Brummie provides an enjoyable challenge today, all fairly clued, with just a couple of less familiar words.
Brummie’s puzzles often have a theme. All I can see here is a mini-thread at 1ac, 25ac, 26/6ac and 6dn.
I need help in parsing 19ac – over to you.
Many thanks for the puzzle, Brummie.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Posture shown by beautifully elevated heads in a square formation (9)
ARABESQUE
Initial letters [heads] of Beautifully Elevated in an anagram [formation] of A SQUARE
6 Carmine‘s watery body? (4)
LAKE
Double definition – I remembered ‘crimson lake’ from my childhood paintbox
8 Potential health risks of tailless camel eating earth (8)
BACTERIA
BACTRIA[n] [camel] round E [earth]
9 Smallholders, historically old, residing in the country (6)
YEOMEN
O [old] in YEMEN [country]
10 Officer’s sound heart (6)
KERNEL
Sounds like ‘colonel’ [officer]
11 Run over on joining head of funeral cortege (8)
REHEARSE
RE [on] + HEARSE [head of funeral cortege]
12 Pod formed by like-minded artists? (6)
SCHOOL
Double definition – school of whales and goup of artists, eg the Newlyn School
15 Vulnerable type of male sadly getting nothing (4,4)
LAME DUCK
An anagram [sadly] of MALE + DUCK [nothing – cricket score]
16 Book, or a bishop, or a Pacific island (4,4)
BORA BORA
B [book] + OR A B [bishop] + ORA – an island in French Polynesia
19 One’s out of time, wearing most unlikely current fashion (6)
LATEST
I just can’t see this, I’m afraid – see comments 1 and 2 [thanks to bodycheetah and baerchen]
21 Rips off in authentic vengeful act (8)
REPRISAL
An anagram [off] of RIPS in REAL [authentic]
22 Tester needs one to probe ape (6)
CANOPY
AN [one] in COPY [ape] – see here for the definition
24 Very large area of fair dismantled by state (6)
AFRICA
An anagram [dismantled] of FAIR + CA [state]
25 Gutless gents put out with ladies’ controlled descent (8)
GLISSADE
An anagram [put out] of G[ent]S + LADIES –
26 Stately creature, top of stairs, looking sickly (4)
SWAN
S[tairs] + WAN [looking sickly] – see here for ‘stately’
27 Seafront is for crew forced to abandon leader (9)
PROMENADE
PRO [for] + MEN [crew] + [m / b – take your pick]ADE [forced]
Down
1 Saw road agent removing wings (5)
ADAGE
[ro]AD AGE[nt]
2 Vivaldi’s first sonata ending in ‘not moved by love’ (7)
ANTONIO
[sonat]A + an anagram [moved] of IN NOT + O [love – tennis score this time]]
3 Register wedged in between rollers (5)
ENROL
Hidden in betweEN ROLlers
4 Scrap arrow (7)
QUARREL
Double definition
5 Male with rough leathery sort of skin suffering from redness (9)
ERYTHEMAL
An anagram [rough] of M [male] + LEATHERY
6 Habit of dipping injured toe in fat (7)
LEOTARD
An anagram [injured] of TOE in LARD
7 Hose gets kinked, see, when stored in pans (4-5)
KNEE-SOCKS
An anagram [kinked] of SEE in KNOCKS [pans]
13 Elect to fix fences? How? (6,3)
CHOSEN FEW
An anagram [to fix] of FENCES HOW
14 Buck up king with bitter underneath throne (4,5)
LOOK SHARP
LOO [throne] + K [king] + SHARP [bitter] – just last week, Vulcan gave us ‘look smart’ and several of you said you were more familiar with this expression
17 A rule cited to make an accusation (7)
ARRAIGN
Sounds like [cited] ‘a reign’ [a rule]
18 Pacino goes to stage right, getting round quickly? (7)
ALLEGRO
AL [Pacino] + LEG [stage] + R [right] + O [round]
20 Country getting first-class return on its capital (7)
TUNISIA
A reversal [return] of AI [first class] after TUNIS [its capital]
22 It takes cold skin to lecture (5)
CHIDE
C [cold] + HIDE [skin]
23 Hull is supported by good English fat (5)
PODGE
POD [this time with another meaning – hull – outer covering, ] + G [good] E [English]
19a I’M out of TIME = TE inside LAST = most unlikely
hi Eileen,
I had 19 as “I’m” = one is, leaving time in last (least likely outcome)
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
I didn’t see the parsing of LATEST either. “One’s out of time” could be LATE, then moST? Not convinced.
