Most of this was relatively straightforward, if a bit anagram-heavy, but goodness me, I struggled in the top left corner. I ended up completing the puzzle in 21:51, but with 2 errors on 1d and 8a.
After about 17 minutes, I still had 1a, 1d and 8a to do. I sent myself entirely the wrong way on 1a by thinking that the “extra number” might be a term for the bonus ball in the National Lottery, unknown to me as a non-UK resident. But eventually the cricket sense of the clue came to me, which left me looking at N?? for “Goose egg” and ??N?E for “Touch metal and get cut”. After another 4 minutes or so, I thought of NIL for “Goose egg”, which I’m reasonable sure I’ve heard of in sports. I didn’t see how the clue was at all cryptic, but clearly L?N?E could then be LANCE, which definitely means “cut”. Bingo! 2 clues I thought I would have to come back to parse more carefully for the blog, but it seemed to fit together nicely. Quick, hit submit! THREE dreaded pink squares. Boo.
My FOI was SON, LOI (and second error) was LANCE, but easily my favourite today was LOSS, for the great “photo finish” misdirection.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Extra number at dance (2,4) |
| NO BALL – NO (abbreviation for “number”, as in “No 10 Downing Street”), BALL (dance).
Sorry, non-cricketers. A no-ball is when the bowler does something wrong when delivering the ball, like stepping over the line. One run (an extra) is added to the batting team’s score, and the bowler has to do it again. |
|
| 4 | Old musical which contains old piano (3,3) |
| TOP HAT – THAT (which) containing O for old and P for piano, as in musical notation. | |
| 8 | Touch metal and get cut (5) |
| TINGE – TIN (a metal) + GE |
|
| 9 | Bran ultimately required in variety of cereal — daily? (7) |
| CLEANER – Last letter [ultimately] of braN in (cereal)*. | |
| 10 | Boy with short tune (3) |
| SON – SON |
|
| 11 | Instrument in choir a man played (9) |
| HARMONICA – (choir a man)* | |
| 12 | Historic Irish province shaping result (6) |
| ULSTER – (result)* | |
| 13 | Walk with sway on street (6) |
| STROLL – ROLL (sway) on ST (abbreviation for street). | |
| 16 | Good Lord, puff announcing new Pope? (4,5) |
| HOLY SMOKE – “Holy smoke!” and “Good Lord!” are both expressions of surprise. The second part of the clue refers to the practice where colored smoke is used to indicate whether a pope has been selected or not. | |
| 18 | I appreciate that head on naked bronze (3) |
| TAN – TA (thanks: I appreciate that) + first letter [head on] N That’s “bronze” as a verb, meaning to acquire a sun tan. |
|
| 19 | Newspapers onto former lover, direct (7) |
| EXPRESS – PRESS (newspapers) after EX (former lover).
Direct = express as in trains. |
|
| 20 | Give a lecture hosted by governor at Eton (5) |
| ORATE – hidden in [hosted by] |
|
| 22 | Figure resident of nest is rent payer (6) |
| TENANT – TEN (figure) + ANT (resident of nest).
Of course ants have nests. D’oh. |
|
| 23 | Journalist tried novel: nothing in it (6) |
| EDITOR – (tried)* with O (nothing) included. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Goose egg (3) |
| NIT – A double definition, the first as in “you silly goose”, the second as in the eggs of lice. | |
| 2 | Crazy bunch? (7) |
| BANANAS – A double definition. | |
| 3 | Tenets in Chile destroyed country (13) |
| LIECHTENSTEIN – (tenets in Chile)*
I was terribly smug that I remembered there is a rogue “T” in the middle of Liechtenstein. |
|
| 5 | Last drink available at motorway services? (3,3,3,4) |
| ONE FOR THE ROAD – A definition and a cryptic hint.
