Time taken: 10:47. Was relieved that this came back all-correct, but now I need to research a few pieces of parsing. Hopefully it will all make sense, I relied on wordplay a lot more than usual, there’s some spellings that I am not used to seeing.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | King’s after gold in two churches, one linked to Canterbury? (7) |
| CHAUCER – R(King) after AU(gold) inside CH and CE(two churches). Reference to the Canterbury Tales | |
| 5 | One taking coat from female nurse, disregarding cold (7) |
| SHEARER – SHE(female), CARER(nurse) minus C(cold) | |
| 9 | Unusual for English clues to shed light (9) |
| FLUORESCE – anagram of FOR, E(English), CLUES | |
| 10 | Dominant mountain height near Austria’s capital (5) |
| ALPHA – ALP(mountain), then H(height) and the first letter of Austria | |
| 11 | See you go to glory in a uniform (5) |
| ADIEU – DIE(go to glory) inside A, U(uniform). Go to glory did not ring a bell, but it is in in Collins | |
| 12 | Terrible nature of legitimacy abandoned by leader (9) |
| AWFULNESS – LAWFULNESS(legitimacy) minus the first letter | |
| 14 | Gleeful ratings at sea out of the control of others (4-10) |
| SELF-REGULATING – aangram of GLEEFUL,RATINGS | |
| 17 | Engineers award for painting, perhaps (14) |
| REPRESENTATION – RE(engineers), PRESENTATION(award) | |
| 21 | He’s backing music, say, by monster band (9) |
| ORCHESTRA – HE’S, then ART(music, say) reversed after ORC(monster) | |
| 23 | Artist‘s drunk, unable to start (5) |
| LOTTO – BLOTTO(drunk) minus the first letter. This was a fingers crossed entry, turns out it is the Italian painter Lorenzo LOTTO | |
| 24 | Area provided a source of fibre (5) |
| AGAVE – A(area), GAVE(produced). Is tequila a fibre now? Maybe I need more in my diet. | |
| 25 | Pine tree destroyed around about earthquake location (9) |
| EPICENTRE – anagram of PINE,TREE surrounding C(about) | |
| 26 | Muscle‘s always rubbish when twisted (7) |
| EVERTOR – EVER(always), then ROT(rubbish) reversed | |
| 27 | County did deny W. Grace over catches (7) |
| GWYNEDD – hidden reversed in diD DENY W.Grace | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Top‘s a foot inside container (6) |
| CAFTAN – A, FT(foot) inside CAN(container) | |
| 2 | A heavy vehicle driver killing doctor, runs off spouting insults (7) |
| ABUSIVE – A, BUS(heavy vehicle), then DRIVER minus DR(doctor) and R(runs) | |
| 3 | Worry about bad fluff and get agitated (9) |
| CARFUFFLE – CARE surrounding an anagram of FLUFF. I’ve only ever seen this as KERFUFFLE, but Collins confirms several spellings | |
| 4 | New account meant setter is sorted (11) |
| RESTATEMENT – anagram of MEANT,SETTER | |
| 5 | Setting for a cathedral clock (3) |
| SEE – double definition. Clock can mean observe, notice, see | |
| 6 | Message me over trouble (5) |
| EMAIL – ME reversed, then AIL(trouble) | |
| 7 | Instrumental players mature about current one (7) |
| RIPIENI – RIPEN(mature) surrounding I(current), then I | |
| 8 | Detail again what king does about fool (8) |
| REASSIGN – REIGN(what king does) surrounding ASS(fool) | |
| 13 | Checking key measure of oxidisation (11) |
| FRUSTRATING – the key of F, then the measure of oxidation could be a RUST RATING | |
| 15 | Big weapons British note missing from Welsh town (9) |
| ARTILLERY – got this from the definition, and had to look up a list of Welsh town names, thankfully it was near the front – ABERTILLERY minus B(British) and E(note) | |
| 16 | Take over spa but not hotel (8) |
| ARROGATE – HARROGATE(spa) minus H(hotel) | |
| 18 | Pluck the strings of a guitar that’s needed for hard rock? (7) |
| PICKAXE – PICK(pluck the strings of a banjo), AXE(a guitar) | |
| 19 | Group starting our choir thanked everyone there that evening (7) |
| OCTETTE – first letters of Our Choir Thanked Everyone There That Evening | |
| 20 | I’m surprised editor accepts European that’s sought attention (6) |
| COOEED – COO(I’m surprised), ED(editor) containing E(European) | |
| 22 | Authority with no power to wield (5) |
| EXERT – EXPERT(authority) minus P(power) | |
| 25 | Tackle missing note in organ (3) |
| EAR – GEAR(tackle) minus G(note) | |
45 minutes. I found this quite tough, not helped by CAFTAN which I only know spelt with a K and CARFUFFLE which I only know as ‘kerfuffle’.
