Spoiler alert. 8 Down is RESIDED, the only easy clue in the grid. The rest you’ll have to fight tooth-and-nail for. Corking puzzle today.
No prisoners taken this morning, all clues hard, some vicious, many genuinely pretty. Phssthpok has, exceptionally, given us a Tuesday grid to get our teeth into. Thanks!
| Across | ||
| 1 | WHIPPERSNAPPER | Kid with trendier photographer (14) |
| W[ith] + HIPPER + SNAPPER | ||
| 10 | OGRES | Monsters’ leers go from left to right (5) |
| OG(L)ES, its L[eft] replaced by R[ight]. | ||
| 11 | ISOSCELES | Lacking top of mixer, cooks some slices in the shape of a triangle (9) |
| Anagram of SOME SLICES, without ‘top’ of M[ixer]. | ||
| 12 | PROVERB | Following test, rub empty saw (7) |
| PROVE (‘test’) + eviscerated ‘RuB’. | ||
| 13 | TRUSSED | Bound by oral confidence (7) |
| Homophone (‘oral’) of ‘trust’, i.e. ‘confidence’. | ||
| 14 | MINSK | City’s furs had earlier success (5) |
| MINKS (‘furs’), with their S[uccess] moving to ‘earlier’ in the word. I can’t find ‘S’ as an abbreviation for anything but S[ucceeded] but I’d expect nothing less in a puzzle of this viciousness. | ||
| 16 | RIGHT-HAND | This man is deputy to honest labourer (5-4) |
| Cryptic def. (‘right-hand man’) and RIGHT (‘honest’) + HAND (‘labourer’). | ||
| 19 | HORSESHOE | For instance, Hackney South and Harrow form a curve (9) |
| HORSE (e.g. ‘hackney’, I’m told) + S[outh] + HOE (‘harrow’). | ||
| 20 | DRAFT | King kidnapped in ridiculous plot (5) |
| R[ex], (‘king’) in DAFT (‘ridiculous’). | ||
| 22 | BRINDLE | Spotted knight in control (7) |
| N (‘kNight’ in chess) within BRIDLE (‘control’). | ||
| 25 | REACTOR | Pile on ham (7) |
| Pile = nuclear reactor (obvs., or at least obvs. once you know), giving RE ( = concerning or ‘on’) + ACTOR or ‘ham’, although that doesn’t necessarily apply to all of us. | ||
| 27 | APPRAISAL | Assessment of sari torn during outrage (9) |
| Anagram (‘torn’) of SARI in APPAL (‘outrage’). | ||
| 28 | TRUCE | The Irish police previously replaced hard Peace Agreement (5) |
| Whoo-hoo. The former R[oyal] U[lster] C[onstabulary] replace the letter H[ard] (as in pencils) within the word ‘tHe’. Flipping heck. | ||
| 29 | LET THEM EAT CAKE | It shows contempt to allow the beef to form a crust (3,4,3,4) |
| ‘Let the meat cake’, if you please. As I say, no prisoners taken today. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | HARPOONER | Queequeeg was an American comedian and a remarkable person (9) |
| HARPO Marx (US ‘comedian’) + ONER (a one-off, a ‘remarkable person’). Know your Moby-Dick. ‘Queequeg’ wrongly spelt, in my puzzle at least. (I had to get one in). | ||
| 3 | PISTE | Course consists of pastry without suet, not filling (5) |
| PIE (‘pastry’) surrounds (‘without’) SueT (lacking its interior). | ||
| 4 | EDINBURGH | Dine badly on hospital food back in Scotland (9) |
| Anagram of DINE then H[ospital], both containing GRUB, reversed. | ||
| 5 | SHOUT | Quiet broadcast or the opposite? (5) |
| SH! (‘quiet!’) + OUT (i.e., of e.g. TV show, released or ‘broadcast’) + jocular def. | ||
| 6 | ACCOUNTED | Explained how Dracula, for example, was captivated by wonderful diamonds (9) |
| COUNT (‘Dracula’, e.g.) in (‘captivated by’) ACE (‘wonderful’) + D[iamonds]. | ||
| 7 | POLLS | Does crop surveys (5) |
| Double definition, although ‘poll’ as a verb meaning ‘to cut hair’ is waaay down the list in Chambers. | ||
| 8 | RESIDED | Lived or died struggling to follow religious instruction on Sabbath (7) |
| I suppose we’re allowed one easy clue this morning. Anagram (‘struggling’) of DIED after R[eligious] E[ducation] on S[unday]. | ||
| 9 | POMPOM | Twice clean up ball of fluff (6) |
| MOP (‘clean’) twice, reversed. Oh, Phssthpock. You tinker. | ||
| 15 | KNEIDLACH | In exchange for nickel, had a dumpling (9) |
| Easy anagram (‘in exchange’) of a hard word. NICKEL HAD is the fodder. | ||
| 17 | GUERRILLA | Irregular, finally swapping sides, shot another irregular (9) |
| Irregular soldier, of course. An anagram (‘shot’) of IRREGULAr, its final R[ight] swapped for L[eft]. Lovely surface in which neither of the ‘irregulars’ turns out to be the anagram indicator. | ||
| 18 | A FAST BUCK | Bet on this to win this? (1,4,4) |
| Double dee / &lit. Not sure where one gets to bet on a deer-race, but still. | ||
| 19 | HOBNAIL | These boots fasten by opening of huge orange buckles (7) |
| NAIL (‘fasten’) after starts of H[uge] O[range] B[uckles]. | ||
| 21 | TARGET | Empty gesture found in the heart of spiteful victim (6) |
| TART (‘spiteful’, as in e.g. a ‘tart comment’) contains the middle bit (‘heart’) of GesturE’. | ||
| 23 | INPUT | Advice for batting position (5) |
| IN (‘batting’ in cricket) + PUT (‘position’). | ||
| 24 | EPSOM | Take biopsy of tricep so missing salts are identified (5) |
| Inclusion (‘take biopsy of’, i.e., take a bit out of, blimey,) in ‘tricEP SO Missing’. Vanishingly rare clue whose answer is at neither end. | ||
| 26 | ATTIC | Room for contents of network (5) |
| ‘Contents’ of (L)ATTIC(E) = ‘network’. Slightly naughty, but a nice one to finish. | ||
