Hello again. This crossword I thought was about average difficulty, not too hard but not a gimme either. Not a single cruciword, thankfully, and some excellent surface readings and all-round good clues. Thank you, 23dn setter.
As per usual there are a couple of clues I can’t currently parse, 8 and 27ac .. maybe they will come to me, if only via helpful comments!
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 | Assist beside outside broadcast spot (7) |
| OBSERVE – OB (outside broadcast) + SERVE (assist). A nice neat write-in to get us going .. | |
| 5 | Scattered boxes with energy (6) |
| SPARSE – SPARS (boxes) + E(nergy) .. ditto! | |
| 8 | Foreigner carrying large variety of fig? (9) |
| STRANGLER – L(arge) in STRANGER, foreigner. I struggled with this, through lack of a crucial piece of GK: the strangler fig. You don’t see them much here in Kent. | |
| 9 | Town centre in Rome with a good hospital (5) |
| OMAGH – (r)OM(e) + A G(ood) H(ospital). County town of County Tyrone, associated by most with the bombings that took place there | |
| 11 | Record attempt by bridge players (5) |
| ENTRY – EN + TRY (attempt). “Bridge players” can be used to denote any combination of E,N,W and S. | |
| 12 | Run after I angered drunken soldier (9) |
| GRENADIER – *(I ANGERED) + R(un) | |
| 13 | Perhaps German person arriving outside chambers (8) |
| COMPOSER – POS (chamber pots!) in COMER, a person arriving. Not for the first time, the (English) composer Sir Edward German is used to mislead. | |
| 15 | Right car to go around one Italian city (6) |
| RIMINI – I, one, in R(ight) + MINI, a car. My Aunt Dora used to go to Rimini every summer, must have been a nice change for her from Sheffield. | |
| 17 | Identified gadget to be thrown out (6) |
| TAGGED – *(GADGET) | |
| 19 | Company reportedly pursuing £1000 wine (5,3) |
| GRAND CRU – GRAND (£1,000) + CRU, sounds like “crew,” a company. | |
| 22 | Where one’s warm and rather abandoned in embrace (9) |
| HEARTHRUG – *(RATHER), in HUG, an embrace. | |
| 23 | Lively right after beer (5) |
| ALERT – ALE (beer) + RT, right. | |
| 24 | Legal clause added by one in the saddle? (5) |
| RIDER – a DD. | |
| 25 | One who’ll go far as a jewellery worker? (3-6) |
| JET-SETTER – Another DD of sorts, as jet-setters travel far and jet is also a gemstone which can thus be set, though it isn’t stone, it is a form of coal, lignite. | |
| 26 | Wine after cheddar? This port’s essential for that (6) |
| DARWIN – cunningly hidden, in (ched)DAR WIN(e). You have to put the wine after the cheddar, and bingo. Hiding the answer in words that have first to be rearranged is a device I haven’t seen before, so naturally I really liked this clue. | |
| 27 | With nothing odd — in fact, surreally so? (7) |
| NATURAL – One of Collins’ definitions is “not supernatural or strange.” So far so good, but the opposite of surreal, so I am still a bit bemused about that bit of the clue. I’m thinking it could be a reference to So, the musical note, (a needle pulling thread), which I assume is a natural.. my musical knowledge is very limited. More or less confined to that Julie Andrews song in fact.
