Hello again. This crossword I thought was straightforward, rather easier than average perhaps, though with the usual couple of clues I have had trouble parsing… perhaps they will come to me as I blog. What did you think?
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Divulge receiving phosphorus atom component (6) |
| LEPTON – P(hosphorus) in LET ON, or divulge. A lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin (spin ½) that unlike quarks, does not undergo strong interactions, as any fule kno. But confusingly it turns out that electrons, muons and neutrinos are all also leptons. | |
| 4 | Former student tired having gone round front of college block (8) |
| OBSTACLE – OB (old boy), + C(ollege) in STALE, tired | |
| 10 | Chap turned up in clutches of fidgety tailor, one busy with their hands? (11) |
| MANIPULATOR – MAN (chap), + UP rev. in *(TAILOR) | |
| 11 | New opponent in game, one easily confused? (3) |
| NIT – N(ew) + IT. Collins: “It: in children’s games, the player whose turn it is to try to touch another.” | |
| 12 | Expert’s account defending India is unimaginative (7) |
| PROSAIC – I (NATO India) in PRO’S AC(count) | |
| 14 | Country’s anger reflected curtailment of party, perhaps (7) |
| ERITREA – IRE (anger) rev., + TREA(t), a party perhaps, or in my case, more likely a nice malt whisky. Instead. | |
| 15 | Versatile tool, swanky, misfires when deployed (5,4,5) |
| SWISS ARMY KNIFE – *(SWANKY MISFIRES). I never go anywhere without mine, it is versatile indeed. It has a bottle opener and a can opener as well as a corkscrew, for example .. and you can even cut things with it. | |
| 17 | Exaggerate problems in column, supported by two articles, and leave city (4,2,3,5) |
| PILE ON THE AGONY – PILE (column) ON THE + A (two articles) + GO (leave) + NY, a city. I hadn’t thought of piling on the agony as involving exaggeration necessarily, rather, just doing what life does to me, often enough; but Collins is clear that it does. | |
| 21 | Confused bloke clipped on the ear (7) |
| CHAOTIC – CHA(p) (bloke, clipped) + OTIC, about ears. | |
| 22 | Persuades Earl to invest in reform of prison (5,2) |
| ROPES IN – E(arl) in *(PRISON). | |
| 23 | America getting behind baseball’s foremost coach? (3) |
| BUS – B(aseball) + US, America. | |
| 24 | Setter cared about proprietary information (5,6) |
| TRADE SECRET – *(SETTER CARED). | |
| 26 | Taking extreme care with lady’s clothing after spicy stuff (8) |
| GINGERLY – GINGER (spicy stuff) + L(ad)Y. Lady’s clothing, ha ha. Neat. | |
| 27 | Nothing in photo I took, seeing only what’s close (6) |
| MYOPIC – O in MY PIC, a photo I took.. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Source of light wasted, needing measure of current and power introduced (8) |
| LAMPPOST – AMP (measure of current) + P(ower) in LOST, wasted. | |
| 2 | Not entirely weak joke (3) |
| PUN – PUN(y), weak, not entirely. The engine that powers a cryptic crossword, and so often rescues it from being too 12ac. | |
| 3 | Work hard, securing right answer for deprived children (7) |
| ORPHANS – R(ight) in OP (work) + H(ard) + ANS(wer). Having the O, (lepton a write-in, obvs 🙂 I confess I just bunged it in. | |
| 5 | Something to help EV driver, finally, after accusation of assault? (7,7) |
| BATTERY CHARGER – BATTERY CHARGE, an accusation of assault, + (drive)R. | |
| 6 | Conflicted about love, is upset in wrench (7) |
| TORSION – O + IS rev., in TORN, conflicted. | |
| 7 | Study more than half of traffic — minimum levels in set-ups around roadworks (11) |
| CONTRAFLOWS – CON (study) + TRAF(fic) + LOWS, minimum levels. Plenty of contraflows, hereabouts. | |
| 8 | Catch new music, say, turning up in recording (6) |
| ENTRAP – N(ew), + ART rev. (music, say) in EP, a recording. The first record I ever bought, in 1963, was an EP, “Twist and Shout.” Do they still have them? Surely not, though I do still have that one … | |
| 9 | Loin meat cleric misrepresented as spam etc (10,4) |
| ELECTRONIC MAIL – *(LOIN MEAT CLERIC). Not a hard clue to parse, although you still have to work out the anagram. I get more spam than I do etc., these days. | |
| 13 | Historic corruption? Creative interpretation of events dismissing pressure (8,3) |
| ORIGINAL SIN – ORIGINAL (creative) + S(p)IN, interpretation of events, without P(ressure). A stick invented by religion, with which to beat the congregation over the head. At least our setter has the grace to provide the question mark. | |
| 16 | A lot of publicity and a lot of attention may be mesmerising (8) |
| HYPNOTIC – HYP(e), publicity, + NOTIC(e), attention. I liked this clue, very neat. | |
| 18 | Authorise it during tender, $1000 being expended (7) |
| ENTITLE – IT, in (g)ENTLE, a G(rand) being $1,000 apparently. Or of course £1,000, I think. | |
| 19 | Tech company in the vicinity of Cumbrian town (7) |
| APPLEBY – APPLE BY. Appleby’s main claim to fame is the annual Appleby Horse Fair, when all the sensible locals go away on holiday and the extra police are drafted in. | |
| 20 | What physio may apply before reserve comes off? (3,3) |
| ICE BAG – I can’t make much sense of this clue. The surface reading is opaque to say the least, and as for the wordplay, I see ICE (reserve) but how exactly BAG = “comes off” is unclear to me. Just missing something, I expect.
