Time: 27:09 What a fantastic set of clues! If you’ve whizzed through biffing and blindly guessing, please go back through and appreciate the fine craftsmanship of ultra smooth surfaces and devious interplay of nouns and verbs, constantly being cunningly swapped. Our setter even makes the point at 21! My time suggest this was no easy ride, and I found myself often looking in the wrong direction for answers, but it all came together in the end. But a treat of a crossword.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, and I may have gone a bit overboard with [] indicating unwanted letters. I may rethink the practice.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Runs off, last to start race (6) |
| SPRINT – As one historically used to ancient Gestetner technology, I know runs off means PRINTS. Move the last (letter) to the start. Answer is either the noun or the verb. | |
| 5 | Minus tie, retired accountant’s absorbed in book (8) |
| DRAWBACK – Once you twig minus is a noun, a tie is a DRAW, a retired accountant is CA backwards, and book is represented by BK, not just B, everything coalesces. | |
| 9 | Aggravate tree creature trapped in river (10) |
| EXACERBATE – The river is the setter’s favourite EXE, the tree is an ACER (better known as maple) the creature is a BAT. Throw tree and creature into river. | |
| 10 | Unsigned band endlessly performing (4) |
| ANON – In this case, “endlessly” means both ends removed from b[AN]d. someone performing is ON (stage, screen etc). | |
| 11 | Immediately made notes about comrade switching sides, joining British (4-4) |
| SLAP-BANG – Which I would consider being more about place than time, so that meaning of immediately. Made notes SANG. Comrade PAL, in this case switching sides means only that the P and L change places instead of the more usual L becomes R. Join LAP to B[ritish], set both in SANG, chuck in a hyphen. | |
| 12 | One picks up signal or silence on radio? (6) |
| SENSOR – To silence is to censor, which on the radio sounds like our answer | |
| 13 | Upmarket establishment considered removing carpet (4) |
| DELI – Yesterday I had a wee (probably unjustified) grumble about removing entire words. Here we have to remove all of BERATE, carpet, from DELIberate. | |
| 15 | Irregular patrol keeping in charge of torrid area (8) |
| TROPICAL – The first clue which I felt was easier. An anagram (irregular) of PATROL around I[n] C[harge]. | |
| 18 | Animal on lead comes across perfect place for a tinkle (5,3) |
| PHONE BOX – So not lamppost/leg lifting, then. The animal is an OX, placed at the back of PB, lead, enclosing (across) HONE for perfect (accent on second syllable). Phone boxes, an increasingly rare sight, are renowned for both sorts of tinkle. | |
| 19 | Quickly went off trifle, wanting sandwiches (4) |
| FLEW – Sandwiched in triFLE Wanting | |
| 21 | Clue ultimately simple, retaining good surface (6) |
| EMERGE – Again a switch between noun and verb. Last letter of [clu]E, MERE for simple, G[ood] inserted. | |
| 23 | Having gathered airmen, one left at sea? (4,4) |
| LIFE RAFT – &lit. Airmen, or RAF, gathered into an anagram (at sea) of I (one) LEFT. | |
| 25 | Trolley’s last piece of toast and butter (4) |
| TRAM – One that goes clang, clang, clang. The last letter of [toas]T and RAM, one of many creatures that but. | |
| 26 | To bring in Democrat, is any vote spoiled? It’s not pleasant to watch (5,5) |
| VIDEO NASTY – An anagram (spoiled) of IS ANY VOTE plus D[emocrat]. Not topical at all. Dear me, no. | |
| 27 | Overhaul completely turned around unproductive plant (8) |
| OLEANDER – Overhaul is REDO, which is reversed (completely turned) and placed around LEAN for unproductive. | |
| 28 | Seeing the onset of digitalisation, money’s invested in silver (6) |
| DATING – The first letter, onset, of D[igitalisation] then TIN, a oldish but familiar word in these parts for money, is set inside AG for silver. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Part of display dish filled with ten pounds (5) |
