I always enjoy Imogen’s puzzles but I was rather alarmed, since I was blogging this one, not to have entered a single across clue on the first pass. However, 1dn got me started and then things started unravelling at a fairly steady rate.
It was rather tough going but well worth it – with, as so often, too many good clues, with excellent surfaces, to list them all but I particularly liked 11ac for its well-disguised definition and 14ac and 2, 4 and 5dn made me smile. Many thanks, Imogen.
Across
1 Dog runs on tips of toes (7)
POINTER
POINTE [in ballet, the tip of the toe] + R [runs]
5 Liable to pay in court, as record includes arrest (7)
FINABLE
FILE [record] round NAB [arrest]
9 Allowed to be executed? That’s terrible (5)
AWFUL
[l]AWFUL [allowed, with its head chopped off]
10 High culture: dandies take selections with no pressure (5,4)
BEAUX ARTS
BEAUX [dandies] + [p]ARTS [selections?] minus p [pressure]
11 Stoke thoughts of egg layer’s faulty chromosome (5,5)
GRAY’S ELEGY
Anagram [faulty] of EGG LAYER’S + Y [chromosome] – Gray’s ‘Elegy written in a country churchyard’ was written at Stoke Poges
12 One month and another back in US base (4)
GUAM
Reversal [back] of M [month] + AUG [another month]
14 A rat race? (4-8)
HALF-MARATHON
A RAT is half of MARATHON
18 It is hard to defend profit — at least most of it is wrong (8,4)
MARGINAL SEAT
MARGIN [profit] + an anagram [wrong] of AT LEAS[t]
21 Abroad and old means ruin (4)
UNDO
UND [German ‘and’ ] + O [old]
22 Peace of mind, as little girl avoids serious medical condition (10)
HEARTSEASE
HEART [di]SEASE minus the familiar little girl Di – SOED and Collins both give this definition but Chambers simply gives it as a name for the pansy, which I’ve always thought rather charming
25 Put on performance of carols to be heard at Covent Garden? (3,6)
DON CARLOS
DON [put on] + an anagram [performance] of CAROLS
26 I hold teaching qualification — fix? (5)
IMBED
I’M B.ED. [Bachelor of Education]
27 Re: woman I found in drink (7)
RHENIUM
HEN [woman] + I in RUM [drink]: chemical symbol – which I saw quite quickly, compared with the number of times I’ve been caught out by As = arsenic
28 Water being this universal, keeping head above it? (7)
SOLVENT
Double / cryptic definition
Down
1 Painful feelings about heading for road accidents (6)
PRANGS
PANGS [painful feelings] round R[oad]
2 Carrying a Colt and dope to gangster (2,4)
IN FOAL
INFO [dope] + AL [Capone – gangster]
3 Foreign claimant is charming? (10)
TALISMANIC
Anagram [foreign] of CLAIMANT IS
4 As non-conformist, show shock when made to accept bishop (5)
REBEL
REEL [show shock] round B [bishop]
5 Something pour le weekend in this? (9)
FRANGLAIS
Cryptic definition, with fond memories of the late Miles Kington
6 Following 10 into trap (4)
NEXT
X [ten] in NET [trap]
7 It’s painful in non-upholstered carriage (8)
BAROUCHE
OUCH [it’s painful] in BARE [non-upholstered]
8 In leisure time, people right to cross land (8)
EASEMENT
MEN [people] in EASE [leisure] T [time]: ‘the right enjoyed by a landowner of making limited use of his neighbour’s land, as by crossing it to reach his own property’ [Collins]
13 Want allies mobilised for constituency election here (10)
EATANSWILL
Anagram [mobilised] of WANT ALLIES – there was an election here in ‘The Pickwick Papers’
15 Fall badly, clutching broken leg with hesitation — it provides locomotion (9)
FLAGELLUM
Anagram [badly] of FALL round an anagram [broken] of LEG + UM [hesitation]
16 Almost burn top of strawberry crumble (8)
SMOULDER
S[trawberry] + MOULDER [crumble]
17 Care for girl, largely one strait-laced? (8)
PRUDENCE
Double definition, with an extra bit of wordplay in PRUDE [one strait-laced] – Prudence was the girl Gordon Brown had a liking for
19 Doll that is subjected to cruel remark (6)
BARBIE
BARB [cruel remark] + IE [that is]
20 Back in treatment, I’d degenerated, do you see? (6)
GEDDIT
Hidden reversal [back] in treatmenT I’D DEGenerated
23 Girl’s getting wines, flowers and chocolates (5)
ROSES
Quadruple definition, with a bit of product placement
24 Country church abolished out of spite (4)
MALI
MALI[ce] [spite minus ce – church] – a nice echo of 11ac
Thanks Eileen. Same as you initially although I did get GUAM. I failed at the end to get 13D, but my first anagram effort on Google pointed the way. Loads of enjoyable clues notably 11A and FRANGLAIS whose question mark winked at its first syllable. High standard of surfaces throughout. Thanks Imogen.
