17:18, indicating a gentler puzzle, at least by my standards. One answer seemed to speak to me directly.
| Across | |
| 1 | Cook’s last to assess meat, after a strike by one of the hands (6,4) |
| KARATE CHOP – {coo}K + RATE CHOP after A | |
| 6 | Ruler suppressed in Communist’s ardour (4) |
| TSAR – hidden | |
| 9 | B&B in valley beside river — one not fully occupied? (7) |
| DABBLER – BB in DALE + R | |
| 10 | Fear being overwhelmed by germ in algae (7) |
| SEAWEED – AWE in SEED | |
| 12 | Network uncovered in top-level location (5) |
| ATTIC – {l}ATTIC{e}
Nice definition. |
|
| 13 | Perfect excuse briefly put forward around end of November (9) |
| EXEMPLARY – EXEMP{t} + LAY around {novembe}R | |
| 14 | Map user confused about following a topic in scientific discipline (4,11) |
| PURE MATHEMATICS – anagram of MAP USER around THEMATIC (following a topic) | |
| 17 | Academic mistaking surgeries for ops? (6,9) |
| REGIUS PROFESSOR – anagram of SURGERIES FOR OPS | |
| 20 | International body’s hostility having secured nothing like complete agreement (9) |
| UNANIMOUS – UN + ANIMUS around O | |
| 21 | Reduced pace of horse on course (5) |
| TROON – TRO{t} + ON
I think this is a golf course. My last in, and took several minutes. |
|
| 23 | Curse Rev’s way of projecting hurtful things? (7) |
| BLOWGUN – BLOW (curse) + GUN (rev)
“Blow it” / “curse it”, I suppose. |
|
| 24 | Insulting our group in a bad vibe (7) |
| ABUSIVE – US in A + anagram of VIBE | |
| 25 | Top part of church lacking second cross (4) |
| APEX – AP{s}E + X | |
| 26 | Former lover clearly gutted about writer, having long hidden desirability (10) |
| EXPEDIENCY – EX + C{learl}Y around PEN around DIE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Hoax one out to become criminal (9) |
| KIDNAPPER – KID + NAPPER (one out)
Liked this. |
|
| 2 | Book probing source subject of much SF (5) |
| ROBOT – B in ROOT
Did not know SF = Science Fiction. |
|
| 3 | Satisfied about limiting the French company putting damper on WFH (13) |
| TELECOMMUTING – (MET reversed, around LE + CO) + MUTING (putting damper on) | |
| 4 | Top soldier concealing mistake upheld in court, right? (7) |
| CORRECT – CO around ERR reversed in CT | |
| 5 | Vulgar science graduate, last to apologise, interrupts joke (7) |
| OBSCENE – BSC + {apologis}E in ONE
“Did you hear the one about…” |
|
| 7 | Dramatic outlines: call for assistance about translation of Racine (9) |
| SCENARIOS – SOS around anagram of RACINE | |
| 8 | Friend, heading off after run, glowing with health? (5) |
| RUDDY – {b}UDDY after R | |
| 11 | Interstellar travel target adjusted at pre-launch — excellent to adopt that (5,8) |
| ALPHA CENTAURI – anagram of AT PRE-LAUNCH in AI | |
| 15 | Set up graduate function? It’s a complicated process (9) |
| RIGMAROLE – RIG + MA + ROLE | |
| 16 | Wandering figure adopting new set unexpectedly (9) |
| STRANGELY – STRAY around N + GEL | |
| 18 | Fabulous bird, chicken, capturing duck in pictures (7) |
| PHOENIX – HEN around O, in PIX | |
| 19 | Male interrupting individual mid-performance? (7) |
| ONSTAGE – STAG in ONE | |
| 20 | Shade insensitive to neglect new artist (5) |
| UMBRA – {n}UMB + RA | |
| 22 | I tucked into banned item, with spinning head (5) |
| ONION – I in NO-NO reversed | |
31:23
Done on the ferry across Cook Strait between Picton and Wellington. A beautiful summers day, marvellous scenery in the Marlborough Sounds, and a fine crossword. Does it get better than this?
