18 minutes precisely, taking time to make sure I’d correctly interpreted the wordplay, which varied between the bizarre and the really quite easy.
A couple of celebrities put in an appearance, one living, one not, both (probably) well enough known to qualify for inclusion. I gained the impression that our setter was aiming for a record number of first/last/middle/outer letter inclusions and exclusions, but that might be just me. There is an excellent &lit.
Definitions underlined in italics, and I (mostly) show deletions and unused letters with []. Everything else should explain itself.
| Across | |
| 1 | Monotonous speaker curtailed by “Cor blimey, naked bird” (6,6) |
| DRONGO SHRIKE – Bet you didn’t know drongo is a Madagascan word, and the bird is any of 20 or so types scattered all over Africa and Asia. The “shrike” bit appears to identify the birds as shrike-like. The wordplay is almost as much fun. Monotonous speaker, DRONE is curtailed (lose the E), cor gives rise to GOSH and then blimey translates to CRIKEY, which you denude of its outer letters. | |
| 8 | State of motion, ultimately, in a tiny particle spinning (7) |
| MONTANA – The last letter (ultimately) of motioN inside AN ATOM, a tiny particle, reversed (spinning). | |
| 9 | Acting to prevent illness, colonist provided essential pieces of alum (7) |
| ANTIFLU – Colonist: ANT, provided: IF, and the essential, middle letters of aLUm | |
| 11 | Source of anger studied then overlooked, reportedly (3,4) |
| RED MIST – Aural wordplay (reportedly): studied “READ” and overlooked “MISSED”. | |
| 12 | Drunk happiest when son scratched inscription (7) |
| EPITAPH – Remove S[on] from HAPPIEST and anagram (drunk). | |
| 13 | Singer Vincent claiming head of investment lamped servant? (5) |
| GENIE – Cute definition. The required singer is GENE Vincent, insert first of Investment | |
| 14 | Cut Jack up in disgust in assessment (9) |
| APPRAISAL – Jack up (ignore the capital) is RAISE, cut the end off and insert in APPAL from disgust. | |
| 16 | Immediately name boring American “Pierce” (2,1,6) |
| AT A GLANCE – Name is TAG, which bores its way into A[merican] LANCE, not Pierce the name (again ignore the capital) but pierce the action. | |
| 19 | Glimpse location for audition (5) |
| SIGHT – Aural wordplay (for audition) of “SITE”, location. | |
| 21 | Strip of land is so close for naturism breaks (7) |
| ISTHMUS – IS in plain sight, then THUS for so, into which the last of naturisM breaks. | |
| 23 | Rest of America always entertained by partner (7) |
| LAYOVER – Equivalent on this side to stopover. AY for always is embraced by LOVER for partner. | |
| 24 | Blessed, perhaps in retirement, one receives zero capital (7) |
| NAIROBI – BRIAN Blessed is hinted at. Reverse (in retirement), add I, one, and insert O, zero. | |
| 25 | Allure of love affair started by girl on vacation (7) |
| GLAMOUR – Girl on vacation gives GL, love affair is AMOUR. | |
| 26 | Check clothing for second venture? (12) |
| REINVESTMENT – REIN for check and VESTMENT for clothing. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Clamour to support nude dancing in New Zealand city (7) |
| DUNEDIN – From the Gaelic for Edinburgh, apparently. DIN for clamour under and anagram (dancing) of NUDE. | |
| 2 | Like precious stone from old friend in Eton, originally (7) |
| OPALINE – O[ld] friend: PAL IN Eton’s first letter (originally) | |
| 3 | Method to transfer power damaged great source of water (4,5) |
| GEAR TRAIN – An anagram (damaged) of GREAT plus RAIN as source of water. | |
| 4 | Criticise some Tesla technicians (5) |
| SLATE – Hidden in TeSLA TEchnicians | |
| 5 | Wine box is upside-down, but not cold (7) |
| RETSINA – The box is a CANISTER, turned upside-down with its C[old] missing. | |
| 6 | Dresses Kelvin behind a northern station’s entrance (7) |
| KAFTANS – K[elvin] plus AFT for for behind, then A N[orthern] and the first of Station. | |
| 7 | Way to conceive of painting More novel (12) |
| IMPREGNATION – An anagram (novel) of PAINTING MORE | |
| 10 | They restore plush fitting? (12) |
| UPHOLSTERERS – &lit. An anagram (fitting, as in shaking in a fit) of RESTORE PLUSH. | |
| 15 | Official stopping trouble before departure (9) |
| PREFLIGHT – Official is REF, plugging a gap in PLIGHT for trouble. | |
