59:07, although I did have to look things up as I solved. I found this very difficult, though I had the suspicion if I’d known a few more things, it might have been quite a bit easier. Then again, if I’d known a few less things, it might have been quite a bit harder.
| Across | |
| 1 | Community recall something yellow from space spinning with ends inverted (4,6) |
| FOLK MEMORY – YOLK (something yellow) + FROM EM (space) reversed (spinning) with the first and last letters switched (ends inverted) | |
| 6 | Twilight beginning to diffuse Welsh river (4) |
| DUSK – first letter of (beginning to) DIFFUSE + USK (Welsh river) | |
| 10 | Primarily, officer aiming to ease Scott? (5) |
| OATES – first letters of (primarily) OFFICER AIMING TO EASE SCOTT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Oates for an explainer. |
|
| 11 | Make a fuss [of] dry hair, barely entering shower (5,4) |
| RAISE CAIN – SEC (dry) + {h}AI{r} (hair, barely) in (entering) RAIN (shower) | |
| 12 | Labels on estates, maybe huge spades and hearts (6,8) |
| BUMPER STICKERS – BUMPER (huge) S (spades) + (and) TICKERS (hearts)
As in a bumper crop. |
|
| 14 | Italian gentleman, duke, wanting introduction set aside (7) |
| IGNORED – SIGNORE (Italian gentleman) D (duke) without the first letter (wanting introduction) | |
| 15 | King perhaps takes good man [for] some kind of thief (7) |
| RUSTLER – RULER (king perhaps) around (takes) ST (good man) | |
| 17 | Fellow Conservative more willing to shun Republican (7) |
| CHAPPIE – C (Conservative) HAPPIER (more willing) – (to shun) R (Republican) | |
| 19 | ISP charging lead joining termini of line ending in famous Scottish town (7) |
| PEEBLES – EE (ISP) in (charging) PB (lead) + (joining) first and last letters (termini) of LINE + last letter (ending) in FAMOUS
Okay this was quite hard. I definitely couldn’t follow the wordplay until looking everything up, but somehow I had heard of the town and was able to guess it. |
|
| 20 | Barristers once condemned French photographer (7-7) |
| CARTIER-BRESSON – anagram of (condemned) BARRISTERS ONCE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson |
|
| 23 | Italian Madam admitting state returned [for] added notes (9) |
| ANNOTATED – DONNA (Italian Madam) around (admitting) ÉTAT (state) reversed (returned)
I believe this is what is known as a MER. Chambers lists ‘état’ as French. I suppose if an English dictionary lists a word as being French, that means it is used frequently enough. Still, feels like a bold move to use it without any indication. Fortunately, this was one of the puzzle’s easier clues. |
|
| 24 | Periodically, rival business plugs holiday destination (5) |
| IBIZA – BIZ (business) in (plugs) every other letter of (periodically) RIVAL
Never remember BIZ. Kept trying to get CO in there. |
|
| 25 | Segment of scintillating glacial deposit (4) |
| TILL – hidden in (segment of) SCINTILLATING | |
| 26 | Arm broken — cast urgent (7-3) |
| SCATTER-GUN – anagram of (broken) CAST URGENT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Out of shape with change of heart (4) |
| FROM – FORM (shape) with middle letters reversed (change of heart) | |
| 2 | Naked thug invades new Italian republic (9) |
| LITHUANIA – {t}HU{g} (naked thug) in (invades) anagram of (new) ITALIAN | |
| 3 | Nick is in plan favouring power over one in charge (14) |
| MISAPPROPRIATE – IS in MAP (plan) + PRO (favouring) P (power) + (over) I (one) in RATE (charge) | |
| 4 | Knight doctor for keeping calm given final twist? (7) |
| MORDRED – MD (doctor) around (for keeping) ORDER (calm) with last two letters switched (given final twist)
I didn’t quite clock the wordplay here, but I remembered MORDRED as being a name from Arthurian legend, and assumed he (?) was a ‘knight doctor’. Turns out MORDRED was knighted. |
|
| 5 | Celebrate first person being enrolled seemingly (7) |
