53:32. The first word of 1 across was, perhaps, a portent of things to come.
I didn’t feel there was anything too bad with the wordplay in this one, but I couldn’t get my brain to think of a single relevant synonym, or unscramble a single anagram for me.
Nevertheless, I was finally able to get in enough letters and start biffing and semi-biffing much of the puzzle.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disaster area engulfed by threat cops dealt with (11) |
| CATASTROPHE – A (area) in (engulfed by) THREAT COPS anagrammed (dealt with)
Simple enough wordplay, but I just couldn’t find the word. If I had, I’d probably have finished the puzzle much sooner than I did. |
|
| 7 | Sum up child’s parent having no boundaries (3) |
| ADD – DADDY (child’s parent) without the first and last letters (having no boundaries)
This one fooled me — it seemed that the answer had to be TOT somehow. |
|
| 9 | Invite hosts to cancel social media platform relieved of duties? (3-6) |
| TAX-EXEMPT – TEMPT (invite) around (hosts) AXE (to cancel) X (social media platform)
Great definition! I ran through every social media platform I could possibly think of, multiple times. I thought of ‘X’ exactly zero times. |
|
| 10 | Sudden attack [by] America on international court (5) |
| ICTUS – US (America) next to (on) I (international) CT (court) | |
| 11 | Writer’s article not free of charge [or] regular payment (7) |
| PENSION – PEN’S (writer’s) ION (article not free of charge)
‘Article’? Really? Well, Chambers has “a […] part of anything”. |
|
| 12 | Writer’s block? (7) |
| NOTEPAD – cryptic definition | |
| 13 | Rob once close to those in party (5) |
| REAVE – last letter of (close to) THOSE in RAVE (party)
An archaic form of the word. |
|
| 15 | Resignation relatively certain to include distress (9) |
| SURRENDER – SURER (relatively certain) around (to include) REND (distress)
The ‘relatively’ business was a bit tricky here. REND for ‘distress’ felt like a bit of a stretch. |
|
| 17 | Told to go to collect advanced study [for] confirmation? (9) |
| SACRAMENT – SENT (told to go) around (to collect) A (advanced) CRAM (study)
At first I thought maybe SCRAM came into things somehow. |
|
| 19 | Leave / divided / city (5) |
| SPLIT – triple definition | |
| 20 | Recite fluently [with] feel for performing (4,3) |
| REEL OFF – FEEL FOR anagrammed (performing) | |
| 22 | Acting head of IT plugs trendy expression (7) |
| INTERIM – first letter (head) of IT in (plugs) IN (trendy) TERM (expression) | |
| 24 | Setter would jot down answer [for] fool (5) |
| IDIOT – I’D (setter would) IOTA (jot) removing (down) A (answer) | |
| 25 | Yawning doctor uncovers insomnia finally (9) |
| CAVERNOUS – anagram (doctor) UNCOVERS + last letter of (finally) INSOMNIA | |
| 27 | Bug delaying final stage of deployment [is] likely (3) |
| APT – TAP (bug) with last letter of (final stage of) DEPLOYMENT moved to the end (delaying) | |
| 28 | Sanction / record racing driver deserved? (11) |
| ENDORSEMENT – double definition
At first I thought this was a reference to sports deal a racecar driver might get. However, an ENDORSEMENT is “a record of a motoring offence on a driving license”, so we really have a ‘racing driver’, and not a ‘racecar driver’ here! |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Basis for lying to head off complaints being raised (3) |
| COT – TO + first letter of (head off) COMPLAINTS reversed (being raised) | |
| 2 | Upset by books concerned with material unsuitable for consumption (5) |
| TOXIN – reversal of (upset) X (by) OT (books) + IN (concerned with)
Usually I think of this as ON, not IN, but there it is in Chambers. Maybe something like, “I got my masters in physics.”? |
|
| 3 | Time spent with relations? (3,4) |
| SEX LIFE – cryptic definition
I got what was being referenced, but it didn’t help me get the answer any faster. My last in. |
|
| 4 | Look back on timid people adopting new lives (9) |
| REMINISCE – RE (on) MICE (timid people) around (adopting) N (new) IS (lives) | |
| 5 | Don backing away from university? (3,2) |
| PUT ON – reversal of (backing) NOT UP (away from university?)
