Time taken: 6:26.
I got through this one pretty readily, but I think I might have been the target audience, with a few clues relating to science and a film director I admired. Early solvers seem to be agreeing that this is on the easier end of the scale.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | One over with a North American (5) |
| IOWAN – I(one), O(over), W(with), A, N(north) | |
| 4 | Idiot treats sheep with parasite (8) |
| DIPSTICK – DIPS(treats a sheep by dipping into a disinfectant tub), then TICK(a parasite) | |
| 8 | He or I, perhaps working close by, calm him (8,6) |
| CHEMICAL SYMBOL – anagram of CLOSE,BY,CALM,HIM | |
| 10 | A cut — concerning in my union (9) |
| MATRIMONY – A, TRIM(cut), ON(concerning) inside MY | |
| 11 | Minister denied parking offence (5) |
| ARSON – the minister is a PARSON, remove the P(parking) | |
| 12 | Shrub unknown in area beside a river (6) |
| AZALEA – Z(unknown) in A(area) and A LEA(river) | |
| 14 | Capital of Java rose after an earthquake (8) |
| SARAJEVO – anagram of JAVA ROSE for the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
| 17 | Helps a lieutenant to guard key for compound (4,4) |
| ACID SALT – AIDS(helps), A, LT(lieutenant) containing the musical key of C | |
| 18 | Director in clash with crew (6) |
| JARMAN – JAR(clash) and MAN(crew). Derek Jarman, activist and director of Edward II and Jubilee | |
| 20 | Dance with arm round? (5) |
| LIMBO – LIMB(arm) and O(round) | |
| 22 | A new church ceremony installs Oxford’s first hermit (9) |
| ANCHORITE – A, N(new), CH(church), RITE(ceremony) containing the first letter of Oxford | |
| 24 | Sweeping home with record speed — about one minute (14) |
| INDISCRIMINATE – IN(home) with DISC(record) and RATE(speed) containing I(one), MIN(minute) | |
| 25 | Get anxious just within marshy area (8) |
| FRIGHTEN – RIGHT(just) inside FEN(marshy area) | |
| 26 | Sensitivity about India is taken as read (5) |
| TACIT – TACT(sensitivity) surrounding I(India) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Unparalleled money gained penning short story (12) |
| INCOMPARABLE – INCOME(money gained) containing PARABLE(story) missing the last letter | |
| 2 | Take with difficulty — or with ease? (5) |
| WREST – W(with), REST(ease) | |
| 3 | Rowdy behaviour is unusual in session (9) |
| NOISINESS – anagram of IN,SESSION | |
| 4 | Fire-breather to keep smoking? (6) |
| DRAGON – if you keep smoking you may DRAG ON | |
| 5 | Gentle person stays up suffering, nursing cold (8) |
| PUSSYCAT – anagram of STAYS,UP containing C(cold) | |
| 6 | Pack, heading for another place in Florida (5) |
| TAMPA – TAMP(pack) and the first letter of Another | |
| 7 | Put out broadcast supporting member (9) |
| CROSSBEAM – CROSS(put out) and BEAM(broadcast) | |
| 9 | Notice girl put on weight, intended to be understood (12) |
| ANNOUNCEMENT – ANN(girl), over OUNCE(weight), and sounds like MEANT(intended) | |
| 13 | A former country home, alternatively part of Turkey (4,5) |
| ASIA MINOR – A, SIAM(former country), IN(home), OR(alternatively) | |
| 15 | Expert on body is the cause of hazy defensive vision perhaps? (9) |
| ANATOMIST – a bloc of countries in defense might spray A NATO MIST and blur your vision | |
| 16 | Plain unfortunate king caught in court regularly (5-3) |
| CLEAR-CUT – unfortunate king LEAR and C(caught) inside alternating letters in CoUrT | |
| 19 | Exploit small group without following (6) |
| ACTION – FACTION(small group) minus F(following) | |
| 21 | Outstanding old part of large house? (5) |
| OWING – O(old), WING(part of large house) | |
| 23 | Man’s tax-free account about to rise (5) |
| ISAAC – ISA(tax-free account), then CA(about) reversed | |
15:56
Definitely easy for a Thursday. I biffed CHEMICAL SYMBOL (once I twigged to the He and I), parsed post-submission; ditto INDISCRIMINATE. DNK the River LEA. Only vaguely aware of ISA, but there was little doubt about the name I___C. The one problem was NHO 18ac JARMAN; I had to do an alphabet trawl once I rejected WARMAN.
The Lea probably is somewhat better known to UK solvers.. it flows through London; and the Lea Valley contains the national White Water Centre, where the canoeing events for the 2012 Olympics were held.
