Time: 23.33
I enjoyed this puzzle with its smooth surfaces; concise wordplay (only one over nine words) and a couple of lovely clues. Maybe one or two trickier ones in the southern hemisphere where I got temporarily bogged down, but generally it seemed at the gentler end of the spectrum.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cryptic clue concept introduces name of mathematician (9) |
| EUCLIDEAN – What more appropriate start to a cryptic crossword than a “cryptic clue”? As an anagram indicator, “cryptic” tells us to rearrange the letters in CLUE, and this is added to IDEA (concept) and N (name) to give us the adjectival version of one of the more likely mathematicians to grace Crosswordland, considered the “father of geometry”. | |
| 6 | Force wingless insect to zoom in (5) |
| FOCUS – F (force) + LOCUST with its first and last letters removed (wingless). | |
| 9 | Deprived person of shelter and books (4-3) |
| HAVE-NOT – HAVEN (shelter) + OT (books (of the Old Testament, for newbies)). Neat. | |
| 10 | Test run blocking payment avoiding tariffs (3-4) |
| TAX-FREE – TAX (test) and then R (run) inside (blocking) FEE (payment). | |
| 11 | Show off clothing on specialist channel (5) |
| STRUT – I wasted time thinking we were looking for a word for “show off” around a word meaning “on”. Instead ST are the outer letters (clothing) of “specialist” together with RUT (channel). | |
| 12 | Boy going over small hill defending Republican’s rebellious music (4,1,4) |
| ROCK N ROLL – There are endless possibilities when seeing “boy”: son; lad and any number of random names, but here we need to see it as an interjection giving us COR, which is reversed (going over) and added to KNOLL (small hill) outside (defending) R (Republican). | |
| 13 | Fictional royal family leads regal broadcast (4,4) |
| KING LEAR – KIN (family) + an anagram (broadcast) of REGAL. Liked this one. | |
| 14 | Back section of Niagara Falls at a distance (4) |
| AFAR – Reverse hidden (back section). | |
| 17 | Language refresher regularly used (4) |
| ERSE – Every other letter (regularly used) of “refresher”. | |
| 18 | Item repeatedly left in hotel room, ie foolishly getting left inside (8) |
| HEIRLOOM – Anagram (foolishly) of H (hotel) + ROOM + IE into which L (left) is inserted. Nice definition and clue. | |
| 21 | Something carried by paramedics initially stops this person convulsing (9) |
| STRETCHER – The instruction to take an initial letter (initially) applies to both “stops” and “this” and then we need to add RETCHER (person convulsing). Very smooth surface. | |
| 22 | State of many temples in northeast China (5) |
| NEPAL – NE (northeast) + PAL (China being Cockney Rhyming Slang for mate (and therefore friend) because “plate” comes after “China”). Which I sure 99% of you already know. Chestnutty, but another smooth clue. | |
| 24 | Fuji’s area for growth? (7) |
| ORCHARD – Cryptic playing on fuji as a type of apple. | |
| 25 | Metal pump with no pressure — try it out first (7) |
| YTTRIUM – Fortunately, this metal was somewhere within my ken, as otherwise the placement of the first five letters might have caused issues. If PUMP has no pressure then that is an instruction to take away its first and last letter, which then goes after an anagram (out) of TRY and IT. A silvery-grey metallic element named after the village of Ytterby in Sweden. | |
| 26 | Case of anchovies secured by fish stand (5) |
| EASEL – EEL is a reasonably common fish to appear in grids, and that surrounds (secured by) the outer letters of (case of) ANCHOVIES. | |
| 27 | Flesh finally tore threadbare trousers with lots of holes (4-5) |
| WORM-EATEN – I suspect MOTH-EATEN was a popular biff but it just doesn’t parse. I needed the W from SHADOW to get the (for me a NHO) answer, the parsing of which is MEAT (flesh) + E (finally tore) which WORN (threadbare) goes outside (trousers). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | The things over there promoting English attitudes (5) |
| ETHOS – This is THOSE (things over there) where the E (English) goes to the beginning (promoting). | |
| 2 | Jokes about broken nose in public to conceal wrongdoing (5,4,6) |
| COVER ONES TRACKS – A double sandwich clue where an anagram (broken) of NOSE goes inside OVERT (public) with CRACKS (jokes) surrounding (about) all of that. | |
| 3 | Tavern recently denied opening without prior instruction (8) |
| INNATELY – Not the first definition that sprang to mind but the parsing is reasonably clear: INN (tavern) + LATELY (recently) without its first letter (denied opening). | |
| 4 | Cross endless circles from the outside (8) |
