57 minutes. I lost a lot of time here over two answers entered incorrectly that prevented me solving other clues until I realised my errors and put them right. One was carelessly entering the answer to 23dn at 25dn. The other was putting -ING at the end of 6dn instead of -ION. This works perfectly well in its own right – especially as its defined in the clue by a word ending -ING – but not in a grid where it had to fit with the answer at 20ac.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Fish grabbing snail in the middle, cracking shell (8) |
| CARAPACE – CAR~P (fish) containing [grabbing] {sn}A{il} [in the middle], ACE (cracking) | |
| 6 | Revolutionary group involved in covering up minor attack (6) |
| IMPUGN – Reversed and hidden [revolutionary group involved] in {coveri}NG UP MI{nor} | |
| 9 | Slug ruined photograph (4) |
| SHOT – Triple definition | |
| 10 | New Ikea seat becoming centrepiece of trendy lounge (4,2,4) |
| TAKE IT EASY – Anagram [new] of IKEA SEAT contained by [becoming centrepiece of ] T{rend}Y | |
| 11 | Cold butter has torn bread (10) |
| BRUSCHETTA – Anagram [torn] of C (old) BUTTER HAS | |
| 13 | Scratching head, son repeatedly twisted plaything (2-2) |
| YO-YO – {b}OY (son) [scratching head] + {b}OY [repeatedly], all reversed [twisted] | |
| 14 | Female always starts to feel energised with medicinal herb (8) |
| FEVERFEW – F (female), EVER (always), F{eel} + E{nergised} + W{ith} [starts to…] | |
| 16 | Colour’s popular, regularly adding “wow” (6) |
| INDIGO – IN (popular), then {a}D{d}I{n}G{w}O{w} [regularly] | |
| 18 | Well-built enclosure receiving go-ahead to accommodate 100 (6) |
| STOCKY – ST~Y (enclosure) containing [receiving] O~K (go-ahead) itself containing [to accommodate] C (100) | |
| 20 | Worry about turning against Glasgow’s foremost criminal (8) |
| GANGSTER – G{lasgow’s} [foremost], ANGST (worry), RE (about} reversed [turning] | |
| 22 | Seabirds rejected one from another species? (4) |
| SKUA – AUKS (seabirds) reversed [rejected] | |
| 24 | Something added to bath soap smelt funny — sulphur? (5,5) |
| EPSOM SALTS – Anagram [funny] of SOAP SMELT, then S (sulphur) | |
| 26 | Rescuers firm as wind from the east loses strength, finally (10) |
| COASTGUARD – CO (firm), AS, then DRAUG{h}T (wind) [loses strength, finally] reversed [from the east] | |
| 28 | King Henry meets an Eastern ruler (4) |
| KHAN – K (king), H (henry), AN | |
| 29 | Garment’s stiff — pressure’s released by assistant at the back (6) |
| CORSET – COR{p}SE (stiff) [pressure’s released], {assistan}T [at the back] | |
| 30 | Fish before on best lake (8) |
| PICKEREL – PICK (best), ERE (before}, L (lake). A young pike. This has appeared only once before in the TfTT era and that was in 2009, so I wonder if it may cause some problems, especially as speed merchants may be tempted by ‘mackerel’ unless they already have the crucial P-checker in place. Fortunately I did, but I happened to know the word anyway as I had a pal at prep school back in the 1950s with this as his surname and its meaning came up. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Heinous violent assault — officer’s jacket torn apart (9) |
| ABHORRENT – ABH (violent assault – Actual Bodily Harm), O{ffice}R (’s jacket), RENT (torn apart) | |
| 3 | Bogart is terribly engaging performer (7) |
| ARTISTE – Hidden in [engaging] {Bog}ART IS TE{rribly} | |
| 4 | Character I will follow? (5) |
| AITCH – Cryptic I suppose, since ‘I’ follows ‘H’ in the alphabet | |
| 5 | Runner departs from place of work (3) |
| ESK – {d}ESK (place of work) [departs – d – from…]. Runner as in river. There are three River Esks in the UK to choose from. | |
| Copying Ipswich’s first change, one’s substituted for United (9) | |
| IMITATION – I{pswich’s} [first], then MUTATION (change) becomes MITATION when I (one) is substituted for U (United). As mentioned in my intro, the clue works just as well with -ING when taken in isolation, and having ‘copying’ as the definition in the clue might suggest IMITATING as the more logical answer. Anyway that’s my excuse for choosing it and wasting a lot of time on this one. | |
| 7 | Stewed dish I’d mentioned (3-4) |
| PIE-EYED – PIE (dish), then aural wordplay [mentioned] EYED (“I’d”). Two synonyms for ‘drunk’. | |