The idea of having one last drink “for the road” has rather fallen out of fashion as people have realised that drunk driving is a very bad idea. |
|
| 6 | Capital of Hungary, a number one capital! (5) |
| HANOI – first letter [capital] of H |
|
| 7 | Aunt April knitted something waterproof (9) |
| TARPAULIN – (Aunt April)* | |
| 9 | Top hooks right for fish (4) |
| CARP – CAP (top) contains [hooks] R (right). | |
| 10 | How US test changes direction (9) |
| SOUTHWEST – (How US test)* | |
| 14 | Survive moving to Tulsa (7) |
| OUTLAST – (to Tulsa)* | |
| 15 | Defeat: head hidden in photo finish? (4) |
| LOSS – What a great surface. Worth the price of entry by itself in my opinion. |
|
| 17 | Flower left in higher place at home (5) |
| LUPIN – L (left), UP (in higher place), IN (at home). | |
| 21 | Effective auditory receptor, primarily? (3) |
| EAR – First letters [primarily] of E A semi-&lit, since the word “primarily” isn’t part of the definition. |
|
9:49. HOLY SMOKE was my favourite but I enjoyed the short ones, NIT, TAN, and LUPIN too. At first I thought Close( which a photo finish is) led to LOSE but it didn’t work. Aha, Gloss to LOSS!
No idea what NO BALL means, but assumed it was a cricket term. I spent a lot of time trying, and failing, to figure out how LOI LOSS worked; a great clue. 6:48
Fortunately NO BALL was my FOI without hesitation, and I was able to finish in a sprightly 6.28. HOLY SMOKE and SOUTHWEST held me up at the end, but I might have smashed the 6-minute barrier had I not been required to fiddle around getting the fodder for LIECHTENSTEIN in the right order. Thanks to Mara and the Doof.
Mostly smooth sailing (with the exception of spelling LIECHTENSTEIN) but I also got completely beaten by 1d/8a, going for NIL/LANCE too. They fit the definitions well (what I thought were the definitions, at least). I usually parse everything before solving, but I couldn’t parse these two and paid the price. If I’d solved NIT I think I’d have gotten TINGE but I don’t think NIT would have occurred to me.
Thanks Doofenschmirtz for getting to the bottom of it.
Yes, no ball was a write-in even if you’ve never seen a cricket match in your life – just as long as you’ve been doing British cryptics for a while, that is. Like Lindsay, I always misspell Liechtenstein, and had to check the anagram letters carefully. I also misspelled tarpaulin, but that one was quickly corrected. I NHO Top Hat the musical, but the cryptic gives it to you.
Time: 8:39
Pretty much everything went in easily apart from nit. Even left with N_T I couldn’t see what that answer was.
A welcome return to a more reasonable 10 minutes after hitting 17 solving yesterday’s puzzle by Jalna.
‘One for the road’ goes back forever (possibly referring to a condemned prisoner’s last drink before being taken on the ultimate “road” to execution) but was given a new lease of life following the popularity of the song One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer in 1943 and recorded by Frank Sinatra who kept it in his repertoire for the rest of his career.
The saying simply referred to the act of having a final drink before departure regardless of the mode of transport or the drinker being a driver, but its use in anti drink-driving campaigns led to it being inevitably associated with that and as Mike says, it fell out of fashion.
10:11 with most going in smoothly. LOI TINGE. COD (for the second day running) TOP HAT.
Thank you Mara and Doofenschmirtz
Yep Goose = Nit… was never getting that without the T from Tinge, which I couldnt figure out without the T either. Also entirely foxed by TAN, but otherwise got there. Enjoyable puzzle
Pretty straightforward and a quick time for me of 14:54.
As ever, misdirected by Mara! Like our blogger, ended up in the NW after a reasonable solve apart from tan and loss, thanks for the parsing of those.
Took a visit to the thesaurus for goose to uncover nit and that unlocked tinge at 23.00. COD to holy smoke
Thanks Mara and Doofers
Another DNF on NIT/TINGE, and even when I see the answer I don’t understand Nit = Goose. I presume goose is here being used as a mildly derogatory insult – but the number of words that can be used as an insult is only limited by the user’s imagination! And Tinge = Touch is pretty challenging to spot too.
Other than that, not too many holdups, though TOP HAT was a guess from the wordplay as NHO the film. It falls into the category of “easy if you know it” I think; whether the film is standard GK and simply my ignorance in not knowing of it or rather more niche I cannot say. On the other hand I got LIECHTENSTEIN (and its spelling) almost immediately – I have actually spent a holiday there. No-one could exactly call Vaduz, the capital, the “bright lights” but the rest of the country is even more sleepy, bucolic and idyllic.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
It’s a little (but only a little) more specific than a general insult – both ‘goose’ and ‘nit’ mean a fool/a silly person.
