Solving time: 80 minutes. Very slow. The grid contains a handful of gimmes but some clues involve very intricate wordplay.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Only fair (4) |
| JUST | |
| Two meanings | |
| 3 | Special tool for cutting small tree, if Ken is bothered (5,5) |
| STEAK KNIFE | |
| S (small), TEAK (tree), anagram [bothered] of IF KEN | |
| 10 | Sir Arthur missing a new and an old ball? (7) |
| CONDYLE | |
| CON{an} D{o}YLE (Sir Arthur) [missing a + n (new) and an o (old)]. Collins: the rounded projection on the articulating end of a bone, such as the ball portion of a ball-and-socket joint. The lesser-spotted ‘condyle’ has never been seen in these parts before or since its one appearance in a Club Monthly 10 years ago. | |
| 11 | Work with paper in Tokyo, Riga, Miami (7) |
| ORIGAMI | |
| Hidden [in] {Toky}O RIGA MI{ami} | |
| 12 | Animated Child Catcher of UK’s ultimate auteur (6,9) |
| ALFRED HITCHCOCK | |
| Anagram [animated] of CHILD CATCHER OF, then {u}K [’s ultimate] | |
| 13 | Remarkable message (6) |
| SIGNAL | |
| Two meanings | |
| 14 | Show respect, then show disrespect when receiving king in Spar (8) |
| BOWSPRIT | |
| BOW (show respect), SP~IT (show disrespect) containing [when receiving] R (king). A spar running out from a ship’s bow, to which the forestays are fastened. | |
| 17 | Solo quietly leaving excellent hotel celebration (8) |
| HANUKKAH | |
| HAN (Solo), then {p}UKKA (excellent), [quietly leaving], H (hotel – phonetic alphabet). I’ve never seen Star Wars so I had to check the Solo reference whilst blogging. | |
| 18 | After exercise bubblier, regularly lost a stone (6) |
| PEBBLE | |
| PE (exercise), B{u}B{b}L{i}E{r} [regularly lost] | |
| 21 | Copy FT and publish extent of emissions (6,9) |
| CARBON FOOTPRINT | |
| CARBON (copy), FOOT (FT), PRINT (publish) | |
| 23 | Back in Tehran, I’m escaping group meeting (7) |
| SEMINAR | |
| Hidden and reversed [back in] {Teh}RAN I’M ES{caping} | |
| 24 | Boots might have this pain ointment initially by November (7) |
| CRAMPON | |
| CRAMP (pain), O{intment} [initially], N (November – phonetic alphabet). A boot might have this; boots might have crampons. | |
| 25 | Women’s drunken hen party crashed by maiden Daphne? (5,5) |
| WATER NYMPH | |
| W (women), then M (maiden) contained [crashed by] anagram [drunken] of HEN PARTY | |
| 26 | Star last to depart Sin City (4) |
| VEGA | |
| VEGA{s} (Sin City) [last to depart]. The nickname for Las Vegas is thought to have originated in the 1930s. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Charlie, a contract killer missing his last shots, exhausted (7) |
| JACKASS | |
| JACKA{l} ( a contract killer) [missing his last], S{hot}S [exhausted] | |
| 2 | Next generation Colt a bit of a rascal? (3,2,1,3) |
| SON OF A GUN | |
| A cryptic hint with reference to the fire-arm manufacturer Samuel Colt precedes the main definition of the jocular American expression meaning a rogue or rascal. I associate it with the bewhiskered actor George ‘Gaby’ Hayes who appeared in many old Westerns on film and TV. | |
| 4 | Laugh almost about tense work to cut ivory (6) |
| TEETHE | |
| TEE~HE{e} (laugh almost) containing [about] T (tense). I suppose ‘work to’ belongs with the definition but am not at all sure. It’d be too intrusive as a filler. | |
| 5 | Taking on commercial financial derivative (8) |
| ADOPTION | |
| AD (commercial), OPTION (financial derivative) | |
| 6 | Order, order at length irks PM (7,7) |
| KNIGHTS TEMPLAR | |
| Angram [order] AT LENGTH IRKS PM | |
| 7 | Moon landing had upset state (5) |
| IDAHO | |
| IO (moon of Jupiter) containing [landing] HAD reversed [upset] | |
| 8 | Alternative to paper for those trying to make plane? (1-6) |
| E-TICKET | |
| Cryptic definition | |
