In all the time I have been blogging here, this is the second time I have given up on a puzzle. I could not think of a plausible answer for 24 across for the life of me, and after 30 minutes, I tossed in the towel. Now I have looked at the answer, I am still stuck on how to piece it together, hopefully something will come to me as I write things up.
I think there is something funny going on at 19 down too. Edit: there was an error in the original clue for 19 down. The online version has been changed.
The rest of it is pretty difficult too, and some of the solving times in are off the charts. How did you do?
| Across | |
| 1 | Steady progress? Judge wrong turning outside sporting blunder (3-4) |
| JOG-TROT – J(judge), then TORT(wrong) reversed surrounding OG(own goal, sporting blunder) | |
| 5 | Something loopy and irrational about religious books (5) |
| PICOT – PI(an irrational number), C(about), OT(religious books) | |
| 9 | Plant, end of stem becoming black, declined (5) |
| EBBED – EMBED(plant) with the last letter of steM becoming B(black) | |
| 10 | Quilt stuffing placed on rock for makeshift bed (9) |
| SHAKEDOWN – DOWN(quilt stuffing) after SHAKE(rock) | |
| 11 | Love to come together briefly to spin a little mischief! (7) |
| GREMLIN – NIL(love) and MERGE(come together) minus the last letter, all reversed | |
| 12 | Complaint harboured by Anthea on meeting Rachel (7) |
| EARACHE – put anthEA and RACHEl together and they hide the answer | |
| 13 | Baked small crumbles for function (6,4) |
| MASKED BALL – anagram of BAKED,SMALL | |
| 15 | Girl falling just short of the record? (4) |
| ANNA – ANNAL(the record) minus the last letter | |
| 18 | Soft food in time something that flies mysteriously rebuffed? (4) |
| TOFU – T(time) then UFO(something that flies mysteriously) reversed | |
| 20 | Harsh call by the way to split a medical department (10) |
| ASTRINGENT – RING(call) next to ST(way) inside A, ENT(medical department) | |
| 23 | There’s word of action every so often being at plant (7) |
| VERBENA – VERB(word of action) and alternating letters in bEiNg At | |
| 24 | West Ham’s football stars making international European team (7) |
| FAEROES – I think I see this now – the West Ham football stars are F.A. ‘EROES? | |
| 25 | A new strategy for crossing river in inhospitable territory (9) |
| ANTARCTIC – A, N(new), TACTIC(strategy) containing R(river) | |
| 26 | Physicist backing Whistler’s claim? (5) |
| FERMI – Whister’s claim could be I’M REF – reversed | |
| 27 | Party before long for senior member (5) |
| DOYEN – DO(party) and YEN(long for) | |
| 28 | Drinks at college assembly (5-2) |
| ROUND-UP – a ROUND of drinks, and UP(at college) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Unemployed girl getting word from well-wisher? (7) |
| JOBLESS – JO(girl) and BLESS(word from well-wisher) | |
| 2 | Exploitation of gasfield annoying people (8) |
| GADFLIES – anagram of GASFIELD | |
| 3 | Son au naturel, perhaps, got up (5) |
| RISEN – S(son) inside RIEN(French for nothing) – so the son is wearing nothing in French | |
| 4 | Salesman with top drawer, see, concealed in counter (9) |
| TRAVELLER – RA(artist, top drawer) and V(see) inside TELLER(counter) | |
| 5 | Verse work recalled English essay (6) |
| POETRY – OP(work) reversed, then E(English), TRY(essay) | |
| 6 | Game starts in confusion, opening once, and never finishing (7) |
| COONCAN – first letters of Confusion and Opening, then ONCe, and ANd without the last letters. I think this has only appeared once in a Jumbo, and it stumped several commenters | |
| 7 | Hint for one? Dunce needs to have 3! (5) |
| TINGE – EG(for one) and NIT(dunce) all reversed (3 down was RISEN) | |
| 8 | One who composed message on Mother’s Day gift? Revolting, oily stuff! (8) |
| BERGAMOT – the composer is Alban BERG, and a Mother’s Day gift may be inscribed TO MA – reverse that | |
| 14 | Shower cap placed around heated bath (9) |
| BESPATTER – BETTER(cap) around SPA(heated bath) | |
| 16 | Social worker getting one’s child to stop going on slide (4-4) |
| ANTI-SKID – ANT(social worker), I’S(ones), KID(child) | |
| 17 | Maybe wanting fare controlled by US bank (8) |
| UNDERFED – UNDER(controlled by), the FED(US bank) | |
| 19 | Having left later, dallies with Yankee in front of others (7) |
| FIRSTLY – the best I can come up with this is FLIRTS(dallies) with the L moved (though the T has to move as well), then Y(yankee). Other suggestions welcomed.