AGAVE seemed unfamiliar although it has come up a few times previously, and I would have forgotten about OCTETTE as an alternative to ‘octet’ had the spelling not appeared very recently elsewhere.
LOTTO as an artist was definitely unknown and I toyed with RETESTAMENT at 4dn until checkers made it impossible. EVERTOR unknown too, today being its first appearance outside a Mephisto .
Finally I was sure 7dn was RIPIENO until the O interfered with my attempts at solving the intersecting anagram at 14ac. I’m more than familiar with ‘Concertino’ and ‘Ripieno’ as the two sections in baroque concertos – featured instrument(s) and the rest of the band respectively.
An enjoyable puzzle despite several unheard-of words and quite a bit of UK-centric geography involving lesser-known locations. I’m looking specifically at you, Abertillery. Are you in GWYNEDD? Fortunately ARTILLERY was a straight-forward biff, the county was a reverse hidden that eventually revealed itself and I took on trust that Harrogate was, or has, a spa. All done in 27.42 with a little help from the check function to confirm that EVERTOR and a couple of others were actually words. I also thought it was kerfuffle, like I thought it was kaftan and octet. I’m surprised that the extinct Oz bush call cooee made it into the crossword, especially in verb form. Thanks to George for the informative blog and for bringing us Lorenzo LOTTO, known to his mates as Larry.
Cooee extinct? Pish. I use it on occasion when spouse and I are at opposite ends of a rendezvous. Mainly when on holiday, as it works best among non-English speakers.
CARFUFFLE I’d never seen spelled that way before, but I took that in stride early on. Was also happy to find GWYNEDD with little difficulty… while ARTILLERY went in on faith. But was stuck a long time at the end, with RIPIENI and the definitely NHO COOEED.
ADIEU (“to God!”!) is not quite “see you!” That would be, and quite literally, “Au revoir.” “Auf Wiedersehen!” “¡Hasta la vista!” ADIEU is “good-bye.”
That the Frencb word ‘adieu’ doesn’t mean ‘see you!’ doesn’t entail that the English word ‘adieu’ doesn’t. The first corpus example from ODE is “I shall return presently …. adieu!”
Oh bien sûr. The English word! But I imagine that when Anglophones use “Adieu” that way, they think they’re really speaking French. In either language, of course, au revoir may be said in, wistfully, bidding farewell to someone it is likely you will never see again, and adieu might be used when parting briefly from a dear friend—though I think that in French that would seem a little over the top.
In French nobody ever says ‘adieu’ (other than in jest).
Pas tous les jours, certainement.
Non? C’est la vie.
45m 12s
I enjoyed that, despite the unsusual spellings of CAFTAN and CARFUFFLE.
I remember discovering the works of Lorenzo LOTTO in art history classes and being very taken by his subject’s eyes.
PS….Looking at the grid as a team sheet, I like today’s twin strikers, CHAUCER and SHEARER!
Edith urging the policemen against the Pirates of Penzance:
……
Go and do your best endeavor
And before all links we sever
We will say farewell forever,
Go to glory and the grave!
I doubt that Mr Gilbert would have spelt endeavor like that!
Caught by EVERTOR (never heard of it) and put ERECTOR starting with always ERE and ending ROT reversed and…C from somewhere LOL. I’d never heard of LOTTO, nor seen those obscure spellings. RIPIENI only just a faint shadow.
Better guess than mine – I put in ROTATOR, which messed me up on 16d and 18d, but I thought was a good answer as it reads both ways and is therefore “always rubbish when twisted”
Ther n’ is no werkman whatever he be,
That may both werken wel and hastily.
(Chaucer)
I werkened wel but not hastily, taking 30 mins pre-brekker with much spent constructing the unknowns. But worth it.
Ta setter and G.
10:57, with relief and some surprise to see no pink squares. Sign me up for the KAFTAN-KERFUFFLE club. RIPIENI was very vaguely familiar, which is more than I can say for Lorenzo LOTTO or Abertillery.
