Time taken: 14:23. Kind of relieved for that, as I could not see a solution immediately for an across clue until I hit 22 across. Lots of clues that require a careful consideration.
The setter has also given a masterclass on concealing definitions, in the end everything works though I do wince at one definition. I’ve learned to report and not criticize, but I do have one humble suggestion for a clue improvement. Which will probably get shot down in comments.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | What follows victory? Gold! (9) |
| SUCCESSOR – SUCCESS(victory) and OR(gold). This is the one that I think would be better as “Who follows victory?”, though the surface would not be as good. I think there’s a reason I’ve only had one puzzle published so far. | |
| 6 | Private dance recalled by one on vacation (2,3) |
| GI JOE – JIG(dance) reversed then ONE minus the middle letter. | |
| 9 | Terror and fury reflected large risk (7) |
| IMPERIL – IMP(terror), the IRE(fury) reversed, and L(large) | |
| 10 | Black water that runs red can be a pain! (7) |
| BRIOCHE – B(black), the RIO grande (water that runs) and CHE(red). The exclamation point is there to lead us to that there is something fishy going on, which is the French use of PAIN | |
| 11 | A dash back to bury one’s bones (5) |
| TIBIA – A, BIT(dash) all reversed, containing I(one) | |
| 12 | Where one’s tried to go after discharge, reportedly (9) |
| COURTROOM – COURT(to go after), then sounds like RHEUM(discharge) | |
| 13 | Shot silk is no means of keeping dry? (8) |
| OILSKINS – anagram of SILK,IS,NO | |
| 14 | Story seen in new light when taken the wrong way (4) |
| YARN – N(new) and RAY(light) all reversed | |
| 17 | Fare badly at first missing punches? (4) |
| EATS – remove the first letter of Badly from BEATS(punches) | |
| 18 | Be the perfect match, if not all the time? (8) |
| FITFULLY – to be the perfect match would be to FIT FULLY | |
| 21 | Provide financial aid for lives overwhelmed by collapse (9) |
| SUBSIDISE – IS(lives) inside SUBSIDE(collapse) | |
| 22 | Female crossing river died: RIP (5) |
| SHRED – SHE(female) surrounding R(river), then D(died) | |
| 24 | Historic old chapel in ruins (7) |
| EPOCHAL – anagram of O(old) and CHAPEL | |
| 25 | Centre for locality putting on short pantomime (7) |
| ALADDIN – middle letter of locALity, then ADDING(putting on) minus the last letter | |
| 26 | One who’s given to avoid any of the educational basics? (5) |
| DONOR – avoiding the educational basics would be to DO NO (three) R’s | |
| 27 | Labour prepare to ignore leader’s brush with Mirror Group? (6,3) |
| TOILET SET – TOIL(labour) then GET SET(prepare) minus the first letter | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fleet Street embracing Dutch, but not English (5) |
| SWIFT – ST(street) containing WIFE(Dutch) minus E(English) | |
| 2 | Topiary and lawn I replanned with BBC gardener (10,5) |
| CAPABILITY BROWN – anagram of TOPIARY, LAWN, I and BBC | |
| 3 | Prepare boxes with superior European labels (8) |
| EARMARKS – ARM(prepare) and ARKS(boxes) with E(European) on the top. Was this something to do with a recent group text exchange? | |
| 4 | Giving comfort: it follows beating (8) |
| SOLACING – SO(it follows), LACING(beating) | |
| 5 | Off game: however, consuming duck (3,3) |
| RUB OUT – RU(game), then BUT(however) containing O(duck) | |
| 6 | Bloke holding one army officer responsible (6) |
| GUILTY – GUY(bloke) containing I(one), LT(army officer) | |
| 7 | Presumably no master sailor, love autumn winds (4,2,3,6) |
| JACK OF ALL TRADES – JACK(sailor), O(love), FALL(autumn), and TRADES(winds) | |
| 8 | Price of flat you raised after day (4,5) |
| EVEN MONEY – EVEN(flat), then YE(you) revsed after MON(day). Betting price. | |
| 13 | Some cricket writer originally dealt blow (9) |
| OVERSPEND – OVERS(some cricket), PEN(writer) and the first letter of Dealt | |
