Hi all. A little twistier that we are used to on a Monday, but very enjoyable. I liked the triple definition (12a), but my favourite clue is probably 15a, THRASH. Thanks Wurm!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed letter is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 1a | American stopping to endanger sovereign (8) |
| IMPERIAL — A (American) going into (stopping) IMPERIL (to endanger) | |
| 6a | Johann Sebastian’s address in Gwynedd? (4) |
| BACH — Two definitions | |
| 8a | Mark second vehicle (4) |
| SCAR — S (second) + CAR (vehicle) | |
| 9a | Exceptional mind? One mug in Berlin! (8) |
| EINSTEIN — German for (… in Berlin) EIN (one) STEIN (mug) | |
| 10a | Capital family keeps in South Africa (8) |
| KINSHASA — KIN (family) + HAS (keeps) in SA (South Africa) | |
| 12a | Give factory worker some bananas? (4) |
| HAND — A triple definition | |
| 13a | Iron Lady in hat (6) |
| FEDORA — FE (iron) + DORA (lady) | |
| 15a | Flog junk outside hotel (6) |
| THRASH — TRASH (junk) around (outside) H (hotel) | |
| 17a | Cook first to become disheartened (4) |
| CHEF — CHiEF (first) is to lose its middle letter (to become disheartened) | |
| 19a | Train tours are reorganised (8) |
| EUROSTAR — TOURS ARE anagrammed (reorganised) | |
| 21a | Report of girl deceived by a snake (8) |
| ANACONDA — ANA COND, which sounds like (report of) ANNA (girl) CONNED (deceived), by A | |
| 23a | Inspired Darwish pens literary collection (4) |
| EDDA — InspirED DArwish holds (pens) the answer: Edda | |
| 24a | Tolerate boozer swallowing ecstasy (4) |
| BEAR — BAR (boozer) taking in (swallowing) E (ecstasy) | |
| 25a | Open loan restructured for Mister Solo? (8) |
| NAPOLEON — OPEN LOAN anagrammed (restructured). Napoleon Solo was a character from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Contrivance in Cheam exploded (7) |
| MACHINE — IN CHEAM anagrammed (exploded) | |
| 3d | Nobles: 50 among listeners (5) |
| EARLS — L (50) inside (among) EARS (listeners) | |
| 4d | See plenty of this in Antarctic expedition? (3) |
| ICE — The answer is found in AntarctIC Expedition | |
| 5d | House and shed in road on right (9) |
| LANCASTER — CAST (shed) in LANE (road) on R (right) | |
| 6d | Killer toyed with headless Schubert (7) |
| BUTCHER — An anagram of (toyed with) sCHUBERT without the first letter (headless …) | |
| 7d | Prison holding Irish terrier (5) |
| CAIRN — CAN (prison) holding IR (Irish) | |
| 11d | Greek leader soon boxing brave male (9) |
| AGAMEMNON — ANON (soon) containing (boxing) GAME (brave) and M (male) | |
| 14d | Commodore say in charge aboard tender (7) |
| OFFICER — IC (in charge) in (aboard) OFFER (tender) | |
| 16d | Indifferent hanging round with that person (2-3-2) |
| SO-AND-SO — SO–SO (indifferent) surrounding (hanging round) AND (with) | |
| 18d | Joint complaint killing wife (5) |
| HINGE — [w]HINGE (complaint) removing (killing) W (wife) | |
| 20d | Sense maiden entering market (5) |
| SMELL — M (maiden) going inside (entering) SELL (market) | |
| 22d | Poisonous creature like viper at heart (3) |
| ASP — AS (like) + the middle of (… at heart) viPer | |
Curate’s egg for me.
There were some great clues. EINSTEIN for instance ( despite my lack of German).
Raised eyebrows at use of random women’s names x2. I thought we had seen the last of these. Other clues I just biffed: NAPOLEON for instance. Mister Solo did not mean a thing.
However I did finish this in c 20 mins which is not a bad time for me.
Thanks Kitty.
A typically high quality puzzle from Wurm. No major hold ups but I needed most of the checkers for the unknown NAPOLEON chap – where I struggled to ‘Hans’ out of my head.
Started with IMPERIAL and finished with ANCONDA in 7.27.
