Something of a challenge from Tramp to end the week – one of the hardest of his that I remember, although, when I came to write up the blog, I didn’t really see why: highly enjoyable and ultimately very satisfying to complete, as always.
There were enough straightforward clues to get / keep me going – 11ac BARRACKS, 25ac PUSHER, 1dn PROFILE, 5dn RETURNS, 7dn RETAKEN, 16dn CLOSE-UP, 19dn SCOFFER – with some more intricate constructions, such as the amusing 6dn EXTRADITE, and some niftily disguised definitions: 12ac TEMPLATE, 21ac BOREHOLE, 8dn ENABLE, 13dn PRONENESS, with enough clever wit throughout to keep a smile on my face.
I had a number of ticks but the stand-out clue for me was 9ac WOMEN’S INSTITUTE, followed closely by another splendid anagram, PEREGRINE FALCON, at 24ac.
Many thanks to Tramp for a most enjoyable start to the weekend.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Sleep over: in the morning getting a cover on top? (6)
PANAMA
A reversal (over) of NAP (sleep) + AM (in the morning) + A
4 Field runs across river: it’s outstanding (6)
ARREAR
AREA (field) + R (runs) round R (river) – more usually seen in the plural but both Collins and Chambers have it
9 Its union meets regularly with working group (6,9)
WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
An anagram (working) of ITS UNION MEETS + W[i[T[h] (regularly) – it took a few minutes to uncover the fodder, with the misleading ‘meets regularly’: a wonderfully allusive surface
10 Party: go to one to consume drugs (6)
FIESTA
FIT (GO – I couldn’t see this immediately, then thought about doing a jigsaw puzzle: ‘this piece must fit / go there’) + A (one) round ES (drugs)
11 Boozer stands and jeers (8)
BARRACKS
BAR (boozer) + RACKS (stands)
12 Cover for work by old master (8)
TEMPLATE
TEMP (cover for work) + LATE (old?) – another one to ponder: in my much younger days, someone introduced me as ‘my old Latin teacher’; Collins has, under ‘late’, ‘USAGE: Since late can mean deceased many people think it is better to avoid using this word to refer to a person who held a post or position before its present holder’ – see also here
14 As one Grand National horse at the back is well-groomed (6)
SOIGNÉ
SO (as) + I (one) + GN (Grand National) – not in the dictionaries but I found it online (and, of course, as Jay @24 points out, G (grand) and N (national) are both in Chambers as separate entries) + [hors]E
15 Digs introduction to Starsky and Hutch special
SCOOPS
S[tarsky] + COOP (hutch) + S (special)
18 Concerned with stars describing film that’s superficial (8)
COSMETIC
COSMIC (concerned with stars) round ET (film)
21 Well, look, hero is back in bed, getting end away (8)
BOREHOLE
A reversal (back) of LO (look) HERO in BE[d], getting end away!
