Time taken: 9:40. That’s usually enough for me to declare Tricky Thursday, but I was over 10 minutes on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so I don’t think this is the trickiest of the week.
It isn’t easy by any means, but most clues yielded on the second or third read, so it was a pretty steady grid fill, though my last one in was 1 across, so hats off to the setter for concealing a long answer so well.
All of the long answers are very cleverly clued, leading to a puzzle that is difficult to biff – I had to think carefully about the wordplay in almost every clue.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Barb piercing fish soon causing bad suffering (7,6) |
| COSTING DEARLY – STING (barb) inside COD (fish) and EARLY (soon) | |
| 8 | Each maid peeled fruit (4) |
| ACAI – internal letters of eACh and mAId | |
| 9 | Source of virus overlooked in otherwise unobtrusive section of code (10) |
| SUBROUTINE – remove the first letter of Virus from UNOBTRUSIVE and anagram. | |
| 10 | Rush imbibing the French wine (8) |
| SPATLESE – SPATE (rush) containing LES (the in French) | |
| 11 | Listen briefly, political party is short of funds (4-2) |
| HARD UP – HARK (listen) minus the last letter, then DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) | |
| 13 | Crowded company moved to let one go (10) |
| COMPRESSED – CO (company) then IMPRESSED (moved) minus I (one) | |
| 16 | Popular type not completely creative (4) |
| ARTY – hidden inside populAR TYpe | |
| 17 | Cry over piquant wraps (4) |
| HOOT – O (over) inside HOT (piquant) | |
| 18 | Dreadful thing stopping witness attending since (6,4) |
| SEEING THAT – anagram of THING inside SEE (witness) and AT (attending) | |
| 20 | Perceives sixth sense that is singular (6) |
| ESPIES – ESP (sixth sense), IE (that is), S (singular) | |
| 22 | Transport returned in the westbound lane of airway (8) |
| TRACHEAL – CAR (transport) reversed inside THE, then LA (lane) reversed | |
| 24 | Do exploit male recruits regularly (7,3) |
| FEATHER CUT – FEAT (exploit), HE (male) then alternating letters of ReCrUiTs | |
| 26 | Keen to help five dons (4) |
| AVID – AID (to help) outside of V (five) | |
| 27 | Bird to shake crest on overturned snare (4,9) |
| ROCK PARTRIDGE – ROCK (shake), then RIDGE (crest) after TRAP (snare) reversed | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sounding harsh about policeman I’m surprised turned back on good judgment (11) |
| CACOPHONOUS – CA (about), COP (policeman), followed by OH (I’m surprised) reversed, and NOUS good judgement | |
| 2 | Move beam, changing article for ironwork, primarily (5) |
| SHIFT – SHAFT (beam) with A (article) replaced by the first letter of Ironwork | |
| 3 | Unproblematic having no kids (9) |
| ISSUELESS – with no kids you could be ISSUE-LESS | |
| 4 | Cups turned up in hostel bogs (7) |
| GOBLETS – hidden reversed inside hoSTEL BOGs | |
| 5 | Potty revolutionary cycling for some time (5) |
| EPOCH – PO (potty, portable toilet) and CHE (revolutionary) all cycled | |
| 6 | Sailor bitten by insect is slowing (9) |
| RETARDANT – TAR (sailor) inside RED ANT (insect) | |
| 7 | Desire bread from abroad (3) |
| YEN – double definition | |
| 12 | Damage one covered in plastered neutral colour (11) |
| ULTRAMARINE – MAR (damage) and I (one) inside an anagram of NEUTRAL | |
| 14 | Each year small group nakedly abuse nationalist (9) |
| PATRIOTIC – PA (each year), TRIO (small group), then STICK (abuse) minus the external letters | |
| 15 | Not scared to go round city (9) |
| DONCASTER – anagram of NOT,SCARED | |
| 19 | One charming rogue in Crete (7) |
| ENTICER – anagram of IN,CRETE | |
| 21 | Stop exhausted outside shelter to rest (5) |
| SLEEP – The external letters of StoP containing LEE (shelter) | |
| 23 | Treasure group of nomads picked up (5) |
| HOARD – homophone of HORDE (group of nomads) | |
| 25 | Blunder is end for white bishop (3) |
| ERR – last letter of whitE, then RR (bishop) | |
55 mins for me so I found it tricky. I didn’t know ROCK PARTRIDGE or FEATHER CUT but not too hard to get from wordplay and very plausible (not like those Mephisto clues when you think “that can’t possibly be a word” but it is). Last half in was the FEAT of FEATHER CUT.
Yes, this was pretty tricky. The only one I biffed was subroutine, and only with all the checkers in place. Tracheal was particularly difficult – the US abbreviation for lane is LN, and I didn’t realize the was going to be involved. Spatlese was my LOI – is that a word? Is that a wine? Perhaps.
Time: 36:26
More accurately spätlese, ‘late harvest’.
yes, couldn’t be bothered to hunt for an umlaut. (me, that is, not necessarily Vinyl)
On my iPad if hold down a letter it shows all the accent options, it’s nice and easy!
