I’ve never complained about it, but my alternate Tuesdays are normally pretty run-of-the-mill, and I can’t remember the last time I had a puzzle which really stood out for any reason, good or bad. Not any more…(or at least I hope so – if I find that nobody else had to wrestle with this one for an unexpectedly long time, I’m going to feel a bit foolish). Anyway, for the record, this became the first puzzle for ages to take me past not just the half-hour, but the 40 minute mark; and while I noted and appreciated some cracking individual clues during the solving process, a puzzle of this difficulty always runs the risk of losing its charm as you struggle towards the finish line with a puzzle to solve and a blog to write! The fact that it was a pangram (in fact, a supercharged one, with some extra Js and Zs and Xs and Qs for good measure) didn’t seem to help as I finally forced the NW corner into submission.
After a break from the process, I think I’ve concluded this is one of those puzzles which is so tough that even if/when you manage to complete it, you end up regarding it with admiration rather than love. So, compliments to the setter, possibly through gritted teeth, and congratulations to anyone who finished in any sort of time at all. As always on blogging days, I tried to be in a position to show all my working before submitting, but some of the parsing is going to have to be posthumous. Onward, then, and let’s see if I was alone in the struggle.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | BOOK CLUB – BOOK(=”engage”), CLUB(=”striker”). A gathering to discuss works, possibly recommended by Richard & Judy. |
5 | MYSELF – reverse hidden in wafFLE SYMbolic. |
10 | LOTTO – The second auction item would be LOT TWO, take out the W{ith} to get the game. At first I thought it was a homophone, which would have meant I’d been pronouncing it wrong for several decades, but it isn’t. |
11 | CHEQUERED – “up and down” as in a chequered career, and the chequered flag which marks the end of a motor race. |
12 | FACE SAVER – something that saves your face would guard your standing; FACE(“brave”) then SAVE(“but”), R{uns}. |
13 | USHER – US (and not them) with HER. |
14 | ON A ROLL – these days film tends to be digital, of course, rather than arriving on reels of celluloid, whether in your domestic camera or at the cinema (at some point the game of charades is going to have to be updated, though I’m not sure how you mime a film arriving by a fibre-optic cable). |
16 | NUTJOB – N.U.T. (National Union of Teachers), JOB(=”work”). |
18 | HOLD UP – the rarely-spotted quadruple definition, I think. |
20 | BEER MAT – (T{h}E,AMBER). If that’s the first use of a lift-and-separate of “amber fluid” to indicate the anagram, it’s nicely done. Obviously pretty good even if it’s not the first use, but you know what I mean. |
22 | COYPU – i.e. a COY “POOH”. |
23 | ZINC OXIDE – Z(“the ultimate character”) (EXCON1ID)*. |
25 | BRONZE AGE – [ON in (ZEBRA)*]. G{ool}E. |
26 | IRENA – ARENA with the front changing to 1. |
27 | XYSTER – X,Y (the plural of axis, not axe) + STER{n}. Worked out from wordplay only – it’s a surgical instrument for scraping bones, hence “sterilised rubber”. |
28 | QUAGMIRE – the A.G.M. is the yearly gathering, inserted into a QUIRE of paper, which are the leaves. Very elegantly clued. |
 | |
Down | |
1 | BULLFROG – I twigged early that the definition was going to be a jumping animal, but, without checkers, couldn’t get away from some sort of ROO. Anyway, the last bit is [R{emaining} in FOG], so I guess that means BULL=”stuff”, which I can (more or less) justify by one of those three-point turns in the thesaurus if you think of both meaning “nonsense”. |
2 | OPTIC – double def., the measuring system for dispensing your shot of choice in a pub, and “of sight”. |
3 | CROSSWORD PUZZLE – the two variables (Z,Z) go inside (PROCESSWOULDR{un})*, and the craftily simple definition is “this”. A modern classic, this clue, I reckon. |
4 | UNCIVIL – double def., “short” as in rude, and military as the opposite of civil. |
6 | YOU MUST BE JOKING – put the girl JO in to “YOU MUST BE (Martin Luther) KING”. |
7 | EARTHWORM – an endless TH{e} inside EARWORM gives the traditional fisherman’s bait. For those unfamiliar with the modern concept, an earworm (from the German “ohrwurm”) is that song that you catch on the radio as you go to work and then can’t get out of your head for the rest of the day. The good news is that the way to get rid of one is to engage in moderate mental exercise such as a crossword. |
8 | FEDORA – FED O.R. A{pparently}. I wonder if this was written after Jeremy Clarkson didn’t get his steak dinner? |
9 | HEN RUN – H.E.= His Excellency= “ambassador”, N{ea}R U.N. I can’t claim to have known the Andalusian chicken, but it didn’t require too much of a leap of faith to believe in its possible existence. |
15 | ANONYMOUS – (SOMANYONU{niversity})*. |
17 | STEERAGE – S{ingular}; TEE RAGE; it’s only a theoretical concept invented for crossword purposes, of course, but anyone who’s ever swung a golf club (and plenty who haven’t) should be able to relate to the idea. If there can be road rage (in the car), and trolley rage (at the supermarket), why not TEE RAGE for those driving off at the first hole? |
19 | POZNAN – P{iano}, OZ NAN. I knew this from the sporting celebration which has been adopted by Manchester City fans. |
20 | BANDEAU – BAN “DOUGH”. A bandeau is a strip of cloth, so can be any simple garment, including a hairband. |
21 | ICEBOX – I.E. with C{old} inside, BOX(=”punch”) &lit. |
24 | ICENI – E,N are today’s bridge players, inside ICI, the former Imperial Chemical Industries, once Britain’s largest company, since sold and broken up, hence “of old”. The “people once” were famously the tribe of Boudicca in the East of Roman Britain. |
Great blog Tim because this is difficult to explain clearly and also solved under the pressure of blogging
I don’t think 6D really works and I derived XYSTER from wordplay.