22 Relating to one in school that’s unfriendly? (6)
OFFISH
OF (relating to) FISH (one in school)
24 Hit green in place for birdie (9,6)
PEREGRINE FALCON
An anagram (hit) of GREEN IN PLACE FOR, with a golf reference in the surface
25 Supplier of escort to follow prince (6)
PUSHER
P (prince) + USHER (escort)
26 Shot down pilot (3,3)
TRY OUT
TRY (shot) + OUT (down? – I’m thinking of the hendiadys ‘down and out’ and would welcome other suggestions)
Down
1 Outline for dossier (7)
PROFILE
PRO (for) + FILE (dossier)
2 Wants dress with inside taken out before wedding begins (5)
NEEDS
NÉE ({name} before wedding) + D[res]S
3 Christmas card nearly missing kiss on one 18 across (7)
MASCARA
[X]MAS (missing X – kiss) + CAR[d] (nearly) + A (one)
5 Comes back on with performers (7)
RETURNS
RE (on) + TURNS (performers)
6 Hand over one tenner initially during uninitiated prostitution (9)
EXTRADITE
I (one) T[enner], initially, in [s]EX TRADE (prostitution, minus its initial letter – uninitiated)
7 Some line Kate rehearsed in recess is filmed again (7)
RETAKEN
Hidden reversal (in recess) in liNE KATE Rehearsed
8 Let bachelor nurse beer, getting round (6)
ENABLE
EN (nurse) + ALE (beer) round B (bachelor)
13 Bent police, ultimately: head is out of prison first (9)
PRONENESS
PR[is]ON + [polic]E + NESS (head)
16 Draw together detailed picture (5-2)
CLOSE-UP
Double definition, the first not needing a hyphen
17 Flog small bottle, no adult present (7)
SCOURGE
S [small] + COUR[a]GE (bottle, minus a – adult)
18 Rubs clue out essentially going with answer (6)
CLEANS
CL[u]E minus ‘u’ (middle letter – essentially – of ‘out’ + ANS (answer)
19 One teases, initially showing chest (7)
SCOFFER
S{howing] + COFFER (Chest)
20 Briefly at home, separate to get over husband (2,5)
IN SHORT
IN (at home) + SORT (separate) round H (husband)
23 Put up painting of leaf (5
FOLIO
A reversal (put up, in a down clue) of OIL (painting) + OF
It’s rarely that I give up on a crossword, but I did here. Not on Tramp’s wavelength at all today.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
Odd one for me – I had the bottom complete before I got anything in the top. I thought some of the definitions a bit loose – SCOFFER, for instance. Favourite was PROFILE.
At one stage ROGET’S THESAURUS would have fitted in 9a, so I spent some time trying to justify it. I look forward to seeing it turn up sometime in the future!
Thanks, Tramp and Eileen!
PEREGRINE FALCON
A minor omission: ‘for’ to be included in the anagram fodder.
As Eileen says, difficult, enjoyable and satisfying but that’s probably to be expected with Tramp on a Friday
Many thanks to both
Got there in the end but had to bung in a few and then work backwards. Thanks T and E.
Thanks, KVa @3 – amended.
The fact that, in 16d, u is NOT the middle letter or “essential ” part of “clue” niggled me a bit. But that is really ungracious of me. I loved the battle, took ages over “proneness” even though I was straight onto “bent” as predilection or talent or tendency because I failed to suss taking” is out of prison.” Thanks very much, Eileen, for shining a light on the wonderful WI clue. I got it – but really did not properly solve it and knew I had missed something important as this setter (thanks, Tramp) does not do loose cryptic definitions. TGIF.
It’s good to see a tough crossword without obscure GK (or Google knowledge) or nho words (OK one), musical expressions etc. Possibly one or two synonyms of synonyms not being synonyms but prefer oblique meanings to GK.
Thanks both.
Got all through this, completed and was pleased with my improved parsing but still bamboozled by some:
@Eileen thanks for the blog, novice questions: why is ES “drugs” (E… Substances?) and NESS “head”?
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
TRY OUT
Intuitively, ‘out’ and ‘down’ seemed synonymous at the time of solving the puzzle. Can’t think of a specific situation where ‘out’ and ‘down’ can be interchangeably used.
In cricket, a batter gets out: a wicket goes down. Not sure this is an apt example.
On the 26A “out”, one could substitute “out” for “down” in “down on the beach” or “down in the meadow”?
While there’s nothing wrong with the clue, it feels slightly disrespectful to refer to the magnificent peregrine falcon as a birdie!
The usual thanks to Tramp and Eileen.
Far too hard for this little black duck.
S W corner took the longest to crack. We’ve had quite a bit of a “rude” cluing week, finishing off with “getting end away” and “sex trade” featuring in this Tramp puzzle !
Agree with the hendiadys “down and out” in 26a. Can’t see any other link up with those two words.
Here, for silver ladies and all, is a bit of nostalgia
https://youtu.be/gsJ4pALlbEM
Thank you Tramp and Eileen.
TerriBliSlow @7 – u is the middle letter of oUt, as in the blog.
JBinOZ – Welcome!
E is common crossword speak for ecstasy (drug) and NESS is a promontory or HEADland, as in many place names. It, too, crops up a lot in crosswords, so worth filing away.
