Hello again. This crossword I thought was likeable (Americanisms apart) and not too hard. No individual clues spring to mind, but overall, a pleasant few minutes…
A happy Christmas from me to all our admirable setters, editors, solvers, fellow bloggers, and (not least) those battling away behind the scenes to keep the TfTT website fully operational, sometimes a difficult task in recent months. And finally, my very best wishes for a healthy and enjoyable 2026. May The Times cryptic crossword remain the doyen, exemplar, cynosure and epitome of British crosswords.
I use the standard TfTT conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Perceptive, almost completely retaining sense (10) |
| INSIGHTFUL – SIGHT (a sense) in IN FUL(l), completely, almost. | |
| 6 | Low temperature subject to debate (4) |
| MOOT – MOO (low, what cows do) + T(emperature) | |
| 10 | Forbidden cheers, did the opposite? (7) |
| TABOOED – TA (cheers, thanks) + BOOED. A rather ungainly word. | |
| 11 | A wood salesman set about garden construction (7) |
| PERGOLA – A LOG (wood) + REP, a salesman, all reversed. | |
| 12 | One working with monk to spread unique feature of church (5,4) |
| ONION DOME – I ON + DOM (monk), all in ONE, unique. A church feature, though not in the UK very much. | |
| 13 | City rector’s district curtailed (5) |
| PARIS – PARIS(h). Never have quite understood the difference between a vicar and a rector. | |
| 14 | Indistinct mark, black, that’s found on jacket (5) |
| BLURB – BLUR (indistinct mark) + B(lack) | |
| 15 | Old steward’s mad scenes with prince on stage (9) |
| SENESCHAL – *(SCENES) + (prince) HAL, which is what Shakespeare called Henry V, before his accession. Not a word in common usage, seneschal, but I did know it, not certain where from. | |
| 17 | Real gold? So credit reduced (9) |
| AUTHENTIC – AU (gold) + THEN (so) + TIC(k), credit, reduced. Ignore all punctuation in clues! | |
| 20 | Initially seasick in a vessel, hold fast (5) |
| AVAST – S(easick) in A VAT, a vessel. Hold fast, me hearties… | |
| 21 | Bus at last — leave car in a flash (5) |
| SPARK – (bu)S + PARK, leave a car. | |
| 23 | Three-legged race? (9) |
| TRIATHLON – so, not that race where you tie two peoples’ legs to each other. A CD, they are called TRIathlons for a reason. | |
| 25 | Graduate and students at back of compound (7) |
| ALUMNUS – ALUM (a double sulphate) + NUS, the national union of students. Alumnus an Americanism, I would just call them old boys.. or graduates, depending. | |
| 26 | Line adopted by harsh critic and man of ideas? (7) |
| PLANNER – L(ine) in PANNER, a harsh critic. Whether planners have much in the way of ideas, is a 6ac point. Certainly my local planning department has none that I’ve noticed.. | |
| 27 | Piercing howl (4) |
| KEEN – a DD. A wind can be piercing/keen. | |
| 28 | Without concern race around apparently unable to listen (10) |
| FEARLESSLY – EARLESS (unable to listen, apparently) inside FLY, race. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Enthusiastic about securing right opening (5) |
| INTRO – R(ight) in INTO, enthusiastic about | |
| 2 | Assumed handle like this is attached to burner of barbecue (9) |
| SOBRIQUET – SO (like this) + BRIQUET, which could be barbecue fuel in America. Over here, a briquette. | |
| 3 | Innovative interruption in basic learning (6-8) |
| GROUND-BREAKING – BREAK (interruption) in GROUNDING, your basic learning | |
| 4 | Pouring outside, so dreary (7) |
| TEDIOUS – *(OUTSIDE). Not sure I’ve seen “pouring” as an anagrind before.. | |
| 5 | Any amount of pressure on youngster after endless calculations (7) |
| UMPTEEN – (s)UM(s), endless calculations, + P(ressure) + TEEN, a youngster | |
| 7 | Type of blood with forbidding smell (5) |
| ODOUR – O (blood type) + DOUR, forbidding. My blood group is A+ apparently, something I found out only this year. | |
| 8 | I tell you plainly there is a problem with your tyre (5,4) |
| THATS FLAT – A DD, of sorts. | |
| 9 | Play, turning 21, retaining power to continue recording (6,4,4) |
