I didn’t find this puzzle particularly difficult but it had a clunkiness which made it less enjoyable than some, especially as I had to unravel the convoluted wordplay here and there. No biffing for bloggers. I liked 2d for its smooth surface relevant to the answer.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Hint — it’s all in cruciverbalist’s head, cryptically (9) |
| SCINTILLA – (ITS ALL IN C)*. Scintilla being the Latin for “spark”. | |
| 6 | I run fleeing wild animal and slip (5) |
| GAFFE – GIRAFFE loses I R. We had gaffe meaning mistake, as a homophone for gaff meaning house, quite recently. | |
| 9 | Elected certain Republican, one offering different policies (7) |
| INSURER – IN (elected), SURE (certain) R. | |
| 10 | Revolting smell of sweat around place (7) |
| OBSCENE – BO (body odour) reversed, SCENE = place. | |
| 11 | Filmed Herbert holding onto Charlie, United substitute (5) |
| LOCUM – Herbert LOM has C, U inserted. Czech film star Herbert Lom’s real name was | |
| 12 | Select few that govern oil supply beginning to get sore about resistance (9) |
| OLIGARCHY – OLI = “oil supply“, G[et], ACHY with R inserted. | |
| 13 | Frequency with which tax is put on raw materials in growth industry? (8) |
| FORESTRY – F for frequency, ORES (raw materials), TRY = tax. | |
| 14 | Doing burps too regularly (2,2) |
| UP TO – alternate letters: b U r P s T o O. | |
| 17 | Scruff’s last to remove rubbish lying around (4) |
| NAPE – all reversed; E (end of remove), PAN = rubbish, criticise. | |
| 18 | Communist tactic restricts European action once more (8) |
| REDEPLOY – RED (Communist), PLOY (tactic), insert E. | |
| 21 | I gather prayer book’s missing from Globe (9) |
| COLLECTOR – COLLECT (prayer book), OR[B]. | |
| 22 | US politician briefly tours northern India for material (5) |
| DENIM – DEM[ocrat] with N I (northern, India) inserted. | |
| 24 | Repeated echoes, in a manner of speaking, returned downwind (7) |
| LEEWARD – DRAWL (manner of speaking) with E E (echoes) inserted, all reversed. | |
| 25 | Some arrived at a settlement to find a bunch of logs? (7) |
| DATASET – hidden word. | |
| 26 | Fancy heading for Rome? Temperature variable in the case of Italy (5) |
| RITZY – R[ome], I[tal]Y with T, Z a variable, inserted. | |
| 27 | Children’s facility external to hospital is returning for an extended time (9) |
| ORPHANAGE -PRO (for) reversed, H, AN AGE = an extended time. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Drink second whiskey with difficulty (5) |
| SWILL – S[econd], W[hiskey], ILL = difficulty. Why Irish whisky, I wonder? | |
| 2 | Nasty lice present — time for fast solution to this? (6,9) |
| INSECT REPELLENT – (LICE PRESENT)*, LENT = time for fast. | |
| 3 | Turning up stove initially, I spoil Italian dish(8) |
| TIRAMISU – U[p], S[tove], I MAR (I spoil), IT[alian], all reversed. Tiramisu is of course an Italian dish, but if you make Italian part of the definition, it has to do double duty in the answer. So I’ve just emphasised dish. | |
| 4 | Bar’s opening amid clamour — youth’s drinking port (8) |
| LARBOARD -ROAR (clamour) with B[ar] inserted, all inside LAD = youth. I knew larboard is the opposite of starboard. I wondered about the origins of these terms, it’s quite interesting (and old) but too long to repeat here, seehttps://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/port-larboard-starboard if you’re curious. | |
| 5 | In bed, I’m rolling over after a minute (6) |
| ATOMIC -A, COT (bed) reversed with I’M reversed inside. I suppose “on an atomic scale” can mean minute, very small indeed. | |
| 6 | One goes on airship, essentially(6) |
| GASBAG – double definition. | |
| 7 | Wood finish is hard to get off? Remarkably easy in Pacific Islands (6,9) |
