I had fun with this one, I’m sure the setter did, too. I ended with the misleading 19a, another witty one, and I’m happy with the explanations except for 2d, where perhaps I’m missing the point.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Land in the ocean shows a narrow channel (5) |
| DITCH – a nice double definition. | |
| 4 | Large water bird that is seen in the sky (3,6) |
| BIG DIPPER – BIG = large, a DIPPER is a water bird. | |
| 9 | Voice is key in brief authority (9) |
| CONTRALTO – the key you press is ALT inside CONTRO[L]. | |
| 10 | Take from mutt a luscious bone (5) |
| TALUS – today’s hidden word clue. | |
| 11 | Ruling that binds you and me together? (13) |
| PRONOUNCEMENT – PRONOUN CEMENT could bind pronouns, e.g. you and me. | |
| 14 | Journey ending in short farewell (4) |
| TRIP – [shor]T, R.I.P. rest in peace, final farewell. | |
| 15 | Succeeded in moving residents, those in the minority (10) |
| DISSENTERS – S inside (RESIDENTS)*. | |
| 18 | With several speeches liar initially gaoled until tortured (10) |
| TRILINGUAL – (LIAR G UNTIL)*, the G from gaoled. | |
| 19 | Army section leads in attack, not last usually in retreat (4) |
| ULNA – this was my LOI, twigged eventually when I had the final A from 13d. As no doubt the setter intended, I was stuck on sections of a real army, before remembering the “Uxbridge English Dictionary” to think “army” = “of an arm”. You have the leading letters, reversed, as highlighted above. | |
| 21 | Moving pleas about to stop psychologist coming to crime-infested area (7,6) |
| ASPHALT JUNGLE – we have (PLEAS)*, with HALT, JUNG inserted. Collins says “an expression used to refer to a city environment, which emphasises its dangerous nature”. | |
| 24 | Head of house, one sounding inquisitive (5) |
| PRIOR – sounds like “PRYER”, or prier, one who pries. | |
| 25 | Happen to swallow small whiskey perhaps left for polymath (9) |
| ARISTOTLE – ARISE (happen) swallows TOT, L[eft]. A polymath is not only good at maths; Collins says “a person of great and varied learning”. | |
| 27 | Song book, one helping in church (3,6) |
| LAY READER – LAY a song, READER a book. | |
| 28 | Be overturned in furrow in drive back (5) |
| REBUT – RUT (furrow) with BE reversed inside. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | In winter a suggestion brought up was worrying: remove one’s top? (10) |
| DECAPITATE – DEC (winter month), A, TIP reversed, ATE = was worrying. | |
| 2 | Fish is too big for cask (3) |
| TUN – I can only think that the setter is saying TUNA as a word is bigger than TUN? | |
| 3 | Greatly distress husband with quarrel (6) |
| HARROW – H for husband, ARROW = quarrel. | |
| 4 | Person stays for ages, feeling like a native (9) |
| BELONGING – person = BEING, with LONG (for ages) ‘staying’ inside. I was toying with BE LONG IN to mean stay for ages, but that ignores PERSON and doesn’t explain the G at the end. | |
| 5 | Good to wander in wood (5) |
| GROVE – G for good, ROVE to wander. | |
| 6 | Puzzled, need hint finally (2,3,3) |
| IN THE END – (NEED HINT)*. Not see this anagrind before. | |
| 7 | Cancel instruction to empty basin (4,3,4) |
| PULL THE PLUG – double definition, one a metaphor, one practical. | |
| 8 | Sport is hard to run (4) |
| RUSH – RU’S (Rugby Union is) H[ard]. | |
| 12 | Novel ideas in a trilogy I translated (11) |
| ORIGINALITY – *IN A TRILOGY I)*. | |
| 13 | Watch part of flight: people are on time (10) |
| ESCAPEMENT – ESCAPE (flight), MEN (people), T[ime]. Not about staircases, this one. | |
| 16 | More nervous about disfigurement with darker complexion (9) |
| SWARTHIER – SHIER (more shy, more nervous) with WART inserted. | |
| 17 | Detective’s funds said to spread widely (8) |
| DISPERSE – DI’S (detective’s) PERSE sounds like PURSE = funds. | |
| 20 | One filleting fish perhaps into a trough (6) |
| GUTTER – double definition, one someone who guts fish. | |
| 22 | Opening notice, sensitive over grant (5) |
| AWARD – sensitive = RAW, reverse that into AD = notice. | |
| 23 | A gem, but friendless? (4) |
| OPAL – if friendless you have 0 pals. Chestnut time. | |
| 26 | A cat’s lost by flap (3) |
| TAB – TABBY cat loses BY. | |
I had to stop after 10′ to catch a train, continuing in a hospital waiting room and finishing over a sandwich. It felt fairly easy, though I had some trouble figuring out why my biff was likely correct. Especially, of course, ULNA.. DNK DIPPER. ‘Drive back’ seemed an odd definition for REBUT, and indeed ODE marks it as (archaic). COD to ULNA, natch.