On edit: as Vinyl says, remove the odd letters from “iN fAcT, sUrReAlLy.” |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Greyish-white feline caught this female bird (13) |
| OYSTERCATCHER – OYSTER (greyish white, called “oyster white” in Collins) + CAT (feline) + C(aught) + HER (female). A charade or Ikea clue. | |
| 2 | Problem about rising pastry layer (7) |
| STRATUM – TART (pastry) reversed in SUM, a problem. | |
| 3 | Called the last in assembly spare (5) |
| RANGY – RANG (called) + (assembl)Y | |
| 4 | Record that is introduced to make legal claim over bouquets (8) |
| EULOGIES – LOG (record) + IE (that is), both in SUE (legal claim) reversed. | |
| 5 | The brothers overturned, missing hard ice (6) |
| SORBET – T(h)E BROS, the brothers without H(ard) | |
| 6 | Fuss over helping worship (9) |
| ADORATION – ADO (fuss) + RATION (helping) | |
| 7 | Tongue was hurt on hot pepper, not cold (7) |
| SWAHILI – *(WAS) + (c)HILI. Slightly held up here by a lifetime of spelling it chilli. | |
| 10 | Dealing with those that live on earth I call “our truth”, in a way (13) |
| HORTICULTURAL – *(I CALL OUR TRUTH). Devious definition! | |
| 14 | Best open hotel chain (9) |
| OVERTHROW – OVERT (open) + H(otel) + ROW (chain). Always amuses me that “best” and “worst” can mean exactly the same thing. | |
| 16 | Get scared of sound in swamp (8) |
| FRIGHTEN – RIGHT (sound, as in eg sound mind) in FEN, a swamp, although mostly they are not, nowadays. | |
| 18 | Relative with really good degree (7) |
| GRANDMA – GRAND (really good) + MA, a master of arts degree. | |
| 20 | One who does raise spirits around party regularly (7) |
| CHEATER – (p)A(r)T(y) in CHEER, raise spirits. | |
| 21 | One hard-working old judge in strange rant (6) |
| TROJAN – O(ld) J(udge) in *(RANT). Trojans were hard-working, according to the Iliad. Did them no good in the end, though.. | |
| 23 | Expert answer with a lot of complexity (5) |
| ADEPT – A(nswer) + DEPT(h), complexity mostly. | |
The correct parsing of 27 to is to remove the odd letters of IN FACT, SURREALLY, giving a sort of semi &lit.
Time: 28:29
Found this one quite hard as an American, especially in the northwest corner. NHO Omagh but got it from the wordplay. OB for outside broadcast was a new one, that’s not a term we use in America, and Chamber -> Chamberpot -> Po is brutal, especially because Sir Edward German is not very famous over here.
Not very famous here either IMO. Biff for me
19;43 for me, so I found it pretty easy. I deduced from the obvious answer that there must be a composer called German that I NHO and that there must be a STRANGLER fig I also NHO. My LOI was ADEPT (it toom me too long to see that Depth could be “with a lot of complexity”.
DNF because, like ‘ib’ above, I came to grief in the NW corner. The rest of the puzzle had been fine. With a checker still missing at the time I became fixated on ‘bouquets / ÉPERGNES’ at 4dn, and ‘bouquets / EULOGIES’ (more of a figurative interpretation) would never have occurred to me. That made STRANGLER impossible and I was also finding it hard to think past REEDY at 3dn although I realised it didn’t fit the wordplay. In the end I was very tired and lost the will to continue trying so I used aids to clear my mind of it.
Sir Edward German (born German Edward Jones; 1862 – 1936) is perhaps best remembered for his comic opera Merrie England. It’s great fun and has some good tunes.
Liked this a lot. Slowest af the end with NHO OYSTERCATCHER and COMPOSER.
We’ve seen a clue like DARWIN’s here at least once…
3 short
I guessed COMPOSER, but wasnt happy because although i know many German composers, I didn’t know that German was a composer. And I don’t see how POS = chambers, how does “chamberpots” fit?
Also guessed CHEATER, but wasnt happy stuck on “one who does raise” since the noun spirits=cheer (be of good cheer). And if someone “does” you, they have tricked you which isn’t really the same as cheating.
DARWIN was a step too far, Times style doesn’t allow indirect anagrams, so this is now OK?
Had RIDER in QC yesterday. Liked NATURAL and COD JET SETTER
Po = chamberpot = chamber in, ahem, Chambers.
Raise spirits = CHEER, and all the dictionaries seem to have cheat as one of the meanings of “do”.
And DARWIN’s just a neat bit of wordplay, nothing illegal about that.
Sorry Merlin, that’s 3-0 to the setter by my count!
Chamberpot, chamber and po are also all in Collins FWIW. I still think it’s a bit Mephistoish.
I tend to agree except that it must have come up here before. I “sort of” knew it, and there’s certainly nowhere else that I’d have heard it. Not even sure what a chamberpot looks like to be honest.
“You’ve been done” meaning someone has cheated you, is common parlance hereabouts.
As is PO (to rhyme with go) for a chamberpot.
27.34, mostly a terrific puzzle but I’m not convinced by POS for chambers nor by the device that gave us DARWIN. Thanks Jerry.
