A tougher than usual puzzle by Philistine for this week’s prize.
It’s only four weeks since Philistine last appeared in the prize slot (the end letter alphabetical which I blogged) so it was a pleasant surprise to see his name on this puzzle. Timon and I found it challenging, but I think that I have now got answers to all the questions that we posed ourselves. There were some rather libertarian clues (e.g. at 10 across) which I hadn’t associated with this setter but that’s not a complaint. I had some problems with the upload tool, so apologies for any erratic formatting.
There is an error in the grid: it should be godsend, not godhead.
| Across | ||
| 1 | IMBIBE | Setter’s right out of sweetener for drink (6) |
| I’M (Setter’s) B(R)IBE | ||
| 4 | FRACAS | Stole back to cover a quarrel (6) |
| A in SCARF (rev) | ||
| 9,21 | ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY | Green with envy welcoming press people of stature at match (15,8) |
| IRON (press) MEN (people) TALL (of stature) in ENVY, MATCH (friendly) | ||
| 10 | OBJECT | Say nothing (6) |
| Double definition, ” say no” and “thing”. I always get fooled by these “lift and separate” clues. | ||
| 11 | THEREMIN | Within that location round Maidenhead you’ll find an instrument (8) |
| M(aidenhead) in THEREIN. | ||
| 12 | JEOPARDY | Danger across the Channel, I send up love first (8) |
| JE (“I across the Channel”) PARODY with the O put to the front (love first). | ||
| 14 | See 23 | |
| 15 | SARONG | Wrap organs for transplantation (6) |
| *ORGANS. | ||
| 18 | ASBESTOS | A plea for help to secure finest material (8) |
| BEST in A SOS. | ||
| 21 | See 9 | |
| 22 | GLANCE | Butchers grill Aberdeen cattle topsides and rumps (6) |
| First and last letters (“topsides and rumps”) of GrilL AberdeeN CattlE. | ||
| 24 | PEACHES AND CREAM | A sweet complexion (7,3,5) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 25 | DELUDE | Lead up the garden path in Giverny of 8, so to speak (6) |
| DE (French for”of”) LUDE (sounds like lewd). | ||
| 26 | ADDLED | Prepared to ride topless in a confused state (6) |
| (S)ADDLED. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | IGNOBLE | For a start, noblesse oblige is violated and that’s disgraceful (7) |
| *(N(oblesse) OBLIGE) | ||
| 2 | BAIZE | Barks heard and almost felt (5) |
| Sounds like “bays”. | ||
| 3 | BOOSTER | I don’t approve of this rest treatment as a provider of energy (7) |
| BOO (I don’t approve) *REST. | ||
| 5 | RINGERS | They are found in the belfry, same as dead (7) |
| Cryptic definition: think of “dead ringers”. | ||
| 6 | CHAPERONS | Blokes take a long time gathering right gooseberries (9) |
| R in EON in CHAPS. | ||
| 7 | SALTIRE | A bit postmenopausal, tired and cross (7) |
| Hidden. | ||
| 8 | SMUTTY | Sexy dog as a substitute for old lover? That’s obscene (6) |
| MUTT for EX in sexy. | ||
| 13 | PROVENCAL | Frenchman’s confirmed short visit (9) |
| PROVEN CAL(L) | ||
| 16 | AIRHEAD | Dimwit hairy chef made to strip (7) |
| Strip off the outer letters of “hairy chef made” to reveal the answer. | ||
| 17 | GODSEND | Real blessing for D? (7) |
| I think this is just a way of saying that the end of the word “god” is D. | ||
| 18 | ANYWAY | Regardless of 5th Avenue? (6) |
| A NY (i.e. New York) WAY. | ||
| 19 | BAGHDAD | Father under secure hospital in the city (7) |
| DAD under BAG H. | ||
| 20 | ORCHARD | Source of fruit or veg (7) |
| OR CHARD (a vegetable I grow on my own allotment). | ||
| 23,14 | APRIL SHOWERS | How reprisal affected Mayflower’s precursor? (5,6) |
| *(HOW REPRISAL). April showers bring May flowers. | ||
*anagram
Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. I did not parse GODSEND, did parse THEREMIN (new to me), and stared at CHAPERONS for a while waiting for a final letter E. With all the crossers I had three options for OBJECT but none of them seemed right, so, without much confidence, I did finally settle on the correct solution.
