DNF with several excellent clues sadly unsolved/unparsed after the clock ticked past one hour.
A tale of two halves, for me. The science bits and the more classic crossword-ese suited me fine, but there was some outstandingly devilish and original clueing going on as well. Add to the mix a few unusual words and, I’m afraid, I threw in the towel – too good for me and my time budget. But I appreciated it all in the parsing.
For those who enjoy the shadenfreude, I was beaten by 2dn (which I was convinced ended -ie), 7dn (not being familiar with 19th century fashion accessories), 13dn (NHO), 19dn (pfft!), and the parsing of 20ac (which still may be incorrect). Hope you fared better, and enjoy a restful weekend.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Score four times? That’s massive after conceding header (6) |
| EIGHTY – wEIGHTY (massive) after deleting (losing) the first letter (header). | |
| 4 | Did nettle coming back knock out rose beds? (8) |
| PROVOKED – KO (knock out) reversed (coming back), which PROVED (rose) contains (beds). | |
| 10 | Provides resistance to current mumsiness, most of it misguided (9) |
| IMMUNISES – I (current) + an anagram of (misguided) most of MUMSINESs. | |
| 11 | Republican online address entertains advanced country (5) |
| RURAL – R (republican) + URL (online address) containing (entertains) A (advanced). | |
| 12 | During terrorist’s case, famous youthful Swiss guards blurted out solution to crime problem (3,6,3,2) |
| THE BUTLER DID IT – inside (during) the outermost letters from (…’s case) TerrorisT, all of HEIDI (famous youthful Swiss) containing (guards) an anagram of (out) BLURTED. T[HE(BLURTED)*IDI]T | |
| 14 | School’s head of history leaving bit of fruit (5) |
| LYCÉE – first (head) of history deleted from (leaving) LYChEE (bit of fruit). | |
| 16 | Bones of old Asians found in separate cases of yours truly (9) |
| METATARSI – TATARS (old Asians) contained by (found in) ME + I (separate cases of ‘yours truly’). | |
| 18 | Record half-hearted trick breaking lost pen (9) |
| SHEEPFOLD – EP (record) and FOoL (trick) missing half of its middle letters (half-heartedly), all contained by (breaking) SHED (lost). | |
| 20 | Semiaquatic animal in pond – half in, half out (5) |
| HIPPO – HIP (in) + half of (half in, half out) POnd. | |
| 21 | NZ lamb dish rats desecrated is wasted (6,3,5) |
| BRAHMS AND LISZT – anagram of (desecrated) NZ LAMB DISH RATS. | |
| 25 | Jezebel owns houses in hell (5) |
| BELOW – hidden in (… houses) jezeBEL OWns. | |
| 26 | One may be refreshed by this novel read twice (4,5) |
| ICED WATER – anagram of (novel) READ TWICE. | |
| 27 | Go before daughter’s introduced to stunted soldier killer? (8) |
| ANTEDATE – D (daughter) contained by (introduced to) ANTEATEr (soldier killer?) minus the last letter (stunted). | |
| 28 | Pawn telly, primarily as substitute for money-grubber’s credit (6) |
| STOOGE – replace the ‘cr’ (credit) in ScrOOGE (money-grubber) for the first letter of (primarily) Telly. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Correspondent’s piece is occupying alien (10) |
| EPISTOLIST – PISTOL (piece) + IS, all contained by (occupying) ET (alien). | |
| 2 | Not much hope, with both sides missing shot that shouldn’t be missed (5) |
| GIMME – GlIMMEr (not much hope) with ‘l’ and ‘r’ (both sides) deleted (missing). | |
| 3 | Principles of theology ordinands now definitely do in monastery (7) |
| TONSURE – first letters (principals) of Theology Ordinands Now, plus SURE (definitely). | |
| 5 | Being up somewhat scares Ireland following comeback (5) |
| RISER – reverse (following comeback) hidden (somewhat) scaRES IReland. A person, or being, that is up (i.e. out of bed). | |
| 6 | Ref’s assistant and perfect nuisance (7) |
| VARMINT – VAR (ref’s assistant) + MINT (perfect). | |
| 7 | What may control shock of drink and huge rent (9) |
