Times Cryptic 27782

Author   jackktPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
My solving time was off the scale but somewhere in the region of 80 minutes as I lacked some of the required GK. I expect our aspiring champions will have sailed through it but I shall be more interested to find out how others got on, and whether it was just me having a bad day? I had a few quibbles along the way which I shall mention below.

As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.

Across
1 Picture of Carol at home, repeatedly plugged by the artist (6,2,3,4)
SINGIN IN THE RAIN : SING (carol), IN+IN  +IN (at home, repeatedly) containing [plugged by] THE + RA (artist). The song first appeared in the late 1920’s and pre-dates the movie by at least 23 years.
9 Doctor who’s bad with old x-ray: do ring practice! (6-3)
SHADOW-BOX : Anagram [doctor] of WHO’S BAD,  then O (old), X (x-ray – NATO alphabet – something I forgot myself last week!). I think we have a problem with grammar here because ‘ring practice’ is a nounal whereas the answer is a verb. To fit with ‘ring practice’ the answer would need to be ‘shadow boxing’. Many thanks to bletchleyreject for being the first to point out that ‘do’ is part of the definiton which I have now indicated in the clue above.
10 University no place for one free of attachment (5)
UNPEG : U (university), NP (no place), EG (for one). Unknown to me, but Collins and the Oxfords advise that NP stands for ‘no place of publication’, presumably in book catalogues, however I’m not sure that justifies using it to clue ‘no place’.
11 The Times: can it manage reverses? (6)
EPOCHS : SH (can it! – be quiet!) + COPE (manage) [reverses]
12 Fresh trouble and strife occasioned by the same? (3,5)
WAR BRIDE : A cryptic definition relying on  ‘trouble and strife’ as CRS for ‘wife’ in addition to its literal meaning which might include ‘war’. ‘War bride’ is defined by Collins as 1. a woman who marries a serviceman about to go overseas in wartime, and 2. a woman who marries a foreign serviceman and goes to live in his country. I assume ‘fresh’ just implies newly married, which is fair enough.
13 What’s just sweet to the ear? (6)
DESERT : Sounds like [to the ear] “dessert” (sweet – pudding). As in the saying ‘receiving one’s just deserts’ but I’ve never come across it in the singular in this context.
15 Mount very retrograde operation against one from America (8)
VESUVIUS : V (very), USE (operation) reversed [retrograde], V (against), I (one), US (from America)
18 Guilty of a fumble, tripping close to ball (8)
BLAMEFUL : Anagram [tripping] of A FUMBLE {bal}L [close]
19 From dark heap picked up a sort of acid (6)
NITRIC : Sounds like [picked up] “night” (dark), “rick” (heap – hay rick)
21 Boy’s engaging ME strip, casting article in Serpentine (8)
ZIGZAGGY : ZIGGY (boy) containing [engaging] G{a}ZA (ME strip) [casting article – a]. It took me a while to realise that ME stands for Middle East.
23 Old kingdom is under obligation to drop first one, then the other (6)
WESSEX :  {o}WES (is under obligation to) [drop first one – first letter], SEX (the other – nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more!)
26 Pointed to spot, clutching hip (5)
SPINY : SPY (spot) containing [clutching] IN (hip – with it]
27 Pole with heart ringing Spanish girl’s number (9)
NINESCORE : N (pole) + CORE (heart) containing [ringing] INES (Spanish girl). We had the alternative ‘Inez’ only last week and a discussion here to remind us that both spellings exist. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!!!
28 Have more than one bowler as an all-rounder? (4,7,4)
WEAR SEVERAL HATS : Cryptic definition
Down
1 Our lot, blue at the extremities, are freezing! (7)
SUSPEND : US (our lot) contained by ​[at the extremities] SPEND (blue – spend extravagantly, squander)
2 Little tree giving up nothing? One silver nutmeg, at first (5)
NGAIO : 0 (nothing) + I (one) + AG (silver) + N{utmeg} [at first] all reversed [up]. A New Zealand tree with a name taken from Maori. I’ve known since word since childhood via the writer Ngaio Marsh, creator of the Chief Inspector Alleyn series of mysteries.
3 Engine horn is or should be blown with energy (4,5)
IRON HORSE : Anagram [should be blown] of HORN IS OR E (energy)
4 African heart-throb — girls must turn up to show! (4)
IGBO : Hidden [to show] and reversed [up] in {heart-thr}OB GI{rls}
5 Are demanding to be given new offshore location? (3,5)
TAX HAVEN : TAX (are demanding), HAVE (be given), N (new)
6 Cross into western half of Europe, second-rate out-of-town area (5)
EXURB : X (cross) contained by [into] EUR{ope} [western half], B (second-rate). SOED: A district outside a city or town, esp. a prosperous one beyond the suburbs. Another unknown word.
7 Pair filmed briefly moving part of roadie’s kit? (9)
AMPLIFIER : Anagram [moving] of PAIR FILME{d} [briefly]
8 In northern lands, 16 grand found in raw gold (7)
NUGGETS : U (16dn – universal) + G (grand) contained by [in] N (northern) + GETS (lands). Bordering on a DBE because although some dictionaries say ‘especially gold’, nuggets can be other metals or materials.
14 Has torn about in a rage, prematurely ending state of bliss? (7-2)
SHANGRI-LA : Anagram [torn] of HAS containing [about] ANGRIL{y} (in a rage) [prematurely ending]. Originally a mountain paradise in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, but now part of the language in its own right.
16 Bath, say, girl left clutching small blanket (9)
UNIVERSAL : UNI (Bath), say), VERA (girl) containing [clutching] S (small), then L (left). Yet another random city or town that happens to have a university, but at least it makes a change from Reading. I doubt that the average person is even aware that these places have universities although it ‘s a fairly safe bet that they would. ‘Blanket’ as in ‘blanket coverage’.
17 Russian writer, having invited press in, opening up (8)
TURGENEV : VENT (opening) reversed [up] contains [having invited…in] URGE (press)
18 Rumour saying one might go through deal (4,3)
BUZZ SAW : BUZZ (rumour), SAW (saying). ‘Deal’ being a type of wood.
20 Thus crew initially without a steer? (7)
COXLESS : C{rew} [initially] OX-LESS (without a steer). &lit.
22 In one area old country has abandoned pit (5)
ABYSS : ABYSS{inia} (old country) [in + i (one) + a (area), abandoned]
24 Out of the mouth appeared a tongue (5)
SHONA : Sounds like [out of the mouth] “shown” (appeared) “a”. Another unknown.
25 Lump of skin: hurry to conceal odd bits (4)
KNUR : {s}K{i}N {h}U{r}R{y} [conceal odd bits]

