Time: 43 minutes
Much of this went in quite easily once I got started on it but there were 4 or 5 in the lower half that delayed the finish.
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 now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Bore comic gangster circling street (9) |
| WITHSTOOD – WIT (comic), H~OOD (gangster) containing [circling] ST (street) | |
| 6 | What artist swallows before key treatment (5) |
| REHAB – R~A (artist) contains [swallows] EH (what?), then B (key) | |
| 9 | Music Jack recalled on isle (5) |
| RUMBA – RUM (Scottish isle), then AB (Jack – sailor) reversed [recalled] | |
| 10 | Transitioning male is in female game (9) |
| SEMIFINAL – Anagram [transitioning] of MALE IS IN F (female) | |
| 11 | Greek channel periodically screening magazine (7) |
| HELLENE – {c}H{a}~N{n}E{l} [periodically] containing [screening] ELLE (magazine) | |
| 12 | Eggs alongside grass repelled animal (3,4) |
| ROE DEER – ROE (eggs), then REED (grass) reversed [repelled] | |
| 13 | Sugar-coat nine limes bursting with taste (14) |
| SENTIMENTALISE – anagram [bursting] of NINE LIMES TASTE | |
| 17 | Excess drink and date cake before ball (14) |
| SUPERABUNDANCE – SUP (drink), ERA (date), BUN (cake), DANCE (ball) | |
| 21 | Shorten season to catch British fish (7) |
| ABRIDGE – A~GE (season) containing [to catch] BR (British) + ID (fish). We had this alternative spelling ID for IDE a few months ago, I think. | |
| 23 | Skinned birds accompanied by cold sauce (7) |
| CUSTARD – C (cold) {b}USTARD{s} (birds) [skinned] | |
| 25 | Change course circling North Island around August (9) |
| VENERABLE – VE~ER (change course), containing [circling] N (north), then ELBA (island) reversed [around] | |
| 26 | Restorers essentially damage director’s prize? (5) |
| OSCAR – {rest}O{rers} [essentially], SCAR (damage) | |
| 27 | Thread vehicle delivered from city (5) |
| LISLE – {Car}LISLE (city) [vehicle delivered from…] | |
| 28 | Complain competitor is working with Olive? (9) |
| CARPENTRY – CARP (complain), ENTRY (competitor). I was slow to think of ‘olive’ as a type of wood. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Position of bridge shields chief fighting capital (3,5) |
| WAR CHEST – W~EST (position of bridge) contains [shields] ARCH (chief) | |
| 2 | Follow Mike’s piercing tongue (5) |
| TAMIL – M (Mike) contained by [piercing] TAIL (follow) | |
| 3 | Erected part of Jedi set at studios in the US (9) |
| STATESIDE – Reversed [erected] and hidden in [part of] {J}EDI SET AT S{tudios} | |
| 4 | Ex-pupil with tableau unsuitable for young pupil? (7) |
| OBSCENE – OB (ex-pupil – old boy), SCENE (tableau). | |
| 5 | Mark against Democrat with raised flag (7) |
| DEMERIT – DEM (democrat), then TIRE (flag) reversed [raised] | |
| 6 | Loot centre of Wimbledon Common stores (5) |
| RIFLE – RIF~E (common) contains [stores] {Wimb}L{edon} [centre of…] | |
| 7 | Dependants of Henry running around French city (7-2) |
| HANGERS-ON – H (Henry) + ON (running) contains [around] ANGERS (French city) | |
| 8 | Left cook supporting edges of baguette tower (6) |
| BELFRY – B{aguett}E [edges of…], L (left), FRY (cook) | |
| 14 | Particles from stone ruins almost lost (9) |
| NEUTRINOS – Anagram [lost]of STONE RUIN{s} [almost] | |
| 15 | Flashiest person out of uniform is focus of attention (9) |
| LODESTONE – LO{u}DEST ONE (flashiest person) [out of uniform]. ODE: a person or thing that is the focus of attention or attraction. | |
| 16 | Craft concluding parts of final symphony with care (8) |
| TENDERLY – TENDER (craft), {fina}L + {symphon}Y [concluding parts of…]. Tender – a small boat, such as a dinghy, towed or carried by a yacht or ship. | |
| 18 | Harsh cycling contest with muscles half-wasted (7) |
| ACERBIC – RACE (contest) ‘cycling’ becomes ACER, then BIC{eps} (muscles) [half-wasted] | |
| 19 | Not easy to catch Newton in college on organ (7) |