| 17 | Endure starting late journey with legs apart (7) |
| ASTRIDE – Endure gives LAST, but the L is a late non-arrival. Journey is RIDE. | |
| 18 | Satirise a politician interrupting simpleton (7) |
| LAMPOON – A simpleton is a LOON, insert A MP for a politician. | |
| 19 | Yellow, after spilling guts in emergency? It’s possibly a nasty infection (7) |
| SPYWARE – Remove the “guts” from Y[ello]W and insert into SPARE, which for now I’ll count as an emergency inasmuch as a spare tyre is an emergency replacement. | |
| 20 | Stop working, as setter’s restricted by painful condition (4,3) |
| GIVE OUT – One of the versions of setter’s is I’VE. Insert into the painful condition of GOUT. | |
| 22 | Diet energy gunk (5) |
| SLIME – SLIM for diet plus E[nergy]. | |
Had no idea about DRONGO SHRIKE, knew ‘drone’ had to be in there somewhere but would never have thought of shrike even though I know the word, but at least I managed to parse it when it was revealed. Also couldn’t see GEAR TRAIN although I had the ‘train’ bit. Thought SPYWARE was very good. BLESSED also very clever for cluing ‘Brian’. Managed to see both of the long down anagrams straight off which helped. COD to GENIE.
Thanks Z and setter.
I found the two [minor] celebrity clues a bit weird, though I’d heard of them both. At least there was no need to parse the Blessed one. The bird was last in. I’d heard of shrikes, but drongo sounded more like a drum. Finally realised we had to lift and separate ‘cor blimey’ and in it went.
I found this one a bit underwhelming, all told.
24:03
I was very pleased to both get and correctly parse drongo shrike. But I got stuck at the bottom, where spyware, astride, and reinvestment proved difficult. I was taking clothing as an enclosure indicator, of course.
Time: 25:25
I’d only vaguely heard of Brian Blessed and Gene Vincent, and not at all heard of DRONGO SHRIKE. But got there in the end in dead on 25 minutes. Completely missed that UPHOLSTERERS was an anagram, I thought it was a weak cryptic definition but I had so many checkers it went straight in. My LOI was SPYWARE since I was cleverly misdirected to other types of infection.
19:46. Only knew DRONGO as an insult in Australia. But the wordplay was clear in the end. Took a while to realise it was SHRIKE and not SKRIKE (which I now remember is a dialectal word for ‘cry’). NHO Gene Vincent. Overall this puzzle felt formidable while looking at it, but then fell in a reasonable time. I could do without RETSINA appearing so often, as it seems vanishingly rare in real life – even the casual wine drinker probably knows about 10-15 varieties which certainly don’t include that!
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
If you lived in Greece (as we did for a while) or even visit on holidays (as millions do) retsina is hard to avoid! Although limited in range, it is on sale in UK supermarkets.
Fair enough! My experience of Greek alcohol is limited to never drinking Ouzo again after an overindulgent holiday to Kos with friends at age 16.
Oh that Ouzo! ( As Eartha Kitt may have sung). Dreaded stuff if consumed in over-large quantities.
As well as being a reversal of {c}ANISTER, RETSINA is, aptly, an anagram of NASTIER, so it’s naturally a wine of choice for the crossword setter, up there with ASTI and TENT.
Makes sense!
we have one drongo bird in Australia, the spangled d. it’s a good mimic with shiny black feathers and a forked tail. I had to resort to cm for shrike.
drongo as an insult refers to a hopeless racehorse.
COD to spyware for the clued misdirection ‘ infection’
This really excavated the memory bank. I confuse Gene (be-bop-a-lula) Vincent with Gene (duke of earl) Chandler and both go back to childhood when an older cousin somehow acquired those kind of 45s. As for Brian Blessed, that brought back the marginally more recent 70s I Claudius tv adaptation. Cor blimey, that was an all-star cast.
You’ve pointed me in the direction of some seriously good drama on TV now, Olivia. I Claudius was an amazing production.
every time I rewatch Claudius (jokingly referred to as ”Clavdivs” , from the pseudo inscription title) I marvel at the skill of the makeup artist who aged Sian Phillips as Livia. the resemblance to her gloriously natural face now is uncanny.
