Time taken: 14:02. The wordplay in this puzzle is intricate – I smacked myself when I saw some of the answers, but the early solvers are making heavy weather of it!
Maybe I need another gin and tonic, I’ll definitely have another once I’ve written this up, but my head wasn’t quite spinning hard enough to decipher these clues at a first glance. There’s not many giveaways and enough twists on some traditional themes that this one presents a good challenge.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Measured carpet at end of store (10) |
| DELIBERATE – BERATE(carpet) after DELI(store) | |
| 6 | Key teacher perhaps unwilling to leave pit? (4) |
| ABED – A(musical key) and B.ED.(teacher) – referring to not wanting to get up. | |
| 10 | Crazy notion, half rejected by setter of The Listener (7) |
| IDIOTIC – IDEA(notion) minus the second half, then I(setter), and OTIC(of the ear/Listener). Fun clue referencing the weekly barred-grid puzzle that will appear tomorrow. | |
| 11 | Limits wearing really large shades (7) |
| ORANGES – RANGE(limits in mathematics) inside OS(really large) | |
| 12 | Supporter close to battle inside Hertfordshire town about to fall? (9) |
| TEETERING – TEE(supporter), then the last letter of battlE inside TRING(Hertfordshire town). Got this from the definition and retrofitted wordplay for the blog. | |
| 13 | Drawing failing to show son’s craft (5) |
| KETCH – SKETCH(drawing) minus S(son) | |
| 14 | Tailor wheeled on second design (5) |
| MOTIF – FIT(tailor as a verb) reversed after MO(second) | |
| 15 | Gallery enthralled by Cliff on electronic vehicle (6,3) |
| ESTATE CAR – TATE(gallery) inside SCAR(cliff) after E(electronic) | |
| 17 | Boomer in guesthouse covers options on trolley? (9) |
| MERINGUES – hidden inside booMER IN GUESthouse | |
| 20 | Get round hull of drone after spacewalk? (5) |
| EVADE – external letters of DronE after EVA(extravehicular activity, spacewalk) | |
| 21 | Bank backing for one director (5) |
| RIDGE – reversal of EG(for one) and DIR(director) | |
| 23 | Tight finish, Charlie declared (5-4) |
| CLOSE KNIT – CLOSE(finish) then an homophone of NIT(Charlie) | |
| 25 | Modern split oven coating uranium and gold (7) |
| NOUVEAU – anagram of OVEN containing U(uranium) then AU(gold) | |
| 26 | Refuse game sent to port at start of season (7) |
| GARBAGE – BRAG(card game) reversed then AGE(season) | |
| 27 | Group separated by grand commander (4) |
| AGHA – A-HA(pop group known for being two-hit wonders) surrounding G(grand). Try getting Take On Me out of your head now (the other one was The Sun Always Shines on TV) | |
| 28 | Cool mate smuggles fur (10) |
| CHINCHILLA – CHILL(cool) inside CHINA(mate) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Climbing tree in drought exhausted stray (5) |
| DRIFT – reversal of FIR(tree) inside the external letters of DroughT | |
| 2 | City of Crete lies in ruins (9) |
| LEICESTER – anagram of CRETE LIES | |
| 3 | Maladroit Pat possibly OK carrying good wine (14) |
| BUTTERFINGERED – a pat of BUTTER, then FINE(OK) containing G(good), finally RED wine | |
| 4 | Pick up fool daughter’s left for Romeo (7) |
| RECEIVE -DECEIVE(fool) with D(Daughter) replaced by R(Romeo) | |
| 5 | Hard time keeping Henry in meditation (7) |
| THOUGHT – TOUGH(hard), T(time) containing H(henry, the unit) | |
| 7 | Take the bait delivered for bay (5) |
| BIGHT – homophone of BITE(take the bait) | |
| 8 | Sack of small fish Barb’s taken east (9) |
| DISCHARGE – S CHAR inside DIG + E. | |
| 9 | Label new trees English chief maybe surveys (6,8) |
| MARKET RESEARCH -MARK(label) then an anagram of TREES, E(English), ARCH(chief) | |
| 14 | Notes Roman mead that’s distributed (9) |
| MEMORANDA – anagram of ROMAN,MEAD | |
| 16 | Guy abridged popular post providing early coverage for those in theatre (5,4) |
| CHAIN MAIL – CHAP(guy) minus the last letter, then IN(popular), MAIL(post) – a theatre of war | |
| 18 | Boorish group losing leader edges away (7) |
| UNCOUTH – BUNCH(group) minus the first letter surrounding OUT(away) | |
| 19 | Ruler binding back of right arm (7) |
| SHOTGUN – SHOGUN(ruler) containing the last letter of righT | |
| 22 | Funds party that’s distasteful (5) |
| DOUGH – DO(party), UGH(that’s distasteful) | |
| 24 | Character taking heart at first pilot’s forecast? (5) |
| THETA – First letters of Taking Heart, then ETA(pilot’s forecast) | |
Sorry, we are having technical difficulties and are unable to post the rest of the blog.
