Time taken: 7:38 and enjoyed every second of it. This was a fun romp and had several clues that appealed to my filthy mind.
Hope you enjoyed it too!
| Across | |
| 1 | Doctor‘s order almost received by another doctor (6) |
| MEDICO – EDICT(order) minus the last letter inside MO(doctor) | |
| 4 | Lark‘s flight, gathering wings in abroad (8) |
| ESCAPADE – ESCAPE(flight) containing the external letters in AbroaD | |
| 9 | Country song containing line for one on the rebound (7) |
| ALGERIA – ARIA(song) containing L(line) and EG(for one) reversed | |
| 11 | Lover, maybe one who’s inclined to embrace daughter (7) |
| LEANDER – LEANER(one who’s inclined) containing D(daughter). The lover of Hero in mythology | |
| 12 | Compilers in transport getting reduced fare from Asia (5) |
| SUSHI – US(compilers) inside SHIP(transport) minus the last letter | |
| 13 | Abandon a bit of boxing for a bit of footie (9) |
| KICKABOUT – KICK(abandon), A, BOUT(bit of boxing) | |
| 14 | Unable to take off bra? Undo the elastic (10) |
| EARTHBOUND – anagram of BRA,UNDO,THE and quite possibly the surface of the year | |
| 16 | Clothing for panto with navy blue material (4) |
| PORN – outer letters of PantO and RN(navy). I wasn’t sure about this answer so I googled it, there is apparently some on the internet. | |
| 19 | Appearance of an unwanted character in party politics (4) |
| TYPO – hidden inside parTY POlitics | |
| 20 | Better to reveal everything, perhaps, in this game? (5,5) |
| STRIP POKER – cryptic definition | |
| 22 | Uncovers bum note playing something with a bit of sparkle (9) |
| MOONSTONE – MOONS(uncovers bum) and an anagram of NOTE | |
| 23 | American’s phone ring — it may produce a tune (5) |
| CELLO – CELL(US term for a mobile phone), and O(ring) | |
| 25 | Straight guy, one found in a cage (4,3) |
| TRUE RIB – TRUE(straight), RIB(guy) | |
| 26 | Taser a criminal, without good means to suppress disorder (4,3) |
| TEAR GAS – anagram of TASER,A containing G(good) | |
| 27 | Running drug, possibly dangerous sort of bandit (3-5) |
| ONE-ARMED – ON(running), E(drug) and ARMED(possibly dangerous) | |
| 28 | Phosphorus included by hand on another match (6) |
| REPLAY – P(phosphorus) inside RELAY(hand on) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Least charitable about holy person earning scrutiny? (5,4) |
| MEANS TEST – MEANEST(least charitable) containing ST(holy person) | |
| 2 | Artist succeeded, getting on towards the top (5) |
| DEGAS – S(succeeded) with AGED(getting on) all reversed | |
| 3 | My ideal place — it’s found by the coast (8) |
| CORNICHE – COR(my), NICHE(ideal place) | |
| 5 | Showing conviction of criminal breaking in, Feds felt excited (4-9) |
| SELF-CONFIDENT – CON(criminal) inside an anagram of IN,FEDS,FELT | |
| 6 | Fruit and nuts bachelor’s put away (6) |
| ANANAS – BANANAS(nuts) minus B(bachelor) | |
| 7 | Recorded work in car with caution, gripping wheel (9) |
| AUDIOBOOK – AUDI(car) and BOOK(caution in soccer) containing O(wheel) | |
| 8 | Fish guzzler‘s sorrow after missing starter (5) |
| EGRET – REGRET(sorrow) minus the first letter | |
| 10 | What Moscow beggar may do, crossing certain junction, is take risks (3,3,7) |
| ASK FOR TROUBLE – the Moscow beggar may ASK FOR ROUBLE, insert a T-junction | |
| 15 | Make children soldiers for fascist leader (9) |
| REPRODUCE – RE(soldiers), PRO(for), DUCE(fascist leader) | |
| 17 | With butterflies on the move, rely on us to capture five (9) |
| NERVOUSLY – anagram of RELY,ON,US containing V(five) | |
| 18 | Rishi welcoming step that’s ultramodern (5-3) |
| SPACE-AGE – SAGE(rishi) containing PACE(step) | |
| 21 | Profiteer has no problem in case of uproar (6) |
| USURER – SURE(no problem) inside the external letters of UproaR | |
| 22 | Underground resistance interrupts feminist movement briefly (5) |
| METRO – R(resistance) inside the #ME TOO movement minus the last letter | |
| 24 | Allowed on a lake (5) |
| LEGAL – LEG(on side in cricket), A, L(lake) | |
Hello crossword people from the 2.50am train from Frankfurt to Berlin. An easy one today, 22 minutes so only 3 x as long as the blogger 😉 Never heard of my LOI TRUE RIB so just googled that and now I know what true and false ribs are. I wasn’t absolutely sure what a corniche was either, it’s one of those words I vaguely recognise without really knowing it.
