Time: 23 minutes
Music: Rachmaninoff, Symphony #2, Previn/LSO
I thought this was going to be a very easy one, but I was forced to change my mind about half-way through. The top ones went in easily enough, but there were a few tricky ones in the middle and bottom that held me up.
The vocabulary of the answers was not too bad, except for one obscure bit of cloth, but some of the cryptics were a bit convoluted. I am still parsing as I write, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure them out.
| Across | |
| 1 | Knightly combat judge originally saw during excursion (8) |
| JOUSTING – J + OU(S[aw])TING, my FOI. | |
| 5 | Trinket initially greeted eagerly, with gratitude as well (6) |
| GEWGAW – First letters of G[reeted] E[agerly], W[ith] G[ratitude] A[s] W[ell], one I biffed. | |
| 9 | Expat given award by old record company (8) |
| EMIGRANT – EMI GRANT. Technically speaking, an expat intends to return home eventually, but an emigrant does not. | |
| 10 | Acclaim part of speech picked up by military engineers (6) |
| RENOWN – RE + sounds like NOUN. | |
| 12 | Lowliness of press employee given directions in Mass, say (12) |
| SUBSERVIENCE – SUB + SERVI(E,N)CE, sc. a subeditor. | |
| 15 | Boredom shown by Greek character in key part of UK (5) |
| ENNUI – E N(NU)I, where E is a music key, among other things. | |
| 16 | Even-handed sailor left in East? Absolutely (9) |
| EQUITABLE – E QUIT(AB,L)E, one most solvers will biff. | |
| 18 | Basic Lent meal prepared by English (9) |
| ELEMENTAL – Anagram of LENT MEAL + E. | |
| 19 | A single woman touring India, a foolish person (5) |
| IDIOT – I + D(I)OT, believe. Discussion invited. | |
| 20 | Lament matter suffering ill-use (12) |
| MALTREATMENT – Anagram of LAMENT MATTER. Hard for me because I thought there were too many letters for an anagram….before counting them! | |
| 24 | Younger relative cut by retired writer (6) |
| NEPHEW – PEN backwards + HEW. It is actually possible, although unlikely, for your nephew to be older than you. | |
| 25 | Bony frame of English poet digesting opening of elegy (8) |
| SKELETON – SKEL(E)TON, that famous 15th-century poet, of course. | |
| 26 | Small window in room secured by dynamic person (6) |
| DORMER – DO(RM)ER. In the US, dormer more often refers to the top-story room. | |
| 27 | National flag at entrance to Holy Island (8) |
| IRISHMAN – IRIS + H[oly] + MAN, the crossword setter’s favorite island. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Young kangaroo’s energy observed in delight (4) |
| JOEY – JO(E)Y, a starter clue. | |
| 2 | Army group using a Continental method of getting info (4) |
| UNIT – UN + I.T, that is, un in French + Information Technology. | |
| 3 | Our one quest, oddly, finding semiprecious stone (9) |
| TURQUOISE – Anagram of OUR I QUEST. | |
| 4 | Unnecessary, one’s former nurse dipping into faulty Latin (12) |
| NONESSENTIAL – N(ONE’S SEN)TIAL, where the enclosing letters are an anagram of LATIN, and SEN is State Enrolled Nurse. | |
| 6 | Resinous substance contributing to travel emissions (5) |
| ELEMI – Hidden in [trav]EL EMI[ssions]. Popular in US-style puzzles for all the vowels. | |
| 7 | Pulverised head of angleworm in part: it should attract fish (10) |
| GROUNDBAIT – GROUND + B(A[ngleworm])IT. If you believe pulverised is an anagram indicator, you’ll never get the answer. | |
| 8 | Shrink back, but ultimately accept blue cotton fabric (10) |
| WINCEYETTE – WINCE + YET + [accep]T [blu]E. Never heard of it, but the cryptic is very clear. | |
| 11 | Stirrer primarily targeting earner in Vladivostok, say? (12) |
| TROUBLEMAKER – T + ROUBLE-MAKER. | |
| 13 | Resolved to eat with daughter around end of college session (10) |
| DETERMINED – D([colleg]E TERM)INE + D. | |
| 14 | Bounder supporting Bury, an uninvited guest (10) |
| INTERLOPER – INTER + LOPER. | |
| 17 | Attempt’s sound by early settlers making percussion instruments? (9) |
| TRIANGLES – Sounds like TRY plus ANGLES, as in the Germanic tribe. | |
| 21 | Extremely reliable, the first female magistrate in history (5) |
| REEVE – R[eliabl]E + EVE. | |
| 22 | Stop support for plant (4) |
| STEM – Double definition. | |
| 23 | A composition finally being broadcast soon (4) |
| ANON – A + [compositio]N + ON. Anon can mean either soon, or not so soon, a set of meanings played on by Shakespeare. | |
I (vaguely) knew both words, but I wouldn’t have been confident of how to spell either 5ac or 8dn, so thanks to the setter for being so clear!
