Vlad is the setter of today’s Guardian puzzle.
This was a tough puzzle, not because of the vocabulary, which was fairly benign, but because of the clues. In some cases (MARTINET, EPIDERMIS, SPOUSE etc) it took much longer to parse the solution than it did to work out what the solution was. Although this was a fairly hard crossword, everything was fairly clued. If I’m being picky, the clue for AGEIST could have been more original, and I’m not a fan of the construction in 23 ac [before leaving north] when it’s actually [north leaving before], which is hard to explain to newbies.
Now that my brain has been well and truly woken up, I will have to see if it has any energy left to get me through another day at work.
Thanks Vlad
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THE ARCHER |
Sign programme’s finishing early (3,6)
|
| THE ARCHER(s) (radio “programme” finishing early) | ||
| 6 | MIEN |
Look, fellows, current’s coming in! (4)
|
| MEN (“fellows”) with I (electrical “current”) coming in | ||
| 8 | HIT IT OFF |
Get on well with one posh bloke after bonk (3,2,3)
|
| I (one) + TOFF (“posh bloke”) after HIT (“bonk”) | ||
| 9, 4 | DUSTIN HOFFMAN |
A lot of cleaning staff to keep home going for actor (6,7)
|
| [a lot of] DUSTIN(g) (“cleaning”) + MAN (“staff”) to keep H (home) + OFF (“going”) | ||
| 10 | AGEIST |
Will one want people getting on with the job? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition – an ageist may think twice about hiring someone who is “getting on”. | ||
| 11 | MARTINET |
Enforcer-in-chief’s right — extremist spilling his guts (8)
|
| Rt. (right) in MAIN (“chief”) + E(xtremis)T [spilling his guts] | ||
| 12 | BROGUE |
It could be an Oxford way of speaking (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | NICKNAME |
Can mean trouble, as Billy the Kid was (8)
|
| NICK (“can” as in prison) + *(mean) [anag:trouble] | ||
| 16 | AMPOULES |
Small vessels in which one crosses over river (8)
|
| A (“one”) + MULES (“crosses”) over (River) PO | ||
| 19 | SPOUSE |
Mate, I nearly forgot to back more than one English runner (6)
|
| [to back] <=PS (postscript, “I nearly forgot”) + OUSE (the name of more than one English “runner” (i.e. river)) | ||
| 21 | INVEIGLE |
With flattery, talk round Eastern European living in desperation (8)
|
| *(e e living) [anag:in desperation] where the Es stand for Eastern and European | ||
| 22 | DRAMAS |
Plays with old money children dropped (6)
|
| DRA(ch)MAS (“old money” in Greece) with CH (children) [dropped] | ||
| 24 | TOMTIT |
Bird told me to go halves, taking back note (6)
|
| TO(ld) M(e) T(o) [go halves] taking [back] <=TI (“note”) | ||
| 25 | KEEL OVER |
That’s frightening about fan’s collapse (4,4)
|
| <=EEK (“that’s frightening”, over) + LOVER (“fan”) | ||
| 26, 1 down | NEAR THING |
Almost a disaster — point to what should prevent a shock (4,5)
|
| N (“point” of the compass) + EARTHING (“what should prevent a shock”) | ||
| 27 | NO PROBLEM |
OK member of the bourgeoisie receives black mark (2,7)
|
| NO PROLE (not a member of the proletariat, so “member of the bourgeoisie”) receives B (black) + M (mark) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 |
See 26
|
|
| 2 | EXITING |
Leaving? Rousing cheer initially let out (7)
|
| EX(c)ITING (“rousing”, with C(heer) [initially] let out) | ||
| 3 | ROOST |
No money for accommodation on square? Spend the night here (5)
|
| No M (money) for ROO(m)S on T(-square) | ||
| 4 |
See 9
|
|
| 5 | REDIRECTS |
Cardinal’s displeasure at court summons originally is diverting (9)
|
| RED (“cardinal”) + IRE (“displeasure”) at Ct. (court) + S(ummons) [originally] | ||
| 6 | MISSION |
Undertaking counterpart of 8, might one say, that’s timeless? (7)
|
| MISS I(t) ON (“counterpart” of HIT IT OFF) (see 8 ac) without the T (time) so timeless | ||
| 7 | EPIDERMIS |
Skin deep wound — one kept getting careless taking E’s (9)
|
| *(deep) [anag:wound] kept I (one) getting R(e)MIS(s) taking (i.e. removing) E + S | ||
| 13 | ROMAN NOSE |
No reason to be worried about end of term feature (5,4)
|
| *(no reason) [anag:to be worried] about [end of] (ter)M | ||
| 14 | ENLIGHTEN |
Tell blonde nurses to come around (9)
|
| LIGHT (“blond”) with EN + EN (enrolled “nurses”) coming round | ||
| 17 | ONESTAR |
Row about home getting low rating (3-4)
|
| OAR (“row”) about NEST (“home”) | ||
| 18 | SPEAK UP |
Climax during drink! What did you say? (5,2)
|
| PEAK (“climax”) during SUP (“drink”) | ||
| 20 | ON A ROLL |
Having sustained success, Ronaldo left for Germany, surprisingly (2,1,4)
|
| *(ronallo) [anag:surprisingly] where RONALLO is RONALDO with L (left) for (instead of) D (international vehicle code for “Germany”) | ||
| 22 | DIEGO |
Diamonds I repeatedly show a Spaniard (5)
|
| D (diamonds) + I + EGO (“I”) [repeatedly] | ||
| 23 | A-TEAM |
Before leaving north, live where the best players are (1-4)
|
| A(n)TE (“before” with N (north) leaving) + AM (“live”) |
Tough one.
