Rather like the one I blogged six weeks ago, this one has a largely old-fashioned feel to it, not least with its evocation of a memorable Cleese, Barker and Corbett sketch from The Frost Report of 1966. None of the words entered, or the clues to produce them, would be much out of keeping with a Times of the same year. For me, this makes for a pleasant, if not particularly demanding experience, and I tipped the scales in leisurely fashion, thinking throughout how I would present my working, in 14.46. Perhaps, in keeping with another prompt, this time an 1871 Lewis Carroll reference (above), I might have attempted a quicker time. But “I know my place.”
Definitions underlined in italics, unwanted letters [closed off]
| Across | |
| 1 | Without afterthought, cops now stick together (6) |
| COHERE – Start with COPS, remove the PS afterthought, and add HERE for present | |
| 4 | Taps into data and nicks stuff (7) |
| FILCHES – The taps are C[old] and H[ot], insert into FILES of data. | |
| 9 | Fit dad cycling along (3,2) |
| ADD UP – For once it’s quite easy to cycle DAD and get ADD. For UP from along, perhaps Churchill’s alleged response to criticism of his ending a sentence with a preposition: “this is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.” Fit as the definition? Think to be consistent with. | |
| 10 | Appealing E in Algebra, unfortunately, and English (9) |
| AGREEABLE – An anagram (unfortunately) of ALGEBRA with E in it, plus E[nglish]. | |
| 11 | Calculus vexes tenor (9) |
| GALLSTONE – Not the mathematical version, then. Vexes: GALLS and tenor: TONE, so not the singer. | |
| 12 | At home with half-sister in Bury (5) |
| INTER – At home IN plus |
|
| 13 | Press club (4) |
| IRON – Perhaps the easiest of double definitions, club as in golf, of course. | |
| 14 | Fools small people with essentially untrustworthy evaluation (10) |
| ASSESSMENT – Fools ASSES plus S[mall] people: MEN plus the essential/middle letter of untrusTworthy. | |
| 18 | Plebeian girl following cow about (5-5) |
| LOWER-CLASS – A cow is a LOWER, about is C[irca] and the girl a LASS. | |
| 20 | Look back, and carry on (4) |
| KEEP – Just PEEK for look, backwards | |
| 23 | Stones murderer, stifling resistance (5) |
| CAIRN – A pile of stones, then. CAIN is your original murderer, with R[esistance] enclosed | |
| 24 | Friendly clot clutching nickel (9) |
| CONGENIAL – To clot is to CONGEAL, and nickel is NI (Ni for purists) | |
| 25 | Pericles dancing with son is very amusing (9) |
| PRICELESS – An anagram (dancing) of PERICLES with S[on] | |
| 26 | Golf fanatics retiring hurt (5) |
| STUNG – NATO G[olf] and NUTS for fanatics all reversed (retiring). | |
| 27 | Bold on the phone at the end of each day (7) |
| NIGHTLY – Aural wordplay. Sounds like knightly, bold. | |
| 28 | Some masseur gently pressing (6) |
| URGENT – Some of masseUR GENTly. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cleaner wrongly supporting Greek cook (9) |
| CHARGRILL – Cleaner is CHAR, wrongly is ILL, the latter supporting GR[eek] | |
| 2 | This naked boy turned up and shot Spanish gent (7) |
| HIDALGO – Naked “this” becomes HI, a boy or lad reversed becomes DAL and shot as in try becomes GO. Of the Upper Class in Spain by birth rather than ennoblement. | |
| 3 | Retired old man’s boring meal (6) |
| REPAST – If your old man, PA is retired, he is in a state of REST, but just in case our setter adds “boring” to show one goes into the other. A better resolution is that PA’S bores its way into RET[ired], but I was satisfied with my version when solving. | |
| 4 | Ludicrous situation in remote church (5) |
| FARCE – Remote is FAR, and church is C [of] E (while we still have it). Once again prompted back to the sixties with Brian Rix at the Whitehall. | |
| 5 | Most wary of learner driver on scary road (8) |
| LEERIEST – L[earner driver], scary gives EERIE and road ST[reet] | |
