Lots of fun – I got off to a quick start then got stuck for a while in the middle. Favourites were 5ac, 16ac, 17ac, 24ac, 29ac, and 9dn. Thanks to Pasquale
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCAFELL | Mountain ledge offering place of refreshment for one (7) |
| definition: a mountain in the Lake District [wiki], neighbour to Scafell Pike S[i]LL=”ledge” with CAFE=”place of refreshment” taking the place of the ‘i’=”one” |
||
| 5 | PRODUCE | What Mussolini’s supporters were to bring about (7) |
| PRO=’in support of’ + Mussolini was known as Il DUCE | ||
| 10 | CATS | Animals run away, first to last (4) |
| SCAT=”run away”, with the first letter S moving to be last | ||
| 11 | BRANDISHES | Displays bowls of healthy breakfast food (10) |
| BRAN DISHES=”bowls of healthy breakfast food” | ||
| 12 | OBJECT | One acted on making protest (6) |
| double definition: as in ‘object of investigation’; or as in ‘object to the rules’ | ||
| 13 | AMETHYST | Steamy and hot on the outside, turning purple (8) |
| (steamy h[o]t)*, with “turning” as the anagram indicator | ||
| 14 | PRECURSOR | Herald quiet about bad fellow, type falling short (9) |
| P (piano)=”quiet” + RE=”about” + CUR=”bad fellow” + SOR[t]=”type” falling a letter short | ||
| 16 | GROAN | Nasty noise increased for listeners … (5) |
| homophone (“for listeners”) of ‘grown’=”increased” | ||
| 17 | ORGAN | … with this malfunctioning? (5) |
| …a GROAN could be caused by organ malfunction (ORGAN)* i.e. “this malfunctioning” can also create GROAN |
||
| 19 | BLACK ARTS | Magic hospital admitting deficiency (5,4) |
| BARTS (St Bartholomew’s)=”hospital” in London, around LACK=”deficiency” | ||
| 23 | ADAM’S ALE | A mother with opportunity to get bargain non-alcoholic drink (5,3) |
| definition: a humurous description for water A + DAM=”mother” + SALE=”opportunity to get bargain” |
||
| 24 | RUSKIN | Critic beginning to rattle American relations (6) |
| John RUSKIN [wiki] was an art critic R[attle] + US=”American” + KIN=”relations” |
||
| 26 | FUNNY MONEY | What could be seen as my one load of dubious cash? (5,5) |
| In crossword-ese, FUNNY MONEY “could be seen as” an instruction to make an anagram of (money)*, which would give “my one” | ||
| 27 | REIN | Control what causes flooding, we say (4) |
| homophone (“we say”) of ‘rain’=”what causes flooding” | ||
| 28 | FLUSHED | Looking unwell, wanting disease got rid of (7) |
| FLU=”disease” + SHED=”got rid of” | ||
| 29 | SEEPAGE | Maybe waste words introducing cross reference (7) |
| SEE PAGE=”words introducing cross reference” | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | CHAMBER | Church given warning signal — it may contain explosive (7) |
| definition: as in the CHAMBER of a gun CH (Church) + AMBER=”warning signal” |
||
| 3 | FOSSE | Some careless officer found upside down in a ditch (5) |
| definition: a word for a ditch or moat Hidden (“Some”) and reversed (“upside down”) in [carel]ESS OF[ficer] |
||
| 4 | LOBSTER | Bloater’s not a bad sea food item (7) |
| (Blo[a]ter)*, with “not a” as instruction to remove a letter, and “bad” as anagram indicator | ||
| 6 | RIDLEY | Oxford martyr cleared with straight line laid down (6) |
| definition: the Oxford Martyrs [wiki] were Nicholas RIDLEY, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer RID=”cleared” + LEY as in ‘leyline’, a “straight line” along a track “laid down” between two geographical points |
||
| 7 | DYSPHORIA | Uneasiness I must hide in phoney rhapsody (9) |
| I inside (rhapsody)* | ||
| 8 | CHELSEA | Radical Argentinian university associated with a London club (7) |
| definition: a London football club CHE=”Radical Argentinian” + LSE (London School of Economics)=”university” + A |
||
| 9 | DA CAPO AL SEGNO | OAP leads conga, having worked out musical instruction (2,4,2,5) |
| definition: a musical instruction to repeat from the beginning until you reach the sign (OAP leads conga)* |
||
| 15 | CLAIMANTS | 150 workers end squatting inside — demanding types (9) |
| CL=Roman numerals for “150” + ANTS=”workers”; with AIM=”end” inside | ||
| 18 | ROD HULL | Comedian given stick, loveless greeting (3,4) |
| ROD HULL [wiki] was a comedian known for performing with his puppet Emu ROD=”stick” + HULL[O]=”greeting”, without ‘O’=”love” |
||
| 20 | CARLYLE | Historian‘s report of Cumbrian city (7) |
| Thomas CARLYLE [wiki] was a historian homophone (“report”) of ‘Carlisle’=”Cumbrian city” |
||
| 21 | TAIPING | What sounds like traditional office task in Asian town (7) |
| TAIPING is a town in Malaysia, and the name of many places in China homophone of (“sounds like”) ‘typing’=”traditional office task” |
||
| 22 | MAMMAE | Breasts shown by the old woman in old musical (6) |
| MA=”old woman”, in MAME=”old musical” [wiki] originally starring Angela Lansbury | ||
| 25 | SCRAP | Tricky situation when energy’s lacking in fight (5) |
| SCRAP[e]=”Tricky situation”, lacking ‘e’ for “energy” | ||
An immediate change in lifestyle! I’ve never solved online before today…and not tempted by the cheat button!
