31:03. Judging from the SNITCH, this puzzle seems more moderate than many recent Fridays. Nevertheless, some very nice clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sporting activity drops during the night or day — it might not be broadcast (4,4) |
| RUDE WORD – RU (sporting activity) DEW (drops during the night) OR D (day) | |
| 5 | Millions like touring southern mountains (6) |
| MASSIF – M (millions) AS IF (like) around (touring) S (southern) | |
| 10 | Dim-witted opinion follows review of opulent show (4,2,3,6) |
| SLOW ON THE UPTAKE – TAKE (opinion) after (follows) anagram (review) of OPULENT SHOW | |
| 11 | Dabbler flipped everything in shot (7) |
| MALLARD – reversal of (flipped) ALL (everything) in DRAM (shot) | |
| 12 | Construction worker must laugh about road test ultimately (4,3) |
| HARD HAT – HA HA (laugh) around (about) RD (road) + last letter of (ultimately) TEST
Thanks to starstruck for parsing this! |
|
| 13 | Times employee perhaps resisted changes (8) |
| EDITRESS – anagram (changes) of RESISTED | |
| 15 | Gentleman thief, / one often found in bed (5) |
| LUPIN – double definition
A reference to Arsène Lupin, I believe. |
|
| 18 | Local vermouth, right? (5) |
| INNIT – INN (local) IT (vermouth) | |
| 20 | Singer [in] church rejected port by drinking nothing (8) |
| CHOIRBOY – CH (church) + reversal of (rejected) RIO (port) + BY around (drinking) O (nothing) | |
| 23 | I beat back responsibility after leaving United States (7) |
| NATIONS – I TAN (beat) reversed (back) ONUS (responsibility) – (after leaving) U (united)
Very good and fooling. |
|
| 25 | Child[’s] book with introduction relating to both new and old (7) |
| BAMBINO – B (book) + (with) AMBI- (introduction relating to both) N (new) + (and) O (old)
Nice one! |
|
| 26 | This rascal minds rocky Australian territory (9,6) |
| CHRISTMAS ISLAND – anagram of (rocky) THIS RASCAL MINDS | |
| 27 | District 13’s leading man (6) |
| EDWARD – ED (13a) before (‘s leading) WARD (district)
Totally guessed on this one. |
|
| 28 | Extremely restless truncated nap on a set of books (8) |
| ANTSIEST – SIEST{a} (nap, truncated) next to (on) A + set of books (NT) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | What Americans might need for job / to continue (6) |
| RESUME – double definition, RÉSUMÉ being one. Y’all don’t need those there? Or you call them CVs? | |
| 2 | Raving mad old one forecasting disaster (4-5) |
| DOOM-LADEN – anagram of (raving) MAD OLD ONE | |
| 3 | Court poet dislodging European colonist (4,3) |
| WOOD ANT – WOO (court) DANTE (poet) – (dislodging) E (European) | |
| 4 | Did class traitor stop shunning north? (5) |
| RATED – RAT (traitor) + END (stop) – (shunning) N (north) | |
| 6 | Outrage surrounding concerning dress (7) |
| APPAREL – APPAL (outrage) around (surrounding) RE (concerning) | |
| 7 | Reduce / sign of division (5) |
| SLASH – double definition | |
| 8 | Passing Bolt can lead to gold (8) |
| FLEETING – FLEE (bolt) TIN (can) + first letter of (lead to) GOLD | |
| 9 | Diabolical sort [of] pub is caught in brief feminist movement (8) |
| MEPHISTO – PH (pub) IS in (caught in) #METO{O} (brief feminist movement) | |
| 14 | Sorry about emus running into river (6,2) |
| EXCUSE ME – C (about) anagram of (running) EMUS in (into) EXE (river) | |
| 16 | Nearest source of beef welcomed by ape? (9) |
| PROXIMATE – OX (source of beef) in (welcomed by) PRIMATE (ape?) | |
| 17 | Top article from Spain may catch up (8) |
| PINNACLE – EL (article from Spain) CAN (may) NIP (catch) reversed (up) | |
| 19 | Appropriate time to move queen (7) |
| TROUSER – T (time) ROUSE (to move) R (queen) | |
| 21 | Doorframes essentially framing king (7) |
| RAMESES – hidden (framing) in DOORFRAMES ESSENTIALLY | |
| 22 | Wait hours on Eniac, say (4,2) |
| HOLD IT – H (hours) on OLD IT (Eniac, say)
Eniac is an early computer. |
|
| 24 | Project to drag when human resources is involved (5) |
| THROW – TOW (to drag) around (when … is involved) HR (human resources) | |
| 25 | Where you might chuck stuff around like this animal (5) |
| BISON – BIN (where you might chuck stuff) around SO (like this)
This is a very good clue I did not appreciate (or understand) while solving. |
|
Thanks, Jeremy. Is the HARD HAT a “must” for a construction worker? i.e. It is an essential item for them.
