DNF. I wish I had been a little more up for a challenge — I’ve been waiting for a puzzle like this for weeks. As it happened, I came to the puzzle quite late and quite discombobulated, and could only manage about 65% before I started looking up answers. Even then, I found myself surprised at the subtlety of the wordplay. Hopefully I’ll have another chance in a few weeks!
| Across | |
| 1 | In which rook may fly to mate? (5,5) |
| SPEED CHESS – cryptic definition
The reference was fairly obvious, but I assumed the answer would be some sort of obscure chess term I didn’t know. |
|
| 7 | One half of crime mystery (4) |
| UNIT – half of WHODUNIT (crime mystery)
Had to look this one up and it still took me ages to parse! |
|
| 9 | Communication device beginning to malfunction on clapped-out Citroën (8) |
| INTERCOM – first letter of MALFUNCTION next to (on) anagram of (clapped-out) CITROËN
One of the easier clues. |
|
| 10 | Exchange for notes and coins remains after banks in Elgin close as early as possible? (6) |
| ENCASH – ASH (remains) after first and last letters (banks) in ELGIN + first letter of (as early as possible?) CLOSE
I suspected this answer but couldn’t make heads or tails (no pun intended) of the clue. |
|
| 11 | Thick rod in which nothing leaves dent (6) |
| DIMPLE – DIM (thick) POLE (rod) – (in which … leaves) O (nothing) | |
| 13 | Repeatedly cut extra diamonds [for] vestment (8) |
| SURPLICE – SURPLUS (extra) with last two letters removed (repeatedly cut) + ICE (diamonds)
Another one that I was only able to parse after the fact. |
|
| 14 | Somehow he felt done in where going on would be futile (3,2,3,4) |
| END OF THE LINE – anagram of (somehow) HE FELT DONE IN | |
| 17 | Stage production of Dante’s Inferno maybe put oneself at risk (4,4,4) |
| PLAY WITH FIRE – double definition, one cryptic
Gosh this was so good, I’m embarrassed I wasn’t able to get it. |
|
| 20 | Classified ad covering second excursion that avoids island (8) |
| ASSORTED – AD around (covering) S (second) SORTIE (excursion) – (that avoids) I (island) | |
| 21 | Moved to act after sons welled up (6) |
| SURGED – URGED (moved to act) after S (sons) | |
| 22 | Old instrument with ridges mostly seen outside India (6) |
| RIBIBE – RIBBED (with ridges) without the last letter (mostly) around (seen outside) I (india) | |
| 23 | Cycling laden, runs into marsh creature (8) |
| BULLFROG – rotate the letters in (cycling) FULL (laden) + R (runs) in (into) BOG (marsh) | |
| 25 | Part of spectrum in glaze of certain pottery (4) |
| MING – hidden in (part of) SPECTRUM IN GLAZE | |
| 26 | Work unexpectedly on the sly secures one way to get a buzz? (10) |
| STYLOPHONE – (unexpectedly) ON THE SLY around (secures) OP (work)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylophone. Looks cool! EDIT: I knew I’d seen this thing before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3p1Yxbp_y4 |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Boarding houses confine children to keep quiet essentially (8) |
| PENSIONS – PEN (confine) SONS (children) around (to keep) middle letter of (essentially) QUIET | |
| 3 | Stopping for a smaller number of sheep (3) |
| EWE – middle letters of (stopping for) FEWER (a smaller number of) | |
| 4 | First hint of chest pain [in] store (5) |
| CACHE – first letter of (first hint of) CHEST + ACHE (pain) | |
| 5 | Turned out active men, working round ship in a group (2,5) |
| EN MASSE – first and last letters of (turned out) ACTIVE + MEN, anagrammed (working) around (round) SS (ship)
Is this what ‘turned out’ means? I guess like if you dump out a garbage can. |
|
| 6 | Herb succeeded by saving a great deal of money (9) |
