A quick jaunt by Friday standards, with any difficulty stemming from slightly fusty vocabulary (expatiate, asseverate, fortepiano, etc); and American solvers may have hit a few speedbumps with some very British acronyms to puzzle out.
Overall though I did enjoy this, with 5dn being a very neat anagram clue, 15dn generating a rather nice surface from its complex nesting, 19dn’s definition part being pleasingly deceptive, and 11ac requiring a lovely lift-and-separate to decipher. My thanks to the setter!
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Famished gunners love having goddess round (8) |
| RAVENOUS – R(oyal) A(rtillery) + O having VENUS round | |
| 9 | King and queen cook, securing India’s top cover (8) |
| KERCHIEF – K(ing) + E(lizabeth) R(egina) + CHEF securing I(ndia) | |
| 10 | A good sleuth probes Middle East collector (6) |
| MAGPIE – A G(ood) P(rivate) I(nvestigator) probes M(iddle) E(ast) | |
| 11 | A peer films erratic guides having their ups and downs (6,4) |
| RELIEF MAPS – (A PEER FILMS*) | |
| 12 | Compiler’s avoiding Times forecaster (4) |
| SEER – SE{t}{t}ER | |
| 13 | One’s in a phonebox, somehow rejecting foreign callers? (10) |
| XENOPHOBIA – I in (A PHONEBOX*) | |
| 16 | Soldiers circle large fungus (7) |
| PARASOL – PARAS + O + L(arge) | |
| 17 | In fury, business group withdraws guard for lights, etc? (7) |
| RIBCAGE – in RAGE, reversed C(onfederation of) B(ritish) I(ndustry). “Lights” as in “the lungs of an animal” | |
| 20 | Wally always got stuck into state, solemnly (10) |
| ASSEVERATE – ASS [wally] EVER [always] ATE [got stuck into] | |
| 22 | Revolutionary place to hide bread overseas (4) |
| RIAL – reversed LAIR. Currency of Iran, Oman, Saudi, Yemen. | |
| 23 | Painter of unusual old instrument once (10) |
| FORTEPIANO – (PAINTER OF*) + O(ld) | |
| 25 | Museum initially lambasting hooligan (6) |
| VANDAL – V & A + L{ambasting} | |
| 26 | Forest dweller’s attack interrupting summer in retreat (3,5) |
| RED PANDA – PAN interrupting reversed ADDER. Summer as in “one who sums” | |
| 27 | One makes a killing backing winning horse on entering (8) |
| MURDERER – reversed RED RUM, with RE [on] entering | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Curse Mike cutting several articles (8) |
| ANATHEMA – M cutting AN, A, THE, A | |
| 3 | Sound off about Republican, one living abroad (10) |
| EXPATRIATE – EXPATIATE about R(epublican) | |
| 4 | Give too much publicity to do with former model (10) |
| OVEREXPOSE – OVER [to do with] EX [former] POSE [model] | |
| 5 | Distant rooftops maybe arranged like New York’s? (7) |
| SKYLINE – (LIKE NY’S*) | |
| 6 | Loyal Brussels right back (4) |
| TRUE – E(uropean) U(nion) + R(igh)T, reversed | |
| 7 | Drivers leaving odd bric-a-brac for baker’s agent (6) |
| BICARB – (BRIC-A-B{rac}*). RAC as in Royal Automobile Club | |
| 8 | Men only put in reduced bid behind the scenes (8) |
| OFFSTAGE – STAG [men only] put in OFFE{r} | |
| 14 | Chief instigator putting pressure on banker about note (5,5) |
| PRIME MOVER – P(ressure), on RIVER about MEMO | |
| 15 | At one time eating hot food mainly in church event (10) |
| OCCURRENCE – ONCE, eating CURR{y} in C(hurch of) E(ngland) | |
| 16 | One of many featuring in Victoria‘s policy (8) |
| PLATFORM – double def. Victoria Station, that is | |
| 18 | Successful student King George left out of praise (8) |
| GRADUATE – G(eorgius) R(ex) + ADU{l}ATE | |
| 19 | It’s worn by drivers about to stop lady (7) |
| MACADAM – C(irc)A, stopping MADAM. Worn as in eroded | |
| 21 | Pace kept by strongest riders (6) |
| STRIDE – hidden in {stronge}ST RIDE{rs} | |
| 24 | Smell bad second portion of game (4) |
| PONG – {ping-}PONG | |
Completists may be interested to know that I’ve added a missing MCS blog for April’s puzzle at https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/monthly-club-special-20259-anais-zaha-and-ella-walk-into-a-bar. Got lost in the shuffle somehow, during the site move!
