29:10
Many thanks to Jeremy for covering my recent absence. I was apprehensive about getting back into the saddle, and sympathise with those for whom Friday’s are the harbinger of frustrating (or worse, fruitless) efforts. So it is a great pleasure to introduce a puzzle of mid-difficulty for a change!
I certainly found the bottom half harder than the top, but with enough of a start and only a few head-scratches, I was home and dry. LOsI 19ac and 21dn parsed after the fact.
Happy bank holiday weekend to all those who get one.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Concerning when brackets support nothing (7) |
| APROPOS – AS (when) contains (brackets) PROP (support) with O (nothing). | |
| 5 | Confines of dim space suspect flees (7) |
| DECAMPS – anagram of (suspect) outermost letters of (confines of) DiM + SPACE. | |
| 9 | Cheap floor (9) |
| KNOCKDOWN – double definition? The second reading as two words. | |
| 10 | Married at traditional place for ceremony, shunning close island (5) |
| MALTA – M (married) + ALTAr (traditional place for ceremony), minus the last (shunning close). | |
| 11 | Became opposed to sour commander in street (6,7) |
| TURNED AGAINST – TURNED (sour) + AGA (commander) + IN + ST (street). | |
| 13 | In general room trapped by enemy, presumably (8) |
| NORMALLY – RM (room) contained (trapped) by NO ALLY (enemy, presumably). | |
| 15 | Avoiding the sides, slid one’s oars straight (6) |
| LINEAR – take the first and last letters from (avoiding the sides) sLId oNEs oARs. | |
| 17 | Air conditioning enveloping church, it turned very cold (6) |
| ARCTIC – AC (air conditioning) containing (enveloping) all of RC (church) + IT reversed (turned). | |
| 19 | Olympian put in fencing work (8) |
| POSEIDON – POSE (put) + IN containing (fencing) DO (work). | |
| 22 | One furnishing shop reportedly is fraudulent type (13) |
| COUNTERFEITER – sounds like (reportedly) “counter fitter” (one furnishing shop). | |
| 25 | Fool contributing to recurrent deltoid injury (5) |
| IDIOT – hidden in (contributing to) the reversal of (recurrent) delTOID Injury. | |
| 26 | Spread with great range avoided by him includes second-rate rice dish (9) |
| JAMBALAYA – JAM (spread) + himALAYA (great range) minus (avoided by) ‘him’, containing (includes) B (second-rate). | |
| 27 | Craft festival with delay returning (7) |
| GALLEON – NOEL (festival) + LAG (delay) reversed (returning). | |
| 28 | Reporter’s displaying gallantry on a regular basis (7) |
| NIGHTLY – sounds like (reporter’s) “knightly” (displaying gallantry). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Ancient symbol seen in an evacuated kasbah (4) |
| ANKH – AN + outermost letters from (evacuated) KasbaH. | |
| 2 | Bird coming from tor rose to fly around (7) |
| ROOSTER – anagram of (to fly around) TOR ROSE. | |
| 3 | Correct boards for every game (5) |
| POKER – OK (correct) contained by (boards) PER (for every). | |
| 4 | Scheming nurses adore surgeon ultimately, not orderly (8) |
| SLOVENLY – SLY (scheming) contains (nurses) all of LOVE (adore) + the last of (ultimately) surgeoN. | |
| 5 | Dismissal of servant with duke for month (6) |
| DENIAL – mENIAL (of servant) with D (duke) replacing (for) ‘m’ (month). | |
| 6 | Animal in village initially charges to appear aggressive (9) |
| COMBATIVE – BAT (animal) + the first letters from (initially) In Village, all contained by (charges) COME (to appear). | |
| 7 | Smorgasbord — mass dash for one on counter (7) |
| MELANGE – M (mass) + ÉLAN (dash) + reversal of (on counter) EG (for one). | |
| 8 | Sprinkling substance in grass (10) |
| SMATTERING – MATTER (substance) contained by (in) SING (grass). | |
| 12 | Odd graduate caught hunting wild bears (10) |
| UNMATCHING – anagram of (wild) C (caught) + HUNTING, contains (bears) MA (graduate). | |
| 14 | The Spanish children did read regularly about polymath (9) |
| ARISTOTLE – EL (‘the’, in Spanish) + TOTS (children) + regular letters from dId ReAd, all reversed (about). | |
| 16 | Scary being among last in mine by explosive (8) |
| BOGEYMAN – anagram of (explosive) AMONG + last of minE + BY | |
| 18 | Very important vineyard of non-professional in retirement (7) |
| CRUCIAL – CRU (vineyard) + reversal of (in retirement) LAIC (of non-professional). | |
| 20 | Stepped up to cover fellow sleeping (7) |
| DORMANT – reversal of (up) TROD (stepped) containing (to cover) MAN (fellow). | |
| 21 | Hard-working person’s code causing damage, unexpectedly (6) |
| TROJAN – double definition, the second referring to a type of computer virus. | |
| 23 | Beat pounding with good guitar sound? (5) |
| TWANG – TAN (beat) containing (pounding) W (with), then G (good). | |
| 24 | Type of rodent, it leaves hollow (4) |
| CAVY – ‘it’ is deleted from (leaves) CAVitY (hollow). | |
Yes, a nice gentle Friday as far as I went with it, but after 34 minutes I was unable come up with an answer for the last clue (19ac) and I resorted to aids.
