Time: 20:33
Music: Chopin, Ballades, Earl Wild
Well, I did solve the puzzle, my solution is all correct, and I did have a pretty good time. The only problem is I didn’t understand several of the clues, and simply put in the most likely answer. This is a solving technique that top-level solvers are sometimes forced to use with very difficult puzzles, but this puzzle was not in fact very difficult.
There are, however, a number of place where inexperienced solvers are likely to run into trouble. For a word you don’t know, you simply have to use the cryptic to create one. For clues where the cryptic is impenetrable, try to find the literal and put in a probable answer that fits the crossers. This is how you solve the puzzle without knowing everything.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Stalk member of family, following daughter after gym (8) |
| PEDUNCLE – P.E. + D + UNCLE. A word I was vaguely aware of, but the cryptic gives it to you. | |
| 5 | Spirit of former lives (6) |
| PASTIS – PAST + IS. Never heard of it. | |
| 8 | Colour intensified with less reason (4,6) |
| ROSE MADDER – ROSE + MADDER, which I suspect will give some solvers difficulty, unless they are stamp collectors. | |
| 9 | Horse raced round circuit (4) |
| ROAN – R(O)AN. | |
| 10 | Delighted nude chaps frolicking on quiet meadows (7,2,5) |
| PLEASED AS PUNCH – P + LEAS + anagram of NUDE CHAPS. Another biff for me. | |
| 11 | Ship in harbour after end of nine month mission (7) |
| EMBASSY – [nin]E + M + BA(S.S)Y. | |
| 13 | Sheepish announcement about fake drug (7) |
| ASHAMED – A(SHAM E)D. | |
| 15 | First class umpire bowled over by maiden (7) |
| PREMIUM – Anagram of UMPIRE + M. | |
| 18 | Country returned Polish and German immigrants initially (7) |
| BURUNDI – RUB backwards + UND + I[mmigrants]. | |
| 21 | Secret number deadens Len’s peculiar state of anxiety (4,3,7) |
| PINS AND NEEDLES – PIN + anagram of DEADENS LEN’S. | |
| 22 | My turn — stop talking! (4) |
| GOSH – GO + SH!. | |
| 23 | One agreed to accommodate introduction of nonstandard medium on hardware source (10) |
| IRONMONGER – I + RO(N[onstandard] M[edium] ON)GER. Roger means received, not agreed – that is wilco. | |
| 24 | Small fish, big smell (6) |
| STENCH – S + TENCH. | |
| 25 | Welsh politician with hard choice of candidates for English constituency (8) |
| ASHFIELD – AS + H + FIELD. I have no idea what the Welsh politician is doing here, it’s probably some UK thing. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Work of fiction is meaty fare (4,3) |
| PORK PIE – Double definition, referring to a CRS expression. | |
| 2 | Pretend I’m blessed with work (9) |
| DISSEMBLE – Anagram of I’M BLESSED. | |
| 3 | Sailors retreating with area lost — island’s downfall (7) |
| NEMESIS – SE[a]MEN upside-down + I’S. There’s a Moby Dick joke here somewhere. | |
| 4 | Madonna’s festival song entertaining decidedly vacuous American lawyer (4,3) |
| LADY DAY – LA(D[ecidedl]Y + D.A.)Y. Oh, that Madonna. | |
| 5 | Pairs up as arranged, giving precedence to neither (4,5) |
| PARI PASSU – Anagram of PAIRS UP AS. | |
| 6 | Plant’s no good in Middle Eastern country (7) |
| SYRINGA – SYRI(N.G.)A. | |
| 7 | Book that is about Virginia, New Hampshire and the heart of Wisconsin (7) |
| IVANHOE – I(VA, NH, [wisc]O[nsin])E. | |
| 12 | Musical play with mother leaving Christian community prone to disgust (9) |
| SQUEAMISH – [ma]SQUE + AMISH. Definitely a biff, and I struggled to parse this for the blog. | |
| 14 | My French oral’s first: record reported speech (9) |
| MONOLOGUE – MON + O[ral] + sounds like LOG. | |
| 16 | Standard backing left’s agreement (7) |
| RAPPORT – PAR upside-down + PORT. | |
| 17 | List of options greeting new violinist (7) |
| MENUHIN – MENU + HI + N. Not a problem for me, and Yehudi Menuhin did appear frequently in the UK. | |
| 18 | Irrational prohibition on an element that’s poisonous (7) |
| BANANAS – BAN + AN + AS, which is the chemical symbol for arsenic. | |
| 19 | Glibly repeat old projectionist’s lament? (4,3) |
| REEL OFF – Cryptic hint. My father was a projectionist as a teenager in the late 1930s, and the big problems were the film breaking and the very hot bulbs blowing out and having to be changed. | |
| 20 | Crumbling ruins journalist covered (7) |
| INSURED – Anagram of RUINS + ED. | |
The abbreviation AS stands for Aelod o’r Senedd, which translates from Welsh to “Member of the Senedd.” Senedd being the Welsh parliament. If written in English the Welsh politician would be MS. I wish I could say I knew this, but I looked it up post-solve.
