33:09, indicating middle-of-the-road difficulty (by normal Friday standards!). I thought this puzzle was just great. Wonderful word choices, lovely definitions which were misleading without being hopelessly vexing. I can stand harder, but I was quite happy with this.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Difficult problem learner assimilated by heart (7) |
| TICKLER – L in TICKER | |
| 5 | In club, drop shot of ecstasy (7) |
| BATTING – BAT + TINGE – E | |
| 9 | Base can just be forming a foundation (9) |
| SUBJACENT – anagram of CAN JUST BE
Sounds like a math term! Which is how I got it. |
|
| 10 | Number days before turning eighteen at last (5) |
| SEVEN – EVES (days before) reversed + N | |
| 11 | 1 or 2 perhaps are reported to be aboard mobile air ambulance (6,7) |
| ARABIC NUMERAL – R (are reported) in anagram (mobile) of AIR AMBULANCE | |
| 13 | Poor old Scandinavian receiving pardon (3-5) |
| ONE-HORSE – O + NORSE around EH (pardon)
Wish I could have gotten this one faster but I couldn’t think of EH for ‘pardon’! |
|
| 15 | Appeal against book supporter censoring hard subject reference (6) |
| ITSELF – IT (appeal) + S{h}ELF
Great definition. |
|
| 17 | Key information guided claims (6) |
| LEGEND – LED (guided) around (claims) GEN (information) | |
| 19 | Fabulous maiden having rejected frilly skirt this short (8) |
| MYTHICAL – M + LACY reversed around THI{s}
Wonderfully misleading. I was trying to think of mythological ladies before I saw LACY and realized I needed to lift-and-separate. |
|
| 22 | Doctor cutting tremor at emergency room with a large lozenge? (13) |
| QUADRILATERAL – DR in QUAIL + AT + ER + A + L
A diamond-shaped parallelogram or rhombus, says Chambers. |
|
| 25 | Retired gentleman greeting hosts from Dublin? (5) |
| IRISH – HI (greeting) around (hosts) SIR (gentleman) reversed
I can’t actually get ‘retired’ to apply to (SIR in HI), but only the SIR. I think this is technically a grammatical error. |
|
| 26 | Trying Morris dancing beset by calamity (9) |
| WORRISOME – anagram of MORRIS in WOE | |
| 27 | Probably missing middle notebook leaf (4,3) |
| LILY PAD – LI{ke}LY + PAD | |
| 28 | Have workers for university succeeded in imposing raise? (7) |
| AUGMENT – MEN replaces U + S in AUGUST | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hard drinker served up moonshine (4) |
| TOSH – H SOT reversed | |
| 2 | Appropriate to have unclosed trunk tossed outside Savoy? (7) |
| CABBAGE – BAG (appropriate) in CABE{r}
I found this quite hard. |
|
| 3 | Pounds advanced to secure leather and wool (5) |
| LLAMA – L + A around LAM (leather) | |
| 4 | Recheck less exposed cracks in most piping (8) |
| REEDIEST – {l}ES{s} (exposed) in (cracks) RE-EDIT (recheck)
This fooled me — I thought for sure this would be some synonym of HOTTEST. |
|
| 5 | Thin fencing erected at field of flowers? (6) |
| BOTANY – BONY around AT reversed | |
| 6 | International pilot heading for Chicago entering course to the US (4,5) |
| TEST MATCH – TEST (pilot) + C in MATH (course to the US) | |
| 7 | Counter popular bible passage (7) |
| INVERSE – IN + VERSE | |
| 8 | Greek keeping isolated housing touched up for posh people (10) |
| GENTLEFOLK – GK around (LONE around FELT, reversed) | |
| 12 | In local cast, see Belgian who’s dictionally informal (10) |
| COLLOQUIAL – LO (see) QUI (Belgian who) in anagram of LOCAL
A bit convoluted, but fortunately quite gettable. |
|
| 14 | Daughter’s wiped out by sedatives in possession (9) |
| OWNERSHIP – DOWNERS – D + HIP (in) | |
| 16 | Wheeler-dealer disposing of small island with a show of emotion (8) |
| HYSTERIA – SHYSTER – S + I + A | |
| 18 | Extremely slow golf amateur almost everyone stood up (7) |
| GLACIAL – G + reversal of LAIC (amateur) + AL{l} | |
| 20 | Pizza toppings in Calabria acknowledge local region (7) |
| CALZONE – C A L + ZONE
This took me much longer than it should of, because, despite understanding the wordplay, I kept thinking the definition was ‘pizza toppings’. |
|
| 21 | Digitally extended audio recording of Debussy? (6) |
| CLAWED – homophone of CLAUDE | |
| 23 | Bit of a ladder in stocking one could be regretting (5) |
| RUING – RUNG around I
What is ‘in’ doing here? |
|
| 24 | Capture minds by succeeding (4) |
| NEXT – NET around (minds) X (by) | |
I agree that this was mild for a Friday, although evidently Jeremy was on the wavelength. I had to use the cryptics to get some slightly unexpected answers, such as mythical and glacial and especially subjacent, but others like colloquial and reediest were easy to biff. The NW was last to fall, with cabbage particularly tricky.
