The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27516.
I was tempted to make a slight change in my standard opening line, but that would be a give-away. There is some tricky stuff going on here, which might not be to everyone’s taste, but I enjoyed it very much.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MR BIG | Rock room, turning away leader of criminals (2,3) |
| A reversal (‘turning away’) of GIB (Gibraltar, ‘Rock’) plus RM (‘room’). | ||
| 4 | DECREPIT | Together in firm, the lower classes fawned around one (8) |
| An envelope (‘around’) of I (‘one’) in DE (‘the lower classes’) plus CREPT (‘fawned’), with a not-quite definition INFIRM (‘together in firm’). | ||
| 8 | GERMAN SHEPHERD | One may help police drag men off, keeping peace at first between two women (6,8) |
| A double envelope (‘keeping’ and ‘between’) of P (‘Peace at first’) in SHE HER (‘two women’) in GERMAND, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘drag men’. | ||
| 10 | TOY STORY | Flirts with right-winger, getting one animated (3,5) |
| A charade of TOYS (‘flirts’) plus TORY (‘right-winger’). | ||
| 11 | KLAXON | Racists bearing cross round as warning (6) |
| An envelope (‘bearing’) of X (‘cross’) plus O (’round’) in KLAN (KKK, ‘racists’). | ||
| 12 | NO REGRETS | What Piaf had indoors at intervals — waders (2,7) |
| A charade of NOR, (‘iNdOoRs at intervals’) plus EGRETS (‘waders’), with reference to one of Édith Piaf’s best known songs “Non, je ne regrette rien”. | ||
| 15 | ENACT | Take part of sheet (the bottom) and stick back (5) |
| A reversal (‘back’) of T (‘sheeT (the bottom)’) plus CANE (‘stick’). | ||
| 17 | MAYST | Tucking into acorns? At first you are allowed to (5) |
| An envelope (‘tucking into’) of Y (‘at first You’) in MAST (‘acorns’). | ||
| 18 | TURNTABLE | Record holder‘s go on board (9) |
| A charade of TURN (‘go’) plus TABLE (‘board’). | ||
| 19 | IN TOTO | Two or three prepositions, altogether (2,4) |
| INTO TO (‘two prepositions’) or IN TO TO (‘three’ of ’em). | ||
| 21 | HEATHROW | Strong feelings leading to hard argument — over its expansion? (8) |
| A charade of HEAT (‘strong feelings’) plus H (‘hard’) plus ROW (‘argument’), with an extended definition referring to plans to increase the capacity of London’s main airport. | ||
| 24 | PIT BULL TERRIER | Dangerous creature in trap? Rubbish — fright that is for nothing (3,4,7) |
| A charade of PIT (‘trap’) plus BULL (‘rubbish’) plus TERR[o]R (‘fright’) with the O replaced by IE (‘that is for nothing’). | ||
| 25 | HEREFORD | I say Anna is a cow (8) |
| A charade of HERE (‘I say’ as an interjection) plus FORD (‘Anna‘) | ||
| 26 | HOERS | Gardeners stand nervously around spades? Not very (5) |
| A charade of HO[v]ER (‘stand nervously around’) minus the V (‘not very’) plus S (‘spades’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIGHT AND MAIN | Timid hangman trembles, needing utmost strength (5,3,4) |
| An anagram (‘trembles’) of ‘timid hangman’. | ||
| 2 | BARMY ARMY | Bishop forces sports fans abroad (5,4) |
| A charade of B (‘bishop’) plus ARMY ARMY (‘forces’ – two of them) | ||
| 3 | GRAFT | Hard work is great in service? On the contrary (5) |
| An envelope (‘in … on the contrary’) of RAF (Royal Air Force, ‘service’) in GT (great’). | ||
| 4 | DISORIENT | “Democrat in, Tories out!” — that is to confuse (9) |
| An anagram (‘out’) of D (‘Democrat’) plus ‘in Tories’. | ||
| 5 | CHEW | Start to cut, shape and grind (4) |
| A charade of C (‘start to Cut’) plus HEW (‘shape’). | ||
| 6 | ETHELBERT | Old king‘s service perhaps about to save the pound (9) |
| An envelope (‘to save’) of ‘the’ plus LB (‘pound’) in EERT, a reversal (‘about’) of TREE (‘service perhaps’), for any of several Saxon kings. | ||
| 7 | IBROX | I fight to seize Republican ground (5) |
| An envelope (‘to seize’) of R (‘Republican’) in I BOX (‘I fight’), for Ibrox Stadium (the official name, though still known as Ibrox Park), the Glasgow home of the Rangers Football Club. | ||
| 9 | IN OTHER WORDS | To be clear, on planets not our own there is no opening for life (2,5,5) |
| IN OTHER WOR[l]DS (‘on planets not out own’) minus the L (‘there is no opening for Life’). | ||
| 13 | GET-AT-ABLE | Being possible to reach, successfully phone restaurant (3-2-4) |
| GET A TABLE. | ||
| 14 | SURFEITED | Hear master had a seizure, having overindulged (9) |
| Sounds like (‘hear’) SIR FITTED (‘master had a seizure’). | ||
| 16 | AUBERGINE | Purple with fresh air and bungee jumping (9) |
| An anagram (‘fresh’ and ‘jumping’) of ‘air’ plus ‘bungee’. | ||
| 20 | TRICE | Tennis’s beginning on grass in a moment (5) |
| A charade of T (‘Tennis’s beginning’) plus RICE (‘grass’). | ||
| 22 | TORAH | Murdered, throat cut — get the law! (5) |
| An anagram (‘murdered’) of ‘throa[t]’ minus its last letter (‘cut’). | ||
| 23 | CLIO | Inspiration taken from heraldic lion (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘taken from’) in ‘heraldiC LIOn’, fot the muse of history. | ||
This was quite a challenge. New words for me were IBROX, MAST = acorns, and Anna Ford (never heard of her, but knew of the cow breed).