| ROISTER – I (first person) in ROSTER (being enrolled, seemingly) | |
| 7 | Flag carried in universal European custom (5) |
| USAGE – SAG (flag) in (carried in) U (universal) E (European) | |
| 8 | Station sign somehow breaks 1000 times (5,5) |
| KINGS CROSS – SIGN anagrammed (somehow) in (breaks) K (1000) CROSS (times) | |
| 9 | County re-elects Irish eccentric earl (14) |
| LEICESTERSHIRE – RE-ELECTS IR (Irish) anagrammed (eccentric) + E (earl)
Didn’t know E = earl. Would have been helpful! |
|
| 13 | Kind of charming desire to occupy toilet a lot (10) |
| WITCHCRAFT – ITCH (desire) in (to occupy) WC (toilet) RAFT (a lot) | |
| 16 | Clumsily running lines going round houses (9) |
| LOLLOPING – LOOPING (going round) around (houses) LL (lines) | |
| 18 | Wandering blackleg stuck in Morecambe? (7) |
| ERRATIC – RAT (blackleg) in (stuck in) ERIC (Morecambe?) | |
| 19 | Cover involving dreadful Rolling Stone (7) |
| PERIDOT – TOP (cover) around (involving) DIRE (dreadful) reversed (rolling) | |
| 21 | Hernia regularly blocking both sides of an organ (5) |
| RENAL – every other letter in (regularly) HERNIA, in (blocking) R L (both sides) | |
| 22 | Beginning of something new after loadsamoney raised (4) |
| DAWN – N (new) after WAD (loadsamoney) reversed (raised) | |
Yes, pretty tough, this. 47:24, with DAWN the last to fall. A neat counterpoint to DUSK. Fortunately, I knew MORDRED from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Thankfully, the letters in the anagram for the barely heard of photographer allowed of little other placement.
Thanks to Jeremy for a couple of complete parsings, notably LOLLOPING, PEEBLES and ANNOTATED.
For the uninitiated, EE is ‘a British mobile network operator and internet service provider, a brand within the BT Group.’ Thanks, AI!
52:52
DUSK & OATES went in immediately, but then it was slow going, if not slower. 20ac should have been a gimme, but I couldn’t recall the (familiar) name until I had some checkers. DNK TILL, LOLLOPING (put in GALLOPING, left it in for too long). I surprised myself by coming up with PEEBLES, which evidently I did know; DNK EE, but assumed it was an ISP. Biffed MISAPPROPRIATE & ANNOTATED, thanks to Jeremy for parsing them. I liked FROM.
I had nearly all the knowledge, but not quite. I biffed Cartier-Bresson, folk memory, raise Cain, bumper stickers, Mordred, and misappropriate, which definitely sped up my solve. Curiously Henri Cartier-Bresson had to be dredged up from nearly 60 years ago, when multi-media was introduced to 8th grade English class. Peebles did give difficulty, until I realized that lead = PB, and there was only one place the PB could go.
Time: 38:21
DNF Got most of the central long words out but the crossers did not help. Just too hard.
Thanks Jeremy
Found this easy for a Friday.
CARTIER-BRESSON went in right away, when I had only the first R crosser.
I don’t see how any of the clue for OATES is definitional besides “Scott,” which is doing double duty. Some kinda flawed (“semi”?) &lit.
I (also) didn’t like having “note” In the clue for… ANNOTATED. C’mon, there are synonyms available!
“Coup d’état” has made it into English dictionaries, so “état” is cool for “state” (if you were writing French, it would be coup d’État or coup d’Etat if constrained typographically from having the accent. But the capital is de rigueur—for the coup).
Never heard of EE in the sense required for PEEBLES, but so it had to be.
NHO LOLLOPING either!
LEICESTERSHIRE was my LOI, though I could certainly have gotten there earlier.
As I understand it, Oates was an officer known (primarily?) for his self-sacrifice to try to save the lives of Scott and others on an expedition to the South Pole. In this way, the whole clue works as a definition for me.
Ah, well. That’s all right then. Thanks!
I was wondering if there was something I couldn’t see…
So his first name was Lawrence… not Scott! Ha.
I felt the same about ANNOTATE.
