Time: 23:26, though a lot of it felt rather easier on review. There are some very straightforward anagrams, for example. A couple of less familiar words are well signposted.
And the clues are fine enough, with some very smooth and believable surfaces and some daring dipping of toes into the world of contemporary and not so contemporary politics. I need someone from Liverpool to confirm pronunciation and/or idiom, though I’ve done my best.
Definitions I underline in bold italics, everything else is presented as I fancy: I’ve limited my use of [] to show excluded letters, as I thought that was getting rather untidy.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cut price of fine material? (8) |
| LACERATE – The short definition’s just great
And the wordplay laid out on a plate Fine material’s LACE Which is put in its place In front of a price, which is RATE. |
|
| 6 | Shame about your abstention from sex (6) |
| PURITY – To withdraw from the passions of Cupid
Comes from UR for your in texts you did Set in PITY for shame…. Enough! I exclaim: To limerick more would be stupid. |
|
| 9 | Essential, like class A drugs? (13) |
| INDISPENSABLE – Hm. That question mark’s doing a lot of work. While there are (understandably) strict rules about dispensing class A drugs such as morphine and cocaine, it’s not impossible to do so in the UK for certain purposes. My local Boots won’t supply me with LSD across the counter (probably, I haven’t tried!) but there are conditions in which it can be used. When I worked in healthcare, one of the least well-kept secrets was the dispensing of the Brompton Cocktail to terminally ill patients, a mix of morphine and heroin ensuring a pain and stress-free shuffling off of the mortal coil. So, in my opinion, Class A drugs are not strictly in-dispensable, but I can see the game the setter is playing and the answer is clear, even if I struggled to decide on -ible or -able.
That would have been an indefensibly long limerick: I meant what I said at the end of the second one: sorry to disappoint/happy to provide the relief. |
|
| 10 | A politician pursues enclosure to erect temporary accommodation (6) |
| ENCAMP – They don’t come much easier. A plus MP, usually a politician, tagged on to ENC, which you write on an envelope to indicate there are enclosures. | |
| 11 | Highly sought-after editor of plays (2,3,3) |
| TO DIE FOR – An anagram (plays) of EDITOR OF. | |
| 13 | One submitting main point in concerning angry outburst (10) |
| REGISTRANT – Not the more common registrar, this is someone who submits a trademark or patent for registration. GIST is main point, placed between RE for concerning and RANT for angry outburst. | |
| 15 | Identity cards ultimately being responsible for mischief (4) |
| SELF – The last letter (ultimately) of cardS and a being responsible for mischief, in this case an ELF | |
| 16 | Irritatingly complacent fools putting sons first (4) |
| SMUG – Fools are MUGS, move the S for sons to the fore. | |
| 18 | Blur track covering Billie’s early recordings, primarily Strange Fruit? (10) |
| CLOUDBERRY – Billie Holiday indeed recorded Strange Fruit in 1939, a powerful, deeply emotional protest song challenging the lynching racism of America’s Jim Crow era, so I think it’s fine to excuse the otherwise redundant “strange” in the clue. Otherwise CLOUD comes from Blur, RY from R[ailwa]Y track, and, in between, the first letters of Billie’s Early Recordings. | |
| 21 | Fun composer announced collection of recordings (8) |
| PLAYLIST – Fun is PLAY and the LIST comes from the pronunciation of composer (Franz) Liszt. | |
| 22 | Bananas are not fancy! (6) |
| ORNATE – Bananas is the anagram indicator, and ARE NOT is the fodder. | |
| 23 | Troubled genius protected by landlord had somewhere to live (7,6) |
| HOUSING ESTATE – An anagram (troubled) of GENIUS set inside HOST for landlord, followed by ATE indicated by had. | |
| 25 | Headmaster noticed lagging behind (6) |
| ASTERN – Our “hidden” for today, in headmASTER Noticed. | |
| 26 | Has a feeling American president’s beginning to divide factions (8) |
