44:29
…with the last 8 or so minutes spent struggling with the reticent final answers in the NW corner. I found most of this pretty hard. On the other hand, with a few checkers in place I barely bothered to finish reading the clues for the instrument, windpipe, or unit of frequency.
I’m no good at spotting individual setters’ styles, but second reading brought a new sense of appreciation for this one – the surfaces are great, the definitions well hidden in plain sight.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | One extending site below ground laid item over surface of rubble (9) |
| WEBLOGGER – anagram of (ground) BELOW + reversal of (over) EGG (laid item) + first letter (surface) of Rubble. | |
| 6 | Have Egyptian strip clubs out of sight (5) |
| OPTIC – remove (strip out) ‘c’ (clubs) from cOPTIC (Egyptian). | |
| 9 | Old-style free trade company (3,4) |
| ART DECO – anagram of (free) TRADE, then CO (company). | |
| 10 | Sweet bachelor also called about the ladies? (7) |
| BAKLAVA – B (bachelor) + AKA (also called) containing (about) LAV (the ladies?). | |
| 11 | Fluorine added to river lacking an opening to the sea (5) |
| FJORD – F (fluorine) + JORDan (river) minus ‘an’. | |
| 12 | One lying around hotel tucking into crackers and cheese (9) |
| EMMENTHAL – ME (one) reversed (lying around), then H (hotel) in MENTAL (crackers). The optional ‘h’ confused me for a bit. | |
| 14 | Individual remains inside this country club nursing a drop of rum (3) |
| URN – UN (United Nations, country club) containing (nursing) the first (a drop) of Rum. | |
| 15 | Amount of fifty-one quid is tantalizingly split evenly (11) |
| EQUIDISTANT – hidden in (amount of) fifty-onE QUID IS TANTalizingly. I thought it was against The Times style guide to use -ize, and it looks out of place to me. | |
| 17 | What may shield you when tilting cereal bowl, perhaps spilling odd pieces of kofta (11) |
| BREASTPLATE – BREAkfaST PLATE (cereal bowl, perhaps), minus the odd letters from ‘kofta‘. | |
| 19 | Individual cycling around for a long time (3) |
| EON – ONE (individual) bring the last to first (cycling). | |
| 20 | LA Rams’ first quarter that’s very poor — scoring’s relatively slow (9) |
| LARGHETTO – LA + first of Rams + GHETTO (quarter that’s very poor). | |
| 22 | A couple of rounds added to bill in Prohibition (5) |
| TABOO – OO (two ’rounds’) added to TAB (bill). | |
| 24 | Criminal record held by rogue facing appeal (7) |
| CULPRIT – LP (long play, record) contained (held) by CUR (rogue), then IT (appeal). | |
| 26 | Get second-hand fashionable lady’s item, discounted 50 per cent (7) |
| INHERIT – IN (fashionable) + HER (lady’s) + half of (discounted by 50 per cent) ITem. | |
| 27 | Capital murder case for acquittal overturned (2,3) |
| LA PAZ – ZAP (murder) + the first and last of (case for) AquittaL, all reversed (overturned). | |
| 28 | Use whetstone after axes cut and hammered instrument (9) |
| XYLOPHONE – HONE (use whetstone) after X and Y (axes, on a graph) + LOP (cut). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What’s for docking, following alongside river? (5) |
| WHARF – WHAt is shortened (for docking), then F (following) alongside R (river). &lit. | |
| 2 | Did champ cheat to conceal international currency? (7) |
| BITCOIN – BIT (did champ) + CON (cheat) containing (to conceal) I (international). | |
| 3 | Do servers in buffet slip on old rags? The opposite! (9) |
| OVERDRESS – anagram of (in buffet) DO SERVERS. I can’t really make sense of the anagrind – buffeted / in buffet – but I’m glad for the novelty. | |
| 4 | One may be on hand as animal doctor captures darling dog on film (5,6) |
| GLOVE PUPPET – GP (doctor) containing (captures) all of LOVE (darling) + PUP (dog), then ET (film). | |
| 5 | Hold up shift, perhaps wanting end to strike (3) |
| ROB – ROBe (shift, a loose garment) lacking (wanting) the last letter of strike. | |
| 6 | Filler of macerated new wood (5) |
| OAKEN – central letters from (filler of) sOAKEd (macerated) + N (new). | |
| 7 | Elderly are upset about long air passage (7) |
| TRACHEA – ART (archaic, or elderly, ‘are’) reversed (upset) and containing (about) ACHE (long). | |