| PIXEL – PIE for dish, filled with X for ten, followed by L for pounds | |
| 3 | Top executive introducing physical training instructor during hotel’s launch (9) |
| INCEPTION – So. A matryoshka clue. Top executive is CEO. Insert P[hysical] T[raining] I[nstructor] and place the assembly into INN for hotel. | |
| 4 | Right-winger secures a third of ballot in part of the South West (6) |
| TORBAY – I had a 5 year sojourn in Totnes, just up the road. A right winger, in this case, is a TORY, insert 2 of the six letters of BA[llot]. For what it’s worth, at the last election, the Conservative very nearly did get a third of the vote (29.5%) losing a once safe seat in a massive 23% swing to the Liberal Democrats. | |
| 5 | With game unfinished, slip saving 90 runs — a remedy for loose openers? (7,8) |
| DRAUGHT EXCLUDER – A cutesy definition. The game that isn’t finished is DRAUGHT[s], to (give the) slip to provides ELUDE, insert XC for 90, finish of with R[uns] | |
| 6 | Dislike American model (8) |
| AVERSION – Verb becomes noun. A[merican] and VERSION from model. | |
| 7 | Might supporter be victorious after losing heart? (5) |
| BRAWN – Supporter is BRA , then be victorious is WIN, from which you remove the hearty I. | |
| 8 | First off, coach had to restrain Charlie Brown (9) |
| CHOCOLATE – Shadows of Lucy and that football. Remove the first letter of [s]CHOOL, insert (restrain) C[harlie], and finish with ATE for had. | |
| 14 | Fugitive’s desperate leap across border, about to be picked up (9) |
| EPHEMERAL – We had “fleeting” clued by fugitive a couple of weeks ago, and this is the same idea. An anagram (desperate) of LEAP with HEM for edge inserted, and the I think RE for about is picked (also inserted) up, reversed. | |
| 16 | Substituting player, United’s No 4 — one blows the whistle (9) |
| INFORMANT – Substituting IN FOR, player MAN, and the 4th letter of UniTed. | |
| 17 | Saw waitress tucking into old crust of bread (8) |
| OBSERVED – Noun becomes verb: to waitress is to SERVE. Insert into O[ld] and the outside (crust) of B[rea]D | |
| 20 | Stand in street, banished from town (6) |
| AFFORD – In the sense of to bear the expense of something. ST[reet] is removed from the town STAFFORD. | |
| 22 | Moves from the Caribbean, initially being housed in strange area (5) |
| RUMBA – The dance is from Cuba. The first letter of B[eing] within RUM for strange and A[rea]. | |
| 24 | Upon which kippers may be laid out before breakfast? (5) |
| FUTON – A cryptic hint, kippers being sleepers, and before breakfast being a conventional time for the (in) activity. | |
I did biff sprint and draught excluder, but parsed everything else. I agree the cryptics could be convoluted, but in many cases I did use them to get the answers. Many of the literals were rather oblique: stand = afford, fugitive = ephemeral, minus = drawback. I agree this was a fine puzzle.
Time: 30:52
I share some of Z’s enthusiasm but occasionally the vocab was just a little too oblique and serious heavy lifting was needed for me to decipher some of the cryptics. Happy to get it done in 46.03.
From Tangled Up In Blue:
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keeping on
Like a bird that FLEW
Tangled up in blue
My experience reflects LindsayO’s more than Z’s, but as with the QC today I wasn’t solving under my ideal conditions and I could have done with something a bit less convoluted.
I get the kippers / sleepers pun but I still don’t understand FUTON.
How did DELI come to be defined so often in crosswords as upmarket or posh? Every major supermarket had one for 30 or 40 years until more recently many of them (I’m looking at you Tesco and Waitrose) decided they could use the space better as concessions selling sushi or Japanese food and lose in-house staff, so forcing customers to buy often inferior pre-packaged goods.
I wondered about FUTON too. I can see nothing in the clue pointing to it, but it fits, and BED doesn’t.