| SPEARMINT – S (succeeded) PER (by) around (saving) A + MINT (great deal of money) | |
| 7 | Undesirable decision amended under FO checks (8-3) |
| UNCALLED-FOR – anagram of (amended) UNDER FO around (checks) CALL (decision) | |
| 8 | Wretched person belonging to religious faction (6) |
| INSECT – IN (belonging to) SECT (religious faction) | |
| 12 | Ridiculing band turning up repeatedly during middle of night (4-7) |
| POOH-POOHING – HOOP (band) reversed (turning up) twice (repeatedly) IN (during) middle letter of (middle of) NIGHT | |
| 15 | Betrayer[’s] characteristic concerning heads of Security Service (9) |
| TRAITRESS – TRAIT (characteristic) RE (concerning) first letters (heads) of SECURITY SERVICE | |
| 16 | Look of disapproval about withdrawn support capital (8) |
| FREETOWN – FROWN (look of disapproval) around (about) reversal of (withdrawn) TEE (support) | |
| 18 | Dodgy dealer[’s] extra float picked up (4,3) |
| WIDE BOY – WIDE (extra) homophone of (picked up) BUOY (float) | |
| 19 | Help mainly supported by one Umbrian town (6) |
| ASSISI – ASSIST (help) without the last letter (mainly) above (supported by) I (one) | |
| 21 | Eastern European getting tummy upset over outburst (5) |
| SALVO – SLAV (Eastern European) with middle letters switched (getting tummy upset) O (over) | |
| 24 | Note female that amazes me (3) |
| FAH – F (female) AH (that amazes me) | |
This was mostly a biff festival for me – I just didn’t bother with the parsings on a lot of the answers. The list of biffs: uncalled for, surplice, bullfrog, en masse, pooh-poohing, pensions. On the other hand, the ones like stylophone and ribibe definitely required the cryptics, which was good, because I knew nothing about the literals.
I did know wide boy; and I also used to go to a dockside seafood place where the loos were labels BUOYS and GULLS.
Time: 38:39
Do they speak differently in the far NE of USA? All the Americans I’ve ever met working on boats for 30 years pronounce it BOO-IE (BOOEY?). Two long, separate vowels, 100% different to the English/Australian pronunciation BOY.
It’s a pun, delightfully atrocious. “Girls” doesn’t sound just like “gulls” either.
Very fun but gave up at 32′ without RIBIBE or (less forgivably) SURGED. NHO RIBIBE, but apparently it can also mean ‘bawd, prostitute’.
45 minutes apart from RIBIBE which I have never heard of despite having a pretty good knowledge of the names of mediaeval musical instruments. Apparently it’s an alternative name for the better-known ‘rebec’, or at least very similar to it. RIBIBE is not in the ODE but Chambers has it, and Collins where it is also listed as an obsolete derogatory word for an old woman. After looking it up I wasn’t able to parse it so I was never going to get to it by the clue’s alternative route.
WHODUNIT always looks wrong to me and according to at least one of the usual sources is American for WHODUNNIT. Other just have it as an alternative spelling.
I knew STYLOPHONE immediately but unfortunately it will be forever associated with the convicted paedophile, Rolf Harris, who (as Wiki puts it) “served for several years as the Stylophone’s advertising spokesman in the United Kingdom and appeared on many ‘play-along’ records sold by the manufacturer”.
I invented the RIDIGE, which I was fairly sure wouldn’t be right, but did at least parse.
I said yesterday that we’d had quite a few words this week that are unlikely to be in solvers’ vocabulary. All those had been quite sympathetically clued with e.g. unambiguous anagrams or quite familiar synonyms that allowed a solver to build them fairly confidently. This was a bit rough, in contrast!