‘Coup d’état’ is in Ebglish dictionaries, but ‘état’ isn’t; and one can know the meaning of the phrase without having any idea of what ‘état’ means. So I don’t find it particularly cool take it as a synonym for ‘state’ (and reversing it, yet).
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/etat
I suspect some Anglophones may just hear “coodayTAH” and not have a clue…
I found this difficult and had to check on several answers as I was getting nowhere with some of the clues. Having said that, I did think it was a good crossword with some nice clueing. Liked BUMPER STICKERS and OATES for the ‘officer aiming to ease’, who of course famously left the group and said “I may be some time” before walking into the storm. Had no idea about ‘EE’ as the ISP, poorly clued IMO, how is someone on the other side of the planet supposed to know the name of an ISP in the UK!
Does anyone using an iPhone find that Jeremy’s (and only Jeremy’s) blogs always show the across part of the blog with no line wrapping, so that the text continues off the screen to the blue background making it impossible to read? The down clues and answers are always fine.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
I have not noticed before as I usually view on PC or tablet, but I checked on my iPhone and am seeing the same as you. Easily solved by turning the phone and viewing in landscape, but perhaps we can look into it.
Thanks Jack.
Your point about EE raises the issue of how international can the puzzle be. I think EE are the biggest ISP in the UK and also have the largest mobile network here. The Times is based in London with its news and editorial content primarily aimed at a British audience. I had liked the clue for its complexity. I doubt if LEICESTERSHIRE is internationally famous either, apart from probably being well known to some on the sub-continent for its county cricket team. And also to spelling bee contestants of course. The Grauniad and Telegraph crosswords are I think more UK -centric than The Times. Is the problem with EE that it is both modern and UK-centric?
Thanks BW. Just didn’t think ISP alone was sufficient to point to what was needed, in this case a UK company that doesn’t operate overseas.
I got Peebles by looking for a scottish town with PB, when Peebles came immediately to mind. Only then I realised the ISP was EE. I don’t think knowing EE is a UK ISP is especially important to solving the clue.
Third largest.
“‘EE’ as the ISP, poorly clued IMO, how is someone on the other side of the planet supposed to know the name of an ISP in the UK!”
Guess? No other option.
Yes, I see what you mean re iPhone.
Yes, mine does that but I turn my phone to landscape and all becomes clear.
I also found this tough but enjoyable. I needed 1 hour exactly to fill the grid with one letter wrong, MORDRYD instead of MORDRED, which explains why I was unable to decipher the wordplay after the event. By amazing coincidence, within the past week I solved a puzzle elsewhere (in a magazine, not a newspaper) that was themed on the subject of Knights of the Round Table, but sadly for me MORDRED was not amongst them. I vaguely remembered his name today when prompted by checkers but didn’t know how to spell him.
CARTIER-BRESSON also arrived prompted by checkers. I can’t say I knew him, but he has come up twice before, in 2017 clued as ‘French photographer barristers once upset ‘ (a bit of recycling of clue going on here!), and in 2013 as an anagram of ENTIRE CROSSBAR.
I crossed fingers when writing in the unknown TILL.
I was slow to parse EE as an ISP. I know the company well as I have my iPhone contract with them but they are not my ISP.
The placement of “From dusk till dawn” gave confidence in “till” being correct….
Ah, good spot!
Excellent! Missed that completely! As with all Ninas, alas…
MORDRED is also spelled Modred. He is responsible for the end of Camelot and the death of Arthur. I remember him from The Once and Future King, although all I seem to remember is that he wears funny shoes.
Although CARTIER-BRESSON was a write-in, I biffed quite a few – which rather spoiled my enjoyment.
I have my broadband from EE but that never registered at all. NHO FOLK MEMORY
FOI DUSK
LOI RAISE CAIN
COD BUMPER STICKERS
TIME 10:50
I knew ‘race memory’, from Jung, who’s welcome to it.
