Time: 59:09
I had all of the bottom half solved (and not a single answer in the top) as 23 minutes ticked by, until 9ac and 4dn led to an eventual breakthrough. Proper Friday stuff, but of the sort that leaves you feeling accomplished rather than frustrated.
The two excellent &lits were the standout. I also quite like the deviousness of an un-signposted ‘which’ in the parsing (always gets a Ha! from me, but I may be in the minority).
Is my attempt at 10ac what was meant?
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Report on small issue of litter engulfing green (7) |
| RECOUNT – RUNT (small issue of litter) containing (engulfing) ECO (green). | |
| 5 | Sweet and sour chops left by sink (7) |
| GUMDROP – GlUM (sour) after deleting (chops) ‘l’ (left) then DROP (sink). | |
| 9 | Smitten orc left exposed in shower of pitch (5,4) |
| TENOR CLEF – hidden in (exposed) smitTEN ORC LEFt. | |
| 10 | Cut small outgrowth of nuts (5) |
| SHORN – S (small) + HORN (outgrowth of nuts). At least I think so – total guess for me. The water caltrop (an edible nut) has horn-like outgrowths that resemble outstretched bat wings or horns. AA has it: outgrowths from one’s head (nut). | |
| 11 | Cast divide revolutionary new parts (5) |
| FLUNG – GULF (divide) reversed (revolutionary) parted by N (new). | |
| 12 | Family let out a boy serving sandwiches (9) |
| PARENTAGE – PAGE (boy serving) contains (sandwiches), all of RENT (let out) + A. | |
| 13 | Mobile reception bar on TV rose for biographical show (13) |
| RETROSPECTIVE – anagram of (mobile) RECEPTIon (minus (bar) ‘on’) + TV + ROSE. | |
| 17 | Eg, I help to sort snakes (13) |
| HERPETOLOGIST – anagram of (snakes) EG I HELP TO SORT. &lit, my FOI, and favourite of the day. | |
| 21 | Well bores set up on windy bluff (9) |
| OUTSPOKEN – OK (well) contained by (bores) an anagram of (windy) SET UP ON. | |
| 24 | Amateur guards respecting women-only space (5) |
| HAREM – HAM (amateur) containing (guards) RE (respecting). | |
| 25 | English dons returned, unopened, a Marx work (5) |
| OPERA – E (English) contained by (dons) the reversal of (returned) hARPO (a Marx brother) missing its first letter (unopened). | |
| 26 | Console dull, love-filled husband unhappy on retirement (9) |
| DASHBOARD – reversal of (on retirement) the whole lot: DRAB (dull) containing O (love-filled) + H (husband) + SAD (unhappy). | |
| 27 | Half undressed, shy about large exercise clothes (7) |
| TOPLESS – TOSS (shy) containing (about), L (large) which PE (exercise) contains (clothes). | |
| 28 | Exhausted state cops remaining in expression of defiance (2,5) |
| SO THERE – outermost letters from (exhausted) StatE containing (cops) OTHER (remaining). Not my first thought for ‘remaining’, but all’s fair. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sanction absent leader of government, please (6) |
| RATIFY – gRATIFY (please) missing (absent) the first (leader) of ‘government’. | |
| 2 | Brief doubt quelled by racket gold winner (9) |
| CONQUEROR – all-but-the-last of (brief) QUERy (doubt) containd (quelled) by CON (racket) with OR (gold). Annoyingly, I guessed this from ‘gold’ and ‘question’/’query’, but thought I was looking for a noise rather than a trick, and left it blank until much later. | |
| 3 | Just winning tackle before start of half time (7) |
| UPRIGHT – UP (winning) + RIG (tackle) before HT (half time). | |
| 4 | Zoom call having to suppress extremes of noise (9) |
| TELEPHOTO – TELEPHOne (call) with TO, after deleting (suppress) the first and last from (extremes of) NoisE. | |
| 5 | Flourish of whirling cloth skirts (2,3) |
| GO FAR – OF which the reversal of (whirling) RAG (cloth) surrounds (skirts). | |
| 6 | Old lady bearing sound of fraternity (7) |
| MASONIC – MA (old lady) + SONIC (bearing sound). | |
| 7 | Red Mexican river bird passing over tip of Yucatán (5) |
| RIOJA – RIO (river, in Spanish/Mexican) + JAy (bird) deleting (passing over) the first (tip) of Yucatán. | |
| 8 | Church and religion brought up after raising of shot glasses (5-3) |
| PINCE-NEZ – CE (Church of England) + reversal of (brought up ) ZEN (religion), all after a reversal of (raising) NIP (shot). Spectacles that grip your nose rather than hang from your ears. | |
| 14 | Expert projections about conclusion of suffering? (9) |
