Time taken: 10:30
I went pretty deliberately through this and thought at the end that it wasn’t that bad, but looking at the early times, it seems the usual fast solvers are struggling with this one, so I think it fits under the Tricky Thursday banner. There weren’t a lot of write-ins, and most clues had to be teased out from wordplay with some crafty definitions.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Group hiding rum around racing enclosure (7) |
| PADDOCK – PACK (group) containing ODD (rum) reversed | |
| 5 | Alert when bishop hides minute snack (6) |
| NIBBLE – NIMBLE (alert) with B (bishop) replacing the M (minute) | |
| 8 | Vesper not moved out of capital? (9) |
| OVERSPENT – anagram of VESPER,NOT | |
| 9 | Naughty people removing clothing in private (5) |
| INNER – SINNERS (naughty people according to some) minus the external letters | |
| 11 | Runner wearing uniform arrested by officer (5) |
| INDUS – IN (wearing) then U (uniform) inside DS (Detective Sergeant, officer) | |
| 12 | Dish finally lined with sheets by Oscar in club (9) |
| DREAMBOAT – last letter of lineD, then REAM (sheets), and O (Oscar) inside BAT (club) | |
| 13 | Note anxiety beginning to ease next to River Clyde? (8) |
| GANGSTER – G (musical note), ANGST (anxiety) the first letter of Ease and R (river). Referring to Clyde Barrow probably best known in Bonnie and Clyde. | |
| 15 | Picture old servant taking Conservative to port (6) |
| FRESCO – O (old), SERF (servant), containing C (conservative), all reversed | |
| 17 | Heartless soldier recalled sound of his weapon? (6) |
| REPORT – remove the middle letter from TROOPER (soldier) and reverse | |
| 19 | Duck spied running across interior of nests (8) |
| SIDESTEP – anagram of SPIED containing the interior letters of nESTs | |
| 22 | Relative using shelter instead of Charlie for free (9) |
| UNSHACKLE – UNCLE (relative) with SHACK (shelter) replacing C (Charlie) | |
| 23 | Firm MGM instructs can’t initially gag producer (5) |
| COMIC – CO (firm) and the first letters of MGM Instructs Can’t | |
| 24 | Outline of slug that’s escaped from trap (5) |
| DRAFT – homophone of DRAUGHT (slug of booze) | |
| 25 | Bones gathered by Jack visiting exposed basin (9) |
| METATARSI – MET (gathered) then TAR (Jack) inside the interior letters of bASIn | |
| 26 | Every single Yankee faced with parking fine (6) |
| PEACHY – EACH (every single), Y (Yankee) with P (parking) at the front | |
| 27 | Backing of piano Anne regularly scored before church (7) |
| FINANCE – alternating letters in oF pIaNo AnNe, then CE (church) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Test site doctor about to catch itinerant on cycle (7,6) |
| PROVING GROUND – GP (doctor) reversed containing ROVING (itinerant), then ROUND (cycle of a song) | |
| 2 | City roads essentially cleared prior to retreat (7) |
| DRESDEN – DRIVES (roads) minus the central letters, then DEN (retreat) | |
| 3 | Island supporting nomads periodically? (5) |
| OASIS – IS (island) under alternating letters in nOmAdS | |
| 4 | Require castle guards to be deeply involved (4-4) |
| KNEE DEEP – NEED (require) inside KEEP (castle) | |
| 5 | Fanatic with stone climbing tree (6) |
| NUTMEG – NUT (fanatic) then GEM (stone) reversed | |
| 6 | Retired sailor at home having name scratched in sea vessel (4-5) |
| BAIN MARIE – AB (sailor) reversed, then IN (at home), followed by the removal of N (name) from MARINE (sea) | |
| 7 | Try piercing wrinkles in tongues (7) |
| LINGOES – GO (try) inside LINES (wrinkles) | |
| 10 | Run excited VIP to secret European exhibition (13) |
| RETROSPECTIVE – R (run) then an anagram of VIP,TO,SECRET, then E (European) | |
| 14 | Cutting last of rations when beset by cold (9) |
| SARCASTIC – last letter of rationS, then AS (when) inside ARCTIC (cold) | |
| 16 | Enjoy drug with a lot of strong drink (8) |
| DIGESTIF – DIG (enjoy), E (drug) then STIFF (strong) minus the last letter | |
| 18 | Extract oaf trapped by knight’s boy (7) |
| PASSAGE – ASS (oaf) inside PAGE (knight’s boy) | |
| 20 | Monkey cheers male artist up outside of inn (7) |
| TAMARIN – TA (cheers), then M (male), RA (artist) reversed, and the exterior letters of InN | |
| 21 | Revealing agent providing cover for Asian leader (6) |
| SKIMPY – SPY (agent) containing KIM (North Korean leader) | |
| 23 | Interpose one metal after another briefly (3,2) |
| CUT IN – TIN (one metal) after CU (atomic symbol for another) | |
Not only is it Thursday, it’s puzzle 29500. I suspect we’ll have to wait for puzzle 30000 for something really spectacular, but this one was pretty chewy. However, the answers kept popping into my head unbidden, allowing me to back into most of the parsings – passage, tamarin, digestif, proving ground, report, dreamboat. I did not know bain marie, but the cryptic and the crossing letters definitely pointed in that direction.