| 6 | Contemptuous expression upset one Tuesday regular (7) |
| HABITUE – Our contemptuous expression is BAH (think Scrooge) which is upset or set up, one is I, and add TUE[sday] | |
| 7 | Sharp turn (5) |
| SHEER – Another double definition; I think sheer as in sharp drop, turn as in sheer away. | |
| 8 | Constant excitement and drinking (8) |
| CAROUSAL – C[onstant] plus AROUSALO (- on edit: this O is added for no reason at all. Sorry!) from excitement. | |
| 15 | Nonchalance in a sense is affected (8) |
| EASINESS -An anagram (affected) of A SENSE IS. Lose time by trying to make IN part of the anagram fodder instead of IS. | |
| 16 | Elite go to bed drunk, according to Spooner (3-6) |
| TOP-FLIGHT – Spooner might render it FLOP TIGHT. | |
| 17 | Protestant clumsily dropping books in part of church (8) |
| TRANSEPT – Drop the N[ew] T[estament] books from PROTESTANT, then anagram (clumsily). On edit: N[ew] should be O[ld], or we end up with PROSTATE, which may be a part of the Church supporting the secular government. | |
| 19 | Wife heartlessly walloping fish (7) |
| WHITING – I’ve checked, you can still get whiting in Tesco’s, though it can mean almost any white fish. For us, it’s W[ife] plus HITTING from walloping with its middle T obliterated. | |
| 21 | Gourmet in despair, oddly lacking salt? (7) |
| EPICURE – The odd letters missing from dEsPaIr plus salt, alluding to the process of CURE-ing, for example, whiting. | |
| 22 | Tricky question of China losing grip (6) |
| TEASER – China is shorthand for TEA SERVICE, lose the VICE-like grip. | |
| 23 | Mafia boss ultimately shown to be chicken (5) |
| CAPON – A Mafia boss is the CAPO, add the last of showN. Oddly enough, Chambers says capon is also an amusing name for a fish, though probably not whiting. | |
| 24 | Tough hack entering empty city (5) |
| CHEWY – If you overcook your whiting? Replace the IT emptied from CITY with HEW for hack. | |
28 minutes for this one, so just within my half-hour target. I too noticed the traditional feel and enjoyed it after the strained efforts experienced recently at the hands of some setters eager to get down with the kids, so to speak.
Lovely to be reminded of the glorious word FILCH, rarely seen here but it first appeared in a puzzle blogged by me 12 years ago.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with SHEER as “sharp”—having checked definitions in Chambers, Collins, Dictionary.com… As to SHEER is to “swerve,” “sharp turn” seemed fine as a definition (actually, that would have to be “sharply”), but where was the wordplay? But in it went. I liked this puzzle, but not as much as 29073. I took some time off work today to do that one., which made it doubly enjoyable.
There were two possibilities for omitted “books,” as biblical allusions at least, OT and NT, and here it’s OT that is missing from TRANSEPT.
Naked ‘this’ becomes HI, in 2 down.
Thanks!
I too was not convinced by LOI SHEER but I suppose if we squint hard enough we can just see those definitions. Quite a number of these eluded me until Z came along to explain, including COHERE, TEASER, FILCHES and ADD UP. All-in-all an enjoyable solve, done in 17.29 which is quick for me so that means it’s pretty easy.
From Tangled Up In Blue (we’re going to Guy’s neighbourhood):
I lived with them on Montague Street, in a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés at night and revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves and something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside
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
13:30. I was familiar with calculus from secondary school maths. In a strange coincidence yesterday I learned that it can mean dental tartar and today I discover it can also mean GALLSTONE. I’ve checked for good measure and it has no other definitions!
