I took an age to do and parse this beauty; perhaps it was me having a dim day, so I’ll be interested to see the SNITCH. My only MER was accepting recess for free time.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].
Across | |
1 | Jar filled with a colourful liquid (5) |
PAINT – PINT (of beer) with A inserted. | |
4 | Out, local female in hat (9) |
PUBLISHED – PUB = local, SHE (female) inside LID (hat). | |
9 | Fold last of pages in dictionary inside comic (5,4) |
CLOSE DOWN – comic = CLOWN, insert OED, insert [page]S into that. | |
10 | Monster secure, it’s reported (5) |
TITAN – sounds like TIGHTEN, secure as a verb. | |
11 | That man behind alto, when sozzled, can’t stand (6) |
LOATHE – (ALTO)*, HE = that man. | |
12 | Recess measures one metre exactly at the opening, caver finally going in (4,4) |
FREE TIME – FEET (measures), I (one), M E (first letters of metre exactly), insert [cave]R. | |
14 | 25 across, or what — does that suggest? (5,1,6) |
THROW A WOBBLY – throw A is an anagram (wobbly) of OR WHAT; and throw a wobbly is a synonym for go bananas as in 25a. | |
17 | Humiliate further and give it some welly? (3,3,4,2) |
PUT THE BOOT IN – cryptic DD. | |
20 | Fast runners, crooks did you say? (8) |
CHEETAHS – sounds like cheaters = crooks. Chestnut time. | |
21 | Weather in Chartres is terrible (6) |
RESIST – hidden word, which took me far too long to see, as did this meaning of “weather”, as in weather an onslaught. | |
23 | Stand firmly against, do (5) |
BEANO – if you want to stand firmly opposed to something, you can BE A NO, and beano is a beanfeast, a party. | |
24 | Unknown chest found in Rhodes, unexpectedly (4,5) |
DARK HORSE – (RHODES)* with ARK (chest) inserted. | |
25 | Blow a gasket while parked alongside West Indian housing block (2,7) |
GO BANANAS – the answer came easily from (2,7) and the checkers, but the parsing was cheeky; we have a GOAN (from the western part of India, not the West Indies!) with BAN (block) inserted, adding AS = while. | |
26 | Equestrian qualification (5) |
RIDER – DD. Another chestnut which took me too long to remember. |
Down | |
1 | Steal old currency tucked inside thin coat (8) |
PECULATE – ECU being a precursor of Euros, insert into PLATE as in silver plate perhaps. I’ve never seen or heard “peculate” used apart from in crosswords. | |
2 | I hear about two notes in worship (8) |
IDOLATRY – I, TRY (hear, in court), insert DO, LA (two notes). | |
3 | Queen hit, Don’t Stop Me Now (3,4,4,2,2) |
THE SHOW MUST GO ON – DD. The Queen song by Brian May was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991 a few weeks before Freddie died. I’m a Queen fan, as you might guess. | |
4 | Lap up in game (4) |
POOL – LOOP (lap, a circular run perhaps), reversed (up). | |
5 | Villain’s broken rank to stop one going up and down (4,6) |
BANK ROBBER – a BOBBER goes up and down, insert (RANK)*. Again, the (4,6) helped see the answer. | |
6 | That legion slaughtered, number totally exposed (2,3,10) |
IN THE ALTOGETHER – (THAT LEGION)* + ETHER (number, anaesthetic). | |
7 | Wind or gas in thermal? (3,3) |
HOT AIR – I think this is a DD, meaning “spoken nonsense” and a thermal air current; but there may be other ways to explain it. | |
8 | One refusing a measure of hose (6) |
DENIER – another DD, two pronunciations. | |
13 | Alert operative (8,2) |
SWITCHED ON – another DD. | |
15 | Customs finally put foot down when character smuggled in object on domestic flight? (5,3) |
STAIR ROD – this one foxed me for the longest. S (end of customs), TROD (put foot down), with AIR (character) inside. Seeing AIR for character and the kind of flight we were thinking about was tricky. | |
16 | King Charlie not prepared to carry key climbing gear (8) |
KNITWEAR – K for king, NIT for charlie, RAW (not prepared) reversed, with A (a key) inserted. I was delayed by thinking it was beginning with CR and failing to lift and separate “climbing” and “gear”. | |
18 | Diamonds get cooler (3,3) |
ICE BAG – ICE for diamonds, BAG for get. | |
19 | Area for planting a bulb regularly lacking soil (6) |
BEDAUB – BED (garden area), A, [b]U[l]B. | |
22 | Olympian shows courage having lost lead (4) |
ARES – DARES loses its D. Greek god of war, one of the twelve Olympians. |
This puzzle had a strangely different feel to it, possibly from having more multi-word answers than one would normally see in a Times 15×15. I found it quite disconcerting but pressed on and gradually it started to come together.
