55:25, making this one of the harder puzzles I’ve managed to complete. Very few clues gave up their secrets easily, but everything was solvable with a bit of chin-scratching. Many references to law, many comparisons and superlatives.
| Across | |
| 1 | Returning explorer in charge of filling ship: a cutter (8) |
| SCISSORS – ROSS (explorer) + I.C. (in charge of) reversed in S.S. (ship) | |
| 9 | Sealed informal refusal to stop nude rambling (8) |
| UNOPENED – NOPE (informal refusal) in anagram of NUDE | |
| 10 | One’s certainly not quietly reflecting — give time to? (8) |
| IMPRISON – I’M (one’s) + reversal of NO SIR (certainly not) + P (quietly — piano, in music)
Great definition that had me fooled til near the end. |
|
| 11 | Need a key to set loose helpless viewer (5,3) |
| NAKED EYE – anagram of NEED A KEY
‘Helpless’ meaning, ‘without help’. |
|
| 12 | Most daring to draw on money, then skint on vacation (10) |
| DOUGHTIEST – TIE (draw) on DOUGH (money) + S{kin}T
Took me ages to think of a synonym for ‘draw’. |
|
| 14 | I would catch cold: never again? (4) |
| ONCE – ONE (I) around C (cold) | |
| 15 | Heading for success within month: euphoric! (2,3,2) |
| ON THE UP – hidden in MONTH EUPHORIC
I could not have been more angry at myself for missing this hidden! |
|
| 17 | Policeman, one with crowd, giving help to direct (7) |
| COPILOT – COP (policeman) + I (one) + LOT (crowd) | |
| 21 | Message of note by journalist’s ending (4) |
| TEXT – TE (note) + X (by — as in 4×4) + last letter of JOURNALIST | |
| 22 | Each week, finally husband wears shirt for work with suit (5,5) |
| BLEAK HOUSE – EA (each) + last letter of WEEK + H (husband) in BLOUSE (shirt)
A Dickens novel I haven’t read, that is apparently about a court case involving conflicting wills. |
|
| 23 | Muscles displayed by four dozen rugby players (3-5) |
| SIX-PACKS – 4 x 12 = 6 x 8
There are eight rugby players in a pack. |
|
| 25 | Appear to have finished scan (4,4) |
| LOOK OVER – LOOK (appear) + OVER (finished) | |
| 26 | Island’s legal system blocking appeals by one (8) |
| SULAWESI – LAW (legal system) in SUES (appeals) + I (one) | |
| 27 | Multicoloured trousers a boy took off (8) |
| PARODIED – PIED (multicolored) around A + ROD (boy)
I didn’t know ‘trouser’ in the sense ‘steal’. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Drop jokes etc, almost all personal (8) |
| COMEDOWN – COMED{y} (jokes etc) + OWN (personal) | |
| 3 | No good for wife of brother to display fortitude (8) |
| STRENGTH – NG (no good) replaces W (wife) in STREWTH (brother!)
