Time: 27:01
Music: Prokofiev, Symphony #6, Previn/LAPO
Was this tough? Well there were some tricky definitions and some unusual words, so it depends on how good you are. I could have finished in just over 20 minutes, if it were not for my struggles with radial. But others might have biffed that one, and gotten stuck on calumet or uniat. There are traps for everyone, you might say. As it was, I could only vaguely recall Pinner, and had to use the cryptic to get bargeman.
So let us know where you got stuck!
| Across | |
| 1 | Spatter liquid as worker in pub (7) |
| TAPSTER – Anagram of SPATTER, my FOI. | |
| 5 | Woman is arch, beginning to tease (7) |
| BRIDGET – BRIDGE + T[ease]. Not a standards violation, since the random name is the answer. | |
| 9 | Permitted female to leave uncultivated expert (9) |
| ALLOWABLE – [f]ALLOW + ABLE. | |
| 10 | Face to show entertaining people (5) |
| PANTO – PAN TO, as in direct a camera towards. | |
| 11 | In successful campaigns, American guided speeches? (13) |
| VALEDICTORIES – V(A,LED)ICTORIES. | |
| 13 | State delaying appearance of a commercial centre? It’s true (8) |
| VERACITY – AVER with the A moved forward + CITY. | |
| 15 | Quiet, internal part of Greater London (6) |
| PINNER – P + INNER. A suburb that might not be known to non-UK solvers. | |
| 17 | Call on artist outwardly beaming? (6) |
| RADIAL – R.A. + DIAL | |
| 19 | Turn handle and snatch a pole he has? (8) |
| BARGEMAN – NAME + GRAB backwards. | |
| 22 | Seditious labourers being out of line finally sacked (6-7) |
| RABBLE-ROUSING – Anagram of LABOURERS BEING – [lin]E. | |
| 25 | Type of Christian fighting group capturing area (5) |
| UNIAT -UNI(A)T. | |
| 26 | Get large drink and suffer the consequences of it? (3,6) |
| SEE DOUBLE – SEE + DOUBLE, see in the sense of understand. | |
| 27 | Half dead court limiting enjoyment is no longer valid (7) |
| DEFUNCT – DE[ad] (FUN) CT. | |
| 28 | Unscrupulous person reticent and mostly severe (7) |
| SHYSTER – SHY + STER[n]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Bird in rush, changing direction at last (4) |
| TEAL – TEA(-r,+L). A duck as well as a colour. | |
| 2 | Empty talk from chum, mean not disclosing age? (7) |
| PALAVER – PAL + AVER[age]. | |
| 3 | What can dry up closed water source abruptly (5) |
| TOWEL – TO + WEL[l]. | |
| 4 | Fanatical state’s dispatch ceding power to bishop (8) |
| RABIDITY – RA(-p,+B)IDITY. | |
| 5 | Runs into wood for gun’s component (6) |
| BREECH – B(R)EECH. | |
| 6 | This writer’s demonstrating on the right path? (9) |
| IMPROVING – I’M + PROVING. | |
| 7 | Bats eating tip of native plant (7) |
| GENTIAN – Anagram of EATING + N[ative]. | |
| 8 | Stealing unusual rug in store (10) |
| TROUSERING – Anagram of RUG IN STORE. | |
| 12 | Finished with good circular alternative to the Tube? (10) |
| OVERGROUND – OVER + G + ROUND. Apparently a real thing, not an Uxbridge joke. | |
| 14 | Cheat’s endless charm: ultimately evil demon, no saint (9) |
| CHARLATAN – CHAR[m] + [evi]L + [s]ATAN. | |
| 16 | What may make Utes calm when roused? (8) |
| CALUMETS – Anagram of UTES CALM. The aboriginal inhabitants of Utah, not the Australian vehicle. | |
| 18 | Gather information following action by reporter about lawyer (7) |
| DEBRIEF – ED upside-down + BRIEF. My MER – an editor is not a reporter! | |
| 20 | Gossip — the very thing to support one information unit (7) |
| MEGABIT – ME + GAB + IT. | |
| 21 | Professional model in good health (6) |
| PROSIT – PRO + SIT. | |
| 23 | Use of mocking language is smooth? Yes, primarily (5) |
| IRONY – IRON + Y[es]. | |
| 24 | Armed struggle crosses Eastern river (4) |
| WEAR – W(E)AR. | |
56:37. I found this hard going throughout. LOIs RADIAL (after considering RARING and looking for a six-letter version of RADIANT) and CALUMETS (where my arrangement of the anagram must have been helped by a barely remembered previous sighting). I liked SEE DOUBLE
Thanks for the explanations, but I am still a little confused by 3d.
How does “closed” equal “TO”? I understand “water source abruptly” = WEL[L]
My best guess was “what can dry” is the definition and “up closed” = TO[P] but vinyl1 has included “up” in the definition.
I managed all except for 19a in about 45 mins which is pretty good for me. I think the definition of 19a is very confusing. “A pole he has” made me think I wanted the name for the pole used by someone, not the someone itself.