Time: 45:34.
69 minutes. I found this hard but the mostly well-constructed clues got me there as I took the time to unravel them. I didn’t spot a problem (if there is one) with IRISH.
My FOI was CABBAGE immediately triggered by ‘Savoy’. My LOI was SUBJACENT where once again I forgot that ‘base’ can be an anagrind. I didn’t know the word which is making its debut here today.
It’s a pangram, btw.
34:43. I agree Jeremy, this was a really fun puzzle. I also agree with Jack that IRISH works, if ‘retired’ simply applies to ‘gentleman greeting hosts’.
Really liked ‘field of flowers’ as a definition, and it fooled me into trying to go too clever and think of ‘hydrology’ or similar. SUBJACENT may well be a maths term but it’s also widely used in Chomskyan linguistics to explain why you can’t say things like “who did she tell him the lie that his sister is dating?” – whether that in fact needs explaining is a moot point.
Oh that’s why the word sounded familiar. I used to study linguistics.
I still can’t understand how, grammatically, ‘retired’ can apply to the whole construction. I understand how the wordplay is supposed to work. My failing, I’m sure.
If I think of it as ‘gentleman which greeting hosts, retired’ I find it OK. If I squint a bit.
58:05 and happy to make it at all. Some lovely clues in this one, with field of flowers for BOTANY being a particular favourite. I don’t know TICKLER as “difficult problem” so that took a while and I biffed CABBAGE — it’s a lovely bit of wordplay now I see it. I also don’t see what the ‘in’ in doing in 23a but reversed applying to the whole clue for IRISH seems fine to me?
Chambers has SUBJACENT as “underlying”, I guess it’s the equivalent of adjacent but applying to things below and fits “forming a foundation” quite nicely. It’s also got a specialist usage in geology “(of a rock mass) having no perceivable base” which I guess could also apply here. It’s one of those words I suspect I’ve seen before but I wouldn’t be able to pull to mind.
In (by) stocking ‘one’, ‘run’ could become RUINING.
I mean RUING!
But usually this ‘could become’ construction is used where the answer is X and the clue is ‘X could become Y if (etc)’. If the answer is Y, it shouldn’t say ‘could become’.
Yes, I see what you mean! Good point.
I thought ARABIC NUMERAL was a great clue but I grew tired of the 17 inclusion indicators (assimilated, aboard,receiving, claims, skirt, cutting, hosts, beset by, outside, to secure, cracks, fencing, entering, housing, in, in stocking, and minds)
I agree, that and the six ?s. DNF BTW.
65 minutes. Maybe not quite GLACIAL pace but pretty slow. Started off well but then ran into trouble, including with the crossing cricket-related clues at 5a and 6d which I should have spotted earlier. No problems with IRISH, either with biffing the answer or later with the parsing. Plenty of clues which were satisfying to eventually solve; my favourites were the ‘dictionally informal’ def and the calamitous Morris dancing.
