A relatively quick solve, and an enjoyable puzzle – particular favourites were 4ac, 6ac, 11ac, 2dn, and 12dn. Thanks to Qaos
A Google search helped with the theme: TRIUMPHs or car models by the Triumph Motor Company [wiki] including GLORIA, DOLOMITE, ITALIA, SPITFIRE, HERALD, COURIER, STAG, SPRINT, and LYNX edit thanks to TerriBlislow: and SCORPION
| Across | ||
| 4 | SPRINT | Move fast through detailed terms and conditions? (6) |
| S PRINT, or ‘small print’=”detailed terms and conditions” with small abbreviated to ‘s’ | ||
| 6 | INFORMAL | Playing well, half-naked and relaxed (8) |
| IN FORM=”Playing well” + [h]AL[f] ‘naked’ with its outer letters removed | ||
| 9 | ITALIA | Secretly solicit a liaison in a foreign country (6) |
| Hidden in [solic]IT A LIA[ison] | ||
| 10 | SCORPION | Sign name for an arachnid (8) |
| SCORPIO=star “Sign” + N (name) | ||
| 11 | FEMME FATALE | Female team startled after loud siren (5,6) |
| (Female team)*; after F (forte)=”loud” | ||
| 15 | RESIDED | Settled group covered in embarrassment (7) |
| SIDE=team=”group” inside RED=”embarrassment” | ||
| 17 | BUSIEST | Most occupied vehicle that’s by street (7) |
| BUS=”vehicle” + I.E.=’that is’ + ST (street) | ||
| 18 | LOOSE CHANGE | Ladies and gents key to replace small coins (5,6) |
| LOOS=”Ladies and gents” + E=musical “key” + CHANGE=”replace” | ||
| 22 | TRIUMPHS | Even mummy quietly puts on top back to front and succeeds! (8) |
| Even letters from [m]U[m]M[y] + P (piano)=”quietly”; all inside SHIRT=”top” reversed/”back to front” | ||
| 23 | FREEZE | Stop period of cold weather (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 24 | GENITALS | Criminal stealing the family jewels? (8) |
| (stealing)* | ||
| 25 | GLORIA | Woman‘s part of mass (6) |
| double definition: a woman’s name; and the name of a hymn | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENGINE | English soldier’s news about European war machine (6) |
| E (English) + GI=”soldier”, with two Ns (new-s) about; plus E (European) | ||
| 2 | UNSCRAMBLE | To make sense of Sun puzzle, many go on and on (10) |
| (Sun)* plus C=100=”many” + RAMBLE=”go on and on” | ||
| 3 | COURIERS | They deliver former US tennis player’s son (8) |
| Jim COURIER=”former US tennis player” + S (son) | ||
| 4 | SPITFIRE | It would be dangerous for showman to do this in a plane (8) |
| SPIT FIRE=”It would be dangerous for showman to do this” | ||
| 5 | REARMOST | Star more annoyed being in last place (8) |
| (Star more)* | ||
| 7 | Postman reported? (4) | |
| ‘man reported’ -> homophone of ‘male’ | ||
| 8 | LYNX | Cat joins in conversation (4) |
| homophone/”in conversation” of: ‘links’=”joins” | ||
| 12 | AUDIOPHILE | A posh doctor orbits moon and earth, a recording enthusiast (10) |
| A + U=”posh” + DPHIL=”doctor” around IO=”moon” of Jupiter; plus E (Earth) | ||
| 13 | REINDEER | Animal‘s about to spill red wine, not whiskey (8) |
| RE=”about” + (red wine)* minus the w or ‘whiskey’ in the phonetic alphabet | ||
| 14 | ET CETERA | Following film, create remake and such like (2,6) |
| ET=”film” + (create)* | ||
| 16 | DOLOMITE | Mineral water at last stolen from room — it led to move (8) |
| (room it led)* minus the last letter of water | ||
| 19 | HERALD | Announcer‘s hard time — line dead (6) |
| H (hard) + ERA=”time” + L (line) + D (dead) | ||
| 20 | STAG | Male finally beats children’s game (4) |
| final letter of [beat]S + TAG=”children’s game” | ||
| 21 | SIGN | Omen: good beset by evil (4) |
| G (good) inside SIN=”evil” | ||
Ooops – and 10 ac Scorpion! So pleased to have bagged the 10th.
