A fun but pretty straightforward prize puzzle from Crucible. I enjoyed this one – thanks, Crucible!
Across
9. Make good magazine earlier (2,3,4)
AT ONE TIME
ATONE = “Make good” + TIME = “magazine” (the US weekly magazine)
Definition: “earlier”
10. One inspects pupils losing way round Windows (5)
OCULI
OCULIST + “One inspects pupils” without ST = “way”
Definition: “Windows” – this is the plural of oculus
11. Giving a boost to Jack’s function (7)
LIFTING
Double definition: “Giving a boost” and “Jack’s function” (referring to a car jack, say)
12. Top cleric’s scripture class fills course (7)
PRELATE
RE = “scripture class” in PLATE = “course”
Definition: “Top cleric”
13. Either half of sweetbread (5)
LOLLY
Double definition: “sweet” (lollipop) and “bread” (both “bread” and “lolly” are slang for money)
14. Bare contents of French well, by the sound of it (2,7)
AU NATUREL
Sounds like “eau naturel”, which might be “natural water” in French, some kind of description of a well. (I have a feeling I might have missed something here?)
Definition: “Bare”
16. Mad Bojo is in fact admitting day’s a reward for work? (3,12)
JOB SATISFACTION
(BOJO IS IN FACT)* around SAT = “day”
Definition: “a reward for work?”
19. Silk may be found in this elevated part of Wimbledon (4,5)
HIGH COURT
Double definition: “Silk [a QC] may be found in this” and “elevated part of Wimbled” (referring to tennis courts)
21. Special day for old Roman teams (5)
SIDES
S = “Special” + IDES = “day for old Roman”
Definition: “teams”
22. Mostly clean quarterdeck for hobby? (7)
PURSUIT
I think this was my last one in: PUR[e] = “Mostly clean” + SUIT = “quarterdeck” – one suit is a quarter of a deck of cards, discounting the jokers
Definition: “hobby” (the question mark applies to the “quarterdeck” bit)
23. Server’s first to stop backing horse (7)
BARISTA
IST = “first” in (“stopping”) ARAB = “horse” reversed (“backing”)
Definition: “Server”
24. Liquid waste, a by-product of hard labour (5)
SWEAT
(SWEAT)* – “Liquid” is the anagram indicator
Definition: “by-product of hard labour”
25. Eg Central Park race is about to block country bumpkin there (3,2,4)
RUS IN URBE
RUN = “race” + IS all reversed (“about”) in RUBE = “country bumpking there” (the “there” indicating that RUBE is a US term)
Definition: “Eg Central Park” – this Latin phrase was new to me
Down
1. Orchestra catch up around start of joyful chorus (10)
HALLELUJAH
HALLÉ = “Orchestra” (The Hallé is based in Manchester) + HAUL = “catch” reversed around J[oyful] = “start of joyful”
Definition: “chorus” (referring to the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel’s Messiah
2. Lots of holes in this wood perhaps (4,4)
GOLF CLUB
Double definition: both parts referring to golf: “Lots of holes in this” (referring to the 18 holes of a standard course) and “wood perhaps” (a wood is a type of golf club)
3. Tax collecting? It’s fun! (6)
LEVITY
LEVY = “Tax” around (“collecting”) IT
Definition: “fun”
4. Mass inspires fashionable man on board (4)
KING
KG = “Mass” (a kilogram) around (“inspires”, as in “inhales”) IN = “fashionable”
Definition: “man on board”
5. Working out goalie’s job, one appearing in paper (7,3)
KEEPING FIT
KEEPING = “goalie’s job” (the goalie is also known as the “keeper”) + I = “one” in FT = “paper”
Definition: “Working out”
6. Solve Times cryptic crossword, initially at home? (8)
DOMESTIC
DO = “Solve” + (TIMES)* (“cryptic” is the anagram indicator”) + C[rossword] = “crossword, initially”
Definition: “at home?”
7. A posh couple’s foreign 6? (2,4)
AU PAIR
A + U = “posh” (as in “U and non-U”) + PAIR = “couple”
Definition: “foreign [DOMESTIC]”
8. Help plan last first (4)
AIDE
IDEA = “plan” but with “last first” (i.e. its last letter moved to the front)
Definition: “Help”
14. I see a scavenger going round creating flyers (10)
AVICULTURE
I + C = “see” in A + VULTURE = “scavenger”
Definition: “creating flyers” (AVICULTURE is breeding birds)
15. Brown maybe settles on skip (10)
LANDSCAPER
LANDS = “settles” + CAPER = “skip”
Definition: “Brown maybe”, referring to Capability Brown
17. Current noble’s relations (8)
ACCOUNTS
AC = “Current” (Alternating Current) + COUNT’S = “noble’s”
Definition: “relations” (as in “stories”)
18. River Test’s vigour (8)
INDUSTRY
INDUS = “River” + TRY = “Test”
Definition: “vigour”
20. Information about a way to tidy beds (6)
GARDEN
GEN = “Information” around A + RD + “way”
Definition: “tidy beds” (flower beds, say)
21. Analyst’s quiet place for bowling (6)
SHRINK
SH = “quiet” + RINK = “place for bowling” (I was sure this was going to be “alley” or “lane”, but apparently a bowling rink is a thing.)