I also can’t say I was particularly aware of Ashfield as a Parliamentary constituency although I vaguely knew it as a town Oop North somewhere. But I had not been paying attention as it turns out to be considered a bellwether town for the Red Wall, a traditionally solid Labour seat in a mining area that switched to the Conservatives for the first time in 2019. It’s currently held by Reform represented by Lee Anderson who had previously defected from the Tories but was re-elected for Ashfield at the 2024 General Election.
Thank you! That’s the one thing I didn’t understand. It was frustrating to wind up on this one, entered with a shrug. I enjoyed the rest of it very much!
I saw the MS abbreviation with the names of Welsh politicos on Wikipedia and was hoping to see AS…
I specifically looked for that in Chambers, and didn’t see it there. But I did suspect it.
It only came in in 2020 so it wouldn’t be in the printed dictionaries. I don’t have access to the Chambers paid-for app, but it may be in there if it’s updated regularly.
Here’s what I found online: The Senedd is the Welsh Parliament. Prior to 2020, members were known as AMs (Assembly Members). When the National Assembly for Wales officially changed its name to the Senedd, the title for its members changed to AS (in Welsh) or MS (in English).
The latest edition of Chambers was updated in 2016 so unsurprisingly AS isn’t in it. It’s in Collins.
I couldn’t find AS in Collins on-line, only the entry for Senedd Cymru. Where are you looking, please?
I just searched ‘as’. It says ‘Aelod o’r Senedd (Member of the Senedd, the national legislature of Wales)’.
Thanks. Got it now. I wonder how I missed it earlier as I opened the page and used Find. I guess I may have searched ‘Senned’.
Oops…Are you trying to upset our Northern contributors ?
Not hard but I agonized for some time over Ashfield and Welsh politician. There is an Ashfield in Sydney so there must be one in England. There is a Welsh model but I couldn’t find an MP.
Thanks V
Thanks Jack. Your post wasn’t there when I was writing.
36 minutes. Rather a good example of a puzzle with tricky answers, some unknown, but all very fairly clued.
PREDUNCLE was my only one completely unknown and this is its very first appearance here. I recognised ROSE MADDER and PARI PASSI as answers I’ve met before but couldn’t have said what they are. I think PASTIS is common enough.
From ROAN to ASHFIELD in 26:22. Had no idea how AS related to a Welsh MP, b ut A was the only letter that fitted after the crossers and wordplay provided the rest of the answer. ROSE MADDER came up fairly recently so was still fresh in the mind. PEDUNCLE was vaguely familiar after construction. Held up for a good whiile by POI, BANANAS. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
27:28
LOI Ashfield, looked up what a Welsh Assemblyman is called, and saw MS, which stumped me as it wouldn’t fit. Eventually put in Ashfield as something that fitted. Only just found that the abbreviation has an English and Welsh variant, like NATO/OTAN.
NHO PARI PASSU, but unlike ASHFIELD, those letters didn’t look very plausible.