A pleasant enough stroll with, thankfully, no need of a pencil to chew on.
Many thanks, both and all.
Had no ideas about 21dn and 29ac. So thanks for those.
Could only guess TBILISI and DESPOIL … for no good reason at all.
A serious toughie all round!
Pleasant solve for day 1 of the lockdown. Thanks to manehi and Pasquale.
Bit unconvinced by 16ac and 17ac. A groan is not necessarily ‘nasty’ – one can groan with pleasure, for instance, and why would a groan necessarily be caused by an organ malfunction?
I thought the ORGAN was of the musical variety.
Was thrown for a long time by the unnecessary ‘wanting’ in 28a. Otherwise, a typically immaculate puzzle.
Still getting used to working from home – I am not used to tackling the crossword on the phone before getting out of bed, but without a printer, I can’t solve on paper, and I can’t really justify going out just to buy the Guardian. Took a while to break into this one, but once a few long ones were in (especially DA CAPO AL SEGNO which brought back distant memories of piano lessons), the rest were fairly straightforward and as always very fairly clued.
Thanks to Pasquale and manehi
An enjoyable solve. Took a while to think of Mame; I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Fav clue FLUSHED. Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi.
Meticulous clueing as always from Pasquale – and yet there were still two I didn’t parse. I didn’t see the SILL part of 1a nor the FUNNY part of 26a – a brilliant clue now I’ve see manehi’s explanation. I thought this would be a tough puzzle for overseas solvers with solutions like ROD HULL! I only got 9d by a process of elimination once all the crossers were in. PRODUCE and PRECURSOR were two of many ticks and loi was the very apt FLUSHED – as we’ve just done with that with the covid19 version in our household.
Many thanks for the entertainment Pasquale and to manehi for the blog.
beery hiker @ 6
You have my sympathies regarding lack of a printer Hugh, but I manage pretty well on the iPad.
I’m not generally a great fan of Pasquale’s puzzles, but found this one o.k., even with the obligatory religious reference at 6d and the rather uncommon term at 22d: Pasquale does like his ‘obscure’ words in the S.W. sector.
Excellent way to fill in the interval between bouts on the PC at home, shared with the wife. It is always good to be reminded of John Ruskin, author of the magisterial Modern Painters – and no mean brushman himself.
Another immaculate offering from The Don, who unerringly takes me to places unfrequented…
Had to research The Oxford Martyrs to find Nicholas Ridley, and needed a refresher on John Ruskin.
Never considered AMETHYST as an adjective, and never thought of DYSPHORIA as the antonym to euphoria.
Many thanks, both, stay safe, everyone.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi
It didn’t cause me any problems, but I did think that several clues were a bit parochial; I wonder what overseas solvers will think? SCAFELL was favourite. I agree about the odd “wanting” in 28a.
I surprised myself by finding that straightforward and (apart from a couple of points mentioned on “organ” and “wanting”) immaculately clued such that the right answer had to be, without question, right. However, I was very conscious of filling in answers and thinking “that’s an odd bit of GK” or “unusual word” so I suspect this will be marmite…like most GK if you are familiar, it’s a breeze.
Beautifully crafted though, elegant and clearly it is the setter’s intent to incorporate a wide range of knowledge, not just wordplay so all credit to him. Thank you manehi for the immaculate blog, and Pasquale for today’s lockdown challenge.