I could not parse 4a (could parse the CREPIT part but not the DE), 9d, 13d, 6d, 3d. I still don’t understand why DE = lower classes in 4a. Is it something to do with exam results A B C D E?
My favourites were 12a, 2d, 1a.
Thanks Peter and Imogen
I have a question about 13d. I solved it as GET A TABLE (successfully phone restaurant), but had thought that “Being possible to reach” = getable, so was unsure of where the extra AT came from. Or is there also a word “getatable” (ie get at able)?
ignore my question above ^^, found it (never heard of this before)
GETATABLE Adjective. getatable (comparative more getatable, superlative most getatable) Capable of being got at; accessible.
Thanks PeterO – I agree, an enjoyable, ingenious, pretty faultless piece of work by Imogen. I spotted two or three doggy-themed answers (at 8, 24, and maybe 19?) Were there any others?
Thanks PeterO and Imogen. I enjoyed much of this but like Michelle found it a challenge and had to resort to word search and ‘guess-and-Google’ for a few. I did know MAST and vaguely recall IBROX but had never heard of Anna Ford. Also don’t understand DE for lower classes. Grades maybe but classes? Got several grins from the Édith Piaf and KKK references and “sir fitted”.
Great puzzle and blog.
In 6d, why is “service perhaps” “tree”?
Thanks I & O.
Minor typo in 23 fot –> for
Ooops i & P, of course
Charles @7 There is a “service tree”.
Challenge here was to read the definitions in the blog – a funny yellow colour on white is hard to read 🙂
Just checked and the service tree exists – wiki says it is sorbs torminalis; thanks Peter O and Imogen
missed out a u – should be sorbus torminalis
Thanks both. D and E are the lowest demographic classes, being unskilled manual workers and people living off benefits
Kicking myself for not seeing 9d – easy when you know how, isn’t it!
I did know the service tree but have never seen HOERS as a word before, and took ages to spot PIT BULL TERRIER. Living as I do under its flightpath, HEATHROW came to mind very quickly, but it was one of several UK-centric clues.
Before I use up my permitted quota of “I’s”, may I say I enjoy Imogen and this was a good’un.
Interestingly I didn’t find this quite as challenging as many Imogen puzzles in the past have been. It was one of those ‘start with the Downs’ crosswords, but it all fell into place very satisfactorily in the time available before I had to start work.
Lots to enjoy, so thank you to Imogen and Peter O
I’m not sure many people suffix Ibrox with ‘Park’ these days. I also wondered whether it was deliberate to have “Republican ground” as part of the surface for that clue, given that fierce rivals Celtic are typically associated with Irish republicanism!
Like crypticsue@15 I didn’t find this as challenging as other Imogen puzzles and set off at a cracking pace with 1d going straight in. However the NE was a different story with DECREPIT and ETHELBERT unparseable. I’ve never come across the “together in firm” device before which made it as difficult to get the definition as to parse the rest of the clue. And whilst I know the service tree it never occurred to me as an example of a tree even with “perhaps” as a qualifier. Since the check button came into play for these two solutions it goes down as a dnf.
Unusually for an Imogen I had lots of ticks with GERMAN SHEPHERD and HEATHROW being the ones I’ll choose to single (double?) out.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.
I don’t think 4a works: “in” and “firm” are already together, aren’t they? Maybe “joined up” would have done the trick.
