Time taken: 7:54 – but looking at the early solving times I must have been way on the setter’s wavelength or I knew the references quickly, because my time is better than the solvers I usually compare myself to.
Maybe it’s biffy Thursday too, because there are a number I put in from definitions and some generous enumeration though I saw the wordplay pretty quickly at a second glance. Trusting the wordplay here is key too, as it helped me with a new definition for me.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Run on the cards for Brighton supporter? (4,5) |
| DECK CHAIR – CHAIR(run a meeting) next to DECK(the cards) | |
| 6 | Dead formidable (5) |
| STIFF – double definition | |
| 9 | Captive, one dined upon by brown bear (7) |
| CONTAIN – CON(captive), then I(one) inside TAN(brown) | |
| 10 | Neckerchief, item that’s curved round forehead, finally (7) |
| BANDANA -BANANA(item that’s curved) surrounding the last letter in foreheaD | |
| 11 | Eighth of twenty-four retired volunteers (5) |
| THETA – retired volunteers are THE TA. The twenty-four are the Greek Alphabet | |
| 12 | See wire in explosive, famously the shorter one of two? (5,4) |
| ERNIE WISE – anagram of SEE,WIRE,IN – the taller being Eirc Morecambe | |
| 13 | Student, dude bagging degree after vacation (5) |
| CADET – CAT(dude) containing the external letters of DegreE | |
| 14 | Moving gammy toenail, second to cut through it (9) |
| EMOTIONAL – anagram of TOENAIL containing MO(second) | |
| 17 | Mediocre business reportedly shown (9) |
| PORTRAYED -homophone of POOR(mediocre) TRADE(business) | |
| 18 | A Briton in cravat (5) |
| ASCOT – A, SCOT(Briton) | |
| 19 | Thin dresses seem, initially, really immoral (9) |
| DISSOLUTE – DILUTE(thin) containing the first letter of Seem and SO(really) | |
| 22 | Keeper’s disappointment having dropped header (5) |
| OWNER -DOWNER(disappointment) minus the first letter | |
| 24 | Hoot with gusto on a pub crawl? (7) |
| BOOZING – BOO(hoot) and ZING(gusto) | |
| 25 | Home on pasture most inadequate (7) |
| LEANEST – NEST(home) after LEA(pasture) | |
| 26 | Grimace, get cold and freeze in the end (5) |
| WINCE – WIN(get), C(cold) and the last letter of freezE | |
| 27 | City reportedly was aware of move involving King (9) |
| NEWCASTLE – homophone of KNEW(was aware of), then CASTLE(a move in chess involving the king) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Passage encapsulating a historical piece (5) |
| DUCAT – DUCT(passage) containing A | |
| 2 | Challenger in blue and red? (9) |
| CONTENDER – CON(blue, conservative) and TENDER(red, raw) | |
| 3 | Individual account breaks set of rules (9) |
| CHARACTER – AC(account) inside CHARTER(set of rules) | |
| 4 | After one musical, prepare to shoot another one (5,3,4,3) |
| ANNIE GET YOUR GUN – the first musical is ANNIE, then GET YOUR GUN(prepare to shoot) | |
| 5 | House in quarter of an acre collapsed: that was painful for spirit (5,10) |
| ROBIN GOODFELLOW – BINGO(house) inside ROOD(a quarter of an acre), FELL(collapsed) then OW(that was painful) | |
| 6 | As spacious in certain houses (5) |
| SINCE – hidden inside spaciouS IN CErtain | |
| 7 | Japanese pots: I ruin one (5) |
| IMARI – I, MAR(ruin), I(one) | |
| 8 | Jack perhaps set about burying old bean (9) |
| FLAGEOLET – FLAG(Jack, perhaps) then TELE(set) reversed containing O(old). I knew this was a musical instrument, didn’t know it as a bean | |
| 13 | Curvy feature of trap shooter (6,3) |
| CUPIDS BOW -double definition. Nice use of trap in the clue. | |
| 15 | Lover very soon supported by a sailor after capsizing (9) |
| INAMORATA – IN A MO(very soon) over A, TAR(sailor) all reversed | |
| 16 | Plea when case’s beginning in midday trial (2,7) |
| NO CONTEST – first letter of Case inside NOON(midday) TEST(trial) | |
| 20 | Cut topping of sauce on cornet? (5) |
| SHORN – first letter of Sauce, then HORN(cornet) | |
| 21 | Nothing good is mothballed (2,3) |
| ON ICE – O(nothing), NICE(good) | |
| 23 | On top of tree, that is secure again (5) |
| RETIE – RE(on), the first letter of Tree, then IE(that is) | |
I saw ANNIE GET YOUR GUN right off the bat, and then had eight more Downs before I started working words with checkers. Got hung up a bit at the end in the NW. DECK CHAIR had to be right, though I didn’t think of the relevant sense of CHAIR. D’oh!
