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
Well, while I eventually managed to finish, I found this very challenging; I must have taken a “stupid pill”! While I got 13d from the clue, I still don’t understand ARCHITECT for PLAN?
Well, I’ve come along much later, and I’m no expert for sure, but I understood “architect” as a verb for this clue, as in to architect a computer system. Collins has it in that sense. Kind of a barbarism to me, but English is like that.
Can you explain why Congress is IT please (2D)
it and congress can both mean sexual intercourse.
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
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.
Steady solve, medium-hard I thought.
I had it parsed as AC(COS)TING too, with an initial mer at supply = acting, but a supply teacher is in an acting capacity…
A pub near me called The Swan thought it clever to have PENS and COBS instead of ladies and gents. It led to an unfortunate amount of confusion! They had to add the usual pictures underneath ..
My wife’s explanation for accosting is supply = AC, company’s charge = co sting.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t account for the pluralised ‘charges’ in the clue – plus, I suspect the setter would have been leery of using ‘sting’ when ‘stung’ has also been used two clues later to get to STUN.
17.12. I think Glen’s right about AC CO STING, unless you’re in America when I believe it would. be DC CO STING. My AC Co. is Eon Next, but I don’t get any relief from their sting (charges) by promoting them.
The rest of this was fine, with my last in LADYBIRD raising a grin of relief, recognition, admiration and amusement. At least I didn’t have to justify Leadbury, which will now be my own publishing company if I ever have one.
I struggled with ARCHITECT because I always think of it as EST not ECT. I’ll try to remember.
Pretty sure US supply is AC like ours, just with a lower voltage (and higher frequency). Unless you’re in the District of Columbia, maybe? 🙂
I must learn to keep up: still living in the days of Tesla and Edison! Apparently some companies are experimenting again with DC for long distance transmission.
15:34. LOI ARCHITECT. I liked LADYBIRD, BONE IDLE and CENSUS most. As for ACCOSTING I parsed it as Glen but AC (Alternating Current) for “supply” doesn’t look right. Thanks George and setter.
What does your electric company supply? And please don’t say gas!
Firmly in the COS inserted into ACTING camp: a classic Times construction – supply (that) company’s charges = ACTING that COS fills. But it is always interesting when solvers find an alternative parse and, whilst it probably shouldn’t happen, I tend to cut setters (and the editor) some slack: it’s hard enough to come up with good clues and then to rigorously test them – at which point, the mind is firmly committed to the parse. Spotting that there might be a possible alternative is then really difficult to do. (I’m quite lucky in that I have a tester who, if there is a potential alternative, will inevitably plump for it which is both incredibly irritating and incredibly helpful at the same time)
THICK, STAGNATE and, COTD, BONE IDLE were my faves today . All done in just under 23 minutes which I’ll take for a Thursday.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Made a meal of that – 33 minutes – and looking back I have no idea why I struggled so much
14’23”.
Mine was AC (electricity supply) + COSTING (company’s charges). Other parsings are available.
LADYBIRD was an excellent clue.
Thanks gl and setter.
Wouldn’t that have to be costingS? The only S is what puts me firmly in the CO’S camp .. if you see what I mean.
29 mins including several for L2I ARCHITECT and IN DETAIL. Unlike our blogger FOI was STILL LIFES and the NW followed briskly. I found this much easier than yesterday thankfully on the morning after curry night. Next up more therapeutic sofa time and bone idleness.
COD LADYBIRD.
Thanks to glh and setter.
46:08 – so pretty slow. I spent 10 minutes, solving half; then stared at the canvas blankly for 20 minutes, then finished the rest in another 15. For quite a few of the clues, I was on the right lines but couldn’t quite confirm the answer (e.g. STAG NIGHT, where I was thinking STAG DO for a long time).
To my mind, this is an absolutely first class puzzle. All the difficulty arises from ingenuity – choosing unusual definitions and disguising the cryptic. Although I felt I could have been a bit quicker, I was very happy to get everything.
Incidentally I thought a ‘grip’ was a small bag whereas a HOLDALL was a big one.