You have the wrong state in 24a, Eileen 🙂
Overall I found this pretty straightforward.
Thanks bodycheetah and baerchen – I knew it wouldn’t take long!
And thanks muffin: sheer carelessness [it so often is Rhode Island!]. I’ll fix it now.
Easy peasy for me, about 25 minutes to solve, fave clue LEOTARD.
All fell in place fairly evenly and was quite enjoyable. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, then I guess that is how I felt about it. Nothing to really smile about but all very fair and correct. I got LATEST from the crossing letters and the idea that wearing the latest clothes, means wearing the current fashion. Favourites were LAKE, BORA BORA and GLISSADE. Many thanks to Brummie and Eileen!
[Logging in to correct my mistake, I’ve just noticed that this is my 700th blog – can’t believe it!]
Congrats, Eileen!
Wow, Eileen, well done!
Thanks for suggesting a theme, Eileen. Could one add to it ALLEGRO, PROMENADE, REHEARSE, SCHOOL and KNEE SOCKS? And, the amateur version of Swan Lake, LAME DUCK?
Thanks for an entertaining puzzle, Brummie, and Eileen for the blog. Congratulations on reaching an astounding total!
wow Eileen!
As others have said, fairly straightforward. I think “promenade” is part of the theme too. I was not convinced by “sharp” = “bitter”. A sharp taste is usually thought of as sour (like lemons) ie acid (note the German “Sauerstoff” for acid). So apart from that unpleasant taste in my mouth the rest was sapid if straightforward. Thanks Brummie and a special thank you to Eileen for keeping us entertained for so long.
Nothing too complex, but I didn’t find this one easy.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen (and congratulations – I hope there are many more to come)
Thanks for the LAME DUCK, Mark. 😉
Sometimes you get to the end of a crossword and think “Thank goodness that’s over”. Sometimes you get to the end of a crossword and think “Nothing earth-shattering, but fair, with a good variety of clues, and an enjoyable start to the day”.
This was very much in the second category. Particularly liked 2dn for some reason; and the two relatively unfamiliar words, ERYTHEMAL and GLISSADE, had good clear wordplay.
Thanks to Brummie; and an awe-struck hat-tip to Eileen.
Thanks, and congratulations, Eileen; here’s to the next 700.
muffin@3 I was musing along your idea about LATEST, and thought taking the time MO out of MOST – is that what you meant? leaves an awkward UNLIKELY, though.
Curiously, I completed the bottom half completely before getting any of the top clues.
Thanks, Brummie, too.
Dave @16
Yes, that was the way I was thinking, but it needs “time” to be doing double duty.
This all slipped into place very smoothly and enjoyably this morning, helped greatly at first by the crossers that indicated answers beginning with the letters Q, K and Y in the top half of the puzzle. Cascaded downwards successfully and satisfyingly after that…
Many thanks to Brummie, and congratulations, Eileen, for all your excellent blogs 🙂
Most of this was a steady solve, but I found myself struggling with a lot of empty space in the NE, unlocked for me by LATEST, which I thought had a very misleading surface that I was very pleased to have unravelled.
Thanks to Brummie for an enjoyable puzzle.
Congratulations, Eileen on a lengthy and very classy innings.
Congratulations Eileen – how many years has it taken to reach this milestone?
As for the puzzle it took all the way down to GLISSADE before anything went in (I did have SCHOOL but wasn’t convinced) so I thought it was going to be tough. Then the SW corner went in and the rest followed steadily apart from the SE where I resorted to an alphabet trawl for __DGE words and realised nearly all 26 have several possibilities – and I missed PODGE so went back to work on CANOPY which led to TUNISIA and finally the unparsed LATEST.
Plenty to like so thanks to Brummie and Eileen.
