Time taken: 8:29.
Happy New Year! The last time New Year’s Day fell on a Thursday I completely messed up the crossword, so relieved to find this one came back all green. I’m hesitant to declare Tricky Thursday just yet, but I think there’s some unusual terms that could hold a few of you back. Excellent wordplay throughout!
I do have the advantage of starting this at 7pm on New Year’s Eve, so haven’t started the celebrations yet. A cocktail is in my sights as soon as I finish writing this up, so let us begin!
| Across | |
| 1 | Smith possibly loads millions into vessel (9) |
| CRAFTSMAN – RAFTS (loads) and M (millions) inside CAN (vessel) | |
| 6 | Came across books about family emblem? (5) |
| TOTEM – MET (came across) and OT (books) all reversed | |
| 9 | Temporary work secured by youngster (3-2) |
| POP UP – OP (work) inside PUP (youngster) | |
| 10 | Tree-hugging Russian leader, dear me! (9) |
| GORBLIMEY – LIME (tree) inside the bear-hugging arms of dear old GORBY (Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union) | |
| 11 | Where one might feed an adolescent on chocolate primarily (7) |
| CANTEEN – AN and TEEN (adolescent) next to the first letter of Chocolate | |
| 12 | Bit of a strain on old English chair (7) |
| OVERSEE – VERSE (bit of a strain of music) after O (on), then E (English) | |
| 13 | They say I’m quiet six days of the week, however … sweet! (3-5,6) |
| ICE CREAM SUNDAE – sounds like I SCREAM SUNDAY | |
| 17 | Hairpieces got coloured brown in the end — this colour would have been worse (9,5) |
| PISTACHIO GREEN – anagram of HAIRPIECES, GOT then the last letter of browN | |
| 21 | Chosen artist, one of seven sisters (7) |
| ELECTRA – ELECT (chosen), RA (artist) | |
| 23 | Recollection of something essential, like one of your five a day? (7) |
| SATSUMA – A MUST (something essential) and AS (like) all reversed. Referring to a dictum of eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day | |
| 25 | Awkward situation with verbal agreement — stuffed! (3-6) |
| JAM PACKED – JAM (awkward situation) and a homophone of PACT (verbal agreement) | |
| 26 | Outstanding fellow in green trousers (5) |
| OWING – hidden inside fellOW IN Green | |
| 27 | Boat ending in Germany with crew from there? (5) |
| YACHT – the last letter in germanY, then ACHT (German for eight, crew) | |
| 28 | On-screen cast interrupted by a sympathetic character (9) |
| RESONANCE – anagram of ON-SCREEN containing A | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Better feature after you texted brother (8) |
| CAPUCHIN – CAP (better), then CHIN (feature) after U (you in textyspeak) | |
| 2 | A stump up when root cut in tree (5) |
| ASPEN – A, then SPEND (stump up) minus the last letter | |
| 3 | Underground fluid protects masking tape, ultimately (3-6) |
| TOP SECRET – anagram of PROTECTS containing the last letter of tapE | |
| 4 | 007 perhaps sat upon by his boss a shade (7) |
| MAGENTA – AGENT (007 is a secret one) under M (the boss of James Bond in the Ian Fleming novels and movies), then A | |
| 5 | Antsy energy provider upset, switched over fuels (7) |
| NERVOUS – SUN (energy provider) reversed containing an anagram of OVER | |
| 6 | Hat-wearing duke is feature of Don Quixote? (5) |
| TILDE – TILE (hat) containing D (duke) | |
| 7 | Cactus inhabiting moor for the duration (9) |
| TIMESCALE – MESCAL (cactus) inside TIE (moor). Mescal is seen a more funky alternative to tequila over here. I can’t really tell the difference, maybe I need more mescal? | |
| 8 | PM on top of border chaos (6) |
| MAYHEM – MAY (former Prime Minister) over HEM (border). | |
| 14 | Skin blister’s back in plague (9) |
| EPIDERMIC – the last letter of blisteR inside EPIDEMIC (plague) | |
