I found this entertaining but tricky, a pleasure rather than a slog. The solutions are not hard to understand, just difficult to spot. Exactly how it should be I think. Thank you Paul.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | MOUNTIE | One enforcing law from on high set free by doctor (7) |
| UNTIE (set free) following (by) MO (Medical Officer, doctor) – on high, on a horse | ||
| 8, 22 | CHICKEN KIEV | Yellow knife seen regularly against dish (7,4) |
| CHICKEN (yellow) then KnIfE (seen regularly) and V (versus, against) | ||
| 9 | SKIT | Turn back to discuss tackle (4) |
| discusS (back, last letter) then KIT (tackle) – a turn on stage | ||
| 10 | HACKAMORE | Further behind horse, a bridle (9) |
| MORE (further) follows HACK (horse) A | ||
| 12 | CHIMP | Head of monastery housed by token primate (5) |
| Monastery (first letter, head of) inside CHIP (token) | ||
| 13 | REASSESS | Again, check on Jack’s mate? (8) |
| RE (regarding, on) then ASS-ESS (a female ass, mate of a Jack ass) | ||
| 15 | SNUG | Warm pieces reversed (4) |
| GUNS (pieces) reversed | ||
| 16, 24 | CHEST FREEZER | Appliance — of ice pack in bra? (5,7) |
| definition/cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | See 20 down | |
| 18 | MOT JUSTE | Testament very recently penned by setter, appropriate thing to say (3,5) |
| OT (old testament) JUST (very recently) inside (penned by) ME (the setter) | ||
| 20, 21 | CRICK AND WATSON | Pain in the neck, a don wants to batter molecular biologists (5,3,6) |
| CRICK (pain in the neck) then anagram (to batter) of A DON WANTS | ||
| 21 | See 20 | |
| 22 | See 8 | |
| 24 | See 16 | |
| 25 | CORNISH | Club welcoming in king after retreat — like King Mark (7) |
| COSH (club) contains IN R (rex, king) reversed (after retreat) – King Mark of Cornwall, uncle of Tristan and husband of Iseult | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | See 14 | |
| 2, 23 | ANYTHING ELSE | Seen nightly, a performance apart from this? (8,4) |
| anagram (performance) of SEEN NIGHTLY A | ||
| 3 | See 17 | |
| 4 | PHEASANT | Barbarian passing round rugby posts in game (8) |
| PEASANT (barbarian) contains (passing round) H (rugby posts) | ||
| 5 | ACROSS | A burden in the other half of clues? (6) |
| A CROSS – this half is the down clues | ||
| 6 | CEDE | End of the month coming up, give up (4) |
| thE (end letter of) then DEC (December, the coming month) reversed (up) | ||
| 11 | CARPETERS | Layers from jazz great, first and last two missed (9) |
| osCAR PETERSon (jazz great) missing first and last two letters | ||
| 12 | CAN DO | Showing willingness within small firm? (3-2) |
| the letters C AND O make “co” (company, a small firm) – also: AND (with…) …in CO (small firm) thanks to sugarbutties @13 for this | ||
| 14, 1 | SHOCK JOCK | Broadcasting polemicist, white knave hit screens (5,4) |
| hock (white, wine) J (Jack, knave) inside (screened by) SOCK (hit) | ||
| 16 | CASTANET | One of a pair held aloft, as a fisherman might? (8) |
| a fisherman might CAST A NET | ||
| 17, 3 | STINKING BISHOP | Cheese pieces under flipped eggs (8,6) |
| KING BISHOP (chess pieces) following (under) NITS (eggs) reversed (flipped) | ||
| 19 | JUDGES | Finds book (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 20, 17 across | CANNON-SHOT | Blasted thing, clergyman reportedly on crack (6-4) |
| CANNON sounds like (reportedly) “canon” (clergyman) then SHOT (crack, have a go at) | ||
| 21 | AIRE | A heart of white rose hollowed out — Yorkshire flower (4) |
| A then whIte (heart, middle letter of) and RosE (hollowed out) – the River Aire, something that flows | ||
| 23 | See 2 | |
Thanks PeeDee – I agree with your comments. A few answers, like CORNISH, the cheese, the bridle and LOI 11D, needed Google. Otherwise it was a good solve with some nice clues, like the one producing SKIT. Thanks setter & blogger.
