Another great puzzle from Tramp, in the Goldilocks zone of difficulty. The long answer at 8/25/6 took some working out, but it was worth the effort. Thanks to Tramp.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SCORES | Gets sex in centre wearing pair of smalls (6) CORE (centre) in S + S |
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| 5 | LOCATE | Look around the empty place (6) LO (look!) + CA (circa, around) + T[h]E |
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| 8 | FELLINI | Director from Italy collapsed first (7) FELL IN + I[taly] |
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| 9 | MONARCH | Tramp working to fill-in for top person (7) ON (working) in MARCH |
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| 11 | MARKET GARDENING | Growing business? Good – get firm, initially lost, to enter promotion (6,9) G[ood] + [h]ARDEN (get firm) in MARKETING |
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| 12 | LADY | Woman did lie about duke (4) D in LAY |
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| 13 | SOUNDPROOF | Firm with smoking gun? Fit with a silencer? (10) SOUND (firm) + PROOF (smoking gun) |
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| 17 | AMELIORATE | Better talk after email is hacked (10) EMAIL* + ORATE |
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| 18 | STUN | Bowl over with star catching last from mid-wicket (4) [mid-wicke]T in SUN |
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| 20 | INDETERMINATION | Unknown state of steel that’s wearing at front (15) IN (wearing, as clothes) + DETERMINATION (steel) |
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| 23 | YANKING | Pulling through idle chat in middle of night, grabbing number (7) N[umber] in YAK IN [ni]G[ht] |
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| 24 | KEELAGE | Docking fee from price in the end after beer turns in barrel (7) Reverse of ALE in KEG + [pric]E |
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| 26 | DURESS | Arm-twisting? Getting robe over uniform (6) U[niform] in DRESS |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | COLERIDGE | Romantic couple not excited: back to being boring through trip (9) COUPLE less UP (excited) + [bein]G in RIDE; the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the founders of the Romantic Movement |
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| 3 | RAIDER | One sacks Republican adviser on right (6) R[epublican] + AIDE + R[ight] |
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| 4 | SWING DOOR | Wife-swap and make love with Romeo – one goes both ways (5,4) SWING (to wife-swap) + DO (make) + O (love) + R[omeo] |
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| 5 | LEMUR | Tree-hugger from left to disagree having ignored leader (5) L[eft] + [d]EMUR |
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| 7 | TORSI | One husband not in short swimming trunks (5) Anagram of I+ SHORT less H |
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| 8 | FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT | Mad at flat décor ultimately concealed by Prime Minister: reason close allies lost respect? (11,6,8) One of Tramp’s trademark brilliantly-appropriate anagrams, in this case of AT FLAT DECO[r] BY PRIME MINISTER; the clue is a reference to one of many scandals involving Boris Johnson, featuring dodgy financing and overpriced wallpaper |
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| 10 | HIGH FINANCE | Drunk intended to grab woman’s bottom: big deal? (4,7) HIGH (drunk) + [woma]N in FIANCÉ (intended) |
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| 14 | NITPICKED | Found holes in up-ended can: opened with sharp tool (9) Reverse of TIN (can) + PICKED (opened with a sharp tool – e.g. a lock) |
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| 15 | OUTRIVALS | Beats virus: a lot suffering (9) (VIRUS A LOT)* |
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| 16 | DIRT BIKE | One might be scrambling with bride getting kit off (4,4) (BRIDE KIT)* |
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| 19 | CAREER | Race and Archie’s skin linked with King Charles and Queen (6) A[rchi]E intermixed with CR + ER – the surface is a reference to alleged remarks made by an unknown member of the Royal Family about the skin colour of the son of the Duke & Duchess of Sussex |
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| 21 | DONOR | Supporter to wear yellow (5) DON OR (usually gold, but also yellow in heraldry) |
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| 22 | RAGES | Blows a fuse as resistance fades (5) R + AGES |
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FELLINI I parsed as FELL IN 1 with Director from Italy being the direct clue.
Great set of clues, mainly got the long clue from crossers.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
Easy, particularly for a Tramp. I was helped by guessing the long one from F?M?L… – I didn’t even bother to try to parse it; I do dislike this sort of clue. Lots of good ones to make up for this, though.