Snap, on run/chair.
32:40
I failed to parse a few: DECK CHAIR, CONTENDER, ROBIN G., FLAGEOLET. DNK the bean. I liked CUPIDS BOW.
I started out thinking I was doing the Quickie, since I had put the wrong puzzle on my clipboard, and only had 14 minutes available to solve. I did flash through the right-hand side, although it seemed hard, only to get thoroughly stuck. Robin Goodfellow was obvious enough, but Annie Get Your Gun wouldn’t come, and I had to stop the clock. When I returned, dissolute jumped into my head and I was off again. Flageolet was a little tricky – I did biff it, but then I had to parse it to be sure of the spellng. Portrayed was difficult because my Y looked like a U!
Time: 32:19
37 minutes. I liked DECK CHAIR when I eventually saw it. If I have met IMARI before I had forgotten it.
29338, which you commented on.
22 I spoil one type of porcelain (5)
😉
As I said…
46 minutes. Generally slow, not helped by the first couple of across clues which I didn’t think were easy, but the one I was most annoyed about was THETA. It’s close to a crossword certainty that ‘retired volunteers’ will be THE TA, but I just couldn’t see it, instead trying in vain to remember the Greek alphabet, something I’ve never taken the trouble to learn properly. Pleasant reminders of a couple of songs: “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun” and “The Hippopotamus Song”.
Thanks to George and to previous crosswords for FLAGEOLET and ROBIN GOODFELLOW.
At some point the crossword certainties will have to be updated. I think I am right in saying the TA no longer exists and it is now the Army Reserve. So volunteers will surely need to become AR instead of TA.
Sorry for late reply. See Hufflepuff’s post and replies further down in these comments. As JerryW says, I think the setter is acknowledging that the TA no longer exists by the use of ‘retired’.
I learnt the Greek alphabet about a week after going to Uni to do Mechanical Engineering. About the third lecture was some flavour of maths and we all gasped when the board filled up with squiggles. “Don’t you know the Greek alphabet?”
“No, except mu and theta and delta”
“Well learn it then.”
36′ – it took me a full 16 minutes of staring to get LOsI DUCAT/CONTAIN, and CONTAIN went in completely misparsed, thinking it meant ‘captive’ somehow. After spending 10 minutes or more twice this week to get the last one or two clues, I’m wondering if it’s worth sticking it out like that.
DNK the labial meaning of Cupid’s bow, so ‘trap’ for ‘mouth’ is lovely bathos in context.
39.48, but I had no idea about so many that I feel that I’m here under false pretences. Even post-solve the parsing of CONTENDER and FLAGEOLET eluded me, so thanks G. Not an easy day but an enjoyable challenge.
From I Contain Multitudes:
Everything’s flowing all at the same time
I live on the boulevard of crime
I drive fast cars and I eat fast foods
I CONTAIN multitudes
Hang in there- many of us feel the same, especially when we get towards the end of the week.
Yes, I think TENDER a stretch for ‘red’, particularly in context with CON for ‘blue’.
Done, but took a while. RHS much easier than LHS.
FOI was IMARI which was a NHO for me until a couple of weeks ago.
LOI FLAGEOLET, NHO. Just too hard to construct with both Jack and “set” having too many options. Got the parsing right, but “set” has dozens of meanings (“gel” is one I’ve seen before) and I’ve never spelt Telly, Tele. Had to look up bean varieties and there it was.
I had forgotten rood as the area bound by a rod times a chain.
NHO CUPIDS BOW on the mouth, so that was a late entry.
Tricky this, though I never actually ground to a halt. Several were easier to solve than to parse, eg 2, 5dn.
13dn easier having recently watched a documentary about Twiggy.
COD to the suitably awful homophone PORTRAYED.
I enjoyed the challenge today and especially appreciated that the answers I didn’t know (i.e., INARI and ROBIN GOODFELLOW) were reasonably attainable from the wordplay and checking letters.
My only MER — and it was very minor — involved the clue for FLAGEOLET. As an American, I didn’t know “tele” is equivalent to “telly” so that was my LOI. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
COD was a draw between DECK CHAIR and INAMORATA.
