21.41
After blogging the Championship semi-final puzzles in my last three weeks, this was very different fare with a number of escapees from the Quickie; together with some biffable answers even where the w/p was a bit trickier. Having said that, I struggled with the two long downs and 1ac.
For those of a certain age, many happy memories will be evoked by the animated cow; her magical friends and remembering the famous musical introduction.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Writer of volume twenty-six needing editing (8) |
| VOLTAIRE – VOL + (IRATE)*.
And talking about trickier wordplay I must confess to having been completely bamboozled how the w/p works here. I was able to biff the answer from checkers, but even post-solve it took a long time to clock that twenty-six is referring to 26ac. |
|
| 5 | Caught express naval transport (6) |
| CUTTER – C + UTTER. | |
| 10 | Lowest point of North America? Earth almost (5) |
| NADIR – N + A + DIR(T). | |
| 11 | Cricketer securing duck to end career? This can be moving (9) |
| SPEEDBOAT – BAT around O after [to end] SPEED.
I am sure that many know that Don Bradman got a duck in his last Test innings leaving him 4 runs short of an average of 100. I don’t know about moving but it must have been very annoying. |
|
| 12 | Strength one found in used flavouring (9) |
| SPEARMINT – (ARM + I) inside SPENT. | |
| 13 | Provide staff for protecting very good rock artist (5) |
| MASON – MAN around SO [very good].
Assuming masons normally are said to work with stone not rocks, and are not generally considered artists this presumably is a reference to Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, the only member who has never left the band. On edit: See Guy’s comment! I thought SO might = “very”, and the definition might include “good” but “very good” for SO is in the dictionaries, presumably in a interjectional sense. Reasonably easy to biff without having to worry too much about these finer points. |
|
| 14 | An insect in the WC? How to keep one’s distance? (7) |
| ALOOFLY – A LOO FLY.
Amusing. |
|
| 16 | Gets up around noon and washes (6) |
| RINSES -RISES around N.
The first of the escapees. |
|
| 18 | Military policeman cut down outside Washington (6) |
| REDCAP – REAP around DC. | |
| 20 | Animated cow lacking sign of hesitation to butt in (7) |
| INTRUDE – (ERM)INTRUDE.
Younger viewers and foreign correspondents might be rather perplexed by this reference to the much beloved cow in the children’s TV Series from the 60’s and 70’s, Magic Roundabout (though I see that there were some later revivals in various formats). In case you have all forgotten, Zebedee was the magic Jack-in-the-box; Dylan the rabbit; and Brian the snail. “Hello, dearhearts” was apparently Ermintrude’s catchphrase. Hopefully reasonably easy to biff for those not in the know. |
|
| 22 | What’s ultimately in copter, gyro, turbojet, dynamo and mower (5) |
| ROTOR – Final letters clue. | |
| 23 | Seaplane flying either side of key seafront area (9) |
| ESPLANADE – (SEAPLANE)* around D [a key in music].
Another gentle one. |
|
| 25 | Running late, sailors must grab eats (9) |
| TARDINESS – TARS outside DINES. | |
| 26 | Angry with copyright infringer stealing page (5) |
| IRATE – (P)IRATE.
Chestnutty. |
|
| 27 | Runner perhaps of company division (6) |
| COWARD – CO + WARD.
I liked this one. |
|
| 28 | Church measure unknown burial ground (8) |
| CEMETERY – CE + METER + Y.
Not many other words for “burial ground”. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Like a planet that is framing sun rising in front (8) |
| VENUSIAN – This is (I.E. around SUN) reversed [rising] inserted into VAN.
One of the trickier clues and a word I probably have never seen, though eminently deducible and unlike (for me) the two long down clues, it was straight in. |
|
| 2 | Mantel, say, came first with good English (5) |
| LEDGE – LED + G + E. | |
| 3 | Large ship having broadcast facility with transmitter (8,7) |
| AIRCRAFT CARRIER – AIR + CRAFT + CARRIER.
