Time taken: 10:47, but for the third day in a row I submitted and found I had made a silly mistake!
Not too difficult a challenge for those who are not fat-fingered, though there is a clue at 2 down that requires two bits of general knowledge, and when I saw the 1 error I thought I might have messed that one up and would have to look some things up for the blog. Then I saw CFILE PINE. Well done!
Some tricky insertion clues, it looks like most of the early solvers are around their usual times. I won’t be bothering the scorekeepers!
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | One third of fruit’s been eaten? Get stuck in (6) |
| ENGAGE – remove the first third from GREENGAGE(fruit) | |
| 4 | Second key Oscar and BAFTA, say, for original direction of Titanic (8) |
| SEAWARDS – S(second), E(musical key) and Oscar and BAFTA are both AWARDS | |
| 10 | A sign of spring — family eat outside house at last (9) |
| CELANDINE – CLAN(family) and DINE(eat) surrounding the last letter of housE | |
| 11 | Be very protective of girl in US city (5) |
| NANNY – ANN(girl) inside NY(US city) | |
| 12 | Bread or dough? No big difference (5,6) |
| SMALL CHANGE – double definition based on SMALL CHANGE being money and not being a big difference | |
| 14 | Have the ability to finish off academic article (3) |
| CAN – last letter from academiC, and AN(article). I originally thought you could turn CANT into an academic article and chop the end off it, maybe in the jargon form | |
| 15 | A check on waterproof road surface (7) |
| MACADAM – A DAM(check) after MAC(waterproof) | |
| 17 | Deserts, concerned with local political division (6) |
| REWARD – RE(concerned with), WARD(local political division) | |
| 19 | Column briefly mentions iconic characters primarily associated with the cinema (6) |
| FILMIC – FILE(column) minus the last letter, then the first letters from Mentions Iconic Characters | |
| 21 | Character Ibsen created in Councillor, a big cheese? (7) |
| CHEDDAR – the Ibsen character is HEDDA Gabler, inside CR(councillor) | |
| 23 | One step saving leader (3) |
| ACE – PACE(step) minus the first letter | |
| 24 | State current saving after what HS2 no longer will do to Leeds? (11) |
| CONNECTICUT – I(current) and CUT(saving) after CONNECT(what HS2 will no longer to do Leeds) | |
| 26 | Almost every diver wanting protection for breathing (5) |
| ALIVE – ALL(every) minus the last letter, then DIVER minus the external letters | |
| 27 | Unknown coin got in change (9) |
| INCOGNITO – anagram of COIN,GOT,IN | |
| 29 | What cuts light from space views? Pluto mainly (8) |
| EYESHADE – EYES(views) and HADES(Pluto) minus the last letter | |
| 30 | Shifting sand blocks Greek port (6) |
| GDANSK – anagram of SAND inside GK(Greek) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | I think I’m in the wrong dance (6-2) |
| EXCUSE-ME – double definition | |
| 2 | Roman emperor good with Scotland (5) |
| GALBA – G(good) and ALBA(Scotland). Emperor who followed Nero. ALBA for Scotland appeared a few months ago in a Jumbo. | |
| 3 | Partly engineering a machine to remove cotton seeds (3) |
| GIN – hidden inside enGINeering | |
| 5 | Queen one earl upset (7) |
| ELEANOR – anagram of ONE EARL | |
| 6 | Crop weight reduced during unseasonable warmth (6,5) |
| WINTER WHEAT – W(weight) inside WINTER HEAT(unseasonable warmth). Got this from wordplay. | |
| 7 | Be frightened under cars being repaired (3,6) |
| RUN SCARED – anagram of UNDER,CARS | |
| 8 | Saw Twitter introducing a letter signifying unknown (6) |
| SAYING – SING(twitter) containing A and Y(letter signifying unknown) | |
| 9 | Director and unsubtle actor get ready in the UAE (6) |
| DIRHAM – DIR(director) and HAM(unsubtle actor) | |
| 13 | Queen not wanting to be spotted on stage? (4,7) |
| LADY MACBETH – Cryptic definition based on Lady Macbeth saying “out damned spot, out I say” | |
