Another enjoyable puzzle from Fed, with some quite tricky parsings in places. Thanks to Fed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | WORMWOOD SCRUBS | Woosnam’s first or last golfer with wrong-handed clubs to get famous jug (8,6) W OR M (first of last letter of WoosnaM) + [Tiger] WOODS + CLUBS with L[eft] replaced by R[ight]. Wordwood Scrubs is a prison or “jug” in London |
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| 9 | IMMERSION | Baptism misrepresented in memoirs (9) (IN MEMOIRS)* |
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| 10 | VODKA | Kodak do videos — going over some shots? (5) Hidden in reverse of kodAK DO Videos |
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| 11 | PANTO | Sound system not working for show (5) PA (sound system) + NOT* |
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| 12 | METALWORK | Craft of, say, steel pan player finally accepted (9) [playe]R in METAL WOK |
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| 13 | RESIGNED | Bug’s tail preserved in amber maybe exhumed after excavation’s stood down (8) [bu]G in RESIN + E[xhume]D |
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| 14 | RAGTAG | Newspaper describes America’s Got Talent’s big characters for the commoners (6) AGT (the capitals or “big characters” from America’s Got Talent) in RAG (newspaper) |
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| 17 | NOTARY | Official‘s never penning books (6) O[ld] T[estament] in NARY (never) |
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| 19 | TEA CLOTH | School group’s breaking drier (3,5) LOT (group) in TEACH (to school) |
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| 22 | PIROUETTE | Good game — with student missing turn (9) PI (good) + ROULETTE less L (student) |
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| 24 | NIHIL | Northern rich girl occasionally gets nothing (5) N + alternate letters of rIcH gIrL |
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| 25 | EVADE | Plug in the night before escape (5) AD (advert, plug) in EVE |
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| 26 | MARKET-LED | Drive back demo’s leader behind half-hearted police cordon, subject to demand (6-3) Reverse of RAM (drive) + KET[T]LE (police cordon) + D[emo] |
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| 27 | ANCIENT HISTORY | Ruin intro with hesitancy — it’s no longer important! (7,7) ( |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | WHIPPERSNAPPER | Cheeky young thing with cooler photographer (14) W[ith] + HIPPER (more fashionable, cooler) + SNAPPER (photographer) |
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| 2 | REMANDS | Sends back rock band with singer to begin with (7) REM (rock band) + AND (with) + S[inger] |
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| 3 | WARMONGER | Aggressor discovered peace in West Germany (9) [h]ARMON[y] (dis-covered “peace”) in W GER |
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| 4 | OPIUM DEN | Drugs taken here work on virus every now and then, supported by doctor and nurse (5,3) OP (work) + alternate letters of vIrUs + MD (doctor) + EN (nurse) |
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| 5 | SANITY | Reason a fool’s wearing schoolboy’s coat (6) A NIT in S[choolbo]Y |
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| 6 | REVEL | Set up bar for party (5) Reverse of LEVER |
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| 7 | BEDPOST | Support for the retired in bad debt — overturned steep charges (7) Reverse of SOP (to soak, steep) in DEBT* |
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| 8 | PACKAGE HOLIDAY | Forwards had goalie floundering before close of play — it’s all in (7,7) PACK (forwards, in rugby) + (HAD GOALIE)* + [pla]Y |
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| 15 | ASCENDERS | Climbers: there are five in the Olympic Village but only one in an event (9) Ascenders are parts of characters in typography: |
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| 16 | RESEARCH | Changing careers with hard study (8) CAREERS* + H |
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| 18 | TERRAIN | Prepare to protect Queen and Country (7) ER in TRAIN (prepare) |
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| 20 | OTHELLO | Note the fellow stripped for play (7) [n]OT[e] [t]H[e] [f]ELLO[w] |
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| 21 | STAMEN | Sailors, when first base becomes tense part of dock? (6) SEAMEN, with the first E (e, base of natural logarithms) replaced by T[ense]; “dock” refers to the plant |
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| 23 | UTERI | None of us would be here without these bits of parachute ripcords (5) Hidden in parachUTE RIpcords |
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Maybe I have misunderstood you Andrew but I thought the t & h of ‘the’ were the other two ascenders.
Fun as ever from Fed and tricky in parts. Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
The ‘ascender’ letters are b d f h k and l. Hence the five ascenders in ‘the Olympic Village’ are t, h , l, l and l.
The dot above the i is a dot or a ‘tittle’.
