Well, I enjoy a challenge, and Tyrus is a great setter, but this was a pretty hopeless solving experience for me. After several evenings staring in vain at the grid, I’ve six answers written in and no reason to expect I’ll have any more before blogging day.
So to Crossword Solver it is, and I’ll do my best to explain what I can.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PUT OUT TO TENDER | Look for quotes from Otterden (3,3,2,6) |
| Reverse anagram, with no suggestion that it might be one. (TO TENDER)* = OTTERDEN. | ||
| 8 | STREET NAME | Shambles – maybe matters shortly need to be resolved (6,4) |
| (MATTERS NEE[d])*. | ||
| 9 | RACY | Woman with no time to be sexy (4) |
| [t]RACY. | ||
| 10 | SHRIKE | Bird’s alarmed reaction after rear’s tweaked (6) |
| From SHRIEK, tweaked. | ||
| 11 | EXPLICIT | One in company leaving Claims Direct (8) |
| I can’t expain this one. | ||
| 12 | RING PULL | Opener run out? On the contrary, good shot! (4,4) |
| Nor this one. | ||
| 14 | LEGMAN | Fetching jugs not this gofer’s thing? (6) |
| The implication being that a “leg man” is not interested in a woman’s breasts, though I’d be surprised. | ||
| 15 | SORT OF | Rather angry posh bloke suffering from cuts (4,2) |
| SOR[e] TOF[f]. | ||
| 17 | ROUSSEAU | Regret very much listening to influential thinker (8) |
| Homophone of “rue so”. | ||
| 19 | ESSAYIST | Writer said it initially … and it’s wrong (8) |
| This is ESS and AY, presumably S[aid] I[t], + ITS*. | ||
| 21 | STRIPE | Band’s clothes a little eccentric (6) |
| STRIP + E[ccentric]. | ||
| 23 | EDGE | Beeb insiders taking Lord Hall’s side (4) |
| DG in [b]EE[b]. | ||
| 24 | VILLAINOUS | Criminal team, one operating around country (10) |
| Aston VILLA + I + ON + US. | ||
| 25 | AS NEAR AS DAMMIT | Bum and arse, ma’am? It’s pretty much the same thing (2,4,2,6) |
| (AND ARSE MAAM ITS)*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PITCH | Throw up in court being detained (5) |
| (CT in HIP)<. | ||
| 2 | TEEMING | Where drivers are stuck on motorway – no good seething (7) |
| TEE + M1 + NG. | ||
| 3 | UP THE DUFF | Expecting to put out? Husband’s tablet not working (2,3,4) |
| PUT* + H + E + DUFF. | ||
| 4 | TRAVELLERS TALES | All setters are occasionally evil? Possibly such reports are exaggerated (10,5) |
| (ALL SETTERS ARE + [e]V[i]L)*. | ||
| 5 | TIE UP | Moor that is covered with sheep (3,2) |
| IE in TUP. | ||
| 6 | NURSING | Medical profession celebrate after upsetting Hunt (7) |
| RUN< + SING. | ||
| 7 | ENCHILADA | Cooked nachos (not very large) ideal as snack? (9) |
| (NACH[os] + IDEAL)* | ||
| 13 | IRONSIDES | Tough guy doing time’s putting the squeeze on most of nick (9) |
| RO[b] in INSIDE. Not sure where the final S comes from. | ||
| 14 | LOUISIANA | Obsessive about getting the nod from Paris, Madrid and part of America (9) |
| (OUI + SI) in ANAL<. | ||
| 16 | TRAPEZE | Split over males picked up in Cheapside swingers’ bar (7) |
| PART< + homophone of “‘e’s”. | ||
| 18 | SURINAM | Cruise (little one) round island republic (7) |
| SURI (Tom Cruise’s offspring) + (Isle of MAN)<. | ||
| 20 | INVAR | Alloy of tin variety (5) |
| [t]IN VAR[iety]. | ||
| 22 | POULT | Surprised to nearly pull game young thing (5) |
| (TO PUL[l])*. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
Thanks Simon and Tyrus. Agreed, very tough. I can’t explain 11a either (although I think there must be something to do with putting in an “I” and taking out “company”).
