3) |
| TUMBLE-DRY – Realised gives TUMBLED, and line R[ailwa]Y. A washing line and a tumble drier, under the right circumstances, have the same effect. The grammar’s a bit iffy and the definition underlining is flexible. | |
| 17 | Lion, say, caught in a desert, falls (8) |
| CATARACT – noun. A lion is a CAT, add C[aught] inserted into A plus RAT for desert. | |
| 20 | Promise extreme hardship (6) |
| PLIGHT – A double definition. Aficionados of the Anglican wedding service know about “thereto I plight thee my troth”. | |
| 22 | Dresser generally holds material (5) |
| SERGE – Hidden in dresSER GEnerally | |
| 24 | Coffee substitute that comes in a cup (5) |
| ACORN – Particularly during WWII, acorns were used in Germany for ersatz coffee, since the beans weren’t readily available. Acorns in their natural state come in quaint little cups. | |
DNF
Never heard of the dog.
I know VIZ, but I did not get past _I_SLA, nor did I figure out ACORN.
Very tough, for me anyway. It was case of working across the whole grid and getting the odd one here and there to help with checkers. I was also slow to spot some of the definitions. WAFFLE IRON had me thinking until I had PARALYMPIC GAMES and LONGHAND. Thought 20d, promise was ‘pledge’ but it didn’t parse so waited until checkers gave PLIGHT. Liked TUMBLE DRY and DUBLINER. Vaguely heard of ACORN for the coffee substitute but waited for checkers to confirm. At the end, all I had left was the dog and that was never going to come. COD to GALILEAN.
Thanks Z and setter.
Exactly the same as plusjeremy and Kevin with the dog. I cowardly-ly submitted off-leaderboard after 10 minutes of staring at the dog after feeling quite pleased with myself for getting there in 20′. I was forlornly hoping that TIS could be ‘that is’ plus SLA(V).
Had an extremely vague inkling about acorn coffee but thought it had to be acorn since they come in cups.
I like to think that PALISADE was relatively well-activated in memory thanks to mentally running through the problematic (for me) common words CUPOLA and PORTICO earlier today.
Nice puzzle, and thanks Zabadak for the laughs re: VIZ and DEB.
Yes, my brother had a Vizsla in 2009, which gave me a leg up. He has now remarried, moved to Florida, and has a Pomeranian.
I knew about the Germans and coffee in WWII – the POWs were grateful to be served real coffee when captured. It was debenture that gave me the most trouble, but I finally saw the answer and assumed Deb was the girl. Well, no pictures on scorecards!
Time: 31:42
45 minutes but technically a DNF as I used aids for my LOI, the previously unheard of dog. A search of the archive reveals that it appeared a couple of times in clues but never before as an answer other than in a Monthly Club Special which few people here ever look at. Apart from that, this was a very enjoyable solve.
Was never going to get that dog – attempted TISSLA even tried SICSLA but no joy
COD ARMAGEDDON
DNF would never have got the dog.
27:20. I thought I made hard work of this, getting completely bogged down in the NE and the SW where I spent over half my time on a handful of clues. Reading others comments here I’m now pleased just to have crossed the line, finishing predictably with VIZSLA.
Would never have got the dog in any number of dog years. Biffed ACORN but no idea why. Similarly didn’t fully get the WAFFLE IRON. The rest was OK though I thought PALISADES had two “LLs” but it worked. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
Defeated at the final fence by the NHO dog, I went for TISSLA, which looks unlikely but perhaps more likely than the correct answer. I filled the left half in fairly quickly (except the dog), including the PARALYMPIC GAMES but struggled on the right for reasons that seem unclear in retrospect.
Difficult but instructive. Did about half. I was never going to get all the way through this.
NHO: PALISADE, VIZSLA, STERNE, DEBENTURE.
Rabbit = waffle, alien character = tau, I’m alarmed = eek, not affected = unfeigned were all just slightly a step too far for me to get.