| KRAPPS LAST TAPE – P(ower) in SPARK (21ac) reversed, + LAST (to continue) + TAPE (recording). A one-act, one man play by Samuel Beckett. Heard of it, never seen it. | |
| 14 | Vetoes discussion about energy plant (9) |
| BEANSTALK – E(nergy) in BANS TALK. | |
| 16 | Lead-in he’s devised for news in brief (9) |
| HEADLINES – *(LEAD IN HE’S) | |
| 18 | Why one’s offered a sample, as much as one likes (2,5) |
| TO TASTE – another DD, of sorts. What some of my blogging colleagues call “cryptic hints” | |
| 19 | Cheerful stonemason? (7) |
| CHIPPER – and yet another “cryptic hint” .. | |
| 22 | Entertain a period of reflection (5) |
| AMUSE – A + MUSE, to reflect, but apparently a noun too, albeit archaic in this context. | |
| 24 | Persian in the end very casually having kittens (5) |
| NERVY – (persia)N + *(VERY). | |
Fairly easy. I’m not sure I knew SENESCHAL but the letters would only go in that way. And KRAPPS LAST TAPE was something I had to dig deep to remember, not too hard once I had KRAPPS from the wordplay. I was unconvinced TABOOED was a word but the wordplay said it is so I went with it. Will there be crosswords on Christmas day?
Online, yes.
19:21
First time in a long time I’ve come in under 20 minutes, but most people seem to have found this easier than I did, judging from my WITCH score. Sir Kay was the SENESCHAL of King Arthur’s court, which is how I knew the word.
23 minutes. I waited for all the checkers before committing myself to the unknown SENESCHAL. It has appeared here only twice before, 12 and 14 years ago. Elsewhere I took time for MERS at THAT’S FLAT (is it an expression?), and the definition of PLANNER which I see also gave our blogger pause for thought.
I also wondered about THAT’S FLAT since it is not a phrase I know. After I finished, I looked it up in Chambers and it is defined as “I tell you plainly”, the exact words in the clue, so can’t really argue with that.
THAT’S FLAT seemed familiar; I thought it was a UK expression. ODE has it, s.v. flat: ‘used to indicate that one has reached a decision and will not be persuaded to change one’s mind’
We’ve had THAT’S FLAT in these puzzles before as that’s the only way I know the expression. I think it sparked debate when it last came up however many years ago.
I wonder if it’s more of a northern expression? My father was from Sheffield. It was certainly said to us as kids – ‘We’re not going to the park, and that’s flat!’ etc. I’ve used it myself, without ever considering its derivation.
“Americanisms”? What’s wrong with that? When the shoe’s on the other foot, I happen to enjoy learning new phrases from our cousins across the pond—and THAT’S FLAT! We say “flat out,” and that’s how I got there.
I liked this one, not terribly tough but quite classy! LOI was KRAPP’S LAST TAPE, which I should’ve gotten sooner, and surely would have if I hadn’t had the… telly on.
What’s wrong? Well, I do worry about being misunderstood… I have lots of valued American friends. The reason I dislike them (unannounced Americanisms, not Americans) is that I see The Times cryptic crossword as a traditional and quintessentially English invention that needs to be protected. Like Stonehenge, Beefeaters, or cockney dialect. Really, it should be listed, as a heritage asset. Obviously neologisms and foreign words & phrases will be used from time to time, but they are not going to be confused with proper English. I know the English language develops and changes, but I want to hold The Times crossword to a higher standard than Facebook or Tiktok.
I am aware that many have a different view, including it seems the current crossword editor. But as I feel, so I must speak 🙂
Why stop there? If ‘higher standards’ means avoiding neologisms and foreign words, let’s insist on using nothing but the language of Shakespeare for the whole thing. Or no actually, that pesky Bard was an inveterate user of new words, let’s stick to Chaucer. 😉
I wrote “Obviously neologisms and foreign words & phrases will be used from time to time, but they are not going to be confused with proper English.”
