Time taken: 10:43, but with one completely stupid mistake. This wasn’t a typo, I confidently put in a very wrong answer. Happens sometimes…
Overall I think this is a trickier puzzle. There’s some general knowledge that might help those that have it biff a few entries, but I was reliant on the wordplay for most of the long answers and proper nouns in this one.
I dug my own grave though – faced with -A-S for “World is hurting”, I completely misread it as “Land is hurting” and thought a little French was required and put in PAYS. Sure enough – two little pink squares confirm I wasn’t thinking properly.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Location of cash register, matter for investigation (8) |
| NOTECASE – NOTE(register, think entering data), then CASE(matter for investigation) | |
| 5 | Poem I penned in month, as divine (6) |
| DEIFIC – IF(Poem by Kipling) and I inside DEC(month) | |
| 9 | Fight scene cut (3) |
| VIE – VIEW(scene) minus the last letter | |
| 10 | Solver’s beef well done! (5,3,3) |
| BULLY FOR YOU – the solver’s beef could be BULLY FOR YOU | |
| 12 | Establishment opening on concourse to which another is possibly linked? (5,5) |
| CHAIN STORE – first letter of Concourse, then an anagram of ANOTHER,IS. Fantastic clue! | |
| 13 | World is hurting (4) |
| MARS – double definition | |
| 15 | Bolero’s piece for record cover? (6) |
| SLEEVE – a bolero is a waistcoat, so a SLEEVE would be a piece of one | |
| 16 | Derided and put away rapidly (7) |
| SCOFFED – double definition | |
| 18 | Knowledge and gift of flowers entrancing woman (7) |
| LORELEI – LORE(knowledge) and LEI(gift of flowers) | |
| 20 | Friend’s struck out at eventually (2,4) |
| IN TIME – INTIMATE(friend) minus AT | |
| 23 | Unexceptional rascal, and playing truant (2-2) |
| SO-SO – SO-AND-SO(rascal) minus AND | |
| 24 | Film maker with great intellect screening coverage of Sartre? (10) |
| EISENSTEIN – EINSTEIN(great intellect) containing the external letters of SartrE | |
| 26 | Lo! “Green” rays converted? (5,6) |
| SOLAR ENERGY – anagram of LO,GREEN,RAYS – an all-in-one | |
| 27 | Briefly rank equal in competition (3) |
| TIE – TIER(rank) minus the last letter | |
| 28 | Bird that wouldn’t fly? (6) |
| TURKEY – double definition, the second referring to TURKEY meaning a dud | |
| 29 | Famous solicitor set off (5,3) |
| START OUT – STAR(famous), TOUT(solicitor) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Only virtue it seems for tenderfoot (6) |
| NOVICE – if there is only virtue, there is NO VICE | |
| 2 | One body part, not another according to Spooner (7) |
| TOENAIL – Spoonerism of NO TAIL | |
| 3 | Chelsea bun cooked for a couple of supporters? (5,5) |
| CUBAN HEELS – anagram of CHELSEA BUN | |
| 4 | Rul-ing by the majority? (5,8) |
| SPLIT DECISION – odd clue – kind of a cryptic definition, but the hyphen coming in the middle of rul-ing makes it more an all-in-one | |
| 6 | Love for Grecians, love for no Romans, ultimately (4) |
| EROS – last letters of lovE foR nO romanS | |
| 7 | Crafty beer for player (3,4) |
| FLY HALF – FLY(crafty) and HALF(a half pint of beer) | |
| 8 | Wedge, say, taking divot before a possible splash? (4,4) |
| CLUB SODA – CLUB(a wedge is an example of a golf club), then SOD(divot) and A | |
| 11 | Settle resolution that may help Polish (9,4) |
| YORKSHIRE GRIT – Settle is in YORKSHIRE, so a Settle resolution could be YORKSHIRE GRIT | |
| 14 | Prophet for instance in dummy (10) |
| SOOTHSAYER – SAY(for instance) inside SOOTHER(dummy) | |
| 17 | Cupboard containing empty space with little room in between (5-3) |
| CLOSE-SET – CLOSET(cupboard) containing the external letters in SpacE | |
| 19 | Thief who’s guilty of disturbing the peace? (7) |
| RUSTLER – double definition | |
| 21 | Con essentially cleaned out Rembrandt, stitching up great artist (7) |
| MAESTRO – the middle letter of cOn, the outer letters of RembrandT and SEAM(stitching), all reversed | |
| 22 | Flip coin finally into fountain, to return (6) |
| INVERT – the last letter of coiN inside the TREVI fountain, reversed | |
| 25 | Bird in garden, redbreast soaring (4) |
| ERNE – hidden reversed in gardEN REdbreast | |
A tough 43‘ for me – completed unusually early thanks to no sleep on a hot night
COD YORKSHIRE GRIT – helped by an image that popped into my head of the viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle railway
LOI CLUB SODA – couldn‘t get log flume out of my head re possible splash
Took an age to get into it but then somehow got on right wavelength
Some really clever and entertaining clues
40:30
I thought some, and it was tricky enough for me. It didn’t help matters that I’d never heard of CUBAN HEELS or YORKSHIRE GRIT (and dnk Settle). I spent a lot of time on 17d thinking that ‘little room’=LOO. I hesitated on SOOTHSAYER, because I couldn’t see how ‘dummy’=SOOTHER; still can’t, for that matter. George, a bolero is a jacket not a waistcoat (which has no sleeves). I liked SOLAR ENERGY & SPLIT DECISION.