I didn’t like ROMAN nose being defined merely as a ‘feature’.
Thanks for the answers, many a step too far for me.
I mustn’t shake my head too much in wonder at the answers for fear of neck ache!!
Thanks both.
Well I had to come here to find the parsing for a few answers – MARTINET, AMPOULES, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, SPOUSE, and NO PROBLEM, but they seemed right with the crossers. I was just pleased to finish it!
I’ve never convinced myself that “square” is OK for “T” in ROOST. Yes I know it’s a T-square (a designer’s tool in the shape of a T with the crosspiece at right angles (square to) the other leg, but a T doesn’t have to be square depending on what font you’re using. I don’t remember any designer I’ve worked with (pre-computer) referring to a T-square as a T.
I also wondered whether Spaniard was too specific as a definition. There are plenty of DIEGOs who aren’t Spaniards.
A tough workout today with NEAR THING being a favourite.
Tough but doable though this took me as long as both G& together yesterday. And I did need loonapick’s help with some parsing – MISSION and EPIDERMIS in particular. DUSTIN HOFFMAN, NICKNAME, AMPOULES, NEAR THING, ROOST, ROMAN NOSE and ENLIGHTEN were my favourites.
Seeing A-TEAM as the final solution makes me wonder; why does B for second grate with some solvers? If the A team is the first team, I’m not uncomfortable with the B team being the second but I have seen the device criticised before. Similar usage with Plan, List, Grade etc. Just curious.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
A mixed bag. Some ingenious clueing together with some that are very contrived. I finished it but about a third of the answers were half-guesses, unable to be parsed. loonapick’s blog was excellent but there was no feeling of satisfaction when looking at the final parsings. But thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
The puzzle was as tough as one expects from Vlad, but, as brilliantly explained by loonapick, almost entirely fair.
Even after the explanation, I think AGEIST is weak, and MARTINET and NO PROBLEM, while sound, feel too-clever-by-half.
I had half-a-dozen that I couldn’t parse – and am relieved to see that they gave others difficulty – but there were some really neat and satisfying clues too. I think my favourite is the pairing of HIT IT OFF (why, these days, do so many clues seem to remind me of the Prime Minister?!) and MISSION.
The day has got to get easier from here.
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick.
Thanks for the parsing of MARTINET loonapick. It was the only one that defeated me, despite seeing the ET at the end and RT for right. I had ‘enforcer-in-chief’ embedded in my mind as the definition and had also gone down a blind alley of extremist being perhaps, unfairly. ‘marxist’. Sharp kick to my own shins. I do agree that this was fair, but tricky. I think 12 is a bit of a chestnut, but otherwise everything original. I liked 21a because INVEIGLE is a lovely word, met too infrequently these days though there are plenty of occasions politically where it is more than apposite. Thanks to Vlad, and once again to loonapick.
It was a struggle, but I got there and even (but only after first entering some likely solutions, courtesy of the crossers) parsed everything. I thought the difficulty was not so much in the convoluted ways of indicating a letter should be subtracted or substituted (such as your eg for 23d, loonapick – and there are many others) but for the cunning way in which we were very often misdirected so that I constantly chased the wrong definition. It is a kind of genius to be able to construct such fiendish clues. I relish the struggle so do not complain – except perhaps to blink in disbelief when we get something as chestnutty as 12ac in amongst the daunting wordsmithery.