Thanks setter and blogger, we were due an easier puzzle but that was still fun.
Steve
Somewhat easier, but still challenging – I only got four of the across answers in my first go, and was completely unable to remember corniche in the downs, although it was on the tip of my brain. I thought the surface of a several of the clues was a bit awkward, but the good ones made up for that!
Time: 28 minutes
Really zoned in – I only missed four answers reading through the acrosses, then got all but one of the downs on first read, so as fast as I can go. Greatly enjoyed some of the little touches, like: earning scrutiny, uncovers bum note, and some of the surfaces – earthbound, legal.
Completed on the hour.
At 1a ( MEDICO) I think your explanation should say MO(doctor).
Lots of great clues here. COD to ASK FOR TROUBLE. Seeing that Moscow might indicate Rouble, opened up the whole grid. LOI ESCAPADE. Never heard of TRUE RIB, and that usage of “guy” as a verb only appears in crosswords, like “pi”.
Too many anagrinds in 5d (criminal, breaking, excited) confused me, as did trying to start KICKABOUT with Knock, for knockdown, knockabout etc. I thought Rishi was going to be Sunak.
Cor! Niche! is going to be my new phrase for high approval.
Fairly EARTHBOUND ESCAPADE. Funny, I was just remembering today when I told someone 37 years ago that I planned to carve out a NICHE (that very word) for myself at The Nation and she didn’t seem to take me seriously. To me, it’s been rather an “ideal place.”
48 minutes. NHO TRUE RIB but worked out the first part from wordplay and checkers. Knew CORNICHE originally as a model in the Rolls-Royce range, but more recently learnt its other meaning from crosswords.
I don’t get ‘compilers / US’ as ‘us’ includes me and I am not a compiler, nor are most solvers! ‘Setter/compiler ‘ (singular) = I / ME (from the setter’s POV) is logical and appears often, and I’d be happy with US for when the clue refers to both setter and solvers. Also I’ve often seen US referring to the newspaper where the puzzle is published e.g. The Times, The Guardian etc.
I just took US to refer to setters as a group.
Well yes, but there’s only one setter involved here.
We/us can be inclusive (you and me) or exclusive (me and some others), and I took it as exclusive here; as ulaca says. I could say ‘we/us expats’ without implying that you’re one.
And I’m sure we’ve had TRUE RIB recently, and once before.
The clue specifically mentions compilers, plural. If you were a compiler, you would refer to yourself and your colleages as “us.”
Kosher clue, imo
And it should be ‘we’ as well.
’Tis young Leander toiling to his death;
Nigh swooning, he doth purse his weary lips
For Hero’s cheek, and smiles against her smile.
(On a picture of Leander, Keats)
2o mins pre-brekker. Another good one IMO. Neat and tidy. Mostly I liked the soldiers pro Duce.
Ta setter and G.
11:59. I found lots to enjoy here today, like George thinking the clue for EARTHBOUND was top drawer. To my mind TYPO was another stand out clue, with another excellent surface. I think it would have taken me a lot longer to spot that hidden if I hadn’t already got the T and the P in place.
24 minutes, detained by TRUE RIB and LOI MEDICO. That’s a word I haven’t heard for a long time, so long that I doubted its existence. I’m giving my COD to TYPO, a neat hidden in a neat puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
Took a while to get off the mark, FOIs LEANDER and PORN, but the rather good ASK FOR TROUBLE opened things up. So book means caution in soccer, in real life I always thought you got cautioned and ‘next time you’ll be booked.’ Today we had yet another meaning for blue, a well-hidden cricket term and a totally NHO TRUE RIB. Was thrown a little by the rishi reference because my understanding is that Mr Sunak is alive, but then I remembered Peter Green’s excellent The Green Manalishi and wildly guessed there was some kind of connection. Haven’t looked it up, maybe there is. I was held up by CORNICHE, even though I knew it, and took way too long to land on duce for fascist leader, but overall enjoyed this. Finished in 32.58, a welcome contrast to yesterday’s CNF.
I think Rishi (Sunak) is called so because the name means ‘sage’.