Yes!
Indeed. This bamboozled me for a while before spotting that ‘must’ is a noun in the wordplay. Great clue!
Wow completely clear in the light of day! Well-spotted!
Yes, yesterday’s seemed harder. This took some pondering at times, but I got a good start with the two longest ones second and third, after FOI INNIT. Last ones in were 1A & D. “Dabbler”! Aha
Not sure about time but I’d guess close to an hour, I took ages to get going and found some of these to be a real challenge. But hey, I got there, thanks J.
From Like A Rolling Stone (which I bet Guy predicted):
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
THREW the bums a dime in your prime
Didn’t you?
Predict that song I didn’t, no.
The answer was not “threw” but THROW.
Doh!!
You could have used Christmas Island today, from Christmas in the Heart, an album i liked in a perverse sort of way.
DNF. 42 minutes for all but 28ac ANTSIEST, then I spent a further 10 on that alone before giving up and resorting to aids. I don’t think I’d ever have come up with it from definition or wordplay.
I missed the parsing of Edward as the answer was so obvious I didn’t see any point in hanging around. Ditto BAMBINO. LUPIN from the flower as I didn’t know the gentleman thief.
A very slow start had made me think this would be more difficult than it turned out – apart from the clue I failed to solve, of course.
I read BAMBI as Children’s book plus N and O.
Does AMBI mean with, I thought it was both?
If you take out PJ’s (with), that’s what his explanation says.
In my parsing, ‘with’ gives ‘+’, and is not part of the the meaning of AMBI.
Of course, I withdraw my comment, though the entry might have been seen as ambi-guous!
11:26. Another very nice puzzle. Again I had all the knowledge but I still needed the wordplay for almost all of the clues, which is the best kind of solving.
50:09. A bit slower than yesterday for an easier crossword. Intimidated by it being Friday. LOI PINNACLE. I liked BISON, HOLD IT, TROUSER and WOO DANTE
Just under half an hour – agree with others that this was easier than yesterday.
– Tried to justify TEST CARD, then CODE WORD, for 1a before figuring out RUDE WORD
– Didn’t know (or forgot) that a dabbler is a MALLARD, but the wordplay eventually got me there
– Had to trust that LUPIN was a gentleman thief
– Parsed BAMBINO like Jeremy Baker above, but I think plusjeremy’s parsing works better
– Completely missed that RAMESES was a hidden
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
FOI Hold it
LOI Mallard
COD Christmas Island
Just over the hour with LOI ANTSIEST taking an age. A lot of clues needed careful working out, including RUDE WORD, MASSIF, MALLARD NATIONS, BAMBINO, EDWARD & ANTSIEST.
LUPIN remembered from a TV series. I liked the two long anagrams though. Very meaty.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
The top half went well, but the bottom less so. There I was SLOW ON THE UPTAKE. I ended up biffing PINNACLE and HOLD IT, not knowing the computer, and finally constructing ANTSIEST. But I did enjoy spending Christmas on Christmas Island, today’s soundbite for the elderly. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
55 minutes. Overall performance well described by 10a. The bits I didn’t know such as the first def for LUPIN could eventually be worked out though I missed ‘must’ being part of the HARD HAT def. Favourite was MALLARD for ‘Dabbler’.
28:35. LOI ANTSIEST took some unpicking but mostly an easier Friday.
I’m another who missed that very clever parsing of BAMBINO and NHO the thief. I thought “must laugh” might be a forced Ha Ha but Starstruck’s parsing is much better.
Disliked the artificially feminised EDITRESS. Liked TROUSER, PROXIMATE and COD SLOW ON THE UPTAKE which was almost FOI and opened it all up.
Thanks to Jeremy and setter.
Can anyone here tell me please if it’s possible to go back to old style cryptic crossword online. I absolutely loathe the new update that has suddenly appeared. Could not get into the rhythm or right wavelength today to complete it.
Try accessing it via the Crossword Club (CWC). You can opt out of being on the leaderboard if you prefer.
Marvellous, thank you!
DNF. All but 1 done in 21 minutes, but eventually had to resort to aids to find my missing one – ANTSIEST which I failed to find with an alphabet trawl. DNK the gentleman thief but it had to be LUPIN. Thanks Jeremy and setter,
31.20, frozen by the whole of the Kent area and 1a, which is not something you’d find per se in a dictionary. Four-letter word, yes. The word play was cunning, too, suggestion sound-like (in the radio) and needing high class lift and separate. Got it on something like the eighth attempt.