Updated: I have been able to add the rest of the parsings, and I have sent the problem to the tech team for investigation.
Struggled through in 26:49. Did not enjoy for some reason. I think due to ‘key’ for A (although luckily random names clued by ‘chap’, ‘girl’, etc seem to be becoming rarer), and CHINCHILLA as a synonym of ‘fur’. Maybe just not on wavelength. Luckily the part of the blog I needed (A-HA) has survived! Thanks.
OK, now that we have managed to get the blog posted, on to the puzzle.
I found this a little hard, but not monstrous. Once I got some crossers, I biffed freely – chinchilla, butterfingered, deliberate. I did have ticket research for a while – well, a ticket is a label. I NHO Aha, but agha is the evident answer. I had a little trouble in the NE until bight suddenly popped into my head, making abed obvious.
Time: 39:20
Echoed your experience, vinyl1, with TICKET seemingly likely for “label” for a while until I realised there were other words fitting ???K?T. Also NHO AHA, but that had to be, but the NE really held me up ( ABED, ORANGES). Oh and I took three times as long!
Pleased to nearly finish this. For the umpteenth time I failed to remember B.ED for teacher so ABED was missed and I didn’t associate pit/bed but should have. Had ‘close call’ instead of CLOSE KNIT for a while but it didn’t parse and failed to see ‘knit’. Saw ‘rate’ for the end of DELIBERATE quickly and DRIFT gave me the beginning letter. Finally saw the hidden MERINGUES else I would’ve had no idea what boomer in guesthouse was supposed to mean. Bifd AGHA before the aha moment. Was convinced CHAIN MAIL was going to be ‘Pathe News’ for early coverage for those in theatre. Liked NOUVEAU and IDIOTIC. COD to BUTTERFINGERED.
Thanks George and setter.
Very tricky, needed help in bottom left, as thought commander was AGA as n Aga Khan, and that the party in DOUGH would be a political party. LOI RIDGE one of many I couldn’t parse.
Theatre = war now, as well as surgery? Still don’t see how ABED is willing to leave pit. Is “pit” slang for bed?
I’ve heard of heligoland bight, and the Bight of Benin, but never knew what they were. Now I do.
COD BUTTERFINGERED
Yes, “pit” is slang for “bed.”
It’s here (def. 15):
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pit
The clue was ‘unwilling …’, not ‘willing …’.
Can anyone confirm whether this was another championship puzzle? It felt somewhat familiar.
No, we’ve finished the Champ puzzles now
Weirdly this has happened to me in a previous year – the day after a championship puzzle had been published the next day’s puzzle felt familiar 🫤.
If only that could happen with puzzles at the championship 😄
I also had a sense of déja vu while solving it. I do notice that ESTATE CAR and MARKET RESEARCH are in exactly the same positions as in the championship final puzzle. Same grid layout, too.
Thanks David. That probably explains it and hopefully confirms I am not going mad!