Quadrophenia has it right I think: before BAG (reserve) comes OFF (ice) Two Americanisms together, off & ice. |
|
| 25 | Rent ready for reduction (3) |
| RIP – RIP(e), ready reduced. | |
BAG can mean reserve so ICE then means “comes off” so something happens. This could be “ice a cake” or “ice someone” as the happening perhaps.
Around 40 minutes which means a relatively easy one for me. I needed the blog for parsing several.
Thanks Jerry
I agree this was on the easy side but it still had enough red meat in it to tax the ageing brain cells. I was on course to finish around my target half-hour but when I reached the SE corner I was too hasty with the answer at 24ac and wrote STATE SECRET and moved on without double-checking the angrist. This made 18dn impossible to solve and also put the mockers on 21ac which intersects with it. Eventually I came up with CHAOTIC and then wasted my time alpha-trawling for a word to fit E?T?S?E for 18dn to complete the grid. In the end I gave up and of course kicked myself when I realised my error over TRADE SECRETS.
Re the parsing at 20dn I noticed that both ICE and BAG can mean ‘reserve’ and thought a double meaning or &lit might be a possibility, but I never understood it properly and am not as yet fully convinced by KG’s suggestion. I may see it more clearly on further consideration.
Ditto with STATE SECRET which held me up in the same way!
I think it can be read as ‘What physio may apply’ as the definition, and then the cryptic: before reserve (bag) comes (appears) off=ice (kill). As in: Before ‘B’ comes ‘A’.
Another fun and doable offering for a Wednesday, but I have to own looking up the last four letters of CONTRAFLOWS, so a technical DNF. Bunged in obstruct instead of OBSTACLE even though I couldn’t parse it, causing problems with ENTRAP before I realised my error. Swiss Army knife was a gimme from ‘versatile tool’. Took a while to see the required ‘spicy stuff’ for GINGERLY. NHO LEPTON but the wordplay was clear. Very enjoyable and COD to HYPNOTIC.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
Yeah I think you’ve nailed the ICE BAG parsing. Couldn’t see it myself. Pretty good clue actually.
As always, there had to be a reason – and now you’ve explained it, it’s a great clue.
I’m feeling dumb – but how does ‘ice’ mean ‘off’ (or ‘kill’)? I’m sure it’s obvious…
It’s an American Mafia expression, ‘to ice someone’ being to kill them. And ‘off’ as a verb also is a slang way of saying ‘kill’. But quite often ‘ice’ in crosswords refers to reserve, so the clue is deliberately confusing the solver.
Thanks! I didn’t know any of those meanings – cheers.
Completed most of it inside 30 minutes. Struggled with 17a as I was looking for a town.
Straightforward today (albeit nearly 4am), except I don’t understand the parsing of ICE BAG. How is BAG=reserve?
There’s “bags the front seat on the way home” but I don’t know if that works without the ‘s’.
On edit: For bag, Chambers has ‘to claim or reserve for oneself (informal)’.
I’m going to bag the front seat on the way home?
I’ve never heard it used that way, but it may be a regional thing. In any case everyone under 40 (50?), including my kids, uses “shotgun” now instead.