| FRENCH POLYNESIA – a wood finish can be FRENCH POLISH, lose the IS H, add (EASY IN)*. Or biff it from the 6,9. | |
| 8 | With little energy, really stiff, that’s all (9) |
| EVERYBODY – E[nergy], VERY (really) BODY (stiff, corpse). | |
| 13 | Play with one dog holding up a length of rope (9) |
| FUNICULAR – FUN (play), I CUR (one dog) insert A L[ength] reversed (“up”). I knew about a funicular railway, as e.g. on the cliff in Bournemouth where I grew up, but deduced its derivation-meaning “of rope or cord” hence cable operated. | |
| 15 | Going north, say, are Irish politicians suitably prepared? (6,2) |
| GEARED UP – E.G. (say) reversed = GE, ARE D.U.P. those Northern Irish politicians with rather extreme Unionist views. | |
| 16 | Old soldier and reservists taking aim in dispute (8) |
| VENDETTA – VET (old soldier) TA (reservists), insert END = aim. | |
| 19 | Something left behind in Faraday cage lights up (6) |
| LEGACY – hidden reversed. No physics needed. | |
| 20 | What has no part ultimately in outside broadcast (6) |
| STUDIO – is this just a cryptic definition? A bit odd. | |
| 23 | It’s tucked inside Mr Ellington’s top hat (5) |
| MITRE – Mr. E (top of Ellington) with IT inserted. | |
I can help with STUDIO. It’s an anagram [broadcast] of ‘outside’ minus its last letter,
but the grammar of the wordplay is more problematic. Reading it as: no part [ultimately] in ‘outside’ [broadcast] suggests removing the ‘T’ from the anagrist, but that doesn’t work. Perhaps we’re meant to interpret it as: no ultimate part in ‘outsid{e}’ [broadcast], which hurts my eyes squinting to see it.
Well I certainly found this hard in places and after an excellent start writing in 5 or 6 answers on first reading I finished with 75 minutes on the clock. I didn’t help myself by putting INSUREE at 9ac and not noticing my error so that the stray E-checker baffled me almost forever in my attempts at solving 4dn.
The reverse hidden LEGACY also eluded me for ages as I had been convinced that ‘in Faraday cage’ was telling me to put something inside FY. ATOMIC and GASBAG held me up too. I thought of INSECT REPELLENT quite early but thought I was looking for an anagram of LICE PRESENT TIME which wouldn’t unravel, so that was another hold-up.
I saw FUNICULAR as a possible fit for the checkers at 15dn but delayed writing it in because I couldn’t see either definition or wordplay in the clue. I’ve travelled dozens of times on funicular railways without realising the origin of the word was associated with rope.
That’s how I read 20dn: it’s &Lit. I agree that reading ‘what has no part ultimately in OUTSIDE’ to indicate OUTSID takes a bit of squinting!
Another hard one. FUNICULAR as ‘rope’ unknown; I too searched for an anagram before eventually getting INSECT REPELLENT; ‘action’ as a verb escaped me.
MITRE is just ‘hat’, Mr. Ellington’s top giving the ‘e’.
Nice to see two nautical terms.
Finished in 24’35”, thanks pip and setter.
MITRE – you could read it that way, but I think it works my way too as “top” for E of Ellington would more likely be the first letter if it were a down clue.
No, that doesn’t work. ‘Mr Ellington’ doesn’t give ‘Mr E’ without an indicator of some sort.
RobR is correct.
OK am outnumbered, I’ll amend the entry.
I looked up FUNICULAR. Didn’t know about the wood polish, so took forever to see it. Long after the ink was dry.
37:51
Slow going. I was surprised to see Herbert LOM, but then I couldn’t think of any other Herbert. I remember hin as Inspector Clouseau’s supervisor. Also surprised to see DATASET as one word. U got (finally; my LOI) (outsid)*, but what’s the definition? It took me forever to spot LEGACY. Isn’t COLLECT a prayer? (not a book)
‘Action’ is a noun; so far as I know, (re)deploy is a verb.