From Isis:
She said Where you been? I said No place special
She said You look different, I said Well, I guess
She said You been gone, I said It’s only NATURAL
She said You gonna stay? I said If you want me to, YES!
I went with COMMODES for the chamber pots, thinking MOD must be some kind of German. Never having heard of the composer nor of the obscure PO, I had no chance…
Good fun, all done and dusted in 37 mins. I didn’t know LOI the COMPOSER but guessed once I had all the checkers.
Needless to say, I loved GRAND CRU, nothing like a good bottle of Echézeaux from le Domaine de La Romanée-Conti!
Thanks Jerry and setter.
For me, nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas…
https://youtu.be/VKHFZBUTA4k?si=brGFZVNHzCF1Co2U
Excellent!
I would probably agree though I have always had a soft spot for Echézeaux.
If someone offers me a bottle I’m certainly not saying no!!
Couldn’t find either in my local Aldi 🙁
😀
If we’re at that level I’d rather have a bottle of Romanée-Conti!
Sorry, see above.
COMPOSER was LOI – given the crossers there were few other options – and I assumed that it meant composers in general, many of whom are indeed German. Sir Edward German I had forgotten (he has appeared here relatively recently), and when I hear “po” I think of the Teletubbies, so despite finishing in 32.51 without aids the sense of triumph is definitely muted.
Thanks Jerry and setter.
Finished this in about 18′ before going to bed last night, pretty quick for me. Mostly straightforward except for biffing COMPOSER as any of the many German guys (NHO “pos”) and assumed STRANGLER would have some association with figs. I’d also pencilled in an unparsed “Spanish” before RIMINI put me right.
Quite liked the DARWIN clue, easier than the various “cycling” methodologies.
Thanks Jerry and setter
9:56. I got a bit breeze-blocked on this, mostly easy but with a four or five-clue sting in the tail. My last in was NATURAL, where the wordplay was much too clever for me.
Some of it seemed a bit Mephistoish: the fig, German, the PO, the DARWIN device, ‘bouquets’. But I like Mephisto and I enjoyed it.
11:46. I knew the composer so no problem with 13A for me. I DNK the fig, but the wordplay was helpful. The 7 word definition at 10D is unusual in a clue that’s not a smei&lit or &lit, so I’m not so concerned now about my 6 word one in my forthcoming Weekend QC, out this Friday, being too long. ADEPT took me the longest to parse. Thanks Jerry and setter.
19.57. A little peeved, not at the setter, but at me, forgetting Mr German (a lot of composers, especially ones beginning with B, are Teutons), very nearly putting in CREATOR instead of CHEATER (wordplay eventually dawned) and missing the device for NATURAL, just thinking it a bizarre and impenetrable (maybe surreal) bit of cluing.
Some relief in that if I haven’t heard of a STRANGLER fig, neither has Chambers.
But then hey, Flanders and Swann. Altogether now “pee, po, belly, bum, drawers”.
20 minutes.
– Didn’t know the STRANGLER fig, but the cluing was kind
– NHO pos as chambers, but knew Sir Edward GERMAN so was alert to the trick
– Had no idea what was going on with NATURAL (thanks vinyl!)
– Didn’t know the bouquets meaning of EULOGIES
Thanks Jerry and setter.
FOI Tagged
LOI Eulogies
COD Grenadier
Another rapid time for me – 15 mins. I was even held up for a bit by rashly inserting CREATOR and GRANDAD (is there such a word?) at 20D and 18D. Fortunately I decided to scrutinise 20D’s wordplay more closely, and was unhappy about AD = degree. Thanks Blogger for explaining STRANGLER; I thought perhaps ‘fig’ might be an alternative spelling of ‘thug’. First in was OBSERVE and last DARWIN. Favourite three clues: to GRENADIER, OYSTERCATCHER and ADEPT. Thank you Blogger and Setter.
One error in 20 mins. Did not know German or Po.
COD: NATURAL
Thanks to Jerry and our setter.
26 mins including 5 on LOI COMPOSER having NHO him and taking ages to spot both of the component parts. Rather spoiled the vibe of an otherwise bright and breezy puzzle.
Saw and heard an OYSTERCATCHER yesterday while being HORTICULTURAL.
COD NATURAL, a brilliant alternate letters.
Thanks to Jerry and setter.