The online version of the clue was replaced by |
|
| 21 | Self-promotion developed fully, with energy rising (3,4) |
| EGO TRIP – GOT RIPE(developed fully) with the E(energy) rising | |
| 22 | Cooper? In short, one thing that coops (3,3) |
| HEN RUN – biffed this. HENRY Cooper was a British boxer, remove his last letter and add ‘UN(one) | |
| 23 | Sex with a dish (5) |
| VIAND – VI(sex is the combining form for six, so VI), AND(with) | |
| 24 | Drive off after payment picked up for shawl (5) |
| FICHU – two homophones – one for SHOO(drive off) and FEE(payment) | |
Seems like I’m in good company with another DNF, floored by COONCAN and the rather dreadful FAEROES. No one has ever described anyone as ‘FA heroes’, surely, and it needs to work as a combined form to work as a clue (“Football stars of West Ham…” would have been safer).
Still, RISEN was excellent and raised a smile, so I’ll try to be forgiving.
Another DNF, beaten in the end by Cooncan. Who on earth has heard of that and how does the clue fit the answer symmetrically? ( having read the blog, I now understand but remain unimpressed). Got all the rest but have to confess I found the clues impenetrable on more than one occasion with a few guesses working the magic.
I enjoyed this, although like many others I had not previously heard of cooncan, and I missed the error at 19 down. I always like reading Keriothe’s comments so was a bit surprised at what he said today. Personally I think just one complete unknown is not overstepping the mark.
Finished in 54 minutes. Thought this was very slow at first, but rather pleased after reading all the comments (up to 5.50pm GMT), especially those mentioning DNFs.
Don’t understand the numerous references to Snitch. Who or what is that?
Re The Snitch. Please refer to our Glossary. You can access via Help at the top of the page or Useful Links to the right.
I am aware that the letter V can represent the word see, but can’t quite remember why. Is it short for the Vatican, the Holy See?
I had to go out for much of the day, so the 30 minutes I allowed myself this morning was never going to be enough. Eventually I completed it in 100 minutes, at the end giving up on FAEROES and just entering it without knowing how it worked. I also never understood the HEN RUN clue and feel that it was nasty and gratuitously difficult. But there were some very good moments such as the RISEN clue. COONCAN nho.
1:49:18 but I ruddy well did it. Obviously a ton of NHO but I was pleased to parse all the wordplay (I think) correctly. By far the highest SNITCH I’ve taken down unaided so I’ll consider the 20-odd minutes spent staring at 24a time well spent. Thanks glh for a tough blog.
Some clues took a long time to see
But I got there eventually
BERGAMOT, kinda sticky
COONCAN, pretty tricky
But FAEROES the hardest FERMI
The old West Ham ground at Upton Park, now sadly demolished along with the Boleyn pub, had a section called the Chicken Run (hen run).
I thought that this was an awful crossword and only finished without aids because I was too obstinate to concede defeat to the setter. Time taken needed a calendar rather than a clock.
A record time for me. The longest ever. It was a stinker.
I feel really bad disagreeing with two of my ‘eroes (Mauefw and Keriothe) but I really liked this. Helped by doing it after Friday’s and knowing it was a toughie so not worrying about the time (around 55 mins)
In fact I was an EMBED so a DNF anyway but eked out everything else with LOI the (ducks for cover) brilliant FAEROES after at least three alpha trawls. But loved it when coin dropped
I think the classicists are over-thinking! – the “sex with” in VIAND is Vaginal Intercourse, the (fairly) common medical shorthand.
Finished in just over an hour but with EMBED, darn it. Loved it. Loved it being so hard. FAEROES was LOI and in my mind brilliant. My only dislike is the SEX for SIX. Will we have SEPTEM and QUATUOR too? Just have to get used to it I suppose, but it feels a bit of a cheat.
I said it all above, in my reply to Astonvilla1. Unlike Verlaine, I would like the level of difficulty be descending from this ( just for my confidence level) but appreciate that I’m mingling with ‘the big boys’ and have to put up with the occasional stinker and like it. I have great admiration for those that did not give up, however.