This was easily as hard as yesterday’s championship puzzle. LOI GARBAGE, which seemed obvious, but had to wait until it dawned on me that “brag” must be some kind of game… When I saw that it’s a card game, it felt like something I already knew.
Used to play 3 card BRAG on the back of the bus on the way back from school. Simplified version of poker. Can’t remember all the rules but three of a kind is a “prial”, just the kind of word a setter might choose.
We always spelt it “prile,” which I see Collins has as a candidate entry. But prial is in there.
I remember the word but never had to spell it!
‘Prile’ is a contraction of ‘pair royal’, meaning three of a kind. Years of playing brag in London, great game.
Did most of this in the hospital waiting to have my stitches removed, no idea of the time but it felt longer than yesterday’s. Got the last few–DRIFT, IDIOTIC, RECEIVE, THETA–back home in 2-3 minutes. DNK BRAG, so could make nothing of GARBAGE, but as they say, it had to be. DNK EVA, but it looked likelier than ELU, and then CHAIN MAIL decided it. Knew TRING, assumed it’s in Herts. I didn’t know A-Ha had another hit; I remember the video of ‘Take on Me’ for some reason.
Enjoyed this one, not easy but much better/quicker than yesterday’s, for me.
I had heard of A-Ha but failed to recognise them as the group in the clue. But wrote Agha in anyway.. also found the clue above unclear, 26ac – the answer was clear enough but the “at start of” confused me.
Been to Tring, it is at the Northern end of The Ridgeway, one of our better national trails (and a very old track indeed).
Snap! on “at start of”.
When I saw blog headline I nearly didn’t bother as I am still disoriented in the (to me) user-unfriendly environment of solving online. I like pencil and paper, a whole sheet of A4 with grey squares so I can mark up the clues and parsing as I go.
Nevertheless, since I have very little else to do at the moment I decided to have a go and surprised myself by finishing all correct with only a few seconds over an hour on the timer.
28:08. Admittedly I failed to parse UNCOUTH, THETA and yet again the hidden: MERINGUES. “Is it on the trolley?” Memories of Victoria Wood.
AGHA was a really nasty clue taking 4 or 5 mins of trawl before my teenage 80s pop years came to the rescue.
Staggered that anyone can even compare this to yesterdays monster but that’s wavelength. Thanks to glh and setter.
20.55
Tricky indeed: had to bung in DELIBERATE, UNCOUTH and THETA but nothing else fitted.
It seems to me that some definitions are getting a bit elliptical these days – I wasn’t keen on ‘theatre’ (for ‘of war’).
COD MERINGUES
LOI THETA
33 mins, and I feel I should be awarded the Order of the Biff for this, as I could not for the life of me work out why UNCOUTH, CHAIN MAIL or GARBAGE were correct.
‘Edges’ as a verb for ‘surrounds’ feels very mean, as does ‘age’ for ‘season’. Don’t you need to add herbs to season something? And a seasoned warrior / aged warrior hardly match either. ‘Theatre’ as in ‘theatre of war’ I can get behind. ‘Pit’ as slang for ‘bed’, too …. very stingy. I did enjoy MERINGUES though!
My old Dad would often advise me to vacate my pit – I assumed it was from his army days.
I finished this one in 50 minutes whereas yesterday I was miles off. LOI a biffed EVADE, not remembering the extra-vehicular activity. Were AHA famous or notorious enough to receive this ultimate accolade? To be fair, I had heard of them. BIGHT came from German and the shipping forecast. I found this hard work with not much coming easily to mind. Thank you George and setter.
A-ha were one of the most famous bands in the world. Admittedly not for long!
Heathen! They are still tops 🙂
32 minutes – which I hope marks a return to some sort of normal.
Managed to avoid some artful traps: dismissed OTIOTIC after a brief dalliance, in favour of the more apt IDIOTIC ; toyed with TREMBLING until the equation of tee and support saved me from error and ‘declared’ had me on the cricket pitch for an over or two (well we are on the eve of the Ashes). Only biffed CHAIN MAIL. Embarrassing delay in stabling the old warhorse DELIBERATE.