Time: 33:22
30 mins oddly didn’t find this one too hard though couldn’t work out Draft until I read the explanation.
57 minutes of enjoyable solving with no unknown answers or GK. Let down a little by 4dn having DEEP in the answer and ‘deeply’ in the clue; easy enough to avoid I would have thought.
I agree on DEEP/deeply, in fact I ruled out DEEP for the second word. “Seriously involved” would have been better.
I’m reading the 15×15 blog as a tutorial. Can you explain what escaped from trap adds / means in 24ac please. Is that a coded homophone indicator? Thanks Rob
This is “trap” as in mouth (“keep your trap shut”) so yes, a homophone. I didn’t get it first time round.
Thank you. Give me another five years and I might progress to these….
but why ‘escaped’? surely a slug implies downing rather than escaping.
So did I – the clue is clumsy to say the least. And is a serf normally described as a servant?
My thought entirely on re-reading KNEE DEEP clue
43:13. I was too cautious. A slow start convinced me this was a tricky Thursday, when it wasn’t really. But I couldn’t parse DRESDEN; I thought “roads essentially cleared” giving DRES was very hard. Thank goodness for the blog. I liked SIDESTEP
75 mins, but no cheats.
Struggled to get LINGOES, since both LANGUES, LINGUAS or LINGUES looked possible technical terms in linguistics.
I ruled out DEEP as the second word as “no setter would have the answer in the clue”
LOI DRESDEN/INDUS. Needing a synonym (DRIVES) before truncation, which itself seemed to be indicated twice (essentially and cleared) was too much. And there are a lot of officers, so I didn’t get round to DS.
“Escaped from trap” was a clever homophone indicator, too clever for me.
Only vaguely heard of BAIN MARIE, and with NIMBLE/NIBBLE seeming to work either way, was hard to ignore MAIN=sea for the first word.
COD SIDESTEP
35′ but a few unparsed until I got here (DRESDEN, PROVING GROUND).
Agree with Jack re KNEE DEEP, the clumsy clueing made me hesitate until other checkers appeared. I also had “nimble” for a long time, making the tricky POI BAIN MARIE impossible (most of my cooking knowledge comes from masterchef..).
Immediately picked up on the Bonnie and Clyde reference but then tried to remember his surname which I assumed would feed into the answer (which obviously it didn’t).
So a fair amount of time wasted going down rabbit holes, but nothing unfair and a good puzzle.
Thanks George and setter.
43 minutes. Very slow to get started which didn’t do the confidence much good. Shifted focus to the SE of the grid with METATARSI eventually first in. Like kapietro I ended up missing the parsing of DRESDEN and only semi-parsed PROVING GROUND. I agree with Jack, Merlin and Gerry about KNEE-DEEP which I had considered earlier but thought “Surely not!”.
Favourite was the ‘Clyde?’ which turned out to have nothing to do with Glasgow.
33’47” for this enjoyable puzzle. Eventually got GANGSTER, fixated on Helensburgh or similar, have been to Faslane.
Knew METATARSI, footballers nowadays having followed David Beckham’s example of some years ago.
No idea about my LOI DRAFT. Not convinced even now, ‘draught’ surely applies to beers and lagers, ‘slug’ to spirits.
COD to DREAMBOAT, even though the surface was clunky.
Thanks george and setter.
On the tricky side for sure but a good time for me though, 38 mins. Held up in the SW with last three in SARCASTIC DRAFT & PASSAGE. Altogether pretty good fun.
I liked KNEE-DEEP (as I often am!), PROVING GROUND and SIDESTEP. My old restaurant in Hampstead was called Peacheys!
Thank G and setter.
As so often, it’s horses for courses. Comfortably my speediest solve of the week in a handful of seconds under 20 minutes. Which surprised me for a Thursday. I can imagine many days when ‘roads essentially cleared’ would have had me stumped: why, today, did DR(iv)ES pop almost instantaneously into my head? And so it was throughout this very pleasant puzzle with only the intersecting PROVING GROUND and DRAFT requiring a revisit. All very smoothly done – OK, with the exception of KNEE DEEP but these things happen despite the best intentions and efforts of setters, testers and editors.