Thanks to Kitty and Wurm
Goodness, another with the most difficult clue at 1a – that and its dependant 5d both too contorted for me to get anywhere near. Otherwise all filled in – nice to see both Bach and Schubert there – but many parsing queries (bananas? Mister Solo? address in Welsh?), thanks Kitty but may we please know what Bach means in Welsh?
I too have no idea about BACH and address in Welsh. A bunch of bananas which we buy at a store is also called a hand of bananas.
Just checked: bach is Welsh for small/ little and is used as a term of endearment.
Not sure that helps with this clue though….
https://travelasker.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-bach-in-welsh/#bach-in-welsh-place-names
BACH is a term of address (and endearment) in Welsh, and occasionally used in English too but (in my experience) mostly by Welsh-speakers. It means ‘small’.
(Source: I am Welsh)
Caer Bach Hillfort? Morfa and Nant Bach?
Now who knows what any of that means?!
Hi Dragon. Are there cryptics in the Welsh language? Presumably there are concise crosswords.
I seem to recall a Welsh version of Scrabble being introduced recently with a LL tile.
John
I wonder if this is the first time Welsh has featured in a QC – at least, I assume bach is Welsh for something. It was a good thing that Johann Sebastian gave the answer away because I’d never have got the answer from the second of the two definitions. I was equally at sea with Mister Solo and Darwish (NHO either), but again the cluing was kind for those two as well. All led to a 9:29 finish for a good, if not entirely fully understood, completion.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Knowledge of Welsh is required in the 15×15 today too! I checked the calendar that it’s not St David’s Day but it’s still about 4 weeks off.
Candlemas today, also Groundhog Day.
Ha! It’s James Joyce’s birthday!
For me too this was a curate’s egg. Very enjoyable in parts but irritating in others. I do remember ‘The Man from Uncle’ but it didn’t seem a very fair clue to me. I like my 40 year old son to try these crosswords , when he visits, but he would have no chance would he? Thanks though!
Dnf…
I thought this was hard. Probably should have got 5dn “Lancaster”, but dnk 10ac “Kinshasa” and, whilst I had an idea that 11dn was “Agamemnon”, I couldn’t quite a spell it correctly (along with Napoleon, which is par for the course).
FOI – 4dn “Ice”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 12ac “Hand”
Thanks as usual!
I found that a stiff challenge. Most of my difficulty lay with my usual Kryptonite, geography – an unknown capital city always freezes my blood, and I took several minutes winkling out KINSHASA. I’d also been a bit slow to see the required type of “house” for LANCASTER.
As usual from Wurm lots of witty, clever clues. EUROSTAR, ANACONDA, BACH and COD SCHUBERT all top notch.
Finished in 10:37 for a Tardy Day. Many thanks Kitty and Wiggly.
Yes, I paused to ponder several clues here and in consequence finished with 14 minutes on the clock. KINSHASA and IMPERIAL were two, and AGAMEMNON for the parsing.
I had no problems with NAPOLEON Solo played by Robert Vaughn and his sidekick Illya Kuryakin, played by David McCallum. Although The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was clearly a TV rip-off of James Bond, what I didn’t know until this morning was this from Wiki: Ian Fleming contributed to the series after being approached by co-creator Norman Felton. According to the book The James Bond Films, Fleming proposed two characters, Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (later appearing on the spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.). The original name for the show was Ian Fleming’s Solo.
NAPOLEON solo, a great name in the style of Caractacus Potts.
Fleming was forced to sever all associations with the project under threat of legal action by the Bond producers and he sold his interest for the princely sum of £1. ‘Solo’ was also the name of a minor character, a baddie in Goldfinger and it’s been suggested that when the film was made the producers had him killed off in a particularly nasty fashion in order to make a point.
DNF Watched many M from Uncles… (yes, we are that age). EDDA was a NHO, BACH all Greek to us, Himself knew LANCASTER and KINSHASA, both knew the snake, however, random girl’s names rarely thrill here. Slowed by pencilling ‘MAN’ at end of tricky to spell AGAMEMNON.
Thought EINSTEIN particularly clever – here and before : )
Overall, Curate’s egg for us, too …
Thank you Wurm and Kitty
DNF IMPERIAL. Looking it up gave me LANCASTER. NHO EDDA.