Unfortunately, the first three words in the clue total 15 letters, so I vainly tried to rejig them to make two words meaning “facility with transmitter”. Not a wholly successful endeavour. |
|
| 4 | How old ironwork deteriorates is truly awful (7) |
| RUSTILY – (IS TRULY)*. | |
| 6 | Misadventure not ruffling calm (15) |
| UNDEMONSTRATIVE – (MISADVENTURE + NOT)*.
Great anagram and clue. Unfortunately, I needed quite a few checkers to nail it. |
|
| 7 | Group of monstrous sea urchins — bottom drawer’s contents? (9) |
| TROUSSEAU – Hidden.
Slightly odd surface and not sure I have seen “group” to indicate a hidden, but again the definition gives it you. |
|
| 8 | Assigning rank to crew member (6) |
| RATING – Double definition. | |
| 9 | Judge taking steer about court employee? (6) |
| JESTER – J + (STEER)*.
Nice definition. |
|
| 15 | Upset finished project (9) |
| OVERTHROW – OVER + THROW. | |
| 17 | Sons always see acutely (8) |
| SEVERELY – S + EVER + ELY [that sort of see]. | |
| 19 | Favour bringing umpire in for each (6) |
| PREFER – REF inside PER [for each]. | |
| 20 | Standstill with idiot stuck in drive, no learner (7) |
| IMPASSE – ASS inside IMPE(L).
Another straightforward definition. |
|
| 21 | Sexy and courageous, destroying hearts, ensnaring tons (6) |
| EROTIC – (H)EROIC outside T.
Was looking for two T’s to begin with, then remembered that it might only be one. |
|
| 24 | Saying unhappy wise man never has succeeded (5) |
| ADAGE – (S)AD (S)AGE. | |
For a long time now, I’ve thought it was a convention that cross-references should appear as numerals, not spelled out, so I saw VOLTAIRE a long time before I could explain it. And I never understood (ERM)INTRUDE, though I’ve heard, vaguely, of the cow.
Surprised to learn that this was a championship puzzle. I got both of the longest ones with just one crosser.
There are other rockers named Mason, and I’ m sure “rock artist” is meant to be deceptive. What is the difference between stone and rock? For crossword purposes, I mean. The first definition of “stone” in Merriam-Webster is:
« : a concretion of earthy or mineral matter:
a
(1) : such a concretion of indeterminate size or shape
(2) : ROCK
b
: a piece of rock for a specified function: such as … »
Thanks Guy. My introduction was meant to imply that I had finished my Semi-Final puzzles and that this was my first one after that, but I can see it wasn’t as clear as it might have been. I’ll happily buy the MASON interpretation. As for the cross reference, I was pretty sure that we have seen this before, albeit very rarely, so I didn’t make a specific comment on it (other than it was sufficiently unfamiliar to fox me) but it will be interesting to see what others say.
Oh, I see that now, about the championship. It seems clear enough. I was just being dim.
I also read the intro as “this puzzle was different from the other semi final puzzles…” Now having read the clarification, I’m disappointed with my efforts having previously been very happy.
Thanks for the blog. 20:52 for me, which counts as good! Biffed plenty but couldn’t see wordplay for 1A so thank you for that.
Minor typo in your write up of 21D.
Good spot! Now corrected.
27:44
I thought we were done with the competition puzzles; this certainly didn’t feel like one of them, although I did my best to drag it out. No idea about VOLTAIRE, never thought of 26. No idea about the cow. Panicked when I saw ‘cricketer’, not thinking of ‘bat’ until late in the game. No idea about the rock artist, and wondered about the def of MASON. I must have unconsciously noticed the hidden in 7d, but I biffed it, only parsing post-submission. UNDEMONSTRATIVE an impressive anagram; I had to write down the anagrist and work it out.