| 8 | Supporting line’s wrapped around stone in such conditions (5) |
| GUSTY – GU~Y (supporting line – e.g. of a tent) containing [wrapped around] ST (stone). I think the whole clue works as the definition here. | |
| 12 | Obsolete fuel might ultimately have decline reversed (4,3) |
| TOWN GAS – {migh}T [ultimately], OWN (have), then SAG (decline) reversed. Still used widely in some places in China, apparently. | |
| 15 | One’s extremely lucky with tiny cut during boxing match? (9) |
| FLYWEIGHT – L{uck}Y [extremely} + WE{e{ (tiny) [cut] contained by F-IGHT [boxing match?]. Another all-in-one definition I suppose, though not as neat as 8dn. | |
| 17 | Hound’s eager and playful, nipping cat’s tail (5,4) |
| GREAT DANE – Anagram [playful] of EAGER AND containing [nipping] {ca}T[’s tail] | |
| 19 | Church in its current condition retains steeple’s initial frame (7) |
| CHASSIS – CH (church), AS~IS (in its current condition) contains [retains] S{teeple’s} [initial] | |
| 21 | Iron shed left attached to rear of house (7) |
| SHACKLE – SHACK (shed), L (left), {hous}E [rear of…] | |
| 23 | Tokyo — busy city (5) |
| KYOTO – Anagram [busy] of TOKYO. I was so pleased to spot the answer immediately having been caught out by it in the prize puzzle on 28th February that in my enthusiasm today I entered it in the wrong place in the grid. This gave me a whole bunch of problems to resolve before reaching the finishing line. | |
| 25 | Originally misunderstanding etiquette, picked up wine (5) |
| MEDOC – M{isunderstanding} [originally) then CODE (etiquette) reversed [picked up] | |
| 27 | Program’s content lacking boundaries (3) |
| APP – {h}APP{y} (content) [lacking boundaries] | |
I nearly did the same thing with 6d but didn’t think ‘mutating’ would be ‘change’ so held off until GANGSTER came along. I thought this was going to be a difficult puzzle when I started but I found it to be quite doable as more answers went in. Sadly, I missed the reversed hidden at 6a which meant I also didn’t get GUSTY which is a pity because I think it’s a great clue. Liked COASTGUARD and FLYWEIGHT. COD to the triple SHOT. Two fun crosswords so far this week for me.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I, too, biffed mackerel and then erased it – wrong fish! I couldn’t parse Medoc, thinking picked up was a homophone indicator, but that was the evident answer. After yesterday’s discussion of awk versus auk, the skua was a write-in. I NHO town gas, and tried to make it coal gas, but to no avail – doesn’t parse. Yes, I was unimpressed by flyweight, but the cryptic is clear.
Time: 24:42
Yes, that discussion of unix commands following from “cat” yesterday. What next? grep?
That’s quite APT
I somehow thought of PICKEREL right away, and then reflected that it’d been ages since I’d seen that word anywhere. May have seen TOWN GAS before, wouldn’t swear to it, but that was entered somehow quite confidently. COASTGUARD as one word seemed odd to this Yank!
I caught a 30ac in the Tiverton canal in about 1970. Dad ate most of it – pretty tasteless as I recall. Savage looking thing.
must have been on holiday from north America.
Way off the wavelength and a struggle for the most part. Town Gas is one of our two suppliers here in Hong Kong, and I suppose that was the origin of the company name. 46:07.
As an example of the difficulties I made of clue after clue, I had to think twice and squint before I saw the insertion bit to get the T…Y for Take It Easy. Thanks, jack
33 minutes. About the expected level of difficulty for Tuesday and a bit more gentle than yesterday. Same experience with 6d as our blogger until I had the crossing G (On edit: thanks to Quadrophenia. It’s the crossing N, not the G, of course) from GANGSTER. TOWN GAS was a NHO and seemed green paint-ish but I thought it must have been a UK thing. I was embarrassingly slow to pick up the reverse hidden in my LOI IMPUGN.
My picks were the SHOT triple def and the surface for GREAT DANE.
Ahem… surely you mean the crossing ‘N’.
Woops! You’re quite right of course. Thanks for pointing this out; comment now annotated.
Ha! I was beaten today due to an entirely different mistake which made the last two impossible. I had HOTEL, which seemed to make sense as it appears before India, instead of AITCH in 4d. Doh!