Thank you glh and setter.
p.s. an alternative clue for FLAGEOLET could be “My inside even contains ol’ bean!”
I like your alternative which eliminates the non-word “tele”. Although my=GEE is one I always forget.
38 minutes with LOI the hidden SINCE. I saw the musical and the one with the short fat hairy legs quickly, and ROBIN GOODFELLOW wasn’t far behind. But I was ages hitting the target with CUPID’S BOW. As in crosswords, so in life. Good puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
27:24 and pleased with that. Nice puzzle, challenging but nothing too obscure. Needed to come here for parsing of CHAIR and FLAGEOLET.
Particularly enjoyed CONTENDER, THETA and a very rare COD for a homophone in PORTRAYED.
Thanks to glh and a friendly Thursday setter
DNF, defeated by FLAGEOLET (couldn’t get away from Jack meaning a sailor of some kind).
– Couldn’t parse DISSOLUTE
– Didn’t know a rood is a quarter of an acre so had no idea how ROBIN GOODFELLOW worked
– Had to trust that IMARI are Japanese pots
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Ernie Wise
Yes, DISSOLUTE was for us like a number of clues where crossers and possible meaning suggested an answer, but parsing was elusive. In this case, DILUTE opened it up.
I rather biffed my way through this after a slow start, without enjoying it perhaps as much as I should have done now that I see how bits of it work.
FOI EMOTIONAL
LOI CONTAIN
COD ERNIE WISE
TIME 12:41
11:07. This was tricky in the middle: I started and finished at a decent pace but got a little bogged down in between.
Was a bit puzzled by 1ac, failing to think of the required meaning of CHAIR. Doh!
FLAGEOLETs are delicious, and they go particularly well with lamb.
Decided to have a go at this daily and completed in two sessions – like some others RHS a little easier than LHS, but no gimme.
Admired 17ac PORTRAYED for entertainment, 18ac ASCOTas clean and concise, and 15d INAMORATA – worked from clue but checked.
Not so fussed on ‘run’ = CHAIR in 1ac, ‘hoot’ = BOO in 24ac – although listed in Chambers which is where we cheated, and 13d CUPIDS BOW while clever.
Also had to come here to see BINGO = ‘house’ 5d (yeah, OK) and some ‘research’ also required to confirm ROBIN GOODFELLOW (NHO).
The chess move I believe is called ‘castling’ but a NEW CASTLE would be a move for a King too – which is how I saw it.
Apologies for any crossings, I will read over your day.
Thank you setter and the speedy glh. Still waiting for info on those drugs.
I decided not to castle, leaving my king in the centre.
Well, not quite the centre – as the King and Queen sit side by side.
Not sure what else Ur message intended, but happy to hear.
22’14”, enjoyed this puzzle. Really liked CUPID’S BOW. FLAGEOLET took a while, as did DUCAT as I was fixated on ‘piece’ as a gun, inspired by the musicals.
Thanks george and setter.
25:20. I found this tricky and got stuck in the NW corner for ages at the end. Then when I saw the answers I wondered why it had taken me so long to see them. LOI THETA. COD to PORTRAYED. Thanks George and setter.
Very tricky – took me close to 50 minutes – struggled horribly after the RHS went in easy! But quite a few pleasurable “doh” moments. Hats off to the setter.
A shade over an hour for this – our blogger’s time looks all the more impressive now that I see what he was up against, and hats off to him!
LOI was FLAGELOET, and not happy at all about the TELE = TV SET parsing in any way, shape or form. Who calls it a ‘TELE’ in writing? It’s either telly or TV, surely. Grump grump grump.
Apart from that, there were some brilliant surfaces: CUPID’S BOW had me for ages, as did CONTENDER which now looks rather easy (d’oh). Also liked THETA (yes, I had THREE for a while which didn’t help the NW corner one bit). WINCE was my COD. Thanks blogger and setter!
I think ‘tele’ for TV is a bit dated (and certainly not something I would use), but there are lots of written examples of it in the OED.
Extremely dated, even to these old ears. Would have been happier with at least some sort of obscurity indicator .
14.50. I was resigned to another long struggle (this week’s been like that for me) after nothing dawned in the NW corner. But I was rescued by the two long ones, which, together with Eric’s companion, fell like manna from heaven. Thereafter, the other three quarters seemed made of similar generous stuff, giving just enough to make my blank section workable.