Regardless good puzzles today, both the quick and standard were much more my level I think.
To pull a door ‘to’ means to close it or according to other sources, to nearly close but leave it ajar.
Ahhh! yep that makes sense. Thank you!
DNF. Gave up with CALUMETS unsolved. Going through all possible ways of putting T,C,L and M into the grid did not find a single word that I had heard of.
Thanks Vinyl and setter
32:23
I’m claiming a victory on the basis that it’s unfair to clue a most-likely unknown-word-by-most as an anagram with four unchecked consonants, when it needed more solid wordplay. I’m referring to CALUMETS which I looked up. As a non-Statesman, the Utes reference completely missed the mark.
UNIAT is OK as it’s pretty clear where the remaining unches might go.
As for the rest, I failed to (fully) parse VALEDICTORIES and same MER as others over ED = reporter.
Thanks V and setter
I was clear enough about fitting L,M,C and T into the unches, but it took some time trying every combination before deciding that the vaguely heard of CALUMETS was the right answer, not helped by not knowing the reference to Utes.. I started this before work, finding it fairly impenetrable, but coming back to it over lunch I made proper progress, only really getting stuck at the end on the above-mentioned OWAA!, RADIAL and DEBRIEF, where ‘ed’ as reporter didn’t occur to me, with good reason, and I failed to recognise B-I-F as lawyer for far too long. Eventually bifd, and then I saw the whole definition, after which RADIAL became obvious. NHO UNIAT or TAPSTER, but fortunately fairly obvious.
Late to this but similar experience to many. DNF (you know where I’m going here…) in that despite solving a few NHOs in UNIAT and RABIDITY, I lost consonant-bingo on CALUMETS. Most of the rest was fairly Mondayish. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
30’30”
Too slow early on to gather enough momentum to trouble the leaders.
I was surprised by the Snitchmeister’s rating, but there was a sufficiency of smoke and mirrors scattered about to put the brakes on those struggling with unknowns; I just got lucky in that all fell within my ken, or had appeared before.
I’d agree with the comments above re 16d; to leave the consonants unchecked in an anagram of a highly localised bit of smoking paraphernalia is not only unfair but also so easily avoided; the ‘Don’ in another place never seems to have any difficulties in fairly introducing us to some very abstruse terms. This is a beef akin to many that have cropped up rather too often of late. There is no satisfaction to be gained from solving a puzzle where many of one’s fellow puzzlers have been hamstrung.
The rest was very enjoyable; thank you setter and Vinyl.
Another Monday DNF for me. Never really got any momentum and although I got UNIAT, I failed the CALUMETS anagram and many others were unsolved when I called it a day. I did get TAPSTER and TEAL eventually, but it seemed a bit Mephisto ish to me.
Thanks Vinyl and Setter
21.14 which was a pleasant surprise after only getting one clue across on a first pass. Fortunately the downside wasn’t.
LOI bargeman. Got calumets eventually but I thought it was some kind of musical instrument! See double was my COD.
45 minutes, some of which, at the end, were spent staring at UNIAT. Other things held me up along the way (the parsing of RABBLE-ROUSING, for example) but didn’t pose any real problems. I believe I once owned a CALUMET (of the sort sold to tourists), so that was not a problem either. Nice puzzle!
31 minutes. Like a number of others, I didn’t care for ed=reporter and tried to find alternatives, so RADIAL was LOI. Took PAN in PANTO simply to be a synonym for “face”.
Coulda been a 20 mins puzzle except for radial (had raring, seems silly now) so couldn’t get charlatan , which should have been easy, but totally lost w calumets and Uniat! Still was good fun, thanks, Carolyn
This took me over an hour – didn’t feel Monday-ish at all.
Not helped by having Barrel for the gun part for a long time – there is a tree by the name of Bael.
Some slightly odd clues, I thought and some obscure words (Uniat, Calumet).
We say The Peace Pipe. The French say Le Calumet. That’s how I know it. It’s also appeared a lot in these crosswords. On the wavelength, and came in just over 20. Anyone else nearly put in ASPERGE for 1 ac? Thankfully I couldn’t see how PERGE could mean Worker in Pub. ERG = unit of work (but not worker). And PH = pub (but not PE). Anyway I saw the light (literally). I was going to show off my Elton John knowledge, but have been pipped by several people I see. Many thanks
I found this hard; but almost all tje answers were obvious once I got them. Enjoyed the challenge thank you.
47:17. Not sure CALUMETS was completely fair … Otherwise an entertaining puzzle with lots of traps for the unwary.
CAMULETS which, apparently, allow the wearer to talk to camels. Would that calm you down?
😊
Only came here late in the day to see if anyone shared my MER about TROUSERING at 8dn and the association with theft. As I understand it, if you trouser something, like a large sum of money, you just put it in your pocket without necessarily being guilty of any legal or moral turpitude. But my understanding may not be the same as others’.
I think the last word in this from Collins has it covered:
trouser verb
2. (transitive) slang
to take (something, esp money), sometimes surreptitiously, undeservedly, or unlawfully