| 15 | Learned people refuse to waste time visiting this writer (8) |
| LITERATI – LITTER(refuse) minus T(time), AT(visiting), I(this writer) | |
| 16 | Feast of good plays unseen by audience? (8) |
| OFFSTAGE – anagram of FEAST,OF,G(good) | |
| 19 | Some called it heresy, to be sure? Hardly! (6) |
| DITHER – hidden inside calleD IT HEResy | |
| 20 | Young creature, in garage largely at first, preferred to be outside (6) |
| PIGLET – first letters of In Garage Largely, with PET(preferred) outside | |
| 23 | Ring for FBI and rage laconically? (5) |
| DONUT – rage laconically could be DO NUT (as in DO ONE’S NUT). | |
Got half out in a reasonable time but ground to a halt and finally finished in 2 hours using aids. FOI GI JOE then JACK OF ALL TRADES was a write-in with the first letter J. Marked 6dn as the 3-3 group instead of 5dn which caused me masses of problems. I had COURTROOM but it appeared to be wrong. When I saw my error finally I got GUILTY and then BRIOCHE which looked absurd from the clue.
Thanks G.
How does FBI mean in “ring for FBI”?
How is TIBIA “bones”. TIBIA is singular with tibiae or tibias as plural according to Collins.
indicating the American spelling
Good point re TIBIA. That’s probably why I spent some time trying to justify TARSI.
Saved me posting. I was unhappy with that one and it makes you start to question other clues.
Same experience as our blogger (though I took about three times as long to have it) in needing a crosser or two to get started on most clues. Since I didn’t have them on the first pass through, there was a lot of white space when I began the downs. I had thought Tibia was singular, and I wouldn’t argue with Editor GLH about what / who.
⚾️ !!
I loved this. Some great wordplay and clever misdirection but managed to see what was going on in the setter’s head after a few went in.
Started at the bottom and worked my way up on the right before the left side went in. TOILET SET was one of my first after seeing toil/labour then pretty much the whole SE fell. The misdirection of RIP in 22a was brilliant. Liked DONUT for FBI ring. 10a BRIOCHE went in from seeing what was going on with ‘pain’ but the checkers also left no doubt. COURTROOM, EVEN MONEY, OVERSPEND for ‘blow’, and many others, all very clever. Had SOLACING but wasn’t sure about it, hadn’t heard of ‘lacing’ for ‘beating’ and missed ‘so’ for ‘it follows’. COD to CAPABILITY BROWN, though I’m sure he’d be turning in his grave at being labelled a ‘gardener’.
Thanks George.
21:44 for a tough and satisfying solve. Great surfaces and tricky-but-fair wordplay. EARMARKS took some parsing (nice use of “superior”) but my favourites were JACK OF ALL TRADES and COURTROOM.
Mr Brown was a write-in despite only knowing of him via these pages. BRIOCHE was the opposite of a write-in and had me in a panic for a couple of minutes at the end.
Thank you very much George and setter. (And sorry George I’m backing the setter at 1ac. Can’t have “Gold!” as the answer to a “who” question in the surface).
Go to Blenheim when you’re over here, G. There are gardens and there are gardens.
I thought the same about 1A while doing the puzzle, but after you gave me cause to look at it again, the mathematical notion of ‘successor’ did immediately spring to mind. (I’m no mathematician, just vaguely remember it from reading Bertrand Russell introductions to set theory).
What a great crossword, even though it took me about 50 with various interruptions. Tricky definitions, clever wordplay, some absolutely impenetrable clues that gradually yielded. That’s you, PIGLET, TOILET SET and EARMARK. I suspect a non-solver reading George’s excellent explanations would declare us all mad and go and find something better to do. I’m another slightly puzzled by the FBI ref, I don’t recall seeing anything but DONUT for years, anywhere.