| SUSPECTS – US American and the beginning of President P, set within SECTS for factions. How to make a political comment without making a political comment. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Property recipient once called in support of first-class story (7) |
| ALIENEE – NEE, meaning once called (one’s surname at birth) supports A and LIE for story. “A person to whom property is transferred”, English Law being full of such weird terms. | |
| 3 | Charmingly wind up lady on vacation transfixed by heartless stud? (11) |
| ENDEARINGLY – Wind up is END, lady with her inner letters vacated provides the LY, and the stud is an EARRING from which you remove the middle R before inserting the remains into the other two bits. Transfixed, pierced through, is a rather violent insertion indicator. | |
| 4 | Old author brought up main work (5) |
| AESOP – SEA for main reversed (brought up) followed by OP for work. The writer of fables, of course. | |
| 5 | Chosen Republican American, one with daddy issues? (7) |
| ELECTRA – Electra hated her mother Clytemnestra for murdering her father Agamemnon, giving Jung a name for a psychological complex, which is a girl’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father. Here, a chosen or ELECT R[epublican] A[merican] provides the material. Once again, our setter steers well clear of political comment, though I believe at the moment Daddy’s home from his foreign excursions | |
| 6 | School across street partner endorsed for the future (9) |
| POSTDATED – POD is a school of whales or seals. Across indicates that the rest of the wordplay is inserted, here being ST[reet] and DATE for partner. | |
| 7 | Snubbed writer making a comeback to ridicule (3) |
| RIB – The writer is a BIRO, but being snubbed, it loses the O, and making a comeback is reversed. | |
| 8 | Perhaps Clover left Rio unexpectedly (7) |
| TREFOIL – “Three leaved”, like 5,o75 out of 5,076 clover plants. An anagram (unexpectedly) of LEFT RIO. I wasn’t aware the Watership Down bunnies made it that far. | |
| 12 | Each authoritarian better finish off here in South African province (7,4) |
| EASTERN CAPE – EA[ch], STERN for authoritarian, CAP for better and the last letter of herE. Eastern Cape was/is the heartland of the ANC. | |
| 14 | I can act, primarily influencing troop manoeuvres? (9) |
| TACTICIAN – &lit. An anagram (manoeuvres) of I CAN ACT plus the first letters of Influencing Troop. | |
| 17 | Puts compost on church’s borders wearing shoes unsuitable for gardening (7) |
| MULCHES – ChurcH’s borders are CH, and MULES are shoes allegedly not suitable for gardening. I think if all you’re doing is a spot of weeding, mules are perfectly OK. | |
| 19 | Goods lost in transit away from home awhile (7) |
| OUTAGES – I only know the word when my electricity goes off, but our setter’s version is Chamber’s first definition. Away from home OUT, awhile AGES. | |
| 20 | Go back again nurse (7) |
| RETREAT – If you nurse again you RE-TREAT. | |
| 22 | Scouser’s audible disappointment with sibling’s band (5) |
| OASIS – I’m assuming something like “oh eh sis” is how a proper Liverpudlian would show disappointment with their sister. Oasis is famously from Manchester, as any fule kno. | |
| 24 | Regularly take public transport naked (3) |
| USE – Local transport, certainly round here, if rather infrequent, is/are BUSES. Strip off the outer layer. | |
Re, OA. Well, I’m from the other side of the Mersey, so close enough. But I think it’s a pretty poor clue and no doubt solvers from foreign parts would be stumped. However, I think your explanation of the answer is correct.
Loved this and was pleasantly surprised to finish in a good time, so definitely not a tricky Thursday. Some tricky words like ALIENEE for me anyway, but the wordplay was plain. Liked TREFOIL, CLOUDBERRY and the &lit TACTICIAN. ENDEARINGLY had me stumped for ages and couldn’t get ‘enchantingly’ out of my head. INDISPENSABLE my last in.
Thanks Z and setter.
Loved this. A bit beyond my knowledge of Scouse, but with the SIS bit being obvious and the answer being a group I took it on faith that a Liverpudlian would say oo-ah Ior maybe oh-ah). Held up at the end by the CAP of the EASTERN CAPE, spending too long looking for a word like “punter” for better. NHO ALIENEE but wordplay was clear enough.
