Solving time: 33 minutes
A very enjoyable puzzle that wasn’t too difficult.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Nobleman in Paris that finally invests in planet (8) |
| MARQUESS | |
| QUE (in Paris ‘that’) + {invest}S [finally] contained by [in] MARS (planet) | |
| 5 | Criminals in group ultimately pollute this river (6) |
| GANGES | |
| GANG (criminals in group), then {pollut}E + {thi}S [ultimately] | |
| 9 | Refined female newspaper boss disturbed by photo (9) |
| DISTILLED | |
| DI (female) + ED (newspaper boss) containing [disturbed by] STILL (photo) | |
| 11 | Shoot native touring island group (5) |
| SCION | |
| SON (native) containing [touring] CI (island group – Channel Islands). I looked more than once at ‘native / SON’ but I think I can see it. One might speak of the sons or natives of a place when referring those born and bred there. SOED: scion – a shoot or twig, esp. one cut for grafting or planting | |
| 12 | Scandinavian girl at back of horse — seated thus? (7) |
| ASTRIDE | |
| ASTRID (Scandinavian girl), {hors}E [at back of…]. The definition refers back to ‘horse’ in the wordplay. | |
| 13 | Abolish a ring originally of this shape? (7) |
| ANNULAR | |
| ANNUL (abolish), A, R{ing} [originally]. The definition refers back to ‘ring’ in the wordplay. | |
| 14 | Bloomer harms chutney prepared by mother initially (13) |
| CHRYSANTHEMUM | |
| Anagram [prepared] of HARMS CHUTNEY, then M{other} [initially] | |
| 16 | Unease of English doctor given tapestry by chaps in street (13) |
| EMBARRASSMENT | |
| E (English),MB (doctor), ARRAS (tapestry), then MEN (chaps) contained by [in] ST (street). | |
| 20 | Bumpkin guarding Scottish port’s source of animal feed (7) |
| HAYRICK | |
| HICK (bumpkin) containing [guarding] AYR (Scottish port) | |
| 21 | Geordie mother dined with one in Muslim leader’s office (7) |
| IMAMATE | |
| I (one), MAM (Geordie mother), ATE (dined). This word came up in the QC last Thursday defined as ‘caliph’s office’ which gave rise to some dissent in the ranks. | |
| 23 | Fat porter, perhaps? (5) |
| STOUT | |
| Two meanings, with ‘porter’ and ‘stout’ being types of beer. Whether they are or can be the same I shall leave to the experts. | |
| 24 | In excursion round Rhode Island, pass flag (9) |
| TRICOLOUR | |
| TOUR (excursion) containing [round] RI (Rhode Island) + COL (mountain pass) | |
| 25 | Tired as old folk were, always crossing river? (6) |
| AWEARY | |
| AY (always) containing [crossing] WEAR (river). I like ‘as old folk were’ indicating the old-fashioned word. | |
| 26 | In French, discuss Yankee’s plea (8) |
| ENTREATY | |
| EN (‘in’ French), TREAT (discuss), Y (Yankee) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Crazy commander’s personal assistant disrupting plan (6) |
| MADCAP | |
| ADC (commander’s personal assistant) contained by [disrupting] MAP (plan) | |
| 2 | Stand firm when second son leaves for exam (5) |
| RESIT | |
| RESI{s}T (stand firm) [when second son leaves] | |
| 3 | It makes one extremely irresistible in fur, somehow (7) |
| UNIFIER | |
| I{rresistibl}E [extremely] contained by [in] anagram [somehow] of IN FUR | |
| 4 | Trading situation: wine stores note it, we hear (7,6) |
| SELLERS MARKET | |
| Aural wordplay [we hear]: SELLERS / “cellars” (wine stores), MARKET / “mark it” (note it) | |
| 6 | Sailors mostly knowledgeable about hot drink? (7) |
| ABSINTH | |
| ABS (sailors), INT{o} (knowledgeable about) [mostly], H (hot) | |
| 7 | Seabird’s culpability, eating a lot of fruit (9) |
| GUILLEMOT | |
| GUILT (culpability) containing [eating] LEMO{n} (fruit) [a lot of…] | |
| 8 | Set of symptoms unknown new doctor found in a few (8) |
| SYNDROME | |
| Y (unknown) + N (new) + DR (doctor) contained by [found in] SOME (a few) | |
| 10 | Senior policeman, one doubting male medical specialist (13) |
| DIAGNOSTICIAN | |
| DI (senior policeman – Detective Inspector), AGNOSTIC (one doubting), IAN (male) | |
| 14 | Strange hobby — clue “small compartment” (9) |
| CUBBYHOLE | |