From You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere:
Clouds so SWIFT, rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close, the railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
The word is spelt ‘doughnut’ in English. 🙂
36 minutes. EARMARKS went unparsed because having only recently got used to ‘ark / chest’ I didn’t make the leap to ‘ark / box’.
DONUT is so common in the UK now that I didn’t see the need for the US indicator, but I felt there should have been a French one for PAIN, which isn’t in any of the usual dictionaries. It didn’t delay me as I studied French long ago and I eat BRIOCHE at breakfast more often than not, but I’m thinking of other solvers.
If a foreign word is in the surface, rather than the wordplay/solution, I don’t know that it needs an indicator. Sneaky though. And I still see (and would write) DOUGHNUT – I’d definitely have grumbled to myself had there been no US marker!
Isn’t the pain itself an indicator that we’re looking for French bread, and hence BRIOCHE?
Yes it’s an English word in the surface reading (pain = nuisance) and French in the definition. Since both pain and Brioche are French words I don’t think the indicator is required personally.
And while brioche is originally French, we’ve borrowed it for that type of loaf (mostly on fancy burgers, in my experience).
A steady solve, finishing up with the nho TOILET SET and DONUT. I too had a mer at TIBIA as “bones” since it is not plural, and like others wasted some time considering TARSI which had nothing going for it except it is 5 letters starting with T and actually is plural. I was worried that CAPABILITY BROWN was going to be a famous BBC gardener presenter like Percy Thrower, who I would not know, and then I basically put it in from the enumeration and using the anagrist as a hint since I was too lazy to check it. Fun crossword.
28:36 WOE; a typo rather. DNK TOILET SET, so Mirror Group had me perplexed; finally looked up TOILETS… Had the same worry as Paul about the gardener; greatly relieved to see the light. (Also like Paul, never parsed it.) Didn’t notice the bone problem, fortunately. I spent a lot of time worrying about BRIOCHE, which seemed inevitable but which made no sense, until the PDM. I agree with Jack.
TOILET SET consisting of brush, mirror, comb and possibly various other items takes me back to Boots Christmas gift catalogues in the 1960s. I’ve no idea whether such a thing still exist under that name as it sounds a bit twee now..
Presumably these came with a styptic pencil 😉
14:57. Finished in the SW corner after correcting an erroneous LONER. It had seemed to work perfectly – One who’s given to avoid is a LONER and any of the three educational basics is a LONE R!
Another loner here. I thought it quite clever until it wasn’t.
Lovely puzzle with a genuine ‘laugh out loud’ moment with DONUT.
I see no no problem with a SUCCESSOR being a ‘thing’. A car, for example, being the successor to the previous model.
20’28” today, with YARN LOI (alphabet trawl).
Really liked BRIOCHE and COURTROOM.
Thanks george and setter.
Getting CAPABILITY BROWN straight away was a real help with the left hand side which I did in about ten minutes, the remainder was a bit trickier and I eventually finished in just under the half hour. Some nice clues but a MER at BRIOCHE – what Marie Antoinette actually said on being told that the poor had no bread (“pain”) was “qu’ils mangent de la brioche” – in other words the whole point is that brioche is a cake, not a type of bread. Toutefois merci G et setter.
Sounds like a Jaffacake dispute to me
Absolutely, the kind of thing which pays the school fees of tax lawyers’ children.
One of my friends here in our Retirement Citadel regularly and enthusiastically has brioche for breakfast, and swears it’s actually bread.
Brioche contains eggs, so it can’t be bread. But it also contains yeast, so it must be.
I make my own bread. Including an egg, usually ..
It is an enriched bread.
Full of milk, eggs and lots of butter – as well as yeast.
…whatever it is, it tastes very sweet -no problem until it encloses a beefburger..
…ditto croissants with cheese/bacon, etc
Thought the same as you on BRIOCHE.
49 mins and very relieved to see no pinks.
Was going to give a What SUCCESSOR example but Russ has already done it.
Thought the lack of a French indicator for BRIOCHE was a stretch.
I wondered if FBI HQ was maybe a torus, like the Pentagon but round or if it was a reference to the love of DONUTs by law enforcers in US TV shows.
