Nothing too troubling in this one, with just one (easily gettable) answer that was new to me. Thanks to Qaos for the entertainment, and Happy New Year to all.
As (almost) always with Qaos there is a ghost theme – there are lots of answers related to sewing/dressmaking: I can see SATIN, TRESTLE (like my AUNTie’s old sewing machine!), RUNNING (stitch), DARN, BLANKET (stitch) , CHAIN (stitch), BUTTON (with HOLE to go with it), STITCH, THREAD and NEEDLE. Any more?
| Across | ||||||||
| 9. | IMPROMPTU | A politician’s memory? Put freely, it’s makeshift (9) I MP + ROM (memory) + PUT* |
||||||
| 10. | SATIN | Fabric sale! 50% off money (5) SA[le] + TIN (slang for money) |
||||||
| 11. | CLOSE-UP | See wings of shrike in prize photograph (5-2) LO (see) S[hrik]E in CUP (prize) |
||||||
| 12. | TRESTLE | Support for scrabble letters (7) LETTERS* |
||||||
| 13. | VAMP | Siren‘s fuse? (4) Double definition? Vamp and fuse can (just about) both mean to repair |
||||||
| 14. | BURNT OCHRE | Colour sports brochure covers books … (5,5) NT (New Testament, i.e. books) in BROCHURE* |
||||||
| 15. | RUNNING | … on doing exercise (7) Double definition |
||||||
| 17. | MODICUM | In the year 2000, 599 entered Open University for a bit (7) DIC (dubiously, 599 in Roman numerals) in OU, in MM (2000) |
||||||
| 19. | DETRAINING | Getting off scary giant ride takes a little bit of nerve (10) N in (GIANT RIDE)* |
||||||
| 22. | DARN | Curse and blast without ever ending (4) [eve]R in AND* |
||||||
| 23. | HEROINE | Lead, helium and iron compounds on Earth (7) HE (Helium) + IRON* + E – the heroine may play the lead |
||||||
| 24. | BLANKET | Coverage of space alien (7) BLANK + ET |
||||||
| 26. | CHAIN | Country relocates area to middle of mountain range (5) CHINA with the A moved to the middle |
||||||
| 27. | LARYNGEAL | “Heavy” holds back New York gangster about the throat (9) NY< in LARGE + AL (Capone) |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | DISCOVERED CHECK | Board move found US credit note (10,5) DISCOVERED (found) + CHECK (American version of cheque). I don’t like the way “discovered”, which is a major part of the answer, is defined in a way that is essentially the same as in the answer. Discovered check occurs in chess where moving one man allows another to check the opponent’s King |
||||||
| 2. | APRON-MAN | After father retires, Abramovich welcomes new or old worker (5-3) PA< + N in ROMAN. I hadn't heard of this Shakespearean word for a workman, but it's a plausible construction and the clue is obvious as long as you've heard of Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea football club |
||||||
| 3. | HOLE | Nothing left in explosive crater (4) O L in H[igh] E[xplosive] |
||||||
| 4. | UPSPRUNG | Top trophies gaining publicity before gun shot was invented (8) [c]UPS + PR (publicity) + GUN* |
||||||
| 5. | BUTTON | Formula 1 driver just going above 100 (6) BUT + TON – Jensen Button is the driver |
||||||
| 6. | ASTEROID | Universal rock star raves, injects drug — love getting unconscious? (8) E in STAR* + O (love) + ID (Freudian unconscious) |
||||||
| 7. | STITCH | It’s about time! Around an hour is a pain (6) ITS* + T + C (about) H |
||||||
| 8. | INDETERMINATELY | Vaguely dine out, finish and leave your tips (15) DINE* + TERMINATE + L[eave] Y[our] |
||||||
| 16. | ITALIANS | Europeans exalting escargot at first (8) Reverse of SNAIL AT I |
||||||
| 17. | MINIBARS | Coolers designed to hold a small criminal? (8) Definition & cryptic definition |
||||||
| 18. | CRACKNEL | Clerk can bake biscuit (8) (CLERK CAN)* |
||||||
| 20. | THREAD | In bath, reading yarn (6) Hidden in baTH READing |
||||||
| 21. | NEEDLE | Point, point, point, point then led all over the place (6) N + E + E + LED* |
||||||
| 25. | AUNT | Relative to visit repeatedly after hotel checkout (4) HAUNT (visit repeatedly) less H[otel] |
||||||
I parsed 13 as “5 amp” fuse?