Ha, yes, I too spotted the Connection!
Ah, but those are essentially the same meaning. The OED says: “A generic term for concretions occurring accidentally in the animal body.” They occur in various places!
And they all come from the Latin for “little stones”, the maths term referencing the ancient use of pebbles in counting and abacus calculations.
I learned Calculus = dental tartar in the last day or two too. Playing the NYT Connections game
15:57
Couldn’t figure out FILCHES, even with FILES; C for cold, H for hot, no problem, but I can’t seem to get ‘taps’=CH (I’m sure this has happened to me before). Also didn’t get TEASER, and now I see why; never would have. I liked EPICURE for its surface.
‘Taps’ in UK / Ireland are what North Americans call faucets.
Yes, I know; we use the word too. My point was that knowing that, I still would fail to make the connection.
Around 40 minutes Easiest Thursday offering for a while. Would have been quicker except I thought 27A ended in THY which wasted 10 minutes before taking the H away and solving the corner quickly.
Thanks Z
13:25, so a bit of a confidence boost after recent travails.
Thanks Zed for the definition of 22 down, which I wouldn’t have got in a month of Sundays. I remember biffing it before reading the whole of the clue, and, unless I’m blogging, I rarely go back to such clues.
Lamentable behaviour, I know…
11.30
Not convinced by LOI SHEER, biffed TEASER.
COD FILCHES
6.32 – considerably quicker than the QC, where I got badly blocked on my last one.
Could have been quicker here had I known the second sense of SHEER! I was torn between that and STEER, both of which I could see met one of the definitions perfectly. Felt marginally surer that SHEER might mean ‘turn’ than that STEER might ‘sharp’, probably on the highly scientific basis that it rhymes with ‘veer’.
Thanks both.
Had the same dilemma and jumped the other (wrong) way😊
Oh no! I have a terrible record on 50:50s, so this was a rare lucky guess.
A propos the sharp/sheer discussion, I found this line from a book called ‘Giovanni’s Room’ by James Baldwin (a son talking about his father):
‘I did not want to think that my life would be like his, or that my mind would ever grow so pale, so without hard places and sharp, sheer drops.’
The fact that the two words are used might be taken to suggest that they have different shades of meaning, but for that author, at any rate, there is the possibility that there is an intensifying purpose – two ways of saying a similar thing.
“Sharp” here to me means “sudden” and “sheer” “precipitous.” I don’t see how “sharp” could intensify “sheer.” The former indicates time, the latter space.
I was thinking of a sudden change in direction, as in a sharp bend on a mountain road, at its extreme extent a switchback.
Ah, I think I also see a difference between what I intended and what you understood. By intensifier, I mean the author might be saying the same thing twice, like, say, ‘complete and utter.’
That’s how I took it, and I disagree that they’re the same thing.
21 minutes
COD and LOI to TEASER
Felt like a good toughening up exercise for tomorrow. I wonder if Mr Blobby will follow Mr Sheeran and make an entrance?
Mr Blobby. Aaaaagh! I hope not!
My parsing of REPAST was that it PA’S (old man’s) boring (into) RET (abbr. for retired)?
Agree that that’s a more convincing parsing.
PA is at REST .. simples
Even allowing (generously) that the absent ‘at’ works as an implied containment indicator, that leaves ‘boring’ unaccounted for.
I’m with Richard and Gallers, it’s RE(PA’S)T.
That’s the correct parsing. As in Chief Inspector Smith, Ret. (which old man’s boring). Nothing to do with ‘rest’.
34m 05s
7d was a Hail Mary hit-and-hope but it came off. Also toyed with ‘steer’
Thank you, Z.
43 mins so standard fare. I knew calculus from the French for a stone (kidney, gall, etc). Madame had one pulled out recently. Very painful.
I agree, SHEER seems a bit of a stretch.
I liked LOWER-CLASS.
Thanks Z and setter.