Definition: “Analyst” – SHRINK is slang for a psychiatrist
22. One’s often driven in job (4)
POST
Double definition: “One’s often driven” (you have to drive fence posts into the ground) and “job”
23. Tied up by strapping American (4)
BUSY
BY around (“strapping”) US = “American”
Definition: “Tied up”
Well I thought this was a great puzzle, perfectly pitched for the Prize slot. Good blog too. I have to confess that I like the inclusion of foreign-derived phrases (AU NATUREL, RUS IN URBE) because I find them a lot easier than, say, cricketing clues, but chacun a son gout!
Quarterdeck=SUIT was very clever; I was thinking “D”, “E”, “C” or “K”.
I imagine LOLLY was probably difficult for US folks, but since I have UK origins was able to sort it out.
Well, that’s two days running that our blogger has said how straightforward the puzzle was! I struggled with Friday’s Paul, though I got there in the end, but this one was a massive DNF for me. RUS IN URBE for me was obscure in both definition and wordplay (though I got as far as _ _ S/IN/UR _ E); ‘quarterdeck’ was fair too clever for my few remaining brain cells; even if I’d had all the crossers (which I didn’t) I don’t think I would ever have got AVICULTURE; and I thought of POST for 22d almost straight away, but I thought it wasn’t very convincing so never did write it in – are fence posts ‘often’ driven? Not as often as buses…
Congratulations to Crucible for defeating me one more time, and mhl for helping me to see where I’d gone wrong.
I consider RUS IN URBE completely unfair. If we are going to have foreign phrases as answers, there should be some indicator of that in the clue, and obscure foreign phrases should not be appearing at all.
Thanks mhl, it was fun I agree and didn’t take too long, though a bit longer than it took to pencil in the grid. I had to stare at PURSUIT for some time before appreciating the cleverness of the clue and LOLLY took just about as long. Google had to help me with the Hallé and with Rus in Urbe but that’s part of the educative process. LOI was AIDE I’m slightly ashamed to say, I’d unsuccessfully gone through the extensive mental exercise of fitting consonants into _i_e first.
Finished but didn’t parse RUS IN URBE as I had ‘is’ back in ‘run’ at the start and couldn’t make sense of urbe as a country bumpkin. Easy when you see both ‘run’ and ‘is’ are reversed so thanks for clearing that up mhl. I also wasn’t totally convinced I’d completely parsed AU NATUREL so I share your nagging doubt.
Favourite was PURSUIT for the clever quarterdeck.
I, too, found 25A impossible to solve without aids as I had heard of neither the solution nor the Americanism. The rest went in quite smoothly. In 14A the French phrase needed as the homophone would be ‘eau naturelle’ (as the word for water is feminine), so it is spelt more significantly different than the solution (presuming that was your concern mhl and Tim C @5). Thanks Crucible and mhl.
Started off badly with this getting only two on first pass.
Spent ages trying to get 16 ac. At first thought it must be an anagram of “bojo is in fact day” but couldn’t work it out – then the pdm – realised the “day” was “sat”. Once I got that started making progress except for five in the SE corner. Returned later in the week and got all but one – 21ac which I guessed must be SIDES but couldn’t see why.
Favourites: OCULI, AT ONE TIME (liked “atone”), LANDSCAPER, GARDEN, RUS IN URBE (amazed I remembered “rube” as American country bumpkin)
Thanks Crucible and mhl
I was another one for whom RUS IN URBE was the last entry, two days after every other clue, and I needed help as I’d never heard the term RUBE before. I must have come across the Latin phrase at some time in the past but it didn’t spring to mind at all. Other than that I was able to make steady progress and enjoyed the challenge. Thanks as usual to setter and blogger.
Thanks for the blog, I think RUS IN URBE took me longer than the rest put together. Pretty obscure , clearly the grid had reached a tricky point which does happen, and hard to see how the word play could be made easier. I finally remembered RUBE from a recent AZED.