No time as family have descended from around the world, but not too tricky and very enjoyable. Like Jack, I first thought of the Rolls Royce when I saw CORNICHE. Common enough word down here of course
I too liked the naughty bits in this one. Very cheeky!
Thanks g and setter.
Lovely surfaces, very funny. COD to EARTHBOUND. Thanks setter and George.
Flew through this, with no issues. We’ve had TRUE RIB recently, and MOON has appeared quite often.
#MeToo as a ‘feminist’ movement? Much much more than that.
10’20”, thanks george and setter.
12:50
Another beauty, though some of the across clues required a bit of undressing.
EGRETs, we’ve had a few…
There’s no ANSER to that…
10:43. Good fun. I enjoyed TYPO, USURER and LEGAL among others. Thanks George and setter.
A clever and witty crossword, not too difficult but enjoyable.
16.47.
15 minutes or so with no real problems, though I can never remember exactly what a CORNICHE is and remembered TRUE RIB from previous puzzles. The ‘Rishi’ in the clue for SPACE AGE felt close to Private Eye crossword territory, an impression only strengthened by the bra in the clue for EARTHBOUND, PORN and STRIP POKER.
A fun puzzle – thanks setter and blogger.
FOI Escapade
LOI Means test
COD Tear gas
Finished all bar CORNICHE in 7 mins. Then stared at the crossers of CORNICHE for 35 mins before giving up.
That is the very definition of perseverance.
I made harder work of this than I feel I should have. A slow start didn’t help. NHO TRUE RIB but what else could it be? An enjoyable puzzle.
FOI EARTHBOUND
LOI ESCAPADE
COD MOONSTONE
TIME 9:22
17:25
Fun puzzle. Corniches were a thing in those 60s films about posh people swanning around in sports cars on the Côte d’Azur.
Thanks, g.
Yes, I liked the “smut”.
I had VIDEOBOOK for a while, but I’ve never heard of one of those, and it didn’t parse, so it didn’t last too long. Lots to enjoy, but I think MOONSTONE COD.
19:17
35:23 – just happy to finish after a week of sloppy entering!
Is there anyone who didn’t give a ho ho ho at MOONSTONE?
25 minutes. EARTHBOUND was my highlight. I also liked the misdirection of ‘Rishi’ (no, The Times haven’t changed their policy as others have commented) and CORNICHE for the reminders of Grace Kelly & Cary Grant and of a coach trip to the Monaco GP ages ago.
6:58. What George said.
Half an hour, ending with the NW corner once I had corrected MONET to DEGAS and found the country. I think we had TRUE RIB recently when I was blogger. Much to like here, my CoD MOONSTONE.
Very clever crossword, best this week so far, for reasons already mentioned. Completed in about 30 minutes, after being held up on CORNICHE.
FOI – PORN
LOI – CORNICHE
COD – ASK FOR TROUBLE
Thanks to george and other contributors.
An entire porn corniche would indeed be asking for trouble! 🙂
Pee po belly bum drawers
Great fun with plenty of nudge nudge moments to make using Google to search for answers hazardous. I hazarded TRUE RIB as a sort of Woodhouse-ish epithet for a proper gentleman, even though the wordplay for TRUE was not there. 17.15 and enjoyed all the way.
I know perfectly well how to spell USURER, but I still managed to enter USERER giving me a pink square in 14:07. Drat! Thanks setter and George.
I’ve seen so many of those horrid squares this month that I’ve started dreaming of pink wafers!
lol
18 mins. Knew CORNICHE perfectly well, but it just wouldn’t come until I got the H. LOI TRUE RIB NHO.
Hardest thing about this was getting started.
An amusing 35 minutes with METRO LOI. I also enjoyed the smut scattered throughout the puzzle, and was also amused by the thought of our blogger Googling PORN. I really enjoyed the challenge this morning – thanks both.
08:00, lovely stuff. There is one setter in particular whose best work regularly involves this sort of deft wordplay mixed with a little naughtiness, so I’d be prepared to have a small wager on whose hand this came from (though one shouldn’t make assumptions, of course). Good fun, whoever it was.
After making a hash of the QC I was relieved to finish this without any problems in 33.45. I’m pretty sure TRUE RIB has come up before and fairly recently, otherwise I might not have solved it straight off. My only slight delay was when I started to write in KICKAROUND (which as kids is what we used to call it), before realising there were too many letters.
Good puzzle. Held up big time in the NW, made life harder for myself by misreading the enumeration at 1d as 4,5. Mean Stest wasn’t going to show up any time soon.
Amazed how many claim NHO True Rib when we had it fairly recently.
CODs EARTHBOUND for the surface and 9a ALGERIA for being clever.