| UNCLEAR – N (Newton) contained by [in] U~CL (University College London), EAR (organ) | |
| 20 | Wonder horse taking Victor over line (6) |
| MARVEL – MAR~E (horse) containing [taking] V (Victor), then L (line) | |
| 22 | Lament return of grating European (5) |
| DIRGE – GRID (grating) reversed [return of…], E (European) | |
| 24 | Venue for meeting someone maybe in Perth (5) |
| ASCOT – A SCOT (someone maybe in Perth) | |
The top half proved a lot easier than the bottom for me. My first in was TAMIL and the rest of the top went in fairly quickly, but then I became bogged down in the lower half and it took quite a bit of thought to come up with some of the answers. ABRIDGE came to me immediately but the parsing evaded me, I could see ‘age’ for season but I’d never come across ‘id’ for the abbreviated ‘ide’. The two long acrosses were pretty easy having learned that ‘bun’ seems to be a setters favourite ‘cake’ and ‘ball’ is usually a dance. NHO SENTIMENTALISE for sugar-coat. LISLE held out for a while but eventually came, I think we’ve had a similar clue for this before. UNCLEAR was cleverly disguised as ‘not easy to catch’ and was one of my last in. CUSTARD came very late as ‘bustards’ isn’t the first bird I thought of. COD for me today is CARPENTRY with ‘olive’ throwing me completely until I thought about wood.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Looked harder at first than it turned out to be. A worthy challenge, though.
Some of this was a bit tricky, but I usually managed to come up with the answers. I was helped by getting superabundance early on, supplying many checking letters. Unfortunately, sentimentalise was not as easy. The tenderly/carpentry/unclear section was a bit hard – I biffed unclear, but couldn’t parse it: UCLA, or UC? I assumed Olive must be the star of a DIY program on TV; no pictures on scorecards!
Time: 25:09
26:30. A bit tough due to not really being sharp enough to catch some of the wordplay today – didn’t know isle of Rum, didn’t really know olive as a wood, took too long to find the Jedi hidden (didn’t immediately twig the ‘erected’ for some reason), took too long to think of ‘deleted’ for ‘delivered’ with LOI (and NHO) LISLE, didn’t know ‘tender’ as ‘craft’, etc.
On the other hand I had a cryptic win last night when I thought to briefly try an old Monday (26221) before bed and came home in 6:14! Perhaps I should be doing these in the evening, not the morning.
Thanks Jack and setter!
I’ve often pondered the exact same thing. One thing’s for sure: the morning sans coffee is impossible!
That’s for sure! What I usually say to myself: ‘either I’ll go to the gym or I’ll have coffee before I tackle the crossword’. What always happens: coffee.
43.09 which I thought was OK because I found a lot of this to be quite tough. Needed Jack’s hard work to decipher LISLE, ABRIDGE and WAR CHEST. An enjoyable challenge I thought.
From It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding):
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, UNCLEAR
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you
32 minutes. At least no major frustrations today, though the correct def for UNCLEAR took a bit of working out at the very end. Along the way I admit to thinking that an ‘olive’ was some obscure CARPENTRY tool rather than a wood.
The main racecourse in Perth, WA is ASCOT so the whole clue for 24d can also be regarded as the def.
10:52. Moderate one today, quite a lot of biffing.
10.23
No typos for a blessed change, but as Keriothe says a lot of educated biffing. Is this how the speedsters do it? Watching the YouTube stream of the final puzzle yesterday (yes, yes I know) it all looked very sedate but it’s obvious to all that they exist in a different space/time continuum. Especially the time bit…
Thanks Jackkt and setter.
17’48”, delayed in SE where LODESTONE took a while.
No issues, liked CARPENTRY.
Thanks jack and setter.
Around 20 minutes.