If it’s true that ex nihilo nihil fit, what was there before the big bang, that’s what I’d like to know. Yes, well, anyway, nice Tuesday puzzle, thanks both 😉
Well, I’ve learned a lot today! Jug as a term for prison is a new one for me. And I appreciate the lesson in typography as well. Thanks all.
Thanks dantheman, I don’t know how I managed to miss the T in “the Olympic Village” but see it in “event“
Meanwhile, ascenders was a big bung, as I had no idea about the typography thing.
I enjoyed this, thanks Fed. A couple of minor quibbles. I thought the definition in 8d was rather loose. In 13a, “stood down” surely means “sacked”, a bit stronger than a resignation. I didn’t like “Ger” for Germany. I’m more familiar with “tea towel”, but I guess “tea cloth” is legit.
The “Ruin” in ANCIENT HISTORY is the anagrind, not part of the anagrist.
I missed the sop for steep in BEDPOST and didn’t look at “the” but took the 2 capitals O and V for “ascenders” so I got the answer but with a faulty understanding of the wordplay.
Favourite was STAMEN for the nicely hidden definition “dock”.
Yikes. Can’t ever remember having bashed out a crossword so fast with failed parsings.
Don’t imagine I’d have worked out the typography or the base of natural logarithms things in a month of Sundays, so many thanks to Andrew and dantheman.
Really liked the surfaces at EVADE & TERRAIN.
Largely fun today with a few difficult ones to finish. I had no idea about typography and remain a bit mystified by 15 dn. I enjoyed the golf misdirection in 1ac where the Claret Jug led me down several blind alleys.
Geoff@7, I think stood down has both meanings depending on whether the act is voluntary or not.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew today.
Came here to check the parsing of ASCENDERS, my LOI. I like seeing Fed because his clues are different enough to make the puzzle more of a tussle, and more satisfying as a result. TEA CLOTH is fine – I have heard one of my grandmothers distinguish between the tea cloth and tea towel depending on fabric composition.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
GDU@7: agree with TEA CLOTH and tea towel but don’t see your issue with stood down. How about “I stood down/resigned as chairman in 2022”.
Apologies JerryG, slow typist.
Yes, I guess “stood down” can have that less drastic meaning. I stand corrected.
Good game, good game – give us a PIROUETTE, Anthea!
Does the ‘some’ in 10a work as a hidden word indicator, given it’s before the ‘shots’, not the ‘Kodak do videos’?
Quick but fun, thanks Fed and Andrew (and also to Salad @1, who just pipped dantheman to the post with the ASCENDERS explanation 😉 )
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Bit of a mixed bag. I’m not fond of clues like METALWORK – guess, then parse – but my favourites, MARKET LED and PACKAGE HOLIDAY, were the other way round!
Quite a few tricky parsings as you said.
When I saw 1ac I immediately put W as the first letter. Looked at 1dn and straightaway WHIPPERSNAPPER came into my mind. Like yesterday’s swashbuckler a word not much heard. It was very useful getting a number of the across answers.
Favourites included METALWORK, WORMWOOD SCRUBS, NOTARY (for the lovely NARY) MARKET-LED, PACKAGE HOLIDAY.
Got STAMEN but couldn’t work out where the “e” came from. Didn’t manage to parse a few others including ASCENDERS.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
I thank you essexboy @15 – yes I was trying not to feel childishly miffed.
Fun puzzle.
I don’t understand the PI = good for 22A though.
David @19
Short for PIOUS (often implying excessively so). Remember it – it often turns up in crosswords.
Thanks Fed & Andrew. I thought this was superb – lots of tricky parsing but all very precisely and fairly clued, making it very satisfying to solve. LOI was ASCENDERS, with a massive groan when the penny dropped. Brilliantly fiendish. Loved it.
Very enjoyable this, even though there were several I couldn’t parse – for 25A I got stuck on “EV” = plug-in (electric vehicle), and I can’t work out what “charges” is doing in 7D. Especially liked METALWORK, WORMWOOD SCRUBS and ASCENDERS.
Salad @1 & 18: Pretty sure I’d have been “ childishly miffed “!
A very interesting set of clues. Like you Fiona Anne @ 17, the first W across gave me WHIPPERSNAPPER as FOI and I also ticked your favourites. essexboy @15, I also thought of Brucey, though not Anthea’s PIROUETTE/twirl 🙂 Very grateful for the typographical lesson as well, as I was trying to fit the five rings in somewhere-nice misdirection indeed.
Ta Fed & Andrew
I seem to be in total agreement with Widdersbel @21.
