50:02. Filling in for Will this week, and was looking forward to getting clobbered by the sort of monsters he usually faces. Though I made heavy weather of it, I don’t think this puzzle was particularly hard. I would rate it average difficulty; the very slow time is thanks to my last two in, which took me about twenty-five minutes.
| Across | |
| 1 | If clue initially reads badly, strike it! (7) |
| LUCIFER – IF CLUE + first letter of (initially) READS anagrammed (badly)
I got what was going on here immediately, but had forgotten the term ‘lucifer’ for ‘match’. |
|
| 5 | Hydrogen injected into carbon, mainly to support frame (7) |
| CHASSIS – H (hydrogen) in (injected into) C (carbon) + most of (mainly) ASSIST (to support) | |
| 9 | Try to make sense of painter prettifying houses (9) |
| INTERPRET – hidden in (houses) PAINTER PRETTIFYING | |
| 10 | Bit of Scrabble on Boxing Day, Mark? (5) |
| TILDE – TILE (bit of scrabble) around (on boxing) D (day) | |
| 11 | Feeding spirit, shattered tenor had kip, missing intro to national anthem (5,3,6) |
| ZADOK THE PRIEST – anagram of (shattered) TENOR HAD KIP without (missing) first letter of (intro to) NATIONAL in (feeding) ZEST (spirit) | |
| 13 | What’s here: villains ideally? (6) |
| INSIDE – hidden in (what’s here:) VILLAINS IDEALLY
Prison is known as ‘inside’. A second hidden. |
|
| 14 | Sign me up to gain access to beauty contract (8) |
| DIMINISH – I’M IN (sign me up) in (to gain access to) DISH (beauty) | |
| 16 | I note response to where duke[’s] suffering embarrassment (2,3,3) |
| IN THE RED – I N (note) THERE (response to where) D (duke)
I didn’t get this at all until I discovered upon writing the blog that ’embarrassment’ can mean ‘difficulty in money matters’ (Chambers). |
|
| 18 | Starting to gag’s consistent with smoke (6) |
| GASPER – first letter of (starting to) GAG + (‘s) AS PER (consistent with) | |
| 21 | Sorry if this is crude way to make showman be shown? (6,2,6) |
| EXCUSE MY FRENCH – remove (EXCUSE) ‘ma’ (MY [in] FRENCH)
Since ‘showman’ – ‘ma’ = ‘shown’. Again I saw this immediately but couldn’t see how to get the answer. |
|
| 23 | Casual trade in island, American island (5) |
| IBIZA – BIZ (casual trade) in I (island) A (American) | |
| 24 | Aptly-placed lawyer[’s] battleground (9) |
| AGINCOURT – AG IN COURT (aptly-placed lawyer)
AG = Attorney General. |
|
| 25 | Short head[’s] feature of mouse? (7) |
| SHYNESS – SHY (short) NESS (head) | |
| 26 | Maximally in pain after irrational hour boomeranging (7) |
| HIPPEST – PEST (pain) after PI (irrational) H (hour) reversed (boomeranging)
Liked this definition! |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Bet core part of livelihood’s to be superseded by ChatGPT, etc (4) |
| LAID – middle letters (core part) of LIVELIHOOD replaced (‘s to be superseded) by AI (ChatGPT, etc) | |
| 2 | Accountant cycling in retirement, huffs and puffs [and] rests (7) |
| CATNAPS – CA (accountant) cycling the letters of PANTS (huffs and puffs) reversed (in retirement) | |
| 3 | It’s strange if one daughter’s not had drink after sacrifice in God’s name (3,8,4) |
| FOR GOODNESS SAKE – ODDNESS (it’s strange) if one D (daughter) is removed (‘s not had) + SAKE (drink) all after FORGO (sacrifice) | |
| 4 | It can be difficult to find equal treatment with power ceded to queen (6) |
| RARITY – PARITY (equal treatment) with P (power) replaced by (ceded to) R (queen) | |
| 5 | Peach [or] prune that is seen peeled (5-3) |
| CUTIE-PIE – CUT (prune) I.E. (that is) + SPIED (seen) with first and last letters removed (peeled) | |
| 6 | Bit of a hoo-ha derailed precautions at llama farm ultimately (1,5,2,1,6) |
| A STORM IN A TEACUP – anagram of (derailed) PRECAUTIONS AT + last letters of (ultimately) LLAMA FARM | |
| 7 | Dreadful opening piece from Italian serial composer (7) |
| SALIERI – anagram of (dreadful) first letter of (opening piece from) ITALIAN + SERIAL
Great surface reading here! |
|
| 8 | Wear this running in street? (10) |
| SWEATSHIRT – anagram of (running) WEAR THIS in ST (street) | |
| 12 | Wet blankets outside during short run (10) |
| MINISERIES – MISERIES (wet blankets) around (outside) IN (during)
So my first suspicion, that this would be something around IN, was correct. But I had no idea what sort of synonym for ‘wet blankets’ was expected — I now know that ‘misery’ is a noun meaning ‘a miserable person’. In the end, I latched onto the idea of ‘short’ signifying MINI, and although I thought it was part of the wordplay, this was enough to help me biff the answer after a long think. |
|
| 15 | Continue unchanging message, penning discrimination [and] slurs (8) |
| BESMEARS – BE (continue unchanging) SMS (message) around (penning) EAR (discrimination)
These definitions stretched my sanity. But ‘ear’ does mean ‘the faculty of distinguishing sounds’, and ‘be’ does mean to continue without change. It’s just… sigh. Another clue that took ages. |
|
| 17 | Lacy kit’s modelled in such a way? (7) |
| TACKILY – anagram of (‘s modelled) LACY KIT
I guess this means that tacks are used to keep the lacy bits on? Or does the setter mean ‘tacky’? |
|
| 19 | Vivid description [of] old Northerner having curries regularly (7) |
| PICTURE – PICT (old Northener) + (having) every other letter of (regularly) CURRIES
Glad I remembered the Picts. |
|
| 20 | Ray’s maybe aloof (6) |
| OFFISH – OF FISH (ray [maybe]’s) | |
| 22 | One piece of information [is] all I have uncovered (4) |
| STAT – ESTATE (all I have) with first and last letters removed (uncovered) | |
I must have been on wavelength for a rapid (for me on a Friday) 35:35.