– Keep forgetting that Rum is a Scottish island, which held up the otherwise straightforward RUMBA
– I’m sure there’ll be an equivalence somewhere, but I had a MER over date=era in SUPERABUNDANCE
– Didn’t know that id exists as a variant of ide for ABRIDGE
– Only parsed ACERBIC and MARVEL after I’d entered them on the basis of the checkers
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Stateside
LOI Tenderly
COD Venerable
11:58, although I didn’t stop to parse ABRIDGE or ACERBIC. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
No undue probs today .. I always think of it as Rhum, but apparently that was an invention of its former owner, who did not wish to be known as the Laird of Rum! Properly, it is Rùm.
Note to self: remember Id as well as Ide…
Ditto on RHUM.
Maybe you’re thinking of the French pudding Jerry.
Could be, Olivia.. I do think of French puddings a lot. Ile Flottante, now we’re talking 🙂
20:14
Slow out of the gate but after a bruising Crossword Championships I’m just happy to complete a grid these days!
Thanks to both.
42:06
Steady solve. Good puzzle.
Thanks, jack.
22.55, so it looks as though I’m having a slow week. I think if I’d twigged WITHSTOOD sooner (it was my last in!) I might have fared rather better, but it nudged me into “this is tricky” mode. “Bore” just didn’t reveal enough of its many meanings. Like others, I struggled in the SE corner, with the definition of LODESTONE throwing me a googly and “olive” cluing just wood signposted several different directions. CUSTARD is (obviously) a sauce, but it’s not French, so resisted recognition.
Should have been quicker, maybe, but then I’d have missed the sense of achievement!
14:08, so trickier than it first appeared. Nice to see our old friends the NEUTRINOS making a legitimate appearance.
17:24
Tricky in parts.
20.05. A slow, steady, satisfying solve. Getting the two long ones early certainly helped. I liked WITHSTOOD, CARPENTRY and LODESTONE but I needed Jack to parse WAR CHEST.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
Interrupted by plumber on numerous occasions, so no time to offer. I biffed more than I like to do. LOI LODESTONE. COD CARPENTRY Thank you Jack and setter.
Well done for finding a plumber that turns up, BW 🙂
Less than 50% after one hour. Shocking.
Off to a bad start thinking comic gangster would be MALONE, as in Bugsy.
Only pencilled ABRIDGE as RID or ID both looked impossible as fishes.
The indirect clues of truncate any bird (bustard) are just too hard for me.
“Follow Mikes piercing tongue” is still a construction that seems nonsensical to me, I’ve had it explained as having a missing “that”, but I always misconstrue what seems a simple clue.
COD SEMIFINAL for an excellent, if controversial surface.
Ps good discussion about crossword AI in the QC blog today.
Also tried to make BUGSY/MALONE work for a while!
The clueing to SEMIFINAL had completely passed me by. Very clever, pertinent and elegant, if controversial.
A few tricky bits in the bottom half, but all done and parsed in average time. Last 3 in CARPENTRY – definitely COD – TAMIL then RUMBA. Liked it, seemed a bit off-beat.
It took me quite a long time to get started and I thought this was going to be more difficult than it turned out to be, since everything then went in more or less smoothly. 47 minutes, with the last one ACERBIC entered unparsed until I looked at it afterwards. It struck me that the idea of a CARPENTER working with olive was a bit odd: I tend to think of a carpenter as someone who does straightforward woodwork for the building trade, whereas a woodworker does more sophisticated things and would use olive perhaps. But no doubt this isn’t confirmed by dictionaries.
Collins is not so specific: “the art or technique of working wood ” .. which I suppose even by your definition could include knocking out olivewood chopping boards, one of which I have ..
My thanks to jackkt and setter.
Fairly easy but a few not parsed.
21a Abridge. I failed to think season=age and the IDE seemed to be lacking an E. Thanks jackkt.
23a Custard; I didn’t see removing the final S of bustards as part of the skinning process.
15d Lodestone, no complaints but I didn’t have the centre of attention as a lodestone’s chief characteristic, but rather its magnetism which shows us where the pole is.
50 mins, a lot of which was spent in the South, after the North all went in quite quickly.
LODESTONE, ABRIDGE, LISLE & CARPENTRY all held me up.
I liked SUPERABUNDANCE, could do with a bit more of that!