| KIRBIGRIP – KIR (drink) + BIG (huge) + RIP (rent). | |
| 8 | Cook wings of low-fat turkey (4) |
| DOLT – DO (cook) + outermost letters from (wings of) Low-faT. | |
| 9 | “Hey you, love” conveys much of earnest serenade (1,4,3) |
| O SOLE MIO – OI (hey you) and O (love) containing (conveys) most of SOLOMn (earnest). | |
| 13 | Sail around lake collecting démodé trinkets (10) |
| BIJOUTERIE – JIB (sail) reversed (around) and ERIE (lake), containing (collecting) OUT (démodé). | |
| 15 | Wheels of French cheese with milk recounted (9) |
| CHEVROLET – sounds like (recounted) “chèvre” (a goat’s cheese) and “au lait” (with milk) in French (French cheese with milk). Mon dieu! | |
| 17 | Extremely thrilled to consume very intimate set meal? (2,6) |
| TV DINNER – outermost letters from (extremely) ThrilleD containing V (very), then INNER (intimate). | |
| 19 | Pressure washed bananas scoffed (7) |
| PSHAWED – P (pressure) + an anagram of (bananas) WASHED. | |
| 20 | Saga produced by this simpleton? (7) |
| HALFWIT – reverse cryptic, half of sagacity (wit). | |
| 22 | Way to protect people in financial difficulties (5) |
| SKINT – ST (street, way) containing (to protect) KIN (people). | |
| 23 | Barney Rubble’s beginning to avoid mounting carnivores (3-2) |
| SET-TO – first of (…’s beginning) rubble deleted from (to avoid) the reversal of (mounting) OTTErS (carnivores). | |
| 24 | Brother’s boss rejects Genesis etc being supported by American group (4) |
| ABBA – ABBot (brother’s boss) deleting (rejects) OT (Old Testament, Genesis, etc.) + A (American). | |
I was really enjoying this one. With so many inventive and demanding clues going in quite easily I felt I was really on form. However as I came within 3 clues of finishing the job I hit a wall and spent ages working my way through them, ending with 50 minutes on the clock. I had been expecting only 30 at one time.
The culprits were ANTEDATE, SHEEPFOLD and the one I used aids for, CHEVROLET. I got the ‘au lait’ bit, but I was fixated on the cheese being ‘brie’ and the answer being CABRIOLET – not that it was possible because I couldn’t account for CA and in any case the checker R provided by BRAHMS AND LISZT prevented it. Nevertheless, once having thought of it, it was hard to see past it.
Will, you have a typo, TATAR for TATARS in the explanation at 16ac.
Actually two typos: TATAR not TARTAR.
Thanks all.
and a typo at 9D solom(n)
thanks for the blog, Chevrolet defeated me and I missed the reference to Heidi.
Likewise with CABRIOLET, jacket, wanted to hang onto it for a while…
I was relieved to both finish and parse this, with some clues being over- complicated, thus reducing the enjoyment for me. Great blog. I think 15 d needs the addition of ‘au’ between chevre and lait .
Au lait means with milk?
Frustratingly gave up at 40′ with just STOOGE and BIJOUTERIE missing. Had STOOLY so I know I was on the right lines, but couldn’t get there. BIJOUTERIE somewhat less likely – I was nowhere near on the wordplay front (although knew the word). The harder puzzles always teach me to stick with thinking of synonyms, but in this case I could only get as far as SHEET for sail, with nothing else coming to mind. Also needed blog for HEIDI.
Which blog?!
Why, the fine blog on this very page!
Sorry I was being stupid – ignore me!
This site has gone back to the very irritating habit of logging me out more or less every time I come here. Grr.
I’m eighty tomorrow, so 1a was an early birthday present. Thank you setter. Even so, I did not finish, failing to construct BIJOUTERIE. About 50 minutes otherwise. For all of those eighty years when I could read and write, I’ve assumed that they were KIRBY GRIPS. I sat gawping at 21a for about five minutes trying to work out the anagrind before a flash of inspiration came. Do you still get those in your ninth decade? They ‘ve been getting fewer and further between. Tough but fair. Thank you William and setter.