Obviously, you misunderstood.
Our language is wonderful not only in its wealth of words contributed from other tongues and lands but also the number of its national and local dialectical variations. Would you prefer that words or idioms used in the UK outside England or in Anglophone nations like Australia or New Zealand be excluded and the grid be filled exclusively with those familiar to the inhabitants of only part of the island of Great Britain? If not, it seems rather arbitrary to exclude speech more particular to Americans. There is, moreover, a lot of cross-fertilization between dialects, and a word’s origin often does not limit its eventual range of use.
As far as “proper English” is concerned, would you also prohibit “variant” spellings, though common in usage? I make my living as a bit of a linguistic pedant, but long ago came to terms with the fact that a crossword is only a game.
I just knew I wouldn’t be able to explain it properly .. sorry I even mentioned it. But do read what I actually wrote, which excludes none of those. Virtually all the time they are signposted as such, which is absolutely fine.
Well, if that was your only point… the word “unannounced” sorta got drowned out by all those other words you wrote. The exclusive belonging of a term to a particular variety of English is not always clear, and sometimes debated here. It’s true that Collins indicates that today “alumnus” is typically US or Canadian; however, as keriothe points out below, the word originated in Britain but with a different sense. (I don’t see “old boy” as equivalent, as this term seems to belong to a different, less formal register.) The spelling of BRIQUET seems a more egregious case. I wouldn’t like it either if such things slowed my solving (as the absence of a hyphen in RUBBER-STAMPING did).
Is “cockney” really a dialect? It’s a sort of mid 19th century construct (even possibly from Irish immigrants), hardly English heritage.. (I know JerryW is giving a tongue in cheek response.. ) but I just groan when faced with a cockerney clue!
Stick to your guns mate. I know what you mean.
I’m with Jerry. You betcha by golly.
Were we arguing about anything?
Saying Shakespeare used a few ‘new words’ is rather reductive? It’s the true development of the English language where previously French and Latin were just as commonly spoken. Breaking the ‘fourth wall’, using direct language in the vernacular that conveyed meaning both to the hoi-polloi in the stalls and the gentry in the balcony. Has ‘Hollywood-speak’ really caught on after a 100 years? I’d suggest not. The whole world reads Shakespeare and takes note. The understanding is still universal after 400 years.
The very fact we have to debate on here what certain Americanisms actually mean, shows that the reach of the American lexicon isn’t as widespread as the setters, and publishers of dictionaries would have us believe.
K didn’t say the Bard used only a few new words. He knows better, even if you don’t. Shakespeare is credited with introducing into the language or popularizing over 1,700 new words by converting nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, and creating compounds. (It would be hard to disentangle all pure inventions from popularizations at this date.)
Americans themselves frequently debate what Americanisms actually mean! But I’m afraid the imperialistic reach of American phraseology is all too evident, especially in the entertainment industry.
I think the problem is that (eg) all European words are clearly indicated in the clueing, but purely foreign words as the answer are rare, so indicating them is almost completely unnecessary-albeit the infamous and unindicated ‘schnell’ in the championships a few years ago comes to mind. Americanisms are usually indicated in the clueing but not often as the answer. Which is unfair because it may as well be a foreign language to us Brits.
Do you get many ‘Britishisms’ in the NYT crossword? I suspect not.
I didn’t detect a purely foreign word anywhere in this puzzle.
And FYI, Britishisms in the NYT crossword are not rare.
A rather random sampling…
The puzzle for November 15, 2017 actually had the theme (Rex Parker) « BRITISHISMS (11D: Words found in the answers to this puzzle's starred clues) — familiar phrases are reimagined (via "?" clues) as phrases related to specifically British terms. » So those were all flagged.
(NB: I didn’t argue against flagging the provenance of words that might be unfamiliar to a British audience.)
On August 24 of this year, we had the clue « Like a column starting a row, perhaps. It’s LIBELLOUS with two “L”s because that’s the British spelling (which “row” was supposed to clue you in to, “row” being British for “noisy disturbance; quarrel; heated argument”). » Guess it’s because I’ve been doing Times crosswords for so long, but I didn’t realize “row” is non-American.
