19:25. A decidedly tricky one from Dean this week. There are a couple of things I’m not quite sure of – comments in the individual clues (16dn, 23dn), help welcome!
I inadvertently (and briefly) posted this blog, half-finished, to the site last week. I’m completely mystified as to how this happened, not least because I was having a nap at the time! Apologies if I spoiled it for anyone.
I crashed and burned at the championship today (yesterday by the time you read this). The puzzles were very very hard, and I did particularly badly in the semifinal. Congratulations again to the great Mark Goodliffe and the other finalists. It was great fun as usual, lovely to catch up with the crew and a particularly delightful surprise in the form of an appearance from our friend ulaca. A real pleasure to meet you H and I’m sorry that I had to duck out a bit early to come home to supervise teenagers. As I write this they are in our sitting room listening to music and doing ‘pres’ (this is the plural of ‘pre’). It’s slightly terrifying, I’m looking forward to them all going off to their party and becoming somebody else’s problem.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Tough old deputy |
| EXACTING – EX, ACTING. | |
| 5 | When one chooses a cloth |
| AT WILL – A, TWILL. | |
| 9 | Backing more wins in this game |
| TUG OF WAR – CD. | |
| 10 | Year in schedule for Apollo, say |
| LYRIST – L(YR)IST. | |
| 12 | Somewhat left-wing, as “Spitting Image” |
| TWIN – contained in ‘left–wing’. | |
| 13 | Diminutive type taking run around arcade |
| SMALL PRINT – S(MALL)PRINT. | |
| 15 | Tainted 19 made it impure |
| CONTAMINATED – (CANNOT MADE IT)*. CANNOT being the answer to 19dn. | |
| 18 | Army on Israel manoeuvres? |
| ROYAL MARINES – (ARMY ON ISRAEL)*. &Lit. They are actually part of the Royal Navy but in a general sense they are an army I guess. Interesting that this crosses with the word JOLLY. Coincidence? Probably. | |
| 21 | Fuel modern technology in an ancient country |
| ANTHRACITE – AN, THRAC(IT)E. | |
| 22 | Pop over lower wall |
| DADO – DAD, O. | |
| 24 | Book taken from junk shop for repair |
| GARAGE – GAR |
|
| 25 | Silly anagram — cold drink |
| ARMAGNAC – (ANAGRAM)*, C. An anagram of ANAGRAM! I’m rather fond of the stuff, it’s usually a bit less refined than Cognac, but has more character. | |
| 26 | Eyes finally stop twinkling |
| STARRY – |
|
| 27 | Yarn cut by late morning for loom |
| THREATEN – THREA |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Type of car in Orient Express? |
| ESTATE – E, STATE. Excellent! | |
| 2 | Potter’s wheels in Medieval country |
| ANGLIA – DD. The car in the Harry Potter books and films is a Ford Anglia. | |
| 3 | Avoiding small, harsh words |
| TIFF – |
|
| 4 | Exclusive sign of 15 letters |
| NO ADMITTANCE – (CONTAMINATED)*. CONTAMINATED being the answer to 15ac. There isn’t really an anagram indicator in here, the clue is just telling you that the answer is made of the letters of CONTAMINATED. | |
| 6 | Barking pet is only a dog |
| TOY SPANIEL – (PET IS ONLY A)*. | |
| 7 | New member or pioneer |
| INITIATE – DD. | |
| 8 | Corny line not opening play |
| LATITUDE – |
|
| 11 | Travelling light to reach games |
| OLYMPIC TORCH – CD. | |
| 14 | Standard party, I understand |
| JOLLY ROGER – JOLLY (party), ROGER (I understand). | |
| 16 | Charges as an arrest’s announced |
| ARRAIGNS – sounds like ‘a reins’. I’m trying and failing to think of a context in which ‘rein’ can mean ‘arrest’ without the addition of the word ‘in’. | |
| 17 | Radical sympathiser ignores MP’s agitation |
| HYSTERIA – (SY |
|
| 19 | Is unable to find “forget it” in slang |
| CANNOT – CAN(NO)T. | |
| 20 | Bird, also called prison |
| TOUCAN – homophone of ‘too’, CAN. | |
| 23 | Go on, eat this |
| FARE – DD. I’m not sure about ‘go on’ for FARE. I think it requires ‘go on’ to be synonymous with ‘get on’, which it isn’t really, at least not in my idiolect. Close enough for me to feel reasonably confident in the answer though… assuming it’s right! | |
? Isn’t this the solution to today’s ( Sunday’s) crossword?
It was! Thanks for alerting me so that I could remove it fairly quickly.
Go on , eat this was DATE for me , which led to pink squares for my last one in. FARE works better, I do agree. Unfortunately -A-E was particularly resistant to an alphabet trawl.
I never did get FARE; it doesn’t quite work, as Keriothe indicates. And I don’t think ARRAIGNS works. I realize that Harry Potter is well-known, but ANGLIA seems a bit much; like clueing the name of the king’s horse in Richard II. I liked EXACTING & ESTATE.
I got CAKE. I don’t know why. Maybe I meant to go back and check it. Oh yes I remember now cake as in covering something. But evidently wrong.
I had CAKE for a while, on the same reasoning.
It crossed my mind.
I have to wonder if the Royal Marines have ever been on manœuvres in Israel…
They have been to the eastern Mediterranean. The Google AI overview says: “In October 2023, a company of Royal Marines was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean along with two Royal Navy support ships, RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Argus, to support Israel and deter regional instability. This deployment was part of a broader British military response to the Hamas attack on Israel, with the forces on standby to provide humanitarian support and monitor threats like weapon flows to Hezbollah.”
