DNF, my first in many moons. I have no idea if this puzzle was easier or more difficult, because I had to solve it one clue at a time, then close the window and tend to my children who were running around the apartment as if they were chickens with their heads cut off. (My five-year-old is reading this as I type it and indignantly disagrees with my characterization.) In any case, this puzzle was full of lovely beard-scratching clues, but 9a undid me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Call again, ringing yours truly, offering treatment (8) |
| REMEDIAL – REDIAL (call again) around (ringing) ME (yours truly) | |
| 5 | Copper lining for one doctor[’s] piece of kitchenware (6) |
| EGGCUP – CU (copper) in (lining) EG (for one) GP (doctor) | |
| 9 | Weight lifter to take girl’s breath away (8) |
| WINDLASS – WIND LASS (to take girl’s breath away)
The best kind of misleading wordplay is often the most straightforward. The problem here was that I had no idea of what the definition meant. |
|
| 10 | What’s after May first and second in Cuban capital city (6) |
| JUNEAU – JUNE (what’s after May) A (first) + (and) second letter of (in) CUBAN
The capital city of Alaska. |
|
| 12 | Still having work briefly, English leftie[‘s] unlikely to lose it (4-8) |
| EVEN-TEMPERED – EVEN (still) + (having) TEMP (work briefly) E (English) RED (leftie) | |
| 15 | Ancient tribe back home to the east of rocks (5) |
| ICENI – reversal of (back) IN (home) after (to the east of) ICE (rocks)
A chestnut tribe around these parts. |
|
| 16 | Person offering drive [in] car accepting current tax (9) |
| MOTIVATOR – MOTOR (car) around (accepting) I (current) VAT (tax)
Didn’t know ‘motor’ as a noun meaning CAR, but this was easy enough. |
|
| 18 | Irish fare well finally after firm shot (9) |
| COLCANNON – last letter of (finally) WELL after CO (firm) + CANNON (shot) | |
| 19 | Said why Heather’s clothing [is] not straight (5) |
| LYING – LING (heather) around (‘s clothing) homophone of (said) WHY | |
| 20 | Getting better drinks, Charlie enters sister’s home (12) |
| CONVALESCENT – ALES (drinks) C (Charlie) in (enters) CONVENT (sister’s home)
I was looking for PRIORY to make an appearance here. |
|
| 24 | Group of drivers checking vehicle[‘s] lack of coordination (6) |
| ATAXIA – AA (group of drivers) around (checking) TAXI (vehicle) | |
| 25 | Note slipped inside gift [for] master (8) |
| DOMINATE – MI (note) in (slipped inside) DONATE
‘Slipped’ was terribly misleading here. |
|
| 26 | What Senor and Senora should have listed differently (6) |
| TILDES – anagram of (differently) LISTED | |
| 27 | Leading American male’s going to cycle from Germany (8) |
| USHERING – US (American) HE (male) + (‘s going to) RING (cycle from Germany)
Das Ring des Nibelungen. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Gold turned up by characters regularly in Swiss banks (4) |
| ROWS – OR (gold) reversed (turned up) + (by) every other letter (characters regularly) in SWISS | |
| 2 | Queen, say, getting kiss from Douglas? (4) |
| MANX – MAN (queen, say [in chess [ironically]]) + (getting) X (kiss)
Douglas is the capital of the Isle of Man. (I’m sure you all know this!) |
|
| 3 | Fruit coated in flipping dry, old batter (9) |
| D’OLIVEIRA – OLIVE (fruit) in (coated in) reversal of (flipping) ARID (dry)
One must remember that the Times puzzle does not clue apostrophes in answers. |
|
| 4 | Put in post before protest, a teacher goes round lost in thought (6-6) |
| ABSENT-MINDED – A B.ED. (teacher) around (goes round) SENT (put in post) before MIND (protest)
MIND = ‘protest’ feels a bit weak to me, but “I wouldn’t mind/protest if you [etc]” seems okay. |
|
| 6 | Good cut of meat [is] beef (5) |
| GRUMP – G (good) RUMP (cut of meat)
Didn’t know GRUMP as a verb. I wanted the answer to be GRIPE. |
|
| 7 | Voter wanting reform in China, possibly a little ruminant (10) |
| CHEVROTAIN – VOTER anagrammed (wanting reform) in CHINA possibly (anagrammed)
