Time taken: 8:36. Might be an end to the run of Tricky Thursdays.
There’s a few faster times than mine, and I think I spent at least a minute on justifying my last one in, which was 14 across. Sigh of relief that everything came back correct!
There is some really nice misdirection in the clues.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Spooner’s replete, quickly making you grimace (4,1,4) |
| PULL A FACE – Spoonerism of FULL(replete), APACE(quickly) | |
| 6 | Crouch, as in the way (5) |
| SQUAT – QUA(as) inside ST(the way) | |
| 9 | Spotted hidden camera moving around exhibits (5) |
| ACNED – hidden reversed in hidDEN CAmera | |
| 10 | Old men in French city university making even progress (4,5) |
| PARI PASSU – PAS(old men) inside PARIS(French city), U(university) | |
| 11 | What might suggest hero a moderate? (6-2-3-4) |
| MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD – hero is in the MIDDLE of tHE ROad | |
| 13 | Bag from overturned kayak finally about to hit the bottom (8) |
| KNAPSACK – reversal of the last letter of kayaK, CA(about) and SPANK(hit the bottom) | |
| 14 | With which to sound alarm or ring the changes (6) |
| HOOTER – anagram of OR, O(ring) and THE | |
| 16 | Agent’s letter from abroad left near (6) |
| PHILBY – PHI(Greek letter), L(left), BY(near). Reference the spy Kim PHILBY | |
| 18 | Chestnut placed in rather large glass (8) |
| SCHOONER – CH(chestnut) inside SOONER(rather) | |
| 21 | Anger once as dog close to group disrupted kids’ event (3-3-5,4) |
| EGG-AND-SPOON RACE – anagram of ANGER, ONCE, AS, DOG and the last letter of grouP | |
| 23 | What follows this pill potentially is safer to swallow? (5,4) |
| TRUTH DRUG – cryptic definition based on the truth being hard to swallow | |
| 25 | Outstanding, timeless drag act (5) |
| OWING – remove T(time) from TOWING(drag act) | |
| 26 | Cream containing energy: good for slimmers? (5) |
| ELITE – E(energy) and LITE(good for slimmers) | |
| 27 | Otherworldly appearance of padre involved with Lent (3,6) |
| RED PLANET – anagram of PADRE and LENT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | I would add charitable donations, but no tip, for song (5) |
| PSALM – PS(I would add), then ALMS(charitable donations) minus the last letter | |
| 2 | Maybe sketch process for imposing limits? (4,7) |
| LINE DRAWING – imposing limits could be DRAWING the LINE | |
| 3 | Briefly promote theory that’s upset old magistrates (7) |
| AEDILES – SELL(promote) minus the last letter and IDEA(theory), all reversed | |
| 4 | A case for partnership — part of joint strategy (8) |
| APPROACH – A, then external letters in PartnershiP, then ROACH(part of a reefer joint) | |
| 5 | Period crossing desert spelling problems? (6) |
| ERRATA – ERA(period) surrounding RAT(desert) | |
| 6 | Big cheese to consume gradually on way to work? (7) |
| SUPREMO – SUP(consume gradually), RE(on), MO(way to work) | |
| 7 | Raises matter after penny has dropped (3) |
| UPS – PUS(matter) with the P(penny) moved down | |
| 8 | One rumbling method at heart even more inferior, as it were? (9) |
| THUNDERER – middle letters of meTHod, then UNDERER(even more inferior) | |
| 12 | Show that has eg Paddington Bear number chasing Oscar (11) |
| OSTENTATION – Paddington STATION containing TEN(number), all after O(Oscar) | |
| 13 | Garish clothing of one found asleep on moor? (6,3) |
| KIPPER TIE – KIPPER(one found asleep), and TIE(moor a boat) | |
| 15 | Good cat food spoiled is a disaster, naturally (3,2,3) |
| ACT OF GOD – anagram of G(good), CAT,FOOD | |
| 17 | Howler has been corrected (7) |
| BANSHEE – anagram of HAS,BEEN | |
| 19 | Blunder that hurts knight meeting end (3,4) |
| OWN GOAL – OW(that hurts), then N(knight in chess), GOAL(end) | |
| 20 | Text message’s recipient is certainly one taking abnormal interest (6) |
| USURER – U(recipient of text), SURER(certainly). At least I think this is the explanation. I don’t see a container for SURE to end up in UR. A better explanation, the whole answer is in text speak for U SURE R | |
| 22 | Figure in veil: it is seen on and off (5) |
| EIGHT – remove alternating letters from VeIl It Is and you get VIII, or eight in roman numerals | |
| 24 | Bath for one boy not in total agreement (3) |
| UNI – remove SON(boy) from UNISON(total agreement) | |
Around 60 minutes. Most enjoyable. Difficult in parts but enjoyed working them out FOI PULL A FACE then RED PLANET, ACT OF GOD, OSTENTATION and slowly worked my way through it. Helped by many phrases. NHO PARI PASSU but parsing fitted. BANSHEE has appeared several times recently. Got caught up in SW corner because I became convinced USURER was wrong and thus TRUTH DRUG was also wrong. Finally gave up and left it.
