Nothing to frighten the horses in this neat offering by Alfie. There are a couple of little gems, such as 23ac. I was slowed down by biffing DUNGHEAP for 8 dn, but came in just under par at 5 and a bit minutes.
UPDATE: as usual I missed the hidden theme, so well spotted those who saw it. It’s a pangram (i.e uses all the letters), alphabetically arranged in little groups in the across clues, and flagged by 21dn. Nice!
| Across | |
| 1 | Dick Bach’s unusual bird (8) |
| DABCHICK – anagram (‘unusual’) of DICK BACH | |
| 5 | Nimble artist federation’s holding back (4) |
| DEFT – reversed hidden word: artisT FEDeration | |
| 8 | Spooner’s suspended herb in filthy place (8) |
| DUNGHILL – Spooner would say HUNG DILL | |
| 9 | In French, I must grasp fine gag (4) |
| JOKE – JE with OK inside | |
| 11 | Twelve months is long, endless (4) |
| YEAR – Short for YEARN | |
| 12 | Being collected from class, men misbehaving (8) |
| CALMNESS – anagram (‘misbehaving’) of CLASS MEN | |
| 13 | Musical works being aspiration of Cockney artist’s (6) |
| OPERAS – cockneys drop their h’s so aspiration is ‘OPE. Add RA’S (Royal Academician’s) for artist. | |
| 15 | Heard of one using tongue for strong drink? (6) |
| LIQUOR – sounds like ‘licker’ | |
| 18 | Ogreish thug reels, regularly making signs (8) |
| GESTURES – alternate letters of oGrEiSh ThUg ReElS | |
| 20 | Animal doctor holding son’s garment (4) |
| VEST – VET with S inside | |
| 22 | Which are in the conceited, for example, outsize? (4) |
| EGOS – EG + OS. I wondered if it was trying to be an &lit too, but I don’t think it quite works | |
| 23 | Knocked off witty number (5-3) |
| FIFTY-TWO – anagram (‘knocked’) of OFF WITTY. Absolutely TOP anagramming, sir. | |
| 24 | Alluring, singular, old partner seen with Yankee (4) |
| SEXY – S + EX + Y | |
| 25 | Feeling of regret after taking in variable Cornish resort (8) |
| PENZANCE – PENANCE with the mathematical variable Z inside | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fly with parent, having extended parts of journey? (5-8) |
| DADDY-LONGLEGS – self-explanatory | |
| 2 | Musicians taking a long time dressing (7) |
| BANDAGE – BAND + AGE | |
| 3 | Boundary hidden at first: I’ve found it! (2-2) |
| HA-HA – H for hidden + AHA! | |
| 4 | Sound of shopkeeper in basement (6) |
| CELLAR -Sounds like ‘seller’ | |
| 6 | I hesitate to say some poetic lines are wearing (5) |
| ERODE – ER…? + ODE | |
| 7 | Outrageously overrates true valuable find (8-5) |
| TREASURE-TROVE – anagram (‘outrageously’) of OVERRATES TRUE | |
| 10 | Bantu warriors: two grabbing member of parliament (4) |
| IMPI – MP inside II. The Impi can be seen being mown down in their thousands by rifle fire in the film Zulu (1964) | |
| 14 | Touch on an objection? (4) |
| ABUT – A ‘but….’ | |
| 16 | Acceptable to tidy, as food left? (7) |
| UNEATEN – U (= acceptable, according to Nancy Mitford ) + NEATEN | |
| 17 | Cat made of iron cable (6) |
| FELINE – FE + LINE | |
| 19 | Our brief to be welcomed by half a dozen native Americans (5) |
| SIOUX – OU[r] inside SIX | |
| 21 | Guide visiting Australia (1,2,1) |
| A TO Z – AT OZ. | |
As a speed solver, I didn’t notice the theme. I had put bunghole for 8 across – is bole a herb? I then erased the B, saw daddy-longlegs, and entered the correct dunghill, since dill is a herb. But if I had noticed the Nina, I would have realized that H,I is required before joke. I also nearly put liquer instead of liquor, but changed it at the last minute.