I thought both GREAT DANE and EPSOM SALTS were splendidly done but what a delightful clue for GUSTY. My COTD.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
23.29, a nice puzzle. LOI was ESK which took an unconscionable time, especially as I am an angler. You might want to bump up your number of Esks in the UK – I can think of six off the top of my head and there may well be a few more as the root word means “water”.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Thanks. It doesn’t surprise me.
19:13
Another enjoyable puzzle, though with much more obscure knowledge than yesterday. SKUA is a cruciword for me, and AUK is probably also relatively obscure. NHO: FEVERFEW, TOWN GAS, PICKEREL, but they all had to be from the word play. My COD is MEDOC, for a great surface.
PICKEREL was shouting at me the minute I knew it began with a P but I needed COASTGUARD and MEDOC to summon up the courage to enter it. A steady solve with COD to TOWN GAS, for old time’s sake. I liked GANGSTER too. Thank you Jack and setter.
Not sure about “Rescuers” for COASTGUARD. Their job is more guarding than rescuing, surely? Was the setter thinking of the RNLI?
Collins has: a maritime force which aids shipping, saves lives at sea, prevents smuggling, etc.
Chambers and the Oxfords also mention this in their definitions.
WOE, a typo in ATTISTE, annoying. 30 mins of mixed bag, some very easy but a minority causing hold-ups. L2I CORSET and PICKEREL. I took ages to spot both the hiddens.
Lots to like though and no NHOs. Enjoyed FLYWEIGHT. Thanks to jackkt and setter.
52:51 but a good chunk of that on PICKEREL. I had all the checkers, and kept going back to APP to see if I could make AIM or ARM work for Mackerel.
Also had ION rather than ING making GANGSTER wrong.
Our local bus service is called the CHATTERBUS, and today I learned it is an anagram of BRUSCHETTA.
20’14”, but had no idea what was happening with ESK or IMPUGN. Not heard of PICKEREL, but trusted the wordplay.
I too went around imitating, imitative and then IMITATION.
Thanks jack and setter.
50 mins, an enjoyable challenge. I had to unravel quite a few clues from the word play and, I too had IMITATING for a while until the GANGSTER popped up. PICKEREL unheard of but again, worked out from wp.
I liked the seat at IKEA and GUSTY.
Thanks Jack and setter.
From AITCH to ABHORRENT in 24:54. We used to go past the TOWN GAS plant near Hebburn on Tyneside when going to visit my Gran on Sundays. Monkton Coke Works. It was a bit smelly. It’s a trading estate now. PICKEREL was a new word for me and I had to work hard to discard MACKEREL. Took a while to see that IMPUGN was a reverse hidden. Fortunately went for MUTATION first. Enjoyable puzzle . Thanks setter and Jack.
This felt like a hard puzzle while solving it, but in fact took 23 mins, an average time for me. I was held up by BRUSCHETTA for a bit and more so by the NE corner, especially IMPUGN (fooled by a reversed hidden answer!) and GUSTY. I don’t remember meeting PICKEREL before. Thank you, Blogger, for explaining 10A and 20A. First one in was YO -YO and last GUSTY. Out of quite a few ingenious clues my favourite three were to ABHORRENT, GUSTY and FLYWEIGHT. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
Just under 30′. Like others I needed the crossing ‘n’ for IMITATION. PICKEREL LOI but knew it from somewhere (probably from a surname too…). Liked the hidden IMPUGN and ABHORRENT. Created FEVERFEW from the parts. Easier than yesterday I’d say.
Thanks Jack and setter
9:33. No major problems. NHO TOWN GAS.
MER at BRUSCHETTA, which is more than just bread.
I was surprised to see PICKEREL, which I only knew as the North American species also called ‘walleye’, which I thought a bit obscure for a UK puzzle.
PICKEREL goes back a long way in English as the word for a young pike – Chaucer uses it in the Canterbury Tales.
I guess the American usage comes from the fact that a Pickerel resembles a pike, but is smaller, so why not use a ready-made word for it.
Yes probably: the North American PICKEREL is a variety of pike, related to the European pikeperch.
23.14, with a lot of it trying (and failing) to make sense of IMPUGN (no other possibilities) seeing M[inor] and IN but not how group became GUP or PUG. Nor did I spot the ANGST in GANGSTER, seeing a reversed NAG for the worry bit.
