Solving time: 6:05
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Filling in today for Doofenschmirtz who is abroad, this puzzle is generally on the straightforward side, though I do wonder whether 3a might catch a few out, as there is also a Custard Apple.
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When we were first married, my wife inherited a set of 7d furniture which ended up getting ripped to shreds by our dogs. Cost an absolute fortune in repairs….!
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How did you find find it?
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Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The tilde ~ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Male sheep turned to face English horse (4) |
| MARE – RAM (Male sheep) reversed [turned to face] E (English) | |
| 3 | Apple and fish for celebrity to tuck into (7) |
| COSTARD – Insert [tuck into] STAR (celebrity) into CO~D (fish) . The now-thought-to-be-extinct COSTARD apple was popular in medieval England, and was probably used as a cooking apple. . The apple gave its name to the costermonger (which was originally “costard monger”, a seller of costards), a term used to describe a transient fruit seller. |
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| 8 | Female who’s joined someone’s son at a match (8-2-3) |
| DAUGHTER-IN-LAW – ‘at a match’ is a mildly cryptic indication for a wedding. | |
| 9 | Observe some of those experts (3) |
| SEE – Hidden [some of] in those experts | |
| 10 | A man is one acting on behalf of others (5) |
| AGENT – A GENT (man) | |
| 12 | Once again deal with unwanted military manoeuvre (7) |
| RETREAT – To deal with once again would be to RE-TREAT | |
| 14 | Listener’s part involved a murder (7) |
| EARDRUM – Anagram [involved] of A MURDER | |
| 16 | Panic with leader deposed? That’s wrong (5) |
| ERROR – |
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| 17 | Tool everyone picked up (3) |
| AWL – Sounds like [picked up] ALL (everyone) . Homophone or aural wordplay? You decide… . (I’m inclined to the latter) |
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| 20 | Opposing money allowance — student studying hard needs it (13) |
| CONCENTRATION – CON (Opposing) CENT (money) RATION (allowance) | |
| 21 | What is left in lodge outside university (7) |
| RESIDUE – RESID~E (lodge) containing [outside] U (university) | |
| 22 | Birds contributing to the music (4) |
| EMUS – Hidden [contributing to] in the music | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Control way something is done with speed (8) |
| MODERATE – MODE (way something is done) with RATE (speed) | |
| 2 | Big defeat — manager finally dismissed (4) |
| ROUT – Last letter [finally] of {manage}R then OUT (dismissed) | |
| 3 | Smart class getting rid of idiot always (6) |
| CLEVER – CL . In the 16th century, CLEVER meant “handy, dexterous, having special manual ability,” possibly influenced by Old English clifer “claw, hand” (early usages of which seem to refer to dexterity). The extension to intellect is first recorded in 1704. . In his dictionary of 1755, Dr Johnson described CLEVER as “… a low word, scarcely ever used but in burlesque or conversation” |
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| 4 | Eight new lads misbehaving pretend to be ill (5,3,4) |
| SWING THE LEAD – Anagram [misbehaving] of EIGHT NEW LADS . Where does the term SWING THE LEAD come from? Before sonar was invented, ships would determine the depth of the water by posting a sailor at the bow of the ship with a lead weight attached to a long rope. The rope would have a knot at every fathom (6 feet). The sailor’s job was to swing the weight forward into the water and, when the ship passed directly over the weight, determine the depth of the water. As retrieving the lead weight was hard work, a lazy sailor might continually swing the lead as if about to release it, but only doing so if he thought he was being watched. Therefore, a sailor who was swinging the lead was being lazy. |
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| 5 | Welcome signal, nothing obscure (3-5) |
| ALL-CLEAR – If nothing is obscure, then it is ALL CLEAR . The ALL-CLEAR would be a very welcome signal following a wartime air raid, indicating that people could emerge from their shelters. |
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| 6 | Blue feathers (4) |
| DOWN – Double definition | |
| 7 | Provision for someone to sit in Derbyshire town (12) |
| CHESTERFIELD – The first part of the clue refers to the CHESTERFIELD sofa . Seeking a piece of furniture that combined both comfort and elegance, local craftsmen were tasked in the 18th century by Lord Philip Stanhope, the fourth Earl of CHESTERFIELD, with creating what became known as the CHESTERFIELD sofa. With its distinctive features including deep button tufting, rolled arms, and high backrest, the CHESTERFIELD quickly gained popularity among the aristocracy as a symbol of sophistication and luxury. |
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| 11 | What is made by grannies working? (8) |
| EARNINGS – Anagram [working] of GRANNIES | |
| 13 | Period in America, end point of travel (8) |
| TERMINUS – TERM (Period) IN US (America) | |
| 15 | Fellow hiding holy books in cloak (6) |
| MANTLE – MA~LE (Fellow) containing [hiding] NT (holy books i.e. abbreviation for New Testament) | |
| 18 | Back of his vehicle shows evidence of damage (4) |
| SCAR – Last letter [Back of] of {hi}S, then CAR (vehicle) | |
| 19 | Company not likely to collapse (4) |
| FIRM – Double definition | |
This should have not been that difficult, but I’d never heard of swing the lead. I couldn’t parse rout, either, but put it in as the obvious answer. I also biffed terminus, and only parsed after I finished.