I think Kirby grip is the accepted alternate
According to my OED, ‘kirby grip’ is generic and ‘Kirbigrip’ is a trademark.
They do not alternate.
Wishing you birthday felicitations for tomorrow. Hope you have a great celebration. 🍷🍷🥳
Aaargh, when loaded I was 106th of 106! V ashamed. Made silly mistakes, (solO mio!, and antedote thinking maybe the pre dote rather than the after dote would save a soldier) . Could not get varmint, still have no idea why a ref’s assistant would be VAR. thus could not get provoked, and spent a good while trying to work Irk and KO into an answer, but failed. Others all worked well, really enjoyed Stooge and Bijouterie, as well as Kirbigrip, tho I would argue the spelling. Thanks for a fun morning, Cx
VAR is the Video Assistant Referee used by referees in football to help* determine offsides, handballs, and so on.
*supposedly
Nicely crossing with Provoked, I thought
Video Asssistant Referee, Carolyn, the technology designed to help refs make better decisions in football. Inevitably, it causes just as much controversy as it settles, maybe more.
Have a great day tomorrow BW.
That sure is a wEIGHTY birthday
(I hope we’ll all get there some day)
Hope the clues that you see
LeXXXicographically
Will help keep dementia at bay
😃
23.40
Another Friday biff-fest. One of those puzzles which one either loves or hates, depending on one’s level of success or failure. I loved it.
Now trying to remember the work of fiction in which someone is infuriated by a friend coming home drunk and making welsh rarebit from his prized chèvre.
COD VARMINT
LOI CHEVROLET
34.50. Pretty tough going with my LOI dolt. A few unknowns but memory of past puzzles allowed me to get sheepfold. Lots to like- antedate, TV Dinner, stooge and kirbigrip to the fore.
19:05. Tough, but I felt I was making heavy weather of this at times. An obvious anagram containing a Z for a four-word term meaning ‘wasted’: how did I not see that immediately?
I thought ‘bit of fruit’ was naughty, like defining brie as a ‘bit of cheese’, misleading in a way that seems somehow not cricket.
I was surprised to see KIRBIGRIP as a single word. I had heard of the things, god only knows where. They were first produced in 1853 but the word became commonly known in the 1920s (first OED citation is 1926) when they became associated with the fashionable bob hairstyle. Also known as bobby pins. So now you know, whether you wanted to or not.
Loads to like in here: ‘chèvre au lait’ especially.
I’d only ever heard of them as ‘kirby grips’ (and again, god knows where).
That’s what I knew them as. My late sister was five years older than me, my Dad being despatched to war with Mr Hitler the reason for the long gap between us, and she wore them in the later forties and fifties when she was a girl.
I knew the word well aurally as a child because my mother would use them (and lose them). Never occurred to me to wonder why exactly they were called that nor how to spell. Scarcely seen the word since so very much a Proustian moment solving that clue. Only learned today they were invented by a man called Kirby.
Very inventive clueing today, some much more difficult than others but the wit is the key to enjoyment.
48 minutes and, frankly, glad to have finished. No neutrinos on the board today!
41.59 – much of this spent on parsing the clues once I’d twigged the answer (ABBA, HIPPO, GIMME, etc).
Much to enjoy about this, not least some lovely weird vocab (BIJOUTERIE, PSHAWED).
COD to STOOGE for the clever reference to the Dickens uber-miser, but CHEVROLET was also inspired. NHO KIRBIGRIP but luckily I’ve come across KIR as a drink many times here before so it seemed fair.
I’d be happy with this stuff every Friday!
80% complete, not bad for a Friday. Fast start with EIGHT and the eponymous GIMME.
— Kicking myself for seeing the exact construction of THE BUTLER DID IT, knowing I needed a 5 letter “youthful Swiss” but did not come up with Heidi.
— Pleased to get the tough METATARSI and SHEEPFOLD.