Oh dear. But I did solve NAPOLEON Solo, AGAMEMNON, and after a struggle, EUROSTAR and ANACONDA.
COD EINSTEIN.
Thanks vm, Kitty, for crucial blog.
Quite chewy in parts but an enjoyable solve for me in 15.08 (a big improvement on most of last week’s slogs). It took a moment or three for LANCASTER and NAPOLEON to click and the crossers gave me ANACONDA before I parsed it. Hand/bananas threw me until I just looked it up.
NHO EDDA and BACH had to be but it only made sense when I read Dragon’s post above. I didn’t parse AGAMEMNON as I wrote it in.
Still, there were plenty of clues to enjoy. I liked KINSHASA, OFFICER, and EINSTEIN.
Thanks to Wurm and Kitty.
11:12
I needed pen and paper to get NAPOLEON. The only Mr Solo I knew of was Han.
No problem with BACH. Diolch yn fawr am y Gymraeg.
Thanks Kitty and Wurm
Enjoyable QC today although needed Kitty’s help to parse SO-AND-SO. Whilst all the GK needed today was familiar to me, I agree with gc52 that a clue relating to the Man from U.N.C.L.E is totally out of reach of younger solvers like my 24 year old granddaughter who has only recently discovered the joy of cryptic crosswords.
14:33
LOI 1a IMPERIAL, leaving 1a to the end always unnerves me.
AGAMEMNON was tricky.
NHO CAIRN terrier, or NAPOLEON solo.
COD the triple def, HAND.
Cairns are amazing dogs, much respected by my (late, lamented) bichon frisé. A friend of mine got sent to the emergency room by a bite from a cairn right through her hiking boot (she had trod on its foot in a confined space). Heaven help the rat cornered by one of these.
30 minutes on the dot after taking some time to solve the last two: IMPERIAL and LANCASTER, both nice clues.
Failed to parse CHEF and AGAMEMNON but they had to be.
COD to the triple HANDS.
Thanks Wurm and Kitty.
6:29. Delayed by trying TROUSEAU for 19A (I was right in thinking it should have 2 R and knew it had something to do with a wedding, it’s not the bride’s train), fixed only when LANCASTER and AGAMEMNON came along leaving EUROSTAR LOI with a Doh! Thanks Wurm and Kitty.
6:48
Steady solve. Napoleon Solo – OK if you’re over 60!
Thanks, K.
Quite chuffed that I achieved 21 today although half were bifd from crossers. Kinshasa from Kin. I can’t recall why I knew it as a capital. Was there a boxing title fight there? Einstein from the E and the N.
Missed chef hinge and thrash, anaconda (despite there being two snakes), and officer.
New phone – forgot to login
Indeed, the so-called Rumble in the Jungle, which is all I know.
10 minutes. Some quite hard ones like KINSHASA and AGAMEMNON and I didn’t know the BACH and ‘Welsh’ connection – thanks to commenters above. Much as I liked NAPOLEON for ‘Mister Solo’ I agree that it’s a bit of a stretch for ”the young” and even now for the middle-aged!
Thanks to Kitty and Wurm
Pretty much as above. Write ins for Bach and Napoleon Solo from earlier times, Biffed CHEF unparsed, and EDDA (Really ??), liked So-and-So. LOI LANCASTER. 26mins. Thanks Kitty and Wurm.
I got absolutely nowhere with this one. I won’t embarrass myself by putting my efforts here. Did not enjoy this one at all.
Having better luck with The Telegraph today.
I was nearly finished in 10 minutes but that can be a long way from the finishing line in crosswords.
POI was IMPERIAL and LOI LANCASTER, even with all the checkers, took me ages. So 13 minutes in the end.
An excellent puzzle but probably tricky for beginners. My favourite was EINSTEIN, but lots of good clues.
David
I needed to be at my sharpest today to finish under target at 9.43, as I thought this was of above average difficulty. Living in Wales BACH was not a problem, although nobody in my neck of the woods speaks Welsh. I’m also old enough to have seen Robert Vaughn in The Man From Uncle so NAPOLEON was a write in. The show was a mixture of Mission Impossible and James Bond, and very corny by todays standards, but enjoyed by many in its day.
DNF
Called time well into the SCC.
NHO EDDA and AGAMEMNON – the 2 that finally brought my downfall.