We move on.
44 minutes, something of a triumph for me.
Knew a man with a VIZSLA in the dim distant so no difficulty there. Think they were once known as Hungarian Vizslas.
Delayed by failure to see the anagram for UNFEIGNED.
NHO of a WAFFLE IRON but liked it. Like anything relatable to Chas and Dave.
Dredged ACORN coffee from postwar childhood memories.
Many really likeable clues but my COD was TUMBLE DRY.
Expecting my comeuppance tomorrow.
Thanks to Zabadak and setter.
Pretty hopeless today. Funnily enough had considered the dog but with the spelling I gave it appeared more double dutch than east european.
27 minutes with LOI a desperate ACORN. I was told tales of nettle tea but never acorn coffee. Mind you, I don’t think coffee was drunk much in the UK in the wartime years. After the war, it was either Nescaff (official pronunciation) or that horrible Camp coffee with chicory. The nearest I got to an authentic coffee taste was the coffee cream in a box of chocolates. I’ve known a few VIZSLAS in more recent times. Sleek dogs indeed. Another enjoyable puzzle at my level. Thank you Z and setter.
48:13. Did this on a train but was unable to access the club version for some reason. I enjoyed t it. The dog was the last one in – after I finally managed to get the Viz Namely connection. I though TUMBLE DRY, PALISADE and WAFFLE IRON were all excellent.
Thanks to Zabadak and the setter
I’ve been having difficulty with club access too. Just returns to the “play puzzle” page. Did all the cache/reinstall processes to no avail so have raised it with the techies.
DNF. NHO and would never have guessed the dog, otherwise all complete in about 15 minutes. Thank-you Z and setter.
DNF
Beaten by the unknown dog as I haven’t seen VIZ before, maybe showing my ignorance. Otherwise I rather huffed and puffed my way around the grid taking about 30 minutes in all.
A good challenge though so thanks to both.
Another TISSLA submitted in an act of futility.
Otherwise an interesting challenge opened up nicely by the long games.
A curse on all dogs, stick to birds please.
Thanks to Zabadak and setter
Think Zabadak is being a little optimistic calling this ‘fairly straightforward’.
We actually got there with all correct, but it took an age. Of course we cheated the ‘alphabet soup’ dog to match crossers and had to come here for the explanation of why it qualified as cryptic – just a tad arcane on the latin?
Having said that, it was a little hard to see why we struggled with some clues although there were some tricky ones. But they were mostly fair really.
LOI was 24d ACORN which we guessed from crossers and the cup bit – but checked to see whether acorns were used as coffee substitutes.
9ac WAFFLE IRON had me baffled and still not convinced re IRON as tough.
EEK in 19ac doesn’t really tickle my fancy.
MER at RAT for ‘desert’ in 17d – but I guess the old hands would say: ‘a regular’. Also a SCRUM for a jostling crowd is just passable.
COD for me goes to 16d TUMBLE-DRY.
A real challenge, but thank you to setter and Zabadak.
8:22. I am fortunately very familiar with the dog but I’m not surprised that many haven’t heard of it and I don’t think the clue is fair.
I have known several VIZSLAs and there is often a remarkable dissonance between how they look – large, statuesque, magnificently beautiful – and their character: needily affectionate and daft as a brush.
In my efforts to be both informative and accurate, I looked for a proper translation of the Latin videlicet, which Chambers confirmed was the correct term producing the abbreviation that was the front half of the dog. Google translate told me it means VIZ. How helpful is that?!
Providing that information was commendable and educational.
My difficulty with using the clue to work to a solution was the number of options for ‘that is’ and the slav aspect.
As an aside it occurs to me now that the few times I have seen ‘viz’ previously it appeared to be used in the sense ‘therefore’.
But maybe that’s just my bad memory.
Meh, if only I could spell. PALASADE rather than the correct PALISADE. I think my mind was going towards the Pallasades shoppping centre in Birmingham which I used to venture through on my way to school.