Technically that was Lee Valley, just to confuse our overseas friends.
Ha, you are right! I had not realised. But Wikepedia puts us right, as ever:
“The spelling Lea predominates west (upstream) of Hertford, but both spellings (Lea and Lee) are used from Hertford to the River Thames. The Lee Navigation was established by Acts of Parliament and only that spelling is used in this context. The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority also uses this spelling for leisure facilities. However, the spelling Lea is used for road names, locations and other infrastructure in the capital, such as Leamouth, Lea Bridge, the Lea Valley Walk and the Lea Valley Railway Lines. This spelling is also used in geology, archaeology, etc. to refer to the Lea Valley.”
I see the LEA is quite a major river, but somehow it had escaped my notice. ‘Meadow’ would have worked just as well, but it’s good to ring the changes.
That depends on the size of the country – the Lea is 42 miles. In the US, say, or in China or in South America, it wouldn’t be much of a river.
I am half a mile from the Housatonic River, which is 149 miles long – probably none of our UK solvers have heard of it.
Bet they’d love to clue it though:
– River in American city snakes around an Indian casino at first
– Connecticut runner audibly questions identity of restorative
– European leaves at once (around one) after Leo perhaps cut flower?
And probably not too many of our US solvers. I knew of it, but couldn’t have told you where it is; or, evidently, how to pronounce it: I thought it was HAUS, I gather it’s HOOS.
My immediate thought was of HP Lovecraft’s fictional Miskatonic river, after which the infamous Miskatonic University in Arkham is named, and I see from Wikipedia that people believe he based the name on the Housatonic. I definitely hadn’t heard of the original, though.
I’m within a short distance of the Yarra – easily clued with a reversal, perhaps, but no doubt less within the ken of UK-based solvers
Definitely within my ken – I have visited several wineries in the valley and have some of their product in my cellar.
Definitely familiar to listeners of TMS.
Ah, but length isn’t everything 🙂 .. a more valid comparison might be with the East River, only 16 miles long and not even a proper river, but still quite well known
Like the East River the Detroit River is technically not a river but rather a “strait” in the Great Lakes system ,joining Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. Although the Detroit River is only 28 miles in length its bridges , tunnel and ferries joining Detroit, USA and Windsor, Canada used to boast the largest volume of trade of any international crossing.
.
I am reading this log overlooking the Waiwhakaiho River, which few of our UK solvers could pronounce!
Definitely on the easy side. Been doing these things too long… immediately saw He and I’s second word too short for pronoun so they had to be elements. Otherwise some nice surprising clues which took a bit to work out – DIPSTICK, IOWAN, ACID SALT, ASIA MINOR, ANATOMIST. NHO Jarman which sounded like a name, Lea another total guess as a river – I see it is in the wilds of NW Tasmania (I suspect google is stalking me, and knows I too am in Australia).
27 minutes. I was doing well until I came up against the just heard of ‘Director’ at 18a. I wondered about “Warman” too and then had doubts both about the crossing ANATOMIST, which I’d just biffed and which I couldn’t parse, and whether ‘crew’ was a noun or verb. Anyway, managed to see the other sense of ‘clash’ and made it in the end.
SARAJEVO was good, but might have been even better if the anagram indicator had been ‘after an eruption’, instead of ‘after an earthquake’.
JARMAN was my LOI… I’ve seen some of his work and respect him a helluva lot (à mort !, même) but have always felt Blue would be too much to take. But such courage… I worked this while watching an interview with Godard that was done during the first Covid lockdown (Jean-Luc was luckier than Jarman, not least in that he got to choose his death). Even with full focus, I wouldn’t have matched George’s lightning speed, but this wasn’t much of a struggle. AZALEA was a leap of faith, as I wasn’t sure of the flower, I mean river. Ha. I had just a vague memory of maybe seeing ISA here before too.
37 minutes. All was straightforward enough on reflection but a few things held me up during the solve e.g. ACID SALT (NHO but seemed likely) and the intersecting answers WREST and MATRIMONY resisted my attentions until the last moment.
I knew the River LEA because it rises not far from here and makes its way down to the Thames.
I grew up not too far from the River Lea in Essex; I’m guessing Gants Hill and Redbridge are a little more urban than the parts that you’re currently in, Jack! I saw a lot more of Lea Bridge Road than the river itself… Anyway; that and having been thinking about the film Jubilee after Toyah’s recent appearance in The Archers(!) helped me along here, and I strolled home in 29 minutes, mostly top-to-bottom, though ANNOUNCEMENT was my LOI. Liked CHEMICAL SYMBOL and ANATOMIST.