I couldn’t be bothered parsing the big one. Life’s too short.
All the British references were wasted on me. I’d not heard of “swing” for “wife swap”, but sure enough, there it is as definition 16 in Collins. Couldn’t parse INDETERMINATION, which is a bit embarrassing, as it’s pretty straightforward.
Overall not easy — it took me a while — but enjoyable.
I didn’t think it was an easy solve. Kudos to Tramp for the 8, 25, 6 anagram and surface. 11 I guessed from the definition and enumeration and then the parsing took some time as I was fixated on ardent for firm until I finally got it. Ignoring most things about royalty, especially the names of the children, I failed to realise how brilliant the surface of 19 CAREER was. So thanks to Tramp and to Andrew for pointing out the topicality of the surfaces.
I don’t mind the ‘sayings’ clues as long as they emerge sometime, i.e. without having to slog through the fodder. Some neat clues, like soundproof; who saw smoking gun and said proof? Not this plodder, mumbled ‘evidence’, passed on, woke up later when the f appeared. Hey ho, all fun, thanks Tramp n Andrew.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew!
Loved F B C. SOUNDPROOF and CAREER.
I didn’t think this was easy but I finished before 8 so it can’t have been too hard! Like Muffin@2 I had the same 3 letters and guessed the rest. But what a clever clue! Some clever misdirection at 29dn and 7dn too.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
Started off thinking this was going to be completely beyond me as the only across clue I got on first pass was ‘lady’. Once I got ‘Fellini’ and ‘Market Gardening‘ it suddenly appeared more doable! I don’t think I’d ever seen the plural ‘torsi’ before but it was clear enough. Thank you Tramp for a slow but satisfying solve.
I never find Tramp easy, but I do find solving his crosswords an enjoyable challenge. I didn’t check the anagram for FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT, but it, and several other clues, raised a wry grin at the digs.
Thank you to Tramp and Andrew.
It was C_N_E_P_ that gave me the long clue – I’m afraid its political ramifications were lost on me, but Tramp obviously had a lot of fun setting it.
Yes, I liked the smoking gun in SOUNDPROOF too, along with the growing business (my grandparents ran one of those), FELLINI and MONARCH.
To NITPICK: the definition should be “found holes IN”. And do lemurs hug trees, particularly?
Top ticks for FBC, HIGH FINANCE, and the faux self-reference in MONARCH
And nice to see firm not CO for once
Cheers A&T
gladys @10… according to New Scientist, apparently Lemurs do hug trees
Thanks Andrew, particularly for the parsing of COLERIDGE – I’d never have got COLE- from ‘couple not excited’ in a million years (and -RIDGE wasn’t much easier). I’m with those who guessed and shrugged FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT which rather spoiled a Tramp puzzle for me, which I generally enjoy.
One for those who rate surfaces. Agree that this was not Tramp at his toughest though it relies on his off-the-wall definitions, an aspect of his compiling that is both defining and beguiling
Many thanks for the entertainment
Tramp, in answer to your question, yes, a drunk grabbing a woman’s bottom is indeed a big deal to the victim, hence a crime.
Seemed impenetrable at first – I am amazed that I could complete this puzzle.
Favourite: RAIDER (loi).
I couldn’t be bothered to parse 8/25/6 but guessed that at least part of it was an anagram. I solved it via the crossers that I had.
Thanks, both.
Very enjoyable, even if I needed a fair amount of help from the blog to understand all the answers. Like some others have mentioned, the long anagram was guessable once a few crossers were in, but I had little idea of the parsing and none of its meaning until coming here. Many thanks Tramp for the fun and Andrew for the erudition.
Took a while but thoroughly worth it.
I’m entirely with William F P @14. The surface for 8/25/6 is sublime and it’s a great pity that its ephemerality means it’s not eligible, along with 19dn CAREER, for entry into my little book of classic clues – as has been the fate of so many gems!
Like others, I admired SOUNDPROOF, for the smoking gun and also had ticks for COLERIDGE, SWING DOOR, LEMUR, and NITPICKED.
I think both parsings for FELLINI work but, having gone the other way initially, I now prefer Andrew’s.