And I had forgotten about the gathering today: I suspect you may be right, and one setter will arrive with a grin which is even more evil than usual…
The NW corner took me (well) over the hour mark, with a couple biffed: UNCIVIL, OPTIC and also HEN RUN and QUAGMIRE. Don’t really see how the Martin LK one works… Also, could you please explain the FOUR defs of HOLD UP? Dnk POZNAN, and don’t think I’ve come across ‘courses’ as an anagrind (15dn)?
Many thanks for explanations this morning, Tim. Must admit I quite enjoyed this one…
Ah… just seen your reply to Olivia re HOLD UP (on edit)
Edited at 2015-05-19 10:19 am (UTC)
with Jo being the girl who goes inside the charade type “Hello, you must be Imaginary Crossword Solver”, “That’s right, and you must be King”.
The one clue I’m not too keen on is 27ac, perhaps because I’ve known the meaning of XYSTER for as long as I can remember (probably from a Ximenes or Listener puzzle of 50+ years ago), and I don’t equate “rubber” with “scraper”. Nor, for that matter, do I equate STERn with “cross”. Apart from that, I thought this was tough bit fair, and I raise my hat to the setter for some wonderfully ingenious clues, a few of which I only fully understood when going over then after I’d clicked on “Submit”. Or actually when I came to read your blog entry, Tim, as I had 18ac down as a triple definition, and I think you could well be right that it’s quadruple. Sterling work on your part.
Thanks setter and blogger.
“Child’s game” at 10ac is justified by at least one of the usual sources but I don’t really understand why. It’s bingo or housey-housey as beloved by many an adult who historically have halls and clubs in which to play it, and now it’s also the name of the principal Lottery game operated by Camelot.
Spent an age staring blankly at clues that probably weren’t that hard: something CLUB, BAN-something, something-SAVER. I wanted 1D to be WALLAROO quite hard, and 24D to be INCAS, but there was no way of making any of that nonsense happen through will alone. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow! Thanks for parsing 3D, which I didn’t, and which does indeed turn out to be an amazing clue.
Phew. What I clearly need in the very near future is *beer*.
P.S. I have tried to register on Live Journal but no success. I have tried changing my username and password so many times now that I can’t remember what the last ones I tried were! I have been ‘temporarily banned’ so many times that it is probably permanent now. So I will just sign myself off (uncryptedly) as Nikki!
I think STEERAGE is a very good way to describe the way one feels when cooped up behind someone who keeps their seat lowered the whole way across the Atlantic in “World Traveler” class. Actually it looks as if I did ok clocking in at 27.6 and still on p1 of the club board. That wouldn’t have been the case if I’d drawn blogging duty.
My notes are in the office, but I remember I thought FACE-SAVER was a stroke of genius, especially for one living in a place where the action is practised and pandered to assiduously. The quad was pretty awesome too.
Bravo, setter, and thanks for resolving the MLK clue for me, Tim. I can see nothing wrong with that one either.
I admired some of the clues on the way, but it was too much of an uphill struggle to be enjoyable.
Congratulations on the superb blog
Resorted to aids for both xyster (I was seriously questioning “icebox” for a time in confusion), and I was nowhere near “quagmire” , for which I am guessing “quire” is one of those things you either know or you don’t – I was on a hiding to nothing trying to make an anagram of HASGOTIN* – Shagtion anyone??
Really liked “optic” and agree that 3dn is a classic, which for a clue of such distinction is a shame I BIFD
Had Bullfrog in from the start but I am another who doesn’t understand stuff=bull
It’s a puzzle with a lot of satisfying clues but also an equal number of unsatisfying ones too (6d & 27a come to mind). So quite a mixed bag.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the inspiration for 8d was the recent letter pages of the Times which has conducted a correspondence on the difference between a fedora and a trilby, who invented them and who made them popular.
Edit: I have been extremely busy today so I wrote this comment in a bit of a hurry. A more realistic version of my comment would be ‘too much of a good thing on a day when I am extremely busy’, which is a bit unfair on the setter. This puzzle is a tour de force. I didn’t get XYSTER but there is nothing unfair about it. It’s just very hard.
Jimbo said he ‘only finished because he was determined not to be beaten’. If such an experienced solver can say that, and yet still finish, isn’t that something?
Bravo setter, and apologies for the grumpiness.
Edited at 2015-05-19 10:41 pm (UTC)
On edit: have found quite a simple extra v: 26 Ivana (as in Trump) and 24 Iraqi. 3 has taken over as neatest (and favourite). If there’s such a thing as ephemeral art the Times puzzles pretty well define it I’d say, and this redefines the standard.
Edited at 2015-05-19 05:19 pm (UTC)
I have to say I thought this was an absolute cracker. I can’t remember ticking so many clues as potential COD candidates before. Thanks to the setter and well done Tim for making sense of it all (although I’m struggling to see the hold up/go on link).
[And I have amended my slightly grumpy comment above because now that I have got over not finishing it I agree that this was an absolute cracker]
Barry J.