Not too tricky a puzzle in the end and ALOOFLY and the animated cow delighted, but we made hard work of the top right, struggling over the long anagram and thinking that “caught” in 5a was an anagram indicator. NHO Trousseau and I’m not sure how it works with the definition as Chambers has it as “The clothes (and sometimes household linen, etc) collected by a bride for her marriage” — is that traditionally kept in a bottom drawer? Or am I missing a meaning of drawer here?
Bottom drawer is “ household linen stored by a woman in preparation for her marriage” so I think that works.
Ah, yes, foolishly didn’t occur to me to check the definition of “bottom drawer” as a phrase. Thanks Alfie and ulaca for the pointer.
Indeed, the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers was the traditional place for a wannabe bride to stash her stuff. Wikipedia mentions the following alternatives: ‘dowry chest, cedar chest, trousseau chest, or glory box.’
I’m pretty sure the last-named will generally be avoided by all but blushing brides…
Haha, very good. Also a great track by Portishead if you’re in to that sort of thing.
A brilliant song. ‘Gonna give my heart away, leave it to the other girls to play. . .’.
Beth Gibbons portrays an optimistic bride, but also a wary nervous one.
I was sorry that the bottom drawer didn’t turn out to be Scheile, Velazquez, or Picasso
Nice one.
In the US it’s called a “hope chest” which sounds a bit desperate.
Got through it somehow, battling against the technology as much as against the setter.
There were some good clues here but a handful I was unable to explain e.g I thought the cow was Gertrude, so that was never going to happen.
I’m pretty sure the was a convention that cross-references to clue numbers were always numeric but this lapsed within the past year or two.
I stupidly put in ‘under’ for the start of 6d and never questioned it. The long one at 3d was a write-in, though. Saw the cross-reference bit in 1a but didn’t think about it not being numeric, so not a convention then? Really enjoyed this puzzle with some quirky clues like ALOOFLY and (erm)INTRUDE, which I didn’t think I knew but it rang a bell. I found the answers easy to biff but the parsing a little tricky in some, SPEARMINT, VENUSIAN. Liked the hidden TROUSSEAU.
Thanks D and setter.
I liked this gentle crossword. some neat touches and nice to get through it on the first coffee..
Unlike our esteemed blogger I found 1ac, and hence 26ac to be write-ins. How many writers begin with a VOL? I don’t pay attention to “unwritten rules” so didn’t even notice twenty-sixgate.
At 28ac I started to sniff an unannounced Americanism – but of course, to meter something is to measure it, no need for specific measures. So that’s all right 🙂
How nice to see dear Ermintrude, a refugee from more innocent broadcasting days..
Now back to wrestling with t’other one!
37 mins, held up by two minutes spent trying to parse VOLTAIRE. Not used to seeing cross-references in the Times I suppose but like Ed Sheeran it looks like I might have to get used to seeing its [redacted] face pop up more often. COD to ESPLANADE, which I learned today is not a type of burrito.
30 mins and for once I found this relatively simple. Once I saw « vol » I immediately thought of VOLTAIRE, giving me an anagram for 26 ac which again, was simple. L2I OVERTHROW & COWARD.
AIRCRAFT CARRIER went straight in when I saw Large ship. I had MASON as « good stone worker » ie « MAÇON » but I can see I’m probably wrong! Nick Mason is a great drummer as well as owning, and driving, a fantastic collection of Ferraris.
I loved the fly in the loo.
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
8:15. Took me a while to get going. Not keen on cross-references not being numerals – mainly because it took me so long to work out what “twenty-six” was all about. There’s no Z in Voltaire…?!
19:40. Most enjoyable and admirably summed up by Dvynys. Thanks for explaining the 26 xref and the Bradman detail.
CODs INTRUDE / JESTER, LOI TARDINESS. Thanks both.
