Hello again. A lot of UNs in this crossword.. unsaintliness, undeserve, unpunctuality.. not really complaining, but not words I would normally use. And as for prewar Polish composers… in fact there were several answers I thought pretty obscure. I managed to get them all without cheating, though google did help me to spell the composer’s name.. there are some nice clues but overall I thought this crossword rather unsatisfactory, because of the high obscuriity count and the number of Americanisms. What did you think?
Please, do feel free to ask questions or comment as required.
I use the standard 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 | Deluded father jogged round with one athletic club (9) |
| PARANOIAC – PA (father) + RAN (jogged) + O (round) + IAC, one athletic club apparently.. this took me longer than it should have because I would just say paranoid .. “Just because you aren’t paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” | |
| 6 | Bad quality insulin sent as ordered (13) |
| UNSAINTLINESS – *(INSULIN SENT AS) | |
| 13 | Received a name (5) |
| ROGER – DD, the first being ham radiospeak. | |
| 14 | One making review cut pay increase in public relations (11) |
| REAPPRAISER – REAP (cut) + RAISE (pay increase) in PR.. | |
| 15 | Full fruit pie that is consumed (5) |
| PLUMP – PLUM (fruit) + PIE, with the IE missing, ie consumed. | |
| 16 | Neglected Saturn, say, because of interest by Newton (11) |
| GODFORSAKEN – GOD (Saturn say, the Roman equivalent of Cronus) + FOR (because of) + SAKE (interest? Not sure) + N(ewton). | |
| 17 | Very good quick look round protected by fellow UN soldier (11) |
| PEACEKEEPER – ACE (very good) + KEEP (peek, a quick look, rev.) in PEER, your fellow. Only parsed this now, having bifd it when solving. | |
| 18 | Hideous newborn’s masculine when undressed (7) |
| ABYSMAL – (b)ABYSMAL(e) | |
| 20 | Genuine about element of part of the eye (7) |
| RETINAL – TIN, (an element, Sn, atomic number 50) in REAL, genuine. | |
| 21 | Attentive hospital required removing third of fingers (7) |
| HEEDFUL – H(ospital) + (n)EEDFUL, required without the (fi)N(gers).. | |
| 23 | Workers in group sadly get meaner pay deal (10,9) |
| COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT – COLLECTIVE (workers in group) + *(GET MEANER). | |
| 27 | North African pop with a lot of attack (3) |
| RAI – RAI(d), most of attack. Far from my area of expertise but fortunately I knew the word from previous crosswords | |
| 28 | Wordy part for actor lacking English in pictures (6) |
| PROLIX – ROL(e) (part for actor lacking English) in PIX (pictures, if spelling is not your forté) | |
| 29 | Artist dividing using shade (6) |
| WRAITH – RA (artist, a Royal Academician) in WITH (using, as in eg “cooking with eggs” ) | |
| 31 | Consume copper in coppery bust (9) |
| PREOCCUPY – CU (copper, Cu) in *(COPPERY). Consume, a slightly tricksy “synonym” for preoccupy | |
| 34 | Join with unappreciative person penning note (9) |
| INTEGRATE – TE (Te, a drink with jam and bread) in INGRATE, someone unappreciative. | |
| 35 | Army finally advance at regular intervals (6) |
| YEARLY – (arm)Y + EARLY, advance. | |
| 36 | Enjoy following live act (6) |
| BEHAVE – BE (live) + HAVE (enjoy, eg enjoy/have good health). And you can behave/act strangely for example | |
| 39 | Odd bishop banned from Birmingham (3) |
| RUM – (b)RUM, Brum being a well-known informal reference to Birmingham | |
| 40 | Strain of bird, assumed a boiler? (5,3,3,6,2) |
| POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON – well a polly is an Americanism for a (tame) parrot. And I suppose it could assume or put on a kettle. And a strain is a melody or tune, according to Collins. So I suppose it all sort of works, still not a clue I like much. | |
| 42 | A port cased by five United States divers (7) |
| VARIOUS – A RIO (a port) in V + US. | |
| 43 | Regret disrespectful talk holds objective back (7) |
| SADNESS – END (objective) rev. inside SASS, disrespectful talk | |
| 45 | Most risky district French company’s invested in (7) |
| DICIEST – CIE in DIST(rict). Cie is a French abbreviation for compagnie. | |
| 47 | Actual politicians with time for constant disagreement (11) |
| CONTRETEMPS – CONCRETE MPS (actual politicians) with the second C replaced by T(ime) | |
| 49 | Composer’s mass I know rewritten across unknown years (11) |
