52:13. I’m writing from the beaches of Southern California. Perhaps the distance from the motherland has dulled my solving abilities, but I think this was actually a tough one.
I’m quite pleased I was able to finish this puzzle. I nearly gave up several times, and my last one in required knowledge which as an American I couldn’t have expected myself to know in a million years.
| Across | |
| 1 | Where numbers are called, not to share writer’s point about everything (5,4) |
| BINGO HALL – HOG (not to share) NIB (writer’s point) reversed + ALL
I knew this one was BINGO something but I couldn’t see the parsing at all until much later. |
|
| 6 | A problem / affected one (5) |
| POSER – double definition | |
| 9 | Passing idea for a moan (7) |
| WHIMPER – WHIM + PER (for a) | |
| 10 | Unrealistic dream of such as Big Ben area (7) |
| CHIMERA – CHIMER (such as Big Ben) + A | |
| 11 | A kind of dam incorporated by Sizewell (3) |
| EWE – hidden in SIZEWELL | |
| 12 | Contrasts in light / musical number (5,3,3) |
| NIGHT AND DAY – double definition, the first very literally so | |
| 14 | Kitchen rod that’s twisted more? (6) |
| SKEWER – SKEW-ER (“more skewed”) | |
| 15 | Bird, type of pheasant that’s alternatively used for art (8) |
| PORRIDGE – PARTRIDGE with OR (alternatively) used instead of ART | |
| 17 | Greek character actor without subtlety, crazy man (8) |
| MUHAMMAD – MU (Greek character) HAM (actor without subtlety) MAD (crazy) | |
| 19 | Part — or place? — of union (6) |
| CHAPEL – double definition
A CHAPEL is a trade union for printing workers or journalists, and a marriage takes place in a CHAPEL. I think I have this right? |
|
| 22 | Bury rival with diminutive person answering questions (11) |
| INTERVIEWEE – INTER + VIE + WEE
My first one in. |
|
| 23 | Half of metal for a mug’s seat (3) |
| PEW – PEW{ter}
This one took me forever because I thought the wordplay was “half of metal”, and I couldn’t figure out why PEW would be “a mug’s seat”. |
|
| 25 | To catch public transport, first brace for Metropolitan Line (7) |
| TRAMMEL – TRAM + first two letters (brace) of METROPOLITAN + L (line) | |
| 27 | Dig round memorial in upright state (7) |
| PROBITY – PRY around OBIT
This one also took forever because I couldn’t think of any synonyms for ‘memorial’. |
|
| 28 | A minor possibly trailing about like a sponge? (5) |
| CAKEY – KEY (A minor possibly) after CA (about) | |
| 29 | Consequence of run in yard, rounding run out (9) |
| COROLLARY – COLLAR (run in) Y (yard) around RO (run out)
You’d thing a math(s) PhD student would get this one faster, but no. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Rock singer’s dicky but not having temperature (5) |
| BOWIE – BOW{t}IE | |
| 2 | Innocence of crackers eaten around four (7) |
| NAIVETE – anagram of EATEN around IV | |
| 3 | Film’s original poster writer, the guy one’s flipping about (11) |
| OPPENHEIMER – OP (original poster) PEN (writer) HE (the guy) I’M (one’s) + reversal of RE (about) | |
| 4 | Some stars in Cannes, at The City on the Baltic (6) |
| AURIGA – AU (‘at the’ in French [in Cannes]) + RIGA (city on the Baltic [capital of Latvia]) | |
| 5 | Babe almost breaking into silly expression (8) |
| LOCUTION – CUTI{e} (babe almost) in LOON (silly)
This was tough to parse. Hard to think of ‘silly’ as a noun. |
|
| 6 | This character would advance by 18 places if hosted by Musk, say (3) |
| PSI – PSI (ψ) is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, while E(PSI)LON (ε) is the 5th. And ELON is… well, you know. | |
| 7 | Parental dude initially in another’s place? (7) |
| STEPDAD – first letters of PARENTAL DUDE in STEAD (another’s place)
Great &lit. |
|
| 8 | What’s made early, to be nuked? (5,4) |
| READY MEAL – anagram of MADE EARLY
Another great &lit. |
|
| 13 | Dogger’s crude? (5,3,3) |
| NORTH SEA OIL – cryptic definition
This was a pretty tough one, and I definitely don’t totally get it. A ‘dogger’ is a two-masted Dutch fishing-vessel, so there’s the definition. But I’m not sure what the misleading sense is supposed to be. I see that a ‘dogger’ is also an Australian hunter of dingoes, so perhaps we’re supposed to be thinking of a salty Aussie? EDIT: Urban Dictionary set me straight… |
|
| 14 | City mob is somehow producing mutual advantage (9) |
