63:36
After several weeks of throwing in the towel / cheating, I determined to stick this one out to the end, though finishing and parsing it was brutish. There were quite a few guesses and half-parsed answers, but I got there eventually. Another very tricky Friday toughie.
Following a misfire in the NE corner and some concerted effort to solve 1ac, I thought things would start to unravel. Unfortunately not: I picked them off all round the grid over 3 sessions, reversed my way into a couple, and shrugged the last few in (especially 15dn).
What a cracker though! Lovely misleading surfaces and well-hidden elements, certainly a challenge, and a bit to learn along the way.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Raise fewer arguments after convincing demonstration (6,6) |
| OBJECT LESSON – OBJECT LESS (raise fewer arguments) + ON (after). A bit of a crossword-y synonym. | |
| 8 | Most like a picnic meal, the rest of the afternoon free of shackles (7) |
| EASIEST – tEA (meal) + SIESTa (the rest of the afternoon), minus the first and last letters of the combo (free of shackles). Most certainly reverse engineered from a guess by me. | |
| 9 | A doubter, but not one initially coming clean (7) |
| ASEPTIC – A + ScEPTIC (doubter), minus (but not) one of its letters ‘c’ (initially coming). | |
| 11 | Ring HQ about confiscating Resistance weapon (7) |
| TORPEDO – O (ring) + DEPOT (HQ) all reversed (about), containing (confiscating) R (resistance). | |
| 12 | Imposter dropping soft soap? (7) |
| SHAMPOO – SHAM (imposter) + POO (dropping). | |
| 13 | Real Madrid and Barcelona? Not for them the 1-1? (5) |
| EVENS – elEVENS (Real Madrid and/or Barcelona, football teams), minus (not) ‘el’ (for them, spaniards, ‘the’). One-to-one odds being even returns. | |
| 14 | Gradually categorising Burns this way? (2,7) |
| BY DEGREES – cryptic hint, referring to first and second, etc. degree burns. | |
| 16 | Light during day charges pointer? (3,6) |
| BOW WINDOW – IN (during) + D (day) contained by (charges) BOWWOW (dog, pointer?). I had ‘bay’ for a while, not being totally familiar with the spelling of ‘bowwow’ which still looks odd. | |
| 19 | Who dispatches present? (5) |
| OFFER – double definition. | |
| 21 | Suitable support found in Apple’s first operating system (7) |
| APROPOS – PROP (support), contained by (found in) the first of Apple + OS (operating system). | |
| 23 | Some juicy gossip gripped parting garden visitors (7) |
| TITBITS – BIT (gripped) contained by (parting) TITS (garden visitors). | |
| 24 | Recruit Don’s neighbour to guard large amount (7) |
| DRAFTEE – DEE (Don’s neighbour, rivers in Aberdeen) containing (to guard) RAFT (large amount). I have Ulaca to thank again for teaching me this riparian GK, which appeared in a recent puzzle I blogged and got wrong. | |
| 25 | Indicate corruption of old Commonwealth realm (7) |
| OBELIZE – O (old) + BELIZE (Commonwealth realm). Despite the helpful wordplay, I still entered ‘obelise’ in the first instance. The practice of adding an obelus to manuscripts in places where the text is suspected of being a bit dodgy. Unknown to me, of course.† | |
| 26 | I will not work for retiring food transporter (12) |
| DESSERTSPOON – NO (I will not) + OP (work) all STRESSED (italicised), then reversed (retiring). Two words in my world. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Keep returning unwrapped porcelain box (7) |
| OBSERVE – sÈVRES (porcelain, of fame) + BOx, together missing the first and last letters (unwrapped), and reversed (returning). As 8ac above, quite difficult to unravel, especially if you are not au fait with the porcelain-manufacturing commune. You have to get to definition 26 in Chambers to find ‘keep’ = ‘observe’, as in celebrate, but I’m happy with ‘keep’ = ‘tend’ = ‘supervise’, etc. A last-minute guess for me. | |
| 2 | American Lord is mocking physical exercise drills (7) |
| JEEPERS – PE (physical exercise) contained by (drills) JEERS (mocking). US expression of surprise. | |
| 3 | Disc that fastens to cycle snatched by phoney cleaner (6,3) |