— NHO pawn = stooge
— PSHAWED came from the depths of my memory, but not many ways to place those letters
— I had RETRO for “out”, somehow using the letters of OTTER, a semi aquatic mammal
— Could not believe that CABRIOLET was wrong for “wheels”, Brie Au Lait,
— COD TONSURE “do in monastery”
— had RISEN for being up, missing the hidden
— NHO KIRBIGRIP, but knew I was looking for something to do with hair, and was trying rip=tear
25.33 Fabulous crossword, with CHÈVRE AU LAIT worth my rather expensive subscription on its own.
B&L took me longer than it should have done, not least because I was looking for a 15 letter anagram with only 14 letters evident. Note to self: 15 letter clues reach both edges.
I didn’t work out the BUTLER clue: once I’d figured an anagram of blurted was in there somewhere it rather wrote itself in. Likewise the penny has only just dropped on rose/PROVED. Thanks to william for persisting beyond the call of duty.
The only young Swiss I could muster was the son of William Tell – that didn’t help . . .
Glad to get through it in 86 minutes. That was tough. Some great clues.
Thanks, w.
Tough, about 45 with several remaining a mystery until explained by our blogger. Nice challenge, pleased to finish.
From One More Cup Of Coffee:
One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
To the valley BELOW
That was tough! Some very clever clueing. All done in just over 36 mins – but one error. The incorrectly biffed O SOLO MIO.
COD. The wheels.
Spotted Heidi early on, but failed to lift and separate, so it was much later when I noticed that blurted would convert to butlerd quite well. EIGHTY was FOI. BRAHMS AND LISZT took far too long to see, and only came after BIJOUTERIE, which itself arrived while I was on the home straight. Never did parse CHEVROLET, HALFWIT or PROVOKED, so thanks for those William. HALFWIT and STOOGE were last 2 in. 48:52. Thanks setter and William.
45 – solved more in puzzled bewilderment than enlightenment.
Exactly the same for me; I like your description and have quoted it in my brief comment below.
I really enjoyed this one, but gave up with a few missing, mainly because the wordplay escaped me, as it often does. Failures as follows:
PROVOKED – I don’t think this would ever have come.
HIPPO – disappointed with myself as this was eminently gettable.
STOOGE – never thinking on the right lines.
KIRBIGRIP – NHO. I got the ‘BIGRIP’ part and hoped my wife might supply the rest as she might have used one, but no.
DOLT – ‘Do’ would never have occurred to me as a synonym for ‘cook’, nor would ‘turkey’ as a synonym for ‘dolt’.
Frustrating really, as a few of the ones that I did get were more obscure than these but, all the same, I enjoyed the time that I did spend on it and was amused several times by the cluing.
A pleasant way to spend an hour of a rainy sofa day after rather a 21ac night. Only disappointing to misspell KERBIGRIP for a WOE, never seen it written down and had forgotten the drink. All parsed otherwise, indeed I had to to get many of them. Oh, except ICED WATER which I now see was easy.
Most proud of BIJOUTERIE but COD to EIGHTY. A proper Friday puzzle, thanks both.
We’ve had so many really hard puzzles recently that this one seemed fairly easy for a Friday, so I was surprised to see the SNITCH at 150, which in the past would have signified great difficulty. Several entered because they had to be the answer although I didn’t understand them. I wasn’t confident with proved = rose but I suppose in breadmaking … , or with me and I being separate cases of yours truly. Eventually used a few aids, 55 minutes.
Ran out of time. A setter with a distinct style. I always wilt slightly when I see a number of very wordy clues but all were cleverly constructed. I would have enjoyed tackling this on a weekend afternoon.
The BUTLER and CHEVROLET the pick of the bunch for me
Thanks to William and the setter.
I agree this was a great puzzle, but only because I solved it and parsed all but two. I could not see how proved = rose, and I had no idea how halfwit worked. Come to think of it, I didn’t have chevre au lait, either, but I was close. Saw Heidi, parsed kirbigrip correctly, used the cryptic to be sure o sole mio was spelt correctly, and used the said to get bijouterie. Brilliant puzzle!