Tiny typo in your intro, loonapick – should be 23d.
Tough one. I confused myself in 20d trying to swap the L for a D or G, then realised it was the D for a L!
Many thanks Loonapick – I had DUSTMAN with IN & OFF but that left the H unaccounted for 🙂
There seemed to be a lot of subtractions but it didn’t take anything away from the fun and games
Hopefully one day I’ll remember MULE/CROSS
cheers all
An enjoyable challenge, as ever, from Vlad – very satisfying to finish. The parsing did take a few minutes in some cases but it was well worth it, for the ‘aha’ at the end.
My ticks were for THE ARCHER(s) – I’m a lifelong fan, DUSTIN HOFFMAN – I like him, too, AMPOULES, SPOUSE, INVEIGLE (agree with Tomsdad – lovely word), DRAMAS (great surface – as so many) and DIEGO – and, like NeilH, I admired the linked HIT IT OFF and MISSION.
Re 23dn: the issue re ‘leave’, seems to crop up every few weeks: ‘leave’ can be intransitive = ‘depart’, or transitive, as here, – leaving north behind‘.
Many thanks, as ever, to Vlad for the workout and to loonapick for a great blog.
This was tough (but fair). Put in MARTINET and took it out as couldn’t parse and then realised how it worked and put it back in again. Quite a few were parsed post solving so to speak. I did enjoy the HIT IT OFF and MISSION pairing – the former was my FOI but the latter was in the last quarter. Thanks to Vlad and to loonapick
Yes , I agree with other, INVEIGLE is a great word.
Tim C @4 Scotsman=”Ian” is fairly well established (perhaps to the extent of being a chestnut) and majority opinion yesterday was that boy or girl was acceptable as a definition of a name, so I think Diego=Spaniard is OK.
Beyond that, I got curious about it’s relationship to Dago, which could mean an Italian, Spaniard or Portuguese but apparently originally just meant a Spaniard. That led me down a rabbit hole that’s puzzled me for a while, why is Diego usually equated with James. The equivalence seems to be disputed, but one possibility is it comes via Sant Yago or Santiago, with Yago plausibly related to Jacobus. That still leaves to explain why Jacobus=James but at least there is some resemblance!
Liked the mules crossing the Po. Fun tilt: wiki says that the Po connects to Milan via channels that da Vinci helped design. Chewy cw from Vlad, ta, and thx loonapick.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
Well, I completed the gridfill, but with several partly or wholly unparsed – MARTINET for example I guessed would end -et, but didn’t see the rest.
I liked the construction of ROMAN NOSE.
I wonder what overseas solvers will make of 1a?
Tough but I finished, with a little applicational assistance admittedly. Lots completed but unparsed til I got here. Benefit of the doubt offered for a couple of quite tenuous constructions, IMHO (e.g. NO PROLE for “member of the bourgeois” is a stretch but yeah, I guess it checks out).
A couple of river-related observations: I got AMPOULE through brute force and crossers but PO as a river is new to me and I will attempt to remember it. Re SPOUSE, I got it from ‘mate’ and crossers but ‘runner’ for river is new to me (am well used to ‘flower’ by now though).
Favourite: INVEIGLE.
@ loonapick – minor presentational point: a few multi-word answers are missing spaces in your blog (THEARCHER, DUSTINHOFFMAN, NEARTHING.
Cheers
Happy to solve a Vlad minus one. Struggled with AGEIST. Message to self. If you don’t get it, it might be a cryptic def.
Favourites MARTINET, AMPOULES, and INVEIGLE.
I found this VERY hard. Managed to guess a few from the crossers but had to come here for help. More suited to a Friday, I feel.
Liked 1a, 8a and its partner 6d, and all the bottom right corner.
Didn’t like 11d.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Yes, tough because as I was struggling to precisely parse so many of these I wasn’t sure if it was Epidermal or EPIDERMIS, Enveigle or INVEIGLE, and so on. Last one in was SPOUSE because of my dithering over the ending of 7d. Nice to stumble across a Roman feature that I recognised rather than another I didn’t in a recent crossword, without being a spoiler.
Satisfying to work out the tricky parsing for many answers here, with ticks against AMPOULES, SPOUSE, INVEIGLE, NO PROBLEM and EPIDERMIS in particular. AGEIST was my last in and although ‘with’ was better for the surface, ‘for’ might have been more in line with the cryptic def.
I won’t spill the beans, but there’s an echo of a puzzle elsewhere today in one answer here.