The DPhil has me foxed for a while. Thanks Qaos for memories of picnic jaunts to the river in a sky-blue, open-top HERALD, and Manehi (I think you’ve missed one).
Mild for Qaos. Had to smile at 24a. Never heard of Jim Courier.
Thanks to Qaos and to manehi for the blog.
Completely missed the theme! I had a SPRINT (two wheels) for some years.
Absolutely no excuse for missing this theme – I owned 2 of these at one time or another!
Lovely, satisfying puzzle at the easier end of the setter’s spectrum, with ticks at SPRINT, GENITALS, ITALIA, & LYNX.
il principe dell’oscurità: If I may be allowed to refer back to yesterday’s post, thank you so much for the link to Mario Maccaferri. I had one of his plastic ukuleles and loved reading the history behind this great man. Thank you.
Many thanks, both, nice weekend, all.
I paused half way to look for a theme and saw DOLOMITE and SCORPION so I thought cars. Then I got ITALIA simply following the instructions. Italian for Italy. Googled Italia car and nothing much. Then I saw HERALD, TRIUMPHS and googled Triumph Italia.and found an interesting story-BL pulled out of the joint deal-then I googled Herald Scorpion and another great story.
My personal opinion of the make ,from bitter experience is that 34 could be a themer.
But they made good bikes- wouldve been nice to see BONNEVILLE in there.
Apparently things like Triumph Italia are worth a bit (rarity value?)
All quite enjoyable if fairly gentle, though I didn’t spot the theme until afterwards – most were unfamiliar but I vaguely remembered HERALDs, DOLOMITEs and SPITFIREs
Thanks to Qaos and manehi
Sorry TRIUMPH Scorpion
Twigged the theme which helped with the dodgy NW corner – 4d would have made Rufus blush, 9a doesn’t really work for me (is the indicator ‘secretly’ or ‘in a’ and what is the other one doing there?), 4a ‘s print’ as a valid alternative for ‘small print’ doesn’t work for me so I assume that ‘detailed’ indicates removing the ‘mall’ except it is the centre not the tail.
Apart from that a fine crossword with the cluing of genitals being especially pleasing.
Thanks to Qaos and manehi.
Thanks Qaos and manehi
I didn’t see the theme, of course, or parse SPRINT.
SIGN appearing as an answer and in a clue is unfortunate, and the latter is weak as “scorpio” is the SCORPION constellation. Jim COURIER is a bit obscure.
Favourite was ET CETERA.
Missed the theme despite looking for it. Ticked FREEZE GENITALS (I presume it’s been done before but I hadn’t seen it) UNSCRAMBLE AUDIOPHILE (it took me a while to see DPhil as doctor). Thanks to Qaos and manehi.
Thanks manehi and Qaos, i enjoyed this and was helped by spotting the theme around half way through – my first car was a Triumph although not represented here (inherited from my grandad and not one of their sports cars sadly). I had STIG at first for 20D because that’s how I knew the game in my youth (there is a map somewhere online of geographical variations around Britain) and enjoyed watching rallying on TV (and occasionally live) in the 80s so the name came to mind readily – the theme put me right later. SPRINT took a long time and like robert@9 I didn’t like it much even when it twigged. In general I found some of the parsing quite involved but usually the definition was clear, otherwise it would have been much harder. I liked 11A, 12D and of course 24A!
Some lovely clues in here – “genitals” a laugh-out-loud moment and many “follow the instructions precisely” clues but I felt “sprint” does not work for exactly the reasons muffin gives @10 – you cannot “de-tail” the middle of something, and “smallprint” to become “s print” without any instruction is just not reasonable. Ditto I baulked at “scorpio” as Muffin did, and “gloria” where, again, the name and the mass part have the same etymology. A pity about these as the rest was delightful, and spotting the theme late on helped me see “stag” which I was struggling with.