Time: 51:09
absolutely tremendous puzzle, with the setter making things quite testing. Really chuffed to have got through this in an acceptable time. I was nearly felled by BIJOUTERIE and CHEVROLET, but clung on somehow.
55 minutes. My experience mirrored that of david_ch above – “solved more in puzzled bewilderment than enlightenment”. Plenty I couldn’t parse (or just couldn’t make the effort to try to parse) and my LOI, the unknown KIRBIGRIP went in from crossers and wordplay.
Grid filled correctly but an excellent puzzle as I now see, much of which was lost on me.
DNF with several missing: THE BUTLER DID IT (like McChoc55 above, the only Swiss person I could think of was William Tell), HIPPO, STOOGE, KIRBIGRIP (only dimly aware of Kirby grips and have never seen it spelled like that), BIJOUTERIE (not sure I’ve ever heard of it), CHEVROLET (thought of it but couldn’t work out the parsing before I gave up) and HALFWIT. I also didn’t parse ABBA and relied on the wordplay for VARMINT.
Tough stuff – kudos to everyone who completed it, and thanks William and setter.
COD Provoked
What an absolute cracker. Normally I’ll chuck in the towel after 25 mins or so if I’m not getting anywhere fast, but kept plugging away at this one because it was so rewarding.
GLIMMER, HALF WIT and ABBA were not parsed, so many thanks Willam_j_s for unravelling those. JIB took some dredging up to get the first 3 letters of BIJOUTERIE. CHEVROLET a super clue. Luckily Heidi was one of the couple of Swiss I’m aware of – the theme tune of the dubbed show I watched when I was a small child came to mind, and has outstayed its welcome.
Bravo to setter and blogger.
29:15
47:47 but…
…cheated with the unheard of KIRBIGRIP (which was enough to solve PROVOKED and then VARMINT), as well as BIJOUTERIE and STOOGE (lost the will to live thinking about these last two).
I did enjoy a lot of the rest of the puzzle though.
Thanks William and setter
Loved this one, the best for a while IMO although it did take nearly 40 minutes to put to bed. Thanks w_j_s for parsing THE BUTLER DID IT which I biffed with only a vague idea of how it might work. I really liked CHEVROLET and of course KIRBIGRIP which my ancestor invented. (Spelling changed to make one word, I think). Too many good clues to pick out one, but if you forced me, I’d choose BIJOUTERIE. Pip Pip!
Kirbigrip is a trademarked version of a kirby grip. Really, one of your forebears Pip? Is that why you’re so rich?!
DNF after my allotted 45 minutes with loads blank. I don’t think I can recall a previous occasion when I’ve so often thought, after seeing the answers: “Is that really a word? Seriously??”
Quite hard, but not unusually so for Friday. Some biffing, so thanks to william_j_s for the explanations.
12a The Butler. Easier to biff than to parse, but eventually Heidi fell out. Phew! Never read it, wasn’t certain she was Swiss and a child but.
18a Sheepfold, biffed.
25a Below. I’m not good at hiddens, and puzzled over this a while.
28a Stooge, LOI, brilliant.
1d Epistolist NHO, had to look it up, added this word to Cheating Machine.
7d kirbigrip, was very unsure of this. HHO (probably.)
9d O Sole Mio biffed and looked up to check spelling. Apparently it is written in the NHO Neapolitan dialect.
20d Halfwit biffed. That was hard.
My thanks to william_j_s and setter.
41 minutes slow but steady solving. Thoroughly enjoyed this with some intricate cluing but very fair wordplay I thought. Only biffed our criminal at 12a Heidi as a young Swiss never occurred to me somehow. Chevrolet and antedate took some unpicking as I was determined to somehow squeeze in cabriolet and anteater. Less than 5 Verlaines is always good on a Friday. COD to O Sole Mio.
Thx William and setter
54.37 with aids needed for SHEEPFOLD and STOOGE. I found it tough but fair with some excellent and witty clues.
FOI EIGHTY
LOI STOOGE
COD – in a very crowded field, a dead heat between CHEVROLET and THE BUTLER DID IT.
Thanks W and setter.
