Slightly tougher than this week’s offerings so far, I thought. I had problems in particular with 4a, 18a and 16d, and they pushed me to an above average 08:27. I hope you all made easier passage.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bump in salary follows employer’s third commendation (6) |
| PRAISE – RAISE [bump in salary] comes after [follows] P [employer’s third]. | |
| 4 | Visionary comic lacking an opening bit (6) |
| OCULAR – {j}OCULAR. My LOI by some distance. “Of or relating to the eye”, says Collins for OCULAR, but I’m struggling to see any support in the dictionaries for “visionary” meaning anything like that. It works as a whimsical definition, of course, but it’s not clued like that. I’m sure you can’t tell that I’m feeling bitter. | |
| 8 | Artificial Los Angeles street in picture (7) |
| PLASTIC – LA [Los Angeles] + ST [street] inside [in] PIC [picture]. | |
| 10 | Firm working to return some money (5) |
| NOTES – reversal [to return] of SET [firm] and ON [working]. I wasted a little time here trying to work in “co” for “firm”. | |
| 11 | Former City business bigwig (4) |
| EXEC – EX [former] + EC [City, as in London’s “East Central” postcode]. If a two letter city isn’t UR, it’s EC. | |
| 12 | Amphibian caught retreating over rocky ridge next to river (4,4) |
| TREE FROG – rather convoluted, this one. GOT [caught] is reversed [retreating] and goes around [over] REEF [rocky ridge] + R [next to river]. Did I get that by immaculate parsing, or by biffing and then furrowing my brow to see how the heck it worked? Reader, we will never know. | |
| 14 | Drill tries breaking concrete (9) |
| REHEARSAL – HEARS [tries] inside [breaking] REAL [concrete]. I was slow here because I didn’t count the letters and thought it was an anagram of “drill tries”. What a twerp. | |
| 18 | Men and girls cast for horror comedy film (8) |
| GREMLINS – anagram [cast] of “men + girls”. Having now looked it up, I do actually have a dim memory of this 1984 Spielberg flick but I couldn’t recall it while solving and got hung up on the idea that it would end in ING. So that was more delay. | |
| 20 | Obscene material ultimately has charm, you assert (4) |
| SMUT – last letters [ultimately] of “has charm you assert”. I think of SMUT more as being Donald McGill postcards than actual obscenity, but it’s fair. [On edit – to my amazement I now discover that McGill was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in 1954. What different times.] | |
| 22 | I kick up a fuss about Ruth’s mother-in-law (5) |
| NAOMI – reversal [about] of I MOAN [I kick up a fuss]. You remember NAOMI – she helped her widowed daughter-in-law (Ruth) snag a rich new husband (Boaz), then when the story gets written up they only go and call it the Book of Ruth, not the Book of Naomi. Outrage. She needed a better 16d. | |
| 23 | Distance for example a cart reversed (7) |
| YARDAGE – reversal [reversed] of EG [for example] A DRAY [a cart]. | |
| 24 | Big hammer finally smashes shelf (6) |
| SLEDGE – S [finally smashes] + LEDGE [shelf]. | |
| 25 | Find a way round with the help of … I don’t know! (6) |
| BYPASS – BY [with the help of – think Asterix the Gaul’s regular ejaculations “by Toutatis and Belenos!”] + PASS [I don’t know, as in a Mastermind contestant saying “pass”]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Little dog with favourite doll (6) |
| PUPPET – PUP [little dog] + PET [favourite]. | |
| 2 | Also, for starters, pal, you are no expert (7) |
| AMATEUR – A [also for starters] + MATE [pal] + UR [you are in text-speak]. | |
| 3 | Mention on the radio for www.thetimes.com? (4) |
| SITE – homophone [on the radio] for “cite” [mention]. | |
| 5 | Have a discussion about old and new poetry (8) |
| CONVERSE – C [about] + O [old] + N [new] + VERSE [poetry]. | |
| 6 | Urgent mail periodically turned up at a future date (5) |
| LATER – reversal [turned up] of every other letter [periodically] in “urgent mail“. | |
| 7 | Terminate a contract — or extend it? (6) |
| RESIGN – if you RESIGN you terminate your contract, but if you RE-SIGN your contract you extend it, ho ho. | |
| 9 | Frolicking in cattery? It’s guaranteed! (9) |
| CERTAINTY – anagram [frolicking] of “in cattery”. | |
| 13 | Offering assistance to support wife giving birth (8) |
| WHELPING – HELPING [offering assistance] underneath [to support] W [wife]. | |
| 15 | Tibetan priest hosting lousy dance (7) |
| LAMBADA – LAMA [Tibetan priest] containing [hosting] BAD. | |
| 16 | Hollywood deal-makers are primarily males (6) |
| AGENTS – A [are primarily] + GENTS [males]. I was slow here, too, because I was looking for something specific to the film world. AGENTS are deal-makers in other industries (especially the sports world) so I think that this would perhaps have been better clued as a definition by example. | |
| 17 | Possible cause of fracture in small lock (6) |
| STRESS – S [small] + TRESS [lock (of hair)]. | |
| 19 | Undermine dedicated work led by emergency room (5) |
| ERODE – ODE [dedicated work – odes were traditionally addressed to someone or something] going behind [led by] ER [emergency room]. | |
| 21 | Highbrow shindig starting late? (4) |
| ARTY – a party is a “shindig”; omit the first letter [starting late] et voila. | |
I avoided some of these difficulties by strategic biffs – in went tree frog, that must be it. The problems were Gremlins and rehearsal, but they were not big problems, just had to think a bit.
