DNF
This might be the hardest crossword I have ever attempted to blog – more of an exercise in using aids (or eventually resorting to the reveal button) then working backwards. I did manage to solve most of the top half, but steadily ran out of steam. Once I resigned myself to this fate, I found the process entertaining, and I have learnt a lot of largely useless stuff – my idea of a good night in.
I have italicised the explanations for clues I failed to solve unaided, and still need some help deciphering parts. Definitions underlined as usual.
| Across | |
| 1 | Intense interest grips crossword compiler of some renown (5) |
| FAMED – FAD (intense interest) containing (grips) ME (crossword compiler). | |
| 4 | Seize money from Cape Town banks using small keys found on me (4,5) |
| BABY GRAND – BAG (seize) + RAND (money from Cape Town), containing (banks) BY (using). | |
| 9 | Still it produces German beers UK ale lovers put in report (3,6) |
| BOX CAMERA – sounds like (put in report) “bocks” (German beers) + “CAMRA” (Campaign for Real Ale, UK ale lovers). | |
| 10 | Shooting a plus score for the round, he’s out of the Open (5) |
| OVERT – OVER (shooting a plus score for the round), then subtract ‘he’ from The. | |
| 11 | Left kill to accept title of Man Hunter (6) |
| NIMROD – reversal of (left) DO IN (kill), containing (to accept) MR (title of man). A biblical character that I know only from Elgar. | |
| 12 | Produce notes making separate contributions to new degree (8) |
| ENGENDER – N + N (notes) separately inserted into (making separate contributions to) an anagram of DEGREE. | |
| 14 | Acting with caution around Sicily’s Madam White (10) |
| CHARDONNAY – CHARY (acting with caution) containing (around) DONNA (‘woman’ in Italian, Sicily’s Madam). | |
| 16 | Winning shot from majestic Djokovic? (4) |
| SERB – ‘up’ (winning) subtracted from (shot from) SupERB (majestic). Referring to tennis player Novak. | |
| 19 | Enthusiastic about tagging along without wife (4) |
| INTO – IN TOw (tagging along) minus (without) ‘w’ (wife). | |
| 20 | Go round and round offensive bow maker (7,3) |
| WINDSOR TIE – WIND (go round and round) + SORTIE (offensive). | |
| 22 | Perennial lover of lassie hidden in long grass (8) |
| MARJORAM – JO (Scots term for ‘a beloved one’, lover of lassie) contained by (hidden in) MARRAM (long grass). Nothing to do with neckerchief-wearing collies , then). | |
| 23 | Passenger’s vacuous reaction to cold city (6) |
| PRAGUE – middle letters removed from (vacuous) PassengeR, then AGUE (reaction to cold). | |
| 26 | Works by Van Gogh? Old Man captured in pieces (5) |
| APART – PA (old man) contained by (captured) ART (works by Van Gogh?) | |
| 27 | Most unusual assignment for knights to receive is not for commoners (9) |
| QUAINTEST – QUEST (assignment for knights) containing (to receive) AINT (is not, for commoners). | |
| 28 | Student of poor classes, one out of place in stream (9) |
| STEINBECK – maybe an anagram (one out of place) of SET (class) + IN + BECK (stream). But I’m put off by the pluralisation of ‘classes’. What am I missing? Edit, see Kenso below: anagram of (out of place) SET (classes, one), then the rest. Further edit, via Galspray: def includes ‘classes’; I (one) from SiTE (place), then the rest. | |
| 29 | Laid bare, as Man is blind (5) |
| SWEAR – aS WE ARe (as Man is), minus the outermost letters (laid bare). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Chance to leave impression following lie about mathematician (9) |
| FIBONACCI – ACCIdent (chance) subtracting (to leave) ‘dent’ (impression), after FIB (lie) and ON (about). | |
| 2 | Gun man saying Rebecca used him? (5) |
| MAXIM – a type of machine gun, and a character from Daphne du Maurier’s novel. I knew neither, but had all the checkers. | |
| 3 | Ice fields on which bases are established (8) |
| DIAMONDS – cryptic hint. The name of a baseball field on which the bases are laid out. | |
| 4 | Signal page with buzzer first (4) |
| BEEP – P (page) after BEE (buzzer). | |
| 5 | Old Peruvian liquor encapsulates “mind-numbing diversion” (5,5) |
| BRAIN CANDY – INCAN (old Peruvian), which BRANDY (liquor) contains (encapsulates). Another I did not know, but successfully pieced together. | |
| 6 | Fouled up on sticky diet? (6) |
| GOOFED – one on a ‘sticky diet’ would be GOO-FED. | |
| 7 | Up to about five hundred crews embrace change (9) |
| AMENDMENT – AT (up to) containing (about), MEN + MEN (crews) which contain (embrace) D (five hundred). | |
| 8 | Put off weightwatcher wanting the tiniest serving of ice-cream (5) |
| DETER – DiETER (weightwatcher) missing (wanting) the first letter (tiniest serving) of ‘ice-cream’. | |
| 13 | During dramatic interval, dance old mum’s parts (10) |
| ANTIMASQUE – ANTIQUE (old) which MA’S (mum’s) parts (splits). A comic or grotesque sequence or dance in a play performed before a more elegant or moralising part (a masque) to emphasise the contrast. | |
