39:50, though the time is irrelevant as the puzzle was solved casually over dinner and drinks by myself and three other (in?)famous NYC solvers, who will make themselves known if they wish. (Perhaps even photograph evidence will be supplied.)
I thought this was an absolutely spectacular puzzle, with some really creative and fooling wordplay.
| Across | |
| 1 | Surviving letter to the Corinthians that’s unknown within New Testament (6) |
| EXTANT – ETA (letter to the Corinthians) with (that has) X (unknown) in (within) NT (New Testament)
Last week’s puzzle forced me to learn that this particular letter is 7th in the Greek alphabet. |
|
| 4 | Cat chased by dogs, possibly very fast ones (8) |
| WHIPPETS – WHIP (cat) + (chased by) PETS (dogs, possibly)
A reference to ‘cat o’-nine-tails’. |
|
| 10 | Take apart a French composer (7) |
| UNRAVEL – UN (a [in] French) RAVEL (composer) | |
| 11 | Small marsupial droppings collecting round hill (7) |
| POTOROO – POO (droppings) around (collecting) O (round) TOR (hill)
My compatriot gifted me this one. I think this would be quite hard if you’ve never heard of it before, since there are many parsings possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potoroo |
|
| 12 | Take in room in hospital round (4) |
| DRAW – WARD (room in hospital) reversed (round)
Easy, I suppose, but the setter clearly intended to mislead us here. |
|
| 13 | Parisian is by mountains in Australia [in] colourful outer layer (6,4) |
| ORANGE ZEST – EST (Parisian ‘is’) + (by) RANGE (mountains) in OZ (Australia) | |
| 15 | Better half of pop song a hit [in] language of SW India (9) |
| MALAYALAM – MA (better half of pop) LAY (song) A LAM (hit)
‘Better half of pop’ is just one of many lovely phrasings from the setter. |
|
| 16 | French oil producer [having] Renault’s front end checked by dipstick (5) |
| COROT – first letter (front end) of RENAULT in (checked by) COOT (dipstick)
Beautiful definition. Thanks to my compatriot for this one as well. |
|
| 18 | First light turning ornamental cherry tree leaves red to begin with (5) |
| SUNUP – reversal of (turning) PRUNUS (ornamental cherry tree) – (leaves) first letter of (to begin with) RED | |
| 19 | Retired fireman working with a special buzzer on the wall? (5,4) |
| MASON WASP – reversal of (retired) SAM (fireman) + ON (working) + (with) A SP (special)
These build their hives in walls, on occasion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireman_Sam |
|
| 21 | Possibly flyer’s getting new blue cape (10) |
| PROMONTORY – PROMO (possibly flyer) + (‘s getting) N (new) TORY (blue) | |
| 23 | Leave hastily [from] self-catering apartment on vacation (4) |
| SCAT – S/C (self-catering) APARTMENT with middle letters removed (on vacation)
We were all quite surprised to find S/C in the dictionary. Perhaps someone can fill us in as to the appropriate usage. |
|
| 26 | Bats vanish after entrance of knight errant (7) |
| KNAVISH – anagram of (bats) VANISH after first letter (entrance) of KNIGHT | |
| 27 | Elation about little piggy’s growth? (7) |
| TOENAIL – ELATION anagrammed (about)
This is lovely! Another one supplied by my compatriot. So good, I’m surprised it’s not a chestnut. |
|
| 28 | Worthless loco finally retired from sweet old railway (8) |
| NUGATORY – last letter of (finally) LOCO removed (retired) from NOUGAT (sweet) O (old) RY (railway) | |
| 29 | British School [of] Language in Rennes (6) |
| BRETON – BR (British) ETON (school) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One of the horses departs after stock’s reduced (5) |
| EQUID – D (departs) after EQUIP (stock) with last letter removed (reduced) | |
| 2 | Seafarer with apostolic brief that may help him weather the storm (9) |
