Time: 29:55
Back in the saddle after a month (and thanks again to Jerry for standing in for me for both of my allotted slots) so maybe rustiness might explain the feeling that I was struggling with this one (though you dear readers and the trusty Snitch will soon reveal its true difficulty). My problem was that I just couldn’t see 1a or 1d so ended up methodically working my way round anticlockwise from the NE quadrant, and indeed those two were pretty much my last two in.
Plenty of concise cluing today, including quite a few “terse” literals. SCOTCH TERRIER LIAISON and TELETHON were rather good examples of the setters’ art, whilst any puzzle that manages to include the marvellous MARMALISE definitely gets a tip of the hat from me.
Lastly,
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Major Mike at home feeding pup? (7) |
| SEMINAL – M (Mike, NATO alphabet) + IN (home) inside SEAL (pup). Just couldn’t think of that type of pup until I got the S from 1d. | |
| 5 | Spot bladed tool after son’s gone for papa (6) |
| PICKLE – That sort of spot. Substitution clue where P (papa) replaces S (son) in SICKLE (bladed tool). | |
| 8 | Hard to shift some fake tan: it’s bottled on the counter (9) |
| OBSTINATE – Reverse hidden. | |
| 9 | Trophy hunters bivouac at last on side of mountain (5) |
| SCALP – SC (last letters) next to (on side of) ALP. | |
| 11 | Cold hair on face after temperature drops in store (5) |
| CACHE – C (cold) + TACHE (hair on face) where the T (temperature) is dropped. | |
| 12 | Charlie stuffing grass inside iron dish (9) |
| FRICASSEE – Double insertion clue. Charlie can be C in the NATO alphabet but here it is ASS which goes inside RICE (grass) all of which goes inside FE (iron).
Dish as in something you eat, not what it is served in. |
|
| 13 | Fundraiser in hotel sadly wrapped up by 22.00 (8) |
| TELETHON – I saw 22.00 and sighed, wondering what the setter had in mind, but it is the reasonably obvious TEN, into which goes an anagram (sadly) of HOTEL (again a NATO word used in a different way). | |
| 15 | Tip from head following a drink (6) |
| PERNOD – Fortunately I saw the “a” = PER thing straightaway here, and quickly was able to add it to NOD (tip from head). | |
| 17 | Quail on centre of Delacroix painting (6) |
| RECOIL – RE (on) + C (centre of Delacroix) + OIL (painting). | |
| 19 | Faces of each Girl Guide female will shade (8) |
| EGGSHELL – Initial letters (faces) plus SHE’LL (female will). | |
| 22 | Unpolished pine leg antiquarian keeps (9) |
| INELEGANT – Hidden. | |
| 23 | Fine gambling competition taking pressure off suckers (5) |
| FOOLS – F (fine, as in pencils) + POOLS without the P.
Hopefully, readers from outside these shores (and anyone under 30) know of the football (soccer) pools, which were very popular in the 20th Century, with versions by Littlewoods, Vernons and Setters. The basic game was trying to identify matches which finished as score draws and if you got all of them that match day/weekend you could make your fortune. Apparently they still exist in a modified form. |
|
| 24 | Unfinished highway outside of skinflint’s joint? (5) |
| ROAST – This is ROAD without its last letter (unfinished) + the outside letters of skinflint. | |
| 25 | Clobber from African country’s taken by horse (9) |
| MARMALISE – I couldn’t see this to begin with, but on the basis that MALI is a pretty good bet for an African country in Crosswordland, I added an ‘S and inserted it into my checkers and the answer (and the correct horse – MARE, to go around it) hove into view.