INNER, REPORT, SIDESTEP, OASIS and SARCASTIC my faves today.
Thanks to setter and blogger
20 minutes on a puzzle that felt tricky at first but steadily fell into place.
– Saw the replacement in UNSHACKLE early on, but took time to work out which word replaced the C
– Got DRESDEN from the checkers before I parsed it
– Tried to justify APERITIF for 16d before the checkers pointed me towards DIGESTIF
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Metatarsi
LOI Gangster
COD Comic
11:34. Tricky but not too tricky. I had about two-thirds of this done pretty quickly but the rest took some teasing out.
35 mins of most enjoyable battle with this one, I’ll buy it a pint afterwards. Slow to get started with barely a handful after 10 mins but gradually got the measure of it.
Lots of well hidden definitions like LOI DIGESTIF.
Thought the KIM in SKIMPY was the agent at first, bit of a missed opportunity there maybe.
Great puzzle, thanks to setter and George.
Quickest of the week so far .. does duck = sidestep? I suppose so, if you aren’t too literal-minded. And another mer on similar grounds, re draught = slug.
I wanted the DIGESTIF to be APERITIF, until it couldn’t be. Never mind, I like both.
LOI DIGESTIF, POI BAIN MARIE which I may or may not have heard of. COD to GANGSTER. I suppose you are allowed to do both at once, but aren’t DUCK and SIDESTEP separate moves? A tough Thursday puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
I saw DUCK and SIDESTEP as two versions of avoiding, say, responsibility.
42 minutes but pleased to finish error and assistance free. Not happy about DRAFT or KNEE DEEP for reasons mentioned above. I don’t think I have come across ‘to port’ as a parsing direction before but fair enough. Didn’t think of round as a song part either but should have.
Thanks to setter and glh for education and enlightenment.
Failed to parse the DRIVES bit of 2d so officially DNF but a steady solve and a tidy puzzle. “Escaped from trap” made me smile. Thanks for the blog.
From PADDOCK to DIGESTIF in 17:44. Didn’t bother to parse the DRES bit of DRESDEN. Thanks setter and George.
31.45, so no speedy solve for me. I had several clues where I was prepared with my appeal to VAR, chief among them being DRESDEN and DRAFT. I couldn’t parse DRESDEN at all, and dr[iv]es completely eluded me. I could smudge draught and slug, but it felt like I was missing something more obvious.
Otherwise, I spent a long time with only a few clues in, struggling to make PROSPECTIVE fit both the available space and the exhibition definition. Another day, and the anagram would have tumbled out. Couldn’t see how APERITIF worked at 16d, mostly because it didn’t, of course.
I suppose we all need days like this to remind us of our mortality, or something. Hopefully the mists will clear.
Pleased to see you appear to be fully recovered from recent ills, George.
37:24 Certainly tricky enough for me. MER at both DRAFT and DRESDEN for reasons already mentioned and both FRESCO and FINANCE went in without being fully parsed.
Overall though, a very enjoyable challenge. I particularly liked DREAMBOAT, GANGSTER and BAIN MARIE. I first saw one of the latter in a Chinese Restaurant in the Kings Road about forty years ago.
Thanks to George and the setter.
31:45
On the wavelength today it seems, as the Snitch (currently 103) would give me a target of 36:30. As Vinyl says, answers popped into my head unbidden with satisfying frequency. In the end, the only answer I wasn’t completely au fait with was DRESDEN, though I did think of DR(IV)ES = roads at some point. Some slight convincing needed with the DEEP/deeply thing too, though answer was clear once all checkers in place.
Thanks G and setter
Excellent puzzle with the right-hand side going in slowly but surely and was pleased to dredge up “tamarin”, “metatarsi” and ,”bain-marie” and three words I doubt I have ever actually spoken anytime recently.
Then I came to a juddering halt not helped by not thinking of “proving ground” to the end.
Thanks to our blogger for parsing “indus”, “report” and “draft”, and I like the latter clue in particular, and to our setter for a highly enjoyable challenge.
23 – with prolonged puzzling over DIGESTIF and sundry problems in the SW. Only managed to get an initial toehold in the NE corner and worked down and across from there.
Wow, this seems to have divided solvers in terms of difficulty.
It was going to be a PB for me but in my excitement for a quick time I bunged in nutter for NUTMEG. Not sure where I fall on the spectrum based on that. I did see the correct answer straight away when the pink squares appeared.
Surely the setter could have picked a better adverb than deeply for 4d. It did make me question my answer given the overlap. Otherwise quite enjoyed this.
COD SARCASTIC
Thanks blogger and setter
28:44 with a few minor interruptions.
COD to the (sea) vessel, BAIN MARIE. Sailed with the Nina and Pinta, if I recall correctly?
Thanks to glh and our setter.