Well, wavelength must exist, because I was on it. The clues seemed hard at first, but when I started (at the bottom) everything just fell into place. I didn’t parse many of the answers, and ended up with cloudberry, which I thought was going to end in -s, but then I saw what was going on. Perhaps they are a bit strange.
Time: 20:03
Well, wavelength, I was off it. Really struggled in the top left and ultimately one wrong: guessed ALIENCE withe the ‘NCE being “once” called – homophoned. Took a long time to see LACERATE and the EARING in ENDEARINGLY.
First guess was ARCH – fun and IVES – composer for collection of records. Maybe the soundalike changed ARCH to ARC? NHO cloudberry, a guess, and slowed myself by getting all Italian with TREFOLI clovers. OASIS straight in from the Scouse Geordies’ “Howay” in Viz last millenium; OASIS known as a band but their origins unknown.
Liked TO DIE FOR, POSTDATED, TACTICIAN and INDISPENSABLE best.e
47 minutes. Mostly very enjoyable.
NHO CLOUDBERRY, apparently making its first appearance here today and its wordplay was hard for constructing an unknown answer even though I spotted BERRY quite early on. The redundant ‘strange’ confused the issue here.
I was going to claim never to have heard of ALIENEE too, but I said that last time it came up only to be proved wrong by a previous appearance. Still only its 3rd outing, but the wordplay was friendly so it didn’t delay me.
I didn’t understand the Scouser reference re OASIS but I got the answer from ‘sibling’ and for once I’d actually heard of the pop group in question (though never knowingly their music).
We decided on a late change to the clue for INDISPENSABLE (adding “for many” at the end). The paper version was updated; unfortunately the on-line version wasn’t. This has now been rectified.
3d – what does the ‘heartless’ do?
Thanks
Removes one of the R’s in EAR RING
Ah thank you
Just over 30 minutes but a pink’un for misspelling INDISPENSABLE. Otherwise enjoyable, nice to have to dredge up a bit of my property law studies from another age and time. Thought I was going to fall at the last until realising that I was not actually looking for an exotic fabric for 1ac.
Thanks to Z and setter.
This was great. Really liked TACTICIAN. LOI was OUTAGES, and I didn’t know the relevant definition, so checked.
17:15. Joint top by WITCH with vinyl1. FOI the NHO ALIENEE bizarrely, LOI ASTERN. Enjoyed the Scouse OASIS but COD to the surface for CLOUDBERRY.
Thanks setter and Zabadak, doing the whole lot in limericks would have been impressive but taken all day. I’m off out to do some mulching before it gets too hot.
46 minutes. All in bar two at about 30 minutes but then spent the rest of the time waiting for inspiration to strike for INDISPENSABLE and ENDEARINGLY. No excuses, but I see what Zabadak is getting at for INDISPENSABLE and I had to biff ENDEARINGLY as my LOI. A few bits I didn’t get like the ‘Scouser’ reference but we’ve had more difficult Thursday puzzles and I should have been more on the ball. TACTICIAN was a nice &lit and was my favourite.
Thanks to Z and setter
DNF, another visit to OWL club with INDISPENSIBLE rather than INDISPENSABLE. Gah.
– Had to trust the wordplay for ALIENEE
– Only parsed ENDEARINGLY post-submission
– Didn’t know that meaning of OUTAGES
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
COD Ornate
DNF, still missing ALIENEE, OUTAGES, CLOUDBERRY and REGISTRANT. I’d lost the will to finish by then. As a Lanky lad who lived in Scouseland for a few years, I thought OASIS was a dodgy clue, but I did get it As an electricity man, OUTAGES of course meant something else. Knowing the Billie Holliday song didn’t help at all. I was a bit disappointed at that. Thank you Z and setter.
I wasn’t on the wavelength, unlike many here. Two errors in 36 mins. Indispensible and Eastern Wage.