Most enjoyable.Thanks to setter and glh.
TRING must be the least visited best known small town in Crosswordland. I used to live near Egham, which has had an occasional outing.
On the wavelength here, finishing with the never seen styling of AGHA in 27:38. Easy enough, as I have sung along to the song (with the wrong words, no doubt) many a time.
TRING possibly less frequent than ELY, but the latter of course is usually hidden behind the ambiguous “see”.
12:42. Trickyish for sure. I biffed quite a lot, reverse-engineering the wordplay when I could be bothered, which wasn’t often. I tried and failed with GARBAGE: I’m sure the card game has come up before but I had forgotten it.
When I started solving crosswords I remember the game coming up a lot, probably for its value in cluing GARB or indeed GARBO.
44 minutes. Yes, most answers didn’t come easily though it wasn’t as hard as yesterday’s. Didn’t know the variant AGHA spelling, couldn’t parse UNCOUTH and had forgotten BRAG as a card game. TEETERING solved mainly due to TRING being crossword land’s go-to ‘Hertfordshire town’ as pointed out by ulaca. Favourite was BUTTERFINGERED.
27’04”. Had fun with this, although never convinced I’d finish until I did.
The A-HA video of Take On Me is one of the best ever. I remember reading that the song originally bombed, then the video was made, and we now have an everlasting hit. https://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914?si=NSoNI9tWubhOHBp3
I won’t be here for the next five days, will be catching up with the Ashes.
Thanks george and setter.
I used to know a guy who claimed he wrote the riff to Take on Me. Think he said he got paid £100, take it or leave it, instead of the normal £50 for a session musician. And no royalty option. Apparently at the time he was pretty sceptical they were going to be huge?
Half an hour.
– Didn’t know pit as a colloquial term for bed, but got ABED from wordplay
– Misread Hertfordshire as Herefordshire at first, and only once I’d figured out that it had to be TEETERING did I think “But Tring isn’t in… oh!”
– Had no idea about the EVA part of EVADE, and I’m glad I never thought of ELUDE
– Completely failed to parse GARBAGE as I forgot about Brag and never thought of season=age
– Only got UNCOUTH once I had all the checkers, and didn’t see how it worked at all
– THETA was also a biff
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Motif
LOI Theta
COD Leicester
Gave up on yesterday’s puzzle after completing just three clues in 30 mins, but flew through this one – seemed far, far easier. Guessed ABED, not knowing the degree abbrev, and also AGHA. Thanks for explaining parsing. Nothing else here to scare the horses.
19.46, with my last in GARBAGE resisting all attempts to parse – game here is always RU and start of season is always S, neither of which were GERMANE (glad I didn’t think of that before submitting blind). Otherwise entertaining stuff which required the brain to be engaged, with the well hidden MERINGUES much appreciated, once I got past (as for GARBAGE) boomer is always (kanga)roo and guesthouse covers are G and E.
One to test the presuppositions of seasoned solvers.
Good to see Tring getting a mention again – I lived there for 17 years. Really enjoyed this one but Agha held me up; have only ever come across ‘Aga’ before. 31m today.
32:46 with quite a few going straight in including BUTTERFINGERED just from seeing “pat”. I still haven’t finished yesterdays. I liked CLOSE KNIT and enjoyed the well-hidden MERINGUES
27:01. I got stuck in the SW corner. LOI MERINGUES where I failed for a long time to spot it was hidden. “options on a trolley” wasn’t a very generous definition. Lots to like in the rest of the puzzle, though. Thanks George and setter.
I liked this one, a steady but not fast solve, all done and parsed in 25 minutes. I liked CHAIN MAIL best.
