Time taken: 10:00 on the dot! Although there are a few Americanisms in the grid, I was not on the wavelength of my adopted country.
The early solvers have some very slick times, so maybe I struggled with this one more than some, but it seemed I had to stare hard at some wordplays before they clicked. I also couldn’t spot the anagram at 17 across first off and had to write out the letters before the penny dropped.
As Paul pointed out in the first comment, it is a pangram. I didn’t notice as I was solving.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Boastful books linked to southern racists? (6) |
| BIGOTS – BIG(boastful), OT(books) and S(southern) | |
| 4 | Bewilders secure dogs when cutting leads (8) |
| ASTOUNDS – FAST(secure) and HOUNDS(dogs) minus the first letters. This type of clue was a hallmark of Tim Moorey in Mephisto, don’t see it often in a daily. | |
| 10 | US semidetached de luxe shop animatedly welcomes you (6,5) |
| DUPLEX HOUSE – anagram of DE,LUXE,SHOP containing U(you). Like some of our early commenters, I have never seen “house” added after DUPLEX. It is in Collins, though. | |
| 11 | Gilbert holds one metal wedge (3) |
| GIB – GB(gilbert, a unit in electromagnetics) containing I(one) | |
| 12 | In favour of wrapping up address after intro is repeatedly lost in audio-recording fault (3-4) |
| PRE-ECHO – PRO(in favor of) containing SPEECH(address) minus the first two letters | |
| 14 | That which disproves half of forthcoming genuine cases (7) |
| REFUTAL – half of FUTURE(forthcoming) inside REAL(genuine) | |
| 15 | Title bestowed upon those in the same class? (7,7) |
| SUBJECT HEADING – kind of a cryptic definition here, referring to the title above a set of words in a in index or thesaurus | |
| 17 | Maybe she gave him one unneeded belt, or buckles (6,8) |
| DOUBLE ENTENDRE – anagram of UNNEEDED,BELT,OR | |
| 21 | Animal seemingly more angry having consumed drug (3,4) |
| RED DEER – REDDER(seemingly more angry) containing E(drug) | |
| 22 | Fox sighted incredible British cyclist cycling (5-2) |
| TALLY-HO – TALL(incredible) and the cyclist Chris HOY cycling | |
| 23 | And not what Captain Horatio Hornblower ultimately offers (3) |
| NOR – last letters of captaiN horatiO hornbloweR | |
| 24 | Already liable Public Relations asked after withdrawn team (11) |
| PREDISPOSED – PR(Public Relations), then POSED(asked) after SIDE(team) reversed | |
| 26 | Biden agitated by Cruz for one owing money (8) |
| INDEBTED – anagram of BIDEN then the US politician TED Cruz | |
| 27 | Fix match yet again? (6) |
| REPAIR – match yet again could be RE-PAIR | |
| Down | |
| 1 | English residence turned over in broken European capital (8) |
| BUDAPEST – E(English), and PAD(residence) reversed inside BUST(broken) | |
| 2 | Gutted guy with back in sharp excessive pain (3) |
| GYP – external letters of GuY, then the last letter of sharP | |
| 3 | Cloying sentimentality born of Electra complex (7) |
| TREACLE – anagram of ELECTRA | |
| 5 | Potter’s creation country gent left oddball relatives around middle of March (8,6) |
| SQUIRREL NUTKIN – SQUIRE(country gent), L(left), NUT(oddball) and KIN(relatives) surrounding the central letter in maRch. Referring to the Beatrix Potter character | |
| 6 | Remaining FBI agent is stuffed (7) |
| OVERFED – OVER(remaining), FED(FBI agent) | |
| 7 | Continually had dingy tan refreshed (5,3,3) |
| NIGHT AND DAY – anagram of HAD,DINGY,TAN | |
| 8 | Delicate caption omits euphemism for sex (6) |
| SUBTLE – SUBTITLE(caption) minus IT(euphemism for sex) | |
| 9 | Chat project on article — an easy task (5,3,6) |
| SHOOT THE BREEZE – SHOOT(project), THE(article) and BREEZE(an easy task) | |
| 13 | Almost entangle Republican in exploit augmented with false detail (11) |
| EMBROIDERED – EMBROIL(entangle) minus the last letter, then R(Republican) inside DEED(exploit). Think embroidering an argumen | |
| 16 | Official instrument (8) |
| RECORDER – double definition | |
| 18 | Hostelry plan 50 per cent accessible to all (7) |
| BREWPUB – BREW(plan) then half of PUBLIC(accessible to all) | |
| 19 | Cover-up that briefly leaves huge numbers in the dark (7) |
| ECLIPSE – cryptic definition | |
| 20 | Country course that is set up under British (6) |
| BRUNEI – RUN(course) and IE(that is) reversed under B(British) | |
| 25 | Jackass periodically brought up Jamaican music (3) |
| SKA – alternating letters in jAcKaSs reversed | |
I didn’t know the British cyclist, but “fox sighted (5-2)” was never going to be anything else so no holdup. I have never heard DUPLEX HOUSE after 40 years in the US, just “duplex”. I haven’t checked every letter but I think this is a pangram. It certainly has QZJX. I needed all the checkers to get SUBJECT HEADING, my LOI.