| EXTERNAL – A bit of Yoda speak here where ETERNAL (endless) goes around (circles) X (cross, as in a vote on a ballot paper). I think we have had the same device pretty recently. | |
| 5 | Be aware of only steam and water? (6) |
| NOTICE – A question mark is certainly needed here as “only steam and water” could be many other things besides being NOT ICE. | |
| 6 | Planting tree covers nothing up (6) |
| FIXING – Not the most obvious synonym but as a verb it’s there as the fourth definition in Chambers. Our tree is FIG which goes around (covers) a reversal (up) of NIX (nothing). | |
| 7 | Emissions from second vehicle seemingly still supporting walking (6,9) |
| CARBON FOOTPRINT – “Still” is a tricky little word, which does have its photograph meaning from time to time and that is the case here where we need to get PRINT to make the wordplay work. That goes under (supporting) ON FOOT (walking) and the clue starts with CAR B (second vehicle seemingly, geddit?). | |
| 8 | Old container getting hit resulted in trouble on motorway (5,4) |
| STEEL DRUM – Anagram (in trouble) of RESULTED on top of M (motorway). Loved this clue. Nice definition with a believable surface. | |
| 13 | What officials should do in middle of tower? (4,5) |
| KEEP SCORE – Double definition, one offbeat. I was thinking of the wrong type of official so although KEEP came quickly the SCORE bit was a late entry, not helped by being slightly confused by my castles, baileys, keeps and towers. A keep is always a tower so its middle is indeed a KEEP’S CORE | |
| 15 | Renegade gambler enjoys streak for second time (8) |
| BETRAYER – A substitution clue where BETTER (gambler) has RAY (streak) in place of its second T (time). The use of “enjoys” is slightly unusual but the intention is clear and in any case one of the definitions of “enjoy” is “to have the use of”. | |
| 16 | Trap hidden by sadist is not fair? (8) |
| BRUNETTE – NET (trap) inside BRUTE (sadist). | |
| 19 | Buddhist monument misplacing heart on large religious figure (2,4) |
| ST PAUL – The enumeration and the concluding L made this a write in but I couldn’t quite pin down the Buddhist monument from the remaining letters (STPAU) as I wasn’t sure if “misplacing” suggested “losing” or its literal sense of placing in an incorrect position. STUPA was the word I was looking for where the middle letter (U) goes to the end | |
| 20 | Lack of light entertainment commercial breaks (6) |
| SHADOW – SHOW (entertainment) which AD (commercial) goes inside (breaks). | |
| 23 | Unit consisting of fifty united soldiers (5) |
| LUMEN – A very easy charade to finish: L (fifty) + U (united) + MEN (soldiers). Unit of light. | |
Agree entirely with our blogger. Great crossword. Right up my street. Loved ‘Old container getting hit resulted in trouble on motorway’. Thanks setter and Dvynys.
Better today, all done and dusted in 40 mins, and thoroughly enjoyed.
A couple unparsed, EUCLIDEAN & ST PAUL and YTTRIUM known from being a favourite on Countdown! (Oops, see my comment to Wil Ransome below).
I likedROCK N’ ROLL, HEIRLOOM & KING LEAR best.
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
I really liked this one – how nice to see Yttrium! – but looking through Dvynys’ immaculate parsings I see I did biff some of them – keep’s core, carbon footprint, track covering etc…
Good stuff all round. Liked INNATELY, STEEL DRUM and a number of others.
I got off to a great start then slowed gradually to a crawl and finished with exactly an hour onthe clock. Some of the parsings baffled me, ST PAUL for example. We have a couple of ‘cycling’ clues with no mention of cycling which is how they always worked until someone came up with the new idea for an indicator.
Similar experience to the blogger. Raced through this one at first thinking Inwas going to be in PB territory but the south required a bit more thinking.
Spent too long trying to justify shed as entertainment to give the incorrect shaded missing the (in hindsight) straight forward shadow. WORM EATEN (having a hard time what was doing what in the clue) , BRUNETTE and BETRAYER accounting for more than half the time on this one.
Great puzzle today some superb clues and finding it hard to pick a COD but will give it to HEIRLOOM.
Thanks blogger and setter
Nearly 28′ for this challenge, even after EUCLIDEAN went straight in.No idea at all re ST PAUL or ORCHARD, little idea re BETRAYER. Delayed by a ‘moth-eaten’, and KEEP SCORE LOI.
Thanks dvynys and setter.
29.35, not helped by misbiffing MOTH-EATEN.
Also NHO the (deliberately obscure) Fuji as an apple, and only vaguely remembered STUPA, so the SW corner took ages.