The only undesirable was EXPEDIENCY, which I wouldn’t have thought in any way desirable, but rather the opposite as immorally useful. For example, it might be thought ‘expedient ‘ to abandon Ukraine to save money. But I see , after checking, that it is a valid meaning .
To ignore the incredible scenery on such a gloriously sunny day in favour of doing the crossword? Now that’s true dedication.
Envy… does it get any better? Well, do you have a nice glass of something there?
Around 60 minutes. I finished the top half in about 20 minutes but the bottom half slowed me down considerably. I found getting a golf course TROON instead of my expected horse related course rather a surprise. The wording of the ONION clue “with spinning head” rather confused me and had me thinking about the first letter being somehow involved. Spinning seems a less clear reversal indicator and putting it as “with spinning” to me made it unfathomable.
Thanks Jeremy
Great crossword but no walk in the park for me, pleased to get it done all CORRECT in 37.23. Some brilliant wordplay expertly explained by Jeremy who obviously flew through this challenging puzzle. It took me an age to get going with 7dn SCENARIOS my FOI from memory.
From (yet again) You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go:
Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love
It’s always hit me from below
This time around it’s more CORRECT
Right on target, so direct
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go
Could not find TROON in Collins, Dictionary.com, Chambers even.
Turns out it’s a brand name.
I suppose Vinyl will know it.
It’s a famous golf course in Scotland – Royal Troon – which hosts the Open Golf Championships on occasion. Also the name of the town where it is.
Yes, a proper name, so not in those dictionaries, and also a company name. TROON.com.
.
Collins lists a lot of place names on-line, or used to. I’m a bit surprised they don’t have the town Troon, so perhaps it’s the result of the very recent rejigging of the site content.
….and home to the famous ‘Postage Stamp hole, the 8th. It’s the shortest hole ever played at The Open but there have only ever been 4 holes-in-one at that hole.
I’ve played Royal Troon three or four times, and unexpectedly managed to get a birdie on the Postage Stamp. The hole by the railway line is pretty scary. I’m surprised, though, that it’s expected to be widely enough known to be a cryptic crossword clue answer.
I’m VERY impressed with your birdie on The Postage Stamp, Pip!
My ’15 minutes of fame’ came when I once holed a long putt for a par across the 18th green at the Old Course at St Andrews in front of a small number of spectators.
So easy for some, but not for me. I gave up with 70 minutes on the clock and 3 intersecting answers missing in the SE – STRANGELY, ONION and TROON.
A very similar experience here, except it was EXPEDIENCY and ONION that I couldn’t get.
Nor me. Not on this setter’s wavelength. Gave up on the hour with half a dozen missing.
30:46
A SNITCH of 130 does not sound too gentle, and Jeremy’s is virtually the only green score at the moment.
I biffed a half-dozen or so and had to come here to see the parsing of three of them. Oddly enough, no problem with TROON. LOI STRANGELY.
Wavelength…
10.12, started like a train, slowed a little but not too much. On the wavelength today it seems. I’ve just about heard of TROON, but like KensoGhost was surprised not to find a racecourse appear from the wordplay. An enjoyable one, with a bit of biffing for the longer answers.
Thanks both.
40:22. a gentle one for a Friday I think. was a bit confused by ONION for head, not one I’ve seen before. maybe it just refers to the vegetable. enjoyably tricky wordplay which seems to have been a theme this week. thank you both
‘Onion’ is slang for ‘head’. Quite old-fashioned now I think, although I’ve come across it – not sure if the origin goes beyond both being somewhat round!
Bertie Wooster uses the “old onion” sometimes, if I remember
After 86m 42s of hard slog I still typed in TELECOMPUTING. STRANGELY and ONION were my LOIs. 22d was a straight choice for me: ONION or ORION. Onion won but I would like to have seen an explanation from Jeremy, who seems to have found this rather easy, as to how ONION = Head. I thought the purpose of this blog was to explain the clues.
See my comment above, Martin – it’s slang.
