Thank you to Qaos. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Mark with spots led astray installing smartphone program (6)
DAPPLE : Anagram of(… astray) LED containing(installing) APP(a computer programme for a smartphone).
… naturally marked.
4. They protect the Crown (7)
HELMETS : Cryptic defn: The “crown” of one’s head, that is.
9. Old setter’s good with child (9)
EXPECTING : EX-(prefix signifying old/former) + PECTIN(a substance used to make jams and jellies set/solidify) plus(..’s/has) G(abbrev. for “good”).
Defn: …, ie. pregnant.
10. Reject outcast swapping sides (5)
REPEL : LEPER(an outcast/a pariah) with R,L(abbrev. for “right” and “left” sides) exchanging positions(swapping …).
11. Monsters finally go looking for three knights (5)
OGRES : Last letters, respectively, of(finally) “go looking for three knights“.
12. According to Spooner, Murs trick with soap? (9)
HOLLYOAKS : Spoonerism of [“Olly”(Murs, English singer and songwriter) + “hoax”(a trick/a deception).
Defn: … opera on British TV.
13. Record rise in disorder after parties (7)
DOSSIER : Anagram of(… in disorder) RISE placed after(after) DOS(parties/social functions).
15. Courting daughter with giant fiddle (6)
DATING : D(abbrev. for “daughter”) plus(with) anagram of(… fiddle) GIANT.
17. Struggles with 5 + 8 + 7? I’ve left ‘e’ out, not even in order (6)
FIGHTS : “five eight seven”(5 + 8 + 7) minus(… left) “I’ve” minus(… out) “‘e’” minus(not) “even“, in that order.
Nicely done.
19. Turn provided by senior cricketer (7)
FIELDER : Reversal of(Turn) IF(provided/conditional on) plus(by) ELLDER(a senior/one older that most).
… well caught!
22. City official tracking the movement of Sterling? (9)
TREASURER : Cryptic defn: Sterling being the British currency and its movements in the currency market.
24. Matter of time before corrupt cop jails international (5)
TOPIC : T(abbrev. for “time”) plus(before) anagram of(corrupt) COP containing(jails) I(abbrev. for “international”).
26. One empty beer returned for bitter (5)
ACERB : ACE(one/a single pip on this playing card) + reversal of(… returned) “beer” minus its inner letters(empty …).
27. Cliches etc thus translated to cover new section (9)
CHESTNUTS : [ Anagram of(… translated) ETC THUS containing(to cover) N(abbrev. for “new”) ] + S(abbrev. for “section”).
28. Troy besieged by messy rebels with special structures (7)
SYSTEMS : T(abbrev. for “Troy”, the system of weights used for gems and precious metals) contained in(besieged by) anagram of(… rebels) “MESSY” plus(with) S(abbrev. for “special”).
29. Top of double-decker bus to crash into reservations (6)
DOUBTS : 1st letter of(Top of) “double-decker” + anagram of(… crash) BUS TO.
Down
1. Plant used for colour, as a Welshman would say (7)
DYEWOOD : Homophone of(… say) [ “Dai(a masculine Welsh name) “would” ].
2. To the audience, type of TV view material (5)
PAPER : Homophone of(To the audience) “pay-per”(a type of TV where the viewer pays per programme watched).
3. Rugby players upend that man over tense tradesman (9)
LOCKSMITH : LOCKS(rugby players in the second row of a scrum) + reversal of(upend, in a down clue) HIM(pronoun for “that man”) containing(over) T(abbrev. for “tense”).
… in the street.
4. Negotiated hard deal about riding horse (7)
HAGGLED : H(abbrev. for “hard”) + anagram of(… about) DEAL containing(riding) GG(or gee-gee, a child’s term for a horse).
5. Transport gold in two hands by end of day (5)
LORRY : OR(colour of gold in heraldry) contained in(in) L,R(abbrev. for “left” and “right”, the two hands) plus(by) last letter of(end of) “day“.
6. Illustrated River Dee, clear down the middle (9)
EXPLAINED : [ EXE(river in England) + D(letter pronounced as “dee”) ] containing(… down the middle) PLAIN(clear/unconcealed, as in “in plain sight”).
