Time taken: 11:58. I don’t think this is as difficult as I made it out to be, I had two early typos in answers that kept me from completing some pretty obvious cryptics. There’s a little obscure general knowledge here, but fortunately the wordplay is clear.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Creative force, Doctor King pens article with class (6,6) |
| MOTHER NATURE – MO(doctor), and R(king) containing THE(article) and NATURE(class) | |
| 8 | Dish right with garlic sauce, very filling (7) |
| RAVIOLI – R(right) and AIOLI(garlic sauce) containing V(very) | |
| 9 | Lock enclosed by covering letter (7) |
| RINGLET – hidden inside coveRING LETter | |
| 11 | Steal from Savoy? (7) |
| CABBAGE – double definition – I’m less familiar with cabbage meaning to steal or pilfer, but it is in Collins | |
| 12 | Letter from religious figure entering English mansion (7) |
| EPISTLE – ST(religious figure) inside E(English) PILE(mansion) | |
| 13 | Initiates in love attracting writers (5) |
| OPENS – O(love) and PENS(writers) | |
| 14 | Shortened cryptic lamentations for the dead (9) |
| THRENODES – anagram of SHORTENED | |
| 16 | Cuddly companion engineered dry debate (5,4) |
| TEDDY BEAR – anagram of DRY,DEBATE | |
| 19 | One on the pull — attraction in London? (5) |
| TOWER – double definition | |
| 21 | Noble European round house sees canal entrance (7) |
| EARHOLE – EARL(noble), E(European) surrounding HO(house) | |
| 23 | Sikh distressed on tiresome course, back from Izmir? (7) |
| TURKISH – anagram of SIKH after RUT(tiresome course) reversed | |
| 24 | Property right in heart of Grateley taken by girl (7) |
| TENANCY – central letters in graTEley, then NANCY(girl) | |
| 25 | Grandmother piercing strong fabric (7) |
| NANKEEN – NAN(grandmother), KEEN(piercing) | |
| 26 | Cardinal pursuing witches, eating fish, died somewhere in WC2 (6,6) |
| COVENT GARDEN – TEN(cardinal number) after COVEN(witches) containing GAR(fish) and D(died) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | See a book spy’s concealed — not secure? (7) |
| MOVABLE – V(see), A, B(book) inside MOLE(spy) | |
| 2 | Warriors close to Ugrit — judge hiding among horses (7) |
| TROJANS – last letter of ugriT, then J(judge) inside ROANS(horses) | |
| 3 | The Iliad complete? One’s taken out most intense part! (9) |
| EPICENTRE – The Iliad is an EPIC, then ENTIRE(complete) minus I(one) | |
| 4 | Minister to fly over Svatove after evacuation (5) |
| NURSE – RUN(fly) reversed over the external letters in SvatovE. Timely surface, as Svatove is in the Ukraine | |
| 5 | Row about new tempo initially elevated stress (7) |
| TENSION – NOISE(row) surrounding N(new), then the first letter of Tempo, all reversed | |
| 6 | Covered by socialist, revolutionary story told (7) |
| RELATED – RED(socialist) containing a reversal of TALE(story) | |
| 7 | Moving critter to Ark — an American custom (5,2,5) |
| TRICK OR TREAT – anagram of CRITTER,TO,ARK | |
| 10 | Delight consumes confident Barbarian in game (8,4) |
| TREASURE HUNT – TREAT(delight) containing SURE(confident), HUN(barbarian) | |
| 15 | Fairy seen with Capek’s play for first time imagined kingdom (9) |
| RURITANIA – TITANIA(fairy) with RUR(Capek’s play, notable for introducing the term robot) replacing the first T(time) | |
| 17 | Phoned to stop musical pair finding Mexican city (7) |
| DURANGO – RANG(phoned) inside DUO(musical pair) | |
| 18 | About to eliminate resistance in the old capital (7) |
| YAOUNDE – AROUND(about) minus R(resistance) inside YE(the, old). Capital of Cameroon | |
| 19 | Firm keeping personnel team majestically seated? (7) |
| THRONED – TONED(firm) containing HR(personnel team) | |
| 20 | Submit communication with success about liturgy (5,2) |
| WRITE IN – WIN(success) surrounding RITE(liturgy) | |
| 22 | Country poem without the Spanish part (5) |
| EGYPT – ELEGY(poem) minus EL(the, in Spanish), then PT(part) | |
Not that hard, but lots unparsed. So thanks to glh. DNF as, like ChrisLutton couldn’t parse 21a EARlObE – EARHOLE; doh. Thought it v loose, but obv it was I who was adrift.
DNK Svatove, Durango (but recognise the truck), had forgotten Yaounde. I feel that we ought to know all the capitals of the world (I don’t).
Had forgotten Capek and his play RUR; recognised the Wiki entry just now so it must have been here before. RURITANIA, known, was a total biff.
DNK cabbage=steal. Did know cabbage as the offcuts that tailors traditionally keep, and slang for money, and Savoy cabbage.
22:10 – very pleased to have remembered THRENODES from trials past. Likewise NANKEEN was dredged up and the odd meaning of CABBAGE. Feels like progress! 🙂
YAOUNDE was also a reward for doing all those Sporcle quizzes!