Still, enjoyable nonetheless.
LOI KEEP SCORE
COD KING LEAR
6:01. This was a bit of a biff-fest for me, most answers going in on the basis of the definition and perhaps one element of wordplay. 2dn for instance: the answer seems obvious from the definition, a joke is a crack, in it goes. I needed the blog to appreciate some of the finer points.
I did initially put in MOTH-EATEN but SHADOW quickly put paid to that.
About 15 minutes.
– Had the same issue as Dvynys with STRUT
– Biffed ORCHARD once I had all the checkers
– Also biffed MOTH-EATEN before SHADOW forced a rethink
– Tried to justify FILING for 6d before TAX-FREE set me straight to get FIXING
– Never heard of stupa, so ST PAUL went in with a shrug
A lovely puzzle with lots of smooth surfaces. Thanks Dvynys and setter.
FOI Euclidean
LOI Strut
COD Steel drum
Beginner here. Apologies, what does “biffed” mean… Is it going to the definition alone without justifying the answer by the wordplay?
It is, yes – there’s a glossary here: https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/glossary
21 mins. A most enjoyable way to start the day.
Another MOTH here despite the R already being there thus breaking BETRAYER. Got there in the end. We grow 20+ varieties of apples but none are Fuji. LOI ORCHARD.
Enjoyed the science bits and seeing Lear clued as a fictional rather than “old” king for once but COD to HEIRLOOM.
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
Btw, in 13d I don’t think “middle of tower” is part of the defn, it’s not a DD.
22.45. After yesterday thoroughly enjoying all the wordplay, I missed out on several here, not seeing how STRUT, STEEL DRUM and STRETCHER worked but entering them with crossed fingers and a “what else?” mentality. I did (eventually) get ORCHARD: Tesco stocks the apples and I might even have bought some previously.
A suitably eclectic setter to include musical genres, maths, science, Eng Lit and Eastern religion in the same grid.
I think a stupa is a buddist monument, misplacing the U gives Stpau on an L. I liked this one a lot, but could not get betrayer because my metals knowledge did not give up Yttrium. Had trytium, tytrium, rhyttium all sorts, but failed. Still really good fun, thanks all Cx
37:44, so extremely poor performance. But this was entirely due to the SW. I really enjoyed a lot of the clues here, and then hated a few. I had to check that I had got a few clues right (which I had) to make it worth going on. The prime contenders here were BETRAYER and ST PAUL. I don’t think a BETRAYER is a renegade (cue the dictionary references disproving me) and STUPA is NHO and seems deeply obscure.
A curate’s egg. COD to KEEP SCORE, not parsed in flight but funny.
Beaten by ST PAUL and ORCHARD, never having heard of a stupa or a Fuji apple. The rest of this required a bit of effort to get on the setter’s wavelength, but was worth the effort. Wasn’t wild about the definition for INNATELY, but hey.
Good puzzle. Steady solve.
Thanks, D.
About 30′ before bed last night while watching an old Simon Schama series.
Tried to parse all my biffs but was getting tired so a few passed me by, such as “print” in CARBON FOOTPRINT, the anagram fodder in STEEL DRUM (since I was wondering where “hit” came in). However NHO Fuji apples nor stupa.
But a very accessible and nicely put together puzzle, on a par with Monday’s, style-wise.
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
Off the pace today, not helped with a misspelled Euclidian.
Some very clever parsing, several were too clever for me.
Four chemical elements—yttrium, terbium, erbium, and ytterbium—are named after the village of Ytterby, Sweden.
Smooth going til the very end: I could not parse KEEP SCORE and I’ve never heard of a Fuji apple so, with no WP, that one relied entirely upon the crossers. I thought I was in for a good time but that delay at the end pushed me just over the 20 minutes. I’ve only ever encountered YTTRIUM in crosswords – but then I’ve never visited Ytterby.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
15:20 – everything slotted together with a satisfying click, at least for those where I bothered with the cryptic at all. Fortunately the unlikely TT in the metal rang a bell somewhere but I don’t think I would have preferred the only other possible arrangement if it hadn’t.
Really liked this. Another one stuck in the stickier SW, and if the very biffable enumeration of the northern clues were designed as a trap for MOTH-EATEN, then it worked very effectively on me, probably adding a good couple of minutes to my 21:31: yes dear setter, I really should pay closer attention to your lovely and expertly crafted clues. As indeed they were – so many thanks, and to D for the various bits I missed along the way.