7. Climbing mountains with peaks of snow hurts a little (6)
SPLASH : Reversal of(Climbing, in a down clue) [ ALPS(mountains in Europe) plus(with) 1st letters, respectively, of(peaks of) “snow hurts“.
Defn: … as in “whisky with a splash of soda”.
8. 1 of 2 or 1 in 3, roughly? (6)
EITHER : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(in) anagram of(…, roughly) THREE(3).
14. Weak bowling technique Cook sees, getting over 50 (9)
SPINELESS : SPIN(a bowling technique in which the ball is delivered with, well, a spin) + anagram of(Cook) SEES
containing(getting over) L(Roman numeral for 50).
16. A number score twice with only headers (6-3)
TWENTY-TWO : TWENTY(also called a score) + 1st letters, respectively, of(… headers) “twice with only“.
18. Smartens up princess, scruffy without pin (7)
SPRUCES : Anagram of(…, scruffy) “up princess” minus(without) “pin“.
19. Stronger sack carrying money (roubles) (6)
FIRMER : [ FIRE(to sack/to dismiss, from a job, say) containing(carrying) M(abbrev. for “money”) ] + R(abbrev. for “roubles”).
20. Finds another role for exceptional actress (7)
RECASTS : Anagram of(exceptional) ACTRESS.
21. Pieces of meat, drink and cocktail during the weekend? (6)
STEAKS : [ TEA(a drink) plus(and) last letter of(…tail) “cock” ] contained in(during) S,S(abbrev. for “Saturday” and “Sunday”, two days making up the weekend).
23. Black market stocks book (5)
SABLE : SALE(the activity of selling/the market) containing(stocks) B(abbrev. for “book”).
25. Delivering fruit precisely (5)
PLUMB : Homophone of(Delivering, in speech) “plum”(oval fleshy fruit).
Defn: …/exactly, as in “the table was placed plumb in the middle of the room”.
Thanks Qaos and scchua
Why “city” in 22a?
Favourites EXPECTING and EITHER.
16d must break a record for the loosest definition (not wordplay) as there are literally an infinite number of possible answers 🙂
So a theme of trees. At least 14 including WOOD.
Is there a theme of types of wood?
This is Qaos and he usually slips in a theme. Well, if he has, it’s escaped me………
Lovely crossword with just the right amount of chewiness to be satisfying. Favourites FIGHTS, FIELDER and SPRUCES. Minor point scchua but you haven’t underlined Struggles as the definition for 17a.
Thanks to you and Qaos.
Thanks Qaos and scchua. Lots of fun. Theme completely passed me by, even with a hint from Qaos on twitter. Favourite was the trademark mathematical clue – “nicely done” indeed.
muffin @1 – City is purely for the surface, it’s a football reference. I thought the same about 16d initially but the wordplay is clear enough.
muffin @1
Re. “City” – for the surface. Raheem Sterling is a footballer for Manchester City.
I can see spruce, chestnuts, plum(b), (d)apple and (dye)wood and, at a stretch, paper, but am I looking too hard?
After having a nightmare with yesterday’s puzzle, I found this a bit of a breeze (for once!) – but fun nonetheless.
muffin@1 true, but bizarrely also a trivially easy definition, because once you identify “number” as the definition the enumeration eliminates all but a handful of possibilities.
I found 12a baffling, being only very vaguely aware of either the Murs and the soap.
Well I spotted apple, elm, holly, oak, elder, acer, chestnut, wood, ash, pine, spruce, fir, teak and plum. Paper as a wood product perhaps.
Thanks for the explanation of “city”. I didn’t know Sterling was a footballer, so that misdirection failed to misdirect!
Thank you Scchua, brilliant blog. So refreshing with the colour and pics and sometimes links to interesting stuff. More methinks, deffo more of this.
Qaos? Loved this one. Favourite 19 across, floated my boat and then some. Thanks both. Happy days
Nho either the singer or the soap, so 12ac was a reveal. Pectin as setter is probly not new, pretty neat clue ntl. Dnk that acerb without ic was a thing, and took all the crossers to get chestnut, nwst that it’s commom cwargot. But overall, cruisy and fun. Didn’t look for the theme, and no-one had posted yet, so we’ll see. Ta Q and scchua.
and fig! (another tree)
Missed any theme, despite looking. I must admit I can’t see the wood [f]or the trees even now – or, at least, nowhere near 14. Also a DNF, as I would never in a month of Sundays got HOLLYOAKS – NHO Murs, NHO the soap opera in question. I agree with muffin @1 that “City” in 22a is very puzzling. But there were some great clues, including EXPECTING, DATING, FIGHTS, SYSTEMS, EITHER, SPINELESS and TWENTY TWO. Thanks, Qaos and scchua.
