Time: 55:49
I took my time to parse everything as I went along, partly because it’s blog day, but also because I was frequently unsure if I’d correctly identified the definitions. In spite of my excuse, a bit of a tester, I think.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Record counted male faults (8) |
| DOCUMENT – anagram of (faults) COUNTED + M (male). | |
| 5 | Twin lives with doctor’s intervention, acting without payment (2-4) |
| AM-DRAM – two lots of (twin) AM and AM (lives) containing (with the intervention of) DR (doctor). | |
| 10 | Group brought back inside under restrictions were out (5) |
| ERRED – reverse hidden in (group brought back inside) unDER REstrictions. | |
| 11 | Earthbound fragment having brought down plane? (4,5) |
| TREE STUMP – cryptic definition. The bit that would be stuck in the earth after felling a plane tree. | |
| 12 | Ring worn by maiden with perfect ambiguity, you hear (9) |
| HOMOPHONE – HOOP (ring) containing (worn by) M (maiden), then HONE (perfect). My last one parsed, as I was fixated on ‘phone’ for ring. | |
| 14 | Place to go after school paid for by students’ club (5) |
| UNION – UNI (place to go after school) + ON (paid for by). | |
| 15 | Region suffering gales very keen to get ropes, with nothing secured (7,7) |
| ROARING FORTIES – RARING FOR (very keen to get) + TIES (ropes), all containing (with… secured) O (nothing). I knew the shipping area, but did not know it was reputed for its windiness, or therefore the phrase. | |
| 18 | Doctor in Acton slept on Ottoman seat (14) |
| CONSTANTINOPLE – anagram of (doctor) IN ACTON SLEPT ON. | |
| 22 | Lower paid actor cross cuts affected rate (5) |
| EXTRA – X (cross) contained by (cuts) an anagram of (affected) RATE. | |
| 23 | In lying about objective, public speaker freezes (9) |
| MORATORIA – contained by (in) the reversal of (lying about) AIM (objective), find ORATOR (public speaker). | |
| 25 | Oriel dons subverted progress stubbornly (7,2) |
| SOLDIER ON – anagram of (subverted) ORIAL DONS. | |
| 26 | Most of the booze brought over in time for soirée (5) |
| NIGHT – remove the last from (most of) THe + GIN (booze), all reversed (brought over). | |
| 27 | Cost of getting hitched also curtailed earnings (6) |
| TOWAGE – remove the last from (curtailed) TOo (also) + WAGE (earnings). | |
| 28 | Tea-drinking without Anglicanism? Never! (2,6) |
| NO CHANCE – NON (without) containing (drinking) CHA (tea), i.e. ‘a CHA-drinking NON’, plus CE (Anglicanism). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | For Hans, the skyscraper resists destruction (4,4) |
| DIES HARD – DIE (‘the’, in German, for Hans) + SHARD (skyscraper). | |
| 2 | Coach Brazilian dance, but for small Spanish boy! (7) |
| CARAMBA – CAR (coach) + sAMBA (Brazilian dance) deleting (but for) ‘s’ (small). Exclamation in Spanish. | |
| 3 | Mother and daughter spitting (3) |
| MAD – MA (mother) + D (daughter). | |
| 4 | Explosive opening sequence with twist at the start (5) |
| NITRO – INTRO (opening sequence) with the first two letters (at the start) swapped over (with a twist). | |
| 6 | Nearly all hosts leave you hanging over sleeping arrangements (8,3) |
| MOSQUITO NET – MOST (nearly all) contains (hosts) QUIT (leave) and ONE (you). | |
| 7 | Turn defeat into ecstasy (7) |
| ROUTINE – ROUT (defeat) + IN (into) + E (ecstasy). | |
| 8 | Blue flash and noise from microwave? (6) |
| MOPING – MO (flash) + PING (noise from microwave?). | |
| 9 | Torture to Peter holding large beam up? (8) |
| TELEPORT – anagram of (torture) TO PETER containing (holding) L (large). | |
| 13 | Careful gambling with higher pot one’s put into (11) |
| PAINSTAKING – STAKING (gambling) after (with higher) PAN (pot) containing I (one’s put in). | |
| 16 | Discriminating schools finally serving chocolate bar with batter on (8) |
| GRAMMARS – last of (finally) servinG, then MARS (chocolate bar) with RAM (batter) on. | |