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
(The Windhover, GM Hopkins)
25 mins pre-brekker left me trying to find something better than Sheer, but having to settle for it.
I liked mostly, but other grumbles are: now=here (present, yes), retired=rest, grip=vice.
Ta setter and Z
Think it’s meant to be retired = ret.
I saw that above. However, if so, my grumble would be that just putting ‘boring’ after pa’s is insufficient to indicate that it (is) boring the ‘ret’.
Ah yes, good point. RET PA’s boring gives REPAT.
Still think we can read it (clunkily) as RET (PAS boring).
Probably could have been clued better though.
Yes I think think there’s an implied ‘with’ between ‘retired’ and ‘old’. It’s clumsy but still better IMO than taking ‘at rest’ to mean ‘in rest’ and then accepting ‘boring meal’ as the definition.
PA is at REST ..
Which as Z pointed out doesn’t account for the “boring”.
While solving, I was content with PA being at/in REST and thought it clever, so the RET. didn’t occur. I did spend a little while post solve thinking up witty remarks about how a ho-hum repast might be a boring meal.
16:07 Nice PDM when I finally parsed TEASER, horrible trepidation over SHEER.
For UP = along I thought of “up came the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred”.
Thanks to all involved.
On UP: I think that’s a good version.
Fairly quick today. although like others, completely failed to parse TEASER, and unsure between Sheer and Steer, but chose right.
Thesaurus.com has both sharp and sheer as strong synonyms for steep .. best I can offer on that front
As per my example above.
DNF, with ‘steer’ rather than SHEER.
Straightforward enough otherwise, though I didn’t parse TEASER and tried to justify ‘adhere’ for 1a before getting COHERE. Didn’t see it when solving, but agree with Richard Mason’s parsing of REPAST.
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
COD Epicure
I’m also in the STEER v SHEER camp. Whenever trying to decide between two possibilities I’m sure I pick the wrong one more than 50% of the time.
Another good time, on the hour mark again.
I made a mess of ADD UP, thinking it was PA cycling, and looking for words ending in U. NHO calculus=GALLSTONE, which really held up the NW corner. Other big problem there was being convinced 1D was GR+(CLEANER)*, meaning a fancy French word for a type of cooking, like sous-vides, GRANCLEER for example. And I was slow with the easy CAIRN, reading “stifling” as an omission indicator, so I was looking for a 6 letter murderer to take an R out of.
COD HABITUÉ
9:30. I hesitated over SHEER where I was unsure of the second definition and KEEP thinking “carry on” should be “keep on” rather than just KEEP. COD to the AGREEABLE exam results. Thanks Z and setter.
30m
But spear instead of shear.
COD top flight. I don’t normally like spoonerisms.
Another fail. STEER rather than SHEER which I toyed with and obviously should have considered more seriously, as MartinP1 did. Otherwise a welcome respite from the toughies of the last couple of days.
6:57. No problems this morning, biffing away and failing to notice the slightly questionable things like the parsing of REPAST or the definitions for SHEER.
Edit: having looked again I don’t think there is anything questionable about SHEER. Such a drop is a sharp drop (not to be confused with Shere Drop, yum).
Somehow that has eluded all dictionaries and thesauri.
I am not persuaded.
It’s in all the usual dictionaries: in Collins for instance, ‘involving a sudden change, esp in direction’. More usually applied to bends but equally valid for a drop or slope. The American version of Collins for instance defines ‘steep’ as ‘having a sharp rise’.
Yes, that’s the definition of “sharp,” not SHEER.
The online Collins example you cite jibes with the definition of SHEER (M-W) as “perpendicular; very steep.” (The slightly different first definition was more in my mind: “marked by great and continuous steepness.”) A perpendicular creates a “sharp” angle that determines steepness, SHEERness. I can’t see “sharp” all by its lonesome as equating to SHEER, but I can see your point.