Not one of Qaos’s knottiest puzzles, or so I found it.
I enjoyed all the numerical clues. SYSTEMS was clever – I wondered which of ‘messy rebels’ was the anagrind. The surface for DOSSIER is only too topical for us UK solvers…
Like muffin @1 I’m puzzled by the City in the clue for TREASURER – although it attempts to divert us towards Man City it isn’t relevant to the solution and hardly disguises a barely cryptic definition.
Thanks to S&B
Well done Wayne @12/16. Also a few near misses: o(s)sier, treas, plain, lorry
WB @16 – and a homophonic or interrupted plane in 6D
Of course I couldn’t see the trees for the would…
Oh right, all the trees …
Wayne Blackburn @12. There’s also a yew in dYEWood. Missed the theme while solving, as usual… I couldn’t see the trees for the wood.
Thanks ChrisM, oversight corrected.
Like grantinfreo@15, I’d never heard of either Ollie Murs or Hollyoaks, so that was impossible. I didn’t notice the capital S in Sterling and knew I was missing something when I got the answer from the crossers but didn’t know what, so thanks, widerspell and Chris in France.
blaise @23 – good spot, prefer that to the ‘wood’ in that one if we’re looking for trees. I did notice plain and ossier and wondered about them.
I make it 15 correctly spelt: Acer, Apple, Ash, Chestnut, Elder, Elm, Fig, Fir, Holly, Oak, Pine, Plum, Spruce, Teak, Yew.
…so a masterfully Qaotic grid-fill. I just wish he’d sneaked GUMption in, ‘cos that’s the one I was up.
Well, it’s Qaos, so there must be a theme. Once I got HOLLYOAKS, I assumed that was it, and not knowing anything about it, I gave up then.
Good, entertaining crossword.
With Raheem STERLING being pointed out, the clue for TREASURER reads very nicely. I liked FIELDER, EXPECTING, FIGHTS, EXPLAINED and SPINELESS.
Thanks Qaos and scchua.
Would “Hardy” have fairer than “Murs” in 12a? Possibly not…
Enjoyed this though didn’t parse all.
My favourite was EXPECTING.
Also liked DAPPLE, DOSSIER, SPRUCES, LORRY
Thanks Qaos and scchua
So, wood gets the Qaos treetment and very clever it turned out to be. Fiftreen is a goodly number of examples to fit into one puzzle without the theme dominating. TassieTim @15 has saved my fingers the trouble of listing my favourites as they are identical to his with FIGHTS (my LOI) taking treetop position. Treemendous fun.
Thanks Qaos and scchua
This felt throughout as though every clue was a fiendish misdirection. Missed the woody theme, wondered about three clues with a cricketing flavour. (Perhaps Mark WOOD will take a few Aussie wickets in Hobart later today). Last one in was FIGHTS. And it did feel like a series of small battles today. Just love Scchua’s illustrated explanations to bring some kind of clear definition out of the Qaos…
Thank you Qaos for the woodsy puzzle and scchua for the illustrated blog.
There are also ACER trees…
apologies, I see that ACER has been listed by others…
however, there is the TEA tree …
Ta for the blog. Liked the puzzle generally, easier than par in the main IMO for Qaos. Not so keen on the frequent use of dubious/obscure 1-letter abbreviations in the wordplay.
Thanks scchua, and the various contributors for spotting and identifying elements of the theme which eluded me – for me, a sign of a very good ghost-themed puzzle is that it is solvable ‘in ignorance’ and without any of the clues or solutions sticking out like a sore thumb as being there “just for the theme”. Saying that, I suppose I should have twigged (sorry) when new word ACERB went in.