I needed 40 minutes for all but 23ac where BRAVO and BEANO were the only words I could come up with to fit but I was unable to make sense of either of them. Then out of the blue the pdm for BEANO arrived but by then I had another 7 minutes on the clock.
Needless to say I didn’t know the song title at 3dn. Nor the group really, although I am vaguely aware of their existence. However I was happy for the answer to remind me of Noel Coward’s amusing song Why Must The Show Go On?
I loved this and I managed to see what was going on in most of the clues. PECULATE was an exception as I don’t think I’ve heard of it and didn’t link plate to ‘thin coat’. 22d, ARES was another that stumped me, not knowing much about gods or Olympians. Loved CHEETAHS, PAINT, KNITWEAR and pretty much everything.
Thanks piquet.
As Nelson said, a tough puzzle which I was pleased to finish in 29.24. There were a couple of lucky guesses in there and I was grateful for the explanations of KNITWEAR, STAIR ROD, GO BANANAS (Doh! The west of India!) and BANK ROBBER. Really good crossword I thought.
From She Belongs To Me:
She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back
She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime, and PAINT the daytime black
And I always thought she don’t look bad.
Took me ages. I never did figure out 3d–I know no Queen songs, hit or otherwise–or GO BANANAS. At 22d I had the checkers and bunged in EROS, while thinking ‘Eros?’ and resolving to come back to it, which of course–of bleeding course–I never did. Of all the clues to get wrong, I chose the most embarrassing one. Were the Titans monsters?
You don’t even know Bohemian Rhapsody?
Maybe if you hum a few bars …
Scaramouche, scaramouche – will you do the fandango!
Is this just fantasy? We can do it all if you want.
It really is quite bonkers, isn’t it! But I do love it 😊
My karaoke pals (and I) regularly do “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a group grand finale. It’s about the only Queen song I know… but, boy, do I know it!
It’s a terrific karaoke song, that’s for sure. It’s also now earworm of the day 😅
Titan can be an adjective, too
An inventive and beguiling puzzle that yielded its treasures slowly. Many a smile of satisfaction and much admiration for the setter. I particularly liked the clever 25ac and its cross-referenced 14 ac. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Around 75 minutes for a tough but most enjoyable puzzle. FOI (biffed from the second half wording) THE SHOW MUST GO ON which I knew from my childhood then LOATHE and PUT THE BOOT IN. Liked PUBLISHED, CLOSED DOWN, THROW A WOBBLY, DARK HORSE, STAIR ROD and KNITWEAR. Managed to parse most at the time. Found the bottom harder and slow particularly the SW where I managed to put 18d into 19down and it took a while to see the error.
Thanks Piquet
I parsed 7d as Wind=HOT AIR and gas in thermal as air so HOT AIR.
18.55
Tricky, but no complaints (though several biffs).
Glad my initial thought of ABOLISHED for 4ac proved wrong.
LOI ARES
COD THROW A WOBBLY
19:12, only came here for the passing of GO BANANAS which, while cheeky, I quite liked once I got it.
LOI was ARES, but only after squinting for a minute at EROS much in the way that suspicious bartenders would squint at Laurel and Hardy.
10:58. The second day in a row I’ve been on the wavelength which makes a nice change as I seem to have been off it for weeks. I liked the play on the two Queen songs – although I am a fan it took me several checkers to get the answer. I kicked myself when STAIR ROD went in, as I’m sure we’ve seen “flight” referring to stairs but disguised in the surface a couple of times recently. I finished with KNITWEAR which delayed me a short while until I parsed the ending as WEAR and was then able to biff the rest.
re 12A, I think it’s just the first letter of EXACTLY, m for metre being a standard abbreviation. Otherwise it should possibly have said “openings”. Thanks blogger and setter.
