I found this a bit on the harder side as indicated by my time of 12:55. Better than my last Bjorn effort when I was well into the SCC. A number of interesting clue constructions to start off with and some less common words, eg 20a and a bit of UK-centric knowlege required, eg 17a. I wasn’t sure what 20d (On edit: Apologies, I meant 19d – thanks MartinG) was referring to and had to look it up only after getting the answer from wordplay. The six anagrams did help to get a few answers in and the double defs weren’t too hard.
I liked the surfaces for 11a and 23a.
There’s a little stocking filler in the grid, which would have helped had I picked it up sooner. As always in retrospect, not hard to spot, but if you still can’t see it, click on the button below.
Thanks to Bjorn
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Silly, mardy, sad old men playing soldiers (4,4) |
| DADS ARMY – Anagram (‘Silly’) of MARDY SAD
No problem with the TV programme (still being shown on repeats here) but I didn’t know ‘mardy’ which Oxford Dictionaries gives as “Northern English: in a petulant bad mood; sulky or grumpy”. The whole clue could also be seen as the definition. |
|
| 5 | Fungal blight infesting farmer’s cabbage (4) |
| SCAB – Whole clue as definition and a hidden (‘infesting’) in I knew SCAB can be a skin disease in animals, but not being a gardener, I didn’t know that SCAB is also a fungal disease of plants. |
|
| 8 | Cornish river southeast? That’s wrong (5) |
| FALSE – FAL (‘Cornish river’) SE (‘southeast’)
‘That’s wrong’ referring back to ‘southeast?’ as the location of Cornwall. Another clue for which the whole clue is a non-cryptic definition. |
|
| 9 | Loot piled so high? (7) |
| DESPOIL – Anagram (‘high’) of PILED SO | |
| 11 | Very attractive, the Spanish goalie — he’s bedded plenty (11) |
| HOTELKEEPER – HOT (‘Very attractive’) EL (‘the Spanish’) KEEPER (‘goalie’)
Maybe on obvious one, but still my COD. A whimsical def and not the sort of ‘bedded’ the surface suggests. |
|
| 13 | Cross netball player (6) |
| CENTRE – Double definition
Centre for ‘cross’, usually seen in a sporting sense |
|
| 14 | Before stuffing down blanket (6) |
| SPREAD – PRE (‘Before’) contained in (‘stuffing’) SAD (‘down’)
Not the expected ‘down’ as a noun. |
|
| 17 | Change for Waterloo Stn, where there’s a runaway train (5,6) |
| ALTON TOWERS – Anagram of (‘Change for’) WATERLOO STN
I’d just heard of this. A historic estate, theme park and “resort complex” in England (Staffordshire) which has a roller coaster called the “Runaway Mine Train“. |
|
| 20 | Bikini top reportedly outlawed? Oh … (7) |
| BANDEAU – Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) of BANNED (‘outlawed’) and of OH
I didn’t know this term. According to the OED, first used in this sense (earlier senses were as a hair band or eye bandage) in 1915. |
|
| 21 | Fabulous writer regularly made a scoop (5) |
| AESOP – Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘Fabulous’ possibly in two senses, but I think the “given to fabling” rather than the “wonderful” one is primarily intended. |
|
| 22 | Taking lead from smallest bridge player (4) |
| EAST – Deletion of first letter (‘Taking lead from’) |
|
| 23 | King wearing exotic panties in disorderly house (5,3) |
| SNAKE PIT – K (‘King’) contained in (‘wearing’) anagram (‘exotic’) of PANTIES
Don’t even try to make a mental image of this! I think of a SNAKE PIT as an environment in which everyone is at each other’s throats, rather than a ‘disorderly house’ but Chambers has as sense 2: “A place, or circumstances, characterised by disordered emotions and relationships” so ‘disorderly house’ seems OK. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Weak-minded Democrat behind (4) |
| DAFT – D (‘Democrat’) AFT (‘behind’) | |
| 2 | Very intelligent individual with no DPhil, strangely (7) |
| DOLPHIN – Anagram (‘strangely’) of NO DPHIL
Not the human ‘individual’ I was expecting. |
|
| 3 | Spy called in extremely offensive chemical weapon (5,6) |
| AGENT ORANGE – AGENT (‘Spy’) then RANG (‘called’) contained in (‘in’) O |
|
| 4 | Male, lazy, nursing onset of drinker’s belly (6) |
| MIDDLE – M (‘Male’) then IDLE (‘lazy’) containing (‘nursing’) D ‘Belly’ for midriff, or MIDDLE part of the body, or for the central part of eg muscles. |
|
| 6 | Loudly munch cutlet after eating starter of melon (5) |
| CHOMP – CHOP (‘cutlet’) containing (‘after eating starter of’) M |
|
| 7 | English pounds accepted by second-rate European capital (8) |