| PROGNOSES – PRO (expert) and NOSES (projections) containing (about) last (conclusion) of sufferinG. Another excellent &lit. | |
| 15 | Common boundary is in fact strewn with trees cut on either side (9) |
| INTERFACE – anagram of (strewn) IN FACT with tREEs excluding the outer letters (cut on either side). | |
| 16 | Drive away with traffic tickets and string of penalties (5-3) |
| SHOOT-OUT – SHOO (drive away) + TOUT (traffic tickets). | |
| 18 | Pay for current foreign-based stocks with euros (7) |
| EXPIATE – I (current) which EXPAT (foreign-based) contains (stocks) + E (euros). Pay, or make amends, for past misdeeds. | |
| 19 | Settle hours before long cases (7) |
| INHABIT – H (hours) which IN A BIT (before long) contains (cases). | |
| 20 | Muck carried by spades for one turning over soil (6) |
| SMUDGE – S (spades) and the reversal of (turning) EG (for one), all containing (over) MUD (soil). | |
| 22 | Drain last of ale from hammered pewter mug (5) |
| TWERP – deleting (drain) the ‘e’ (last letter of ale) from an anagram of (hammered) PeWTER. | |
| 23 | Acclaim bit of land this country’s given up (5) |
| KUDOS – SOD (bit of land) + UK (this country), all reversed (given up). | |
I’m guessing the “nuts” in 10A are referring to the informal term for heads though I’m not sure I’d ever refer to, say, a cow’s head as its “nut”.
That’s it – ta.
75 minutes with a couple of look-ups and several clues not parsed, so about par for a Friday puzzle these days.
Although RECOUNT and RATIFY went straight in I knew after 5 minutes of glancing through the clues looking for some more easy pickings that this was going to be yet another tough puzzle lacking in enjoyment factor, and so it proved. I guess it was too soon for the revised policy of relaxing things a bit on Fridays to have come into effect.
Done like a kipper by this one. Couldn’t recall the snake expert (all I could think of was ‘ophidologist,’ which isn’t even a word – should be ophiologist), and had to look that up. Even then, I failed on SHOOT-OUT (nice clue) – unable to see past ‘throw out’). To complete my misery, I had ‘scorn’ for SHORN, but doubt that I will be alone.
All in 80 minutes or so.
Terrific puzzle, though…
I came within a whisker of biffing “scorn”.
37 minutes work spoiled by a silly SCORN instead of SHORN. Didn’t spot the pangram until after completion; might have helped with CONQUEROR which came late on.
Another excellent Friday workout, though it kept me longer from fighting bushfires than it might have.
24:59 Brilliant puzzle with some dazzling wordplay. Loved it.
Thanks setter and William.
Couldn’t agree more. A perfect puzzle for me. Bravo to the setter.
DNF after an hour. GUMDROP, SHORN and INTERFACE were missing, others were biffs and a HERTEPOLOGIST’s application won’t get that job at the zoo. A bit too hard for me. Thank you William and setter.
Had to reveal too many answers for it to be enjoyable but have to say that what I managed I liked. It’s words like HERPETOLOGIST that make me wonder why I do these things, especially as the only clue is the most convoluted anagrist. I started in the lower half as I was getting nowhere fast up top and pretty well completed most of it before going back to the top. Managed to sort out all of the NE but I just couldn’t make headway in the NW. Finally saw FLUNG but I’d had enough by then. TELEPHOTO for ‘zoom’ has been in enough crosswords that it should have been a write-in but I couldn’t stop thinking about ‘zoom video calls’. COD to OPERA – at least I parsed that correctly and still watch Harpo playing from time to time on YouTube.
Thanks William and setter.
You do it so that next time someone says they study snakes, you can respond “Ah! A herpetologist, are you?”
Very good Jerry. But I don’t think there’s much chance of either meeting one or remembering what they’re called.
You will now. In a few weeks, I predict 😉
Hat-tip to a friend of mine who “herps” – that is, amateurs heading off into the woods to find cool snakes/lizards/etc. – for providing me the necessary vocabulary to sort that one out!
Same as +J, bottom went in slowish and steady, but had only RECOUNT in the top. Quite slow in the end, teasing everything out. All parsed except the NUTS, so thanks AA.Parsing helped me correct a singular PROGNOSIS, enjoyed the penny-drop moment so it’s COD. Also enjoyed lots of the outre definitions throughout the clues.