Good crossword; I didn’t know the ‘other’ meanings of QUARREL, CANOPY and hull. Oxford says that the derivation of the first is: ‘Middle English from Old French, based on late Latin quadrus ‘square’.’ I’m sure Eileen will know that. I couldn’t parse LATEST either.
I liked the hose, which took me ages to see as I got locked into K?E? being ‘keep.’
Thanks Brummie for an enjoyable solve.
Congrats to Eileen on another milestone of high-quality blogging. How many years is that?
700!!!Wow!Thanks Eileen and thanks Brummie.
Early finish for me. The SW corner was a write in, then out came my aids. I had the same paintbox as Eileen (Prussian blue and yellow ochre). Couldn’t parse KNEESOCKS and I’ve never heard of BACTRIAN. Many thanks Eileen and congratulations. I don’t like to ask how long a period your grand total is spread over! Thanks also to Brummie
WhiteKing, Robi [and Julia 😉 ] – 11.
Thanks for the blog, Eileen, and congratulations on your 700. ADAGE at 1d is another balletic term (French equivalent of the Italian “adagio”). There’s a Grand Adage (aka Pas de Deux or Love Duet) in Swan Lake.
Thanks Eileen (congrats on 700) and Brummie.
Despite some heroic efforts above, the parsing of LATEST still seems unsatisfactory. The unexplained switch from third person ONE IS to first person I’M is perhaps most likely, but needs an indicator. Perhaps reference to royalty or Hercule Poirot, as they seem the most famous proponents of referring to oneself in the third person.
SPanza @6 and NeilH @15 sum up my feelings about the puzzle. I also liked 2d, ANTONIO, for the misdirection in the definition (I was sure the answer had to contain a V). Thanks, Brummie.
Couldn’t parse a few, so thanks to Eileen for that, and congratulations on reaching a total that speaks of real dedication on your part.
I was held up a little by guessing “Erythmeal” having recognised “eryth” as used in “erythrocyte” – a red blood cell, and I had to google Vivaldi to get Antonio. Otherwise pretty much as NeilH @15 said. Thanks to Eileen and Brummie.
Great milestone Eileen, congrats. And wasn’t it Arachne who compiled that wonderful tribute to your last milestone, a decade birthday? I do hope she is still with us.
thanks Eileen for another excellent blog – I enjoyed the informative links. Congrats on it being the 700th.
I am another who didn’t parse LATEST, thanks bodycheetah and baerchen.
I thought LEOTARD also went with the theme.
Thanks to Brummie for the fun.
Thanks too Brummie and Eileen, and congratulations Eileen on your 700th!
This went in fairly quickly, despite some unknowns – tester and glissade, although as a former clarinettist I am familiar with glissando, as in the opening of Rhapsody in Blue (though I was never able to play it).
I have eaten swan, as an undergraduate at St John’s: only this College and royalty are allowed to do so. It wasn’t particularly memorable.
Michael Flanders made a joke about Donald Swann being rather unhappy one day, as it was “swan upping Sunday”, a joke I didn’t appreciate fully until I was an adult.
Finally, we had the Maestro yesterday, and the Allegro today. Any more automotive masterpieces to come?
Thanks, Andrew @26: I enjoyed that – but didn’t know that’s what it was called! Interesting that musical terms are Italian [see Marienkaefer @32, too] and balletic terms French. [You can probably tell me why.]
grantinfreo @30 – yes, it was. [The last I heard, Arachne was fine.]
ngaiolaureson @31 – I did include LEOTARD in my [short] list, though missed some others, so thanks to those who filled in the gaps.
Congratulations on the milestone, Eileen! Only three setters in the Guardian archive have more puzzles than you have blogs.
Thanks for that, Mitz – I know which I’d rather do. 😉 [I’m pretty sure Andrew has done more than me.]
Eileen @34 – I didn’t know that.
I’ve always liked the fact that in Italy musical terms are, unsurprisingly, used in an ordinary way: you get aria at a garage, and wait at a fermata for a bus. (I know it’s air in English, but I don’t think anyone uses that now for song, other than in crosswordland).