Many people just biffed. As I’ve asked before, what’s the point? You miss half the setter’s ingenuity. Not that I would have been much quicker if I had biffed. There were any number of little things here that confused me for some reason, mainly ignorance and thickness. In 8dn why is a steel drum an old container? NHO Stupa in 19dn. In 15dn was slow to see streak = ray. Couldn’t parse 7dn (‘still’ is clever). in 18ac is an HEIRLOOM repeatedly left? Surely it can be just left? NHO Fuji as an apple in 24ac. In 6ac zoom in = focus struck me as wrong. If photographers zoom in on something they then focus the camera. Planting = FIXING in 6dn: OK then, but never got it.
So not a good day. I was expecting people to say how unsatisfactory this crossword was, but no. I evidently failed to appreciate its merits.
I watch all episodes of Countdown and have never seen YTTRIUM there. Have done so many times on Pointless.
I think the definition is “old container hit” in the sense that a musical steel drum is usually an old oil drum repurposed.
My apologies, you are completely right, of course. Mea culpa. I mentioned it to my wife whilst solving and she said « don’t you mean Pointless? » oh yes said I of course I do. And then I go and write it up wrongly. Doh!
An heirloom is something usually passed down through the generations, so it’s repeatedly left from one generation to the next.
If it was just passed down the once it’d be just a boring old inheritance.🙂
You’re not alone.
I actually thought it was okayish with shrugs until BETRAYER and ST PAUL. Wasn’t all that keen on CAR B either.
NHO WORM-EATEN.
Dvynys is correct – I biffed “moth eaten” without stopping to parse it, and needed SHADOW to show me the error of my ways. I also biffed my LOI and needed his help to parse it
I started sluggishly, but once I got into a rhythm it all fell into place soon enough, though I took the apple on trust.
FOI TAX FREE
LOI ST.PAUL
COD HEIRLOOM
TIME 6:34
My thanks to Dvynys and setter.
Not tooooo hard but a few I could not parse. Good puzzle. Well blogged.
1a Euclidean, got off to a fine start with this biff. Never saw the anagrind nor did I try to substitute “concept” with anything else.
12a Rock’n’roll. Missed boy=cor so biffed. I did see the grassy knoll.
21a Stretcher. NHO (or didn’t think of) a “retcher”, so biffed.
24a Orchard. I forgot Fuji was an apple so this took a bit of time.
2d Cover ones tracks, COD for its complexity which I enjoyed unravelling.
7d Carbon footprint. No, I didn’t “geddit!”
19d St Paul, NHO Stupa. Biffed.
Some great surfaces in there — though tbh when I’m in solve-mode I don’t actually see them: too busy micro-reading word by separate word. 18’28” Many thanks
Finished this nice puzzle in 34.54, but left scratching my head for the parsing of ST PAUL and my LOI KEEP SCORE. Perhaps I should have been able to parse the latter, but the former would have always eluded me.
36:52. Lovely surfaces in a few places, some quite involved wordplay in others. particularly liked YTTRIUM and BETRAYER. thanks!
All correct today, after some careless errors on Monday and Tuesday. I couldn’t parse STPAUL or KEEP SCORE.
Overall, a very good puzzle.
Thanks to our blogger and setter.
Lovely puzzle and lovely blog. I messed up today, stupidly putting in ENIGMATIC at 1A and MOTH-EATEN at 27A without studying the wordplay, so 33 mins. Thank you Blogger for explaining ORCHARD’s wordplay, I’d not met Fuji apples before. First in was ETHOS and last KEEP SCORE. Out of numerous excellent clues my favourite was to HEIRLOOM. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
41:37, with ORCHARD and ST PAUL my last two in.
I was slowed down by falling into the MOTH trap.
COD to YTTRIUM
Thanks Dvynys and setter
I, too, fell into the MOTH-EATEN trap, but couldn’t parse it, so left the letters faintly in place while wondering what else it could possibly be with M-EAT as flesh. Fortunately, I finally deciphered SHADOW and the penny dropped, along with the parsing. I loved STEEL DRUM, which again took a while to parse, but never having heard of stupa, was mystified by ST PAUL, though it didn’t prevent me biffing it. I was helped by the 4 and 5-letter words being gimmes (apart from FOCUS) and the two long ones coming in early. I really thought I would know the metal; but once I worked out the parsing, I put in TYTRIUM, as being the only possible arrangement, and only the realisation that 15d had to be BETRAYER forced me to change it to the wildly unlikely YTTRIUM! So all correct and two new words to the better… Thanks to setter for a great puzzle and to Dvynys for the explanations of KEEP SCORE, ST PAUL and CARBON FOOTPRINT.