Well-spotted, it is a pangram!
Re DUPLEX same here and I’ve been in the US even longer (sigh). Apartment yes, house no.
Like Paul, I’ve never come across DUPLEX HOUSE, just ‘duplex’. Also like Paul, I DNK Hoy, and biffed. DNK the squirrel–and I was thinking Potter was Harry until I saw SQUIRREL–and looked him up. DNK GIB, but it seemed more likely than the other possibilities. And DNK BREWPUB and put in BEERPUB, which unfortunately fit.
I thought this was hard, but more likely I just wasn’t on wavelength. DNF in 27:15 due to SUBJECT READING (which I thought made sense, though NHO!) and INDEBTEE – caught out by reading the definition as ‘one owing money’ rather than ‘owing money’. Little bit annoyed for not thinking of the very familiar Ted Cruz, after Celia Cruz, Cruz Beckham. Apart from that, PRE-ECHO and DOUBLE ENTENDRE (fnarr fnarr) took the most staring to work out.
Like the previous poster, I had SUBJECT READING at 15A. Drat and double drat.
I absolutely detest the ‘cycling’ construction which has appeared of late in the crossword. Anyone else?
Not so recent! The earliest example at TfTT of a ‘cycling’ clue was in the March 2015 Club Monthly blogged on 27 March 2015.
In case you missed it there was a long discussion about the cycling device in the ST blog posted Sunday before last. You can read through it here if you wish.
Thank you, I didn’t realise the device was so venerable. However, it seems to crop up in every third crossword these days.
The discussion you pointed me to was interesting. I should clarify: I have no issue whatsoever with the word ‘cycling’ or ‘cycles’ to describe the transformation the letters are to undergo. I just don’t like having to come up with a word or string of words that need transformation in this way. Of course, we’re always being asked to do similar things in clues that demand something is ‘backwards’, ‘from the east’ or ‘going up’, etc. These essentially require us to perform an indirect anagram. But I’m fine with those, whilst the ‘cycling’ device feels uncomfortable. I approach such clues like a horse unwilling to jump a particular fence.
This one wasn’t too bad except for a couple of toughies. Subject heading went in with a shrug, and then I finally realized which Potter we are dealing with – I always forget Beatrix. It seems a bit unfair to expect UK solvers to know Senator Cruz’ first name, but of course I certainly didn’t have any difficulty. Gib was my LOI, and it was just a wild guess that turned out to be totally correct.
Time: 28:05
I agree there are far too many senators for UK solvers to know them all. Interestingly there is a cruz tee (shirt) which is what I had after couldn’t find indebtom ( Tom Cruz!! only excuse is spelling brain not awake this morning)
I struggled with this, limping home in 36:34.
I thought 17 across was brilliant, when I finally got it. Memories came flooding back of the time I was teaching English to a group of housewives in my early days in Hong Kong and was passing out photocopies of something or other.
When one of them asked me to “give her one”, I started laughing. They asked me why, but I bashfully refused to say. When they later wangled it out of me over yum cha, they thought it was brilliant. One English idiom they would never forget.