Excellent puzzle and very prompt blog Andrew.
Thanks to you and Qaos.
Oh.. and my other half seems to think she’s heard of a Trestle stitch and an Italian stitch.
An early Happy New Year to all.
Thanks to Andrew for the blog and Qaos for a great puzzle. Needed parsing help for 22A and 16D. Saw some words of the theme but failed to connect different types of stitches.
Thanks to all setters and bloggers. Always learning from you. Happy solving in 2015!
A Happy New Year to you, Andrew and do you think your Auntie may have had a TREADLE machine?
I am sure I will be flayed again, but I really didn’t like this. It seemed to struggle for surface sense pretty much throughout, and even while I quite liked 11A, 24A and 3D, I had grammatical or subsidiary-part definition problems at 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 (‘takes’ I don’t believe in), 22, 23 & 27A (dbe), and 2 (dbe & archaic), 4 (is that really a word?), 5 (‘but’ in that sense?), 16 (indicator) and 25D.
I found it very clumsy, which really made for a hard solve. I refused the cheat button, and it took ages.
nesciolatine – I think you’re righht: the 5 amp fuse came to me as I was lying in bed this morning..
Lilibet – yes, treadle, not trestle. However, as nesciolatine says there does seem to be a trestle stitch (in crochet), and an Italian.
Thanks, Andrew – and well done on spotting the theme, which, not unusually, passed me by. [I forgot to look – again.]
Like Lilibet @4, I thought you might have got carried away, confusing treadle and trestle but a quick trip to Google revealed a trestle sewing machine for sale on ebay – so my apologies for doubting you. 😉
As you say, lots of entertaining stuff from Qaos, as usual. Many thanks and a Happy New Year to him and to everyone else.
Crossed with you, Andrew. 😉
Twigged 1d immediately and the rest was a write-in. Very satisfying !
Oh well, back to the NE quarter of the Listener.
All the best for 2015.
Enjoyed the puzzle and theme. DARN made me smile, darning socks used to go on without ever ending. Also, at 17a, DIC brought back nostalgic memories, the D.I.C. (Drapery Importing Company, originally selling fabrics and sewing accessories) was a lovely department store in Wellington N.Z. when I was a girl.
Many thanks Qaos for all the puzzles this year and Andrew for all the helpful blogs.
I also parsed VAMP as 5 amp fuse, and thought it was a rather good clue. IMPROMPTU and DISCOVERED CHECK were my other favourites. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew. Dare not comment on difficulty! Loved 17d. Happy New year to all, especially to the setters of all papers. You give us a lot
Happy New Year all!
Thanks again for all the comments throughout the year – they’re much appreciated.
And don’t get too hungover tonight, as you’re in for a real treat tomorrow!
Qaos.
Thank you Andrew.
I found this harder than most, it seems. The ones I struggled with all seemed to interact or cross and that made finishing tough.
Good puzzle, though, and I enjoyed looking up APRON MAN.
Happy New Year to all.
I found this quite tricky in places – maybe just a wavelength thing but I normally find Qaos easier than this. In retrospect there’s nothing too obscure, but the NE corner in particular took a bit of cracking and ASTEROID was last in.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I think your parsing of 7d (STITCH) is slightly flawed, although it is somewhat academic.
To me it looks like:
ITS (rev; = ‘about’) + T(ime) + C (= around) + H
Not sure whether to ignore hedgehoggy or remind him (it’s gotta be a bloke…) that it’s only a game, done for fun, and with no rules to boot. If you don’t enjoy the game, don’t play it and stop spoiling it for those who do with your carping. Go away and do something that you actually enjoy. You’ll live longer and happier!