Didn’t understand VIZSLA but luckily we have been looking at dogs and that is on the shortlist. Didn’t know the second definition of PLIGHT or that ACORN was a coffee substitute (although I faintly remember it coming up before) so got them using only half the clues. DUBLINERS and DEBENTURE took an age and wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how NEW DELHI worked before a better option came to mind.
Hardest of the week so far. Gutted to be out by one letter but it was a misspelling rather than a typo so will have to take it on the chin.
Liked the anagram for PARALYMPIC GAMES.
Cheers blogger and setter.
Here in the US, we have the correct spelling, although the place is long defunct:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkNVwV5zquM
Anyone who was a child in the 60s will remember the jingle.
Looks more interesting than Birmingham’s (UK) secondary shopping centre. I did a bit of reading into where the Pallasades came from and I was disappointed to find it has no connection to any place, person or thing. It was just invented by the branding team. Interesting that something like that can ruin the completion of a crossword 30 years later.
DNF, defeated by VIZSLA like many others (I need to remember ‘that is’=’viz’)
No other problems, though I had to trust that PLIGHT can mean promise and I wasn’t entirely sure that ACORN could be a coffee substitute.
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
COD Armageddon
And of course that ‘slav’ should be one’s first choice for ‘eastern european’.
True! Though I was still being pulled in several directions: Was “European” the definition? Was “Eastern European” the definition? Were we supposed to separate “Eastern” and “European” to give an E somewhere in the answer? Was “Dog” being used as a verb?
Lots of potential misdirection in quite a concise clue.
Agreed.
COD – GALILEAN obviously
My brother is on his second vizsla, so knew the dog; and concur with keriothe’s character assessment.
This was largely a matter of whether one knew the Hungarian dog or not. Fortunately I did.
FOI RUBY
LOI MEEK
COD TUMBLE-DRY
TIME 11:46
This was quite enjoyable. 20 mins doing everything else, then gave up after 10 staring pointlessly at the dog, so a DNF. I believe acorn coffee was ‘popular’ in Germany during shortages of WWI.
A clever puzzle which took me 35 minutes ending with the DOG, my bridge partner’s Hungarian home help has one, but I could only spell it correctly because of the word play VIZ SLA[v]. Also wondered why A CORN was a cup until the penny dropped. I liked WAFFLE IRON and MEEK best. Thanks for blog Z.
Quite a tricky one today and a DNF. NHO VIZSLA and the VHO DEBENTURE was more obscure and trickier than WAFFLE IRON in my book.
DNF could not get 21ac, the rest I got in 15 minutes or so I think. Seeing the answer now, I had no chance!!
Thanks setter and blogger
22.05
Got myself in a tangle by putting in a wrong answer in the NE and then spending half my total time unpicking it. Thankfully I am pretty good on dog breeds so that one didn’t cause any problems.
‘’thereto I plight thee my troth”
Which definition are you referring to?
plight meaning promise. Or were you having a larf?
DNF in about 25
Needed 5 minutes to get the cooking appliance but left with _I_SLA. A bit of a GK test as TISSLA looks just as plausible.
Thanks Z/Setter
Yeah, I looked up the dog, I’m afraid. The wordplay or checking letters could have been more generous.
TUMBLE-DRY was a perfect clue!
Hard and slow, and ultimately DNF on the dog, which I know well. Passed a couple of them today in the park – Sumi, and Jezza (Aussies sentient in the 70s will know why a Hungarian Visla who was bouncy was called Jezza). It was the NE that was difficult. Thought Sterne, with a name like that, was German. Loved both armageddon and gear among some fine, well-crafted clues. Saw the coffee clue and thought “acorn”, don’t know why, but didn’t put it in without all crossers.
DNF. Gave up on the dog. Thanks Z.
43 mins but only finished by use of checkers. VHO (vaguely heard of) VIZSLA
Likewise beaten by the dog! Found this somewhat harder than the others this week. PALISADE and LONGHAND both gave me trouble. Enjoyed it apart from the dog that I would never have got, glad I conceded when I did.