COD nothing memorable today.
16:29
This felt difficult, and I was surprised when I saw rhe time. NHO ASHFIELD, no idea about AS, but wotthehell. I’ve looked up PARI PASSU several times and forgotten it as many, but at least the term itself stayed in my memory. Ditto ROSE MADDER. For me LADY DAY means Billie Holliday, but it was the word in a clue-writing contest and I learned it then.n
About 23′ so nearly a Mondayish time for me (…anything under 20). LOI ASHFIELD, biffed, obviously. Also wrote in ROSE “tinted” in first pass, which I thought worked, but reasonably quickly disabused. I knew PARI PASSU from somewhere but couldn’t remember where from, subsequently realised its from contract law.
Thanks Vinyl and setter
DNF as I resorted to aids after 19:23 for my LOI, the very appropriate ASHAMED. After assembling so many unknowns or semi-knowns from the wordplay, I spent ages trying to do the same for an unknown drug. Never stopped to consider the other end of the clue. My bad.
Knew Rose Madder from the Stephen King novel (it’s not all about the classics around here you know) and inferred the existence of ASHFIELD, PEDUNCLE, LADY DAY and SYRINGA.
Excellent puzzle. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
I managed ROSE MADDER with no issues, being a fan of the band Madder Rose and also knowing the Stephen King book, but fell at the last hurdle by guessing PARA PISSU for the unknown Latin-or-possibly-French thing. Oh well.
12’38”. As vinyl says, you can construct the ones you aren’t sure of: PARI PASSU, ASHFIELD (I saw the abbreviation on TV the other day), PEDUNCLE, ROSE MADDER. My LOI also was ASHAMED, after trying to fit in Baa.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
About half an hour.
– Had to trust the wordplay for PEDUNCLE, PASTIS and ROSE MADDER
– Didn’t know AS=Welsh Assembly member, but ASHFIELD was the only plausible option
– PARI PASSU also unknown, but it was the most likely combination of non-checked letters
– NHO SYRINGA
– Tried to fit ‘parish’ into 12d for ages before thinking of SQUEAMISH
Tricky for a Monday. Thanks vinyl and setter.
FOI Roan
LOI Squeamish
COD Pleased as punch
Mostly easy, was on for a sub-20 until the NHO PARI PASSU / ASHAMED pair. Eventually passed to Mrs rv (LLB) to add the former, the latter followed but a tech DNF because not a solo effort.
Enjoyed it up to that party pooper. Thanks vinyl and setter.
6:58. Mondayish. I was helped by knowing all the answers – even the plant, which must have come up before. I didn’t know AS but I was aware of the constituency because it’s been in the news a fair bit lately for the reasons mentioned by jackkt.
Surprised you haven’t heard of PASTIS, v. You may be aware of its most famous incarnations: Pernod and Ricard. Revolting stuff.
Maigret likes it, it tastes of anise like ouzo. If you add water, as seems usual, it turns the colour of weak orangeade.
33:35
Immediately saw peduncle, as I knew pétoncle in French (scallop) and also recalled one of the Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse sketches featuring two patrician consultant surgeons, in which they discuss a pedunculated structure in one of their patients. Good puzzle.
Thanks, v.
13:37. ROSE MADDER and PARI PASSU known only from crosswords, but I don’t remember seeing PEDUNCLE before. Last 2 in PEDUNCLE then NEMESIS. Some nice clues. I liked GOSH, STENCH and INSURED most. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
32 minutes. Some uncommon words so I wasn’t too unhappy with the time. Like Kevin and others, I can never remember what PARI PASSU means and PASTIS was recognised as a ‘spirit’ of some sort without knowing anything else about it. LOI was ASHFIELD which seemed a rather odd clue, especially with AS which I couldn’t make sense of, being unable to get beyond the AM and MS mentioned above; thanks to Jack for sorting it all out.
What would I know – absolutely nothing – but I would have thought in a general (not just a communications) sense ROGER is OK for ‘agreed’. Vinyl’s comment made me look up “wilco” which I see is an abbreviation of WILl COmply – new to me.
