Solving time: 40 minutes. There were a handful of unknown words or meanings here to account for my missing my target half-hour. Where necessary the wordplay came to my rescue.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | One leaves old king some fertile land (7) |
| ORCHARD | |
| O (old), R{i}CHARD (king) [one leaves]. The definition seems a little loose and I wondered if there might be a dictionary entry to fit it more specifically, but I couldn’t find anything in the usual sources. | |
| 5 | Ace in flying saucer gets break (7) |
| CAESURA | |
| A (ace) contained by [in] anagram [flying] of SAUCER. SOED: A break, a stop, an interruption. Unknown to me. | |
| 9 | Belt in earthy shade uniform should accommodate (3,6) |
| SAM BROWNE | |
| SAME (uniform) containing [should accommodate] BROWN (earthy shade). It’s a belt with shoulder strap attached and worn by the military and police. Named after Sir Samuel J. Browne (1824–1901), British military commander. Something I learnt from crosswords several years ago. | |
| 10 | Liberal Irish record overturned reveals grave danger (5) |
| PERIL | |
| L (Liberal) + IR (Irish) + EP (extended play record) reversed [overturned] | |
| 11 | Colt back around western states taking time in principle (3,2,8) |
| LAW OF AVERAGES | |
| FOAL (colt) containing W (western) reversed [back], then AVERS (states) containing [taking…in] AGE (time) | |
| 13 | Refused husband the covers: furious about that? (8) |
| WITHHELD | |
| WILD (furious) containing [about] THE containing [covers] H (husband) | |
| 15 | Ceremonial instruments used in Lysistrata (6) |
| SISTRA | |
| Hidden [used in] {Ly}SISTRA{ta}. SOED: sistrum (pl. sistra) a musical instrument of ancient Egyptian origin, consisting of a metal frame with transverse metal rods which rattled when the instrument was shaken. NHO this, but you can hear one being played here. Lysistrata is a comedy by Aristophanes. | |
| 17 | Placing financial restriction on ordinary folk is old hat (6) |
| MOBCAP | |
| MOB (ordinary folk), CAP (financial restriction). Another unknown word. Collins: a woman’s large cotton cap with a pouched crown and usually a frill, worn esp during the 18th century. I recognise it from the description but never knew what it was called. | |
| 19 | Horrible to leave note without regrets? (8) |
| GRUESOME | |
| GO (leave) + ME (note – music), containing [without] RUES (regrets) | |
| 22 | Trifle with edging hotel prepared like dip (5-8) |
| LIGHT-FINGERED | |
| Anagram [prepared] of TRIFLE EDGING H (hotel – NATO). ‘Dip’ is slang for a pickpocket, and people who are ‘light-fingered’ steal things. | |
| 25 | Blocking passage in church, one wet behind ears (5) |
| NAIVE | |
| I (one) contained by [blocking] NAVE (passage in church]. The nave is the central area of a church where the main body of the congregation assemble so I’m not sure that ‘passage’ is the right word to describe it. The passageway through it is known as the central aisle. | |
| 26 | Curmudgeon spotted with daughter out for fruit (4,5) |
| CRAB APPLE | |
| CRAB (curmudgeon), {d}APPLE (spotted) [with daughter – d – out]. I wasn’t sure about spotted = dapple (rather than dappled) but Collins appears to confirm it’s okay. For the removal of doubt we could have had {d}apple{d} [with daughters out]. | |
| 27 | Odd characters in secret exercises on the staff (7) |
| SCEPTRE | |
| S{e}C{r}E{t} [odd characters], PT (exercises), RE (on) | |
| 28 | Barrister and casual worker having endless fun (7) |
| TEMPLAR | |
| TEMP (casual worker), LAR{k} (fun) [endless]. The Temple is one of the main legal districts of London. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Bring down books to entertain setter and solver? (4) |
| OUST | |
| OT (books – Old Testament) containing [to entertain] US (setter and solver) | |
| 2 | Kept appointment with fate coming to Arthur’s Seat (7) |
| CAMELOT | |
| CAME (kept appointment), LOT (fate). The castle and court of the legendary King Arthur as appeared in the QC puzzle I blogged yesterday. | |
| 3 | Quarrel caused when posh school fails to open (5) |
| ARROW | |