| TARPAULIN – TAR (seafarer) + (with) PAULINE (apostolic) without the last letter (brief) | |
| 3 | Service vehicle pulled up on side of motorway (4) |
| NAVY – VAN (vehicle) reversed (pulled up) + (on) last letter (side) of MOTORWAY | |
| 5 | Husband may put up with pony for a term (e.g. pony as horse) (7) |
| HYPONYM – H (husband) + MAY reversed (put up) with PONY instead of (for) A
Chambers has: one of a group of terms whose meanings are included in the meaning of a more general term. |
|
| 6 | Pants erupt with smell [becoming] foul (10) |
| PUTRESCENT – anagram of (pants) ERUPT + (with) SCENT (smell)
Also tricky, as there are other parsings possible (eg, anagram of PANTS SMELL). |
|
| 7 | Inaccessible place for brooding heroine touring India (5) |
| EYRIE – EYRE (heroine) around (touring) I (India)
This was one of my first in, and this definition was my first indication that the setter truly has a gift. |
|
| 8 | Baseball infielder[’s] two items of clothing (9) |
| SHORTSTOP – SHORTS TOP (two items of clothing)
Biffable (for an American, anyway) from the first word of the clue, and the final P. |
|
| 9 | Heartlessly knock down powerless friend — no longer buddy? (6) |
| FLORAL – FL{o}OR + {p}AL
Another great definition. |
|
| 14 | Person orchestrating hypnotism set to start with suspect (10) |
| SYMPHONIST – HYPNOTISM + first letter of (to start with) SET anagrammed (suspect) | |
| 15 | Scots are unaware of packages Southern Post Office delivered in error (9) |
| MISSPOKEN – MISKEN ([in] Scots: are unaware of) around (packages) S (southern) PO (post office) | |
| 17 | The knowhow to drive land yacht? (9) |
| ROADCRAFT – ROAD (land) CRAFT (yacht [? = for example])
This was my original parsing, but after the fact we looked up LAND YACHT… and it’s a thing! Hyphenated in Chambers, but I think this may qualify as a double definition, the second by example. [Follow-up: It’s appears un-hyphenated in Collins.] |
|
| 19 | Monsieur visiting his dear one who perhaps arranged their meeting (7) |
| MATCHER – M (monsieur) AT (visiting) CHER (his dear one)
I liked this one, and it would have been easier, but I felt sure that M had to be placed inside (“visiting”) CHER, with some other letters I couldn’t conjure up. |
|
| 20 | Pomeranian dog quaffing river spray (6) |
| SPRITZ – SPITZ (Pomeranian dog) around (quaffing) R (river) | |
| 22 | Primate managed to intercede in self-inflicted blunder (5) |
| ORANG – RAN (managed) in (to intercede in) OG (self-inflicted blunder [= Own Goal]) | |
| 24 | One of several sharp nails left alongside fences (5) |
| TALON – hidden (fences) in LEFT ALONGSIDE | |
| 25 | Deride junior ingesting double dose of ecstasy (4) |
| JEER – JR (junior) around (ingesting) two copies (double dose) of E (ecstasy)
Possibly the easiest clue in the puzzle! |
|
Certainly non-famous, probably infamous here. The drinks were good, my contribution to the overall solve perhaps less so.
Next time let’s make it more officially a group solve!!
Also, I forgot to ask: How were the burgers?
My burger was fantastic! The caramelized onions and sauce really made it. And so were the fries.
I struggled for around 90 minutes to get around half out. I was getting nowhere with the remainder so I had a break for lunch. Amazingly when I returned I saw everything and it fell out in about 15 minutes more. FOI JEER LOI MATCHER. COD MASON WASP. SHORT STOP has occurred so often in this rough form it was a write-in.
Thanks Jeremy
Always amazes me how often the dog walk resolves problems. Distracting the mind from a problem seems to get some subconscious sub-routine running that is actually smarter than my brain’s conscious inhabitant. Sadly, for me today this puzzle outfoxed us both.