Never heard of him. A tropical, forest-dwelling deer. Once I had all the checking letters, there was only one arrangement of the remaining letters in the anagrist that made any sense. |
|
| 8 | Case of professional too young [for] sacking (10) |
| PLUNDERAGE – first and last letters (case) of PROFESSIONAL + UNDERAGE (too young) | |
| 11 | Unlikely to give up precautions, I suspect (12) |
| PERTINACIOUS – PRECAUTIONS I anagrammed (suspect) | |
| 13 | What involves spells [in] tungsten-tipped long vessel (10) |
| WITCHCRAFT – ITCH (long) CRAFT (vessel) with W (tungsten) on top (-tipped) | |
| 14 | Philosopher with rule about large historical division (6,4) |
| BERLIN WALL – BERLIN (philosopher [Isaiah, not Irving]) + (with) LAW (rule) reversed (about) + L (large) | |
| 17 | Climber securing a fast time [is] the object of admiration (9) |
| VALENTINE – VINE (climber) around (securing) A + LENT (fast time)
How timely. |
|
| 21 | I mean to travel around diversion in the east (5) |
| ANIME – I MEAN anagrammed (to travel around)
Diversion *from* the east, it should say. |
|
| 22 | Christmas visitors, perhaps 13 but not 100? (4) |
| MAGI – MAGIC (perhaps 13 [WITCHCRAFT]) – (but not) C (100) | |
| 23 | Titanic problem [for] composer (4) |
| BERG – double definition
Alban Berg and Ice T. Berg |
|
32.56 for me, which I thought was pretty good considering that much of this was damned hard. NHOs included PERTINACIOUS, the deer and ATAXIA, although I fear we’ve had it before. Not sure how the cricket agnostics will go with the late, great Basil D’Oliveira, and thanks to the setter for helping me get his spelling right. Thanks also to Jeremy for figuring out what was going on with ABSENT-MINDED and explaining how queen = man. I have eaten that COLCANNON mash – once. I found the SW to be particularly challenging, with ATAXIA, BERLIN WALL and WITCHCRAFT my LOsI. For once my FOI was 1ac, which always helps. Excellent puzzle I thought.
I did not find this as hard as I expected, although I had to work mostly from the wordplay. There were some Mephisto-like moments where the verbose wordplay suddenly crystalizes, as in windlass….or not, as the case me be. Some solvers may have recently looked up chevrotain in the dictionary for some reason or other, and that was a write-in for me. I completely misinterpreted the clue for Manx, thinking queen, say, was the definition (the cat!) and the Man X was the wordplay. I remind everyone, there are no pictures on scorecards. My LOI was the Berlin Wall clue, where I worked out wall, thought for a while, and then triumphantly biffed the answer. Yeah, Isaiah Berlin, not exactly a peer of Wittgenstein, but there you go.
Of course, I NHO of D’oliveira, but the cryptic hands it to you.
Time: 36 minutes
I think MANX works either way round. A MAN X could be ‘a kiss from Douglas?’ (with the question mark).
!
I did it vinyl’s way in my solve, but found it a little unsatisfactory, thinking that parsing would require a ? or ‘possibly’ indicator on the cat part – all female manx are queens, but not all queens are manx.
English use of motor as a noun by Alexei Sayle :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MqMZ6XqMfc
Colcannon learnt from previous appearances, have yet to try it.
Basil D’Oliveira was a blast from the past. I didn’t know he’d died until today.
NHO CHEVROTAIN but as Jeremy said there is only one sensible arrangement of the anagrist once the checkers are in place.
LOI 13D WITCHCRAFT after trying to squeeze WICCA into the wordplay.
Most enjoyable – thanks to Jeremy for the blog, and the setter.
19:34
Both Basil and Damian are indeed qualified for crosswords, but Brett captains Worcestershire and is a high class bat with a double century to his name and a decent trade in leg spin bowling. Perhaps someone from the Times should let him know he’s not dead yet!
Alexei Sayle comes across as a scary version of Alan Carr in that video.