On seeing the answer POSEIDON I wished I’d persevered a while longer, but I was struggling with wordplay and fixated on ‘work’ = OP so I was unlikely to get there. My fear was that ‘Olympian’ might refer to some sportsperson, possibly someone still alive, who I simply wouldn’t know because I have no interest in the Olympic games, so it seemed wiser to cut my losses and retire for the night.
JAMBALAYA known from the old Hank Williams song and TWANG as a guitar sound from the ‘King (or Titan) of Twang’, Mister Doo-ane Eddy
Exactly the same problem with Olympian here too! Thought I was looking for a sportsman- and after trying several alphabet trawls I had to concede- so 1 answer away from a perfect week! A small consolation is if you put me on a desert island for another week I still wouldn’t have got POSEIDON!
Over half an hour for this, with POSEIDON holding me up for longer than it should have done. Thanks to the Carpenters for JAMBALAYA (plus crawfish pie, of course).
Maybe I’d have been quicker if I hadn’t done the Quickie first. I thought I was perhaps doing Saturday’s, given the calibre of Breadman’s offering.
Friendly Friday, but DNF after making good progress.
Also missed POSEIDON, I had thought of gods after running through various sports, but didn’t really pursue it. Other blanks were NORMALLY, UNMATCHING and ARISTOTLE. For the latter, my main error was not considering that “about” could refer to all the elements, as I had EL, TOTS and IRA.
Rm=room, what’s the context for that? I also struggle to see how “charges” at 6d can be a containment indicator.
I commented that SMATTERING seems to be appearing a lot at the moment, and hear it is again.
COD JAMBALYA
Rm is apparently used in architecture/engineering and in estate agency, according to the web, but I only know it from crosswords.
Charges = fills, as in ‘charge your glasses’.
27:17 for a mid Friday! As Merlin says, SMATTERING is clearly becoming a crossword meme, for some reason. Wasn’t a huge fan of the surfaces today, although the puzzle itself was fun to solve.
KNOCKDOWN held me up thinking of a kind of floor. With all the crossers in, I was reminded yet again of how biffing difficulty is affected by sound-to-spelling (ir)regularity – ie, see a K- and think automatically of a hard /k/ (as I did), and you’ll be fruitlessly rifling through the mental lexicon for minutes on end.
Quite surprised to see (and know) JAMBALAYA. NHO CAVY. It seems there are endless kinds of rodent. DNK that sense of ‘Trojan’, although I have recently been enjoying playing as the USC Trojans on College Football ’26. Thanks William and setter.
I struggled with a number of these and failed to get POSEIDON at all, but after reading William’s blog I realise most of my problems were self-inflicted. Did it in bursts while dealing with other matters and watching the cricket, so no time but I’d guess 50+.
From Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right:
When your ROOSTER crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m travelling on
But don’t think twice, it’s all right
A more gentle Friday than some a few weeks ago. I knew neither of the four-letter answers (ANKH and CAVY) so I was pleased to get all green despite both being somewhat unlikely words. I knew JAMBALAYA having made it (and eaten it) many times. I recommend it, especially if you ever get to New Orleans.
29.50 with the SE corner providing the biggest delay. Not too taxing a week but it was a blessed relief not to encounter another Friday beast.