22:38
No probs with the Queen references – was a big fan in my teens and twenties. The answers flowed with decent regularity, even recalled PECULATE (probably from round these parts) without too much trouble. Stuck for a little while at the end coming up with ARES and LOI KNITWEAR.
Thanks P and setter
… the overhanging rock
That shades the pool – an endless spring of gloom
(Orpheus, Shelley)
25 mins pre-brekker. I took a while to get going, but enjoyed it a lot.
Mostly I liked the excellent DD for Rider and In The Altogether.
Ta setter and Pip.
31 minutes with LOI ARES. I biffed both THE SHOW MUST GO ON and GO BANANAS and got lucky.. I’m sure QUEEN were good , but were never in my favourites.In my neck of the woods a jar usually meant a half. Quite challenging. Thank you Pip and setter.
In my neck of the woods, a jar as in “Just going for a jar” meant 3 or 4 pints.. 🙂
9:58, eschewing my usual check to duck in under 10 minutes and getting lucky. Nice puzzle, steady solve.
‘Recess’ for ‘free time’ strikes me as an American usage, not that it bothers me.
The Queen clue is neat. Another fan here, particularly in my youth. We played Bohemian Rhapsody at my son’s birthday party recently and people of all ages from kids to grannies sang along enthusiastically.
I bet they all vigorously shook their locks when it it got to May’s guitar bit in the middle.
Well naturally. Party on!
21:23* (BANK ROBGER)
Back to fat-fingered form which is annoying but I stubbornly refuse to check my work.
This one took a while to get going but I eventually gained a little momentum and finished roughly on par. I also had to reverse engineer a couple of clues (e.g. KNITWEAR) having struggled to crack the cryptic.
A fair test so thanks to both.
After a run of fat fingers I took to scanning each answer after I put it in. I’m too impatient to do so at the end of the puzzle, but I’ve reduced (not eliminated!) the typos that way.
At my pace I really should have no excuses but I’ll give your technique a go. Figners crossed.
35 mins, fun but a few clunky clues I thought, especially my LOI, KNITWEAR which held me up for five mins as I was looking at KNUT-E-R and obviously not finding anything!
Pip, I think you’ll find that the ecu preceded the Franc which preceded the Euro, but are we worried? No.
I liked the GO BANANAS & THROW A WOBBLY trick. Quite fun really. Also PUT THE BOOT IN tickled me. The Queen song was not a problem as I know ther repertoire and was lucky enough to see their stage show in the seventies which was amazing,
Thanks for the hard graft pip. Ta setter too
The ECU (European Currency Unit) was used in the EU in the years leading up to the introduction of the Euro. To be fair though it wasn’t really a currency as such so the setter may have intended the old French version.
Yes, you’re right, I’d forgotten about that.
14:42
Held up for a bit at the end by ARES, initially thinking it might be an athlete, panicking because living ones are now fair game, and eventually approaching the clue from the “shows courage” angle.
No problem with the Queen song. They acted as a bridge for me between pop and rock music in the mid-70s. Other than the song in the clue I’m not keen on any of their stuff after A Night at the Opera but I’ve had their brilliant third album Sheer Heart Attack on cassette (recorded from a mate’s album), CD and now vinyl.
Yes. Great songs, but not always performed for the benefit of the song once they decided that the relentless theatricals was the way to go.
I’d say Sheer Heart Attack is their best album, and it all got a bit pompous after that.
Totally agree. Saw them in ’76 in Bristol. Sheer Heart Attack (Brighton Rock best song) and A Night at the Opera. Day at the Races just about. After that a bit too much chest-beating. Though some good songs nonetheless. I remember well how in the 70s the NME and Melody Maker utterly despised them . We just thought they were huge fun.
DNF, defeated by ARES (not familiar with that god, and didn’t think of ‘dares’).
– Took a long time to remember that a BEANO can be a party – I was trying to justify ‘Bravo’
– Likewise eventually managed to dredge up the ecu currency from somewhere to get PECULATE
– BEDAUB=soil didn’t seem like an exact equivalence, but I’m sure there’ll be a good example somewhere
Thanks piquet and setter.
COD Stair rod
Don’t let him hear you say that, he was the god of war and not to be trifled with. Roman equivalent is Mars.
My offline dictionary has:
Bedaub. verb,
(Transitive) To smear upon, soil.