Time: 12:12.
Oh wow, nice catch on the theme! I’d noticed it was a pangram but not that the letters appeared in alphabetical order.
Tricky one, I also hesitated with liquer/liquor, having fallen on this before.
52 and uneaten held me up the longest as I forgot U for acceptable.
COD 52 or daddy longlegs.
thanks.
15:50. A TO Z and FIFTY-TWO almost remained ungettable for me but I finally thought of Oz for Australia and then saw”knocked” as anagrind. UNEATEN was my favourite. I went through dungheap and dunghole before seeing DUNGHILL. Penance as regret and fly for DADDY- LONGLEGS didn’t seem right at the time but what do I know? Appreciated blog for clearing everything up!
I wondered if there may be more to the A-Z theme here with FIFTY TWO being twice that number of letters. It almost suggested a double-pangram may be lurking , but sadly not.
Not at all on Alfie’s wavelength today – beaten by 16dn UNEATEN, which I had to resort to an aid to get after 26 minutes. Noticed the pangram as I struggled on but it didn’t really help as I hadn’t spotted that the letters appeared in order reading across. Very clever.
FOI – 11ac YEAR
LOI – DNF
COD – maybe because it was all such a struggle, nothing really stood out for me.
Thanks to Alfie and Curarist
All sorts of problems for me today. Had HI-FI (first letters of hidden I’ve found it) but why a boundary? Because of the F had LANDFILL for the filthy place and so thought 1d was DAILY or DELAY to do with journeys. Took a while to untangle all that and didn’t see the witty anagram so ? 52 or 62. Was annoyed not to spot the pangram as I usually check as soon as I see Z, J, Q etc.
Enjoyed this, finishing in 17:20. I spotted the theme for the first time ever, which helped me because my LOI needed a W, which led to the “oh, maybe it’s an anagram” moment, which led to the answer. FOI BANDAGE, LOI & COD FIFTY-TWO. Thanks to setter & blogger.
10 clues today.
Glad you decided to stick with it – sounds like you’re making steady progress!
Well done!
Not bad Ian. I think you will see from the comments that this was tough. Well done for sticking at it.
A late start for me and I found it a mix of straightforward and decidedly quirky clues. I missed my target by a minute but perhaps that wasn’t too bad, given some of the comments above.
Thanks to both. John M.
Clever stuff which took 14 minutes to unravel. The pangram became apparent but thanks for pointing out the grouping and the pointer.
Finished in 2 sittings but one wrong – had ‘anul’ for ABUT. Knew it didn’t parse but just couldn’t think of anything else… Very enjoyable. Liked A TO Z. Thanks all.
I caught that it was a pangram but not that all 26 letters appeared in alphabetical order — what an absolutely delightful conceit!
Finished in around an hour, mostly steady plodding through, not as much squinting and mumbling as usual. The one spot that had me absolutely tearing my hair out was putting AH-HA in for HAHA and then trying to anagram “dick bach” to fit D_B_A_C_. Dibhacck? Dkbcaich? I’m still exhausted!
Oh, and FIFTY-TWO threw me off just because I’m always surprised to see a number as the answer in a crossword. I mean obviously the word for a number is still a word, but somehow my brain thinks the two can’t coexist or something!
Dnf by three basically because put in bitter instead of liquor
I belong to the VSCC (typically over 40 mins) but enjoyed this. Kicked myself on several occasions at being taken in by the surface. Had to look up IMPI, are these well known in Crosswordland? Thanks Alfie for (to me) a challenging but eventually doable puzzle.
It’s definitely worth looking out for Impi, although they’re probably more frequently spotted in the biggie!
Never really got on the wavelength today and took 45 mins for a DNF as put dunghole for 8ac. Thought this was an Australian term but should have concentrated on the parsing. I thought this was a tough but very fair offering. Only knew 10dn as a result of Zulu. Didn’t know u meant acceptable.
Thank you for the blog.
Just got round to this – so only a techie question – I see it worked well today but do pangs always have to show in alphabetical order? Vinyl1 mentions this above. I hadn’t noticed this hitherto.