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick
muffin@18.
As an overseas solver I had a vague memory of The Archer(s). As a Sagittarian (don’t believe in the stuff) I had a better chance.
Great fun. Vlad not at his trickiest but still most enjoyable. Almost couldn’t parse EPIDERMIS ….. a real ddm (that’s an ‘old penny drop moment’ – they were much bigger after all!)
Some lovely constructions – a great way to start the day
Many thanks, Vlad and loonapick
An enjoyable puzzle. Yes, some convoluted parsings, but there were some great and witty clues. The surfaces for SPOUSE and DRAMAS both raised a smile.
Someone who is NO PROLE could be a member of the aristocracy (like a lord) and so not a member of the bourgeoisie, but that’s a minor point.
Many thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Thanks to loonapick for parsing a couple of these. And thanks also to Muffin@18 and paddymelon@25 – with the help of your comments I have just understood the parsing of 1ac. I had a vague recollection of a British programme about The Archer but hadn’t remembered it was plural.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick.
Usually I find Vlad very tough, but today I enjoyed several clues and managed to get it solved. For me, the RHS was easier than the left, and then it took me a while to figure out the NW. My ticks were for 19a SPOUSE, 22a DRAMAS, 25a KEEL OVER and 17d ONE STAR. I couldnt parse 26a1d NEAR THING after working hard to do something with NEAR MISS, so I appreciated the blog explanation. THE ARCHERS at 1a was only familiar to me from The Guardian crosswords, but fortunately I thought of Sagittarius once I saw “Sign”.
We crossed, Lord Jim@27 and KLColin@28, et al!
Sorry not to acknowledge you, paddymelon@25 – takes me ages to type my possts!
POSTS! Grrr!
… On reflection, I don’t think it matters for the purposes of the clue that someone who is NO PROLE could be other than a member of the bourgeoisie. A member of the bourgeoisie is NO PROLE. Minor quibble withdrawn!
(… but I suppose it is a definition by example and so maybe needed a “maybe”? I’ve thoroughly confused myself now.)
Torn between admiration and perplexity. INVEIGLE, NEAR THING, and DRAMAS were my favourites. [MARTINET reminded me of English-teaching days and the Thomson and Martinet grammar, where I always wondered if one of the pair was stricter about the rules than the other]
Rob T @20 – thanks for pointing out that some solutions were lacking a space between words (not sure how that happened, but now edited).
Lord Jim@33/34. It depends on whether it’s purely polemical Marxism, or somewhere in the middle. 🙂
[Petert @35. LOL Thomson and Martinet a familiar text to me too. I thought that MARTINET was usually gendered, ie female, haven’t heard of a male being called a martinet. ( I see AV Martinet was Agnes) but today I’ve learned that MARTINET was a 17th C male.]
No problem for this expat with “an everyday story of country folk” (sorry that should be “a contemporary drama in a rural setting”…. bleugh). It started before I was born and I remember it from my days as a young lad.
Thought that this was bit difficult for a Monday before I realised that today is Tuesday. Quite a few were bunged in without proper understanding – too many to list here – so thanks loonapick for the hard grind. Favourite was THE ARCHER (not seen ‘finishing early’ as clue for dropping the final letter before). thanks Vlad.
That was really tough – and it’s only Tuesday. Eventually got the right-hand side completed but not all parsed. Got a few in NW and then gave up in the SW and came here.
Although I am familiar with “flower” indicating a river, I think this is the first time I have seen “runner” to indicate a river and I didn’t know there was more than one OUSE.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
Wicked puzzle and very fine blog
Great fun! This was a challenge as we expect from Vlad, but it all unraveled nicely. So many great clues, and some very tricky parsing.
Favourites were ONE STAR, EPIDERMIS, MISSION, AMPOULES and INVEIGLE.
Thanks Vlad and loonapick
By definition a brogue (shoe) is not an Oxford. Hence ‘always Oxfords, never brogues’. Brogues have holes in the upper, whereas Oxfords do not.
Thanks to Vlad for the distraction (a pre-requisite for a good crossword) and to loonapick for doing the heavy lifting.
Not for me: too many Bilbo clues (‘what have I got in my pocket’) for my liking, exemplified by EPIDERMIS whereby we are on the one hand expected to conjure ‘remiss’ from the ether, dropping and E and an S on the flimsiest of evidence while processing an anagram and an insertion with the other hand. A jackass on goo I suppose.
High points were ONE-STAR and the HIT IT OFF/MISSION couplet.
PB@44: That’s news.