I made a rather completist post to the blog of the previous Friday (3rd June) which may have got lost in all the comments of yesterday.
As for this one – another enjoyable struggle – thanks for fortepiano which then gave loi platform.
Only 36 minutes for Meldrew on a Friday! Not a snorter!
FOI 12ac SEER
LOI 24ac PONG however I took the game to be Mahjongg.
COD 16dn PLATFORM
WOD 13ac XENOPHOBIA
Friday, where is thy sting!?
39 minutes wih the top half mostly written straight in but I struggled to retain momentum in the lower half.
The only unknown was the PARASOL mushroom but the wordplay was helpful and I was reasonably confident it would exist.
My grandfather used to forage for parasols and field mushrooms ~ fried in butter with bacon and croutons, they are simply a breakfast to die for (as he would say!).
One needs to be careful when fungus foraging, or the result could be a breakfast to die FROM !
The top half was a lot easier than the bottom half, but I got there in the end. Totally missed the anagram in SKYLINE, wondering what was special about New York’s skyline. OCCURRENCE was neat once I gave up trying to force and H in there for “hot”. I also didn’t know PARASOL as a mushroom but was pretty confident it was correct from the wordplay, and the fact that a parasol is shaped a bit like a mushroom.
Just completed in my half an hour. Liked SKYLINE, PLATFORM, OCCURRENCE and MACADAM. Thanks all.
Just received my second novel back from the editor. That’s today sorted. Scary (the process not the novel).
Might I enquire what the first one was? Rings a bell from a post some time ago unless I’m going bonkers
The Collation Unit (I am David Jarvis). It’s a different and funny spy novel (a bit like Mick Herron). There are over 50 positive reviews on the Troubador/Matador publishing site under Crime & Thrillers.
11:57. After the first few clues I looked at yielded nothing I thought this was going to be tough but once I got going there were no major hold ups. I thought this puzzle was notable for the unusual but not obscure words. When OVEREXPOSE gave me a word beginning with X I thought it likely I had something wrong. Similarly when I had the K and the F for KERCHIEF. I’m confident that is a word that I never have and never will use in conversation.
Very similar experience to others, coming in at 38 minutes with the bottom half taking three or four times as along as the top, it felt like. For possibly my first time ever I simply didn’t bother reading the clue for XENOPHOBIA and bunged it in from the checkers alone. It’s a shame I didn’t used the time I saved by reading the rest of the clues more thoroughly, as I slowed myself down by reading “investigator” for “instigator” at 14d. D’oh. FOI 1a RAVENOUS, LOI 20a ASSEVERATE.
Lucky you didn’t think of XENOPHOBIC first!
8:21. I felt like I was on the wavelength today, as the slightly unusual vocab and cunning definitions didn’t slow me down much. It was fun though. Nothing unknown, other than the PARASOL mushroom, but as others have pointed out it seems a very logical thing for a mushroom to be called.
34 minutes, held up in the SW. LOI ASSEVERATE. The top went in so quickly I thought I was on for a sub 10 but then I was slowed down badly by a signal failure at Victoria. COD to PLATFORM. Thank you V and setter.
56m rollercoaster ride (easy => hard => easy = hard) for me: started off well at the top, then got bogged down after entering PIANOFORTE in 23a, even failing to notice that it didn’t match the easy STRIDE. When I eventually sorted that out I got a few more straightaway, including PRIME MOVER which I’d previously dismissed, before bogging down again. ASSEVERATE (NHO) and finally the biffed PLATFORM took at least 10 minutes.
Overall that felt like hard slog, made even tougher by my cataract-affected vision (surgery scheduled for 1 week today). At least I got there in the end – thanks V and setter
40 mins on the knob. Quite enjoyed this. Not too taxing and, as has been mentioned, some interesting words. ASSEVERATE bunged in with fingers crossed. I liked the surface for OCCURENCE and MURDERER.
Thanks V and setter.
Top half easy bottom half not so easy
LOI 18d
Never heard of asseverate or parasol as a fungus but straightforward clueing
Never heard of fortepiano and avoided the pianoforte error as I had stride entered
Didn’t know the panda was a carnivore
CODs 5d & 13a
43min was a bit disappointing
From Wikipedia:
It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves, but also on fruits and blossoms.
Andyf
That reminded me of the riddle about the panda walking into a restaurant – eats shoots and leaves.
Name of a book about the importance of grammar by Lynn Truss
Carnivore ( in my print version) seems to have been replaced by forest dweller. I hesitated to enter the correct answer in the circumstances.
16:20. Held up in the end by ASSEVERATE and PLATFORM, but MACADAM and MURDERER, my COD, took a while too. Thanks V and setter.
