horryd‘s verification of course, that this was the long-awaited stinker. I was very grateful to have tackled this on paper because it wouldn’t have done my club leaderboard position many favours: I think we could be talking in the 20 minute region here, ulp!
The funny thing is, parsing it, it wouldn’t appear there’s anything too upsetting in and of itself to deal with, but you do have to be on the ball throughout as there are small misleads and clevernesses everywhere. I’d also note, and to me this is the mark of a proper Times crossword, that the puzzle expects you at every turn to have a good grounding in literary classics and a decent grasp of vocabulary. (The 20ac/16dn crossing may be a little bit eye-watering, both being obscurer variants of what were quite obscure words to start with, but nothing an imaginative solver shouldn’t be able to handle.)
There are some reasonable entry points into the fray: it didn’t take me long to derive 10ac from its enumeration, and as an aside Micronesia seems like an old friend to me now because I’ve been doubling down on learning geography for quizzing purposes lately; though you clever lot all knew that the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia is Palikir already, of course. But just looking down a bit further, clues like 15ac and 16ac probably shouldn’t take anyone very long. (I was also delighted to see M. Flaubert as I read Madame Bovary for the first time only last year, and it lived up to every bit of the hype.)
1dn was a very clever clue indeed and certainly literary enough for my rarefied tastes, but I’ll give my COD to 9dn as the ambiguous sense of “into solid form with a point” is a thing of absolute beauty. Top marks to the setter from this judge, then, and I think all that remains is to confirm that myrtilus000 had chickpea and allspice canapés with parfait to follow for breakfast this morning? I’ll be very disappointed if not…
ACROSS
1 Powdered fruit tablets, first couple taken last, swallowed by champion (8)
ALLSPICE – PILLS [tablets], its “first couple” of letters “taken last” so becoming LLSPI, “swallowed by” ACE [champion]
5 Roughly where mother picks up pup to get a snack (6)
CANAPE – CA [roughly] + NAPE [where mother picks up pup]
10 Micronesian hero adaptable in any circumstances (4,4,2,5)
COME RAIN OR SHINE – (MICRONESIAN HERO*) [“adaptable”]
11 Old Arab king behind time with American exhibitionist (7)
TUSSAUD – SAUD [old Arab king] behind T [time] with US [American]. Exhibitionist as in woman with a famous (waxworks) exhibition.
12 Cook crumble crust for holiday visitor to Oz (7)
DOROTHY – DO [cook] + ROT [crumble] + H{olida}Y. Oz as in L Frank Baum’s magical land, not Australia.
13 Keep gasping about the man’s divine collection (8)
PANTHEON – PANT ON [keep gasping] about HE [the man]
15 Trouble with old lady’s inflexible views (5)
DOGMA – DOG [trouble] with MA [old lady]
18 Subgroup of oligarchy enabling predator (5)
HYENA – hidden in {oligarc}HY ENA{bling}
20 Satie mistakenly rounds on downbeat composer (8)
ELEGIAST – (SATIE*) [“mistakenly”] “rounds” LEG [on]
23 Pours dry type of wine over sink (7)
CESSPIT – TIPS SEC [pours | dry type of wine] reversed
25 Dance recalled in church with similar origins (7)
COGNATE – TANGO [dance] reversed inside CE [church]
26 Reports of shots (15)
PHOTOJOURNALISM – cryptic def, photojournalism being news reports via the medium of shots as in pictures.
27 Hill-dweller trapping deer pulled back chain (6)
ANKLET – ANT [hill-dweller] “trapping” a reversed ELK [deer]
28 Cases of pastry rise: nice automation from a range (8)
PYRENEAN – P{astr}Y R{is}E N{ic}E A{utomatio}N
DOWN
1 Author off the booze, hiding last three bits of it (6)
ALCOTT – ALCO{hol->TT}. Take a word for booze and replace its last three letters with a common (in crosswordland) shorthand for teetotal.
Louisa May whose Little Women you may have caught in the latest BBC adaptation last Christmas.
2 Light coverage of US city politicians duped earliest of electors (9)
LAMPSHADE – LA [US city] + MPS [politicians] + HAD [duped] + E{lectors}. Light coverage as in, that which covers a light.
3 Criminal charge overturned and conviction not completed? Sweet! (7)
PARFAIT – reversed RAP [criminal charge “overturned”] + FAIT{h} [conviction “not completed”]
4 Check for what kicks off uncivilised youth (5)
CHILD – {w->CH}ILD. WILD is uncivilised; replace its first letter (“what kicks it off”) with CH for check.
6 Nancy’s from big country to the north: I must leave with composure (7)
ASSURED – DE [Nancy’s, i.e. the French word for, from] + RUSS{i}A [big country], all written from south to north, minus an I.