I really struggled with this one, but I did finish. It seems my mind is no longer flexible enough to try whip for cat, or pets for dogs. I nearly put chappets, too, but suddenly saw it. Orange zest and Malayalam were brilliant, although I just biffed Malayalam, that famous crossword palindrome language. I had to tediously construct the mason wasp, and had a hard time remembering the fireman.
Time: 66:10
Not only containing a palindrome, but it’s a pangram as well 🙂
S/C would appear in adverts for holiday accommodation that offers cooking facilities but no meals are provided. Pretty much as in the surface reading actually.
I have no time to offer for this as I solved in two sessions. The first lasted 20 minutes but I forgot to note the restart. I didn’t complete the grid without resorting to aids twice, so it was a technical DNF anyway. The LH side was a steady solve although I struggled a bit with MALAYALAM and NUGATORY, but the RH was very much more difficult.
I was not helped by my first look-up at 19ac where having worked out MASON from wordplay I consulted Chambers Wizard which offered only MASON BEES and I decided to believe it despite not understanding the construction. Odd, because Chambers Dictionary has both BEE(S) and WASP. That error cost me even more time in trying to solve the clues around it but eventually I corrected it and moved on.
NHO COROT or POTOROO although I see that I also didn’t know it when it appeared last March. HYPONYM went in as a word that fitted the checkers but other than that I had no idea why. ORANGE ZEST was my LOI, again mostly from checkers.
SPITZ as a type of dog including Pomeranians came up in a Jumbo I blogged last November so should have leapt out at me today, but it didn’t and I had to work on it.
Done by COROT, whom I’d jamais entendu. Was working around ‘clort’ as being some kind of French plant/animal before the weird ROADCRAFT put paid to that.
Snap.
Way too good for me. Just too many obscurities and the wordplay was also beyond me. Ultimately, just a total lack of the required knowledge, eg, COROT, HYPONYM, NUGATORY, MASON WASP.
I wondered at the beginning why the setter used EQUID. I guessed it must be a pangram – it is. Didn’t help me as I DNF in 30 minutes.
DNF in over an hour
Didn’t get FLORAL, should have biffed it. And didn’t get COROT, although I knew him. I don’t think I thought of painters, for one, and would never have thought of coot=dipstick. A couple of gimmes–SHORTSTOP, TALON, JEER–but most of the clues took bags of time.
56 minutes, which would have been a bit quicker if I’d heard of COROT. As above, spotting the pangram isn’t helpful if you’ve just got C_R_T left to go. Luckily I was sure of the letters I had—I have two copies of ROADCRAFT, the police driving manual, on my shelf—so I eventually convinced myself that a coot could be a dipstick.
DNK POTOROO, HYPONYM (but at least the word makes it fairly clear what it means) and only vaguely recognised MALAYALAM from some previous outing or other.
On the whole a fairly steady top-to-bottom solve, just a fair bit slower than usual!
37:51 solved on paper
HYPONYM, COROT, NUGATORY, and MALAYALAM were complete unknowns and there were a couple which I solved but couldn’t fully parse or had unknown elements.
I didn’t ever ground to a complete stop but some of this was very slow going. An enjoyable solve throughout though so thanks to both.
I solved only two clues on my own at the restaurant, with all my attention going to the food and the conversation. Jeremy, who’d already eaten, was whipping thru it on his laptop and I didn’t want to hear many, or any, answers before I could find them for myself! So, no, not a group effort. But I did, inevitably, absorb a few hints from the others, like pa’s better half and—the entire answer—NUGATORY (I just had to find what clue that went with!). So, though I don’t think I heard Jon explain POTOROO and I know I didn’t hear TOENAIL at the table, I didn’t solve this very impressive puzzle unaided. It was a delight to discover MASON WASP and to be reminded of HYPONYM (which sounds like it has something specific to do with horses). I saw the parsing of SUNUP only when I came here.