Perhaps the trickiest one I’ve actually completed but it took two goes, so no time (probably about an hour). Easier than yesterdays though with TEETERING my FOI and CHAIN MAIL my LOI and COD. I’m amazed so many don’t know ‘pit’ as a term for bed tbh (I often say and hear ‘lolling in your pit’)
No comparison with yesterday’s. I finished in 44 minutes (although GARBAGE, where I reckoned game was the BAG and so failed to parse it, forgetting about brag, and THETA were biffed at the end ETA = pilot’s forecast? Expected Time of Arrival I suppose and the pilot of a plane might forecast this, but …). Also bewildered by UNCOUTH, but ihtb (a candidate for the Glossary? Many people say this).
A very good puzzle. On a par with yesterday’s. Somehow got stuck on OMEGA rather than THETA which made CLOSE UNTO the only, very unlikely, possibility. EVA was new to me but it had to be.
TEETERING and MERINGUES were the pick of the bunch.
A man walks into a bakery in Glasgow, and asks the baker, “is that a cake or a meringue?” ”
“no, you’re right! It’s a cake!” I’ll get my coat.
Thanks to George and the setter
🙂
??😵💫
34:56 Seemed relatively straightforward until I hit the NE corner with it taking 20 minutes of my time. Not a clue about EVADE, DISCHARGE and ABED as I resorted to solving it like a concise crossword. ORANGES took an age as well although the wordplay was obvious in hindsight.
COD to BUTTERFINGERED
Thanks blogger and setter
I found this quite a bit easier than yesterdays offering which seems to be against the consensus. I wonder if there was mentality change from knowing who the setter was in advance.
I was pleased to finish in just under 90 mins after yesterday’s experience (ten clues solved before I gave up), although quite a few were only half parsed today.
Eddie unwisely plays 3 card brag in a high stakes game hosted by Hatchet Harry in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
35:10 – still reeling after yesterday, I wanted to take my time over this – and I certainly did. A couple of satisfying aha moments among what felt like over-engineered clues and brute-force anagram-solving.
Hard, but enjoyable – much more enjoyable than yesterday’s. Couldn’t parse chain mail, never thought of the theatre of war, but got all the rest, only MER “start of season” for age. Vaguely remember A-Ha, but not their songs 4-letter band starting with A had to be ABBA!. Knew PIT as bed from working offshore with the ‘North Sea tigers’, as they liked to think of themselves. Mostly used when something went wrong when they were off shift: “I was in my pit at the time”. COD to meringues, 3LOI, just didn’t see it until I did. Also, we don’t have dessert trolleys in this part of the world.
Unfortunately they are becoming scarce here too.
I completed todays puzzle but somehow I didn’t enjoy it. The wordplay for some clues seemed…………… obtuse?. I cant put my finger on it.
Time 14:23
About forty minutes divided by a trip to the dentist. It’s possible I was a bit distracted for the first half, but really I just found this very tough. I might have said it was all a bit like pulling teeth, but given that’s what might have to happen a bit down the line, I think I’ll refrain. Several more minutes to parse things post-solve, but like others I couldn’t see GARBAGE, which I was miles away from getting – cheers George.
My thanks to glh and setter.
Tricky indeed. Struggled through the top half with light cheating then big cheating as I had run out of steam, like yesterday.
26a Garbage. It had to be but I didn’t see the card game nor season=age. Doh! Wrongly thought the BAG in there might be the game, as in shot the pheasants.
27a Agha, NHO A-ha. DNK this spelling but it was very buffable from A_H_.
9d Market Research. I too got ticket stuck in my mind, then I suddenly saw the light, MARK+et from the anagrist.
33:59. I felt that wasn’t too bad considering the trickiness of some of the clues. NHO BRAG as a game, most of the rest went in without a hitch but just my slowness to spot what was going on in the clue.
Took me an age but at least I got through it unlike yesterday’s monster. Only two half anagrams in this puzzle which are normally my meat and potatoes, or whatever the expression is!
I liked BUTTERFINGERED, as I frequently am on these computery/telephony things.
Having problems printing again over the last few days. Seems they keep changing the format, despite me having 4 different ways of accessing the club.
Thanks George and setter.