| BELGRADE – E (‘English’) L (‘pounds’) contained in (‘accepted by’) B GRADE (‘second-rate’) | |
| 10 | High-level worker wrecked Jeep’s tackle (11) |
| STEEPLEJACK – Anagram (‘wrecked’) of JEEPS TACKLE | |
| 12 | Scratch word game (8) |
| SCRABBLE – Double definition | |
| 15 | Popping tablets into each drink relaxes (5,2) |
| EASES UP – ES (‘tablets’) contained in (‘(popping…) into’) EA (‘each’) SUP (‘drink’) | |
| 16 | File article for newspaper (6) |
| COLUMN – Double definition
My last in. I spent too long with A, AN and THE. |
|
| 18 | African city last to shut universities (5) |
| TUNIS – In the past, UNIS for ‘universities’ would have been regarded as very non-U. |
|
| 19 | Catch sight of 40 on board heading north (4) |
| SPOT – Reversal (‘heading north’) of TOPS (’40 on board’)
TOPS is the double twenty (=40) scoring area at the top of the darts board. This term is perfectly logical, but there is plenty of other darts jargon that isn’t. |
|
This took me twice my average solve time, but that could be because it’s 3am and I can’t sleep. Very much enjoyed a stiff challenge, with a couple of unknowns (agent orange, and Alton Towers having a runaway train). BANDEAU made me chuckle, but clue of the night for SPREAD.
Thanks BR for the blog, and Bjorn for a splendid puzzle.
First QC DNF for ages, a terrible effort. Didn’t get BANDEAU or (less forgivably) COLUMN.
Never thought of TOPS for 40 on board, makes sense though. Also DNK ‘scab’ as disease (apparently various afflictions both fungal and bacterial). Had no idea about ‘centre’ meaning ‘cross’ and still don’t get it after reading through all the Wiktionary definitions for both.
Fun attempt though, thanks all.
I know v. little about football, but I took to ‘cross’ a ball as to CENTRE it or kick it towards the centre of the pitch, but I may have the wrong end of the stick.
Yeah I tried to make that reading work too, but it didn’t ring any bells. You could well be right.
Or could it be anything to do with King’s Cross, Charing Cross, etc? Crossroads? [oh, Quadrophenia said that already.]
Came here just to say I haven’t found CENTRE for “cross” in a dictionary yet…
I’m not a sports guy, and 40 in SPOT was a mystery too.
Yeah interesting! I know it’s flimsy but ‘X marks the spot’ nothing to do with it, either? Eagerly awaiting someone to explain!
It’s normal football speak. “Walker runs to the byeline and crosses”/“Walker runs to the byeline and centres” are absolutely synonymous.
Collins:
“Centre
12. sport
b. the act or an instance of passing the ball from a wing to the middle of the field, court, etc”
“Cross
18. football
the act or an instance of kicking or passing the ball from a wing to the middle of the field”
I assumed the cross referred to the crosshairs at the centre of a lens or viewfinder.
I’ve always heard commentator describe 40 as “double tops” which would make just tops 20 – am I wrong?
I think you’ll find it’s “double top” which is = “Tops” if you’re feeling lazy. If you need sixty it’s “top double top”. I didn’t put in the comma because that’s the way it’s said.
I thought it was treble twenty.
Ah, sorry.
In games like 301 and 501 you must end on a double, so if you need 60 then treble top is a “bust”. You need top double top, with a spare dart. If you only need 40 then “tops” will do, or double top if feeling wordy.
In that context, totally agree. Didn’t realise you meant to finish.
I finished this relatively quickly but found the parsing quite hard. Once I had a foothold in each corner the answers went in fairly well. I’d NHO BANDEAU, DESPOIL, SNAKE PIT, and ALTON TOWERS, but I was pretty confident about them from the clues (ALTON TOWERS seemed liked the most likely anagram). I couldn’t parse SPOT either, not knowing the darts reference.
Still this was a nice puzzle I think, so thanks Bjorn and BR for unraveling it all.
A very tricky quickie. Couldn’t figure out the anagrams for some reason. Never thought of DOLPHIN till I had some of the checkers. NHO BANDEAU. In CENTRE I took cross as a town centre, Charing Cross, maybe. Didn’t know that meaning of SCRABBLE and hesitated putting it in till all the checkers were in. Never heard of ALTON TOWERS but I guessed it from the anagrist, thinking first that it had something to do with a runaway bride and her ‘train’. Liked HOTELKEEPER. Missed the Nina, so thanks. COD to SPOT.
Thanks BR and setter.
20d wordplay?
Sorry, thanks for pointing out the mistaken reference to the n0n-existent 20d. Blog edited.