Time: 7:38
5:44, certainly tougher than usual. GREMLINS on the very fringes of my GK, never seen it. Love the Asterix reference. ‘Yardage’ is quite commonly used in American football.
Thanks Jalna and Templar.
OCULAR also my last in as I thought I was looking for… a visionary! Didn’t get the ‘by’ in BYPASS but just moved on. Thought SMUT was going to be ‘lewd’ at first for ‘obscene’ before LAMBADA went in. Thought WHELPING was good. NAOMI was from the wordplay but no idea who she was. Liked GREMLINS. Took a bit of parsing to confirm TREE FROG was correct. COD to RESIGN.
Thanks Templar and setter.
My solving time was knocked off the scale by problems in the NE where the lack of an answer at 4ac prevented progress. OCULAR arrived eventually as my LOI but by then the damage had been done.
Left quicker than right and top slower than bottom. I made things harder than they needed to be not solving LATER for far too long. Also hampered by lack of Bible knowledge, I could have done with getting NAOMI earlier to speed things along in the SW. Pleased with myself for WHELPING, thought REHEARSAL was a great clue and was relieved when OCULAR finally appeared. Whacked in TREE FROG – thanks Tempers, never thought of ‘reef’ but spent a long time trying to make ‘crag’ work. And thanks for Jalna for the tussle – all green in a hard fought 14.24.
8:51
I actually saw ‘Gremlins’; not much horror, even less comedy. Never parsed TREE FROG. Got OCULAR once I had the C; gave it no thought, but Templar has a point.
Great puzzle from Jalna all green in 9:04 for me which I’ll take based on comments from some of the luminaries- LOI OCULAR which would have been tough without the crossers. Quite liked WHELPING . Thanks for blog Templar.
A change of pace from the rest of the week as I had to battle through this one.
The only thing I know vaguely know about NAOMI is that she appears somewhere in the bible (which I’ve learnt through crosswords) so ‘Ruth’s mother-in-law wasn’t an overly helpful definition but the wordplay eventually pointed me in the right direction.
Started with PRAISE and finished with the decidedly difficult OCULAR in 9.13. COD to WHELPING.
Thanks to Jalna and Templar
11:51, but TREE FROG never parsed and GREMLINS NHO, just seemed the only anagram that worked. Needed all the checkers, especially the C, to get OCULAR.
Many thanks Templar for the blog – but your explanation for 24A could do with some minor editing as it is “finally smashes” not “finally sledges”.
Fixed, thanks!
Some tricky wordplay put me above my average time at 12:26. RESIGN was good.
18:12 . Outside my target time but pleased to finish a puzzle that threatened defeat.
LOI OCULAR unparsed. I was fixated on ‘oracle’ and spent several minutes persuading myself that ‘ocular’ was a real word…of course it is but if you say something often enough it just seems weird!
Also biffed TREE FROG and was tempted by ‘lewd’, until I wasn’t.
A stiffer challenge than more recently, thanks to Jalna and Templar
Found this really tough, hence taking 31:02 to struggle home. Much biffing required – BYPASS, REHEARSAL, YARDAGE and TREE FROG. Explanations much appreciated!
By Toutatis, failed to finish with ARTY/BYPASS just not coming. Having to hunt for words that miss their initial letter is hard, and OCULAR took a long time coming, I thought both comic and visionary would be nouns.
Knew NAOMI, Ruth became the great grandmother to King David.
16:38. Couldn’t bypass the exec.
Ta TAJ
The NW quadrant went in without hesitation and I thought I was on for a quick Jalna solve. Then it hit the fan….. I shared many of the obstacles mentioned above and finally tipped into the SCC by half a minute with my LOI OCULAR (not helped by a fat-fingered typo in ERODE).
I biffed REHEARSAL and only parsed TREE FROG after completion. My COD was WHELPING.
I always seem to be in the mid/upper teens with Jalna but there are penny-drop moments along the way.
I will now re-examine the battlefield with Templar.
Thanks to both.
Noting I’m back to the usual grid and font today 🤷♂️
Yup. I meant to mention it, too.
Thanks to Johninterred (I assume).
Seven after 20 minutes and seven it stayed. West side with north west the best section. Nothing on the east side, not even the frog.
No problems till the end, but a bit of a holdup over NOTES and RESIGN crossing pair. TREE FROG bifd and post-parsed. Liked WHELPING.