Failed at RIBIBE and would never have solved it with infinite monkeys. Parsed most of the others except for the “spear” in the herb and the extra “ae” for EN MASSE . STYLOPHONE was yet another instrument I could never play, but thanks Jack for the Rolf picture I can’t now unsee!! Happy enough with this attempt on a Friday. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Very good crossword, and too good for me, I ground to a halt a little under the hour with RIBIBE outstanding (after just getting SURGED). Many good clues that look a lot less threatening now than they did when approached from the other direction. Thanks Jeremy, I think you’re right about ENCASH – whatever that is.
From Heart of Mine:
Heart of mine be still
You can PLAY WITH FIRE but you’ll get the bill
Don’t let her know
Don’t let her know that you love her
Don’t be a fool, don’t be blind
Heart of mine
David Bowie played the STYLOPHONE, and wrote “Space Oddity” on it.
DNF – gave up after 25 mins, having tried to guess DNK RIBIBE.
(I don’t mind failing on a word that I don’t know, though it would be nice to believe that I now do.)
Kraftwerk’s 1981 song ‘Pocket Calculator’ ends with a STYLOPHONE solo.
COD SPEED CHESS
Also failed on RIBIBE which was a shame as I made good progress on the rest. One off for two days running.
Only hold up was an incorrect INCULT rather than INSECT. I was aggrieved but Chambers doesn’t list it as a noun so only got myself to blame. This really didn’t help with the known but rarely uttered ENCASH and SURPLICE. A bit more smooth sailing once spotted.
COD: INTERCOM
Thanks blogger and setter.
Technical DNF as I had to make extensive use of aids to crawl over the line in 49 minutes. PLAY WITH FIRE the best of several excellent clues. Congratulations setter and Jeremy.
I persevered with this until I came to the end of the line (great song) with RIBIBE after about 50 minutes. If I’d waited for another 50 minutes, that one wouldn’t have come. Otherwise a good challenge. COD to WIDE BOY. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Those azure eyes, that faintly dimpled cheek,
Thy tender frame, so eloquently weak
(To Ianthe, Shelley)
30 mins with brekker left the too hard old instrument. A shame, as I liked the rest, and there is no excuse as there are many perfectly sensible words that fit the checkers. It could have been Divine.
Ta setter and PJ.
DNF, defeated by the unknown RIBIBI (even if (I’d thought of ribbed I’m not sure I would have gambled on it).
– Only parsed UNIT a while after I’d entered it
– Had no idea how EWE worked
– Didn’t parse EN MASSE beyond the SS bit
– Thought of Slav early on for 21 but didn’t see how to get from there to SALVO for a very long time
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
COD Spearmint
No-one seems to have mentioned the SIDEARM and THE EDGE down the sides, incidentally. A shame it doesn’t really help with the instrument!
Never see Ninas.
Are the two at all associated, do they mean anything? Or just random word and phrase? Google suggest the second.
I sometimes scan for them if I’m really stuck, although it’s rare to see on in the Times. As far as I know those are just two words/phrases that, appropriately enough given their location, relate to ‘side’.
RIBIBE and STYLOPHONE were wing and a prayer stuff, so I was happy to be all green in the end. I checked after and Chambers doesn’t even include STYLOPHONE. Anyway, a challenge as often happens on Friday, but I got there.
Are we meant to think of ‘stopping’ as being the archaic term for a dental filling and then think of the ‘filling’ of ‘fewer’ being EWE? SURGED was odd too, there’s no reason the clue couldn’t have said ‘son’ rather than ‘sons’ and WHODUNIT is a weird spelling. Tricky overall today I think.
DNF after around 35 minutes but feel I got most of what I could have. Had about 10 clues left.
NHO RIBIBE, SURPLICE.
On a more meta level, I think I struggled with two things:
1) Indirect wordplay that just falls the right side of being an indirect anagram (e.g. FULL in BULLFROG; UNIT in WHODUNIT)
2) Sons = S, Runs = R. Just wasn’t sure that the plural forms were acceptable here.