36 minutes with LOI COOEED, not surprising as I don’t think I’ve heard either COO for surprise or COO-EE as a call for attention since the 1950s. Fortunately, my two years with MANWEB had made GWYNEDD a write-in. The spelling of KAFTAN AND KERFUFFLE was just irritating. But I have learnt a new muscle. COD to PICKAXE. Thank you George and setter.
33:41 but with an error having plumped for the slightly optimistic WOWEED over COOEED.
COD to FLUORESCE which was a nice one to put away. Thanks setter & blogger.
DNF, defeated by COOEED (like Mudge above, I put ‘woweed’) and AGAVE, where even with all the checkers I got the parsing wrong and thought I needed a word meaning area.
Didn’t know CARFUFFLE in that spelling, LOTTO the artist, EVERTOR as a muscle, the meaning of ARROGATE, or which Welsh town was needed for ARTILLERY. I wasn’t sure about PICKAXE as I forgot axe=guitar, and RIPIENI was a complete unknown that went in from wordplay.
Thanks setter and blogger.
COD Shearer
Pfft, yet another WOWEED here, I lost patience with this crossword. Just because they can be spelled CAFTAN and CARFUFFLE, doesn’t mean they should be..
Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park said it best … 😉
Possibly the same as nearly everyone else: CARFUFFLE, EVERTOR, AGAVE, RIPIENI all painstakingly worked out.
The von Trapp children used ADIEU to say goodnight – Adieu, adieu to yieu and yieu and yieu….
Thanks george and setter.
DNF
Hooeed / Litko. NHO Lotto.
Thanks, g.
18:15
NHO LOTTO, A(BE)RTILLERY or CARFUFFLE with that spelling, but fairly easy to work out.
I shall be in ‘ARROGATE for the Crime Writing Festival later this year.
LOI COOEED
I did find that very hard today, finally finishing in 36:48
I think sometimes I need to pull myself back from being mentally beaten
LOI was LOTTO having finally thought of COOEED from (I think) the Boscombe Valley Mystery in Sherlock Holmes, where they had been cooeeing to each other back in Australia. Having got that, it had to be (B)LOTTO even though it meant nothing to me.
I was also very slow in the SW corner, looking at it now it doesn’t seem so hard, but I needed ARROGATE to get me going.
Thanks setter for a good challenge and if it took gfh over 10 minutes it probably wasn’t so easy 😉
Cheers Steve
30:33
As per others there were lots of unknowns/unknown spellings today, and a couple which I entered with fingers firmly crossed.
As a man of the Gwent Valleys though, Abertillery is well-known to me so no problems there. For those not in the know it is a quintessential old coal-mining valleys town built on a hillside with steep, narrow, terraced streets, thoughtlessly designed without SUV’s in mind.
A good challenge today and glad to have limped over the line, so thanks to blogger and setter both.
47 minutes. Many of the same comments made by others about the CARFUFFLE spelling, the ‘Welsh town’ etc and I was surprised not to see at least one pink square after submitting. I’ll try to remember RIPIENI but I suspect it will appear just as unfamiliar the next time I come across it.
You’re more likely to come across ‘Ripieno’ singular although it still means ‘instrumental players’ plural. RIPIENI would be in separate orchestras.
Thanks, at least it’s another option but I’m still not optimistic about my chances of remembering either the -O or the -I version!
COOEED was one for us antipodeans, though I didn’t come within a cooee of it until the very end.
EVERTOR was relatively easy for a retired medico, though EVERTON would have led to a points deduction. I’d always thought these muscles were EVERTERs with a third E instead of the O, but the parsing led to the correct spelling.
29minutes.
Not so much a spelling test as a test of credulity. I took the gamble on LOTTO (actually played it for the first time ever on Tuesday), EVERTOR (possibly now missing on my right side) and CARFUFFLE which looks straight out of the UED. Thanks George for reminding us all that nobody cares if AGAVE is a source of fibre. And let me tell you, this is the real GWYNEDD.
Happy to get in under 25 minutes, especially after trying so hard to justify and fit FAULTFINDING into 13d, the epitome of the real answer.
23.30. Tricky in parts – relieved to have managed plausible efforts for everything, and even more so to emerge unscathed. I took several words on trust in one way or another – like others, ARTILLERY, RIPIENI, LOTTO, EVERTOR were among them.
I only unlocked the SW corner after staring at _R_O___E[?] and having a moment of inspiration that Harrogate was perhaps a spa, and ARROGATE was at least a word. That gave me a little more confidence in EVERTOR, and eventually let me get AGAVE. A bit more reliant on a bolt from the blue than I’m comfortable with!