32:43, but I checked nho D’OLIVEIRA and probably ho CHEVROTAIN, so a DNF
I did the same as Vinyl with MANX; never thought of chess pieces. And I had the same reaction as Vinyl to BERLIN. Biffed the WALL and EVEN-TEMPERED, ABSENT-MINDED, parsed post-submission. I did not like MIND=protest; protest is an action, mind is a mental state.
Kind of like yesterday, crossing fingers and hoping PERTINACIOUS was a thing. It was! 8:13
I took my time with this, and thoroughly enjoyed it. CHEVROTAIN is actually in a clue in the latest Mephisto (one I finished!). My LOI was ATAXIA, at which point (I’d been at this for a while!) I was tempted to cheat, after laboriously trying to construct the answer but not thinking of TAXI. Suddenly, as I just stared blankly at the crossers, came the revelation: “I know this word!”
Same unknowns as everyone else. Almost put PERTENACIOUS before making myself check the anagrist more carefully and realizing it had to be the more unlikely PERTINACIOUS. Usually the cricket references are obscure fielding positions, not actual non-obscure-if-you-know-cricket players but a random and unusual name if you do not. I liked “cycle from Germany” although I did spend a moment thinking that “fahrrad” is cycle before realizing it had to be irrelevant.
55 minutes, although the last 15 were spent on two intersecting answers in the SW, namely ATAXIA and ANIME where I nearly gave up and resorted to aids but perseverance paid off in the end.
CHEVROTAIN was unknown but I knew WINDLASS, and even what it is. I knew PERTINACIOUS exists but couldn’t have guessed what it meant even with a gun at my head.
9:56, but in this wordplay-dominated puzzle I followed the instructions mechanically to invent JUNECU, the capital of an unknown Pacific island.
Good puzzle, bad solver.
Same here, except I took 43 minutes to get to the same wrong place.
ditto, but in 52 minutes.
I almost did the exact same thing until I remembered the place name Juneau. Until Jeremy’s blog I could not tell you where the a came from but I knew it had to be right.
I was aware of JUNEAU, and that it was a town in Alaska (I don’t think I’d have been able to tell you it was the capital) but I just followed what seemed to be the wordplay without really engaging brain.
“D’you know? Nope, I’ll ask her!”
57m 33s
I’m very surprised that no-one thusfar has made any complaints about 3d D’OLIVEIRA. That is an extremely obscure clue. As it happens, his grandson, Brett D’Oliveira, still plays for Worcestershire.
I liked JUNEAU. I suspect most solvers may know that you can only reach it by boat or plane from the rest of the state. No road nor rail links.
COD: TILDE
Well I couldn’t see any way of getting to JUNEAU. JUNECU on the other hand I found easily accessible.
🤣
Well I couldn’t see any way of getting to JUNEAU. JUNECU on the other hand I found easily accessible.
Inclined to agree but Basil did become quite famous for a while, for being refused entry to S Africa ..
May I put in a plug here for the recently-deceased (2023) Jonathan Raban’s brilliant ‘Passage to Juneau’, about a sailing trip he made from Seattle to said Juneau. (Amongst many other excellent works of his. More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Raban)
👍
I marked D’OLIVEIRA NHO, which for me means ‘extremely obscure’.
I remember Basil well. He was more of an all-rounder, I think, not just a batter.
Well as a Worcestershire person (but with little interest in cricket) I couldn’t fail to notice “Dolly” because of the CArfuffle about his eligibility to play for England in SA in 68-9. However one needs to be of a certain age for 1968 to seem recent….
From Wiki:
“Basil Lewis D’Oliveira CBE OIS (4 October 1931 – 19 November 2011) was an England international cricketer of South African Cape Coloured background, whose potential selection by England for the scheduled 1968–69 tour of apartheid-era South Africa caused the D’Oliveira affair.”
As others I needed the wordplay to spell him; I could have managed Dolly though.
Again it’s where we live in our respective bubbles. I at first thought this can’t be an actual batter and was determined it was a something berry fruit until the checkers were in and the penny dropped. For anyone with even the remotest interest in cricket Dolly is far from obscure – to an obsessive like myself The D’Oliveira Affair is infamous.