Really enjoyed this, though I needed to use aids for my last 4 so a DNF (after 29′ for the rest of it)
Great puzzle – nice way to sit out some of storm Amy – thanks, setter, and William for the blog.
Couldn’t get BIJOUTERIE and a O SOLE MUO as a misspelt BIFF ruined the fun of this one over two sittings. Found this tough going with nothing going in at first but slowly worked my way up from the bottom. Not the best end to the week.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Steady solve, except for spelling the brand name Kirbigrip.. one of the good Friday crosswords!
Can’t register a time as I was porlocked by the arrival of a friend in the pub, but I enjoyed this one – very chewy, as so often on a Friday! All parsed but initially went down the same wrong routes as others, eg cabriolet, and kirby rather than kirbi – but as wise contributors to this site have opined on occasion, if you can’t parse it, it’s probably wrong.
Must have taken over an hour (hard to judge when you’re minding a 3-year-old some of the time), but eventually got there. Spent a while dicking about with CABRIOLET before twigging the quite brilliant CHEVROLET. I now know that proving bakery means making it rise. And the proper spelling of KIRBIGRIP.
Terrific puzzle, really enjoyed it. And thanks for the parsing analysis.
Enjoyed this. I’d never heard of KIRBGRIP but managed to get it. I think that was the only unknown. I too was distracted by CABRIOLET which is close to working except that there is no way to justify the CA before “brie au lait”. I think I even managed to parse everything.
According to Simon on Cracking the Cryptic, the. setter of this puzzle is Ed Hall. He also went down the CABRIOLET route before eventually getting checkers that ruled it out.
A proper Friday puzzle, much enjoyed! When I finished it was quite late here, but too early elsewhere, evidently, since the blog had not yet appeared. Not much left to say!
It’s hard to explain why a puzzle has (or lacks) wit, but this one did. DNF, and a few more answers worked backwards from getting to the answer and checking that things parsed than answers worked out from the cryptic. I’d like to think I would have finished if I’d given it another 15 minutes, but I really think Bijouterie would have done me no matter how long I took. Kirbigrip, too, I think.
I had to sleep on this one to get Stooge – penny suddenly dropped at about 3 in the morning!
Excellent puzzle which took me 90 minutes if I don’t include Stooge.
COD without doubt – “The Butler Did It”.
Wonderful rewarding puzzle, done partly on the train yesterday and finished this evening. Some of the last in were the most rewarding – CHEVROLET, LYCEE, BIJOUTERIE. Many thanks to setter and to William for unravelling the two or three I couldn’t parse – still a bit confused by ‘half out’…
I think it’s just ‘half of the word “pond” is in, and half of it is out’, in other words: add POnd to the earlier HIP (in, fashionable). As nobody has corrected me, I assume this is correct!
44.04
Late entry. NHO KIRBIGRIP but finally teased out as LOI just preceded by BIJOUTERIE.
Wanted CABRIOLET but obvs couldn’t make it work.
Loads of cracking clues inc ABBA which made me smile.
Thanks William and setter
Occasional solver here.
Many thanks for the excellent blog.
One question – O sole mio – would most setters perhaps put something in to say that the O & OI were reversed, especially with SOLEM not being?
Completed by Mrs O’Scruntie and me in an hour and a bit. Some ingenious clues, though one can rather sense the compiler hugging himself with glee at his own cleverness. Or hers. Anyway, enjoyed it, but hang on a minute – 3 Down. ‘Principals’ to indicate first letters would be fair enough, but clue reads ‘principles’. That’s not misdirection, it’s a mistake… ain’t it?
I think you’re right, Doctor O’Scruntie! ( bit of a naughty misdirection on the part of the setter? – we’ll never know). Even though I had an inordinate amount of ‘lookups’, I still enjoyed it immensely for the ones I did get on my own, especially B&L at 21a, 1a which was my FOI ( and lead me to believe this would be a simpler task !). Never saw THE BUTLER DID IT, VARMINT (NHO VAR), and a few others, but really like SET TO, O SOLE MIO, and TONSURE; but my COD has to be CHEVRLOLET.