(I also missed it when SC was found in a dictionary.)
Definitely a tough one: managed to finish in about 50 minutes. Didn’t like the plethora of French references.
An absolute cracker, not a single weak clue and so many gems that there are at least a dozen COD candidates, with COROT, for me, the pick of a very fine bunch. Took about 40 minutes, the first half hour snug in bed and the last ten minutes at the breakfast table. Many thanks Jeremy and setter.
I really liked this one, kind of interesting with some more obscure words; 29 minutes, with a MER at ROADCRAFT which didn’t seem like a thing or a very good clue. A bit horrified to see a baseball clue, our paper seems to be more US oriented by the day.
Gothick is right. ROADCRAFT is the UK police driving handbook (there is also a bikers’ version). It is used by advanced driving organisations – pity it isn’t required for all road-users.
Should be compulsory reading in Hong Kong!
I assumed that Shortstop was there to celebrate Friday being exactly one month before the battery report for spring training.
I’ve never heard Road Craft in the US. Yank Tank, yes.
11D
How does ROAD = land, please?
Or is it *merely* a double def where the second def is
land yacht?
as an example of a craft that goes over land?
You got it. Often raced on beaches, probably in Goa!
So long as it doesn’t interfere with beach cricket!
Had the same question, how does ROAD = LAND? You didn’t answer it.
If it’s a double definition, well LAND YACHTS don’t travel on roads, they travel on salt plains (in this part of the world) or beaches. ROAD is right out of order, not indicated by LAND at all, and a land yacht is not a road craft; a double-definition fails completely.
IMH but very miffed O.
Even though I guessed it, and the equally poor COROT (was considering CLORT!), as L2I by far. Apart from those 2 enjoyed it a lot.
Dear me, my apologies, though it wasn’t you that asked the question.
There is a question mark at the end of the clue which led me to fathom out that if a yacht (craft) were to travel on land, it would likely be by road, though David Sullivan’s explanation below is probably nearer to what the setter was aiming at.
I think the question mark is important here: it indicates that travelling on a road is just an example. A craft that might travel on a road. Good enough for me anyway.
Try Pendine Sands. It’s closer.
I think it’s using the slang meaning of “land yacht”, a large, usually American, car.
Slow – 32.55 – with a huge amount of that spent on LOI COROT, which made my heart sink when I first looked at it, and even more when I returned with crossers. I did at this point go through the alphabet, but to no avail…
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and trying to justify CARAT or CARET, or even CLROT, (surely not!) I went with my first instinct that COOT might be usable as a general term for an idiot and COROT might mean… something. I didn’t think of painters, and while I didn’t know him, adding ‘it could be a French surname’ to my list of possible explanations might have got me to take the plunge a bit earlier.
A very enjoyable puzzle overall, with a bit of fortune at the end.
Thanks both/all.
“I went with my first instinct that COOT might be usable as a general term for an idiot”
Fair
😁
Enjoyed this a lot, meaty. The pangram passed me by, as per usual.
Shortstop came up somewhere, with the same clue, just a week or two back…
A little over the hour but at least finished. I was expecting a toughie today after a string of pretty tame crossies and I wasn’t disappointed.
No less than 5 French references today, that’s a lot.
I did know COROT, thankfully, but struggled with HYPONYM (NHO), MALAYALAM (worked out from wp) & NUGATORY (NHO). I also know about Les guêpes de maçon, as we have them every summer!
Thanks Jeremy & co for the blog. Ta tough setter too.
54:22
Great puzzle!
Thanks, pj.
4 errors in 45 mins.
A silly parsing error for POTORNO. CARET was my oil producer with CAT somehow representing dipstick. MASON LAMP had a lamp that buzzed and sat on a wall. And SOROTY had Sooty as a Pomeranian dog – even though he wasn’t/isn’t a dog but was/is a bear. Sweep was the dog.