Nice to see HOLLYOAKS, its Sunday morning omnibus a staple of bachelor life 20-odd years ago, and as for “City”, I thought that added to the definition (in the sense of London’s financial district) as well as the misleading football surface, so it was doubly fine, but my favourites were FIGHTS and STEAKS, thanks Qaos.
Yes nice one but over before spotting the theme. Such a waste?
Thanks Qaos and scchua
Qaos’s surfaces are always smooth and so often skilfully misdirect. His themes are well hidden to the point I usually miss them. His crosswords are a treat to undertake. All this takes enormous skill, for which I say thank you. Also to scchua for the beautiful blog. Now I need to apply some salve to my forehead.
Ronald @33 – the cricketing content could have been properly upgraded if Pope had substituted for Murs in 12 across. There might have been protests, however, although more than for Murs?
FIGHTS. What a clue!
Thanks Qaos and scchua
Thanks both. An enjoyable romp and I even spotted the theme (but for once I remembered that “it’s Qaos, so there must be a theme” (thanks Robi)). STEAKS and FIGHTS got ticks from me.
[ginf@15: welcome back]
Not familiar with the soap and never heard of Murs. Spent some time wondering whether it was a new variant of SARS – moderately urgent respiratory syndrome???
Thanks Q and S
[Ta Alphalpha @43. Nothing nasty, just a new addiction … long weepy soaps … ?]
The top half went in quite quickly, but then all the wheels fell off. Failed to parse FIGHTS, FIELDER or TREASURER (which is fairly weak if you don’t see the football-related misdirection). Never heard of DYEWOOD. As for during the weekend=S….S, is this a new alternative to “on board”? Never met it before.
Despite the above, I enjoyed a lot of this, especially EITHER, EXPECTING and TWENTY TWO. I saw the theme – eventually – but didn’t spot all of them.
As well as a few crickety clues, I thought some of the solutions were cricket references – TWENTY-TWO players across the two teams, a PLUMB lbw, FIELDER, the HELMETS of some players, not to mention the SPINELESS efforts of the England team in this Ashes series… – so I was looking for more of these. Missed the trees completely, of course! Thanks Qaos and scchua.
[ … that ? should’ve been a teary smiley ? ]
[…. still didn’t work, so wtf… ]
Like some others, the misdirection in 22A was lost on me – I just assumed sterling was money!
I parsed TREASURER as a City Treasurer is a city official responsible for managing revenue and cash flow for a public agency of some sort (according to Wikipedia) and hence he or she would track the movement of Sterling in and out of the agency’s bank account. It seems to be more of an American thing than UK, but I thought the surface read a lot more logically that way and there is no need to worry about Raheem or Manchester City. Except that if it is American then the Sterling doesn’t fit, so maybe I am wrong!
Thanks for the blog , did not see the theme , wish I had not seen the puzzle. Can we please break the sequence of Monday puzzles tomorrow ?
Even if I don’t get it myself, I always think that UK-specific GK is entirely fair in a UK puzzle, especially as the nature of cryptics is that there are usually two ways to a solution. But today’s HOLLYOAKS had two such bits of UK GK, unhelpfully, which I see caused trouble for others too. Crossers helped me guess it all, though, so I suppose it’s still fair.
The hawthorn is sometimes called the AGGLE tree.
[Cookie @54
Thanks. I note that the link mentions the superstition about not bringing hawthorn in to the house. There may be a more rational reason behind this. The scent of hawthorn contains triethylamine, which is also given off by rotting corpses!]
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned that Scchua’s excellent blog has an extra L Plate in Ellder. Perhaps too trivial to even mention. Preoccupied with putting that striking image of diving catch beside, maybe. And I think SC@41, even though cricketer Pope is an Ollie and Murs is an Olly, but sharing the right sound to make the clue work, another cricketing element would really have caused more to wonder about the over-riding theme. Years ago I read a nice, though rather dated now, book by the prolific Ernest Raymond: “To The Wood No More”. Wood as in St John’s Wood, cricket’s so called HQ..
‘T’ for tense. Why? Why not T for tit or twat or thunder or tumultuous or….
need I go on?
I had the same question as muffin@1 regarding City, even though I’m very familiar with MC and its players. The thing is, for me at least, the surface did not cry out football but rather finance, which defeated the intent of the CD.
Jesu, and ‘T’ for Troy and time, and ‘I’ for international. Araucaria’s turning in his grave.