34 minutes delayed by CONCRETE JUNGLE not fitting and being unable to come up with an alternative until the arrival of checkers forced my hand. I also delayed writing in TRILINGUAL as I was unable to parse it. Turned out I had miscounted the anagrist.
Drive back /REBUT seems fine to me. SOED has rebut – repel or repulse (a person or an attack). LME–E19, with no mention of archaism.
I liked 2dn which I took as an inventive way of indicating the deletion. Made a change from the likes of ‘without end’ etc.
BTW I thought Jung was a psychiatrist not a psychologist.
I came and went a little too but I’d say about 45, an enjoyable solve but a long way from what I’d call easy. I mean, ESCAPEMENT? What the…? ULNA (ho ho) and ARISTOTLE were other late arrivals. Needed PK to explain how my near-to-last BELONGING worked. Some of these maybe took a few liberties (the fish in the barrel, for instance) but it was a lot of fun so who cares?
From Idiot Wind:
You hurt the ones that I love best, and cover up the truth with lies
One day you’ll be in the DITCH, flies buzzing around your eyes
Blood on your saddle…
I always heard that lyric as “flies buzzing around your [alternative part of anatomy]”. Probably my favourite Dylan song (well, in the top 2 at least) so I find myself singing it quite a lot and that’s how I sing it! Of course Dylan himself makes up new words every time he sings a song anyway.
13:24. I had to submit with fingers crossed today. I was fairly sure I’d heard of a LAY READER, but I was unsure about “reader” meaning book. I guess it is similar to an apple being an “eater”. I had more doubt over ESCAPEMENT which sounded like something I’d made up. However for this one the cryptic seemed clear with ESCAPE meaning “flight”. Anyhow, it was a pleasant surprise to see no pink squares.
A reader (typically found in Ancient languages, such as Latin and Greek) is a book containing selections from the classical canon.
Here in the US, the term is applied to a book of excerpts or short pieces suitable for children just learning to read.
I failed to finish this, missing the jungle, escapement – but had the ‘ment’ – and thought it had to include either stair or step, and Aristotle. Ulna went in straight away because I managed to remember the ‘army’ device from a crossword in the past. I also settled on ‘Aisle’ for 1a thinking land in the ocean was ‘isle’ with an ‘a’ until the checkers proved otherwise. I had Rush for 8d but took a while to see the RU’s – h. Really enjoyed this. COD to Escapement.
Thanks setter and Piquet.
men are on time can never be ment. men is on time sure but that doesnt work
About 70 minutes. FOI IN THE END then TALUS, OPAL, ORIGINALITY and BIG DIPPER. Worked steadily through leaving 5D and 19A until last. Biffed RUSH but spent ages trying to make sense of 19A. Finally settled on ULNA but couldn’t see how it related to the clue. During the wait for the blog the penny dropped army meant “of the arm”
Thanks Piquet for the parsing.
20:15
A very slow start for me but I found refuge in the lower reaches and it all fell in place from there.
The only unknown was ESCAPEMENT but the cluing and checkers meant that it had to be.
It was a bit of a biff at the time but on review I quite like PRONOUNCEMENT.
Thanks to both.
27:41
FOI: IN THE END
LOI: HARROW
Took a while to get started but picked up the pace. I liked PRONOUNCEMENT.
Thank you, piquet and the setter.
I also scratched my head over 2D, Pip. If it had been “cask is too small for fish” I’d have grasped it quicker. My only other real hold-up (other than disentangling the anagrist for my LOI) was ASPHALT JUNGLE, where I had the second word in, but couldn’t see past the impossible “concrete” to start with.
FOI BIG DIPPER
LOI DISSENTERS
COD PRONOUNCEMENT
TIME 8:24
Once I abandoned the AISLE, I enjoyed this very much. Thanks all.