It was the hendiadys that helped me in 26a. I thought of a boxer “down and out (for the count)”. Not that I knew the word hendiadys. One more in the locker lol.
A real slog in the end but pleased to finish. Nho of SOIGNE and agree with Eileen’s stand-out clues along with MASCARA and EXTRADITE.
Ta Tramp & Eileen.
Many thanks for that, Flea @13. I hope this is not a spoiler for anyone but they cropped up in Goliath’s FT puzzle just yesterday.
Thanks for help with parsing. My only quibble is 13D: I see bent as an adjective and proneness as a noun, so I don’t think this is a very satisfactory definition.
Terri@7 – in 18D, as Eileen blogged, the u is the essential part of “out”, not of “clue”, and “going” is the extraction indicator. So no need to feel niggled.
@Eileen in 14. Ah, of course. Ecstasy. I obviously need to go to more raves. Ness is tricky for an Aussie but it too goes in the locker.
Thanks for the welcome, explanation and the blog, Eileen. I am learning slowly.
I took TRY OUT as meaning testing a pilot episode to see if a TV series will be successful or not.
simonc @18 – bent in this context is a noun ( ‘predilection or talent or tendency’ – see TerriBliSlow @7)
….which probably went without saying; I guess your query was about down and out being synonymous Eileen.
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen.
Small note re the blog, G (grand) and N (national) are both in Chambers as separate entries.
Quite right, AlanC – and Jay (of course – doh!).
Eileen and TerriBliSlow: The definition of BENT as a noun in Chambers that clinched it for me was the third: “leaning or bias”
Eileen@8 and Sagittarius@19 – thanks for putting me right. I should have known better.
Thanks for the super blog and kind words, as always, Eileen.
I wrote this puzzle in July 2021. I’m sorry about the clue for TRY OUT. I can’t remember what I was thinking yesterday, let alone, what I was thinking in 2021. When I test-solved the proof, I just assumed “down” was synonymous with “out” in the sense of the phone lines being down. I never questioned this. I presume I did the same when writing the clue. I’ve just tried to justify this in the dictionaries and can’t: mea culpa.
Thanks for the comments.
Neil
I’m still struggling with BENT=PRONENESS. The ‘inclination’ meaning is in Chambers, but I’ve only ever thought of being prone to something as being out of one’s conscious sphere, if you know what I mean. Nevertheless, the Scottish book has it.
Down can mean ‘out of action’. I was okay with that, Tramp.
Thanks for dropping in, Tramp @28 – nothing to beat yourself up about: as KVa said @10, it seemed intuitive, somehow.
@Tramp in 28.
Think of George Orwell in London and Paris! It’s gettable as a clue. The association between down and out is pretty strong.
Thanks for a great cryptic. Very enjoyable.
Nearly finished but missed out on PRONENESS & TEMPLATE. Slowed down a little by entering ENCORES for 5d and spotting the wrong bird “pigeon” in the anagram fodder for 24a.
Very tough, I was not on the setter’s wavelength and I found many of the clues hard to read making it less enjoyable for me. Failed to solve 13d and 12ac.
I could not parse 7d or 3d apart from christMAS CAR + A – what is the missing kiss bit for? Oh, I see now. I never write it as Xmas so it was not on my mind.
New for me: BARRACK = jeer.
Thanks, both.
Very tough but like Eileen, upon completion I’m not entirely sure why! Enjoyed the battle, and oddly enough struggled on a couple of the easier clues (USHER and PROFILE were quite late entries).
Loved PEREGRINE FALCON and EXTRADITE in particular.
Thanks Tramp & Eileen.
michelle @34 – when I was a child, someone said writing ‘Xmas’ was like calling Christ ‘Mr X’, so I never did it. When I grew up and learned Greek, I discovered that the X represented the Greek letter chi and was an abbreviation of Christos – I’d still never write it, though!
Gave up, so I am barred from saying anything else today.
There’s been a hack, the internet is down/out …
Not so much a did not finish as a didn’t really get going.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen.
