eXternal has given us plenty to get our teeth into this Thursday morning.
I found this puzzle exceptionally difficult to get into, and for a long time I had solved only one clue, at 10. Eventually, the NE quadrant revealed itself to me, followed by the bottom-half of the grid, with 3 and 9 being the last ones in in the NW corner. On reflection, I can’t quite understand why I was so sluggish in my solving today, as the vocabulary here was not particularly obscure and the wordplay not overly fiendish.
I would be grateful if other solvers would confirm (or otherwise) my parsing of 11. My favourites today were 7, for its surface and for not relying on Fe to clue iron; 23, for its surface; and above all the & lit. at 28, for its smooth surface, defining its solution brilliantly.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | BLUE-SKY THINKING | Obscene, twisted things, kinky manager’s request?
BLUE (=obscene, pornographic) + *(THINGS KINKY); “twisted” is anagram indicator; blue-sky thinking is open-minded thinking, unfettered by convention |
| 09 | TODDY | Maybe like murderer to be warmer
Cryptically, Todd-y might mean “like murderer” Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber |
| 10 | ULAN BATOR | Frenchman’s article about another pub that’s welcomed to capital city
[LA (=Frenchman’s article, i.e. the French for the) in UN (=Frenchman’s article, i.e. the French for a)] + [TO in BAR (=pub)] |
| 11 | TERMINAL | Spell farewell without using F
TERM (=spell, period) + <f>INAL (=farewell, used adjectivally, as in farewell concert); “without using F” means letter “f” is dropped; “spell farewell” is doing double duty as definition, as in terminal illness |
| 12 | GARNET | Good X-ray nearly sent back? It might be precious
G (=good) + [ARNET (TEN=X, i.e. in Roman numerals + RA<y> (“nearly” means last letter dropped); “sent back” indicates reversal] |
| 13 | BLOCKADES | Carvers bagging Cockney’s joint of meat making checks
<h>OCK (=joint of meat; “Cockney’s” means initial “h” is dropped) in BLADES (=carvers, knives) |
| 16 | KEELE | Section of flyer introducing European university
KEEL (=section of flyer, plane) + E (=European) |
| 17 | BRUNO | Former sportsman’s to race old boy after cycling
RUN (=race) + OB (=old boy); “after cycling” here means that last letter goes to front, etc; the reference is to former professional boxer Frank Bruno (1961-) |
| 19 | TREE NYMPH | Republican gets in small amount of speed and spirit
[R (=Republican, as in IRA) in TEENY (=small)] + MPH (=amount of speed, i.e. miles per hour) |
| 22 | OUTWIT | Endlessly dour ass and fox
<d>OU<r> (“endlessly” means first and last letters are dropped) + TWIT (=ass) |
| 23 | ROEBUCKS | Herbivores love to feed on greens
[O (=love) in RE (=on)] + BUCKS (=greens, dollar bills) |
| 26 | SANTA CRUZ | Mystery-man who gives Beckham (little) place in America
SANTA (=mystery-man who gives (presents)) + CRUZ (=Beckham (little), i.e. son of footballer David Beckham) |
| 27 | BRAWL | Most of sinew left as scrap
BRAW<n> (=sinew; “most of” means last letter dropped) + L (=left) |
| 28 | MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD | Gorging day after day, evidence of how far one’s gone with food?