A mild oath. |
|
| 4 | Kilometre trails go from suburbs, always ending in city (4) |
| OMSK – K (kilometre) after last letters of GO FROM SUBURBS | |
| 5 | Moslem, I hesitate to say, is more cheerful (7) |
| SUNNIER – SUNNI (Moslem) + ER (“I hesitate to say”) | |
| 6 | Skin blemish to be somehow acceptable, we note down here? (10) |
| POCKETBOOK – POCK (skin blemish) + anagram (somehow) of TO BE + OK (acceptable)
I only realized upon blogging that I read this wrong, to my benefit. In the US, a POCKETBOOK is a purse, hence where you might keep a ‘note’. I hadn’t read the word ‘we’ at all, thankfully. In trying to make sense of it, I came to learn that for y’all a POCKETBOOK is just a notebook kept in the pocket. |
|
| 7 | Popular expectation, ultimately wild all round, is confounded (8) |
| INFERNAL – IN (popular) + last letter of EXPECTATION in FERAL (wild) | |
| 8 | Sticking poster chap has torn (8) |
| ADHERENT – AD (poster) + HE (chap) + RENT (torn)
ADHERENT as an adjective, not noun. |
|
| 13 | One turned agonisingly from gang after attempts to get picked up (10) |
| THUMBSCREW – CREW (gang) after THUMBS (attempts to get picked up [as a hitchhiker])
Incredibly misleading clueing: none of ‘turned’, ‘agonisingly’, ‘picked up’ having cryptic meanings. |
|
| 15 | Least intelligent pupil previously useless in exam (8) |
| OBTUSEST – O.B. (pupil previously) + U/S (useless) in TEST (exam) | |
| 16 | His return now would make him wealthier? Or poorer? (3,5) |
| TAX EXILE – double definition
A tax exile’s current tax return makes him wealthier. A return to his home country would make him poorer. (The word ‘would’ doesn’t quite work in the first meaning, but I still like the clue.) |
|
| 18 | Saw with difficulty through this unusual, frameless “door-window”? (8) |
| IRONWOOD – anagram of {d}OOR-WINDO{w} | |
| 19 | He passed on one note out of habit? (8) |
| OBSOLETE – OB. (he passed) + SOLE (one) + TE (note) | |
| 20 | Reveal cricketer has time for golf (3,4) |
| LET SLIP – LEG SLIP (cricketer) with T (time) instead of G (golf) | |
| 24 | Sound made by small hole in bucket (4) |
| POUR – homophone of PORE (small hole) | |
31:50. DNK SULAWESI which I assembled from the instructions after my LOI, TAX EXILE, finally eliminated SUDANESI. Terrific puzzle
Oof! That was hard going. Pleased that I managed to finish and parse everything except STRENGTH. SUNNIER was FOI. OMSK came along after SCISSORS. COMEDOWN, DOUGHTIEST and POUR were the last to fall, with POUR taking an age and several alphabet trawls before I managed to lift and separate correctly. Fine puzzle. 45:17. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
Well, that’s the hardest puzzle SNITCHwise that I have ever completed, and I did it mistakenly via the club, removing the ability to check ideas, which I do when stuck on the harder puzzles.
It was gettable though – I had all the vocab and GK, just not the ability to unpick the clues in good time.
IMPRISON, OMSK and POUR gave me the most hassle, and when I eventually got the shorter 2, I was a bit disappointed in myself.
56:14
Needed to self-trepan to let the steam out of my brain after that one !
59:37
Snuck in just under the hour with LOI the guessed SULAWESI (NHO). No other NHOs though did have to look at COPILOT twice (another wondering whether there was such a thing as a COP-I-LOT).
Failed to parse STRENGTH, wasn’t sure of OB in OBSOLETE, and only appreciated TAX EXILE on reading Jezza’s explanation. SIX PACKS bunged in without knowing how big a rugby PACK is (hated it at school, always stuck on the wing as I was quick, but no one ever passes to you).
Enjoyed BLEAK HOUSE (good book!) and DOUGHTIEST. Lots of enjoyable moments when realising all of the pieces of a tricky clue fit…
Thanks setter and Jeremy
With barely half done, I finally gave in after 50 minutes, blaming the heat. A first-rate puzzle. Jeremy’s blog lead to a number of loud “doh!”s.
I’ve never read BLEAK HOUSE but I strongly recommend the BBC 2005 Adaptation .
Thanks to Jeremy and the setter
Thanks, Jeremy, for explaining 21ac. I understood the TE and the T from the wordplay and had the X from our tax exile friend but couldn’t for the life of me see the ‘by = times’ bit (which normally presents no problem).
As for the word ‘would’ in 16dn, as he is a tax exile, perhaps he isn’t required to file a tax return?
40 mins finishing with queries on OMSK and STRENGTH which I had to come here to understand. Thanks Jeremy!
I thought this was a very tight, accurately clued puzzle. Whoever was the setter, hats off to you.
