Definitely tougher than standard Monday fare. Several of the clues had quite tricky clueing, some of the definitions were indirect, and then of course we had the mother of nine. Which I very much hope was appreciated over there in Sydney/Perth.
31:00
| Across | |
| 1 | Beetle auto acquired by Swedish competitor half-heartedly (6) |
| SCARAB – CAR in SA |
|
| 5 | Capital gain — choose alternately between 500 and a thousand (8) |
| WINDHOEK – |
|
| 9 | American’s broken working key entering fancy hotel (2,3,5) |
| ON THE FRITZ – ON (working) F (musical key) in THE RITZ; is this one of those Americanisms which Americans will disavow? Stay tuned | |
| 10 | Star very long time back (4) |
| VEGA – V AGE reversed | |
| 11 | Sumptuous, rich cloth covering walls of apartment 1A (8) |
| PALATIAL – A~T IA in PALL (cloth covering a coffin – hence pallbearers) | |
| 12 | The right hand page, right vicar? (6) |
| RECTOR – RECTO (the right hand page) R (right); a rector and a vicar are perhaps as near as dammit the same thing now, but previously the rector was the incumbent who got the tithes, while the vicar was the appointee who got the stipend | |
| 13 | Bible book bishop removed from pulpits (4) |
| AMOS – AM |
|
| 15 | Wherefore people barely go on holiday? (8) |
| NATURISM – a pretty weak cryptic definition, in my opinion | |
| 18 | Polite Belgian crooner got married, according to Spooner (4-4) |
| WELL-BRED – BREL WED becomes WELL-BRED; Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter. An adaptation of one of his numbers, 1961’s’Le Moribond’, became a hit for Terry Jacks as ‘Seasons in the Sun’ in 1974. | |
| 19 | Edge closer to humongous fish (4) |
| SIDE – ~S IDE (fish) | |
| 21 | Plant losing millions in absurd embargo (6) |
| BORAGE – anagram* of EMBARGO minus the M | |
| 23 | Fruit only imported for a day in period of fasting (8) |
| RAMBUTAN – RAMADAN with BUT (only, as in ‘to name but two’) for AD (a day); tasty fruit rather like a lychee with prickle-like hairs on the shell | |
| 25 | Blood group recorded in error (4) |
| TYPO – sounds like TYPE O | |
| 26 | Illegal action picked up after 21s in game (6,4) |
| GUINEA FOWL – 21 shillings was a GUINEA FOWL (sounds like foul) | |
| 27 | Monster insect chasing live man (8) |
| BEHEMOTH – BE (live) HE (man) MOTH (insect) | |
| 28 | Drink with German chap visiting Saxony on vacation (6) |
| SHERRY – HERR in S~Y | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Dance company not available to tour Greece initially (5) |
| CONGA – CO G in NA; I am currently in Astypalaia, the westernmost island in the Dodecanese | |
| 3 | Tries to stop genuine practice (9) |
| REHEARSAL – HEARS in REAL | |
| 4 | Get rid of cases from scientist (6) |
| BOFFIN – OFF (from, as in ‘I got it off a friend’) in BIN (get rid of); ‘cases’ is the containment indicator | |
| 5 | Shiver’d like this frenzied dancer? (8,7) |
| WHIRLING DERVISH – one of those reverse anagram clues; if you whirl DERVISH you will get SHIVER’D | |
| 6 | Tarzan? He swings around town (8) |
| NAZARETH – TARZAN HE* | |
| 7 | Husband served up eggs beginning to create chaos (5) |
| HAVOC – H OVA reversed C~ | |
| 8 | Totally lost part of game, admitting that’s disgusting performance ultimately (9) |
| ENGROSSED – GROSS (‘That’s disgusting!’ > ‘Gross!’) E (~E) in END (part of game) | |
| 14 | Married submarine captain’s crazy yen for mother of nine (9) |
| MNEMOSYNE – M NEMO’S YEN*; this goddess of memory (where are you when I need you?) was the mother by Zeus (he got around a bit) of the nine Muses | |
| 16 | Prime Minister’s announcement that precedes the New Deal? (9) |
| RESHUFFLE – double definition, methinks | |
| 17 | Opera gig involved musical exercise (8) |
| ARPEGGIO – OPERA GIG* | |
| 20 | Like to preserve appearance in French city (6) |
| AMIENS – MIEN in AS; French city north of Paris | |
| 22 | Home Office finally supporting alpha chap? (5) |
| ABODE – A BOD followed by ~E | |
| 24 | Untrained reserves once sent north in conflict (2,3) |
| AT WAR -reversal of RAW (untrained) TA (reserves, once) | |
45 minutes with one letter wrong.