| 16 | Country long showing significant growth (5,4) |
| CHILE PINE – CHILE(country) and PINE(long). My undoing today! | |
| 18 | Twerk for dancing? This must be cut out (8) |
| FRETWORK – anagram of TWERK,FOR. Very fun surface in this clue. | |
| 20 | Preserved vessel lost power (7) |
| CANDIED – CAN(vessel), DIED(lost power) | |
| 21 | Compel using spoken Gaelic when having company over (6) |
| COERCE – a homophone of ERSE(Gaelic) under CO(company) | |
| 22 | Friend had sense of taste (6) |
| PALATE – PAL(friend), ATE(had) | |
| 25 | Terrier — mine’s escaped from Pacific island (5) |
| CAIRN – remove PIT(mine) from PITCAIRN island | |
| 28 | Idol in precious metal, not large (3) |
| GOD – GOLD(precious metal) minus L(large) | |
19:57
DNK the tree, but felt fairly safe guessing CHILE. Having got LADY at 13d, I was annoyingly slow to get the rest. I never did get how CAIRN worked, having failed to recall the island. LOI ALIVE; it took me forever to separate ‘protection’ fro ‘breathing’ and to see how ‘wanting protection’ worked.
Nice puzzle. I learnt two words – Celandine and Dirham – and I am highly confidant that I’ll be able to unlearn the plant by the end of the week. I knew the other vegetation from the Araucaria / Monkeypuzzle connection. I was slowed down a half step because in the usage I’m familiar with bread and dough imply more significant amounts of money than small change does.
It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the crossing CHILE PINE and FILMIC (I agree with you, a pretty ordinary word) in the completed grid. The pseudonym Araucaria used when setting in the FT was CINEPHILE for a reason that isn’t difficult to work out.
In another FILMIC reference we have Titanic as part of the def for 4a then CELandINE as the answer for the next across clue; pity it doesn’t quite work by itself for her full name as a homophone, but that would be taking things too far.
I’m impressed
After 30 I lost patience with three NHOs – DIRHAM (I actually considered that but rejected it as being non-UAEish), GALBA (NHO Alba either) and CELANDINE, whatever that is. So a DNF with several -FILMIC, EYESHADE and WINTER WHEAT – leaving me befuddled until glh explained them. I didn’t know anything about Leeds and the HS2 either but fortunately CONNECTICUT demanded to be bunged in.
From Highway 61 Revisited:
GOD said to Abraham, kill me a son
Abe said man you must be puttin’ me on
God said no, Abe said WHAT??!!?
God said you can do what you want Abe but
The next time you see me coming man, you better run
Abe said where d’you want this killing done?
God said out on Highway 61
21:54 with a large part of that spent inexplicably on COERCE at the end. Think I was punch-drunk by then after negotiating the barrage of unknowns…CELANDINE, GALBA, WINTER WHEAT, DIRHAM, CHILE PINE…
All fairly clued though, no complaints. Thanks George and setter.
Held up at the end because I couldn’t see CHILE PINE. I don’t think I’ve heard of GALBA but I lived in Scotland for years so knew Alba. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen the word FILMIC before but it was easy to get.
I agree about Filmic, and what’s more, I’d be happy if I never saw it again!
Here it is several times, randomly plucked from the magazine I work for… Ha.
“As a filmic roman à clef about William Randolph Hearst, the film naturally angered the powerful press baron and his many allies in Hollywood, who spared no effort in trying to suppress it. ”
“I’d suggest another filmic analogy here, to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp…”
“Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the scheming couple, chooses to adopt theater’s set of challenges within the filmic frame.”
“What results in Ahed’s Knee, then, is a filmic WrestleMania…”
“But it did more than just offer a set of filmic innovations: It was also very funny.”
