72:28. This one was a toughie, though perhaps in some nooks of the grid more than others. Having swapped blogs last week with William, I’ve now done three Fridays in a row. He’ll take over the next three weeks, and I’ll get to enjoy some well-deserved vacation! This was an excellent puzzle to go out on.
| Across | |
| 1 | Rotter deserts love having accepted ring (2-3-2) |
| SO-AND-SO – SANDS (deserts) O (love) around (having accepted) O (ring)
This one went in straight away, and I thought perhaps we were in for an easier puzzle. |
|
| 5 | Area with tar outside local that surfaces road (7) |
| ASPHALT – A (area) + (with) SALT (tar) outside PH (local) | |
| 9 | Red [and] black rock surrounding ridge (9) |
| COCHINEAL – COAL (black rock) around (surrounding) CHINE (ridge)
Next to last in, and surely responsible for many of the 72 minutes. I assumed LIP or RIM had to be the ridge, and was stuck on the rock, until finally I thought of COAL and then rescued COCHINEAL from the recesses of my mind palace. |
|
| 10 | Man-at-arms called out [in] sorrow (5) |
| NIGHT – homophone of (called out) KNIGHT (man-at-arms)
I could not really think of what a man-at-arms is (I kept picturing a man-o’-war), and I certainly am not overly familiar with the figurative use of ‘night’ to mean ‘sorrow’. It’s attested in Chambers but I would welcome others to find actual examples from poetry. |
|
| 11 | Disguised as a blue agent circling second Labour venue (6,7) |
| AUGEAN STABLES – anagram of (disguised) AS A BLUE AGENT around (circling) S (second) | |
| 13 | Speed up current softly ebbing in river (8) |
| EXPEDITE – TIDE (current) P (softly) reversed (ebbing) in EXE (river) | |
| 15 | Persons inside university before Liberal official (6) |
| CONSUL – CONS (persons inside) U (university) + (before) L (liberal) | |
| 17 | Mission disheartened military force (6) |
| LEGION – LEGATION (mission) without the middle letters (disheartened)
I knew LEGION had to be right, but I confess I had to do a wildcard search to figure out the intended synonym of ‘mission’. |
|
| 19 | Offence outside hotel following MDMA party (4,4) |
| SINN FÉIN – SIN (offence) outside INN (hotel) F (following) E (MDMA)
I immediately knew what was being referenced here, but I didn’t remember the spelling so I had to carefully piece it together from the wordplay. |
|
| 22 | Phone-in with Old English confused naive character (6-3-4) |
| WINNIE-THE-POOH – PHONE-IN WITH O (old) E (English) anagrammed (confused) | |
| 25 | Up to nothing Scots fall back (5) |
| AFOOT – TO O (nothing) FA (Scots fall) reversed (back) | |
| 26 | Delicate female called bachelor in French island (9) |
| FRANGIBLE – F (female) RANG (called) + B (bachelor) in ILE (French island) | |
| 27 | Very good shot paralysed investigator (7) |
| DEADEYE – DEAD (paralysed) EYE (investigator) | |
| 28 | Saw nurses at work made contribution (7) |
| DONATED – DATED (saw) around (nurses) ON (at work)
Ironically I guessed DONATED immediately, but it took a long time because I saw how the wordplay worked, so I hesitated to put it in. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Discharge / rifle (4) |
| SACK – double definition
This was my last one in. Clearly I don’t know enough definitions of ‘rifle’. |
|
| 2 | Gunners looking up securely fix light (3,4) |
| ARC LAMP – RA (gunners) reversed (looking up) CLAMP (securely fix) | |
| 3 | Murder good [for] execution (5) |
| DOING – DO IN (murder) G (good) | |
| 4 | Unwanted legislation performs poorly (8) |
| OVERACTS – OVER (unwanted) ACTS (legislation)
I don’t really get OVER = ‘unwanted’ here, but I’m sure it works. |
|
| 5 | Ruddy-cheeked seaman drunk (6) |
| ABLUSH – AB (seaman) LUSH (drunk)
This one took me a long time. |
|
| 6 | Venetian dotard [in] Plato anon written out (9) |
| PANTALOON – PLATO ANON anagrammed (written out)
A pantomime character. |
|
| 7 | Article takes shape about United[’s] clanger (7) |
| ANGELUS – AN (article) GELS (takes shape) around (about) U (united) | |
| 8 | Book time in LA clubs perhaps going up together (5,5) |
| TITUS ALONE – T (time) in LA SUIT (clubs perhaps) reversed (going up) ONE (together)
This is perhaps the third time I’ve had to blog a Mervyn Peake book. |
|
| 12 | Booking sensational comedian (6,4) |
| YELLOW CARD – YELLOW (sensational) CARD (comedian)
Wasn’t familiar with this use of YELLOW, nor that of ‘booking’. |
|
| 14 | Girl made grand [in] con over not much (9) |
| DOOLITTLE – DO (con) O (over) LITTLE (not much)
Eliza. 20 May is named after her. |
|
| 16 | Source for certain bars in a very unusual key (8) |
| VINEYARD – IN A VERY anagrammed (unusual) + D (key) | |
| 18 | Travel north: party with the French [in] boat (7) |
| GONDOLA – GO (travel) N (north) DO (party) + (with) LA (the [in] French) | |
| 20 | Some evidence lover dropped almost all his coin (7) |
| EXHIBIT – EX (lover dropped) HIS without the last letter (almost all) BIT (coin)
One of my favorite clues. ‘Lover dropped’ is excellent. |
|
| 21 | Knee joint repaired itself (6) |
| STIFLE – anagram of (repaired) ITSELF
This is a horse part! |
|
| 23 | Gold and silver backing on new church keys (5) |
| ORGAN – OR (gold) + (and) AG (silver) reversed (backing) + (on) N (new) | |
| 24 | Drop American following Live Aid’s conclusion (4) |
| BEAD – A (American) after (following) BE (live) + last letter of (‘s conclusion) AID | |
No sense of time because I was solving this at a relaxed pace whilst enjoying the sun on the beach.