Yes, it is a prayer – the ‘book’ is in the wordplay for -OR.
I took the definition of STUDIO as a cryptic, as stated by Pip.
I don’t see what’s cryptic about the definition for STUDIO: it’s looks like a straight definition to me. A bit convoluted, but literal.
As you probably know by now I rarely get &lits right so I avoid classifying as such unless on blogging duty and forced into a corner.
It occurs to me that OB units are essentially mobile studios so whatever the type of clue, the definition is not strictly accurate.
I agree that the definition isn’t accurate – if an OB unit doesn’t connect to the studio how does its coverage get on air?! – but my point is just that it’s not cryptic, but a literal description of a part of the television apparatus that isn’t involved in an outside broadcast.
Kevin, I think action is a verb here, and is in the dictionary as such.
I think the one-word ‘DATASET’ is (was?) an IBM coinage from back in the old 360 days. I could never understand what was wrong with the plain-and-simple ‘file’. I managed to avoid their gigantism — and the execrable ‘dataset’ — by signing on with Univac.
I threw in the towel at about 50 with ATOMIC, LARBOARD and ORPHANAGE unsolved. For the first two I was on the right track but couldn’t figure out how the pieces fitted together, for the last I was all at sea. On a LEEWARD reach. Gagging over the LARBOARD rail. There were a few others where the wordplay was not easy so thanks Nelson.
From She Belongs To Me:
She wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks
She’s a hypnotist COLLECTOR, you are a walking antique
I found that really tough going. FOI was OBSCENE. I’ll draw a veil over the rest of the struggle and just say that I finished with GASBAG ad ATOMIC. 37:38. Thanks setter and Pip.
I too found this tough, but managed to finish in 55 mins. LOI STUDIO ( which only came once I had seen OPRPAHANAGE) took an age to see and I agree with Jack’S version above. Never knew the meaning of FUNICULAR which I guessed once all the checkers were in.
I liked GASBAG and the Pacific Islands.
Thanks pip and setter.
39 mins but this is a puzzle I would struggled to complete over a whole weekend a couple of years ago. We live and learn.
Top quality stuff with no NHO except for the real meaning of FUNICULAR but made challenging by lots of great wordplay. COLLECT remembered from recent appearance.
Even LOI LEGACY didnt take too long to spot.
Thanks to Piquet and setter.
Gave up after the hour with LARBOARD, ATOMIC and STUDIO missing. COD to EVERYBODY. All good clues but the cumulative effect was too much. Thank you Pip and setter.
14:11. Tricky one, and a few I couldn’t parse as I solved. GASBAG, for instance, where the airship meaning was unknown to me.
In 1dn the Whiskey is Irish because that’s how it’s spelled in the NATO alphabet.
No complaints but I will just observe that Herbert Lom effectively retired over 30 years ago and was significantly less of a star when he was alive than poor old Tom Hardy has been for at least the last decade. I remember Lom from the Pink Panther films of course but have never known his name.
Yes Clouseau’s nemesis (or is it the other way round) really is a bit of a stretch for anyone under 50. Those movies haven’t worn very well.
But they have their moments.
“I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite!”
“That is not my dog.”
I loved the movies when I was a kid but haven’t watched them for decades.
Well I’m another who found this a pretty tricky challenge – struggled with ATOMIC (among others) at the end – you must have been on the wavelength today!
Thanks setter and Piquet
Gave up on the hour with half missing. Totally off the wavelength. Wouldn’t have got FUNICULAR in a month of Sundays.
DNF for me, not knowing LARBOARD I trawled unsuccessfully for a port. Also didn’t see the (very good) reverse hidden and assumed that Faraday cage gave me “FY” somewhere in the solution. Gave up after my coffee ran out… Thanks Piquet and setter.
Meh, failed on LARBOARD which is a NHO for me after just shy of 40 mins. Even with all the checkers I just couldn’t make something work. First place I went to in the blog so thanks for the explanation.