38:52
Good puzzle. Jeeves says ‘asseverate’ quite a lot :))
Thanks, v.
I will always remember the word “asseverate” because back in the 90s (?) some publisher was releasing slim volumes of books of the Bible, with forewords by celebrities. The Book of Job was foreworded by Louis de Bernieres, and I’ve never forgotten its thesis that we would like to have more from a deity than “vainglorious asseverations of his own magnificence”.
That’s a cracker! 🙂
Where’s Wally?
16.52, a relatively gentle Friday. Victoria often suggests an Australian connection, and it took me a while to see it in railway terms. I elected to do the hard work on unravelling the complex wordplay for OCCURRENCE and to discover that SKYLINE really was an anagram. ASSEVERATE was initially REVERENTLY, with not much except the EVER going for it, but it did mean solemnly. And I thought XENOPHOBIC fit the definition better, but clearly not the anagram.
I wondered about “top cover” for KERCHIEF, thinking it was simply a short form of han-: Chambers points you to the Gumbiform version.
The clever “worn by drivers” made MACADAM my last in.
Chambers also tells us that the word derives from Old French cuevrechief, a cover for the head. So a handkerchief is a hand-headcover.
That makes sense: I missed the Chambers small print! Perhaps mildly curious it didn’t evolve into kerchief de main or such.
My printed version has ‘Carnivore’s’ as the definition instead of ‘Forest dweller’s’. The red panda does inhabit forests and, although it feeds mainly on bamboo and leaves, it is a member of the order Carnivora.
Thanks to V and setter.
18 mins. Thought I was on for a fast Friday until the SW corner intervened. Eventually solved parasol without knowing it was a fungus which led to platform and then asseverate became clear. Occurrence took a while due to my faulty spelling.
Liked rial but COD to ribcage. Eeyuck!
Thanks setter and blogger.
28 mins, which must be a record for a Friday for me. Really enjoyed this, with several clues raising a smile. Like others I had not heard of the mushroom, but it made sense. Took ages to see the railway link for Victoria.
COD to Relief Maps for the brilliant definition, with Skyline a close second.
I was thrown by the ‘odd’ in 7d, looking for the wrong cryptic operation, and also wondered if the ‘like New York’s’ was as user-friendly as it might have been: I know The Times allows single-letter indicators to be mixed in with anagrist, but it still took me a while. Everything esle in pronto, amazingly.
As others have said, relatively easy for a Friday. Delayed at the end by the reversed racehorse and the road surface, both of which were good clues. 28 minutes. PONG got a smile.
All was going well until I became well and truly stuck on my last two, the lights and the curry-in-church clues, which utterly defeated me (I was looking for a lampshade and a church event). I eventually used electronic aids and finished in 39 minutes.
MAGPIE got me out of the blocks, and I wandered hither and thither around the grid, finding the puzzle less onerous than many a Friday offering. Like others I didn’t know the mushroom, or spot the anagram for SKYLINE. I had forgotten the offal meaning of lights, until reminded by V, but the wordplay was undeniable. I needed FORTEPIANO before I was able to drag myself away from queens, states, waterfalls and plums and pull into the station. OCCURRENCE was a surprise when it emerged from the instructions! I was held up for a while by my last 2 in, MURDERER and finally the sneaky MACADAM. Nice puzzle. 24:54. Thanks setter and V.
42 minutes. Not too bad for a Friday. Only one I couldn’t parse was my LOI PONG – v. obvious now. Haven’t seen the old RED RUM reversal chestnut (I see he was a bay though) for a while, the ‘on entering’ bit at least providing some originality. Favourite, once I’d worked it out, was PLATFORM.
12:39, with most of the hard thinking caused by the SW corner (and slight distraction caused by the Test match). As seems to have been fairly common, I didn’t know that a PARASOL could be a fungus (though once worked out it didn’t seem unlikely), took a while to establish that the relevant Victoria was neither a queen nor a state, and worked out that if you have a pianoforte, you could easily have a fortepiano as well. And ASSEVERATE is one of those words I know without ever having found it necessary to use it. All good, and not as hard as some Fridays.
“Ain’t nothin’ gonna break my STRIDE” (Matthew Wilder, a one-hit wonder).
Like others I was quick enough in the upper half, but at the 10 minute mark I was stuck with three clues each in the SW and SE corners, neatly separated by PRIME MOVER. My COD eventually resolved the SW, and OCCURRENCE finally opened up the SE. I really don’t know what held up my LOI, which was glaringly obvious in hindsight.
