Time: 32.13
As a comparatively new blogger I can find it a bit difficult to assess a crossword’s toughness, especially as it feels like my brain immediately goes into a fog as soon as I know it’s a puzzle I’m writing up. With that caveat, it felt like I made heavy weather of this one, coming in below my average time and missing a few fairly obvious (in retrospect) deceptions, and with only a couple of VHOs (vaguely heard of).
As for the puzzle itself, we were treated to some lovely surfaces and some not so lovely visions, from annoyingly fickle A/C to a rogue Tory MP, and the spendthrift father of our favourite Reverend.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Orderly snubbed close to end of shift (4) |
| NEAT – NEAR without the last letter [snubbed] + T. | |
| 3 | Suits Palace and takes over the side (10) |
| COURTSHIPS – COURT + SHIPS (as in takes water (or cargo I suppose) over the side).
Those sorts of suits. |
|
| 9 | Gives up and retires (5,2) |
| TURNS IN – Double definition. | |
| 11 | Sort of girl men bug (7) |
| GREMLIN – (GIRL MEN)*
Not sure I have seen this construction before – very neat. |
|
| 12 | America led by unnoble sort these days (6,3) |
| COMMON ERA – COMMONER [unnoble sort] + A.
I couldn’t possibly comment. |
|
| 13 | Bring port round at 19:30? (5) |
| RATIO – RIO around AT.
Either an early dinner or our setter likes his/her port as an aperitif. |
|
| 14 | Basque place without French beans? I mostly ate nuts (3,9) |
| SAN SEBASTIAN – SANS [the French word for without] + (BEANS I AT)*.
Not sure why but I did have a little chuckle at this surface. |
|
| 18 | Succeed fitting stiff in grave? (7,5) |
| RESTING PLACE – This is REPLACE [succeed] around [fitting in] STING [as in to cheat].
Easier to get from checkers than w/p. |
|
| 21 | Seb Coe, ignoring cold, running with thick protective layer? (5) |
| OBESE – (SEB(C)OE)*.
Great surface: I do take a peek from time to time on YouTube of those great mid-distance races from the 80’s with Coe, Ovett and Cram. Beanpoles they were, especially the former, so I am sure he needed his warm tops. |
|
| 22 | Balance cue, keeping focus on black (9) |
| REMAINDER – REMINDER around A [focus on, i.e. the middle letter of, BLACK].
The w/p is a bit stretchy for the A, but another fine surface. |
|
| 24 | Consultants finally improve the look of new business (5-2) |
| START-UP – S + TART UP. | |
| 25 | Sound made by nail penetrating box (7) |
| TENABLE – NAB inside TELE.
That sort of sound; that sort of box. |
|
| 26 | Tax worker avoids crucial task (6,4) |
| IMPORT DUTY – IMPORT(ANT) + DUTY.
I knew INCOME DUTY is not a thing, nor that it parsed, but once seared on my retina it proved difficult to dislodge. |
|
| 27 | Watering hole opening late in current circumstances (2,2) |
| AS IS – (O)ASIS. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | No aid for golfer carrying bag around — that takes money (8) |
| NOTECASE – NO + TEE [aid for golfer] outside [carrying] a reversal [around] of SAC. | |
| 2 | Unpleasant atmosphere? My aircon’s bust (8) |
| ACRIMONY – (MY AIRCON)*.
Easy but lovely clue. |
|
| 4 | Former head of Unilever plugs Lynx no longer (5) |
| OUNCE – This is Yoda speak of ONCE around U.
Puzzling a little over the definition, the following is from Wiki as an example of false-splitting “Old French lonce (lynx) was taken for l’once thus giving rise to once (hence English ounce)”. Think napron and apron; newt and ewt. Seems likely. |
|
| 5 | Caribbean music artist controlling urge to record standing on head (9) |
| REGGAETON – RA around EGG [urge] + reversal of NOTE [record].
My first vaguely heard of. Not the same as reggae. It originated in Panama and Puerto Rica in the 80’s/90’s (rather than Jamaica in the 60’s). Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” is a well known example, whilst Bad Bunny is one of its greatest exponents. |
|
| 6 | Mike Brown, rogue Conservative MP, again admits plan to discredit opposition? (5,8) |
| SMEAR CAMPAIGN – More Yoda speak. M [from the NATO phonetic alphabet] is surrounded by [admits] SEAR [brown] + (C MP AGAIN)*.