[hilt @57]
Exactly what I was about to post. We also have M for money and S for special in this crossword, neither of which strike me as anything like widely used abbreviations. As many others have said, the city reference said nothing to me and looked entirely unnecessary, which is also an adjective I would apply to football. And 12ac was impossible for me to parse as I’ve never heard of Murs or the soap – though there was nothing else which could possibly fit one all the checkers were in. Qaos not quite up to the mark today, I’m afraid.
I’ve never heard of either HOLLYOAKS or Murs, the latter of which googled gives an American rapper and many references to Multi-Use Radio Service, whatever that is. Made 12a hard to get.
Thanks for the puzzle, Qaos, and its clever theme, and thanks for the log,scchua, I needed it and enjoyed the pictures.
On the TREASURER debate, there have been local authorities who have speculated with investments overseas that have gone spectacularly wrong – I’m thinking in particular of the Icelandic banking crash in 2008. Their treasurers would most certainly have been following the movement of Sterling, whilst pulling out their hair and drafting their resignations.
Quite enjoyed the solve, but unable to see the theme until the grid was complete. Can I add the slightly cheesy ENT (Tolkien’s mythical) tree? Even cheesier would be to include NUT as a generic tree as well!
I had my DOUBTS about a couple of the parsings. For me, “riding” didn’t imply containment in HAGGLED and the dodgy cryptic grammar of “besieged by messy rebels” in SYSTEMS was a bit too jarring. I was surprised by two homophones in a row at 1d and 2d. I also failed to spot the other homophone for the PLUMB clue. I parsed it very dubiously as PLUM born (B) = delivering fruit.
I enjoyed EXPECTING and EITHER very much.
Thanks, Q and scchua. Good woody puzzle, not tinny at all.
EITHER is an underused and useful word. There’s a sign at Fountains Abbey that reads “Use both car parks”, and on the dual carriageway leading to the M65 near me “Use both lanes”. Unfortunately some drivers take the latter one literally!
Thanks Qaos and scchua. I always enjoy the numerical clues like FIGHTS and EITHER and wouldn’t mind an entire crossword with that sort of clue. I also liked FIELDER, SPLASH, and RECASTS (apt anagram). I had no chance with HOLLYOAKS not knowing who Murs was. Missed the theme — couldn’t see the trees for the forest.
Predictably, I failed to see the impressive arboretum, but nevertheless I really enjoyed the solve, thanks Qaos. And thanks scchua for the illustrated blog.
I too enjoyed the SPLASH of cricketing references: FIELDER & SPIN, HELMET, SMITH & WOOD, PLUMB.
For more crossover there could have been: stumps, leaves, willow, box, root 🙂
Thanks Cookie@54 for the ‘Aggle’ link.
Not sure if FIELD maple has been listed.
… forgot to mention Twenty20 (in 16d)
or 2022
hilt @57&59. “‘T’ for tense. Why? Why not T for tit or twat or thunder or tumultuous or….” “…and ‘T’ for Troy and time, and ‘I’ for international.” Well, because tense, troy and time are in Chambers, as are tare, ton (or tons), transitive, tesla, tenor and tritium. Though surprisingly not tit or twat. 🙂 But international is, along with independence, institute, island (or isle), Italy, iodine, Iowa, electric current and the imaginary square root of minus one.
SH@68 Your I for Iowa is another O-for-Ohio one-letter abbreviation as discussed yesterday. The abbreviation for Iowa now is IA. Still don’t know whether Utah used to be just U.
BigNorm @60. “We also have M for money and S for special in this crossword, neither of which strike me as anything like widely used abbreviations.” But they are both in Chambers! Along with money, under M we have monsieur, motorway, male, mark, married, mass, medium, meridiem, mobile (as in m-banking), milli, miles, million(s); and then under S as well as special we find schilling (and shilling), singular, square, stokes (not the cricketer 🙂 ), strangeness, sun and Sweden.
[SH @70
Some time ago an elderly friend of mine bought a new suit. He noticed that it was labelled SP. “Special?” he asked. “No, short and portly”]
Valentine @69. “The abbreviation for Iowa now is IA. Still don’t know whether Utah used to be just U.” Well, it’s not in Chambers, so my guess would be not. IA for Iowa is not very helpful for the uninitiated, as Indiana ends in A and has more As than Iowa does. 🙂 I’ve seen the “old” abbreviations used in the New York Times, so I reckon they’re still fair game even though they’ve been officially superseded.