Biffed BACH and NAPOLEON (that Solo!) and subsequently found Caer Bach and Nant Bach in Wales with a Google search.
I thought, imho, this was stretching the limits of a QC. However, there were some very clever and enjoyable clues in there.
FOI: SCAR
LOI: DNF
COD: EINSTEIN
Thanks to Kitty and Wurm
My thanks to Wurm and Kitty.
Sneaky, definitely!
23a Edda. I looked up Darwish out of curiosity; it is a dervish or a surname. Well I never.
25a Napoleon. The man from U.N.C.L.E. was on when I was still at school; how would a younger person solve this? I’m 76.
9:22
Had all of the required knowledge for this – a bit too young to watch The Man From Uncle, but aware of it and its characters (didn’t know the Ian Fleming connection though) – however, it still took a while to plough through. My excuse is that I was settling down to sleep with a few puzzles and the brain was closing down for the night…. which made LANCASTER (where I live) and EINSTEIN not leap out, and were my last two in. Even the EUROSTAR anagram was tricky…
Thanks Kitty and Wurm
7.11 with a typo
LANCASTER was difficult to see; NAPOLEON assumed and EUROSTAR LOI.
Nice puzzle and blog.
22:40
Very slow for a Monday. DNK EDDA, failed to parse HINGE and NHO LOI CAIRN in the context of terriers.
Another curate’s egg and ultimately DNF: even though I saw the hidden word I’d never heard of EDDA so didn’t write it in. Also beaten by LANCASTER – never thought of that sort of house. Biffed AGAMEMNON ans SO AND SO without ever parsing. A bit of a downer for a Monday morning!
I did think of Lancaster as the intended sort of house. However, your post reminded me of a different sort of house. At Grammar School, we were divided into 4 (competitive) houses: Lancaster, Gloucester, Warwick, and York. I made it to House Captain in the first of these.
Memories……
Took 43 minutes as NHO of Edda and didn’t know Bach was Welsh for address (although Google states it means small?). Didn’t know cairn was a type of terrier.
COD Einstein
LOI Kinshasa
I think Bach is used as a term of endearment, rather than in the literal sense, a bit like Chou in French.
Well, I always knew those hours spent in front of a TV as a child would come in useful one day, and so it proved, making Napoleon (Solo) a write in. Living just inside the ancient County Palatine helped with 5d Lancaster as well.
Sadly, I was reduced to using my own efforts for the remaining clues, but I still managed to squeeze out a sub-20, albeit with So-and-So unparsed: I had the definition at the wrong end of the clue and consequently couldn’t make any sense of how it parsed (thanks, Kitty).
CoD to the rather gruesome headless Schubert at 6d. Invariant
Nice puzzle. Time likely around 17 minutes but struggled to stay focused thanks to an incipient head cold. DNK Darwish but happy with EDDA as a Norse term applied to collections of the Icelandic sagas. NAPOLEON should have occurred to me quicker and I was particularly dense when it came to anagrams today. Liked ANACONDA and LANCASTER.
Thanks Wurm and Kitty
10.01 AGAMEMNON and EUROSTAR were tricky and I took much too long to realise why LANCASTER is a house. The Man from UNCLE predates me but I did see the repeats on Saturday afternoons in the 1970s, probably at much the same time Star Wars was released with the other Mr Solo. Thanks Kitty and Wurm.
22:51, and while it was a great puzzle I think it was too hard, though no doubt the 15×15 attempters enjoyed it as a warm-up, if that’s who it’s for.
Thank you for the blog!
Blimey! I got there in 39 minutes, but only through some inspired/lucky guesswork.
EDDA and the CAIRN terrier were NHOs. IMPERIAL, LANCASTER, CHEF, AGAMEMNON and BUTCHER all went in unparsed and with fingers tightly crossed. And NAPOLEON Solo was only faintly remembered.
At the end it felt like my completed grid was as structurally sound as a Jenga stack. If one of those clues was wrong the whole edifice would collapse.
Many thanks to Kitty and Wurm (but please ease up on us a little).
