A tough one from the Don today. I wasnt up to the mark in tackling this one.
FF: 9 DD: 10
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | ITALIAN VERMOUTH |
It is the man I outrival going mad (7,8)
|
| [ THE MAN I OUTRIVAL ]* | ||
| 10 | HATED |
Very unpopular letters that editor receives (5)
|
| hidden in “..tHAT EDitor..” | ||
| 11 | GRISAILLE |
Painting is first bit of art to be protected by metal bars (9)
|
| [ IS A ( first bit of Art ) ] in GRILLE ( metal bars ) – didnt know this word and had to use chamber’s word fit | ||
| 12 | ELEVENSES |
Refreshments? Team seems not to want ‘em (9)
|
| ELEVEN ( team, cricket ) SEemS ( without ‘EM’ ) | ||
| 14 | MUG UP |
Study before exam as idiot at Oxford? (3,2)
|
| MUG ( idiot ) UP ( oxford ) | ||
| 16 | SIR EDWIN LUTYENS |
Architect configuring truly new insides (3,5,7)
|
| [ TRULY NEW INSIDES ]* | ||
| 19 | NOISE |
A —–? Irritates when heard! (5)
|
| not sure what exactly to mark as def; the parsing is -> A NOISE sounds like ANNOYS ( irritates ); a noise by itself could be irritating for sure. | ||
| 21 | TURQUOISE |
Our quiet’s disturbed, making us sort of blue (9)
|
| [ OUR QUIETS ]* | ||
| 23 | UNDERHAND |
Working for a labourer is not straightforward (9)
|
| cryptic def; parsed as UNDER (~ working for ) HAND ( labourer ) | ||
| 25 |
See 2
|
|
| 26 | SHOTGUN MARRIAGE |
One’s expecting to be in this match maybe? (7,8)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HIGH SEASON |
School’s dealt with each boy in a busy period (4,6)
|
| HIGH’S ( school’s ) EA ( each ) SON ( boy ) | ||
| 2, 25 | CASTLE DROGO |
Form of cold storage that was designed by 16 (6,5)
|
| [ COLD STORAGE ]* – see 16a | ||
| 3 | HINDHEAD |
Deer going over mass of leaves in Surrey village (8)
|
| HIND ( deer ) HEAD ( mass of leaves ) | ||
| 4 | SNAG |
Problem making leader of society go on and on (4)
|
| S ( leader of Society ) NAG ( go on and on ) | ||
| 5 | PENINSULAR |
It could be sunnier, pal, in Spain and Portugal? (10)
|
| [ SUNNIER PAL ]* | ||
| 6 | EMBALM |
Business qualification in wood preserve! (6)
|
| MBA ( business qualification ) in ELM ( wood ) | ||
| 7 | DUOLOGUE |
The community we’ve left to become vociferous — upsetting conversation (8)
|
| reverse of EU ( community we’ve left, ref brexit ) GO LOUD ( become vociferous ) | ||
| 8 | SHOE |
House in home counties or Oxford? (4)
|
| HO ( home ) in SE ( home counties ) | ||
| 13 | SAINT SAENS |
Pianist isn’t sane, playing aboard ship (5-5)
|
| [ ISNT SANE ]* in SS | ||
| 15 | PASSED OVER |
Old-fashioned daughter, maiden maybe getting ignored (6,4)
|
| PASSE ( old-fashioned ) D ( daughter ) OVER ( maiden maybe, cricket ) | ||
| 17 | RAINDROP |
Poor Indra somehow having nothing to release — not even this? (8)
|
| [ POoR INDRA ]* – very clever clue; INDRA is the indian god of thunder, lightning, storms etc | ||
| 18 | THUNDERY |
Gloomy second person’s keeping below (8)
|
| UNDER ( below ) in THY ( second person’s ) | ||
| 20 | ENRAGE |
Terrible avenger not against showing anger (6)
|
| [ AvENGER ( without V – against ) ]* | ||
| 22 | ISOBAR |
First person keen to go on a river that is shown on maps (6)
|
| I ( first person ) SOB ( keen ) A R ( river ) | ||
| 23 | UIST |
Two islands — holy person is buried beneath superior one (4)
|
| U ( superior ) I ( one ) ST ( holy person ) | ||
| 24 | DEAL |
Bargain is perfect? I missed out (4)
|
| iDEAL ( perfect, without I ) |
Apart from, as usual, forgetting about gin and it quite straightforward once I realized that I had embalm with an n.
very difficult today thanks for the blog.