| {h}ARROW (posh school) [fails to open]. My old school’s rich relative at the top of Harrow Hill. ‘Quarrel / ARROW’ appeared in the QC on 30th May along with a MER over the terminology. There’s support for the definition in at least one of the usual sources but a quarrel is a square bolt as fired by a crossbow, so not what we normally think of as an arrow. | |
| 4 | Heavy rain‘s appearance in low Cornish river and lake (8) |
| DOWNFALL | |
| DOWN (low), FAL (Cornish river – as in Falmouth), L (lake) | |
| 5 | Cells initially needing permission to divide? (6) |
| CLEAVE | |
| C{ells} [initially], LEAVE (permission) | |
| 6 | Old forward is beginning to employ special knowledge (9) |
| EXPERTISE | |
| EX (old), PERT (forward), IS, E{mploy} [beginning] | |
| 7 | Leading Tories being honourable? (7) |
| UPRIGHT | |
| UP (leading), RIGHT (Tories) | |
| 8 | Bengalese AM broadcast not good for ratings (4,6) |
| ABLE SEAMEN | |
| Anagram [broadcast] of BEN{g}ALESE AM [not good] | |
| 12 | Floated south across country with duck departing marshes (10) |
| SWAMPLANDS | |
| SWAM (floated) + S (south) containing [across] P{o}LAND (country) [with duck – 0 – departing] | |
| 14 | Pulse right to coat in warm batter (9) |
| HEARTBEAT | |
| R (right) contained by [to coat in] HEAT (warm), then BEAT (batter) | |
| 16 | Cologne is this loud with student festivity and shouting? (8) |
| FRAGRANT | |
| F (loud – forte – music), RAG (student festivity – Rag Week), RANT (shouting) | |
| 18 | Start to grasp socially acceptable English dance (7) |
| BEGUINE | |
| BEGIN (start) containing [to grasp] U (socially acceptable), then E (English). It’s a sort of slow rumba, perhaps best known from the title of the Cole Porter song Begin the Beguine. It originally appeared in a Broadway show in 1935, but it was this 1938 recording by Artie Shaw and his Orchestra that popularised it so that later it was used in a Fred Astaire film and became a standard recorded by a host famous artists. | |
| 20 | Reference work one on China so complex? (7) |
| OEDIPAL | |
| OED (reference work – Oxford English Dictionary), I (one), PAL (China) | |
| 21 | Failure at table to avoid row becoming audible (6) |
| MISCUE | |
| Sounds like [becoming audible] “miss queue” (avoid row). ‘Table’ as in billiards, snooker, pool etc. | |
| 23 | River near tree bordering area in field (5) |
| REALM | |
| R (river), then ELM (tree) containing [bordering] A (area) | |
| 24 | Stick close to flatmate in block (4) |
| BEAR | |
| {flatmat}E [close] contained by [in] BAR (block – obstruct, ban) | |
18:11
I biffed 11ac without reading the clue, and never did get around to parsing it. Bifffed LIGHT-FINGERED, and did. I never did get the P[o]land part of SWAMPLANDS, or understand the ‘table’ in MISCUE, one reason it was my LOI.
I biffed quite a few, and had all the knowledge except for sistra, which was clearly the right answer once you got all the checkers. Caesura was my FOI – ha, that’s obvious! I finished up with swamplands, but it took a moment to see that it was Poland and not land that was used in the cryptic.
Time: 20 minutes.
37 minutes. Had come across CAESURA before but didn’t know SISTRA or MOBCAP (two words in Chambers). I also wondered about ‘daughter’ being in the singular rather than the plural at 26a.
Favourites were the parsing for LAW OF AVERAGES and the surface for SAM BROWNE, which almost could have been a cryptic def.
Thanks to Jack (liked the links) and setter
35 minutes but a failure because I guessed MOBTAX for the unknown hat. Shame, as I had the knowledge for everything else, and if I’d thought of “cap” for financial restriction it would certainly have been my preference. Fiddlesticks!
I also guessed MOBTAX initially , but it looked so unlikely to be a hat that I bunged in MCBEAN , being the less well-known Scottish variant of the beanie. It didn’t parse but by this time and after several fruitless alphabet trawls I was ready to give up.
I note that for the second day running CAMELOT Gaming Systems are providing sponsorship.
My time was 39 minutes. I managed to spot Poland early on.
FOI 3dn ARROW from the Cayman Islander!?
LOI 17ac MOBCAP
COD 20dn OEDIPAL
WOD 22ac LIGHT FINGERED – trifle (zuppa inglese) is often made with those light sponge fingers. – I adore 26ac’s CRAB APPLE JELLY with scones – Mr. Myrtilus over to you!