Unfortunately going to have “Gold!” by Spandau Ballet in my head today now.
Bit of a struggle but worth it. Thanks both.
24 minutes with LOI DONUT. Not easy, but things kept falling into place. I was hesitant to the last about SOLACING, so COD to DITHER. Thank you George and setter.
41:50.
LOI SOLACING, didn’t look like a real word. Tried to make “silicone” work.
Some hard to parse. Didn’t see brioche=pain (no Frenchman were indicated in the construction of this clue). And “FBI” is now an indicator for American usage, that’s pretty tough, sending me down anagram possibilities as well as fed,spy etc.
COD TOILET SEAT
Toilet Seat?! Are you sitting comfortably?
No accurate time as I solved on paper and I always forget to note my start time. Somewhere slightly north of 25 minutes is my best guess.
Same reservations as above re TIBIA, but I enjoyed lots of this tricky puzzle including DONUT, TOILET SET, and BRIOCHE. Like Pootle I slowed myself in the SW by confidently entering LONER for 26A.
Thanks to both.
Started off in the NE with GUILTY and made good progress with GI JOE and JACK OF ALL TRADES giving plaenty of letters to work with. CAPABILITY BROWN jumped onto the page and was most helpful with TIBIA, which I also had reservations about due to the singular/plural enigma. Never did parse EARMARKS, so had fingers crossed when I submitted. Spent several minutes trying to parse LOI, SOLACING, but eventually saw it. 25:38. Thanks setter and George.
17:55 finishing with OFFSTAGE, being slow to see the anagram. Failed to parse EARMARKS, so thanks for that George. I’m with the setter on SUCCESSOR as it can also mean “a thing that succeeds”, but I’m another with a MER at TIBIA being clued as “bones” – I can’t see any evidence for it being valid as a plural. Nice puzzle, though with plenty of PDMs. Thanks George and setter.
Just under half an hour but with some biffing.
– Didn’t parse COURTROOM at all (always forget rheum as discharge)
– Only partially saw how TOILET SET worked, as I thought ‘prepare’ was just giving ‘set’ minus the first letter (i.e. the first ‘et’) so couldn’t account for the second word of the answer
– Bunged in EARMARKS and SOLACING once I had the checkers
– How does winds=trades in JACK OF ALL TRADES?
– Missed that OFFSTAGE was an anagram so it went in with a shrug
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Dither
LOI Donut
COD Brioche
trades=trade winds
16:36. Tricky, good stuff.
ODE says ‘a person or thing that succeeds another’. Chambers – with characteristically greater punctiliousness – says ‘a person who, or thing which, succeeds or comes after’.
Bit of a boo-boo here with ‘bones’ = the singular TIBIA, but made up for by DONUT. ‘Ring for Trump’ (or Hegseth, though that’s all a bit recent) might have been slightly more fun, though he is a liver, but the DO NUT is a nice spot, as is DO NO R. 37 minutes.
Thanks GLH & stter.
It’s not often I come withing a gnat’s crotchet of George’s time, but I did 15.53 today and loved every minute. Lots of Ab Fab clues, such that I forgave TIBIA[s] and thought SUCCESSOR fine. I know FBI is there to indicate an Americanism, but doesn’t every lawman in the states exist on a diet of donuts? Tesco’s resolutely corrects the spelling to DOUGHNUT except for some ghastly concoction called a Nutella® Donut which shows every sign of being an import with a price that already appears to be tariffed to the skies.
I spent a while trying to fit VANITY SET in, which seemed more familiar (and slightly more attractive) than the TOILET variety, though it looks as though I’ve made it up.
Top quality, much enjoyed.
“If you want to find all the cops
They’re hanging out in the donut shops”
from Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles in 1987.
I really liked that puzzle. I think my experience was similar to the bloggers. I thought it was going to be a complete failure with my first pass revealing little but I worked my way through the clues carefully and the grid slowly unravelled. A slow but steady solve with very well hidden definitions but very fair word play. Not a speed run but it reminds me of why I really enjoy cryptics.