| Anagram [strange] of HOBBY CLUE. A word I don’t think I have heard since my childhood. | |
| 15 | Be sure that fellow is attorney for chapel (8) |
| BETHESDA | |
| BET (be sure), HE’S (that fellow is), DA (District Attorney). I think ‘bet’ is more to hope or have a very strong feeling rather than be sure. Bethesda is name used for nonconformist chapels. | |
| 17 | Celebrate one included in duty list (7) |
| ROISTER | |
| I (one) contained by [included in] ROSTER (duty list) | |
| 18 | Captivate leader of orchestra in eastern part of Belgium (7) |
| ENAMOUR | |
| O{rchestra} [leader] contained by [in] E (eastern) + NAMUR (part of Belgium) | |
| 19 | Terrible barney in the immediate vicinity (6) |
| NEARBY | |
| Anagram [terrible] of BARNEY | |
| 22 | Bouquet from a European capital, as identified locally (5) |
| AROMA | |
| A, ROMA (European capital, as identified locally) | |
10:27 WOE
Having the checkers, I bunged in MARQUISE without looking back at the clue. Serves me right. Biffed a heap of others. I liked UNIFIER. Jack, you’ve got an extra S in ARRAS.
Thank you.
snap re MARQUISE!
Another MARQUISE. I even thought I’d parsed it, which is worrying.
I thought this was a bit tricky – I’ve never seen Namur in the wordplay. The long ones were a little intimidating – who needs a 14-letter anagram? Then I thought of chrysanthemum, but didn’t know how to spell it, causing further delay. All fixed at the end.
Time: 28 minutes
DNF for the second day in a row. THRENADE yesterday, MARQUISS today. 10:20 otherwise.
Thanks setter and Jack.
Jack, you’ve got PIC instead of STILL in the parsing of 9ac.
Ta.
Around 30 minutes. Straightforward and able to parse every clue myself. FOI CHRYSANTHEMUM LOI SCION Enjoyed it.
Tapestry is “arras” not ARASS
Photo is “still” not PIC
Bit of an echo around here! 😊
Well, at least today’s only took 16 minutes to fail at, having confused my marquess with my marquis and come up with a MARQUISS despite knowing the difference between “that” and “who” in French. Still an improvement on yesterday’s disaster…
I think I knew they were that and who but I wasn’t sure which was which!
This sounds like it should be the punchline to a very long and involved joke about grammar!
12.18. A few unknown bits (NAMUR, the def of SCION), and had I not been chastened by yesterday’s experience, I could definitely have invented the MARQUISS/ISE.
Grateful to the video game company for confirming BETHESDA is a word. Like Jack, I enjoyed the antiquation indicator in AWEARY.
Thanks both.
43:35 got really stuck in the NE corner as GANGES refused to appear (I was parsing the wordplay all wrogn so my fault really). BETHESDA was new to me as a chapel, though I knew of it as a place in the US – home of Marriott iirc. I thought the wordplay for DIAGNOSTICIAN was very neat. Fun puzzle although I made heavy weather of it. Thanks Jack and Setter!
Not greatly enamoured of this one. I knew this would be the case on the first pass, where I am compelled to exercise my pedantry : porter and STOUT are two totally different drinks – ask any brewer!
I was surprised to finish inside 10 minutes.
FOI MARQUESS
LOI DIAGNOSTICIAN
COD BETHESDA
TIME 8:55
But if you ask any historian (well, ok, wiki), “The history of stout and porter are intertwined. The name “stout”, used for a dark beer, came about because strong porters were marketed as “stout porter”, later being shortened to just stout. Guinness Extra Stout was originally called “Extra Superior Porter” and was not given the name “Extra Stout” until 1840.
Yes, according to my research today stout evolved from porter so they share a common history, with porter being on the scene anything up to 100 years before the first stout appeared. Over the years the brewing techniques evolved and became more distinctive. One of the brewer sites advises: Porters use malted barley and stouts use unmalted roasted barley. This affects the flavour profiles of each beer as in porters, malted barley is more likely to bring out a chocolatey flavour.