FORESTRY was the only other one I couldn’t parse. Seems easy now but I was overthinking the linking words.
FUNICULAR got from the word play. It’s one of those words I think I know but wouldn’t say with any confidence.
I did solve STUDIO as a CD but saw the anagram immediately after writing it in. I read it a few times and it just about works for me.
COD:EVERYBODY (but liked the two long down answers as well)
Thanks blogger and setter.
After one hour I had FOI INSECT REPELLENT, SCINTILLA and NAPE. and that was it.
Thanks Piquet
After two good solves this week, came up short, where FUNICULAR and FORESTRY both beat me. ATOMIC for minute was hard, kept messing about with M, MIN etc.
Barely heard of LARBOARD, and with the O, I wanted to”youths drinking port to be LA(Rio)D. I don’t really like how the clue was rearranged with the “lads drinking” at the end. Yoda speak.
Had to check there was an actor LOM, and surprisingly there was.
I carefully wrote out LICE PRESENT TIME, and saw INSECT REPELLENT, but only coming here discovered I fluked it.
COD GASBAG
I laboriously built LARBOARD, and until coming here I thought it was some port I’d not heard of, which felt quite plausible. I should’ve connected it to STARBOARD, really…
As the clue ends in “…lad’s drinking”, or “lad is drinking”, it works for me, rather than being Yodaish. Eliding ‘that’ is very common in standard English, like “The job my brother’s doing” or “The coffee the man drinks”, and it’s quite a common trick (that!) setters use.
LOM was completely new to me, and I was grateful for ‘Herbert’ for giving me confidence it’d be an actor’s surname, and so I was happy enough to accept there must be one called Mr Lom!
Completed and much enjoyed. I can’t remember my FOI, but the last was SWILL, which I had written to one side early on.
I needed piquet’s blog for the full parsing of LOCUM, FORESTRY ( I had written forestry and farmwork to one side before the ‘S’ checker arrived), COLLECTOR and ORPHANAGE. The first comment for jackkt sorted the parsing of STUDIO, which went in from the checkers.
Having reread through the comments, I had the parsing of MITRE as RobR.
26.21. This was easy for about three clues, and then it really wasn’t. A game of spot the definition then fathom the wordplay, with a side bet of give up on the wordplay if the answer looked OK. Wasn’t really expecting two hiddens (one reversed, admittedly) and I agree that Faraday cage looked an awful lot like the hint for FY.
I’d have blogged STUDIO as an &lit, though at least partly because I don’t like CDs. It worked well enough for me.
Last in was LARBOARD, mostly because the game I mentioned failed in every respect. I dreaded it being a port I’d never heard of, or an alternate spelling of Dún Laoghaire.
Dun Laoghaire – where I grew up — has indeed been spelled three different ways. The other two are Dun Laoire and Dun Leary. And before that it was Kingstown.
32.36
LARBOARD a late entry but known from the Patrick O’Brian books. LEEWARD, too, come to that. Not quite Georgette Heyer for usefulness but handy nonetheless. Otherwise getting FRENCH POLYNESIA opened things up. GASBAG LOI and took some time.
Thanks Piquet and Setter
Ps What Keriothe said about Hardy -v- Lom!
Too tricky for me to finish even with cheating (had to come here ATOMIC), NHO LARBOARD and I was looking for ‘hl’ for ‘external to hospital’ rather than seeing ‘external’ as a containment indicator. NHO that meaning of FUNICULAR either but it’s always good to learn.
25:39
Found this quite enjoyable, though a couple of minutes spent on LOI 5d before realising that I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition. FUNICULAR pieced together once I had the FNR checkers – didn’t know that meaning but it makes sense. Spent a short time wondering what went in front of POLYNESIA (entered from four checkers) before answers in the NE guided me in the right direction.
Thanks P and setter
Rather tricky I think, and took a while. Thanks to piquet and setter.
11a Locum. We must have had Herbert Lom before, because I was dimly aware. Was working on AP Herbert for a while, without success, obv.
27a Orphanage biffed, thanks piquet.