Yes, both plurals are standard and are well supported in the dictionaries.
Stopped after 25′ without RIBIBE, which belongs in a Mephisto or an Azed (i.e. a puzzle where one might be expected to use aids).
Liked SALVO once I’d got it.
Thanks jeremy and setter.
Weird week of plodding and struggle and being defeated by the QC only to cruise sedately through this in 33 mins.
Of course I had NHO RIBIBE but could think of no alternative to Ribbed so shrugged and submitted.
LOI: PENSIONS
COD: PLAY WITH FIRE
Thanks to Jeremy and a setter who is clearly on my wavelength
Only five answers after 15 mins, so gave up knowing I’d never have time to complete. Wouldn’t have got RIBIBE, and it seems there were some other odd spellings and clueing today (INSECT = ‘wretched person’? Really?). Too tough unless you’re either a lot brighter than me and/or a retiree.
Another DNF with, you guessed it, RBBIDIBBIWOTSIT totally bamboozling me. Add to that BULLFROG & SALVO and we have complete washout.
Did guess at STYLOPHONE though and I liked PLAY WITH FIRE.
Thanks Jeremy.
A confident CHESS BOARD followed by an equally confident (if invented) MICRONET started a fraught 33.42 solve. I essayed a BENLADOG (why not?) at 23, and invented TUGEE for the outburst at 21 (that’s E E GUT reversed – the wordplay’s perfect). Time wasted working out what half-crime led to UN and why IT was a mystery. The fact that I once owned a STYLOPHONE didn’t help with getting it: was the sound really a buzz? And let us never speak again of the RIBIBE, which I suspect made a similar sound. Rebecks, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
Me too on CHESS BOARD and MICRONET. Didn’t last long though.
bandelog, apparently type of monkey. parses perfectly. bullfrog too simple
And me (CHESS BOARD/MICRONET)
DNF. I was never going to get the obscure instrument in a month of Sundays so I’m glad I didn’t persevere with it for too long. The fact that the vast majority of solvers here failed on it is perhaps indicative of the quality of the clue.
Around 14 minutes for all but the dreaded instrument which I eventually gave up on. As checking letters go -I-I -E isn’t the most helpful.
I thought this was a very poor puzzle.
What’s the point of having loads of clues that don’t seem to parse properly ?
Please give some examples.
‘Moved to’ does not = urged. ‘Moved to’ is the response to being urged not the urge itself. ‘I was moved to act after/upon the urgings of my peers’.
The ‘turned out’ device. The ‘stopping’ device. ‘Bullfrog’ verging on an indirect anagram. ‘Insect’. ‘Play with fire’ is barely cryptic, and the surface makes no sense.
I would argue ‘checks’ means ‘get in the way of’- so inside rather than outside. Assorted means ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘in no particular order’, so the opposite of the definition unless we are dealing with some Americanism.
‘Tummy upset’ is a bit cavalier.
‘Ah’ = ‘that amazes me’. Really? I’d have said it was an expression of recognition of something that I’ve temporarily forgotten. ‘Ah’ would be a pretty low-key reaction to being amazed, almost to the point of not being amazed at all.
For all that, this has the feel of an American crossword so I suppose most of these things are meat and drink to our cousins.
I suspect the onslaught of bizarreness is a bit much for English tastes though.
It had the feel of an American puzzle.
Not that it exonerates it, but they do use language somewhat differently over there!
Got everything apart from ribibe. Same as everyone else, really.
Thanks, pj.
42.13 but
Did think of RIBBED very early on but ignored the necessary solution as implausible. After 5 minutes I thought I might as well check that such a nonsense couldn’t appear in an otherwise enjoyable puzzle. Imagine my surprise.
RIBIBE was risible. If Friday is going to turn into Mephisto-day I’ll just skip it. Pity. Jeremiah was a BULLFROG.
He was a good friend of mine…..
I agree.
DNF. Close, but no cigar. Good blog… and Xword?