On edit: Just surveyed a few nieces and nephews. The consensus is that (in Sydney at least) it flipped from bags to shotgun in 1999!
Riding shotgun in that sense goes back to my childhood in the 1950s and even before that. I’m sure you know it originated in stage coaches in the Wild West where the shotgun guard used to sit next to the driver. Westerns had always been popular with children but with the coming of TV and then the arrival of ITV in 1956 there was airtime to fill and any day of the week the two channels between them were showing two or three Westerns each day. We lapped them all up and incorporated some of their lingo into our own speech.
Yes I understood the origin of riding shotgun. But somewhere along the line it morphed into a verb for claiming the right to the seat, and then extended out into staking a claim for (bagsing) anything.
And as with many of these usages it was probably highly regionalised.
Thanks. I see I overlooked the part of speech you were citing.
24.13 so not too hard, but I needed all the help available in the blog to understand ICE BAG and the complicated PILE ON THE AGONY cryptic. NHO CONTRAFLOWS so that was a challenge. Thanks Jerry, I’ve still got the Twist and Shout EP too.
From Love Minus Zero/No Limit:
In the dime stores and BUS stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And failure is no success at all
About 15 minutes.
– Needed all the checkers before I got LEPTON
– Wasn’t quite sure how party=treat for ERITREA
– For 21a I tried to justify FRANTIC (with Frank as the bloke being clipped) before I got CHAOTIC
– Didn’t see how ICE BAG worked, so thanks to Quadrophenia and others for the explanation
Thanks Jerry and setter.
FOI Pun
LOI Gingerly
COD Ropes in
10’38”, no issues apart from LOI ICE BAG, horrid clue.
Thanks jerry and setter.
I couldn’t parse ICE BAG so technically a DNF. In what sension TORSION (a mass noun I guess) is equivalent to WRENCH I have no idea? Torque wrench? Thanks for the blog!
I have a feeling it might be equivalent in medical terms – a wrench of the ankle would be referred to as a torsion.
53 mins but shot myself in the foot by bunging in OBSTRUCT at 4ac, making 7 & 8 down impossible. Rather like Jack’s woes above. After ten mins I saw the error and, of course, I immediately saw CONTRAFLOWS & ENTRAP. Doh!
I liked SWISS ARMY KNIFE and I agree with our blogger, very useful things.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
I only just restrained myself from putting OBSTRUCT too, but held off and waited for another checker.
Great minds………
I put OBSTRUCT too, but happily I noticed very soon that it had messed up UONTRAFLOWS!
I like an UONTRAFLOW every now and again, they’re delicious !
British ones aren’t so good .. I think they need the Mediterranean sun, to really thrive.. and a glass of rosé!
Couldn’t agree more.
😁
21:27. What Jerry said really. Another where a couple at the end nudged me over the 20. Gave up trying to parse ICE BAG but did eventually work out LOIs ENTRAP/NIT. Not rap after all.
Enjoyed LEPTON and the 2 long phrases across the middle.
There was a fashion for 12″ singles in the 80s, a bit like EPs but less useful in a crossword.
Thanks to Jerry and setter.
As with others, ICE BAG not fully understood. I had no trouble with BAG or BAGS but the learned discussion about SHOTGUN was new. Riding shotgun, yes , a precipitate wedding yes, but meaning to reserve something must be after my and my children’s time .Apart from that, a good puzzle. Thank you Jerry and setter.
Beaten by the parsing of ICE BAG, but now I see it’s very clever. Only APPLEBY missing, and now I’m irritated I didn’t see it. Gave up at 45 mins.
18:54.
I couldn’t see SWISS ARMY KNIFE for quite a while – despite the obvious definition and having all the checkers! So it was going to be awarded my COD. Until the parsing of ICE BAG was explained here by Quadrophenia. I think that’s a really clever clue construction.
COD : ICE BAG
Thanks to Jerry, Quadrophenia and our setter.
Pleasant solve, again seemed to be on wavelength as the clues kept yielding with regularity. Very well constructed crossword. Thanks to setter and blogger for their efforts.
17.43, like jackkt stymying myself with STATE SECRET to make ENTITLE a no-go. Neither the definition nor the anagram fodder justified it, so wild surmise would have to do. I was a bit worried about NIT, and prepared with an appeal which turned out to be entirely correct. ICE BAG went in as more or less a cryptic hint sort of clue: I’m delighted that it’s rather cleverer.