I’d say that means they are different, though not ‘totally’ as chalk and cheese are. Probably close enough for a cryptic crossword clue that ends with question mark.
And a ‘perhaps’
Wiktionary has (def 3):
“A strong, dark ale, originally favored by porters (etymology 1, sense 1), similar to a stout but less strong.”
So not TOTALLY different IMHO.
ON EDIT Didn’t notice Z’s contribution, hence the repeat.
Guinness certainly is (or was) referred to as both stout and porter in Norn Iron – works for me! This may have been a PB for me at around 30 mins just held up by “scion” and “aweary”
10:45
Shouldn’t this have been yesterday’s puzzle?
I always like having four long crossers (if I can get them; otherwise, otherwise).
Never heard of ABSINTH without the E.
AWEARY turns up several times in Shakespeare, including ‘Measure for Measure’, the source of Tennyson’s ‘Mariana’, who doesn’t even get to play the bed trick on Angelo:
She only said, “My life is dreary,
He cometh not,” she said;
She said, “I am aweary, aweary;
I would that I were dead!”
LOI and COD UNIFIER.
In Merchant of Venice Portia says her little body is a weary of the world…
45 mins with a couple of unknowns, UNIFIER worked out once I had the crossers and wp, and Namur. LOI AWEARY. Odd word.
Otherwise fairly straightforward. I liked TRICOLOUR and ABSINTH. Every time I see the word, which is quite often in crosswords I think of the Degas painting.
Thanks Jack and setter.
25 minutes with LOI AWEARY, courtesy of the great Paul Robeson and ‘Just a-wearyin’ for you’. There couldn’t be a sadder, more beautiful earworm than that. Really enjoyable puzzle with COD to EMBARRASSMENT, and anagram of the day to CHRYSANTHEMUM. Thank you Jack and setter.
Same here for “aweary” – we had an EP of Paul Robeson back in the 60s which included this song, and it’s been a favourite ever since.
We’re in good company. Mark Knopfler, on Desert Island Discs last week, said how he used to enjoy Paul Robeson’s radio programmes. My other great favourite is Trees, his version of the Joyce Kilmer poem. And of course Ol’ Man River.
Mariana, Tennyson – as above. Great minds.
25 mins pre-brekker. I liked it.
MERs at discuss=treat and knowledgeable about=into. I know people who are very strongly into things, but not at all knowledgeable. A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Ta setter and J.
Another steady solve, failed to parse AWEARY but put it in anyway.
I observe that one of the winners of Saturday’s cryptic comes from Bethesda, Gwynedd, so should have no trouble with 15dn.
Porter and stout do have at least one thing in common, in that I am not keen on either of them. I would see them as distinctly different but Collins says “STOUT: strong porter highly flavoured with malt.”
My old Sheffield granny used to like a glass of milk stout, a disgusting drink.
Ena, Minnie and Martha would have agreed with her.
16’06”, nice to have a late start to the week. No issues, although ‘knowledgeable about’ had me looking for a reversal, and, as noted, I’ve always spelt ABSINTHE with an ‘e’.
Thanks jack and setter.
24:00 with a pink square
I’m another MARQUISS. Now I’ve typed it, it looks horrible but less so on the grid. Maybe the WJEC should revisit my GCSE in French.
Aside from that a steady solve, with UNIFIER and AWEARY my last two.
A typo and a fail so far this week so watch out for my debut at the champs verlaine…
Thanks to both.
22:19
I almost did the MARQUISE thing too but luckily my last ones in were the NW and when I went back double checking I noticed my mistake.
It took me ages to work out how 3dn worked and I needed that for my LOI DISTILLED.
I only know Namur as a town on the motorway Lille – Charleroi – Namur – Liège – Aachen. I never knew it as a region and also in the middle not the East.
Thanks setter and blogger
I think ‘eastern Belgium’ is supposed to mean Wallonia generally..as opposed to western belgium which is flanders. Just about works for me..a Belgian resident…
Btw Namur is actually the capital of Wallonia….not liege…as many think.
Actually they more normally say north = flanders and south = Wallonia. But it’s northwest versus southeast really so I guess you can get away with east west.