Thanks Philistine for a classy puzzle and to bridgesong for explaining it all.
I made good progress until becoming completely stuck on the (with hindsight bleedin’obvious). ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.. not sure why but he penny didn’t drop ’til pretty much every crosser in place.
Numerous enjoyable clues/solutions, in particular some great surface readings. Favourites included SMUTTY, ORCHARD,APRIL SHOWER,RINGERS, GLANCE just to touch on the highlights.
There were some subtleties I missed so thank Bridgesong for pointing out the NY reference in ANYWAY (doh) and that the 8 in DELUDE clue is a pointer to a Hompohone for smutty (I thought it was indicating a homophone for ‘huit’ )
Thanks again to all concerned,
Thanks bridgesong. It was a good test and an enjoyable one. I had a bit of trouble with 10a and had pencilled in ABSENT at first, thinking of not answering a roll call. My LOI was 12a and I wasted some time looking in various dictionaries for PARDY before the penny dropped. Still not sure about it though but I am sure you are right about 17d.
Thanks bridgesong. The longest clue held me up longest, leaving just BAIZE to finish (why the ‘almost’ in the clue?). A grin for OBJECT when the penny dropped and a waddyaknow when THEREMIN turned out to be an instrument, on checking. 25A paints a nice fuzzy French picture.
We were unable to finish it, thanks to 10a. None of our options seemed to make any sense with the clue, so thanks for the (obvious when it’s pointed out) explanation.
Thanks, bridgesong. I found this easier than Philistine’s usual puzzles.
Like molonglo, I don’t understand why it’s “almost felt” in 2d.Can someone please explain?
I started reasonably well, and carried on steadily but it was a challenge to finish. Even with almost all the crossers, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY took a long time before it occurred to me, and wasn’t helped by not having got GODSEND at that point. At least with all its crossers in it seemed fairly clear GODESND had to be the answer, but I couldn’t parse it, and I’m glad to see you don’t seem to think it’s particularly obvious either, bridgesong – that makes me feel much better! (Having failed to parse it, I looked at the grid for it first when I came here, and I see you have GODHEAD, which worried me, but I assume that’s unintentional.) OBJECT was last in, having puzzled me throughout, but when it finally clicked I thought it was very neat.
Quite a lot to appreciate, actually. I liked the way ‘Mayflower’ separated to give APRIL SHOWER, the way NY worked in ANYWAY, and the pairing of AIRHEAD and GLANCE, both of which strip ends of successive words but threat the results differently. DELUDE was clever (and this summer, I finally managed to visit that garden in Giverny for the first time – worth the trip, but I’d really like to see it sometime without the crowds!)
Thanks, bridgesong, thanks Philistine. Merry Christmas, everybody.
molonglo and crosser. Only because baize is similar to felt but not quite the same I suppose.
Thanks Philistine and bridgesong
A sense of satisfaction on completing the grid, though I confess I couldn’t be bothered to parse the long one. OBJECT was my LOI too.
Baize isn’t as furry as felt, perhaps? I don’t think snooker would be much fun on felt.
Keith S; yes, the grid entry is wrong, for which I apologise. I had some technical problems preparing the blog, which is why it’s rather terse, and I’m not going to be able to amend the grid, so I’ll add a note.
I forgot to say that I was lucky with THEREMIN. I’ve actually heard it played; the son of a friend is something of a virtuoso, I was told (though it did still sound a bit like cats mating).
bridgesong – I think there are going to be technical problems whenever computers get involved in things, and I sympathise completely. You – and the other bloggers – do an amazing job, one I could not imagine tackling myself.
KeithS@12; that’s very kind. In fact most of the work is done by a clever piece of software written by my colleague PeeDee, and all the blogger has to do is solve the puzzle and write the blog. Unfortunately The Guardian has recently changed the way it presents crossword puzzles online, and the program can no longer read the clues in a reliable way so as to incorporate them into the blog. It is in fact possible that I may also have got some of the clues wrong, as one or two had to be transcribed manually, but I hope that’s not the case.
Managed to get my printer working again on Thursday and downloaded the puzzle. Thought it was fairly easy.