All went quite smoothly (apart from DUBLINERS and VIZSLA) until I came to the NE quarter, where I laboured for ages. The only one I had was RUBY. Even aids didn’t help since I had so few checkers. I really thought I was going to have to give up but eventually managed to finish. in an embarrasingly long time, 71 minutes.
No embarrassment, at least you finished! I took thirty two minutes to get to the last clue, the dog! Never heard of it, could not guess it. Guessed the end was going to be SLA as short for Slav, but no thoughts for the earlier missing letters. So a big, fat, DNF for me!
Pulled stumps after an hour while listening to the cricket, several missed.
I guessed NEW DELHI since I had the D and I, although didn’t parse. VIZSLA was impossible. I had SERb for my East European.
Fluked DEBUTANTE which led to PALISADE LONG HAND and MINOTAUR so was able to loop back and correct to DEBENTURE.
The sentence “I plight thee my troth” is very familiar, but most of the words are archaic.
COD TUMBLE DRY (not that I got it)
I generally found this reasonably straightforward for a Thursday but DNF, predictably because of the dog. If I had to compile a list of things that irritate me in crosswords the (I think relatively recent) fashion for including obscure breeds of dogs would be high on it, but they are usually clued more fairly than this.
TUMBLE DRY was neat and elicited a short-lived smile until duly savaged by the pesky dog, a MINSKA – among several other unlikely candidates – not being the big hunting pooch that I almost convinced myself I had heard of.
I too spent some time sniffing around MINSKA.
I genuinely don’t think I would ever have got the dog.
I wouldn’t recognise a Vizslav if it came up and shook my hand
Lots to like in this – defeated by the dog and I’m not sure the wordplay was particularly helpful there as we don’t often use viz as an abbreviation.
Loved Dubliners and Armageddon
Thx z and setter
58 minute slog here – only SLAV minus V got me to the dog, with VIZ dredged up from memory.
One of those grids where the first six clues I looked at all mystified me but once I got a toe-hold I was up and running. Very enjoyable though!
33:23 with resort to aids – specifically the Kennel Club’s list of recognised dog breeds. I would never have got VIZSLA otherwise.
Otherwise, my last two in were WAFFLE IRON and LONGHAND.
COD TUMBLE DRY.
Thanks Zabadek and setter.
Enjoyable 45 minutes or so until I got to my LOI, and a further 15 minutes head scratching coming up with precisely nothing. No prizes for working out what I couldn’t get. I could have spent all week trying to work it out and not got it. Not that I’m bitter! Grrrrrrr.
Thanks to Zabadak and setter.
A bit of a challenge which is DNF as cheated for 21a Vizsla (HHO, only in Xwords, but forgotten) and 5a Palisade which I still hadn’t parsed at completion; a pretty bad homophone, but fair enough, so a long groan from here.
15a Minotaur, took ages on this as was trying to force ET in as the alien. Also Minotaur I wasn’t certain it was an O in the middle and never thought of Tau. Slap palm on forehead.
POI 23a Galilean means both from Galilee and pertaining to GG.
26a Armageddon; was interested to see Battle of Megiddo on Wiki. Thanks for the steer Z. Dad spent the first half of WW2 in British Mandate Palestine and probably knew the story. He was sent out initially with his horse; not many people fought WW2 on horseback, but cavalry were significant at the WW1 battle.
14d Dubliners. I always expect the Irish folk to have NN.
16d Tumble dry; I missed the RY for line so biffed, This clue was too good for me.
Hmm. Normally I am in awe you people, but what do you mean you’ve never heard of the dog? I’ve never had anything to do with them, but most people I know have at least heard of them. You need to get out of your ivory towers more, LOL.
OK,so for 27 years we were in the whippet world, which may be advantageous, but that world has little to do with vizslas.
There is no substitute for coffee.