I found this tough but it yielded eventually. I particularly liked EXTRADITE, MASCARA, WI and the raptor.
PRONENESS and TEMPLATE took me an age.
[Eileen: Is ‘down and out’ a proper hendiadys? It can be interpreted as two separate conditions. Unlike this puzzle, which was nice and hard 🙂 ]
Thanks to Neil and Eileen
I was defeated by several of these, but pleased with myself for remembering SOIGNE (Wodehouse has a great line about ‘way down upon the soigne river’).
I don’t think the cryptic grammar for NEEDS really works, even though the answer is obvious. There’s nothing to indicate a name, and the ‘before’ seems to be out of place.
Well for the first time I think more or less ever I got no across clues at all on the first pass. Considered TRY OUT at the end but rejected it initially as my confidence was rock bottom by that point! Fortunately the downs were kinder and I laboured my way to an ungainly finish with several either unparsed or just successfully guessed from crossers. That’s even worse than something that’s biffed in my book as you don’t even necessarily know what the definition is! This happened to me with TEMPLATE. I too struggled with PUSHER for some reason.
So satisfying but not soigne on my part.
Tx Tramp and Eileen
Getting back to the down-and-out pilot …
Here are 2 senses of the respective words from Macmillan online:
DOWN, sense 18, if a computer system is down, it is not working
OUT, sense 24 MAINLY AMERICAN, used for saying that a machine or a piece of electrical equipment is not working “The copy machine is out again.”
I came here after today’s Gaff in the FT hoping for some relief; some hope! I echo what others have said about the difficulty of this one, with the SW holding out until the end. Like Michelle @34 I had trouble with the crossing PRONENESS and my last in TEMPLATE, but the one that gave me most trouble along the way was BOREHOLE which I thought was particularly tough, both to identify the def and to work out the parsing.
It’s interesting that in this part of the world BARRACKS (for) as a verb means “cheers for” rather than ‘jeers’.
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen
26a was my way in to this enjoyably challenging puzzle, with thoughts of a power outage meaning the power is down both familiar phrases to me, so in it went without further doubt. I had more trouble equating late to old as Eileen alluded to in 12a’s template, but it made enough sense.
I have never heard of hendiadys, so I’ve learnt something today. How long I remember it is open to debate.
NESS for “head” escaped me. I’m sure it’s come up several times before and one of these days I will manage to commit it to memory!
Well. I sort of finished, albeit with some assistance from wordfinders. At first I thought of late and old in the expressions “of late” and “of old”, but they are not synonymous at all.
Thanks Eileen – a couple of these defeated me, so glad to have your help. Your “old Latin teacher” story reminded me of my father (a professor of Roman history), who described himself as an “ancient historian” although we pointed out that he might be misinterpreted.
Thank you Eileen for the blog and particularly for introducing me to the word hendiadys. Unlike many obscure grammatical labels it describes a common construction and is therefore seems worth remembering.
Re. “late” and “old”: “late” previously meant “recently former” or “in the near but not too distant past”, and survives with this meaning in the whimsically archaic expression “lately of this parish”, referring to somebody who until recently lived in the area.
From there it came to mean “recently dead” and eventually simply “dead”. (Personally I still find it a little jarring to hear “the late so-and-so” of somebody who has been dead for years.)
And of course “old” can mean former, e.g. “my old job”, “my old teacher” (regardless of age).
Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but it’s definitely fair in my mind.
The late/former/old Everton manager, Frank Lampard, is now losing matches at Chelsea.
Template is a master: see Powerpoint slide master. Admittedly, this is a hard clue. I probably should have simplified.
Also, the “clue out essentially going” is tricky. I thought I’d slipped up when I test-solved the proof, but, I am saying what I mean, so, I think it’s fair.
Neil
Splendid puzzle from Tramp, again. Definitely a Friday one, though and, as others have said, a bit of a puzzle of two halves. Particularly with the slightly unfriendly grid which is the only criticism I have. I thought PEREGRINE FALCON was an inspired surface and would put it marginally ahead of the other long anagram. Other big ticks included BARRACKS, PUSHER, SCOOPS, PROFILE, MASCARA, CLOSE UP, CLEANS and SCOFFER.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
That was a serious workout and I failed to identify PRONENESS as a bent.