Thanks PeeDee. Another demanding and thought provoking test from Paul with some entertaining twists. He, and Google, added to my education with Crick and Watson and with King Mark of Cornwall. He had me grappling with combinations of K or R and words like SCAR there. Have to confess my LOI was the quite delightfully misleading SKIT, I’d never have got there without the crossers. Not sure about BARBARIAN = PEASANT though.
Printed this last night, had a bit of a pick, just finished now, 8am freo time. Nice curly Paul, and I missed the H posts, d’oh, a trick which does ring a faint bell (and I might’ve been unconsciously averse to branding the peasantry as barbarian). A few gimmes, like ‘across’, hackamore (learned here) and the DNA chappies, helped in getting a start. Had no idea of the 25 Cornish connection, always thought those lovers were Germanic, as in Wagner, hey ho. And nho the cheese but love the name, must try some. Needed the two ‘e’s in 24 to stop anagraming that one. All good fun, thanks P and P.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee. I struggled with this puzzle throughout the week and only today got CHEST FREEZER but failed with CARPETERS. I needed Google to confirm CORNISH and STINKING BISHOP.
4dn was my LOI – I’m still not happy about peasant/barbarian. But otherwise the usual joyful experience for which thank you Paul. As ever, what is apparently impossible at the first pass, eventually resolves itself into a thoroughly enjoyable solve. And thanks PD – you clarified a few parsings (is that a word?) I had missed.
Peasant and barbarian are not the same, especially if you consider their origins. However, used as insults, as I remember from my school days, they were pretty much interchangeable.
I thought this puzzle hit the Goldilocks zone – a couple of clues needed Google for confirmation, but every one was solvable as-is, even if some required a while to figure out. Just right for a prize.
I think the editor should have a word with ‘Paul’. There are 30 words in this grid but by combining some, Paul gets away with writing only 23 clues! He’s being doing this regularly of late so if you think about it, he’s getting paid for essentially skipping work! Hopefully other setters won’t follow his poor example.
20 17 I think the ‘canon’ clergyman should have one ‘n’, hence the reportedly. Nice solve, tricky but fair. Thanks to PeeDee and Paul.
Came to this relatively late this week, but got through it quite quickly by my standards, only to fail completely at the end with CARPETERS, which I just couldn’t think of at all. Thanks, acd@4 – I feel better for the company! I spent a while trying to get Chick Corea to fit, thinking of chickens and layers, but never made it work, of course. Ah well. Thanks for the challenge, Paul, and for the explanation, PeeDee.
Very mixed feelings about this puzzle, which I found hard going.
There is no denying that there are lots of great clues, including SKIT, CHEST FREEZER, CORNISH, STINKING BISHOP, CANNON SHOT.
And Master Paul managed to avoid slang this time – thereby thwarting my attempts to look for it!
But there were also clues that took a bit more time to parse: CAN DO, SHOCK JOCK. And, like others, I was forced to admit defeat on 11 dn.
One poor clue, 18 ac, I felt let the puzzle down. ‘Testament’ for OT is just lazy. No wonder this was my FOI! And I agree with DrW @6 that barbarian and peasant are not the same.
All in all, though, a good puzzle, and, yes, a pleasure to (almost) solve.
Thanks to Paul and to PeeDee.
Failed again but got seriously sidetracked when I saw so many solutions starting C and thought Paul was attempting a grid with the fewest opening letters. If it wasn’t for Judges we’d have a CHAMPjRS of a crossword if you get my drift. Love jazz and should have used my C theory to spot CARPETERS as the clue’s instructions were obvious. Lots to like. Cheers Paul and PeeDee.