Gave up at 45 with the knight missing and also FROM, which is annoying. Props to Jeremy for some fine unravelling of several diabolical clues, including PERIDOT, FOLK MEMORY (something yellow!) and MISAPPROPRIATE. By the time I read the parsing for PEEBLES (ISP/EE) I involuntarily imitated Graeme Kennedy imitating a crow (a reference solely for solvers in Oz). Well done Alan on spotting ‘from dusk till dawn.’ And speaking of which…
From Meet Me In The Morning:
They say the darkest hour is right before the DAWN
They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
But you wouldn’t know it by me
Every day’s been darkness since you been gone
45 minutes with LOI CARTIER-BRESSON, vaguely remembered from a disastrous family trip to MOMA with three unimpressed kids and an even less happy wife. Served me right for being a pseud. COD to BUMPER STICKERS, not that I’ve ever had any as a fully paid-up member of pseuds corner.I liked PEEBLES too, with EE having colonised my telephony and internet for many a long year. Quite tough but the answers kept coming after a pause. Thank you Jeremy and setter
I took the family to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Everyone was distinctly unimpressed, but we had a laugh at one piece of ‘artwork’, which we christened ‘Turd sliding down a wall.’
Definitely won’t be visiting there then!
As an engineer, I’d love to see the building, never mind the art. All those titanium tiles.
Don’t be put off by this comment. I have been twice. The building is magnificent and both exhibitions I saw were well worth it. If you are of a mindset that rejects modern art, then don’t go, but if you are open to new ideas then I thoroughly recommend a visit.
Surprisingly I didn’t find this so hard, finishing in 33:18 with CARTIER BRESSON my LOI dredged up from a combination of memory and the anagram. Before that was 1dn which took me an alphabet trawl till I got to R.
Yes it was Oates who said, I’m going now I may be gone some time, before leaving into the snow. This was one of those things that every schoolboy knew when I was young.
Thanks setter and blogger
From memory, ‘I’m just going outside. I may be some time.’
So British. Glorious defeat.
30:06* (WITCHCRATT)
An annoying typo as I was glad to have completed the grid in a decent time for a Friday. I found the shorter clues more troublesome than the longer ones and RAISE CAIN was the only unknown.
An enjoyable solve so thanks to both.
I didn’t find this hard, for a Friday. However reading the blog, I see several clues I either misparsed (obviously the DR in Mordred is where the doctor comes in) or didn’t bother to parse, (7-7 for a French photographer, a write-in) so maybe it is a bit harder than I thought!.
Nho TILL in that context..
MORDRED took me ages – not knowing the knight – as I was hung up on MO being the doctor, and torn as to whether ‘with a final twist?’ could be the definition. Satisfying to unravel it though.
Pretty hard, but with a few gifts or gimmes. DNF 4d.
19a Peebles biffed. Thanks plusjeremy.
20a Cartier. Cheated. NHO but as he is in Cheating Machine I added him so HHO but forgotten.
23a Annotated, I wondered where the S had run away to, but etat it was. Yes, MER, but they would have got away with it if etat were Italian rather than French IMHO.
24a Ibiza, I had the same trouble with Co.
25a Till NHO but it seemed worth a punt. Moraine I HHO, alluvium HHO, till not.
DNF 4d Mordred.
9d Leics. E=earl is not in my dictionary, but happy to add it to mental one.
COD 13d Witchcraft.
Thanks plusjeremy and setter.
24.11 A proper challenge, this, without being too annoying. Since the only French photographer I know is C-B (unless you count the Lumières) I didn’t pause to unravel the rather good anagram. I suppose EE is OK for ISP, at least until it changes its name. For our overseas viewers, they do turn up regularly on sports programmes as sponsors, but that may not help.
As ever, didn’t spot the NINA, (thanks, Alan) and I was slightly nervous about TILL as a result.
I was just pleased to finish this, albeit with a lot of biffing and unparsed answers. WITCHCRAFT was the only word I could think of that fitted the crossers and seemed correct because of the ‘kind of charming’, but even once I’d got it I couldn’t figure out the parsing from the rest of the clue. Likewise FOLK MEMORY, which was obv correct but precisely why eluded me. NHO CARTIER-BRESSON, but again it seemed the only organisation of the anagram letters that could work.
Liked MORDRED, OATES and MISAPPROPRIATE.