A baby’s dummy is also called a soother or pacifier.
Thanks; I didn’t know that a pacifier is also called a dummy or a soother! (I see ODE marks ‘dummy’ in this sense as (Brit.).)
Yes Kevin, BOLEROs were a fashionable accessory for womens’ dresses (my mother had several) in the 1950s and were I think based on the abbreviated jackets worn by bullfighters.
Struggled with this and had to look hard at the wordplay to get some of the answers. NHO EISENSTEIN and thought it might be some other spelling of ‘Weinstein’ before SPLIT DECISION came. NHO YORKSHIRE GRIT but as soon as I had BULLY FOR YOU I saw it had to be Yorkshire something. Didn’t think much of the Spooner clue. Liked DEIFIC and LORELEI. COD to SOOTHSAYER.
Thanks G and setter.
About 50 minutes. Did lots of biffing with great success. Liked LORELEI, BULLY FOR YOU and CHAIN STORE. NHO YORKSHIRE GRIT. Really needed the blog for the parsing.
Thanks G
38 minutes. I knew Settle as a place name and where it is so YORKSHIRE came easily but I had to wait for a checker to bring GRIT to mind. I didn’t know that YORKSHIRE GRIT is an actual thing and took it to be a play on the expression ‘gritty northerners’ which would include people from Yorkshire. It seems I may be right about that as it’s a brand name probably thought up with that in mind and not that long ago.
I still don’t get it. The clue should have a ‘maybe’ in there or a question mark.
I found this a real trial and was pleased to get it done correctly in 45.54, a numerical palindrome if I ever saw one. The CUBAN HEELS and SOLAR ENERGY anagrams took a lot of work and it was gratifying to figure out SOOTHSAYER, CHAIN STORE, MAESTRO and DEIFIC. DNK fly = crafty, DNK a bolero had SLEEVES and for a while I had Yorkshire spit. Thanks G.
From Long Lost John From Bowling Green:
He’s a-running through the corn, running through the corn
Like a TURKEY in the corn, he’s a-running through the corn
He’s long gone, long John
Long lost John from Bowling Green
Don’t know where Dylan did this. He didn’t write it, anyway.
There’s a version of this old folk song, recorded in 1961, on the ‘Minnesota Tapes’ bootleg, released in 1994.
Ha! I actually did research, and Bob’s version was very different from the other traditional lyrics so I decided CONTROVERSIALLY to award him a writing credit as regards ‘turkey’. I mean, I could have had him TIE the laces on his shoe but decided to range wider. I first heard this track on a vinyl bootleg (which I just replayed) that I was sold by a kid in the neighbourhood c1968 for $10, then a fortune. Dad came to the party, fortunately. As Rob says, turns out it was from the 1961 Minnesota hotel sessions. Even then he was pretty good on the harp, because that’s all it is, voice and harmonica. Always something to talk about with Bob…
YORKSHIRE GRIT is in Chambers, though not in Collins or Dictionary.com. Pretty sure I’d NHO NOTECASE either. I’m half-asleep already and just glad to finish—with EISENSTEIN and then INVERT.