A slang word meaning to utterly defeat, the general view seems to be that it originated as a humorous combination of marmalade (with the sense of mashing/pulping) and pulverise. |
|
| 26 | Bit part of fish covering large skinned dory (6) |
| FLORIN – I don’t know how many times I have forgotten the coin sense of BIT, but it happened again here. FIN (part of fish) goes around (covering) L (large) + OR (dory with the outer letters removed (“skinned”)). | |
| 27 | Sweet old man starts to recce faraway island (7) |
| PARFAIT – PA (old man) + RF (initial letters of recce and faraway) + AIT (island). I was just saying in the Jumbo I blogged last weekend that AIT is a word for island that comes up more than you might imagine. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Put an end to row involving stray animal (6,7) |
| SCOTCH TERRIER – I saw this clue; the various synonyms for each element of it; the lack of assistance with the literal (assuming “animal” was the definition) and moved on. It might have paid to spend a bit longer on it to get all those lovely starting letters, as it’s not too testing to find SCOTCH (put an end to) + TIER (row) outside ERR (stray). | |
| 2 | Claims uniform lost in play? (7) |
| MUSICAL – Anagram (lost) of CLAIMS + U (uniform, NATO alphabet again). This was another gentle one in the NW from which I rather too quickly moved on. | |
| 3 | A lack of dotted letters on electronic report (5) |
| NOISE – Not the most obvious synonym for “report”. Chambers online has “general talk”; “rumour”; “hearsay” and “explosive noise” as some of its later definitions for report as a noun.
The wordplay is one of those where you have to say to yourself, “Well, if there are no dotted letters, then there must be no letters with an i” In other words NO IS. You then add that to E which is a valid abbreviation for “electronic”. |
|
| 4 | Game friend climbing across English river in mist (8) |
| LEAPFROG – Another clue where the literal is not particularly illuminating, and the wordplay has various possibilities, but fortunately PAL is the favourite synonym for “friend” that we need, which is reversed (climbing in a down clue) and placed outside (across) E (English) giving us LEAP. The second half of the clue is R (river) in FOG (mist). | |
| 5 | Small hole for Dr Spooner’s birdie (6) |
| PEEWIT – A WEE PIT for Dr Spooner is a small hole, which gives PEEWIT for the rest of us. | |
| 6 | Clicking instruments scan state in chaos (9) |
| CASTANETS – Anagram (in chaos) of SCAN + STATE. One of the few write-ins from the definition. | |
| 7 | Trouble rearing child after one’s affair (7) |
| LIAISON – Reversal (rearing in a down clue) of AIL (trouble) + (SON (child) after I (one)). | |
| 10 | Staff patrolling study detect odour from youth (13) |
| PREADOLESCENT – The SCENT bit (detect odour) went in quickly. Plenty of synonyms for “staff” and “study” but hopefully not too difficult to work out that we need POLE for the former to go around (patrolling) READ (study) for the latter. | |
| 14 | Quarter of maidens within Italian city run (9) |
| TRIMESTER -M (maidens in cricket notation) goes inside (within) TRIESTE (Italian City) + R (run, also from cricket).
Superficially it looked strange to me to refer to a trimester as a quarter especially if you think of academic years that are divided into three trimesters, but on the basis that a trimester is a 3 months’ period and a “quarter” can most definitely refer to to any three month period in a financial/accounting year, then it seems fine. |
|
| 16 | American egoists periodically forward fake news? (8) |
| AGITPROP – Before I started doing these things, this was not a word I knew, but it seems to come up reasonably often. Coined in the 1920s as a portmanteau word combining agitation and propaganda with reference to the Soviet Union, and the deliberate spread of political ideas through art, literature and film.
The wordplay is A (American) + GIT (egoists periodically) + PROP (a forward in rugby). |
|
| 18 | Half-rotated solid shape completely white (3,4) |
| CUE BALL – Quite a tricky one this. An instruction like “half-rotated” never gives one confidence you know exactly what you are looking for, and there are lots of solid shapes to choose from. However the enumeration was helpful as was ALL for “completely” and I was able to add to it, CUBE with half the word (the B and the E) rotated.