On September 29, 2023, we had Tube feature, with “the” and the answer was GAP—as in “Mind the…”). This one also had ARSE, clued as “Bum.” No flagging at all.
That’s three in eight years. And all indicated.
HA. Did I say it was an exhaustive listing? That these were the only ones I found, let alone the only ones ever to exist? I could spend weeks working on that.
I don’t know if it counts as “signaling” as used for these cryptic puzzles when a clue simply uses one Britishism (“bum”) to clue another (“arse”). Seems that would strike some people here as doubly unfair! The solver has to recognize a Britishism in order to solve another; nothing in the clue, however, indicates that the former word is a Britishism.
Our type of flagging (appropriate word for signaling a nationality, no?) typically involves a place name. This NYT clue is like that: “John of Salisbury,” cluing LOO.
Yes, quite easy, with a number of biffable answers. I do know seneschal, and I vaguely know pergola, so the more obscure words went in easily. Krapp’s Last Tape is my favorite Beckett play; it is really much better than Waiting for Godot. Of course, I didn’t notice any Americanisms….but I did notice that’s flat.
Time: 18:01
Have you ever come across Artur Schnitzler’s ‘Anatol’? It’s a play I read that stayed with me – never read or seen Krapp’s Last Tape, but seems like it might share that theme of having focussed on the wrong things in life.
6:14 for a PB. Somewhat irritatingly, laptop died at point of submission; just got to work (where had left charger), opened laptop and saw clock still running, so I won’t be submitting the 2:11:01.
Was worried about THAT’S FLAT but I suppose it’s been justified above. TRIATHLON went in without real understanding.
A very merry Christmas to all the insightful people behind, and on, this website!
32 mins NHO SENESCHAL. Despite PAGODA clearly not fitting in 11ac it insisted on pervading my thoughts until the light finally dawned.
19.36 so a fairly gentle canter round the paddock before the revels begin in earnest. The PLANNERS in Edinburgh have lots of ideas, not all of which are good ones. I think Rectors had a more direct hold over the tithes in their parish than Vicars.
FOI MOOT
LOI FEARLESSLY
COD KRAPPS LAST TAPE
Thanks Jerry and setter, and Merry Christmas to all.
All done in 20 but beaten by the NHO 9D so DNF. I looked at SPARK several times to see how it could be related to the Play too. Hey ho. Merry Christmas all.
13:33. LOI an unparsed ONION DOME. Had vaguely heard of SENESCHAL but couldn’t have told you what it meant, DNK MUSE could mean a period of reflection and THAT’S FLAT went in with a shrug. Thank-you Jerry and setter.
Just under 30 minutes after two bites and without error for once. So something of a triumph really.
SENESCHAL came readily to mind, origin unknown but mellifluous. ONION DOME took awhile as I associate it almost exclusively with the orient.
LOI INSIGHTFUL and COD FEARLESSLY (the ‘unable to listen’ made me chuckle).
Thanks to the one who makes it all gel and Jeremy.
31 minutes. Not too hard but I had trouble seeing PARIS which in turn led to problems working out what was going on with my LOI, the NHO KRAPP’S LAST TAPE. Same MER at THAT’S FLAT as a few others. Favourite was ONION DOME, an unexpected ‘feature of church’.
Thanks to Jerry and Merry Christmas to everyone here
27 minutes with LOI FEARLESSLY. I knew the Beckett play and I’d heard of SENESCHAL without knowing what one was. AND THAT’S FLAT, meaning that’s the end of the discussion, seems to come from earlier in my life. SOBRIQUET was no problem, not that I’ve any idea about what the fuel is actually called on either side of the pond. Maybe an Aussie will tell us. Good puzzle, thank you Jerry and setter. Merry Christmas, everyone.
18:41. Good fun and an early pressie of a sub-20.
NHO the play, LOI but the clueing was seasonally kind. Didn’t notice anything transatlantic but then I would have spelt the BBQ fuel with a CK not a Frenchified Q. Bucket v Bouquet.
Excellent blog as usual and fine sentiments to boot. Thanks to Jerry and setter and Merry Christmas all.