91 comments on “Times Cryptic 27782”

  1. Yes, tough stuff for me too. Eventually got there without any pink squares, but solving time was well over the hour. SPEND for ‘blue’, NP for ‘no place’ and EXURB were all new, though I did vaguely remember the ‘tongue’ at 24d. Lots of good clues with WAR BRIDE being my stand out.

    I parsed SHADOW-BOX with ‘do ring practice’ as the def, which would make the part of speech of the answer correct.

    Lots of X’s and Z’s but no pangram.

    TfT Website very s-l-o-w for me today.

  2. Which puts me at 11 on the leaderboard, for God’s sake. I suppose we were due for something like this after all the easy ones we’ve had, but Lordy! Like Jeremy, I thought of MAY BRIDE, but finally corrected it. After sticking at BAND SAW for ages, I finally thought of BUZZ, which gave me ZIGZAGGY, although I didn’t like ZIGGY and didn’t know what to do with the rest. It took me more ages to stop thinking of old kingdoms in the Middle East and get WESSEX, which gave me SHONA (I’d thought of Xhosa first). I finished reading my first NGAIO Marsh 2 or 3 days ago; that helped. Exhausting, but well worth it.
  3. I was focused more on ‘fresh’ than ‘the same’ and convinced myself that MAY BRIDE could be a thing. I think it’s “June bride”, but perhaps someone can correct me there.

    I loved this puzzle. Really had to grind it out and I was very pleased to finish, even with the mistake.

    Vinyl was kind enough to explain WESSEX to me, but I’m indebted to jackkt for ‘blue’ = SPEND, which worried me.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 02:47 am (UTC)

  4. I think “do ring practice” is SHADOW-BOX.

    ‘Desert’ is “what is deserved”, I believe.