8a Unit. Biffed, never thought of whodunit. I was looking for an eight letter crime leaving four for a mystery. Bother! Well done setter.
13a surplice not parsed at all. Thanks jeremy. Also I thought it was spelt serplice so it was never going to parse. DNF, OWL here.
20a Assorted. Does assorted=classified? Not IMO. MER. Sorted=classified, yes.
21a Surged=welled up? Not in my book but entered as obviously the answer.
NHO 22a Ribibe. I essayed Dirige, (RIDGE*)s plus I(ndia). My dictionary says Dirige is a RC service for the dead, not an instrument, even an old one.
23a Bullfrog COD.
NHO 26a Stylophone. I really don’t think I have HO because not in Cheating Machine. Added. Not in the Collins cheater either, that offered Shylocking (I hadn’t solved 24d).
3d Ewe. Clever, but does the clue work?
Thanks plusjeremy & setter
The fist definition of ‘assort’ in Collins is ‘to arrange or distribute into groups of the same type; classify’.
I thought that 3dn didn’t work but it turns out that that a ‘stopping’ is a dental filling, so I think it does.
We sometimes get “X stops some word” meaning X in the middle of some word. I often need to take a second to think ‘Oh, yeah’, so backfilling was close enough.
But then we have the scenario where ‘checks’ and ‘stopping’ mean the same thing but are used differently in the same crossword-as in ‘ewe’ and ‘uncalled for’.
Exactly! That’s probably why I always have to stop and think a little.
Failed. Another one to be snared by the ‘Old instrument’ for which spotting the Nina mentioned by Amoeba might have helped as RIBIBE had crossed my mind, only (like Dvynys) to be dismissed as too unlikely a word. Jeremiah occurred to me as well for the BULLFROG so I now have an earworm to remind me of today’s pink squares.
Did not finish. Did not enjoy. Way too tenuous in places (whodUNIT). Multiple NHO obscurities – RIBIBE, really? TRAITRESS can’t be a word. STYLOPHONE a buzzer?
Give me normal, even esoteric, words that are amusingly clued and I’ll be happy. Today: no.
Just my opinion, others might love it.
I share that opinion.
But, as I’ve learnt the hard way, you won’t get much traction on here. Somebody will always throw an obscure dictionary reference at you, and that essentially shuts down the discussion.
I’m not sure dictionary trawls were/are the intended outcome of cryptic crossword solves?
Why did we have RIBIBE, when divine would have been much more suitable? I should have solved it from wordplay, as I should with STYLOPHONE, but couldn’t and used electronic aids on each. Unfortunately Chambers has also nho STYLOPHONE. Much of this was very nice, though. Not the most difficult Friday crossword we could have had, but it’s come to something when I say this and the SNITCH is still approaching 150. 60 minutes.
15:34, but submitted off-board – I wouldn’t have entered RIBIBE with any confidence unless I’d first checked that it existed, but as others have already said, why choose that word instead of several non-obscure words which would fit the checkers? Anything goes in the trickier puzzles, but even on a Friday, wilful obscurantism is not the sort of test I enjoy in the normal 15×15, I’m afraid. Shame, as I enjoyed much of the rest.
Well I would have finished in 32:55 except for two things.
1. I have to admit googling RIDIGE to see if ir existed, when it didn’t thinking a bit and then googling RIBIBE which worked
2. More annoyingly, I had SCRIED for 21 ac which kind of works (cried = Welled up but scrying for moving to act I suppose was a push 😉 )
Thanks blogger and setter
I had SCRIED too, wondering if scrying was something to do with moving a ouija board. Karma for having used aids for RIBIBE
Re SCRIED. Me too!
RIBIBE ffs!
My thoughts exactly!
Ribibe schribibe. Why not finite, or divine, or divide, or simile or virile .
Ok otherwise. I liked POOHPOOHING.