I thought the use of QUARTERDECK was really neat, great to see the HALLE in a crossword.
LANDSCAPER was clever, capital at the front to mislead.
Not sure about the capital for Windows ?
GregFromOz @3: I entirely agree. Only a web search got it for me. AVICULTURE took a while too, lacking the crosser from the aforementioned. Apart from those two, I remember this being pretty good. Thanks, Crucible and mhl.
This fell into place reasonably quickly, except for RUS IN URBE which I’ve never heard before. A pdm with BUSY, which was my penultimate entry, gave me all the crossers. I was convinced it was some Latin phrase starting RES, but Google helpfully suggested an alternative, but I still couldn’t parse it completely. Wouldn’t have got RUBE in a million years, but Mr C is familiar with it.Thank you for explaining mhl.
Favourites were LOLLY, PURSUIT (for the quarterdeck) and LANDSCAPER (pleased with myself for thinking of Capability). Enjoyable and satisfying solve all round.
Thanks to Crucible and mhl.
Thanks mhl, I found this much trickier than you but very satisfying even though it took a slow trawl through Wikipedia’s list of Latin terms to get RUS IN URBE – would never have guessed RUBE though I have heard it before somewhere.
I think you could expand your definition of OCULI to include “Round” which is otherwise unused.
Given the linking of 7 and 6 I wondered why SWEAT did not refer to 5D but at least the non-linking-fans are happy. I thought this was a great example of a challenging puzzle with wit and ingenuity without reliance on gimmicks, HALLELUJAH my favourite, thanks Crucible.
I wondered if ‘liquid waste’ was a missed opportunity. Could it have been an &lit?
eau naturel/le works for me, both as homophone and the def.
Quarterdeck made me smile.
Quite a tricky one but finished mid-week after several attempts. Latin phrase was new to me and required help. I felt the wordplay could have helped more (RUBE was new) but as Roz said, I’m not sure how.
Roz@9 I took Windows to refer to the operating system that runs on most desktop and laptop computers – the surface alluding to students having difficulty using their PC.
RUS IN URBE utterly defeated me – even with all the crossers in place – though I realised it wouldn’t be English. Oh if only I’d remembered my school Latin! – but that was a long time ago. (*googles*) Here we are: Rus rus rus, ruris, ruri, rure … Rura rura rura rurum ruribus ruribus. (yes I ought to have remembered that without looking up).
I wonder whether RUBE = bumpkin (another new one to me) derives from Reuben, a character in the novel Cold Comfort Farm?
Thanks pdp@15 , I presume it has a capital W ? A lot in this puzzle, Jack, Times, Test also.
[ NOT a spoiler , just a slight correction – puzzle today, 8D should be (5) not (4) . ]
Very frustrating as I had everything solved and parsed on Saturday morning apart from the obscurity mentioned already. I kept looking at it throughout the week but didn’t have the patience of Gazzh @12 to trawl through Latin phrases. My favourites were HALLELUJAH and JOB SATISFACTION. Enjoyable despite the DNF.
Ta Crucible & mhl.
A lovely puzzle, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My favourite clues were for OCULI (loved the round Windows), AU NATUREL, SIDES, PURSUIT, RUS IN URBE (I knew the Martial quotation but was held up by not knowing RUBE), LEVITY, DOMESTIC, AVICULTURE and LANDSCAPER.
I think Crucible has a soft spot for Capability Brown, as I do: he composed a lovely puzzle for the tercentenary of his birth in 2016.
HALLELUJAH took longer than it should have, as I had RAISING for 11ac, until 2dn GOLF CLUB set me right. I really liked it when I got there.
Many thanks to Crucible for the fun and mhl for a great blog.
Like Dr. WhatsOn @1, I thought this was a great puzzle. And I too like a sprinkling of foreign words and phrases from time to time.
My only gripe concerns RUS IN URBE. My last crosser for it was the S, and, realising this would be foreign, I thought of RES IN URBE (which Central Park is). However, I have never heard of RUS IN URBE, nor RUBE. I would never have got this phrase, even though I understand it now I see it. Otherwise, this was a puzzle to enjoy, with many very good clues.
Thanks to Crucible and mhl.
PURSUIT, as has been said, was very clever. I was racking my brains for naval terms for ages, but it was AVICULTURE that held me up the longest for some reason. I liked River Test, as well.
Roz@17 yes capital W and I see it has made its way into Chambers. And thanks about today’s puzzle. I’m still trying to get my head around it.
Failed 25ac.
Liked BUSY, LOLLY.
Did not parse 1d, 10ac.
New: AVICULTURE.
Thanks, both.