7 Crooked law’s introduction fills in the act (5)
ATILT – L{aw} “fills” AT IT [in the act]
8 Celebrity turns introducing actual generic sort (8)
EVERYMAN – reversed NAME [celebrity “turns”] “introducing” VERY [actual]
9 Distil studies into solid form with a point (8)
CONDENSE – DENS [studies] into CONE [solid form with a point]
14 Labour a long time to dress one glam band up (8)
EXERTION – EON [a long time] “to dress” reversed I + T. REX [one | glam band]. Over 40 years since Marc Bolan left us now, but never forgotten.
16 Note interpolated by Flaubert, maybe concerned with taste (9)
GUSTATIVE – TI [note] interpolate into GUSTAVE [Flaubert, maybe]
17 Pace restlessly, crushing rustic seed (8)
CHICKPEA – (PACE*) [“restlessly”] “crushing” HICK [rustic]
19 Give permission to mobile tool to do roaming (7)
APPROVE – APP [mobile tool] + ROVE [to do roaming]
21 Sore winner perhaps elected to be annoying (7)
INGRATE – IN [elected] + GRATE [to be annoying]
22 I’m not sure Mass held by boy is what’s heard in church (6)
SERMON – ER M [I’m not sure | Mass] “held by” SON [boy]
24 Lack of acceptance underlies small gesture of defiance (5)
SNOOK – NO OK [lack of acceptance] “underlies” S [small]. Only ever found in the phrase “cock a snook”, as far as I know.
25 Some knitwear to suit an eccentric? (5)
CARDY – an eccentric is a CARD, something CARD-Y would presumably be fit for an eccentric. The knitwear is an informal cardigan.
Definitely on the wavelength despite the difficulty, with several answers that would’ve defeated me a year or two back rolling in comparatively easily today.
FOI 1A ALLSPICE, LOI 23 CESSPIT where I wasn’t sure about the definition and I really wanted “sink” to be “pot” until I saw both sense and 17d CHICKPEA. Can’t quite believe it took me so long to spot the cone in 9d when I was thinking along the right lines and had thought of pyramids and cubes and what-have-you several times…
Enjoyed lots here, but the hill dwellers in 27a and the light coverage in 2d stood out as excellent misdirections. Thanks V and setter. What a workout!
Kudos to the setter for a brilliant bit of work.
COD … all of them
My time would have been faster if I’d gone with instinct a bit more and thought less about wordplay on the occasions when an answer actually popped into my head, but much of the fun of solving is understanding the clues rather than completing the grid as quickly as possible.
Edited at 2018-03-23 08:04 am (UTC)
This reminded me that ” A Christ is for life, not just for dogmas.”
Fantastic crossword – great vocab choices, bits of GK needed, but all within grasp. NO plants, bible books, esoteric materials or Pip Emmas.
Mostly I liked: Allspice canapé, dogma, cesspit, report of shots, Alcott, Lampshade, Condense, Snook (great word) – and COD to Exertion for the reminder of T-Rex.
Thanks brilliant setter and great blogger V.
That was an assault on my poor brain and a DNfF!
It was the 20/16 intersection that had my wheels-off at first
but I got back on track with 16dn GUSTATIVE but 20ac eluded me. I just could not grasp ELEGIAST.
However, my fatal accident was at 28ac PYRENEAN where the logic was not followed through and I entered PYRENEIC!!?
PY-RE-NEIC (nice automated!)Jeeez! I had the ERM in 22dn but gave up with…. well I won’t say what I entered, but it wasn’t SERMON!
FOI 10ac COME RAIN OR SHINE – most apt
COD 14dn EXERTION – TREX was also a brand of lard!
WOD Quite unrepeatable- so I’ll go with 12ac DOROTHY my dear mother’s name.
I didn’t even realise it was Friday so no ‘Fridayitis’ excuse.
Tomorrow is Saturday, all day!
PS V. 24dn SNOOK ‘entropomus undecimalis’ the segeant fish and neither forget Sir Humphry Snook – who spent time in the Tower of London c.1933 for treasonable acts and sedition:
big mate of Admiral Barry Domvile.
Edited at 2018-03-23 08:57 am (UTC)
Methink it makes you slightly lardy-dah!
Thanks to Verlaine for Assured, Condense and Dorothy. I solved them but could not parse them.
I wanted to put Gustatory for 16d but ‘Gus’ for ‘Gustave’ didn’t seem right.
Must have been tuff; The club site clocks Magoo at over 15mins!
104mins for me.
ALLSPICE was one of the rare clues which I solve completely from parsing. I rearranged PILLS, put ACE round the outside and it still took a few moments to see what I’d ended up with. At the end I didn’t manage GUSTATIVE, not knowing the word and not knowing Mr. Flaubert’s forename.
