I don’t know what’s prevented Shuchi from posting today but here is an analysis of the clues. Sorry for its tardy appearance but I have been out all afternoon (a rare occurrence).
The usual accurate cluing from Bradman, with the exception of 16ac which seems to have been written as a Down clue (unless I’ve missed something, always possible!), and a couple of relatively rare words or phrases (11ac & 26ac) but easy enough to solve from the wordplay.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COURSE | homophone of ‘coarse’ (rough) |
| 4 | MASSIF | MASS (church service with bread) IF (even though) – a reference to the Earth’s crust. |
| 8 | ABSCOND | N (any number) in AB’S (sailor’s) COD (fish) |
| 9 | SUMATRA | *(TRAUMAS) |
| 11 | À BON MARCHÉ | MARCH (month) in A BONE (a bit of what the butcher sells) |
| 12 | POST | dd |
| 13 | SAY-SO | SAYS (speaks) O (love) |
| 14 | LEVERAGE | L (pounds) EVER (always) AGE (a long time) |
| 16 | PANTHEON | PAN (censure) THE ON (side {cricket}) – the ‘under’ in this clue only works if it had been a Down rather than an Across. |
| 18 | REBUT | B (black) in *(TRUE) |
| 20 | FIRE | F (female) IRE (wrath) |
| 21 | DE-ESCALATE | DEE (river) *(A CASTLE) |
| 23 | PITCH IN | P (president) ITCHIN’ (longin’) |
| 24 | CONJURE | CON (trick) J (jack) [cl]U[bs] [hea]R[ts] [h]E[arts] |
| 25 | TALENT | TALE (story) NT (New Testament) |
| 26 | ESCROW | ESC[ape] (getaway, not half) ROW (commotion) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CUBEB | CUBE (solid shape) B (black) |
| 2 | UNCANNY | UN (organisation) CAN NY (where it is) |
| 3 | SINGAPORE | IN (home) GAP (hole) in SORE (cross) |
| 5 | ACUTE | A CUTE (delightful) – the French for summer is été which has an acute accent on the first and last letters. |
| 6 | SCARPER | P (quiet) in SCARER (something frightening) |
| 7 | FORESIGHT | ORES (bits of stuff from under the ground) in FIGHT (struggle) |
| 10 | ICELANDER | *(A DECLINE) R (right) &lit |
| 13 | STALINIST | LIN[e] (inadequate policy) IS in STAT[e] (nation, in short) |
| 15 | VERACIOUS | *(VASE CURIO) |
| 17 | TIERCEL | TIERCE (STOP {on an organ}) L (lake) |
| 19 | BELL JAR | BELL (inventor) JAR (shake) – Alexander Graham Bell |
| 21 | DEIGN | D (duke) [r]EIGN (rule in the absence of king) |
| 22 | THREW | homophone of ‘through’ (finished) |
Thanks, Gaufrid. Got everything except 5d. Learned several new words, including both tierce and tiercel, not to mention cubeb. Got Stalinist but did not know why. Also got a bon marché, and rather liked the clue, but somewhat surprised that a French expression was considered fair game.
After yesterdays triumph, back down to earth today and only got 9,14,18,24& 25a and 15 & 19d .
Would never have got “a bon marche”, -had to look up pantheon , escrow , cubeb & tiercel to find out what they were.
Did think about foresight for 7d but couldn’t see the wordplay so left it out.
Too hard for me.
Hi Tony
à bon marché is in both Collins and Chambers so definitely fair game.
In my haste to get something posted quickly, I forgot to include CUBEB and TIERCEL in my list relatively rare words. I knew both tiercel and tierce, but the latter only in its other meanings and had to use Chambers to confirm the (organ) stop.
Many thanks Gaufrid.
This was too tough for me, too, and your analysis was very welcome.
Hi bamberger
“Too hard for me.”
Perhaps at the moment but keep practising, and learning from these blogs, and who knows what you will be able to solve in the future.
Unfortunately there was no such help available when I started trying to solve cryptic puzzles nearly 50 years ago. Then it was a case of looking at the answers the following day and trying to work out the wordplay in the clues that I had failed to solve.
Thanks for the blog , Gaufrid.
I expect to enjoy Bradman’s puzzles and this was no exception. 5dn was one of the best clues I have seen for a while – ‘delightful’!
This more than offset the rather long-winded clue to 4ac and I didn’t really have a problem with PANTHEON. I do see what you mean but I didn’t really think about it until I saw your blog. I think I would justify it as under = subordinate to = following – maybe a bit of a stretch but, as I said, it worked for me.
Thanks to the Don for another entertaining puzzle.
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid. I just about got this, partly because of what I’ve learnt from 225, but tierce as stop was new/tough. Must be because I’m too much of a heathen! Do I gather that Bradman = Pasquale?
Hi MikeC
Yes, Bradman = Pasquale = Quixote = Giovarnni = Duck = Don Manley.
Thanks Gaufrid.
I seem to enjoy the Don’s puzzles more and more as time goes on.I always like to learn new words or new definitions of familiar words and they are always fairly clued by this setter.
Agree with Eileen re 5 down,I also liked 4 across where the addition of ‘with bread’ to the clue made for extra difficulty.
Good stuff!
Gaufrid @8
Many thanks for unmasking this setter’s other identities.
Having previously struggled in vain with Pasquale. I have now added these others to my Black List.
I shall know better in future.
Oh dear, ‘Bryan’! Don’t give up on Quixote though — he’s about the easiest in Independent newspapers! And the Giovanni Telegraph Tougie is by no means the toughest either.
Bradman @ 11
Many thanks for your encouragement but I don’t do either the Independent or the Telegraph.
However, I am fully prepared to take you off my Black List if you promise to be less prolific with Obscurities.
One person’s ‘obscurity’ is another person’s ‘what every schoolchild knows’ … My only promise is to clue fairly!
Yes, Bradman = Pasquale = Quixote = Giovarnni = Duck = Don Manley.
MikeC: Fixing a typo. In the above equation it must be Giovanni, as we can gather from a subsequent comment.
I failed to finish this in bed on Friday night but managed to complete it on Saturday PM. I was encouraged to see that people, including the Don, were still discussing it this afternoon. This was definitely very tough but one of the things that I have learned from Don’s previous comments on this site is that he does like to educate us so I took a punt on Cubeb and Tiercel on the grounds that they would be exactly the kind of word that he would include.
I particularly enjoyed Conjure and the French tierce (in another of its meanings) of A Bon Marche, Acute and Massif.
Hi Gaufrid
Many apologies for not being able to post. I have been travelling in Rajasthan this week and had planned to solve and blog this from my hotel; I wasn’t prepared for no internet or phone connectivity over there. Thank you for filling in for me.
Great to see so many comments for an FT blog.
And for a crossword that was as good as any Guardian puzzle could get!