Slow going at 55 minutes for me, but I got there in the end with the help of a lot of biffing. Managed to parse everything except DRESDEN.
Thank you for the blog!
Thought I was in for a PB when I had completed LHS in 17 mins. Took me another 40 to fill in the rest.
Thanks G and setter.
I made a better fist of this than I have of the past several Thursdays – I was lucky to have had crossers suggesting where to start on some of the trickier wordplay. It was a nice way to spend time I had expected to devote to baseball’s first game on Opening Day, until I learnt that the Commissioner allowed them to put the first game behind a paywall. Thank you, George and setter
I found this one tricky but not excessively so – 31 mins. No unfamiliar words but some of the wordplay I found tough: thanks, Blogger, for explaining DRAFT, METATARSI, FINANCE and DRESDEN. I took ‘deeply’ in 4D to be an oversight by Setter/Editor, these things happen. First in was REPORT and last FINANCE. Two favourite clues: to COMIC and DIGESTIF. Nice puzzle. Thanks Setter and Blogger.
DNF, failed on FRESCO, was convinced it started with the C (taking conservative to port) so biffed CRISTO (must remember, if it doesn’t parse it’s probably not right), mind you, didn’t understand DRAFT or TROOPER but they were biffed okay. Easier than most Thursdays I would say.
Not sure what happened to me today. I raced through three quarters of this in 10 mins, then came to a shuddering halt in the NE corner. Dragged up NUTMEG and LINGOES from wordplay, but then further answers came there none. Guessed NIBBLE, without understanding it… and would never have thought ‘nimble’ for ‘alert’. Was finally left with DIGESTIF as my LOI just as the clock ticked over the hour. And thoroughly frustrated and fed up I was by then. PS Was Clyde Barrow a ‘gangster’, really?
As usual a slow solve for me, and wasted half an hour mulling over how DRESDEN and NIBBLE worked (saw the latter but not the former).
Lots of excellent and deceptive surface readings.
Thanks George and Setter
32:12. I (comparatively) flew threw this – very much enjoyed it. It didn’t appear too tricky until I saw some of the early times. I couldn’t work out if it was NIBBLE or NIMBLE until BAIN MARIE my LOI sorted it out for me.
19.01
Liked it a lot. Couldn’t parse DRESDEN DRAFT or FRESCO but was very sure of the first two. The picture was more of a hit and hope.
Thanks George and setter.
If I were being really picky the paddock is not a racing enclosure, it is where the horses parade before a race. The enclosures, silver ring, tattersalls , members etc. are the areas from which racegoers watch the races.
Would be referred to as parade ring in UK/ire but yes agree
Think motor racing, not horse racing ..
46 minutes, but with NUTTER instead of NUTMEG. I couldn’t see how it would work, but then I couldn’t see how several of them would work.
I remembered METATARSI (or at least Metatarsus) from Asterix and the Laurel Wreath, together with his father Osseus Humerus, his mother Tibia, and his sister Fibula. The benefits of a classical education!
Compared to last Thursday I did this with the help of aids dictionary and my expanding dictionary of synonyms
The above parsing helps in furthering my attempts at cryptic.
Thanks. 👍🏾
47 minutes, which didn’t seem especially hard, but not entirely trivial either. Still, there was no clue that stuck in my mind as being particulary witty, but several that seemed a bit contrived (for example, the five consecutive letters “regularly scored” from “of piano Anne” in 27ac). There’s nothing particulary wrong about the clues, but also nothing particularly or very impressively right.
34’07” looks like a very slow time, when I see comments above. But it’s late and I’m knackered! All seems pretty fair. Just my brain not making those leaps!
No idea what my time would have been as this was solved piecemeal, and part orally, on a very long drive.
I had many of the same thoughts as others re difficulty parsing. DRAFT and DRESDEN were not understood but had to be anyway.
I thought of LINGOs ages before I entered the answer with an E.
Lots to like in an enjoyable puzzle.
All completed, but time off the scale. It’s clear that there is such a thing as wavelength, and I wasn’t on it. Indeed, with only 7 clues completed, I had to call in Mr Ego to help, whose brain is certainly wired differently, as he quickly suggested answers that had completely eluded me, which I was then able to parse. It was interesting that in most cases, I’d worked out the modus operandi, while failing to achieve the answer, whereas he bifd it and succeeded. Between the two of us, the puzzle yielded its mysteries, but I can’t in honesty say I enjoyed the experience. I still failed to parse DRAFT and DRESDEN and the only answer that gave me real joy was NUTMEG, though COMIC was clever.
My fourth completion in a row (!) though it took an hour and 15 minutes to do it, with six clues unparsed. No expectation of a finish on the next one though. Thanks setter and George.
34.17 so not electric. But happy enough to solve it all and understand the answers.