Two words that mean ‘steep’ to perhaps varying degrees. I really can’t see the problem here.
No, “sharp” does not mean “steep” unless a vertical direction is specified.
I don’t understand your point there.
Take the words in your dictionary example.
A steep stretch of road, hillside, etc., has “a sharp rise.”
That is, it turns sharply up where the angle of the (near-)perpendicular is—at the bottom, the beginning of the incline.
But “sharp” on its own does not say “steep.” In “a sharp rise,” it indicates the abruptness, the angle, of the turn, but only “rise” makes this phrase indicate a steep incline.
Obviously, a sharp turn to the right does not indicate any SHEERness.
Again, I don’t really understand your point. You’re overthinking this! Language is not that precise, it’s a malleable thing. Do the words ‘sharp incline’, ‘steep incline’, ‘sheer incline’ communicate degrees of the same thing? Yes.
Sans “incline,” “sharp” seemed far from SHEER
For many fellow solvers here.
What do you mean ‘sans incline’?!
Without the phrase that makes it makes it clear the words are synonymous, I wouldn’t accept that they’re synonymous.
I mean… OK?
Sans such a phrase and verticality suggested to the mind,
I’m simply not surprised that SHEER was difficult to find.
10:23
That’s my quickest recorded time and I might have dipped under 10 if I hadn’t agonised so long over SHEER. I eventually plumped for it having ruled out my first thought STEER but I was far from convinced it was right.
No unknowns and I pretty much solved this clue by clue rather than my usual scatter-gun approach. I take that as a sign of the relative ease of this puzzle rather than any progress on my part.
Thanks to both.
I, too, am unconvinced by SHEER (which I biffed as a last resort) but otherwise this was an excellent puzzle.
FOI COHERE
LOI SHEER
COD GALLSTONE
TIME 8:06
Also failed on SHEER – had SPEAR, which is sharp and often used to mean a turn, ie ‘spear left suddenly’. But whatever. Took forever to see CAROUSAL, my LOI. REPAST uncontroversial for me: RET is a well used abbreviation for ‘retired’ with PA’S ‘boring’ it. The Yoda-ism is vaguely irritating, but I got over that long ago.
13’15”. Unsatisfactory ending with SHEER, am still not convinced.
Thanks z and setter.
13:23. Nice fair puzzle.
COD: GALLSTONE
Has someone already mentioned the extra ‘O’ in AROUSALO (8d) and the fact that it is ‘OT’ that is dropped from PROTESTANT (17d)?
Having read the comments, a) no, b) yes.
13:52
Having seen Busman’s comment on the QC blog, I was expecting a fast puzzle – it did not disappoint. Didn’t get TEASER in flight so thanks for clearing that up, had been thinking TEA SET rather than SERVICE. Wasn’t sure where the T at the end of 14a came from either, so thanks again Z. Failed to think about REPAST in any great depth – the answer was clear, though I went with the PA boring REST version.
Thanks also to the setter for an enjoyable puzzle
Two or three somewhat odd ones in this, as TfTTs have said, that gave pause. I plodded through in about a half-hour.
I was interested in ‘this naked’ used to give HI: the number of available indicators for this operation seems pretty low, and I’m not sure any of our providers have found the perfect fit for it just yet.
I was probably most taken with the Spoonerism in this one. Funny.
Thanks Zabs.
18,55 but with STEER instead of SHEER. Spent some time agonising over which to put. Not impressed with that clue. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks setter and Z.
26 minutes, but couldn’t explain TEASER for which thanks Z. I was quite happy with both defs of SHEER. Nothing exceptional here, but I guess TEASER is the best one.
SHEER was one I wasn’t really sure about, and TEASER was biffed and only justified afterwards. I think it’s vice as in the tool, which is a sort of grip; nothing about vice-like grip.