On the other hand I’ve never heard of Isaiah Berlin as he does not figure in the philosophers song😊
Exactly. I always recite that in my head first thing if I need to find a philosopher. It’s a good starting point but obviously can’t cover everyone. But once you’ve finished it and not found the right answer you move on to “now who WASN’T on that list… Sartre, Camus, Spinoza, Thales of Miletus…” etc etc.
I have sometimes thought about writing a third verse to include some more names but haven’t really tried hard enough (Thales of Miletus had a binge with Heraclitus when they both became as tight as something something something something…”). I did, however write a parody of the song, “The Philosophers’ Cleaning Song” to promote my cleaning business when giving pocket presentations at networking events. Luckily for everyone here though I can’t immediately remember the words!
I finished in 35:27 but had to google my LOI CHEVROTAIN to make sure it existed, which was all I could make from the letters. I also took a ridiculously long time on ATAXIA, which was a word I knew once I got it and TAXI should have been obvious.
I found much of this (including WINDLASS!!!) quite easy but then got stuck on the final half dozen or so – Pertinacious was another that took me ages.
Thanks setter and blogger
Steve
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey …
(Journey of the Magi, Eliot)
30 mins mid-brekker. I liked it, but I don’t really see first=A and the Chevrotain was tricksy for an obscure word, made even trickier by the weak anagrind (possibly) and the dangling “a”.
Ta setter and PJ.
I would be inclined to suggest that “first and” = A.
Chambers defines both as being someone or something of the first class.
Second in Cuban is a U.
‘First and’ to indicate the first letter of ‘and’ is strictly against the rules in the Times.
Not if you dwell in Mephistoland, where anything goes!
Quite the reverse! Ximenean principles are even more strictly applied in Mephisto and you’re even less likely to see it there.
On reflection, I have come up with two ideas:
(A) my first idea, and
(B) my other one.
DNF after 28ish minutes. Another who fell into the JUNECU trap. I have very, very vaguely heard of JUNEAU, but couldn’t work out where an A would have come from. Certainly had no idea it was in Alaska, nor a capital. Fair, but difficult without the GK.
I thought PERTINACIOUS was the more likely culprit, as -ANICIOUS seemed a perfectly plausible ending. I would be much more of a GRUMP were that responsible, as it’s not a common word, and the crossers leave you guessing.
WINDLASS went in late, with a grin.
Thanks both.
38:28, all parsed for once. LOI JUNEAU took a while to recall from memory, after which I saw what was going on. BERG took longer than it should have.
NHOs PERTINACIOUS and ATAXIA were generously clued by wordplay so this was a tough but very fair Friday for me with very little Greek or ecumenical arcaneness to frighten my particular stable of horses.
COD to WINDLASS I think. Reminds me of an old flame ….
18:41 but DNF as I had a guessed ASTERING for 27A instead of USHERING. NHO CHEVROTAIN so assumed my final answer was another word I’d never heard of for someone from part of Germany. Bah! I liked CONVALESCENT and GRUMP. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Failed on Juneau and had to check chevrotain, so a DNF for me today.
11:30
The four long intersecting answers were all pretty straightforward, which made the rest a lot simpler.
JUNEAU is my go-to answer for state capitals on the BBC quiz show Pointless, and I have happy memories of Mr MOTIVATOR and Basil D’OLOIVEIRA.
NHO CHEVROTAIN (and doubt I’ve HO PLUNDERAGE).
I enjoyed USHER’s roller-blading halftime show at the Super Bowl, especially as he must have been exhausted after showing everyone to their seats.
LOI DOMINATE (which I thought had something to do with the Scottish schoolmaster term Dominie, but it didnae).
Did this while watching the cricket so no time to offer. Took a while to see Basil even so. He did bowl a bit too. LOI WINDLASS. ATAXIA also proved taxing. COD to EGGCUP. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Failed at the last by opting for JUNECU, having NHO of the Alaskan capital and assuming it wanted first and second letters of Cuban. But still pleased to have got everything else in under the hour; this was a tough one (CHEVROTAIN only rang the faintest of faint bells and some might fairly consider it and D’OLIVEIRA too recondite by half). Liked WINDLASS.
14:15
Tricky. I remember batter Basil and was also aware of Juneau as a state capital. Chevro-whatsit rang a faint bell. I took particular care with the NHO PERTINACIOUS – it was tempting to try and get TENACIOUS in there and without carefully accounting for the vowels I might have bunged in PERTANACIOUS.