| 8 | Fake cleaner left area at around noon (9) |
| CHARLATAN – CHAR (cleaner) + L (left) + A (area) + reversal of (around) AT + N (noon). | |
| 13 | Having tailored aim to resolve? (11) |
| MEDIATORIAL – anagram of (to resolve) TAILORED AIM. &lit. | |
| 14 | Doubt expressed before bishop abandons scriptural life-giving connection (9) |
| UMBILICAL – UM (doubt expressed) + BIbLICAL (scriptural) minus (abandons) ‘b’ (bishop). | |
| 16 | Dodgy factory dance preceded by Cornish pasties? (9) |
| SWEATSHOP – HOP (dance) after SW EATS (Cornish pasties?). | |
| 18 | Florida lawman’s introducing extended headgear protection (7) |
| EARFLAP – FLA (florida) that EARP (lawman) contains (is introducing). Wyatt et al. of OK corral fame. | |
| 19 | Catch hold of me climbing over blockade (7) |
| EMBARGO – GRAB (catch hold of) + ME all reversed (climbing), then O (over). | |
| 21 | Measure of frequency of period pains reported (5) |
| HERTZ – sounds like (reported) “hurts”. | |
| 23 | Unusual route taken to the cleaners (5) |
| OUTRE – anagram of (taken to the cleaners, swindled) ROUTE. | |
| 25 | Non-casual affair may require that you French kiss (3) |
| TUX – TU (you, French) + X (kiss). | |
45 minutes with a fair selection of write-ins , answers that needed careful construction from wordplay and several answers that were obvious but the wordplay did not become apparent until I had completed the grid and stopped the clock. In the last category I’d include EMENTHAL, XYLOPHONE, TRACHEA and GLOVE PUPPET. BREASTPLATE was nearly one of those too, but I managed to unravel it whilst solving and thought it rather a fine clue with its double take on ‘tilting’.
Nice pangram.
Got there in 32.04 but not sure how, a lot of luck mainly. There were some devilishly devious clues in this one, so thanks William for the explanations. I note an X, a Y, a Z, a Q, a W and a J so I’m guessing pangram without being sufficiently motivated to go laboriously through the grid to check. On edit: well done Astro-Nowt!
From Positively 4th St:
No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I’d ROB them
And now I know you’re dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don’t you understand it’s not my problem?
It’s got to have been about Phil Ochs. I had an album of his back then and he was good. It’s interesting that his song ‘There but for Fortune’ was one of the Joan Baez songs in “A Complete Unknown.” His Bobness must have wanted it in. His way in mellow old age of saying sorry for Positively Fourth Street?
OK, wow, that is a fascinating take which never occurred to me but it rings absolutely true. I like the idea of a late-stage apology, and though I’m not sure how mellow Dylan’s old age is I reckon I’ll go with that too. Good call BW
Really like this – hard but fair – and I always appreciate the art in a Pangram
I often miss that it is a pangram, but with LA PAZ and XYLOPHONE in the bottom row it was obvious. Later, I was wondering where the Q went and EQUIDISTANT leapt out as the place. Later, in the back of my mind, I knew a J was still to come and “opening to the sea” was FJORD. Lots of write ins (like “hammered instrument” starting with X). But some clues like WEBLOGGER or BREASTPLATE that had to be carefully assembled. Great crossword. Way over an hour for me, I think, although I did it in two sittings with some chores in between.
Seeing the high average time I had low expectations of a finish today but did so in just under 40 mins. Started and ended slowly with LOIs OPTIC/OAKEN but a lot of write-ins from crossers in the middle.
I would never have parsed BREASTPLATE and OAKEN and didnt get ART but was very proud of getting LARGHETTO from definition before parsing. They do sink in eventually.
COD EQUIDISTANT. I like a good hidden.
Thanks William and setter
51 minutes with LOI WEBLOGGER, pondering which syllable the B belongs too. I am rather partial to a BAKLAVA but I think UMBILICAL pips it to COD. ART DECO an old style? I’m only just discovering it. I found this pretty tough as I seemed to solve most of it bottom up. Thank you William and setter.