Good stuff, steadily worked through it, finishing in the NE corner with batting and botany.
I see what our blogger means about 25ac, but it didn’t bother me, the intent clear enough.
68 minutes with LOI SUBJACENT. COD to BOTANY. I liked CLAWED too. Otherwise, a hard-earned success. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
DNF after my self-imposed time limit of 1hr I was defeated by REEDIEST. I have to say that “most piping” is a pretty obscure definition. Otherwise a steady workout.
21.10
Easier than most recent Fridays but still tricky, with 6 clues bifd, or at least too complicated to be bothered parsing (MYTHICAL, QUADRILATERAL, LILY PAD, CABBAGE, REEDIEST, GENTLEFOLK).
Currently RUING some WORRISOME BATTING at the TEST MATCH.
LOI NEXT
COD ARABIC NUMERAL
Another tustle after which I’m ready for another coffee. From TOSH to BOTANY via much cogitation. A biffed CALAREA held up WORRISOME and AUGMENT, but was eventually reconciled. Liked ARABIC NUMERAL. 39:43. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
30:11 with most of it done before the 20 minute mark but a slow crawl over the line. REEDIEST (LOI), GENTLEFOLK (my brain was thinking of some other word that never came to me and the K had already been used in TICKLER so no help from the suspected Pangram) and ITSELF causing the most trouble. REEDIEST took a few minutes to clock how it met the definition when it finally went in. Very nice.
COD to TEST MATCH and ITSELF
Thanks setter and blogger.
About forty minutes in two goes, pleased to finish. COD to BOTANY. I should have got ARABIC NUMERALS much earlier, but still try to do anagrams in my head.
Some odd quasi-mathematics here – SUBJACENT is not a mathematical term, although some academics might use it instead of ‘underlying’ (why?). And neither is ‘lozenge’ – lozenges I have seen are ovoid or octagonal.
Late again because of the cricket. I noticed again that Snicko is nonsensical.
Thanks jeremy and setter.
47 mins. Not bad for the morning after curry night.
Mixed bag. Some lovely stuff but some painful parsing. Some biffing and some from wordplay alone. It has to be reasonably entertaining to keep at it for this long without throwing the towel in.
LOI AUGMENT unparsed. Liked CABBAGE, BOTANY, WORRISOME.
Thanks to Jeremy and setter.
30.14. Cruel (or unnecessarily exuberant) to have BATTING and TEST MATCH, what with Snicko either missing or falsely recording a TICKLER for the BOTANY Bay GENTLEFOLK, and with England playing such WORRISOME TOSH. Don’t tell me there’s not a theme alongside the alphabet compendium!
I didn’t fully work out CABBAGE (tossed trunk, very clever) and was going to say air ambulance was a wondrously complete anagram, which it isn’t, quite. BATTING was nearly bathing , though I couldn’t make HING[E] work for drop.
A really good Friday workout, short of laughs, perhaps.
Snicko is an accurate replacement for the standard umpire, though .. 🙂
I wasn’t aware of ‘one-horse’ meaning ‘poor’. I would think only of open sleighs at this time of year.
I think that’s only in the expression “one-horse town.”
45 – slowing to a crawl for the LOI, AUGMENT, which doesn’t seem to have caused anyone else the problems it caused me.
It was my LOI because I was insisting on parsing it (I often find replacements tricky). When I returned to it at the end of the puzzle I saw it quite quickly.
Me too. I couldn’t work out how the clue was supposed to work and wasn’t helped by looking for an imposing rise along the lines of a mountain or tall building. Natch nothing came to mind.
Surely the IRISH clue is just Yoda-speak: it’s (H(SIR)I)rev. This was no problem, like much else, but several, which have been mentioned above, were. All went smoothly enough at first but then the NW corner slowed me down so much that eventually I gave up and used electronic aids, which enabled me to finish in 71 minutes.
36:25 I thought this was excellent and I’m delighted to have finished, having been on the point of giving up on several occasions. A very distinct cluing style that, for me, entails umpteen re-reads of the clues in different word clusters. BOTANY and MYTHICAL tie for COD.