And: very difficult but not a single obscurity. Only ever heard of BASS and TREBLE CLEFS, but NHO TENOR CLEF was an easy guess (especially since it was written out in the clue – took solving it and trying to parse before I saw it 🙂 oops)
33.10
Probably the least impenetrable of recent Fridays. I had to write out seven potential answers to work out the wordplay, and still didn’t manage to parse GUMDROP (though it couldn’t be anything else). Nice &lit at 17ac.
I also only realised it was a pangram after completion.
LOI GUMDROP
COD HERPETOLOGIST
Took me a while, this, but I got there. No nhos, and no queries. For some reason I failed to parse TOPLESS but it didn’t matter, went in anyway..
As Corymbia says, a pangram; not that I noticed at the time.
WOE after 56 mins. PROGNOSiS was infuriatingly careless after so much diligent parsing. Very satisfying to finally put in LOI GUMDROP and hit Submit only to see 1 pink. Curses.
Most enjoyable Friday toughie pitched right on my limits but not beyond. Very subjective I know but keep them coming.
COD HERPETOLOGIST. Thanks to William and setter.
For my part, I thought this was the best kind of difficult puzzle. The difficulty came from genius cluing and fair deception, not from the use of obscure knowledge. PROGNOSES is just a brilliant clue.
My only comment: reference to the Marx brothers is one of those ‘crossword’ things which I don’t love – I suspect most people below 50 would not know who Harpo Marx was unless they did a lot of cryptic crosswords. Perhaps that’s just part of the legacy, and the crossword dialect (arcolect?).
I agree. I found it enjoyable and all the answers gettable with some amusement and doh moments along the way.
This level of puzzle is much better than the overly obscure and (imho) unfair offerings like last Friday’s.
It’s only recently that Beerbohm Tree seems to have been retired. By that reckoning the Marx brothers have got another half century left.
Whilst it’s no longer possible to see old Beerbohm on stage (although his legacy lives on as founder of RADA) it it possible to watch all the Marx Brothers films, and I heartily recommend doing so.
My grandmother – born 1906 – loved the Marx brothers and took us to see one of their films every time she was babysitting us and one was available. So I’ve seen most of them, and enjoyed them. Though 60-odd years on there’s only one scene I can recall (apart from Harpo harping) – they were being chased on a ship(?) and clung up onto giant bunches of bananas so their legs didn’t show.
I certainly won’t be alive when they’re finally retired from The Times.
35.34. If I’d been looking for the pangram it would have helped with my last but one, PINCE NEZ, which unlocked the GUMDROP. While there were no discernible jokes*, this was a very satisfying puzzle, properly tangled clues (even the “hidden”) almost all requiring – and rewarding – careful study and lateral thinking. Just as well I knew HERPETOLOGIST, an early entry which opened things up. The one I struggled with most was OPERA, though only OMEGA was an alternative, and I’m grateful for William’s revelation of the relevant Marx brother. Just as well Ragmo Marx dropped out early on.
*Perhaps it’s fair to say IN [H] A BIT was amusing, but it was more a smile of recognition than hilarity, like meeting an old friend in a sea of new and challenging faces.
As remarked earlier, fortunate not to fall into the “scorn” trap, and I also had to correct PROGNOSES. To complete my ineffective moments, I only realised it was a pangram when I landed here! All in all it was a wonder that I completed it correctly!
FOI RECOUNT
LOI EXPIATE
COD SHOOT-OUT*
TIME 13:50
On the football blog that I contribute to, this is a single word. O tempora etc.
Managed the whole bottom half and a handful in the top by the time the hour came up, then gave up. Several I certainly wouldn’t have got with all the time in the world.
44:35 in what was a proper Friday workout but sadly a failure as I bunged in the singular PROGNOSIS.
I got a house point in primary school for correctly spelling HERPETOLOGIST so that gave me a chuckle. It was my dream job to be a veterinarian specialising in reptiles but here I am four decade later as an economist.
Only OPERA unparsed. I think i would have got there but I assumed the a from the clue was in the word and there must be a Marx who wrote operas.
COD GUMDROP
Thanks blogger and setter
34:09
I thought this was excellent. My assessment is helped by the fact that I managed to complete this difficult puzzle in a not too shabby time.
COD: PROGNOSES. Lovely!
Thanks to William and our setter.
Did one round and only solved one- TWERP . Looked at the snitch and thought the setter is right, I would be a mug to carry on .
Setter’ s revenge !
23:46
I think I’m starting to get the hang of how to approach these Friday stinkers. It’s unlikely that the answer to any clue is going to jump out straight away, so it’s a case of looking at each for a little longer than normal before moving on. There was , however, a bit too much Yoda-speak going IMHO.