This is the second time I’ve seen DELI clued as upscale, and my eyebrow is still raised. The typical delis I knew in the US were mom-and-pop shops, about as upscale as a laundromat, or they were sections of a supermarket.
Here in England they are indeed upmarket versions of a grocer’s shop.
I thought the idea behind the FUTON clue was that a futon is changed from bed to sitting state when the people sleeping on it get up for breakfast?
35.58 which given the intricate inventiveness of the clueing I’m quite pleased with. While I share some of the reservations expressed about DELI, I thought FUTON was excellent.
Thanks Z and setter.
A bit of a slog. Convoluted in places, eg DRAWBACK, not in others, eg FUTON, but I could be missing something there. COD to VIDEO NASTY. Thank you Z and setter.
Very pleased to get all done just on the hour mark. LOI DELI where I was trying to remove RUG or MAT from a seven letter word.
Not heard VIDEO NASTY since the 1980s.
I thought FUTON was going to be cleverer than it was.
COD LIFE RAFT.
Just under half an hour.
– Only parsed SPRINT post-submission
– Didn’t fully parse INCEPTION
– Biffed CHOCOLATE from the checkers
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
FOI Brawn
LOI Oleander
COD Phone box
I found this hard going. Perhaps it’s just me; but the majestic quality of the clueing was rather lost on me as I struggled through it. I preferred yesterday’s which some were quite rude about!
39:41 but a complete brain fade on last one in SENSOR which was atleast 10 minutes of it. Not sure why? If it had been a blank clue it would have been the second word I guessed after senior. I think I was expecting a NHO given one had not appeared yet.
I am on the blogger’s side. The word play was tricky in parts but I was using it to solve a few I would of never got from just the definition OLEANDER, DRAUGHT EXCLUDER etc so I wouldn’t personally use the word convoluted.
Never parsed DELI. Don’t know why but I don’t like it when you have to remove more than half of a word. Just preference not a criticism.
Clue of the day PHONE BOX. I wonder what tinkle the setter had in mind.
Thanks blogger and setter.
50 mins and a lot of time spent working out the parsing having seen the answer! I have no fewer than 14/clues where that was the case.
Very clever clueing, i agree with our blogger, especially the single words for the answer. Clues such as race, minus, aggravate, dislike, etc, etc.
I liked the place to tinkle and the remedy for loose openers.
Thanks Z and cheeky setter.
42 mins. Maybe off-wavelength or just dopey today. That made biffs slow and they were much required because access via the admittedly very clever wordplay was tough. The long down took ages to twig which was key.
Most were reverse-engineered eventually except FUTON, if our blogger is correct then I think its an awful clue.
A good brain workout though, satisfying to finish. Thanks to setter and Zabadak.
From PIXEL to SENSOR in a palindromic 25:52. I also found this a very enjoyable puzzle. Some clues resisted fiercely but yielded to persistence. I biffed CHOCOLATE and DRAUGHT EXCLUDER but parsed the rest. Took a while to tease the definition out of EPHEMERAL. In a lot of cases it was fun seeing the answer emerge from the wordplay. AVERSION was POI and I needed the final crosser before SENSOR hove into view. Thanks setter and Z.
45 minutes. Slow going but plenty of good clues, my picks being OLEANDER – no mention of Hero – and EPHEMERAL, helped by having the same sense in a puzzle a few weeks ago as pointed out by Zabadak. Our canine friends will have one less ‘place for a tinkle’ when the increasingly rare PHONE BOX(es) completely disappear.
Thanks to Z and setter
I thought this was a really good puzzle – and whilst still difficult, just a lot more fun than yesterday! 32:29, so not fast, but I enjoyed that half-hour as clues steadily fell to analysis. I agree with Zabadak that there are some beautiful clues too. COD DRAUGHT EXCLUDER for me.
By my calculations, yesterday was in the top 10 percent of most difficult puzzles (using an index which tries to capture the effect of DNFs and errors, which SNITCH doesn’t incorporate).
32’49”, perseverance paid off. Finished in NE, DRAWBACK an excellent clue.
Thanks z and setter.