Happy New Year to all setters (who provide us with some real fun at no real cost to us), solvers (who unlock doors for us in the middle of the night) and bloggers (who, for the most part, engage in pleasant, pub-like banter and illuminating, positive discussion). Crosswords really add something to my life on very many levels and I am perfectly happy to grapple with the setters’ foibles and, occasionally, minor goofs. It all adds to the fun.
Proud to contribute under my real name.
Tim Phillips
Well ‘Tim’, as I seem to HAVE to say on occasion to people, I say it as I see it. So should you, and I really think you’re out of order to have a go at me personally instead of agree (or disagree) with WHAT I SAY. I wouldn’t do it to you, and I’m only saying something now in response as I feel you have been unsporting.
I agree with your parsing of STITCH by the way, and if you can do that you’ll have no trouble getting why I don’t particularly like the ones I’ve listed!
😀
Thanks Qaos & Andrew. A good puzzle.
I liked the 5-amp fuse, but failed to see the Italian’s snail.
Thanks to all the setters, bloggers and posters. Let’s hope 2015 is a good one!
Well, ‘hedge’, you don’t have to say anything at all. That’s the point.
Tim (not ‘TIm’)
P.S. UPSPRUNG is in Collins at: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/upsprung
I think it was just ‘Tim’, if Tim would like to look a little more carefully.
Thanks Robi for the heads up, much appreciated.
Also, Tim’s comment at 19 is baseless, rude and unnecessary.
I find hedgehoggy has commented honestly and carefully on this puzzle. My grammar etc is not good enough to judge the comments, but that is beside the point. If Tim Phillips would look at hedgehoggy’s comments on the Independent site he would see that he does enjoy crossword puzzles and is serious in his posts.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew. I enjoyed this one a lot.
I look through the blog almost every day. There is, however, one contributor I no longer read but skip right on to the next poster. I wonder if you can guess who the odd one out is?
Thanks qaos and Andrew. Favourites were 1 and 27. Had ‘damn’ at 22 and couldn’t get it right but missed the obvious parse. Looking forward to tomorrow’s puzzle! HNY to you all.
As a newbie who has spent a year learning the craft of crossword solving I am very grateful to all the contributors to the blog and the setters too. It has been a fascinating and, just a little, frustrating yearI
For what it is worth, I completed this puzzle which I found difficult – and resorted to the cheat button more than once!
I would love Hedgehoggy and Tim to have a virtual handshake for the sake of auld lang syne. x
Well I’m up for it Gatsby, but please note I do NOT criticise other users on the site. When I receive personal abuse it is upsetting and annoying.
I think commenting is often a matter of tone. If you don’t like something, say so, but there is no need to go over the top and use words like awful, or capital letters.
Thanks to all setters and bloggers over the year. Here’s hoping that the Guardian has found a new source of alphabeticals.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew. A gentle week so far – easing us out of 2014. (Or is it just softening us up for tomorrow?)
I particularly liked 13 and 23, but not the definition in 6 – an asteroid is no more universal than any other rock.
Happy new year to everyone.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew. Missed the theme – nothing new there. CRACKNEL was new to me.
Help! Don’t understand the parsing of BUTTON. Where does the TON come from? Also, could
someone explain derivation of V AMP? Thanks in advance.
Cheers…
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
DuncT @ 29
Ref 6, your point is correct in one sense, but in another asteroids do spend their lives travelling round the universe.
grandpuzzler @ 30
A ton is a colloquialism for a hundred, especially in use referring to speed ‘do a ton’ = go at 100 mph or cricket ‘score a ton’.
hth
Simon S – sort of, but no more than any rock on Earth – all part of the solar system orbiting the sun.
grandpuzzler – v amp = 5 amp. What other fuse would a vamp use?
Got the E side this morning, took the afternoon off to watch Paddington (a glorious love letter to London and its society, don’t knock it), came back and with the rapid help of BLANKET fitted in the rest quite quickly. Really enjoyed the puzzle, just about within my comfort zone and rather more of a test than the two days before.
I felt a little flattered to have an approving comment from hedgehoggy on Monday but I’m not sure I can make common cause with him today. UPSPRUNG really is a word, VAMP a very neat clue at least to those of us who have ever changed a 5-amp fuse, etc. I could add in infelicities of my own – a NEEDLE isn’t a point per se, but an object with a point – but after a while we’d cease to see the solving wood for the clueing trees.