Loved 7d though. As Hack says, Celtic are associated with Republicanism. More to the point, the occupants of Ibrox most certainly aren’t and the clue may have got their dander up. Thanks for making me chuckle, Imogen.
Great stuff, although the lack of an ‘actual’ definition made ‘decrepit’ impossible to parse even after a quessed answer, until a visit here. Is it clever or naughty? Probably both. Thanks, anyway! And Anna Ford, eh? Both dated and parochial.( Cue outrage from the colonies…)
Shirl @ 4
thanks for the info – I have never heard of this definition: “D and E are the lowest demographic classes, being unskilled manual workers and people living off benefits”.
I presume it’s a UK thing?
Where are you JinA? I do hope recent exchanges haven’t led to you choosing not to contribute any more. I miss your take on things.
[WhiteKing, I worked out JinA stopped commenting just before the fuss, she is probably away from home – I have broken the square brackets veto, and used up two of my permissible I’s ]
I actually loved decrepit even though the penny dropped only after I guessed it from crossings.
Great puzzle were not for the obscure (to me) and not very ‘gentlmanly’ reference to Anna Ford :).
Michelle @ 20 – yes, I believe it is a UK thing. It replaced the old idea of 3 classes, upper, middle and lower (working). To quote Wikipedia:
“The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. They were originally developed by the National Readership Survey(NRS) to classify readers, but are now used by many other organisations for wider applications and have become a standard for market research. They were developed over 50 years ago and achieved widespread usage in 20th century Britain. Their definition is now maintained by the Market Research Society. The distinguishing feature of social grade is that it is based on occupation” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade
Excellent blog, PeterO, well sorted out.
Well, it all went in (sort of) but there were a number unparsed.
Although I struggled here, I do love it when a setter finds yet another new device. (I’m thinking of in firm together). These seem to come along when one has enjoyed a run of successes that lead one to think one has ‘cracked the cryptic ‘!
Particularly admired INTOTO, HEATHROW, PIT BULL TERRIER, & IN OTHER WORDS.
Thank you Imogen, fine puzzle.
Nice week, all.
There are of course many famous Annas but I suppose there are only a few cows, so with some crossers it was guessable.
I BIFD MAYST because I didn’t know mast in that sense. Once I saw DECREPIT I realised what the together meant, although some purists would no doubt object.
Good crossword with some fine clues. I particularly liked the clue for HEATHROW.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.
Like many others, could not parse 4 across, though was the only possible word that fitted. LOI therefore. Rest of puzzle very enjoyable.
Thank you Imogen and PeterO.
This was a challenge for me, had to use the check button and dictionary, lots of fun though – BARMY ARMY was new as was IBROX (badger island apparently in Gaelic).
Being a pensioner, am somewhat disheartened to find my social classification is now E…
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO for sorting this out. A tough but enjoyable challenge for me, but a DNF. I blagged hedgerow for 21 which meant I also failed on Torah (despite having seen this quite recently), and consequently also failed on hoers. I was tossing up between Athelbert and Ethelbert because I could not parse the service bit, but settled on the right one. Another who could not parse 4a, but hey ho there is always tomorrow. I particularly liked barmy army and in other words. Thanks again to Imogen and PeterO.
Finished it but I didn’t know the expression 1d and guessed 4a but could neither parse it nor see the definition. Still not sure “infirm” is a sound definition or “DE” means lower classes. The rest was a joy, with just the right curve of difficulties for the solutions to spread across the grid as the cross-letters became hints for the remaining clues. Thanks Imogen and Peter.
PetHay @29
I see your problem, since the kings’ name is often rendered Æthelbert; The devious ‘service perhaps’ should resolve the ambiguity – if you get it (the blog does include an explanatory hyperlink. A thumbnail might have made it clearer).
Max @10
Apologies for the poor choice of colour for the clues’ definitions. It looked quite readable on the screen on which the blog was written. Anyway, I hope the revision, amber rather than gold, is to your satisfaction.
A few more gentle starters than Imogen usually gives us, but this was still pretty tricky in places. MAYST was last in – an obscure word with obscure GK in the wordplay, but there was nothing else that would fit the crossers.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO
Enjoyable. 4a aside.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO. A challenge for me. I had lots of questions about parsing but all have been answered above (e.g., tree-service, DE). I did know mast (we had an overabundance this year) but MAYBE was still my LOI and not surprisingly I did not know Anna Ford or IBROX.
My experiences with Imogen vary quite a lot, but I enjoyed this puzzle. The challenges came from the words and/or meanings that were unfamiliar to me rather than from the clueing. I didn’t know ‘mast’ meaning ‘acorns’, ‘service’ being a tree or ‘fitted’ meaning ‘had a seizure [or fit]’. But I had no problems or have any complaints about these clues.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.