20 minutes, no major problems. Another who had 3dn as simply pa’s in ret, the Yoda-speak something one just puts up with. Isn’t the clue for IRON an utter chestnut? I’m sure I’ve seen it several times. I wasn’t sure how KEEP = carry on: no doubt there is some equivalence but I couldn’t explain it.
To keep talking = to carry on talking.
See Collins: ‘to continue; go on; persevere or persist often with on’.
Yes I suspected there was something simple.
It may be that my comment sacrificed too much to aesthetics: it might have been better to reference a grip(ping) tool or vice, but I quite liked the way my version looked/sounded.
If this was an old-fashioned puzzle, I’m much relieved, as it wasn’t too taxing, though very different from the ‘modern’ Tuesday one, which I enjoyed solving a lot. I made problems for myself by biffing ADHERE and forgetting to parse it, meaning I was left with an unsolvable POI of A-A-GRILL. Luckily, sense prevailed in the end. LOI was CAROUSAL, where I was unsure of the definition and unable to see the answer from the crossers. I parsed 3d as PA’S in RET, which I think works better. SHEER and ADD UP both gave me a bit of uneasiness, but I eventually justified them with the checking crossers. Liked FILCHES and HABITUE. Oh, and TEASER, biffed and post-parsed… brilliant.
24 mins. I think it could have been any of SHEER, SPEAR, SHEAR, STEER. None are satisfactory.
It’s all been said – fingers crossed for SHEER and TEASER.
Otherwise pretty straightforward.
11:49
28 with at least five at the end doing the alphabet trawl of shame for SHEER. It was a toss-up between that and spear, shear or steer. Wasn’t convinced by any of them – including the winner – and still not.
On edit: reading back, I seem to have reproduced eniamretrauq’s comment in its entirety but I can’t think of anything else to say.
Recently started doing The Times cryptic crosswords, and this is a great page for having clues explained that I can’t get. Thanks!
We have found that if you have the right stuff, trying to solve the puzzle every day, and then reading the blog, will result in rapid improvement. It’s not guaranteed, but it has happened a lot.
30:19. LOI SHEER, only after alphabet trawls failed to find anything less unconvincing. COD CHEWY. Yes
22’20”
Uncharacteristically smartly away, and surprisingly kept it up.
I expect the stewards will be (char)grilling my trainer about the sudden improvement in form.
Havered over a couple mentioned above, but the penny dropped for the faultless porcelain as I wrote it in.
Pleasing to get a clear run and show a little pace for a change; thank you setter and Z.
14.52 but one letter wrong… surely there is some farm somewhere where a bullock is referred to as a sharp?
4:11. Saw I was on for a quick time, bunged the last few in and fingers crossed. As above – didn’t fully parse TEASER, not fully convinced about SHEER.
I struggled a little, but came out OK in the end. I nearly started by biffing adhere, which would not have been good, but I thought again. I knew the trick meaning of calculus, and put in sheer as the best possible alternative.
Time: 19:51
Until I retired a fair bit of my working week was spent winkling GALLSTONEs out of bile ducts where they had no business being, so calculus didn’t send me too far in the wrong direction. Of course, anyone who’s used an abacus or pebbles to count with knows the two meanings are related…
A careless DNF, as I stupidly spelt CAROUSeL (my last one in). Enjoyed it. Didn’t understand TEASER, so thank you Z.
FILCHES is a good old word.
Thanks Setter. More of these please!
Either this was easy or perhaps I was just on the setter’s wavelength, or maybe a bit of both. Anyway, my time of 16.48 was my quickest on the biggie for a while. It was only about a minute slower than my effort on the QC, and even that ended up as a DNF due to a spelling error.
No time recorded today as I solved on paper in a library, but at least I made the right guesses.
23:32
Biffed FILCHES, but could not spot the parsing – fiches are a form of data store, but L=taps made no sense. Thanks for pointing out the far more reasonable C and H into files.
Not convinced between SHEER and STEER.
LOI was TEASER.
Thanks Z and setter