LOI was FRUSTRATING, largely because I had a silly ‘self-generating’ in 14a. I liked the ‘rust rating’, less so the random key to accompany the random note elsewhere.
Thanks George and setter.
DNF. Too many obscurities for me, but, to my surprise, most of my mad guesses were correct. A fail on clues that I should have solved. I blame my entries of FLUCTUATION and WOWEED on NHO induced fatigue!
I finished faster than my average time but at the cost of 2 errors and four pink squares.
NHO EVERTOR. I put in ERECTOR which I know is a muscle. It parses well if you ignore the C.
And instead of COOEED I had WOWEED which parses even better, I think, and certainly well enough for me to move on without any doubts.
Good fun though. I liked spotting FLUFF as an anagram and then the kerfuffle of assembling the rest of the word. And I liked the rust rating
Beaten by the LOTTO/COOEED pairing and biffed RIPIENI from wordplay though NHO it.
12:38 I’ll never get back. A real let down after the excellent QC, and I found almost nothing to make me applaud, let alone smile. CARFUFFLE? LOTTO? EVERTOR? RIPIENI? If I want a bloody Mephisto I’ll do it on a Sunday. A fat fingered “adidu” made it even more worthless.
FOI CHAUCER
LOI RIPIENI
COD PICKAXE
TIME 12:38 with a typo
Another who found quite a few unknowns in this puzzle. I followed the wordplay for EVERTOR and RIPIENI and hoped! NHO the required Welsh town, but ARTILLERY was easy enough to biff. LIT for drunk held up the unknown artist for quite a while too. The SW corner gave me most trouble until ORCHESTRA and EXERT arrived and I finished in a rush with AGAVE, PICKAXE and finally ARROGATE. 30:36. Thanks setter and George.
I too found this difficult, and I made it more difficult by carelessly putting in flouresce and deliberately putting in Cargwyn – yeah, that sounds like some obscure county. Crossing answers eventually caused me to correct and rethink. Like most solvers I NHO ripieni, although the clue was fairly straightforward. I ended up finally seeing the chestnut Harrogate/arrogate, and managed to finish.
Time: 38 minutes
41:04
A lot of NHO words or spellings that needed piecing together. I’m in the KERFUFFLE and KAFTAN camp. NHO RIPIENI, and only seen OCTETTE without the final two letters.
I’m OK on Welsh places – the historical notes I sometimes add to my comments in the QC will commemorate the Kings and Princes of Gwynedd where possible.
LOI and COD ARROGATE.
Thanks glh and setter
But I was somewhat thrown by seeing the very non-Welsh Frisians get a shoutout a week or so ago.
7m 46s. Some unexpected spellings, indeed.
No time, but around 30 minutes in two sessions. Plenty of unknowns and unfamiliar spellings to slow things down but all was (just about) within reach.
The spelling of kerfuffle, and the GK required for Lotto as a painter and Abertillery the town, never mind agave as a source of fibre – and how often is “ripieni” used? – make this something of a nonsense.
I was really pleased to finish this with all correct and parsed, all within my target time, but only with a few seconds to spare at 44.52. I got well and truly stuck in the sw corner for a good six or seven minutes before ORCHESTRA came to me, and the other four answers then quickly followed. I was just about to stop the clock when I realised 2dn hadn’t been solved. Not for the first time lately I had carelessly misspelt FLUORESCE by reversing the O and the U, and I was scratching my head until ABUSIVE came to me, and I could then correct my error. Abertillery is about 20 miles north of me, so 15dn was pretty straightforward for me.
NHO axe for musical instrument nor the spelling of carfuffle, biffed artillery and really liked frustrating. Failed as an above comment on ‘cooeed’ as had coreed. Thanks for the blog.
Jimi Hendrix is generally regarded as the no.1 axeman ..
Axes bold as love!
Ducking….
Very enjoyable today, past the post in 25 minutes plus change. Held up by ten minutes for arrogate/ Evertor and lotto / cooeed (a lot of time trying to ger coreed or woweed to work).
Thx G and setter
Another Woweed. Forgot the guitar/axe combo which has foxed me before. 3rd time lucky? ARROGATE and EVERTOR were unknowns and so my NW corner was disappointingly blank this afternoon.
Thanks G
I never know my time as I solve on paper, hence I don’t post very often.