Not a fan of ‘backing’ for reversal in a Down clue. |
|
| 6 | Record conclusion of economist in key message (7) |
| EPISTLE – EP (record) + last letter (conclusion) of ECONOMIST in ISLE (key)
Perhaps my favorite clue. Fooled me. |
|
| 7 | Top and tail without starting off at opposite ends (9) |
| ANTIPODAL – TOP AND TAIL without first letter (starting) anagrammed (off)
Well-hidden! |
|
| 8 | In fact, I’m hesitant to adopt incidental requirement (11) |
| DESIDERATUM – ER (I’m hesitant) in DATUM (fact) around (to adopt) SIDE (incidental)
Tricky! I biffed it. |
|
| 11 | Reconstruction of state involved Speaker suppressing anarchic riot (11) |
| PERESTROIKA – anagram of (involved) SPEAKER around (suppressing) anagram of (anarchic) RIOT
I have vaguely heard of this. Lucky semi-biff for me that got me started in the lower half. |
|
| 14 | Who tried to transform contents of project cherished by top people? (9) |
| ALCHEMIST – middle letters (contents) of SCHEME (project) in (cherished by) A-LIST (top people?) | |
| 16 | Dog soldiers snubbed orderly continually (9) |
| RETRIEVER – RE (soldiers) + last letter removed from (snubbed) TRIM (orderly) + EVER (continually) | |
| 18 | Keen promoter possibly bitter about appointment (7) |
| APOSTLE – ALE (possibly bitter) around (about) POST (appointment)
Possibly the easiest clue in the puzzle. |
|
| 19 | Fixed charge securing queen[’s] release (3,4) |
| SET FREE – SET (fixed) FEE (charge) around (securing) R (queen) | |
| 21 | Stood up to knock back drink (5) |
| FACED – reverse (knock back) DECAF (drink)
Really don’t like ‘back’ here. In what sense is ‘up to down’ the canonical “forward” vertical direction? |
|
| 23 | River horse released from trap (5) |
| RHONE – homophone of (released from trap) ROAN (horse)
RHÔNE, technically. |
|
| 26 | Drunk husband left out of photograph (3) |
| SOT – H (husband) removed from (left out of) SHOT (photograph) | |
I didn’t parse half of them, and some of what I parsed was wrong. I was wondering about sacrament and endorsement, both obvious answers. By the way, in the US an endorsement on your driver’s license is used to indicate other type of vehicles you are authorized to drive. If you’re a bad boy, they give you points on your license. I have to admit, knowing ictus, reave, and perestroika was very helpful.
Time: 41:10
I got about 6 answers with errors and that was it.
Did anyone have problems posting yesterday. There were no posts when I first tried. 3hours later I gave up. I kept getting an error “Not Acceptable” indicating a server error.
Yesterday’s cryptic blog was posted at 02.29am, and the first comment is timed at 03.15am. So, thinking it my be a problem your end .. I certainly had none, though I don’t frequent those sort of hours!
Thanks for the elucidations, ‘toxin’ in particular for me.
Perestroika is a word that was often heard associated with the liberalisation of the Gorbachev era but knowing that didn’t help me solve the clue. The ‘k’ made me doubt an anagram of ‘speaker’ was involved.
Maybe if you think of the clues and their solutions in complete isolation from any particular grid it’s more acceptable to use ‘back’ in the context of a letter reversal.