SPOT is a great, great clue. My LOI and a most satisfying way to finish. I have scored 180 in darts – and that is a world record! Prefer double 8 to tops. Good struggle today. Big hold up wondering if a ‘dilphon’ was an unknown word before sense prevailed – and that H gave me HOTELKEEPER and all those checkers. Enjoyed ALTON TOWERS emerging and getting to the unknow BANDEAU by doing as I was told. Lots going on in my 18.24. Good one.
I expect that I’ve probably scored 180 in darts, over the years. Possibly even more!
15 minutes with one resort to aids so technically a DNF. The missing answer was CENTRE despite having seen it defined similarly within the past few days.
I knew BANDEAU as a headband but not a bikini top, so the answer went in with fingers crossed, forced by checkers as the only word that fitted.
Given the surface reading and definition I would have been happier if 1ac had been clearer that it was referring to the TV sitcom title rather than somewhat disparaging name given by some in the regular military to the Home Guard (formerly Local Defence Volunteers).
ACROSS?
Now amended. I confused it with the wordplay in the other puzzle seen very recently in which cross and centre were clued the other way round.
DNF, just couldn’t do ALTON TOWERS, COLUMN, BANDEAU. I thought this was a slightly strange QC that expected a little too much. The QUITCH currently has it as the hardest since April.
I’m a football fan but really don’t like cross = CENTRE. It’s too obscure of a meaning, in my view. Knowing football didn’t help me.
ALTON TOWERS is surely only gettable through the wordplay for many. How many among us know about a specific ride at a specific theme park?
NHO BANDEAU.
Chambers may support it, but this meaning of SNAKE PIT…I don’t know.
We really enjoyed this such offering! Much to amuse my schoolboy SOH and so many misdirections that the pennies were clanging very loudly.
Column also LOI, saw the anagram for dolphin straight away but needed all of the checkers before the misdirection of “individual” became apparent.
Thought we were being very clever by guessing that bedding plenty referred to some kind of gardener….
Thanks Bjorn and BR for the parsing of spot, did others try to get XL in there somehow?
A rapid 8:43 for possibly Bjorn’s most friendly puzzle yet. But that includes biffs for CENTRE and SPOT, neither of which I parsed. I used to play soccer when at school, and played (field) hockey for over 40 years thereafter, and I still didn’t associate cross and centre, and not being a darts player at all I’m not au fait with tops for double-20 – if anything, and based solely on watching the sport on TV, I thought it was usually called “double top”. But those lacunae apart, a fun puzzle, much enjoyed.
Many thanks BR for the blog.
I made steady progress through this until hitting the buffers with COLUMN and the unknown BANDEAU still left to solve. After a while scratching my head I decided to proofread the rest of the grid and spotted CENTRE SPREAD and MIDDLE … at which point COLUMN came to mind and my LOI soon followed.
Finished in 10.07 with COD to SPOT.
Thanks to BR and Bjorn
Hit the fence at about 13 without BANDEAU and COLUMN. Annoying. I eventually got ALTON TOWERS but I thought it was quite a niche clue for a QC, as was the darts ref in 19dn. But there were plenty of fun clues in the mix, thanks Bjorn and BR.
20:15 so true to my word managed to gain entry to the illustrious SCC. Thought I might be banned…oh but what a relief to be allowed to join the rank and file, the column, I might say, of solvers who knew but couldn’t bring to mind Marilyn (or any other famous sixties starlet) in a bandeau or remember that files are to ranks and smooths…as rows are to oars and tiffs.
Nice one B&BR
Enjoyed this so thanks. Sorry to be pedantic but darts players don’t call 40 tops – it’s always double tops.
That segment at the top of the board maybe worth 4o, but its not how it is referred to.
Regularly called just “tops” – see World of Darts Wiki (“Tops refers to the double 20 on the dartboard. It is the highest scoring double possible worth 40 points. Players often say ‘tops’ when they need 40 to finish…”), Shot Darts jargon buster (“Tops: the double 20 bed e.g. ‘she needs tops to win the match’.”), Darts501 glossary (“TOPS. The double 20 bed. As in ‘he wants tops for the match’.”) and so on.
12:00 Slow to get started, and NHO BANDEAU. LOI TUNIS
Good job spotting the Nina, bletchers, and using the Reveal device. I’ve still never found one.
I misread the anagram of Waterloo Stn, to exclude the A, as in “where’s there A runaway”, and just “train” as the definition: of course I could have just counted.
COD BELGRADE
DNF
Also the AU bit of BANDEAU and COLUMN. Once you’ve incorrectly decided the “obvious” parsing of the latter (and pencilled in AN at the end) it’s quite tough to change horses.
Liked ALTON HORSES and TOPS. No problem with CENTRE for cross – very familiar in my world (if not others).