| SYMBIOTIC – anagram of CITY MOB IS | |
| 16 | Bad man with bad deed cut short American’s ride (8) |
| CADILLAC – CAD (bad man) ILL (bad) AC{t} (deed cut short) | |
| 18 | Where might bowler rest? Hard answer to follow (7) |
| HATRACK – H + A + TRACK | |
| 20 | Soft food and drink lifted with a mild spice (7) |
| PAPRIKA – PAP (soft food) + KIR (drink) reversed + A | |
| 21 | Part of parliamentary address, according to someone whipping (6) |
| SWIPER – SW1 (part of parliamentary address) PER (according to)
This was my last one in. When I finally figured out the parsing, I had to guess that SW1 was part of a postcode. |
|
| 24 | They say my life is easy, with a grimace? (5) |
| WRYLY – homophone of RILEY
Reference to Life of Riley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Riley). This was tough for me because I don’t tend to think of a WRY expression as being a grimace, but rather ironic. |
|
| 26 | Former prime minister / is allowed / 31 days (3) |
| MAY – triple definition | |
Dogger Bank is a shipping area of the North Sea but it took its name from the Dutch fishing boats.
I forgot to note my starting time but I think I had been solving for the best part of an hour before I finally completed the grid.
AURIGA was unknown or forgotten but the wordplay was clear. I didn’t know the required meaning of TRAMMEL. I hindered myself in the SE corner by putting RILEY at 24dn which presented all sorts of problems solving the intersecting answers.
SW1 is the large postal area of London that includes most of the government headquarters, Buck House etc.
Yes, but my question was: in what way are we trying to be misled?
you will need to refer to another definition of dogger for that 😉
Yikes. Okay, must remember to add Urban Dictionary to my list of references!
The -ing form does appear in Chambers.
By the way, I love their use of e.g. in their definition: “e.g. in parked cars”. Surely ‘typically’ would be more appropriate here instead. What do the Chambers staff know that the rest of don’t, I wonder? 😉
I see that now…had to scroll down a bit.
And I absolutely love the definitions in Chambers!
CK now has that covered, but I mentioned the area of the North Sea since you hadn’t mentioned it and I didn’t know if solver’s abroad would know of it.
Thoughtful, and I like your implication that they will all know the other meaning 🙂
I thought of Dogger Bank as part of North Sea. I’m Australian
Gah, I really enjoyed this, but didn’t understand my LOI, and it turns out I had the wrong Greek letter. In hindsight it’s so obvious, of course…
Thanks both.
SWOL
Found this very difficult. Well done Jeremy for a sterling effort in blogging it! Thanks, particularly for
E (PSI) LON.
I knew DOGGER from the shipping forecast but didn’t know the connection to Dutch fishing boats.
I had to use aids for 5 clues.
I enjoyed this for being a bit different. Jeremy, in 22a VIE+W is ‘rival with’. Thanks for the blog and to the setter.
For anyone interested, we have a second interesting QC.
I think it’s just vie (rival) plus wee ( diminutive).
Sorry, I accidentally put the W with VIE.
Apologies
It is vie for rival and wee for diminutive.
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
(The Hollow Men, TS Eliot)
And how my attempt ended after 30 mins not being able to see Porridge. Note to self – see Bird, think Prison. My weak excuse is I would not have thought a partridge was a type of pheasant.
I liked the quirkiness and occasional brilliance, e.g. Ready Meal.
Ta setter and PJ
Interested to know whether you knew all of Auriga’s other names or the names of other characters he’s sometimes confused with.
Well I never. An alter-ego.
20:14. Quite a teaser with plenty of pleasant PDMs, e.g. PEW, PORRIDGE and WRYLY. I didn’t know the constellation or what TRAMMEL meant but the answers were clear from the wordplay and checkers. LOI PROBITY. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Excellent puzzle, did most but had rushed LOsI WHIMPER (whisper) and AURIGA (invented atriga).
Great clues for PORRIDGE, WRYLY, NORTH SEA OIL (although the shipping forecast is still a national, unnecessary, institution).
Thanks jeremy and setter.
It really is, isn’t it? I think of it more as a geography lesson. Folk need to know where Fastnet, and the German Bight are..