BAD solving day for me – 53m with multiple screw-ups:
– FOI at 1a was PASTURE couldn’t figure the king but PAST had to be right …it was about 35m later when I realised this was definitely wrong
– 20d OEDIPUS because I saw OED and biffed the rest
– 24d entered as BEAN (because “old stick” and “old bean” are good synonyms
– Obviously 28a didn’t work with those two, I entered TEMPSON as the least-improbable option
– Finally another dumb made-up word in 17a (though like Gothick I got the MOB bit). By this stage I’d lost my will to carry on
I’m thinking that would probably not be a good day for me to go hang-gliding, motorcycle racing, cave-diving etc. Thanks J and setter
But at least you’re smiling!!?
There is no good day to go cave-diving, believe me…
Thank you for the full-size version of Zaffy, yesterday, Jerry, but I think your mini-avatar looks like a rather odd caterpillar!
Agreed, it does, though until yesterday and the full-size unveiling, I had been puzzling over it, not really able to work out what it was. How horryd was able to discern it is beyond me. Still flummoxed by Keriothe’s new avatar!
Gill D
Sorry, that was me. Not used the phone for the new site to comment till now.
26:09
Nice puzzle – decent level of challenge.
Thanks, jack.
Solid crossword but never got MOBCAP. I had to polish so many Sam Brownes (and boots) when I was a batman. This was a holiday job while I was a teenager … and where I developed my interest in cryptic crosswords.
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!
DNF after 30 mins pre-brekker, missing the Mobcap/Beguine combo.
Note to self: swot up on old caps and dances.
Thanks setter and J.
Slough, Gateway to the South West!
The bottom left corner pushed my time to 25 plus minutes – I had been ploughing on fairly steadily through the tricky clues up to that point. The beguine clue had me foxed with start to grasp G, socially acceptable U and E not producing enough letters to fill the space. I thought I was being clever with pulse=PEA for 14d, so missed the definition. And “ordinary people” = MOB refused to compute: I think us ordinary people should complain. I was fixated on just LAND and didn’t think of the specific Poland, and didn’t think of SWAM for floated, but when light dawned that was the clue that led to the rest toppling in quick succession.
So fair dues to the setter: had me somewhat flummoxed. Great informative blog from Jack: perhaps one day the rest of us will figure out how to get our avatars to head up each section!
I’m guessing he cuts and pastes the html .. bit showy, if you ask me 🙂
tn_jack_new_ident_small.jpg …
I note your avatar appears top and bottom of your blogs, Jerry, so only one degree less showy! 😊
I wouldn’t have bothered but I wanted to display the crossword-solving cat I use for my QC blogs and found a way of doing so. Having done that I thought I may as well do the same for the pile of books.
So it does … though I have no idea why… no criticism was intended (of course), more the opposite since you are clearly much more in control of your avatars than me.
The big issue is, why are they still so small? They should be about twice the size in terms of horizontal/vertical dimensions, in my view..
No, I don’t understand it, as there’s one poster (can’t recall who at this moment) who has a very tall but narrow avatar – almost double the height achieved by anyone else. Not that it bothers me actually, as I’m happy with the current size since John M increased it from the tiny ones we started with. As for those inserted in my blogs, they are independent from my stored avatar.
Enjoyed this one. Quite surprised about how many hadn’t heard of mobcap .. not reading enough Heyer, perhaps?
Thank you Jackkt for the Artie Shaw link .. not my sort of music really, but he does do it really well..
24:07. I completed about 2/3 of this fairly quickly but then struggled with the rest of it, taking various wrong turns along the way. Like others I thought the country in SWAMPLANDS was just “land” rather than “Poland”. I was looking for a hat ending in -LAY for “ordinary folk”. At 1A I thought “old king” just provided the OR at the start of the answer. And for MISCUE I had been looking for a word ending -BLE meaning “audible”. So definitely “off the wavelength” today, and therefore just happy to cross the line.
39 min with a long time spent on 17a and 18d where I assumed the dance started with g
Never heard of sistra but easy to biff
Caesura and beguine were known but not biffable to me
11:15. SISTRA unknown but clear from wordplay, I knew everything else. SAM BROWNE from past puzzles.
When I saw ‘husband the covers’ in 13ac I considered and immediately dismissed THHE on the basis that no word could possibly have two Hs in the middle of it. There actually several: bathhouse, beachhead, washhouse, youthhood.