I don’t ever remember EPSOM SALTS being put in my bath: I do remember my Grandfather putting the Andrews version into orange squash to simulate Corona, which my richer Grandmother used to have delivered by the Corona truck. Which rather antique memory seems appropriate to this challenging and enjoyable puzzle with its TOWN GAS, CORSET and PICKEREL.
I look forward to the day (say) Long John Silver is clapped in a singular iron.
45 mins. Also caught out by the IMITATING trap until GANGSTER prompted a rethink. Spent nearly half of the time trying to figure out the IMPUGN/GUSTY cross in the NE corner. Never did see the reverse hidden; biffed it with fingers crossed and GUSTY quickly fell into place. Quite a tough workout, I thought, but the SNITCH says otherwise.
24:53 Glad I wasn’t the only one with IMITATING incorrectly inserted. Thankfully GANGSTER wasn’t the meanest of clues.
The two fish clues were my other difficulties (although one turned out not to be a fish) were my only other troubles. PICKEREL being a NHO.
FEVERFEW also NHo but very fairly clues.
IMPUGN I couldn’t parse so thanks for the blog. Always feel a bit stupid when I miss a hidden.
Cheers blogger and setter.
35 minutes. Might have been quicker if I hadn’t entered IMITATING straight away in 5dn and taken far too long to convince myself that, yes, the answer to 20ac had to be GANGSTER and finally changing 5dn to IMITATION. Looking again at the clue, the answer has to be IMITATION, but my initial thinking didn’t extend beyond ‘copying’ = ‘imitating’ – sheer carelessness.
Overall, I thought it was a enjoyable, fair puzzle with only one NHO for me, FEVERFEW, which wasn’t difficult given the wordplay and checkers.
I knew Pickerel from doing Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale for English Lit A level a very long time ago, although, in the “original” edition I still have, it is spelled ‘pikerel’ – and Chaucer is using it to mean a young pike, its original meaning, although in the US it is used for a different species, related to pike but smaller, and not found in Britain.
LOI ESK, but I never made the connection with rivers. I thought it might be a name for the blade of a skate. Didn’t know PICKEREL either, but the world play helped. EPSOM SALTS originally came from a well on Epsom Downs, where the Derby is raced. Fairly easy running today, and this horse came in at 16’57”.
A fairly speedy solve for me at 31.54, but with one annoying error. I managed to convince myself that the spelling of PIE EYED should contain an Y instead of an I. I’ve used the expression many times over the years, but obviously didn’t pay enough attention to how it was spelt. Unfortunately the cryptic direction works equally as well for either spelling.
15mins – no issues except with the aforesaid IMITATING but the crossers sorted it out. I remember PICKEREL from somewhere but wouldn’t have thought of it without the helpfully placed P.
I also was caught out by the reverse hidden IMPUGN, saw it very late. Excellent clue; I always like a good reverse hidden. Had heard of the USK but not the ESK, which I thought was something like a newt. This looked like being fairly easy but it took me a while. MUTATION/ING caught me out too. And I failed on BRUSCHETTA, for which I used an electronic aid, thinking it was going to be some currency I’d never heard of.
That’s EFT.
15 minutes.
– Trusted the wordplay for the unlikely-looking FEVERFEW
– Likewise for PICKEREL, though that sounded more likely
– Didn’t parse ABHORRENT
– Vaguely remembered TOWN GAS, almost certainly from one of these puzzles
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Artiste
LOI Skua
COD Impugn
The oldest pub in Cambridge is called The Pickerel, and there used to be one in Huntingdon, when I lived there years ago. There are others in east Anglia, too.
Liked the crossword, btw.
Pleasantly tricky. Or maybe I’m just tired. Missed the hidden IMPUGN, never expecting 2 hiddens in one puzzle. Couldn’t parse ABH in abhorrent, and was sidetracked by being fixated on aberrant (completely unparsing). Also missed the ANGST in gangster, but otherwise all in without too much trouble. Saw mutation for change, remembered FEVERFEW from previous puzzles, PICKEREL NHO but easy enough with all the crossers. Liked GUTSY but FLYWEIGHT even more. Also some of the simple but elegant ones: CHASSIS & MEDOC. Share the MER at BRUSCHETTA; it’s like clueing HAMBURGER with the definition bread.
25:55/ Slow to start then a sudden rush of entries before a long delay in getting ESK, my LOI.
PICKEREL was no problem thanks to a pub in Cambridge of that name.
COD FLYWEIGHT and I now know how to spell BRUSCHETTA properly.