38:19. I made rather heavy weather of this, but it was a very enjoyable puzzle, and I enjoyed the nautical theme. Lovely to see Ermintrude making an appearance. who says the Times isn’t down wiv da yoof?
20 minutes.
– Thought of VOLTAIRE early on but initially wasn’t sure as I thought ‘volume’ was giving ‘v’, so couldn’t account for the ‘ol’ even after I got IRATE and saw the cross-reference
– Slowed myself down by putting STEAMBOAT rather than SPEEDBOAT, and only corrected once I worked out that 6d had to be UNDEMONSTRATIVE
– Had no idea how SPEARMINT worked – I keep forgetting strength=arm
– Wasn’t sure about s0=very good as used in MASON, but I see the dictionaries back it up
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
FOI Nadir
LOI Mason
COD Esplanade
23′ or so. I was inclined to biff VOLTAIRE immediately but couldn’t parse it though it became obvious later. I pencilled in BOAT for the start of 11ac, until I got to RUSTILY, which put me right. “Runner” had me looking for a river until it became clear with crossers. All fairly straightforward though.
Thanks Dvynys and setter
Banged in VOLTAIRE after looking at ‘alphabet’, I do another broadsheet’s puzzles so assumed there was a reference.
No issues otherwise, remembered that Eric Thompson is Emma Thompson’s Dad.
9’35” thanks Dvynys and setter.
27 minutes. Wasn’t sure what to make of 1a at the start but like JerryW I thought the ‘Writer’ starting with VOL would be VOLTAIRE so I left the ‘twenty-six’ bit till later. I spent too long vainly trying to make an anagram out of STRENGTH and I at 12a and had to biff INTRUDE, not knowing the beloved ‘animated cow’. Favourite was the ‘insect in the WC?’
22.01. Unlike others, VOLTAIRE not an instant hit, even though I solved 26a in anticipation – what else could twenty six be? Didn’t spot that TROUSSEAU was hidden, and thought that the Magic Cow was Gertrude, and wondered why “ger ” was a sign of hesitation. Incidentally, I found in my post-solve research a plush “Gertrude the Cow” (sic) on e-bay very clearly Florence and Zebedee’s pet bovine. Mr Rusty almost made an appearance in the grid, and Dylan is the epitome of undemonstrative characters.
Of course the LOO FLY is today’s winner. Don’t bother me…
10:38. Lean pickings in the acrosses on first read through, but the downs got me going. I liked the Magic Roundabout reminder and the insect in the WC. LOI EROTIC. Thanks Dvynys and setter
My thanks to Dvynys and setter.
I had 2 questions before coming to the blog. Otherwise pretty straightforward.
1a Voltaire. I spent a long time on 1a, and the very first thing I did was to solve 26a (Irate, a chestnut) in case that was relevant. It didn’t look to be, so I moved on and with a few crossers I biffed Voltaire WITHOUT noticing that the bit after vol was anagram of 26. DOH!
12a Spearmint LOI put in from crossers, unparsed. Another doh.
20a (Erm)Intrude, delicious when I finally remembered the Magic Roundabout.
1d Venusian, took a while to solve although there are few adjectives meaning planetlike that fit, Jovial, Martian too short, Saturnine, Terrestrial too long.
4d Rustily, surprised to find that this was already in Cheating Machine; I didn’t expect to find it in any dictionary. When would one use this word?
44 minutes which should I suppose have been slightly less, but I biffed nothing. The only one where I gave up was the ermINTRUDE answer: I’d forgotten the cow and thought correctly that it would refer to some animal in a children’s programme. I fear that ‘meter’ in the CEMETERY answer is probably because the spelling has crossed the Atlantic, like it or not, but the other explanation makes sense.
Much the same SNITCH as yesterday, but I found this much harder. At least 15 mins wasted missing the rather obvious TROUSSEAU. Almost an hour to complete. Loved the cow, and delighted to spot the parsing. I named my first car, a 1976 baby blue Ford Fiesta, Ermintrude. Somehow perfectly apt. I felt sorry for younger, non-UK solvers: this would have been impossible for them.