Happy New Year to all, from here in frigid Chicago. Solved this one right to left; it often seems like I’m down to the lower-right corner in my initial read-through before I’m on the setter’s wavelength.
This was U.S.-friendly, for the most part. F1 isn’t big here, so Button is only vaguely familiar; I’d heard of Roman Abramovich, but had to look him up to make sure of him. HE for high explosive is not an abbreviation I’ve seen, but it was easy enough to reverse-engineer. I was a little surprised, momentarily, about “check” being labeled an Americanism (thinking to myself, surely Brits have checks–how else do they bank?), until I remembered that it was just an American spelling.
Last in was VAMP, which I didn’t parse; I also failed to parse its symmetric opposite, DARN. Luckily, those are only four-letter words, so didn’t hold up the rest too badly. Since I had the right word in both cases, I count the puzzle as solved.
Thanks all and A Good New Year.
Trailman @34: I was going to agree with you on NEEDLE not being the same as POINT but then I thought I would check Chambers and, inevitably I suppose, it gives POINT = etching needle.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
I went out fairly early this morning with the LHS completed but only BUTTON, LARYNGEAL and BURNT OCHRE poking into the RHS. On returning, 8d fell, and then the rest (though I was another unparsed DAMN – damn!)
I’ve known people called Cracknel (or double-L), but never knew they were biscuits. I also hadn’t heard of APRON-MAN, but it was well constructed, so easily solved.
Loved TRESTLE, VAMP and MINIBARS
Thanks all
Enjoyable.I solved darn as inevitable but couldn’t parse it,
I liked 12,13 , 23 ac.
I must say I rather agree with hedgehoggy about the puzzle as a whole. I managed rather well until the NE.APRON MAN,UPSPRUNG and DISCOVERED CHECK were all new to me and, while I suppose they were fairly clued,they all took me a long time and the first I had to guess-Shakespearean you say-well,well! And I didn’t get the theme(again). It’s probably a better puzzle than I’m saying but I can’t say I enjoyed it very much.
Oh well, Happy new year.
muffin @ 37
I have a vague childhood memory of there being a sweet called a cracknel in Quality Street or similar, long and thin with an orange wrapping, I think.
Simon S @40
By Jove, I think you’re right – though I’m picturing a yellow wrapping?
muffin @ 41
You’re right, yellow indeed. Orange was the round gob of toffee, I think.
[we could take this thread miles off-topic if we try…]
muffin and Simon S
I will have to chastise myself for continuing this off-topic debate but, according to Wikipedia, the Hazelnut Cracknell had a red wrapper and the Peanut Cracknell a blue one. The long thin sweet (the only one I liked) was a Chocolate Toffee Finger which came in a gold wrapper.
PS
Re comment #42, the circular Toffee Penny also had a gold wrapper.
Re Quality Street and the cracknell sweet, at first it was made with crushed hazelnuts, then with crushed peanuts (cheaper I suppose). Then discontinued, it has just occurred to me, because of peanut allergy.
Happy New Year Everyone.
Hi Gaufrid et al
Interesting that the spelling you use is “CracknelL” – is the “Cracknel” something different?
Although I’m a newcomer to posting on this site I’ve been doing Guardian crosswords for many years, and I’ll take the liberty of commenting on the hedgehoggy question. One school of thought says that you call it as you see it, another that if you can’t say something nice say nothing. I go with the first because it’s more truthful, more courageous and more entertaining.
Happy New Year
I agree terencep (@47). I absolutely prefer it not to be all thank yous and compliments.
I agree with you, terencep. Hedgehoggy has a strong opinion on how crosswords ‘should be’. While I am someone who has ultimately gone with the flow of newish things (esp. the things I call Guardianisms), I can often really see where hedgehoggy is coming from. Many of his remarks do make sense, even if many posters here do not like his contributions.
I am also someone (though still a relative newbie, UK crossword age: 6 3/4) who’s keen on precision etc. but I am beyond the point of focusing on or complaining about technical issues if there’s still much to enjoy on the whole.