This looked awful to start with, but my friend encouraged and we sort of got on the wavelength. Ended up fully correct and mostly parsed.
Pretty chuffed about getting 5ac DEIFIC.
Not sure how the ‘piece’ worked for 15ac SLEEVE so that was a BIF.
Admired the neatness of 18ac LORELEI, and 26ac SOLAR ENERGY – almost &lit ?
Thought the hyphenation in 4d was necessary as an indication of what sort of decision.
Having looked up to check after, understand that YORKSHIRE GRIT is a paste used in woodworking. Have to reluctantly agree with the cluing in 29ac.
Glad to see a puzzle that was tough but fair in its cluing, gave satisfaction for effort and some style – as in 10ac.
Another excellent puzzle which kept me on my toes. I biffed my COD and only thought of the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle and Carlisle rail line when I parsed it afterwards. You can catch a train from Leeds to Carlisle and enjoy the magnificent views – it’s especially beautiful in the depths of winter with snow on the ground.
FOI SLEEVE
LOI MARS
COD YORKSHIRE GRIT
TIME 12:04
39 mins with a number of biffs and I did have to look up the NHO film maker. I also had the YORKSHIRE in quickly but had to wait for the crossers to put in the (guessed) GRIT.
I thought INVERT was clever.
Thanks g and setter.
DNF after 50 mins pressed reveal to see notecase as answer to 1ac. Just couldn’t see it. Annoying as I was pleased to get all the others including the slightly risque eyeball which is my COD.
There is no eyeball!
I see my eyeball was wrong as well! I think I prefer my answer…
I started off with eyeball.
Liked this one, a steady solve.
Failed to picture what a bolero looked like, kept thinking of Torvill and Dean .. but decided it probably had sleeves ..
Tricky Thursday and doggy daycare coincide most weeks and so they did again. So I”ve no reliable time to report. In any case this was an official DNF because I thought of MARS and rejected it. I’ve only ever had a wallet and thought NOTECASE was an Americanism, only to find that Guy thought the opposite. Otherwise, a tough but very good puzzle with last one actually in TOENAIL. I had no idea that a BOLERO was a sleeve but that is where records used to go. Thank you George and setter.
Like the blogger let down by my own thinking today. HUSTLER instead of RUSTLER which blocked LORELEI which was straight in once I corrected. If I’m clutching at straws I could justify it but the correct answer is better.
Didn’t know what was going on with YORKSHIRE GRIT which was solved solely in from the checking letters.
As the least fashionable person on here CUBAN HEELS were new to me. EISENSTEIN must have been in my mind somewhere as it went straight in but only remembered his films via Google afterwards.
COD: FLY HALF
Only 1/4 finished this week for my worst form for months although all out by one or two. Have they been on the trickier side this week?
Edit: Just had a more detailed read of the blog and can see CHAIN STORE wasn’t a CD even though I solved it that way. That can join COD.
From NOVICE to EISENSTEIN and finally SOOTHESAYER with much cogitation in between. Sheesh! Liked CUBAN HEELS and BULLY FOR YOU. EYEBALL held up the NW until TOENAIL replaced it. 43:28. Thanks setter and George.
DNF, defeated by EISENSTEIN and INVERT as I didn’t know trevi=fountain.
– Misparsed DEIFIC (missed that ‘If’ was the poem)
– Didn’t know Bolero as a waistcoat, so I wasn’t sure about SLEEVE
– Even with the Y at the start, needed all the checkers to get YORKSHIRE GRIT
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Cuban heels
There is only one poem ever…
11:19. I started slowly on this, with only three or four acrosses going in on the first pass.
4dn is a curious clue: just a completely straight definition without the hyphen!
NHO YORKSHIRE GRIT.
52m 22s
In 7d I spent quite a bit of time thinking of an actor/musician called SLY (‘crafty’)with a 4-letter surname.
I did like YORKSHIRE GRIT!
Thanks George.
Enjoyed this one, despite my visceral and completely irrational hatred of Spooner clues, for which I may seek therapy. I imagine the setter must have been thrilled to discover the CHELSEA BUN > CUBAN HEELS anagram. I can picture his thought process from Chelsea to supporters etc..very neat clue.