I’ve no idea why RAMESES took so long: “framing” should have been a giveaway. BISON was my last in, trying to remember what alternatives there were for woodchuck, marmot and groundhog. Whistlepig doesn’t fit either. I was content with BAMBI as a book, but the AMBI- interpretation is clearly right and very clever. I was convinced HOLD IT would be a reverse (UP) of an antique computer, but that didn’t work.
Most of this was indeed easier than yesterday’s very sophisticated puzzle, but I managed to make it into a Friday stinker.
Also misinterpreted Bambi as a children’s book. Was it? Wikipedia says yes. Remember seeing the film’s sequel once: “Bambi Meets Godzilla”. Might have been Python Terry G? Pastoral scenes, singing birds, then a giant reptilian foot came down from nowhere and squished the deer. Perhaps 15 seconds start to finish.
I have to admit I assumed Bambi was a book before it was Disney. It turns out it was, by Austrian Felix Salten. Whether it was a children’s book is an interesting question: it was amongst books suffering a fiery fate in Nazi Germany, condemned as an allegory on the fate of Jews under the regime.
Crikey, that was quick!
I looked in Collins and found
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rude-word
Found this far harder than yesterday. In fact it began to irritate me, so gave up at 45 mins with half a dozen answers missing.
62:56
Great puzzle – enjoyable solve.
Thanks, pj.
My thanks to plusjeremy and setter.
Well, after very tricky Thursday we get not-too-terrible Friday!
12a Hard hat, I didn’t get the MUST.
15a Lupin. The only Lupin I knew was Pooter, NHO Arsene Lupin. So I guessed, correctly.
27a Edward, biffed. Didn’t understand “13’s.”
25d Bison biffed. Didn’t see the bin. I agree it is good; belated COD.
Completed in 30:04, only to discover a genuine typo (PROSIMATE rather than PROXIMATE, the finger obviously caught the wrong key). I think that is (typo aside) my fastest Friday since I have been keeping time.
This for me was one of the best puzzles – brilliant clues, but answers not too obscure. Fantastic. NATIONS was my favourite.
Really enjoyable puzzle all correctly completed.
Didn’t know the “dabbler” meaning; only fictional Lupin I know is the Harry Potter one; and no idea what connected “Eniac” to “oldit” but the answers pretty clearly signposted.
Thanks for the blog and to our setter.
Broadly in line with the snitch in finding this a bit easier than yesterday. Another lovely puzzle. Came home in 26:05, feeling very fortunate to have somehow chanced on the correct two vowels for LUPIN, as both references were unknown, and I (yet again) missed the old flower bed variety of bed. Must have been good crosswording karma for resisting the urge to check what on earth an Eniac was: Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator, I see, which looks like it could have been the inspiration behind that number thing on Countdown – ah yes, CECIL (Countdown’s Electronic Calculator In Leeds, named in honour of the Channel 4 commissioner Cecil Korer).
42 – Mostly down to that pesky ANTSIEST/BAMBINO area. LUPIN went in with an echo of the Dennis Moore sketch from Monty Python, but having forgotten the character (I have one of the books somewhere), I wasn’t confident that I wasn’t walking into a trap.
I too found this a good Friday puzzle, because I could solve it. I had heard of Arsene Lupin, knew what ENIAC was, and managed to parse rude word. I agree Mephisto is diabolical, to a degree. I was also a bit surprised to see editress, but apparently any word in the dictionary that is not 1 across is fair game.
Time: 33:37
Liked it, but found it tricky especially the NW, some of it self-induced. Looked briefly at 2dn anagrist and confidently entered the NHO OMEN-LADEN. The equally NHO DOOM-LADEN was 3rd LOI, allowing RUDE WORD, and finally LOI SLOW ON THE UPTAKE, which I was.
Wondered if EMUS running were the same as EMUS cycling, rather than an anagram? Don’t know. Remember driving through Augathella once, behind a mob of emus running down the main street.
Have seen at least one Lupin animation… vaguely remember a huge, top-heavy castle on a lake and a kidnapped girl?
Otherwise, missed AMBI- as both ways, and MUST as a noun, but all else parsed and enjoyed. COD to BISON which took a few tens of seconds to work out.
30:49
Quite a challenge with many bits unparsed or NHO:
SLOW ON THE UPTAKE – with several checkers in place, saw that OPULENT SHOW made up some of the letters and guessed the rest
HARD HAT – missed the use of ‘must’ in the definition
LUPIN – NHO
NATIONS – was about to write in NOTIONS = states, but realised at my error at the last moment
CHRISTMAS ISLAND – didn’t know that this belonged to Australia
EDWARD – could only guess at how this was constructed, though in retrospect, it is quite simple
ANTSIEST – the hardest in the grid and my LOI – eventually thought of SIESTa for nap and that the NT went at the front!
WOOD ANT – NHO, but not surprised it exists
RAMESES – took an age and two checkers to spot the hidden
PROXIMATE – delighted to work this out from the cryptic
HOLD IT – heard of Eniac but took an age to place what it is/was
I liked PINNACLE, BISON and BAMBINO.