Well beyond me today – managed about a quarter of it before deciding life is just too short. Even having read the blog – for which thanks, as ever – I wouldn’t have come close to a finish. Dinner is all prepped and ready for cooking though.
Gave it 70 minutes and then gave up with SULAWESI and IRONWOOD defeating me. In spite of the disappointment in not making it, I enjoyed doing it and my COD definitely goes to BLEAK HOUSE. I remember the tv adaptation many moons ago starring Eric Porter which was superb, and a later version starring the lovely Gillian Anderson.
Solved a few clues easily, then breezed through the rest without bothering to parse quite a few. Just fitted words in around the crossing letters. 30 minutes total. Too hot today to drag it out. Probably not a serious way to solve a crossword!
Unfinished, 6 clues unsolved after 60 + mins.
BLEAK HOUSE, good book, Dickens’ best IMO. Thought to be first detective novel. Thanks all.
I think that honour goes to “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.
Further research shows that while The Mystery of Edwin Drood does get some mentions as one of the first detective stories, actually Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins are most often credited with this distinction.
Crikey. Over four hours all told, but got there in the end.
SE corner did not give up its secrets easily, especially OBSOLETE and IRONWOOD.
COD to DOUGHTIEST, which I should have got sooner.
I ‘m glad everyone else thought it was hard, too. It took me just over an hour, except for one clue, POUR, which took another 15 minutes or so. At first ROAR was the only sound word I could think of, but RAR couldn’t mean “bucket”, and finally I realized “bucket” was the definition and POUR had to be the answer, although I was wondering whether PUR could be the sound of a small (cat?) with a hole in it; I never thought of pore as a homonym (and it isn’t one for me). All the rest of the puzzle was also very hard, with many delightfully misleading and somewhat obscure clues (SULAWESI), but I got through them in the end. COD to THUMBSCREW, which I feel we have been put through (but it didn’t hurt that much).
I learned SULAWESI as Celebes and still have maps and atlases with the latter. Apparently it was the Portuguese who called it Celebes as their approximation of the native Sulawesi.
Around 50 but got the island slightly wrong
Stuck in the NW for ages but punted SCISSORS and then saw how it worked.
Thought some of this was a bit tortuous at the time but a couple of laugh out loud moments (STREWTH) made me realise this was actually rather good
The clue for BLEAK HOUSE is brilliant as is the book which is one of the few Dickens I’ve finished, but loved. Maybe the best things in life all need a bit of perseverence…like this puzzle
Thanks Jeremy and fiendish setter
DNF, defeated by SULAWESI (never heard of it), OBSOLETE (should have got it) and TAX EXILE (the ‘tax’ bit was obvious, but even with the X checker I never got near ‘exile’).
Didn’t have a clue what was going on with STRENGTH, parsed BLEAK HOUSE without knowing what it has to do with suits, and tried to justify ‘pockmarked’ for 6d until figuring out which bit was the definition and getting POCKETBOOK.
A fine puzzle, beyond me in the end. Thanks setter and blogger.
COD Parodied
This must be the toughest one for some time. I eventually got home, but the clock had stopped by the time I finished. And I misspelt my nho SULAWESI.
On the blog I am not sure ‘trouser’ means ‘steal’. For me it is not criminal or immoral. If I trouser a few quid, it may all be above board. But I do not recall it being used before in a crossword to indicate words or letters contained within others.
FOI – SUNNIER
LOI – POUR
COD – SIX-PACKS.
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
26:34 with 8 minutes on my last handful. Tricky but lots to enjoy. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Just a quick comment: PARODIED does actually mean “took off” as in ‘aped’ or satirised, rather than steal here.
A steady solve. For some reason I seem to do better on the high snitch puzzles than some of the medium snitch ones.
A total pile of time wasting unsolvable manure. Don’t listen to the twerps on this site they are all bs artists. Do the editors of the rags that shovel this crap to their readers really think it’s gonna sell papers.