Time taken: 10:58. That’s a little outside my average, but looking at the other early times, I feel confident in declaring Tricky Thursday is here to stay.
The long answers in this grid take some piecing together, and none of them are obvious words from the definition (at least to me), which adds to the complexity. There is excellent wordplay throughout, so some perseverance with the wordplay elements and I think everyone should get there in the end.
Hat tip to BletchleyReject for pointing out there is even a Nina in the grid. That’s an extremely rare occurrence for a Thursday puzzle, I wasn’t even looking for it!
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Page taking another right turn around vault (8) |
| LEAPFROG – LEAF (page) containing P (another page), then R (right) and GO (turn) reversed | |
| 6 | Engage contractors with globe (6) |
| ABSORB – ABS (muscular contractors that I do not have) with ORB (globe) | |
| 9 | Cut in drab uniform fixed after two drinks (13) |
| CHATEAUBRIAND – anagram of IN, DRAB, U (uniform) after CHA and TEA (two drinks). This is a fantastic clue! | |
| 10 | Just about record somersaulting in public (6) |
| OPENLY – ONLY (just) surrounding EP (record) reversed | |
| 11 | Celebrity recalled some philosopher at sage meeting (8) |
| MEGASTAR – hidden reversed in philosopheR AT SAGE Meeting | |
| 13 | Port resident docked close to ace pilot flying north (10) |
| NEAPOLITAN – NEAR (close to) minus the last letter, then an anagram of A (ace), PILOT, then N (north) | |
| 15 | Government department introducing current PM (4) |
| MODI – MOD (Ministry of Defence), then I (current) for the current PM of India | |
| 16 | A lot of muck on left side of Kelvin’s Highland sticker (4) |
| DIRK – remove the last letter from DIRT (muck) then the letter on the left side of Kelvin | |
| 18 | Male band saving time with Bill’s great deal (6-4) |
| BUCKET LOAD – BUCK (male) then ELO (Electric Light Orchestra, 70’s-80’s new wave band) containing T (time), finally AD (bill) | |
| 21 | Eggs on hosts smashing new dishes (8) |
| OVENWARE – OVA (eggs) and RE (on) containing an anagram of NEW | |
| 22 | Affectionate daughter books popular centre for vigil (6) |
| DOTING – D (daughter), OT (books), IN (popular) and the middle letter of viGil | |
| 23 | Part of terrorist organisation isn’t backing Mike in play Operation (13) |
| TONSILLECTOMY – CELL (part of terrorist organisation), IS NOT (isn’t) all reversed, then M (Mike, phonetic alphabet) inside TOY (play). Another stunning clue for a long word! | |
| 25 | Bean drink paired with game (6) |
| NOGGIN – NOG (drink) and GIN (card game) | |
| 26 | Reserve awkwardly eats second fish (3,5) |
| SET ASIDE – anagram of EATS, then S (second), IDE (fish) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Runaway inmate stops here at last to cover head (7) |
| ESCAPEE – final letters of inmatE stopS herE containing CAPE (head) | |
| 3 | Blunt scheme collecting one small parking fine inside of Kent (5-6) |
| PLAIN SPOKEN – PLAN (scheme) containing I (one), then S (small), P (parking), OK (fine) and the internal letters of kENt | |
| 4 | What flows up through hollow rusty piping (5) |
| REEDY – DEE (the river that flows) reversed inside the external letters of RustY | |
| 5 | Cook’s high-quality cheese with 40 per cent off king paid for (7) |
| GOURMET – GOUda cheese missing 40 per cent of the letters, then R (king), MET (paid for) | |
| 6 | Disdain old guy’s first shown in island church (9) |
| ARROGANCE – O (old) and the first letter of Guy inside ARRAN (island), CE (church) | |
| 7 | Type of music request when cycling (3) |
| SKA – ASK (request) cycled | |
| 8 | Whistler may display this in town close to Sunderland (3,4) |
| RED CARD – REDCAR (town in Yorkshire) then the last letter of sunderlanD | |
| 12 | Means of driving forward, except for earlier Tesla models (11) |
| SIMULATIONS – STIMULATIONS (means of driving forward) minus the first T (tesla) | |
| 14 | One working for lender in Iran worked with Blair (9) |
| LIBRARIAN – anagram of IRAN and BLAIR | |
| 17 | Six blocking opening that’s artificially produced (2,5) |
| IN VITRO – VI (six) inside INTRO (opening) | |
| 19 | Natives of foreign ancestry broadcast scoreline having lost at home (7) |
| CREOLES – anagram of SCORELINE minus IN (at home) | |
| 20 | Did Harry duck Yankee visiting old queen and duke? (7) |
| ANNOYED – O (duck in cricket), and Y (Yankee) inside ANNE (old queen) and D (duke) | |
| 22 | Old bit of school out of bounds (5) |
| DUCAT – EDUCATE (school) with the external letters removed | |
| 24 | Granny periodically reared Jade (3) |
| NAG – alternating letters in GrAnNy reversed for a worn-out horse | |
39 minutes. Great stuff. Loved working out the wordplay for many of the clues including LEAPFROG, CHATEAUBRIAND, NEAPOLITAN and TONSILLECTOMY. Plenty to choose from for my favourite, but I’ll go for RED CARD.