I’ve just checked all the less frequently-seen words mentioned in the blog, and they they’ve all found a home in Collins at some point in their lives. QUARREL, also given attention here, is defined therein as an arrow (fired from a crossbow) and not as a bolt, for some reason.
Much to like, with the nice mislead on DIP being among the favourites.
34m 08s
An enjoyable puzzle and an enjoyable blog, so thank you, Jack.
Like Zabadak, I query ‘floated’ = SWAM. To swim requires effort; floating doesn’t in my view but then I always tended to float downwards, thus requiring me to swim to stay afloat.
Thanks, Jack, for HEARTBEAT and LAW OF AVERAGES. In the latter, when I saw ‘western states’ I thought we were going to have a repeat of GANYMEDE the other day which was a collection of 4 eastern states.
Isn’t Jane Austen usually portrayed wearing a MOBCAP?
37 minutes after a late night which I’m too old for. LOI was SAM BROWNE which, if I knew, I’d forgotten. I can remember as a child thinking that the words were, “When you begin, you begin,” and wondering what that was all about. I’ve always used ‘nave’ to mean the main body of the Church too, but it had to be NAIVE. COD to OEDIPAL. SISTRA was a bit weak, but I’m glad it was as otherwise I’d have had no idea. Decent puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
12:17, with the same hold-ups as others – never (knowingly) heard of SISTRA but it clearly was what it was, and took a while to parse the table in MISCUE, but a satisfying penny-drop moment in the end. All good.
“HEARTBEAT, why do you miss when my baby kisses me ?”. Has it really been 64 years since we tragically lost Buddy Holly ? He was one of the earliest musicians to attract my 10 year old attention.
I was very slow to get going, with only two across clues entered on the first pass, but the down clues practically flew in, and the second pass across was a triumph. Except for my LOI, which I needed a two minutes plus alpha trawl to see off.
FOI SISTRA
LOI MOBCAP
COD CRAB APPLE (Curmudgeon ? Mai oui, c’est moi !)
TIME 9:42
25 minutes, with much Biffing and SISTRA assumed but DK. SCEPTRE was my LOI in a top down steady solve. Delayed for a while thinking 2d had something to do with Edinburgh so ended in ED. But the splendid WITHHELD ended that idea. Thanks jackkt.
26 mins
One of those mediumish crosswords which solve themselves steadily until a MISCUE occurs, which for me was biffing CALLOW on the basis that it has another meaning. It was only when I got the LAW OF AVERAGES that I realised something was wrong. And yes, I had to look up the MOBCAP as well.
46 minutes, with a bit of help from lists when I couldn’t manage 1ac/1dn (very thick), and also for DOWNFALL, although I’d seen this and for some stupid reason rejected it. Like others I thought for a while that the country was a land. Enjoyed your Artie Shaw clip, Jack. I got it from Noel Coward and Nina from Argentina, who refused to begin the beguine.
I can’t post a clip to this since I’m somewhat illiterate in the matter, but if, when there’s an update, the html could be shown as it used to be with the Russians, that would possibly enable me to do so.
Will, if you have registered with us I think you should be able to post a single url in your comment. At least that was my understanding of how things were going to work.. If johninterred or vinyl1 are around perhaps they will confirm later.
Wil, I’ve tested and it should work for you if you copy and paste in the url you want to link to.
Thanks Jack. Let’s see if this works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnD8_2jaqA4
Yes it looks as if it does.
Indeed! Great song too.
CAESURA and SISTRA were unfamiliar, but gettable with crossers and the helpful clues. I started with OUST and CAMELOT(still fresh in the mind). I duly filled in the NW, NE and SE, finishing in the SW, which held me up for longer than the rest of the puzzle. I also popped in THHE at 13a, and thought “no way!” but it was to be and the light then dawned quickly. SWAMPLANDS took a while with the extra P causing consternation until I realised the land was a de-ducked POLAND. MISCUE was LOI and took longer than it should have considering it’s something I used to do quite regularly pre Covid. Must get back to the club at Darlington. After two years absence, I called in to renew my subs at the end of March, went away for a folk weekend and caught Covid, which put the snooker on the back burner again. 25:34. Thanks setter and Jack.
25:35. NHO SISTRA but it didn’t matter and didn’t see the snooker connection in MISCUE so never reconciled the stage version of the answer with what I took to be the dining table version of the clue, if that makes any sense, so thanks for the enlightenment.
24 mins so glad to see I wasn’t the only slowcoach. SW corner was the most troublesome before an alphabet trawl got the cap part of mobcap and pthen put in swamplands without really parsing it. COD withheld mainly because of the unusual double hh.