Great use of goose for nit in the seminal ‘Dude, Where’s My Car’, probably streaming somewhere if you’ve got ninety minutes and a few brain cells spare.
The phrase “Oh you silly goose” seems familiar to me, and not particularly derogatory IMHO. On the other hand I suppose calling someone a nit is.
“Water in your dram?” “Just a tinge/just a touch.”
Utter sacrilege!
Not if you drink it at cask strength, Phil! 🥃💥
I remember, a few years ago, visiting a pub attached to a distillery in Scotland. On the bar was a tap that dispensed drops of water to be added to the whisky. Supposed to make a radical difference. Somehow, I’ve never got around to trying it.
I thought I’d lost it when I drew a total blank in the NW, but eventually BANANAS gave me NO BALL, one of which I watched Neesham bowl for Durham at Northampton last Friday! Fortunately I then saw TINGE and was able to enter NIT for 1d despite not seeing NIT=GOOSE. Settled in for a steady solve after that, finishing with LUPIN, then EAR. 7:15. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
10:43 and another Beat The Blogger day for me (what’s going on?) Lots of write ins so must be a wavelength thing. Doof’ wise words gave me tenant loss and what joy when the penny dropped about the tan tinge outdone by the cleaner’s highly polished surface.
Thanks Doofs and Mara
I was really slow to get going on this one, my FOI being ULSTER, but gradually picked up pace as the solve progressed. NHO of the musical so needed all the checkers before the wordplay made sense and like some others finished in the NW where I’d mentally pencilled in NIT for 1d but only typed it in once TINGE came to mind.
Completed in a slightly over average 8.57 with my favourites being HANOI and LOSS.
Thanks to Doofers and Mara
6.52
Had plenty of checkers for LIECHTENSTEIN otherwise no way would I have got them in the right order. Also been there though.
Quite liked the two DDs (NIT and BANANAS) but GLOSS defo CoD.
Thx Doofers/Mara
Pretty decent from MAra. All green in 7:32. Was flying but ultimately (as with others it seems) held up by my last two in TINGE and then NIT. Cheers Doofers
21.03 having plodded the same path as Doofenschmirtz. Held up for many minutes by NO BALL, NIT and TINGE. I can swap TOUCH with TINGE in the abstract, ‘touch of the sun, tinge of the sun.. and likewise with colour etc., I cannot, however, imagine actually saying those phrases using tinge.
Fun start to the day – thank you Mara and blogger.
I forgot to mention that Mara has set today’s Guardian puzzle as ‘Paul’. He’s my favourite of their setters by far. Off to tackle it now, though I know it won’t be easy.
Despite only starting with my 6th clue, and initially putting in “Leichtenstein” (I before E except after C, as Frank Millard was prone to drum into us at Altrincham Grammar!), I eventually finished without too much trouble.
FOI HARMONICA
LOI LUPIN
COD HANOI
TIME 4:04
I thought that the spelling rules for German are different AND MUCH MORE RELIABLE than i before e. So if it sounds ee then it is ie and if it sounds eye then it is ei. Or I might have that wrong as I don’t have German.
A friend of mine was once marked down in a history exam for referring to ” the hier to the throne”. Which, in a way, proves that rules are made to be broken.
The full rule, as drummed into me aged 7, was “I before E except after C when the sound is E”!
I found the bottom half quite straight forward and a couple of the NE downs, getting 15 in total. Total blank in the NW.
Thanks setter and blogger.
DNF. I had TON for 18a (head of That + naked brONze) hoping that one of the many meanings of TON may be an obscure slang version of “I appreciate that”.
Otherwise, all finished in 9:06. COD to LOSS.
Thanks Doofers and Mara
I so nearly submitted that too! But the nagging doubt made me think again.
6:46 with 2 errors. This being Mara, I didn’t expect an easy ride, and I didn’t get one.
The first half or so whizzed by fairly quickly, with the downs in particular leaving me in possible PB territory. I have learnt though, that this is normally evened out by nasty acrosses, and I was sort of right.