Most enjoyable one this year, with a little something extra in the grid as icing on the cake and earworm combined.
Thanks to George and setter
Oh good catch – I did not even see that!
Really enjoyed this. Took me an hour and was left with REEDY and DIRK and gave up, but how I missed the latter is beyond me. Some lovely misdirections as pointed out by BR and I’ll also go for RED CARD as COD with CHATEAUBRIAND a close second.
Thanks George and setter.
26:45. Really had to eke out every last answer here, but was glad I stayed to do so. Some really clever stuff and some fiendish cluing. Ducats were the ‘points’ awarded for achievement at Queen Elizabeth’s Boys’ School, Barnet, where I had the misfortune to go for a few years.
Thank you setter and George!
52 minutes. Not a fast solve for me but very enjoyable.
I found this hard, ‘finishing’ in 44 minutes with a bungled ‘Neopolitan.’ Shortly after watching highlights of the Napoli-Chelsea game, to boot!
I suspect I’m not alone…
You are not ….. (d’oh!)
Enjoyed this, some good clues and it seemed a bit Brit-centric to me, what with noggin, leapfrog, setaside, dirk etc. And of course we have Chateaubriand most weeks… a couple went unparsed, but they all went in OK.
Excellent puzzle which I was pleased to finish in a shade under 30 minutes. LOI and COD CHATEAUBRIAND which I agree is a fantastic clue. Incidentally we all have abdominal muscles, it’s just that they are normally invisible except in athletes and bodybuilders (the latter described by Clive James I think as looking like “a condom stuffed with walnuts”)
Thanks George and setter
I was nearly a contender but DNF, with NEOPOLITAN and NOGGIN still missing after far too long. COD to TONSILLECTOMY. A brilliant puzzle, a bit too brilliant for me. Thank you
George and setter.
38 mins. One advantage of a tough day is that I’m going so slowly anyway that thorough parsing doesn’t feel like a delay.
Having said that, for NOGGIN I thought GIN was the drink and NOG must be a NHO game.
COD to ANNOYED but enjoyed MEGASTAR and NEAPOLITAN too.
Thanks to George and setter and to BR for the Nina, had to go back and look for it.
Some classic cryptic clues here, which I’d use as examples if any of my family showed an interest in learning. The clue for DOTING, for example, has every aspect of the old setters’ style. WE know “d.” can be daughter, amongst other things. WE know “books” are usually OT or NT or maybe BB. WE know “popular” means in or hip, and we understand “centre for vigil” = G. WE also know to ignore what the clue seems to be saying, but admire the fluent surface reading.
26.45 rather ground out, with those complex long ones both holding out until most of the checkers were in, verified by the parsing but no solved thereby!
I now have a Listener grade grid stare to spot Bletchley’s NINA: I think I’m going to need a hint!
Falling down
Good grief! I guess I just couldn’t “see” the edges. Presumably as sung in a thin, quiet voice by a REEDY LIBRARIAN. Is DIRK BUCKETLOAD nearly OPENLY a MEGASTAR?
Think “My fair lady!” – with the correct capitalisation- and only an indirect link to Eliza Doolittle. I don’t know what the Nina has to do with the rest of the puzzle though.
My thanks to glh and setter.
Too tricky Thursday for me, DNF.
9a COD Chateaubriand. One of the few high spots in a long slog. I did biff it, seeing cha and tea, and didn’t check the anagrist I’m afraid.