Took ages to get a decent foothold with this. I found the clueing quite convoluted and ended up finding many of the answers from checkers, definitions and parsed later. DESIDERATUM was from wordplay only but was convinced that ‘um’ was the hesitation. CATASTROPHE wasn’t too difficult for ‘disaster’. Really enjoyed TAX EXEMPT which gave two’Xs’ as checkers for TOXIN and SEX LIFE, although I initially had ‘toxic’ which caused problems with PENSION. ENDORSEMENT came after assuming 18d APOSTLE ended in ‘E’ with ‘bitter/ale, which gave the first letter ‘E’. Never parsed IDIOT or ALCHEMIST, both from definitions. Saw dADDy straight away. ANTIPODAL had to start with ‘anti’ so the rest of the anagram fell easily. Didn’t know REAVE but got from wordplay. ICTUS also from wordplay but wasn’t sure about ‘I’ for international after recent comments about the abbreviation. Failed to see PERESTROIKA. Great crossword. COD to CAVERNOUS for ‘yawning’.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
70 minutes. Exactly the same experience with 1a (hardly a difficult anagram) as Jeremy and things didn’t get much better. I missed the parsing of SACRAMENT, wondering how ‘study’ gave ENT; I wasn’t convinced our old medical specialty friend was being referred to.
At least I didn’t fall into the ANT trap at 27a, with the correct P being my last letter in.
Thanks to Jeremy & setter
Pretty tricky, but starting with CATASTROPHE and ADD got me off on the right foot. The only thing I couldn’t parse in the end was the second definition of ENDORSEMENT.
9.17. Didn’t parse ENDORSEMENT. Medium difficulty for a Friday?
Well, I found this hard but fortunately, not too hard. 1ac was straightforward which made things easier, but struggled to get 11dn Perestroika, which made things harder again. Getting 11ac Pension would have helped but I started off putting Toxic for 2dn instead of toxin and so that all took time to sort out. Reave, the only complete nho.
15.50
Not too tricky a Friday, once I adopted the technique of guessing the answers then working out possible wordplays (AKA biffing). Not the way round I’m used to solving the majority of clues, but it seems to be the way things are going.
After using this method to get TAX-EXEMPT I did wonder if we were in for another double pangram, but no such luck.
LOI REAVE
COD DESIDERATUM
Gave up at 1hr15 with the unknown REAVE holding me up. This prevented me seeing ALCHEMIST & APT (which is ironic as it’s a town 20 k from me!)
Very tough I thought and sorry not to have finished. As our blogger says, 1ac all the way.
Ta pj and setter.
I was ages getting into this, and even longer getting out of it. I started with ADD and came down from there, but without DESIDERATUM, a word known only in the plural. I might be a child of the universe, but I felt I was on the wrong planet. I baled out still missing several others also. Now to drive down to my nephew’s in Brighton to see Dylan tonight. East or West M25? Thank you Jeremy and setter.
I hate paying the toll, but East is probably quicker.
I do whatever the google nav lady tells me ..
About 20 minutes, but with several unknowns.
– Had to trust the wordplay for ICTUS and REAVE
– Didn’t see that ENDORSEMENT was a double definition
– Failed to fully parse PENSION, COT and DESIDERATUM
– Had a few agonising moments wondering if there might be something called a TOXON, as ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ seemed more likely for ‘concerned with’, but fortunately I stuck to my guns with TOXIN
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
FOI Sot
LOI Toxin
COD Cavernous
Maybe an hour covering last night and this morning. I think like a few commentators I semi-biffed quite a few and only semi (or wrongly) parsed them. Not particularly satisfying even though it’s always nice to finish a Friday puzzle. CATASTROPHE and PERESTROIKA were both a considerable help.
Thanks Jeremy for the parsings and comments and to setter.
DNF. 3 or 4 missing after too long. Too busy for one like this today. Not helped by ANTIPODES until SPLIT and TOXIC which remained so.
Well done to Jeremy for persevering, not my cup of tea this or maybe just not in the right frame of mind.
26:53. Nice crossword. I parsed all but IDIOT and RHONE, so thanks for those, Jeremy. I enjoyed the PDM when I realised “confirmation” was a DBE, among many others. Unlike some, the 1A anagram came quickly for me, but then I slowed down. LOI ICTUS. Thanks Jeremy and entertaining setter.
All done with one error in 40 mins. Disideratum. I wanted I hesitate to be I er even though I was then missing a letter from SIDE. I also had DECAF and ENFORCEMENT for a while which didn’t help my progress.