19d the anagram doesn’t parse…am I missing something? too many “s” not enough “a”
also 1d: why is IT an Italian vermouth? I see the anagram but don’t understand the definition
I don’t quite understand 13a. I am sure the answer is right but an anagram of ISN’T SANE in SS has 4 ‘S’s while Saint-Saens has only 3.
Really enjoyed this puzzle
I found 13D to be incorrect. Not enough A to go round
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs. I didn’t get everything but when seeing explanations, all very enjoyable. GRISAILLE was new and I hadn’t heard MUG UP in that sense. I got ITALIAN VERMOUTH as anagram but had to look up “it” – thanks, Alan@1 – apparently a “gin and IT” is a kind of martini cocktail?
13d: could this be AIN’T (isn’t) plus anagram of SANE inside SS?
13d is quite correct. – aint = isn’t + (sane*) all within ss
A stiff challenge but most of it fell into place eventually — HINDHEAD, DUOLOGUE, and UIST were never going to drop for me as they were out of my realm. I enjoyed clues like ISOBAR and THUNDERY and was happy to see CASTLE DROGO as that brought back memories of my first trip to Britain. Thanks Bradman and to Turbolegs for the blog.
When I am accused of a mistake I shudder — but this time, phew…
Glad it went down reasonaby well
It was a challenge but full of some excellent clues.can anyone please explain what FF 9 means?
This took me a very long time, but I got there in the end. GRISAILLE was a new word, but sufficiently clued. I would never have got CASTLE DROGO if I hadn’t stayed there in 1965, supposedly to MUG UP before my finals at Oxford.
Too much GK for me. Didn’t have any trouble with 13d though, parsed as Jeff & Paul. Got CASTLE DROGO from the anagram (never heard of it) and googled to get the architect (never heard of him). Didn’t bother with 3d – clearly began with HIND but never heard of that meaning of “head” or of the village. Guessed GRISAILLE and looked it up to check, similarly with UIST. Got RAINDROP but didn’t know who Indra was. Didn’t know the pianist @13 but deduced from clue. DUOLOGUE was a new word for me.
All in all, a learning experience rather than an enjoyable one, although ask me the architect’s name tomorrow and I won’t have any idea.
Many thanks to turbolegs for the blog, and Bradman for the xword, and dropping in. I don’t think I’ve seen mug up since I left uni, Bangor ’77
SM @9. I think Turbolegs uses FF for Fun Factor and DD for degree of Difficulty but I may be wrong.
I’m in the “aint” = “isn’t” group. Got all but 7d even with _u_logue! A fun workout – thanks turbo legs and Bradman.
Thanks Hovis. All clear now
Very tough and very good. I thought the It definition was brilliant and the clueing for the unknown GRISAILLE impeccable. Many thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
Very enjoyable – thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs for clarifying some I had guessed at. Brought back some good memories: worked at the Lutyens 85 Fleet Street building (Reuters) and went to South Uist four January’s ago – very cold and windy (flight from Glasgow was ‘fun’).
Another lot of fun although I did have to sleep on it and finish this morning with breakfast coffee. Google a great architectural help. I am also in the “ain’t” camp.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.
Hard hard hard. Got nearly all but the few in the top half which foxed others. Glad I didn’t persevere longer.
Late to the party, but we didn’t find this too difficult – at least we finished without help, which we didn’t manage for Phi’s offering in the Indy.
ELEVENSES, SHOTGUN MARRIAGE and SAINT-SAËNS were our favourites,
Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Was a toughie that took well over the hour to complete. Some new terms, including GRISAILLE, EDWIN LUTYERS and his CASTLE DROGO, HINDHEAD, DUOLOGUE and SAINT-SAENS.
Do like the clues such as 19a.
Finished with HIGH SEASON (tricky word play), SAINT-SAENS (didn’t know this composer and a hard one to unjumble) and DUOLOGUE (where I couldn’t parse the first bit).