Badly needed parsing in some. Thank you GLH.
I think the correct parsing of usurer is U SURE R, i.e. you sure are.
I certainly found this easier that yesterday’s 132 minute struggle, but it was a bit hard in places. I only vaguely knew kipper tie, and wasn’t sure of the parsing of schooner. I started off very slowly, getting only one across clue, but as usual the downs were kinder, so I managed to get a foothold.
Time: 40 minutes
47 minutes. Two unknowns solved from wordplay, the unlikely-looking AEDILES and PARI PASSU, both appearing for the first time today. I glossed over the parsing of SCHOONER placing a query at the side, but then forgot to revisit it.
Does it bother anyone else that HERO is not in the middle of ‘tHE ROad’?
I think the middle is ‘HERO A’
Oh yes. Thanks. A very odd clue. Shame the resulting surface doesn’t read well.
I was convinced we’d seen PARI PASSU before, as I remembered commenting on it. Surprised it was as long ago as 2015 though: https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/26002-in-which-philosophers-have-a-race-on-camels
Thanks. I searched using my phone with its small screen and saw the Mephisto entry (which I don’t count when discussing the daily puzzles) but evidently didn’t scroll down to catch this one.
Yes, it bothered me, Jack, but I figured it had to be what it was.
Since when has chestnut signified ‘ch’?
‘Never’ is the correct answer. But The Times tends to make it up as it goes along these days.
Clever stuff. Thanks setter (and George and vinyl1 for parsing a couple). COD to KNAPSACK.
I meant to comment on KNAPSACK above, a word I know only from the song The Happy Wanderer. Val-deri,Val-dera!
I always knew them as knapsacks in my youth. I now call them rucksacks. Not sure when the change happened.
Thank you sawbill. You made me realise I always knew them as backpack or rucksack before coming across knapsack so I looked it up and now believe rucksack, knapsack and haversack all originate from the German for back, snack and grain respectively followed by sack for bag.
I also didn’t know aediles or pari passu but got them from the word play once the checkers were in place.
8:18. I thought this was going to be another typical solve where I solve all but one quickly then get stuck for ages on that last one. However, today it didn’t take me too long to construct AEDILES. Other than that there was a lot of biffing, including PARI PASSU which I once came across at work and for some reason stuck in my head.
14:19, with the rather good EIGHT going in unparsed at the end. I also really liked HOOTER.
PARI PASSU and AEDILES both new to me, but accurately clued.
Thanks both.
A tricky construction for the unknown AEDILES. Other answers went in unparsed with a few crossers – EGG-AND-SPOON RACE, USURER, EIGHT.
I have a diploma in French and have never come across PARI PASSU.
I rather liked KNAPSACK (a word I’ve only read in stories), and OSTENTATION.
18’21” thanks george and setter.
PARI PASSU is Latin not French.
Thanks, my ‘O’ level Latin didn’t stretch to it either. I now understand it’s a financial term.
That’s because it’s Latin, I’m afraid.
31 minutes, the last few constructing AEDILES. My 1961 O level Latin vocabulary didn’t contain that. Berni Inns used to sell SCHOONERs of sherry in the days when wearing a KIPPER tie wasn’t a criminal offence. Any self-respecting Bolton man could sing the Happy Wanderer, and I had a KNAPSACK before I was big enough to have a rucksack. O my Lofthouse and my Tommy Banks long ago! Enjoyable apart from the magistrates. Thank you George and setter.