Same: I initially put in PERTENACIOUS but was unsure so did a vowel count. If only I had taken similar care throughout.
50′ and like others a lot of this came from working through wordplay rather than underlying knowledge. NHO CHEVROTAIN and PERTINACIOUS but, eventually, could work them out. Writing in PLUNDERing didn’t help in solving LOI LYING, which otherwise would have been straightforward. Toyed with something called a WINDLASh till I realised it was easier than it looked.
I had no interest in cricket (being raised just east of Glasgow didn’t offer too many opportunitiesto play) but even as an 11yo I did know about Basil. Subsequently found out that Mike Denness came from my home town (who’d have thunk it…), so maybe i just didnt try hard enough.. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
A pleasing 16:10 today having made a dog’s breakfast of yesterday’s. JUNEAU is one of my go-to Pointless state capitals and I assembled the little ruminant by assuming it had something to do with French goats. D’OLIVEIRA brought back fond memories – he was guest speaker at our cricket club dinner back in the seventies. An absolute hoot although we had to almost carry him across the road to his hotel at the end of the evening.
Basil D’Oliveira deserves to be more widely known than he appears to be, much more than a batsman/bowler. Born a Cape Coloured (pardon the infelicitous description) his inclusion in England’s tour of South Africa in 1968 led to Vorster cancelling the tour, then leading to Apartheid South Africa being excluded from international cricket and sport in general, and is arguably a watershed moment in the erosion and defeat of Apartheid. Today, England and South Africa play for the elegant Basil D’Oliveira trophy. History sometimes is a wonderful thing.
Thank you Z, I was going to bring that issue up but was hazy on detail, and you said it better. I have teenage memories from then of so many people (who all claimed to be non-racist of course) putting forward ridiculous arguments to explain how Seth Effrica had a right to decide what went on in their country etc etc. An appalling time.
I remember Basil scored 158 in a Test just before the squad for the S. Africa tour was selected – and he was omitted. My Dad explained why to me. Then Tom Cartwright was injured and D’Oliveira was called up. The D’Oliveira Affair was important in my political awakening. Good clue.
The D’Oliveira affair made the cover of Private Eye no. 176 – 13 Sep 1968. https://www.private-eye.co.uk/covers/cover-176
Really liked this lovely inventive crossword. Only real problem I had was struggling to remember chevrotain, not helped by having crossed wires that meant I thought it would have a pouch …
29:02
Lots of unknowns to crack. Luckily I knew JUNEAU and D’OLIVEIRA fell after I’d worked out WINDLASS. All the checkers were required before CHEVROTAIN and PERTINACIOUS were entered in the least horrible looking combination of letters. ATAXIA was another unknown but the obvious answer once the clever ANIME jumped out.
For some reason the last in was BERLIN WALL. I went about that completely the wrong way. I had WALL from the wordplay and I then tried to think of famous philosophers (of which there are many) instead of famous walls (of which there are few).
A nice challenge with a sore head from Thursday night merriment. Thanks to both.
Oh, the crossword. Marginally quicker than yesterday, with ANIME last in and JUNEAU entered in trepidation prompting faint campanology and seeming a bit more likely than the JUNECU the cluing prompted. CHEVROTAIN from Mephisto (as Guy says, clue not answer, so not embargoed). COLCANNON from Tesco’s. Loved the Titanic composer.
Two and a half queries: should PLUNDERAGE really be a thing?
Were the ICENI named to solve a problem for setters? And is one of them an Icenus?
>should PLUNDERAGE really be a thing?
Absolutely. Adding -age to words is a wonderful concept. I enjoy terms like crispage.
O good! Now that I’m free of bondageage to mortgageage, I’m free to enjoy my oldageage.
Wiktionary: “Noun plunderage
(maritime law) The embezzlement of goods on shipboard.”
So a MER then; it isn’t generic plundering/sacking.
But OED: first usage:
(a) The action of plundering; pillage, spoliation.
the maritime thing is (b), and is labeled ‘now historical’
If I look in the mirror, have Iceni?