A few I wasn’t sure on:
BESMEARS – Can BE and EAR mean that or am I just making the wordplay fit the answer? Thanks for the blog confirming I had parsed it right.
IN THE RED – Only come across it in the money sense – thanks for the explanation in the blog.
CATNAPS – I stumbled into this after seeing that nap/rest could fit at the end.
ZADOK THE PRIEST – took far too long, solved in the end by trying a K in every position and seeing if I could make any words with the remaining fodder. ZADOK does come up quite often in crosswords so no real excuse.
MINISERIES – I biffed this in the end not getting the word play at all
AGINCOURT- This is always my first thought with battlefield, I am glad it actually was for once.
COD: EXCUSE MY FRENCH
Great puzzle quite a few either got a nod, smile or giggle.
Thanks blogger and setter.
79:53 which is the slowest time in the Snitch apart from the already-singled-out M J Saunders (who may have fallen asleep). Never mind. I’m still dead chuffed to have finished.
A STORM IN A TEACUP went in very early – it may have been FOI. MINISERIES was LOI; I kept returning to it trying to get MISERIES out of my head because it didn’t fit, but it turned out to be essential.
I thought of AGIN as “against” in the sense of “next to”, where a lawyer would be aptly-placed AGIN COURT. Didn’t spot the AG. And this was one of the easy ones!
DNF, defeated by AGINCOURT (I thought of it, but didn’t know AG as an abbreviation and talked myself into believing there could have been a battle of DAINCOURT, with DA as the lawyer), which then stymied BESMEARS (thought I probably wouldn’t have got it anyway, as I was convinced ‘mud’ was involved, as in mudslinging).
– Didn’t see how INSIDE worked
– Didn’t know that money meaning of IN THE RED
– Had no idea at all how EXCUSE MY FRENCH worked – even as reverse cryptics go, it’s very tough
– Biffed FOR GOODNESS SAKE and CUTIE-PIE
Thanks Jeremy and setter
COD Tilde
Over the hour. Knew it was ?ADOK THE PRIEST, but my alphabet trawl failed me, probably because it was the last letter….
I really enjoyed this puzzle even though it took me too long and I had to resort to external sources – but only once.
Particularly liked AGINCOURT, LUCIFER (pack up your troubles) and EXCUSE MY FRENCH (which has featured recently either here or in the Telegraph).
Enough success today to keep me trying anyway.
Thanks to setter and Jeremy.
DNF in 30
Just couldn’t get the second bit of EXCUSE M[ ]. Knew it was “ma” but got no further. Clever. Even though I thought the M likely BESMEARS was a v tough clue. Last one to defeat me was OFFISH where once I’d thought of UPPISH (ray of light) nothing else would intrude.
As others have said tough but fair – ideal for a Friday
Thanks Jeremy/setter
I think a sign of a good puzzle is that the words or clues which cause difficulty are different from one of us to another. Other than Besmears, which looks like having stopped a lot of people, today’s posers seem well distributed.
I fell into the Pardon my French trap, and looked for too long for something I didn’t have the letters for in a Teapot. And I’ll confess to not being able to parse Excuse My French.
DNF. I haven’t had time for solving this week (this only seems to happen to me when I’m on holiday!) so I’ve just done four puzzles in a row, which might account for the fact that I gave up on this one with CATNAPS and BESMEARS unsolved. The former takes a device I dislike to begin with and mutilates it into something truly hideous, so I’m not remotely sorry that I didn’t persevere with it. If we must have this nonsensical ‘cycling’ concept can we at least agree not to further convolute it into such unnatural formulations? Harrumph!
I completed this after a great deal of effort, and a lot of biffing. No time, as I had completed all but two clues before a family visitation which occupied me for the next six hours, after which it took some time to get back into the mood. Can’t say I enjoyed it as there were too many answers which I was unable to parse. Best bit was Zabadak’s alternative version of the anthem! Thanks for that.
FOI – RARITY
LOI – HIPPEST
COD – OFFISH
Thanks to jeremy and other contributors.
Around 22 minutes which is slow for me, not on the wavelength today. Knew it was THE PRIEST but couldn’t for the life of me remember who, needed to write out the letters and then a long alphabet trawl. Also struggled to parse 3dn, missed the ODDNESS bit. COD to the French excuse, I rather like that device.
Hippest and stat defeated me. I still don’t really get hippest. A lot of biffing involved as well.
Spent a shocking amount of time on this, admittedly after a long and bibulous day. About two hours, but was determined to complete it and parse all the answers – which I did, apart from the ‘on’ in 10A. LOI BESMEARS.
I gave up yesterday and went back to it this morning. I was totally stuck on BESMEARS. Got there in the end for an elapsed time of 55 minutes of which over 30 were on this final clue.
Thanks (I think!) setter and blogger
PS I‘ve heard of BESMIRCH but never BESMEAR