Unfortunately, have to give this one to the setter. My made up word for black water BUIACHE B-black, UI-urinary infection-water that runs red and ACHE (can be a pain). Sadly it wasn’t a great &lit for an unheard of but nasty sounding disease. The clue came to me immediately when I hit reveal. It hurts more because it’s actually a word I used this morning in discussion with my wife. I did like that clue.
Two puzzles in a row I was one out.
I had heard of CAPABILITY BROWN but don’t ask me any follow up questions.
Liked GI JOE, TOILET SET and EVEN MONEY and the failed BRIOCHE clues with sneaky definitions but very fair wordplay.
An excellent puzzle and great blog. Thanks both.
17:12 Just about the ideal level of chewiness for midweek. Some very sneaky defs ( I’m looking at you pain and RIP) but enough easier ones to keep you going.
45 mins.
Good puzzle apart from tibia.
Thanks, g.
I thought it was hard, FOI 1d Swift then 11a tibia (not noticing it is singular) then nothing until 14a Yarn. Then a long pause, and eventually made some progress in the SW. Then crawled in a clockwise manner before DNF in the SE, failing to find the not terribly difficult 27a Toilet set, and 23d Donut. I don’t like that spelling, but it’s perfectly fair.
15d Literati & 3d Earmarks biffed, thanks glh.
Nice puzzle. Thanks glh and setter.
Average sort of time for me.
Ashamed to report that TIBIA gave me no pause.
BRIOCHE arose from vague recall of Marie Antoinette.
Struggled to accept COURTROOM until if was all that would fit as unfamiliar with rheum as a discharge – duly noted for future reference.
ALADDIN took an unconscionable time.
The DONUT controversy had me going round in circles.
Thanks to setter and glh..
Loved this puzzle. Steady and satisfying progress.
I liked DONUT and completely agree with those suggesting that this is a nod to the love of pastries by US law officials. Apparently this is an actual thing and not just a sop to old US TV shows. Diners and delis would give free donuts to the police. The police would therefore regularly visit said store, and said store would then feel less vulnerable to an armed robbery. It also accounted for US cops getting somewhat out of shape.
Finished in about 40 minutes.
Far too many American terms and references for my liking. Is G.I. really a two-letter word? According to my dictionary, a gi is a loose white jacket worn in judo.
15dn and 16dn I entered without understanding, silly for two reasons: because LITERATI was perfectly easy and because I missed the anagram in 16dn. At 1ac there seems to be nothing wrong with a SUCCESSOR being inanimate, and as has been pointed out if it’s ‘who’ it implies a person, which isn’t gold. TIBIA is surely just wrong: George says “indicating the American spelling”, which I don’t understand. Very slow on this, 64 minutes.
[No wonder I didn’t understand it in view of the next comment.]
George’s comment was relating to FBI in “ring for FBI”, not TIBIA.
“What” for a successor is perfectly fine. My RAV4 is successor to the Ferrari I had before..
Tibia as a plural does not seem fine.
Nice crossword overall though.
Pretty hard, DNF, defeated by the US private (which delayed NE corner) and the little pig. Couldn’t really parse EATS, didn’t even spot the hidden for DITHER but just bunged it in on a wing and a prayer.
FOI SUCCESSOR LOI OFFSTAGE
COD BRIOCHE. Just brilliant!
35:08
I seem to have found this on the harder side, though with the Snitch at 117, my target time (since the New Year) is 43:30 so I’ll take the win. Started well, but slowed up about a third of the way in. Pieced together various clues (IMPERIL, EVEN MONEY) to dig my way to victory, but there were bits along the way I didn’t see:
TIBIA – was thinking TARSI for ages.
EATS – clue was a bit ’round the wrong way’
TOILET SET – vaguely recalled from years ago, but wasn’t quite sure of the parsing
EARMARKS – not a clue what was going on here
I did enjoy being hornswoggled by the misdirections for the gardener and the cricketing clues.
Thanks G and setter
41 – Very slow but satisfying solve as the many artful cogs clicked into place. On 1ac, I’d also back the setter insofar as if the answer is gold, the question cannot really be who.