Very enjoyable. The 25a Latin was at the very edge of my GK but I managed to retrieve it. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I was familiar with “Rus in urbe,” but didn’t really know what it referred to; I thought it was something more metaphorical. Whaddya know, it means a park! I’ll take this space to say that Central Park really is a super park, with hills and valleys and outcroppings of Manhattan’s naturally craggy granite understructure. Its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, is perhaps our Capability Brown.
Roz@17 What puzzle are you not spoiling? 8d on this week’s prize is 7 letters long.
What a nice puzzle. Thanks to Crucible and mhl for a pleasant morning.
Just adding to the praise. I see I’m not alone in admiring quarterdeck for suit – I don’t think I’ve seen that before. Like many others, it seems, my last in was RUS IN URBE, which took a while to bubble up from the murky depths of memory. I don’t think it’s unfair, though.
I thought 13a was a bit more complicated “Either half of sweet” being ICE-lolly or LOLLYpop.
Otherwise what’s “either” doing there?
D’oh! I mean ice-LOLLY of course
Thanks for confirming Roz@17, I was wondering whether to say anything. Valentine@25: 7-2=5
Thanks mhl, your summary is spot on for me. Re 14a, what you might be missing is that “Eau naturelle” might be translated more idiomatically as “spring water”.
So, am I the only one who has heard of RUS IN URBE before? Oh no, I see Eileen has too. I’m in good company there then.
Lin @27 – the solution could be defined by *either* half of the word sweetbread.
Despite failing with OCULI and AIDE and needing a word finder for AVICULTURE and the oft mentioned RUS IN URBE I found a lot to like with AT ONE TIME, BARISTA, DOMESTIC, and BUSY being favourites. Thanks to both.
Eileen@19: you make me feel a little better about my DNF, as HALLELUJAH was my first one in! At last, a small victory for not solving the clues in order. 😉
Thank you Crucible for a pleasant challenge and mhl for some explanations/confirmations, especially RUS IN URBE.
Paddymelon @13: I agree, liquid waste would have been enough for 24a. That was my second thought, after wondering why it took me quite so long to solve..
I enjoyed this.
19ac HIGH (elevated) COURT (part of Wimbledon), surely, rather than a tennis court at altitude?
25ac RUS IN URBE: had to do a word search to get this, but knew immediately, from school Latin, what it meant and that that fitted Central Park, but only learnt the origin of the phrase reading Eileen’s comment (for which, thanks). Confirmed the wordplay, having already met the Americanism ‘Rube’ (in another crossword, perhaps?)
14dn AVICULTURE: I thought of ‘vulture’ as soon as I saw ‘scavenger’ but dismissed it as too long to be a part of a10-letter word, only later realising I’d been right.
20dn: I believe the def is “to tidy beds” for averbal sense of GARDEN, otherwise the “to” is surplus verbiage.
22dn POST: I read it as “one’s often driven in”
paddymelon@13, I also wondered whether “Liquid waste” could have stood alone as an &lit (and still think it might have been meant to be before test solve/edit), but the fact is, sweat is not a waste product but a coolant.
Laccaria@18, I think Reuben is just a popular name amongst hillbillies, probably. One of our American commenters might be able to confirm that (or not).
Laccaria @16 – Thanks for bringing back happy memories – I played Reuben in a student production of Cold Comfort Farm back in the distant past (1994-ish, I think). That was lots of fun. The director of that has since gone on to great things – and gets to direct *much* better actors than me these days.
I didn’t know the answer to your question but I was intrigued so looked it up – according to the OED, rube does indeed come from the name Reuben, though it dates from the 19th century, which is obviously before Cold Comfort Farm was written.
Great book (and play).
lman @34 – I’ve been out all day but have to acknowledge that it was mhl, in the blog, who had already supplied the link to Martial re 25ac.
Fun but too hard in the end for me. I got about three quarters finished before giving up, frustrated. Count me among those who thought 25a a little unfair — if the answer is obscure then I think it’s only fair to make the component words those a normal person might have heard of. Also too many for which I had to guess a word and work backwards. Thanks though to Crucible.
Eileen@38, you are full of grace.
I didn’t actually follow mhl’s link, because I thought it would just be to a translation which I’d already understood, so you were, indeed, my informant. I must admit, I’m none the wiser now, really, except that I now know there once existed a “Spanish-born Latin epigrammatist” of that name. I’ll look out for that in future puzzles!
[I was a bit puzzled why you addressed me (as I thought) as IMAN (caps for clarity), but realized it was the last four letters of my name: l, not I (they look identical in this font).]
Hi Tony, if you’re still there – sorry, I don’t know what happened to the first letters of your name!
