I found this a stiff workout, the second Saturday toughie in a row, with the clock stopping at 14:09, longer than my par, and a number of clues requiring careful parsing to unpack them after I had completed the grid.
There are at least three IKEA or “assemble from many parts” clues which are very clever, and I personally find them very satisfying when I finally work out what is going on, though I am aware some solvers just see the answer and move on.
Only one DD, at 8D, but it is a good one, and gets my COD. And (as usual) if there is a NINA, then I failed to spot it.
What did everyone else think of the puzzle? (NB I am out and about almost all day today so my apologies in advance if replies to any comments people may wish to make are delayed).
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Distributed on all pitches, but not uniform (5,7) |
| PLAIN CLOTHES – (on all pitches)*, with the anagram indicator being “distributed”, and the meaning referring to eg a policeman who is on duty but not in uniform. Also known as “in mufti”, one of the relatively few words in English derived from Arabic. | |
| 9 | Not all regular guests bicker (5) |
| ARGUE – A hidden (ie “not all” of) in regulAR GUEsts. | |
| 10 | Memory loss in a very big area worried men (7) |
| AMNESIA – MNE (anagram of men, with the indicator being “worried”) included in ASIA (which is indeed a very big area). | |
| 11 | Unable to escape, resident finally knocked (7) |
| TRAPPED – T (resident “finally”, ie last letter of resident) + RAPPED (knocked). | |
| 12 | Subject of article by yours truly (5) |
| THEME – THE (article) + ME (ie yours truly). | |
| 13 | Tailed zebras every so often, arriving at trees (6) |
| ALDERS – Every other letter (“every so often”) of tAiLeD zEbRaS. It took me a long time to work out what was going on here, and the penny only dropped when all three checkers were in. | |
| 14 | Sounds and smells overwhelming one (6) |
| NOISES – NOSES (smells, as a verb) surrounding (“overwhelming”) I (one). | |
| 17 | Ogre’s ruined spiny shrub (5) |
| GORSE – (ogres)*. A straightforward anagram, with the indicator being “ruined”, but I found it surprisingly difficult to spot for a simple 5 letter word. | |
| 19 | Without delay: therefore one’s ahead of time (7) |
| SOONEST – SO (therefore) + ONES (from the clue) + T (time). I had a boss once for whom everything had to be done “as soon as possible”; he didn’t seem to understand that this did not necessarily mean “immediately”, and sometimes “next Tuesday” really was “as soon as possible”. | |
| 21 | Diplomatic staffer to fix date at last (7) |
| ATTACHÉ – ATTACH (fix, in the sense of affix) + E (date “at last”, ie last letter of date).
A loan word from French for someone who is assigned or attached (ie attaché, past participle of the verb attacher) to a diplomatic mission. In English the acute accent is optional but not wrong, but (as was discussed only recently, in the blog for QC 2672, Friday 10 May), in Crosswordland accents and other diacritics are never used. |
|
| 22 | Increasingly distant, keeping company no longer with queen (5) |
| ICIER – ICI (company no longer) + ER (queen).
ICI, or Imperial Chemical Industries, was founded in 1926 and for much of its existence was the largest British company and a stalwart member of the FT-30 then FTSE, but it was taken over in 2008 and broken up by its new owners. So, a “company no longer”. |
|
| 23 | Exceptionally, monsieur abandons minor row at cathedral city (12) |
| INORDINATELY – An IKEA clue, constructed as INOR (minor without the M, ie monsieur abandons it) + DIN (row) + AT (from the clue) + ELY (Crosswordland’s favourite cathedral city). I biffed this from the checkers and only then worked out the wordplay.
Ely is very popular with setters as it is a common and useful 3-letter combination; it is often also clued as see or diocese. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Pull young lady up: a dawdler! (7) |
| LAGGARD – DRAG (pull) + GAL (young girl), all reversed (“up”, as this is a down clue). | |
| 3 | Green endpiece in Rex’s jumble (13) |
| INEXPERIENCED – (endpiece in rex)*, with the anagram indicator being “jumble”. | |
| 4 | Debussy maybe receiving praise in church (6) |
| CLAUDE – LAUD (praise) inserted into CE (church). A definition by example, using the fact that Debussy’s first name was Claude, and indicated by the “maybe”. Other Claudes could also have been used, with perhaps the best known being Claude Monet.