| SZYMANOWSKI – Z (an unknown, along with X and Y) + Y(ears), in *(MASS I KNOW), to give that well-known prewar Polish composer. I got close and then googled my attempt, when the correct version popped up.. | |
| 51 | Book some area in Russian bath (5) |
| BANYA – B(ook) + ANY (some) + A(rea). Nho this one either, but gettable given the crossing letters. | |
| 52 | Photo of generous chaps in English National Trust (11) |
| ENLARGEMENT – LARGE MEN in E + NT, the National Trust. | |
| 53 | Rebellious tribe in America kill unit deprived of cover (5) |
| ICENI – ICE (In America, kill) + (u)NI(t). The Iceni, an East Anglian tribe notably headed by Boadicea. | |
| 54 | Extreme sun unfortunately limiting red French wine (5-4-4) |
| ENTRE-DEUX-MERS – RED in *(EXTREME SUN). A region of Bordeaux noted particularly for dry white wines. Not my favourites, sadly. | |
| 55 | Human resources entirely died during male American slavery (9) |
| THRALLDOM – HR (human resources) + ALL (entirely) + D(ied), all in TOM, a random male. An Americanism, as the clue correctly states. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Headgear chap praying could perhaps provide (8,3) |
| PHRYGIAN CAP – *(CHAP PRAYING). Nho but I did manage to find the word once CAP had popped out. | |
| 2 | Fiddle lazily and with a stiff style (7) |
| RIGIDLY – RIG (fiddle) + IDLY, lazily. | |
| 3 | Drug smuggler’s refusal to carry Arabian cocaine at first (5) |
| NARCO – AR(abian) + C(ocaine) in NO, a refusal. Today’s drug cant. | |
| 4 | Hesitating? Sure loiter about (10) |
| IRRESOLUTE – *(SURE LOITER), an anagram that telegraphs itself, rather | |
| 5 | What’s pulled wife out of bad car wreck? (7) |
| CRACKER – *(CAR WRECK), with the W(ife) removed. Liked the definition! | |
| 6 | Bad timing relating to a point in harmony (13) |
| UNPUNCTUALITY – PUNCTUAL (relating to a point, in mathematics) in UNITY, harmony | |
| 7 | Cards cheat takes in two bridge players — it gives an edge (9) |
| SHARPENER – E and N, tow bridge players, in SHARPER, a cards cheat. | |
| 8 | Instant everything is set in position (7) |
| INSTALL – INST(ant) + ALL, everything. Inst is another Americanism, according to Collins. | |
| 9 | Confused about European banker’s small car (5-7) |
| THREE-WHEELER – E(uropean) in THREW, (confused), + HEELER, something that banks. A yacht, maybe | |
| 10 | Execute one parliamentarian — permit having fellows enter (9) |
| IMPLEMENT – I MP + MEN in LET, permit. | |
| 11 | Entertainer’s beginning with joke outfit (5) |
| EQUIP – E(ntertainer) + QUIP, joke | |
| 12 | Excess cool — illness unknown after it? (11) |
| SUPERFLUITY – SUPER (cool, I suppose) + FLU (illness) + IT + Y, an unknown | |
| 19 | Gathering rising support within imperial dynasty (7) |
| MEETING – TEE (support) rev. in MING, an imperial Chinese dynasty. | |
| 22 | Plan beneficial to drug smuggler concealing a ton (9) |
| FORMULATE – FOR (beneficial to) + A T(on) in MULE, a drug smuggler. | |
| 24 | Hero trained with Resistance, one presenting with pride (4-5) |
| LION-TAMER – LION (hero) + TAME (trained, eg a horse maybe) + R(esistance). A fun definition, if not necessarily too accurate. | |
| 25 | Class diversity in music-hall entertainment (7) |
| VARIETY – a triple def., I think. | |
| 26 | Expel former heart-throb? (7) |
| EXPULSE – An EX PULSE, a former heart beat/throb. Collins says expulse is an obsolete verb meaning to expel, drive out. Nho in that form but it is only a little step from expulsion. | |
| 30 | Male with natural head for cruelty (13) |
| HEARTLESSNESS – HE (male) with ARTLESS (natural) + NESS (head, as in Sheerness) | |
| 32 | Watson’s colleague lacking potassium about to have a bite of meat (7) |
| CREATIC – EAT (to have a bite of) in CRIC(k), Not Holmes but Francis Crick, Nobel laureate alongside James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. Creatic, yet another nho and I can see folk wanting to complain about it given that not everyone will recall Francis Crick either. | |
| 33 | Elephant alas is transformed goddess (6,6) |
| PALLAS ATHENE – *(ELEPHANT ALAS). Athene, Greek goddess of wisdom and thus surely a crossword fan. | |
| 34 | I run over returning guy, perhaps predetermined? (11) |
| IRREVOCABLE – I R(un) + OVER reversed, + CABLE, perhaps a guyline. | |
| 37 | Mine uranium in site for processing radioactive element (11) |
| EINSTEINIUM – *(MINE U IN SITE). Einsteinium (Es, atomic no. 99) is an artificially produced radioactive element with no practical application. It does crop up on Pointless fairly regularly.. | |