[I’m sure JinA is taking a well-deserved break from the squalls that came this way and will return with the fair weather.]
The definitions are still hard to read, for me. More objectively, they fail the contrast checks here and here.
I enjoyed this and,as I had just staggered in from the garden after a grueling workout with the lawnmower, the level was just about right. The possible exception was MAYST which I just couldn’t see. I particularly liked DECREPIT and, as a retired Sociology lecturer the DE category was very familiar to me.
Thanks Imogen.
Cookie @ 28 – I think the pensioners in category E depend on the state pension alone (well that’s my reading of it). I consider myself in the class that I worked in before retirement.
I made the mistake of doing this last night when too tired and, as a result, didn’t enjoy it much. I didn’t like the idea of adding a further cryptic step just to find the definition in 4. Seems to me the surface would be just as good with, say, “The lower classes fawned around one infirm” and the clue fairer. I can see the good surface argument for the two anagrinds in 16 but it seems to make the clue unnecessarily confusing. On the plus side, I liked KLAXON for the surface, IN TOTO and TORAH.
Thanks anyway, Imogen and PeterO for the blog (orange much preferred to yellow for the defs – thanks!)
PeterO @ 31, I see it now and thanks for the clarification. I think it’s an interesting one with two different (and legitimate) spellings for a clue which has two components, one of which is a bit more tricky than the other. The beauty of doing these puzzles is hopefully you learn some thing every day.
Little-known facts, #4077: Anna Ford was once engaged to astronaut Dave Scott, commander of Apollo 15.
Surely the definition for 10a should be “three animated (with a fourth on the way next year)”?
I managed this one more quickly than usual. I liked “together in firm” = infirm @4a. I parsed the clue before working out the definition, which must be a first. Would have preferred MAY’ST as 3’2 but that battle was lost long ago. I thought that “service” was obscure for tree, even with the perhaps and the Anna Ford reference was dated. Still, there was more to enjoy, including 2d, 9d and the Rangers/Republican link at 7d.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO
PeterO @31
After posting, I discovered that viewing the blog on the other (left hand one) monitor of my work machine was slightly easier to read, but not by much. Viewing on my laptop at home (after you switched colours) is fine – I’ll have another look from work tomorrow. The other factor is which browser you use.
Perhaps I’m the only one baffled by the enumeration given for 13d?
AdamH @45
That is exactly how this unusual word-phrase is spelled in the dictionary: GET-AT-ABLE, meaning ‘easily accessible’ (Chambers).
AdamH: You’re not the only one! Surely it should be (3,1,5)
Although I suppose if you can reach it, you can ‘get at it’ therefore its ‘get at – able’ as in parse-able??
Also perplexed by DE so thanks to others for the explanations of that.
OK Alan B, thanks. We crossed (didn’t expected anyone else to be still on this).
For me, this was one of Imogen’s best (even though it took me an extra day to make it here to post). I was held up in the NE corner for the longest time, but eventually (very late last night) it yielded – DECREPIT was LOI. There were many enjoyable clues, including both long dogs (although here in the US, the word TERRIER is almost never heard for the 24ac breed, which most here would simply refer to as a PITBULL), TOY STORY, and TRICE. CotD for me was NO REGRETS.
Many thanks to Imogen and PeterO and the other commenters.
A late contribution from me to an interesting discussion. I recognised “getatable” from Finnegans Wake and assumed it was a coinage by Joyce. But according to OED it’s been around for about 200 years, with or without hyphens.
A very enjoyable DNF for me. Many favourites, including DECREPIT (which I failed to get), TOY STORY, IN OTHER WORDS and IN TOTO. Thanks Imogen and PeterO.
P.S. Even though I am too late for anyone to see this, I couldn’t resist chuckling with Gladys@14 and Cookie@22. I think I should be allowed to use as many “I”s as I want, and I will insist that I be allowed to. I couldn’t help noticing that the person who suggested the 5-“I” limit used more than five “I”s in his comment. (I counted ten, but I might have missed some.)
To save the trouble of counting, I used 14 “I”s here ( now 16).
cellomaniac@51 – if you were more assiduous, you will have noted that my comment was on a thread about people’s views on off-topic comments, where it would have been appropriate to use as many “I”s as needed to get my point across. My complaint is about crossword threads that have become dominated by people talking about themselves rather than the crossword, at the expense of a coherent debate of the more interesting issues when they arise, for which there was some measure of support on the off-topic thread.
Fortuitously your post provides support in general for my argument.