I found this one quite tough indeed, and the bottom half much trickier than the top. I finally finished in the SE with SOLVENT after the HEARTSEASE/EATANSWILL crossers. I liked the clue for HALF-MARATHON.
Thank you Imogen for a great puzzle.
Solving and parsing were hard going, a super blog Eileen, thank you. I could not parse POINTER, yet one of my vividest memories is of going for my first pair of ‘pointes’ to a shop in Wellington where a little old man, a refugee from Europe, made ballet shoes. EATANSWILL was long forgotten, as was the significance of Stoke. PRANGS was a new word.
I especially liked BEAUX ARTES, BAROUCHE, HALF MARATHON, IMBED, IN FOAL and FRANGLAIS!
A very strenuous workout: feel as if I have run at least one half marathon (or eaten one anyway)!
Ultimately defeated by the HEARTSEASE / EATANSWILL crossover: I have read most Dickens, but not Pickwick yet. Familiarity with Sense and Sensibility did help with BAROUCHE though.
Continuing in the theme of my lack of culture, I had no idea about the poetic connection to Stoke (it seems so unlikely, even if it wasn’t that Stoke – no offence to Potteries dwellers).
Cleverly disguised definitions in 14ac and 27ac, and I enjoyed the multiple definitions of ROSES in 23dn.
[1961Blanchflower @4, me too, ‘he has his own BAROUCHE’…]
Is Stoke a common abbreviation of Stoke Poges then? Can’t say it works for me as there are there are fifty five various Stokes in the UK according to Wiki.
[sidey @6, perhaps ‘poged’ eggs were meant to come to mind.]
Thanks to Imogen and Eileen. I did not remember the Pickwick EATANSWILL and needed Eileen’s parsing to understand IN FOAL, but I managed to struggle through. Note: PRANG is my favorite example of a word not known in the US that I learned from cryptic crosswords (and regularly try out on friends).
Not got very far with this for three reasons. 1, I had a long day yesterday and I’m really tired. 2, we’re in the car and my wife is listening to Jeremy Vine so I’ve spent a lot of time shouting at Richard Desmond. 3, it’s really hard.
But I did get two across clues on the first pass!
Some annoying things in a good puzzle. The ‘executed’ at 9a means beheaded which doesn’t work for me in an across. 25a the definition is in the wrong part of speech. Didn’t like PRUDENCE at all.
I guess from the small number of comments so far that others found this as difficult as I did – would have taken a loot longer to finish without resorting to Guess and Check – this would have made a worthy prize puzzle, with plenty to enjoy. Last in was HEARTSEASE – needed all the crossers for that. EATANSWILL was unfamiliar (I have to admit that Dickens is not one of my better subjects), FLAGELLUM was too, as was the chemical symbol for RHENIUM. I did like GRAYS ELEGY, UNDO, BAROUCHE (which was familiar from Russian novels, possibly Dead Souls) and HALF MARATHON.
Thanks to Imogen and Eileen.
That was a major struggle! Not having the advantage of spotting 1d, I ended up with the NW still empty when the rest was complete. Gray’s Elegy finally gave me a way into it, with IN FOAL my LOI. I had suspected AWFUL long before then, but it was only once the intial A from PRANGS strengthened that suspicion that I saw the construction.
For some reason, I had an early conviction that 13d would end in “will”, but it took me a long time (much of it pressing the Anagram button looking for a Westminster constituency) before I remembered there was an election in Pickwick Papers, and then the name leapt into my mind.