40 mins and breezeblocked by the NHO ROSE MADDER. I thought she was a singer in a band!
The pairing of PREMIUM & SQUEAMISH also held me up a bit. ASHFIELD went in with a shrug.
Apart from all that, i quite enjoyed it. PASTIS (my COD) is very much the local drink down here. Perhaps you’ve heard of Cinquante et Un, Ricard or Pernod, V, all brands of Pastis?
Thanks V and setter.
17.42 (interrupted). A bit odd for a Monday, especially with that Welsh politician introducing a constituency that isn’t a town. For reasons of approaching senility (probably) I entered PARI PARTU at 5d, which isn’t a thing and not from the anagram, but that scuppered ASHAMED until I had brief moment of clarity.
I also thought I was being clever at 12d, working on an anagram of musical without MA. The “Q before U” rule sorted that out.
Ah, so it’s not a town as I claimed earlier! I admit to being a bit vague on locations Oop North as for much of my life furrin parts began north of Watford. When I moved to Leighton Buzzard 43 years ago I revised the bounday to north of Milton Keynes
Enough with the ‘oop north ‘ please.
My thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
I prepared the below before looking at the comments, and don’t want to waste it, so sorry for the repition.
POI 25a Ashfield is an English parliamentary constituency. For AS see Wiki extract:
“The Senedd comprises 60 members who are known as members of the Senedd (Aelodau o’r Senedd), abbreviated as “MS” (Welsh: AS).” No I can’t spell in Welsh either.
24:19, my quickest for a while. I would have been even quicker had I not mistyped BANASAS, which delayed getting my LOI, IRONMONGER.
Notwithstanding my comment on the Quick Cryptic, my Welsh was not up to spotting AS, but ASHFIELD was the only constituency I could think of that fitted.
Thanks Vinyl and setter
No problems with this, 15 minutes one coffee, no unknowns, CoD SQUEAMISH.
No problems until LOI ASHFIELD which I biffed, knowing the constituency but not what Senedd(?)members are called. I knew the garden centre name for Lilac. As I look out of the window at yet another grey, rainy day, I hope the promise of gathering lilacs in the Spring again will soon be fulfilled. Thank you V and setter.
Here in Connecticut, it’s -11 C. There are huge piles of snow everywhere, and it’s not going to melt until we get above freezing, which is not going to happen until March, apparently.
Like just about everyone else, I had to biff ASHFIELD because I had not heard of AS. But I knew the S was probably standing for SENEDD or whatever it is, so it was just a question of choosing the most likely vowel. Otherwise an awful of lot of biffing led me to complete this in 12’34”, but I feel I should have been quicker. It was a gentle start to the week. Many thanks.
DNF, foiled by ASHAMED, was looking for some rare drug. Also, put in PREMIER not really understanding the parsing (no wonder!) which then stopped me getting SQUEAMISH. Enjoyed nonetheless.
I knew ASHFIELD from a significant by-election loss by some party in the 80s, so just biffed it, ignoring all that guff about Wales.
All went in pretty quickly and at one stage I expected to be finished in a rare sub-20 minutes, but ASHFIELD did for me and wasn’t helped by reel out at 19dn for a long time. I suppose I should have suspected something about AS once I’d twigged REEL OFF and the h field came eventually. Some hard words fairly clued.
16:50 – a slight misgiving over pins and needles defined as anxiety. I think of them more as a physiological symptom of a pinched nerve, but that’s age for you I guess.
I thought the same. Apparently there is an expression ‘on pins and needles’ which has the required meaning. News to me!
Yes, I saw that in Chambers. I have never heard it used with that preposition before. It is unusual.
The only reason I knew Rose Madder was because of the following limerick…
Whilst Titian was mixing rose madder
His model posed nude up a ladder
Her position to Titian
Suggested coition
So he climbed up the ladder and had her!
And AS and porkie pie/lie were easy if you’re a Welsh speaking Londer like me!
Fantastic! That made me laugh.
