Lots to like in this, with the longer clues providing a gentle way in. Favourites 16ac, 5dn and 17dn. Thanks Shed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COST-EFFECTIVE |
Unable to pass motion about phenomenon that’s worth it (4-9)
COSTIVE=constipated=”Unable to pass motion”, around EFFECT=”phenomenon” |
| 10 | ARGENTINE |
Silvery toff I introduced to composer (9)
GENT=”toff”, plus I, both inside Thomas ARNE=”composer” [wiki] |
| 11 | LARGO |
Slow start for legendary ship (5)
L[egendary] plus ARGO=”ship” [wiki] |
| 12 | USAGE |
Linguistic habits from America disheartened Greece (5)
USA=”America”, plus G[reec]E with its heart/centre removed |
| 13 | BRASS NECK |
Latch onto underÂgarments with temerity (5,4)
SNECK=”Latch”, after BRAS=”undergarments” |
| 14 | FATIGUE |
Tire of guitar not entirely cast in iron (7)
(guita[r])*, inside FE=chemical symbol for “iron” |
| 16 | HOLSTER |
Writer of notes on American hospital section’s weapon-carrier (7)
Gustav HOLST=”Writer of notes”=composer [wiki], plus E[mergency] R[oom]=”American hospital section” |
| 18 | RICKETS |
Affliction of headless insects (7)
[c]RICKETS |
| 20 | BUS STOP |
Where to queue for kiss on head (3,4)
BUSS=”kiss” plus TOP=”head” |
| 21 | ONION RING |
Snack derived from no new origin (5,4)
(no n[ew] origin)* |
| 23 | PYLON |
Bearer of cable from some happy Londoners (5)
Hidden in [hap]PY LON[donders] |
| 24 | ELIDE |
Suppress cover within borders of Eire (5)
LID=”cover” in E[ir]E |
| 25 | PROCREATE |
Trace (rope) designed to be fruitful (9)
(trace rope)* |
| 26 | CHANNEL TUNNEL |
Northern sister nursing young sow breaks perfumier’s connection with mainland (7,6)
N[orthern], plus NUN=”sister” around ELT=”young sow”, all inside CHANEL=”perfumier” |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ORGIASTIC |
Tragic love is crazy and wild (9)
(tragic O is)*, where O=”love” |
| 3 | TINGE |
Suspicion of unrest in Germany (5)
hidden in [unres]T IN GE[rmany] |
| 4 | FRIABLE |
Crumbling myth about Scripture (7)
FABLE=”myth”, around R[eligious] I[nstruction]=”Scripture” |
| 5 | EYEWASH |
English trees are rubbish! (7)
E[nglish] plus YEW and ASH=”trees” |
| 6 | TELESALES |
Cold calling for two little boys in river (9)
LES and AL are “two little boys”, in TEES=”river” |
| 7 | VERGE |
Bound over (say) cleric (5)
Reversal (“over”) of E.G.=”say” plus REV[erend]=”cleric” |
| 8 | VALUE FOR MONEY |
1 exchange rate? (5,3,5)
=”COST EFFECTIVE”; more cryptically =”exchange rate” |
| 9 | COCKER SPANIEL |
Bird bath in turn consumed by dog (6,7)
COCKEREL=”bird”, around all of: SPA=”bath” plus IN reversed (“turn”) |
| 15 | GREEN BEAN |
Relation swallowing three pills, keeping note of vegetable (5,4)
GRAN=”Relation”, around three E[cstacy] “pills”, themselves around N.B.=”note” |
| 17 | TITILLATE |
Excite poorly-fed bird first (9)
ILL=”poorly”, plus ATE=”fed”, with TIT=”bird” going first” |
| 19 | STIPPLE |
Artistic effect of second drink (7)
=creating an image or pattern using small dots. S[econd] plus TIPPLE=”drink” |
| 20 | BIGFOOT |
Racist maybe securing return of hairy giant (7)
BIGOT=”Racist maybe”, around OF reversed (“return”) |
| 22 | IRISH |
Nationality of Murdoch before her end? (5)
the writer IRIS Murdoch [wiki], born in Dublin, plus the end of [Murdoc]H |
| 23 | PERON |
Former president from whom no traveller returns (5)
Former president of Argentina [wiki]. NO plus REP=travelling salesman=”traveller”, all reversed (“returns”) |
I found much to like in this too. Favourites: 1 & 16ac; 20d. Thank you Shed & manehi.
Thank you for the blog, manehi, and Shed for a fun puzzle. Maybe I’m being fanciful again, but there are several money/transaction-related elements in the solution – loot, brass, argent, green, big (both slang), sale, value, cost, plus nina-like sou and eti (ethical trading initiative).
Yes, a very nice puzzle. I started slowly and couldn’t get the long clues initially, but got there in the end. Favourites included EYEWASH, BRASS NECK and COCKER SPANIEL. Many thanks to Shed and manehi. PS I’d never heard of using ‘E’ for pill (Ecstasy).