A setter with a fine command of the inclusion indicator – brackets, traps, enveloping, fencing, contributing to, includes, boards, nurses, charges, in, bears, to cover and pounding.
I cottoned on early and started looking out for them.
51 minutes. As recent Fridays go pretty gentle but POSEIDON was hard to work out and I muddled up the anagram fodder and possible indicators for my LOI UNMATCHING. Favourite was the surface for SLOVENLY.
41 minutes with LOI POSEIDON. ANKH was an unknown, MELANGE was from a sauce de haute qualité. The twang’s the thang. Duane Eddy with Shazam is today’s ear worm. Setters, you’re making it too easy for Lindsay though. A good puzzle, with most clues not coming quickly. Thank you William and setter.
Too easy? I think not! But I still have great esteem for the setter who put SERPENT and OBSIDIAN next to each other a couple of months ago, pure class…
The face of God
27.15 so like most commenters I found this less difficult than the usual Friday BOGEYMAN. Unlike William I actually found the bottom half went in quite quickly, then the pace slowed a little as I worked my way back up the cliff face until like a cunning retiarius I had POSEIDON trapped in the net of crossers.
FOI ANKH
COD JAMBALAYA
Thanks William and setter.
45 mins.
Steady solve; no dramas.
Thanks, w.
I didn’t find this as gentle as some seem to have done. Some very clever cluing as Sawbill has mentioned but here and there the tortuous surfaces made it, for me, a bit of a grind. Nevertheless a good challenge and I was pleased to have finished it. COD: JAMBALAYA.
Thanks to William and the setter.
DNF. Gave up on 45 mins defeated by CAVY after 5+ mins of alphabet trawl only to come here and find its a NHO. Capybara, yes but not the genus. Nasty.
I found this tough with several proving very hard work esp in the NE where I had only the regular SMATTERING until near the end.
Very much a Friday. Thank william and setter.
Not too bad but I was a bit gutted to tick over the 30 minute mark by a few seconds. I would have been under if I didn’t try to justify POSEIDON and just put it in as the only Olympian I could think of that fitted. Needed the blog to finally understand it. Got a bit obsessed about what was telling me to turn OP/work at the start. Sometimes you need to remember there are other synonyms for work.
Liked COUNTERFEITER, UNMATCHING and JAMBALAYA (which was my only NHO today)
I have also noticed the more than a smattering of SMATTERING lately. I don’t mind, it is a word I quite enjoy.
Thanks blogger and setter
Came for a look-see. Certainly not as bad as some Fridays of recent times, however 3d does not really read correctly even if U are Yoda, and an elided ‘that’ would be targetting an adjective in ‘regular English’.
Also COME for ‘appear’ in 6d would appear a stretch (amongst some other things).
19.48. I actually thought I was on for a really quick time as the top half slid in gracefully, but then a kind of mental pause slowed most of the bottom half and POSEIDON went in last with rhodophobia (it’s a real word, I checked) as, like others, I wanted OP to be there and put to be in the past tense.
I decided to let the setter off (HIM)ALAYA without either an S or an N at the end, and apparently I didn’t need to. Tesco’s does quite a decent microwave JAMBALAYA, though it could be spiced up a bit.
22:33
No real problems but I took a while to get DENIAL, POSEIDON, and the unknown CAVY. Like Ulaca I have the Carpenters to thank for JAMBALAYA.
An entertaining solve and nice to complete a Friday puzzle in a decent time for once.
Thanks to both.
22:00. I didn’t find this particularly easy. I was held up for quite a while at the end in the SE corner, taking a while to see TROJAN and BOGEYMAN before JAMBALAYA and LOI CAVY fell into place. Thanks William and setter. P.S. I’ve not cooked a jambalaya for a while – time to put it on menu again.
I was going well but stopped completely without POSEIDON – on reflection maybe my mind didn’t connect a sea god with a mountain. Knew JAMBALAYA only from the song.
A good Friday offering, thanks william and setter.
Near the top of my ‘you-should-definitely-be-able-to-finish-this’ difficulty limit, and it took me 45 mins to complete. UNMATCHING and TWANG went in unparsed, so thanks for explanations. Luckily guessed straight away that I was looking for a Greek god, so POSEIDON was easy. Enjoyed MELANGE and ARISTOTLE.