There’s also AUSLESE …
A steady solve, no unknowns. Perhaps it helped to be familiar with German wine designations.. auslese, spatlese etc. (Fortunately, trockenbeerenauslese doesn’t fit). I did think it was trickier than yesterday’s, and currently the Snitch is at 105, so it seems as if our editor is once again bang on with the week’s grading. What will tomorrow bring?
German wine classifications were common knowledge in the 70’s and being a baby boomer I know them all. Sadly though they are so out of fashion now I’m not surprised Spätlese was NHO for so many.
Mucked this one up, failing on HOOT and misreading the HOARD clue and putting heard instead. It took me about 35 minutes to get to that point, and some of the finer cryptic points in clues like CACOPHONOUS, COMPRESSED and SUBROUTINE (whatever that is) kept themselves hidden until explained in G’s helpful blog.
From Tryin’ To Get To Heaven:
Gonna SLEEP down in the parlour
And relive my dreams
I close my eyes and I wonder
If everything is as hollow as it seems
30 minutes of reasonable progress then ran completely aground on the unknown wine. I think I even thought of “spate” a couple of times but didn’t recognise any collection of letters that looked like an actual word. Oh well.
Just under 40 minutes but aids needed for the last few stubborn clues. With the exception of SUBROUTINE nothing particularly obscure, just some very clever clueing.
Thanks G and setter
Do you live near Inverleith Park, Edinburgh? I’m there most days.
25 minutes.
– Didn’t know ‘la’ as an abbreviation for ‘lane’ (where would you use it?) as used in TRACHEAL
– Not familiar with FEATHER CUT as a hairdo
– Similarly had to hope there’s such a thing as a ROCK PARTRIDGE
– Vaguely remembered po as a potty to get EPOCH
– Didn’t realise that DONCASTER was a city (it only recently became one, it seems)
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Goblets
LOI Spatlese
COD Doncaster
16’47”, with a guessed SPATLESE. A tricky puzzle requiring careful parsing and not much biffing.
Thanks george and setter.
45 minutes. NHO ACAI or ROCK PARTRIDGE but neither delayed me by much. Last two in were EPOCH and SUBROUTINE both of which seemed obvious after I had solved them.
I didn’t know FEATHERCUT as a hairdo but as a cut of steak aka ‘feather blade’ which don’t appear to have made it to the dictionaries but are all over the web.
Used an aid for SUBROUTINE after banging my head against a brick wall for ten minutes. I still didn’t think it was right then. Didn’t know the wine. Otherwise, a good puzzle. COD to SEEING THAT. Thank you George and setter.
9:48. I thought this was great: like George I found very little that was biffable so I was usually grappling with wordplay.
COSTING DEARLY struck me as a little bit green-paintish when solving but the usual dictionaries have it as a defined term.
I read ISSUELESS the other way round: I would have said that ‘without children’ is the primary meaning. I haven’t encountered it with the other one.
NHO FEATHER CUT and it took me a moment to consider the right meaning of ‘exploit’.
Agree about ISSUELESS.
No problems with this one except my starting it as I was on the verge of sleep…
DNF, defeated by SPATLESE (which I guessed from the wordplay but was thought was too implausible to write in) and FEATHER CUT (I’m not sure I’ve ever come across DO in the sense of HAIRDO) but it was a tidy puzzle and I enjoyed it. Thanks for the blog.
39:42 but 10 minutes of that on the NHO of SPATLESE. I was in a stubborn mood this morning. Even without that still about 10 minutes more than the rest of the week so I am firmly in the tricky camp.
NHO of FEATHER CUT. Although I think I’ve had short back and sides with a trim on top for the last 4 decades.
COD SEEING THAT
Thanks blogger and setter.
Also beaten by the NHOs SPATLESE and FEATHER CUT. Both looked plausible on the word play, with all crossers, but I loathe guessing at words I don’t know. Seems to defeat the object IMHO.
23.21. I met trouble with both the phrasal answers (1a, 18a), which even after solving looked like they were incomplete. Perhaps we can have a way of entering ellipses (and for that matter umlauts) in the grid. Listener setters take note.
I tried to justify SINE PROLE for 3d: I agree that “having no kids” is probably the primary definition and “unproblematic” the cutesy one.
HOOT was nearly my last, justifying grudgingly as TOO H[ot] reversed (wrapped?). I think you got that one better, George!
Not my favourite puzzle of the week, so far.
WOE after 38 mins. A good puzzle spoilt by the NHO SPATLESE. Like Staticman that took an age and I almost gave up. Guessed SPATE correctly but wondered if for once French was part of the defn and submitted SPAThEtE. Equally valid from the wordplay making the answer impossible without knowing the wine. Bad clue.
Until that I enjoyed the puzzle and was pleased with my solving. High points were SUBROUTINE, ULTRAMARINE and DONCASTER. Yes it is a city as any Pointless viewer will know. Not Countdown, it’s capitalised.
Thanks to glh and setter.