Claude Debussy was a French composer prominent in the last decades of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th; his most well-known piece is probably Clair de Lune. |
|
| 5 | Yellow egg to lift across log for bird expert (13) |
| ORNITHOLOGIST – Our second IKEA clue, and again in four parts, the construction being OR (literally gold, but used for yellow in heraldry) + NIT (egg, a nit being the egg of a louse) + HOIST (lift) containing (ie “across”) LOG.
Another one that I biffed then later (considerably later) worked out the parsing for. I wonder if setters are ever disappointed that their very cleverly constructed clues are simply guessed like this – if so my apologies to Felix! |
|
| 6 | Possesses note that’s made by one in a hurry? (5) |
| HASTE – HAS (possesses) + TE (a note in the Sol-Fa scale). I’ve taken the definition to be the whole six-word phrase, as someone in a hurry makes haste; one could argue that the definition is just the word hurry on its own, as hurry and haste can be synonyms, but that does not use all the words in the clue. | |
| 7 | Veterans putting on plays? (7) |
| STAGERS – An all-in-one clue, as veterans are sometimes called Old Stagers, and people who put on or stage plays are presumably also stagers. Perhaps slightly forced, as I have never heard of veterans called stagers without the “old”, nor for that matter is stager as the noun for someone who stages a play that common either. But it just about works.
I did wonder whether this could be classified as a DD, but the part of speech for “putting on plays” isn’t right for stagers – it would need to be staging. |
|
| 8 | The inclination (but evidently not the ability) (4) |
| CANT – This one on the other hand I did decide could be classified as a DD – a rather unusual DD though, with Cant meaning inclination, slope or tilt, and Can’t implying that someone cannot, ie does not have the ability to, do something, and the whole surface making use of the second meaning of inclination as willingness or desire, to give us the picture of someone who wants to do something but is unable to. Very clever.
The DD is made more difficult to spot by the different pronunciation – in (southern) British English at least – of the two meanings, and (against some stiff opposition) the clue gets my COD for its simplicity yet complexity all in one. |
|
| 13 | HF again used for broadcast from Kabul? (7) |
| AFGHANI – (HF again)*, with the anagram indicator being “broadcast”, and the reference being to a native of Kabul, which is in Afghanistan. | |
| 15 | Unusual, small gym class US agents left (7) |
| SPECIAL – Our third construct-it clue, with the moving parts being S (small) + PE (gym class) + CIA (US agents) + L (left). A lot packed into a short clue! | |
| 16 | Like seabird at back of ship (6) |
| ASTERN – AS (like) + TERN (seabird). | |
| 18 | Port to consume at ten to one for example (5) |
| RATIO – RIO (a port) with AT (from the clue) inserted into it, and the meaning given by a “definition by example”, 10:1 being an example of a ratio.
A very nice surface, though personally if I start drinking port at 12.50 (“ten to one”) I am guaranteed to lose the afternoon to slumber and a headache on waking. |
|
| 20 | Sailor at end of cavern finding mountain lake (4) |
| TARN – TAR (sailor) + N (end of, ie last letter of, cavern). A nice simple one to end a challenging puzzle. | |
9:50, with WANT instead of CANT. I think clueing could have been a little tidier with this one, and still think both are valid and no crossers. CANT is admittedly the more convincing of the two, but it shouldn’t be left to the solver to try every possible outcome. otherwise very enjoyable puzzle.
DNF
I’m not particularly happy with 8d CANT. I thought WANT a perfectly good double definition. If you have an inclination for something you want it and if you lack the ability you’re wanting.
At least Parkrun was kind today with a splendid outing to Rotterdam.
Edit: Having read the other comments I see WANT is an incredibly common error. Which, I think, indicates a dreadful clue.
9:57, a late start but not too much trouble. My best of the week.
DNF CANT (another WANT here too) but no problems with the rest. Liked LAGGARD and ICIER. Many thanks Cedric.
Fairly quick after a day at Mayfest in Winchester, watching Morris dancers – perhaps that’s good brain food – I didn’t have any trouble with this. LOI CANT, as it wasn’t immediately obvious, but a quick alphabet trawl got me there – lucky I started from A, so never considered want. Helpful to get the two long down ones very quickly, of course.
8.08
Late entry here. Fortunately didn’t think of WANT. STAGERS LOI as I had carelessly biffed PLAIN CLOTHED
Great blog