Ta Jack and setter.
Finished in 55 minutes. Held up in bottom right corner, particularly by my inability to think of olive as a form of wood or id as our old friend ide. Embarrassed by overlooking tender as a craft, particularly as we’re off on a cruise tomorrow and will no doubt be renewing our acquaintance with them.
Thanks to setter and jackkt.
Bang on 30 mins. I found it tough with some craftily hidden definitions. Took way too long to spot the excellent hidden STATESIDE leading to LOI RUMBA.
Thank you jackkt and setter.
28 minutes including all parsing. A nice puzzle, not too tough! Liked RIFLE – it took me a while to parse.
It took me 43.54 to complete after a very slow start. Over tired after a poor nights sleep meant I kept dropping off is my excuse. Finished at a gallop however with TAMIL my LOI. Never did get to parse ABRIDGE, not for a moment considering ID as an abbreviated form of IDE, even though as Jackkt says it came up fairly recently.
35:54. A patchy solve for me – I could get individual answers but they were never the ones with checking letters so the grid was quite haphazard for a while. some proper concentration allowed me to finish, but I felt as though it was slow progress. good challenge today.
Took ages to get a foothold but then but by bit, all was revealed- sign of a good crossword I think.
Olive – not exactly the first wood one thinks of and would never have got this without all the crossers.
A vey enjoyable on and off solve.
31:11. I’m pleased with that. I liked the clever reverse hidden STATESIDE and CARPENTRY
The first time I came across ‘tender’ as a type of ship is via the folk song ‘here’s the tender coming’ as sung by the excellent Unthanks[https://youtu.be/Zz-eAVNLrcQ?si=p7DCMX_bGPqL7Eka]
Isn’t it the little boat on the back of the bigger boat which deposits the occupants onshore?
A puzzle of two halves for me today, with about a quarter done in 25 minutes or so killing time in a lay-by alongside the A30 this morning (don’t ask!) and the other three-quarters dashed off in 13 minutes after dinner this evening. Maybe I was distracted by the vehicles thundering past said lay-by at 60mph close enough to rock the car on its suspension quite violently. Or maybe a good meal just fired up the grey cells. Anyway, an enjoyable solve: I especially liked the two 14-letter solutions and the CARPENTRY. Thanks to setter and blogger.
To me a belfry is the bit at the top of the tower which houses the bells. Not the tower itself.
Me too. But sadly, Collins says: “2. a tower or steeple. Compare campanile”
I’d say that’s not the same thing. A campanile also has a belfry.
But hey it’s Collins🤷♂️
Ha, to be fair it doesn’t say they are the same. It says to compare them… but really the only point at issue is whether a belfry can be the whole tower or has to be just the bit at the top with the bells in. Collins says it can be the whole tower and I’m afraid the OED says the same.
School of Rock (hilarious film) taught me DEMERIT in this sense. Quote: “As long as I’m here, there’ll be no grades, no gold stars and no demerits.” Good to see our friends the NEUTRINOS getting a mention. 18’34”
Thanks to blogger for sorting out my LOI ABRIDGE. Pleased to have finished this correctly after two DNF yesterday and another on Saturday! Very pleasant solve over a pit stop at Watford Gap services.
41:43
A slow solve, with the NW corner holding out the longest.
LOI was WAR CHEST.
COD to SEMIFINAL.
Thanks Jack and setter
Pleased to read that many regulars found this reasonably challenging. Thought I was going to struggle but answers came just when I thought I was stuck.
FOI SEMIFINAL
LOI LISLE (NHO)
COD CARPENTRY (Needed all the crosses for that)
47 mins: I found this to be a tough work out. Certainly tougher than I was expecting after my twin Dvynys told me he completed it in just over 10 mins … our times used to be quite similar 😩
Tackled in bed, and later than I meant to be awake, but I had to finish… Worth it all too, as a tricksy but ultimately satisfying solve. FOI LISLE, after several minutes of nothing, LOI CARPENTRY – great misdirection! MARVEL gave me the opportunity to change my unparseable HONORABLE to VENERABLE and I also had to unpencil LIMELIGHT when SUPERABUNDANCE went in. But all good at the end.