It felt at first like the clue for 19ac had one word too many! Maybe the idea is we only have a single=one=I woman, DOT?
Stopped after half hour but sadly with no WINCEYETTE . Always thought GEWGAW was spelt geegaw but the device in the clue made my ignorance clear. I also thought Skelton was 16th century but I see he was more years in 15th century (1463-1529) than 16th. Back in my college days I studied The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng by Skelton, “which presents what many would consider disgusting images of rural drinking and drunkenness.” Still a very funny and enjoyable read. Had trouble working out many parts of clues so enjoyed learning these from blog. Thanks!
I checked as I also thought “geegaw” at first, and it’s in Chambers as “same as gewgaw”. I have a feeling I may have mostly seen the word in US sources, so perhaps “geegaw” is a more common spelling Stateside?
I have never seen ‘geegaw’; but then again, I’ve only seen ‘gewgaw’ once, in a children’s book, yet.
I have the vaguest feeling that I first saw the word in a Robert A Heinlein novel, but my vague feelings aren’t exactly known for their reliability!
Merriam-Webster has “geegaw” as “less common variant of gewgaw”
I was also 23 minutes. 1A is surely J plus S (saw originally) in OUTING. Definitely using some old brain cells to drag up WINCEYETTE.
A Mondayish puzzle but perhaps not for the QC Brigade.
FOI 1dn JOEY
LOI 10ac RENOWN
COD 8dn WINCEYETTE – when we were nippers we had WINCEYETTE pyjamas from Marks & Sparks, so this may we’ll be be a British trade name.
WOD 5ac GEWGAW
My time was 26 minutes..
Both ODE and Collins mark WINCEYETTE as “(Brit.)”, but not as a trade name; it apparently derives from ‘lindsey-woolsey’.
Lots of biffing for me meant 16:09. I was “held up” by WINCEYETTE and others I couldn’t biff! Thanks, v, for helping me parse some of the ones I barely had a chance to read.
8:34, but I looked up NHO WINCEYETTE. Pretty boring otherwise, even for a Monday. As Paul says, you need a (S) for JOUSTING.
Sorry about that, now corrected.
22 minutes. 19a looked odd at first sight but I ended up parsing it in much the same way as brnchn, thinking of a ‘single’ = one as in cricket. I did recognise GEWGAW and WINCEYETTE from previous crossword ‘excursion(s)’, but have to confess ignorance of the mega-famous ‘English poet’ at 25a.
There’s a great excerpt from Izaak Walton in the Wikipedia entry for GROUNDBAIT.
I thought Izaak Walton may have been the source of the quote “First catch your carp”, but a little Googling says otherwise….
I suspect Vinyl was being facetious about Skelton, although he does stand out as the one 15th-century English poet anyone’s heard of. (Wikipedia lists 11, but that includes Gower, who died at 78 in 1408.)
Thanks, yes, I’m sure Vinyl was being facetious; it doesn’t make me feel such an ignoramus.
I looked up GEWGAW in the OED. Guess who is recorded in the quotations as having first used the “A gaudy trifle, plaything…” sense of the word? My new best friend John SKELTON of course. From 1529, in Speke Parrot 474: “So myche tournyng on the cooke stole for every guy-gaw”. Apparently it refers to women being punished by using a ducking-stool for any trifling offence.
Interesting!