  5. This was a great puzzle let down for me by SHONA. Although I originally thought of this, I later thought it could equally be SHODA and plumped for the latter. Other than that ZIGZAGGY gave me the most trouble, with my several alphabet trawls stopping before Z each time. I must not make assumptions!
  6. Threw in the towel at 53 minutes, bunging in MAY BRIDE for similar reasons to plusjeremy and taking a stab at STOMA for 24d, on the grounds that it at least means “mouth”, which was in the clue. This wasn’t a puzzle to start when already in an unaccountably grumpy mood!
  7. …Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand…

    After 35 mins with yoghurt, banana, granola, blueberry compote, I had two and a half left:
    The Shona/Ninescore crossers and the -A- Bride.
    As soon as I had Ngaio, Igbo, Exurb, I thought ‘Uh-Oh, it’s one of those.’
    Thanks setter and J.

  8. Only word that would fit, but didn’t remember that sense of “blue” for the longest time… and “are freezing” is the wrong tense for it. “Authorities in the anarchist jurisdiction of New York City suspend alternate-side-of-the-street parking at tiimes for various reasons.” “Authorities in the anarchist jurisdiction of New York City are freezing alternate-side-of-the-street parking at times for various reasons”…? Nope.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 07:53 am (UTC)

    1. ‘When authorities in the anarchist jurisdiction of New York are freezing/suspend street parking you know it’s time to send in your shadowy private militia in unmarked uniforms to restore order’?
      1. That gets the same essential sense across, but the verb forms are different, nonetheless. I’m glad to see that you’re staying informed.

        Edited at 2020-09-29 08:04 am (UTC)

  9. DNF in the hour. I’d biffed BAND SAW on the basis that a rumour must be a collective noun for something so could not get ZIGZAGGY, not beginning to think of the Gaza Strip. Also I didn’t think of SHONA. Early on, I put SINGIN IN THE RAIN in faintly, after playing with royal academicians at home, and it did lead to the top half becoming soluble. COD to WAR BRIDE. Too hard for me, but thank you for the challenge, setter, and for the explanations, Jack.
    1. Also had band saw for a while, (I think there is a band call the Rumour, which was my somewhat desperate justification).

      Finally saw the light, when my time was also off the scale

  10. Well, thanks guys, you make me feel quite zippy this morning because I stopped the clock on this tricky item just before 23 minutes, which puts me currently in a dizzyingly high 13th place.

    I’ve recently read the Mary Slessor story, so IGBO was fine if more often in there as a drum. SHONA, while not connected fell into place easily, and apparently luckily.

    I didn’t spot the GAZA connection so I’m thankful that Jack did.

    I thought COXLESS was very clever with the steer bit.

    Just a thought: in the CMS, the high proportion of JQVXZ letters can be a help rather than a hindrance, and todays was no slouch in scrabble scoring. Made things like TAX HAVEN, TURGENEV, ZIGZAGGY and WESSEX easier (to my mind).

    Edited at 2020-09-29 08:28 am (UTC)

  11. Failed with NANDSCORE.

    But in the UK don’t we blow our money (past tense blew). Is “blue” the same derivation but US spelling or a different word (the color?) that happens to mean and sound the same?

    1. It’s just an old usage, completely separate from ‘blow’. I’ve never encountered it in the wild but it’s come up a few times here over the years (and caught me out the first time I saw it) so remember it!
      1. There might be a bit of overlap. From Wiktionary:
        blue (verb) 4) (transitive, slang) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.
        1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, page 311:
        “They was willing to blue the lot and have nothing left when they got home except debts on the never-never.”
        Andyf
  12. 24:06, with ages at the end on the language. I couldn’t decide between SHONA and SHODA so looked it up in the end. I would have plumped confidently for SHODA on the basis of the wordplay but it looked less likely as a word.
    At best the wordplay is ambiguous but unless I’m missing something ‘appeared’ and ‘shown’ are just not synonymous, which makes it very poor. ‘Appear’ can mean ‘show’ but in that context the past particle is ‘showed’.
    A shame, because otherwise the puzzle is excellent.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 07:42 am (UTC)

    1. “To show” means “to appear” – the past participles “(having) shown” and “(having) appeared” are equivalent. Tricky
          1. Yes I get that but I’m not sure ‘shown’ would apply. You might be right though: ‘every time the band has showed/shown for a gig we have paid them’. I honestly don’t know!
            So perhaps the clue is just ambiguous.
  13. Stopped after 35′ without SUSPEND, I agree with previous comments; and without WAR BRIDE, not a phrase I’ve ever heard, we say ‘GI bride’ over here.

    Excellent puzzle, and would have liked to finish.

    Thanks jack and setter.