Delighted to have had a pretty good stab at this. Managed to complete with 2 letter reveals only, and lots of reverse engineering. Needed help to parse GARBAGE, DELIBERATE (didn’t know carpet for berate), and UNCOUTH. Will remember edges can indicate containment. Familiar with pit for bed and Aha. Very enjoyable. Many thanks for the blog.
Late start after a golf game today and still somewhat groggy due to a few days visiting Glasgow to see a football game!! Yet this seemed to fall into place in about 27′.
Some of it half-parsed, for instance I saw age must = season but it didn’t quite ring true and ORANGES=SHADES seemed a bit weak. Also had tottering for a while until “tee” became obvious. Meringues was a nice hidden.
Thanks George and setter.
Didn’t get around to this until now, as I’ve been tidying the house after the son-in-law’s birthday party last night, while they’re all at work or college. Collecting all the confetti type stuff from the party poppers was the hardest bit, although the dishwasher got some hammer too! Anyway I seem to have been on the wavelength, as I’m well up the leaderboard (comparatively speaking, for this time of day) and found it quite enjoyable. From DRIFT to GARBAGE in 20:07. Liked CHAIN MAIL and SHOTGUN. Thanks setter and George.
28.37
Also found this okay but got held up at the end on some of the easier ones (here’s looking at you CHINCILLA) and (unusually for me) the hidden.
Liked DOUGH
Thanks George/setter
A certain amount of biffing ensured a 20-minute completion, but I still don’t quite understand CHAIN MAIL.
For those suffering Waugh withdrawal symptoms, how about: Boots’ confusion over a helping of ice cream, perhaps (5).
Scoop, v. g.
Heard of AHA but didn’t make the connection. Thought GROUP must mean the Association of Health Advisors or something. LOI EVADE because I’d never heard of the EVA thing. Liked the SHOTGUN clue, especially after recently reading the Clavell SHOGUN book (well worth it). But the whole thing was quite tricky and took me 34’18”. My Nitches and Witches are really suffering as my average goes down. Don’t know why. Probably to do with evening solves. Many thanks.
49 minutes . Quite a slow steady effort, after a very unpromising start, with a fair amount of retrospective parsings.
An orange is a shade ? (of colour I suppose)
A sack is a discharge? what world is that please?
An arch is a chief? ditto
Thanks from this relative beginner.
Sack in the sense of dismissing from one’s employment I think
I think it’s ‘sack’ as a verb – to ‘sack’ or discharge; arch would be a chief as in ‘archbishop, archangel’ etc.
Enjoyed this one much better than yesterday’s, but maybe because I finished it!
A bit more than an hour and a half, alas. No problems with parsing apart from EVA which I’d NHO. All I knew about AHA was that they were Swedish, and like others I’d not seen the spelling AGHA before! Age=season seemed OK to me – something that is ‘aged’ can be ‘seasoned’, surely.
Steady solve with no real difficulties. I’m a bit surprised at the problems encountered, as everything except GARBAGE and MERINGUES was parsed – excellent hidden! Oh, and EVADE – no idea about EVA… No comparison with yesterday. BIGHT, ABED and ORANGES were last to fall. Then I remembered German Bight from the shipping forecast.
Even later than usual to the party but here goes. I decided I have to limit my time to an hour on these to stop my obsessive nature from ruining my days. I had some fun with this, and got all but eight clues, sort of. I couldn’t parse IDIOTIC or UNCOUTH but they went in anyway.
Today I learned that brag is a card game, “pit” is slang for bed or bedroom, Aha is a band, Tring is a town in Hertfordshire, a scar is a cliff, and B.Ed is a degree in education. I seem to be awfully ignorant.
Thanks setter and glh.
Very expensive game brag. The betting rules are you don’t have a compulsory show of cards until one of two remains players calls for a “see”. I used to play it at Liverpool uni in the sixties until I was introduced to the wonders of seven card stud poker in the medical school (pre hold ‘em in this country). I did not complete my degree.