WINCEYETTE was LOI (after SUBSERVIENCE). and I resorted to Chambers Word Wizard to find it. It was a bit frustrating to have to do that. I had seen WINCE, and YET = “but,” so might have guessed the rest, but it isn’t the most likely looking word…
Not sure I’d ever seen GEWGAW spelled with the first W. And probably NHO GROUNDBAIT, though my brother was an angler who kept worms (ick!) under the house.
My son kept maggots in the fridge.
As Kevin indicates, nothing to frighten the horses but I also agree with Vinyl. The NW corner went in very easily but then things became a little more complex.
Another point of agreement with our blogger is in his differentiation between emigrant and expat.
I was an expat in Saudi Arabia and Italy because I always intended to leave. With France and Australia the intent was to stay but things worked out differently, which is how I find myself in NZ…!
26m 14s
18 minutes, so if I hadn’t waited to parse everything I’d surely have broken the 15 minute barrier, something I’m not sure I have ever achieved.
I predict it’s unlikely that the older British contingent when they arrive will have been bothered by WINCEYETTE except perhaps to wonder about the spelling, but the wordplay takes care of that. Very Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood! It’s not a brand name but a type of brushed cotton. All the usual dictionaries have it with a lower-case ‘w’.
Elsewhere I didn’t know the poet, but it didn’t delay me.
I can’t see a problem with 19ac.
I thought I was on track for a quick time for me, but was another who got held up by WINCEYETTE. Finally finished in 21.10.
No problems and knew the fabric (we had winceyette blankets, I remember). Too many first and last letter clues for my taste.
I had winceyette pyjamas, so I wonder if you actually mean sheets ?
Similar to others started at a fast pace and slowed down badly towards the end, with closing sequence IRISHMAN – WINCEYETTE (biffed, I did know the word) and finally NEPHEW which took several minutes even though I thought of “niece” immediately.
Annoyed at my own ineptitude, I filled in the last square without a typo-check -and:
– Had two transposed characters in TRIANGLE
– Even worse, I’d entered GEEGAW because like curryowen, I know that word from US lit
Didn’t really enjoy this …feeling like a possible PB may be available piles on the pressure, then falling short on both speed and accuracy – it’s a double-disappointment. 27m fail
Very similar experience as others, by the sound of it. A quick rush at the start followed by a gradual slowing, finally spending quite some time on WINCEYETTE to finish at 29 minutes. Some of my problem was the occasional obscurities like Skelton, some was being an IDIOT and not thinking of “sub” immediately for “press employee”, for example.
6:35. I thought I was close to a PB today and so bunged in a questionable NIPPER for “Younger relative”. After submitting I quickly saw my error and closed the club site in annoyance. Having just now come back to it I find that due to the dodgy signal on the train I’m on the submit hadn’t worked and I was able to correct my error and resubmit! Not quite a PB anyhow, but a good start to the day.
11:30. Held up for a good couple of minutes at the end by RENOWN and WINCEYETTE, thinking the latter would start WITHER… DNK the poet SKELTON either. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
18 minutes with LOI the unknown GEWGAW. WINCEYETTE sheets in winter were the things to have before central heating and duvets. “Snug as a bug in a rug”, as my Mum would say. I’m making that COD, if only for the memory. A nice Monday offering, a little bit tricky, but leaving enough time to prepare to face the day. Thank you V and setter.
Provided you’ve met WINCEYETTE
That was one of the easiest yet
My time was quite sweet
But I suspect the elite
Will have felt like neutrinos, I’d bet
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent Stem, …
15 mins pre-brekker.
This was the start/end letter expert again.
Originally, initially, opening of, entrance to, head of, ultimately, primarily, end of, extremely, finally.
Too many. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Fairly straightforward with lots of biffing
Never heard of gewgaw and had to check 8d spelling
20 mins which is pretty good for me
5:19 here, and for a while thought I might dip under the 5-minute barrier, which I haven’t done for many years, but wasted some time sorting out the anagram for MALTREATMENT and needed 3 attempts to get the letters of TURQUOISE typed in the correct order.
31 mins held up a bit like others on some of the middle clues. I never even noticed the poet as, with -k-l—— , I just bunged in SKELETON from the first two words of the clue.
Another who had WINCEYETTE sheets or blankets on the bed as a kid, so no probs there. NHO GEWGAW but the clue was straightforward. I liked EQUITABLE.