I took Brian to be Life of Brian’s Brian but got there anyway. Thanks Z, the blog made a number of things clear. Retsina is a wine? Well what do you know! I rather enjoyed this although I took a bit longer than what seems to be par, coming home in 32.49. LAYOVER, SLIME and SPYWARE were my last few in and held me up for a few minutes. When the penny finally dropped on the latter I felt like a DRONGO.
From One More Night:
One more night, the stars are in SIGHT
But tonight I’m as lonesome as can be
Oh the moon is shining bright, lighting everything in sight
But tonight no light will shine on me
See mine above re retsina
Retsina is a wine flavoured with pine needles. Common in Greece but not elsewhere. I rather like it, but getting good stuff is not easy and is well beyond supermarket capabilities, apparently.
I think, much like ouzo, retsina tastes fine in Greece but nowhere else. It’s the same with Ricard or Pernod – fine in France, but best left there. I’m sure there are other locally appealing refreshments which just don’t travel well, including, no doubt, some British ones.
49:30. I’m on a roll this week with three straight finishes.
DRONGO SHRIKE was a NHO, but seemed possible, with DRONE and GOSH. I didn’t get the CRIKEY bit. “Gosh, Crikey” sounds like peak Boris Johnson.
NHO Gene Vincent , so that one remained unparsed. Didn’t get the Brian Blessed connection, but as noted above, he was brilliant as Augustus in “I Claudius”.
COD GENIE, for “lamped servant”
Well, I finished this but needed more than an hour to do so.
NAIROBI shouted out at me but I was unable to parse it. I remember Blessed from the days of Z-Cars but have tried to put him out of my mind in recent years.
NHO DRONGO SHRIKE but I knew SHRIKE as a bird and with all checkers in place DRONGO was the only thing that fitted as the first word.
Just under the half hour. Testing but informative for me. Chambers doesn’t have ANTIFLU (or at least my edition doesn’t, harrumph) but the wordplay left no alternative. 1ac was LOI unsurprisingly but the wordplay again was very helpful. Delighted to see the late great Gene Vincent make an appearance. NAIROBI really inevitable once the crossers were in so I missed the appearance of Brian Blessed, surely an impossibility in real life.
COD has got to be 1ac.
Thanks to setter and Zabadak for the enlightenment.
1 Across – Aaaaaargh!!!
35 mins and quite tough in parts. Somehow managed to cobble together the NHO DRONGO SHRIKE. Didn’t parse it though. The SE gave me the most problems with L2I LAYOVER and SPYWARE. For once I saw the “celebities” at first glance!
I liked the long anagrams.
Thanks Z and setter.
I am nonplussed by “source of anger” as RED MIST, isn’t it more a result of anger, and “acting to prevent illness” for ANTIFLU, in what sense is it “acting”? But lots of excellent wordplay and I particularly enjoyed GENIE and SPYWARE. 34 minutes.
It’s ‘acting to prevent’ = ANTI
Wiktionary has Antiflu as adjective only which is a surprise to me, I thought it was a jab or something.
Thought this definitely qualified as TT. Very tricky in places and took some hours in two sessions. Lots of clever and mostly fair clues.
Liked 3d GEAR TRAIN, and LOI 26ac REINVESTMENT.
19d SPYWARE might be difficult for some.
11ac RED MIST as the ‘source of anger’ was a bit stretchy – although the construction was nice. MERs at the complicated parsing of 1ac (needed to look up a suitable bird to fit DRONE and GOSH with the crossers), and that one would know Brian in 24ac (got there without it).
Would be grateful for link to information on the Crossword Club referred to on this site at times and elsewhere.
Apologies for any crossings, will read.
Thank you setter and Zabadak.
10:02. I think I’ve heard of a DRONGO SHRIKE but a quick check reveals this is the first time it’s appeared here. Like dr shred I knew DRONGO as an Australian insult for which I have a misspent youth watching Neighbours to thank.
I finished with a PDM in SPYWARE – “Oh, that sort of infection!”.
31 mins. Interesting and inventive, tricky in places but I liked it.
HO Shrikes in general, there are UK species though never seen one. That clue was an epic all on its own.
Another for whom RED MIST is a symptom not a source.
Brian Blessed well known from Clavdivs and “Gordon’s alive?!”
LOI SPYWARE BIFD because I couldn’t make sense of Spare.
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
From Be-bop-a-lula, she’s my baby to Z Victor 1 to BD. My youth summed up. 48 minutes, with LOI DRONGO SHRIKE eventually constructed. I needed all crossers for the unheard-of LAYOVER and that followed a reluctant SPARE for emergency.To me, Brian Blessed will forever be Fancy Smith in Z Cars. A good fun puzzle but difficult to finish.