Like BletchleyReject, INAMORATA conjured the image of the regular army of hippopotAmi wallowing in the Flanders (and Swann) mud. I don’t think I’ve met the word anywhere else!
Thanks George, especially for CHAIR and FLAGEOLET, both of which I entered incompletely parsed.
26:37
Not too bad, but had plenty of fun trying to justify some of the answers – a few bits were missed:
DECK CHAIR – got the cards reference but missed run = CHAIR. Took a while as had a pencilled PRETENDER at 2d
DISSOLUTE – failed to parse
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN – Until now, I thought ANNIE and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN were the same story – not seen either
ROBIN GOODFELLOW – could see the FELL and OW at the end, but couldn’t make sense of the rest
TELE = set? Though I got it, it grated
Thanks G and setter
Moderately chewy, but all done in 25 minutes, nothing unknown but a few like ROBIN G put in without parsing. I liked THETA when the penny dropped, the Morecambe and Wise one, and the POOR TRADE homophone. I had the RH side finished before getting into the left.
Thanks glh and setter.
I’ve got to go and haven’t read most of the above, sorry for any irrelevancies.
Well it didn’t take long to biff; 1a Deck Chair. I saw the deck, the R at the end of chaiR and shrugged. Oh dear.
6a Stiff, I wasn’t 100% on the second def.
11a Theta. Took an age for the PDM.
19a Dissolute biffed.
1d Ducat, wasn’t 100% on duct=passage.
4d Annie NHO the first musical.
5d Robin G biffed. That was complicated, thanks glh. DNK rood = 1/4 acre, 1210 sq yds. In Chester it is (was) 64 sq yds, and also obsolete 5.5 yds linear. I HHO rod, pole, perch, 22 yds (*EDIT, that’s a chain, I meant 5.5 yds), but that would not have helped.
8d Flageolet DNK it was also an instrument.
13d Cupids Bow. I started with Cupids Lip which didn’t help.
I drew acomplete blank in the NW so switched my attention to the SE where RETIE and OWNER set me on my way. The RHS filled fairly quickly and by a strange coincidence, last night I was watching a narrowboat Vlog from the Stratford area which covered ROBIN GOODFELLOW in detail, so that was a write in. The SW took a little longer but came to heel. However I was totally breeze blocked in the NW. After an age, I finally saw DECK CHAIR, then CHARACTER, CONTENDER, CONTAIN, DUCAT and lastly THETA dropped into place. I’d actually considered THETA as the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet much earlier but couldn’t account for THE. Doh!! A sluggish 43:57. Thanks setter and George.
13:40 One of those that was straightforward if you know stuff like beans and Japanese pottery, plus the two very biffable long ones provided lots of early checkers.
On the wavelength. Only troubles were parsing 1ac CHAIR, though I guessed the answer on first read (Brighton Beach is 10 ks away in Perth, Australia). Ultimately a DNF – remembered FLAGEOLET from past puzzles, but not its spelling, and couldn’t parse it. Had O in GEL as set, except of course the G was part of flag. Like intentional rounding above I’d spell telly as telly. Oh, well.
Theta 8th? Who knew? Ernie short? Likewise?
But very nice nevertheless… also liked portrayed even generally not liking homophones, and some nice add a few letter clues: dissolute, character, emotional.
One issue – I don’t get why the TA are “retired” volunteers? You have to be age 18-43 to join after all.
I’m sure there’s an explanation
Enjoyed a less challenging Thursday puzzle.
Perhaps lulling us into a false sense of security for those attending Times Crossword Championship on Saturday
Because they are no longer called that. They are called the Army Reserve, now.
And crossword setters never got over it, along with the NUM, ICI and the various nursing qualifications.
Also when an officer left the forces (Army) for whatever reason (apart from dishonourable discharge) he was automatically enrolled onto TARO, the reserve list, to be called up in short order if young enough, and often did have a role in the TA as well to keep his hand in.
49:15 Quite pleased to be under the hour given the foregoing comments by those more capable than I. NHO IMARI but was fairly obvious. Held up my NW corner where I thought the references were more obscure.
I didn’t love this one, though I finished in around my average time. I didn’t care for IMARI, in my view an obscurity clued unhelpfully. I rejected IZAPI and put in IMARI but without much confidence, thinking I might be overlooking another 3 letter word that could mean ruin. I also didn’t like THETA. I think its reasonable to expect solvers to know (at least the better known) letters of the Greek alphabet, but not the order.
28 minutes but technically DNF due to a stupid typing error. More haste less speed!