Thanks, Amoeba. I did see your comment but I was having a dig at Jeremy.
I have my reasons for explaining what I explain. I’ve never heard of ONION = head (indeed there are lots of words in every puzzle I solve I’ve never heard of), but once I’ve put the two together for you, I don’t think there’s anything more enlightening I have to say on the subject.
What would have been enlightening was how ONION = ‘head’.
We speak of a head of garlic. Is it head in that sense?
Do we? If we do, sorry, I’ve not heard that expression.
“How” does any word mean another word?? Some words mean other words.
I’m with you: I haven’t heard of ONION = ‘head’ either, and probably most people haven’t. But ONION and ‘head’ are both roundish things so apparently this is an attested meaning and yhere’s not much more I can say. If ONION had been clued by ‘diplodocus’ or ‘vanilla ice cream’ you can be sure I would have commented!
There is undoubtedly an etymology of ONION = ‘head’ which you can look up if they are interested, but surely there isn’t anything subtle going on. (ONION = ‘head’ makes a lot more sense than ‘bean’ = ‘head’ for what it’s worth…)
Anyone is allowed to blog the way they like, and some put more detail than others. Where I feel my commentary is necessary is for something like BLOW = ‘curse’ or ONE = ‘joke’, where it’s not at all clear that one word could conceivably mean the other. But like I say, that’s just my style, for better or worse.
If I may say so a rather ungenerous comment bearing in mind bloggers give up a lot of time and effort for our benefit.
Sorry to have offended.
I found this very tough.In the end, I assumed 16d was STRANGELY. Similarly with 20a andEXPEDIENCY. I once played Royal Troon on a corporate golf day, with the wind howling. I find it difficult enough to put a stamp on an envelope. Applied Maths may have scientific connotations, but Pure Maths?| I needed aids and still took the hour on this. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Chambers defines mathematics as a science in its own right, and I think I agree…
Half an hour, finishing with an uncertain BLOWGUN as blow=curse wasn’t obvious to me.
Otherwise this was fairly straightforward for a Friday, with only the NE corner taking a while to fall into place and a biffed CORRECT (I didn’t see the double containment indicators).
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
FOI Tsar
LOI Blowgun
COD Karate chop
18:52. Held up for a couple of minutes at the end by UMBRA, BLOWGUN, TROON (my COD) and LOI ONION. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
15:19, with quite a long pause at the end trying and failing to justify BLOWGUN. Eventually I just bunged it in and was surprised to see an all-green grid. I still don’t understand how curse = blow, Jeremy’s valiant attempt at an explanation notwithstanding.
To be honest, I found that in Chambers. Not my favorite clue and it was a stab in the dark for me.
I can’t see it in Chambers, but it’s a long entry.
Def. 12 under “transitive verb”: (in imprecations) to curse, confound, blast (usu with me, it). The note on tense forms at the top says that “in imprecations,” the past tense can be “blowed.”
Oh yeah, don’t now how I missed that!
To the extent I’ve ever heard people say ‘blow me’ (stop that sniggering in the back), it’s an expression of surprise, synonymous with ‘stone me’ or ‘blow me down’.
I counted a baker’s half dozen (that would be 7) synonyms of sorts today where I could see a kind of connection after I’d “solved” a clue, but where I never could have constructed the answer from the cluing alone because I’d never have thought of “lay” from “put forward” or “one” for “joke”. And then we get to “blow” and “curse”
A steady solve but the SE took a little while, ONION and TROON both being STRANGELY unlikely answers. Still, no complaints.
There are several Regius professors of pure mathematics, I wonder if one of them commissioned this?
How wonderful to see PURE MATHEMATICS as an answer, my discipline, which ten years after retirement still fills me with awe.
Couldn’t understand BLOW = curse, like others, and why ‘with spinning’?
17’46”, thanks jeremy and setter.
The meaning as given in Chambers is as in the expression “Blow it” or “blow me”.
I can’t find either ‘blow it’ or ‘blow me’ in Chambers!