Many thanks to Tramp for the fun and Andrew for the blog.
TimC@12: That’s why fifteensquared is worth the price of admission! You learn something new every day – if it’s only that Tramp reads the New Scientist.
Thanks for the super blog, Andrew. Thanks to others for the kind comments.
I wrote this in December 2023 and asked for it to be pushed up the queue.
Neil
A toughie.
Like Geoff @3, I really cba with the parsing for the long ‘un; like Muffin @2, I don’t care for that kind of clue but others more than compensated, with SOUNDPROOF & FELLINI being my faves.
I wondered about ‘sloth’ for 5D: gladys & I have both learned something about lemurs today.
Thank you Tramp for highlighting my intellectual deficiencies, thank you Andrew for all the help.
Well worth pushing up the queue, Tramp@21, as things move rapidly, although I wouldn’t have minded waiting for the gems which will stand the test of time.
Liked CAREER for the wordplay and topicality; INDETERMINATION for a sufficiently challenging two-part wordplay for a 15 letter clue; STUN for catching me out mid-wicket; MONARCH for the misleading self-reference, and SOUNDPROOF as others have said. My favourite was AMELIORATE for the contemporary surface and concise cluing, with lots of potential for misdirection.
This looked very tough at first but having solved FBC by use of the crossers, like others, it flowed nicely. Favourites were LOCATE, SOUNDPROOF, COLERIDGE, SWING DOOR, HIGH FINANCE (I doubt it’s Neil’s opinion!) and CAREER. Clever commentary on contemporary issues as well, as is his trademark.
Ta Tramp & Andrew.
I thought RAILS at first for 22d, but luckily it made 23a look improbable.
Goldilocks indeed. I got the long one from C?N… and the definition, then checking it. I pity the bloggers who have to tease out this sort of thing, but I liked the puzzle a lot in spite of that.
Struggled with this at first, initially had “Loris” for the tree hugger at 5d, but eventually everything fell into place. Couldn’t parse everything, so thank you to Andrew and to Tramp for the puzzle.
Super Tramp
Goldilocks? Filled in 3 and gave up. Waste of time.
Thanks for the parsings here, Andrew. I couldn’t parse COLERIDGE and had never heard the plural TORSI.
I thought the long FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT was excellent. Other favourites were CAREER, HIGH FINANCE and SWING DOOR. When I read the clue for 1a, I assumed it must be a Paul puzzle!
I’m calling this Tough Tuesday. It was a real brain-ticker for me. Thanks Tramp.
I’m Tom’s dad too. Thanks for the explanation 8,25,6.
8,25,6 is as close to genius as we mortals can reach. Brilliant Tramp.
I only got TARSI as Vlad clued it as “rita’s broken bones” last December
I couln’ t be bothered to parse the long one either but that’s my failing rather than Tramp’s
Mightily relieved to find a way in with the grid filler FAMILIARITY etc, and thanks to Mr Aesop (BC 620-BC 560) for telling us about this human failing in his Fox and the Lion fable, I think it was, all those years ago.
Last two in the tricky DONOR and RAGES once I had satisfied myself that INDETERMINATION was a valid word…
A fun puzzle from Tramp as usual. I confess to not parsing The Long One, and as a result it went in pretty late, enabling me to then get SOUNDPROOF (which I had assumed started with CO until the penny dropped). I solve on my phone and don’t usually have paper available to scribble down all the fodder – not my favourite clue types, but perfectly fine as part of a varied diet.
Thanks Tramp & Andrew.
Tramp@21 Thank you for this puzzle. I am always impressed by a clue that leads me to a word that I have never heard before. 24a is an example.
So much to like here. I enjoyed it a lot, especially unravelling the long answer 8d 25a 6d FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT. Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Thanks for the blog, very good overall, the very long answer is an incredible anagram , COLERIDGE flows very nicely, KEELAGE is neat
TORSI earned a severe Paddington stare .
Slowly put this one together but a very satisfying solve.
I liked the FELL IN I, the wordplays of KEELAGE, SWING DOOR and COLERIDGE (and the latter’s definition), the surface for HIGH FINANCE, and the good anagram for DIRT BIKE. Like many others, I didn’t manage to parse FBC but a fantastic surface, referencing one of BoJo’s extravagances.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew.