COD: PERESTROIKA
Thanks to our blogger and setter.
22.28. Hard graft, though quicker than yesterday, possibly because 1a was straight in. My intention to parse everything slowed the obvious COT, and failed on SACRAMENT, where SCRAM was an obvious ingredient. Didn’t think much to SEX LIFE, a CD with Sunday Times nudge nudgery, but at least it provided the second X in the tricky 9a. RHONE my last in, thinking that’s what it had to be but we seemed to be removing the H. Ah! Roan! Of course!
Interesting blog style from PJ – something else to consider!
What’s the blog style?
The neat presentation of clues, explanations and additional comments. Liked it!
I really don’t like the lines between a clue/answer and its associated comment, which confuse me. I don’t know why they are there.
Sorry, but I don’t want the two to abut.
Even though it all relates to the same clue? Corralling the comment in with the next clue, seems exceeding strange to me..
Ah — I always do the clues this way (provided I have time). But the line separating my notes is because the new blog code doesn’t put any separation between the clue and the commentary.
There is, or has been (Stuart fixed it for me last time with a little code and was going to add that to the script) a strange WordPress problem with making paragraph breaks (with an intervening line) in the intro field, but (I just tested this) all you have to do to get one in the clue notes is put in a hard Return. For your purposes, though, I think the italic font alone would set off the more personal comments from the explanation of the parsing (I do that with a wide space and the three-dot symbol). The vertical spacing now does make it look like that part could belong to either what’s above it or below. (I always tweak the vertical spacing myself to separate the clue&answer blocks.)
Well I liked the italics separating the parsing from the commentary! Thanks
I liked it too!
Top half straight in, but slowed down considerably after that. Couldn’t parse DESIDERATUM – saw SIDE and UM then was stuck. Couldn’t pass endorsement, it’s points for speeding and endorsement for heavy vehicles here, like Vinyl says earlier. And no idea about LOI the guessed APT, a 50-50 toss-up with ANT. Took a long time after writing it in and checking for the penny to drop.
Perfect level of difficulty, enjoyably challenging. Liked TAX-EXEMPT, REEL OFF, EPISTLE. Not so much SEX LIFE, where first thoughts trying to parse were time and life were jail sentences, before rejecting any such thoughts.
My thanks to plusjeremy and setter.
DNF. Very slow to get started, then slowed down a bit.
9a Tax exempt biffed. I could see some Xs but that was it.
11a Pension DNF.
13a Reave NHO, archaic but signalled so OK, DNF.
19a Split, I like a triple.
1d Cot, couldn’t believe it was that easy so left it blank for ages.
2d Toxic prevented Pension at 11a.
6d Epistle, forgot AGAIN key=isle, but biffed.
7d Antipodal biffed.
8d Desideratum, had written desiderata when I noticed an empty square, so I made it singular.
16d Retriever biffed.
23a Rhone, surprised by the homophone indicator “from trap.”
74 mins.
Another toughie. Glad to complete it.
Thanks, pj.
37:03
Difficult but very enjoyable. Most of the time I seemed to be working back from likely definitions and then slowly deciphering the wordplay. I really liked SACRAMENT, PERESTROIKA and “from trap”
Thanks to Jeremy and the setter
I didn’t enjoy this at all. Too many clues where the order of solving was 1) ‘here’s a word that fits the checkers’, 2) ‘oh that must be the definition’ and then finally (if at all) ‘I guess this convoluted construct functions as wordplay’. Too clever for its own good. And both setter and editor should have a word with themselves before including (non-) word like REAVE.
I was so grumpy by the end that I couldn’t be bothered to check my answers and submitted with two typos. Feels fitting somehow.
Harrumph.
But REAVE is a perfectly fine word for Mephisto!
That’s sort of my point!
Beaten at the last gasp by the NHO REAVE. Had no idea what was going on with COT, ANT or RHONE, but at least I guessed them right. Felt I was battling this one throughout, guessing the answer and trying to reverse-engineer it, and never really enjoyed it.