38’00”
Hard work to stay with the pace, plugged on gamely.
I’d second all of the plaudits above; a first rate puzzle.
Bravo setter and thank you George.
Sweet.
COD to Brioche.
K
26:00
Terrific puzzle. Very chuffed to finish in a reasonable time, only to find that I had somehow missed off the last letter of OILSKINS.
Needed George to parse COURTROOM. Didn’t like TIBIA but BRIOCHE was outstanding (why do so many British eateries insist on using it for burgers – it just seems wrong).
Thanks to George and the setter.
Much enjoyed some clever clues, coming home eventually in 41′. Needed all the checkers for the NHO Toilet Set; COD for the splendid BRIOCHE.
Thanks George and setter
25 minutes. Very nice puzzle with some clever surfaces.
My CODs Swift & Imperil.
50 mins but all parsed within that time. Didn’t spot TIBIA error at the time, but perhaps the setter meant to write ‘bone’, which would have worked quite well, evoking dogs (setters?). Successors (Trident subs I think) came after Vanguards (I think). A great puzzle!
BRIOCHE I found impossible, had to reveal (it didn’t help that I’d biffed EASY MONEY at 8d). Even then the multi-lingual nature of the clue, and the fact that brioche is not bread, had me scratching my head.
FITFULLY was nice, but I don’t suppose this is the first time it has been clued in this way.
Fell asleep so ended up with a huge time, nearly 2 hours I think.
DNF
Had to go out with nothing in T_I_E_. I’ve known four generations of vanity set users, but never heard of a toilet set: should have worked it out though.
Loved BRIOCHE COD.
Lovely puzzle overall, thanks all.
A very enjoyable puzzle, despite the strong American vibe. Like Emo I thought there was just a misprint in the clue for TIBIA. No problem with SUCCESSOR. All done in a rather leisurely 40 minutes. Like others I thought ‘pain’ was the indicator of something French in 10ac and did not get too hung up about the difference between breads and cakes.
FOI – TIBIA(!)
LOI – BRIOCHE
COD – BRIOCHE
Thanks to george and other contributors.
Preparing to
Move house tomorrow was not conducive to a successful solve, although I did get the gardener and the tradesman, which helped considerably. Also enjoyed the BRIOCHE, but failed on the DONUT.
Hoping the brain settles after the move.
Thanks George and Setter. Tricky.
When glh suggested in his blog that it was a toughie, I expected a long grind to get anywhere near finishing. I must have been on the setters wavelength as it didn’t over extend me finishing in 35.18, which is pretty reasonable for me. It was a strange sort of solve where I worked methodically from top to bottom, with all across and down clues in the top half solved with nothing at all in the lower half.
I must have gone through every BBC gardening presenter before I realised the first part of the clue wasn’t an anagram. LOI was LITERATI preceded by the elusive TOILET SET where every crosser was required to solve.
Clue of the day to BRIOCHE for me 🙂
My breadmaker makes a handy BRIOCHE. Needs three eggs, a fair bit of sugar and a little milk. Did this in 19’06” and very much enjoyed. Couple of thoughts. Doesn’t YE for YOU normally need some kind of ‘old’ reference? And BADLY AT FIRST MISSING PUNCHES feels odd. Really it’s PUNCHES MISSING BADLY AT FIRST. Does it work the other way round? Guess it does. Just about. Bit of a mer. Otherwise great stuff. Lost a bit of time trying to think of a genuine BBC gardener, on the basis that living persons are now de rigueur.
I found this all tough but fair apart from 17ac EATS – I came up with this as a synonym for ‘fare’ quickly enough but couldn’t parse it.
Reading the blog and comments it’s mostly unremarked but I’ve always understood that the wordplay has to read somewhat logically. “Punches missing badly at first” would be fine but I don’t get how the inverted phrasing is acceptable? “Missing” isn’t reflexive – or do others disagree?
Edit: I see the previous commenter mostly shares my view but concludes iy just about works
27.19
Late entry. Also liked it. TIBIA thing didn’t occur to me. A few unparsed with the SE delaying me at the end.
Thanks all