White as in the relevant ball in snooker. |
|
| 20 | Unusual items in books Mexican barely absorbs (7) |
| EXOTICA – Our books are the OT today (Old Testament) which are surrounded by (absorbs) EXICA (Mexican barely, i.e. without its outer layer). | |
| 21 | Jack perhaps abridged pieces for opera (6) |
| CARMEN – Bunged in from definition and only parsed when I came to write this up. It’s CARD (Jack, perhaps) without its last letter (abridged) + MEN (pieces, think chess). | |
| 23 | Dash from fiery burst escaping from trap (5) |
| FLAIR – Homophone (escaping from trap) of FLARE (fiery burst). | |
I forgot to start the clock but I think I took little under an hour to complete the grid. Rather slow, but nonetheless I found this a very enjoyable solve with no major blockages along the way and many a PDM to brighten the day. PREADOLSCENT and FRICASSE were my last two in.
MARAMALISE is a word I haven’t thought of for years and seeing it again also brought cheer. I think it was used by Ken Dodd or another of those old-school north-country comedians.
Yes, used a lot with his Diddy men
Definitely a Scouse word!
I think you and I Jackkt are on the same wavelength time-wise, so I always look for your time and comments. I’m pretty pleased with today’s effort, half of which went in after a round of golf and before a meal, and half after the meal – in just about 50 mins. I rarely biff and really have to parse an answer before entering it. I can only put today’s performance down to my team (of 75 years!) winning the PL last night – happy days!! CYOG
All done in just under 30 minutes on a noisy northbound train.
Liked Marmalise and Scotch terrier but last one in was Pernod
19’34”, seemed longer. I also struggled with 1d and 1ac, unable then to solve L to R.
MER at AGITPROP as ‘fake news’ – it was a big thing in the sixties as part of counter-culture in politics, environment, peace, civil rights etc.
MARMALISE is a horrible word. COD to CUE BALL.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
As I read the definition it includes the question mark so the clue is only suggesting that the news might be fake.
A quick time for me but I couldn’t get the NHO FRICASSEE and couldn’t parse it after cheating so was never going to get there.
Also NHO MARMALISE but assembled it from the wordplay. Not sure if I am too old, too young or not cool enough for that one.
Really enjoyed this one. COD CUE BALL
Thanks blogger and setter.
Delighted to finish this, and even more delighted to finish it with MARMALISE, a word we apparently owe to the great Doddy. I always envisaged it meant well more than clobber, as in bashing an orange so much that it became a sticky mess in a jar. Great fun. Thank you D and setter.
The first citation in the OED is 1950, which is a bit too early for him to be the origin. No doubt he widened its use beyond Liverpool.
Slowed down a little In the SE corner, but still clearly on the wavelength as 28 minutes is pretty good for me at the moment. Lots of fantastic words in the grid today. I didn’t feel in too much of a PICKLE with the OBSTINATE MARMALISE, and there was little RECOILing or treading on EGGSHELLs with other EXOTICA—PARFAIT!
21:12. Nice puzzle.
COD: SCOTCH TERRIER
Thanks to Dvynys and our setter.
Done in a shade over an hour. Needed help with RECOIL, as I had “on Charlie” as ending in C. At that point I was sure CUE BALL clue started with ICE, maybe with WALL or FALL. complex clue that one. Glad we recently had TELETHON somewhere, didn’t get it then, but today I did.
Tried POPTART for my sweet, with father=pop. PARFAIT and FLARE were my last two in. FLAME (As in “to write aggressively in a blog”) looked possible, not that we have that type of posting in TFTT of course.
And PREPUBESCENT in various forms, with study=prep. Couldn’t parse FRICASSEE, decided there must be a kind of RIASSE grass, I lucked out with that C in the middle, otherwise I wouldn’t have considered this word as I thought I must be a letter short.