No real issues today, apart from the very loose definition of LAY READER. I will not write an essay, but a ‘Licensed Lay Minister’ or ‘Reader’ can and does fulfil a great range of roles outside the church, as well as leading services. (I am one).
COD to ESCAPEMENT. Groan at ‘army’. And what’s wrong with The Plough?
12′ 46″, thanks pip and setter.
THE PLOUGH is simply a shared version of the BIG DIPPER
Ploughs shaped like the constellation are defunct, and I haven’t seen a dipper shaped like that for ages either.
Perhaps we need a new name for that asterism?
Dippers, ploughs, frying pans…meh. Once you’ve seen those glaring eyes and the snaggle of teeth it is forever the Great Bear.
39 mins and very enjoyable. Perhaps one or two inclusions/exclusions too many but lots to like. Army section was fun. LOI ESCAPEMENT which I wasn’t sure about but I seem to remember seeing it here before.
I liked PRONOUNCEMENT, TRILINGUAL & ASPHALT JUNGLE best.
Thanks Pip and setter.
9.15
Very enjoyable, with plenty of 12d – nice to see REBUT not turning up as a potato for a change.
PRONOUNCEMENT was my only biffee today, and now I’ve read the explanation it’s my COD.
ARIS(TOTLE) is my favourite rhyming slang (Aris, Aristotle, bottle; bottle and glass, arse).
LOI BELONGING
10.27. I’ve possibly seen versions of PRONOUN CEMENT before, but still my COTD.
Thanks both.
13:01. A fun puzzle.I hesitated over TUN until I got the checkers. An interesting novel deletion indicator. LOI ORIGINALITY only because I didn’t see it until I had the checkers. I took a while to see what the anagrist for TRILINGUAL was. Maybe I should have counted the letters sooner. Thanks Pip and setter.
31 minutes, with last two ESCAPEMENT followed by ULNA. I’ve never heard of ASPHALT JUNGLE but I was sufficiently confident of Carl Gustav and the concrete version to persist. I had five candidates for COD: PULL THE PLUG, PRONOUNCEMENT, ARISTOTLE, TUN and TRIP. I’ll go for PRONOUNCEMENT. Great fun. Thank you Pip and setter.
37m 01s
As Pip says, this was fun. I particularly liked PRONOUNCEMENT, TUN, TAB and, of course, the ‘army section’, ULNA.
Thanks Pip especially for BELONGING.
9ac reminds me of the wonderful, true CONTRALTO, Kathleen Ferrier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQuahSdTvU4
Gosh yes, Kathleen was the sound of my childhood, especially listening to Alan Keith’s Your 100 Best Tunes, when Blow the Wind Southerly was a staple.
I sat next to Kathleen Ferrier’s niece at primary school.
👍
About 25 minutes.
Didn’t see how BELONGING worked, as I thought ‘stays’ was indicating that a word for ‘person’ should go inside a word meaning ‘for ages’; didn’t know that a dipper is a water bird for BIG DIPPER; relied on the wordplay for the unfamiliar ESCAPEMENT; and thought SWARTHIER would start with ‘scar’ for a long time until I realised the definition was at the end.
Thanks piquet and setter.
FOI Grove
LOI Escapement
COD Pronouncement (I think we’ve had something like it before, but I still like it)
100% on the wavelength today and finished in a – for me – lightning fast time of 18 mins. Loved ULNA, very clever, and PRIOR. But many of these made me chuckle. Aware of ESCAPEMENT in timepieces, or that might have been tricky.
22:22.
Right. I need to get in training for the Championship.
47:40
Nice puzzle. Took ages to see asphalt jungle.
Thanks, p.
23:45
Very enjoyable. Particularly liked the four longer answers, with COD to 11a, which I failed to parse (thanks blog).
FOI TALUS
Thanks all
Great fun, starting with shooting the tail off the fish in a barrel and loving PRONOUN CEMENT. 14.08. I was going to query the “audible” DISBURSE until the ASPHALT corrected my error.
No issues with ESCAPEMENT. Digital watches have a lot to answer for, not least losing the wonder of delicate wheels, springs and ratchets.
Not to mention keeping dead accurate time, for a fraction of the cost. How dare they?!
But then they won’t raise $50 in a pawnshop in Philadelphia: “This is a Rochefoucauld, the thinnest water-resistant watch in the world. Singularly unique, sculptured in design, hand-crafted in Switzerland, and water resistant to three atmospheres. This is the sports watch of the 1980s. Six thousand, nine hundred and fifty-five dollars retail! It tells time simultaneously in Monte Carlo, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Rome, and Gstaad!”