Another of those clues which one is more likely to biff, but you have to tip your cap to the setter when you work it out afterwards, especially as there was a Tory MP called Michael Brown who was not apparently immune to some headlines. (Other MPs/parties available). |
|
| 7 | Bar unending permits for small arms (6) |
| INLETS – IN(N) + LETS. | |
| 8 | Older central sections of museum painted maize yellow (6) |
| SENIOR – SE + N + I and then OR for yellow. | |
| 10 | Fine journalist entering area around NY museum shows alarm (5,8) |
| SMOKE DETECTOR – OK + ED inside [entering] SECTOR around MET.
A double containment clue. |
|
| 15 | Husband is enthralled by spinning trapdoor spider? (9) |
| ARTHROPOD – H inside (TRAPDOOR)*.
My second vaguely heard of. |
|
| 16 | Spooner’s father wagers sums he won’t see again (3,5) |
| BAD DEBTS – A Spoonerism of DAD BETS.
I am quite partial to a Spoonerism and this was hopefully a fairly gentle one for those who freeze when they see them. |
|
| 17 | Fully confident ecstasy’s consumed in much reduced quantity (8) |
| FEARLESS – E inside FAR LESS. | |
| 19 | Pretentious type upside-down next to sloth in small tree (6) |
| BONSAI – Reversal of SNOB + our beloved crossword sloth, the AI. | |
| 20 | One inclined to accept eco-friendly car to overhaul (6) |
| REVAMP – RAMP outside EV. | |
| 23 | Inspection of car seat regularly part of service (5) |
| MOTET – MOT [inspection of car] + ET.
Another nice clue to end with. |
|
Going well until I wasn’t. Couldn’t see COURTSHIPS and still don’t get the parsing.NHO REGGAETON. All my problems were in the east, saw TENABLE but didn’t parse. Same with FEARLESS. Liked COMMON ERA and SAN SEBASTIAN. Missed RESTING PLACE. My only excuse is I was glued to the cricket. I think the OUNCE is another word for the ‘lynx’, now known as the snow leopard.
Thanks D and setter.
24.35
Tricky, but not impossible. Had to biff a few, so had EXPORT DUTY in my head for a while. Can’t recall ever having seen “Without French” used in that way, but quite 1ac.
Pretty sure REGGAETON cropped up recently in a Championship puzzle.
LOI RATIO
COD OBESE
33:21
Hard to finish – well aware of REGGAETON as Mrs H likes Enrique Iglesias and Marc Anthony, both of whom have this in their repertoires – the difficulty was in seeing the wordplay. For COURTSHIPS, I had to get BOARD = suits out of my head.
TENABLE – yes, that ‘sound’ – I have problems thinking of TELE (rather than ‘telly’) for tv/box. Needed that for LOI FEARLESS.
Thanks Dvynys and setter
DNF, missing COURTSHIPS and with REGGAETAN. Otherwise, good fun. COD to BAD DEBTS. Thank you D. and setter.
8:23. Thought this was tricky in places. COURTSHIPS took a while.
The port coming round at 19:30 does seem a bit early.
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
12:17
Faster than normal for me but I had to biff a few of the long ones as the wordplay in places seemed too complex to bother unravelling, namely SAN SEBASTAIN, RESTING PLACE and SMEAR CAMPAIGN.
Thanks for explaining those and for the rest of the blog.
21 mins – quite enjoyed this one. NHO that definition of INLET, and MOTET was entirely new. Also had to ponder on the definition of ‘suit’ for courtship but I suppose we have suitors don’t we? COD to OBESE for the offbeat definition.
Why is a motet part of a service? Shall have to resort to the OED! Got it but do not understand! Otherwise pretty good apart from a little trouble with tenable, courtships and inlets! Ratio made me laugh, finally maths was useful! Was fun tho, thanks all.
Church type of service – Bach wrote some pleasing ones.
9:16. Another steady mid-difficulty one.
I knew that OUNCE was a current term for the snow leopard but not that it was an obsolete term for the lynx. Interesting about the lost Ls and Ns. This also happens in other languages: orange for instance is cognate with the Spanish Naranja, but it had already lost the N by the time it made it into English.
I also didn’t know (or had forgotten) that a MOTET was a religious thing. And I didn’t know this meaning of ‘arm’, which isn’t specifically in Collins but is given as an example – ‘an arm of the sea’ – in definition 5: ‘anything considered to resemble an arm’. That covers a lot of bases!