21a Ovenware, wasn’t expecting to use the EW of NEW, doh!
2d Escapee biffed.
19d 2COD Creoles; good def.
22d Ducat biffed, never thought of Educate.
DNF at 27 mins due to an erroneous O in my NE_POLITAN.
I was getting all self-congratulatory , too, having spelled TONSILLECTOMY correctly and seen DUCAT and NOGGIN early. Still a lovely Thursday challenge.
Tough challenge; it took me an hour and six seconds. Great fun, though.
Thanks, g.
38:10 First rate puzzle. Chuffed to have managed to finish it. Last one in, LEAPFROG, went in without parsing and several others took several minutes to decode after finding the right answer. As always, I missed the NINA until it was pointed out. COD TONSILLECTOMY.
Thanks to George and the setter.
ELO. New wave? Surely not.
agree
20:05 – the longer answers across were a little over-engineered I thought but went in without the arduous parsing their ingenuity probably deserved, but I took a long time to find the ninja even after being told it was there, so perhaps I am not best-placed to comment.
I’m 80 and housebound. I love Tricky Thursday, as it will take me all day to finish the puzzle, probably with a bit of cheating. The best way to fill my day. Thanks to all the bloggers and commentators, without whose help I would not understand the parsing of many of the clues.
I’m with you, Susan, also female and elderly (81), and I too should spend all day on this, but housework pressures etc. call and I rush to not finish, cheating madly along the way. But I did enjoy it and appreciated the well-constructed clues, even though they were ‘reverse-engineered’ as I think the term is. Speaking of terms, I wish I knew what a Nina was, so I could appreciate that too!
22’22”, four little ducks in a row. Thought I was way off the pace, so it’s good to come to the forum.
Liked DUCAT especially.
Thanks george and setter.
Must have been very much on wavelength today, finding it a much smoother solve than the last couple of days: a breezy 18:29 today, compared to nearly half an hour for both Tue and Wed. So I’m not going to get too het up over only a slightly stupid MIRK, which sounds exactly like some peculiar Scottish thing that could be described obliquely as a “sticker”. Admittedly, not straying past MUCK AND MIRE for my dirt synonyms was a touch lazy.
I found this quite tough, and despite being down to the last 6 clues inside 10 minutes it took half as long again to kill the beast. I finally biffed my LOI and came here for enlightenment.
FOI ABSORB
LOI BUCKET LOAD
COD OVENWARE
TIME 14:47
This one took me 23 mins. I found the wordplay ingenious, if a bit complicated. For me the high SNITCH count came as a surprise, as yesterday’s puzzle took me about the same amount of time. My favourite two clues were to REEDY and GOURMET. Thank you, Setter and Blogger.
PS I think the Nina would have relevance if you were travelling to the News Building, the HQ of The Times
I really struggled. Got the top half and half a doz in the bottom, then gave up on the hour. Don’t think I’d ever have got BUCKET LOAD (ELO? Eh?)
This felt like one that was actually within my abilities, and which I should have finished – or at the least, very nearly finished. But didn’t. Frustrating.
After FOI, SKA, I got ABSORB, RED CARD and MODI, and that was it for the top half. Moving down under, I had more success, eventually biffing TONSILLECTOMY from checkers. I eventually worked my way back to the NW where ESCAPEE, LEAPFROG and GOURMET were last 3 in. Liked CHATEAUBRIAND. Years since I had any though! 25:06. Thanks setter and George.
I didn’t find this very complicated, but the last few slowed me down. For most of it, I looked down at a clue occasionally (not in a hurry, watching TV) and saw the answer right away. For some, I thought, “Well, this does seem a bit ‘tricky.’ I must be on the wavelength!”
But even taking things leisurely, I didn’t spot the NINA.
The blog was up before I started, but I went to sleep right after finishing…
DNF, defeated by NOGGIN. I got the ‘gin’ part but assumed it was being clued by ‘drink’, and never thought of bean as meaning head.
– Dredged up DIRK from somewhere
– Took multiple attempts to get TONSILLECTOMY
– Didn’t parse SIMULATIONS
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Librarian
56.22 minutes well spent on an enjoyable puzzle, thinking I had every answer correctly solved and parsed with the exception of 13ac. It was little wonder that I couldn’t parse it as I had confidently inserted NEOPOLITAN. Not the first time I have been caught out by the spelling of this word. I will now take care to make sure it’s the last time!