Ruskin would be pleased with the clean canals in Venice now.
Nice puzzle, thanks Don and manehi
A DNF for me. Almost completed this with thanks to google and dictionary for most of the UK GK. New for me were Rod Hull, da capo al segno, Scafell, Ridley. I know Ruskin because of his book, The Stones of Venice – which I love.
I failed to solve PRODUCE (nice clue) and CHELSEA – I forgot that Che Guevara was Argentinian.
I could not parse FLUSHED and SCAFELL.
Thanks, Pasquale and manehi.
Instead of produce I had conduce (yes, my SOED says v. trans) for bring about, which rather did for 6d, so dnf. Enjoyed the rest though. Bit slow to get bran dishes, der, and to remember Adam’s ale, and the comedian was a blank, so follow the tin (recognised his pics, but not the name). Thanks P and M.
Tough in places, 22d held me up a lot. I did wonder if there was a theme with Ruskin and Carlyle being friends but I could see no other links other than Carlyle was called the ‘sage of Chelsea’. In 12a, I understood ‘object’ in the grammatical sense, as opposed to the ‘subject’. Thanks to Pasquale for the challenge and to Manehi for confirming the parsings.
FT solvers will note 16a that was clued in yesterday’s FT 16,432 as “Escalated muttered complaint”. With the O/W ambiguity unchecked in the grid!
Good stuff from Pasquale – had difficulty with MAMMAE, but eventually got it. Many thanks to P & m.
I wonder if Pasquale knew that Rod Hull was a cryptic crossword fan? He did the Times every day (about 20 minutes, apparently).
Thanks for that Herb. I can add that to the other snippets of new info this morning.
Muffin@12 read my mind.
Thanks Manehi for parsing scafell, mammae and seepage, the three answers that eluded me today. Thanks Pasquale for the superb challenge. Confined to home, I was entertained by this for over five hours!
In my rush I forgot to mention that I too wondered about the names Larry (@17) mentions, but decided there weren’t enough proper nouns to make a ‘theme’. You could be onto something though Larry and I’ll check later for any updates. Thanks.
I am usually a bit afraid of the Don because of the level of GK that is required. Nevertheless I always enjoy the solve even if I cannot guarantee to finish. Today I did finish but needed to Google the Oxford martyr on the way. I spent far too long on FLUSHED but it became a favourite once I ‘got’ it! Other favourites were BRANDISHES, very clever and ORGAN. Many thanks to setter and blogger. manehi I needed your help along the way especially with FUNNY MONEY which once you showed me how to parse it became my clue of the day!
Well, I got there in the end with a lot of GK added to my armoury.
I had a GROAN at BRAN DISHES, but in a nice way. I don’t think 9D is going to be used by me anytime soon. I do like reverse clues like the one for FUNNY MONEY, where I think ‘load of’ is part of the definition (?)
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
… double like, but I enjoyed it.
Held up for a while as I’m not musical enough to have got 9d, even with the anagram. Stared at SCAFELL for a while as FOI, having felt sure it was correctly solved, but unable to parse, not seeing “for” as meaning “but for”. Paper boy still delivering, but I wonder for how much longer…
Herb@20-how long did emu take-and why wasnt he in the puzzle?
Having R and U in 18d, was hoping it was a tribute to the late great Roy Hudd..
Like Larry @17, I was on the look-out for Victorian intellectuals since my first ones in were Ruskin and Carlyle, and I was a bit disappointed there were no more. A very enjoyable crossword even so – thanks for the parsing on Scafell and Funny Money, which I couldn’t see at all, though obvious once explained!
To respond to Whiteking @8 and muffin @12, I can offer the perspective of one overseas solver. I found this tough in general and failed on MAMMAE, but I did get the UK-centric clues with the aid of crossers and google. For some reason I didn’t enjoy the struggle as much as I usually do with Pasquale, but I did smile at PRODUCE, BRANDISHES and SEEPAGE.
No lockdown here yet, but most businesses are closed, and MrsNC and I are isolating ourselves. I appreciate the 15^2 community more than ever now as a link to the wider world. Stay well, all.
I tried to put Ken Dodd in for the comedian, but luckily gave up without spending too long trying to see how it fitted the wordplay.
My favourites have all been mentioned already. A dnf as I didn’t get RIDLEY, having forgotten ley lines, which I think I’ve seen a few times in crosswords. Once revealed, his name as a martyr did ring a faint bell in my mind. Needed manehi’s help to parse SCAFELL. I knew MAMMAE, from having worked for the Met Office about 40 years ago; mammae are somewhat breast-shaped downward projections occasionally seen on thunder clouds.