I loved this for the way it included some obscure words as elements of wordplay which weren’t entirely necessary to get the answer; provided you had some crossing letters the definition was generally clear enough. Then they were revealed when teasing out the clue. I’m thinking particularly of COSTIVE in 1A, ELT in 26A and SNECK in 13A.
I thought almost exactly the same as beermagnet@4. A fun puzzle IMHO, and as I always say after one of his puzzles, we don’t see enough of Shed.
Thank you for the blog, manehi, needed you for ‘elt’.
For some reason, I’ve ever thought of ‘argentine’ as a description of silver, knowing it only as the (now) dated way of referring to Argentina with the definite article. It’s made me wonder why some countries are always referred to in this way…one thinks of Congo, Gambia, Yemen, Lebanon, Sudan, Netherlands, Philippines and Bahamas.
Anyone know how this came about?
Strangely, 1a and 8d were very nearly my last in – I guessed the latter was ‘something for something’ but got no further for a while. Eventually I had enough crossers along the top to work out what was going on.
I’d happily sign a petition to convince the editor to commission more from Shed.
Thanks Shed and manehi.
This was an enjoyable puzzle. New words were ELT and SNECK. I particularly liked COST EFFECTIVE, HOLSTER, EYEWASH, GREEN BEAN and COCKER SPANIEL.
MikeP @2, perhaps there is a ‘money’ theme, tin and bean can be added to your list.
Hi all
Tried to find the definition of ELT online (besides its acronym)
got nowhere.
Can anyone give me a link?
Ta’
ok 🙂
I didnt search well enough 🙂 found several references…
Alex
Thank you Shed & manehi. A lovely puzzle. Commenting here in the hope that Hugh Stephenson reads Andy B @5 and Trailman @7 and commissions more from one of my favourite setters.
Many crossword solvers will be using the CHANNEL TUNNEL to get to their holiday destinations, I suppose it is VALUE FOR MONEY, but wonder if it has proved to be COST EFFECTIVE yet. Hope the COCKER SPANIEL has a good trip, apparently the six month quarantine on return is no longer necessary, but you have to start rabies vaccinations a good six months before travelling.
William @6:
Depends on the country your talking about: The Gambia River and the Congo River account for those two. I believe, in fact, that Gambia is still officially the Republic of the Gambia.
Argentina is La Republica Argentina, which literally translates into English as The Argentine Republic. I had a friend from there once who told me that the preferred adjective for someone from there was still Argentine, not Argentinian, but he may have been weird.
The Netherlands and the Sudan were geographic descriptions of their respective regions long before they became nations by those names. Think, historically, of The United Provinces of The Netherlands, followed today by The Kingdom of the Netherlands.
I’ve never heard either Lebanon or Yemen with a definite article, so can’t help you there.
Note that if you ever meet a Ukrainian, do not ask him about the Ukraine. That’s how the Russians refer to the place, and it sort of implies that it’s a region of Russia.
~~~~
As for the puzzle itself: I needed help with BRASS NECK, not knowing the phrase and not having heard of sneck. Otherwise, this did have a lot of cleverness. Thanks all.
22dn I took the H to be end of H[er].
Can somebody tell me what the opposite of BIFD is. I offer Elide, which I Worked Out From Word Play Having Never Heard Of The Word Before, but IWOFWPHNHOTWB doesn’t seem to cut is as an acronym.
Got diverted on 23 down as crossers gave me RON as the ex-president and then was trying to work out a Hamlet based definition until I got PYLON.
Thanks to Shed and Manehi.
All very elegant, and pretty straightforward – only BUSS was unfamiliar (except in the context of old Sussex cricketers) and that was easily guessable. Last in was ARGENTINE – liked that, ORGIASTIC, TELESALES and BIGOT
Thanks to Shed and manehi
[beery hiker @15 – the Buss brothers bring back memories. They went into egg farming after cricket, and had a giant egg-in-eggcup on the boundary at Hove to advertise their product. Don’t know if a batsman got extra for cracking it.]
Beery Hiker @15 Trailman @16
Try this – perhaps more apposite in the context of the clue
Miss Buss and Miss Beale,
Cupid’s darts do not feel.
How different from us,
Miss Beale and Miss Buss
They were respectively the headmistress of North London Collegiate School and Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College
Thanks to Shed and manehi. Several terms were new to me (e.g., sneck, elt, and friable) and I needed help parsing COST EFFECTIVE, but I found lots to enjoy in this puzzle.
Hah. I hadn’t heard of Thomas arne, but had heard of Rod Argent.
Yes this was ok, .and virtually difficulty free although I didn’t manage to parse COST EFFECTIVE and VERGE-my LOI- took me longer to get than the rest of the puzzle. Still, enjoyable enough.
Thanks Shed.