DNF, another ‘Marquiss’ here. Like John Burscough and RobR, I’m more familiar with ABSINTH with an E, and I tried to fit ‘Thomas’ into 10d for a while, but no other issues.
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Distilled
32m 36s
Isn’t it the case that ABSINTH makes the heart grow fonder?
(Like Rosédeprovence, mention of the drink makes me think of the Degas painting.
FOI MARQUESS but I used the check function because the wordplay said yes but I was sceptical. LOI AWEARY (!) to finish in 22.46 so it was probably fairly easy. Thanks Jack, NHO Namur I’m afraid and only knew of SCION as an heir – a branch of the family tree I guess. DI was both a girl and a copper in the one puzzle, but not a princess this time.
Dylan? I got nuthin’ ma!
Lay Down Your A-Weary Tune ?
Last week when I hit trouble I did ‘you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind bLOWS’ and didn’t want to push my luck a second time!
9:32. Interesting puzzle. Fingers crossed for the NHO and unlikely-looking NAMUR. Doesn’t sound very Belgian.
A bit of cursory google research suggests that stout was originally conceived as a strong version of porter. OED says ‘in present use, a strong variety of porter’. I like Guinness but on the few occasions I’ve tried porter it’s been disgusting.
10:02. I took care with 1A to get MARQUESS with the E rather than an I. My last two, DIAGNOSTICIAN and AWEARY pushed me over the 10 minute mark. Neat puzzle. Thank-you Jackkt and setter..
17.40 with my inner brain screaming at me that GUILLIMOT is spelled with an E, but with the stupid bit insisting the short fruit was a LIM[e] and s*d the O. Pity, lime is usually green, but pink today.
Otherwise I managed to resist, despite the Paralympics, TRICOLEUR, and since neither STOUT nor porter are to my taste – it’s the taste of burnt grain – that went in without demur. I intended to make sure of the parsing of ABSINTH, but forgot, so it’s just as well we have Jackkt on hand to do the hard work.
I’m sure I preached in a Welsh BETHESDA in my student days. Watch out for Bethel, Beulah, Bethany, Bethcar, and of course Bethlehem in the future (and that’s just a few of the Bs).
Bethsaida too.
All went reasonably well and quickly until I ground to a halt on AWEARY, so a DNF in the end. Otherwise quite Mondayish (though at least I finished Monday’s so maybe not…)
keriothe, Namur is in the French speaking part of Belgium.
I couldn’t find the Bethesda def I was looking for in Wiktionary, it just mentions the (many) places, starting with a pool in Jerusalem with an incomprehensible photo.
I liked the Xword, and several long ones just leapt into my mind without me knowing how they got there.
It doesn’t sound very French either!
All quite straightforward except for my failure to listen in French lessons (and inability to correctly parse clues) gave me MARQUISE, which is at least a noble title, and also a chocolate pudding.
LOI was SCION.
13:14 WOE
All correct and fairly straightforward, except I had to leave 11a unsolved while I went to the gym. Needed some water and a coffee before I realised what it was.
AWEARY a new word for me, but nicely clued. The long words are ones I have trouble spelling, but the wordplay helped matters.
Thank you Jack and thank you setter.
Very pleased to finish this with no errors in a fairly short space of time. Wondered about MARQUESS but trusted the wordplay. Needed help with some parsings (ENAMOUR, MADCAP, SCION). Would maybe have struggled with IMAMATE if it hadn’t come up so recently in the QC. I would say this is my most trouble free solve since attempting the biggie more regularly. Happy days.
DNF
Gave up well short of 30’ having stared at SCION and AWEARY for long enough. I thought there was a looseness to some of the puzzle which meant I was unlikely to come to them, and I was right, SON would not have. Lots to like though.
Thanks all.
Straightforward but enjoyable solve.
Thanks, jack.
17 mins with only SCION causing any difficulty. In the end I had to look up the meaning as the cryptic didn’t seem to help. Haven’t seen it mentioned much above so it must be me
17.39 but I failed to notice that my keyboard didn’t register the second L as I typed SELLERS, so I finished with SELERSS MARKET and ASTRIDR for 3 pinks and 2 errors. *%&$*(£! Thanks setter and Jack.
Yet another who got mixed up over the spelling of MARQUESS. SCION was perfectly easy but I was very slow, thinking that Sion was something to do with it. ABSINTH looked wrong but was obviously the answer. 36 minutes.