Tramp@51 I struggled with a lot of this today, but not with TEMPLATE. Can’t see any reason for you to think this especially hard in amongst other instruments of torture, but tastes differ. Excellent puzzle, many thanks.
Quirister @48
🙂
This was a struggle, but I made it in the end. Could 16 be parsed as a triple definition: with ‘detailed’ and ‘picture’ separated: “A close-up examination of the evidence, text (or whatever)” and as a type of shot in a film? In other words extract ‘detailed’ from ‘picture’ in the DD parsing.
Challenging but enjoyable – the enjoyment helped by actually finishing after failing to do so with Qaos and Vlad this week. The thing about Tramp – for me at least – is that perseverance is usually rewarded, whereas with those other two it is sometimes impossible for me to get on their wavelength, and then the more I think about it, the further away I get.
Last one in for me was TEMPLATE. Yes, it was difficult, but no way was it unfair or inaccurate. No need for the setter to beat himself up about it! (But thanks for dropping in, Tramp.)
And thanks to Eileen for the blog and for introducing me to hendiadys. (Now to figure out how to work it into a conversation down the pub.)
Thanks Tramp. I was hoping for some relief after being thrashed by Filbert in yesterday’s Indy but no such luck. I ended up revealing much of the SW quadrant but I was able to enjoy the splendid PEREGRINE FALCON as well as EXTRADITE and COSMETIC. Thanks Eileen as always.
Rock hard but completely fair for me. Great fun. Thanks both
Quirister@48, I always make the distinction, especially in their school reports, to refer to Physics the subject with a capital letter, and physics the study with a lower case p, in order to distinguish them. Thus if your father called himself an Ancient Historian, in my mind he would be a student/teacher of the subject Ancient History, which is fine, and the connotation of longevity would not arise!
Tough but fair, completion not helped by the unfriendly grid. I had the top half (except SOIGNE) but spent ages linking to the bottom half, where I struggled.
Then, magically, it all fell into place.
Favourites were EXTRADITE, PRONENESS, CLEANS, FOLIO and BOREHOLE
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
[sheffield hatter@56: You could always ask for a ‘whiskey and rye’]
This took me most of the afternoon, and dnf as I had DELEGATE at 12.
14 a new one to me
I liked the UK Royal references ro Andrew and Kate. 7D and 25A
PEREGRINE was the best..lots of head scratching.for the rest.
Finished it but it was a slog. I don’t care for the clue to 2d at all.
I got to FIESTA by a different route: FIST (go, as in make a good fist of it) + A around E (for drugs, as in he’s on drugs/ecstasy). I tried to justify FIST = GO in the dictionaries but couldn’t, so I’m not sure the parsing works, but it completely convinced me at the time 🙂 .
Nice and chewy. Great long anagrams today.
Thanks, T and E
As someone not nearly up for this as a a challenge, just on the the A’s alone (my head is too mashed, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to go through the D’s) I must ask
14 – How on earth does ‘as’ = the world’s worst word to start a sentence, ‘so’?
18 – ” ” ” ” ‘describing’ work as an envelope clue?
And lastly, same question over ‘hit’ as an anagrind in 24?
OohmeagreOmega@67:
14: it’s a stretch but ‘so long as you’re home before midnight’ and ‘as long as….’ might serve;
18: I seem to recall that e.g. a circle might ‘describe’ a triangle in the sense of being around it (it’ll be in one of the dictionaries);
24: ‘hit’ might be in the sense of being disturbed (‘I wondered why the frisbee seemed to be getting bigger – then it hit me….’)
Thanks to Eileen and Tramp for the puzzle, and further comments.
O@67:
14: as = so.. I presume, this is as per “this clue vexes me, as do the others”?
16: “describe” as per “outline” in geometry, I think
“hit” as an anagrind- pretty much any word that implies any sort of damage/rearrangement/modification seems OK to use as an anagrind- some more obvious than others!