Many thanks Qaos – another one who’d have liked to see some two-wheelers in there, and maybe a mathematical clue for a TR-7?
Very nice puzzle. My favourites were LOOSE CHANGE, TRIUMPHS.
I did not see the theme, and did not parse SPRINT although I thought it had something to do with fine print or S PRINT so I was close!
New for me was Jim Courier.
Thanks Qaos and manehi.
Despite once owning a Triumph Herald, I missed the theme entirely.
I couldn’t parse the S-PRINT. A nice idea but difficult to get from the clue.
I enjoyed the solve and particularly liked TRIUMPHS and GENITALS.
Thanks Qaos and manehi.
I thought the clues for Engine and Gloria were a bit vague, and Italia seemed unfair but given the theme they seem OK. I didn’t spot the theme because I didn’t know some of them were Triumphs, though I should have connected Spitfire, Dolomite, Herald and Stag.
I failed to parse Audiophile because DPhil was unfamiliar, as it is usually PhD, and I should have seen Io in there.
I didn’t see the theme despite looking for one, Nearly all of the models are unfamiliar to me, although I do have fond memories of riding around in a good friend’s TR-3 in my (much) younger days. No trademark mathematical clues today apart from the rather loose C = many. On the whole, a bit less enjoyable for me than for some others here, but no complaints apart from the quibbles noted above.
Thanks to Qaos and manehi.
GLORIA isn’t a hymn, it’s one of the five basic parts of the mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,Sanctus and Agnus. These five parts are the “ordinary”, meaning not “commonplace” but “according to the order” and their words are always the same. Other parts of the mass — the Introit, Alleluia, Sequence, Offertory and Communion — are the “proper”, meaning not “appropriate” but “belonging to”, in this case belonging to the date in the liturgical calendar, and their texts vary accordingly.
I would never have got this theme in a million years — I’m glad I forgot to try. I barely know that a Triumph is a car, much less that it has models. But it was enjoyable anyway. Thanks, Qaos and manehi.
A satisfying end to my week (of 4 puzzles). Solving this without references was an enjoyable exercise, although COURIERS was tough. I liked SPRINT and SIGN most of all.
I didn’t look for or find any theme, but on being enlightened here I realise I knew the Triumph Spitfire, Herald and Stag models, but not the others. I also knew the Mayflower, a very distinctive model, but Qaos clearly couldn’t accommodate that!
Thanks to Qaos and manehi.
Nice puzzle but I didn’t get the theme, I hate cars
Interesting how obscurity is a relative term. Jim Courier was in 7 Grand Slam finals, including Wimbledon, and commented and did on-court post-game interviews for the Australian Open just a week ago! I imagine he would prefer to be called a former champion than a former player, since I don’t think there is any indication he has stopped playing entirely.
Good crossword apart from 4dn which was very poorly clued.
WhiteKing @ 11: Has ‘FREEZE GENITALS’ been done before?
Every Games lesson in winter, to my memory…..
Re AUDIOPHILE: funny how the wrong idea can sometimes get you to the right destination. I was helped there by Dr Phil.
And as Dr Whatson says, Jim Courier is a prominent commentator (Aus Open, Roland Garros) as well as a former champion. In 2013 he famously got into trouble with Novak Djokovic for mispronouncing his name…is it jock or joke?
Thanks Q & M
JB @23
I agree that 4d SPITFIRE was a rather weak clue, but for me at least one weak clue was not enough to spoil the fun (or deserve heavy censure for that matter, in case anyone thought otherwise).
I found AUDIOPHILE tough as well as COURIERS – I’ve never come across that word before, but it’s in the dictionary and could be a valid word formation even if it wasn’t.
There were many good clues on show here – more than the two that I remembered to highlight earlier.
Thanks both,
I spotted the theme after the event but then enjoyed it. I can’t recall ‘freeze’ and ‘genitals’ together before, but I do seem to recall ‘brass’ and ‘monkeys’.
COURIER was a guess, I’ve never heard of the tennis guy and I doubt I’ll remember him. I got the theme in that I saw it was cars but I didn’t know most of the models and couldn’t be bothered to look them up.