| 17 | Parking inside tower where drivers stand wisecracking (8) |
| REPARTEE – P (parking) contained by (inside) REAR (tower, tower over) + TEE (where drivers stand, in golf). | |
| 19 | Effluent striking seducer from behind (7) |
| OUTFLOW – OUT (striking) + reversal of (from behind) WOLF (seducer). | |
| 20 | Model in some pain removing heels (7) |
| PARAGON – PARt (some) and AGONy (pain) removing both of the last letters (heels). | |
| 21 | Combination room spoke little to Spooner (6) |
| BEDSIT – Spoonerism of “said bit” (spoke little). | |
| 24 | Movement against party being led by Republican (5) |
| RONDO – ON (against) + DO (party) after (led by) R (Republican). | |
| 26 | Last in series those finishing Succession couldn’t stomach (3) |
| NTH – last letters of (those finishing) successioN couldn’T stomacH. | |
I got there eventually, just under an hour with some help from the check function when some of the obscurities bamboozled me. I sort of enjoyed this but some of it was just a bit too far out for me. Thanks for the blog William, especially for explaining some of those that really threw me like HOMOPHONE, TREE STUMP and what the Spanish boy was up to.
From I Threw It All Away:
Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand
And rivers that ran through every day
I must have been MAD, I never knew what I had
Until I threw it all away
Liked this one very much despite not getting AM-DRAM. Some of the parsing was a bit tricky, NO CHANCE, MOSQUITO NET, but thought most of the clueing was clever. Especially liked NIGHT and TREE STUMP when I stopped thinking about jets. Managed to see the two long anagrams straight off which helped. COD to CARAMBA.
Thanks William and setter.
This took me much longer than I expected in the first minutes, seeing CONSTANTINOPLE when I had just the P and hadn’t read the clue yet. Never heard of AM-DRAM.
DNF but clever crossword. Thanks william for REAR/tower, just couldn’t see it. Liked the TREE STUMP
40 minutes, finishing with the excellent AM-DRAM.
I stymied myself rather by popping in ‘roaring sixties’, knowing it was roaring something and reckoning the southern seas must get pretty windy. Strange really, since I’ve only ever heard of the Roaring Forties (always excepting the Roaring Twenties).
There must be a word for this kind of mental misstep. ‘Dumbness’, perhaps?
54:09. Very close to our blogger’s time but I had no excuses / reasons. I now see that I only semi-parsed HOMOPHONE, ROARING FORTIES and NO CHANCE, all of which went in mainly from the def. LOI was the appropriate PAINSTAKING.
I liked the TREE STUMP and MOSQUITO NET defs and PARAGON for the poor old footsore model having to remove her heels.
Thanks to William and setter
25:27. Tough but doable. Held up at the end by having a mombled DOWAGE for 27A (do = ditto = also). Fixed only when I checked and found it wasn’t a word. Some great clues with tricky wordplay that was fun to tease out. I liked CARAMBA, PARAGON and GRAMMARS best. Thank-you William and setter.
DNF, with a silly CORUMBA rather than CARAMBA.
– Didn’t understand the ‘on’ part of UNION when solving
– Biffed MORATORIA once I had enough checkers and then figured out how it worked
– Thought of the wrong meaning of ‘hitched’ for ages, nearly mombling ANWAGE in desperation, before getting TOWAGE
Thanks William and setter.
COD Dies hard
Yeah, I went with carumba too – I blame the Simpsons.
48 mins. Again. Great Friday puzzle, happy just to finish. Should have been more tactically astute in moving on quickly when the answers wouldn’t come because there were a few more accessible clues dotted about.
Some great surfaces: Hans from Die Hard (Alan Rickman) + I wondered where the RAM in GRAMMARS came from because MARS is the battered chocolate bar isn’t it?
Faves included HOMOPHONE and TELEPORT.
Thanks to William and setter.