I stand by my statement. I’d never seen it myself, and (Guy’s examples excepted) I hope never to see it again.
A lot of these surprised me by being simpler than they at first looked.
LOI ALIVE, which was certainly one of the harder ones.
I just had for my apéritif some Maker’s Mark whisky (though it’s a bourbon, they spell “whisky” without an E) and its distinctive feature is that it has no rye but instead “soft WINTER WHEAT.” It’s a bit sweet; I’ve been alternating between it and the high rye New Riff.
Visited the Makers Mark distillery in Kentucky back in the 90s. At the end of the tour, although we expected to purchase some whisky in the gift shop, we were shown directly back to the car park (parking lot). Surprised, we asked where the gift shop was, only to be told “Oh no, we’re not allowed to sell it here – this is a dry county”.
That is very funny!
I failed to understand some of the clues, but I finished anyway. At least I had all the knowledge, having heard of the Chile pine, Alba, Galba, the dirham, and the Pitcairn Islands. I was held up by putting in pardon me instead of excuse me, but I began to grow suspicious after not being able to get anywhere in the NW. Since I am solving right in the middle of Connecticut, the answer was obvious, but I couldn’t make anything of the cryptic, since what the HS2 is was one piece of GK I don’t have.
Time: 29:05.
Me neither! I just looked it up, and AI says, “HS2 Leeds was a planned high-speed railway connection between London and Leeds, England. The project was canceled in 2021, and the government decided to upgrade existing routes instead.”
Our British contributors will be able to elaborate but from what I’ve read the HS2 project is a byword for poor planning, incompetence and the waste of large amounts of public money, so the surface is an apt one.
It’s still on for London- Birmingham. It will cut the journey time by 20′. It has devastated the countryside where I live.
Ah, but have they made up their minds about where in London yet? It was supposed to be Euston but there’s still talk off and on about it terminating in Shepherd’s Bush or somewhere that would involve a tube journey to get anywhere near the centre of town.
There’s something almost comically incompetent about building a high-speed line from Birmingham to London that doesn’t quite get all the way there.
To be fair though the project was much more about increasing capacity for local services than the London-Birmingham journey time.
24 minutes. Missed the parsing of PITCAIRN, used the wordplay for the unknown GALBA and took a while to work out EYESHADE but otherwise not too difficult. If the last few weeks are anything to go by, tomorrow will be another story.
41 minutes. NHO GALBA but knew ALBA so it wasn’t a problem. I missed the wordplay for CAIRN.
CHILE PINE was my LOI from wordplay, but then vaguely remembered it from previous puzzles. It appeared twice in May 2022, once as an answer and once in the wording of a clue.
The surface reading at 4ac is rather good, but the actual definition’s a bit feeble isn’t it?
I thought it was rather clever, SEAWARDS being the ‘original direction’ of any ship but not the one you’d first think of.
37 mins. Some tricky wordplay, a couple of unknowns, GALBA & CELANDINE, and a few clues that neede close attention.
LOI CHILE PINE. I liked LADY MACBETH.
Thanks G and setter.
51m 39s but two errors.
I put GAM for 3d, forgetting all about a cotton GIN. My reasoning is in the clue:
“Partly engineerinG A Machine”.
From there it was a straightforward leap to put COLUMBINE in for 10ac even though I could make little or no connection with the clue.
I did exactly that too, but as I was unable to justify COLUMBINE I deleted it and found CELANDINE which forced a rethink of GAM.
👍
I made the exact same mistake. I somehow persuaded myself that I’d vaguely heard of a GAM in connection with cotton. I couldn’t make COLUMBINE fit the cryptic but it was “obvious” from the checking letters, and since I knew it was a flower it didn’t seem like a stretch to imagine it was a harbinger of spring.
👍
Me too .
At least I’m in distinguished company !