| COTTON BUD – BU-TTON (disc the fastens) becomes TTON-BU (to cycle), contained (snatched) by COD (phoney). Solved by cycling through synonyms for phoney, sham, etc. and working backwards. | |
| 4 | See promotional material a lot (5) |
| LOADS – LO (see) + ADS (promotional material). | |
| 5 | Matter this woman put on report (7) |
| SHEBANG – SHE (this woman) + BANG (report). | |
| 6 | By 8 o’clock, let up cast to replace player (7) |
| OCTUPLE – anagram of (cast) O’Clock LET UP, once you remove (replace) ‘lock’ (player, of rugby). I think. | |
| 7 | It’ll deflect water if turned off, so it’s said (12) |
| WEATHERBOARD – thanks to Jackkt for parsing this one: sounds like (so it’s said) “whether” (if) and “bored” (turned off). | |
| 10 | On set of shelves put something one may have to bear weight of TV (5-7) |
| CROSS-DRESSER – DRESSER (set of shelves) on CROSS (something one may have to bear weight of). It’s devilishly difficult to split the clue in the right place, and I was completely derailed by my certainty that ‘TV’ could only stand for one thing. But it can also stand for ‘transvestite’. The cleverness of ‘cross one must bear’ was slightly tempered for me by a dresser being clued as ‘set of shelves’. It’s so much more than that. | |
| 15 | In doldrums after losing house, have to come out (4,5) |
| DOWN TOOLS – DOLdrumS minus (losing) ‘drum’ (slang for house, apparently), contains (in…) OWN (have) + TO. Come out, as in strike from work. I originally put DOWN from ‘in doldrums’ and then biffed / guessed the rest. Perhaps I’ve got this parsing wrong; the way I have it seems too obscure… | |
| 17 | Conflicts wear out nurses very much (7) |
| WARFARE – anagram of (out) WEAR containing (nurses) FAR (very much). | |
| 18 | Left abandoned, one naturally sticks with Trump’s state force (7) |
| IMPETUS – minus (abandoned) letter ‘l’ (left) from lIMPET (one naturally sticks) + US (Trump’s state). | |
| 19 | Busy, having to cancel opening, say: “May I?” (2,3,2) |
| ON THE GO – remove the first letter from (cancel opening) mONTH (say, May) + EGO (I). | |
| 20 | Perhaps Leeuwarder is enthralled by the Rev. Paisley? (7) |
| FRISIAN – IS contained (enthralled) by FR (Father, Reverend) IAN (Paisley). A Leeuwarder is a native of that city of Friesland, NL. My only point of reference here is the breed of cattle, and left to my own devices I would have spelled it ‘Friesian’. | |
| 22 | Very fine cut on the ear (5) |
| SHEER – sounds like (on the ear) “shear” (cut). | |
Looked at this for nearly an hour not getting anywhere much so used aids to find WEATHERBOARD.
I’m sorry but BOARD is not a homophone of BORED even in the most fanciful sense. Self-indulgent crosswords like this have to be bang accurate otherwise they lose credibility and then solver engagement.
Sure enough, bemused by the crosser TEASIESTA having to be one word to make the clue work, I stopped wasting my time.
Except for a final glance at DEPOT = HQ, which confirmed that I was indeed wasting my time.
What on earth are you talking about? “Bored” and “board” are perfectly good homophones – while “imposter” and “impostor” are in both Chambers and Collins, with no US marker in either reference.
The grapes, they are so very sour.
I can’t see any reason to take issue with the homophone, nor the DEPOT for HQ, unless one were pining for the finest vinaigrette.
DNF. I applaud Wm. ’nuff said.
14a. I put in the right answer but thought it meant Robert Burns…who was a freemason and freemason are categorised (maybe) by degrees….
Blimey, 1 hour 30 but managed without aids. Still haven’t parsed EVENS or OBSERVE, so will be interested to read the blog.
Just glad to make it! COD of course to BOW WINDOW
80 minutes, but wanted to obelize myself after this one!
Well, I didn’t give up ! ( looking up, that is). I needed to fill the grid, despite not getting over half of the answers, but found even the explanations (parsing) too hard to understand. So…out of my league, and yes, I do think the setter was showing off a bit.