Only problem was 10 ac, which I failed to parse.
Thanks to Philistine and to bridgesong.
Thanks Philistine and bridgesong.
Managed to complete this, like some others here, with a punt on 10a that turned out to be the correct option: I didn’t parse it. Two favourites – I loved both GODSEND and ANYWAY. Am I the only one to quibble about equating ‘bay’ with ‘bark’ in 2d? A bark is a short, sharp, staccato sound – whether high pitched from a small animal or lower in tone from a big one. Baying is a high pitched ululation or howl and a completely different sound. That being said, I’m in agreement with those who have explained the ‘almost’ in the clue: felt is certainly ‘fluffier’ than baize. Felt is actually matted together whereas baize is woven and the fluffing up is known as ‘pilling’.
Thanks to Philistine and Bridgesong. I filled in most of this in bed on the Saturday night – life in North Bucks is so exciting! Strangely I think THEREMIN was my FOI – those of you who were Led Zeppelin fans may remember Jimmy Page used to “play” one on stage, and yes it did sound like cats mating. OBJECT took me a while, lift-and-separate usually being the last thing I think of. The penny dropped with GODSEND fairly quickly by comparison, although like OBJECT it was a case of “find a word then parse it.” Now for a few day’s metaphorical wrestling with Maskarade…
Enjoyed this. I expect most people will have heard the THEREMIN;it was featured on Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys and Electricity by Captain Beefheart,as well as in sundry Sci Fi films.
I found the puzzle relatively easy. BAIZE and GODSEND were my favorites even though the former was LOI.
Thanks Philistine.
Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong. With the exception of 10a I thought this was at the easier end of the Philistine scale. I think I spent more time looking at 10a than I did at the rest of the puzzle. I could not make my mind up whether it was abject or object, neither of which seemed to make sense. However in the end had to make a decision which was correct, but I needed to come here to find out why. I liked jeopardy and glance, and thanks again to Philistine and bridgesong.
Peter Aspinwall @19 – and the theme tune for Midsomer Murders.
22a It may help some of those who haven’t come across it before to know that ” butcher’s hook” is rhyming slang for “look”.
Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Philistine and bridgesong
Tough, but very satisfying to solve. I had ENVIRONMENTALLY a long time before FRIENDLY (which I finally got from a thesaurus). I was so pleased at parsing OBJECT that I entered the draw on the basis many wouldn’t have got it.
@bridgesong,
24a is just a double def, isn’t it? A sweet and a complexion. Also 5d, albeit with one of the definitions being cryptic?
17dn is one of those ‘reverse engineering’ jobs, isn’t it? ie ‘Godsend’ could be cryptic for D. The QM tells you something is odd about the clue. Btw, I also thought of godhead first, before I parsed it.
In 3d, you should include “of this” as part of the synonym for ‘boo’.
Bill Bailey uses a theremin (and other instruments) to give an extraordinary rendition of Zippedee Do Dah (‘as performed by P’?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R7OVnTyUvM
Tony: 24a could be a double definition, and certainly that’s what the annotated solution says, so you must be right! And 5d is as well.
And I think your analysis of 17d is probably right, too!
I also accept your correction of my parsing of 3d.
In my defence, I should add that I had a really busy week at work, and didn’t have time to revise the blog.
Thanks for the Bill Bailey link.
Np, bridgesong. Glad you enjoyed the Bill Bailey. Have a great Christmas and new year.
Thanks for the link Tony (&21) – enjoyed that.
I’m another who couldn’t justify any of the options for 10a. Thanks for that bridgesong.
22AC Why does ‘glance’ mean ‘butchers’?
vynbos @25
Cockney rhyming slang, butcher’s hook = look, but as with most of the rhyming slang it is common for only the first word to be used.
Ringers have no place in a belfry, nor does anyone when a peal is rung (see The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers).
@Jonathan 27 the bells could be regarded as the ‘ringers’
@vynbos 28 Thanks Fair enough in Xword-speak I guess, though unknown in this sense to the OED
@Jonathan
Chambers (7th Ed) has “one who, or that which, rings”
‘Ring’ is intransitive as well as transitive and it’s hard to think of anything which better exemplifies (to substitute in) “that which gives a bell-like sound” than a bell.