Pleasant solve RUSH my LOI. Just the sort of crossword I like.
Thanks setter and blogger.
An enjoyable puzzle. I started with TUN, but was prepared to rethink it. HARROW came next, and then DITCH, confirming the first letter of 2d. CONTRALTO came later but dispelled my doubts. There’s a very detailed and interesting section on Kathleen Ferrier in Wiki (her blossoming career was tragically cut short by breast cancer), and an acquaintance of mine, Stuart Marson, wrote a song, Over The Lancashire Hills, about her. It was recorded by Simon Nichol of Fairport Convention, and is in FC’s current repertoire. By coincidence I met Stuart at Gregson Lane Folk Club near Chorley, which is a mile away from Lower Walton where Kathleen Ferrier grew up. Also turned out that he was at Durham at the same time as me although we didn’t meet then. Anyway, back to the puzzle: only BELONGING and ASPHALT JUNGLE provided any real resistance, and LAY READER brought the proceedings to a close. 16:13. Thanks setter and Pip.
Curiously, I do have a copy of the Nicol album ‘Before your time…’, Wormwood WR010, but I never paid much attention to the details of the songs – liner notes would have helped.
Excellent!
Mr SR also has a copy of the Simon Nicol CD but didn’t know that song was about Kathleen Ferrier.
He says “Thanks for the interesting information” smile 😊
Splendid 😊
DNK 10a Talus (nor tali, plural.)
Liked 11a Pronoun Cement.
Wasn’t very confident about 20d Gutter, the double def doesn’t feel solid to me.
26d Tab(by) was a PDM that took a while to arrive.
Good puzzle.
22:04 but…
…somehow managed to reverse the I and E in SWARTHIER for two pink squares (also screwing ARISTOTLE!).
Didn’t realise it at the time, but someone used 11a in the QC comments which meant I got it a few moments sooner than I might have – just a reminder to all, to not give away answers in other puzzles.
Finished with TRILINGUAL (needed all checkers) and ESCAPEMENT – didn’t know the term but the wordplay and checkers clearly led to it.
Thanks P and setter
18 mins. Puzzled at the end as to how BALANCING, the only word I could see that fitted, worked. Of course, it didn’t…
29:09
Biffed ULNA. Thanks piquet for explaining how this meant Army.
LOI AWARD.
45′ or thereabouts. Like always. a bunch go in quickly then I dance around the remaining empty squares! LOI ULNA from the wordplay but I didn’t make the arm-y connection! ASPHALT JUNGLE from faint recollection of the film (when I caught on to Jung, I thought of Marley’s concrete jungle but didn’t fit). Thanks Piquet and setter
I was thinking of the song of the same name by The Specials, which of course is a completely different work.
Very enjoyable puzzle. HARROW was last in, and I didn’t understand ULNA until explained by Pip (Doh!). Very fair wordplay throughout with some fun definitions and smooth surfaces. Liked 11a and 13d
13:50 – much the same experience as others and similarly didn’t spot the army as adjective clue before coming here
47 minutes, again becoming a bit bogged down in the SE corner after starting ‘quickly’, stuttering, and then going faster again. Enjoyed the pronoun cement despite a slight feeling of familiarity with it. Also the ASPHALT JUNGLE.
New solver here.
(had some internet issues so missed a couple days)
Overall this one went ok except for the usual NHOs but not too many today.
Solve time just over an hour.
Tricky ones:
Contralto – NHO and some tricky wordplay
Trip – RIP for farewell was not something that came to mind
Asphalt Jungle – I am not sure I agree with the definition here and the wordplay was quite challenging, although I have at least heard of Jung.
Aristotle – clue probably needed a ?, also “small whiskey” for “TOT” was very confusing. I kept trying to fit “SW” in the word somehow.
Harrow – NHO “Arrow” = “Quarrel” before.
Escapement – NHO and also Flight = Escape is a tricky one.
Swarthier – NHO but was solvable with fairly simple wordplay
FOI Talus
LOI Escapement
COD Decapitate (made me laugh)
Welcome!
7m 56s, finishing on ESCAPEMENT which I’m sure I’ve seen before but only rang the vaguest of bells today.