17:17 for back to back sub-20 minute solves which maybe a first.
Same issue as others with THATS FLAT. I would only use it with a third word of out. I did check the dictionary as well and as said in a previous comment the definition is a copy and paste. So had to put that moan to one side.
LOI the NHo of SOBRIQUET which was an early thought but would always spell the bbq item briquettes. Nothing better came to mind and was surprised to receive a Christmas gift of all green squares.
Thankful for the cross reference in KRAPPS LAST TAPE which is not a play I readily bring to mind.
Quite a few good clues in this but COD to BLURB
Thanks blogger and setter and merry Christmas to all.
A nice straightforward 26 minutes, which makes a bit of a change from recent slow performances. Glad I’d had KRAPPS LAST TAPE advertised to me earlier on in the year, presumably because my phone knows both that I like Gary Oldman and watch the odd play here and there.
I hadn’t realised until today that I habitually spell (and pronounce) SOBRIQUET as SOUBRIQUET, which is noted as an alternative spelling in Chambers. That was much more of an issue when solving than the sawn-off briquette.
Merry Christmas one and all!
23.06 . Two minutes at least spent on sobriquet but got it eventually. Nice to see a festive beanstalk and I checked krapps last tape with my other half. She didn’t find it uplifting, even with Michael Gambon performing. Onion dome was a bit of a guess after finally accepting the answer wasn’t an anagram of one,monk and to.
Very enjoyable for the last puzzle before Xmas.
God bless us, every one.
Feeling quite pleased with my 20 minutes. However, thank Goodness the online puzzle popped up a Congrats message when I hesitantly entered KRAPP’S etc. nho but it was what the WP was telling me to enter. Fortunately, SENESCHAL was in the memory banks. Unlike THATS FLAT which seems an odd phrase but, if it’s in the dictionary… Plenty to like in this – NERVY, CHIPPER and PERGOLA my podium.
Thanks to setters, bloggers and commenters for today and all the others through the year. Happy Christmas.
DNF. Apart from the NHO Beckett play the rest went in relatively quickly. I know what wa required for the wordplay but didn’t figure out KRAPPS. SENESCHAL was vaguely known but needed the crossersand wondered about “briquet”. THATS FLAT also needed crossers and a bit of a shrug.
Thanks Jerry and setter and merry Christmas
9:20 but with a stupid error. I constructed a confident BEARSTALK from the wordplay and I’m so used to doing this with unknown plants that I didn’t pause to question it. I also constructed TERRACE from a combination of definition and most of the wordplay, but fortunately in that case the crossers corrected me.
MER at BRIQUET but Collins has it as an alternative in British English. No doubt a US import but that’s how language works. English is stuffed full of French and Italian words after all.
The history of ALUMNUS is interesting: in British English it originally meant a current student of an institution. That meaning seems to have died out in the 19th century shortly after the more modern meaning was taking root across the pond.
The expression THATS FLAT rang a vague bell, and sure enough it has come up before, although apparently not since November 2015 (puzzle 26256)!
Happy Christmas all.
Another BEARSTALK here … and I’m reasonably green-fingered and saw the panto last week 😩. At least I’m in good company!
Aha, I looked only at the entry for BRIQUET in Collins, but the word as a variant of “briquette” appears only in that entry.
17.41 A curious experience, this. No joy at all in the top left, and I approached the rest of the puzzle as if it were cleverer than it actually is. That’s nor a complaint – good, fair and accessible cluing even for the less familiar words. It was TRIATHLON that disabused me: I thought it must be based on half-insects – three legged, geddit? The answer was rather more prosaic.
I saw KRAPP when studying law at Brum Uni. It was produced as part of “Interdisciplinary Studies” and was presumably intended to broaden our literary education. I suppose it did, but I prefer Thora Hird’s magnificent musing on a lost and irretrievable love in “Waiting for the Telegram from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads.
Mnay thanks to Jerry for his elegant greetings, and a fulsome endorsement of compliments to our techy team, wrestling with incomprehensible (to me, at least) digispeak to keep this indispensable contribution to to the Meaning of Life running.