Thanks PJ and setter
DNF on 30
Another who couldn’t see ANTSIEST. Really liked NATIONS in a fine puzzle. Thanks Setter/Jeremy.
A lovely puzzle, clever and entertaining without being too obscure. FOI was WOOD ANT. Laughed out loud at old IT for ENIAC. Liked HARD HAT. Took an age to see the hidden RAMESES. Took a moment or two to see how BISON parsed. LOI was ANTSIEST after finally spotting SIEST(a). 28:17. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
Off topic. Many apologies for intruding here, but does anyone know if there is a discussion group for the Quintagram puzzles?
There is a forum for the Concise quint in the Crossword Club Forums
All present and correct at 29:32. Really liked RAMESES and HARD HAT’s parsing.
Must be an easier Friday as I finished without any aids. Didnt fully parse RATED, vaguely knew LUPIN as someone famous for something (sounded more like detective to me). 1 ac took ages but I got there. DNK Christmas Island was Australian and could’ve sworn it was in the Pacific (next door to Easter Island?).
FOI DOOM-LADEN
LOI ANTSIEST
COD NATIONS (brilliantly misleading while retaining total accuracy)
HOLD IT also impressed but perhaps needed a too-specialist knowledge of history of computing (which I happen to have, being IT all my working life (1966-2023).
Thanks to all!
Thought this another excellent puzzle today. 28 mins with RUDE WORD my LOI.
Superb cluing throughout but especially HARD HAT, RUDE WORD and BAMBINO.
Thx Jeremy and setter
What I liked best was having the final bit of the wordplay clicking into place not once or twice, but on pretty much every clue. Thanks Jeremy. Thanks even more, setter.
Did better than yesterday! Didn’t get trouser, Edward, and antsiest, though I guessed Edward
After a slow start, 26 mins – much quicker than yesterday. No hold-ups or unfamiliar answers. Good clues. I believe it is a legal requirement, so a ‘must’, that construction workers wear HARD HATs. First one in was CHOIRBOY and last one BISON. My favourite two clues were to CHRISTMAS ISLAND and FLEETING. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
Busy day so came to this a few times before finally completing (unlike yesterday!), and I suspect about just under the hour with a sprint at the end. Like others there was a bit of biffing before wordplay fell into place, and in most cases it did. EDWARD went in on the basis of ward = district as I hadn’t solved 13ac at that point. The long anagrams were quite complex I thought, but eventually yielded. I liked NATIONS with the misleading US, and “AMBI” passed me by. Just about remembered Eniac from some computer studies books in the 70s. Altogether very good fun and always happy to complete on a Friday!!
Thanks Jeremy and setter
DNF — just couldn’t see ANTSIEST. The rest took about 40 mins.
Some nice clues here, with well-hidden definitions.
Easier than yesterday for me. My only NHO was LUPIN in the non-flower sense. As a computer scientist I knew Eniac so no problem there. LOI was the clever NATIONS where you had to lift and separate United States (especially since ONUS not just has the U that you have to remove but temptingly ends in US).
29:34 completed later in the day which is my only excuse for being slowed down by incorrect MASSES and HOLD UP (had not heard of the Eniac). LOI ANTSIEST when I finally accepted UNASLEEP was not a word.
Liked NATIONS for which I missed the need to split the United States for far too long a time.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Rather an easy Friday (well, exactly an hour instead of far over an hour), but a technical DNF because, unfortunately, while trying to pause the puzzle to have another think about TROUSER, I accidentally submitted the incomplete grid. There were a number of unexpected (but correctly clued) answers, like ANTSIEST, that made this fun.
Funny, I found this one harder than yesterday’s, took about 2 hours to complete. LOI RUDE WORD.
Late to the party, I did about 3/4 and then put it to one side and then forgot about it .. I didn’t find it easier than yesterday’s, must say. But no unknowns (though I thought Xmas island was one of ours) so that’s good, and some excellent clues. Liked the nations one in particular. I do love a clever lift-and-separate.
Good workout for a Friday. Not sure I agree with the consensus on 12a. A hard hat is a construction worker and Ha Ha/must laugh are interchangeable sarcasms. I really can’t see “construction worker must” as the definition.
Sunday evening solve and 45’08” on the clock, which doesn’t seem great when I look at others’ times. ENIAC had me looking for nicknames for MICHAEL CAINE that could be reversed with an UP, but ALFIE didn’t work so I gave up. For 25 across I seriously thought of ORLANDO for a while, the -ANDO corresponding to AND OLD. But the ORL- didn’t fit. Also, though I loved the ORLANDO books as a child, I doubt they are sufficiently famous to make the Times Xword. In all, a thoroughly good puzzle for which thanks.