This seemed tougher than the last two this week, but my time was only marginally slower – 26 mins. The NE corner held me up for quite a while, particularly PICKLE, SCALP and PEEWIT. I didn’t know SCOTCH TERRIER (presumably the full name of a Scottie dog) and only knew MARMALISE thanks to Ken Dodd. Thank you Blogger for explaining the wordplay for OBSTINATE (how did I miss a hidden reversal?), CARMEN (the CAR bit, which I thought might be CAR[P]) and FLAIR. First in was CASTANETS and last SCALP. Good puzzle, my favourite two clues were to OBSTINATE (once explained!) and PEEWIT. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Whizzed through this mostly very easy one until last couple and as always when breeze blocked I lost patience and bunged in any old rubbish.
FRICASSEE biffed unparsed but no, RECPIC is not a thing. I had also carelessly left SCARP in place.
Thought EGGSHELL was a finish rather than a colour/shade.
Fun puzzle though, COD MARMALISE. Thanks Dvynys and setter.
Absolutely loved this. Some unusual words but followed the wordplay and they appeared. FRICASSEE was a write-in with the F-E from ‘iron’ but it took some time to fathom out the wordplay, getting sucked in to thinking that Charlie was ‘C’, but saw ‘ASS’ eventually, nice misdirection. So much to like today, but wasn’t sure that a Scottish Terrier could also be a ‘Scotch Terrier’. I was under the impression that ‘scotch’ was simply whisky, but happy to be enlightened. Too many options for COD so I’ll vote for the whole thing.
Thanks D and setter.
Fettucine was my first iron-surrounded thought! Fricasse not a write-in for me.
I also had castanets and liaison in place which helped. If not, I’d probably thought fettuccine too.
It also seems I can’t spell (or pronounce) FETTUCCINE 😉
You must come and enjoy a plate of taglietelle with me!
Be careful what you say 🙂 I’m flying to Hong Kong in a few months, starting place of a tour to see the terracotta warriors. And I love tagliatelle bolognese.
Tagliatelle – in the 1990s Napoli had a goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela. Milan were dominant; Napoli post-Maradona weren’t. One game they played Taglialatela had a blinder, and prevented Milan scoring. Headline next day in the Corriere della Sera: “Milan non Taglia la Tela”. A play on words: “Milan doesn’t cut the cloth”, similar to the English they don’t cut the mustard.
15 minutes.
– Didn’t associate rice with grass, so FRICASSEE went in with a shrug
– Tried to justify MARGARINE for 25a before thinking of MARMALISE
– Biffed CUE BALL once I had all the checkers
Thanks Dvynys and setter.
FOI Carmen
LOI Trimester
COD Telethon
I suppose the lesson is always follow the WP. I thought of, but rejected, the NHO MARMALISE because it seemed too unlikely to be an actual word, so a DNF in about 40. Not helped by also missing FLAIR, which turned out to be a good clue once I read D’s blog. There were some terrific clues here, although quite a few were only appreciated post-solve.
From Romance in Durango:
Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like CASTANETS on stone
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon
LindsayO,
Can you explain the clue to flair please, I still don’t get it. Thanks
“ESCAPING FROM TRAP” = sounds like. Trap as in mouth. So the fiery burst — FLARE — sounds like FLAIR.
That’s it. The trap reference threw me completely. Wonder if I’ll remember it next time…
24.59, one error. Wouldn’t you know it, the day after I mention my weeks of error free submissions, I enter a hopeful SCARP, side of a mountain, s*d the wordplay. Even when I looked at what it should be I came up with SCAMP, (S) bivouac, s*d the wordplay. So not my day today, and in truth I found this hard going, perhaps for the reason the entertaining Dvynys gave, those terse definitions.
Is SCOTCH TERRIER right? Chambers does give it, but my inner lexicon refused anything but Scots or Scottish.
I’m happy to concede MARMALISE is a Doddism, though I tend to hear it in one of several Goon voices.
So on to the long month’s journey into error-freedom. Wish me luck!
