14:26
Πῶς ἐπράξατε πάντες;
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Argue with Republican approach (7) |
| WRANGLE – W R ANGLE | |
| 5 | The Speaker’s course of action is plain (6) |
| STEPPE – sounds like step | |
| 8 | Suggest annuities should be reviewed (9) |
| INSINUATE – anagram* of ANNUITIES | |
| 9 | Bachelor I saw embracing creature of the night (5) |
| LORIS – hidden | |
| 11 | Aim only to come back on time (5) |
| TELOS – T then SOLE reversed; teleology (which is derived from this word) might be better known | |
| 12 | You’re visiting one Asian country or another (9) |
| INDONESIA – ONE’S in INDIA | |
| 13 | Thrilled to acquire Tesla, perhaps in August (8) |
| ELEVATED – EV in ELATED | |
| 15 | British pulling out of engagement with European PM (6) |
| ATTLEE – |
|
| 17 | Time away after extremely lame excuse (3,3) |
| LET OFF – L |
|
| 19 | Two friends mostly in good health (4-4) |
| CHIN-CHIN – CHIN |
|
| 22 | Rome row is terribly perturbing (9) |
| WORRISOME – ROME ROW IS* | |
| 23 | Court appearance rebounding on copper (5) |
| CURIA – CU then AIR reversed | |
| 24 | Criticise nonsense written about American head of state (5) |
| ROAST – A S~ in ROT | |
| 25 | Haunting conclusion to homicide case (9) |
| EVOCATIVE – ~E VOCATIVE (case in Ancient Greek and Latin, as well as in many modern languages, including Greek, plus a good number of other ancient languages) | |
| 26 | One conducting German songs in recital (6) |
| LEADER – sounds like LIEDER | |
| 27 | Last of counter-intelligence employees turned — MI6’s downfall? (7) |
| NEMESIS – reversal of |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | One signalling game is up? (7-6) |
| WHISTLE-BLOWER – a cryptic definition with two meanings, depending on the sense of ‘game’ (sporting event or undertaking) | |
| 2 | Release loaves bishop ordered (7) |
| ABSOLVE – LOAVES B* | |
| 3 | Kind of setter for one to turn up (5) |
| GENUS – reversal of SUN EG (for one) | |
| 4 | Questioned dictator caught in river delta (8) |
| EXAMINED – AMIN in EXE D | |
| 5 | Be careful, young man? (6) |
| STEADY – double definition: ‘Steady. old chap!’ and ‘Kevin’s my steady’ | |
| 6 | Duke’s wife expelled from capital (9) |
| ELLINGTON – |
|
| 7 | Soldiers look round for protection from sun (7) |
| PARASOL – PARAS the LO reversed | |
| 10 | Game of those coming too close to you? (5,8) |
| SPACE INVADERS – another cryptic definition with, shall we say, two elements; shoot ’em up video game released in 1978 and those who get too near you for comfort in social situations | |
| 14 | Facelift going wrong, daughter distressed (9) |
| AFFLICTED – FACELIFT* D | |
| 16 | A help getting into Oxford? (8) |
| SHOEHORN – another cryptic definition, which we had only last week, I believe | |
| 18 | Suspicion surrounding Cockney woman’s patio (7) |
| TERRACE – ‘ER (her being woman’s, ‘er being Cockney woman’s) in TRACE | |
| 20 | Great performances from fantastic English choirs (7) |
| HEROICS – E CHOIRS* | |
| 21 | Enemy not far away, according to Spooner? Certainly not (2,4) |
| NO FEAR – ‘foe near’ after Spoonerisation | |
| 23 | Make out one is enthralled by tight-lipped individual (5) |
| CLAIM – I (one) in CLAM; claim as in ‘She made out that she was an expert’ | |
6:55. Pretty fast for me – in my top-20 times. It all went in quite smoothly. DNK TELOS so relied on the wordplay for that. I liked WHISTLE-BLOWER best. Thanks U and setter.
I also had problems getting started in the NW, so scouted around for the shortest answers elsewhere, which can be a handy tactic. I immediately saw CURIA and worked from there, finishing with the unknown TELOS. Liked NEMESIS, but then I’m a sucker for spy stuff. 29m
Loved this. Hard to get started so went to the south and worked my way up. As you say, some unknown words, for me anyway, but clear wordplay helped. ABSOLVE took a while to figure out along with INDONESIA. Liked ELLINGTON. STEPPE took some. time before the light dawned. Got the Spoonerism straight off for a change. COD to GENUS.
Thanks U and setter.
Anyone else having trouble accessing the puzzles on the app?
Yes, but it’s working now.
Anyone else unable to do any puzzles on the app this morning?
I always enjoy single word anagrams of eight or nine letters or more, shorter ones being very common of course. Annuities/insinuate was new to me. The longest I’ve seen is tergiversation/interrogatives. This has probably been discussed before!
I am usually to be found only in the QC arena. And here I am, at the big grid.
I am sitting very quietly in the far corner, tentatively entering an occasional letter and from time to time, word into the grid, checking each as I go. After 30 minutes I reveal 3 letters in spaces of my choosing, then plod on, slowly revealing more letters if progress grinds to a total halt.
Not the most traditional of approaches, yet I have learnt that our brains address cryptics in many ways. This method seems to suit me.
When the moment takes me, I reveal all before proceeding to this blog.
Thank you so much, you are all my tutors and your words serve to increase mine.
It is also very much my experience that gradually I tune in to a cryptic crossword. This one is a very tidy example I think. DNK TELOS but it was clued fairly. “Kind of setter” made me smile the most. Thanks for the blog.
About 15 minutes.