TOP HAT caused issues as I just couldn’t make the which = THAT connection.
Went for HIGH instead of HOLY. Thought the expression was holy smokes, with an s. And it seemed like the Vatican smoke could plausibly be called high smoke.
So I was obviously up a gum tree for LUPIN.
Shame really, as the rest was pretty straightforward.
11:59 after correcting ToN for the same explanation as simjt above. Reached the ten min mark with just the NIT/TINGE pairing – was ready to bung in nil/lance but held off. Struggled to enjoy this today with what felt like many anagrams which aren’t my strength – so once again another puzzle which got easier as checkers became available.
Thanks to The Doof and Mara
Yes, Doofers – I too struggled for a long time over those three in the NW corner. Vaguely thought NO BALL was something in cricket, and clearly number = NO, so it had to be; but then had to consult my self-made directory for other words for egg that we’ve had before, and there it was: NIT, upon which LOI TINGE fell in. Phew. Yes lots of nice easy anagrams, but other parsings were beyond me (naked bronze? resident of nest? photo finish?), so thank you, Doof.
Arrggh: join simjt with TON, so failed after all.
An error and a typo so a big DNF today. ONE FOR THE RaoD wrecked ORATE to give me three errors and I oddly could’t see past tin for TAN. I did wonder about the parsing but I could see an I in the clue and was miles off ‘ta’ for ‘I appreciate that’. Still should have seen tan for bronze on a day like today though. I had resolved to get better at checking as I typed but failed – I shall double my resolve for tomorrow! On the bright side those three errors only took me 9.15.
On Mara’s wavelength today with the exception of LOSS which I couldn’t parse. Thanks Doofers for the explanation – makes it my COD.
I failed on NIT, TAN and TINGE. Otherwise an enjoyable cryptic.
Thanks for the helpful blog.
Nicely on Mara’s wavelength today finishing in 7.37. Delayed a little in the nw corner where I thought of NIT for ‘egg’ before I thought of the alternative meaning of ‘goose’. I have heard people use the term ‘silly goose’, so was quite happy with the answer. I’ve visited LIECHTENSTEIN, so that came readily to mind as did the spelling of it.
4:23
A gentle STROLL today. Somehow, I know that LIECHTENSTEIN has both an IE and an EI – as STEIN is always EI, then the IE must be for the first syllable. Only really slowed down for the last few in the NW, NO BALL, TINGE and finally NIT, in that order.
Thanks Doofers and Mara
I don’t know why but I seem to be managing the QC a lot better theses days. I finished in 14.50, all correct and all parsed. After getting on a par with Jack yesterday I, like TC, managed to beat the blogger today.
Perhaps the time has come for me to pay closer attention to my times (now I have learnt to relax and not worry about them until the puzzle is finished).
An enjoyable week so far. I hope for another accessible QC tomorrow.
Thanks to Mara and Doofers.
6:42
As so often, finished with only the 1’s to go, and was well under 5’ at that point. COD NO BALL PDM was worth waiting for.
Great fun, thanks Mara and Doofers.
8:55 with LOI LIECHTENSTEIN
TINGE was actually my FOI, with NIT almost the last, and needing a run through possible vowels before I realised
Also delayed by the 1s. Last two were TINGE and NIT.
12 minutes.
A good QC.
David
Well, I put NuT as meaning silly and kind of egg-shaped!
Otherwise all correct. Had to start at the bottom as NW seemed too difficult at first. NO BALL cricket PDM eventually. Did manage TINGE.
Guessed but CNP LOI LOSS. CNP TOP HAT either.
COD HOLY SMOKE.
Many thanks, Doofers.
DNF
Exactly the same as our blogger. A nice gentle crossword full of anagrams all done in 12 minutes but then that last pair! 5 minutes deliberating only to be wrong. I too put NIL and LANCE and thought the blog would reveal the parsing. Not to be. In fact I had a 4th DPS with ton instead of TAN, thinking naked bronze was ON.
A few challenges today, LIO CARP which I should have seen quicker. I also thought ‘lose’ for 15d, with photo finish being ‘close’ and losing the head; EXPRESS had to be correct so LOSS it had to be.