1d Swill. I think the NATO whiskey is always American, as it is (or was?) the leading light in NATO.
3d Tiramisu. I was unable to unravel it, couldnt find the It. thanks piquet.
13d DNK Funicular=of rope, was looking for a play in order to justify the answer but drew a blank. So yes, DNF because I was trying not to biff.
20d Studio, never noticed the anag of OUTSIDe, took it as long-winded cryptic def.
23d Mitre. I took the top to be reduce Duke to Mr E. Def was hat. Anyway either way works.
55′ .. I also found this tough at the end, with ATOMIC and GASBAG my LOIs
48 – found this terribly difficult, particularly in the NW bit. I didn’t think too long about the STUDIO clue, which I thought was quite clever, and not sure I would have had any qualms about it if I had.
Well I thought this was a great crossword! Particularly liked the BURPS clue.
Also, “Something left behind in Faraday cage lights up (6)” is as perfect an example of a hidden letters clue as you’ll find.
Agreed. Some great clues and disguised definitions. Surprised no one has mentioned The Ladykillers, in connection with Herbert Lom.
I had, just 3 minutes earlier, and probably while you were typing 😂
Thank you for the Ladykillers reminder. I’d forgotten Lom was in it. Now that’s still well worth watching.
Another finding it tough., like Z guessing an answer more than once and seeing if it parsed. Like jackkt I saw INSECT REPELLENT as (LICE PRESENT TIME)*, and it worked perfectly for me 😉 though
admittedly tired after a stressful day at work, so it wasn’t the only one not parsed. Always thought FURNICULAR had an R in it, similar to birfurcate, indicating the fork in the middle where the carriages pass. Live and learn. Good solid puzzle, up to the usual standard. Liked NAPE, because it fooled me for a long time.
I abandoned ship twice and returned to dredge out a few more. I didn’t expect to get within my 20 minute target, but eventually came good. Some excellent stuff here. I knew Herbert LOM from “The Lady Killers”, one of the first films I ever saw.
FOI INSURER
LOI ATOMIC (the PDM took ages)
COD TIRAMISU
TIME 18:47
Just moonlighting here and very glad we did not try this one, following yesterday’s.
This puzzle first suggested to me that maybe the regular cryptic was trending toward the MEPHISTO which gets mentioned here sometimes. But no.
I went and had a look at one (M) and it was just scary. Kudos to those who post here and have the specific GK to solve those.
You do need to attack Mephisto using aids – Chambers and Bradford’s are particularly helpful. It typically takes me a shade over half an hour. This week I was delighted to receive a £20 Waterstone’s voucher for being a runner-up a couple of weeks ago.
Never heard of Bradford’s! But Mephisto is strictly a Chambers puzzle. All definitions, both of answers and words used in clues, should be found there.
Bradford’s is very useful for finding obscure synonyms for words but unlike Chambers, if I use it to solve a Mephisto I consider that I’ve cheated.
That was tough and couldn’t finish without a bit of help. I thought the STUDIO clue was brilliant once I’d worked it out. 36 tortuous minutes
30:22
I thought this was an excellent puzzle. I fell for every piece of misdirection so enjoyed many a PDM.
Thanks all.
I put in ATOMIC without knowing that it was right and was surprised to get the all-correct signal. ATOMIC = minute would never have occurred. I liked MITRE and STUDIO, which latter I assumed was a CD that the setter had deliberately included as an almost-anagram until Jackkt explained how it worked. All pretty hard and I took over an hour, even with aids. I thought UP TO was pretty feeble: if you’re going to have a clue of this Quick Cryptic type, then at least have a decent surface. ‘Do a burp’ indeed.
Will, I always measure my performance against yours, as the closest to my level of understanding. I note you no longer post your times – any reason?
Embarrassment really at numbers which are so much worse than those of the majority. But if it’s of interest to you I’ll resume doing so.
Thanks, much appreciated!