I enjoyed this but have to take issue with Jacques Brel being referenced as a crooner. His style was the very antithesis of crooning.
Crooners such as Sinatra, Crosby and Dean Martin were known for their smooth, relaxed and intimate delivery. By contrast Brel’s style was gritty and highly theatrical, almost assaulting his audience with torrents of raw emotion.
My error was at 5ac where I followed the wordplay to get as far as WINDHOE but then picked the wrong abbreviation for a thousand. As I never heard of the place it could have been G, K or M and I picked M.
Didn’t know RAMBUTAN but worked it out eventually, ditto MNEMOSYNE which I checked in a dictionary before proceeding. Not sure I ever heard of ON THE FRITZ but took it on trust.
Biffed BOFFIN but failed to parsed it, confused by thinking of OFF as ‘get rid of’ and missing BIN as a possible alternative.
TYPO was a cleverly disguised soundalike.
Don’t disagree but it helped that the clue alluded to a famous Belgian, of whom there are few.
I know there are some so don’t bombard me with examples!
Okay, then I won’t rack my little grey cells!
You get high merckx for that
31.02, flummoxed by the mother of nine for a while but the cryptic got me home even though the resulting answer looked highly unlikely. LOsI were RESHUFFLE (v clever) and GUINEA FOWL where I spent several minutes trying to wrestle an anagram containing BORAGE (21ac) into the answer, having forgotten about that ancient currency. Enjoyable, thanks U.
From Desolation Row:
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting, which SIDE are you on?
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot are fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much about
Desolation Row
I’ll also mention that one of Brel’s classic chansons (Ne Me Quitte Pas) was made famous in the anglosphere by Shirley Bassey under the title If You Go Away.
I recommend Dusty Springfield’s version.
Me too. Funnily enough I sang it at the Folk Festival yesterday, and on a Zoom session last night. I base my version heavily on Dusty’s rendition. It’s on my Youtube channel too.
Personally I recommend Jacques Brel’s!
12:41. I found this decidedly tricky in parts, not least MNEMOSYNE. Having checked this was the first time this has appeared except for being part of a clue in a Mephisto 5 years ago.
Is it Monday? I’d never have guessed, but for the non-appearance of the prize winners in the online edition for the second week running (and the fourth time in 10 weeks!)
I was held up for a couple of minutes by NHO LOI, but it was an enjoyable challenge – it would have been more so on a Thursday….
FOI SCARAB
LOI RAMBUTAN
COD GUINEA FOWL
TIME 11:45
A typo with PALACIAL meant a DNF for me, especially annoying since I had the botany sorted out for once. Very nice crossword though.
You are not alone. It doesn’t look wrong!
My mind was in GLACIAL mode, hence the SPACIAL pinkness 🙁
Sorry, it does…
Bit tough for a Monday. WINDHOEK from the helpful wordplay. Had NATURIST instead of ism. The mother of nine from wordplay again, a NHO. Liked TYPO. GUINEA FOWL threw me as I missed the twenty-one shillings bit and even thought for a while it was referencing clue 21! No excuses. Biffed RAMBUTAN. Vaguely heard of ON THE FRITZ. COD to RESHUFFLE.
Thanks U and setter.