[Tony @38 … fonts indeed! I’m no fan of sans-serif fonts like the ubiquitous Calibri, or Segoe UI (the one used on this page). In another place I’ve had my handle persistently misspelt as “iaccaria” which looks like Latin for some sort of projectile. Whatever happened to good old Times New Roman?]
Widdersbel @35 (and others): here you are!
“What? Does nothing dismay this wee son? Possibly a childhood trauma, as reported (1,3,9,5,2,3,8)”
I’m working on building a puzzle around this, so keep an eye out on MyCrossword!
Laccaria @40 – That’s splendid! Look forward to seeing the finished puzzle.
(I’m mindful that we’re veering off topic now though [sorry, Gaufrid], so maybe best shift any further digressions to general discussion.)
I thought that this was a poor puzzle. Some clues were rather easy and unimaginative, but I could not solve the final clue, 25A, and spent rather too much time on it. I did search for Latin phrases starting with Res (Latin O level long ago), but didn’t remember Rus. I suspected that it might be the worst type of clue, the ‘timewaster’ clue, and so it was. An obscure Latin phrase derived using a very obscure US usage. This was not clever, Crucible. I will avoid your puzzles in future.
[W @41/42 – thanks. It may be a while. But you’re right – enough off-topic.]
John@43 – may I suggest you’re being a bit harsh on poor ‘Crucible’? I too failed to solve 25a, but I’m not about to label it a ‘timewaster’. It is, quite likely, a ‘filler word’ (or rather, words). The only word or phrase that will fit the crossers. As an experiment, I tried to find what would fit R_S_N_R_E using CrosswordCompiler – and I got just the one fit: RUS IN URBE. The I tried the same using QXW. Same result. Surprise surprise!
As to RUBE in the wordplay – well we were given an indication, with the last word ‘there’, that it was an Americanism – as others have pointed out. Fair’s fair, I think. Give Crucible another chance!
Laccaria, it was the sole return from Chambers Word Wizard, too, which is how I got it. It therefore wasn’t necessary to parse the wordplay, although I did, having met ‘rube’, before. (Btw, I should have mentioned in my earlier remark that Rube is a pretty straightforward and, no doubt, ubiquitous shortening of ‘Reuben’, probably as common as Joe for Joseph, to draw on another of the twelve sons of Jacob (Jake).)
I think JohnJB has a point, in that it’s better when cluing an obscurity not to use wordplay elements that are also obscure. I think it’s a bit of an over-reaction to boycott a setter because of a single instance, though. John wasn’t obliged to waste his time trying to solve it; he could have just left it — or consulted a word search, like me, if he preferred to see the grid filled.
roz @17 I think this is a slight spoiler (I can’t say why as that would be also a spoiler). However, saying the enumeration is incorrect is not.
Laccaria@44 and Tony@45. I do sometimes persevere too long when I have almost completed a puzzle. When I check the answers, I usually groan at the deviousness and ingenuity of the setter, but just have to admit my own failure, and be determined to take the setter on again next time.
Having completed most of this puzzle rather quickly, I did stick with 25a for too long. The published answer just left me annoyed. The use of a well-known Latin phrase is fair enough, although Latin was not indicated in the clue. Substituting ‘RUN for ‘RACE’ and combining with ‘IS’ to get ‘RUS IN’ needed familiarity with Latin. I tried to fill in the blanks by looking for phrases based on ‘RES IN’, but no joy. The combination with an obscure US usage made it a ‘timewaster’. I don’t like having to search for obscure US usages. They shouldn’t be used at all in my opinion. The puzzle just loses all sense of fun. I am not boycotting this setter out of revenge. I just want to avoid any more timewasters.
John JB, “rube” is not obscure US usage but fairly prevalent US usage, I think. It’s in my 1986 Chambers marked as “US Slang”. That was fairly, if not totally transparently, indicated by the word “there” (i.e. in NY, the location of Central Park). Some other setters (Paul springs to mind) don’t even bother to indicate Americanisms.
I was also trying to think of a Latin phrase with RES, but fina?ly searched in Chambers Word Wizard using the check letters. I think if you’d done that, you’d eventually have worked out that ‘rube’ must be a word and checked it in the dictionary.
Sometimes setters misjudge how accessible a word is. I can understand you being annoyed at knowing neither the Latin phrase nor the US slang, but I still think it’s harsh to boycott the setter on one unfortunate clue. Perhaps if you find the same thing happening a number of times, that would be more reasonable. There is one Guardian setter I don’t attempt because he regularly clues in ways I don’t like. Otoh, others love his puzzles, so I expect his puzzles will continue to appear.