Many thanks to Fed for the fun and Andrew for the blog.
sjorford @22: I took charge to mean impose.
I took “charge” to mean “put inside” or “fill”, as in “charge your glasses”.
A total delight with some neat clueing -thanks Fed and Andrew for blog (& explaining ASCENDERS and STAMEN).
Tough puzzle.
I did not parse:
11ac
1d
3d (ARMON in W GER?) – okay, I get it now
15d – learnt something new today about ascenders
21d seamen->stamen? Never would have worked out the logarithm stuff
Liked WORMWOOD SCRUBS (which I know because of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones).
New: PACK = a team’s forwards considered as a group (for 8d).
Thanks, both.
I liked STAMEN for the slow reveal as I finally realised what kind of dock it was. I spent some time trying to find five reversed words in the Olympic village. Thanks to all who provided typographical enlightenment and to be for the Brucie bonus.
Yep, widders @21 sums it up for me. A genuine tussle today but very worthwhile and nothing seemed unfair.
eb @15: I did wonder about ‘some’. It’s another of those ‘unwritten’ implications. Fodder – reverse it – some (of this is) solution. There may be a better way of parsing it that I didn’t see but it’s how I rationalised it. Not strict but I could see what Fed wanted.
Too many ticks if I highlight all the ones I liked: METALWORK, ASCENDERS, PIROUETTE and PACKAGE HOLIDAY. The surface is slightly strange (Sailors …. what?) but I did like STAMEN for picking the unusual ‘dock’ which, as Tim C points out @8, is nicely tucked away.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Ahh northernrich @4 you must have missed out on the marvelous Molesworth books in your youth! ‘ Back in the Jug Agane’ was my intro to the delightful series. I’m not sure how they’d read to an adult but were a souce of much enjoyment in my tweens.
I too appreciated the typography lesson.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Not bad at all. May have preferred, with a number of clues, the solution to be preceded by the wordplay rather than being followed by the parsing….(but some convolutions here helped to accommodate meaningful clues). I know some (Eileen etc) enjoy a ‘story-telling’ surface; for myself (and like Roz, I think, and others) I just look at the constituents and the wordplay instructions – only pausing to read as a meaningful phrase post solve. (Of course, some solving (CDs) need the clue to make sense – in and of itself). This may be why I enjoy, for example, Paul’s puzzles so much; I don’t mind if a clue’s surface is not too sensible when it allows for creative, and tricksy, clueing. Having said that some great clues – WARMONGER, OPIUM DEN, WORMWOOD SCRUBS etc delivered everything one could want – including smiles!
Many thanks, Fed and Andrew
I am liking Fed’s puzzles I have to say. I gave four ticks to 27a ANCIENT HISTORY* and three ticks to 1a WORMWOOD SCRUBS, which for a while I had thought was WEDGWOOD something, though the notion of the “jug” in that case would have been too obvious. I needed a few elucidations in terms of parsings, so thanks to Andrew for the blog, and contributors for the help with ASCENDERS at 15d.
Big thanks to Fed for a delighful Tuesday challenge. I thought the “discovered” part of HARMONY in 3d WARMONGERS was very deft.
[*I still believe Ancient History is incredibly important. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it and all that.]
How about RAGTAG and ASCENDERS crossing?
Great crossword! Many lovely and interesting clues, but my favourite was WARMONGER (once I came here for the parsing). michelle@29, I’m not familiar with Keef’s engagement with WORMWOOD SCRUBS but I knew it from a line in Down in the Tube Station at Midnight by The Jam.
Thanks Andrew and Fed.
Thought after quickly getting the long clues for 1 Down and Across that this would yield quickly. However the very cute and tricksy STAMEN and TEA CLOTH held me up for some considerable time at the end. Couldn’t parse RESIGNED, and wasn’t too sure about how PACKAGE HOLIDAY worked exactly. Loved ANCIENT HISTORY, and more generally derived a great deal of pleasure in the solving of this today….
Enjoyable solve from the Fed.
I liked WORMWOOD SCRUBS for the unexpected ‘jug’, ANCIENT HISTORY for the neat anagram, WARMONGER for the surface, and ASCENDERS for the initial bewilderment until I checked Chambers (and thanks to the miffed Salad @1).
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Spam @39
Ah me. Now we need a knowledge of typography as well. Fair enough I suppose since we pass over ems and ens without comment. Never heard of ‘ascenders’ so live and learn. (So are g j p q y ‘descenders’?)