You reminded me of Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe:
I heard the minx remark
She’d meet him after dark
Inside St. James’s Park
And give him one!
The ribald has a long history in British literature. The Scottish flyting poets at the turn of the XVIth century (Dunbar, Kennedy et al) were the equivalent of modern-day rappers – but witty, to boot.
I found it tricky, and for once spotting a pangram gave me a letter, the W, needed to jog me into finally seeing Brewpub. I read the Maybe at She gave him one as a DBE indicator.
Another ‘Mercan speaker who can’t remember ever hearing Duplex House, but who also wouldn’t be surprised to hear it or see it in, say, a real-estate development brochure.
Yes, it must be, otherwise it doesn’t work.
Thx. I should have read the blog more carefully, I think.
27.51. I thought this was a very good puzzle and some of it was a real challenge. I had no idea what was going on with TALLY HO, SUBJECT HEADING or GIB so thanks G. Fortunately most of the long clues were gettable with a bit of concentration and that helped. Not sure about tricksy definitions like brew = plan and sentimentality = treacle but overall an enjoyable solve.
From It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding):
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
ECLIPSEs both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
40 minutes when I gave up with the second word of 15ac missing. I realised it was a cryptic definition but was unable to come up with a word to fit the checkers that made any sort of sense to me. Chambers lists 52 possibilities and there was no way I was going to wade through that lot, especially as I already felt uneasy about the puzzle / setter because there were too many things I didn’t fully understand.
Why boastful / BIG at 1ac? NHO DUPLEX HOUSE, nor even DUPLEX in this context. NHO Gilbert / GB. Had no idea of the wordplay in TALLY-HO although the answer was a write-in. NHO the cyclist. NHO TED Cruz. I guess BREWPUB is in common parlance these days (imported from the US, at least according to ODE) but it’s not a term that I’ve ever used so it took ages to come to mind after I’d eliminated the idea of ‘beerpub’ as an alternative to the traditional ‘alehouse’.
I thought of talking big, which is boastfully not boastful. Ted Cruz is the most widely disliked member of the Senate, including by his fellow-Republicans. In any case, he hardly belongs in a UK puzzle.
If it’s any consolidation, this 70 year old physicist has never heard of a Gilbert either. We live and learn.
48 minutes. Held up by SUBJECT HEADING and DOUBLE ENTENDRE (v. good – my COD) in particular. I didn’t know the ‘gilbert’ as a scientific unit nor a GIB as a ‘metal wedge’ so relied on the crossing G and B and the ‘holds one’ of the wordplay for 11a. Of the American related clues, the ‘Cruz’ reference at 26a went over my head and I thought if there was a DUPLEX, there must be a DUPLEX HOUSE; yes, in Collins & Chambers but not the Merriam-Webster app.
Not so easy for me; seeing the pangram was some recompense for being so slow.
Good point about GIB, and I should have mentioned that in my list of gripes.
I remember pre-echoes were very common on vinyl records, although I don’t think I ever knew the term. I had intended to ask if they still occur in the digital world?
Pre-echo stemmed from print-through on analogue tape, where the signal level was so high, or the tape had been stored so long, that one section of tape semi-magnetised the next layeer in or out on the reel.
I don’t think it can happen with digital tape recording as the signal level along with everything else is encoded as a stream of 0s and 1s. It certainly can’t happen if the digital recording is onto a hard drive or solid state device.
No undue problems but the Americanisms not enjoyed … heard of Penelope, or Santa, but not Ted. And I have never shot a breeze.
Urgh! I had STUDENT READING for far too long and it spoilt the fun.
Completed this one without the need to resort to aids to make answers. However still not worth reporting the time. Knew the wedge 11ac GIB but not the unit GB.
Thought 5d SQUIRREL NUTKIN was cute, and got it with only the ‘U’ in crossers – ‘creation’ located so as to make it clear which Potter. Also liked 8d for its SUBTLE use of the hackneyed sexual ‘abuse’ in Crosswordland.
Other posters have already covered most of my misgivings. Thought overall it was a mixture of overly easy 23ac NOR and rather odd clueing: For example, presume that 17ac was definition by example? Checked for HOY after the fact in 22ac TALLY-HO – how could answer be anything else. Had no idea why 15ac SUBJECT HEADING hangs together and still not sure.