[D D (=day after day, i.e. 2 x d=day) in MILEAGE (=evidence of how far one’s gone)] + SPREAD (=food, buffet); & lit. |
| Down | ||
| 01 | BATHTUB | Hard to enter container, sailor capsized vessel
[H (=hard) in BUTT (=container, e.g. for water)] + AB (=sailor, i.e. able-seaman); “capsized” indicates vertical reversal |
| 02 | UNDERGO | Experience monster downpours regularly, going north
OGRE (=monster) + D<ow>N<po>U<rs> (“regularly” means every third letter only); “going north” indicates vertical reversal |
| 03 | STYLI | Writers in fashion wanting quiet at base
STYLI<sh> (=in fashion); “wanting quiet (=sh!) at base” means the letters “sh” at end of word are dropped |
| 04 | YOU SAID IT | Absolutely sheepish remark overheard
Homophone (“overheard”) of “ewe said it” (=sheep-ish remark) |
| 05 | HOAR | Open-ended question to ascertain people showing sign of age
<w>HO AR<e?> (=question to ascertain people); “open-ended” means first and last letters are dropped |
| 06 | NEBRASKAN | American banker’s an oddball
*(BANKER’S AN); “oddball” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | INTENSE | Strong casing of iron which might be perfect
I<ro>N (“casing of” means first and last letters only) + TENSE (=which might be perfect, i.e. in grammar) |
| 08 | GAROTTE | Two swimmers almost choke
GAR + OTTE<r> (=two swimmers, i.e. two aquatic creatures); “almost” means last letter dropped |
| 14 | KNOW-IT-ALL | Wise guy’s criminal lot walk in
*(LOT WALK IN); “criminal” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | SHEMOZZLE | Inebriate’s edging inside, making a mess
HEM (=edging) in SOZZLE (=inebriate) |
| 17 | BLOSSOM | Joy, I am getting old rather than every single one being mature
BLISS (=joy) + I’M (=I am); “getting old (=O) rather than every single one (=I)”, means that each letter “i” is replaced by an “o” |
| 18 | UNTONED | Stress-free, // as one with answer to 28 is
Double definition: “untoned” means without tones, stress-free (of music) AND lacking in muscular definition, as of the body of someone with middle-age spread (=answer to 28) |
| 20 | MACRAME | Computer storage increase finally for combined threads
MAC (=computer) + RAM (=storage, i.e. Random Access Memory) + <increase>E (“finally” means last letter only) |
| 21 | HASSLED | Under pressure, could go downhill fast
HAS (A) SLED (=could go downhill fast) |
| 24 | BEBOP | Double-bass work to incorporate electronic style of music
E (=electronic) in [B B (=double-bass, i.e. 2 x B (=bass)) + OP (=work)] |
| 25 | ORCA | Island abandoned by men finding marine predator
<men>ORCA (=island); “abandoned by men” means letters “men” are dropped |
Too hard for me today (I only cracked 5 clues).
16a: I came to ‘keel’ via the keel on a bird’s breastbone.
Many thanks to blogger!
I found this very difficult but got there in the end. Sorry RR, but I can’t help you with the definition for TERMINAL because I couldn’t see one and I got the answer from wordplay and checkers. I parsed 18dn as UN=one plus TONED (answer to middle-age spread), and it was my LOI after BRUNO.
On my first read through of all the clues the only answer I had was BRAWL. I then got 1ac on my second read through and its helpful checkers gave me a toehold into the puzzle. The top half fell into place quicker than the bottom half, although HOAR took a while to decipher. The SE didn’t really open up until I got TREE NYMPH, and it took me a while to see the BLOSSOM/OUTWIT crossers in the SW. All in all an excellent mental workout IMHO.
Seems I was not alone in having a tough time of this but excellent puzzle- havent kept up with Beckham family but 15d provided the appropriate crosser.(I’m from the Graun parish but today’s was a tad quick and i wanted a challenge)
Too hard for me today, stared at an almost empty grid for ages.
Thanks RR for explaining this lot for me. Been a while since I flunked a crossword this badly.
I found this difficult to crack open too. I finally got the top half (diagonally NW to SE but really struggled with a lot of the other half. The convolutions of 17d and 23ac were a step to far for me. But the rest were fine when eventually sorted out.
I’m with Flashling. A long time since I flunked a crossword this badly. To my mind it was incredibly difficult and although I gave up and used every possible aid, I still left a whole lot unfinished.
Can’t help with 11ac. The clue seems to have no definition, since ‘spell farewell’ hardly = ‘terminal’ so far as I can see, and it’s not an &lit. since the whole clue is not apparently a definition of ‘terminal’. So what’s going on is a mystery to me.