Well played setter and thanks BR
A very slow slog for me. Some pleasure along the way but too clever-clever for a QC.
Once again, I detect some oddness from the attempt to squeeze in a Nina.
Thanks to Bletchers.
DNF today, NHO BANDEAU, but lots of new knowledge such as the river Fal and what a STEEPLEJACK is. Thank you for the blog 😁
No hold-ups for me except column which took a while to spot, which then immediately gave LOI, the unknown bandeau from the wordplay.
Cross and centre are pretty much synonymous in both football and hockey. I am always slightly bemused by the objection to sports based clues because of a lack of general knowledge. Please can you ban those obscure french artists because I know nothing about them?
Agent Orange isn’t actually a chemical weapon its a defoliant, the idea being that if you kill off the jungle there will be nowhere to hide. Pretty disgusting stuff though.
Thanks to Bjorn and BR.
Over 27 minutes to limp home, finally plumping for the NHO BANDEAU and guessing COLUMN. Also biffed SNAKE PIT and DESPOIL, not having spotted the anagram. Tough.
Same thoughts about CENTRE as others. NHO the runaway train ride at Alton Towers, but assumed from the anagram. The specific meanings required for SCAB, SNAKE-PIT and TOPS (in darts) new to me, but fairly easy to work out. Thanks BR for helpful blog.
16:05 for the solve. Going through wasn’t sure about scrabble=scratch, centre=cross, column=file so left those pencilled in and BELGRADE was 4th on the list of European capitals after Budapest, Bratislava, Brussels. NHO BANDEAU, VHO DESPOIL, had to work to figure out what I call darts “double top”=TOPS. And then we had the obscure DOLPHIN definition.
Given the accident at Alton Towers a decade ago where people were seriously injured and needed legs to be partially amputated, while I see the intended amusing definition of “runaway train” and accept there is a ride as such; I have my reservations that any theme park really has runaways trains.
Other than all that – HOTEL-KEEPER was worth the price of admission and DADS-ARMY a good one.
Thanks to BR and Bjorn.
Plodded steadily through. BANDEAU is a clue that’s easier for females – makes a change as usually the vocab tends towards chappish.
I wasn’t that quick today but solved it all. LOsI COLUMN, CENTRE.
SCRABBLE and STEEPLEJACK write-ins.
Biffed SPOT. No idea about 40.
Liked HOTEL KEEPER, CHOMP, BELGRADE.
Many thanks, BR.
I agree. There was also CENTRE.
Bandeau was lost on me, but I appreciate Bjorn’s thoughts.
18:29 (Stephenson’s Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials)
I found this extremely hard.
I only spotted the mini-Nina on entering my LOI COLUMN.
I have ridden on the runaway mine train at ALTON TOWERS, but still needed pen and paper to get this clue.
NHO BANDEAU.
Thanks BR and Bjorn
Found this one rather straightforward and very fun which makes it 2 days in a row I’ve been on a different wavelength to commenters here, yesterdays I found much much too hard for me
13:05
A good challenge, with COLUMN LOI and SPOT unparsed. Slow to get DOLPHIN, also. I am amused by how we were fooled into assuming a person, rather than another ‘individual’. Well done, Bjorn, and Bletchers for spotting the Nina.
I thought that was a brilliant puzzle, full of witty clues. Bravo Bjorn.
Not easy though – was sure that the disorderly house was going to involve “strip” (which works if you use R for King); needed lots of checkers for ALTON TOWERS; was totally fooled by “40 on board” (superb); and was flummoxed by the netball reference (well done Bjorn, redressing the cricket/rugger balance). On the other hand my years of reading Hadley Freeman’s fashion column in the Guardian made BANDEAU a gimme!
I absolutely loved that. 10:04 for a Great Fun Day. Many thanks Bjorn and Bletchers.
DNF. Just two clues to get after 21 minutes, which is very fast for me, but COLUMN and (the NHO) BANDEAU withstood nearly 15 minutes of intensive alphabet trawling. Maybe I should have resolved _O___N, although I don’t think that makes a newspaper, but BANDEAU just spoilt an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
Also, having never been there, I consider myself lucky to have found ALTON TOWERS – a total guess from the available letters.
Many thanks to BR for the blog.
45 mins but only with aids.
Found this tricky. That meaning of BANDEAU was new to me. Eventually got Alton Towers after staring at the anagram for ages.
CENTRE was a sporting reference I actually got, having played netball at school.
COD: DOLPHIN
Thanks for the much needed blog BR
22:52
Mostly ok with just 1 left at 17 minutes but had BANDEOH, which was NHO and made LOI COLUMN impossible. Only after an extensive alphabet trawl did I see my mistake and realise the oh needed to be homophoned (if that’s the right word) too.