Great fun and a fast for me 27 mins. Right in my hitting zone with lots of multi-worders where the rhythm of the phrase leaps to mind.
Slight hold up on PECULATE and LOI BEANO but otherwise a walk in the park.
Thanks to both.
12.35, with a pretty strong guess as to the setter.
I really enjoyed this one – a rewarding puzzle. It felt on several occasions like I was on the brink of getting breezeblocked, but never quite did. I’ll go against the grain and say I wasn’t so keen on the Queen clue (although I know both songs). I did like PECULATE for not being sPECULATE, KNITWEAR, and DARK HORSE.
I also got in my own head about whether ARES was Greek or Roman, and wondering whether HERO could be a verb, which might give EROS. Common sense eventually prevailed.
Thanks both.
23:56
I found this a strange puzzle and only really started to make progress when I started looking closely for definition, then doing a mental database search for possible answers. Gear/KNITWEAR seems a bit weak as does jar/PINT. I managed to get the Bananas double but needed Pip to explain how clever they were. I LOATHE QUEEN but have a younger brother who worshipped them so I’m familiar with all their hits.
Thanks to Pip and the setter.
JAR and PINT are both in fairly common use I’d say as in go for a couple of jars / pints / beers / scoops / bevvies…
I know. I was just being crotchety, probably because jar is, for no good reason, a term I’ve never liked in this sense (see also “cheeky pint”).
Yes, and there’s certainly no doubting their equivalence in Ireland.
17:20 reflecting the time taken to push a few stragglers across the line. Finally isolated the definition for KNITWEAR and reverse parsed it. Much enjoyed – anything that mixes Greek gods and Queen gets my vote.
I thought this was a fine quality puzzle – thank you setter, and Piquet for explaining 14ac which I should have given more thought to, but came here instead! A most enjoyable 27m solve.
23.11, reflecting an enjoyable tussle with a couple of inventions thrown in. I took a while trying to remember where Bob Marley used to sit, because I believe it was a housing project, but since it was a Gov-n-mant yard in Trenchtown it wasn’t helpful. So I contented myself with Go’banan as a Bajan or Jamaican contraction of Government -er- something. THROW A WOBBLY was a much more likeable clue than the CD I though it was. KNITWEAR was the only word to fit, but light was travelling at a tiny fraction of its usual pace before its parsing dawned for me.
At the other end of the Zabadak Enjoyability Spectrum to yesterday’s morass.
Threw in the towel at 45 mins, missing PECULATE and KNITWEAR. Was fairly pleased to have done as well as this, however: a tricky one.
No time as I had a visit to the vet and other bits to accommodate, but not quick. LOI PECULATE had to be constructed (and only then remembered), “plate” being known from my early engineering days. Once I realised the Queen clue wasn’t an anagram, the song came to me; but they are not a band I’ve ever enjoyed, indeed I avoid if I can! Didn’t parse the WOBBLY clue. Thanks Piquet and setter.
12a Free Time; guessed but I decided it was too weak to actually enter. I now see the parsing and still don’t love it.
1d Peculate; the ECU was never a currency as such, no notes or coin, and not available to trade except for between governments. But, from Wiktionary: “écu (plural écus)
(historical) A silver coin formerly used in France, with varying values.”
3d The show must… was unaware that “Don’t Stop Me Now” was another Queen song.
38 mins.
‘What is Queen?’
‘Queen, my lord, is a group of “rock” musicians. They are, I believe, popular among today’s youth.’
‘Oh. Very well, you may proceed.’
Thanks, p.
The Queen thing was rather a mystery to me but I took it on trust that there was such a song, or possibly that there were such songs. Free time for RECESS seemed a bit odd but American school holidays are I suppose free time. I thought the wording of 14ac was rather inelegant, but nice idea. 35 minutes.
Recess is also what Americans call playtime at school.
Not just Americans.
Struggled to get going with CHEETAHS FOI, but then managed to make reasonable progress building from the SW. KNITWEAR brought up the rear at 22:57. Thanks setter and Pip.
26:50 – Found this very tough but speeded up towards the end – though I wouldn’t like to have been put on the spot to parse STAIR ROD, an object whose function must baffle anyone under 50.
