Time taken: 10:37. I think this one is on the trickier side, as a lot of the early times are pretty close to mine, and I’m surprised. I went out tonight to celebrate a promotion, and then watched an abbreviated T20 match with a few more drinks before remembering that it was my turn to blog and I should really solve the puzzle.
I made really good time until the last four, which slowed me down forever, not helped by a confident incorrect answer originally at 1ac. Limped to a finish – how did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Outline editor sent back, one putting pen to paper? (8) |
| DESCRIBE – ED(editor) reversed, then SCRIBE(one putting pen to paper). Did not help by cause by confidently entering DESIGNER for some unbeknownst reason. | |
| 5 | Sailor and Scotsman — such may be on the road (6) |
| TARMAC – TAR(sailor) and MAC(Scotsman) | |
| 9 | A half-hearted lord (3) |
| PER – PEER(lord) with one of the middle letters missing | |
| 10 | Harmonises different decorations (11) |
| COORDINATES – anagram of DECORATIONS | |
| 12 | Alert? No, one may surmise? (8,2) |
| SWITCHED ON – “no” would be a SWITCHED version of ON | |
| 13 | Pacific island’s tree-covered area (4) |
| GUAM – a GUM tree surrounding A(area) | |
| 15 | Idiot beginning to undermine church in that capacity (2,4) |
| AS SUCH – ASS(idiot), the first letter of Undermine and then CH(church). Fun clue! | |
| 16 | Fade away in barren land, becoming more sullen (7) |
| MOODIER – DIE(fade away) in MOOR(barren land) | |
| 18 | Time for a holiday, possibly close to sea and golf course (7) |
| AUGUSTA – AUGUST(time for a summer holiday, perhaps) then the last letter of seA. Golf course in Georgia best known for hosting the Masters | |
| 20 | Message from evangelist locked up after Bible study? (6) |
| REPENT – PENT(locked up) after RE(Bible study). I hear this a lot in the Southeastern US | |
| 23 | Member of crew cheated, taking in any number (4) |
| HAND – HAD(cheated) containing N(any number) | |
| 24 | Prepared, like one with hands in the till? (2,3,5) |
| AT THE READY – double definition, the second referring to READY meaning money | |
| 26 | Conflict mediator finally intervening between two parties? (11) |
| DISCORDANCE – last letter of mediatoR in between a DISCO party and a DANCE party | |
| 27 | Home said to be a place of refreshment (3) |
| INN – homophone of IN(home) | |
| 28 | Reluctant to talk about a couple of bishops being dishonourable (6) |
| SHABBY – SHY(reluctant to talk) surrounding A, and B,B(couple of bishops) | |
| 29 | American street artist and girl in bar (8) |
| ASTRAGAL – A(American), ST(street), RA(artist) and GAL(girl) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Put down pillar with bottom disappearing in river (6) |
| DEPOSE – POST(pillar) minus the last letter inside DEE(river) | |
| 2 | Military actions with soldiers penetrating farm buildings (7) |
| SORTIES – OR(soldiers) inside STIES(farm buildings) | |
| 3 | Venue for a meeting of Arabs? (10) |
| RACECOURSE – cryptic definition based on an Arab being a type of horse | |
| 4 | Clue to her date being very upset? (13) |
| BROKENHEARTED – HER DATE could be BROKEN HEARTED | |
| 6 | Composer has hair trimmed at the edges (4) |
| ARNE – BARNET(hair) minus the external letters | |
| 7 | Floor coverings I placed around old city for festival (7) |
| MATSURI – MATS(floor coverings) and I surrounding UR(old city) | |
| 8 | Aromatic plant suffering with contrary female gardener (8) |
| COSTMARY – COST(suffering, monetary hardship) with MARY (Mary, quite contrary) | |
| 11 | Pessimistic folk command others to change (4-9) |
| DOOM-MERCHANTS – anagram of DOOM MERCHANTS | |
| 14 | Pass hotel employee pressing uniform for bookseller (10) |
| COLPORTEUR – COL(mountain pass) and PORTER(hotel employee) containing U(uniform) | |
| 17 | They are in cells at hospital protected by sets of rules (8) |
| CATHODES – AT, H(hospital) inside CODES(sets of rules). Electronic cells. | |
| 19 | Type of rap music filling Georgia with dread (7) |
| GANGSTA – GA(Georgia) containing ANGST(dread). I’ll leave it up to you to determine if music needs to be in the definition | |
| 21 | Possibly cosying up to one wanting love with a token of love (7) |
| NEARING – ONE mins O(love), than A,RING(token of love) | |
| 22 | Service manual? (6) |
| HYMNAL – cryptic definition | |
| 25 | Company doctor’s card (4) |
| COMB – CO(company), MB(doctor) | |
17.11, marred by a unnoticed typo. When I lived in Bourton-on-the-Water, I knew a COLPORTEUR, whose occasional forays into street preaching were prone to interruption by local youths who administered involuntary baptism in the local river. His missus was of the more ferocious kind who refused to believe anyone could ever properly REPENT.
ASTRAGAL I entered with no idea how it was a bar, and the Japanese festival I’ve yet to experience.
Congratulations, George on actually producing a blog under the prevailing conditions!