12:25. This was a steady solve, never really going quickly, never really getting stuck. Nothing unknown to hold things up, just very good quality clueing.
About 20 minutes, very enjoyable and first correct solve of the week. FRICASSEE reminds me of Baldrick in Blackadder goes forth offering two dishes of rat.
Some cunningly hidden definitions in this crossword I thought.
Thanks to setter and blogger for their work.
Despaired at first pass, seeing precisely zero answers until FLORIN and PARFAIT. Built slowly backwards, the relatively easy CARMEN and AGITPROP providing a foothold. Was pleased to finish in ‘only’ 45 mins, having found this rather tricky. All the clues were good and fair; it just took me a while to tune into the setter’s way of thinking. Enjoyed PERNOD and MARMALISE.
My thanks to Dvynys and setter.
Bits of this were quite easy and bits were not, IMO. I enjoyed it.
12a Fricassee biffed, never escaped Charlie=c, and rice=grass is not well lodged in my mind. I did see Fe=iron though.
22a Inelegant LOI. I’m not good at hiddens.
15a Pernod, I’m always slow on a=per.
1d Scotch Terrier. Not easy, scotch is a drink and I’ve only ever seen one of these dogs in crosswords. Wiki has it down as a Scottish terrier. I think I probably have seen a scottie, but that didn’t help.
DNF. Couldn’t get MARMALISE or FLAIR. Just couldn’t see them, even after ten minutes staring. Would have been about 22 mins excl those. Great puzzle though. VHO AGITPROP, not sure where.
All correct and at 53:18, quite quick for my plodding solving.
I enjoyed the vocabulary in this one- FRICASSEE and MARMALISE (thanks Diddy) gave it a very 1970s feel.
CUE BALL (thanks to Pot Black) was an excellent clue.
Thanks to Blogger and Setter.
I was playing pool last night, and kept fouling by accidentally potting the CUE BALL – so I should have seen it earlier.
I shall now don my pedant’s mortarboard and gown. Scotch as an adjective should only be applied to whisky and chilli peppers. The dog is a Scottish terrier. No doubt there is dictionary support for the setter, but I’m sorry, I don’t accept it.
FOI CACHE
LOI CUE BALL
COD OBSTINATE (great surface!)
TIME 7:30
I think Scotch is more an old usage than a wrong one as a generic adjective. It’s been old for some time, though. CS Lewis used to use it in the 1950s to describe, for example, Scotch poets, and even then people took him up for it!
I understood from an early age that Scots didn’t like being referred to as Scotch. I don’t know why. There’ still the fine art drink and I seem to recall a Scotch snap as a musical rhythm. And children still play hopscotch; and Scotch pines still grow.
And did not someone write about English Bards and Scotch Reviewers?
To Busman what about “(scotch)mist”?
Great crossword, much enjoyed. Ultimately DNF – can’t spell INELEGENT (sic) even when it’s there in black and white in front of me; and ELEGENT would have the G pronounced as J. So Carmen was impossible, my opera was a Jack, a completely unparsed SEAMAN.
Florin was slow, MARMALISE vaguely heard of – though just looking it up my Chambers (2011) only has marmElize/marmElise. With no etymology.
Tricky in a good way.
30:59
Quite a few unparsed so thanks for the blog, D.
PICKLE – I had PIMPLE pencilled in initially, but returning to the puzzle after a brief interruption, it was now penned in rather than pencilled and forgot to revisit until the end when trying to complete the NE corner.
OBSTINATE – didn’t see the reverse hidden, saw the IT’S reversed [on the counter] and TAN in there somewhere, but not the whole thing
FRICASSEE – FETTUCCINE didn’t parse, so bunged in FRICASSEE once enough checkers made it probable, but apart from the FE (iron), didn’t see the rest of the parsing
SCOTCH TERRIER – Needed the S and C checkers to think of SCOTCH – I’ve been caught out with this before, thinking Scottish rather than SCOTCH
TRIMESTER – for a long time, thought TRENTO+R with something indicating maidens in the middle. Eventually came up with TRIESTE which I last visited more than 40 years ago
CASTANETS – Didn’t work with a P up top (see PIMPLE/PICKLE) but once all checkers were in, saw the answer and corrected my mistake
Splendid puzzle. All very fairly clued – though I did not parse CUE BALL and was uncertain about SCOTCH TERRIER though it had to be. Another fan of MARMALISE with SCALP and TELETHON making my podium. All done in a shade under 21 minutes.