I found most of this reasonably straightforward, but struggled with the SE and a few in the NE. Took ages to see COMBATIVE. TROJAN took much longer than it should have, but then led to JAMBALAYA. NIGHTLY then allowed me to spot CAVY. BOGEYMAN arrived just before COMBATIVE, so I then had all the crossers for LOI, POSEIDON, which still took some squinting to see. 38:13. Thanks setter and William.
I just biffed Poseidon, and was worried I couldn’t parse it, but that had to be it. Fortunately, I was able to remember cavy and ankh. My biggest problem was having a careless typ0 in turning against, which made slovenly impossible. Once I fixed that, I was able to finish.
Time: 44:04
I thought 3dn was a very good clue, with nothing doubtful about it so far as I could see. Why do so many people call it Tesco’s? The chain is Tesco, unlike Sainsbury’s. But that’s nothing really to do with the crossword, which I as usual made heavy weather of. Put = pose doesn’t readily come to my mind, so Poseidon was difficult and needed aids. As did a couple of others in my 71 minutes. But nice not to be 120 minutes, as so often on recent Fridays.
There is a convention that if the store’s name doesn’t end with an S, then you are expected to add one yourself.
Sports Direct’s sell some pretty cheap and shoddy things.
Vis a vis 3d, I don’t think inverting normal English sentence or clause structures is a necessary or clever way to deceive. Conversely just because such a clue is relatively easy to solve does not make it a good clue.
Please can you tell me how this is inverting normal English sentence or clause structure. The clue is ‘Correct boards for every game’ and it seems to me that it works as OK [correct] boards [ie gets into, as one boards a bus] per [for every], and the definition is ‘game’.
We’re not seeing the inversion which is bothering you. We’re seeing OK boarding (that is, climbing into, like boarding a train) PER (for every – one per person).
OK, I can see that interpretation, and thank U for the temperate responses.
Also good (late) night – morning here.
And, compared with any other potential issues, I was probably nit-picking at best. It’s what happens when one moonlights?
Well, pretty much everyone on this blog has got the wrong end of a clue stuck in her or his head more than once, so there’s sympathy. In this case that use of ‘boarding’ has probably come up before.
Thank U again. For ‘boards’ I was thinking ‘surrounds’ FWIW.
Short for Tesco’s groceries.
46 mins, though admittedly using aids for the final couple (yep, including POSEIDON), so DNF really. Feeling peckish for jambalaya, now…
Thanks William and setter
21:35 – solid but somewhat easier than usual Friday fare. I assumed I was looking for the right type of Olympian so POSEIDON went in without too much of a struggle. Hardest to parse, if not to solve, was TWANG.
Hullo, first time commenter and relatively new solver here!
DNF because of a tragic ACETIC at 17a (CE instead of RC, and thought it could perhaps mean cold in the interpersonal sense…), leading to missing the obvious CRU start on 18d. Very fun puzzle nevertheless!
Welcome.
DNF after two attempts, with an incredibly stupid MELBA rather than MALTA. Altar never occurred to me, and I thought “Yes, Melba is where Napoleon was imprisoned” – d’oh! I’m blaming tiredness from the wedding I was at yesterday, and, a lot more tenuously, the existence of Dame Nellie Melba.
– Though of POSEIDON early on but took ages to parse it
– Only know ANKH from crosswords
– We’ve had more than a smattering of SMATTERINGs recently, so much so that I thought of it then rejected it, thinking “Surely not again”, before eventually reconsidering
– Didn’t parse UNMATCHING
– Thought the definition for CAVY was ‘hollow’, not knowing the rodent, even though obviously the clue wouldn’t work that way round
Thanks William and setter.
COD Dormant
58:37 with two errors. Oh dear. I’ve done the double with the QC – both long slow DNFs. It was BOGEYMAN that did for me. That was what I put in first, but I was unsure about the E crosser (which could have been E or I for anyone who doesn’t know which way round they go in COUNTERFEITER). And then I saw the I in the word “in” in the clue and changed it to BOGIEMAN, which gave me COUNTERFIETER (which looks so wrong now I write it here). And “in” wasn’t in the anagrist anyway.
LOI POSEIDON from Olympian and crossers; I couldn’t figure out the parsing. So. A bit of a battering today. Onward and upward
39:14. A bit of a relief after recent weeks! NHO CAVY but seemed likely given wordplay. The rest was tough but fair. thanks 🙏