| 15 | Something retired people put on finally opening in nearby city (9) |
| NIGHTGOWN – the last letter of openinG inside NIGH (nearby), TOWN (city) | |
| 16 | Loosen tight nut on corner (8) |
| UNTANGLE – anagram of NUT on ANGLE (corner) | |
| 18 | Good joke — bad joke in it? (7) |
| CRACKER – double definition, the second referring to the Christmas tradition. I used to regale my family by pulling the cracker, looking at the paper and reeling off the filthiest joke I could think of. Maybe regale is the wrong term. | |
| 19 | Popular dishes that accompany offal? (7) |
| INSIDES – IN (popular), and SIDES (dishes that accompany). This is a beautifully slick clue! | |
| 20 | Formal wear picked up for club entertainer (6) |
| DEEJAY – homophone of DJ (dinner jacket, formal wear) | |
| 22 | No more food for breakfast (5) |
| TOAST – double definition | |
| 24 | Wedding something painful, bachelor a no-show? (5) |
| UNION – BUNION (something painful) minus B (bachelor) | |
I didn’t find anything hard and trotted through this one in a reasonable time. Even the Christmas cracker and the Japanese fruit didn’t stop me. I suspect those who have a broad range of general knowledge will do well. Craftsman was my last one in, as I thought loads was an insertion indicator rather than an element of the answer.
Time: 26:08
Zipped through until the last 2: couldn’t parse GORBLIMEY for the life of me, then DNFed on PISTACHIO, couldn’t sort out the anagram – wasn’t even sure it was one – and hadn’t heard the phrase. Elsewhere was looking for a vegie – 2 fruits 5 vegies a day down here.
Did enjoy it, tricky enough to be interesting. No standout COD.
40 minutes but this was a DNF because of PISTACHIO GREEN. Isla3’s comment on this covers my own experience exactly as far as it goes, but I would add what is the purpose of “would have been worse”?
Otherwise this was very enjoyable. Setters of both types of puzzle seem almost determined to spoil good puzzles with one, maybe two, rogue clues at the moment. At least from my perspective.
18.45
PG also my LOI. “Coloured” as an anagram indicator? Seems a bit off beat and the grist was well disguised but there were plenty enough checkers. Liked GORBLIMEY.
Thanks George/setter.
Why EPIDERMIC for “skin” in 14D, surely the noun is EPIDERMIS and EPIDERMIC means “of the skin” ?
I agree with Dvynys about “coloured” as an anagram indicator. These are becoming increasingly bizarre.
18 mins
I think ‘epidermic’ defining ‘skin’ is OK. You could replace ‘skin blister’ by ‘epidermic blister’ in the clue. In that context ‘skin’ is a sort of noun-adjective, grammarians might say.
17.40
Not too tricky, even for a lad with a morning head.
LOI PISTACHIO GREEN
COD ICE CREAM SUNDAE, both of which feature in the classic scene from Laurel & Hardy’s ‘Come Clean’. (What other flavours are you out of?
We’re out of gooseberry, chocolate and SATSUMA.)
were you like a bear with a sore head? Ref p120 of “the year in letters”
18:52 but that time might be flattering as a lot went in without fully understanding how they worked. OVERSEE and TIMESCALE were last two in and didn’t have a clue about either. Missed the anagram for TOP-SECRET but not too much that fits those checkers.
Funnily enough I was discussing PISTACHIO-GREEN yesterday which meant it was towards the front of my mind when green became obvious.
COD the very silly ICE-CREAM SUNDAE.
Thanks blogger and setter and nice to start 2026 on a sub-20
29’20”, accurate but slow start to the year for me. Nho PISTACHIO GREEN as a phrase, and didn’t understand the clue, like jack. Why EPIDERMIC? – as Corymbia says. We had grapes over Christmas, so I was easily able to have my five a day.