Steady solve of some intricate clues. I couldn’t remember the spelling of SPATLESE, and carelessly entered an E for the A (should have got a pen and paper out).
I couldn’t see how ARTY worked- nice hidden, Setter!
Nice to see my town of birth (now city) in the puzzle.
So, OWL club again, which seems to be a frequent occurrence when I’m solving on the app.
From YEN to SPATLESE, which was assembled from wordplay, in 21:22. SUBROUTINE brought back memories of yore using COBOL and FORTRAN etc. FEATHER CUT was another assembled from wordplay. Quite enjoyed this one. Thanks setter and George.
DNF
Par time for me until I gave up on SPATLESE after failing to think of SPATE. As others have said THE was possible in the middle as well and I have to confess jobs beckoned and on this occasion life was too short. Wasn’t overly keen on my other NHO SUBROUTINE, but lots to like elsewhere.
Thanks George/setter.
Worked steadily clockwise from ISSUELESS, finishing up with 1ac and EPOCH, only having to go back for an alphatrawl for the _E_T synonym for EXPLOIT. (I’ve taken to starting my alphatrawls at M, as when I start at A, with the whole daunting thing stretching out before me, I seem to be much more inclined to get bored and wander off elsewhere. Nonsense, of course, but it does seem to work!) So a very satisfying solve, and agree with the lack of scope for biffing. Helped a little by a vague memory of SUBROUTINES from old Star Trek jargon; and helped a lot by quite a nice SPATLESE just the other week – SPATE for RUSH seems very tough and I doubt I would have got it from wordplay. 20:41, with that assist, and thought the puzzle lovely – thanks setter and George.
50:37 – about as far off the wavelength as possible. Everything was tricky, 1ac was LOI and SPATLESE went in with what might charitably be called a low confidence rating, but was pretty well a guess and I was surprised it was correct.
Found this quite tricky – 26 mins. Not helped by misspelling 1D as CACOPHANOUS. Didn’t know SUBROUTINE, FEATHER CUT or ISSUELESS. First in was ERR, last COMPRESSED. Favourite clue was to ERR. Thanks Setter and Blogger.
It took me a long time but I can’t complain about the bird at 27ac, the wine at 10ac and the haircut at 24ac, because they all could be solved from wordplay although I’d never heard of any of them. Several quite nice clues, even if they did delay me for a while.
23:39
Quietly pleased with this – Snitch of 106 these days translates to 38 minutes! Some notes:
NHO ROCK PARTRIDGE but the answer was quite easy to piece together even if one hasn’t heard of that particular subtype
COMPRESSED – didn’t quite get the parsing correct
SPATLESE – don’t know why I’ve heard of this, but in it went
SUBROUTINE – a pdm moment when I realised it was an anagram
CACOPHONOUS – painstakingly built, giving the vital C for 1a
Thanks G and setter
I enjoyed this as it was a good challenge. I’m sure that the word “do” will be in some sources as a noun for a haircut, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone use it as such.
COD to “seeing that” as on first reading you wouldn’t expect the definition to simply be the last word “since.”
Many thanks to the setter and GLH
Fell at the last, not for the first time of late, when I failed to solve SPATLESE after 50 or so minutes. In the end I opted for APATHECE which just about works cryptically, and possibly sounds more plausible as a wine than SPATLESE. Earlier I was delayed in the top half by biffing FRUITLESS for 3 dn, which when I gave it some proper thought was more ‘problematic’ than ‘unproblematic’.
Surprised so many hadn’t heard of SUBROUTINE. Obviously not much programming experience, then!
Battled grimly through this only to type HEARD instead of HOARD. My second typo on consecutive days.
Impressive puzzle (said through gritted teeth)
Thanks to George and the setter.
I found this hard
Living in Germany i know spätlese of course but I would have thought in english it’s spaetlese with an e. Also personally I wouldn’t think of it as a wine as such rather a method of harvesting the grapes. So for a long time I was looking for a wine going hasleste or something! I also found both SHIFT / SHAFT and ISSUELESS (not sure if i heard this word before or not) hard so that whole group really held me up a lot at the end.
If anyone cares I took 50 minutes by far my longest time this week.
Thanks everyone
15min, so on the tricky side though I HHO all the answers. I thought some of the surfaces were a bit clunky, especially 1ac and 18ac. Haven’t we had do for haircut quite a bit recently? It was the first thing I thought of. Liked SUBROUTINE once the anagram penny dropped.
Maybe I’m in a bad mood, because I failed to finish , ( not helped by total ignorance of the word SPATLESE having gone through God knows how many types of wine in my mind) but isn’t the answer to 1a very tame? Is there an understanding that the solution to clues which contain more than one word should be based on a known or commonly used expression rather than a simple combination of words?
Good challenge all completed bar “hoot” and “seeing that”.
“Spatlese” unheard of as were “subroutine” and ” rock partridge” but cryptics were pretty clear.
Thanks for the blog, which was v helpful, and to our setter.
Also “arty” passed me by and thanks George for pointing out what, in retrospect, looks obvious!