VINEYARD LOI which I completely missed the anagram for and solved as a slightly clunky CD.
NE went in quickly for the false sense of security but don’t think anything else flowed in for a rather slow solve.
COD DOOLITTLE
Thanks blogger and setter
83:25 WOE. I thought they were called the AEGEAN STABLES. I just aways have
So did I, but fortunately I didn’t trust myself enough and carefully checked the anagrist, otherwise I would have joined you.
I made that same mistake on a puzzle earlier this year (or maybe last).
56:55. v tough, with AFOOT the LOI. I’d seen the average times and saw it was going to be a challenge, was therefore quite pleasantly surprised to fill in the NW corner quite easily. nothing like a false sense of security to humble one …
excellent puzzle for a Friday. NHO of PANTALOON or ANGELUS but both seemed to be the only logical option. also that use of SAW.
thanks both
I was pleased to finish this with all correct even if it did take me 68.45 to do so. I never did get my head round how DONATED parsed, and although I was happy to put in AFOOT, I couldn’t see how the FA fitted in. If a reference had been made to Football Association I would have been happier.
“Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face, great chieftain o the puddin’-race!” – ‘Address to a Haggis’ by Burns
Originally Heracles had to carry out 10 labours, but was fined two extra labours because the labours committee decided he had cheated while carrying out 2 of them, one of which was the Augean stables, partly because it was adjudged that the rivers which Heracles diverted had done most of the work, and partly because he accepted payment for the work.
Titus Alone was a sort of afterthought to Titus Groan and Gormenghast, it wasn’t much good because effectively Gormenghast Castle itself was the main character of the first two books, and didn’t appear in Titus Alone. The BBC attempted a dramatisation of the first 2 books about 30 years ago. It was really awful. One extra bit of trivia, if you’re still reading: Mervyn Peake, the author and illustrator of the Gormenghast books, is the only artist whose self-portrait appears in the National Portrait Gallery.
Completed in about 45 mins.
Not sure where you got that self portrait thing from? If you go to the National Portrait Gallery website and search under “self portrait” you get 1,396 hits.
Antony Van Dyck’s is good …
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait-list.php?search=sp&sText=self%20portrait&firstRun=true
Mervyn Peake’s self portrait is currently on display at Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, according to the website!
The saga was supposed to carry on after Titus Alone
47 minutes, LOI AFOOT where I had the to-o backwards, then it took an alphabet trawl to find f and I still didn’t understand the Scots fall bit. Also hesitated over Night=sorrow but it had to be. Also didn’t understand stifle = knee. All these obscurities spoilt, a little bit, what was otherwise a very good puzzle, I thought.
Thanks setter and especially today’s blogger.
The Yellow Press is a term that was going out of use in the 1920s – so called, I think, because the paper used for printing was such low quality that it was off-white. It seems a tad unreasonable to assume that anyone born after about 1950 would ever have heard it.
I can’t give a time for this one because it took me so long that I stopped counting! Very tough, I thought. All parsed, but NHO STIFLE in this sense. Vaguely remembered ‘The Yellow Book’, possibly in connection with Aubrey Beardsley.
My efforts reflected the Snitch of 171, with a 50% solve. Got a couple of toughies like PANTALOON and ARC LAMP.
Many NHOs, but not enough checkers to guess them today. I was sure they the book was TITUS OATES, but that’s not actually a book, but a historical figure. Capt Oates, he of the “I am just going outside, I may be some time” was called Titus by the rest of Scott’s expedition.
COD AUGEAN STABLES
DNF
Gave up after three quarters of an hour with only 80% solved. The southern third of the grid proved too much for me.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
I gave up and came here when my head began to hurt with a quarter or a third yet to go. I can deal with obscure words, unusual synonmys (I’m looking at you [private] eye / investigator), and tricky cluing, but I have a hard time when they decide to all appear at once. I liked the wit of Eliza D and the Stables, and wished there was more of it. thanks, plusj
Very much agree with Paul & simjt above: my head was beginning to hurt too, and I had other important stuff to do, so…
But it was all fair I suppose – just didn’t have the energy for it!