Thanks v and setter.
23 minutes. Didn’t know GEWGAW at all, and even after parsing it I held off putting it in because it looks such a strange and unlikely word. Only once I eventually got WINCEYETTE – parsed, and then dimly remembered from previous crosswords – did I put it in.
No real problems otherwise, with my other NHOs (ELEMI and the poet Skelton) easily resolved thanks to the wordplay.
FOI Jousting
LOI Gewgaw
COD Emigrant
There was a young girl called Anette,
Her pyjamas were pure Winceyette.
When the weather was freezing,
And people were sneezing,
Was Anette all snug? You bet.
6:29. No problems this morning. I knew vaguely of Skelton and have come across both GEWGAW and WINCEYETTE before.
Is a DORMER small? I guess they often are but it’s not a defining characteristic.
03:18, which was somewhat unexpected. Still, nice to know that even as you get older, the brain can still surprise you with what it knows, without apparently having to think too much about it.
On fire!
Well played, sir. Your fastest?
Thank you both. And yes, very much a personal best.
Not sure I could even type that fast.
A Monday job, 16 minutes. Mrs piquet talks about winceyette nighties, (they’re not very romantic) but I’d never seen the word written down, so now I’ve learnt it has a Y in the middle. The rest flowed in nicely.
As for others, a racing start in the top half, then a gradual slowing down. JOUSTING was FOI. Didn’t notice the unknown poet as I already had the K from TROUBLEMAKER and bony frame did the rest. Knew WINCEYETTE, but was glad of the wordplay for the spelling. SUBSERVIENCE was LOI. 12:16. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
14 mins, with the NE taking half the time. Why is it that the quarter I leave till last is the hardest? However in this case it wasn’t so hard after all. LOI RENOWN
WINCEYETTE is the sort of fabric Barbara Pym’s “excellent women’s” nighties would be made of – as Pip says, unromantic. Stockinette and viyella are also to be found in her stories. DNK GROUNDBAIT but not difficult to infer. It’s sold in gas stations around here as “nightcrawlers” which isn’t a pleasant thought. 12.51
So I parsed everything all the way through, answered an interruption, and still got 9.48, which (without the dot) is the claimed foundation date of my Alma Mater. As a youth, I had WINCEYETTE pyjamas and sheets, though possibly not at the same time to avoid static building up.
Mrs Z’s cousin’s daughter is only a little younger than her, so nearly demonstrates the older nephew conjecture.
As often happens with such words, I froze on SUBSERVIENCE: A or E? Neither looks particularly right. Thankfully, A is not a direction, though I briefly thought VIA might be.
I’ve never encountered ELEMI except in crosswords where E?E?I needs to be filled. I’m prepared to wager I never will.
“…and you see a girl’s brown body, dancing through the TURQUOISE, and her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea…” (Cream : Tales of Brave Ulysses).
I knew the old comic Red SKELTON, and also the town of that name in johndun’s neck of the woods, so it didn’t need a great leap of faith to biff the NHO poet. Apart from obscure vocabulary, the only hold-up was my biffed LOI (I parsed it quickly enough on the reread). It wasn’t my favourite puzzle of the month TBH.
FOI JOUSTING
LOI ANON
COD GROUNDBAIT
TIME 6:22
24:01 with one pink square. Not hard but quite a few, especially the long ones, tricky to pin down. I knew WINCEYETTE – jim-jams, nighties, sheets – but even here I was held up by the spelling. My pink square was for the U in RENOUN, which I wrote in confidently and moved on. Even when I saw the pink square I couldn’t see what was wrong. It took an alphabet trawl (yes, all the way to W) for the penny to drop.
And what do you mean, WINCEYETTE nighties are not romantic? They easily beat the so-called sexy lingerie you can apparently get. Or is that just me?
Second best ever I think, as I don’t think I’ve dipped under 10 mins more than once.
I had GEEGAW, but went back to it as I couldn’t account for that second “E”, NHO GEWGAW, so was pleased it was right. Otherwise, not too many pauses, DETERMINED was my LOI, after unpacking the parsing.
9:13.
13:13 Definitely Monday-ish for me. More than one of these hardly needed clues once the crossers were in place.