44 mins, phew, that was tough for a Monday as others have said. Held up in the SE for ages until I finally saw GUINEA FOWL. MNEMOSYNE was a NHO but worked out once I had the checkers.
I really liked WHIRLING DERVISH.
Thanks U and setter.
65 arduous minutes. Scott Walker’s versions of Jacques Brel songs were spot on too. And Rod McKuen’s ‘If you go away’ was definitive. Surprised I finished this. The dreadful ON THE FRITZ, an expression I’ve never heard of, went in just ahead of ON THE GRITZ with a couple of other alternatives also possible. MNEMOSYNE was a bit better. I didn’t know the fruit either but the cryptic there was kinder. A tough nut. Thank you U and setter.
Rod McKuen actually wrote the English lyric to this one.
I have the CD Scott Walker Sings Brel, and I agree his versions are excellent. He nearly made the top 20 in 1967 with his epic recording of Jackie in a mad orchestral arrangement by the composer then known as Wally Stott. It was in the top 30 for 9 weeks but was banned by the BBC because of a 6 word phrase in the lyric by Mort Schuman.
22.10 and thoroughly enjoyed- even the mother of nine which I worked out but did check to make sure. Guinea fowl and reshuffle were my LO(s)I.
COD to typo. Spent a lot of time starting the answer with a, o and b until abode sorted me out.
Thx setter and blogger.
44 minutes. I managed to get the unfamiliar words, although knew nothing about BORAGE. In the end I was snared by the 15a cryptic def, both being thrown by the use of ‘wherefore’ and not being sure that NATURISM was the correct part of speech. I wasn’t convinced but submitted anyway and was relieved to avoid the expected pink square for the M.
BORAGE only too familiar to me as the field behind my house was planted with it (something to do with suppressing black grass) and now, like the poor, it is always with us.
I recalled that “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” means “Why are you Romeo?”, which meant I was pretty sure we needed a *reason* for the nudity – and so -ism rather than -ist.
I also wasn’t entirely sure of BORAGE, but it looked plausible and perhaps rang a vague bell.
Thanks. Yes, that was my problem. I thought ‘wherefore’ was just an archaic form of ‘where’, hence my difficulty in making sense of the answer which does work with the correct ‘why’ sense as you point out.
Obviously More work required on my vocab 😉.
Ha! 😊
42 minutes which rather pleasantly surprised me as I tackled it before rising but I did have to check both MNEMOSYNE and RAMBUTAN as NHO.
NHO ON THE FRITZ but could see no alternative so it was LOI.
Pleased to encounter a WHIRLING DERVISH at last.
Thought 15a cluing a bit weak.
COD TYPO for me as a fat-fingered hunter and pecker!
Thanks to setter for a challenging start to the week and to ulaca -particularly for enlightening me 0n the clerical distinction.
Came here hoping to read it wasn’t very Mondayish and that was confirmed in the first sentence. Completed but managed to write ADOBE rather than ABODE. I had just written the word in a work email in my defence. I will put that down to a brain fart.
The dancer, Belgian crooner and the mother of 9 all new to me. Thankfully there is only one submarine captain in crossword land. Quite a lot went in unparsed so I made good use of the blog
Bit of a meh at NATURISM. I can see all the right notes but not sure how it is meant to be played (edit: Amoeba’s explanation above makes sense to me).
LOI and COD RESHUFFLE which I saw how it worked after putting it in.
Cheers blogger and setter
13:55. Stuck for a couple of minutes at the end by ABODE and TYPO. DNK the Belgian singer or the American phrase but the wordplay was helpful and BOFFIN gave me the key of F. Thanks U and setter.
11:46, but I managed to type GUNIEA FOWL and then somehow failed to spot it when I checked my answers, so 2 errors. Frustrating after navigating all the unknowns and tricky wordplay.
I knew the phrase ON THE FRITZ but had no idea it was American. Of the usual dictionaries only Chambers says it is.
A Friday time for me at 43 mins.