26 minutes, finishing in the SE with ANATOMIST, SARAJEVO and LOI JARMAN, who I did at least know. I hadn’t heard of TAMP for pack, but my knowledge od Florida place names was sufficiently sparse that Tampa was third on my list of four. COD to ANATOMIST, even though it took me about as long as George finished the puzzle in to see the pun after biffing the answer. Thank you George and setter.
You are hiding your light under a bushel BW .. Fort Lauderdale? Jacksonville?
35:00
Quite a handful. NHO the river.
Thanks, g.
Quick today but still fun. No nhos, though I really only knew of Jarman having seen his “garden” at Dungeness..
Not too hard. I biffed CHEMICAL ELEMENT before I realized it had too many letters (and after I had realized PERSONAL PRONOUN wouldn’t fit either). LOI was MATRIMONY once I realized PUSSYCAT was an anagram, and then the Y made it obvious.
20:51. Tricky enough for me. Chemical Symbol slowed me down. I had the Chemical bit but was looking for a plural to go with it. Lombys and Lymbos failed to convince.
COD: (What’s new) Pussycat.
38 mins for a steady solve
A large part of which was the NW corner although on reflection it doesn’t look that tough
25m 55s and no problems.
Thanks for ANATOMIST, George. Now that you’ve explained it, that’s my COD.
Regarding the River Lea, over thirty years ago I occasionally caught the train from Bishops Stortford to Liverpool Street Station. the line followed the River Lea for some of the way and thus made it a very pleasant journey.
Judging by Row 1, I wonder if our setter has had a disagreement with someone from Des Moines?!
20 minutes or so. Didn’t fully parse MATRIMONY and wasn’t sure about the River Lea in AZALEA, but no real problems otherwise. Derek JARMAN is only known to me because he directed a video for The Smiths… is that ninja-turtling?
FOI Tacit
LOI Dipstick
COD Pussycat
A pleasant solve, which never quite ground to a halt, but which didn’t trip easily from the fingers either. IOWAN went straight in, with DRAGON and DIPSTICK following, then more of a gentle stroll to my LOI, JARMAN, who I had to construct from wordplay, although the name was familiar, as I had a customer of that name who ran Bothams Bakery in Whitby in the 90’s. Always a pleasure to visit and sample the scotch eggs or delicious pork pies, especially when the pies had just come out of the oven and the aspic was hot and runny. A bit dicey eating them whilst wearing a suit and tie though! MATRIMONY and WREST held me up for a while. Didn’t know the River Lea, but the flower couldn’t be anything else. 25:28. Thanks setter and George.
One of those coincidences apropos nothing ; from today’s Guardian crossword ‘Crime of minister initially denied’ (5) . Don’t come much closer than that. Tis the season of the chestnut . .
18 minutes, ending with the guessed JARMAN, and liking the chemical clues. Was wondering about JALAPENO for an earthquake-hot chili, until I had a doh! moment and saw it was a capital city. I knew where the LEA Valley was in north London. Thanks George.
37:42. nicely tricky I thought. FOI 1ac IOWAN, LOI MATRIMONY. I liked DIPSTICK, PUSSYCAT and A NATO MIST
Thanks for the parse on ANATOMIST George – I had no idea. I wonder if our setter is an angler – ISAAC (Izaak) Walton describes fishing the LEA river in the Compleat Angler. Didn’t whizz through but no hold-ups either. 18.52
JARMAN slowed me — it could have been …MAN or …MEN, and I wasn’t sure that there wasn’t some obscure film director called Warman or Warmen. Eventually looked at a list of film directors. Never managed to parse ANATOMIST and eventually put it in and hoped for the best, and up came the statement that the puzzle was completed in 31 minutes. But it wasn’t really. And I’d never heard of ACID SALT, although it seemed pretty likely. Now I see that it’s a thing.
JARMAN was known to me only as a director of something very controversial that was difficult to avoid in the news at one time. As far as I’m aware I never saw whatever it was, nor any of his films.
40 mins. A bit of head scratching here, but only ANATOMIST and SARAJEVO held me up for any significant time. Liked DIPSTICK and DRAGON.
49:53 I found this a little difficult but then again I’ve got covid so not really at my sharpest.
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned the Spanish Inquisition yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj8n4MfhjUc
08:19, much smoother today than yesterday (or at least faster). Before I came up with Derek J, I was also distracted by the possibility of a directorial WARMAN, but could only come up with Bob Warman, long-time anchorman on the regional TV news in my part of the Midlands (everyone who’s lived in Britain has this figure in their lives, someone who is a household name, a veritable Titan of broadcasting – but only for about 50 miles in any one direction).