Really liked GORBLIMEY.
Thanks george and setter.
47 minutes. LOI GORBLIMEY, needing all crossers. My wife made several pistachio ice creams this Christmas as an alternative to the pudding. I’ve had two, but there hasn’t been a silver threepenny bit in either. It did mean that PISTACHIO GREEN and COD ICE CREAM SUNDAE came to mind readily enough. Enjoyable as a pudding and as a puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
23:17. A few oddities as mentioned above but overall a gentle one for a NYD morning. Couldn’t get past Craft=Vessel at 1ac but the answer was clear.
Took a moment to remember why CAPUCHIN monkeys are so named before that made sense.
Enjoyed the repeat of GORBLIMEY (or was that a QC?) and will have My Old Man’s a Dustman earworming today now.
Thanks and Happy New Year all round.
How could you?!! Lonnie Donegan, complete with integral cracker jokes, will be swilling round my head all day now. Happy New Year!
22:42 including 4 minutes at the end on my last two – TOP-SECRET, not seeing the anagram, and then PISTACHIO GREEN, which took ages despite all the checkers. Thanks George and setter.
About 20 minutes.
– Can’t recall seeing GORBLIMEY in that one-word form before
– Wondered why PISTACHIO GREEN would be worse – I guess it’s just that green would be a worse colour than brown to have in your hair, but it’s still a bit odd
– Took a while to parse ASPEN
– Only dimly remembered mescal as a cactus for TIMESCALE
Happy New Year everyone, and thanks glh and setter!
FOI Totem
LOI Timescale
COD Nightgown
DNF. Most done in about 20 mins. Then stuck until giving up on PISTACHIO GREEN. Coloured as an anagram indicator is new to me. Presumably in the sense of –
Adjective: having a strong element of fiction or fantasy; distorted (Collins online dictionary)
COD: Top Secret
Thanks to glh and our setter.
Happy New Year to all TftT-ers!
Rather surprised to complete this in 42 minutes, as it took me a long time to get going. But it was enjoyable and worth the effort. Only beef is with PISTACHIO GREEN, where I agree with others’ comments on the use of ‘coloured’ as an anagram indicator and on the value judgment of various hair colours. But it’s New Year and fun time!
FOI – POP-UP
LOI – PISTACHIO GREEN
COD – GORBLIMEY
Thanks to george and other contributors.
25 on the dot. I liked this: there’s something about an unlikely clue with a cactus in that gives for a bit of a wow moment, and, even though unappreciated by some here, the hairpieces anagram, which produced my last entry, gave another.
In wasn’t too concerned with EPIDERMIC, though I would have expected the S at the end, but epidemis isn’t a word.
Now to ration out the Jumbo and the Special through the rest of the day.
Happy New One, all!
Two short at the one hour mark.
I knew hat=tile from yesterday, so went with TILED, nor knowing the novel thought it might be a plot device. Still don’t see why it’s a feature of Don Quixote, which doesn’t have a ñ in the title. Is it just that it contains ñ in the text because it’s a Spanish book?
This left a rogue D, So I made up a chair called an OLDASTE. OLD + AST ( bit of ASTrain) +E.
Didn’t see the anagram for TOP SECRET, thought it must be a type of ferret.
We had GORBLIMEY in the QC recently, nice clue. But COD to my FOI ICE CREAM SUNDAE
Our new Christmas board game is Hues and Cues, which involves identifying subtle shades such as PISTACHIO GREEN.
From POP UP to PISTACHIO GREEN in 27:01. Liked GORBLIMEY. Thanks setter and George.
Happy New Year! Hoping that my 19 minutes here bodes well for 2026. My goal is to keep to sub-20 and crack the top 100 at least twice a week. Fingers crossed!