I have a nearby neigbour called Claude and I’m patiently waiting for the day when I can open a door for him and say “After you Claude”. It’s the little things that make life bearable.
Thanks to Jeremy and the setter
Only works if your name’s Cecil (I think it was Cecil…)
I think it was both (ITMA c 1945?). “After you Cecil. No, after you Claude”.
ITMA was well before my time but I’ve heard lots of clips of various sketches and some of the catchphrases have stuck in my brain. As well as Claude/Cecil there is Mrs Mopp’s “Can I do you now sir?” and the lugubrious Mona Lott’s “Its being so cheerful that keeps me going” which I say to my wife at least once a week.
Two goes needed.
– NHO SUBJACENT but it sounded very plausible and fitted the checkers, so in it went
– Didn’t parse ARABIC NUMERAL (would never have seen ‘are reported’=’r’
– Only familiar with ONE-HORSE from these crosswords
– Like Jeremy, was trying to think of a mythological woman before I separated it to get MYTHICAL
– Agree with other commenters on IRISH – I don’t see any issue, as surely ‘reversed’ can apply to all three words following it
– Had no idea how AUGMENT worked
– Slowed myself down by biffing GENTRIFIED for 8d (thinking the definition was ‘touched up for posh people’, which… almost works?!) before ARABIC NUMERAL forced a rethink
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
FOI Worrisome
LOI Gentlefolk
COD One-horse
Rare Friday wavelength for me. Most of it parsed, even if after completion.
NEXT was my LOI, and caused a great deal of consternation until by = x finally came to mind.
22:21
I’m not sure how 149 on the snitch qualifies as mild on any scale, Friday or not.
Way off the wavelength today and struggled to get to the two thirds complete mark. Gave up on the hour.
21:38. Tricky! Bit of a mixed bag, fun-wise. Some slightly stretchy stuff but also things like ‘field of flowers’.
13ac reminds me of my mum’s joke many years ago referring to Beaune as a ‘one os town’.
😀
Left the timer running while away but I think this took a good 45 mins.
the NW corner proved toughest: LOI REEDIEST was not the piping I was looking for. ‘Base’ as an anagram indicator is still new to me, and not sure it’s my favourite. COD to ONE HORSE which I liked as a definition of ‘poor’.
A shocking 71 minutes. Blame the sauvignon! But all parsed within that time. FOI CABBAGE: I like my green veg.
Not often I manage to finish a Friday puzzle but this one went down very well. The blog helped with a couple where my parsing was short but I found the clues to be very clearly written and the one or two ambiguities discussed earlier fortunately did not register sufficiently to prevent a full solve. Bang on the dot of 37 minutes. Faves inc ONE-HORSE, ITSELF, MYTHICAL, REEDIEST, BOTANY, HYSTERIA and the neat NEXT.
Thanks both
52:34. although milder than some, I still found that very hard. in most cases I was able to see the definition but the wordplay was pretty difficult to parse. LOI was NEXT after a lot of head scratching. Really enjoyed it!
I think it must have helped me being in a bit of a rush earlier on, as I was just flinging things in and finished up in 23:26. That’s with a bit of a soft cheat, admittedly, as I clicked on the check grid button with four to go as there was a lot I was very unsure about. All correct, surprisingly, apart from a certain BATONY at 5d. It wasn’t a typo either: I had parsed what it was going to be, before getting the BONY bit, but when it came to putting it in, I just sort of mangled it and thought, “Hmn, batony, that’ll be one of those Friday words, won’t it? I guess it looks vaguely familiar…” Whoops! Glad I came back later on to admire the crafting – lovely puzzle. The CABER bit remained a mystery. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani caused outrage among some folks, including Internet influencers of a certain tendency, when he announced his intention to make sure all children leave elementary school with a mastery of ARABIC NUMERALS. A 2019 nationwide poll showed 56% of Americans in opposition to the teaching of ARABIC NUMERALS in school.
47 mins played in several sessions earlier today. Left with -E-T which stumped me, but was obvious when I came back to it. Just about my favourite standard of crossword, tough but doable