Yep. Even though I laughably had GLUT for FLAT, I thought this was one of best ‘tricky-level’ puzzles we’ve had for quite some time. Hardly any need for a dictionary either, apart from ORGANELLE.
More tellingly (and unusually), I didn’t find myself ‘outraged’ by any of it🤣. With some great surfaces, no ‘crowbar’ clues, and a consistency across the grid, imo it was everything a crossword should be.
A bit over the top perhaps, but I’d personally rate this one as the best we’ve had so far in 2026.
From STAG NIGHT to LADYBIRD in 21:55. I parsed ACCOSTING as AC (electricity supply) COSTING (charges of the electricity company). I can see CO’S inside ACTING too. Perhaps the setter might drop by and clarify for us? Like George, I had the bottom half completed well before the top half. Thanks setter and George.
The intended parsing for ACCOSTING is CO’S inside ACTING, where “supply” indicates ACTING and “charges” indicates insertion (of CO’S).
Thanks Jason 🙂
My thanks to glh and setter.
Interesting puzzle. Tricky in parts, some VHOs.
1a Still Lifes, wasn’t sure if it should be Lives but that doesn’t parse. wictionary allows both.
27a NHO Sunderance, added to Cheating Machine.
2d VHO Introit. Could not have defined it.
3d Ladybird, CNP but pretty much the only possibility.
13d Architect, CNP but saw the ECT.
15d Organelle, NHO or VHO?
Another laborious 1hr 24mins but got there in the end. All done bar Ladybird, Black Sheep and Sunderance in an hour. Almost gave up but saw Sunderanceb as I was about to press reveal.
NHO Introit but could get to it from the cluing.
Thanks George for parsing Ladybird and to our setter for a tricky but fair puzzle. I was also a fan of :adybird books. I notice now that there is A Ladybird Book of Donald Trump and A Ladybird Book of Hangovers
From the 1st of those 2 books:
“Anyone can grow up to become president or alternatively they can become president first then maybe think about growing up later”
🤣🤣. Brilliant!
46:21
After I eventually got FREE ASSOCIATION this was a much easier ride, but until then it looked more like a tough Friday. Turned out the American wasn’t SIOUX either, which held me up for quite a while. Should have seen BLACK SHEEP much, much sooner as well. COD to TAKE HEART (I like this kind of thing). LADYBIRD a close second, though.
All in all a great Thursday workout! Thanks George and setter.
I’m sorry I’m being thick but how is ladybird = pen? thanks
A pen is a female swan, or a “lady bird”
A pen is a female swan.
45:55, and I swerved the question of which parsing to use for ACCOSTING by failing to parse it at all.
Thank you for the blog!
Completed today’s on a train where I was randomly seated next to a gentleman with a book of Times crosswords. Naturally we ended up chatting and he helped me over the line with my LOI simply by reading it out loud!
A lovely way to spend the journey and hello to my new metallurgist friend if he’s on here.
Thanks glh and setter
How lovely!
I had a similar experience to George, not getting started until I was in the bottom half. Biffing was much in evidence, but I had to come here to understand LADYBIRD and PINK EYE, and still think ACCOSTING is a very poor clue.
FOI THICK
LOI SUNDERANCE (D-oh!!!)
COD BONE IDLE
TIME 8:43
Two goes needed, finishing with THICK and ARCHITECT (where I’m still not sure how it equals plan – it’s not being used as a verb, is it?)
– Took a while to see that the clue for 10a was not referencing 12a and get NOON
– Didn’t see that FREE ASSOCIATION was an anagram (I thought ‘creative’ was giving ‘free’)
– Couldn’t have told you what an ORGANELLE is
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI In train
LOI Architect
COD Cameo
Yes it is being used as a verb.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/architect
It’s a noun there.
Keep scrolling down!
“There ain’t no noun that can’t be verbed.”
11:23. Another very enjoyable puzzle.
I stayed in Masham in Yorkshire last year, where there are two breweries: the long-established Theakston one, and the adjacent spin-off founded by a rebellious member of the family in 1992. BLACK SHEEP, of course.
22:59. The major hold ups being THICK (insert your own joke) and ARCHITECT. ARCHITECT was one of those I would have been better off not reading the clue and just tried to fit a word in.