COD: Purity
Thanks to Z and our setter.
A steady solve, but didn’t know how to spell INDISPENSABLE. Otherwise 15’14”.
I knew LIEN as something to do with property, which helped, although I toyed around with the word ‘entail’ for a while. Not heard the modern term for things that fall off the back of a lorry.
OASIS, though not completely parsed, was easy after the previous reference to Blur, not that I know any of the music.
Thanks z and setter.
LACERATE was FOI. RIB came next and I proceeded in a clockwise fashion, eventually struggling to finish with TACTICIAN, CLOUDBERRY and REGISTRANT in that order. OUTAGES was held up by a carelessly biffed PLAYBACK. 25:00. Thanks setter and Z.
Just under 23 minutes but add me to the list of people who can’t spell indispensable! Spelling is always a weakness of mine. So OWL! I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle and was lucky that I’d seen lacerate recently. I’ll try again tomorrow as I make my way to the Shetland Islands.
Great crossy! So happy to see Oasis, Blur and scouse homophones instead of struggling with obscure (to me at least) composers.
Around 25-30mins (had some computer issues midsolve) but as with the blogger seemed easier on reflection.
NHO ALIENEE which was a toss up with afibnee thankfully the correct answer seemed more likely.
Wasted a lot of time on LACERATE despite seeing LACE early but then trying to put it at the end.
COD INDISPENSABLE
Thanks blogger and setter
15:08 – sometimes a puzzle just hits the spot. Lovely consistent cluing (9ac having been changed by the time I got to it) with a good mix of everything.
12:00 but I also struggled to choose between -IBLE and -ABLE and ended up picking the wrong one. Bah humbug.
‘Strange’ has to be part of the definition in 18ac, and having googled them it seems fair enough to me.
DNK this meaning of OUTAGE, or that Scousers were particularly known for saying that.
Cloudberries are difficult to harvest in midair, but incredibly juicy. I imagine.
17.44 WTE
Loved this – also started slowly but sped up. Really liked OASIS amongst others. My downfall was a ludicrously nonsensical ASIGNEE (no such word and doesn’t parse, hum ho) but it wouldn’t have mattered as I was also an -IBLE.
Wonderful blog as always and thanks clever setter.
I agree with Keriothe about “strange”. I picked several in the wild whilst walking the Kungsleden in northern Sweden – incredible flavour and a contrast with the bleak (though beautiful) surroundings.
I’m in agreement with those who are taking ‘strange’ as part of the def for CLOUDBERRY. They are not common outside of Scandinavia; they do look slightly strange and they have a surprisingly tart taste. That said, I have been aware of the plant since I was a child when I read The Little Grey Men by ‘BB’: Cloudberry is one of the last gnomes living in England and it is his disappearance on an adventure that prompts his three companions to set out in search of him. Somewhat twee but voted the best children’s fantasy work of 1942 no less!
COTD TACTICIAN. All sorted in 23 minutes which I’ll take for a Thursday
Thanks to setter and blogger
The reference to a word expressing ‘audible disappointment’ in 22d looks highly unlikely. Any Scousers out there who can validate this?
Certainly. It would be pronounced “Oh ‘ey” to rhyme with day.
So it’s correct I suppose, but still a poor clue in my opinion.
I demand justice for INDISPENSIBLE, which I didn’t think twice about entering, and which OED says is valid until the 1840s! Never wrong, just two centuries late…
Irresistible!
40:28, of which at least five minutes was taken up by my dozing off in the heat. No reflection on this delightful puzzle. CLOUDBERRY was certainly a strange fruit to me. ALIENEE was another new word.
I really liked TACTICIAN, ENDEARINGLY, MULCHES and SUSPECTS
TO DIE FOR is a phrase I loathe, can’t really explain why (same goes for “Enjoy” as an imperative). It’s the heat, I tell you.