    1. I’m not sure where you are, but here–well, where I used to be, in the US–I only knew WAR Bride.
      1. Elvis Costello’s great song American Without Tears uses GI Brides too. I suppose that’s the subset of War Bride most familiar to us British.
        “At a dock in Southampton full of tearful goodbyes
        Newsreel commentators said “Cheerio, G.I. brides”
        Soon they’ll be finding the cold facts and lies
        New words for suspenders and young girls backsides.”
        1. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard Elvis Costello’s song, or indeed any of his songs, but isn’t he English?
            1. News to me, BW. My mother was a war bride .. but my father was very far from being a GI, he was in the Royal Artillery
              1. My Mum was a war bride too. Married Boxing Day 1939 before my Dad was enlisted in the Royal Navy for the duration. The expression GI Bride was reserved for those women allured to the US by the promise of nylons. I had a distant second cousin who fell for a US airman at Burtonwood who didn’t come back for her. As the saying went then: “I’ve nothing against the Yanks apart from they’re. overpaid, overfed, over sexed and over here.“
  15. As Myrtilus I realised early on that the setter was taking no prisoners. After 30 minutes I still had 4 to do.
  16. As per the well-chosen phrase above, the setter wasn’t taking any prisoners today: however, we are always here for the fight. Pleasantly surprised, firstly to finish at all (SHONA went in with fingers crossed, as I had misgivings, too, which I’m not sure have been assuaged), secondly to find that everybody else found it at least as difficult as I did. Lots of pauses to resolve areas which looked unlikely with all those Vs and Zs and Xs, realise that 1ac has an apostrophe in it, and formulate words which I don’t use much around the house, such as NINESCORE and BLAMEFUL (odd, that, people are regularly described as blameless, rarely the exact opposite). An invigorating start to the day, anyway.
  17. 24:29. Wow that was tricky! DNK “blue” for spend, but otherwise all parsed. SW corner was my last, trying to make sense of BAND SAW at first for 18D until I found how GAZA without an A fit into 21A. NINESCORE for the number came from thinking of the Spanish girl in the non-Z spelling. Funny how these sorts of things keep coming up. Good challenge. Thanks setter and Jackkt for sorting it all out.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 08:27 am (UTC)

  18. Great, great puzzle. Many thanks to setter and Jack. All done in about 50m with a great deal of enjoyment. First came across the meaning of ‘to blue’ in a Jilly Cooper novel many years ago! Only two minor points – is Ziggy really a boy’s name? And ‘np’ for ‘no place’ is perhaps stretching it a bit. Perhaps bung in ‘initially’ in the usual manner and it might have been clearer.
    2. The older brother of a school friend of mine was called Zygmunt and she called him that. And then there’s David Bowie. So I think it works Tringmardo.
      2. Ziggy is also the name of a character in the animated childrens’ series Lazytown (ask the grandchildren).. and of Bob Marley’s son
  19. giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt…

    but somehow finished all correct. Had a number of minor quibbles with this but an exhilarating work-out nonetheless. 43 minutes.

  20. Bah, not too bad a time for a tough puzzle but I invented the concept of a RAW BRIDE (deliberately, not a typo, unfortunately).

    COD: EPOCHS, lovely disguised ‘can it’.

    Yesterday’s answer: Long John Silver was the ship’s cook.

    Today’s question: where was the capital of Wessex?

    2. According to Wikipedia LJS was a quartermaster, but I too was certain that he was the cook. Probably had two functions. In fact it is lurking at the back of my mind that he was cook on the Hawkins party ship, but QM on Flint’s ship??
      Andyf
      1. Yes, he was quartermaster on Flint’s ship but for the purposes of the story he was a cook. The whole second part of the book is called ‘The Sea-Cook’.
  21. Total disaster: Wessex, Shona, zigzaggy and buzz all empty, even after putting it down for a few hours Ignorance fro the first three, no excuse for not getting buzz. Unpeg unparsed – never seen or imagined NP. But some nice clues – coxless and epochs the best. Congratulations to all who finished, thanks setter and blogger.
  22. “I have shown (up)”=”I have appeared” so it’s word substitution, but hard to see as “showed” seems more obvious. Therefore tricky.
    1. Maybe it’s ‘shone’ – ‘out of the mouth’ indicating ‘sounding like’. That would be how the language sounds too.
      1. But ‘shone’ doesn’t a) sound like ‘shown’ (which it needs to for the homophone to work) or b) mean ‘appeared’.
        1. Shona is pronounced with a short o, as I recall. Shone can mean appeared, at a pinch. (Via ‘dawned’ as it were.)