11.20
Some excellent wordplay today, especially U SURE R and “I would add” for PS.
SCHOONERs seem to be becoming more popular in hipster alehouses, though as holding 2/3 of a pint not particularly large.
“D’you want a KIPPER TIE, Noddy?”
“Arr, two sugars please” (old Slade joke).
LOI UNI
Very good re Slade. I’ve heard it before but it still made me laugh.
12:34. The two 15 letter across answers went in first, which helped with the downs. I couldn’t have told you what PARI PASSU meant, but remembered it from somewhere and constructed it and my unknown LOI AEDILES from wordplay and checkers. I liked EIGHT – very clever. 13D made me think of Ilkley Moor, but it’s clothing (a hat) that’s missing in that song. Thanks George and setter.
55:10
FOI PULL A FACE
LOI PHILBY
I had not properly parsed EIGHT when I submitted, and I had entered UNI thinking the boy was TED. Everything else was known other than AEDILES and CH in CHESTNUT, with PARI PASSU recalled vaguely from days of lending.
In what context was there sufficient need to abbreviate chestnut to ch so that its usage was common enough to feature in dictionaries? Is it from the Racing Post etc.?
Thanks to glh and the setter
Yes Ch = chestnut on a race card. See here.
Thank you, John – much appreciated.
DNF, with ‘tough drug’ rather than TRUTH DRUG.
Didn’t know ch=chestnut for SCHOONER; didn’t parse KNAPSACK or the clever EIGHT; missed the containment indicator for OSTENTATION so didn’t see how it worked; not familiar with PARI PASSU at all but managed to construct it from wordplay and checkers; didn’t quite piece together the anagrist for HOOTER; biffed EGG-AND-SPOON RACE; had to trust the wordplay for the unknown AEDILES; and didn’t know roach as part of a joint for APPROACH.
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Supremo
28:09
I raced along until I didn’t.
PARI PASSO and AEDILES both unknown but fairly clued. I also couldn’t parse either HOOTER or EIGHT so thanks to our blogger for enlightening me.
Not as difficult as yesterday but an enjoyable solve.
Thanks to both
Couple short at the hour mark (AEDELIES and ACNED), and one error. I thought ROSTER for HOOTER as a double definition ( probably 1.5x at best).
I also banged in COMMUTE, for “ Big cheese to consume gradually on way to work”, with big cheese =COMTE, and somehow MU=gradually, in some unknown scientific sense.
And seriously, ch=chestnut? Same guys who abbreviate horse to h, no doubt. What’s a bay horse, ba?
I think it’s…bah!
Just b – see John’s link three comments above. There are seven official horse colours (at least in the Jockey Club’s opinion), though the abbreviations for them aren’t all in all the usual dictionaries.
It’s rather esoteric I’d agree-and I work in the industry.
58m 46s
For such a long time I had Life Drawing for 2d. That held me up no end. And aediles in 3d is another of those words like rocambole and ichneumon, which we’ve had recently, which really belong in a Mephisto, in my view.
Never knew ch was an approved abbreviation for chestnut.
Thank you, George.
I thought the clue for “TRUTH DRUG” was a real stretch. I put it in because it was the only thing that made sense with the checkers, but even after seeing the parsing here I’m still not convinced. How is something that is “hard to swallow” safer?
“Hard” is not in the clue, not sure what George means.. If something is more likely to be true it becomes easier/safer to swallow/accept…
Exactly. It is safer to ‘swallow’ (believe) something said after the taking of a truth drug than before.
23.36, very glad it wasn’t my week, George, as I was flummoxed by EIGHT and KNAPSACK and posted them with some trepidation.
I though PARI PASSU meant “all things being equal”, so I was nearly right.
I took the rather clever (if slightly suspect) TRUTH DRUG to arrive from whatever follows taking the pill is more likely to be the truth, thus safer to swallow or accept. Suspect in that I believe the truth drug, sodium pentathol (et al) is administered by injection: it always is in the movies!
A lot of very clever stuff here, especially Paddington Bear and the two I couldn’t parse, and a welcome fragment from the UED for UNDERER.