Thanks to setter and blogger
CACHE was FOI. Then it was an enjoyable journey with a slight mer at SCOTCH instead of SCOTTISH, and a smile at MARMALISE, before arriving at las 2 in, PEEWIT and FRICASSEE. I had FRICASSE typed in, but took it out as I couldn’t parse it. Then PEEWIT arrived and I put it back and saw that ASS was the charlie. 22:45. Thanks setter and Dvynys.
Lots of interruptions so maybe 55′ ish. Didn’t find it easy and wondered why, until I saw DVYNYS’s analysis which I fully agreed with. I also avoided the same clues as being too hard without crossers, which, once I focussed on them, i found were fairly gettable.
Glad I persevered with my initial SCArP, which I knew didn’t work. Didn’t know a FLORIN was a bit and took far too long with PERNOD which was, for some reason, quite popular in the 70s around Glasgow. In fact it was the first drink I bought my now wife (…she could only hold one drink back in those days…).
Thanks Dvynys and setter
31:29 – hard work all the way with SEMINAL and the terrier finally going in with a sigh of relief.
Good puzzle, 23 minutes ending with the clever CUE BALL once the C from recoil was in.
Third in a row for me that Infound challenging but doable. I just wrote Scotch in and only groaned later. I have to confess I dont care as much if i solve.
34:06. I had a lot of fun with this one. some weird words such ad AGITPROP and the excellent MARMALISE, but most generally gettable. PREADOLESCENT went in without parsing properly. Thanks for the puzzle and blog.
DNF following in Zabadak’s footsteps with scarp instead of scalp, which went in without a thought.
Coming from my neck of the woods, marmalise went straight in. Something my mother was always threatening to do to me, but which thankfully I knew she would never carry out!
This was a fine puzzle. Wanted to comment right after I finished, but the blog wasn’t up yet. Not much left to say, but that’s all right, I have to get to the office… (where there’s AC!).
Excellent puzzle. Thought it was going to be a stinker when my FOI was CACHE but slipped into the wavelength after that and finished in around 14. I also wanted 12ac to be FETTUCCINE despite the fact that it neither parsed nor fitted, finally saw the light. COD to MARMALISE, wonderful word.
Tough but very satisfying 19:38 for me! Never heard of MARMALISE or PEEWIT but trusted the wordplay, and looked up “quail” post-hoc to make sure there was a secondary meaning consistent with RECOIL. The hiddens in this puzzle were sublime.
Had no chance with this following my answer to 1d being Border ( put an end to ..?) TERRIER and never having heard of the SCOTCH version. As a result I got bogged down in the NW corner and gave up in disgust.
An excellent puzzle that stretched me out to a finish of 58.34. It took at least 5 minutes to get my LOI RECOIL, where an alphabet trawl helped rather than the cryptic direction. Fortunately I’ve come across AGITPROP before, otherwise I might have been slow to get PROP for ‘forward’. What a great word is MARMALISE, for me always associated with the great Doddy. I went to three of his marathon shows, and I can truthfully say I’ve never laughed so much in my life. A true comic genius.
Very much enjoyed this. I like a puzzle where a first run-through yields next to nothing, but then bit by bit you find your way. Got to the end in 29’21”. Many thanks.
Late to this as I’m off walking in the Peak District. But I really liked it, nice clueing
And any crossword that includes the word MARMELISE I know i am going to enjoy.
Welcome back, Dvynys!