Thank you glh and setter.
(BTW glh, in any remake of Force Ten from Navarone you would be a hot prospect for the senior army officer played originally by Roger Moore)
Well, another DNF due to READING. Annoying after struggling for quite a while with the rest of this marathon. As remarked already, very ‘mercan in parts.
I liked DOUBLE ENTENDRE which was surprisingly late in coming.
Thanks G and very trixsie setter!
Ha ha!
I saw what you did there….! VG
Tee hee!
😉
Well, I made a right horlicks of logging in! 36.20 with LOI brewpub. Really enjoyed the puzzle.
DNF as I had to resort to aids to get BREWPUB which I had NHO and found the wordplay less than helpful. Otherwise, surprised by DUPLEX HOUSE and SHOOT THE BREEZE, biffed GIB and have never thought of GYP as excessive pain given my belief that its origins were to be found in a stomach upset caused by foreign food.
Thanks to setter and glh.
34 mins. Far too American though that didn’t hold me up, DUPLEX going in 2nd but the only Cruz I could think of was Penelope and I’m quite happy with that.
Held up in the middle by misspelling SQUIRELL!
As a fan of the great Finbar Saunders COD DOUBLE ENTENDRE should have been easier. Rosedeprovence got the Fnagh in before me.
Thanks glh and setter.
Well, U probably should be happy thinking of Penelope – but anyway . . .
Half an hour.
– Never heard of the Gilbert unit, but GIB had to be
– Can’t recall seeing REFUTAL anywhere before
– Did parse TALLY-HO, and I’m slightly surprised to see one or two here haven’t heard of the great Sir Chris Hoy
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Treacle
LOI Astounds
COD Double entendre
Quite a few hadn’t heard of Eddie Merckx, who featured in Friday’s QC, either.
One of the six “famous” Belgians!
I know of Tin Tin and Poirot. Who are the other three?
Generally, they are Jacky Ickx, F1 racing driver, Rene Magritte, artist and Jacques Brel, jazz singer. Although you could also have Georges Simenon, (Maigret) and Django Rheinhardt, jazz guitarist. I’m sure there’s others….
Jacques Brel a jazz singer? I think not. A clue in a 15×15 last month labelled him as a crooner, which was crazy. ‘Chansonnier’ would be the perfect fit.
… and the bloke who invented the saxophone.
Plastic Bertrand-‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’
And Rubens, Van Eyck…and a host of other Flemish painters, there’s really quite a lot of famous Belgians….its a cheap shot…
Audrey Hepburn?
12:14 WOE. I should have gone back to the half parsed BEERPUB. Too many Americanisms for me. NHO Gilbert the unit, and DUPLEX HOUSE and would never use or have heard anyone say SHOOT THE BREEZE. I thought SUBJECT HEADING rather weak but I liked DOUBLE ENTENDRE. Thanks George and setter.
Around average time for me but alas it was not SUBTEXT HEADING as an incorrect LOI. Really wish I had spotted the pangram. First fail of the week.
Enjoyed the anagram for DOUBLE ENTRENDRE.
Thanks blogger and setter
55:32
Just one aid needed (Chambers crossword dictionary) to find a 7 letter word for disentangle. And there it was EMBROIl for EMBROIDERED. Also had to check on the existence of GIB, REFUTAL and PREECHO.
I was convinced that SUBJECT HEADING was something like STUDENT TEACHER. In fact I tried STUDENT for both words, being a good fit for the checkers.
Having to know the forename of a failed US presidential candidate from 6 years ago seems like tough GK. Other TEDs are available.
LOI ECLIPSE. I’m an eclipse fan and am planning my 2026 trip to Northern Spain, and 2027 to the Valley of the Kings.
COD DOUBLE ENTENDRE.
Girl walks into a bar and asks the barman for a double entendre…So he gave her one.
28:14
I laboured over this one and wasn’t on wavelength for the most part. PRE-ECHO was an unknown and I pondered it for a while before I eventually got EMBROIDERED, not helped by biffing STUDENT instead of SUBJECT. DOUBLE ENTENDRE took far too long even though the anagram and definition were clear, and BREWPUB isn’t familiar to me so the first bit took a while too.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as the last few days but I would say that having had a bit of a stinker.