7:02 One of those puzzles that comes up every few weeks with a fair sprinkling of classical terms & general obscurities that is right on my wavelength and I end up biffing mostly. So it was today, so thanks, setter, for halving my average time. Having looked at the wordplay in more detail, I can see there are some very clever and devious clues. COD to EIGHT. HOOTER was good too.
10:33 with a fair bit of that used on AEDILES. Most enjoyable puzzle.
Ha ha thanks for the explanation for EIGHT, I gave up trying to understand that. I must remember those roman numerals! I finished in 22:36 with LOI SQUAT, which took me a couple of minutes, I still have problems seeing -qu- words.
Thanks setter and blogger, it was indeed a nice easy Thursday 🙂
Found this much harder than yesterday’s, and was surprised to find so many people thinking it easy. Took me all of 57 mins, and never felt on top of it. Liked many of these – particularly APPROACH – but somehow it felt more painful than fun overall. Obscure abbreviations from race cards don’t help. And bloody BANSHEE again.
Quick today, and some nice clues. Knew aediles but failed to spot how they wrote 8, in 22dn
41:35. Tricky enough for me to fear a repeat of yesterday’s DNF. Stuck for ages on my last two: ACNED (didn’t see the hidden) and AEDILES (NHO). Some clever clueing with EIGHT and HERO A, both of which passed me by.
Thanks for the much needed blog
I had UNIted not UNIson. Works perfectly well I think, although possibly not quite so well as the son parsing. Lots of very good clues, some of which I entered without really understanding, only appreciated when I came here. 34 minutes. Didn’t like TRUTH DRUG. Never realised that HERO isn’t exactly in the middle of ‘the road’ but the correct parsing saves me from having to look up whether middle-of-the-road could be a noun, which at first seemed to be the only way the clue could work.
As an Arsenal supporter, it is with regret that I confess that I went down the UNIted route too. Agree UNIson is better although other unions are available…
19.08
Must be missing something but can’t see what the BEAR bit is doing in 12d though no excuse for struggling over that one SUPREMO and TRUTH DRUG LOI where I just couldn’t see what the unchecked letters were.
PARI PASSU and AEDILES known from classical education and occupation which helped.
Thanks George and setter
‘Bear’ is indicating that STATION is ‘carrying’ TEN. The grammar of the clue is OSTENTATION [show] which makes [that has] STATION [e.g. Paddington] contain [bear] TEN [number] after [chasing] O [oscar].
20:54 – AEDILES last one in and, although I had heard the word, I couldn’t have confidently defined or spelled it without the clue. No probs with the position of HERO in the road. It was somewhere in the middle, not dead centre, and it was good enough for me. TRUTH DRUG was neat.
10:16. I was all done in about the same time as you, George, but then I spent a minute or two trying and failing to parse EIGHT. Doh! Very clever.
PSALM was FOI followed by PULL A FACE. Managed to construct the unknown PARI PASSU as directed. After much effort, I was finally able to complete the NW and SW when I managed to assemble, the also unknown, AEDILES which allowed me to get (unparsed) KNAPSACK. This led to KIPPER TIE. I originally had DIGIT at 22d, but when EGG AND SPOON RACE arrived changed it to EIGHT ( I thought). Sadly in puzzling over where on earth the G came from, I neglected to change the second I to an H, finishing with EIGIT. Eejit! It actually wouldn’t have mattered if I’d got it right, as I’d managed a typo at 5d with ERRATE. Doh! 2 errors in 26.22. Thanks setter and George.
Came here to parse EIGHT and am still scratching my head. Seems fair enough, maybe even COD?
The top half was a breeze, and the bottom half decidedly not. 10m 12s all told, finishing on TRUTH DRUG. Several unknown references today.
20:33
Pretty quick though there’s plenty of bits and bobs that I missed:
PARI PASSU – vaguely remembered financial phrase constructed from the cryptic – couldn’t have said exactly what it was though
MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD – I was a bit befuddled with HERO not being exactly in the middle of THE ROAD, but as pointed out above by David L, the A should be considered as well.
UNI – couldn’t think of the word required by the cryptic, though fortunately, two out of three letters of the answer were checkers
AEDILES – my LOI, something in the back of my mind knew of the word, though didn’t know what it was
ROACH – as part of a reefer joint = big shrug of the shoulders.