I did not find this hard, as there were some things I had seen before, such as the Uxbridge army and the pronoun cement. I too wondered why concrete jungle didn’t fit, but had no trouble with the fish in a barrel. I was held up in the end by Aristotle and escarpment, but I finally biffed both.
Time: 17 minutes
10:58, with one error.
I whizzed through most of this but then got stuck on 20dn. There is only one word in English that fits these checkers and means something remotely close to ‘one filleting fish perhaps’, but I could not see how CUTTER matched the rest of the clue. In the end I just bunged it in. I should perhaps have considered that I needed a word that does not mean something remotely close to ‘one filleting fish perhaps’.
A lot of the downs went in on the first pass (I do all the clues sequentially initially because I’m not bothered about times).
FOI CONTRALTO
LOI GUTTER
Lots to enjoy.
Very much enjoyed this, thanks setter, and also the blog, thanks Piquet. Good to know your parsing of “TUN ” matches ours; we weren’t at all sure initially but the more I think about it, the more I like it.
Smiled at PRONOUN CEMENT and laughed out loud (don’t think I’m young enough to LOL) at ULNA.
Gathering up my coat in advance…
Where did Napoleon keep his armies?
Up his sleevies.
In the same (wince-worthy) vein:
What are hippies?
They’re what you hang your leggies on!
…gone!
Have a go at the biggie every few days with varying degrees of success. Really enjoyed this one and only had to reveal LOI ESCAPEMENT which means it was a pretty good day. Favourites included ULNA, CONTRALTO, DECAPITATE and TAB. Needed blog to parse BELONGING. Many thanks P.
Asphalt Jungle and Reader smack of American usage to my ear. Like keriothe, I think of gutting and filleting as different things you do to prep a fish for cooking, and like everyone I was only partly sure of the relationship between Tun and tuna. thanks pip
I mean it’s not really a question of ‘thinking of’ them as different things. They are just completely different things.
No I’m not bitter 😉
Me, I was just gutted.
17.17 with my LOI swarthier. Put in ulna without parsing. As to the rest, no real problems. Liked asphalt jungle.
Around 30 minutes. Very enjoyable puzzle.
My COD was Pronouncement but, as a few have said above, I think we’ve seen a similar clue before (doesn’t detract, though).
I got Rove=wander in Grove, having failed to get Rove=wander in Prove (a few puzzles ago, when I plumped for Pride).
A traditional Welsh folk song, ‘The Ash Grove’ :
“Down yonder green valley, where streamlets meander,
When twilight is fading I pensively rove.
…..”
Two versions of the lyrics are recorded. Both tell a sad tale.
Thanks for the ear worm.
I thought that the COD was 21A closely followed by 19A. I had not appreciated that 19A was associated with heightened danger……and i had also used Concrete Jungle
DNF as I failed to get TRILINGUAL and GROVE but not too slow on the rest, I’d say average difficulty. I parsed BELONGING after initially thinking it had something to do with ‘be long’ like everyone else. I’ve no objection to the clue at all as I approve of the odd bit of modern slang finding its way here but ‘for ages’ being a synonym of ‘long’ won’t please the traditionalists. Saying ‘I’ve been waiting long’ instead of ‘I’ve been waiting a long time’ has a distinctly MLE feel.
29:23. It always feels good to finish in less than half an hour. So, a nice one. Another vote for PRONOUN CEMENT
Very enjoyable puzzle, done in 29 minutes. Good to see the UED alive and well in the clue for 19ac. Agree with most of the comments above on the quality of the puzzle, and no major issues, but just a MER at 15ac, as dissenters are not necessarily a minority in non-democratic societies.
FOI – TALUS
LOI – TRILINGUAL
COD – PRONOUNCEMENT
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
27:51. Started so slowly. and went slower. and then the last bit in the NE was all quite quick. I just don’t think the setter and I were on the same wavelength. COD goes to PRONOUNCEMENT, with honourable mention to ULNA. thanks Piquet and setter!
16.51 with the page hopping to the Quick Puzzle three times on my iPad.
I found this extremely easy, no issues at all, and I completed it in 22 minutes including proofreading. But that doesn’t mean I understood all of it. In particular, I didn’t see the joke in PRONOUN CEMENT — instead I started thinking about a wedding ceremony and “I now pronounce you man and wife”, so I didn’t even bother thinking beyond that. And of course I wondered what an ULNA might have to do with an army. But my wrong reasoning still led me to the right answers, which is more than I can say of my performance in previous days.