COD LADYBIRD
Thanks blogger and setter
16:40 – no particular dramas though the bottom left was a bit stubborn. Nice to see the worthy LADYBIRD make an appearance; I wonder how many of those unassuming little books lit a lifetime’s interest in their readers.
I had AC + costing, but when I saw the ac(cos)ting parsing I was glad that it was confirmed by Jason. I thought it was a very nice clue, contrary to Busman; perhaps supply = acting isn’t all that obvious. The hidden defeated me for ages because I had a P as the third letter. And I was slow to see that ARCHITECT was [m]arc[h] hit ECT, thinking that we had to do something like [m]arch it[x] ECT. Good crossword.
Well, after my DIABOILICAL DNF yesterday, I resolved to solve this one whatever the cost.
That cost turned out to be (drumroll please…)
3:37:31.
OK, a good deal of that was the screen idly ticking by as I ate lunch. But an even greater deal was simply me sitting 16dn staring at my screen!
This was a proper solve, except I did have a dictionary on-hand to check a couple of definitions (NHO PINK EYE, checked that grip could indeed be a noun in the relevant sense, etc). But I do feel a sense of accomplishment for having completed something on the tougher side completely aidless.
It certainly shouldn’t have taken as long as it did. My ability for getting answers from checking letters seems to have entirely vanished, as virtually every clue was attained via a full cryptic construtction.
I parsed ACCOSTING as AC /\ TING (COS), reading acting as supply as in supply teacher etc.
COD to 22ac.
Thanks George, and congratulations on your fantastic time, and thank you setter.
Good straightforward puzzle – 19 mins. No unheard-ofs; I presumed SUNDERANCE existed though I’ve never met it. Didn’t understand FLAT’s wordplay: does spare = FAT? Sorry to see that ARCHITECT has become a verb, and despite above comments remain uneasy about supply = ACTING. As I recently commented, Attlee is getting more than his fair share of cruciverbal airings. First in was ATTENDEE, last LADYBIRD (nice clue). Favourite three clues: to STAG NIGHT, FREE ASSOCIATION and BONE IDLE. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
‘Spare tyre’ is slang for fat around the middle of the body.
Thanks for that, jackkt. I thought ‘tyre’ was part of the definition!
Never heard of “supply” teacher and put in ACCOSTING with a shrug. NHO LADYBIRD as a publisher, ditto. POI IN DETAIL, LOI BONE IDLE, which both were slow in coming, but I was very sleepy!
21:40 but one typo – which I spotted as I pressed submit.
COD: STILL LIFES
Thanks to glh and our setter.
I thought architect meant planner not plan.
ARCHITECT can be a verb, where plan works.
Nice puzzle, nice blog. I got the parsing of Accosting correct (according to Jason), but that was only because I thought if that before I thought of any of the other ways. Fortunately, they all arrive at the same answer.
I’m in the “this would be a better world if architect remained a noun” camp.
Got Richie Blackmore’s BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY running through my head now. Thanks. Did this in 25’45”, with top right slowing me down. Definitely of the ACTING outside CO’S school of thought. SUNDERANCE is an ugly word. How long before we get a clue about Butch’s mate, the queen in his heart, and the break-up.
Strange week when tricky Thursday turns out to be the first day I didn’t need aids or make a simple error, though several were unparsed. As a former electronic engineer I was happy with Alternating Corrent costing, whatever was intended.
Gave up on this last night with 10 plus clues not done and thought about looking at the answers but decided to leave till the morning. I’m glad I did because finished all correct. I thought this was a very tough challenge making completion very satisfying.
FOI ASKING
LOI ARCHITECT (really!)
COD LADYBIRD
39:30
Slow start (Mrs H in the same room and wanted to see if she could solve any – she did get both 1a and 1d before going off to do something else). NHO ORGANELLE, INTROIT, nor SUNDERANCE but can see where it comes from. Failed to parse ACCOSTING – think Vinyl’s answer was best. Liked ARCHITECT.
Thanks G and setter
I found it quite tricky and took ‘AC’ to refer to ‘air conditioning’ instead of ‘alternating current’ which arguably just about works too.