Time taken: 10:39. Weird experience, the whole bottom of the grid was full before I had about a quarter of the top finished.
After completing everything I’m not sure why I found the top half such a challenge, it’s not like there were any particularly obscure entries, I think the clues did a good job of hiding which part was wordplay and which part was the definition.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Even stories must embrace fine art (5,5) |
| STILL LIFES – STILL (even) then LIES (stories) containing F (fine) | |
| 6 | Print form (4) |
| TYPE -double definition | |
| 8 | Old PM replacing Liberal with last one present (8) |
| ATTENDEE – the old PM is Clement ATTLEE, replace the L (liberal) with END (last) | |
| 9 | Important man on board succeeds when making demands (6) |
| ASKING – KING (important man on a chess board) following AS (when) | |
| 10 | 12 repeatedly performing face-to-face (4) |
| NOON – ON (performing) twice with the first one reversed | |
| 11 | Book has no record preserving that man’s disgrace (5,5) |
| BLACK SHEEP – B (book), LACKS (has no), EP (record) containing HE (that man) | |
| 12 | Explain and understand nature of this clue? (3,6) |
| GET ACROSS – GET (understand) ACROSS (this is an across clue) | |
| 14 | Rounded character has appeared before in minor role (5) |
| CAMEO – O (rounded character) after CAME (has appeared) | |
| 17 | Very friendly hotel stops credit (5) |
| THICK -H (hotel) inside TICK (credit). Think “thick as thieves” | |
| 19 | Confronting supply company’s charges (9) |
| ACCOSTING – I got this one from the definition, but I think the idea is that a supply company could be one that repairs your AC, so it’s AC COSTING? Vinyl1 suggests CO’S (company’s) in ACTING (supply?). I bet there’s more! | |
| 22 | The author will repeat lacking understanding of characters? (10) |
| ILLITERATE – I’LL (the author will), ITERATE (repeat) | |
| 23 | Shock caused acute pain briefly (4) |
| STUN – STUNG (caused acute pain) minus the last letter | |
| 24 | Worries about small pet (6) |
| CARESS – CARES (worries) surrounding S (small) | |
| 25 | Thoroughly at home with company of men (2,6) |
| IN DETAIL – IN (at home), DETAIL (company of soldiers) | |
| 26 | Learner fills spare tyre possibly containing no air (4) |
| FLAT – L (learner) inside FAT (spare tyre, possibly) | |
| 27 | Goes under — ancestor’s suppressing break-up (10) |
| SUNDERANCE – hidden inside goeS UNDER ANCEstor | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Party of men chasing game near stone circles (4,5) |
| STAG NIGHT – TAG (chasing game) and NIGH (near) inside ST (stone) | |
| 2 | Enthusiastic about Congress including Republican part of service (7) |
| INTROIT – INTO (enthusiastic about), IT (congress) containing R (Republican) | |
| 3 | What might describe pen name of publisher? (8) |
| LADYBIRD – A PEN could be a LADY BIRD. This clue took me back – as a child in the 70s, I devoured the Ladybird versions of the classics – Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows, Gulliver’s Travels. My mum still keeps a couple on the shelf in my sister’s old room. | |
| 4 | Therapeutic session on sofa is creative, but not very relaxing (4,11) |
| FREE ASSOCIATION – anagram of ON,SOFA,IS,CREATIVE minus V (very) | |
| 5 | Casual wear is less tight (6) |
| SLACKS – double definition | |
| 6 | Way of getting beer from beaker perhaps to be encouraged (4,5) |
| TAKE HEART – you can turn BEAKER into BEER by taking the heart out | |
| 7 | Deal possibly introduces major problem for viewers (4,3) |
| PINK EYE – PINE (deal perhaps) containing KEY (major) | |
| 13 | Demonstration barely affected shocking treatment plan (9) |
| ARCHITECT – MARCH (demonstration) minus the outer letters, then HIT (affected), ECT (shocking treatment) | |
| 15 | Part of cell or gene all mutated (9) |
| ORGANELLE – anagram of OR,GENE,ALL | |
| 16 | Lie on bed, busy doing absolutely nothing (4,4) |
| BONE IDLE – anagram of LIE,ON,BED | |
| 18 | Maintain the greatest possible grip (7) |
| HOLDALL -HOLD (maintain), ALL (the greatest possible) | |
| 20 | Popular tutor on course (2,5) |
| IN TRAIN – IN (popular), TRAIN (tutor) | |
| 21 | Faculty said American people count (6) |
| CENSUS – homophone of SENSE (faculty), then US (American) | |
If you biff the answer, you are using the literal, otherwise you might be using the cryptic. But there is a third way that I applied to both ladybird and architect – I simply entered the only English word that fit the crossing letters, enabling me to finish. I did parse accosting as AC(CO’S)TING, but maybe that’s not right either. There is really a lot of clever stuff here, and I did like free association – it’s what you need to do to solve these long anagrams.
Time: 31:35
Spent too long trying to justify BLANK SHEET (“book has no record”) before I finally saw that BLACK SHEEP fitted and worked with the wordplay. My LOI was LADYBIRD. The moment I saw “pen” I was thinking of female swans but it took far too long to think of LADYBIRD as a publisher, despite having read hundreds of the books in my childhood. When I was teaching university-level computer science, I recommended the Ladybird book of the computer to all the first year students, who thought I was joking, but it was a great (and accurate) introduction.
30 minutes. For 19a, I had ACTING for ‘supply’ as in a “supply teacher” = a temporary replacement / acting teacher.
I had a bit of trouble with the top half too, but dear old Clem at 8a got me going and provided a few crossing letters. From then on not too bad, though I don’t expect to see SUNDERANCE again, at least outside of a crossword grid. I liked LADYBIRD and the descriptive HOLDALL.
Thanks to George and setter
The concept of a top-heavy design is interesting—did you encounter any challenges with balancing that in your shoot?
I thought this was about the same difficulty as yesterday and struggled, but decided to keep on going and managed to finish in the end but well over my time. I parsed ACCOSTING as Vinyl but had no idea about supply/acting until I looked it up and apparently ‘supply’ can be a term for a stand-in, and gives the example of ‘a member of the clergy filling a vacant pulpit temporarily’ along with stunt doubles who fill in for actors. Bit of a mer at ASKING/making demands. NHO SUNDERANCE but luckily it was a hidden. STILL LIFES took an age and only saw it after I’d got FREE ASSOCIATION and the NHO INTROIT. Liked GET ACROSS and STAG NIGHT. NHO ORGANELLE but with checkers it seemed plausible. CAMEO from the definition but missed the parsing.
Thanks George and setter.
55 minutes with one use of aids for ORGANELLE. Although I realised it was an anagram and had identified the grist, I knew it would be a word I didn’t know and I was out of steam by then. It has appeared only once before, in a Jumbo 5 years ago, but with straightforward wordplay so I assume I solved it without difficulty on that occasion.
Elsewhere today I missed the parsing of FREE ASSOCIATION, ACCOSTING and ARCHITECT because I was too tired to return to them once I had the grid completed. SUNDERANCE and CENSUS were my last two in.