– Had to trust that a LORIS is a nocturnal creature
– Couldn’t have told you what TELOS means
– Wasn’t 100% certain about STEADY, but I think ‘go-steady’ has come up in these puzzles before
– Took a while to realise that ‘fantastic’ was an anagrind to get HEROICS
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Insinuate
LOI Steady
COD Curia
36 minutes with delays getting a grip in the SW corner. DNK CURIA or TELOS, the latter having previously appeared only in a Club Monthly, a Mephisto and a TLS puzzle. Very enjoyable as the unknowns were clued fairly.
16:23. Quick yes but with a few tricksy bits.
TELOS, CURIA and Vocative rang only faint bells not having had that type of education. I read and enjoyed Secret History when it came out.
Wondered if there was a Duke (w)ASHINGTON at first.
I like CDs and was well served here. COD SPACE INVADERS.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
12:16 – one of my best times.
The only NHO (or perhaps VHO) is ‘steady’ for young man, but it was the only reasonable option. On STEPPE, I spent too much time looking for it to begin with ‘me’ ‘my’ or ‘I’. Once I saw that it was simply a homophone, it fell quickly.
I know ELLINGTON from crosswords.
Lots of fun, COD to WHISTLE-BLOWER.
15.00 Which might indicate correctly that I was slow getting going in the top left corner. TELOS was my first in, thinking “I know that, but will anyone else?” After that I meandered more or less clockwise round the grid, though I finished with STEPPE after rejecting SIERRA as it only sounded like a car. I struggled to get WHISTLE BLOWER – was it too obvious?
I must improve my rusty, koine Greek: I got Χαίρετε, and deduced πάντες was probably everyone, but threw the rest across to Google (highlight, search Google for…) and got the answer – in Greek. Why can’t AI read minds yet?
In view of the snitch rating, I was disappointed that it took me 30 minutes. Delayed by STEPPE as I do not readily equate the singular step with a course of action being a series of steps. Nor did EV immediately come to mind from Tesla. Biffed ELLINGTON trusting it to be the capital of somewhere despite the removal of the W. Just one of my dimmer days, I suppose.
COD INSINUATE. LOI STEPPE.
Thanks to setter and ulaca.
18 mins which is one if my quicker times. Knew LORIS from somewhere but couldn’t tell you what it was and TELOS was NHO (but came up in my word checker as I typed this..).
Parsed GENUS wrongly, thinking it was a little joke from the setter, being a “genius” if one turned up.
Remembered vocative from school and those huge SPACE INVADERS consoles in late 70s/early 80s pubs seems a different world now.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
A nice accessible Monday puzzle done in c 12 and half minutes with nothing causing too much of a hold up. SPACE INVADERS, my LOI with all the crossers in place and a nice PDM. I’m another for whom TELOS was DNK – I have encountered a consulting firm called Telos and it struck me that the Greek for aim or purpose would be the kind of thing the brand advisers would have recommended when they were choosing their moniker. Not exactly turning to Chambers but it did the job.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Flying along with a rare sub 15 minute finish in my sights, but took ages over the tricky alliterative triad of SPACE INVADERS, STEADY and STEPPE and had to settle for 22.37. But a really enjoyable start to the week.
Thanks U and setter.
ABSOLVE was FOI. Then I roamed around the grid picking off low hanging fruit. TELOS only came after all the crossers were in and then following the wordplay. CHIN CHIN was LOI after HEROICS, which took a lot longer than it should have. 16:30. Thanks setter and U.
11.47. I was curious whether CURIA would be right, at a loss at TELOS (but what else could be), and really liked STEADY. COD for me. Thanks blogger and setter!
7’27”, so fourth in the lifetime PB list. Like almost everyone else, slow to start in the NW so reverted to my L to R tactic, where WHISTLE-BLOWER flew in. Used to love SPACE INVADERS, I remember monopolising the machine in the pub. I have read The Secret History, found it disquieting. LORIS and SHOEHORN have recently figured elsewhere.
Ευχαριστώ ulaca and setter.
All went in smoothly and there were no holdups, except perhaps on the SPACE INVADERS clue, where I was thinking of that children’s game where you creep up on someone and keep still when they look round, couldn’t and can’t remember its name but I suspected it started with ‘stage’. TELOS unheard-of but taken on trust: it could hardly have been anything else with that wordplay and T_L_S.
A nice puzzle to start the week all correctly solved bar “space invaders” where I thought I was looking for an old playground game that I wouldn’t know.
“Telos” was today’s unknown but the clue was straightforward with the checkers.
The “steppe”/”steady” crossers also took me a bit of time at the end to unravel.
Thanks to our blogger and setter.
6:15. Plain sailing, nice puzzle to start the week. Fingers crossed for TELOS but the wordplay could hardly have been clearer.
1dn is one of those (quite common) clues where the more literal reading is a cryptic definition and the more cryptic reading is a straight one.
Could have been TOLOS. But I would have thought that the word TELEOLOGICAL was familiar to many crossworders, giving you the TEL. Perhaps not. I know it as a former philosophy student.
It took me a while to get going on this, but once I had started it felt more like a QC, all done in 16 minutes, probably a PB. No issues. NHO TELOS in English, but recognised the word in Greek. A pleasant gentle start to the week.
FOI – INSINUATE
LOI – ELEVATED
COD – GENUS
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
My thanks to ulaca and setter. Harder than I expected on a Monday.
DNF, NHO 11a Telos. Should have guessed it.
27a Nemesis biffed, saw the SIS but didn’t understand the clue at all.
11:33. I made a slow start but soon got motoring. A few typos slowed me down.
COD: SHOEHORN
Thanks to ulaca and our setter.
14:15 – it was either telos or tolos and fortunately it was telos. No problems otherwise.
A fairly speedy 31.34 with my fingers crossed for TELOS. SPACE INVADERS and finally ELEVATED my last two in.