Another Friday, another DNF.
STYLOPHONE and ENCASH fine by me but defeated by POOH-POOHING and, of course, RIBIBE.
I got Ribibe! It was a toss-up between Ribibe and Hipipe – as in a hipped roof having ridges. Hipipe actually sounds more like an old instrument but Ribbed sounds more like “with ridges”. So favoured by fortune today.
Took me over 60 minutes, though
Enjoyed the puzzle – MER at essentially quiet = i, but a nice puzzle plus a “Travelling Wilburys” reference.
Hipipe was my other option and tbh it seemed more likely
Came to this late, after golfing in the sunshine. Didn’t have any problems, 30 minutes, but thanks for parsing EWE which I needed to have explained. RIBIBE rang a faint bell but didn’t know it was the same as a rebec.
Another fail here. Rare for me, but although I got them, just couldn’t get the cryptic for ENCASH, UNIT and SURPLICE. RIBIBE ungettable.
103 minutes with the usual problem. I stuck at it because I’ve never come close to completing a week before, but I eventually gave up and chucked in an unlikely SIPINE for RIBIBE. Which I’ve never heard of and wouldn’t have solved. UNIT, BULLFROG, SALVO and STYLOPHONE were all guessed. Thanks Jeremy for unpicking it all.
DNF
FOI MICRONET! EN MASSE put me straight and I was delighted to finish in about half an hour with LOI RIDIGE.
Would never have got RIBIBE. Shame about that clue, otherwise I thought it was excellent: thanks all.
Re. 23a..can someone please advise on how ‘cycling’ works- is it always moving the first letter to the end or is it more random than that? I’m constantly confused by this.
David, take a look in our Glossary linked RH under Useful links or on the Help menu. It has an explanation with diagram.
I was doing OK until RIBIBE. Got it eventually although I was surprised to find that it actually was a word. NHO STYLOPHONE – assumed it was a kind of telephone because of the ‘buzz’ reference, as in ‘I’ll give you a buzz’. A very nice puzzle.
72m. SNITCH at 150 odds was ominous, but surprised to get most (eventually). Like some RIBIBE and BULLFROG needed some help / were tough. On SURGED, I also had SCRIED, which seems to be a valid, but wrong, word. A few biffs too but expected for this level of difficulty. Few comments on not liking this one bit thought it was ok. Steep learning curve but RIBIBE ain’t one I’ll be able to drop into any conversation. Ever.
Bit late to this but enjoyed it save for ribibe which I put dirige which sort of parses. Took ages over unit because to me a whodunnit is a Murder not a Crime mystery. I dont recall anybody ever saying crime mystery in my earshot this last 75 years.
Good point.
RIBIBE was one of those rare clues which I think was completely unfair. An obsolete name for a pretty obscure medieval instrument, where the only filler was _I_I_E and you could guess that there was a word for RIDGED fitting the pattern ??I?ED or ?I??ED. And yes, I used help!
Persevered for just over 70 minutes but beaten by, yes you’ve guessed it, RIBIBE. Quite pleased to get that close on a tough puzzle, but frustrating to fall at the last.
I got to this late because I was at a concert which featured a Theorbo and I think also a Rebec / Ribibe. I didn’t know the name of the Rebec, but I liked the music.
As for the puzzle, I noticed that the setter was, surprisingly, able to be very clever and witty on exactly all the difficult words which I got, but seemed to go too far on all the ones I wasn’t going to get. How he do that?
34:22 but…
…cheated with RIBIBE – for heaven’s sake! I was also initially in the CHESS BOARD/MICRONET club, though the downs soon put paid to those. I liked PLAY WITH FIRE and ENCASH a lot, but was mildly perturbed by 7a with only a single N for WHODUNNIT. The STYLOPHONE hit number one in the charts with David Bowie’s Space Oddity on re-release 1975.
Thanks PJ and setter
36 minute DNF with DIRIGE.