Stumped by SOIGNE at the very last. Tough, but rewarded persistency…
Magnificent work, Tramp. Loved this.
TILT: hendiadys. Always a school day with Eileen at the helm. Great blog, thanks.
Phitonelly @66 – I parsed FIESTA the same way. Make a go of it/make a fist of it seems fine to me. Surprised if dictionaries don’t support it.
Being across the pond, I always get to these later than most everyone else. I prefer printing and working on paper, so I’m never tempted to look something up or reveal something. This one took me, off and on, three or four hours—I do have other things to do—but I triumphed in the end, including all the parsings. I want to frame it and hang it on the wall. It was SO GOOD, and I feel that I have finally arrived!
I’ve been out for a while and so, if you’re still there …
phitonelly @66 and Widdersbel @71 – that seems reasonable but I’m not convinced about E = drugs .
OohmeagreOmega@67 (I share your abomination of the common ubiquitous ‘so’ at the beginning of a sentence) and DaveJ @69 – re as=so: I’m surprised that no one picked this up earlier. When I was at school, many decades ago, I was taught that ‘as’ and ‘so’ could have the same meaning but in different contexts, ‘so’ being used after a negative:
‘I am not so keen as she is’ / ‘I am as keen as she is’ but, over the years, this distinction has been blurred and I think the two uses have become interchangeable and* so I didn’t comment on the blog. (Since this was the way I took it when blogging, I haven’t done any research on this.)
* Ha – I’ve just realised what, without thinking, I did there: off – topic, I was also taught always to include ‘and’ before ‘so’ in expressing a consequence. I do wish I could retain more recently acquired – and more useful – knowledge equally easily!
big @72 – Congratulations!
I don’t see how 8d parses: why does the ALE get round the Bachelor but not the Nurse who sits between them?
Flea @13: speaking of rude references in the southwest corner, I tried so hard to make the “supplier of escort” in 25A to be PANDER, a pimp for the uninitiated prostitute, as it were.
Gillafox @74. It helps if you can ignore the comma before ‘getting around’, which is there just to mislead, and imagine some punctuation after ‘bachelor’ instead. (Perhaps a colon or a dash.) Then ‘nurse’ and ‘beer’ are added together (EN+ALE) and get put around B.
Failed on 12a but appreciated the rest.
Found this really hard. Gave up with about a third of the puzzle completed.
thanks sheffield hatter @76 – i must have been a bit tired, that makes perfect sense in the light of morning
No, it’s not you Gillafox @74. I struggled with 8D’s construction too and don’t like the explanation (sorry Sheffield @76). It’s stretched beyond breaking point for me in every sense. Frustrated by this puzzle 30 mins after starting and glad I gave up and came in here to find answers that I would never have got. Thank you fifteen squared for saving me hours of unproductive head scratching!
Eileen @73 – I would say E/ecstasy can mean either a single tablet (countable) or a non-specific amount of the drug, hence “he’s off his head on E” = “he’s off his head on drugs”.
Your parsing is probably what Tramp intended though!
Many thanks to those responding and providing a tad of clarity to my cry for help. Much appreciated.
Finally finished at 1 am on Sunday morning! It was worth the effort and I’m relieved to see I wasn’t the only one who found it hard. Nw let’s see what yesterday’s Prize has to offer …
Lovely – unsurprisingly!
Many thanks both
I’m late but catching up after holiday and thought this was fairly straightforward. Excepting the unusual FIT = GO which Eileen explains. Some regulars head = NESS and ET appearing yet again as the film.
Thanks both
I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone else bring it up, but how on earth does ”turn” mean “performer”?
It’s clearly something lots of performers do or take, but I can’t find a sense in which it refers to the performer themself. I must be missing something obvious.
Jun-Dai@88: Click this
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/turn
then search for performer (Ctrl-f) and you will find:
’16. an occasional or repeated action, performance, etc.
…
f.
a. a short performance given as part of a variety show; act
b. its performer or performers’