25:48
Thought I must have seen TRUE RIB somewhere here before – no problem with all checkers. After a slow start, was motoring nicely until I hit the NE corner, where LEANDER had me wondering whether 8d might be SPRAT but obvs could not parse. AUDIOBOOK and the horrible ANANAS helped me to see ESCAPADE and enter LOI EGRET.
Enjoyable. Thanks setter and George
Sprat nearly had me done like a kipper.
Easy one today, and I had hoped for a PB, but not quite – my second fastest time at 3m 19s.
Lots of biffing, though, without necessarily reading the whole clue, so I will have a leisurely look through to enjoy it properly.
15.59. Great fun. Loved all the rude bits. The earthbound clue was superb.
Excellent crossword, not all that difficult but nice surfaces, 30 minutes. I saw 1ac (MEDICO) as EDICT(order) minus the last letter inside MO, not inside DR. As Merlin said, but nobody seems to have replied. The EARTHBOUND clue was quite brilliant. I didn’t know a rishi was a sage, but that’s how many Indian names seem to work. Certainly not our dear leader, who may be very competent but I doubt he’s a sage (getting a bit political and no doubt crossing the guidelines); anyway he’s still alive.
Yes, DR is a very rare typo from George who posts from the other side of the pond so would not be immediately available to make the correction because of the time difference. There’s not much point in others replying in support of Merlin’s correction as that’s clearly the situation.
‘Rishi / sage’ has appeared several times since Sunak came to prominence – perhaps most recently before today in a puzzle I blogged on 25th April – but it has never been with a direct reference to the PM, as holders of that position have not (yet) acquired the same status as the Monarch.
I’ve tried editing it twice since the slip of the mind was pointed out, hopefully this time the edits will stick.
Enjoyed this, wished I had timed it. Got every clue as I read it apart from REPLAY which caused me some problems. That must be a first for me!
When I first looked at this very early this morning, I could only get one clue on the first pass. Shows what a couple of cups of coffee can do! On revisiting, I filled in most of the grid with few problems. I had KICKROUND first, but AUDIOBOOK set me straight. My late husband spent the last 20 years of his life abridging books for audio for various companies, and won several awards for doing so – I used to type up the scripts, so a) became a very good touch-typist and b) read a whole pile of books I might not have come across, not least the entire Pratchett oeuvre, for which I’m immensely grateful.
I spent an inordinate time staring at 27A, wondering what hypenated term could mean ‘sort of bandit’, even with the ONE in place! Only vaguely heard of CORNICHE (apart from the RR) and don’t remember seeing TRUE RIB here, though clearly many have. It must have been in my subconscious somewhere, as it went in fairly confidently. Good fun puzzle. COD to CELLO.
16.50 with no real holdups. COD space age because of the diversionary tactic. Was anyone else scrambling to find spaces for sunak.?
Can’t remember coming across true rib before but it was generously clued.
Thanks setter and blogger.
Good fun today and all the more so for giving me my first completion in what feels like ages. With PORN and STRIP POKER appearing pretty early on, I did check that I hadn’t picked up The Guardian first today, but, unlike our blogger, I didn’t google ‘porn’. 20 mins or so today.
I laughed my way through all 26 minutes of this. Quite an easy puzzle, which would usually also imply boring, but this was certainly an exception. Excellent clues all through it. COD to EARTHBOUND for the fantastic surface reading, but USURER was a close second.
26’15”
Sweated up before start, steady pace throughout.
Thirty-six degrees here, and hellishly humid, so conditions were not ideal. I found myself envying Leander’s milieu, if not his fate, half way through. True rib went in 17d. and I was chuffed to be in double digits, just, on my homemade S/N/Witch-ometer.
I’d echo George’s comments on this cracking puzzle. Thanks to him, setter and Myrtilus for both the Keats and Shelley yesterday.
Yes – very nice puzzle – took me longer than it should have, probably, at 50 minutes. Great to have a challenge and a chuckle.
No real problems here although I now know that I have (or should have) eight pairs of TRUE RIBs and that PINEAPPLES are ANANAS. Thanks for the blog!
Slow going at over 40 mins today but I nearly finished it. I was in to OWL club as I put ‘medics’ instead of ‘medico’ 🙄
Really enjoyed this, not least because I fairly romped through half of it before coming to a grinding halt in the NW and SE corners (mainly CORNICHE and the country, SPACE AGE -another trying to shoe-horn Sunak in – and REPLAY. But typically got all the smutty bits, and thought EARTHBOUND worth the price of admission alone. Big thanks to setter and George for a fun start to my day.