| 38 | Intelligence and excellence about one restaurant worker (10) |
| HEADWAITER – HEAD (intelligence: “a good head on his shoulders”) + I in WATER, excellence. Collins: “excellence, quality, or degree (in the phrase of the first water)” | |
| 40 | Have children, supporting area in Greek island (9) |
| PROCREATE – PRO (supporting) + A(rea) in CRETE, the largest Greek island | |
| 41 | Fail to justify a lot of insufficient aid (9) |
| UNDESERVE – UNDE(r) (insufficient, mostly) + SERVE, aid. I was a little unpleased with this clue. | |
| 43 | Computer game Place Exodus allowing going only one way (7) |
| SIMPLEX – SIM (computer game) + PL(ace) + EX(odus). “permitting the transmission of signals in only one direction in a radio circuit, etc” (Collins) | |
| 44 | Astronomer finally was the only prof we ever met (7) |
| SEYFERT – last letters of waS thE onlY proF wE eveR meT. Sadly yet another nho for me, although Carl Seyfert has a crater on the moon, a radio telescope, and a whole class of galaxies named after him. | |
| 46 | Editor’s penning a second X where H is often missed? (4,3) |
| EAST END – A S TEN (X in Roman numerals) in ED(itor). East Enders are famous for dropping their aitches, not least here in crosswordland. | |
| 48 | What involves some number — one over eight, ultimately? (5) |
| NONET – N (a number) + ONE + (eigh)T. An &lit, I think, although the definition is a little opaque to me. | |
| 50 | Gold that is pounds light (5) |
| ORIEL – OR (gold) + IE (that is) + L (pounds). | |
Sadly I managed to throw away the wrong printout last Saturday and I am unable to remember any details of my experience with this one. But I imagine I found it tough as I would not have known the composer or the cap so I would have resorted to aids at least for those.
Hallo jacket! a day late but thought I’d give you my take on crimp and flute. when you to that tricky pattern on a pie/flan it’s called fluting or crimping! not sure if you do much cooking but useful knowledge if you do.
Thanks, I’d been thinking dress-making but I’ve done even less of that than pastry-cookery i.e. none.
A similar experience to our blogger, finished a rather over-average time of 56 minutes. Sadly I mistyped the unknown PHRYGIAN as PHRYGIAL when filling in the answers online after solving on paper so ended with a pink square. Plenty of other unknowns too, including the North African pop, the Russian bath and CREATIC. At least I knew the composer but I needed all the checkers to spell the name right. I liked POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON for the jolly earworm that resulted and CRACKER. Thanks Jerry and setter.
It’s not really an excuse for not posting earlier, but the club has not yet released the solution, so I don’t know if I’ve actually blitzed this one as well as I thought I did.
I can’t remember which piece of SZYMANOWSKI I had on vinyl, but I do remember it being a tricky listen, and his name being a tricky spell, but I got there.
Prescient of the setter to include the PHRYGIAN CAP: its relentlessly kitsch cuddly toy version is foisted on medal winners in Paris, though our bronzed lady divers seemed to receive a boxed confirmation candle.
I rather cruised through the rest of this in 35.33, delighted to see the word GALLIMAUFRY emerge intact from the cryptic. Nothing to do with Dr Who!
I can only assume it emerged intact from the cryptic in another puzzle!
I thought this was great. Lots of clues where I didn’t have a clue what was going on until suddenly I did, and some great construct-from-wordplay stuff. I would classify it as hard but fair.
COD to SZYMANOWSKI, which I think is unambiguously constructible from the anagram fodder so I’d be interested in what your ‘close’ version was Jerry.
My last in was SEYFERT: I started at it for ages before the obvious penny dropped.
Sadly I don’t remember .. all I can recall is that the Z was not where it was supposed to be .. I would not guarantee that whatever I attempted would fit all the checkers, either.
Over 71 minutes for me and I had to look up the composer. Managed the cap ok. Also managed to assemble SEYFERT and CREATIC. Had to look up the bath. Thanks Jerry.
I got bored of this long before I finished it. Most of the clues felt like they’d been written by some sort of AI programme – the synonyms were technically correct but not something a human would actually use.
Perhaps the editor would care to correct me?