6:02. A bit trickier today. I fell into the same traps as our blogger thinking 18A had to end in ING and 10A had to include CO. LOI ARTY. OCULAR needed all the checkers. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but wouldn’t “Visionary” work better as a definition for ORACULAR than OCULAR? Thanks Jalna and Templar.
Like Blighter, the NW corner went in rapidly and then slowed right down. MER at OCULAR meaning visionary. BYPASS my COD for its PDM. Biffed TREE FROG but could not work it out at all. Thanks Templar for great blog.
22:03
Much trickier. Failed to parse TREE FROG having initially biffed dart frog. NHO WHELPING and couldn’t parse LOI REHEARSAL either.
I had whelping in my mind set from whelping pen for a dog’s litter. Care after being born rather than the process of being delivered.
12:09 for the solve. A messy solve jumping all over the place. The SW was the last to fall and thought I was going to get stuck with the ARTY/BYPASS pairing where I was trying to move a letter downwards in arty rather than delete it.
Thanks to Templar for coming up with an explanation for “by=with the help of”. As to OCULAR, given the dictionary says “of or relating to the eye” – I’d say vision is related to the eye. Had a feeling that clue might leave some floundering.
Another good puzzle from Jalna- so thanks to him as well. Some top quality clueing in there. COD to resign and great to be reminded of Gremlins*. Hoping the blog wasn’t written after midnight!!
* Bit of dim and distant trivia – the cinema in Gremlins is showing “Watch the Skies” and “A Boy’s Tale” which were the working titles for executive producer Spielberg’s Close Encounters and ET.
Gremlins 3 currently slated for 2027…
Oh dear, sounds like another Hollywood rehash.
Not many people know that…
Well sort of finished it but no idea whether it’s right. Not really on Jalna’s wavelength. Six in NW corner easy, then stared at it for ages until eventually PDM LATER which unlocked the NE, then SE (NHO LAMBADA but worth a try), finally the SW, NHO film GREMLINS but seems plausible. LOI AGENTS, a wild guess. Turn to Templar to see if he’s kind…..
Wow, he is! Thank you. Love your blog on 22, well done.
Toughest of the week from Jalna, and I was content to finish a little outside target at 10.42. I wasted far too long trying to make an anagram of ‘drill ties’ at 14ac as a synonym for concrete, until I realised there were too many letters. Doh!!
My LOI was TREE FROG although I didn’t manage to parse it until I had stopped the clock. If I didn’t know of a tree frog, I don’t think it would have been easy to have worked it out from such a convoluted cryptic direction.
17:22
I was making reasonable progress, then hit the buffers with the crossing pair of GREMLINS and AGENTS.
COD to TREE FROG (when I eventually parsed it).
Thanks Templar and Jalna
15:30 for me today – another very fun one
Game of three halves – very quick, very slow and then very quick again.
Didnt give a moments thought about visionary being to do with the eyes, but lo and behold it isnt at all! Other MERs mentioned made life harder but were all parseable (passable?) in retrospect. Naomi only from the wordplay, as I knew the Ruth was biblical I assumed her mother-in-law must have been Eve – long holdup. Overall plenty to enjoy in both xword and blog. Thanks to Jalna and Templar.
A chewy one today, taking me 15:47, and that’s after resorting to external assistance when I became breezeblocked at the intersection of BYPASS and ARTY. So a DNF and an afternoon in the coal cellar for me.
I struggled with NAOMI too, as I had a vague recollection that “ruth” meant something (besides the obvious female name) but couldn’t remember what. I looked it up once I’d finished and it can variously mean pity, remorse, sorrow, misfortune and calamity. What a thing to name your daughter!
Thank you for the blog!
Occasionally we’ve had “ruthless” come up which by extension is being without pity etc.
17 mins…
A good puzzle this with some quality clues. I have to admit, “Gremlins” wasn’t my first thought when it said “comedy horror” for 18ac. A classic Joe Dante film from the mid-80’s, written by Chris Columbus and produced by Amblin Entertainment. Also had a great rag-time score from the late, great Jerry Goldsmith.
13dn “Whelping” was a bit of a deduction as I’d actually never heard of it.
FOI – 1ac “Praise”
LOI – 25ac “Bypass”
COD – 14ac “Rehearsal”
Thanks as usual!
Didn’t like the convoluted clue for Tree Frog. Neither fair nor kind for a QC. But I did like the clue for Bypass. Thought it was clever , neat and rather poetic.
A deceptively simple start in the NW corner soon gave way to Jalna’s more typical ‘if it doesn’t kill you. . .’ teasers. Very slow progress, with just enough Aha moments to keep me going, saw the 30min post come and go before loi Ocular was finally in place.
Parsing as you go can certainly be a challenge at times (today’s arboreal croaker took an age), but for me that’s half the ‘fun’ of this game.
CoD to Yardage – for the parsing of course. Invariant
PS Thank you Templar, especially for the McGill link. I was struck by the fact that his own costs for legal advice were more than those of the prosecution. I’m now contemplating a late second career if ‘best plead guilty’ is so handsomely rewarded.