          Edited at 2020-09-29 10:39 am (UTC)

          1. The dictionaries disagree on the pronunciation, I see: Chambers and Lexico give ‘shown-a’ but Collins has ‘shone-a’. I don’t see the shone/appeared équivalence though. ‘The sun shone’ doesn’t mean the same as ‘the sun rose’.
            1. Yes, the ‘shone’ synonym is dodgy. Nevertheless, the sun dawned, the meaning dawned… almost there.
    2. That example doesn’t work because ‘show up’ is not the same as ‘show’. But I do think you’re probably right that ‘shown’ is the right past participle, even if it takes some quite unnatural contortions to get it into a sentence!
      1. I never even considered “shown” over “shone”. And now that I have I’m even more confused!
  23. Well this completely beat me. After 1hr 15 mins still had 7 clues not entered and no idea about any of them. NHOs include NGAIO, IGBO, EXURB, SHONA. Also not helped by bunging in BAND SAW and COWLESS. Well, without a steer is cowless, no? Oh well, back to the drawing board. Thank you Jack as ever and, begrudgingly setter!
  24. My FOI was EXURB, at which point I thought “This is going to be a toughie!” And so it came to pass. The SE corner(apart from SHONA, which was my LOI) yielded without too much trouble, giving me some hope. Then the battle began in earnest. A biffed NEW BLOOD held up NUGGETS for ages, but was sorted when AMPLIFIER went in. The NGAIO tree has somehow lodged itself in my brain, so was an easy one. SUSPEND was frozen out for a while, but DESERT finally put me on the right track. The SW corner held me up until BUZZ SAW opened it up and I saw ZIGZAGGY without being able to make sense of the ME strip, although I did spot ZIGGY as the boy. ABYSS then formed my penultimate entry and I went back to SHONA. Very pleased to do this in under the hour. 51:46, and amazed to find this put me at 49 on the Leaderboard. Thanks setter and Jack.
  25. Relieved to find that most others had to struggle. Like Angus I thought of RAW=fresh but managed to get it in the right order without fully understanding how the clue worked. NGAIO strictly from the author. 25.57
  26. Definitely over the hour after two sessions. I found this really tough. Was it a new compiler by any chance?

    Pleased to have finished but too many answers biffed- suspend, nuggets and zigzaggy . Still, alls well and all that. Is Wednesday too be the new Friday?

    Thanks to blogger for sacrificing so much of his time on our behalf!

  27. … completely by some of this, came to the blog with a few gaps unfilled. DK Shona was a Bantu language, had UNPIN not unpeg, and didn’t get 1d (looking for a freezing meaning using B(lu)E). Disaster, darling. Guessed EXURB was a word, and ZIGZAGGY and IGBO once we had checkers. Setter wins today. Well blogged, jackkt, glad it was not Wednesday.
  28. SUSPEND and WAR BRIDE were my LOIs. The clueing for the latter was very obscure, and I was very tempted by may bride.
    However much of this crossword was accessible and I’ll give it an 8/10
  29. Ouch. I have to say I was shocked to end up with no pink squares. I really didn’t expect all three made up words in the first lot of downs to be right, threw in ZIGZAGGED totally unparsed (thanks jackkt) and hit and hoped on SHONA.
  30. Gave up on SHONA after 25 minutes and three alpha trawls. DNK either this or EXURB (despite solving the latter very quickly).

    As I stumbled along my ZIGZAGGY way, I had to amend my false FOI “new bride”, thus having a FOI/NHO combination. Apart from SHONA (I might have preferred a random girl for once !) I only had the NW corner left in 17 minutes. I was not helped at 3D by trying to anagrind “or should”, nor at 1A where I didn’t realise it wasn’t “singing” truncated.

    COD NINESCORE

  31. Excellent, though very tough. Took way to long to drag up BUZZ for “rumour” and I’d never heard of BLUE for “spend” which held me up a lot too. Top challenge.

    Edited at 2020-09-29 01:15 pm (UTC)

  32. It’s disappointing that puzzles with this sort of ridiculous obscurity and shonky clueing are becoming increasingly common.