Another great puzzle from Tramp. Clever and witty surfaces and definitions, even though, as for others, FBC went in from the crossers and I didn’t stop to parse it.
Lord of favourites, inter alia: COLERIDGE, MONARCH, LEMUR, TORSI, DIRT BIKE.
Many thanks to Neil W and Andrew
Yes the long one was quite an achievement (by setter and solvers alike!). Quite remarkable.
I was somewhat on the ball when tackling this puzzle last night. When I saw “tree-hugger” and five spaces what popped into my head right away was INDRI. Of course it didn’t work, but an indri is a LEMUR (as well as a much-loved search engine in the CS community in days gone by) so all was well.
A lot of good clues today, and solving was a pleasure rather than the struggle Tramp sometimes turns out be. Thanks.
Lots of new (to me anyway) folk here today. Nnnpd, but if that’s you, welcome welcome.
Great crossword, loved this. Could there be a third way to parse FELLINI? From=in is the only shaky bit.
from (=in), Italy (=i), but collapsed (=fell) comes first
This was an excellent Tramp, as we’ve come to expect. Great fun but I must confess that I totally went astray trying to parse FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT – a straightforward write-in once I had a few crossers, but I spent ages toying with PM (rather than ‘Prime Minister’ in full) as part of the fodder. Not surprising I had to give up on it.
Only goes to show – my penchant for long anagrams (including those of my own devising! 🙂 ) may yet let me down.
KEELAGE was new to me and almost the LOI, but seems obvious from the definition. A sort of misdirection because I was at first convinced that ‘Docking’ (i.e. shortening) was either a wp indicator or the def. on its own.
With INDETERMINATION, I felt sure that the wp had to be more complex. Just shows that simplicity can in itself defeat one sometimes!
A minor quibble about CAREER: I know that we’ve been using ER = Queen for donkey’s years now (well – all the years 1952-2022 I guess) but today’s Queen is actually Camilla, so ER doesn’t really work any more. I’d have preferred something like “… King Charles and late Queen”.
Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
I found this a bit of a slog and had three reveals in the SE as I had to get on with other things. It didn’t help that I was initially held up by a fixation on INCOMPREHENSION rather than INDETERMINATION. My favourites were COLERIDGE, RAIDER, and DIRT BIKE. With thanks to Tramp and Andrew.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
SS @ 43 You’ve misunderstood the parsing of 8A. It’s “Director” (definition) “from” (link word) “I”(taly) with { “FELL IN” (collapsed) first }.
I found this very challenging, eventually completed the grid with several unparsed, and great satisfaction over those I did both solve and parse. Thank you Andrew for the parsings (I don’t think I would ever have twigged to dropping UP from COUPLE) and Tramp for the mental workout.
SS @46 yup, I see now, thanks
Nice challenge; top left corner held out till I was able to have another look at lunchtime. Any crossword that gets beyond breakfast unsolved AND has no annoying stretches (IMHO obviously) gets a lots of praise from me. I like the long and convoluted multi-space clues; normally one of this length would spoil a crossword by giving too many crossers without enough work – but I got this relatively quickly but the rest of the puzzle remained resolutely unsolved.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
Thanks, Andrew, for the parsings I couldn’t manage — the “smoking gun” = “proof” or “determination” = “steel.” COLERIDGE with all that contortion? And how could anybody come up with that long anagram?
Never heard of KEELAGE either, Suzydimple@36. Our word on this blog for something you put together from wordplay and have never heard of but which turns out to be a real word is “jorum.”
gdu@3 “Wife swapping” is American too, quite familiar to me. It’s annoying with its implication that the husbands are the agents and the wives merely the wherewithal. Who ever calls it “husband swapping”?
Thanks, Tramp and Andrew.
Brilliant!
Very late to comment today with the result it has all been said – mainly praise for the puzzle which I certainly echo. Just wanted to record my appreciation of the work of both setter and blogger.
Valentine@50 I went to a husband swapping party once , I got a nice Tupperware set in return for him .