I think “X with/after/upon/on etc GERUND” describes what’s going on sufficiently. Not strictly necessary in the cryptic, but nor is it entirely superfluous.
RobR No No, but spin the first No into On
I thought that was a stinker. Started quickly enough slowing to a right battle at the bottom only to submit with a careless pink in REGEUS from not checking the anagram properly.
EXPEDIENCY = Desirability? In solving crosswords maybe but otherwise harrumph.
Took an age over ONION, BLOW and parsing STRANGELY.
Thanks both
36 mins but a bit of a plod. LOI onion which I didn’t parse but fitted with the crossers. Enjoyed it and the long solutions were tricky but gettable. Telecommuting was my COD but expediency was a clever combination as was blowgun.
Thx setter and blogger.
BLOW this for a game of soldiers! 24.20, finishing up in the SE corner, of(f) course, struggling to see how RANGE for wandering worked in the strangely clue, trying to work a horse’s trot and a tea course into the same 5 squares, and what banned object wasn’t TABU, UBIAT not being in my vocab. Hurt my ONION.
Other than that, and managing in the last second before submitting to change TELECOMMUNING, this wasn’t that tricky. Just mildly irritating, though I can’t tell you why. Perhaps it’s partly because I had no idea about WFH until that correction sneaked in. Thought it might be a curse. Or three curses.
Struggled for 35 minutes with this – a lot of it on ONION and TROON. Unfortunately I had entered TELECOMPUTING long before that. Not been a good day.
Thanks to William and the setter.
70 mins.
Got through it. Blow = curse. Whevs.
Thanks, pj.
Not a speed solve today as the school decided to call me halfway through. A bit annoying as I had KARATE CHOP straight in and was making rapid progress.
After that I took it slow but found the SW corner slow going (so doubt it would have been a good time for me). Had SHOTGUN in for a while (thinking SHOT was a politer version of… well you can guess). Once I had UMBRA it fell in to place but I wasn’t entirely happy with BLOWGUN. LOI was APEX which was a lot simpler than I was making it out to be. A few including ONION I was a bit unsure on
NHO TROON, I’ve never gone beyond a crazy golf course.
Started quickly with ATTIC, DABBLER and ROBOT, and finished in a reasonable trot with TROON, EXPEDIENCY and finally ONION for which I did spot the parsing. TROON took a while! 20:46. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
I saw the first three across clues straightaway, but it couldn’t last and I staggered home in 31 minutes. Still, not too bad for a Friday. The long across clues were friendly and helped me on my way, but not in the SW corner, where I too hesitated over BLOWGUN — because of the GUN rather than the BLOW, which was a frequent mild curse in my family years ago.
FOI – KARATE CHOP
LOI – BLOWGUN
COD – KARATE CHOP
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
Quite a few difficult/unlikely words here, so it took me a while even though it was easy enough once the answer was there. WFH = working from home must be well-known because Jeremy never thought it necessary to say what it meant, but it had escaped me and so 3dn was tricky. 74 minutes, with aids by the end. I never realised that BLOWGUN was a word. And I always miss rev = gun.
17:30 – nice and easy for a Friday, apart from briefly putting NIBBLER, without much conviction, at 9ac (Nile valley + R).
A fail in just under an hour. Like a couple of other posters above I put in an unparsed TELECOMPUTING for 3d but with several others semi-guessed I could easily have had another three or four incorrect. A toughie for me.
54:13. Happy to finish. it looks more straightforward, looking back, so I’m feeling I made a meal of it. LOI BLOWGUN, where I’m OK with Blow! as a (very mild) curse but I think of the device as a blowpipe which didn’t help. I liked KIDNAPPER and STRANGELY
25:43
Apart from the last few minutes trying to justify BLOWGUN after spotting UMBRA and APEX, I found this very accessible. Again one of those where an enforced absence with 38% done, saw a couple of useful answers fall into place immediately upon my return. Fortunately know of TROON as one of the Open golf courses (not that I particularly follow golf), and PURE MATHEMATICS is the subject my second eldest read at uni, so no problem there.