I eventually parsed 16 properly having wanted the river to connect with 1 –
but that was a bridge too far…
Enjoyable but hard, in the sense that there were several clues that required post-entry pondering to get the wordplay. Faves were AMPOULES, RONALDO, EPIDERMIS and THE ARCHER. Was not terribly thrilled with AGEIST.
Re NEAR THING: it has always amused me that the US terms for earth/earthing are ground/grounding. On the one hand they are “double synonyms”, on the other … Why????
Peter Ball@44 not necessarily
Too much for this little black duck today. Have never enjoyed Vlad’s offerings, alas.
I have to leave now and don’t have time to read all the comments (I will when I get back, I promise!) but wanted to put in a comment or two while there were not too overwhelmingly many.
1a When I first was living in radio range of the BBC I chanced on a program that came on every day with a lot of English people talking about family affairs. I missed the announcement and didn’t realize this was the famous Archers I’d been reading about for so long, so I provisionally named the program “Tea at the vicarage.”
I thought of “martinet” as a word that ended with E(xtremis)T but couldn’t parse it. Thanks, manehi. Thanks also for parsing NICKNAME, SPOUSE, MISSION (yikes!), EPIDERMIS
INVEIGLE always makes me think of “He had slyly inveigled her up to his flat ..” Scene-setting for “Have some Madeira, m’dear.”
I think I tried to work ROMAN NOSE into a recent puzzle, but it turned out to be something else. Anyone recognize?
Thanks both,
Needed a bit of artificial assistance as well as help with the parsings.
It occurs to me might also be clued as ‘Got on well with H.’
Like NNW @6, I had more trouble parsing after slotting in the answer so this was a good workout. NO PROBLEM was definitely a problem, so thanks to loonapick for sorting that out. Thanks to Vlad too for providing his usual challenge that always has leaves this solver writhing around.
[Valentine@50. Don’t know about the Madeira. Down here it’s an ad for Moccona coffee.
Re your last sentence. Are you talking about the fo(u)nt of all wisdom? If so, great minds think alike.]
Valentine @ 50 last week in Pasquale we had “Roman feature” in a clue which could misleadingly lead to NOSE , it was actually FONT as I think PDM is hinting.
Thanks for the blog, Vlad on top form again with another brilliant puzzle. Very hard to get going but fortunately a lot of first letters seemed to turn up in very useful places.
NICKNAME to INVEIGLE is a great run of across clues, MISSION and EPIDERMIS from the downs, many more …..
With just 6 ac and 6 dn to go I decided 6dn could be ‘passion’ as pass it on seemed like a good counterpoint to hit it off and passion a very loose synonym for undertaking. That meant I bunged in peek for 6 across as look wondering what the parsing would be. As always the right solutions work rather better!
Lovely puzzle otherwise and helpful blog for partial parsing too.
Very tough. Failed to solve 19ac, 24ac, 17d.
I could not parse 11ac, 21ac, 9ac/4d, 7d, 23d.
Liked NEAR THING, MISSION.
Thanks, both.
I agree with every word of NNW at 6’s comment!
[1A reminded me of something – which may chime with Valentine at 50: many years back, when I was gainfully employed, I once had an extremely distinguished US academic contributor “down the line” from an Ivy League college. To keep the line open while we were waiting to go on air, we sent a feed of what was being broadcast by Radio 4 at the time: The Archers. I reassured the eminent guest that there’d be a short wait and, in the meantime, I’d leave him listening to “an everyday story of country folk”. Ten mins later, just as we were about to go live, I checked that all was well, Stateside. “Wait wait”, said our guest urgently, “May I ask a quick question?” By all means. “These everyday country folk that I’ve just been surrounded by, all of them living in the same village with all those different regional accents – what goddam country do they come from??”]
Thanks to Vlad and loonapick for the fun.
I now know more about British gents’ footwear than it ever occurred to me anyone needed to know, having googled Peter Ball’s maxim@44 and followed Petert’s note @48. Also a little more about British TV — The Kingsman sounds like fun.
Thanks, paddymelon@53 and Roz@54. That’s just what I was groping for.
Wellbeck@58 You had me wondering what it meant to be “down the line” from an Ivy League college — being from an A-minus college, perhaps? But I think I worked it out that the distinguished professor was “down the line” from the BBC instead.
For me this was not so much a puzzle of four quarters as four puzzles of one quarter. I completely filled the SE corner with all the rest blank. Then one hint — perhaps 2d ended with “-ing”? filled in the SW completely. Then with the -ing confirmed, EXITING led to the whole NW corner, and finally, the completely blank NE corner fell when REDIRECTS opened up. Took me much too long to think of Dustin Hoffman, though I even know somebody named Dustin.