I found this tough and it took time. Favourites include LEMUR and NITPICKED. I thought the long one was an anagram when I first read it, but I could not solve it that way, and needed the crossers to complete it
Thanks Tramp and Andrew
…I did think that SCORES read a bit like notches on the headboard, from the past. Didn’t realise it was still in use today. And that very funny comment by Roz@53 definitely a blast from the past…
Maybe I’m alone, but I thought this was a brilliant puzzle (specially the anagrams). Felt really good after I finished it!
JinP@56: You’re not alone. A grand entertainment. Thanks both (especially for FBC in both its witty formulation and its assiduous parsing (We really are a spoiled lot here)).
I have heard of Operation Market Garden but only today did it occur to me that I don’t actually know what a market garden is. It sounds like my grandmother’s garden except one is meant to sell the produce? I would just have called it a vegetable garden. In any case, once I revealed the “market” part of the solution, I was able to get the long anagram, but I still found this puzzle quite difficult. Probably just a dullard day on my part.
I thought this was very tricky. Like some others it took ages for the first one to drop (NITPICKED) although after that I must have tuned into the setter’s wavelength as it did all come together in the end and I was pleased to complete it. The clever long clue was very much ‘identify an appropriate phrase from the crossers’ and cross your fingers. Clever, but hard to solve by parsing the components of the clue. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew
My first thought for the tree hugger was the LORAX (“I speak for the trees”), but it wouldn’t parse.
I do hope that those who gave up on the parsing of 8/15/6 went back to appreciate the brilliance of the surface: I confess I had to – after guessing early from the enumeration and definition – chapeau to Andrew: (rather you than me, I thought – but I got there, eventually! (I completely fail to understand those who miss half the joy of those who don’t rate surfaces – William @14 – and therefore miss so much of the fun.)
BlueDot@58
A market gardener is a commercial farmer of vegetables.
Zero.
Eileen @61. I tend to parse clues as I go. Once the puzzle is done correctly, I really have little interest in trying to parse massive long clues that I haven’t been able to work out by then. It’s done with, as far as I am concerned.
Excellent puzzle and blog, thanks to Tramp and to Andrew. It took a while to really get going on this one, but it fell into place with increasing ease as new clues were solved. I like others did not appreciate the full brilliance of FBC until I came here ! My favourite I think was CAREER with COLERIDGE a close second. The clue for LEMUR had me suppressing a loud laugh as it immediately brought George Monbiot to mind – I wonder if Tramp intended that one too ?
TT@60 and JB@65: I tried LIANA (a type of vine) but that wouldn’t work either.
Does the difficulty increase during the week? I’m a newbie having started looking at the Cryptics after learning through the Quiptics. I got all but one of Monday’s Cryptic and barely got 3 in this one. The vocabulary seems to have ramped up too, never heard of FELLINI, dEMUR, AMELIORATE, KEELAGE, TORSI or MARKET GARDENING. I’ll keep trying but maybe I should stick to Mondays for now!
Sam@67 no real pattern in the week, Monday is traditionally easier but that is not always the case . The Guardian used to have 2 puzzles a week suitable for newer solvers , now it seems to be 1 or none. Keep trying the harder ones, you will learn more new things.
Steffen@63 and Sam@67: Now is the time to examine the blog and learn. It’s the only way: try, fail, understand, try etc
Too late to comment, but I will anyway.
Re 7d TORSI, when a slightly indirect anagram is as easy to solve as this (one = I or a or an, not a lot of choices) I don’t see the need for a Paddington stare.
Roz@53, did you ever exchange the Tupperware back?
Those who didn’t like the 8,25,6 anagram clue wouldn’t have liked Araucaria’s trademark anagram clues. Remember THE OLD VICARAGE, GRANTCHESTER? This one reminded me of that.
Re that clue, I didn’t know the wallpaper scandal, so the full brilliance of the clue eluded me until reading Andrew’s excellent blog. The same with 19d CAREER, another great clue.
Thanks Tramp and Andrew for the fun and enlightenment.
First time in a while I couldn’t get any clues on the first pass – great puzzle, thanks Tramp
Stared at this for half an hour and couldn’t get a single clue. First time ever. No fun at all.