Time: 7:15
I couldn’t parse rout either until I came here. NHO of costard. But easier than average as I managed 31 minutes, which is fast for me
Knew COSTARD but don’t know where from. MODERATE took longer than it should but had ‘manage/control’ in my head until the DAUGHTER-IN-LAW appeared. Liked CHESTERFIELD. Liked the misdirection in ROUT to make you think it ended in ‘d’. Also had heard of SWING THE LEAD but not of its origins, so thanks Mike. Liked the EARNINGS anagram. COD to CONCENTRATION.
Thanks Mike and setter.
I recall that COSTARD was the answer to 1dn in the 15 x 15 some years (8?) ago. The clue also contained the word “apple “ and I got it wrong with “custard “.You learn by your…..
I had no problems and was surprised to find 13 minutes on theclock when I finished as I thought I might be under 10.
I knew COSTARD as an apple but it emerged from the wordplay anyway. ‘Custard apple’ (with or without a hyphen according to the source) has never come to my attention before, although I have heard of the custard peach,
11:38. A gentle but enjoyable offering from Izetti. At 22a I had to make a detour via Google to discover what noise emus make…lots of drum-like grunts and rumbles mostly it seems. This led on to ostriches (similar-ish) before returning to the task in hand, so a solve in two parts.
Swinging the lead almost caused another deviation but I resisted. Thanks Mike for the explanation. I think I knew this once but had forgotten.
Two Ns not two Rs in ‘grannies’. In my defence I guess earnings and earrings both fit the definition if not the anagrist. Clumsiness has cost me a fast solve – one pink square in 7.00.
Very rapid – under seven minutes – until my LOI which was the apple, where I was forced to guess between an apple I had NHO but a fish I knew, and a fish I had NHO but an apple I knew. Unfortunately I decided that a fish called a Cud was rather more likely than an apple called a Costard (especially given that there is a custard apple, know it well), so One Pink Square.
So once again, and as so often, Izetti is unable to resist adding one very obscure word (from the internet: “the costard is a very old, rare, English apple variety…”) to an otherwise well-crafted and very approachable puzzle. Even if the clue is entirely fair, I think it jars with and is out of keeping with the rest of the puzzle.
Many thanks Mike for the blog, especially the background to swing the lead.
One of those mornings where Mrs RH and I batted the clues back and forth as we made steady progression around the grid. Had to be cod and custard rang a bell so that went straight in. Nearly put in earrings as LOI but just spotted the missing r in time, another minute lost searching for paper and pen to finish in very respectable 14.52
Thanks
Nice to know more about the Chesterfield sofa here. I did put in costard for the apple because cud for fish was unknown to me.
Enjoyed this QC. Thanks to Mike and Izetti.
Mainly straightforward but I had to double check the wordplay to avoid the CuSTARD apple. I managed to resist chucking in ‘engrains’ from the anagram fodder at 11d and whilst I had heard of the expression SWING THE LEAD it turns out that I didn’t know what it meant so needed a number of checkers before the answer became clear.
Started with and finished with EARNINGS in 6.51.