| 9 | Phone card Kerry lost somewhere on the Tube (4,4,6) |
| HYDE PARK CORNER | |
| Anagram [lost] of PHONE CARD KERRY. It’s a stop on the Piccadilly line. | |
| 15 | Fed up with this chatter, a constant for those attending (6,3) |
| RABBIT PIE | |
| RABBIT (chatter), then aural wordplay [for those attending] PIE / “pi” (constant) | |
| 16 | With which to reach Spooner’s distant county? (3-5) |
| CAR-FERRY | |
| Or as Spooner would have it: FAR (distant) + KERRY (county). I think the definition has to be the whole thing to make any sort of sense although ‘Spooner’ is only there to indicate wordplay. | |
| 17 | Journalist witnessed item smuggled into gaol? (7) |
| HACKSAW | |
| HACK (journalist), SAW (witnessed) | |
| 19 | Land reportedly more rocky beneath earth (7) |
| ESTONIA | |
| E (Earth), then aural wordplay [reportedly] STONIA / “stonier” [more rocky] | |
| 20 | Mafia family boss killing over hat (6) |
| MOBCAP | |
| MOB CAP{o} (Mafia family boss) [killing over]. A woman’s large cotton cap especially during the 18th century. | |
| 22 | Relax with joint cycling (5) |
| REMIT | |
| MIT/RE (joint) ‘cycling’ becomes RE/MIT | |
I had to cheat for CONDYLE!
Most of this went in pretty quickly, though I was fighting a desire for a nap. Ran up against that near the end. The definition for REMIT must be the rarest now in use. LOI RABBIT PIE.
I thought remit was referring to the relaxing of a sentence or debt. Turns out I made a lucky guess!
Condyle escaped me, as did Hannukah, do to a different variant spelling I am used to. Not bothered by those! Failed to get crampon and thus Rabbit pie eluded me, rather cross about both of those, maybe should have tried a little longer, but had to get going! Geeat fun, thanks, Cx
31:50 but
Like Guy, I cheated on DNK CONDYLE; got the CONAN -AN part, but not the DOYLE – O part. I realized when I finally got CRAMPON that I didn’t know they went on boots. RABBIT PIE took a long time; or rather, PIE did; ‘fed up’ does not mean ‘fed’. I don’t see what ‘work’ is doing; teething may be painful, but it’s not effortful.
Worked out CONDYLE but came up short on 21D, where I had ‘topcat.’ Never spotted the purpose of ‘killing.’
All not done in 45minutes.
20dn?
My solution was complete and fully parsed, even though I found condyle hard to believe. But if the cryptic is pointing to it, and the crossing letters support it, then that must be it. The parsings of Hanukkah and jackass were outrageous, and I had so study them carefully to make sure they were correct. I thought I was looking for an order along the lines of a Knight’s Cross, so the Templars came as a complete surprise. I ended up in the crampon/rabbit pie crossing, and then needed an alphabet trawl for mobcap.
Time: 52:00
A DNF in 50 minutes. The same as ulaca for 21d with a TOPCAP, having NHO MOBCAP and as icing on the cake a typo for ALFRED HITCHCOCK. The parsing for the uncommon word CONDYLE wasn’t obvious and both TEETHE (I’m not sure what ‘work’ is doing either) and RABBIT PIE took some figuring out. Harder than the usual Tuesday puzzle.
I struggled with words that I solved the wordplay for but didn’t know were words: CONDYLE and BOWSPRIT in particular. REMIT was the only word I could see that fit, but didnt clock the possible meaning as Relax. MOBCAP was the ultimate hold up as Chambers has it only as two words so even when I checked it wasn’t there. Still, plenty of fun clues to make up for it.
Went with doncap for 21d so DNF in about 48 mins.
18.00
Tricky.
I knew epiCONDYLE, having fractured one as a child while playing darts (the board was laid on the ground beneath the tree from which I fell).
I’m not keen on clues that use capitals where there should be no capitals (FT for ft), but otherwise fair enough.