Doh CARPETERS
Obvious in hindsight. The Jazz Great threw me off the scent. Wasn’t expecting a first name – last name combo. This could have made a nice “hidden word “ clue.
Apart from this blank thoroughly endorse the Goldilocks comment from a learned colleague above. My fav was CASTANET almost but not quite risqué
Thanks Paul for a great challenge, PeeDee for explaining it all and to all contributors on here, one of my favourite corners of the Internet
ES
I parsed 12d differently. I had and (with) inside (in) small firm (co) = can do.
I agree with PeeDee’s lead-in comments, thanks also to Paul. FOI 20a/21a, LOI 9a. It was all in my GK, except 10a, where web help needed. I must be Paul’s target solver …
It was a nice challenge. I put CARPETERS in from “layers”, but failed to think of Oscar Peterson. Thanks for the explanation.
I agree with Peedee on this. A return to form from Paul,whose recent puzzles have been less user friendly- for this user anyway! But worth the price of admission for the brilliant CARPETERS alone. Great fun!
Thanks Paul.
For Arachne (aka Rosa Klebb) fans, the Saturday FT puzzle is a delight.
Karen – thanks for pointing out the “cannon” sounds like “cannon” error, fixed now.
Re primitive barbarian – I wondered about this too when writing up the blog. Chambers gave:
Peasant
1. An ignorant or uncultured person
Barbarian
1. Someone without taste or refinement
2. A somewhat uncivilised person
Not precisely the same, but plenty of overlap there.
Not CORSELETS for 11d then
Thanks Paul and Peedee
I almost put in cockerels for 11d !
14,1 The sort of clue that I couldn’t think of starting without crossers. How many words are there for white and hit (and knave if you don’t know the answer is a single letter)? Can’t think where I came across the answer. Certainly not someone I’ve encountered on Auntie Beeb, for which many thanks.
11d was another typical Paul. Raises a smile if you parse it (as I did) but a curse if you don’t. Not one you’ld solve quickly if you were going through a list of ja?z greats.
Thanks to Paul and PeeDee
I thought this was mostly very good, but I didn’t get CARPETERS either and perhaps that is because it isn’t in the dictionary! I resorted to Chambers Word Wizard to help with it and CARPETERS did not come up, only CAREENERS, CAREERERS and CORSELETS, of which the last seemed most promising for ‘layers’, but I only pencilled it in lightly due to the parsing not appearing to work. It’s not in Collins Online either, although you can get hits on Google with it (mostly from the trade, and what would they know? :-)), but even Google wonders if you really mean CARPENTER. I’d call them carpet-layers, but the verb ‘to carpet’ (mostly used in the passive, according to Collins) exists and I suppose the -er ending is general and probably valid even if not specifically spelled out in the dictionary? I think it would have been gettable (for me, I mean!) if set as a hidden word as suggested by EpeeSharkey@12. Being asked to think of a non-dictionary word by trying to summon up the names of jazz greats and mentally cropping both ends is too tough, imo, even with five crossers.
I thought the way ‘pieces’ was used in 17,3 was great. Luckily, unlike others, I had heard of the cheese.
I’ve probably read the word HACKAMORE (10a) in books and just glided over it thinking “something horsey — don’t need to know”, but it registered somewhere strongly enough to recognise it when I built it from the cryptics.
Although it had to be, I couldn’t work out the parsing for 12d, CAN-DO until much later, and when I did, it was along the same lines as sugarbutties@13, splitting ‘within’ to ‘with’ and ‘in’, one half a component of the answer and the other a cryptic instruction. Very tricky and not allowed by some papers, but I’m pretty sure that’s what Paul has done here (and why not — it’s the libertarian Guardian!)
I don’t understand the fuss about barbarian and peasant. My Chambers has, for barbarian, definitions including: “a somewhat uncivilised man” (more up-to-date editions surely have ‘person’?) and Collins has, for peasant (3rd def, English): “an uncouth or uncultured person”, which seems a very similar thing to me.