Well done Jeremy and setter, a really tough challenge. Took about an hour. Your parsing of CHAPEL is persuasive, but I was thinking more of Dissenting/Non-conformist congregations (eg the Methodist Union).
Jeremy’s explanation is mostly correct. A chapel was a part of the print union – the workers in a particular newspaper, for example. I was, a very long time ago, a Father of the Chapel, what would be a shop steward in other unions. Hence the ‘part’ of the union in the clue.
43 minutes with LOI AURIGA unknown. COD to CAKEY, now I’ve fully understood it after the event. Wasn’t the partridge nine or ten days too late? The date of twelfth night has been an inter-generational dispute in our household, but I’m the only one still living holding out for the sixth. A good fun puzzle. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Twelfth Night is the night between 5th & 6th Jan, according to Collins. But I tend to think of it as the 6th. That is when the Christmas decorations come down, anyway, in order to avoid a year’s bad luck..
Were Methodists a Union? Are they not a Conference?
There was a fusion of three Methodist churches in the 1930s; this was known as the Methodist Union. The resulting body does indeed have an annual Conference.
DNF. Couldn’t get STEPDAD (even though I am one!) & PORRIDGE. Gave up on the hour. Grr.
Very tricky but with some good stuff. I liked PEW.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
39 minutes. Enjoyed this, helped by the degree of difficulty being down a notch or two compared to most other Friday puzzles recently. I was held up by the same ones as Jeremy and was only eventually able to get the required ‘Dogger’ reference at 13d by remembering the nickname of a master at school, Mr. Banks, who was known (despite being in the plural) as “Dogger”. Favourites were the &lit and semi-&lit (I think!) at 7d and 8d and the misleading wordplay for PORRIDGE.
Thanks to Jeremy and setter
Spiffing! I had no idea what CHAPEL was all about but in it went. BINGO HALL came to me immediately but couldn’t parse it until I saw the reversal indicator ‘about’ which gave me ‘hog’ and ‘nib’. A nice mix of write-ins and head scratchers made for a really pleasant solve. Loved PORRIDGE, STEPDAD, OPPENHEIMER and SKEWER, but everything was fun. NHO AURIGA and PAPRIKA went in for spice but never parsed. Absolute COD to PEW for the misdirection with mug.
Well done PJ, especially given your location for blogging.
DNF with 5 missing answers, all in the NE corner, on 1 hour.
I romped through the rest in about 35 mins with the first thing that sprang to mind being invariably correct and feeling so on wavelength that I might beat the average. Then hit a wall.
COD to the Dogger, familiar to any Shipping Forecast listener.
Thanks for explaining the rest and to setter.
A steady and enjoyable solve. Struggled to parse the bingo hall, but shouldn’t have, really.
The interesting four-star system Capella is in Auriga.
I’ve noticed a fair few unknown constellations and stars appearing in the last 12 months. Setters pleaser take pity on us poor Londoners who never get to view the night sky clearly …
I sympathize with regards to the light pollution, obviously, but I absolutely love the celestial references!!
29.26 with many struggles on the way, not least having to do it on the Times site with the Club refusing to load (again!). My spice rack has a jar of hot PAPRIKA, so the mild kind didn’t emerge for a while. The clue for PORRIDGE had enough misdirections to truly confound, and I wasted time trying to get fOrArT used somehow. Wiki tells me that pheasants and partridges are not necessarily associated types, and “bird” in the context was a really mean definition. Only with the checkers could I squeeze out the answer.
Now then. Do we really have to have the trillionaire ersatz POTUS intruding even here? Clever clue, but even so. And that clue for MUHAMMAD (pboh) was surely risky, especially when read by people who may not fully understand how cryptic clues work? Crazy man?
Just for fun: I looked up AURIGA post solve, and got this from Wiki: “its name is Latin for ‘(the) charioteer’, associating it with various mythological beings, including Erichthonius and Myrtilus.” There’s fame for you!
I had the same thought about MUHAMMAD Z, good thing setters are anonymous- wouldn’t want any fatwas around here. I don’t think the voters knew they were electing President Eldon Trusk.
The phrase “pig in a poke” springs to mind. Some pig! Some poke!
Surely PHI recedes, rather than advances, 18 places when inserted into Elon? I got the cryptic but couldn’t justify the maths!
Either way, an enjoyable way to spend the last weekday morning off work of the holidays.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
I spent a good deal of time finger-counting before I sussed that ‘advancing’ actually meant ‘progressing’ in the sense of moving further to the front. It does sound counter-intuitive, though.