But what a nice crossword – pure goldilocks for me. Thanks both.
It was a real pleasure to solve today’s puzzle, especially the clues I struggled over before at last seeing the obvious. Many thanks Fed and Andrew.
Well, I didn’t quite finish but thoroughly enjoyed that. I was very pleased to get WORMWOOD SCRUBS after having bunged in WEDGWOOD for a little while. ‘Jug’ for prison is a new one on me, but I got the CRUBS part from the wrong-handed clubs and so decided it had to be SCRUBS. I missed 8d as ‘floundering’ had me convinced I was looking for an anagram. Then my crossers blew that theory.
ASCENDERS, which seemed to have flummoxed a few folk, was in fact my FOI. Maybe I’m a typography geek.
By the way, is Fed one of Dave Gorman’s alter-egos?
Rob T @43 – yes.
@44 – cool, in that case it’s the first one of his I’ve done
I’ve deleted a spam comment that was at #39, so some references are now out by one, just in case anyone is confused.
Alphalpha @40: no one’s replied to your query. Yes they are.
Overall I enjoyed the puzzle but I’m not comfortable with nary as a synonym of never. Nary is synonymous with not.
Thank you Andrew, salad and dantheman, never seen that term before and hope it sticks. Essexboy@15 I inserted an imaginary pause/comma before the “some” to make sense of it. Slow start to get attuned to the style but loved it, thanks Fed.
I enjoyed this, lots of nice clues. Especially liked PIROUETTE and PACKAGE HOLIDAY. Thanks, Fed and Andrew.
28A I vaguely remember coming across “kettle” in the police sense in some earlier puzzle. I’ve never come across it in real life.
I never thought of the mathematical “e” base. I tried to make “first base” be B in ABS and was stuck for the rest. Anybody else?
I’ve never heard of a TEA CLOTH, though I’m used to “tea towel” for what I think of as a dish towel. What does tea have to do with either?
rob T@42 8d is an anagram with “had goalie” floundering after “pack.”
Desmodeus @47 – my Chambers has:
nary
adverb
Never, not
ORIGIN: A variant of ne’er a (never a)
Valentine @49 – aha right, thanks. I skimmed over the parsing above but it makes (slightly convoluted) sense now. So I was right about the anagrind but was using the wrong letters. Either way, I ended up revealing that one…
Thanks for the blog, super puzzle , two days in a row without themes after eight consecutive , what a relief. Nice to have so many clues you can solve without the definition. Out of many I will just praise STAMEN for the accuracy of removing FIRST BASE.
Grant@3 there was no “before” the big bang, it was the creation of space-time. I always tell our Ancient History students to come to me if they want to do real ancient history.
Anyone who has taught young children in the last thirty years knows ascenders and descenders – they are a key part of the handwriting element! Just me, then?
A fairly speedy solve with more time spent on parsing the trickier ones. Needed the blog to understand STAMEN, but liked the “discovered” peace in 3d.
Favourites were the more straightforward TERRAIN and TEA CLOTH. It helped a lot that the long clues around the outside went in very early on.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew
Was off to a flying start with the first few as write-ins, but soon landed and taxied around the airport for the rest. But huge fun.
I wasn’t terribly thrilled by e as base since any number can be used as a base, but it’s one of those usage-trumps-precision things, so fair enough.
WARMONGER was fave.
Thank you muffin @20
I’ve never seen that
Dr. WhatsOn @55
While it’s true that any number can be used as a base, e is the only base that works naturally and efficiently in calculus, hence “natural” logarithms.
Muffin@57 Absolutely, and if “natural” were used in the clue it would be a “natural” solution, but it wasn’t. I just have a vague feeling of a lost opportunity.
[Thanks for responding, Roz @52. I so love the deeply unfathomable. What is on the other ‘side’ of a black hole? 😉 ]
It does not have a “side” really , an interior and exterior, around the black hole is a theoretical spherical surface called the Event Horizon. Once inside this, normal matter and light can no longer escape.
I loved this. Fed’s becoming a favourite.
Geoff Down Under @ 7: “Ger” for Germany is what you’ll see most of the time on telly in sporting events (football most notably, but I’d imagine everywhere else too). Super common basically.
[Which reminds me of a recent discovery that if Sweden play Denmark at home the scoreline reads SWE-DEN]
[Yes, and that’s the nihil fit in reverse. What becomes of the matter/energy that disappears inside the EV? (Don’t worry, I’m not expecting the TOE 🙂 Just like tossing it around)]
… I meant ‘disappears inside the EH ‘ …
[ First think of a large neutron star, nearly a black hole, mass about double the sun radius about 20km escape velocity just less than c. As they rotate their magnetic field produces emission of radio waves , they can be detected as pulsars, Jocelyn Bell found the first ones.