*anagram
18. Hare coursing, perhaps?
To craktkettle:
Praps, tho’ I personally wouldn’t want to encourage such wagering. Unless the hare wins of course. But then you wouldn’t get to cook & eat him. Oh, it’s a moral minefield.
I don’t know if it’s just a “wavelength” thing, but apart from KNEIDLACH, the answers just slotted in one after the other. Wouldn’t have wanted to have to write the blog, mind you.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Curse you, Loonapick.
I found it evil. Enjoyable, but evil. I hope it’s ‘wavelength’, otherwise there goes my old age…
Super puzzle, I didn’t find it quite as hard as you did but no pushover certainly.
It seems a bit churlish to quibble over the details, but as you point out Qeequeg is misspelled, S is succeeded meaning “son of” not “having won” and in 21 I think “heart of” as a metaphor indicates “in the middle” not just “somewhere inside”.
PS: in 21 I think your own parsing has gone awry somewhere.
Thanks all.
And I have just gone and misspelled Queequeg myself of course…
I took 18’s “a fast buck” to refer to a horse bucking and throwing its rider. I don’t know if you’d bet specifically on that, but you might bet on another horse because you see it as less volatile…
With due respect to the setter, may I raise a question:
It is on 12a
Following test, rub empty saw (7)
The WP is fine but is the surface reading meaningful?
If ‘rub empty saw’ means ‘press and move hands on empty saw, the carpenter’s tool’, what is an empty saw? If it is empty, you can still rub it?
(Of course, in WP, ’empty’ goes back to ‘rub’ to get RB.)
Thanks PHSSTHPOK and Grant
I came to 15^2 having done Vlad in the graun, and the first thing I saw was the ruddy great spoiler. I thought there was a bloggers’ convention that any mention of themes, solutions etc shouldn’t be visible on the home page?
Having said that, I’m with loonapick and PeeDee in thinking that this was a fairly straightforward puzzle. It certainly took me a lot less time than Vlad, who in turn was a great deal gentler than usual. I found the hardest was 15D, which I realised was going to be an anagram but took ages to work out after getting all the crossers.
Further to my #8, of course, in the surface reading ’empty saw’ could be ‘meaningless proverb’ but how do we ‘rub’ it? I am puzzled!
Re 9
I don’t think this rare mention of a single answer on top is a great spoiler. It’s not the answer of too difficult a clue. None is likely to come here without having solved it. And anyone who sees it, is unlikely to go to the FT puzzle or even remember it when they go there.
The picture evoked by 27a is grim.
Alas, I am saddened because in India outrages against the modesty of women, including visitors from other countries, are common. Law-abiding citizens hang their heads in shame.
In an incident it is quite likely the sari gets torn and may later turn out to be an exhibit in a trial.
“Empty” for removal of middle letters appears twice in the same crossword. Doesn’t this bother solvers? Don’t they expect variety?
12a could mean erasing a meaningless proverb written on a piece of paper, or rubbing the teeth of a saw to remove the detritus… I agree with Rishi that it’s an odd surface.
Rishi @ 11
I do the graun, FT & Indy puzzles every day. I do the graun first, then come here to read the blog and the comments. I then do one of the other two, come here again, and then do the third.
So I think your comments are inaccurate, I’m afraid. Any giving away of a solution is a spoiler, I did come here without having solved it, I did go the do the FT after seeing it, and as it was only a few minutes later I couldn’t help but remember it.
There have certainly been occasions in the past when preambles have been amended because they gave away too much, though admittedly it doesn’t happen often.