Good puzzle, with many solves only parsed subsequently (or not at all until I came here!). However the NW corner gave me a DNF as I couldn’t manufacture WEBLOGGER or FJORD. Didn’t see the pangram which might have given me the “J” but 1ac would have remained beyond me.
Thanks William and setter
28:13 but WOE. If I had spotted it was a pangram I might have found FJORD rather than bunging in an unparsed FLOOD. Nice puzzle. Plenty of ticks on my copy but COD to the SW EATS. Thanks William and setter.
I considered flood, but rejected it on the grounds it did not fit the cryptic, and did not fit the literal.
Miaow!
😂
A DNF with whatever I assembled for LARGHETTO not being a musical term. My bank of musical terms is slowly building.
Otherwise a steady but challenging solve with no other mistakes. Rather unfortunately the Panagram words were amongst the first in so realising that it was going to be one wasn’t of great help.
Only one I couldn’t parse was XYLOPHONE but managed to biff it once the first letter came. What else could it be?
COD: 2d (learnt my lesson about the spam filter)
Cheers blogger and setter
I did check to see if we still automatically sent comments that mention bitcoin to spam. Obviously, that wouldn’t do with this puzzle, but John must have taken it out.
53 minutes but I needed aids and cheats to finish the NW corner so I’ll admit that as a DNF. Like Johninterred I biffed FLOOD for FJORD and took ages to figure out WEBLOGGER. Well done and thank you to setter and William.
Clearly on the wavelength today with 17:28 and a WITCH of 59! I found that getting in with the fairly obvious ART DECO anagram followed by BITCOIN and then the chestnutty URN and thence UMBILICAL provided more than enough to steadily attack the rest.
WHARF seemed so obvious when it fell, as how many places for docking can there be? But it still took me 3 minutes of staring. And even then with all the crossers, WEBLOGGER took another minute.
My first thought was that a ‘place for docking’ was a tail. Doing these things really warps your way of reading plain words sometimes!
Ditto
Got to the hour and decided to give up on theNHO WEBLOGGER. Oh well. As mentioned already, though but fair with some excellent surfaces and plenty of trickery.
A number unparsed so Thanks William.
33.01 WOE
Exactly the same as Johninterred. I never check for pangrams but here it would have really helped. Actually FJORD was a cracking clue with very tricky w/p hidden in plain sight.
Otherwise that NW was an issue. Had FLEET for 1D which kinda almost works. Once the clever WHARF appeared I thought the rest would be easy but really struggled to construct 1A as thought “over” had to be “o” or a containment indicator rather than an instruction to reverse.
Good challenge
Thanks William/setter
About 40 minutes.
– Not familiar with WEBLOGGER but constructed it from wordplay
– Avoided the temptation to bung in FLOOD rather than FJORD by realising it was likely to be a pangram and we hadn’t had a J yet
– Only saw that EQUIDISTANT was a hidden after I’d got it from the checkers
– Didn’t parse GLOVE PUPPET, ROB (thought of shift as a dress, but not as a robe) or OAKEN
– Also biffed SWEATSHOP (would never have worked out Cornish pasties=SW eats)
– Same with EARFLAP (forgot Wyatt Earp)
Tough but enjoyable. Thanks William and setter.
FOI Tux
LOI Fjord
COD Larghetto
18:56
I couldn’t get any sort of flow going, mainly I think because of the wordiness of so many clues. Not a style I warmed to.
35.28 determined to get everything both correct and parsed. On that basis, OUTRÉ proved particularly tricky, because I failed for ages to see either end as the definition or the wordplay. Some very clever stuff in the convoluted cluing and elusive definitions, but I only really mention that to indicate I count myself very clever to have sussed it all, like when (if) you solve the GCHQ Christmas quiz.
Special mention for the brilliantly hidden EQUIDISTANT and, of course the completion of the pangram.
16:29, 1 error. Really enjoyed this, and glad to find I’m not the only one who solved clues like LA PAZ and immediately though “ooh this could be a pangram”…then had F_O_D to fill in and banged in FLOOD with completely insufficient care and attention. Must do better (me, not the setter).
I found this easy in parts and hard in others. Thanks william_j_s and setter. I never notice pangrams nor NINAs and this was no exception.