Some Scots have a tendency to take a Mars bar, coat it in batter and deep fry it, but the actual confection is not battered.
Witty cluing and deceptive surfaces made this a very enjoyable challenge. Most frustrating though perfectly fair clue was to AM-DRAM, I’d forgotten AM for amateur and the definition misdirected cleverly. Original hidden indicator for ERRED. Struggled with ROARING FORTIES even with all the checkers in ROARING. Barely heard of CARAMBA but might start using it.
Inspired this morning after a late night, completed in 18’08”. Slow start, but towards the end MOSQUITO NET flew in, as did PAINSTAKING, not waiting to parse.
MER at NTH, which is only the last in a series when on a page.
Is it more than one Christmas film?
Thanks william and setter.
“To the nth degree” is a common enough phrase.
Yes, N being a natural number and hence unlimited
Quick one. AM=Lives?
I think AM=live but there are two of them.
There’s two of them!
There ARE!
Happy to finish in just under 50 minutes without cheats. A little learning can indeed be a dangerous thing: I have some German but wasted time trying to solve 1dn by making an anagram out of “der tower”. Other definite articles are available….
FOI DOCUMENT which I saw instantly, giving me a misplaced sense of confidence
LOI and COD DIES HARD
Thanks William and setter
Indirect anagrams are not allowed in Times puzzles, so you should have rejected that thought immediately.
31.29. Suffering succotash! Hard going this morning, though as sometimes happens especially on Fridays, it’s not easy to say why. Until CONSTANTINOPLE (yes, I can spell it!) MAD was my only entry, even missing the hidden ERRING. The lower regions filled up fairly steadily, until I had enough to get MOSQUITO NET, which opened up the top level.
DIES HARD is a fabulous clue – pity I didn’t crack it earlier. I remembered DER and DAS but forgot DIE. My German teacher would not be surprised.
Thanks, William, for the blog, without which I still wouldn’t have unravelled PAINSTAKING.
18:48
I enjoyed that very much.
I was fooled by a couple of definitions, namely “acting without payment” where I thought we were after a daft Latin alternative to PRO BONO and “Ottoman seat” where I found myself trying to bring palanquin to mind.
Thanks all round.
Considering that in my customary search for easy pickings I read through nearly all the clues before an answer jumped out at me, I felt I did rather well completing this in 49 minutes. I just steadied myself and worked through it enjoying many a PDM along the way. The only clue I completely failed to parse was PARAGON as I missed the significance of ‘heels’ , so thanks for clearing that one up that, Will.
28:21. Very tough, very clever, very fair. Thanks William and setter.
My thanks to william_j_s and setter.
DNF in the NW. I was slow.
10a Erred, bother, missed a hidden AGAIN.
14a Union, didn’t “get” the ON bit.
1d DieShard. I only knew this as an adjective so no S, but I did solve it eventually and added to Cheating Machine as verb.
2s Caramba. I thought of that but could not parse it so didn’t plump for it.
3d Mad FOI.
9d Teleport. I thought of “beam me up Scottie” but couldn’t think of the word for ages.
16d Grammars. Biffed Crammers but Roaring Forties put me right.
20d Paragon, parsed agon but missed the par.
21d Bedsit. Got a Spooner!
Does ROARING FORTIES refer to the shipping area in the North Sea? I thought it meant the longitude zone from 40-50 deg S in the Atlantic? That’s I believe where sailing ships aimed for to get the best winds? Anyway, whatever: I was surprised to finish this one, after getting becalmed in the decidedly non-breezy NE corner for about 20 mins. Inspiration finally struck with AM-DRAM and TREE-STUMP, then a gentle sail into harbour thereafter in a total time of about 45 mins. As ever, baffled to find this one more straightforward than some of the so-called easier ones earlier in the week.
It refers to the South Atlantic. But who is saying otherwise? Not our esteemed blogger..
31.33 finished and on a Friday as well. Ending the week with a spring in my step. LOI homophone enabled by dies hard which would be my COD.
Took maybe 50′ but worth it.
Nice reference to the Rickman character in DIES HARD… is that the point at which all baddies had to be played by English actors?