Thanks to Vlad for the puzzle and manehi for the invaluable help.
Thanks to our blogger for unscrambling a puzzle which, to me, was almost completely unfathomable. I’ve been on holiday for 16 days and haven’t picked up a paper in that time, so maybe – just maybe – I can claim to be out of practice. But that excuse doesn’t even really convince me, to be honest. The clueing was fair enough: I was beaten, fair and square.
Rob T @ 19 and Fiona Ann @ 41: Oddly that use of runner straightway put me in mind of Xanadu, where Alph, the sacred river, ran. Sadly most of the other clues did not promote usable references!
[Valentine at 59: these days lots of businesses and educational institutions have their own ISDN set-ups, precisely to enable their people to take part in broadcasts with minimal disruption to their working days. Some are actually in the individual’s office – most are in a small room (or large broom cupboard), with maybe a curtain and/or carpet to deaden the acoustic.]
It was a puzzle of four quarters for me, too. I worked round it, clockwise, at times very slowly…
Peter Ball@44 got me interested enough to have a google for the difference. Found this at
“Meanwhile, brogues denote “broguing,” a kind of ornamentation created by small perforations or holes. Any shoe with broguing is called a brogue, even if it’s an oxford. Hence, brogues and oxfords are not mutually exclusive.”
Sorry, couldn’t work the ‘link’ button. It’s at
https://www.esquireme.com/style/26868-oxford-vs-brogues-whats-the-difference
I followed PeterT’s link @44 and was confused. Apparently the original (as opposed to the current decorative) function of the holes in brogues was to let water out. Surely they were much more likely to let water in?
Anyone else have Roll instead of KEEL as in Lor as a synonym for dismay/fear? I thought it was strange to have it crossing with the genuine ROLL, so it was definitely not my day again. Brilliant puzzle but too hot to handle. Congrats to loonapick for parsing everything.
Ta both
Rather, an expression.
Finally gave up trying to parse ROOST, so thank you loonapick for clearing that up for me. A bit of a Doh! moment once I saw it.
I also confess to having worked out HOFFMAN, but failed to get DUSTIN without googling for actors called HOFFMAN. I am ashamed of myself. I’d somehow got fixated on David Hasselhoff and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Lots of fun anyway.
AlanC@66 if you read comics in the 1970s the use of EEK was very common with a picture of someone with their hair standing on end .
[ And once again I am so grateful for your kind words. ]
[Always my genuine pleasure Roz]
ravenrider@16 In Latin Jacomus was either a nickname or dialectal variant for Jacobus, which gives us Giacomo, Jaime and James
muffin@65 I think the theory was that the water gets in anyway, so needs a way out, but I am not totally convinced myself.
Thank you Vlad, that was good fun. Loved the 6d/8a combo!
Thanks to loonapick for an excellent blog and to others who commented.
Thought I was going OK then gave up halfway.
For 23ac I imagine ANTE getting up and leaving N behind to become ATE (“before leaving north”)
Lol the only puzzle I’ve completed in the last five days was Saturday’s Proze ! The difficulty level has definitely ranked up since Enigmatist’s rate appearance last week, someone has obviously upset the editor. But never mind, I’ll get back on the horse eventually. Ì wonder how Paul might have clued TOMTIT ?
Proze ??? Prize !!
There were a few I couldn’t parse. And I still can’t parse the EGO in DIEGO?
Anyone still there?
Mules new to me
Thanks both
ttt@78. EGO from psychoanalytic theory, referring to the self or “I”. ( “I” repeatedly in the clue)
[ TEST this is a practice at linking. Please ignore. ]
[Yeay, it worked!]
Before we had Fifteensquared I would have completely given up on this. I had about nine or 10 solved, and a couple of ideas for others, so turned to the solution, writing in a few in the grid that I would never have got in a month of Sundays (like MARTINET and AMPOULES). Using some of those crossers I got perhaps another nine or ten, but still had no idea of some of the parsings.
Thanks to loonapick for the excellent help. And thanks to Vlad, too – but if as William FP says @26 this was the impaler “not at his trickiest”, I hope to get fair warning when he achieves that summit, so that I can do something else for the day.
Phew! 10 ac was just too cryptic! We thought it must be will=egoism but then couldn’t parse it, and so of course couldn’t get 3 down either! Thanks for the wonderful blog!