Good! That certainly makes the &lit better.
Too hard for me to complete without using aids quite liberally towards the end, by which time I had rather tired of the whole enterprise.
I didn’t know the Potter connection , but I am reasonably familiar with the old kingdoms of this land including (East) ANGLIA whose name survives to this day. My water is supplied by Anglian Water and for years Anglia TV provided my ITV channel. There was also a building society and a double-glazing company amongst many other examples.
For 23D I got : fa (a long long way to go) +’re’ = on
Ingenious but too much of a stretch IMO: ‘fa’ does not actually mean ‘a long way’ any more than ‘do’ is a deer a female deer.
Thanks for the blog keriothe. Like you, I’m enjoying some new word usage from teenagers. Pres is a good one, I also find myself using mid (not awful, but not very good) and potato quality (poor picture on a video stream) at work now.
Crossword-wise, I noted tough going but aids only right at the end. I’ve seen and read Potter but the model of the car didn’t lodge in my brain.
Over an hour for a hard one. I was so pleased to solve them near the end that the potential problems with both ARRAIGNS and FARE (like Simon above I wondered about FA RE but couldn’t convince myself) escaped me.
I don’t remember seeing Ford ANGLIA ESTATE(s) in this part of the world. Looking it up later, they weren’t officially sold here but a few were privately imported; probably worth a mint now.
Thanks to Dean & keriothe
I took a long time over this, but ultimately it was worth it. FARE was my last in, but I was perfectly happy with it once it dawned, as in other parts of the country people do say ‘how do you go on?’ However, I also like Simon’s solution, which seems plausible – ‘a longer way to go’. Of course, it doesn’t really matter how you get to the answer. I take your point about ARRAIGNS, however – a shower might have been a better substitute, though easier to solve, obviously.
Completed this one in what passes as correctly – bearing in mind comments already by blogger and others.
Particularly admired 9ac TUG OF WAR. Honorable mentions to 1d ESTATE, 6d TOY SPANIEL, and 11d OLYMPIC TORCH.
Like some others did/do not follow 18ac ROYAL MARINES and 23d FARE. STIFF for ‘harsh’ in 3d a bit stretched, and the homophone in 16d ARRAIGN?
Not really keen on references to other clues as in 15ac and 4d – although it seemed clear that an anagram was the intent with the latter.
Won’t be commenting on today’s in any case, as my friend got delayed poisoning in a bite from her cat (presenting after hours), so spent a really fun time waiting at a hospital emergency.
And as my reward after little sleep, get to feed the cat.
Actually, even as a dog person, this cat has character and was not intending to hurt.
Thanks setter and keriothe.
My thanks to Dean Mayer and keriothe.
I don’t think I found this hard. I do have a ? next to 23d but looking at it today I don’t see why.
I was more worried about 2d Anglia. I didn’t think it was Potters wheels, I thought they were Weasley’s? Am I being picky? Or is my memory at fault? Probably!
6d Toy Spaniel? Really? Well, I am offered some on google so it must be a thing.
16d Arraigns. Yes, no IN in the clue. I didn’t notice at the time. I suppose if you rein your horse we do understand you are stopping it.
23d Fare. I assumed that the first meaning was the bus fare. To go on the bus you are asked for the fare. Maybe.
I thought being expected to know a detail from that series of books (or movies) was asking a bit much, but maybe that’s just me.
28.51
A few lucky guesses (FARE ANGLIA and NO ADMITTANCE, the latter of which I completely misunderstood).
Not easy.
Thanks Keriothe and Dean.
Here oop north go on and get on can mean the same, e.g. “‘ow did you go on wi’ that lass t’other neet?”
I think Dean resides somewhere in the North West so it probably seemed natural to him. I landed on FARE relatively quickly and with no misgivings.
Thanks P, that confirms what alto_ego says above and is good enough for me.
Well the meaning is FAREly clear. The only way I could parse was ‘how are U going’ as in ‘how did U fare’.
I think that’s what is being said above after translating the northern or Scots.
Very late to this – DNF, beaten by most of the NW corner: EXACTING, TUG OF WAR, ANGLIA and TIFF all eluded me there, and I also didn’t get DADO or FARE. Hadn’t come across INITIATE meaning ‘new member’ before, but it wasn’t much of a stretch.
Thanks keriothe and Dean.
COD Hysteria
I got to Fare, but mostly because I didn’t think of date and couldn’t think of anything else. I wiggled my brain around your needing to pay a fare to go on a train or coach, which wasn’t very satisfactory but it was getting on toward dinner time an a glass of wine was calling. I liked Tug Of War.
Well, didn’t do half as well with this one as yesterday’s, but that was a Monday in your neck of the woods, so…
However, enjoyed tge challenge, once I got a few lookups under me belt EXACTING, LYRIST, THREATEN, FARE. But the few anagrams provided good helpful crossers, and just about the rest went in without cheating. Liked LATITUDE, JOLLY ROGER and EXACTING.
Thanks Dean and keriothe
In catch up mode still and found this tough – obviously his time off turned up his difficulty rating. It took over 2 hours across a couple of days to finish and bombed with DATE instead of FARE – always had qualms with it, but couldn’t think of an alternative !
Had to get help with a couple of the GK ones – the ‘Potter car’ and ‘Apollo’s lyre’. took longer than I should have to see the anagram for NO ADMITTANCE which was my last one in.
Was also fond of ARMAGNAC back in the day, but has been years since I’ve tasted it now.
PS Bad luck keriothe with your semi-final ‘crash and burn’ – still blows my mind that someone can do that level of puzzle in just over 8 minutes !!!