Today I learned that:
ALLSPICE is made from dried pimento and not just the obvious collection of every conceivable spice.
Flaubert’s first name was GUSTAVE
How to spell PYRENEAN
Lady dogs don’t distinguish between NAPE and scruff (neither does Chambers)
The time spent as a child reading Little Women (I did, I did!) was not entirely wasted.
Cryptic definitions can be brilliant “Reports of shots” might as well have my CoD, though the competition is fierce.
I can still get in under 2 Jasons (and very nearly under 2 Magoos). There is hope!
Thanks to V and the Best in Show Setter
FOI PANTHEON, but progress from there was slow. Definitely a chewy but enjoyable puzzle, and I waded steadily through. Biffed ALCOTT since I was expecting the TT to encapsulate something. I also biffed CHILD, but light dawned soon enough. Eventually gave up with CARDY and PHOTOJOURNALISM not solved…..
…..and only after coming here did I spot that I’d entered GUSTAITVE at 16D. So I couldn’t possibly get 26A (I might have spotted my lapse in a championship where I’m more careful), and then entered CARDY with a self-flagellating groan.
Thanks to V for his usual casting of light into my darkness, and to the setter – I think Neil may well be right !
Great week of puzzles for which many thanks to setters, and to bloggers inc Verlaine.
Edited at 2018-03-23 10:21 am (UTC)
Mrs K is adamant that CARDI is spelt so, not with a Y. Hence my Pyrenean was delayed too.
Puzzle of the year, so far.
PHOTOJOURNALISM my COD – magic clueing, as Sis Waddell might say.
When said stats show the mighty Magoo taking 15 minutes, the only response I can make is “Oh s**t”.
Then a good proportion of it went in in relatively quick time (halfway through in about 8 minutes) which led to the inevitable “surely this can’t be a sub-Magoo time, can it?”
And so it came to pass that it wasn’t. The rest of it taking another quarter of an hour or so, with far too many wing-and-a-prayer entries than should really be healthy (certainly not as healthy as one of myrtilus000’s breakfasts).
Amazingly it came up with no errors, but that is no reflection of any skill on my part, this was basically just too good for me.
Setter, you win.
Like many other here, my FOI was 10a. Does everybody, as I do, pick out the phrase solutions at the first scan of the clues, on the basis that idiomatic phrases that fit the letter pattern tend to just pop into one’s head? (Maybe nobody does this, which is why my times are so much slower!)
9d was cleverly distracting because of the potential for *two* ‘studies’: CONS or DENS?
Delayed by entering ELEGAIST (on the grounds that it had to be an -IST suffix) for at least 10 mins until INGRATE put me right.
I’m pleased I managed to parse all clues as I went along, too.
Great puzzle, setter – thanks. Thanks for engaging blog, V.
Very much liked CARDY (i’d spell it with an I, CANAPE, ALLSPICE, PANTHEON, ANKLET and DOROTHY. Most of it, in fact. Thank-you setter, and blogger.
Edited at 2018-03-23 12:25 pm (UTC)
I enjoy the fact that glam rock may be dead and gone but it lives on in fine style every Christmastime.
LOI was CANAPE, and COD probably LAMPSHADE for its ‘light coverage’ definition, even if the clue was a bit of a write-in from the wordplay.
About 80 minutes; a bit of frustration along the way but definitely worth it in the end.
Thanks to setter and for the usual excellent Friday blog.
In any case, time was off the charts. I think you can determine from this puzzle who the neutrinos really are. I suspect Mohn’s 11:47 may be the fastest legit time.
Anyone who is not a neutrino and had a faster time is invited to reply.
Amazing how (great) minds do not always think alike.
But full marks to the setter for a worthy challenge to the best, and, as always, to Verlaine for the blog which is always my first port of call on a Friday.
Gandolf34
> 4dn CHILD. I was fixated on ‘uncivilised youth’ as the definition and it took me ages to get past this and then spot the wordplay device, which coincidentally is very similar to the device in…
> 1dn. I got this very soon after 4dn.
> 11ac. Not sure why.
T-Rex came easily to mind: my youngest did a sort of Rock’n’Roll band camp recently where one of the other bands did 20th Century Boy, and we were discussing it as we went past the permanent memorial to Marc Bolan next to the tree he wrapped his mini around, which is just round the corner from us.
Absolutely first class puzzle ,so thanks setter and v.
Edited at 2018-03-23 07:06 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2018-03-24 03:35 am (UTC)
Why does CA mean roughly.
What does ‘mother’ have to do with the clue?
The mother dog picks the puppy up by the back of its neck… Quite a nice image to find in a crossword puzzle I thought!
Ordinary bloke