COD + LOI MOBCAP (I missed “killing over”, but vaguely remembered the cap). Possible reference to Frankie ‘The Hat’ DiStefano, of the Gambino family?
I liked this one, some inventive clues and very nice surfaces.
No problem with CONDYLE, follow the instructions and it is what you get. Nho, but that doesn’t matter. I see that I blogged the Club Monthly Jackkt mentions, ten years ago, but it was epicondyle there and anyway, remembering words only met in a club monthly has never been possible for me.
I mucked around with Sir Arthur’s name endlessly but CONDYLE never showed up, so a DNF in about 40. I found a lot of this very hard and I’m still puzzled by the TEETHE and REMIT defs. Nice going Jack, and here we were thinking Tuesday would probably be easy…
From Highway 61 Revisited:
Now the roving gambler he was very bored, he was trying to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before but yes,
I think it can be very easily done
We’ll JUST put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61
Again pleased and a bit surprised to finish this correctly, in 28’06”.
CONDYLE worked out but still disbelieved. I have been to HYDE PARK CORNER, very strangely named as the park has several. REMIT based on wordplay, but now think of prison sentences or other penalties being remitted.
Didn’t think about TEETHE, what about teething rings, or rubbing the gum?
Like others, CRAMPON and then MOBCAP LOsI – I have a vision of a dairymaid?
Thanks jack and setter.
67 minutes with LOI REMIT. I pencilled in CONDYLE straightway without having any idea what it was and fortunately never had to change it. HYDE PARK CORNER took a long time to come in, and I live at the end of the Piccadilly Line. It’s only memorable as a station for the rather worrying pedestrian underpasses. COD to E-TICKET. A tough and not always fair puzzle. Thank you Jack and setter.
Just one short at 45 mins, MOBCAP, where I went with DONCAP, isn’t the head of a Mafi family the Don? NHO MOBCAP, only word that I knew that fitted was TOECAP.
Pleased to guess CONADYLE, and struggled with TEETHE.
NHO the slang RABBIT PIE, in cricket it means cleaning up the tail-Enders.
Didn’t understand REMIT.
COD JACKASS
33 mins but I missed mobcap. At various times I had icecap and doncap- very frustrating especially as I thought this was a Friday strength puzzle.
COD hacksaw made me smile.
27 minutes with interruption. I think I rode my luck on this one. Always a boost when 1a goes straight in.
Couldn’t see how JACKASS worked. A wrong approach of taking the first letters of ‘a contract killer’ let me stumble into that one. I did think ‘missing his last’ was doing too much work there.
Couldn’t see how HANUKKAH worked (oh that solo) but was pretty obvious from the crossers with some hesitation about how it was correctly spelt.
NHO CONDYLE. Thankfully only one Sir Arthur was coming to mind this morning.
NHO BOWSPRIT. LOI after abandoning my approach of thinking of a word for a fight and trying to get the two shorter synonyms.
Also solved MOBCAP wrong having CAP as killing . I thought I had heard both used as a noun before in gangster movies.
The setter really wanted to use the letter K in this one which also helped.
Thanks setter and blogger.
DNF, defeated by the unknown MOBCAP (I see I’m in good company). I thought of capo, but I never worked out what ‘killing over’ was doing.
– NHO CONDYLE but eventually worked it out and thought it looked plausible
– Couldn’t have told you what a BOWSPRIT is, but got there from wordplay
– Didn’t see how RABBIT PIE worked as I missed that ‘for those attending’ was indicating a homophone
– Took ages to remember the ‘relax’ meaning of REMIT
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Carbon footprint
31 mins. Didn’t parse JACKASS or Hitchcock, needed Pukka to spell the celebration but unlike yesterday managed to construct the NHO CONDYLE at the end.
LOI SIGNAL which I have struggled with before.
COD WATER NYMPH.
Tough start to the week, thanks jackkt and setter.
42 mins with LOI TEETHE. Uderstood the teehee bit but still don’t really how “work to cut ivory” works?
The NHO CONDYLE worked out from very strictly following the wp. Phew.
I liked SON OF A GUN & RABBIT PIE and the neat anagram for AH.