Was at an impasse, cheated to get FUNICULAR, which unlocked a whole bunch more. The hidden DATASET was my penultimate one in, and ATOMIC my LOI. However, the cheat means this was a resounding…DNF
Some of the harder puzzles (SNITCH > 120) I feel I’m in the game and I get stuck in, but some like this one I’m just miles off the pace with no clue what the setter is aiming at. That elusive wavelength..
I found this puzzle tough, and had to parse every clue to get the answers, and make sure they were correct. The only NHO was Herbert Lom, but it had to be locum with only the O unchecked. I was very slow in the NE, with everybody, French Polynesia, and atomic being very elusive. G_S_A_ was very unhelpful as I pondered my LOI, but suddenly I saw it.
Time: 58:57
69:27. I found this quite hard, with some fairly arcane knowledge needed. Herbert Lom was a surprise … wasn’t he wonderful in the Pink Panther films?
🙏 both
41:00. Tough, but very satisfying to nail it. LOI FUNICULAR just from the crosses, thinking it couldn’t be right until the necessary confirmation appeared in the wordplay. Some clues were easier than others; I liked both GAFFE and FORESTRY
I found this quite tough, but finished in 51 minutes. I saw the DUP had to be involved in 15dn but rather foolishly made a preliminary biff of TOOLED UP. This obviously held up progress in this area until I decided COLLECTOR had to be right for 21ac and had to reset. Was not that keen on the clue at 14ac, but no serious complaints.
FOI – OLIGARCHY
LOI – LARBOARD
COD – OBSCENE
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
I did this in two sessions two hours apart, so no time to report, but I’m pretty sure it was well over an hour. I really enjoyed this one even though I had my doubts at one time that I would finish it. My last two were SCINTILLA and finally LARBOARD, and I managed to correctly parse everything to boot. I was mislead for a while trying to remember if Duke Ellington had a three letter Christian name that I could wrap around ‘it’.
Definitely on the hard side. I took 35:15 with LOI LARBOARD, which I have heard of but totally forgot until now. FUNICULAR I had to take on trust.
I was slow to get the REPELLENT part of 2dn, because I thought it was -ANT, once I trusted myself on that, the rest of the puzzle came pretty fast.
Thanks setter and blogger
I struggled with this one and put it down and picked it up several times during the day. No time, therefore, but, once completed, an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger, as ever.
DNF, nowhere near completing it. Beaten by FORESTRY, NAPE, COLLECTOR, INSECT REPELLENT (I thought ‘time’ was part of the anagrist so couldn’t get the second word), LARBOARD (never heard of it and like one or two others was trying to fit Rio in there), ATOMIC and FUNICULAR.
– Hadn’t heard of Herbert Lom but LOCUM had to be
– Took ages to work out TIRAMISU
– Biffed FRENCH POLYNESIA
Thanks piquet and setter.
COD Legacy
24.20 . Loved the long clues and giraffe!
Slower than I should have been, coming in at 29’58”. Something wasn’t clicking with this one. Why for instance did I waste so much time thinking of the name of a port for 4 down, instead of seeing straight away that it was port as in not starboard? Herbert Lom we saw recently in a forgotten WW2 spy film called Night Boat to Dublin. He was a Nazi. Starring a pre-Long John Silver Robert Newton, the film wasn’t bad at all, though disappointingly there was barely any action on the old Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire crossing. I was going to say that unlike some commentators above, I thought the STUDIO clue was rather good. But then I saw I had misparsed it. I took STUDIO to be an anagram of OUTSIDE minus the T (PART ULTIMATELY). But of course it’s not the T, it’s the E that is missing. Hang on though. The E is the ultimate part of OUTSIDE – so it does work! It IS a good clue!
I drew a blank with some of these and had to get input from Mr Ego. But all completed in the end, albeit without parsing ORPHANAGE. Some very devious definitions and wordplay. LARBOARD took forever to spot, and FUNICULAR NHO the rope meaning. Mr Ego spotted POLYNESIA, which opened up the impasse, and eventually everything fell into place. For the record, STUDIO works as an ‘& lit’. I was misled at first, but it’s tortuously valid!