As a somewhat watered-down Friday toughie, I enjoyed this: what turned out to be the correct words popped into my head with enough regularity for me to complete the grid in 27:30, similar to yesterday. TOXON for 2d, unfortunately, after weighing up the more likely parsing vs the word I had heard of.
It ain’t pretty solving, but I’m becoming accustomed to bunging something in on a Friday if it feels right, with a mental note that it might have to come back out. It would be a lot slower and messier and unpleasanter were I to try this style of solving on paper (even if I could find a suitable pencil, and was prepared to make that large concession). Mostly a parsing can be teased out with enough wrangling (even mid-solve if absolutely necessary!), but COT and DESIDERATUM were utterly unyielding today. Thanks Jeremy for the very helpful blog.
I struggled through, with fairly liberal use of the Check button (it surely isn’t that: but let’s look: and it is!) to finish in 62 minutes. In 27ac I was unhappy with apt = likely, although no doubt the dictionaries say it’s OK. The DESIDERATUM answer contained both um and er and I was fixated on the um, which made solving difficult. And I didn’t like SEX LIFE, which could have been almost anything starting SEX.
I considered SEX TIME. hahaha
“Things are fine at present, but apt/likely to change ..”
If they’re apt to change then there is the possibility that they will change, which doesn’t mean that they are likely to change, just that they might. Dictionaries may have the equivalence. But who can say whether the equivalence is likely without actually looking?
Plumped for ANT rather than APT, being able to parse neither satisfactorily. But apart from that only RHONE caused much difficulty in 26 mins, being slow to see the double meaning of ‘released from trap’
Well there have been tougher Fridays! Another who weighed up TOXIN and TOXON, but luckily stayed with the former. Didn’t quite parse IDIOT, but stuck it in and forgot about it. PUT ON was FOI. CATASTROPHE came much later. I knew Border Reivers and Reeves, so REAVE wasn’t too much of a stretch with the wordplay and crossers. PERESTROIKA was a long time coming. DESIDERATUM was an early arrival. Liked TAX EXEMPT. SACRAMENT was LOI. I was delayed by putting a tentative ADEN for advanced study, giving me —-ADENT, which was going nowhere. 28:49. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
LICENCE!
Not if you’re American.
DNF with three incorrect answers in just under 1hr. So many mistakes had to be corrected as well so I don’t think I was on great form. SEX ACTS, TOXIC, BED, NIT amongst other mistakes slowed me down.
Great fun but a comfortable win for the setter today.
Thanks blogger and setter
I biffed 14 D but isn’t being expected to extract the middle of S(CHEM)E from a possible synonym of scheme (= project) a step outside the Queensberry Rules?
Tossed in the towel about half filled, came here (many thanks, Jeremy), and am patting myself on the back for stopping at pretty much the correct place for me.
I am still struggling with Sacrement = confirmation — what am I missing?
“Confirmation” is one of the SACRAMENTs (sic) in the Roman Catholic and Eastern churches.
Of course; thanks Guy. I knew that. I really did. Also in the Anglican Church. I also know how to spell it. Time for another cup of coffee, I think
26.35
I laughed out loud at Jeremy’s first comment so thank you Sir; the honest description of your occasional travails are appreciated by many, I’m sure.
I really did like many of these clues…in retrospect. It’s rare for me to make any adverse comment about a puzzle but after 10 or so minutes I stopped trying to focus on the w/p and instead tried to treat it as a Concise, and then checking there was something in the clue to justify the answer. Basically, what Keriothe and others have said. I still enjoyed it though.
More Biffs than the Back to the Future trilogy today
50 minutes, with a fair few biffs but got held up for the longest time before PERESTROIKA dawned and I was then left torn between ANT and APT. Of course it was the latter. Never could parse PENSION so thanks to our blogger as usual!
Good bloggimg! And I agree that rend=distress in SURRENDER was pushing it a bit. In the end I recalled “distressed” i.e. torn jeans as a fashion item favoured by my daughters and when in distress biblical characters are said to rend their garments. I never did quite register the difference between glasnost and PERESTROIKA and evidently needn’t have bothered. Not a Frightful Friday but very tough sledding.