NHO MNEMOSYNE, Ambos or the broken Americanism but was really slowed down by struggling to remember RAMBUTAN and my COD RESHUFFLE.
Nor did I know that Terry Jacks Seasons in the Sun was a Jacques Brel song so thanks for that, this is always an education. Thanks to the setter too of course.
35 mins with help.
Bit of a strange journey through this one. Thought it was hard-ish for a Monday, but not that bad.
Got about halfway through, including WINDHOEK, which I thought pretty tough but capitals GK is in my wheelhouse. Then looked up WHIRLING DERVISH and BORAGE. Then did other things for a few hours.
On coming back, everything else but BOFFIN went in almost immediately, to my surprise. I should thank Belvita for providing the glucose for this.
MNEMOSYNE could scarcely be more NHO but I took a punt.
15:51
I hardly ever get 1A to start as it takes my mind a few minutes to warm to the task so when that went in I thought I was in for a flyer. Not to be as the more challenging clues slowed me down. MNEMOSYNE, RAMBUTAN, and ARPEGGIO were total unknowns, as was AMBOS and the singer, I put in GUINEA FOWL without understanding the clue, and I corrected NATURIST to ISM just before submission.
A real challenge in places and I had to trust the cryptic for the unknowns.
Thanks to both.
42m 27s
No problem with WINDHOEK. I spent several weeks there in 1975. The airline I worked for was operating flights for a Mozambique airline via Windhoek to Lisbon. Flights northbound were full; southbound ones pretty empty. People were getting out prior to independence. We had been operating through Luanda but when the fighting got too close to the airport we pulled out and moved our ops to Windhoek.
Re 18ac, I first heard a Brel song when Judy Collins included ‘Marieke’ on one of her albums and sung it in Flemish.
Thanks to Amoeba for explaining why naturism and not naturist was correct.
WHIRLING DERVISH was clever. I don’t always spot that type of clue.
I did like TYPO.
A spelling test of a sort, which I failed at PALACIAL. I agree with others that NATURISM is better than NATURIST, but have sympathy for those who reasoned differently. The trouble with CDs, eh?
Held up at the end with the innocuous BORAGE, mostly because (for no reason I can fathom) I was expecting a fruit. Probably just as well it was last: I’d have struggled to solve 26 across with “21s” producing borages.
SIDE is beautifully crafted. I sometimes think the simpler clues get overlooked.
I concur!
Quite tricky I thought, esp for a Monday. A few I could not parse, so biffed.
9a On the Fritz; must have come up before as it was in Cheating Machine when I checked.
18a Well bred, NHO Jacques B.
21a Borage, vital for your Pimms, especially at Wimbledon time.
23a Rambutan, biffed.
26a Guinea fowl, def game. Do people really shoot these things? I thought they were kept as pets.
5d Whirling D biffed. Clever now ulaca has explained it.
14d Mnemosyne hard to spell but the wordplay was very helpful. I had forgot she was associated with memory, but the spelling pretty much forced that.
Thanks to ulaca and setter.
41:47 but with a look up needed, as my ROBAGE for a plant looked fine. Also had to confirm a crooner called Brel, and whether it was MNEMOSYNE or MNEMOSENY. Had to guess between NATURISM and NATURIST, still don’t quite get it.
ON THE FRITZ was in my mind as I just researched ON THE BLINK for a recent QC blog, and the two are related.
Pleased to get the NHO RAMBUTAN, after dropping lent=fasting period.
Didn’t parse AMOS(NHO AMBOS) and a few others.
COD TYPO
NHO MNENOSYNE but ON THE FRITZ was an absolute write-in (an Americanism, yes, but an extremely frequently encountered one). As far as Jacques Brel is concerned I like his song ‘Amsterdam’ that was covered in English by the folk band Bellowhead.