Hedgehoggy’s post @5 is not rude or whatever at all. Not personal either. He just gives his opinion on a this crossword which is what we are here for.
That said, there were moments in the recent past that he crossed the boundaries of what I think are the boundaries of 225.
It’s just a matter of hitting the right note (i.e. its anagram ‘tone’).
But all in all, I think, ‘we’ should be happy (or, for some, happier) with his watchdoggy comments.
Happy? Happy 2015!
I found this challenging, which was a blessing after the first two puzzles of the week.
I totally disagree with Mr Hoggy’s opinion on the surfaces which I found fine and on the whole the clues were clever and amusing.
My only slight quibble is 22A which I also had as DAMN.
The parsing wasn’t perfect but revolved round the truncation of the phrase “DAMN AND BLAST”. Having seen the agreed parsing for DARN I think it only slightly better.
A very enjoyable puzzle and I bow down in admiration for those posters who found this easy or a write-in!!
Thanks to Andrew and Qaos.
Thanks for an enjoyable romp, Qaos. I got all but failed to parse DARN, darn it. So straightforward, too. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.
Delighted with this blog, as I, like mrpenney, reside in Chicago and so I am often looking out for things that stand out from the way I might see things across the pond.
I enjoy hedgehoggy. I see his posts as the edicts of a perfectionist.
I really liked the 13a ‘5 amp fuse’ but am afraid I unthinkingly put in damns for darn so fail to complete!
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
I mostly enjoyed this, but 17ac jarred. I thought that in Roman numerals I could only be followed by I or X – and more recently by V. But perhaps that pass is long sold.
Happy New Year
This is a bit late, but I didn’t tackle this one until today.
I mainly want to pay a general compliment to Guardian crossword compilers and bloggers throughout 2014. Today’s blog (actually yesterday’s now) was a thumping good read, and crosswords and blogs generally have been most enjoyable.
My other reason for posting this, as some might expect from seeing my name again, is to appeal to compilers to recognise that IC is not 99. I’m all for clever, indirect or misleading devices in cryptic clues, but a factual error is not on. You should stick to the real world, which includes the real world of fiction but not the imaginary world of Guardianland (which I remember one blogger invoked in an attempt to justify the persistent error I have pointed out).
On a broader front, another blogger recently bemoaned the sacrifice of precision to the achievement of a smooth surface to the finished clue, and I have to agree that this is something that a few Guardian compilers seem to fall into, perhaps when they are hard pressed or just feeling lazy. As a crossword compiler of a fairly liberal persuasion, I still like to see precision in clueing in preference to a superficial cleverness.
I repeat: Guardian crosswords, and this blogging site, are generally of a remarkably high standard, and enjoyable to boot. Hats off to them!
malp @ 53
You are quite right about the Roman numerals. Someone gave me this useful link, which I shall pass on:
http://www.legionxxiv.org/numerals/
In the “subtractive form” (a later addition), the rule is that the subtractor must be at least 1/10 of the numeral subtracted from so “IC” is clearly wrong.
………having said that, this “rule” is routinely ignored in crosswords.
Dunsscotus says: “I look through the blog almost every day. There is, however, one contributor I no longer read but skip right on to the next poster. I wonder if you can guess who the odd one out is?”
Come on mate, you can’t leave us in suspense like that! You’re obviously not referring to the really intelligent, perfectionist and insightful poster who knows more about writing crosswords than all the Guardian setters put together, despite not having produced a single publishable puzzle himself, so who the flippin’ heck are you referring to?
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
It took nearly18 months to start this one … and most of the day (both train rides and another go at lunch time) to get this one done. It seemed a lot harder than usual for this setter I found – probably because I don’t know the chess term and the other long one was my third to last one in.
APRON MAN and CRACKNEL were also new terms for me. A lot of the other clues held up the solve with the clever misdirection and wordplay construction. Anyway I was able to get the last couple – ASTEROID and BURNT OCHRE before my train reached Sandringham – so job done !
Enjoyable :.. and because of the long battle, I simply forgot to look for his trademark ghost theme.
Interesting to read these old blogs and the comments and reaction to hedgehoggy which we now don’t see … he certainly did daw debate and discussion !!