Time: 26:31, a little more than the additional minute I’ve scored over each of the first three this week. In several entries, working out how the wordplay worked was a stiffer challenge than sticking in what seemed to be a sensible answer. There is, perhaps, a mini NINA in that two cognate clues are one on top of the other, which surely must be intentional. There are a couple of mysteries which I couldn’t quite fathom: you’ll see them in my comments and will doubtless unravel them.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, everything else I hope explains itself.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Couple that dances around cooler (6) |
| ATTACH – So a verb, then. Anagram (dances) of THAT encloses A[ir] C[onditioning] | |
| 5 | Guy stuck in pile of earth, perhaps sinking fast (8) |
| MORIBUND – Guy as a verb can mean to ridicule or make fun of leading to RIB. Stick it in MOUND for pile of earth. You may want to attach “perhaps” to the pile of earth, since a pile can be of anything, but I prefer it as part of the definition. | |
| 9 | Period when Reform sought gin bar as PR exercise (4,6) |
| ARAB SPRING – Around 2010 and following, a series of pro-democracy, anti government protests across North Africa and much of the Middle East. An anagram (exercise) of GIN BAR AS PR. Slightly naughty putting the capital R on Reform, and coupling it to a gin bar. | |
| 10 | Look into artist cutting axes (1-3) |
| X-RAY – Your standard crossword artist, RA*, cuts into X and Y, axes on a graph etc. *Royal Academician. | |
| 11 | Harrow from Germany is kept in trim (8) |
| DISTRESS – I struggled to parse this, with D[eutschland] and IS leaving TRESS to mean trim. Rather it’s “is from Germany”, IST, inside DRESS for trim, which I’m okay with. Another verb masquerading as a noun. | |
| 12 | Turn around, facing barrier in the East End (6) |
| CURDLE – Milk, when it curdles, is said to go off or turn. Here, C[irca] comes face to face with ‘URDLE, an East End athlete’s sprint barrier. | |
| 13 | Result of mischief found in Pandora’s box (4) |
| ASBO – Pandora’s box released evils into the world when opened against Zeus’ strict instruction. An ASBO was an anti-social behaviour order targeting young mischief makers, and here is hidden in PandorA’S BOx. | |
| 15 | Star laughing about Ed Gamble’s opener (3,5) |
| RED GIANT – You don’t need to know this, but Ed Gamble is a regular on the soon-to-be-revived Mock the Week (hurrah!) and similar comedy shows. All you need here is the ED and the first letter of Gamble, wrapped in RIANT for laughing. | |
| 18 | Unfinished sweet dish otherwise called savoury dish (8) |
| MOUSSAKA – The unfinished sweet dish is MOUSS[e] AKA, also known as, for otherwise called. | |
| 19 | Habit of constant predator (4) |
| COWL – What a monk wears. C[onstant] and predator OWL. | |
| 21 | Tail-enders from England side, of the eleven, needed support (6) |
| DEFEND – After the Ashes, something rather more may be needed, but here you need the last letters of EnglanD sidE oF thE eleveN, needeD. | |
| 23 | Who hopes to profit from French sea air? (8) |
| MERCHANT – French sea is MER, and CHANT stands in for a musical air. | |
| 25 | 21 regressing without A & E? (4) |
| DRUG – My last in, only falling when I realised the E needed to be detached. Since 21a is DEFEND, Thesaurus it to GUARD, remove the A, and reverse. | |
| 26 | Mongrel dog hoped for one returning dog’s dinner to Labrador (10) |
| HODGEPODGE – I’m mystified by “to Labrador”, either a dog or a reference to Canada, both unnecessary. An anagram (mongrel) of DOG HOPED and the EG, for one (example) reversed. | |
| 27 | Short trip on vacation to probe ocean bed feature? (5,3) |
| SWEET PEA – A garden bed, that is. Short give WEE, T[ri]P is vacated, and both are inserted into SEA for ocean. | |
| 28 | Head of security again took back shocking equipment (6) |
| TASERS – The first letter of Security, then RESAT for took (an exam) again, all reversed. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | You shouldn’t have pain often in hand bones (5) |
| TARSI – TA, thanks, you shouldn’t have. Add RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury. | |
| 3 | Burden of Scottish political party beginning to take on region there (9) |
| ALBATROSS – From the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I take on trust that ALBA, Scots Gaelic for Scotland, is a home grown political party. Apparently it has been described as “Trumpian” and “a hotchpotch of social conservatives and nationalist fundamentalists”. Add ALBA to the first letter of Take and ROSS, a region of Scotland. | |
| 4 | Female accepting program’s result (6) |
| HAPPEN – A female HEN with APP for program taken in. | |
| 5 | Me? I’m a tradesman, I cast traditional organs etc (10,5) |
| MAINSTREAM MEDIA – An anagram (cast) of ME? I’M A TRADESMAN I. | |
| 6 | Concerning American serving drink, not quite removing the head (8) |
| REGICIDE – Concerning RE, American serving GI, drink CIDER with its end missing (not quite). | |
| 7 | One maybe seeking belt for dog (5) |
| BOXER – DD. Boxing champions are traditionally awarded ornate belts. | |
| 8 | Primitive entering 22.5 degrees west in good condition (6-3) |
| NEARLY-NEW – Don’t be alarmed by that 22.5 degrees. In compass terms it’s NNW (oops, should read NNE, thanks Bletchleyreject), a sixteenth of the way round your 360 degrees. EARLY for primitive is placed within, then w[est] is added. | |
| 14 | Result of tie, both sides leaving keeper up? (5,4) |
| SCORE DRAW – I think this means you to recognise that an ASCOT is a sort of tie, then remove both ends, and then add WARDER for keeper, reversed. It explains why I have left “tie” out of the definition, though it sort of helps towards the answer. | |
| 16 | Secretly conspiring South American is having a laugh (2,7) |
| IN CAHOOTS – South America INCA (other brands are available but much less useful to setters) HOOTS for is having a laugh. | |
| 17 | Trial tried to avoid electronic transfer (8) |
| HARDSHIP – E[lectronic] is removed from HEARD for tried, than SHIP stands in for transfer. | |
| 20 | Imperative model of chivalry? (6) |
| URGENT – UR is from the German prefix meaning primitive or (better for us here) original, so an UR GENT can be a model of chivalry. Abraham, being a native of UR of the Chaldees, is the more widely used UR GENT. | |
| 22 | US symbol for 3 + 1, of course (5) |
| EAGLE – Somehow, 3 + 1 on a (golf) course represents a score of 2 under par. I admit I’m struggling to make the maths work but the idea’s there. | |
| 24 | State promoting independence initially in revolutionary rule (5) |
| NIGER – So take REIGN for rule, reverse it (revolutionary) and move the I[ndependence] helpfully qualified by “initially” up one space. | |
Surprised to see that NEARLY NEW (sans hyphen) is an entry in Collins. It struck me as nearly green paint.