About 8 minutes to get all except DOMINATE & CHEVROTAIN, then after another 4 minutes I had the former but not the latter. I chucked in CHERRYTAIL with no expectations that it was right, and of course it wasn’t.
32 minutes. Fortunately I had come across CHEVROTAIN before and I remember Basil D’OLIVIERA very well. EGGCUP held me up until I realised the ‘kitchenware’ being referred to wasn’t a percussion instrument. Favourite was the surface, especially the ‘cycle from Germany’ bit of USHERING.
All was going well enough and after 41 minutes I just had four separated words to solve. CHEVROTAIN a NHO and I failed to see how the wordplay went. ANIME also pretty well NHO, and I was dim in not seeing the anagram. USHERING I had from the definition, but couldn’t see how it worked: ‘cycle’ in a clue always directs me to cycling the letters of a word; ‘US he’ fine, but grin? WINDLASS beyond me, its meaning very vague and I was looking for the typical rather than the overall wordplay. D’Oliveira is mentioned in Fawlty Towers, so the cricket agnostics have a chance. 53 minutes eventually, with aids at the end.
28:48
Excellent puzzle. I’m another who thought the MANX queen was a cat. Chevrotain was new to me but gettable from the wordplay. I liked WINDLASS and WITCHCRAFT. Good to be reminded of Basil D’Oliveira – I’ll always remember the dignified manner with which he dealt with the political shenanigans going on at the time.
“We suffer equal pain from the PERTINACIOUS adhesion of unwelcome images, as from the evanescence of those which are pleasing and useful.” Samuel Johnson.
Thanks to Jeremy and the setter.
I’m having a totally crap week. Spelled PERTINACIOUS using 2 E’s and only 1 I 😡
Maybe I should have checked the anagrist properly…..
Didn’t ever feel comfortable with this, but it was a decent challenge. I was pleased to work out the NHO CHEVROTAIN at the end.
FOI ICENI
LOI CHEVROTAIN
COD WINDLASS
TIME 13:56 with an error.
Two goes needed, and slightly surprised to find I got everything correct.
Didn’t know CHEVROTAIN and only put it in as the most likely-sounding combination of letters; took a while to plump for the vaguely remembered JUNEAU rather than ‘Junecu’ (first=A didn’t occur to me); had to hope that a WINDLASS is a weight lifter; if COLCANNON has come up before then I’ve forgotten it; like vinyl1, I completely misunderstood how MANX worked; never come across PERTINACIOUS before; biffed BERLIN WALL, not knowing the philosopher; and couldn’t have told you what ATAXIA is.
Very tough. Thanks setter and blogger.
FOI Eggcup
LOI Juneau
COD Convalescent
36 mins, struggled somewhat and had to google to get confirmation that CHEVROTAIN and ATAXIA were correct. COLCANNON came up in a crossword a few years ago, and I was inspired to make it, then discovered this which is now part of my guitar repertoire. https://youtu.be/6VGRnE2Y3e0?si=zTcD4jtgk4cdb8kI
23:47
Seems pretty tricksy in retrospect so must have been on the wavelength.
Needed JUNEAU for the final checker for 7d then threw the remaining letters up in the air for the unknown ungulate.
PERTINACIOUS could equally have been spelt PERTANICIOUS for all I knew – perhaps some suggestion as to which vowel went where would have been welcome.
USHERING – forgot about the Ring cycle so was wondering what on earth it had to do with Germany.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
Do you know the capital of Alaska? Yes, that’s right.
17’21”, with USHERING LOI.
Thanks jeremy and setter.
If Mississippi saw Missouri in her New Jersey, what would Delaware?
Idaho, but Alaska.
Unfortunately, ataxia is all too familiar for me, probably because I live in a town with an elderly population.
I got MANX via the cat route, 3rd one in after REMEDIAL and ROWS. Basil took longer to arrive but went in with an Ah rather than an Eh? Having watched loads of narrowboat adventures recently, WINDLASS was a write in. Somehow JUNEAU was very familiar too. It may have featured in a film or documentary I’ve seen in the not too remote past. CHEVROTAIN was conjured from the letters left after the crossers went in, as was PERTINACIOUS. PLUNDERAGE went in with a slightly raised eyebrow. USHERING was LOI. 26:09. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
40’28”
Going very nicely until slowing to a canter final furlong.