Tough going, but I eventually conquered all the unknowns, only to be presented with a pink square due to a typo at RECTER. $%^*&£*!! Not my day! No problem avec M. Brel though. My biggest hold ups were with GUINEA FOWL, RESHUFFLE, RAMBUTAN and LOI, NATURISM, which were solved in that order. 28,12 WOE. Thanks setter and U.
DNF (3 clues missed!), although enjoyed. I honestly couldn’t have told you that AMOS was a book of the Bible, so stuck with Acts, which precluded MNEMOSYNE.
Never seen [21]s for ‘shilling’ and hence missed GUINEA FOWL, but really like that device.
Even though I was pleased to get NATURISM after a while staring at it, I agree it’s not the best – largely because there’s no need for the ‘wherefore’ as far as I can see. As written, it might as well have been replaced by the present-day English ‘what people barely go on holiday for?’
Oh and given my username, I should mention that ARPEGGIO was a write-in, as arps are the bread and butter of shredders (see eg Serrana by Jason Becker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Iz3RHZNDQ), or Paganini’s 5th caprice (Perlman version) or especially Chopin’s beautiful first etude from Op. 10 if you’re more classically inclined!)
45 mins with a few unknowns (Mnemosyne, well bred and rambutan) but had naturist instead of naturism.
Is there a Type O in the explanation of 5d? Whirl instead of will?
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
ON THE FRITZ annoyed me because if you don’t know the term, as I didn’t, it could have been anything: on the aritz, on the britz, on the critz, etc. Fritz is of course the most likely but even so we shouldn’t have to await the F from BOFFIN. I thought the NATURISM clue was pretty feeble: what has naturism got to do with going on holiday? NHO RAMBUTAN, but the rest was good and I took over an hour on it.
Holiday resorts specifically for naturists go back 100 years or more although nudist beaches and facilities are available more widely these days at more traditional locations….I’m told.
Schoolboy French is sufficient to enjoy Brel’s “Mathilde”, time well spent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmNGqiJYZs4
A priest, an imam and a rabbit decided to donate blood. The rabbit said “I think I’m a typo”.
38mins but DNF as couldn’t see GUINEA FOWL. I don’t recall 21s being a construction I’ve seen before – very frustrating not to be able to get it as otherwise I comparatively raced through it (20 mins for the rest of the clues). Quite a hard puzzle for a Monday! RAMBUTAN was new for me and NHO BREL, but both seemed like the obvious answers. thanks both for the blog.
23:15 – no particular problems though for some reason I completely blanked out the 1A in 11 across which left me wondering why I had never heard of PALIAL as a type of cloth. Ambo dredged up from distant memory but -M-S as a bible book was only ever going to be one thing.
Strangely on the wavelength, not too troubled. Had to take the Belgian singer, naturism and MNEMOSYNE on trust, but she went in on first read from cryptic and crossers and seemed likely enough. No idea on the parsing of RESHUFFLE … is the PM Rishi? How do you pronounce his name? What’s an ‘uffle? Was he ever PM? I can’t remember. Wanted to go to Windhoek last year, but visa problems prevented it; love rambutans – ngor when I lived in Thailand. Heard of borage, which for some reason I associate with Jethro Tull. Weird!
Edit: Idiot! 20 minutes later, watching the bike race, it dawned on me it was an actual announcement, not a homophone of some unknown prime minister. Oops.
I was confused by the word ‘announcement’ as the reshuffle is an action, not an announcement.
Arpeggio appears from time to time, and I do better when it is clued as an angram. I knew some of the 50p vocabulary today, some I didn’t.
Quick today, surprised at some saying it was hard.
In the CofE a Rector is seen as senior to a vicar and usually is running a benefice rather than a single church.
34 mins but with the same invented WINDHOEM as Jack. Have also failed in Another Place today. Might just go back to bed.
Pretty tricky but an enjoyable solve. Biffed ON THE FRITZ.
VEGA could refer to Suzanne of that name.
There are clips of Dervishes doing their Whirling on YouTube. It’s fascinating – a long way from Strictly.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter
Finished, but undone by WINDHOEM also. What Jackkt said about Brel – definitely not a crooner, but liked the Spoonerism. GUINEA FOWL LOI.