Defeated!
Failed on ORANGE ZEST with a despairing FRINGE BELT. Otherwise I surmounted the rest of the obstacles in 52,52. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
DNF. I filled in the NW corner straight off. Then Potteroo, Knavish and Nugatory and stopped. Heavy use of Aids shows me that we have had Corot before, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, but I don’t have a date and wasn’t expecting that kind of oil producer. MER that Orange Zest is green paint, but I put it in the C.M. anyway. Oh well, another stinker then.
A (very) quick look suggests COROT last appeared in an Izetti QC in 2022, and a handful of times in the decade before.
I did wonder whether PJ solved with the ghostly assistance of Bernstein and Sondheim, two great New Yorkers with a fanatical devotion to the Times crossword (both NY and London) and The Listener. They’d have loved this one, somewhat more disciplined than when they solved it, perhaps, but cleverly and wittily set with believable misdirections. I polished it off with enthusiasm in 26.40, loving TOENAIL and the complex MASON WASP, discovering what Prunus is, and wondering why there was a special term for the names of horses. The pangram would have helped with my last-in ORANGE ZEST but I already had SPRITZ and was looking for some kind of VEST.
Appreciation to the anonymous setter and to the NY coterie for letting us in at a distance to a very special event. I can just taste those caramelised onions!
Had the GK and was on the wavelength of the quirky definitions, and thankfully stopped myself from biffing ORANGE VEST.
Very tough. About 31 minutes, and needed to check Hyponym.
One of those toughies where I felt afterwards I should have got to some of the answers a bit quicker.
The mark of a very good puzzle in my opinion.
Well done setter and blogger.
22:22
I though this was excellent, a real challenge.
I used a dictionary to check the existence of EQUID and POTOROO and MASON WASP. The latter brought back happy memories of Robbie Coltrane’s Mason Boyne (can still be see on YouTube).
WHIPPETS, FLORAL and COROT the pick of a very fine bunch.
Thaks to Jeremy and the setter.
Too hard for me. Gave up on the hour with half missing. As often the case, glad I did. NHO POTOROO, MASON WASP, COROT etc etc. Wouldn’t have got ’em.
Tricky one and a DNF. I wrongly parsed EQUID as ‘equi(ty) + d’ rather than ‘equi(p) + d’, I think both explanations work, though the ‘equip’ one is a bit better.
Late to the ball, on dogwalking duties. After a long good run, this was a definite DNF, missing HYPONYM, MALAYALAM, COROT, ROADCRAFT, SPRITZ and SUN UP, and I don’t feel guilty about any of them. Indeed, I did a mental lap of honour at getting MASON WASP and POTOROO. COD to TOENAIL. Thank you Jeremy and friends, and setter for the struggle.
38 – a worthy candidate for the Friday stinker slot, COROT and ROADCRAFT being my LOIs, but much grasping around for half-remembered words en route. Great fun.
The tough one I forecast yesterday came to pass. Having explored the outer reaches of my GK and vocabulary a few times, the painter did for me in the end. Just didn’t see COOT and the definition had me looking for agricultural products not artists. A win for the setter. Overall very good stuff although it seemed to run out of steam a bit towards the end.
DNF, defeated by COROT and SPRITZ.
Instead of COROT, I put ‘carot’, thinking that a carrot is a kind of stick that you could dip into something like hummus, that ‘checked’ can mean removed, and that there must have been a painter called Carot (I’ve never heard of Corot or coot=dipstick). For SPRITZ, I put ‘sprute’, thinking spute might be from sputum which you can spit out or spray… the more I think about it now, the more ludicrous it gets. It was my LOI, and by that stage I was in “Whatever, I’ll just go for it” territory.
I also slowed myself down by putting ‘steed’ for 1d, thinking stock=steer. I even got as far as putting in ‘enravel’ for 10a despite knowing it didn’t really work, and it was only once I was completely stumped by having 1a as S_T_N_ that I reconsidered and got EQUID and UNRAVEL.