The French serve white port as an aperitif sometimes. Whenever offered it I have chosen something else.
This is my only experience of white port.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QyJEOb0V58
This actually reminds me that I have had white port in the form of a ‘porto tonico’ in, er, Porto. It’s one of those drinks that seem quite palatable in situ but are best left in said situ.
WOE after 34 mins. Another that started as a sprint then ground to a halt. Took so long over COURTSHIPS that I bunged in IsLETS without much thought in sheer relief.
Some of the parsing was tortuous. Thanks and well done to Dvynys but not sure anyone who does not have to show their working will have bothered with SMEAR CAMPAIGN.
Enjoyed RATIO and BAD DEBTS.
Tricky in parts. Failed to parse smoke detector or remainder, though I wrote them in happily enough. Failed to find courtships, and eventually wrote in the fairly meaningless “boardships,” for a (rare) dnf. Hmph.
Beaten by COURTSHIPS and NOTECASE, even with all the crossers. No idea what was going on with OUNCE, and still don’t, but at least I got it.
Certainly tricky in parts, as others have noted, but some easier ones to make for a pleasing overall balance. I very much agree with our blogger ref the nice construction of GREMLIN, the surface in OBESE and the solid Spoonerism in BAD DEBTS. Other big ticks to RESTING PLACE, IMPORT DUTY and the delightful ARTHROPOD. Like others here, I did not persevere with the full parse for SMEAR CAMPAIGN.
Thanks to setter and Dvynys
Got there eventually but it took an hour. I think I enjoyed it in a masochistic sort of way.
IIRC, traditionally motets are sung in Latin and are associated primarily with the Church of Rome. The C of E equivalent is the anthem sung in English.
can you please explain IIRC, it doesn’t seem to be in the glossary. thanks
If I remember correctly…..
Standard abbreviation in texting, I believe, not specific to crosswords or this site.
DNF. The LH side went in smoothly, as did BAD DEBTS, REMAINDER, FEARLESS, and AS IS, but 5d was a mystery NHO, didn’t see TENABLE for sound, or parse SMEAR CAMPAIGN. Well blogged, dvynys, think I’m glad I’m not in the chair for this one.
20.01, but I can’t spell SMEER (easier to miss in a down clue, methinks) and completely failed to parse that one. Likewise IN[n] for bar didn’t occur to me, though there weren’t many options. COURTSHIPS I couldn’t fully connect in terms of either “suits” or “taking over the side”, but I suppose so (slightly reluctantly). REGGAETON has passed me by, and might just be Kingston equivalent to Motown for all I know. Like keriothe, I didn’t connect OUNCE with lynx, but hey ho. The rest of this was easy (-ish) until that top corner.
I’m pretty sure I’ve sung MOTETs that weren’t religious!
P.S. You’re doing great Dyvnys, and congratulations on unscrewing this one!
My thanks to Dvynys and setter.
I found it quite hard. Perhaps I am entering my dotage?
18a Resting place biffed. Thanks Dvynys.
22a Remainder. Took me a while to lose the B(lack) and find the (bl)A(ck).
25a Tenable biffed. Thanks Dvynys.
5d NHO Reggaeton, as I said last time. Cheated, the only word that made sense. I HHO reggae.
6d Smear C biffed. Surprised to find this phrase in Cheating Machine; not green paint then.
7d Inlets, oh that sort of arm.
23d Motet, DNK that def of the word.
Posting late as I have been watching the cricket. 19’01”, with COURTSHIPS LOI. The definition of MOTET is pretty loose in the wider world. I’ve seen RATIO elsewhere recently – the co-primality of the two numbers is the key. The BAD DEBTS Spoonerism is one of the easier ones. ARTHROPOD was on University Challenge lately. Didn’t bother parsing SMEAR CAMPAIGN, although I’m sure the clue is very clever.
Overall, a good mid-week challenge.
Thanks dvynys and setter.
NHO coprime. Here’s Wiktionary:
coprime (not comparable)
(number theory, of two or more positive integers) Having no positive integer factors in common, aside from 1.
Synonym: relatively prime
24 and 35 are coprime.
32:13 (interestingly the same as the blogger) but ISLETS not INLETS. Google tells me small arm=INLET is actually quite common in crosswords but it’s the first time I have encountered it unless my memory is failing. probably should have used the word play but I was losing interest a bit by this point.