Well I quite liked this one, despite some very strange surface readings. Had heard of Gene Vincent, though somewhat before my time, and Brian Blessed was Kevin Costner’s father in some Robin Hood film or other, so that was OK.
Drongo shrike a nho for me, and interesting that we seem to be getting on better with it than with nine men’s morris yesterday…
Good point. Objectively I can only think that the crossers were more generous today. Both solutions are obscure, todays wp is tortuous while yesterday was rather neat. The components today perhaps require less GK.
Subjectively I put it down to my intense dislike of US sport and baseball in particular.
I put it down to the fact that I thought it had 11 players like the great game from which it is derived.
What, rounders?!
34 minutes. Hats off to anyone who was able to get DRONGO SHRIKE with no, or only a few, crossing letters; I needed them all but seeing the parsing made it worthwhile. The rest went in steadily enough with the UPHOLSTERERS &lit and the non-microbial ‘nasty infection’ for SPYWARE being my favourites. Good to see the Brian ‘Blessed’ reference, which like Jack and BW above, reminded me of Z-Cars .
DNF, defeated by DRONGO SHRIKE (I put DRONGO SHRAKE, thinking the bird was a drake and failing both to separate ‘cor’ and ‘blimey’ and to take the ‘curtailed’ into account) and SPYWARE, where I put STYWATE (thinking emergency=state).
No problems otherwise. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
COD Genie
Staggered to finish this accurately in 16’34”. Knew drone, gosh, shrike but cobbled together the answer. Interesting selection of oaths, ‘gosh’ being a corruption of ‘God’, Cor’ being short for Gawd blimey (God blind me) and ‘crikey’ a corruption of Christ.
Also had no idea why SPARE = emergency, stull seems dubious.
The career of Brian Blessed has already been heavily discussed – I’d like to add that I saw him in ‘Cats’ the musical in 1981, with Elaine Page and Wayne Sleep. And he’s famous in recent years for self-parodying shouting.
Thanks z and setter.
Surely spare is from “yellow, after spilling guts” ie yw and ar then e for emergency
22.23
Failed on the MORRIS yesterday but eventually parsed DRONGO SHRIKE today as my LOI after clocking GEAR TRAIN. Helped having the starting letters for both words but not really a fan of this sort of clunky w/p for what is a NHO for most folks. Did like some of the other clues though – ANTIFLU; SPYWARE and particularly UPHOLSTERERS.
Thanks Z and setter
I hadn’t heard of a drongo shrike before and wonder if many who aren’t twitchers would know. Spare as an emergency is very iffy IMO..the only time I hear spare is when a certain member of the royal family uses it as an excuse for nearly everything.
Okay puzzle, but completed it rather resentfully owing to the almost unworkable and insanely irritating new format on Windows PC / Edge browser.
Thanks, Z.
I’m using Firefox and didn’t notice any difference!
I’m seeing no difference in my phone (android) version in the crossword club though I can see the new version in the puzzle page. The new sudoku is also quite off-putting
In Windows I use Chrome because I am too lazy to swap and dislike microsoft even more than Google (“do no harm”… oh yeah?), and it works fine.
From SLATE to SPYWARE in 21:08. I managed to parse the RIKE bit of 1a just before submitting. The rest was done and dusted earlier. SPYWARE took a moment or two. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Z.
10:38 with the vaguely remembered bird the only real stumbling block.
Another DNF, failing at 1ac, which maybe I should have assembled but somehow didnt, even though I had the bird. COD UPHOLSTERERS was well constructed, though SPYWARE wasn’t I feel. Spent time thinking there was an ‘h’ somewhere in KAFTANS.
Thanks Zabadak and setter
34 for a difficult puzzle with a few interruptions to eke out the time even further. The bird was new to me, though CHOUGH SHRIKE would have been new to everyone, but I got there in the end. Just
Even with all the checkers I couldn’t believe it was DRONGO SHRIKE, but when I eventually parsed it it seemed possible. Two rather unsatisfactory clues where one needed to have heard of people, and I had thought there was a third, someone called Lance Pierce. But UPHOLSTERERS outstanding. 41 minutes.
34:08
NHO DRONGO SHRIKE, but it fitted the checkers and the wordplay, so it had to be.
Biffed NAIROBI as the only capital that would fit.
Took ages over my LOI, REINVESTMENT.
Thanks Z and setter