Didn’t see YORKSHIRE for ages. Could only see YARDSTICK with my crossers and convinced myself there could be no other word of that length beginning with Y-R.
Not as bad as the other day when I had EVERY- O- – but couldn’t see the synonym for ‘All’ . I think it’s the heat.
Your hatred isn’t irrational. Spooner himself hated them.
His alleged ‘Spoonerisms’ were a myth in his own (long) lifetime, and the few that he might have expressed were probably isolated accidents of absent-mindedness, seized upon by his students as a source of a great new amusement which they themselves could deploy at social gatherings. The lasting ridicule is almost totally unfounded.
Despite being a man of great intellect, it’s shameful that the man’s only legacy, mistakenly derived, is to have his name perpetuated in the form of silly crossword clues.
Yet another DNF. Maybe Alzheimer’s is finally getting me. Defeated by the NHOs YORKSHIRE GRIT and EISENSTEIN. Also missing DEIFIC and CLUB SODA. IQ failure, I fear.
I found this hard to get into, but eventually got there in 33m. However I really don’t understand ‘by the majority’ in ‘split decision’. I would be most grateful for enlightenment!
I suppose if it is a hung jury then the judge may allow a majority verdict; with some of the jurors disagreeing the decision is split.
Thanks Andy.
I am sure there are other usages but my immediate thought was boxing where if two judges score the fight for fighter A and the third for fighter B, then fighter A wins the bout by split decision.
Thanks!
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/split-decision
Thank you. I had assumed it meant 50-50.
Me too tbh. But I had a vague inkling it had something to do with boxing so I looked it up.
DNF
Beaten by the unknown film maker and couldn’t work out what I was trying to insert the SE into. One where having the initial letter would have been a big help.
Found it an odd mixture of mostly easy with a few much chewier bits.
Another hard one, an excellent puzzle with some great clues. Really liked EISENSTEIN (I was terrified as a child somehow watching ‘Ivan the Terrible’). The Settle clue was weird, is this a well-known brand name? Didn’t think about the BOLERO clue, which is fine, and I was inspired to watch once more Torvill and Dean from 1984.
25’30”, thanks george and setter.
Settle is a town in Yorkshire (this has been mentioned above).
Yes I know, but have never heard of this brand name
Sorry, I misunderstood your comment. I thought you had in mind that a ‘Yorkshire’ was some kind of settee, like a Davenport or Chesterfield. Mea culpa! Actually very dumb of me with the benefit of hindsight.
Yes. But it doesn’t define ‘Yorkshire’.
The clue needs a ‘maybe’ somewhere in it.
Definitely on the settter’s wavelength today; I found this easier than most seem seem to have done. Y was enough for YORKSHIRE ( the Monty Python sketch captures their grit perfectly) and ten letter film makers and prophets are fairly thin on the ground. COD INVERT
Thanks to George and the setter
27.30
CHAIN STORE was excellent ditto CLUB SODA. Got stuck on EISENSTEIN so pleased to work that out but it was the gentler TURKEY that held me up at the end.
Liked it a lot – thanks George and setter
DNF, indeed tricky Thursday.
5a NHO Deific, but the wordplay was clear.
12a Chain store. Biffed, never saw the anagram.
13a Mars. Hesitated as I doubted that mar=hurt. Damage, yes, hurt no.
16a Scoffed. I put stuffed which didn’t help or parse.
23a So-so biffed. Didn’t spot the truant AND.
11d NHO Yorkshire Grit, cheated.
17d Close Set biffed, didn’t see closet nor SpacE for se.
Thanks to glh and setter.
Nearly 35 minutes in a SPLIT sitting. I got seriously slowed by fairly confident CHECKOUT, where cash registers are, and a corresponding EYEBALL (“‘bye, all”) from the good reverend. I ran out of available time in the Kent area, later bludgeoning my way to EISENSTEIN (the Odessa Steps sequence copied in part into The Untouchables though with apparently more steps than the stairway in Matter of Life and Death) and finishing with MAESTRO, wondering whether Con was short for conductor. INVERT was a beast of a clue. I admit I didn’t get all the links in CHAIN STORE, and kind of wish I’d tried harder. I sympathise with George on MARS: I took some internal convincing for its equivalence to “hurts”. Glad it wasn’t my week!