It took me 15 mins. First answer in was INSURED and the last was ASHFIELD – I guessed the answer was a place ending in HFIELD and hoped AS was a Welsh politician. I didn’t know PINS AND NEEDLES was a state of anxiety, I thought it was a physical sensation. My favourite clue was to GOSH. Good puzzle. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
I knew ROSE MADDER from the red pigment that has been known from ancient times.
Didn’t know AS = Welsh Politician but do now – thanks to Jackkt et al for your research.
It was necessary to find an alternative to Arsenic to clue AS in 25a as this is used, indirectly, as “an element that’s poisonous” to clue AS in BANANAS at the crossing 18d.
This puzzle is unusual in that there is only one clue that omits letters – MA from MASQUE in 12d.
A recent puzzle (not saying which) had 9 clues that omitted a total of 17 letters.
Well done setter for nearly eliminating that device for once.
Remember Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem talking about the blossom of the hawthorn:
“With tints of purple-maroon, rose madder
and straw”
19:31. All fine, though I biffed SQUEAMISH (worked it out after) and ASHFIELD — parsing the AS bit lead to some head scratching.
22:39
Lots of unknowns today, which for me, makes it astonishing that the Snitch is currently below 70 – PEDUNCLE, PASTIS, ROSE MADDER (though I thought I’d heard the name somewhere – but think it must be the band Madder Rose as Gothick mentions) – however this year’s award for the clue that has gone down like a lead balloon the quickest must surely fall to ASHFIELD where no one is aware of AS as a member of the Welsh parliament (I expect this might come up again increasingly frequently?), and the random constituency itself appears to have no relevance to anything particular. PARI PASSU remembered from the law module I did at college more than forty years ago; SYRINGA vaguely known from these parts. Failed to parse the first four letters of SQUEAMISH.
Thanks Vinyl and setter (apologies if you’re Welsh)
Nah, dude.
What wavelength was this setter on?! This puzzle is insane for a Monday.
NHO PARI PASSU, PASTIS, MENUHIN although the latter two were reasonably well-given by word play.
First in was SYRINGA, favorite was IRONMONGER once I had basically every crosser.
17.50. Didn’t get a great start. I think I had three clues sorted across on first pass but improved on the downside, if that makes sense.
Squeamish LOI . NHO peduncle but well clued.
Finished but needed the blog to parse IRONMONGER and ASHFIELD. Knew PEDUNCLE and PARI PASSU, but ROSE MADDER was new to me. Rather liked GOSH. Many thanks all.
18:26
Nice puzzle. Thanks to vinyl and our setter.
27:41. Most of this went in very quickly and it was just the south west corner (LOI ASHFIELD) holding me up. I did have REEL OUT for ages – I have frequently used that as a phrase instead of OFF. I would probably have been 5 minutes quicker but for that! Good puzzle with some incentive vocab.
About 9 minutes so reasonably Mondayish. Luckily I had all the necessary GK apart from the Senedd member but ASHFIELD had to be. COD to SQUEAMISH.
Not too many painters here then or more of us would know ROSE MADDER from setting a traditional palette.
NHO syringa and forgot pastis until giving up in annoyance with myself: would have been a pb 6 mins and bits. Thanks to all.
All complete in 42.30 and with all correct and parsed. It seemed to be an advantage if you lived in Wales today, as I knew both alternatives of AM and AS as titles for members of The Welsh Assembly. An answer in the QC referred to a welsh language term as well which not surprisingly seemed to be unknown to many.
PASTIS was also well known to me having sampled its delights on a golfing holiday to the south of France about twenty years ago. The liquorice flavoured spirit can have quite a kick when drunk in quantity, as one of our party discovered when late into the night, and a little worse for wear, mistakenly fixed himself a final nightcap of nine parts pastis and one part water, a reversal of the recommended proportions. In the early hours of the morning on a nocturnal visit to the toilet, he tripped and head butted the corridor wall in the villa. Fortunately for him, it was a stud wall, and he just left a cranium sized hole in the plasterboard.