Thanks to Mike and Izetti
16:01 moderate difficulty and not too clever.
Ta MAI
Fairly straightforward and solved in 13 minutes, which is fast for me. Had heard of costard but it took a minute or so to drag it from the nether regions of my brain. Held up a little by 20a, where I had the ‘con’ but couldn’t think of a lengthy word for money allowance until the penny (or rather cent) dropped. LOI Residue.
I went through this quite smoothly and finished in 11.30, all,parsed.
I didn’t know COSTARD but it emerged from the wordplay. I probably am tempting providence but it seems to me that Izetti is more approachable these days which is a blessing.
My LOI was EARNINGS which closely followed the neat RESIDUE. CLEVER, SWING THE LEAD, and CHESTERFIELD all dropped out quickly for me and I liked their detailed elaboration from Mike.
Thanks to him and to Izetti.
As a boy I was taught the same origin of SWING THE LEAD as Mike has set out, but according to this https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/swing-the-lead.html it originated as late as 1917 and as an Army phrase not a Navy one. So maybe it came from soldiers not understanding what sailors were doing?
Anyway. That clue didn’t detain me, but LOI MODERATE, EARDRUM and the DAUGHTER of d-in-law did, so despite a fast start I ended up with 07:38 and an Average Day. I enjoyed both COSTARD and the information about costermongers!
Many thanks Izetti and Mike.
No problems with today’s enjoyable QC apart from slight hesitation over COSTARD. Had heard of custard apples but only costard fitted the clue. Was looking forward to the blog as knew there would be an explanation of the derivation of SWING THE LEAD – very interesting as was the link to costermonger from the apples. Thanks Mike.
Knew COSTARD. SWING THE LEAD was also vaguely familiar, but I reflected that I didn’t know where it originated, so thanks to Mike for the explanation. Nothing too taxing this morning.
Yes, a toss-up for me between COD / COSTARD (obviously a fish / NHO apple) and CUD / CUSTARD (NHO fish, but might be one I guess / definitely an apple)
Gambled, and lost. Oh well…
Otherwise, pretty pleasing for me to knock an Izetti off in 20 minutes. Thanks to setter and blogger, as always.
21:50, taking a bit of time to work out the long words and finally to vaguely recall COSTARD.
10:22 but with one typo.
NHO COSTARD Apple.
I am not at all convinced about the derivation the blogger cites for the term ‘swinging the lead’. It sounds like one of those explanations that develops a life of its own on the Internet.
Given how critically important taking depth soundings was when sailing in shallow waters, and given the horrible consequences of running aground, I question whether any sailor would have risked defaulting on the task. Not to mention the severity of likely punishment that would be handed out to him in the event of being caught out. And there a lot of people who could have seen him.
Isn’t it more likely that, compared to all other jobs the sailors would be doing, especially when sailing close to shore, the task of taking depth soundings was seen as an easy option?
17 mins…
Weirdly, I parsed “Costard” in my head, but then wrote “Custard”. It wasn’t until I did a quick glance at the end that I realised my mistake. I had heard of “Swing the lead”, but it wasn’t immediately obvious, similarly 8ac “Daughter-in law” took far longer than it should have.
FOI – 1ac “Mare”
LOI – 7dn “Chesterfield”
COD – 20ac “Concentration”
Thanks as usual!
Nice gentle romp through. Thanks to Izetti and Mike. I had always heard that swinging the lead really was an easy job compared to hauling sails up and down and runing up the rigging. (The rope is actually only thick string and the weight is only 4oz or so, there are plenty in museums). It is unlikly to be a job that would be skimped as hitting a sand bank can easily cause the loss of the ship. Most of the online sources agree with that, but not Google AI which agrees with Mike’s view. The minimum safe depth of water for a Mississippi river boat was 12 ft so the leadman would call out “Mark Twain” (second mark) on each swing to indicate that they were in safe water. That is (allegedly) where the author got his name from.
On a separate subject my screen has suddenly reverted to black on white instead of white on black which I normally use, and the “Black Screen” control does not appear to work any more?
I was slightly surprised that MT didn’t get a mention in the blog, so thanks for saving me the job
The “dark mode” switch is currently deactivated is it was a suspected cause of the “too many requests” problem by clashing with something else. Sorry. I had forgotten I’d deactivated it. I’ll reinstate in at the weekend if everything is still OK and see what happens.