1a Weblogger. This is not even in my dictionary. Weblog is stated by Wiktionary to be dated. Blog is the more usual term.
6a Optic. DNK Coptic=Egyptian, thought they were more towards Ethiopia, but I am assured that they descend from ancient Egyptians.
10a Baklava, aka=Also Known As.
11a Fjord, lovely, lacking “an”. COD.
4d Glove puppet, could not parse, thanks william_j_s. I could see Vet in there and ET the film but never thought of a GP. Grrr!
16d Sweatshop. S.W. Eats never occurred to me.
Etymologically Copt=Gypt.
Oh! Thanks for that interesting fact.
Not much to add to what’s already been said, quite tough but very enjoyable and pleased to finish in not much more than my usual time of around 20 mins. The upper left had several of the trickier clues in WEBLOGGER, FJORD, WHARF and BITCOIN and these were the last to fall. I did, unusually for me, spot the pangram but didn’t make use of that as a solving aid.
34,36 but undone by a carelessly biffed BREASTPIECE that I failed to notice had become BREASTPIACE when MEDIATORIAL went in. Drat! TRACHEA and BAKLAVA were first 2 in and FJORD was LOI. I was held up for an age in the NW corner. Thanks setter and William.
After a slow start I finished this in 47 minutes but it turned out to be a DNF as, like Johninterred and others, I manufactured FLOOD instead of FJORD at 11ac, having failed to spot it was a pangram. Woe and thrice woe. But still an enjoyable puzzle which left a pleasant taste in the mouth.
FOI – EON
(LOI – FLOOD)
COD – SWEATSHOP
Thanks to william and other contributors.
Gave up on the hour with the WHARF/FJORD combo missing. Also beaten by OAKEN, though I had all the crossers. Too hard for me.
How is WEBLOGGER or simply BLOGGER “One extending site”?
What is an “extending site” I got WEBLOGGER but couldn’t parse or even see the definition.
Thanks William
Hi. I took the meaning as ‘to present’ if that makes any sense.
A person adding content to (extending), or presenting (a la Andy above) a website?
Yep, as new puzzles come out every day, we keep extending TftT! It has grown to gigantic size, with over twelve thousand posts and nearly half a million comments.
😮
Wow – I had no idea.
Bottle of champers maybe, for whoever makes comment 500,000? (hoping..)
To me it doesn’t even give me someone on the web.
Good for me to complete on a Friday. My time is not worth posting. Recognised the possibility of a Pangram which helped with Baklava. 6 Down Bifd- not a fan of this type of clue but hey ho. 11A and 12A will have me thinking of Monty Python sketches for the rest of the day. Thanks to all.
32:50 – some unparsed write-ins and many more that had to be thought about, mostly in the NW. Wasn’t convinced by “taken to the cleaners” as an anagram indicator and I was left wondering if this was some hitherto unsuspected definition of OUTRE, but the answer was obvious if not the route to it.
I did not find this too hard until I reached the end. Unfortunately, oakum is a filler of sorts, so I had it for a long time before deciding Emmenthal must be right, even though I couldn’t parse it. I considered and rejected flood, and tried again. Weblogger and bitcoin were both unexpected – getting a bit modern, are we? But I did finish, and all correct.
Time: 38:25
21:21. Another first-class puzzle, which I found significantly harder than yesterday’s.
I came very close to bunging in FLOOD faute de mieux but fortunately kept thinking. Part of my problem was thinking fluorine was FL.
I’ve come across ‘weblog’ before but never WEBLOGGER. I do wish the Times would avoid these new-fangled ephemera. 😀
I found a clue in the Quickie recently referring to Fluorine and Salt, and had been under the same misapprehension, so learned my lesson from then, luckily. And spotted the probably misleading ‘lacking an’ so it was one of the first in.
Hard, and slow even with lots of write-ins and chestnuts like XYLOPHONE (ducks for cover). Way off the wavelength, but all finished and parsed except for the hidden Equidistant. What does that say? FJORD actually first one in, going through the acrosses first. Equidistant LOI when nothing else made sense. Not so keen on ZAP for murder – is a zap a mob of crows? – but plenty to like otherwise, maybe UMBILICAL as COD.