USURER – the answer was obviously even though the wordplay wasn’t crystal clear – U SURE R or U SURER – I’m still not SURE
EIGHT – complete fail on the parsing – just bunged in from checkers
Thanks G and setter
About 30′ and enjoyable I thought. COD for me was PHILBY. PARI PASSU known from somewhere and couldn’t parse SCHOONER (first came across in Yates Wine Lodge in my youth, dangerous). LOI ACNED which I didn’t see for ages. Thanks George and setter
Pressed submit at 44:14, with several clues not fully parsed, so not surprised to have an error. I had TOUGH DRUG as a synonym of a “hard pill to swallow”, and thought it a very weak clue. TRUTH DRUG makes a lot more sense
Thanks glh and setter
This was mighty struggle to complete, but very glad I persevered, though time off the scale! CDs are my bugbear so spent ages on TRUTH DRUG. Failed to parse KNAPSACK or EIGHT. Thankfully, I arrived at NHO AEDILES and PARI PASSU from the wordplay… Thanks to setter, and to GH for the explanations.
Late getting to this as I’ve been babysitting my grandson. Glad I picked up on it though as I found it enjoyable. A pretty steady solve slowed only by my last two in, ACNED and finally AEDILES. I crossed the line in 42.36, so a few minutes inside target. The only one unparsed was EIGHT, which thankfully was fairly obvious with the given letters. A clever clue which was beyond me, but fair enough.
DNF after 29 minutes as I couldn’t convince myself that ACNED was a word and couldn’t think of alternative. Also a MER at the clues for 11ac, 18ac and 23ac, as already raised by others. Apart from that it was a fun puzzle. I must learn the race card abbreviations if these are going to crop up regularly.
Thanks to george and other contributors.
29.11, but lots of guesswork on the way.
18’55”. MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD was a great device, but the definition plus letter-count made it too easy. I knew of the expression PARI PASSU, and its literal translation, but had no idea what it actually means. I see from Wiki it’s mainly a legal thing. Is KIPPER TIE a purely English thing? I can’t imagine our American friends using the term. Many thanks as ever.
46 minutes. I biffed MIDDLE OF THE ROAD from the M and never did parse it. UNI, TRUTH DRUG, ACNED and AEDILES were the stragglers. I wondered if the magistrates were AMMELAS with an inverted lemma but I did recognise them once I’d sorted out the cryptic. EIGHT was nice. Thanks glh.
Reading these comments is the highlight of my evening, a long time after solving a puzzle and not really knowing how I got to some of the solutions. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this.
I second the motion.
For me the pleasure is perhaps greater as I read late comments from fellow solvers who use the Australian newspaper treeware reprint, some five weeks behind the Times.
Hi Eladnq! I’ve been faithfully entering my comments on the current crossword at the base of each offering, thinking I was simply consolidating my impressions of it! Had no idea anyone here might actually be reading them…(since the regular solvers and commenters have moved on some time ago of course). I think it does help to establish what you have learnt from the (struggle/entertainment) of each puzzle, but even more importantly, from the often wise and witty comments. I shall be looking out for your comments from now on…🫣
Commenting just to join in the late Aussie push. Previously for some reason those comments always seemed to be a day ahead of when I got the puzzle, which left me wondering if publication date varied from state to state or whether the online was a day behind the print. The online Sunday puzzle fell a week behind after they forgot it one week for the whole week, then continued a week behind. I didn’t know pari passu, otherwise no probs today.
20.35. Interesting to see banshee make another appearance so soon. Perhaps we need a setter to be exorcised? LOI hooter, just after supremo when I recognised mo. Liked thunderer and Philby. Last time I heard of kipper ties was in the 70s.
Thx setter and blogger.
A puzzle of two faces: many found it “a breeze”, and many a bit on the tough side ( like me)! A few unknowns didn’t help : AEDILES, PARI PASSU , KIPPER TIE. Others that were simply too clever for me to unravel: EIGHT, UNI, OSTENTATION, etc. Started off ok with PULL A FACE and PSALM, then becalmed for too long while my confidence drained away. Too many clever clues to have only one COD, but especially liked OWN GOAL, LINE DAWING and APPROACH.