Heartsease is viola tricolor, a sweet and gentle flower and one of my favourites, whereas nowadays “pansy” is usually reserved for its flashier, large-flowered hybrid offspring.
Favourites (among many) are GRAY’S ELEGY, MARGINAL SEAT, DON CARLOS and FLAGELLUM.
Thanks to Imogen and Eileen.
Thanks Imogen and Eileen
Things to like, but also things to dislike here for me.
Likes were 14a, 25a and 7d.
Eyebrows raised at the “product placement” in 23d; 11a I thought was very clever, but also unfair, as “Stoke” isn’t “Stoke Poges”.
We have had recently lots of clues where some unspecified letters (and sometimes their positions unspecified too) have to be removed from the anagram fodder – 18a was today’s example. I think this is lazy clueing (though this example wasn’t as bad as the several in the Prize before last).
13d required electronic help. I find Dickens in general quite hard to read (excepting “Great expectations”), and my one attempt at “Pickwick papers” faltered in Chapter 2.
I also found this quite hard going. I failed to solve 22a HEARTSEASE and could not parse 14a and 26a.
New words for me were RHENIUM and EATANSWILL.
I liked 9a AWFUL, 2d IN FOAL, 18a MARGINAL SEAT, 24d MALI.
Thanks Imogen and Eileen.
Re Stoke (Poges) – in general double barrelled village names were created because the first part (e.g. Stoke) is not unique within a small geographical area such as a county. So I have no problem with the contraction (we have Stoke Bardolph and East Stoke near us)…
I forgot to ask about the spurious capital letter (“Colt”) in 2d. Is this regarded as OK? Could the construction have begun the sentence with “Colt” to avoid the problem? (“Colt carried dope to gangster”?)
Phew! Like Eileen, the first pass through produced nothing at all, and it was the hardest puzzle I’ve tackled for a long time, but I managed to complete it. Some excellent clueing: favourites included HALF-MARATHON, GEDDIT, GRAYS ELEGY, FRANGLAIS and MARGINAL SEAT. Lke HH I thought the clue for PRUDENCE was a bit loose (unlike Prudence herself). Many thanks to Imogen and Eileen.
Thanks Eileen, and Imogen. Rarely complete an Imogen puzzle, but I did, this one. 25a was LOI. While world-play suggests the answer, it is not clear why refer to Covent Garden; and also a lot of things can be heard there, why Don Carlos. I know I will be enlightened soon but I felt any valid reference is too specific, and, therefore, weak. Liked 10a, 2d and 5d.
ilippu @18
Re 25ac: Covent Garden is an Opera House; ‘Don Carlos’ is a Verdi opera; the question mark indicates a definition by example. I don’t understand your problem [or hedgehoggy’s @10] – one of my favourite clues, in fact.
Yes, this was hard but I think rather a good puzzle despite my not being able to parse it all. Therefore I was glad of the blog. HEARTSEASE and even MARGINAL SEAT provided some difficulties. Loved GRAYS ELEGY and EATANSWILL.
I can’t say I’m getting the hang of Imogen’s puzzles but at least I’m solving them albeit slowly!!
Thanks Imogen.
What am I missing in relation to 5d. In terms of cryptic construction it doesn’t appear to be anything more than “this is this” would be to clue “English” and the surface doesn’t make much sense, let alone be witty. Was this one of Miles Kington’s catchphrases?
I expect the definition is in the wrong tense.
😀 😀 😀
Re ilippu, yes, well.
Van Winkle @21
“Pour le weekend” is classic franglais, except that “le weekend” has now made it into French!
muffin@ 16
My understanding of the capitalisation in 2d was that it gave me the impression that someone was carrying a pistol/Colt and drugs/dope to a gangster, so in that way it was quite good as a misleading clue.
Apologies in advance if I have misunderstood your question!
Sort of, michelle. I agree that it was misdirection, but I was wondering if it was fair, as “colt” in the sense of the clue wouldn’t have a capital C.
muffin @25
I wonder whether you would feel it was unfair if the sense required was actually a gun but the clue did not capitalise it?
To me, a general rule when solving cryptic crosswords is to ignore capitalisation and most punctuation (a question mark being an exception).
jennyk @26
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel that adding an unnecessary capital is more serious than not capitalising!