FOI MAGPIE
LOI RIAL
COD MACADAM
TIME 13:52
31:16
Very enjoyable, though I found this a fair bit harder than most seem to have done. Like Gothick I read instigator as investigator so was looking for words starting PI.
Narrowly beating MACADAM to COD was the chucklesome RIBCAGE.
Thanks to Verlaine and the setter.
Took over an hour but luckily PARASOL and ASSEVERATE were acceptable as they were entered with fingers crossed. Enjoyed guard for lights and worn by drivers as definitions.Also really liked RELIEF MAPS, GRADUATE, and SKYLINE but COD to VANDAL. I didn’t think of KERCHIEF as cover as I mainly only think of handkerchief but then vaguely remembered when a boy women wearing KERCHIEFS on their heads when it was raining. Thanks for helpful blog.
In America many would call the Hermes scarves the Queen wears when she’s not on parade kerchiefs.
22 mins very unFridayish. Only holdup was missing the reverse CBI.
Eventually got over the line in 53.30. Held up mainly by a mistake with XENOPHOBES which made solving 8dn difficult. LOI 16ac ASSEVERATE which I had not heard of, but could be constructed from the parsing. 16dn took a while as I couldn’t get Queen Vic out of my head. I was also surprised that the two halves of FORTEPIANO were that way round, although I had enough letters to confirm it had to be so. An enjoyable crossword, and thanks to the setter.
16:13 with only the tricky MACADAM to remind me it’s Friday. Otherwise a speedy run through with no particular
quibbles or hold-ups.
My 90 y.o. brain is not so sharp – esp. on the lateral thinking. I managed 43 mins, with a pause when I dropped off…
Obviously it must have been less challenging than the usual Friday puzzle.
41:20 to round off a successful (but not very fast) week. LOI PONG in baffled desperation. I like it now, so thanks for the explanation. I do know the PARASOL mushroom. I am not an expert, but I have gathered them, fried them in butter and eaten them. I was on my own at home. I wrote down what I’d done on a post-it note and stuck it to my chest for whoever might find me later slumped across the table
Just got back to this, and finished. And all parsed!
OCCURRENCE was my LOI, because I’d bunged in OBSERVANCE—RIBCAGE corrected that; I had already remembered that sense of “lights.”
Parsed BICARB long after putting it in—guessing at RAC. And the last part of ASSEVERATE. A few things like that made it seem sufficiently Friday.
Not sure I’d ever heard of the mushroom…
35:15
I may be one of the few that found the bottom half easier than the top.
True that PLATFORM, FORTEPIANO and PONG took a while to see, but I was stuck on KERCHIEF (could see KER but stumped on the rest, not knowing that a KERCHIEF is a headcover), OFFSTAGE and particularly RELIEF MAPS at the top which I couldn’t see for ages with all of the checkers in place.
27.14
MACADAM was very good
Becalmed for a while in the SW partly as had MING for PONG (min being portion of a second I thought, wrong on so many levels). Also wanted Victoria to be a plum.
Got there in the end
Thanks Setter, Verlaine and all the posters today
26’26” which should have been a bit shorter but I bunged in xenophobic without checking. Anyone else get tempted by Marple for Magpie? Was that a deliberate lure? Also, was Red Rum called Red Rum because it was murder backwards? I’ve often wondered. Much fun so thanks to all.
18.05, a gentle Friday solve notable mainly for the unknown fungus, not knowing the significance of lights in ribcage and also for having the piano and the forte the wrong way round in fortepiano for a time. A personal first for me too, I solved this one on my phone having recently joined the 21st century and obtained my first smart phone (the phone is smart even if the user isn’t).
Fell asleep at the wheel/laptop so no sensible time to report.
My thoughts on this are:
– Good luck to all our non-British ‘crosswordistes’ with Red Rum!
– With 24ac -‘smell bad- I thought ‘portion of game’ must be G but couldn’t work out what the first three letters were. However it had to be PONG, so thank you Verlaine. I guess Bojo would refer to ping-pong as wiff-waff.
46 minutes for a very enjoyable puzzle, not too bad for a Friday. Many delightfully misleading clues (PLATFORM, MACADAM and the well-hidden anagrist in SKYLINE). I haven’t been in the Victoria with the platforms for ages, but a long while ago it was of course the London terminal for voyagers from the continent via Dover, so I saw it frequently (well, twice on every trip to Britain). ASSEVERATE is one of those words I don’t really know, although once I saw where the EVER went, it was clear that this was going to be the answer for 20ac.
Way over my head today!! No idea why – overthinking possibly. Anyway I made heavy weather of it for no obvious reason, just an “off day”. Many thanks to V for the parsing.