Ooh, nice to be thought of as ‘distinguished’! I’ll take that! 😁
It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:
This neither is its courage nor its choice,
But its necessity in being old.
(The Lesser Celandine, Wordsworth)
20 mins pre-brekker. No probs. I liked it, mostly PitCairn.
Ta setter and G
16:35
No major problems today but the SW caused the most issues with ALIVE, FILMIC, EYESHADE, and finally the unknown CHILE PINE being the last in.
CELANDINE qualifies as one of those words that I’ve seen before in crosswords but that I wouldn’t recognise if I ever bumped into it in real life.
A fun solve so thanks to both.
DNF. Two errors in just under 30 mins. AGA for ACE and CHINA for CHILE.
COD: LADY MACBETH
I did exactly this. China seemed as good a country as any (and it turns out there is a Chinese pine). Then leader a_a had to be aga without a second thought. If I’d come to the clues in a different order I might have paused to see it didn’t parse otherwise!
DNF. I reached LOI FILMIC in under 20 minutes but couldn’t and still can’t see FILE for COLUMN. COD to CONNECTICUT. I suspect the sad saga of HS2, always the wrong scheme, still isn’t over but it’s good to know that one day we may have a train line that joins London and Birmingham. If only the Victorians had thought of that. Decent puzzle apart from one clue! Thank you George and setter.
I think you need the meaning in ‘rank and file’, i.e. a line of people (soldiers perhaps).
Thanks K. I managed to think of that only a few minutes ago.
On the chessboard the lines of squares going across are the ranks, and those going up, a bit like columns, are the files.
DNF, defeated by EYESHADE (didn’t know / had forgotten that Pluto is Hades)
– Didn’t fully parse CONNECTICUT because I thought ‘what HS2 no longer will do to Leeds’ was giving ‘connect it’ and I couldn’t then account for the ‘cu’
– NHO GALBA
– GIN went in with a shrug, not knowing that it’s a machine
– Didn’t know CAIRN as a terrier but remembered Pitcairn
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Fretwork
No probs today, knew all I needed to know. On my TV the Scottish channel ALBA is next to BBC4. Occasionally I land on it in error; they speak some outlandish foreign tongue on it …
I sometimes watch ALBA as they cover some Scottish football (I know, a glutton for punishment), but I do have to watch with the sound off…
I used to watch it on New Year’s Eve when they had a ceilidh from some remote outpost or isle but in recent years it became more formalised and I lost interest.
35:44
Good puzzle.
Thanks, g.
12.56. This felt tricky as I went due to the various unknowns, although they were all nicely clued and my time was decent in the end. I knew ALBA thanks to the late Alex Salmond’s SNP splinter party.
Like others I originally had GAM instead of GIN, before CELANDINE forced its way in & in doing so forced a rethink.
Thanks both.
Another stupid typo with CHEDDER. That would not have happened on paper but after a lifetime of typing the fingers have a mind of their own. Proof reading required.
Not a bad 32 mins though LOI CAIRN supplied by Mrs rv.
COD FRETWORK
Thanks to both
9:08. Another steady solve. My only unknown was GALBA but like Amoeba I was assisted by Alex Salmond.
12:20. Generous cluing meant the unknown emperor was not a problem and wilder parts of my garden are overrun with CELANDINES in the spring. Local farmers are also apt to bang on about germination rates of their WINTER WHEAT so for once the GK was kind. Liked the terrier clue.
Like many others I was in the GAM camp, I didn’t know CELANDINE and was stuck on the SW. I originally had ‘lady Godiva’ instead of Lady Macbeth too, though it is a letter short and ‘Lady Macbeth’ works better
Following astro_nowt’s story about not being able to buy whisky at a distillery in a dry county, I remember being in Prague during Communism. I went to Franz Kafka’s house, which was a popular tourist attraction, but, in the bookshop, was not allowed to buy any of his works, because they were all banned.