There was a CGI reboot of The Magic Roundabout in the late noughties, so younger solvers might have seen that. I don’t know how popular it was: I watched my fair share of kids’ TV at that time and I don’t remember it featuring prominently.
I liked recalling Ermintrude, although only knew it because my mum watched The Magic Roundabout as a child and occasionally would make reference to it.
13’59”. Slight hold-up on 1ac as I hunted a ‘Z’ connection. Never parsed it. Brian Cox the actor’s favourite film is The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. I watched it for a lark — and it’s pretty funny. Especially the “chalice with the palace” tongue-twister bit. Many thanks
9:07. Bit of a breeze-block today, steady progress until a longish pause on SPEARMINT and JESTER.
Started with LEDGE and NADIR, than quickly assembled VENUSIAN after positing that 1a would start with V. i then decided 1a had to be VOLTAIRE, but never did parse it, as I couldn’t make head nor tail of the twenty six, being of the impression that cross references are always indicated by numerals. Anyway, having smiled at ALOOFLY and (erm)INTRUDE, I rapidly checked out with LOI, SPEARMINT. Nice puzzle! 14:57. Thanks setter and Dvynys.
12:38.
COD: Undemonstrative
Thanks to Dvynys and our setter.
I put in the extremely rare word ‘unremonstrative’ instead of UNDEMONSTRATIVE, wrongly thinking it had the right letters and more-or-less-rightly thinking that it had the right meaning which made SPEEDBOAT impossible too. I also somehow failed to get EROTIC but otherwise completed in about 21 minutes, so a decent and enjoyable but relatively easy offering overall.
18:50
Enjoyable. Didn’t miss much, except for the twenty-six reference. VENUSIAN mainly known by me as a Dr Who reference – the Doc (certainly in the Pertwee era) was pretty good at Venusian Aikido, and was his/her go-to physical fighting method.
Thanks D and setter
A fairly speedy 23.18 for me with nothing to hold me up unduly. I even penned in VOLTAIRE straight away guessing that 26ac would be IRATE. I did check however just in case, and wasn’t disappointed. A toss up between ALOOFLY and UNDEMONSTRATIVE for COD, both excellent.
18 mins – similar experience to others. Took a while to spot the x-ref in 1ac and was slightly thrown by so = very good in the MASON clue, but there was never any doubt about the answers. LOI was SPEEDBOAT, the definition being pretty vague.
Nothing to frighten the horses, although I had to come here for the parsing of INTRUDE.
FOI CUTTER
LOI IMPASSE
COD VOLTAIRE*
TIME 8:53
* I resisted Verlaine – something I was never able to do in competition.
This one irritated to some extent. The Magic Roundabout reference is asking a lot and the 26 reference on 1a just looks wrong. Liked the hidden TROUSSEAU however- very cleverly done.
Enjoyed this one, helped by getting the two long downs quickly. Loved the Magic Roundabout clue and didn’t mind that loi Voltaire remained unparsed. A pretty swift time for me in about half an hour.
No time – done in bits & pieces.
1ac led me straight to 26a so (P)IRATE was my FOI and SOI was VOL (IRATE)* at 1a.
That’s the first time one of these linked clues has revealed itself at first inspection.
Subsequently an anticlockwise solve ending in SPEEDBOAT at 11a as POI and JESTER at 9d for LOI.
Remembered (ERM)INTRUDE from TMR.
An entertaining puzzle – thanks setter and D for the blog.
Now on to the TfTT offering – wondering whether I’ll finish in time for a comment on the blog?!