Complete panic as I got nothing from this until OBESE but thankfully managed to work my way out from the SW corner. Quite a lot of biffing after that. Most if not all the long clues went in that way.
Liked REGGAETON
Thanks blogger and setter
22:10
COD: RESTING PLACE. Clever misdirection as I was looking for an anagram of stiff in grave.
Thanks to Dvynys and our setter.
21:30 – all fair but some of the clues seemed a twist too convoluted and went in with the traditional shrug. INLETS and COURTSHIPS for want of anything better, but I am still not sure I completely understand them.
Well this is proof that my powers, such as they ever were, are waning. I thought this was about as difficult as anything we’ve had recently, lots of long answers whose parsing was a mystery to me. Even at the end when I gave up and used electronic aids I sometimes couldn’t parse them. And yet some people are saying that this is about average difficulty and the SNITCH is depressingly low. And there were words that I’d never heard of, like REGGAETON. How on earth ships = takes over the side in 3ac goodness knows, likewise sting = stiff in 18ac. 93 minutes with the aforesaid electronic aids at the end.
Don’t panic. I was convinced last week that I was in the early stages of dementia when I found a supposedly ‘easy’ one impossible. It’s very often just a tiredness/wavelength thing.
Two goes needed.
– Like Mike Harper above, I tried to fit ‘board’ into 3a for a long time, and then even after I thought of COURTSHIPS I wasn’t entirely sure how ships=takes over the side
– Biffed RESTING PLACE from the checkers with no idea how it worked
– Didn’t fully parse REGGAETON either, as I thought ‘urge’ was giving ‘egg on’ rather than just ‘egg’
– Also biffed SMEAR CAMPAIGN with no idea of the parsing
– Not familiar with INLETS as small arms, but it parsed and fitted so in it went
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
FOI Acrimony
LOI Inlets
COD Smear campaign
I can do without difficult Wednesdays , thank you. Yes, some relatively easy clues but others somewhat tortuous eg REGGAETON . More painful than watching the cricket…
Tough going with lots of biffing. The NE corner was particularly intractable. REGGAETON (NHO), COURTSHIPS and INLETS were last 3 in. I suppose if a ship takes on water in a storm, it ships it over the sides. NEAT was FOI. 40:41. Thanks setter and Dvynys.
Beaten by REGGAETON but I liked the general level of devilry, particularly COURTSHIPS and SAN SEBASTIAN
Thanks to Dvynys and the setter,
No dramas.NHO REGGAETON but quite generously clued I thought.
Smear campaign was rather torturous I thought, but I liked resting place.
COD to RATIO
Many thanks to Setter and Dvynys
Tough. Bit annoyed with myself for cheating at the last hurdle by typing COURTS into the Chambers app to see what mysterious letters could inhabit those two remaining spaces. In fairness, I was far from sure that COURT was right. (There’s only one possible word, fairly unsurprisingly.) 29 minutes to get to that point, having ignored (ie been stumped by) a lot of the trickier wordplay. Thanks Dvynys for the unravelling and interesting info.
A few short in the NW, like others, NOTECASE and COURTSHIPS blocked me.
I remembered the AI but forgot the OUNCE. Now that I understand the derivation, perhaps I’ll remember it now.
COD RATIO
I have the Jane Austen birthday celebrations to thank for COURTSHIP – which got me thinking of Emma and Mr. Elton’s excruciating acrostic where it’s the answer. Good blogging! and once I got going I enjoyed the puzzle.
Orange and norange, eft and neft
Couldn’t finish within my self-imposed limit of 30 minutes. I just couldn’t see COURTSHIPS and INLETS (and I’m still not sure I do).
I took way over my normal time (c 20-25 mins) to solve this one. COURTSHIPS, REGGAETON, and working out the wordplay for SMEAR CAMPAIGN and RESTING PLACE, took ages. I got there in the end though. For me it was worth at least another ten SNITCH points. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Good puzzle.
17:29. Late to the party after a 380 mile drive to Glasgow and an excellent meal at The Busby. LOI COURTSHIPS accounted for 1 1/2 minutes at the end. Some great clues. The consultants tarting up a business my favourite. Thanks Dvynys and setter.
Very tricky and just over an hour to solve, ending with COURTSHIPS, SMEAR CAMPAIGN and finally the brilliant RATIO (of course I thought it was a time, but couldn’t do much with that). I also liked the small arms in INLETS and TENABLE’s kind of sound.