After a dreadful start in the NW (foi wasn’t until Harmonica) it seemed churlish not to explore all the other elephant traps Mara had set around the grid. Cue a long, and quite difficult solve, with my last pair (Nit and Tinge) yet again pushing me towards the 30min post (I’m thinking of buying a pied à terre in the area, so frequent are my visits). CoD, by a country mile, to gLoss for the parsing pdm. Invariant
No time on the leaderboard today as I was interrupted mid solve and the timer was still running. Just a few clue’s didn’t yield on first pass i.e. NO BALL, LIECHTENSTEIN and my LOI CLEANER. Otherwise I found the solve straight forward. Estimated solving time 7:12. Thanks Doofers COD to LOSS
Definitely tricky in parts. The penny took a while to drop on NIT and LOSS (my LOI)
Not entire.y happy that WHICH = THAT in 4ac
Entirely happy that I will be seeing TOP HAT at the Chichester Festival Theatre later in the summer
Thanks Mara and Doofers
I had a cup of tea which had two sugars in it.
I had a cup of tea that had two sugars in it.
DNF. My spelling of LITCHIENSTEIN fitted the checkers, the anagram and sounds correct. But I learnt that it’s not. This wrecked TINGE and NIT. I tried to make NIL work.
I think 21D works as a full &lit – hearing being the primary function of an ear (a secondary function being e.g. contributing to sense of balance).
Thanks to Doofenschmirtz and Mara.
This took a while. Can’t spell 3d and having doubts on 4a meant a lot of VERY faint pencil marks.
4a Top Hat, didn’t remember it as a musical, so left blank until all crossers. Did (vaguely) remember it as an Astair – Rogers film. “I only do the same as Fred – but backwards in high heels.”
10a Son didn’t come to me until I had S_N, and then it was REALLY obvious, doh!
12a Ulster, is still a geographical unit albeit divided between UK and ROI, so unsure about “Historic.”
16a Holy smoke COD and a LOL.
3d Liechtenstein. Can’t spell it, left a lot until the crossers came.
Thanks to Doofenschmirtz and Mara
NO-BALL went straight in and I refused to leave the NW corner until I had solved NIT, because it seemed absurd not to be able to get a three letter DD when you had one of the letters! But even once I’d got TINGE I hesitated, my first thought being “nut” (as per Countrywoman’s logic above). Fortunately I forced myself to run through the vowels.
LOSS was very good but my COD to HOLY SMOKE, what a corker.
All done in 07:49 for 1.2K and a Good Day. Many thanks Mara and El Doof.
NUT for NIT and TIN for TAN makes mine a dnf and definitely not one for the road. But mostly the clues were resolved quite quickly and I drew stumps at 15m. Immersed in an Old Hungarian Reader at present and briefly thought that 6d might be OBUDA : doesn’t parse of course, and crossers yielded HANOI immediately. Fun puzzle: thanks Mara and Doofers for excellent blog
DNF in 20:08. I was completely stumped by NO BALL and NIT, and eventually guessed correctly for the former and incorrectly for the latter (“Nut” seemed like my best bet). A pretty difficult slog for me today.
Thank you for the blog!
Slow start for me but almost all fell into place once the lengthy anagrams were sorted – just happy it wasn’t me with trouble in the NW, taking a long time to get NO BALL and TINGE, but then not for the life of me being able to work out which of NIT, NUT, NOT or NET should be in place for 1d. Thanks for the blog!
10 mins…
Might be slightly alone in this, but I thought this was fairly straight forward. I agree the NW corner was a tricky area to start in, but they slotted into place with a few checkers further down and getting into Mara’s way of thinking.
FOI – 6dn “Hanoi”
LOI – 10ac “Son”
COD – 15dn “Loss” – lovely surface.
Thanks as usual!
11.33 I couldn’t find a county to fit 3d because there isn’t one; LIECHTENSTEIN didn’t take long once I read the clue properly. NO BALL, NIT and TINGE were slow and I took a while to understand LOI LOSS. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
NIT and TAN remained incomplete at conclusion of entertaining work out
NIT and TAN outstanding at conclusion of entertaining work out