Biffed THETA as I couldn’t think of anything else. Couldn’t parse DISSOLUTE either. CONTENDER too. Thanks to glh for guidance.
Enjoyed BOOZING of course.
Thanks to setter too.
I suppose STIFF is OK. Actually now I think about it it’s growing on me. All quite pleasant, one or two slight holdups but I resisted the temptation to use aids and am glad I did so. The CHAIR in 1ac LOI and only parsed afterwards. 41 minutes.
A pleasant puzzle, all done in 32 minutes over my lunchtime pinta. Did not fully parse DECK CHAIR, so thanks for the enlightenment. MER at TELE, but it was not enough to hold me up. Agree that the left hand side was more challenging than the right.
FOI – EMOTIONAL
LOI – CUPIDS BOW
COD – THETA
Thanks to george and other contributors.
17:55 – nothing too difficult but I would have been hard pressed – and certainly taken a lot longer – to fully parse quite a few of the answers.
20.29. Had a hiccup with scone instead of shorn which also made wince impossible but got there in the end.
Definitely not tricky Thursday, ie I managed to complete it without the use of aids for once. RHS definitely easier. FLAGEOLET was fine as I had most of the crossing letters. Not sure where I dragged IMARI up from? No issues with to castle. INAMORATA seems a crossword regular that I’ve never heard used elsewhere. LOI BOOZING.
About an hour. Struggled in NW corner until I worked out Theta and the rest dropped into place.
NHO Cupids Bow and couldn’t parse Dissolute.
Thanks George and setter.
Very much not on the wavelength today, timing myself out after 50-odd minutes as there are other things on the agenda, and with a good third of the way still to go. Well done to those who got there. For me, there’s a new day tomorrow.
A belated question seeing the crossword as I returned to my desk after making some tomato and chilli chutney… I wonder if there is a deliberate shout-out to ANNIE, ROBIN and ERNIE? If so, I think we should be told! Over to you Mr. or Mrs. Setter.
32:11 A tale of two halves as I shot through most of this helped by seeing ANNIE GET YOUR GUN from the enumeration but slowed to a tough Friday pace towards the end.
A few I didn’t fully get DECK CHAIR etc but got there eventually.
Liked BOOZING both the clue and generally.
Thanks blogger and setter.
14 minutes, fair bit slower than those I’m usually in sync with so clearly not on the wavelength today. I enjoyed it though, especially ERNIE and the complicated wordplay for ROBIN. IMARI went straight in, I thought it was a bit of a chestnut but maybe just from Mephisto judging by comments above.
I felt I was on the setters wavelength today finishing in 32.44, although my penultimate one in was wrong. It’s little wonder that I failed to parse FLAGELLOT even though flag for jack occurred to me soon enough. An enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.
We have some IMARI plates, inherited from grandparents, though I’m sure pots exist as well. Robin Goodfellow is another name for Puck. Liked ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. About 15 mins today.
There was a young curate from Kew
Who kept a black cat in a pew
He taught it to speak classical Greek
Bit it never got further than mu
Nice one.
Is that the cat’s revenge, Claude ?
44:17. definitely a tricky Thursday for me! LOI were DUCAT and the rather confusing THETA. I did quite enjoy the challenge as it wasn’t my wavelength and was pleased to complete it. thanks both,
Never saw the musical, but I like the song by Squeeze. Thought THETA was a bit sneaky, but luckily I know my Greek alphabet : alpha beta gamma delta episilon zeta eta theta. Didn’t understand CUPID’S BOW, but it couldn’t be anything else. 22’38” all up. Many thanks.
Biffy, maybe. But did David Luke really solve this puzzle in less time than he had to look at it? In minus time? The leaderboard has him with a score of 1073.
21.51
Late entry as out all day yesterday. NW also last to fall, wanting PIECE to be a gun and not understanding TENDER for red. New College today in one of the clues (Friday) and my home town (NEWCASTLE) today including a chess move. Bath on Saturday?
Liked ERNIE WISE. ROBIN GOODFELLOW was guessable from a few checkers but pity anyone who tried to solve it purely from the w/p!
Thanks setter and George
I too thought Imari a chestnut, inamorata ditto.
I’d biffed bath chair before reconsidering, got the musical from enumeration and the n of Newcastle, the spirit from crossers b and w.
COD Newcastle, not least because I have ancestors who migrated from there to its namesake in NSW, both coal economies for many years. I have often wondered whether this shows a fear of too much change, or was it pragmatic use of existing trades.