LOL😂
DNF, went wrong with GAM and didn’t get CELANDINE, NHO Chile PINE but guessed it was, likewise the Roman chap. Not a good day, not concentrating perhaps while watching Katie Boulter lose rather feebly.
DNF, OWL. 4a rEAWARDS, not sure what I was thinking of, Re as second note, misspelt rearwards as a launch system, but I think they are either sideways or forwards. I never returned to it. Was astonished when I saw it while reading the blog. Doh!
21a Cheddar, forgot about Ms Gabler and was a bit foxed.
26 Alive, took me by surprise. A lot of clue for 5 letters.
2d Galba, had forgot about him but we had Alba somewhere recently. 3d Gin started as NHO Gam as others.
13d Lady M started as Lady Leopard, a NHO play from 1903? PDM when I saw M, and I think COD.
Overall a good Xword.
Good to see wider recognition of the HS2 fiasco, which no government has the guts to tackle. It is just possible that part of it may open at some point in the future, but now may not actually go to London. We could also have a discussion on the Euston throat if you like.
I’ve spent my whole life until now not knowing what the function of a cotton GIN is.
13’27”, thanks george and setter.
Frustrating – as all completed in just over 36 minutes but my LOI was mistyped resulting in 2 errors. Enjoyed 13D definition.
Thank you, glh and the setter
EXCUSE ME was FOI. I was tempted by GAM for 3d, but having put in CLEAN for the first part of 10a, being sidetracked by spring cleaning, went for GIN. Of course this made CELANDINE and GALBA impossible, so it was right at the end of the solve that I had a rethink and spotted the plant. I did know ALBA from the TV channel and Salmond party. CHILE PINE rang a bell, FILMIC was POI and the tricksy ALIVE was LOI. 25:27. Thanks setter and George.
Reassuring to know that I wasn’t the only one who got sidetracked by CLEAN.
Also defeated by EYESHADE, which I’m now irritated to have missed. Everything else here fair, though not always easy.
A rare sub-30 for me, 26 minutes, because by fortunate chance I knew all the slightly tricky words (except GALBA, who was obvious from the checkers and the wordplay). Yes it did strike me as well that SEAWARDS was a rather weak definition for 4ac. Of course all ships go seawards.
I also (per Keriothe) thought it was quite clever – being the Titanic’s maiden voyage, it only ever had two directions: seaward and downward, strictly in that order!
I was thinking of what precedes the maiden voyage: the journey down slipway no.3 at Harland & Wolff Belfast, from land to sea!
Technical DNF as had to use aids to find and confirm CHILE PINE (NHO, but should have been able to guess it). NHO GALBA either, but it had to be right after Salmond’s party wandered into my ken.
FOI EXCUSE-ME, LOI FILMIC
COD has to be LADY MACBETH. I’d guessed it early on but couldn’t see the parsing. Then ‘Out damned spot!’ came to me. Closely followed by GDANSK, EYESHADE and PALATE for their nice surfaces.
All in all a very enjoyable workout, a bit easier than most Thursdays.
19:25 – mostly straightforward, thanks to the generous cluing of the Roman emperor, though ALIVE took a long time to see and was LOI by quite a margin.
34:26. Got very held up in the SW corner – NHO that name for the tree, and ACE for some reason took ages to extract. my first clue in was GALBA somehow – had to take it on trust this was an Emperor…
thank you both.
A lot of time spent in the Cornish area, carefully not making the connection between column and file and not allowing enough first letters. And (pace Guy who apparently works for a magazine specialising in words no-one else uses) FILMIC has all the appearance of a word invented to fill a tricky space. Otherwise a mildly frustrating time of 24.26, briefly wondering why anyone would want hydrogen sulphide in Leeds.
“Filmic” is a pretty common word. In some circles, I guess… And yes, sometimes “cinematic” is a mouthful (with more connotations).