Another who very nearly went with Warman but was uneasy with it. JARMAN was in fact my LOI so I was glad I looked at other options. I finished in 45.00 dead, which is also my target time, so the perfect crossword for me perhaps? Neither too easy nor too hard! My only initial error in solving was to put in GRASP instead of WREST for 2dn, but MATRIMONY put me on the right path (as my wife will attest!)
All fairly easy apart from AZALEA, where I failed due to not knowing the river and never believing I’ll know the shrub (AZADEE was the unlikely option I went for). I’m amazed I’ve been doing crosswords this long without coming across the River Lea – I suppose setters have always plumped for the meadow.
JARMAN was another unknown, but didn’t take too long to guess. A little over 5 mins with the shrub error.
So there is a film director called WARMAN, and it works as the answer to the clue. Never having heard of JARMAN either, I claim my points!
21:16. Had WARMAN for a while as today’s unknown director until JARMAN came to mind at the last minute. Otherwise pleasant solve.
8:53. No major problems but I did slow down quite a lot in the NW corner, for no reason I can see now. No unknowns: even the shrub and film director were familiar, although I wouldn’t know the former if I saw it and couldn’t have named any of the latter’s films.
Just realized I was confusing JARMAN with the US director Jarmusch. Heard of both but not too familiar with either.
Made reasonable progress until the director. I’d probably have got it if it was J?R?A?.
DNF
19:15
Fairly comfortable until the final three – SARAJEVO (spotted the anagram with three checkers in place), ANATOMIST (saw A MIST but didn’t register that NATO might be regarded as ‘defensive’), and finally after much thought JARMAN (growing up in the immediate aftermath of punk, was aware that Toyah Willcox and Adam Ant (amongst others) had both appeared in Jubilee, though I’ve never seen the film).
22 mins. Got stuck in the SW then realised that it was very straightforward, just me that wasn’t. Left JARMAN till the end, someone who I’d VHO. That’s vaguely heard of, one to add maybe?
13:59 with an error.
I knew of Derek J well and have visited his garden but convinced myself that he was JARMEN based on the wordplay. Incidentally, Chambers doesn’t support crew=man (assuming it’s intended as a verb); it says crew = to act as a crew member, man= to provide [a ship] with men.
You made me look it up. Indeed the dictionaries have man only as a transitive verb: to supply men.
But my Oxford has things like, (ctrl X ctrl V):
2. Work or service or defend (a specified piece of equipment, a fortification, etc.) (man the pumps).
3. Naut. place men at (a part of a ship).
4. Fill (a post or office).
which for me would all work as a verb meaning crew.
37 minutes. Got held up by Jarman. All I could think of was Altman — if something is ‘Alt’ then doesn’t it ‘clash’ with mainstream opinion? Luckily a flip through the alphabet set me straight.
Thanks for explaining Anatomist, which was a stretch too far for me.
Google revealed a musical director named Mark Warman, so in he went, even though a war is hardly a clash. Oh well.
The River Lea runs through Lemsford Springs, a small nature reserve a couple of hundred metres from our house, so no problems there.
Good puzzle.
No time today, but I didn’t find this particularly easy, although individually each clue parses easily enough. The Javan misdirection makes SARAJEVO my COD. If I have a quibble at all, it’s with JARMAN. Nothing in the clue to indicate that we were looking for a proper noun seems to be pushing things a bit – but it’s the same with SARAJEVO, so maybe my real objection is that I didn’t get the director. Which makes my ‘no time’ irrelevant as it’s really a DNF.
22’04”. I doubt anyone did anything as stupid as wot I did. I only put PLATYPUS in for 5 down, thinking a) that it was probably an Oz term for a gentle person and b) that it was an anagram of ‘stays up’ plus c. Well it left me in real trouble. 8ac became impossible, and for 14ac I was left wondering if Bulawayo counted as a capital, maybe of a province. Very silly. I’d been racing through it up to that point.
Gave up with JARMAN and CROSSBEAM unsolved. A shame, as I was so close to three in a row correct, which hasn’t happens for a long time.
Thanks for the blog, George.
21.14. An engaging puzzle. Got in a bit of a muddle in the NW but in the end I think it was only the NATO mist which was too subtle for me and had to be biffed.
Must have been easy as I finished it but it still took 3hours and 50 mins with much head scratching, some breaks and a couple of anagram aids. Still, such a lovey feeling when JARMAN went in to trigger the “congratulations!” box. I even managed to parse ANATOMIST … how does anyone ever construct such clues?!?
I’m with MangoMan on the time taken (nearly); but didn’t finish due to not seeing the ‘obvious’ anagrams at 14a and 5d , and NHO ISA. More subtle clues like 15d are passing me by these days! (Thought it was going to be easier, as 1 and 4a went straight in.)