I’ve clearly got this wrong and apologise unreservedly.
I’d hoped that the deliberate spoiler would be a witty way to entice casual solvers into what I thought was an enjoyable but very difficult solve. Wrong on all counts (apart from the ‘enjoyable’ bit, for which of course I can claim no credit).
Mea maxima culpa, everyone.
Re 16
I don’t think this kind of regret and apology is needed as if a great crime has been committed. Does all hell break loose if one word is revealed in a puzzle that has 26 to 30 clues!
Thanks, Rishi.
And btw, does anyone have a view about including the completed grid in the blog? I always do, but there’s no way of hiding it or delaying it and it’s a bit of a spoiler in itself.
All opinions welcome.
Re 18
Sorry if I am writing too much today.
To answer your question, I don’t think the image of solved grid is needed. In my opinion, it serves no purpose.
A solver who comes here for an explanation or even for a solution to a clue reads the text and their need is fulfilled.
Hi Grant,
Thanks for the blog. FWIW, I was a bit surprised that you had deliberately chosen a spoiler as your introduction; I kind of assumed it was a way of trying to stimulate a few comments and, if so, it worked. Perhaps a one-off strategy, though eh?
I like having the completed grid in the blog simply because (unlike your own timely efforts) my puzzle has usually been in the bin for hours when I get round to visiting here so it’s good to have it. This is particularly the case for the FT puzzles which are not soluble interactively.
best wishes,
Rob
In blogs on crosswords, first we had answers to a few clues.
Then we had answers to all clues, with minimal annotations.
Then, clue text with answers, with full explanations as in manuals.
Somewhere in-between images of solved grids started appearing here and there.
Too much of exposure.
In the past decades, if a setter repeated a clue, the solver may have a vague idea that they had seen it earlier. Now, using search facility available, they can quote the earlier instance(s) chapter and verse.
Is there any pressure on setters?
I would love to hear opinions from composers.
On the subject of the spoiler: I think it an experiment best not repeated.
My main reasoning is that if it is OK for you to occasionally add a spoiler (or disregard any policies) then presumably it is also OK for all the other bloggers to do so too. There are a lot of people who write blogs for this site and we would get not isolated occurrences but a regular stream of them.
No need to beat yourself up about it though 🙂
Hi Rishi,
I think grid images are appearing more frequently because many people now use an online tool for preparing the posts and this tool can add an image of the completed grid automatically.
I think the reason for the extended annotations is that very terse ones are not much use to people who are starting out and come to this blog for help. If you don’t understand why X should be included in YZ then seeing Y(X)Z or similar as an explanation is not going to be of much use to you.
My view is that a seasoned solver who knows all the tricks already doesn’t need someone on the Internet to explain them. Just ignore the explanations and the grid and go straight to the comments.
I wish to register a complaint. Not speaking Yiddish, I was defeated by 15a despite having the correct fodder. When I looked up the missing letters on “One Look,” I discovered that the suffix “lach” denotes the PLURAL of kneidel (matzo ball) so the definition should be pancakeS. So there!
15d, even.
Thanks Phssthpok and Grant
Must’ve been a wavelength thing, was able to do most of the puzzle in a half hour lunch stint and mop up the rest quickly afterwards. Not saying that there were not some tricksy thinking involved in getting there, but found it more fun than ‘vicious’.
Did find that I had to go back to 4-5 of them afterwards to properly parse them and the Jewish dumplings only came from an anagram finder – always makes one wonder what an unknown dish like that would taste like!
Did wonder what sort of races that one would back a buck in !!
I found this easy going for the top half and a brutal struggle on the lower half. I didn’t quite manage to complete it, being thwarted by the anagram for 15d (fodder for which I knew, the general knowledge for which I didn’t).
I thought it was ok for the spoiler on the front page – as long as it remains an absolute rarity. So Peedee – I concur with your comment@22.
Grant – Thanks for the blog. I should feel lucky that it wasnt me having to mull this over.
Phssthpok – Thanks for an absolute peach.
Regards,
TL
Spoiler-wise, surely the issue is only with what’s in the first paragraph of a post? Grid images and subsequent paragraphs aren’t shown in the summary of a blog post on the front page, so should be able to contain anything; it’s only when the truncated entry in a list of unrelated posts gives away something that there’s a problem.
I see this on TV recap blogs (which I visit to get an explanation of all the clever allegories and connections I didn’t make in the more complicated TV shows): it’s very easy to come across a spoiler for a show not yet seen (or not yet aired in one’s country) if the author has put “Fred Bloggs is revealed as the criminal” in the first paragraph (or even title!) rather than waiting for the second.
(Grant, I did like what you were going for! It would have worked well as the second paragraph, aimed just at those who clicked on the post.)
Thanks for the blog; I needed help with the quarter or so that I couldn’t fathom. Thanks to Phssthpok for occupying my time in a sometimes-frustrating way while I was waiting in the rain.