I was trying to remember which movie had the Odessa steps sequence (Battleship Potemkin) so thanks for the nudge Z. If you can sit through the rest of it there’s a wonderful battle on the ice at the end of Alexander Nevsky.
I’ve sat through Alexander Nevsky at least 5 times- top marks for the Prokofiev score!
58:46. Another tricky one with INVERT and TURKEY my last ones … there were lots of options for the alphabet trawl. could have had tercel (various spellings) or I was beginning to think it was a cryptic def and be TARGET. INVERT was very clever but did require some GK (perhaps a bit much?) Great puzzle!
This seemed a fairly standard Thursday offering to me. NOTECASE and DEIFIC were not words found at the front of my memory but the clueing was kind. Otherwise I just ploughed on and finished in 32 minutes, about my average.
FOI – SCOFFED
LOI – MARS
COD – SOOTHSAYER
Thanks to george and other contributors.
A long time (79 minutes) really just because of age and general slowness. Nothing was terribly difficult in retrospect. I was unhappy with MARS = is hurting, but no doubt some dictionaries support it, although Collins at least doesn’t unless you squint. CHAIN STORE was I thought brilliant. although it was a pity the setter couldn’t have had ‘opening in store’. The ‘on’ is a bit unsatisfactory I think. Could 4dn have just been ‘Rul-ing’?
I enjoyed this today, and came in at 34 minutes in a single session, in the sun, in the pub garden, at lunchtime, over a lovely glass of chilled New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The world can be a beautiful place! Time is pretty good for me for a tricky puzzle. COD for me was chain store. Maestro was LOI. Thanks to both setter and blogger!
40 minutes. All ok except I couldn’t see how Chain Store worked until I came here.
Plenty to like – my hat’s off to Lorelei, Fly Half, Start Out and Yorkshire Grit (which, being from Lancashire, I must acknowledge through gritted teeth).
Well beaten. But pleased to guess EISENSTEIN.
NHO YORKSHIRE GRIT, and I’m on the train up there right now, for the cricket. Let’s hope Joe Root shows some tomorrow.
COD SPLIT DECISION
So hard! Did 3/4 and checked you guys! Fave was Rul-ing!!
No time to report as I was solving this and watching Ascot on the tv at the same time. I was pleased to finish with all correct and parsed, and had I given it my full attention I would estimate it would have taken me about fifty minutes or so. The nw corner gave me the most trouble, and it was NOTECASE and finally the dodgy TOENAIL that completed the solve”
No time as I attacked this in two sessions. Very tough but got there in the end – clear on all the definitions, but less so on some of the parsing (CHAINSTORE).
I took 51 minutes. I got completely stuck and blocked for simply ages, put the puzzle down, picked it up again just now and suddenly I was just racing through the clues, laughing at how clever they were. LOI was YORKSHIRE GRIT.
Really good puzzle!
Thanks setter and blogger
I really enjoyed this (especially that I was able to solve it at a steady, if slow, pace). It took me 51 minutes. But there were many wonderful clues, including SO-SO, NOVICE and TOENAIL, MAESTRO. It took me a while to remember that Settle is in Yorkshire (well, the crossing Y helped a little with that) and then I just guessed GRIT as something that might be used to polish things, and only then realized, oh, that kind of resolution! Lots of fun.
Well beaten by EISENSTEIN – aware of the name but no idea of context, and didn’t think of EINSTEIN either. Otherwise, about 35 minutes.
Done six days later over two sessions. In first I must have been knackered because I just had to give up. Revisited, everything fell into place. CHAIN STORE is a fabulous clue. 34’10”
Congratulations. I took even longer. Finally put the beast aside this morning with one unsolved. I was surprised a Y helped everyone biff YORKSHIRE. I was looking for some mineral or other. Goes to show once your mind is off in one direction it’s hard to drag it back and refresh.
Mixed thoughts on this one: no clue at all about 1a, then got sidetracked into thinking ODE had to go into 5a ( NHO IF, the poem). Was happy to pounce on CLUB SODA and BULLY FOR YOU ( two excellent clues IMO), but couldn’t see CHAIN STORE for the notion we were looking for something golf-related. All in all an enjoyable experience.
Couldn’t believe -r-t would be grit, its use in polishing having passed me by.
Otherwise a greatly enjoyable challenge.
Thanks to setter and blogger.