Tricky-ish in parts but doable for me. Only know EDDA from crosswords and luckily have heard of NAPOLEON Solo (remember my parents watching it). Btw thanks for the extra info about the TV series Jack. COD to the amusing ANACONDA. Biffed AGAMEMNON but had to check the wordplay for correct spelling. Couldn’t parse LOI SO-AND-SO and also had the wrong definition for ages. (Thanks Kitty for sorting this out). I DNK of a CAIRN terrier, but I do now 😆 Many thanks Wurm.
3 clues solved in 20 minutes!
As an experienced solver with lots of general knowledge, I didn’t find this too difficult, but I did see how it could give trouble. I did watch The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in the 60s, but that was a long time ago. Of course, I had no idea what Bach was doing in Wales.
Time: 9:15
18:58 – slightly better than normal, but reliant on some biffing to finish. EDDA (NHO, nor DARWISH), AGAMEMNON, IMPERIAL, CHEF, LANCASTER all unparsed. Of an age to remember Napoleon Solo!
Not a great day
My GK was pushed to the limit although BACH was a write in (born and raised in Wales). I guessed NAPOLEON and EDDA must have stuck from previous crosswords. My main problem was coming up with HAS!. 8:33 and although I am outside the top hundred on the leaderboard I am calling that a win. Thanks Kitty
16:50 but with a typo on EUROSTAE, grr. Still, I knew what I meant to enter, so I’m claiming the moral victory. I liked this a lot, had all of the required GK except for Napoleon Solo, where I too went down the Star Wars rabbit hole.
Thanks to Wurm and Kitty.
Luckily I had all the GK for this but it still took 18 minutes. Held up by LANCASTER, EINSTEIN and EUROSTAR (oh, an actual train not a verb). Couldn’t parse CHEF, so thanks for that Kitty.
FOI – 6ac BACH
LOI & COD – 9 ac EINSTEIN
Thanks to Wurm and Kitty
9:28, so distinctly faster than average for me. Maybe I’m starting to get the hang of Wurm’s way, or possibly the unexpected sunshine outside my window gave me a boost. I was held up at the end by the slightly too-far-over-the-pond LANCASTER and EUROSTAR. Did not parse BACH or EDDA (hiddens, sigh), though BACH tickled some obscure thing about Wales buried deep in my memory. And speaking of deep memory, Napoleon Solo! An adolescent favorite but not thought of for decades. A bit hard on the young ‘uns, that clue, but I guess that makes up for all those bands I’ve never heard of.
As usual with Wurm, many amusing clues, notably EINSTEIN, poor old Schubert, and the unexpectedly straightforward THRASH.
Thank you to Wurm and Kitty.
PS Ilya Kuryakin, so dreamy.
I’m wondering what the thoughts are about people under (say) 50 doing this crossword? Apparently GK includes 13th century Icelandic (Edda), 1960’s TV (Napoleon Solo) and some random hat (Fedora).
I’d be surprised if being over 50 makes it more likely to know Edda, I think you’d have to be more like 900 years old.
Yes, I think a reference to a forgotten cultural thing from 50 years ago is much more of an age barrier than some obscure thing from history. Fedora everyone should know.
I am under 50 and will be for a few more years yet (although those years are passing faster and faster). I didn’t know the reference, but just took Mister Solo on trust and looked it up later. I know Edda from having done lots of crosswords.
Slow, slow and then quick, quicker. All done in 20 mins. SCAB at 8a held me up when I came to puzzle 3d, but our noble lords solved the problem nicely. A stein of German beer is delicious and 24a is the symbol of Berlin so a slightly Germanic feel to Wurm’s offering, with JSB thrown in for good measure. Excellent blog, fun puzzle, thank you Wurm und Kitty!
My sticking points were CHEF which I assumed but failed to see ‘first’ as Chief, and HINGE because there weren’t many joints in the body that might fit and in spite of refitting the garage door hinges on Saturday! A little Welsh may go a long way but none is disappointing.
A mix of really hard and really easy clues for me! Struggled through in 13 minutes, hard for a Monday.
Bach and Kinshasa I put in but took them back out as I couldn’t parse. Likewise Agamemnon. Got Napoleon once that went in, although like many the definition meant nothing to me. Never heard of Edda either but felt like it had to be a hidden once E was at the start. Eurostar was a surprisingly tricky anagram. Didn’t know contrivance, but the anagram fodder made it easy. Didn’t know cairn was a dog either, but it was last in and there was no choice.