DNF, defeated by NATURISM (I put NATURIST without thinking too much about it) and the AMOS/MNEMOSYNE crossing: I didn’t know ambos and could only think of Acts for the book in the Bible; and NHO MNEMOSYNE so had little chance, even if I’d thought of Captain Nemo.
– ON THE FRITZ isn’t in my vocabulary but felt like the most likely option
– Never knew that a pall is a cloth covering a coffin, so PALATIAL wasn’t fully parsed
– Relied on wordplay for the unknown RAMBUTAN
Agree with others that this was relatively hard for a Monday. Thanks ulaca and setter.
COD Boffin
I really did not do well with this. I did not know WINDHOEK or RAMBUTAN or the expression ON THE FRITZ or AMBOS. Nevertheless I managed somehow to get the answers for the relevant clues and my more serious problems were elsewhere. I put in WRITHING DERVISH for 5 down, which meant I didn’t get PALATIAL until I checked and realised my mistake. I couldn’t see RESHUFFLE. (I think the definition Prime Minister’s announcement is misleading: the Prime MInister may or may not announce his reshuffle, but even if he does I don’t think that makes a reshuffle itself an announcement). I also couldn’t see GUINEA FOWL, not being able to see the connection between 21s and guinea – I was trying to think of a game that I could somehow connect to BORAGE.
DNF as I totally failed with two answers in the SW corner. Very stupid as I managed to get the rest correct, even the NHO 9ac and 23 ac. I thought a few of the clues were a little bit weak, for reasons already mentioned, but they were all gettable from the clueing, which for me is the decisive test.
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
Got here late, but no one’s yet pointed out that in 11, “rich” is part of the definition.
Around 35/40
No time as I got called away and left the timer on. Bamboozled by GUINEA FOWL for various reasons and forgot the game= bird thing but eventually that got me RESHUFFLE, which I have only just understood. Crikey I was no where near the wavelength today!
Thanks Ulaca and setter
I gave up at 60 minutes with PALATIAL and BOFFIN unsolved. Annoying really, especially with the latter which was relatively straightforward, particularly as I’d completed the tougher sections including MNEMOSYNE and WINDHOEK.
I didn’t find this too hard, except for WINDHOEK where I toyed with M instead of K, since I’d not heard of the place, but luckily I went for K. A little hold up at the end with LOI TYPO where I was trying other ways to make the clue work. Since I knew the word MNEMONIC, it was not too hard to get the answer even though I had no idea what the “nine children” bit was about. Harder than a normal Monday, as others have remarked.
Came late and was relieved people found it HFAM; I found it simply H . Some iffy clues for me but most enjoyable thanks
DNF; couldn’t work out RAMBUTAN. Hacked my way through the rest in about 25 mins. Thanks Ulaca.
Enjoyed today, though found it challenging, with a lot of “well the cryptic bit would make sense for that” once some checkers were in – WINDHOEK, MNEMOSYNE and RAMBUTAN were all new to me, and WHIRLING DERVISH I dug out of the deepest recesses of my memory, not heard it in a long time. Count me in also with keriothe as not thinking of ON THE FRITZ as being a particular Americanism, which meant I was a little confused with that as well.
Since we’re trading Brel recommendations, I can’t recommend highly enough the version of “Amsterdam” by Dead Belgian featuring Brooke Sharkey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsmmvm9727w
Really enjoyed the puzzle.
This took me around 1 hour – held up by the SE corner specifically Naturism, Reshuffle, Rambutan, Guinea Fowl.
I was convinced 26ac was going to be some move in chess – Guided Pawn or some such – until I got the F from Reshuffle.
Not an easy Monday for me.
And don’t forget NEXT by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Superb theatrics. See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqx5j-FuqeI
Completed in 18’00”. Worked out MNEMOSYNE and RAMBUTAN from the cryptics, and was very relieved they were words.