Peedee, I think you need to look at your comment @18, btw, as ‘primitive’ didn’t actually come into it … except in your head, perhaps?
I see I have big ticks next to 9a, SKIT; 13a, REASSESS and 18a, MOT JUSTE, too.
“Ass-ess”. Haha!
Thank you Tony, I obviously had a bit of a lapse in concentration there! My Comment @18 has been corrected.
BTW – CARPETERS was one of the first solutions I got as Oscar Peterson is a well-known name to me. Just goes to show that difficulty is a very subjective thing.
Peedee, phew! I just noticed your (corrected) comment and thought I’d made a completely unjustified remark, but then saw your last.
Oscar Peterson is a name I know well, too … along with many, many other jazz greats. Sometimes they hit you, sometimes they don’t. For anyone who hasn’t heard of OP, that clue is impossible, though, isn’t it? I think ‘Layers from Oscar Peterson’ or similar would have been a lot fairer.
Is there such a thing as a fun slog? If so, this was it. Worked on it off and on all week with 7 answers still undone, and then this afternoon they all fell into place.
I too parsed CAN DO as Sugarbutties@13 did – one of many excellent clues.
As a Canadian jazz buff, I am ashamed to admit that CARPETERS was a LOI. With the crossers I had, I was trying to work with Charlie Parker, and to come up with some obscure hen. When the penny dropped it became my favourite clue.
As an aside, I find it interesting that Oscar Peterson was long considered by critics to be an over-rated jazzman (“too much technique, not enough soul”), which means that he was for a long time actually under-rated. Fortunately history, aided by accolades from all other great jazz pianists, has corrected this egregious misconception.
Thanks Paul for the week-long challenge, PeeDee for the lucid explanations, and fellow bloggers for the always entertaining read.
Hi Tony, I have given this sort of thing a fair amount of thought over the years I have been blogging puzzles. My conclusion is that the fairness of a clue being “impossible” to solve comes down to one’s stance on whether every crossword should be completable by everybody.
My personal experience is that I enjoy being defeated by a puzzle. There are some clues where my inability to see the wordplay or my incomplete general knowledge lets me down. I think of this as a good thing, and as a bonus I get to learn something new when I come here and read the explanation. My “golden age” of crossword solving was back in the early days when half the puzzle was a mystery to me until my mother or someone explained the answer. Nowadays I usually have to go the the Inquisitor or similar to get defeated, but the feeling has not gone.
This is an entirely personal view and some people think otherwise, which I don’t see as a contradiction but a different way of thinking about puzzles. Also, and a personal view again, is that a word not being in the dictionary is a good thing. It means I can’t cheat (which I think of as a defeat anyway) using the wordsearch.
Incidentally, my way of solving that particular clue was:
1) stop looking for names of chickens (layers)
2) layers is plural so the solution ends in S
3) “doing” roles end in ER (tiler, roofer, baker…) so the solution ends ERS
4) think of two letters to add make a surname, many English names end SON (Alison, Bryson, Clarkson, Dickson, Ericson…) so we have …ERSON
5) match this to a Jazz musician -> Oscar Peterson, carpet layers! Big PDM moment for me and a big tick for the clue.
There was a lot of information in here to be found. It wasn’t just a cold guess at the name of a random Jazz Great.
Peedee, thanks very much for setting out your route to CARPETERS and your other observations. After I’d labelled the clue “impossible”, I started to think about lines like yours and thought maybe I’d been too harsh. Your reasoning convinces me I was (but it would still be very difficult for someone who has never heard of the jazzman).
I don’t regard using references as ‘cheating’ although I like it best if I can complete without any and second best if I just use them to confirm stuff. I’d have been very pleased if, in ignorance, I’d posited the existence of a jazz great called Oscar Peterson then found he existed, for example.
What I like about crosswords that stretch my general knowledge is that they prompt me to expand it. For instance, although I knew of OP, I couldn’t think when I’d last listened to him, so spent some enjoyable time last night doing just that, courtesy of YouTube. Truly a great musician.