– Relied on the wordplay for the unknown POTOROO
– Eventually pieced together MALAYALAM, helped by finally doing whatever the opposite of lift and separate is to see what ‘Better half of pop’ was doing
– Had no idea how SUNUP worked as I’d never heard of Prunus
– Constructed the equally unfamiliar MASON WASP from wordplay
– As Jeremy noted might happen, I wasted time trying to make an anagram of ‘pants smell’ before realising it was only a partial anagram and getting PUTRESCENT
Very tough (for me at least). Thanks Jeremy and setter.
COD Floral
How Verlaine managed this in 6.24 minutes is beyond me, when most of those solvers who have fairly quick times (by my standards) took quite a while and I took 76 minutes. There were several words that had to be looked up (HYPONYM, POTOROO, SCAT, SPITZ, SPRITZ, and that mountain range in Australia that ended in V — completely fooled here) but it was a very good crossword and it was all clear enough in retrospect. I too thought there was a green paint quality to ORANGE ZEST (although if it had been lemon zest, which seems more of a pukka cookery item, it would have been OK).
Well, Mark Goodliffe is giving the Friday masterclass on YouTube, and he is cracking each clue as he reads it. Since he’s giving a class, he is going slow and explaining his thinking on each clue, but he solves each one right away. This puzzle simply crumbles under his awesome solving power.
9:25. Good workout. Made up COROT from the wordplay.
54 minutes. Excellent puzzle. Just as well I remembered MALAYALAM as I never did work out the wordplay and the parsing of TARPAULIN also stumped me. HYPONYM and MASON WASP both NHO but gettable from wordplay. The pangram was no help in solving and if anything already having the Z in ORANGE ZEST made me slower in getting SPRITZ, my POI. I think David Sullivan above has the correct intended sense of LAND YACHT as a large (usually American but can be from Europe) car. There’s a v. good Wikipedia page on the topic with pics; love that 1974 Chrysler New Yorker.
Favourite among many goodies was the ‘no longer buddy?’ def for 9d.
A DNF as I had to use aids, and inadvertently failed to fill in EQUID at all, never mind actually solve it.
Despite enjoying the challenge there are (for me) a trio of iffy definitions. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but nonetheless…
‘First light’ is quite a bit earlier than ‘sunup’ in my book.
Surely a ‘symphonist’ does far more than merely orchestrate?
And how on Earth does ‘road’ denote ‘land’ in ROADCRAFT? The setter could have punned on the nautical sense of ‘ROAD’ (a protected anchorage) to confuse us more.
All that said, an enjoyable and impressive puzzle.
A delightful puzzle. Plenty of clever clueing, and though much of it was very testing, it was never out of reach. All done in 41 minutes, good for me for a Friday. The NHOs POTOROO, MALAYALAM, ROADCRAFT, could all be worked out from the clueing. More please.
FOI – EXTANT
LOI – HYPONYM
COD – MASON WASP
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
DNF, far too many aids needed (and a few reveals) to get to the end. French not my 2nd language, though I did get a few of them. Thanks team Jeremy and setter!
39.17
Left with COROT and SPRITZ at the end but got them, making the COOT assumption for the former and just a lucky guess for the latter as I’m still not sure how it = SPRAY.
“Better half of pop/song” was genius
Thanks Jeremy and setter
‘Spritz’ is a verb I associate with little devices to lightly water indoor plants using a spray. But I think you could equally have a spritz of perfume or whatnot.
Superb puzzle where the wasp defeated me xxafter 51 minutes of absorbed struggle. I had heard of a mason lamp and though I could not parse it I could find nothing else to fit the checkers. I should have realised with this setter that not a word is used without being necessary and that the with meant w.
Superb clues with very generous wordplay which meant that the unknowns potoroo and corot could be entered with confidence.