Wikipedia tells us that an astragal, being a type of moulding, is not the same as a ‘sash/glazing/muntin bar’ (AKA ‘muntin’, though apparently only in the US) but is somehow often confused with it. I’m not sure why that would be the case though, as the bars separating panes of glass in windows are definitely not mouldings!
Against the grain, found it not too hard. Wavelength! Only one actual NHO, ASTRAGAL which was a guess as LOI, but things like COSTMARY and COLPORTEUR come up often enough they eventually stick (I don’t do Mephistos; must have been dailies). Didn’t fall into any bear traps, didn’t hit any breeze blocks, just worked my way through. Recognised what BROKEN-HEARTED and SWITCHED ON were going to look like long before solving them.
Pleasant puzzle.
DNF
Suffering = under the cosh, thus MARY UNDER THE COSH.
Fun to (not) do puzzle, thanks all.
Well, similar experience to yesterday though rather slower at 38:53 and we made liberal use of the ‘check’ function for the deducible but NHOs MATSURI, ASTRAGAL, COLPORTEUR and COSTMARY, as well as ARNE and HYMNAL which I was pretty confident of but wanted some reassurance on. Our last two were DEPOSE and SWITCHED ON. The latter had been suggested earlier by Mrs T but we couldn’t see how it worked (thank you, George!). It went in finally once we saw that DEPOSE would work with the crossing S. A satisfying challenge with a decent balance of learning. Liked RACECOURSE and BROKEN HEARTED with its similar structure to yesterday’s FORBIDDEN GROUND. Thank you, setter.
26:09
Didn’t find this too bad even if there were some things I’d never heard of – admittedly I checked for the existence of each of these before submitting: COSTMARY (nothing surprises me about the bananas names that plants are given), MATSURI, COLPORTEUR, ASTRAGAL. Some I just didn’t understand whilst in flight, so thanks G for the illumination – AT THE READY pencilled in with no checkers from definition, COMB. LOI was SORTIES.
Thanks also to the setter
This was a slow slog for me through lunchtime and dipping in and out in between meetings in the afternoon.
NHO ASTRAGAL, MATSURI, COSTMARY, COLPORTEUR, but eventually worked them out. Also NHO COMB and CARD being synonymous (looked it up after it went in and turned green). So I was very pleased to solve this without cheating, albeit in over 2 hours 20 minutes.
Definite COD for BROKENHEARTED. Lovely clue.
Thanks setter and thanks for the blog.
40 mins. Should have let myself recover from golf in the sun before tackling this. As a result had to take a break after 30 mins of slog. Just picked up where I left off and flew through the remainder in 10 mins.
Astragal was new to me as was matsuri. Lots of anagrams. Managed to remember Colporteur .
I successfully completed this at the same time as watching Wimbledon on the tv, so no time to report. I certainly found it tough, so wouldn’t have got much change out of an hour if I’d given it my full attention. Many answers I’ve never come across such as COSTMARY and MATSURI, but I trusted the clueing to get me there. I even managed to convince myself that 12ac was STITCHED UP, before DOOM MERCHANTS allowed me to reassess and get me SWITCHED ON!
In France, COLPORTEUR means any kind of door-to-door salesman, and in Paris you still see signs in the hallways of blocks of flats saying “INTERDICTION AUX COLPORTEURS”. Did this in 25’43”, after guessing several of the more obscure answers. LOI COSTMARY which I admit I checked before entering. Quite a tough one.
I enjoyed this, though it took a bit longer than I would like, at 48 minutes. I was held up for longer than I should have been in the NW corner, and also by 8dn, where I eventually plumped for the NHO COSTMARY rather than the equally NHO COSHMARY, arguing that a cosh was the cause of suffering rather than the suffering itself. I had a distant memory of an astragalos as a Greek word for a bone in the foot (used for playing dice) so I had no hesitation about ASTRAGAL, even though its meaning as a bar was new to me. I am now wise to the use of Arabs in crosswords to refer to horses, even if I am completely ignorant on the intricacies of horseracing. COLPORTEUR (but not its meaning) was recalled from previous crosswords. Generally good fun.
FOI – TARMAC
LOI – COSTMARY
COD – BROKENHEARTED
Thanks to george and other contributors.
I took just under half an hour and found this rather easy! Which is not to say I had ever heard of the AUGUSTA golf course, ASTRAGAL, MATSURI or COSTMARY, but the wordplay and the crossing letters were kind enough. The only question I had while solving was whether COSTMARY could be right. MARY, Mary, quite contrary was a giveaway and TARMAC made ROSEMARY impossible, so I thought it might be CASEMARY before deciding that a case, in medicine, might be a particular patient but not his suffering. Fortunately COST… did seem to fit better. Only when I had finished did I realize how many words in the answers I actually didn’t know.
I took exactly 45 minutes and my last 3 in were COSTMARY, ASTRAGAL and COLPORTEUR, 2 of which (Costmary and Colporteur) were completely new to me, while Astragal I knew the word but thought it meant a moulding round the top of a pillar. So I counted myself lucky to finish unscathed! There were some clever misdirections in the clues as well.
Thanks setter and blogger
Same unknowns as others but all gettable from the wordplay so no complaints. No recorded time but probably around 30 mins. 4/4 correctly completed puzzles for me this week so keeping my fingers crossed for a doable puzzle tomorrow and a very rare for me full set. Thanks setter and George