Quite a few went in fairly straightforwardly but towards the end it was mostly biffing and (sometimes) post-parsing (never did properly parse HOMOPHONE…). LOI NTH once the penny dropped.
Thanks William and setter
Thank
51:29 I found this incredibly difficult but enjoyed it immensely.
LOI and COD – DIES HARD. I’m another whose limited German led to DER rather than DIE and I had Hans Solo and Skywalker swirling around somewhere in my head.
CARAMBA,ROARING FORTIES and HOMOPHONE were also excellent.
Thanks to William and the setter.
21:52 – with which I was very pleased. Unfortunately I somehow misspelled CARAMBA, even though I parsed it all, so my time doesn’t go to my credit.
I loved this start to finish, what a great puzzle. AM-DRAM my favourite, but there was much to like here. I also really liked CARAMBA.
14:59. What a great puzzle. Brilliant throughout, but 1dn definitely my favourite. Yippee-ki-yay, Mother Hubbard.
Absolutely agree! One down is a clue for the ages.
What a cracking challenge to finish the week all completed and parsed bar “roaring forties”, which I have never heard of, and a few in the north-east.
Pity as I had “ping”; had jotted down “nitro”; and had the components for “am-dram” and really needed “tree stump” to give confidence to connect it all up.
Lots of excellent clues with the nod going to Alan Rickman and The Simpsons.
Thanks to our setter and blogger.
Also meant to ask why a grammar is “discriminating”?
I think because it selects its pupils.
Because they have academically selective entrance criteria.
Off to a roaring start with MAD, NITRO, TELEPORT and MOPING followed in short order by TREE STUMP. Things started to slow down after that, but I never felt I was stuck. Back in the NW, HOMOPHONE popped up and the corner was fairly soon completed with the excellent DIES HARD, whuch had been delayed by my only knowing DER for Hans’ the. Last 2 in were ROARING FORTIES and GRAMMARS. Quite pleased with my 33:11. Thanks setter and William.
28:40 – inventive and tough. Couldn’t entirely parse UNION and still can’t quite see why ON = paid for by. If the usage is as in “that’s on you” it seems a bit vague and often used precisely because whatever it is hasn’t been paid for by whoever it is supposedly “on”.
“The drinks are on me!” seems fairly clear.
I didn’t manage to finish this but got much further than normal for a Friday. Was stumped by CARAMBA and the ROARING FORTIES but eventually got the MOSQUITO NET
49:52
1d alone was worth the price of entry.
Thanks William and setter
I got the whole bottom half in about fifteen minutes, but couldn’t get anywhere in the top for a long time. Mosquito net was my only answer up there, and took a while to parse. The NE was very tough, and tree stump was not exactly an obvious CD. Finally seeing am-dram was a major breakthrough, enabling moping. I finally put in routine without seeing the literal – I realized many hours later that a theatrical turn/routine was being referred to.
Time: 70:14
39.43
I felt like I was making incredibly heavy weather of this at the time but my effort seems reasonable, coming here.
While solving, loved AM-DRAM and the MARS thing. Reading the blog I can appreciate that there was plenty of other very fine stuff as well.
Thanks William and setter.
Two visits to this probably approaching the hour mark. I had three in after 15 minutes. Then CONSTANTINOPLE came and it looked like it might be par Friday time but the NW really foxed me.
Missed the gimme of DOCUMENT trying to get something similar to ADDENDUM that parsed.
Hard to explain but DIES HARD is one of those phrases that just seems wrong in isolation. I spotted what the clue wanted but somehow excluded all British skyscrapers from my consideration.
Last one in ROARING FORTIES which I knew was a thing but couldn’t tell you much more than.
TELEPORT gave me a chuckle and loved the misdirection in HOMOPHONE
Challenging but fun.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Loved this, very satisfying PDMs all over the show, and looks like I was on form again with a sprightly 28:44. Missed a few bits along the way, particularly the “other” meaning of EARTHBOUND, which I see Chambers and Collins both list as the primary sense: I’ve only ever considered it in the “homeward bound” sense. Couldn’t see TOWER/REAR either. Super stuff – many thanks to setter and William.