Thanks setter and blogger.
Got off to a flyer with the RHS going in easily. But then…18d – a confident “gavotte” after I checked Avott – “a version of the truth” – socially acceptable these days? That held me up for a good while – I had to beguine again.
23:27
Mostly OK after a slow start, some unparsed/NHO.
CAESURA – bunged in from all checkers – marginally more likely than CREAUSA?
SISTRA – NHO but guessed from all checkers.
LIGHT-FINGERED – from definition and four checkers, didn’t notice it was an anagram
And on the plus side:
CRAB APPLE – I too wondered whether spotted = DAPPLE without a D at the end, but entered anyway.
SAM BROWNE remembered from a previous grid?
SWAMPLANDS – from all but the M checker, wasn’t a huge jump for floated = SWAM but added joy for seeing P(O)LAND when I’d thought it was just LAND.
MOBCAP – LOI but no problem with this – surprised it foxed so many other solvers. Must be plenty of old-fashioned literature where the pretty maid or servant is wearing such?
Enjoyable devious.
Both pert and forward sound so delightfully innocent now. One step away from being called a fast
little piece.
No problem with CAESURA, like hiatus and lacuna, a gap that has been filled in by doing crosswords.
Thanks to the setter and Jack (particularly for the Artie Shaw).
Missed on WITHHELD and GRUESOME but pleased to get some really tough solves for me otherwise. Didn’t like ORCHARD as “fertile land” but enjoyed seeing CRABAPPLE. Haven’t seen one since moving away from a home near some abandoned orchards in 1961 but still have many memories of both eating and throwing a good number of them! COD’s to MISCUE and OEDIPAL. Took a long time to get BEAR as “stick”.Really needed blog to understand a lot- thanks!
Enjoyed this, but irritated not to get BEAR, which was the only clue unfilled and taunted me throughout. Alphabet trawl failed to spot it, and am now kicking myself.
OEDIPAL and MISCUE very enjoyable.
More than an hour today. So many clues needing so much time to break down and/or assemble. A wavelength thing perhaps. I definitely wasn’t on it
I have to say I found this tricky, with SAM BROWNE, MOBCAP and BEGUINE resisting for ages, principally because I was equally convinced that the dance began with G and that ordinary folk were men, not a mob! Surely a mob is quite the reverse of ordinary? But I knew the word, and resisted MENCAP till the penny dropped, which then opened up BEGUINE. 9A was heard of, but forgotten, so took too long, and I never did make the association with the correct table or recognise the homonym indicator in 21D until I resorted to aids.
Rain stopped lawn mowing so I had time for a second session at this.
The SW was the main problem: WITHHELD,HEARTBEAT and SWAMPLANDS eventually fell before LOI MOBCAP (unknown).
SISTRA also unknown but I did remember to begin the Beguine.
26a reminded me of Van Morrison; frequently so described.
Putting CEASURE at 5a caused a major delay. I was pleased to finish this all correct. COD to ORCHARD.
David
No time as done in two sittings but in the end, a DNF as I had OEDIPUS which made TEMPLAR impossible. Bah. Previous note to self re read the clue , clearly not learnt. Several excellent clues
Thanks Jack and setter.
20.25. I found this engaging. My forward was a prop until it gave me expropise whereupon another synonym was quickly selected. Struggled with swampland seeing land rather than P(o)land for country. Beguine is pretty much last on my mental list of dances to scroll through, so that was another hard one, especially since I was sure the first letter was going to be a G. Orchard was also troublesome, I thought one leaves might be the definition and was looking for a tree to fit. Was also expecting king to be K or R, not a specific named individual. Like BW I think of the nave as the central body of the church rather than a passage but that one wasn’t too hard to crack. I think Mrs Miggins wore a mobcap in Blackadder III.
After success yesterday today all correct except I went with creausa! NHO of caesura so it was 50/50 and I called incorrectly! Shame really cos I’d managed to unravel the other unknowns such as the hat and dance.
26.02
Liked it. Good solid effort. CAESURA surprisingly FOI; SW last to fall. MISCUE and WITHHELD popped in my thoughts which helped
Thanks all
Everything but MOBCAP was entered in about an hour yesterday, but my LOI needed a night’s rest. Nothing else except SISTRA that was completely unheard of. CAESURA is obviously Latin and was not too hard to find, because the German transcription Zäsur is often used to mean a break or gap in something stretching over time.