I needed to solve EXPATIATE before I know whether the snake (ugh) expert was a HERPET- or HEREPTOLOGIST.
Agree that PROGNOSES was excellent.
At 5 I thought GUM was CHOPS and to the left of drop, but now see that was nonsense.
Thanks William and setter.
Expiate?
That too.
Two goes needed.
– Didn’t parse GUMDROP, biffing it once I had enough checkers
– Had no idea about horn=outgrowth of nuts, but SHORN fitted the definition
– Had enough checkers for 17a to put the ‘ologist’ at the end, and was left with a toss-up between HERTEPOLOGIST and HERPETOLOGIST. The latter looked more likely so in it went
– Didn’t parse TOPLESS or TELEPHOTO
A really good puzzle. Thanks William and setter.
FOI Twerp
LOI Parentage
COD Outspoken
60:51 here with no aids except to confirm a few thoughts after having them (e.g., “hold on, ‘bluff’ means ‘outspoken’?)!
I plonked in RECOUNT almost immediately, correctly noticing “small issue of litter” was likely to clue RUNT. Then I went another 10 minutes or so without anything going in…somehow slogged my way from the bottom left around and up, sat with the difficult ones until something clicked into place, and am absolutely delighted to be near the hour mark. This one brought me lots of joy along the way.
My experience was very like our blogger’s, I had the bottom half completed and not a single answer in the top half until I spotted the hidden answer at 9 across after which things went quite smoothly. I’d never heard of the snake expert but correctly guessed the arrangement of the letters once I had the crossing letters.
It’s been a funny week of good quality, somewhat tougher than normal puzzles. I managed to finish all of them without aids so I should be feeling satisfied. But I have reservations about puzzles getting harder. I’m happy to struggle through a tough puzzle, and spend the extra time, a couple of times a week. But I think the law of diminishing returns would kick in if it became an almost daily event.
Tough going, but I stuck it out. From HAREM to OPERA (which was unparsed) in 70:38, via lots of blind alleys. Thanks setter and William.
Well I managed one correct (Treble Clef) but thoroughly enjoyed trying to parse the revealed answers and then here for the ones I couldn’t. Not at all dispirited after a lot of aha moments. Much like the wall reveal on Only Connect. Many thanks to William and chapeau to the setter.
A DNF in about 70 minutes with a lazy GO FOR instead of GO FAR at 5d. Agree with the tenor of the above comments that this was an excellent puzzle, so it was frustrating to have that one mistake to spoil a Friday puzzle I would have been very pleased to solve.
Thanks to William and setter
68:33
Very slow start – only two inked in (RECOUNT and PROGNOSES) after 20 minutes, with a couple pencilled in (which turned out to be wrong). INTERFACE and SMUDGE in quick succession opened up the SE corner, and TWERP and OUTSPOKEN saw the SW filled in quickly.
The top half was slower to get into – TELEPHOTO, PARENTAGE and GO FAR ensured that the NW corner was completed, leaving GUMDROP, RIOJA, PINCE NEZ and SHORN in that order, to finish. All words understood and fully parsed which gives this puzzle an extra tick from me.
Thanks William and setter
I was surprised by the very high SNITCH count as I have recently taken several minutes longer to solve maybe three or four puzzles with lower counts: today’s, which was very good and fun, took me two sessions totalling 44 mins. My favourite three clues were to HERPETOLOGIST (outstanding), RATIFY (did Setter have anyone in particular in mind?) and INHABIT. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
57 mins. Slow but steady progress I’d say, with several good PDMs: RECOUNT, SHOOTOUT, DASHBOARD. Lots of good surfaces here but I really liked OUTSPOKEN. Not quite the Friday behemoth I was expecting but still happy to get it under an hour. Thanks William and setter.
No complaints from me, 54 minutes of steady solving with some brilliant deceptive cluing. As per William I had only the bottom half in after 23 minutes until telephoto biffed itself unparsed. Last struggles were in the NW with Rioja, my COD, superbly deceptive. Gumdrops I only know from some out dated saying remembered from boyhood comics of goody gumdrops.
Thx William and chapeau to the setter, a classic. For me this is the Friday standard to be aimed for.
Technical DNF as I needed aids to derive two anagrams which I just couldn’t see. But scraped home eventually. Only spotted the pangram after I’d finished. I’ve never been convinced that spotting it earlier would help much, as it’s only after noticing a few of the Z Q Ks that it becomes a possibility, so any missing letters are more likely to be the common letters.