I don’t feel strongly about it though – I was more trying to sound out the general feeling.
muffin @ 27
Not heated agreement for once 😉
I thought that adding a misdirecting capital was more acceptable than omitting one when it should be there.
Fair enough, Simon – as I said, I was asking for other people’s opinions.
Hi muffin
I’d go one further than Simon S: my understanding of the ‘rules’ is that the former is acceptable and the latter not. This quite frequently comes up in discussion and I think this is the consensus.
‘Le week-end’ (note the hyphen) is the Franglais word there has been the most fuss about in France. The French Minister of Culture, Jacques Toubon, in the early 1990’s wanted to replace it with ‘vacancelle’, and proposed new French words for other English ones. He also passed through the Senate and the Assemblée Nationale a ‘projet de loi’ to fine people who used Franglais, but the Conseil Constitutionnelle ruled this was against the rights of private individuals (for the law finally passed see Eileen’s link).
Over the past few weeks I’ve only been commenting when I’ve had something new to say. But here, I feel like I should weigh in to say that this was an absolute horror for me. I only got a third of the way through before the “cheat” button started to look very attractive…and only halfway through before I actually started to use it.
For some reason, I’ve been finding Tuesday puzzles more difficult than most for me. Honestly, this was harder than the prize puzzle this past Saturday.
Guam is a U.S. territory, not a U.S. base; although there is indeed an Air Force base on Guam, I’m sure the nearly 200,000 civilian residents would object to the metonymy here.
I must be enjoying being on holiday. Finished this quite quickly. A lot of the answers were on the edge of my knowledge, but I thought the clueing was so clear there wasn’t a problem (although I did have to check Eatanswill).
So now I’m feeling smug as well seeing that others found it tough!
Thanks Imogen and Eileen.
Eileen @30
Thanks – I’ll take that as definitive!
muffin @34
As I said, it’s only my understanding, over the years – but it makes good sense to me.
Spot on, Eileen!
False capitalisation is all right, e.g. writing a surface in which Victoria Beckham stars as Posh to define “U” is perfectly fine.
On the other hand, a Queen surface containing ‘… may perhaps …’ leading to “BRIAN” is not acceptable, unless the clue starts with ‘May perhaps …’.
That said, every now and then editors let things go while also a fair amount of solvers cannot be bothered too much.
I have seen more than once ‘the city’ for EC where it really should be ‘the City’.
…………sins of omission or commission?
…….surely sins of omission or Commission… 😉
🙂
Van Winkle @21: first Google “something for the weekend, sir?” thereafter Google “franger.” what else could the setter mean?
Thanks all
I failed utterly with this one, too many unfamiliar words.
I did most of the left hand side but little else.
Thanks all
I failed utterly with this one, too many unfamiliar words.
I did most of the left hand side but little else
I’ve just read your Miles Kington link, Eileen. It reminded me of the story of the girl who went into a a pub and asked for a double entendre, so the barman gave her one…………………
Thanks to S&B. Nice one, muffin@43. “Free beer tomorrow”?
Thanks for the reminder, muffin. 🙂
Difficult.
I failed to get Eatanswill even though I’ve read Pickwick Papers at least three times. It’s not really getable even with the crossers as there are several other viable “words” and it is very likely to be a place so could have any spelling. Unfair clue in my opinion.
Too many high vocabulary/esoteric words for a weekday in my opinion. (Lazy setting or bad editing!)
Thanks to Eileen and Imogen
Thanks Imogen and Eileen
Began this in trepidation during the afternoon and it took the train ride home plus some time after dinner to get it out. Thoroughly enjoyed it!! IN FOAL was my first one in – smiled at the capital C in colt, but saw straight through it for a change.
Only missed the parsing of POINTER without seeing the POINTE for ‘the tip of the toe’.
Did rely quite a lot more on the electronic help to get words like EATANSWILL (it is one of Dickens’ novels that I haven’t read), RHENIUM (a clever clue), FLAGELLUM and BAROUCHE.
Thought that HALF-MARATHON was quite brilliant! It was only topped off by my last one in – GRAY’S ELEGY.
… and at the end … it wasn’t so bad !!
Worst attempt ever. Sometimes arucaria was simpler.
Araucaria even!