Technical DNF as I used a list of Scottish Towns to get to Peebles. NHO of RAISE CAIN and wasn’t sure which part was the clued rain. So that was a slog. Got lucky with NHO CARTIER-BRESSON but it seemed the most likely formation of a name.
Spotted the cornered FROM DUSK TILL DAWN which was a help for TILL.
COD: WITCHCRAFT
Found this on the hard side even for a Friday.
Tough but fair and happie to finish albeit in 56 mins.
Only a couple of NHOs in TILL and BRESSON but both were kindly clued when combined with the crossers.
Lots of very involved word play, I was esp pleased with myself for parsing PEEBLES.
Thanks both
27.26 which represents my first Friday finish in a few weeks. Couldn’t parse Peebles so entered in hope rather than expectation. Didn’t understand lolloping either, other than literally. Will now review blogger comments and receive enlightenment.
Guessed till.
18:28
Held up at the end again by MORDRED. Couldn’t see what the ‘for’ in the clue was doing and still think it is superfluous.
CARTIER-BRESSON was a write-in and rather a waste of an anagram (although I am in the camp that would ban anagrams of foreign names in any case). I love his work though.
Off the mark with OATES and LITHUANIA. Had to concentrate a bit after that! Didn’t know the photographer, but managed to assemble him. Have eaten in an Indian Restaurant in Peebles. It also happens to be where Eric Bogle grew up before emigrating to Australia and writing the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (among a plethora of other fine songs). WITCHCRAFT was APOI, with POI, FROM, giving me the F to pop FOLK in front of MEMORY. Nowhere near parsing that one! 36:01. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
46:15
Pretty hard to finish I found. Didn’t know the photographer, didn’t see the parsing for PEEBLES (had no idea that EE was an ISP as well as a ‘phone network operator), but pencilled in from three checkers. Didn’t get ANNOTATED for a long time as was convinced it must be some musical direction for adding grace notes. MORDRED dug up from somewhere though didn’t see how the parsing worked. L2I FOLK MEMORY and FROM. COD to BUMPER STICKERS
Thanks PJ and setter
93:36
Just kept going at this until it cracked. Hard work.
Thanks, pj.
41:53
Tough but enjoyable. Sometimes the less than elegant surfaces -1a for example -mean that you have to resort to lexical algebra, but that’s ok when they are accompanied by a French photographer (7-7).
Thanks to Jeremy and the setter
That was hard, happy to finish. Way off the wavelength, had to guess answers and laboriously work out the parsing. But… all parsed except of course the totally guessed EE for the unknown Peebles. Also didn’t know TILL was moraine, and didn’t know Mordred was a knight. Was vaguely under the impression he was Arthur’s son. Did like the Cartier Bresson clue, had heard of him from previous crosswords but couldn’t remember, and wasn’t expecting the anagram.
41:35 – knotty stuff with FOLK MEMORY needed to solve the LOI MORDRED. I remembered him from an adolescent reading of a near indigestible unedited edition of the Morte d’Arthur. I very much doubt I would have the patience now, but I suppose I have rather less time left!
23:13. Most of this was moderately difficult but I got completely stuck for about half my total solving time on three clues: FOLK MEMORY, FROM and MORDRED. Like Rinteff I’m not keen on the use of ‘for’ in the last of these. And the wordplay in 1ac is convoluted to the point of absurdity. 1dn is a good old-fashioned devious definition though.
I also don’t think ‘times’ is a valid indication for CROSS, any more than ‘bishop’ would be valid for ‘boron’, or ‘mile’ for ‘metre’.
So a bit of a mixed bag for me.
It has never occurred to me before that a SCATTER-GUN is an actual weapon rather than just a word to describe my way of doing most things.
TILL for moraine wasn’t in my chambers so took a while to write that in. Really disliked the ANNOTATED clue for the reasons given by other commenters above, surprised the editor didn’t reword it to remove “note” from the clue. Some satisfying stuff in the grid though, working out all those letter manipulations was tricky.