Thanks, that makes sense. At least once a week I come here thinking there’s a mistake and find I’m the only one who thinks so, indicating I’m very likely wrong or that it’s not important.
Am I the only person who put ‘hatrail’ instead of HATRACK? Too tricky for me , I’m also one of those who put ‘phi’ instead of ‘psi’
No you are not. I also went that route
That was very tough but strangely enjoyable.
WRYLY and PROBITY the last two in which took a while.
The only quibble I have is with CAKEY – does anyone ever say that? I suppose you could say a Jaffa Cake is a bit cakey but really a biscuit?
A Jaffa Cake is definitely more cakey than biscuity. The case went to court and was settled in favour of them being cakes, which is why no VAT is charged on them.
Ran aground in the NE although not on the Dogger Bank which was a write-in. PORRIDGE was the cause of most of my woes, probably because to me pheasants and partridges are very different. Here in rural Wiltshire shooting the former in partridge season would be considered beyond the pale.
Yes, I didn’t like that clue for the same reason but I suppose that you can justify it on the basis that partridges are (sometimes) included in the Phasianidae (“pheasant” ) family. I suspect the setter is not a birder…
The setter will of course shelter behind the standard “it’s in the dictionary” defence!
And in Wikipedia, too. Some partridge species are apparently a kind of pheasant.. and some, not.
You mean, in September? From 1 Oct on the seasons are the same. And why pheasants have September off, while partridges don’t has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Not sure their breeding habits are that much different..
My shooting days are done now so they are safe from me, whenever 🙂
Most estates, in this part of the world at least, choose not shoot pheasants until November although as you say they are ‘legal’ from October onwards. The difference in seasons reflects I think that partridges are quicker to reach maturity.
43:07 – Loved this one, hard as it was but very fair.
Didn’t parse CHAPEL, OPPENHEIMER, STEPDAD or PORRIDGE but the definitions were generous enough.
PSI was COD but might be COY (although early days, admittedly).
50.35
Struggled but persevered.
Lots of good stuff but held up assuming the “straight” meaning of the cryptic related to oil and struggling to understand what else it was about other than the meaning I assumed wouldn’t be referred to (if you see what I mean). Should have just treated it as a straight definition.
PSI last in and to be honest had started to give up the ghost by then, with a choice still to be made with P_I.
Anyway lots of stuff to like and a great blog as always
Found this to be very tricky – managed to solve eventually for a couple of hours with aids. Slowly worked out OPPENHEIMER and MUHAMMED. I got the RIGA part but didn’t realise the French bit. I’ve not heard of the life of Riley. Thanks to the blog and setter.
About 40 mins
Tricky: pleased to get through it.
Thanks, pj.
20:21 Very enjoyable challenge. Today I learned that (1) Dogger Bank, and hence Doggerland, are named after Dutch boats (2) nuking is a term for microwaving (3) Auriga is a constellation as well as a charioteer. COD honours jointly to both &lits, though it’s slightly unfortunate that the setter was forced to use the incongruous-sounding (to my British ears) “dude” to make the clue work.
4d. More correct parsing is AU = AT THE + CITY ON THE BALTIC.
Thank you!!
29:40 – tricky and entertaining. PORRIDGE and several others correct but unparsed at the end including PROBITY, where I spent many a happy minute trying to shoe-horn the e of probe into it – and justify the rest – before shrugging and moving on.
I agree 4dn is “at the”
I took 41 minutes and had a long final struggle with the SE corner, with LOI WRYLY
I was thinking Musk to be deer with depsier or dephier, before cottoning on to elon and epsilon
I was also slowed down, as others I see, by putting HATRAIL and then struggling with 28ac before,after several minutes, rethinking.
Thanks setter and blogger
Ziggy Stardust, Tess of the Tories and the Charioteer
No time as I print it off and solve whenever I have nothing better to do (which is NEVER if the memsahib is watching). Some great subject matter in this entertaining puzzle. Thanks very much setter and Jeremy on the beach.
That was another tricky one! 21d held me up by pointing me in a owlish direction. Very clever. BOWIE and BINGO HALL were first 2 in. Much later after a lot of circumLOCUTION, TRAMMEL and finally AURIGA saw me breast the finish line at 37:37. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
This was incredibly hard (85 minutes) and I really thought that my solving powers had reached their final stages, so I was relieved to see that the SNITCH was quite high, not 116 or 96 as it often is in such cases. I used much help by the end and — something I do about once a year, so many and varied are my aids — looked up an answer (Chambers didn’t give STEPDAD) whch was fairly straightforward and, like many of the clues in this crossword, excellent. No complaints about anything, just admiration. TRAMMEL entered without my knowing what it meant but ‘untrammelled’ is more common and, although I don’t know its exact meaning, means something like ‘unhindered’.