Felt like a typically tricky Izetti to me, coming in at 16:23. NHO COSTARD, but on the other hand I’m not familiar with the custard apple either, so at least my ignorance helped me to swerve that red herring.
Thank you for the blog!
My first this week in what I would call a reasonable time (14 minutes). It could have been quicker but I was held up by looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition at 14ac, reading the clue for 18dn while trying to solve 16ac (don’t ask me) and not being able to parse ROUT initially. TERMINUS was biffed from crossers and I never went back to parse it. I managed to stop myself putting earrings at 11dn (but had to write out the anagrist) and putting custard at 3ac.
FOI – 1ac MARE
LOI – 2dn ROUT
COD – 5dn ALL CLEAR
Thanks to Izetti and Mike
Lovely and friendly, with – at last! – an easy 1a to start – but costard apple looked no more likely than an extinct medieval fish called cud (and indeed this computer objects to costard and adds a wiggly line underneath) – so I was well and truly ROUTed by that mean trick. LOI EARNINGS but all goes for nothing due to the apple. Humph. NHO SWING THE LEAD either, but ho hum at least it was doable.
I was expecting to read comments suggesting this was a doddle, but apparently not necessarily so, so I must have been totally tuned in to Izetti’s wavelength to finish in 4.40! It helped that COSTARD as an apple was known to me, and it went straight in. Twenty six seconds slower than my PB, but my quickest time for quite a while. Life in the old dog yet!
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A couple of close shaves today, with my Modulate and Custard bifs both failing the parsing check. Fortunately, I didn’t know the custard apple, otherwise it might have been more of a struggle to move on. As it was, I still ended up with a window seat.
Slightly surprised that swinging the lead doesn’t appear to be better known, but I suppose there must be numerous examples of work related expressions dying out as the technology changes.
CoD to Concentration, a lovely IKEA example. Invariant
I tasted a custard apple for the first time this year and it was sweet and delicious. Unfortunately the memory led me to put CUSTARD for 2a without checking the parsing. Own silly fault.
Otherwise all green on another fine Izetti puzzle.
Thanks Mike.
From MARE to FIRM in 5:43. No dramas. Have come across the apple before. Thanks Izetti and Mike.
My thanks to Izetti and Mike Harper.
Straightforward I thought.
3a Costard, fortunately I DNK there is such a thing as a Custard Apple. I see that it isn’t actually an apple though, fortunately.
4d Swing the lead. I DNK the origin, thanks Mike Harper.
From MARE to the DAUGHTER part of DAUGHTER-IN-LAW in 6:58. I had never heard of the apple but couldn’t believe that cud = fish. There are quite a few fish of 3 letters and given cud has never appeared as one in the QC I went with my gut. Thanks Mike
5.51
Like John D, knew the apple and otherwise no hold ups. Interesting blog. Jane Austen describes Emma as clever in the first paragraph of the eponymous novel. It wasn’t a compliment.
Thanks Mike/Izetti.
Erred by thinking “fellow” was a v vague definition and bunging OT inside CAPE for cloak to get CAPOTE…
I did the same
A rare sub four minutes for me, till I noticed the answer to 11 down was earnings, not earrings. So much for speed. Grrrr
Finished 3 clues in 30 minutes – clearly on the start of a learning curve! The origins of ‘The Learning Curve’ relate to an S-shaped (or Sigmoid) graph that leans over to the right. Whenever we learn a new skill, after a slow start (bottom of the S) there is the more enjoyable part of rapid acceleration which I hope to be on soon. However if you are at the top of the curve where it flattens off again, there is not much variation in ‘time to complete the puzzle’ so it’s not so much fun, and of course that part of the curve slowly reaches a physical limit that cannot be exceeded. That’s not to suggest the pleasure diminishes but that there is less of a sense of progress, unless of course you tackle harder puzzles.
I found this tricky. I got there eventually in 35mins.
Almost tripped up by CUSTATD.
LOI was EMUS.
Thanks to both.