But re KER / CAR -FUFFLE, per the OED CARFUFFLE and CURFUFFLE were the original spellings, dating back to 1813, but “Now widely used as a colloquialism in the forms GEFUFFLE and (esp) KERFUFFLE”.
And as C/KAFTAN derives from a pronunciation of the Turkish qaftan it would seem that either spelling may be correct.
You can just note your starting time on the puzzle, and check when you finish.
30 mins. As a guitarist, I still never remember AXE for guitar, only ever seen it here. That held me up no end in the SW, where I was completely bogged down. The rest, including RIPIENI and CARFUFFLE, was plain sailing in comparison.
I guess the setter thought he would liven things up with a few unusual (and in my case never seen before) spellings. I got them all from the wordplay but, call me a curmudgeon, I wasn’t amused.
Another WOWEED – grrr!
GWYNEDD, one of the great reverse hiddens!
FRUSTRATING a delight!
COOEED completely missed because, inexplicably, spelled EPICENTRE in the transatlantic way.
Eventually noticed AWFULNESS wasn’t an anagram of (L)egitimacy
Thanks everyone
Some of this was straightforward – CHAUCER, CAFTAN, SEE – some obscure in the extreme. The awful COOEED went in last, immediately after I plumped for (b)LOTTO, as being the likeliest NHO artist, certainly not in the top 100 plus artists. Nearly forgot AXE=guitar, going for an alphabet trawl for a hard rock. And then to cap it all, I put in ERECTOR, never having heard of EVERTOR, considering, and then rejecting it. So after all that hard work, not happy. Let’s hope it’s stuck for next time.
54 minutes and even then, after using one or two aids because eventually I became utterly stuck, I was yet yet another who had woweed. Coo for ‘I’m surprised’ is pretty obvious but the only things that I could think of were cor and wow. And the artist LOTTO I’d never heard of: he isn’t in my lists.
31.20 but really challenged by the SW corner. Finally got orchestra and after more harrumphing, arrogate – you could have heard my aargh in Leeds when that finally dawned.
A couple more minutes then a- gave ( neither if nor but to be seen) and finally with much relief exert.
Never seen those spellings of caftan or carefuffle before either.
I’m the event, thought this was a very good puzzle with arrogate the best of a good bunch with cooeed mentioned in dispatches ( have I spelt that right?)
I guess it’s a DNF for me as NHO Abertillery but I enjoyed the description in the comments, thanks. All of the “misspellings” grated a bit like someone who deliberately mispronounces names but it seems they were all fair. Thanks for the blog!
I quite enjoyed this. Yes, some of the spellings were unusual but I have come to expect that, and the clueing was generous. All done in 25 minutes after a minor delay in the SW corner. Just a mild bleat about the number of ‘drop a letter’ clues, such as (L)AWFULNESS – six at the last count.
FOI – CHAUCER
LOI – PICKAXE
COD – FRUSTRATING
YOD (Yuk of the day) – COOEED
Thanks to george and other contributors.
36’30”
Kept up a steady pace throughout……..
…finished on bang on my average and expected a Snitch of 80-ish, so I was surprised by the 115, although I would say that the muscle controlling my left eyebrow should have been aching as it was permanently raised at the odd spellings.
Now I have to return my sceptical eyebrow to Teacher Tom’s notes on the Staveley Wriggle – and he was kidding me not! What on earth has happened to Bridge in my absence abroad? Will we be getting the Ramsbottom Rumba or some such next? Even my beloved Two Clubs seems to have undergone major surgery.
Liked this lots; thank you setter – I’ll look up Larry Lotto- and George.
Reading this weeks later because I do the puzzle in The Australian. Your comment made me look up the Staveley Wriggle and I’m happy not to have known it. We have a more direct and easier to remember method here. After a double, a suit is the lower of two four-card suits 0-7. A redouble shows a five-card or longer suit, asking opener to bid 2C which is passed or corrected. Pass with a 4-3-3-3 and lump it.
Comment testing.
I, for one, dislike both the entry of very obscure words AND obscure spellings of better-known words! Which is to say, that I found the lowere half of this puzzle extremely tough, and was forced to use aids so that I could move on with my day. Frankly, EVERTOR doesn’t even sound like a muscle, and GWYNEDD wouldn’t be well-known to non-UK residents, and COOEE hardly heard-of outside Oz. So yes, you’ve got it: I found this FRUSTRATING and therefore not so enjoyable. However, in Oz, “See You” can def be ADIEU!