Quite a nice puzzle. I liked GENITALS -if you see what I mean.
Thanks Qaos.
Once I had DOLOMITE and SPITFIRE with TRIUMPHS the theme was blindingly obvious, which was a pleasant change compared with recent Qaos offerings. I was yet another who failed to parse DPhil ! But on the other hand, I hadn’t forgotten Jim Courier. C’est la guerre ! Thanks to Qaos and Manehi.
Surely if you have heard of Sampras, Cash, Becker, Williams etc , you can’t miss Jim Courier among them, and I am not a tennis fan. In fact, it was my FOI.
I’m sure that Courier would be delighted to be mentioned in the same sentence as Sampras, Cash, Becker, and Williams! Why not Borg, Connors and McEnroe? I don’t watch much tennis (even when I played a lot, I would much rather play than watch), but John McEnroe is one of my favourite sports commentators.
It is rather a surprise how many haven’t heard of Jim Courier. As has been pointed out, he won four Grand Slams, is a former world #1, is a long-time commentator, and is memorably redheaded. [Incidentally, the picture of him on Wikipedia is pretty dreadful.] It’s no less fair than all these times we’ve been expected to know everyone who’s ever played cricket for England.
Needless to say, I did not sport the theme, despite looking. “Qaos always has a theme” is a rule I’ve learned, but this one is far too British for me–Triumphs were not sold here, to my knowledge, at least not widely.
The puzzle hit the sweet spot of being pleasantly solvable without being too easy. My eyebrows went up a bit, though, at cluing SCORPION as Scorpio + N, which felt like a bit of a cop-out since Scorpio of course means “scorpion.”
The theme jumped out to me – a mate once owned a SPITFIRE, my sister had a DOLOMITE SPRINT and my dad owned a TRIUMPH 2000 at one time. I believe Qaos may have been referencing the latter in feMMe fatale.
Lots of fun. GENITALS was brilliant. I wonder if it’s been done before. New to me though, so laugh out loud!
Thanks, Q and manehi. Excellent Friday lunchtime.
A nicely straightforward solve today, especially after my dismal failure to finish, or even get half way through, yesterday’s puzzle. I failed to see the now obvious theme; even though my first car was TRIUMPH HERALD estate; one with piston rings so shot that the plugs had to be taken out and wire-brushed clean of burnt-on oil about every 100 miles. I enjoyed FEMME FATALE especially, but LOOSE CHANGE was a bit marred for me by use of one of my least favourite devices: use of “key” for any letter A-G.
Anyway, thanks to Qaos for a pleasant wind-down after a long day behind the wheel, and to Manehi for the blog.
I don’t understand the reference to the showman in 4dn. I suppose it’s dangerous for anyone to spit fire, but why a showman in particular?
I also don’t see how RED can mean “embarrassment”. It could be “in embarrassment”, but then the construction doesn’t work.
I’m not sure I get the complaints in the comments about “sprint” when the blog describes it just fine. The definition is “detailed terms and conditions” which gives us “small print”, and small has always been able to be abbreviated to “s”. Hence “sprint”. There’s a question mark to show it’s playing a little fast and loose, perhaps.
Really nice puzzle, I thought (even though I missed the theme, because I’m almost blind to them).
Took me a long time to spot the DPhil in 12d.
Like AlanB @20 I was looking/hoping for a Mayflower, or even better a Renown. I recall my dad had two Renowns, retiring the first one to the garage at the borom of the garden whenhe got the second for £100 from the used car lot down the hill. He said teh mayflower was a smaller version of the Renown and the renown was “the poor man’s Rols Royce”. Ah sweet nostalgia.
As I understand it the Triumph Genitals was a concept car, exhibited at Geneva in 1961, but it never went into full production as it was bollocks.
Thanks Manehi for parsing LOOSE CHANGE and AUDIOPHILE. Missed the theme, as I’m unfamiliar with Triumph automobiles (except for the TR6 and TR7.) More familiar with the motorcycles; my neighbor just got a Triumph Scrambler, very close to UNSCRAMBLE but not close enough.