Thanks Jack and setter.
DNF. Lots of fairly accessible clues apart from the obvious few. I got to NHO CONDYLE and eventually to the NHO MOBCAP after an alphabet trawl, neither of which I fully believed. It didn’t matter anyway as I failed at BOWSPRIT. I thought of pole, boxing and even the local corner shop for Spar. On review I see I also had TEETHs for a baby working their ivories.
Second attempt to comment having failed to save the first one… Thanks Jackkt and setter.
I liked this one too, although as others above, had to look up CONDYLE to check it and didn’t like the PIE part of the rabbit thing. Fed up meaning fed? Nice anagrams.
35 minutes.
22.22. I very nearly put ESTANCIA for land at 19d, my last, and spent quite a while muttering “stancia” trying to make it sound rocky.
I guessed HANUKKAH from the crossings, ignoring alternative spellings, then stubbornly decided to work out the rather good wordplay. CONDYLE was pretty much the other way round, following the clever wordplay before stubbornly deciding it had to be a word.
Eventually enjoyed this quirky challenge.
25:34
Some gimmes and some that took a lot more brainpower. CONDYLE from the cryptic. Not much idea what was going on with 12a (not really knowing what an auteur is) – EARTHWORK? PITCHFORK? Ah, HITCHCOCK! And CARBON FOOTPRINT required four checkers and considerable thought. LOI MOBCAP and not keen on REMIT which I didn’t really get until coming here.
Thanks Jack and setter
Just under 30 minutes and very surprised too!
CONDYLE was my LOI, and would have taken longer if Conan Doyle wasn’t pretty much the only Sir Arthur I know. MOBCAP took far longer than it should and I really liked HANUKKAH for the Han Solo reference.
That was tricky! From JUST to CONDYLE, which I worked out and checked, in 25:21. KNIGHTS TEMPLAR and CARBON FOOTPRINT came easily and provided much needed crossers. HYDE PARK CORNER dropped in after I got the O and N from CARBON and SEMINAR and wrote out the anagrist. Took ages to see TEETHE. The H from Alfred helped. Thanks setter and Jack.
20.50
TEETHE and MOBCAP last two in and needed alpha-trawls. I like clues like CONDYLE where the w/p is clear (as long as you know the name tbf).
Thanks Jackkt and setter.
A condyle is not a ball. A condyle is a rounded knuckle-like protuberance such as found in the knee and knuckle joints.
Ball and socket joints (such as hips) are completely different.
I was never going to get the spelling of HANUKKAH right having failed to see either of the cryptic components, so called it a day after 24 minutes. Spent quite a while unsuccessfully trying to parse MOBCAP so thank you for the explanation.
Thanks to jackkt and setter.
Slow was the word. Hard especially for a Tuesday. I cheated quite a bit.
10a NHO Condyle. Sullivan didn’t fit so it was the other Sir Arthur. I could see how the clue worked but never thought it was a word, so I cheated. I don’t do the Club Monthly, and even if I did I wouldn’t remember such a word for 10 years.
12a Hitch. Should have got this immediately from auteur, but I didn’t so I cheated.
1d Jackass. Jackals also fit. I forgot about the Day Of The Jackal, so was a bit foxed.
6d COD Knights T. I didn’t have to cheat.
15d Rabbit Pie biffed. I could see Pi, constant, but didn’t catch “those attending”.
DNF
I pressed submit after 30:43 to find that I had two words wrong.
TOPCAP seemed like a plausible hat, and a Top Capo a plausible Mafia boss.
I had constructed BOWSTRUT from BOWS + R inside TUT. I should have remembered BOWSPRIT, which I have heard of.
NHO CONDYLE, but managed to construct it correctly.
Thanks Jack and setter
30 mins approx, nice puzzle. Teethe was excellent, also Hanukkah.
At the end of The Day of the Jackal, police feel certain that they have identified the jackal (who died unidentified) as one Charles Calthrop (Cha- Cal = chacal, the French word for jackal.) Then Charles Calthrop turns up, asking the police what they are doing in his flat. Did the setter deliberately use Charlie to mean jackass, knowing this literary factette?
We will never know for sure, but an excellent piece of sleuthing on your part!