Thanks to Shed and manehi. Had the same reaction to costive, elt and sneck as did beermagnet @4.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Favorite was BIGFOOT.
Cheers…
That’s more like it. I loved this. Many thanks Shed. Please come back soon. And Thanks manehi.
Thanks Shed and manehi
No-one seems to have asked this, so I am probably missing something, but in what sense does BOUND = VERGE? For me it was an example of andyk’s IWOFTWP. (See post 14)
BRASS NECK made my day!
Thanks, manehi.
Another lovely puzzle from Shed. I, too, agree with beermagnet @4.
Hi muffin @23
Collins gives both bound and verge = limit.
[I think the pleas are filtering through. Since May, we have had a Shed puzzle every month, compared with one every two or three months before that. In 2014 we had 7 altogether and this year we’ve had 6 already. Here’s hoping!.]
Many thanks to Shed, as ever.
Thanks Eileen
But surely in that sense bound is a verb and verge a noun? Boundary would be the noun, wouldn’t it?
Though I suppose you could argue that that doesn’t matter in a cryptic sense.
Doh! ” Beating the bounds” of course!
muffin @26 – bound (noun) as a limit is a maths term. Functions, sets etc can have upper/lower bounds.
Thanks ClaireS – didn’t know that.
Sorry, muffin, I was sidetracked. I nearly added ‘beyond the bounds of possibility’ @24.
A very pleasant solve with some lovely clues.
Very easy though and over all too quickly. I suspect the easy grid was more to blame for this.
beermagnet @4
I’m surprised that you describe “sneck” as obscure. Although it is a Northern/Scottish word I would have thought that your choice of name would have meant you had come across Jenning’s “Snecklifter”. (A fine strong ale) 🙂
Thanks to manehi and Shed
(I meant to mention “Snecklifter” too – northern beer though (Cockermouth, in the Lake District.)
A very enjoyable puzzle. I missed the parsing of COCKER SPANIEL, though after reading the blog it seems so obvious. There are too many good clues to list favourites, but BIGFOOT is the most memorable.
Thanks to Shed and manehi.
mrpenney @13 and William @6 – what about The United Kingdom and The United States of America. the People’s Republic of here there and everywhere? Maybe it’s something to do with adjectives in the country’s name. But most countries’ names in French and Italian have the definite article.
A very good puzzle but I was held up by trying to fit GILT = young sow into 26 across, having never heard of ELT.
Brendan(nto) @31
‘Tis true I do know Jennings Snecklifter well – very famous ale – we can get it down here in bottles in Waitrose.
I still didn’t know there was such a thing as a Sneck, and if I thought there was I suspect I might think it was something like a nose or similar being lifted in a less literal sense.
I seem to be in a minority of one in finding this unenjoyable, mainly due to a number of clunky surfaces e.g. 14A, 18A, 21A, 26A.
SeaBass – were you a Hedgehog in a previous life?
The OED gives ELT as a Dorset dialect word meaning ‘young sow or pig’.
Thanks everyone. To those exhorting the editor to ‘commission’ more puzzles from me, he doesn’t commission them, I just send them in and he publishes them when he sees fit (after we’ve sorted out anything I’ve got wrong or he thinks I’ve got wrong). The production rate is entirely down to me (as is the case for all Guardian compilers).
As to ‘snecklifter’, I first encountered the expression in Sheffield, meaning ‘a small sum of money lent by a friend to enable you to enter a pub and buy a drink which you can nurse until a better-heeled friend turns up and lends you some more’. That is, it enables you to lift the latch. I believe this is the origin of the name of the Jennings beer, which I agree is excellent.
Great puzzle.
I should have posted this yesterday but got a bit sidetracked. I liked the ARGENTINE clue and wasn’t aware of the word’s secondary meaning. I should have twigged PERON a lot sooner. (There is a reference in 23dn to Hamlet’s famous soliloquy – “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns”)
I’m a bit puzzled that it’s Russians who call Ukraine ‘the Ukraine’ as there are no definite (or indefinite) articles in Russian. Am I missing something?
Marienkaefer @ 17 Good to hear about Miss Buss and Miss Beale. My mother went to NLCS towards the end of WW2 and used to recite that poem to me! Fun times.
Well done Jovis @40, I wondered if anybody would spot the (somewhat tangential) reference to Hamlet.
I was also puzzling over how Russians can refer to Ukraine as ‘the Ukraine’ when they have no word for ‘the’.
Thanks Shed and manehi
Found this a much easier assignment than what Shed has presented previously – well to fill in the grid that is, a few of them took a lot longer to parse. VALUE FOR MONEY was my last one in and the other ones fell quite late in the piece as well, so they weren’t of too much help at all. ARGENTINE was the next to last to go in.
Didn’t know COSTIVE and had to come here to fully resolve that one.
I join the chorus in always nice to see his name on the banner of a puzzle !