[muffin @71. That’s my size too!]
Re: O for Ohio et al. When they employ homophones that are only exact or exactish for a subpopulation, some setters are kind enough to indicate that by “some say” or equivalent phrase. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a brief way of saying “It’s in Chambers but absolutely no-one uses this anymore”.
sheffield hatter @70. I think I’ve even seen (quite recently) T for shirt…
Normally a Qaos fan but didn’t like this one, largely for reasons to do with single letters and hyperparochialities (Hollyoaks).
It is a bit tiresome when all someone has to do is hunt through the enormous list of single-letter indicators in Chambers until one that looks half-okay pops up that fits the surface. No wonder some of the publications limit these to a more manageable list. I’m sure it makes the solvers happier, if they’re anything like me.
Not a bad puzzle for all that, with a few ungrammatical bits here and there for me, but okay.
Enjoyable puzzle. Favourites were FIELDER, DOSSIER, EITHER, PAPER, FIGHTS, SPINELESS.
New for me: ACERB, HOLLYOAKS soap opera on TV (thanks, Google – also had never heard of Olly Murs); DYEWOOD.
I did not see the theme.
Thanks, both.
To go with all the others, trees also have a (sy)stem and a top(ic)
[muffin@64: I’m never sure whether you are meant to straddle the centre white line, or weave from side to side.]
[magor @80
Weaving seems to be more common!]
magor & muffin: surely it’s tear down the dotted line isn’t it?
[PostMark@82
🙂 ]
Valentine @61 – I also found the rapper and the radio – neither helpful – and assumed after reading the blog that the Olly Murs was the same person as the rapper. Apparently not! OK, I always realise that doing a Pommy crossie is going to involve Pommy GK, and sometimes I am going to be caught out by that (as, indeed, anyone can be caught out by lacking the necessary GK at any time). So, in general, it doesn’t bother me. But I agree with DrWO @53 that having all routes to the solution depend on rather esoteric GK a bit annoying. BigNorm @60: “what else could it be?” I can (and did) think of lots of possibilities: HOLLYMANS, HOLLYBATS, HOLLYCARS (none of whom turn out to manufacture soap, according to the web) – just to list some that assumed Holly at the start.
[I had never seen Hollyoaks, and always assumed it was Australian, like Neighbours and Home and Away. Apparently it is in fact set in Chester.]
Continuing the slightly tenuous cricket/arboreal link, there are also two Hollioake brothers, Adam and Ben, who both played cricket at a high level, with Ben Hollioake dying at a tragically young age about 20 years ago. His brother Adam quit playing cricket thereafter…
I appreciated 22 across with the apparent reference to football, which in fact had little to do with the answer – a great misdirection. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Cook as the anagrind in 14 down, considering Sir Alastair was a recent England cricket captain and a very successful opening batsman. (Wouldn’t it be nice if England had someone like that to call on these days?).
Today marked a first for me: completed the crossword before the blog was available!
TT@84 I do the puzzle, or as much of it as I can, in bed at night, and Murs brought me to a dead standstill, so I left him blank. Next morning, the blog said Olly Murs was an English singer and songwriter, so when I looked up Murs I rejected the American rapper. I was just curious to see what Google would show, and was rapper and radio.
[muffin @85 – Hollyoaks was created by Phil Redmond, who also created Brookside. Hollyoaks was aimed at a younger audience than Brooky. Don’t think I’ve ever watched it, and was only vaguely aware that it’s still going. In the dim and distant past, Phil Redmond also created Grange Hill, which I heard yesterday is being remade as a film.]
Got there.. minus the trees. I’m in total agreement with the single letter folks, it gets silly when practically every word can be cited as “It’s in Chambers as a single character abbreviation”. I really, really don’t want to go there. Ever. Section, Special, Saturday, Sunday, Tense, Good, Left, Right, New, International, Roubles, Book. Many ok, others just… unkind.
I’ll just say that I enjoyed the grumpy comments here rather more than the puzzle!