Thanks to Qaos and manehi.
I only had two un-parsed today: INFORMAL (silly me) and COURIERS (or 6a and 3d for those of you who seem to be able to make the connection between from such references and the clue/solution).
I had given myself a demerit for wrongly parsing SPRINT (4a – I’ll stop now….) but on reflection I propose that we are being offered a variation on the usual detailing device whereby the “s” in “terms” is as valid a residue as “term” would be after the usual “detailing” exercise. That would leave “print” as a synonym for “conditions” – “read the print”.
Maybe not.
[Thanks William@5 for the reference to Mario Maccaferri – now I’ll have to attempt yesterday’s offering (Hey! Sometimes I’m busy!) to see what that’s all about.][(How Bad…)]
It’s clearly a sign of the worlds one lives in and the language one is used to but as the possessor of a DPhil (and married to one*) it never occurred to me that the term was in the slightest bit obscure. GK – as ever, it’s easy when you know it.
*Now that’s interesting – one can both be and have a DPhil, b ut one can only “be” a doctor. It’s a title and a qualification…
Enjoyed this one, fell 4 short but quite good for me and I thought gave everyone a chance … laughing at the debate about Courier the day after tile makes its regular uncommented on appearance as hat without having been used in common parlance for 100+ years 🙂
Finished this quite late last night Aussie time, but was too tired then to see a theme or to post on the blog. I went back this morning and thought the theme might be antelopes or elks – REINDEER, STAG – then revised that to creatures when I couldn’t find more – and added LYNX and SCORPION to my list. Not much of a theme, I thought, but I might have missed a couple. So thanks for the elucidatory blog, manehi and other contributors above. I do have two car nuts in my family (partner and son) and have had “spotto” happening with several of these Triumph car models when driving, but am not so sure how many came to Australia. And like a couple of others above, and having a classic 1956 Norton in my sitting room, I would have associated TRIUMPS more with motorbikes to begin with anyway!
On a totally different note, thanks to Valentine@18 for your explanation of the GLORIA in the Mass (you said this much more eloquently and thoroughly than I would have).
Other than my thanks to Qaos and manehi though, that’s all I came on so late to the party to say, as many of my experiences of this puzzle echoed some of those described above. (Similarly to many, I enjoyed it despite missing the endgame, and I liked reading the blog this morning.
[Re motorcycle comments above and in the interests of accuarcy: my significant other just informed me that Triumph motorcyles and Triumph cars are manufactured by two totally different English companies. A very useful (?) TILT! And Norton Motorcycles has just gone into administration!]
Like essexboy@24, I got to DPhil through Dr Phil. I also parsed the AL in INFORMAL as half of bald=naked . It doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you arrive safely.
Failed on the theme again. Triumphs did not do well in Canadian winters, so we didn’t see very many of them.
Lots of humour in the crossword and the commentary, so thanks to Qaos, manehi and commenters.
Was only going to observe that I didn’t know dolomite was a mineral as well as a mountain range.
Then saw the theme courtesy of M’s blog. Can’t believe I missed it – had a dolly sprint in my early 20s. Went like shit off a shovel until the bottom dropped out literally – motto never lift the carpet if your girlfriend complains about damp feet!
Always wanted a TR6 but then mortgage kids etc. Really expensive now of course and probably only get 20 trouble free miles a year. Hohum
Thanks to Q&M for the fun and the trip down memory lane.
3d At least the former US tennis player wasn’t Arthur Ashe again. My quibble with this is that turning a singular into a plural by adding son seems a bit of an easy way out, like adding a single letter at the end of scorpio to make scorpion.
DPhil is used by Oxford for what other places call a PhD. They’re clearly all out of step but our Johnny (or our Willy, or Jim,if you’re American). I wonder why they don’t also award ABs and AMs?
Thanks to Qaos and manehi. I had heard of the cars but still didn’t spot the theme.
[Jin in A: I am Impressed with the Norton in your sitting room. I have a 71 Commando which may end up in my Living room as I haven’t got the strength to kick-start it these days.]