After Piquet’s heads up that this was likely to be a toughie, I was steeling myself for the worst. I was however pleasantly surprised to find it much easier than I expected,
finishing in a relatively speedy 32.17. As some have stated that they indeed found it tough, I think I must simply have been on the right wavelength for this one. The only one to hold me up to any great extent was my LOI KNITWARE. This probably cost me over two minutes and prevented a sub thirty minute solve.
Wrote most of it straight in, but DNF at the end in the southeast on Knitwear, ares, and D___ HORSE. Which should have been easy. Too tired. Work is a *. Trouble is, DEAD HORSE is Strine for tomato sauce (ketchup): rhyming slang. And you can’t unthink it.
Throw a wobbly was a write-in, without even considering referring to 25 ac. For some reason I remember an ANAX/Dean Meyer blog where he mentioned 2 clues he’d used:
Lost it – the war, presumably? (5,1,6)
Lose it, or what! (5,1,6)
THREW & THROW, different answers.
Nice puzzle, COD to the Queen clue.
22.50, INTHEALTOGETHER was good, and PUBLISHED. Pretty good puzzle. Wrote in GOBANANAS early on, then erased it as 18 and 19 d looked unlikely……then I had to restore it, and parsed it not without difficulty. Some successful biffing.
6:43. Found this very easy for some reason and the long answers were a write in. Definitely on the wavelength.
My only hold-up was at 2d, reading “warship” for “worship”, and trying to make ironclad fit.
One error in 20 mins. I guessed EROS for unknown ARES.
Me as well
Nice puzzle, liked it, no undue problems.
NHO the Queen song but hey ho. Failed to parse the bananas clue, well done Pip..
Having not heard of the god I feared my LOI ARES was going to be wrong and spent some time trying to come up with something else.
Bit of a mixed bag for me from an enjoyment viewpoint but happy to complete even if it did take a long time.
40 mins. A lovely, tricky puzzle. (Stair rods have their uses, but anyone wearing high-heeled shoes can easily get a heel stuck in one and plummet down an entire flight of stairs… as I did a year or so ago!)
LOI PECULATE after some time. I have seen this word only in puzzles (like others).
The NW was my problem and I nearly gave up; but this was a fun puzzle so I persevered. PAINT was only easy in hindsight for me.
EROS appeared but I was on alert after Izetti gave us ATE in the QC recently; I managed to convince myself that ARES was possible- as the parsing seemed to work.
I liked the Queen clue and RIDER.
David
“Don’t Stop Me Now” recorded by the GB team for the 2012 Olympics in London received a lot of air time.
Just when I get myself to the point that if it doesn’t parse I don’t put it in, along comes Go Bananas – clearly the correct answer and equally clearly not parsable by me – and the rest is an extra 5 or 7 minutes due to not having the crossers to help with the downs. Thanks for several, pip
i think 16 needs an e rather than an a to parse.
31.49. Pleased to finish, never felt on top of this little teaser but finally finished with bedaub. Very much enjoyed especially go bananas( which I didn’t parse) and throw a wobbly which couldn’t be anything else after bananas.
Wasn’t the show must go on a hit for Leo Sayer?
Thx setter and blogger.
Sorry, but I think 3D is better suited to a GK crossword, as the clue is barely cryptic at all. Is the point that ‘Don’t stop me now’ is some sort of synonym for ‘The show must go on’? If that is all there is to it, that is very disappointing to me. If I am missing something more clever, please enlighten me!
27.18, but once again the website altered a letter I had entered correctly and I ended up with a pink square. Some clever clues, but, overall, not the style. of puzzle I enjoy.
Blown it again, second day running, with Eros.
Funnily enough, I thought of Beano as the comic in 9a – then it was my LOI for 22a.
Very good puzzle notwithstanding my error.
Liked Published and the unusual Bedaub.
Peculation is the old word for embezzlement. It often appears in Golden Age murder mysteries, undertaken by dodgy solicitors and accountants.
Very tricky and hard to get a foothold at first, but all in and parsed eventually, except LOI where I could only think of BRAVO, which I couldn’t parse except for the V as ‘against’. However, the puzzle provided some great PDMs and entertainment. It was the short clues that held me up most, oddly enough.
25.49
Sped up a lot towards the end so definitely a slow slow quick solve.
Thought ARES was going to cause a big delay at the end but thankfully not.
Liked PAINT and BEDAUB
Thanks Pip/setter