Also, here are my top ten ‘words of 2025’ (learned from doing the crossword this past 12 months):
– GARNISHEE
– FARTLEK
– MANGABEY
– IVRESSE
– PEMMICAN
– DOTTEREL
– PARI PASSU
– UNCO
– LAVABO
– CONTUMELY
No idea what any of them mean.
If you would care to join us in Mephisto, you’ll get that many every week!
“It’s a cracker” takes me back to the late Frank Carson. ” Come here, there’s more”
27 mins, most of which spent stuck in the NE. Would have helped if I’d worked out the parsing for NERVOUS. However I realised that TILDE wasn’t included in ‘Don Quixote’ but that didn’t matter apparently, so the rest was straightforward. COD GORBLIMEY
24:40 – I take the Gorbachev nickname on trust, but I can’t recall ever having heard it at the time.
16:25
I needed to write out the fodder to get PISTACHIO and caused myself problems in the SW by mistyping YYACT at 17 (having forgotten the cursor was at position 2). That made EPIDERMIC my LOI.
I was pleased to tease out the tricky GORBY and MESCAL in what started out as a straightforward solve (the NW corner flew in) then suddenly wasn’t.
35mins. I liked gorblimey BUT shouldn’t it be two words? Other than that, enjoyed the puzzle. My 100% record for 2026 still in place!
Couldn’t get in because of ‘Too many requests’. What does this mean? Is it something to do with me or with the site? I looked on Google to see if anything could be done about it and got a whole lot of incomprehensible stuff: ‘Too Many Requests means you’ve exceeded the API’s rate limit. Solutions include implementing exponential backoff, respecting Retry-After headers, using request queuing, caching responses, and distributing load over time.’ Wouldn’t dare to fiddle with it; it would probably only make it worse. However, it does seem that if you wait for a couple of hours it goes away.
59 minutes on a quite nice crossword, where there were some good clues. Never heard of Gorby, though (Gorbachev, yes). Bewildered by the tilde in Don Quixote, and by ‘coloured’ as an anagram indicator.
Like Wil Ransome, I was falsely accused of making Too many requests this morning. Anyway, the puzzle took me 29 mins. I think I made heavy weather of what was not a very hard puzzle. I had not heard of PISTACHIO GREEN but the wordplay was straightforward and I don’t recall the nickname GORBY. The clues I liked most were to ICE-CREAM SUNDAE, YACHT and CRACKER. I enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you to Setter and glh.
30:52 at least five if which were wasted because I had forgotten to reverse my MOTET.
Lots of fun – I particularly liked ICECREAM SUNDAE and GORBLIMEY.
In My Old Man’s A Dustman, the said parent wore “cor blimey” trousers .
Thanks to George and the setter. Happy New Year all!
Unlike some, I found this a tricky start to the New Year and it’s always a bad sign when 1a doesn’t come quickly. In fact the 1a/1d crossings were my last in. Fully agree with others about ‘coloured’ as an anagram indicator – it doesn’t seem to have anything in its meaning to suggest one. Grateful for ICE – CREAM SUNDAE as it got me going after a complete blank first time round.
23:26
Very enjoyable NY puzzle – nothing too tricky, even thought of PISTACHIO GREEN (having written in GREEN plus the C and second I checker) – probably a bit sickly like ’70s avocado green bathroom suites. Wasn’t sure of the parsing of ASPEN. LOI was TIMESCALE once I’d thought of MESCAL as a cactus.
Thanks G and setter
It took over an hour (I can blame that on a bad cold, probably), but I did enjoy this very much nonetheless. COD of course to ICE CREAM SUNDAE, which was my FOI, but there was lots of thinking around corners required (does one actually say that in English?) and whenever I had no idea about the stubborn clues left over at the end, they turned out to be anagrams and that saved the day. No problems at all with PISTACHIO GREEN, which was one of those clues.
Like Wil and Seabee I couldn’t get in today – ‘too many requests’. It does disappear after a few hours.