Found this very tough – well over 45 minutes. Wrestled forever with the mordred / raise cain crosser. I could not get rain out of my head and was trying to work out what kind of rain a shower could be, light having been biffed and overturned. Not keen on the convolution of inverted ends and final twists. Loved the from dusk till dawn Nina in the corners.
Thx Jeremy and setter
DNF after two attempts, defeated by MORDRED and RAISE CAIN, neither of which I’d heard of.
– Couldn’t parse FOLK MEMORY beyond the yolk bit
– Biffed PEEBLES once I had enough checkers and never saw how ISP might give EE
– Didn’t know TILL as a glacial deposit (and missed the ‘From dusk till dawn’ thing)
– Can’t recall seeing ‘earl’ give E before for LEICESTERSHIRE
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
COD Raise Cain
Far too hard for me, the deeply obscure French photographer was of course an NHO but PEEBLES went straight in as the town and the ISP are well-known. I also have problems seeing the blog contents on my iPhone
Tough, but I got there in a reasonable time despite what SNITCH might tell me.
Beaucoup de biffage – FOLK MEMORY, RAISE CAIN, MISAPPROPRIATE, MORDRED, KINGS CROSS and probably some others bits and pieces. FROM was my LOI and took a good few minutes – very devious.
Many thanks to Jeremy for filling in the blanks and the setter for a vg Friday puzzle.
27:41
Definitely on the right wavelength here despite a day off from the workshop nursing a sore back. All finished apart from FOLK. Had MEMORY but no joy with my alphabet trawl.
Pleased to be all correct, but very slow- needed a pie and pint lunch before I could finish it off. CARTIER BRESSON was a Leica camera user I believe (that’s all I know about him).
Thanks for explaining MORDRED, Jeremy.
Thanks Setter.
Wednesday’s puzzle was the only one I failed on this week.
When Leicestershire went in within seconds I thought this was going to be easy….oh well .
One away from a completely correct week- MORDRED my nemesis, had the MD bit but was hindered by the for and since I had NHO the knight I was left aground. So close!
I’ll try again next week.
Thanks to the blogger
Just over the hour with Cartier Bresson LOI – never heard of him but it seemed the most likely French name with the letters I had left.
My COD – Witchcraft.
Rather to my surprise, I found this quite approachable. It’s all about what you know, really, isn’t it? The only unknown answers were BUMPER STICKERS and TILL (guessed, but unsure). Unlike for many here, CARTIER-BRESSON was a write-in, as a famous and pioneering photographer. I’m more sympathetic to those who are non-UK resident and haven’t heard of EE, or, indeed, of PEEBLES. I liked FOLK MEMORY, which I worked out from the ‘something yellow’, and then having to transpose the first and last letters. This helped a lot with LOI FROM! ANNOTATED was difficult as, like Mike, I thought I was looking for a musical term and was fixated on Signora rather than Donna. 14a put me right, as I realised the wordplay would have to be different. Like Keriothe, I was unaware of the literal meaning of SCATTER-GUN.
I so happen to live in Peebles (a Royal Burgh, no less) – but the 19 Across clue was fiendishly obtuse and defeated me. I also have the strange and sad habit of compiling random crossword clues in the middle of the night, to help take my mind off other things! I devised a clue for my home town a few months ago which reads: ‘Give toot on horn reversing with the French into Scottish Burgh’. Even I could solve that!
DNF, defeated by most of NE corner. Biffed PEEBLES but then I’ve stayed there twice. COD: OATES.
37.26
80% done after midnight and a long drive yesterday; completed this morning. Keriothe could have written word for word my thoughts though the same last three took less of my %. Overall liked it a lot but 1ac is one of my pet peeves is- w/p so complicated you just wait for checkers and biff.
2 and a half hours. 1 error. There is not much more to say other than only consolation being I can solve these given (lots) of time. Luckly I’m retired!
Someone must have been watching over me tonight (Sunday) because I did this in 18’54”, not finding it particularly hard at all. Had no idea what EE was about, but just had to assume it meant something. Another reading of the story at 10 across could have given: OFFICER AIMING TO ESCAPE SCOTT. Well spotted above, for FROM DAWN TILL DUSK. Makes you wonder if there aren’t other little secrets that no-one ever sees.
Many thanks.