Thora Hird truly was magnificent that day. Such a fine actress. Alan Bennett, who was there for the recording, said that at the end all the technicians were in tears, and he’d never seen that happen before .. I loved all of the Talking Heads.
Thora also said “I don’t swear, I never swear, but I’ll swear for Mr Bennett.” The word she was thinking of in the script was “penis.” Bennett was amused at the thought that for her, saying that was swearing..
I watched it again this morning – I have the set – and it’s impossible to watch without falling apart. For me, that’s what’s missing from Krapp: you don’t really care for his loss, while Thora makes the pain in her character somehow life affirming, despite missing so many marbles.
Z, I first misread techy as ‘tetchy’ team, which made me smile, as most of the techies I’ve known have their tetchy moments sweating over computers, as well they might!
24:04 but…
Didn’t know SENESCHAL, but not too difficult to work out. ALUM was unknown, but the answer was clear. Might not have thought of ONION DOME, if I’d never been to Red Square, where St Basil’s Cathedral stands. Cheated though with my LOI, the completely unknown play – no idea what was going on there, though suspected that it involved 21a backwards. I’d be surprised if many folk could name more than one Beckett play.
Thanks Jerry and setter
Happy Days? End Game?
First time ever finishing the full cryptic, thus finishing my New Year’s resolution with a week to go! Thank you to JerryW and indeed all bloggers from this site for your very helpful explanations over the past year, this website is incredibly helpful for new solvers
Congratulations! 🥳
Oh well done, not least for remembering a New Year’s resolution for nearly a year, never mind finishing it! Mine generally last a week or two .. let us know what this year’s resolution is. A 20 minute solve?
Nice work!
Congratulations!
Excellent! Well done, and just in time…
12:15 – so definitely on the easier side. The play was familiar – I remember a performance of it on TV in the early 70s. It was strangely compelling, if little understood. Not sure I would have the patience for it now.
A happy Christmas to our daily bloggers and all who contribute to keep this unusually civilised joint enterprise afloat; you are an essential part of my day.
KEEm. Bah! Humbug!! Especially after a not-too-shabby 7:19
COD SENESCHAL
Wasted a while trying to get organ loft to work instead of ONION DOME. ‘Earlessly’ I stupidly equated to ‘unable to listen’ at 28ac, so was bewildered by the lone F. Otherwise all was fine and I enjoyed it. 29 minutes.
My thanks to JerryW and setter.
Not too stressful except where I lost the plot.
I had problems accessing the site with err “429 Too Many Requests” which seems a bit tough on the first go. Perhaps some joker has borrowed an IP address that turns out to be the one I am using.
28a Fearlessly, I was amused at the thought of being earless.
8d That’s Flat; not sure I’ve ever used that expression, but HHO, probably from Xwords as it was already in Cheating Machine.
9a Krapps. I was given the Krapps from 21a and somehow remembered “last” but “tape” was beyond my ken, so I cheated as _a_e has a lot of solutions. I read wiki on the subject; it seems an odd sort of plot.
14d Beanstalk. For some odd reason I invented the banestalk plant which delayed 18a somewhat.
Merry Christmas all.
I think you’ll find most of Beckett’s plays have odd sorts of plot!
19:34, so lightning fast by my usual standards.
ONION DOME took along time to see – I was stuck on oriel windows, and wondered if one combined with a rose window might be an oriel rose. Only when I got the N from GROUND BREAKING did I finally abandon that thought.
Thanks Jerry and setter
Defeated by KRAPPS LAST TAPE but I enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks all who contribute to this site and Happy Christmas!
The old steward and the play were new to me, but all green in a surprisingly quick 5:55.
Thanks and merry Christmas to all bloggers, commenters, and tech wizards for creating this wonderful community, and all the editors and setters who give us something to talk about.
A better answer for 23 A would surely have been ‘Tourist Trophy’ . . .?
A gentle intro for the holiday season, all done in 22 minutes while resting from Xmas decoration work. No issues, though I do now know the difference between a chippy and a chipper.
FOI – MOOT
LOI – ONION DOME
COD – BEANSTALK
Thanks to Jerry and other contributors.
09:36
Very gentle albeit with the play and SENE-whatsit reliant on wordplay.