Thanks Brummie, thanks and congratulations to Eileen
Robi @ 22: the ‘quadrus’ derivation for quarrel is probably derived from crossbow bolts having had square heads, as opposed to the round or flattened ones for longbows.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen. I very much doubt I’ve read 700 blogs. Astonishing.
Too rich for me – no complaints, just a wavelength thing. ERYTHEMAL, ARABESQUE and QUARREL (arrow?) led me to a standstill in the NW. Ah well – tomorrow is another (strangely similar) day.
I think the theme is ballet orientated. Swan Lake has an adage. There are several glussandi.Dancers wear knee socks. The ballet has an adagio. Then there are rehearsals schools a promenade. Yeoman is more G and S there is definitely an aravesque Some versions have an Antonio . Also allegri in more than on act.Then there is the leotard. Probably a mix of the lake and ballet
Late to the party today, so it’s all been said. My grid filled as the inverse of Dave Ellison’s @16: that’s the nature of the beast.
Let me add congratulations to Eileen for her marathon.
@Simon S. I see. Tvm.
I didn’t really see the theme which looks obvious now. Otherwise I thought this quite straightforward. And today Tescos had FLOUR!
My cup runneth over.
Congratulations Eileen.
Thanks Brummie.
Is Africa a state? I thought it was a continent.
Congratulations, Eileen. I’m not normally in the habit of thanking you (or any setter) with my first post of the day, but let me correct that now!
Marinekaefer@32
Yeoman was a 1958 Chevy, part of the Biscayne series used extensively by the US police, you could have fitTed a Maestro in the back as it was so large estate.
thanks to brummie and congratulations to eileen, when was eilene’s first blog and the first Guardian blog?
This is only my second contribution to this site, although I have been a reader for about 10 years. I solve crosswords in strict order and often have a backlog, but caught up at the weekend. Many thanks to Brummie for an enjoyable puzzle, and congratulations to Eileen for so many erudite and good natured blogs. This site does so much to enhance the solitary nature of solving crosswords.
jennifer @43
California is the state
Alphalpha @ 41
The crossbow bolt/quarrel is also the source of the phrase ‘pick a quarrel’.
Congratulations Eileen on 700, and thanks.
27a I saw ‘forced’ as just ‘made’.
As in Parent: Go to your room!
Child: Make me!
Sorry Eileen, I see now that’s what you meant re 27a.
ERYTHEMAL was new to me, as was LAKE as a type of pigment, so the NE took as long for me as the rest of the puzzle put together. Both clues were of course perfectly fair, so I’m not complaining.
Many thanks to Eileen, one of my favorite bloggers, on the occasion of her milestone.
TheZed@12
don’t mean to be picky but ‘Sauerstoff’ is German for oxygen.
Thanks to Brummie and congrats to Eileen on a tremendous milestone
Congratulations, Eileen!
I enjoyed solving both halves of this crossword – the top first and then the bottom. It was a Brummie with a light touch, and a pleasant experience for me having just completed two crosswords from the weekend.
dantheman @27
I would say that ‘one is’ does not need any indicator. It uses a generic (non-specific) pronoun and could lead to we’re (and other possibilities) as well as I’m, and it’s for us to choose the right one. We more often see ‘setter is’, for which one would naturally substitute I’m.
Marienkaefer @32
To follow the Maestro and Allegro, how about the Maxi? Don’t knock it, though – we had one for a while in North Yorkshire, and it had the space and oomph to make light work of carrying a young family and tackling all the local hills.
Thanks to both Brummie and Eileen.
A steady solve generally with favorites being REHEARSE and ALLEGRO — could not parse ARABESQUE or PROMENADE so thanks Eileen for that. Congratulations on #700 — I knew you were legendary when you were the subject of a FT clue several months ago. Thanks Brummie for the entertainment.
Thanks, Eileen and congratulations on the milestone blog.
A serviceable, if not particularly sparkling puzzle. I liked LEOTARD. Tester meaning CANOPY was new to me. I only vaguely noticed the theme, but not all the details. Thanks, Brummie.
I’ve no idea why but the one that gave me the most joy was TUNISIA.