From The New York Times:
Style and the Filmic Message (Nov. 12, 1967)
Timing Is All In Filmic Opera (Dec. 7, 1994)
He started making filmic diaries, narrated in his heavily accented English. (Nov. 19, 2024)
This filmic disruption is not only present in “Nickel Boys.” (Jan. 15, 2025)
The New Yorker:
The vibe is part Edward Hopper and part David Lynch—a filmic inspiration of Trillo’s. (May 26, 2023)
The New York Philharmonic, continuing its popular filmic series, plays live for two screenings of “There Will Be Blood,” in which the music … (Sept. 6, 2018)
The Times (of London):
A new book brings together the best of Life’s filmic photographs. (Aug. 4, 2024)
Enter Will Hays, a Republican postmaster-general with a tendency to invoke “right-thinking people” in assessing filmic virtue. (May 19, 2019)
Yet that bridge-tweet found me imposing a filmic narrative on Scott’s story, too, as though every high-profile life demands a media intervention … (Aug. 21, 2012)
The Yves Klein photograph Leap into the Void is a clear reference point in a photographic and a filmic work that feature Emoe, although her … (March 26, 2006)
One of the most filmic of artists, Hopper imbues each painting with a compelling narrative of isolation. (Sept. 2, 2004)
Is this just filmic snobbery? (Nov. 7, 2010)
Perhaps I need to change circles!
9:18. Enjoyed the GK in various clues and 16d for the Araucaria link.
23 mins. Yes I had a MER over file for column too.
About 25′ for me having to construct NHOs GALBA & LOI CELANDINE but crossers and clueing were generous enough. Also never come across the tree but couldn’t be anything else (once China was ruled out…). Thanks George and setter.
39 mins, as very held up by CHILE PINE, which I’d NHO (tried to make it “China pine” until I sussed ACE!)
Finished in 42.46 but with two errors. Never looked beyond GAM for 3dn, and put in COLUMBINE with a shrug of the shoulders for 10ac. Had I taken more trouble and identified GIN I’m sure CELANDINE would have followed.
DNF
Lost interest in this due to three NHOs – CELANDINE (which I did at least enter, as a word I was aware of, but didn’t know what it was, no its relevance to spring), GALBA (might vaguely have heard of ALBA but didn’t link with Scotland) and CHILE PINE. Fewer plants please!
Thanks G
No problems with this one, though not as fast as some. 7d reminded me of the Roy Orbison song.
Wordsworth was a fan of the lesser celandine – he wrote 2 poems about it.
Article about the Pitcairn Islands in last Sunday’s ST. A disturbing read.
20.19
DNF. Failed the ALIVE clue: anyone for ALIDE? Thought it might be a chemical they put in aqualung tanks.
No problems with the flowering plant, but the tree took a while to deduce. Clear wordplay and smooth surfaces.
Thank you G and Setter.
33:42 L2I were CHILE PINE and CANDIED. I spent too long on the last one trying to find a word from which I could remove a P.
Thanks glh and setter
16.34 so it must have been on the easier side. Will Friday make up for it? Chile Pine was a NHO but the rest was plain enough.
Completed this one properly – no biffing, but not as quickly as many here.
Chile Pine seems to be a NHO for a lot of people (not me for once) – more commonly known as the monkey puzzle tree.
DNF as I biffed SIRHAM at 9dn, not being a money man and somehow thinking SIRHAM was more likely. Otherwise I thought this a fair challenge, finishing (so I thought) in 33 minutes. Was held up in the SW corner, but all became clear once I had twigged 16dn. I have only ever come across EXCUSE-ME in crosswords. GALBA was not a problem as he was the first incumbent in the year of the four emperors. The UK managed to get four Chancellors in 2022, but we still await the year of the four PMs.
FOI – CAN
LOI – ALIVE
COD – LADY MACBETH.
Thanks to george and other contributors.
GAM and COLUMBINE did for me. Disaster!
We had most of the required GK and did pretty well with this: 23:52. Didn’t parse LOI FILMIC fully. Liked LADY MACBETH.