Well, looks as if I didn’t do as badly as some today for a change, only failing to get 11ac and 23ac. In both cases I did word searches that actually turned up the correct answers and I rejected them in both cases as I couldn’t see how they fitted the clues. Too difficult to be enjoyable.
Curiously, I was out this evening at a concert and as the second half started, the answer to 1dn came into my head. That doesn’t happen often.
Lots of searching needed to complete the grid. We came here for help in parsing 17d, 18d and 11ac which we still don’t understand – glad that we weren’t alone! It was getting late so Joyce read the blog and gave some hints to Bert so he could complete the SE corner!
We don’t think we have struggled so much on a daily puzzle for a very long time. We are not complaining though – you can’t win ’em all!
We concede gracefully (discounting 11ac) to eXternal. Many, many thanks to RR. Given all the complications at home at the moment with elderly parents, we were really glad we weren’t blogging this one.
I struggled with this to begin with and stared at just ‘outwit’ and ‘Nebraskan’ for a long time. But I got there in the end without being happy about ‘terminal’ or any the wiser about ‘blossom’. And no computer or reference books, which is unusual for me.
I did check my Chambers to see whether ‘kele’ was an alternative for ‘keel’ as I thought the ‘e’ had to be introduced (i.e. in the middle, not at the end). Didn’t like ‘regularly’ meaning every third letter.
Wow! I really, really enjoyed this. So many different – and entertaining – constructions (for what it’s worth I loved “regularly” meaning every third letter for a refreshing change) though I too feel the definition is missing for11ac, which is a shame in such a superb puzzle. And how nice that it didn’t yield quickly meaning I could be happily amused by it throughout Strictly (just looking up for the few minutes of actual “dancing”) Even then, I only finished the SE corner just now after a few hours sleep! So huge thanks to eXternal – most impressive!
And well done RR; the parsing of “blossom” passed me by….
….and Gaufrid, if you’re reading this some (no doubt annoying) news. I assembled my little collection of photocopied crosswords at the library on Saturday afternoon and guess what – this week the phantom thief had rounded on Friday’s Indy – so shock horror no Phi Phix! The superb eXternal has more than assuaged my irritation, but I’m still left with a Phi-shaped hole. Third time this year – and always the Indy which, unlike the Guardian, I can’t print. Well you already know my problem, but I have another; to wit, the guilt I feel for seeking your help – again. Please ignore this if it puts you out in any way at all. Otherwise I’d be so grateful for one of your PDFs of Friday’s Phi puzzle – and there’s no immediate rush as I can’t access emails ’til I next visit library which won’t be before Monday pm. In any case, my very best for a pleasant Sunday. And my heartfelt thanks. William.
I am a new contributor so I’ll be brief. Could only do about five clues! Am usually better than that. Honest!
Again, why oh! why does the i crossword puzzle staff keep turning out this mind boggling baloney. What are they trying to do?, if they want to increase sales this is not the way to go about it, please please give us cryptic crosswords that the average crossword solver can at least solve some of the clues, unlike this one.
l wonder if the i puzzle staff ever try to Solve these type of puzzles themselves?. I also wish they would read some of the above comments, even the experts struggled with this one,
That’s got that off my chest,
Tortoise @13, if it was just about increasing sales, they’d do like the Sun or the Mail. Thank God they don’t!
To my mind, crosswords should be challenging and witty but, above all, enjoyable. Certain setters are so busy “being clever” that the wit is lost and just becomes irritating and tedious. Shame!!
Jean Gray – you’re not the only one: I got five and a half after staring at it for a couple of hours, then gave up. That was quite the most impenetrable I’ve seen in the i for ages … and that’s after struggling through this Tuesday’s. thank god yesterday’s was a good one.
Cornice, I agree we do not want simplicity, I concur with topsy challenging,witty & enjoyable not tedious.
I loved it (as ever). Difficult and fair = a good challenge = fun. More enjoyment to be had getting 5 of these than completing the Telegraph