Most black holes a bit larger, 3 to 10 solar masses , a bit denser, escape velocity greater than c, no emissions. The matter is still all there , densely packed like a neutron star. They have gravitational effects, some are in binary systems with a visible companion. The most famous is Cygnus – X1. ]
Forgot PI and e and didn’t know ascenders. WORMWOOD SCRUBS was favourite
Thanks both
Thanks Fed, that was just enough of a struggle to be satisfying but not so much of one to be frustrating. WORMWOOD SCRUBS and ASCENDERS were new to me; I couldn’t parse ASCENDERS, PIROUETTE, or STAMEN. I particularly enjoyed EVADE, WHIPPERSNAPPER, WARMONGER, and OTHELLO, the latter for its amusing surface. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
I thought this was great, with lots of inventive and witty clues. I have a particular fondness for clues that are short and deceptively simple, with excellent surfaces, and my favourites were PANTO and TERRAIN.
[Roz @52: I used to read popular science books a few decades ago that sternly told you that you were not allowed to talk about “before” the Big Bang. But more recently I heard a programme on Radio 4 in which some apparently respectable astrophysicists were discussing cyclic or oscillating models of the universe that they seemed to consider possible. But how would we ever know?]
Many thanks Fed and Andrew.
Great puzzle! As usual I had to read the blog to understand some of the parsing even though I’d filled in the grid – MARKET-LED, ASCENDERS, STAMEN.
Thanks Fed and Andrew…
{ Lord Jim it is know as CCC and you are right it does have some respectable proponents including Roger Penrose. Unfortunately all the evidence is overwhelmingly against. The CMBR has been mapped precisely by COBE and Planck telescopes and all the features they predicted are simply not there. The Big Crunch was quite fashionable for a while but the Hubble telescope put an end to that. Observations of supernovae in distant galaxies show the expansion rate is increasing and will never allow a return . CCC will go the way of the steady state theory. ]
[Appreciate WARMONGER for a reminder of the riddle: what do Fishes, Whores, Rumours, Wars and Iron have in common?]
Haven’t done a crossword for 10+ years, but on hol and picked up a paper copy of the G. Couldn’t resist a go, completely baffled at first but it slowly came back and I once again had that strange satisfaction which comes with filling in the final answer. STAMEN in my case – I wasn’t at all sure about ‘e’ for ‘base’ – ‘natural’ would have left me in no doubt. Gawd, I think I may be hooked again!
My thanks to Fed for an enjoyable puzzle and to Andrew for elucidation of sometimes tricky wordplay. And good to see you guys are still going strong!
Thanks Fed, right in tune today.
Getting 1a and 1d early was a big bonus.
Still recovering from the excitement of the cricket, brought back to earth by the England football team.
Ta Andrew
Thanks for the description of ASCENDERS, I have learnt something today…
Trigger had the right idea for the Black Holes, send up McAlpines with a rocket full of bricks.
Thanks Andrew. And thanks all.
You’re wrong about 21 down. ‘First base’ means ‘the base of first’ – t.
PM@46: Tvm. Any word for the remaining aceimnorsuvwxz?
blodwen@53?
Welcome back Robin@71. That’s quite a break! Not the easiest one to get back into it either, so glad it was a win for you.
I worked this out, but there were several that I could not fully parse, including STAMEN and BEDPOST. Thanks to Andrew for explaining, and to Fed for a challenging puzzle.
Thanks Andrew. I completed the puzzle, but parsing the clues was (again) too often beyond me.
grantinfreo @ 3. Foreplay.
Robin@71 – it only takes one! Just say no! Is there a Crossword Solvers Anonymous?
Nicely convoluted. But I so wanted to put in RAMONES for 2d, even though “rock band” appears halfway through the clue.
Robin@7. William F P @82. LOL
Crossword addictions or dementia?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105808456
Thank you Bobdelob at 76. That makes far more sense to me! I have been poring over internet entries for natural logarithms and nowhere can I find any reference to e being first base. I guessed at stamen without understanding the parsing – in fact I even wondered if “first” had somehow snuck in instead of “last” (e being the last letter of base) but your explanation is perfect! And thank you Andrew for parsing “warmonger” I totally failed to think of harmony for peace.