Thx Jeremy (and assistants) and setter
It makes me wonder why I bother when I grind to a halt and read the explanations of the answers. All I can say is that there are some very clever and knowledgeable people out there and you have my respect and admiration!
13:13. Great puzzle, quite difficult but I never got completely stuck. Helped by happening to have most of the knowledge. I didn’t know the wasp and wouldn’t have been able to define HYPONYM for you.
I’m unsure about ROADCRAFT. I think ‘a craft that might go on a road’ works, although it’s a bit oblique. The big American car explanation is more direct but works less well with the word ‘craft’. Oh well, the answer was clear.
Terrific puzzle, too good for me. Equid, draw and orange zest not solved after 30 mins. Toenail, corot were brilliant. I thought Orange Vest might be some obscure Tour De France award- queen of the mountains or something. Knew Malayalam through its being the longest palindrome. Hyponym a new one on me.
24:27. A lovely puzzle completed after a day of apricity (an underused word that perfectly describes today’s enjoyment) in the frosty Suffolk countryside. Last two in EQUID and EXTANT. I never noticed the pangram or I might have found the Q quicker. I loved the “better half of pop” and “oil producer” which I only understood when I liked up M Corot post-solve. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Had to look that up…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/winter-words
Definition
: the warmth of the sun in winter
About the Word
This word provides us with evidence that even if you come up with a really great word, and tell all of your friends that they should start using it, there is a very small chance that it will catch on. Apricity appears to have entered our language in 1623, when Henry Cockeram recorded (or possibly invented) it for his dictionary The English Dictionary; or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words. Despite the fact that it is a delightful word for a delightful thing it never quite caught on, and will not be found in any modern dictionary aside from the Oxford English Dictionary.
Example
“These humicubations, the nocturnal irrorations, and the dankishness of the atmosphere, generated by a want of apricity, were extremely febrifacient.” Lorenzo Altisonant (aka Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour), Letters to Squire Pedant, 1856
Another Good Friday
No time as I solve on paper in bits and pieces. I was very pleased to get all without aids – from the excellent clues – including a few unknowns such as Equid and Hyponym. However, the final clue defeated me – I had never heard of our French artist COROT and I could not see past dipstick = CLOT rather than COOT nor from the agricultural meaning of oil producer rather than the artistic one. Doh!
As CLROT was an unlikely oil crop I gave up and consulted Jeremy et al.
Thanks to setter and the NY Solving Coven.
Finished it, but with one wrong letter, as I biffed in EERIE.
Very tough, but some lovely clues. I got MASON WASP from the wordplay, and 1d was the last in when I realised we hadn’t had a Q for the pangram.
Frustrated to be in the OWL club.
Thanks for explaining the MALAYALAM clue.
Thanks Setter!
42.13 and very pleased to finish. Some fiendish, some clever and one so glaringly obvious it was my second last in- draw, argh.
Potoroo, malayalam and mason wasp were my favourites. LOI equid.
Thanks setter and blogger- hope the hangover isn’t too bad? The weekend already looking brighter if not warmer.
DNF by a mile. Too many NHOs:EQUID, MASON WASP, MALAYALAM, POTOROO, HYPONYM,SPRITZ… to have any chance of completing more than a third of it. Disheartening.
I cannot say that I like it when there are so many pretty obscure words in one crossword. Mason Wasp…
After 48 mins of struggling, eventually defeated by COROT.
76′-ish
Started slowly and got progressively slower.
I’d surmised we might be in for a Queen Alexandra Stakes, but this turned out to be a proper Pardubická, with all of its banks ditches and stretches of ploughed field. However, got there in the end with all parsed but havered over equid; having been scotched by teasing near-pangrams in the past, I was wary, but eventually concluded that this setter would finish the job.
I’ve always admired Corot’s landscapes but wouldn’t want one on my wall; they all make me feel cold.
A very enjoyable challenge; many thanks to setter and Jeremy.