Thanks PJ and setter
45 mins DNF
Strangely completely off the wavelength. For some reason I just couldn’t see the comparatively straightforward RIGMAROLE not helped by the crossing BLOWGUN which came to mind but I didn’t think it was a thing and couldn’t parse it.
Nice puzzle, took me half an hour. I liked the “interstellar travel target” and didn’t understand ONION but it had to be. TROON not a problem, as noted above.
COD = ALPHA CENTAURI, obviously
Submitted off-leader board since I was convinced my LOI EXPEDIENCY would be wrong. It was the only word that seemed to fit, but I could not work out where the DIE came from, or how expediency meant desirability.
I found this very tough, and I was happy to complete with all correct albeit in a lengthy 65.04. It took me the best part of ten minutes to get the last two STRANGELY and finally BLOWGUN.
37 mins, bit slow. Main problem was trying to put in CURRENT instead of CORRECT. DIE is a bit of a stretch for Long, and completely lost the cryptic for STRANGELY.
An hour on the dot. When I was young I certainly heard people say ‘Oh, blow!’ As for ONION, I probably mis-parsed it, thinking along the lines of a ‘head’ of its fellow allium, garlic.
50 minutes, steady but sure.
As others have said, Blow for Curse had me looking for alternatives until I decided there weren’t any.
My COD to Kidnapper.
Blow was no problem, but I’d never seen Rev = gun before.
DNF today. I liked Alpha Centauri and pure mathematics.
I thought it was rev = revolver, but having seen your comment, it be from gunning the throttle of the engine, is to rev it.
26.48. Couldn’t fully parse ‘Troon’ – just knew it as a golf course: it looks obvious now it’s explained.
Lay, Blow, Die, Kid, One, and Desireability as synonymys, along with simply incorrect (as different to cleverly misleading) containment grammar at 4d had me gritting my teeth and saying “well, OK, I can see the connection, but… but I’ll still plug on”. I’m a bit sorry now that I did.
Nice puzzle, thanks setter and Jeremy.
Jeremy I don’t think you revealed which clue it was that seemed to speak to you directly did you? Are you perhaps a REGIUS PROFESSOR of PURE MATHEMATICS? Or a TELECOMMUTER from ALPHA CENTAURI?
Well, it took me all day, in various sittings before and after meals, and after the pub. All correct, with STRANGELY the last in.
I like it, with the word play clear and smooth deceptive surfaces. Enjoyed KARATE CHOP.
I think PG Wodehouse uses the old ONION a fair bit.
Thanks Jeremy and Setter
Well, it took me all day, in various sittings before and after meals, and after the pub. All correct, with STRANGELY the last in.
I like it, with the word play clear and smooth deceptive surfaces. Enjoyed KARATE CHOP
Thanks Jeremy and Setter
Posting a comment the next day is usually a bit of a waste of time because I assume no one will read it but I had a similar experience. I almost gave up with less than half the clues solved but was very glad I persevered and coming to it fresh again the next day seemed to make all the difference. I agonised for a long time on my LOI EXPEDIENCY because I really didn’t think it could mean desirability.
The blogger always sees!!
And those of us who do the puzzle in The Australian newspaper nearly five weeks later.
Ditto. Not least because I prefer a treeware solve, I only use the online version when away from Australia. Yesterday the paper was sodden due to a torn wrap and a 301mm deluge, so it was ironed. By spouse, butlers being scarce round here.
But I assume you could do the UK paper online like some of your compatriots. It would make this blogg much more enjoyable for you. But I guess that means taking out a subscription to the UK Times.
I found this too tough for me, and had to look up a few just to get going again. Tried to parse those I looked up, but to no avail on BLOWGUN, EXPEDIENCY, PURE MATHEMATICS, etc. Couldn’t see the very vague synonyms. I think I’ve heard of Troon, but couldn’t tell you what it is, or what separates a REGIUS PROFESSOR from an ordinary one…
I realised it was not going to to be my day when I mistakenly thought 1a would be something like PASTRY CHEF!
Try again tomorrow.