Breeze-blocked by ushering.
I think I saw an anime once; the only other people in the rural Sardinian cinema were the two who had dragged me along. It being rather pretty, but long and sentimental, is all I can remember of it. I was worried about missing the start until it dawned on me that the ticket seller/ popcorn pusher was also the projectionist. He shared a name with a rather well known projectionist – Alberto or Alfredo ?
One for the pertinacious; well done setter, I enjoyed the tussle, and thank you Jeremy.
I finished outside my target at 48.20, but I’ll forgive myself as I thought it was quite tough. It was the unknown words like CHEVROTAIN and PERTINACIOUS that held me up more than anything, but I did spend a fair time before my LOI JUNEAU came to mind. I remember the words of my old geography master at school who told us the best way to remember (god knows why!) the capital city of Alaska is to say to yourself
‘D’you know Juneau’. I never knew this seemingly useless bit of knowledge would one day come in handy.
Amazed to find JUNEAU absent from my cheating machine; I thought I had put in each state with its capital and demonyms. Obv missed that one. One tends to assume it’s Anchorage, the city we all know about, but something about June rang a faint bell. So I cheated outside my machine for that one. I’m still a bit foxed about A=first.
I think I remember the Wiki site for CHEVROTAIN so I think it has come up before.
I read the clue as “first and” being the first letter of the word and, but I am willing to be wrong.
As mentioned to vinyl above, you will never see this formulation (first X = first letter of X) in the Times crossword.
Am I right to think that ‘first of X’ and ‘X’s first’ are accetable?
Yes, for the simple reason that they both mean ‘the first bit of X’ whereas ‘first X’ doesn’t!
DNF as I used aids and fell into a couple biff-traps. You don’t need to hear about my failures, tho.
Liked USHERING, WITCHCRAFT, D’OLIVEIRA, MAGI. COD BERG, which raised more than a smile.
As for Berlin not being regarded as a philosopher, come, come. They can’t all be Wittgensteins. And frankly, thank heaven they aren’t.
Ha! I guess you think language can have meaning. Well, that’s what we assume, but perhaps we shouldn’t assume it?
Chevrotain and pertinacious almost fell into my personal hate category of unknowns clued by anagrams but in these cases once you had the checkers there was no realistic alternative for the unused letters.
I had a huge fingers crossed for windlasss, LOI. 25:38
V enjoyable and seemingly a stinker free week. Thx Jeremy and setter
25.13 which I was quite pleased with as I didn’t see it as an easier Friday, but maybe others did. Checked the small rodent and almost made a mare of witchcraft by being too literal and inventing titchcraft instead. Fortunately, realising it looked a bit odd, witchcraft appeared almost by magic and I remembered W for wolfram.
Enjoyed the puzzle which meant I had a rare error free week.
Thx setter and blogger.
Another test.
Juneau, the capital of Alaska? I didn’t but I do now.
A rare completion foiled by my trip to JUNECU. It’s rather crowded at this time of year.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I was able to work out a few unknowns e.g. LOI CHEVROTAIN.
David
This was some very very tight (and clever) cluing. I wasn’t clever and didn’t have the excuse of being tight, but I do have a nice collection of outside reference books. Pleased mostly that I didn’t need them for d’oliveira. thanks, setter, thanks too, jeremy
I was pleased to rattle through most of this quite quickly (knew Windlass from time spent canal-boating) – then I came to a shuddering halt on my last two Juneau and Chevrotain which took me ages and needed checking. Probably 1 hour overall.
Fell into Junecu trap but otherwise
COD Close call between Windlass & Tildes
D’Oliveira fair game – his fame went beyond the cricket arena
LOI Ushering
I enjoyed all 36 minutes of this despite its difficulties. The unknowns, even D’OLIVEIRA, were easily solvable from wordplay, so I found the puzzle quite fair. My MANX queen was also the cat — interesting that two different evaluations both work equally well. CHEVROTAIN was another unknown which seemed quite plausible for a ruminant because of the French goat mostly in it, even if there is probably no biological connection. Good puzzle!
Failed with JUNEAU but just surprised that all the rest were right given there, for me, obscurity, in particular CHEVROTAIN and PERTINACIOUS.