I’d actually heard of Durango through the traditional route of actually being familiar with Mexican geography by playing the Sporcle Mexican states quiz. Overall though it was tough and I DNF without having to cheat first. It looks like there’s a typo for the TROJANS clue, the clue should clearly read ‘Ugarit’ not ‘Ugrit’, which doesn’t seem to exist (other than as a declension of the Finnish word for Ugric).
31 minutes. I’d come across most of what was displayed on the completed grid here except for the RUR bit of RURITANIA. Still, most took a bit of winkling out, with the now simple looking EGYPT needing all crossers as my LOI. Favourite was the ‘Warriors… hiding among horses’ for TROJANS.
With the greatest of respect to the Cameroons, I think including such an obscure capital might’ve been ok for a Mephisto perhaps, but a bit below the belt for a standard Thursday. Needless to say it was a DNK and an NHO. And I didn’t much like ‘class’=‘nature’ either. I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle, though.
The Durango I know best is the one in northern Spain, nearish to San Sebastián, by which I drove many times en route for Madrid and Andalusia in the 70s and 80s while working there. I’ve always assumed the Mexican one was named after that one, but have no evidence to support that view.
Your assumption is correct, the founder of the Mexican Durango came from the Spanish Durango apparently (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durango_(city)). I’m pretty sure the animated title character of the film Rango, a chameleon, is depicted as claiming his name is ‘Rango’ after seeing the word ‘Durango’ on a bottle of Tequila too IIRC
33′ after a fairly quick start then getting held up by a few of the challenging clues largely mentioned above. LOI THRENODES, which I knew only from crosswordland, but not well enough to worry about the missing I. CABBAGE from Savoy, but NHO of it as “steal”. Thankfully revisited EARlObE as I was unhappy with it (even though it fitted). Thanks George and setter.
15.18 WOE
Too much Greek O-Level (badly remembered I’m sure) was not a good thing as I confidently (and smugly) bunged in THRENEDOS. Whoops.
DURANGO also from the Dylan
Thanks all
23:20
Seems like no-one has heard of the ‘steal’ meaning of CABBAGE – surely time to strike it from the dictionary. THRENODES vaguely remembered in some form or other but couldn’t have said what it was. DURANGO and YAOUNDE both entered semi-confidently. Capek’s robot play has surely come up here at some time previously. I liked TURKISH and TROJANS.
Thanks to G and setter
Durango I’d never heard of (my knowledge of Dylan ended with ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, excellent and much listened to although I never for some reason got any further). Yaoundé also needed to be checked in my Pears Cyclopaedia, although this time I had vaguely heard of it. Several answers which I got from wordplay or checkers, although it was a very nice crossword. 42 minutes, done in two sessions.
DNF. One pink square after 41:49.
I knew of a THRENODY, and assumed its plural could end YS as well as IES, being ignorant of the alternative THRENODE, and failing to spot the anagram.
Ditto, and very annoying having completed the rest correctly and fairly quickly, too…
I decided to visit from QC-land to try to hone my skills. Imagine my astonishment at finding all but YAOUNDE completed in a bit less than 40 minutes! Probably my surprise threw sand in the gears, and ultimately I let the dictionary help me with an alphabet trawl, and “finished” (if you can call it that) in 46:17.
Loved RURITANIA (I’m starting to get the hang of these letter-substitution clues after being stumped so many times). Working out COVENT GARDEN was fun, saw it had to be something GARDEN but it took a while for the witches to work their magic. Didn’t class=NATURE strike anyone else as far-fetched?
I forgot to say that the clue for EGYPT was generous as well as clever, with “country” associating to Gray’s Elegy to guide me to the right sort of poem. Thanks setter!
Collins has: sort; kind; character for NATURE. Not direct but adjacent. Well done on completing this one! It wasn’t easy at all.
Thank you! Sometimes I feel some sort of solving demon gets into me. Other times, an anti-solving demon.
Well done. Practice will yield rewards.
37 mins. Like others, got cabbage from Savoy but wasn’t familiar with ‘steal’ usage. Guessed 17 and 18 from wordplay. NHO RUR. Another witty puzzle that looked impenetrable at first!
25.05. Ashamed to say that I had to deduce the Mexican city and Capital of Cameroon from the wordplay rather than from geographical knowledge, but pleased to complete the puzzle without aids in a reasonable time.
1:20:51. slow but worked out the NHOs from the very fair wordplay. COD was TREASURE HUNT. thanks!
Remember Durango, Larry? From Rolling Thunder album. Is that Larry Sloman? Anyway, I continued my run of unforced errors with a bunged-in EARLOBE. What a dope. I have got to remind myself that just because someting fits it doesn’t mean something else won’t. Otherwise a perfectly fine 18’45”, but my ratings are in decline.
About 40 minutes – good puzzle.
A very geographical puzzle, and most enjoyable. NHO Svatove before, and agree with Lurker that Ugrit needed an A.
Cabbage patch snatch is maybe cockney? too many obscure place names for me dnf
Over the top rubbish as usual the twerps on this site pretend it was great
Well, Old Fashioned Expert, your comment looks surprisingly like sour grapes, No?
Of course I didn’t finish either, but those ‘obscure’ bits of knowledge are safely tucked away in my ever-expanding list of NHOs. Glad to have gotten the ones that I did, especially COVENT GARDEN and TROJANS.