Mosly I enjoyed this, but I didn’t easily see arm = strength (still don’t), and while I thought nothing could top my dislike of cross referenced clues I learned today that spelt out cross references out pace numbered ones. Thanks Dvynys
24:12. Most enjoyable except for so=very good. We’ve had it before, and I’ve managed to learn it, but I’ve never been happy with it. Still, I did like ALOOFLY
19 mins today, held up by SPEEDBOAT at the end, the alternative meaning of career never entering my head. Otherwise, a bit of a walk in the park…
I thought this was the easiest of the championship puzzles – at least of the ones that I’ve seen. I did not like the definition of SPEEDBOAT (“This can be moving”). Taken as a whole the clue was not particularly difficult once checkers were in place, and I appreciate that definitions that are allusive rather than explicit are part of the fun, but so many things can be moving that the definition barely reduces the number of possible options. I think that’s pushing things a bit far.
31 minutes but stood up on a train doing it on my phone. Yes, it does add significant time.
Should have done better on this one. SPEEDBOAT LOI. Should have spotted it earlier but was thinking of something moving in the emotional sense.
Can I consider myself a young ‘un since I didn’t know the cow?
Surprised to see this was another championship one.
COD MASON
Thanks blogger and setter.
I did not find this especially easy, and it took me 51 minutes to get through it. I immediately thought of VOLTAIRE at 1ac, but then I thought of VERLAINE. Since I could not parse either of them, I had to direct my attention elsewhere. I then did myself no favours by putting BRANCH in at 27ac, which stymied me in the SW corner until the penny finally dropped. But it was all worth it for the stand-out COD.
FOI – RINSES
LOI – COWARD
COD – ALOOFLY
Thanks to Dvynys and other contributors.
36 minutes and no silly mistakes today. The only thing that held me up at the end was my LOI, CUTTER, because I couldn’t stop seeing “caught” as a homophone indicator, which helped not at all. For some reason I knew the cow was ERMINTRUDE, although I am sure I never saw the children’s programmes. Very relaxing puzzle today.
Interestingly, I was banjaxed by having inputted UNREMONSTRATIVE, which made SPEEDBOAT as my putative LOI impossible, though I had considered it. I thus gave up at 15′, but this was still a great puzzle.
The Magic Roundabout theme is one of those themes that can go round and round in your head and take on a terrifying, horror-movie quality, just like ‘We’re All Having A Wonderful Christmas Time’! It’s great though. What a great chord progression. It’s that last bar (the fourth bar) that makes it great. I lack or have forgotten the musical nous to describe what’s going on, but it’s very faintly reminiscent of the trick in the Golden Brown progression (not the time signature change).
I’m now going to have to listen to it to remind myself!
22:42 which is jolly quick for me. I too believed in the existence of a “cross references are always indicated by numbers” convention so I was a bit cross when the penny dropped. No, actually – very mildly miffed would be more accurate.
Loved the two everyone else loved. Always delighted to encounter a QC clue.
Many thanks Dvynys.
Rather late to this so suffice to say, very enjoyable, reasonably approachable and with nice, tight surfaces. Roughly 15 minutes and with a particular fondness for UNDEMONSTRATIVE and, COTD, INTRUDE.
14.05, fastest in a while but a comfortable solve. Nothing to hard, LOI erotic- must be my age.
24:53 which is quick for me.
I had forgotten the convention about cross references being numerical, which worked in my favour with VOLTAIRE.
I took a long time to get UNDEMONSTRATIVE. MASON and EROTIC were my last two in.
COD INTRUDE
Thanks Dvynys and setter
Nearly did this apart from SPEEDBOAT (I’m always thrown by cricketing clues) and SPEARMINT which seems so obvious now.
But can someone please explain ADAGE? It was the obvious answer but i don’t understand how the clue works 😀
Thanks.
It’s a Sad Sage (unhappy wise man) with the ‘s’ (succeeded) letters removed
Intrude was biffed, erm now added to CM.
DNF as I was working on 11a ending in out as an end to a cricket’s career, and expecting a synonym for emotion. So thanks for the explanation of a clever clue.