39:03. A good one, but I spent ages on the last few. I was deceived for too long by both DI and IAN. I took a long while parsing ABSINTH; I wasn’t sure about the spelling – I or Y, no E – so I needed the confirmation. I never did parse MADCAP, struggling with the PA instead of the ADC.
IMAMATE was a write-in after its recent appearance; which is somehow both pleasing and annoying. COD to the CHRYSANTHEMUM
19:09 (1 error)
Same mistake as others on 1 Across. Otherwise, enjoyable and straightforward.
Thank you, jackkt and the setter.
18:50 – found it difficult to get started in the usual NW spot but once I got a toehold elsewhere it was an easy scramble. I have been to Namur – a nice place for an overnight stop – but the place didn’t immediately spring to mind.
Finished in 32.17 with all correct and parsed as I went. I took great care with the parsing of MARQUESS where it was easy to make an error, as others discovered.
CHRYSANTHEMUM had to be carefully assembled as I wouldn’t be confident of spelling it without help from the clue. The one that held me up more than any other was AWEARY my LOI.
Aweary slowed me up which is odd because when I play scrabble i like to think I am a dab hand at the A… ancient contruction. Annoys my wife no end. I enjoyed this one thank you.
All pretty straightforward and parsed as I went along, with memories fresh from yesterday’s DNF. It’s worth remembering that you are more likely to be correct by following the wordplay than the other way around if you’re not familiar with the answer that presents. Held up at the end, however, by SCION and AWEARY – the latter nearly did for me, as I couldn’t work out what the definition was, being convinced that the E-R- was e’er around R. Only when I thought of ay did both the river and the definition come to mind. A satisfying puzzle in that there was no doubt when the clues fell that they were correct since everything was eminently parseable. After last week’s Quickie, IMAMATE went in straight away, proving that one can learn from one’s mistakes!
24:43 held up for 5 minutes by an alphabet trawl for scion producing nothing else and putting it in with shrugged shoulders, did not know that meaning at all.
Enjoyable puzzzle, COD to the unknown Bethesda.
Thx J and setter
26’05”
Avoided unseating rider coming out of the stalls, stayed on gamely…
…and no smudges!
Whilst unable to do anything about the wordplay, I thought it might be fun to find a cross-dressing marquis/marquess/ marchioness who might have styled himself/herself marquis(e) on French jaunts. The wonderful Marchesa Luisa Casati, who adorns the Penguin ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’, looked promising, but her manifold eccentricities do not appear to include cross-dressing. However, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey might have referred to himself thus.
I’m certain Namur has cropped up in the last year or so, but it may have been in another place.
All very enjoyable; many thanks to setter and Jack.
My French teacher used to tell us, ‘L’homme qui soigne sa mère’ is the man who takes care of his mother, while ‘L’homme que soigne sa mère’ is the man whose mother takes care of him. Namur I first heard of in Tristram Shandy because My Uncle Toby (the one who always whistles Lillabullero when he’s stressed) was wounded at the seige of Namur. It’s an old fortress town, and the walls are still standing. Worth getting off the autoroute for a visit. There was a parade of folk in mediaeval dress carrying pikes and pennants the day we did. 25.40 Thanks setter and Jackkt.
13:51. Much easier than yesterday’s puzzle.
23.23 WOE
Marquise here
Thought I was doing well on this but the faster times from folks I often match suggests the half bottle of vino just consumed had some effect!
A lot of clues where I saw an obvious way in, which turned out to be the wrong way. Zabadak mentioned lime/lemon, and I uncovered quite a few more opporunities. With others I twitched at annul/ban, bet/sure of, into/knowledgeable about, son/native, but was fine with porter/stout.
Americans know Richard Wright’s powerful Native Son, and (timely, this) in US politics a national candidate with strong regional or state-based support is know as a native son (to keep it historical and perhaps non-controversial, say Lyndon Johnson in Texas and the Southwest).
26:21
Too many interruptions for this to be particularly quick, but enjoyable nonetheless. Did not know the ‘shoot’ meaning of LOI SCION.
Thanks Jack and setter
13.50 . A lot easier than yesterday for me. Bit of puzzlement over aweary which was a NHO. Thought absinthe had an e on the end but happy to accept it doesn’t have to.
Thx setter and blogger.