I feared I would not know either the tech company nor the Cumbrian town, happy to be wrong on both counts. Now I’m just stressing over the famous poem that includes a station a bit like APPLEBY. Hopefully it’ll be in the TLS today through happy serendipity.
Thanks Jerry for unfolding all.
I had OBSTRUCT for OBSTACLE, although couldn’t see strut=tired, it felt right. This made the last three in the NE impossible.
16:16 only trouble in NE corner. Very generous with the literals with quite a lot parsed after submission.
Sorry for the short post but I have had some technical issues with the site and submitting a post.
Thanks blogger and setter.
ORPHANS was FOI, quickly followed by LEPTON. Then steady progress until I had a hold up with the last few in the NE, not helped by biffing OBSTRUCTS until I noticed that CONTRAFLOWS had become UONTRAFLOWS. LOI, ENTRAP, followed after that OBSTACLE was surmounted. 18:52. Thanks setter and Jerry.
All went very (?) quickly at first until I became bogged down in the SW corner. Couldn’t understand ICE BAG, was slow to see GINGERLY and poor with the complications of PILE ON THE AGONY. Thought the definition for NIT was a bit feeble and wouldn’t have thought that being easily confused was the defining characteristic of a nit, more being rather silly and irritating. And the TORSION/wrench equivalent does seem very odd now that it’s been pointed out. NHO APPLEBY but the wordplay was a help. Otherwise a pleasant crossword.
I made good progress on this until I reached the SE corner, but emerged unscathed in 34 minutes. A MER at ROPES IN = persuades. When I was at school we were roped into something whether we were persuaded or not – and often persuasion was never attempted!
FOI – PROSAIC
LOI – APPLEBY
COD – SWISS ARMY KNIFE
Thanks to Jerry and other contributors.
No time as I was doing this in between dealing with demanding (but funny) granddaughters. Might have been quite quick though as I found this fairly straightforward albeit with a few parsings not quite there (eg “rap” gave me ENTRAP? oh no it doesn’t).
I used to have a very useful miniature Swiss Army Knife attached to my key ring only to have it confiscated at an airport after I forgot to take it off..
Thanks Jerry and setter.
LOI was NIT. I thought that the IT was the computer you played against in on-line games. Heigh-ho.
I once bought an imitation SWISS ARMY KNIFE from a pound shop, and I called it my Paraguayan Navy Knife, believing in my innocence that land-locked countries do not have navies. I later discovered that Paraguay does in fact possess a navy, which operates mainly on the Parana river.
I thought this was going to be difficult, but once I had got the cross formed by SAK and Battery Charger it became quite easy.
Chaotic was good, because I was expecting on the ear to mean ‘sounds like’.
Excellent crossword spoilt for me by the ridiculous 11a. This made 8d difficult as I tried to force ‘rap’ ( new music ) into the answer.
Nice crossword – my COD to Hypnotic and I also liked Ice Bag. The only clue I didn’t like was Nit (LOI) where I find myself agreeing with Wil and Tunbridge Wells above – even with N-T it was a bit of a stretch. But a lovely puzzle overall which took me around 50 minutes.
30 minutes. I managed to avoid the traps described above but just about put in PRATON for my FOI at 1a and see now that I didn’t properly understand ICE BAG. I agree NIT wasn’t great but maybe it was put in as a nod to the date. Co-COD’s to GINGERLY and HYPNOTIC.
30:05. Not too hard, but spent a really long time on the NE corner, NIT and ENTRAP proving my nemeses. I enjoyed the overall flow of the puzzle – has been good all week. maybe something a bit chewier tomorrow for Tricky Thursday?
Enjoyed the crossword but failed on NIT. I couldn’t see any reason for either NIT or NUT to work and put NUT in as lesser of two evils. I really don’t like the wordplay or the definition. Otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle today, whizzed thru in 19 mins helped by most of the longer clues dropping out quite easily.
Thx Jerry and setter
I quite enjoyed this, but found it a lot more difficult than Jerry implies it was for him. Long anagrams are anathema to me – I just don’t see them and often have to write out the anagrist. Consequently, I got PILE ON THE AGONY before SAK and E-MAIL. I also, like most, wrote in OBSTRUCT, whilst struggling to justify ‘strut’, and only revisited it when I was left with 7 and 8 down and unable to progress. I also hated NIT. If you can’t be sure the answer is correct (even if you don’t know the term – such as NHO LEPTON), it’s not a great clue and ‘one easily confused’ is not a great definition. Having got that off my chest, there were some great teasers in here – I liked CONTRAFLOWS and CHAOTIC, where I thought of ‘chap’ immediately, but nearly came a cropper because of the pronunciation difference. LAMPPOST was also good, but I would spell it with two words, so it was very late going in.