| 15 | Appear like Lent with a sad tear? (9) |
| ALTERNATE – anagram of LENT + A + TEAR. I think this might be hinting at a reverse cryptic – alternate (anagram) LENT with A and sad (anagrammed) TEAR. But, if correct, I still don’t know where the definition is. Edit, thanks again to Galspray: LENT appears in A+TEAR* alternately, in the word ALTERNATE. So this is a reverse cryptic &lit!? He explains better in the comments… | |
| 17 | Exploit with energy drink lands someone in the Tower (9) |
| BEEFEATER – FEAT (exploit) + E (energy), which BEER (drink) lands (contains). | |
| 18 | Bones makes call tracking old vessel’s location (8) |
| MOORINGS – MO (Medical Officer, “bones”), then RINGS (makes call) after (tracking) O (old). | |
| 21 | This’ll be spicy, let’s wait up (3,3) |
| WON TON – NOT NOW (let’s wait) reversed (up). | |
| 22 | Designs ways to express average income (5) |
| MEANS – triple definition. | |
| 24 | Grounds for clergyman and poet occupying single bed (5) |
| GLEBE – hidden in (occupying) sinGLE BEd. I saw this immediately as a possible answer for ‘grounds for clergyman’, but though the poet was part of the wordplay so could not parse it at all! A piece of land providing income to a parish church, and a churchyard generally in poetry. | |
| 25 | A time to abandon assault course (4) |
| TACK – ‘a’ and ‘t’ (time) subtracted from (to abandon) atTACK. | |
Late to the party, as I happen to be in hospital at present and time works differently here.
I am glad to be done with this crossword, at least i did manage to finish it.
Threw in the towel after god knows how long. Life is just too short and I am just too slow.
Gave up after 75 minutes – at 60 minutes, I still had 10 clues unsolved, and managed two more in that fifteen minutes (OVERT, CHARDONNAY) which left GOOFED, BRAIN CANDY (got the first word), ANTIMASQUE (wtf), ALTERNATE, WON TON (not spicy imho), MARJORAM, QUAINTEST, STEINBECK (not a clue that he was a student of the poorer classes). There comes a point when it stops being solvable/enjoyable. Well done if you completed this without aids.
Thanks William!!
If INCAN is put into BRANDY what one gets is BRAINCANNDY – the Peruvian has to be an INCA.
My mind was completely dumbed by this version of my Friday diversion
Far too hard! Even the ones I got felt too contrived. I always feel cheated when the clues don’t make sense and point to the compiler not being properly acquainted with specific terms (BABY GRAND, WINDSOR TIE etc).
But I worked out MARJORAM – helps if you know this weel-kent Burns song
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/john-anderson-my-jo/
Thanks for all the explanations.
DNF in two hours
Knew this was vv tough so was prepared to give myself two hours. Not much for 40 minutes (possibly because I thought things were harder than they were) then got loads in the next 40 minutes before another tank with around half a dozen left. Left with the MASQUE even though guessed the second part; the TIE even though had the second part; MEANS not really believed; STEINBECk and ALTERNATE but not sure why and finally MARJORAM as a “not close” and SHEER incorrectly punted. Some great clues and I love a toughie …but… all the clues have to be reasonably gettable from the w/p or reverse engineered from the literal which wasnt the case here so although I enjoyed it please can we make these ones have bottom halves more like the (tough) top half
DNF. The writing (or lack of it) was on the wall for me after 30 minutes when I had only filled in about half a dozen answers with any confidence. I had had some thoughts about a few others, such as MARJORAM, STEINBECK, and something ending in MASQUE, but could not convince myself of the parsing. I agree with Susiemac that repeated failure to see why an answer must be correct does not make for an enjoyable crossword. I picked the puzzle up again after a long pause, but fared no better and decided, like others, that I had better things to do. A pity, as I usually enjoy the Friday challenge.
Thanks (and a medal) to william and other contributors.
Two and a bit weeks later just about finished this with a time of 2 hours 31 and one mistake (SHEER). I also used aid to get ANTIMASQUE. I generally like very tough ones once in a while, but felt the clues for STEINBECK and ALTERNATE were just a bit weird.
Phew…not for me!
Telephone Bletchley at once! OK, it took my wife and me at least six hours over as many days but we got there, resorting to aids only for 13 Down, though we knew it had to end in ‘masque’. Sought this one out because I noticed it had the highest (ever?) Snitch. Glad I did, although setter should have his fingers slammed in a piano lid for factual sloppiness of 4 Across. And if he thinks wontons are spicy, he needs to get out more.