Needed google to check several solutions or the parsing thereof- arabesque, carmine, bactrian, canopy, glissade, Antonio V, quarrel, and erythemal, and also couldn’t parse LATEST. Just as well I was doing it online!
Congratulations to Eileen on reaching a very impressive milestone.
Just had to join in to congratulate you Eileen on your 700th blog. May there be many more.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
steveb @52 my mistake – thank you. I had jumped on a step to do with the etymology (oxygen meaning “acid former” in English, sauerstoff effectively denoting the same in German but with the term “sour” in place of “acid” making the link between the two terms very clear). Then I completely forgot the original term and made the mistake of equating sauerstoff directly with acid not oxygen!
Just goes to show that it is always helpful to know *why* something is as it is, and vocab is much easier with a bit of etymology, but it doesn’t always work when you are trying to be too clever! I’ll leave any political commentary on that thought to others…
A nice and, we thought, easy-ish crossword with a theme that we spotted once we’d filled the grid.
Just one question: does 5d really tell us (M+LEATHERY)*?
To me it suggests: M+(LEATHERY)* which is not what Brummie wants.
Many thanks to Eileen (& congrats, of course) and to Brummie.
Hi Sil @60
Re 5dn: hmm, yes, you’re quite right: I slightly misparsed it.
sil @60, Eileen @61 Could both “rough” and “sort” be anagrinds, so you first rough up “leathery” and then sort it with “m”? Clumsy but accurate? And the def’n would be “of skin…”
Happy 700th Eileen (now there’s a card you won’t find at the newsagents 🙂 )
I failed today on CANOPY – too fixated on canapés. Like you, and others, I was frustrated by the parsing of LATEST. Looking at it now, I wonder if last = most unlikely belongs in the same category as remote = slim, or (dare I say it) up = amiss. Somewhere along the continuum between true synonym and red = London.
Sil @60: I read the ‘sort of skin’ in 5d as doing double duty: both part of the definition for ERYTHEMAL, and also an indication that the anaground ‘leathery’ is clothing the male.
Many thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Sorry TheZed @62, we crossed. And I can your parsing does work – except I feel almost sorry for the ‘leathery’, having been subjected to double grinding!
Many congratulations, Eileen
Re 5, ‘with’ can mean ‘among’ (eg “I was very down but felt better when I was with/among friends”, so I think it stands up. I understand that others might disagree, though.
Many thanks to both. I also had the question posed by Sil@60. I kept looking for a word that started with M.
But the main reason for commenting today is to congratulate Eileen on 700. I enjoy your blogs and the way you keep interacting with the other commenters – cannot really say commentators can we. By the way, it has dawned a beautiful day on the other side of the world.
Congratulations Eileen, what a remarkable achievement. I look forward to learning a lot more from you in future too! I am one of those who found the top half pretty tough, not helped by taking so long to spot 1D that it was my last one in, but also one of my favourites. I had to use online trial and error for 5D anagram so this would have been a pencil and paper fail. Is “E” for Earth common? I spent ages trying some anagram there before remembering my camels. Thanks Brummie, this kept me going all day, on and off, and I enjoyed it.
Hi Gazzh @68 – E = earth when wiring plugs – quite common in crosswords 😉 ].
Congratulations Eileen and thanks to you and Brummie for this which I much enjoyed this morning. I think you fave the wrong word as the definition in the last clue (23d?). The definition must be fat/podge with hull meaning pod. Quite chuffed with myself for parsing LATEST. I had not got the camel in BACTERIA so thank you for that. I loved all the ballet/musical terms.
You’re quite right, of course, Beobachterin – how did I get away with that for so long? I’ve fixed it, for the record.
Of course! (I haven’t wired a plug for a few years, in my defence.) Thank you (again) Eileen.
Lovely puzzle which we completed over lunch today.
Favourite clue -13d.
Thanks to Eileen and Brummie.
While I do this via the Guardian Weekly so few people will see this, I am amazed by the differences among people’s solving processes. ‘Latest’ in this puzzle was one of my first to write in, and in general I am slow and mostly do not finish these crosswords. I always enjoy reading the comments and finding all the answers I have missed. I finished this particular one, however, with only one un-parsed. Just shows to go you!