    Derek

    1. Close engagement with the Crossword Snitch suggests to me at least that they’re mostly getting easier, or we’re all getting better (same thing?), so while I wouldn’t want them all the time, the occasional stinker is appreciated here at least. Have to say I really liked the cluing on this one too!
      1. One of the joys of the SNITCH for me has been seeing my average time fall. Of course there is the possibility of that being reversed.
  33. I got there in the end in 56 minutes. But I can’t say that I enjoyed it. Normally unravelling the cryptic, however long it takes, leaves you with a feeling of satisfaction. That feeling is what I missed in this puzzle. Some of the clueing was so vague I took to using a pencil because I couldn’t be quite sure. It’s quite a stretch to get UNIVERSAL from “blanket” in any case but when the UNI is clued as “Bath, say” I was tempted to give up. Bath is famous for many things (Spa, Romans, Rugby,bun,chair etc) but the university comes a long way down that list. I hope we don’t see this sort of puzzle too often. Ann
    1. Yes, I imagine you could quite easily visit Bath and not notice it had a university. Not quite as bad as my alma mater, though: I spent three years at the University of Warwick without ever setting foot in Warwick…
      1. Loved this comment about Warwick. But of course wholly wrong about Bath as the only people you see there are students and tourists 😀 And you only down the road Mr Gothick tut tut 😀
  34. Very good Tuesday puzzle, though we must of course hope that Friday’s is 3 times this difficulty level. Okay, maybe not?

    Edited at 2020-09-29 02:55 pm (UTC)

  35. Whilst I admired much of this, overall felt it was all a bit OTT. And my feelings not helped by the clue where I went wrong (STOMA for SHONA, unrecalled even though I used to live in SA). Given uncertain pronunciation and obscurity of answer, surely a homophone wasn’t the appropriate clue type, especially with rather dodgy equivalence of “appeared” and “shown” (or maybe “shone”)? (Almost similar remark could be made about WAR BRIDE, even if I got this and smiled). I, too, feel there is growing tendency towards more obscure words which is probably not a move in the right direction …
  36. I gave up without putting pen to paper. Just too busy for a marathon. Oh! I see I did get SINGING IN THE RAIN but it didn’t fit!

    Edited at 2020-09-29 03:16 pm (UTC)

  37. Entered NEW BRIDE at first, for the ‘fresh’ trouble and strife, but changed to WAR when TAX HAVEN made it inevitable, without fully understanding the parsing, thinking it might have something to do with RAW backwards. The SUSPEND and DESERT were also iffy. As Robrolfe said ‘to blow one’s money’ hence BLEW rather than BLUE made more sense to me, and I thought (obviously in error- thank you Jackkt) that one got one’s just desserts with two s’s. Submitted after 49’11” when I refused to think about it any longer, fully expecting several pink squares. Surprised to find all green, and I hadn’t got my just deserts.
  38. 17:14. I struggled mightily with this one and didn’t quite get how WAR BRIDE or SHANGRI-LA worked.
  39. Gave up with 4 or 5 to go. Not helped by entering Persia at 23ac so therefore couldn’t see Coxless. I was thinking ” Per Sia(m)” – stupid in retrospect – and just ran out of steam.
    This was a toughie – I should have persevered.
  40. Really enjoyed this, I thought the obscurities were mostly gettable from wordplay. Undone by 27ac where I mombled nandscore. The previous other half was a Zim girl so Shona a write-in.
  42. Loved this, put it to one side after 30 mins and finished off this evening .. though I do think someone clever enough to write a fine song like Singing in the rain would know how to spell it
  43. 1hr 8 mins. Sheesh! Fiendish. Though in the end only abyss unparsed. Hesitant at 24dn, shoda seemed to fit wp better but I had a vague recollection of Shona, luckily I jumped the right way. Ended up in the SW where zigzaggy finally gave me the z needed for the right type of saw.
  45. Shona is pronounced “shone a”, as in the past tense of shine a (light), not “shown a”. So ‘appeared’ = ‘shone’.
  46. Gave up after an hour with about a dozen left.

    Many unknowns:

    IGBO, SHONA, KNUR (though I did pencil that in)

  47. No it’s pronounced “Shown-a” as per all the dictionary guides and any time I have ever heard it
  48. Just completed a printed version of this – with a lot of difficulty – and that was with help from your blog for the ‘impossibles’ . Thank goodness I blog Tuesday’s QC rather than beasts like this! Respect to those who do – thanks.

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