Not just me though, was it!? Actually most of the comments above say it was easy, or on the easier side …
I am sensitive about this, having been accused by vinyl a week or two ago of saying things are easier than he thought they were. I may sue!
I also found it to be th easiest one for quite a while, completed in a sub-15 minute time. I spent about a minute on LOI LEPTON though as I was foolishly looking for K (Potassium) not P (Phosphorus).
I know it wasn’t just you, Jerry, and I expect the bloggers to be much better and quicker than me. I didn’t intend any sort of criticism, but I find that if I do by any chance feel one is a breeze, almost inevitably there’s a strong polarisation of opinion on its difficulty, so I conclude it’s a wavelength thing. It doesn’t bother me unduly, as I don’t speed solve – that would turn an absorbing interest into a competition, and the stress of that is the last thing I need!
So .. still friends then, are we? 😉
I don’t post times any more, for what sounds like a similar reason..
Like Mark Twain, I count any cat lover as a friend, but we’re friends anyway… I’ll stand you a drink in June… 🐺😊
👍 🐈🐈⬛️
A consistent week so far – 16 mins. No real problems; thanks Q for explaining ICE BAG. First in was LEPTON and last GINGERLY. Favourite clue: to ELECTRONIC MAIL. Good puzzle. Thanks to Setter and Blogger.
Terrible. Blazing fast until hitting CONTRAFLOWS (nho) and PILE ON THE AGONY (what???). Also misspelled ERITREA which is just poor form on my part.
23:16
A pleasant relief after failing at the quick cryptic earlier today. Last two in were OBSTACLE (where I wasted time trying to make OBSTRUCT fit ) and ENTRAP.
Thanks Jerry and setter
Hi, amazed but not surprised by the above timing for solving this puzzle. As a newbie it took me 2 1/2 hours to do.
I guessed ice bag as I had used these as a FA with an international emergency service in uk. So if the ice bag didn’t work on the injured then the reserve comes off the bench to replace the injured.
Appleby remember driving through this town ages ago.
Surprisingly 10a subconsciously solved it.
1st part of 5a got this from checking letters as I associated charging car battery using jump leads . Good old days. 🤣🤣🤣
So I gave myself a pat on the back. 👍🏾
An annoying wait for NIT and ENTRAP at the end. I got sidetracked into thinking a new opponent in video-gaming might be a NEO, which happens to be an anagram (EASILY CONFUSED) of ONE. Why EASILY confused though, rather than plain confused? This thought steered me away from blunder. Is PILE ON THE AGONY sufficiently established as a phrase, rather than just being four words that quite often go together? 22’27” all up. Just below my average. Many thanks.
9:54. Late to this as I’m travelling and working too much. No problems. I saw the definition for 20dn and that ‘reserve’ can mean ICE and didn’t think further. The clue deserved better.
The BY in APPLEBY is one of the placename endings that indicate Viking origins. Like -thorp or -kirk.
LOI wrong – Genteely at SW which seemed akin to ladylike even though it’s probably genteelly if it exists at all.
15:08
Somehow managed to type in MANUPILATOR – urgh.
I wouldn’t have said a NIT was necessarily confused.
TREA{t} for party was a bit lame.
ICE BAG – not my favourite answer of the day
Thanks Jerry and setter
Like some others had ENTRAP and NIT as my last two in, and having got the former I was confident the latter was correct even if it was a bit weak.
Three in a row correct is extremely rare for me. I will no doubt come unstuck tomorrow.
All correct, but struggled with the SW corner, and didn’t understand how ICE BAG and ENTITLE worked.
Top half was much easier.
Nice puzzle and thanks Jerry.
I managed to finish it in about 45 minutes in spite of NHO CONTRAFLOWS. ICE BAG very clever though I think in my dialect it’s an ice pack. I don’t recognize PILE ON THE AGONY as a stock phrase so assume it’s not Murcan. I particularly liked HYPNOTIC. Thanks setter and Jerry.
Well, another bone from the 15*15 gods ! Two in a row can only mean severe head scratching for the rest of the week. Thanks to setter and blogger.