Thanks to Jack and the setter
34:29
Plenty of notes today as made something of a dog’s dinner of it:
CARAPACE – was wondering about CALAMARI when the third A went in…
IMPUGN – couldn’t see the hidden
BRUSCHETTA – took an age to even spot that this was an anagram
FEVERFEW – VHO but couldn’t pick it out in a line-up
SKUA – inward smile at the AUK/AWK discussion the other day
PICKEREL – not sure if I’ve heard of this or not. My LOI entered with fingers crossed.
ESK – Oh, that sort of runner. Doh!
TOWN GAS – possibly heard of as it came to mind quickly enough
MEDOC – couldn’t parse until the very end – reversal of CODE not COD!
Thanks Jack and setter
In 30ac (Fish before on best lake), wouldn’t ‘on’ be better as ‘in’?
Doesn’t parse? ON is the position indicator: ERE (before) on (after, in an across clue) PICK(best) L. In wouldn’t work.
And ‘on’ works OK in the surface reading as long as ‘fish’ is a verb.
It would parse, where ERE is in PICKL. But either is fine!
Of course! Silly me.
Yes it does, surely: ‘ere in (pick l)’.
In “how the whale got its throat”, Kipling includes PICKEREL as one of the fishes eaten by the whale before his encounter with the Man (a “person of infinite resource and sagacity”). Just So Stories of course.
I thought this was going to be a toughie, but after a sticky start it was perfectly ok. Maybe 15 mins or so. Several excellent clues, including CARAPACE, GUSTY and AITCH.
25:38 – this went in relatively smoothly. agree with the comments made about about BRUSCHETTA. It was fun to solve though.
19.20
Another one who started slowly but then sped up. Avoided the ING trap and thought of PICK quite early. Didn’t parse IMPUGN. Loved GREAT DANE. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
Good puzzle – found this much more straightforward than yesterday.
Came here to find out the explanation for NHO 30ac.
There’s a River Esk in Musselburgh flowing into the Forth to the east of Edinburgh – didn’t know there were others!
Thanks again to setter and blogger.
I don’t see a case for IMITATING for 6 Down. How can change indicate MUTATING? Change as a noun can mean MUTATION
So fun, and quick for me, 30m ish! Loved Shackle and coastguard! Was so sure that runner was elk, although i could not make it part of a work station for the life of me. That was my only mistake, tho Skua only went in because I had heard of Auks! What are Skua?? Now what am i going to do, will have to get up! Thanks all, Cx
All correct, though I can’t remember a crossword when I had so many unparsed in the end. PICKEREL worked out, NHO, had IMITATING until I looked at GANGSTER, EPSOM took an age to unravel and couldn’t parse IMPUGN (brilliant), COASTGUARD, ABHORRENT or FLYWEIGHT. Some terrific clues – SHOT, FEVERFEW, CORSET, among many… Thanks, Jackkt and setter.
All done in 32 minutes, about par for the course for me. Definitely trickier than yesterday’s, in my view, but great fun. I was half expecting to find the IRA somewhere in 6ac, though this may not have been appropriate on St Patrick’s Day. Like Alto_ego I had difficulty with some of the parsing, but it all came good in the end as the clueing was generally helpful with the NHOs such as 30ac.
FOI – FEVERFEW
LOI – TOWN GAS
COD – AITCH
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
COD has to go to IMPUGN where I think the clever surface caught many out.
Easier than yesterday I thought and just the right degree of difficulty for me.
FOI YO-YO
LOI PICKEREL
Definitely not trickier than yesterday’s, I did all but 2 (wrongly plumped for ‘impede’ and ‘dusty’ rather than IMPUGN and GUSTY). Lots of proper word play rather than dodgy synonyms today. I had the same thoughts as others about ESK/IMITATION/PICKEREL.
SKUA are seabirds also?
I am having difficulty trying to understand how you arrived at 4d. How does the word play help to arrive at the answer?
Sorry for not fully explaining the clue in the blog, and actually on reflection I think I made an error in not underlining the whole clue as definition thus:
Character I will follow? (5)
The whole clue is a cryptic definition and as such it’s typical that the solver is expected to deduce the answer by thinking laterally. ‘Character’ may lead one to think of letters and the character I follows in the alphabet is H spelt AITCH, but unlike standard clues consisting of definition and wordplay there’s no wordplay here to guide one inevitably to the required answer.
Thanks. I have been watching CTC by Simon and Mark and decided to do cryptic crossword.
This helps in how to read clues. Definitely one now engrained in mind brain 🤣🤣.