Rejected Cod, so Custard here, not CLEVER and very slow. NHO SWING THE LEAD, but guessed. Liked CHESTERFIELD, EMUS, MANTLE, RESIDUE, and TERMINUS, among others. CNP ROUT.
Thanks vm, Mike.
I really enjoyed both crossword and blog. Pace Cedric I don’t mind an obscure word from Izetti. (As long as there’s only one.) 😉
COSTARD is a bawdy country bumpkin in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, which was briefly discussed during my ‘O’ Level English Literature cramming, despite the fact we were actually studying Henry V. But I do remember the excellent Frank Millard telling us his name was a type of apple – thanks as ever Frank. The answer went straight in.
I narrowly avoid “earrings” right at the end. They wouldn’t have suited me anyway.
FOI MARE
LOI EARNINGS
COD DOWN
TIME 3:46
Scared and confused today, how can I have completed an Izetti puzzle AND have escaped the SCC (missing my usual seat there, maybe a Chesterfield??).
And indeed COSTARD was NHO. “It had to be” COD+STAR but I still checked the internet to make sure . . . I wasn’t around in medieval times to know the apple!
I’ve learned from this blog that Izetti is the King of Crosswords & while that should daunt me I’m always glad when I see he is the setter because he is so clever & elegant & for some unknown reason, although a slow & sluggish myself I always feel he’s on my wavelength which gives me an undoubted psychological boost to start with. Loved today’s offering especially 8a
I’ve learned from this blog that Izetti is the King of Crosswords & while that should daunt me I’m always glad when I see he is the setter because he is so clever & elegant & for some unknown reason, although a slow & sluggish myself I always feel he’s on my wavelength which gives me an undoubted psychological boost to start with. Loved today’s offering especially 8a
8:00 to a DNF with, joining the crowd, CuSTARD for COSTARD. I had even used the pencil tool to remind myself to look again, but got a bit over excited at “finishing” in what for me is a short time. This little game does deliver quite a few life lessons.
Apart from that it was a very smooth solve with most answers tumbling over each other in their eagerness to get into the grid. Fun was had in a very different way from recent QCs. I did feel 8a DAUGHTER-IN-LAW was a hair too transparent to be considered cryptic. MODERATE was LOI after being a little hung up on “manage”. But the real hold-up was SWING THE LEAD (NHO); the English language is so strange sometimes; fortunately the anagram hat was more or less working today.
Thanks Izetti and Mike, excellent blogging, interesting and much needed. I hope the “costermonger” connection will help my memory the next time COSTARD pops up. And hope I don’t spell it “costerd”, eek.
8.04 I was tempted by CUSTARD and EARRINGS but settled on the right answers. LOI FIRM. Thanks Mike and Izetti.
16 minutes.
Thought I’d done extremely well on a difficult QC. Then I came here, saw the Snitch and how ‘easy’ most found it, and felt thoroughly deflated.
Currently at 2 hours on 15 x 15, with barely half solved. No doubt that will turn out to have been ‘easy’ as well.
Never be beaten by Izetti is my own yardstick, though not succeeding sometimes. Didn’t actually expect to have a medieval apple thrown in plus historical references, may not remember it all! But major mental distraction of VirginMedia TV outage now to be 3 weeks total up to 2 Jan, unhappy. Good wishes to all.
26 mins. Heavy weather but once a few long ones finally dropped. The checkers helped me complete. Costard really? Thanks Mike and Izetti
NHO COSTARD but trusted the wordplay even though it sounded totally implausible. I don’t mind encountering a word I don’t know, in fact it’s one of the reasons I love solving crosswords. Paused over the parsing of ROUT. Otherwise fairly gentle for an Izetti I thought. COD RESIDUE. Many thanks both.
Costard is indeed in Love’s Labours Lost but in The Merry Wives of Windsor the irascible Sir Hugh Evans threatens to smash the ‘knave’s costard’ (head) of his rival/opponent in a duel. On tour with the play in Europe we used to ask “How’s your costard today?” for any of the troupe suffering a hangover! Fun puzzle as always from Izetti – broad smile at many of the parsings, starting with the backward ram! 15 minutes and cod to the gent who acts for others!
I do like an Izetti puzzle and today was no exception
Can I have custard on my costard pie?