Beaten by the NHO play- even with KRAPPS and TAPE I had no idea what was going on- which was a shame as I really enjoyed the rest. Of course if I had heard of the play then it would have been a write in and a pretty fast time!
I’ll try again tomorrow!
16:17. I wasn’t confident about That’s Flat so I was pleased not to see a pink square.
COD: NERVY
Thanks to Jerry and our setter.
The ones that held me up were the trio of INSIGHTFUL, SOBRIQUET and TEDIOUS, where I missed the anagram completely until trying to unravel the parsing after biffing. The barbecue bit put me right off – only when I seized on ‘assumed handles’ did the answer present itself. And wrong thinking made me convinced the end of 1a was OUT rather then FUL. KRAPP’S gave me the answer to 21a rather than the reverse – that often seems to happen – and I knew SENESCHAL, but not what it meant. COD to BLURB. A very Merry Christmas to all of you bloggers and posters, known and unknown, Jerry, Jason and setter!
Grateful to everyone who makes this website happen – I don’t post every day but enjoy the discussion as well as the explanations of the clues I biffed (or didn’t, as the case may be). Happy Christmas to all!
32 minutes. The SE was mostly quick but I was slow elsewhere. I was a bit puzzled by the truncated briquette and I finished with the NHO KRAPPS LAST TAPE and AVAST. Thanks Jerry.
Again, not too difficult for me and I finished all correct on this having made an error on the QC this morning.
LOI BEANSTALK where I had been hung up on varieties of Blackball.
I knew the play so didn’t pause to parse it; and ,like others, I constructed SENESCHAL, a word I have never seen before.
Thanks all.
David
40:18 All green.
Only aid was looking up KRAPPS LAST TAPE, geez, everyone seems to have heard of it except me. Need to get out more.
COD BEANSTALK
Solved in 14 mins, which is very fast for me. My first two attempts to comment were, like andyf’s, blocked by ‘Too Many Requests’, which mystified me. My favourite two clues were to PERGOLA and SOBRIQUET. Thanks and a merry Christmas to Setter and Blogger
Once I worked out that the first word had to be “Krapps” in 9D, I am afraid I had to resort to Google for the rest. In my time I have struggled to stay awake during Waiting for Godot, but this was a play I have never heard of , so technically DNF. “Onion Dome” I knew as a feature of eastern church architecture, but I wasn’t able to parse it. I was pleased to dredge up “Seneschal” from somewhere in the back of my head, so not altogether a bad day!
23:27. bit late in the day for me and after a little bit of wine at a late lunch. I enjoyed this one, though perhaps a little bit too much of the ‘last letter of x plus something else’ formulation to be really well balanced. NHO KRAPPS L T, have now been through a few lists of plays and refreshed my mental list of the well known ones!
hope you’ve all been good boys and girls and that Santa is good to you!
Happy to have the crosswords include all manner of American English, other Englishes, slang, dialect, variant spellings and foreign words/terms absorbed into English. Otherwise, why be so restrictive?
Only one unknown today was Krapps Last Tape – never heard of it.
Despite the comments above, I’m still really struggling to see how this could have ended up with a Snitch of just 69. I needed help with nhos Seneschal and Krapps Last Tape, and that was only after a long struggle, and my architect wife chipping in with nho Onion Dome. Invariant
PS I would also venture a small wager that today’s setter was Teasel
PPS Unlike a Vicar, the Rector got to keep the tithes from the parish
Mary kris mass won nan dahl
Tried to post earlier but couldn’t get on the site (the “Too many attempts” warning I and others have had before). DNF, defeated by the unknown KRAPPS LAST TAPE – I thought of reversing SPARK, but otherwise got nowhere near it.
– Slightly surprised at the lack of a question mark or something similar in the clue for ONION DOME, because (as Jerry notes) it’s not universal to churches and can surely be a feature of other buildings too
– Didn’t know SENESCHAL but it parsed and sounded just about plausible
– Have never come across THAT’S FLAT, so it went in with minimal confidence
Thanks Jerry and setter, and Merry Christmas everyone!
COD Beanstalk
The triathlon is not a race.