I’d like to zap the mob of crows that carve up my local golf course…
🙂
Lots of standout clues and misleading definitions. So pleased to finish all parsed (many post-parsed) that I missed the pangram. The kind of Friday puzzle that I really appreciate – I don’t enjoy spending 2 days struggling to solve the last few clues.
With reference to Vinyl’s stats about TfTT, I wonder how many commentors there are now? The number has vastly increased since setting up this site, I know…
There are 1606 distinct commenters in the blogs copied from Live Journal prior to our cutover to the new site on May 14, 2022. On the new site, we have 1347 registered to comment, plus 32 for our staff of bloggers, editors, and administrators.
Gosh, nearly 3000 in total, then! An impressive number, although I often see a name who doesn’t regularly comment, so quite a few would be largely passive users of the site. Off to The George now to meet some of the regulars…
Totally jobbed by fjord and oaken and optic. In my world macerated meant, until now, chewed rather than soaked, and i failed to get optic so oaken did not present itself! Fjord, well I just admire people that got it! Thanks, was fun! Cx
I had to put this down, nearly finished, and come back after eating. Just realized now that, in my elation at finishing, I forgot to go back and figure out why OAKEN.
The last one I parsed was FJORD. Just one more subtraction from a clue word to hold me up this week…
PLATE for “bowl” seemed odd.
I’ve been to Norway so have no excuse for FIORD. A typo as well, so an almost OWL after 45 minutes.
DNF. Gave up after 35 mins completely defeated by weblogger, overdress and Bitcoin- which I should have got but didn’t.
Whew! Just made it inside the hour. Some brilliant clues, special mention to FJORD for obfuscation. LOI OAKEN, more hope than expectation
I parsed GLOVE PUPPET as being formed from UP and PET rather than PUP and ET but either way seems to work. A tricky crossword with some odd definitions and anagrinds, as others have mentioned above. EON was FOI and FJORD was LOI
Sometimes if I’m making no real headway after 15 minutes, I find it is better to give up as was the case here. Respect to William for admitting he found this hard- makes a change from the often rather self-satisfied comments others make.
Another Flood here – woe is me. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t enter it (note to self).
Otherwise, 1 hour, very smart puzzle.
25’
COD FJORD, which gave me POI WHARF and an educated guess that a WEBLOGGER was a thing.
A fine puzzle.
Thanks all.
Done in two tranches, so no time. Kept trying to parse WHARF as the river Wharfe without the final E but worked it out in the end. Didn’t spot the pangram – I can never see the wood for the trees! Tricky, I thought.
Took 52 minutes, I had bursts of getting a few quickly, then getting stuck again.
LOI was the NHO WEBLOGGER, I knew it had to be WEB something, I finally thought to write EGG backwards in, then I finally saw what “below ground” was about and that was that.
A really good puzzle which I think I should have been a lot quicker finishing, because it was all very fair, but I wasn’t, so I guess I need to keep practising!!!!
Thanks setter and blogger
45 minutes, a superb puzzle, which strangely enough I did not find too hard (not to say it wasn’t challenging, although I did see many of the difficult bits). Lots of wonderful clues (WEBLOGGER with the laid item over, EQUIDISTANT which I did not see was a hidden clue, GLOVE PUPPET so carefully constructed). Just a lot of fun, but not an impossible Friday.
43:02
Enjoying the view for this puzzle missed on Friday due to much travelling about. Noted on completion that it is a pangram. Some of the answers required teasing out, but the effort was well worth it. Think the only piece of wordplay I didn’t get whilst in flight was the backwards EGG in WEBLOGGER – had been thinking the surface of rubble would be RE reversed, leaving GG to somehow parse.
Thanks William and setter
Done on Sunday as per usual. Felt tough so glad to come in unscathed at 27’06”. Some very clever clueing. Thanks for help in decoding BREASTPLATE and XYLOPHONE which I confidently biffed.
A bit too tough for me: I had several look-ups! (Mind on other things?) They were the NHO WEBLOGGER, WHARF, BAKLAVA, BREASTPLATE and another NHO LARGHETTO. But the rest satisfyingly fell into place with a bit of work. I liked EQUIDISTANT (good Hidden), HERTZ ( a non-negotiable Sound-Alike) and UMBILICAL (life-giving connection.