Thanks to Zabadak and the setter
My ‘Strange’ in the CLOUDBERRY clue wasn’t so sophisticated: I reckoned it was strange because I’d never heard of it. One of these days no doubt we’ll be able to have unsignposted textspeak, as in the PURITY clue, but at present … even Gemelo, who is far more difficult than this, signposted it the other week.
Not sure whether this was meant to be hardish or easyish – 16 mins but with INDISPENSIBLE (I never knew that it wasn’t spelt like that). Having done a little research I accept that INDISPENSIBLE is INDEFENSIBLE (in 2026). Didn’t know REGISTRANT, CLOUDBERRY, EASTERN CAPE or OUTAGES (as defined today). I was in the law so no problems with ALIENEE. Thanks Blogger for explaining PURITY’s wordplay. First in was ENCAMP and last PURITY. Favourite clue, to TO DIE FOR. Thanks Setter and Blogger.
40:32
A rare occurrence for me, completing the crossword on four consecutive days.
NHO ALIENEE, but very constructible from the wordplay. I had to look up the spelling of INDISPENSABLE to exclude the IBLE ending .
Thanks Z and setter
There once was a likeable setter
And the blog made today a red-letter,
One poem would be neat
An astonishing feat
But Zabadac just went one better.
Chapeau, Zabadac and thanks for the fun, Setter
🤗
As the resident Scouser, I think Oasis just about works. Far more common would be
R A Sis (ah eh sis), the idea of which briefly held me up.
Sadly, I joined the indispensible club!
Completely off the wavelength for this one, and gave up halfway through, as social engagement took precedence.
Back to the drawing board
I enjoyed the puzzle – but a particular bravo for the blog, a splendid effort!
My thanks to Zabadak and setter.
Well I can’t say it was a doddle and I cheated a bit.
9a IndispensIble. Doh! Should have cheated.
18a Cloudberry, biffed, CNP, ta Zabadak. I recognised Strange Fruit as lynched black men but didn’t know it was Billie Holiday’s.
2d Alienee NHO but didn’t need to.
3d Endearingly biffed.
19d Outages, DNK this def.
Re indispensable (which I couldn’t spell either) – my print edition has the clue as ‘… like class A drugs for many’ , which I agree is more accurate. Online still says ‘like class A drugs’. I wonder why it was changed? Still, a fun puzzle. NHO alienee.
Jason (above) who manages such things, records the patchy changing. I dare to say the reason for changes is reflected in thecomment I made, that class A drugs are dispensible under certain conditions, so the clue was factually inaccurate. I actually thought the question mark was just about enough to cover the discrepancy, but the revised clue removes doubt.
IBLE. GRRR. 20’37”
29 minutes but spelled indispensable wrongly, so was “glad” to come here and see I’m not alone in that. I was SURE it was -ible!!
This was manageable for a hot Thursday, all done in 39 minutes. No issues. NHO OUTAGES in the sense used here, but I was well aware of the word as in my working days the IT dept seemed to talk of little else.
FOI – ENCAMP
LOI – LACERATE
COD – PURITY
Thanks to Zabadak (a Poet Laureate in the making!) and other contributors.
Don’t agree PURITY as a good clue
UR in text stand for “you are” not “your”
Doesn’t work in my book even though I biffed it
It can be both. If you don’t believe me believe Collins!
Just over an hour for a slow but enjoyable solve. How is “awhile” equivalent to “ages”? In my book, and according to Wiktionary, it means quite the opposite (a short time). Thanks setter and blogger.
Good point! I just checked all the usual sources and can’t find any support for it.
Yes good spot. If it were the other way round (‘ages’ clueing ‘a while’ = AWHILE) it would be OK, but this way it looks like a mistake.
Sadly to FACETATE (F…acetate for material), meaning to cut the price of, doesn’t seem to have made it into the dictionary yet…and after I’d spelt indispensable correctly too!
Off wavelength. Didn’t know EASTERN CAPE – guessed the first word, cheated with the second – nor ALIENEE which I took on faith, nor CLOUDBERRY which was slightly spoiled by the superfluous ‘strange’ merely there for surface.
Thanks Z and setter