12a I had as R(un)IN(opp. of out)G(ood) PULL (cricket shot).
I got 21a wrong – I had STRAPS (bands) as a small variation on STRIPS.
19a the ESS and AY are SA (sex appeal – it), then IT’S*.
13d “doing time” is INSIDE, so “doing time’s” INSIDES?
I didn’t know Tom Cruise’s daughter’s name (shame on me!).
Bad luck, Simon. Glad I’m not the only one to have days like that. That said, I appear to have completed this puzzle with no trouble. The problem I have with commenting on weekend prize puzzles is that a week later, I can’t remember anything about the solving experience. Don’t think I found it excessively tough, unlike that one a couple of weeks ago, which again confirms my thoughts that any intrinsic hardness of a puzzle is not as significant as whether the solver gets on the same wavelength as the setter.
All that said, I couldn’t parse 11ac either. But 12ac is I think R IN, the contrary of run out, G for good, and PULL being a shot in cricket.
Thanks Simon and Tyrus,
I couldn’t parse IRONSIDES.
EXPLICIT: PLC (company) around I (one) in EXIT (leaving).
I struggled with IRONSIDES and ESSAYIST but I loved the puzzle. AS NEAR AS DAMMIT, EXPLICIT and NURSING are marvellous.
Thank you Tyrus.
My partner and I had terrible trouble with this one too. But we did do 11a EXPLICIT: I in PLC all inside (claimed by) EXIT. At the time I thought the missing S in 13d was explained by “time” being INSIDE and therefore “time’s” would be INSIDES, but in retrospect this does look a bit iffy. And in 14d, LOUISIANA, it seems “about” does double duty: ANAL is both reversed and on the outside of the rest. Should that be “Obsessive about about…”?
Thanks Tyrus and Simon
I managed it all but couldn’t parse 18d – didn’t know the name of Cruise’s offspring.
13d is RO (almost “rob” for “nick”) inside INSIDES
In my haste @6 I didn’t realise that Simon and MikeC@1 together had resolved 13d – apologies to both. It was certainly a tough one so was please to finish it with only 18d unresolved.
A very tough puzzle that I managed to complete correctly without resort to aids, but with five answers from the definition alone. They were SURINAM, IRONSIDES, EXPLICIT, TRAPEZE and STRIPE, which was my LOI after I finally saw the anagram fodder for POULT.
There was some excellent and amusing cluing in this puzzle, and 14ac in particular made me grin when I finally saw what was going on.
Thanks to setter & blogger,
I sympathise and empathise with you Simon. I found this very tough. I was staring at the crossword for a couple of hours with only 2 answers in, and the rest did not come easily. I ended up with only 21 wrong – same as MikeC@1 – but couldn’t parse a few more. I particularly liked 14a, even though I agree it may not be entirely accurate!
Thanks for the blog, Simon – sorry you found it so hard.
Thanks also to others for their comments.
@10 should have read from Tyrus of course.
Very much enjoyed this one after I got going. “Fetching jugs” is a phrase that I am sure will prove useful….
What is the use of a crossword like this in a national newspaper? Where the average Joe bloggs like me has no chance “ I looked at this in the morning, lunchtime & evening I did not get any answers, I did not even look at 15 squared to see what this crossword was about. Are these compilers trying to make it enjoyable for the general readership or just trying to out Fox the PUNDITS?
The tortoise VM@13. One can understand your frustration with some of the puzzles lately, but I think you’re unlikely to get much response on this site as the discussions effectively closed soon after the puzzles originally appeared in the Indy. How have you accessed fifteensquared? Have you come via the link from idothei or by other means? Because on idothei the discussion is ‘live’ so a comment there may elicit a response.
But don’t despair – even the most successful solvers started out without much idea how to understand even the simplest cryptic clues. And there are other crossword-related sites where you can find guides to the devices used by setters – try Crossword Unclued or Big Dave’s Crossword Blog.
Good luck with your next attempt!