‘To Labrador’ completely threw me – I would probably have solved the anagram if those two words had been missing.
As for the UR in URGENT – no chance.
Did like MAINSTREAM MEDIA
DNF. Out of practice after ten days loafing around in the UK. Gave up after 30 minutes with only half completed.
A good puzzle. Enjoyed it even more when I saw the full parsing . My take on URGENT was that a gentleman from the ancient city of UR , could be held up as a suitable chivalric model.
Thanks to Zabadak and the setter
As a medium-killed and ever ready to learn solver, am I right thinking that there’s been seismic shift in the setting and curating of these crosswords? Some of the clues and solutions are arcane bordering on wildly esoteric, with three nested levels of thesaurus-ising needed before one even gets to the letterset to be used! I must say that I’m not enjoying very much this New World. Is this to become a repository frequented only by the 20 to 30 minute-er? Encouragement needed…..
My thanks to Zabadak and setter.
On the whole easy, at least not too Tricky Thursday, but DNF.
12s Curdle. I just lost the plot and bunged in Circle, the only word I could think of at the time.
13a ASBO, I hope these have died the death now.
15s Red Giant, DNK about Ed G, but do like Mock The Week, thanks Zabadak.
25a Drug, took me an age too. Liked A&E.
3d Albatross, DNK Alba as a party. Had forgot it is Scotland as well, so biffed.
26a Hodgepodge, DNK the Canadian connection, thanks glh and Kernowdoc.
8d Nearly New biffed, I assumed NNW and didn’t bother to go any further.
20d Urgent. DNF, decided Ernest might have been a knight. Don’t like urgent=imperative but I can see it can work. Sour grapes of course ;- )
22d Eagle, I too was foxed by the maths, thanks glh.
I fell for Orders (imperative) of chivalry at 20 down and failed with Tasers
For some reason I found this puzzle very hard. It took three sessions totalling 55 mins, the inspired last session of 8 mins clearing up about a quarter of the clues; but even then I had CIRCLE for CURDLE. I was not helped by ignorance of the expression MAINSTREAM MEDIA. My favourite three clues were to MOUSSAKA, MERCHANT and TARSI. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
52:48
A different wavelength from me. Managed to finish but well outside my target of 40.5 minutes for a Snitch of 111. Lots of stuff unknown or unparsed:
RIANT – didn’t know that means laughing
HODGEPODGE – hotchpotch in the UK? but I may have dreamt that
TASERS – accounted for the ERS but not the TAS, missing the ‘took’
I have no idea about golf scores so missed the nuances of ALBATROSS and EAGLE – got T ROSS and already had the other two checkers, so easily filled in without knowing what ALBA is
MAINSTREAM MEDIA – not a term of which I have ever heard
NEARLY NEW – couldn’t quite see how N_____/NEW part(s) worked
SCORE DRAW – from definition ‘Result of tie’ – not sure I would have thought it was anything to do with (A)SCO(T) which appeared in the Concise very recently
I liked DRUG and REGICIDE
Thanks Z and setter
HOTCHPOTCH, HODGE-PODGE – I’ve always thought they were just two alternatives. Never occurred to me that one was American, though I saw the LABRADOR link and assumed that must be what it was all about. Coincidentally was just reading a few minutes before about the film 49th Parallel (great Michael Powell wartime drama set in Canada). Did it all in 24’21”. Hats off to DRUG, my LOI. There were only about four words that could have fitted, and I was blowed if I could see which one it was. Took a lot of head-scratching. Many thanks.
36:11
I agonised for a while about NEARLY NEW, since I had read “22.5 degrees west” as NNW, and could not account for the E. Thanks BR for making sense of it.
CURDLE and REGICIDE were my last two in.
Thanks Z and setter
I thought this was a really, really good, clever-but-(mostly-)fair puzzle with a couple of clues that gave me the thrill of laughing aloud when I finally parsed them (regicide, merchant, drug). I needed a little help sorting out “alba” and “asbo”, neither of which was remotely familiar to my American eye (Wikipedia says the Alba party gets 1% of the Scottish vote!) but otherwise managed myself!
Tough after yesterday’s, but no complaints.
Mock the Week had its heyday 15 years or so ago. Since then, it’s become incredibly tame. Haven’t watched it for a couple of years.