Thanks Pasquale and manehi.
Still managed to go out and get the paper copy this morning, though the first supermarket I went to had no papers at all, and the second more staff than customers. I was getting food as well, and newsagents are one of the sections of retailers still allowed to open. I also thought there would be more complaints here about the very British GK. Wikipedia and the dictionary app got a lot of hammering. DA CAPO… was a word search having guessed DA CAPO, and the app gave me the rest. RIDLEY was a wikipedia search after having first confused Oxford martyrs with the Oxford Movement – two totally different religious standpoints. MAMMAE was also an app search – thought it would start with MAMM, and MAME was a wiki check.
I often download and print out the crosswords. The new ritual in these strange times is to leave it on the kitchen table until lunchtime – a treat waiting for me to help survive these potentially boring days. Then, later, I’m back on line to read the comments on this forum, using up more minutes. Thanks to all: setters, explainers and commenters. You’re all helping me to keep the brain going, when not much else is happening.
I’m getting used to doing these online now, sometimes avoiding the rather slow letter-by-letter entry and pressing ‘Reveal’. (Risky, I know, but I haven’t yet caught myself out with a wrong guess!)
I go for the long ones first, and I saw that DA CAPO AL (from music lessons) was very likely to start the phrase. Instead of FINE, though (the more familiar one to me), it was SEGNO. BLACK ARTS was next, and from then on I very much enjoyed spreading out in every direction, as it were, from the centre. 16a and 17a were the toughest and my last two in.
I too wondered whether Rod Hull would be familiar to non-Brits. He was a local resident here in Rochester (Kent) before he moved to the south coast where he unfortunately died in an accident at home in 1999. His son Toby, who later continued some performances with Rod’s infernal puppet Emu, was in the same school and year as my own son.
Thsnk to Pasquale for an elegant crossword and to manehi for the blog and for parsing SCAFELL and SEEPAGE for me.
Like Alan B, I’m more familiar with DA CAPO AL FINE so I just kept fiddling about with the remaining letters from the anagram until the true answer emerged from my foggy memory. I enjoyed SCAFELL, grinned at BRANDISHES and PRODUCE, giggled out loud at TAIPING. Here in France we’ve just reached the end of our first week of lockdown, so I now have much more time to spend on these crosswords, and am particularly grateful for the extra info I keep gleaning from all the FS comments.
Thanks to Manehi for help in parsing FUNNY MONEY and thanks to Pasquale for keeping me entertained.
There’s a wonderful quote about Thomas Carlyle: “It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs Carlyle marry one another, and so make only two people miserable and not four”. Wikipedia tells me it was made by Samuel Butler.
Thanks to all
Got to this late despite the lockdown,and was another who had to do the puzzle on an I pad. My printer seems to have come out in sympathy with the virus. This looked fiendishly difficult on the first pass but proved not to be. I thought there’d be a theme after getting RUSKIN and CARLYLE but—-. I liked BRANDISHES and,oh,quite a lot of others.
Thanks Pasquale.
Any thanks to both. Having grown up on the other side of the world, I needed a Google session to confirm the names – Hull, Ridley and Carlyle but the others swam out of the misty memory depths. No doubt I picked them up through the crosswords.
we go into lockdown tonight so things are changing here too. Good luck all.
I interpreted 28a as triply clued – 1 “looking unwell”, 2 “wanting” = lacking = (having) shed & “disease” = flu, 3 “got rid of”. So that one got a tick from me. Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi.
26a strikes me as poor; why not ‘dodgy money’, for instance? Otherwise nice; Scafell especially good.
Goes to show how one man’s GK is another’s obscurity. I have no musical training at all so 9d completely escaped me even though I knew the crossing letters and the anagram fodder.
Like grantinfreo I thought I was being clever with CONDUCE at 5, so was stuck for 6 until finally succumbing to Check All, at which point I got RIDLEY purely from the wordplay. Thanks to the Don and manehi.
Very enjoyable & challenging – certainly a good deal tougher than the DT back pager. Finally gave up 4 answers short, 3 of which I doubt I’d have cracked in a year of self isolation.
At 16, I had GREAT, GRATE being a better word for a ‘nasty noise’ than GROAN in my view. Consequently, I couldn’t get ORGAN. But otherwise I found this easier than usual for the Don.
Had great for groan, grating sound increased, and break for organ, a disfunction, and a brake grates noisily. I thought it worked?