CHATEAUBRIAND brilliant. Satisfying puzzle, finished it in my head while going to get grandchildren from school. That was DIRK, BUCKETLOAD and ANNOYED.
Probably 30 mins or so. Haven’t heard the word Creole for a while.
No time to report as I completed it on my phone in 5 minute breaks between interviewing candidates.
This seemed a good puzzle even if I didn’t consume it all in one go. Was using the wordplay a lot rather than using it to check my guess , LEAPFROG, CHATEAUBRIAND, OVENWARE, BUCKET-LOAD, TONSILLECTOMY and others slowly revealed themselves.
The most trouble was in the NW corner.
Hard to pick a COD so I will just give the whole puzzle the thumbs up.
Thanks blogger and setter
Pleased with myself for getting TONSILLECTOMY early on and hoped this would open up the bottom half..but no.
If Thursday is now going to be this tricky, can we reverse the order so that Friday is the new Monday and Thursday is the new Tuesday – we can then wind down towards the weekend.
32:56. Tough but fair.
Thanks to glh and our setter.
I mean, I’ve never heard ELO and new wave in the same sentence.
Enjoyed this one, but a DNF as SIMULATIONS eluded me. Couldn’t parse BUCKET-LOAD either, although it could be nothing else by the time I bunged it in.
I’ve just looked up ‘Nina’ in the glossary (not for the first time), but I’ve no idea how it relates to this puzzle. I seldom spot themes, even if ‘unhidden’, so no surprise, I suppose.
Just read down the very left and right hand sides of the grid…
44:34
Much to enjoy in this challenging Thursday puzzle though didn’t spot the nina until directed to do so by this blog. Some cracking answers teased out – I got most satisfaction from working out TONSILLECTOMY, I think, but several rewarded perseverance. The only one I didn’t really understand was S(T)IMULATIONS where I didn’t match with the ‘Means of driving forward’.
Think the fantastic ELO were probably on the downhill section of their illustrious career when New Wave became the new thing (late ’70s post-punk) – I have seen them described as uncool, and even defiantly anti-cool, but definitely not New Wave.
Thanks G and setter
45:17. as always dumbfounded by those whose brains can plough through these at lightning speed. COD goes to BUCKET LOAD for the includsion of a fantastic band. Really enjoyed this one.
Yes, I agree with comments about ELO. They were 70’s pop-rock. Plenty of great songs, like Telephone Line, So Fine, Livin’ Thing. Held up by GOURMET and LEAPFROG at the end, but managed this in 32’46”. I didn’t realise CHATEAUBRIAND was a cut of meat. I’d have assumed it was a way of cooking it — like Beef Wellington. And I’m glad the letter count prevented me from misspelling TONSILLECTOMY with one ‘L’. Many thanks for a good challenge.
23.48
Got CHATEAUBRIAND early doors which helped; otherwise delayed by REEDY and LEAPFROG at the end. Liked it.
Thanks Setter/George
Challenging but fair. After messing up a spelling and causing a DNF a couple of days ago, I was careful with parsing NEAPOLITAN. TONSILLECTOMY was a biff from cell backwards, never fully parsed and another two long ones were my LOsI – SIMULATIONS and BUCKET-LOADS, after I finally gave up trying to put the I in the second letter of the PM. Having belatedly seen the Nina, I now get why MODI had to be. What other word can you get in M-DI? Only midi.
ELO were part of the old wave. Boring old f*rts was the dismissive term used by the with it kids who embraced punk and new wave music.
I needed help on DIRK, but found my way to all the rest – this was a FANTASTIC puzzle, one of the best in recent memory. So many brilliant and fair clues. CHATEAUBRIAND, LEAPFROG, and OVENWARE among my favorites.
A day late, but I persevered and managed to finish unaided, though two or three parsings were beyond me. Chateaubriand, which I did parse, was my favourite, just ahead of Bucket Load. Invariant
The best indication of a brilliant puzzle is every post naming a different COD. And, in this case, every poster being right.
I also just did this, finishing in 38 minutes anazingly without error, came here to find how my LOI DUCAT worked, educate, of course!!! I was totally blown away when I saw that London Bridge thing, on top of all thr other brilliant clues. How anyone is so clever as to set a puzzle like this, is totally amazing!