I thought the same re REND, but it’s in (some) dictionaries. My Oxford has “cause emotional pain to” with an example heart-rending.
Gawd that was tough. I made the mistake of doing it after lunch and my eyes started closing on the 25 minute mark. Gave it a rest than back to finish on 35’37”. I see I’m 69 on the leader board — quite high — suggesting others found it tough too. I have to admit my interim doze did allow my half-asleep brain the time to get APT. So not exam conditions. Like a lot of other commenters, I can’t say I’m entirely happy with some of the loose clueing — like DOWN for Remove in the IDIOT clue. I tried to parse it differently : JOT to IOT is one down in the dictionary. At least J to I is. A futile attempt, and in the end I just bunged it in. Also slowed down by shoving in TOXIC. The “CONCERNED WITH” made me think it was an adjective. IN for CONCERNED WITH? Also a bit iffy. I am sure it’s all in the dictionaries, mind. And I got there in the end. Thanks!
Loved this, gutted that a typo on antipodal robbed me of a very decent 39 minute solve. Very tricky but fair word play I thought. Spelling of Reave threw me although as a Northumbrian I’m familiar with border reivers. Perestroika a great surface
and clever anagram because the k makes you think it can’t be.
Thx Jeremy and setter
This was tough, pleased to get this finished all correct and almost all parsed. I saw CATASTROPHE right away and a few clues in the north west followed fairly quickly, so initially I thought I was in for an easy Friday puzzle. But once I’d seven or eight clues in I hit the buffers and went round the clues for what felt about five minutes not getting anything. Eventually I got a couple in the south east and it started to flow again.
I was absolutely determined to battle with this beast and finally solve a Friday crossword. I did it, but am too embarrassed to record the time.
Who cares about the time? Well done anyway!
Cheated to get DESIDERATUM after a longish fallow patch, which unlocked that quadrant.
Aligning with everyone else – much biffing and then constructing. Never quite got ENDORSEMENT or TAX EXEMPT. So thanks Jeremy for those & the rest of the blog.
DNF
52:19, with several only half-parsed.
LOI was PERESTROIKA.
COD to TAX EXEMPT.
Thanks Jeremy and setter
Nice blog. Finished half in 25′ this morning, had a sudden burst to complete in 32:32 late this eve and glad I did – WOE. TOXON was my extremely foolish error, and though I wish I could claim it as a typo, I cannot. Still, a relative victory! A merry weekend to one and all!
Started with REMINISCE, and then CATASTROPHE. Knew EPISTLE, and PENSION, though not why, so didn’t put them in the grid for ages. Missed ANTIPODAL as I use ANTIPODEAN. I did know PERESTROIKA. Didn’t know the medical use of ICTUS as “attack” as side-tracked by ICBM similarity. Some clues resolved at the bus-stop as I gazed into space.
56:01 – I’m relieved to see others struggling a bit with this. it was a bit of a stinker and the antithesis of a smooth solve – I partly blame my sleep deprived brain, but I don’t think this was as neatly worded as it could have been. LOI was APT with the wort ANT screaming to be put in. luckily I resisted this particular temptation otherwise it could have been a CATASTROPHE.
Very happy to finish a Friday crossword without errors, even though I couldn’t parse everything and had to check REAVE and ICTUS were really words.
I don’t have a problem with using back instead of up in down clues; I think of the word formation rather than how it fits in the grid.
COD: Tax Exempt (Oh, THAT meaning of relived of duties!)
22:21 Very pleased with myself for this solve! A few easy ones but I think I struck lucky with the trickier ones, maybe I was just on the right wavelength. Favourite was ‘endorsement’ – very clever!
I got very stubborn, taking almost two hours to almost finish this. Stubborn but not patient enough to avoid biffing ANT, after all I had biffed enough other words. Oops. I really liked REMINISCE.
It would have gone much, much faster if I hadn’t started with a confident NOT UP for 5d.
Thanks setter and special thanks to Jeremy for the blogging.