DNF, defeated by AURIGA and PSI (I put ‘Atriga’, missing the French indicator, and ‘Phi’, not having a clue how it worked).
Of the clues I did get, many of them only came to me on the second attempt. Very tough.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
COD Stepdad
58:49
Very hard I thought – bits missed as follows:
FTP:
OPPENHEIMER bunged in from three checkers.
NHO:
AURIGA – T or U? Got there eventually
LOCUTION – obvs in retrospect but took a while, even with first three checkers
PAP = soft food
PEW/WRYLY/PROBITY – took an age to see and understand each of these
LOI/COD to PORRIDGE – eventually, with all checkers – Ah, that meaning of ‘bird’.
CAKEY was also excellent.
Well done Jeremy for working it all out
Enjoyed this! I was not slowed down by the ornithological expertise some commenters have displayed, but it was impossible to hurry with this one anyway.
Great puzzle, really enjoyed the challenge. Didn’t know that meaning of trammell, nor the abbreviation for original poster, but this didn’t stop successful completion.
COD to ready meal, my favourite clue for quite some time.
Thanks Jeremy and Setter.
44:45 with one pink square, having guessed the wrong Greek character for 6d.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
Finished all correct, but had to have a break with four left to solve. Eventually got CHIMERA, LOCUTION and PORRIDGE after cake and tea.
Highest Snitch I’ve completed successfully.
Very tough, but clear wordplay, so thank you setter and blogger.
Great puzzle. Failed to time it, but all correct in about an hour. I only persevere that long when it’s as enjoyable as this was, so enormous thanks to setter, and to our blogger.
Very tough, but got there in the end 55 mins. Couldn’t get Peter Kay’s sketch out of my mind….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u4hAxi5b6o
I too opted for phi rather than psi which I suppose means DNF! Very delayed by insertion of north sea gas rather than oil. I blame too good a lunch.
Really enjoyed having a go at this fantastic puzzle with liberal use of the check button and half an eye on the blog – many thanks Jeremy. Took me ages to understand PEW but I think I’ve got it now. Really liked PSI and CAKEY.
Tough, even though I was enough on the wavelength to see where every single clue was trying to go.
My New Year’s resolution is to print out a list of constellatios and their major stars and read it over once every five or six days so that in a month or two I’ll have enough memory to recognize some of each when they come up. Once I made that resolution I thought: “Ah. Birds and plants, too?” And then I thought: “No. Nope. No siree. Absolutely not.”
Darn, missed probity and Auriga, and still do not understand Porridge, i get the wordplay, but why is it a bird? I mean, a jail bird does porridge but that is too tenuous, i think i am missing something! Tough for me! But fun! Cx
You do your ‘bird’ (aka porridge) in prison. We have to substitute ‘or’ (alternatively) for ‘art’ in ‘partridge’!
Thanks for the explanation of doing your bird! Am actually delighted to not know that ! Or not have to know, thx anyway! Happy New Year, Carolyn
32:11. I found that extremely hard: even harder (I think) than the other very hard one we had recently. Today though a good chunk of the difficulty was self-inflicted: I bunged in BINGO CARD and RILEY and then failed to question them for far too long, which got me badly stuck in the NE and SW corners. In the latter case I also had PER (half of COPPER, for a, er…) at 23ac, which meant I didn’t even consider WRYLY for ages.
Great puzzle.
Made a total hash of this one. Four wrong or failed. Its been a bad start for me in 2025. All in SCC. Hoping for an Epiphany soon.
Eventually got them all except the Greek letter, where, like others, I opted for ‘phi’, not understanding the parsing of the clue
Came back to this puzzle this morning – sleeping overnight on 23a and 24d.
The rest worked, as Pew and Wryly came quickly before breakfast – only to discover that I’d entered Phi instead of Psi.
Never mind – this was a great puzzle.
Good puzzle! But why does “brace” indicate the first two letters (25A)? I’ve never seen that before.
It’s ‘first brace’.
Great fun on Sunday eve. 34 minutes. LOI PSI. Messed around with a (MUSK)-OX for too long before getting it. Lovely puzzle.