Never came across that spelling of GEWGAW but no problem.
No problem with WINCEYETTE. Can remember the jim-jams and sheets. Very welcome in winter. It’ll be Crimplene and Dralon next, you mark my words
Thanks to vinyl and the setter.
And possibly tucked cosily underneath your candlewick bedspread?
Bliss indeed
I found this a lot easier than norm, and finished in 23.25. As I am of a certain age I was quick to recognise WINCEYETTE, which I will always remember as being, at least in nightie form, as a passion killer !
For 24ac I initially wanted to put in NIPPER before coming to my senses. Like others didn’t know what a GEWGAW was and this was my LOI.
LOI WINCEYETTE which looked unlikely despite being supported by wordplay.
A few MER that other setters have commented above (are dormers definitionally small? A nephew doesn’t have to be younger than you?) but nothing that actually harmed solving. Last corner took a while to go in because I convinced myself the native would end -I for Island like an Omani or Bangladeshi.
“Window in small room…” might have been better.
For those who remember the Ealing comedies, Alec Guinness (as Master of the Mint) conspired with the proprietor of Gewgaws Ltd. to steal a shipment of gold bullion and melt it down into souvenir Eiffel Towers in The Lavender Hill Mob.
Could consummated be another answer to 13 down?
It’s an interesting idea with consume for eat and d for daughter but doesn’t resolve the end of college session stuff like DETERTIMED does. Also it’s a letter too many at eleven. Enjoyed being reminded of Lavender Hill Mob!
DNF in 11 and a half minutes. I thought the unfamiliar winceyette would be my downfall but instead it was a thoughtless renoun.
33 minutes. Would have come in under my target of 30 minutes but for spending 5 minutes staring at 12ac. It was only when I thought of possible categories into which Mass could fit that ‘service’ appeared.
Knew winceyette from w. nighties reference but was not sure about the spelling until all the checkers were in.
Otherwise a pleasant start to the week.
Thanks setter and blogger.
A steady (aka slow) solve from Joey to Dormer. Hold ups along the way included the unknowns Gewgaw and Elemi, but the setter was generous, and for some reason (can’t think why) Idiot was slow to reveal itself. 15c poets are not my strong suit, but I suspect Skelton will now stick in the mind. Winceyette on the other hand was, spelling excepted, a write-in for this, pre central heating, child of the 60s. Invariant
28 minutes for a puzzle which was quite annoyingly inhomogeneous — 98% trivial and 2% impossible to solve without understanding the wordplay (although after solving it, I was sure WINCEYETTE has cropped up before). Less of the same, please!
Hurrah! I usually stick to the Quick Cryptic but today, being on a slow coach back from London, I thought I’d have a go at the 15X15. I was amazed at how well I got on, definitely easier than usual I suspect. I hadn’t heard of elemi and had to check the spelling of winceyette. I biffed quite a few without being able to parse them but I almost did it all. My downfall was 27A and 22D. When it came to Holy Island I forgot the ‘lift and separate’ rule and tried to fit in HI, inventing Irishian or Irishyin with ‘stay’ for 22D. Still, it was a Very Good Day for me and I enjoyed it – thank you.
18mins and a bit of a struggle to finish. Largely due to misspelling turquoise. Once I recognised that, subservience was obvious but it most definitely wasn’t before. Had heard of winceyette but wasn’t sure of that spelling either. Wasn’t it a fabric favoured for bedtime wear?
12’31” but racing to finish in my pathetic battle for personal bests, I made two elementary spelling mistakes – torquoise and renoun. Note to self: slow down tiger. Never heard of winceyette, but wish I had. Is it the same as flannel pyjamas? Gorgeous.
15.39
Congrats to everyone on their fast times – Mr Tim – chapeau to you in particular
No problems here either – WINCEYETTE was LOI but I did know it
Thanks Vinyl and Setter
11:15 – a super speedy time (for me) for what felt like a very Mondayish, but workmanlike, puzzle. No quibbles.
A personal best for me too, being overly familiar with both winceyette and biffing a good deal, but GEWGAW? If I’d had slowed down to properly parse, would have seen that my hastily entered GEEGAW was incorrect. Again, Setter 1, Solver 0. Ho hum.