4 out of 4 this week for the first time in an age so on to tomorrow!
Thanks to both.
Half an hour to get all but half of 15a done, I’d heard of the allegedly unpleasant Ted Cruz, and Sir Chris Hoy, and duplex apartments (not houses), and a gilbert unit, and the Beatrix character of course. DNF as I had no idea what to put into *E*D*N* at 15a, PENDING looked possible, and now I see it’s HEADING I think it’s a rubbish clue. Is there intended to be a link between SUBT(IT)LE and subject heading? I liked the double entendre anagram, which took some unravelling.
Just over 30 minutes for this enjoyable test. One of those you can just keep plugging away at and tease the answers out. Glad I revisited INDEBTED as I had been unsure of how it would end. LOI was SUBJECT HEADING and NHO GIB (or the unit) so that was new.
Thanks to blogger and setter .
My thanks to glh and setter. I found it a very tricky Thursday and DNF.
10a NHO Duplex House. Added to Cheating Machine.
DNF. 11a NHO Gib in that sense, and I have quite a good vocab of technical and engineering terms. NHO the gilbert unit, and again I thought I would at least recognise all electro- units; I did MKS not CGS, which doesn’t help. The gilbert (lower case) is in CM though, so perhaps it has come up before?
12a Pre Echo. HHO but forgotten about. There is a fairly baffling description in Wiki.
DNF 15a Subject Heading. Never thought of that. Added to CM.
22a Tally Ho biffed. HHO Chris Hoy, but I am no cycling fan and managed to forget about him, so biffed. I find cycling clues (no pun intended) tricky.
26a Indebted, HHO but had forgotten Ted Cruz. So biffed.
1d Budapest, Doh! Easy but took an age to notice it was. Wasn’t expecting European Capital to be literally that.
55 minutes. LOI SUBJECT HEADING. I indulged in a massive eyebrow raise over Ted Cruz who I had heard of but couldn’t tell you who he is. I don’t think he’s related to Penelope, is he?. I deduced BREWPUB eventually, whatever one of those is. My sons used to drink BREWDOG but the eyebrows by then were well above my head. It’s enough to make you want to join the campaign for real keg beer, but as a true son of the north I only drink red wine. Never did learn to drink that blood and call it wine though And as a guy who did his first year university physics in cgs, I was delighted to see GILBERT. Inevitably, spell check has tried to make that cis. Following that, SQUIRREL NUTKIN has brought my mood back to par. Thank you George and setter
A brewpub is a pub that brews its own beer BW, clue in the name .. they are pretty common down here in the effete South.
Try a glass of cool Rosé, BW, it’ll calm you down!
Maybe I should give Rosé a go. I’ll never become machismo man then though.
As my time of 45.17 indicates I found this a struggle, not helped by thinking of Dennis not Beatrix Potter and trying for several minutes to see whether Pennies from Heaven, Brimstone and Treacle or The Singing Detective could somehow be shoehorned in at 5dn.
FOI SKA
LOI DUPLEX HOUSE
COD DOUBLE ENTENDRE
Thanks G and setter.
Exactly the same problem here: poor old Dennis was the only one to come to mind here too. ( should have remembered that most of you ‘lot’ seem to be enamoured of Beatrix – me too!)
20:40
Tricky in parts with some wordy clues. Held up at the end by the intersecting 5/17 pair which left the grid looking quite bare despite being just two clues. Spent too long on ceramics and 70s/80s TV before the right Potter came along.
19.43, still somewhat distracted, and not very enthused by the clearly invented DUPLEX HOUSE (Chambers believes it!) and the only slightly more credible REFUTAL. Didn’t really bother sorting out PRE ECHO or TALLY HO, but put them in anyway. BREWPUB vaguely remembered just in time. Appreciated DOUBLE ENTENDRE.
10 minutes still looks like a decent tie, George: don’t despair!
A lot of “think of a word and remove part of it before use” in this one. I always struggle with that. Seems a bit indirect. I enjoyed the puzzle all the same.