It’s IO! Love or hate this setter, he is one of a kind.
I found this very simple to break into, and wondered whether IO had toned things down today, but got quite snowed in after about half, and then really stuck puzzling over the last few parsings. Please do share your thoughts, different approaches or other ideas in the comments. I have always really enjoyed IO’s compositions, and this is no exception. Many thanks to the setter for a well thought out, tricky and creative offering.
[Rhond]DA MP’S QUIB[bling] (central to)
(S[uit]E (missing core) + NIB (point of writing)) cycles
DUG (tit) + FOR (in search of) + TAT (jumble)
ADM[i]N (government); A trading with I (India)
(T[urkey] (minimum of) cuts I’M (one’s)) needed to fill BAP (roll)
Cryptic definition
A play on the word LOT as ‘much’ / ‘an auction lot’, and the literal and idiomatic meanings of the full phrase.
(CHORD)* (*new); SINGER (vocalist)’s mastered ahead of SCAT (improv jazz)
PARSECS* (*warped) to stop (ET (alien) + RAVEL (fray) + [Rige]L (close to))
(KK (a couple of thousand) curtains CAN (may))< (<to the rear)
Think ‘to have the HANG of something’ / ‘have a KNACK for’
(PARSON having GOT)* (*sorted)
Double definition
For the second definition: a NODDY (or noddy shot) is a camera reaction shot which shows the interviewer nodding (or being seen to be listening to) the interviewee
[h]E [h]AS + TENDER (expressed terms) lacking in aspiration (i.e. no H pronounced) – &lit
Stereotypically, people from the East of London (Eastenders) don’t pronounce the letter ‘h’
A BAS (down, in Paris i.e. in French); DATES (is seeing) round
MET (became acquainted with); OT (religious text, Old Testament) in
OOPS< (my bad, <about) + L (Latin)
(OUR COMPILERS with AT + C[hambers] (launch of))* (*played about)
Cryptic definition
A cricketing term which is a measure of a player’s performance of a season (SUMMER) based on their innings (INS AND OUTS).
There is also a possible subtle peripheral reference to the person calculating the average / SUMMER.
Following on from the previous clue (denoted by the use of ellipses):
IN AUG (at the end of the summer; inferred by the use of WHEN) + [r]URAL (country, heading off)
The first voyage of a ship, for example is the INAUGURAL / MAIDEN voyage
(US needs MIRACLE)* (*to repair)
Cryptic double definition
A trapeze artist is very daring using NO NET
A nonet is a musical GROUP of nine players
Cryptic definition
The setter could be referring to the Managing Director of a company who might HEAD the BOARD of directors.
There’s also a possible connection with MDF/MDP which are timber materials possible used in a headboard. (Medium-density fibreboard / medium-density particleboard). Maybe a stretch too far!
DO (to use) cracking O (old) + KEY;KEY (clues, plural)
Think to DO / USE drugs, for example.
(REP (theatre) + APT (fitting) + SET (put))< (<up)
REP is an abbreviation for repertory theatre – for the wiki article see here
Cryptic definition
TA KEN
I.e. Thanks, Ken: Boris Johnson took over as London Mayor in 2008 from Ken Livingstone
[woo]DEN SE[cateurs] (as evidenced by)
Double / cryptic definition
The second definition referring to being check’mated’ in Chess
I had a very similar experience to you Oriel, half almost straight in then a second and a third coffee required to finish.
I like Io a lot but do sometime raise an eyebrow at things like can = may which seems off to me. I also can’t really equate bitmap and display. A bitmap is a means of controlling what’s displayed not the display itself. Minor pedantry to be fair.
Think there’s a little extra in 12/18A willing = leaving (like a gift in a will) ‘a lot to be desired’ = ‘auctioneers valued item’ though I could be wrong there as there’s no apostrophe.
Favourites today were IBSEN, SCHRODINGERS CAT and SPACE TRAVELLERS which at first read I thought might be a convocation of Scottish churches I’d probably never heard of
Thanks both.
I agree with your take on 12/18 Blah. “Willing” is otherwise a bit redundant. Thank you.
I always enjoy an Io crossword and my solving experience was the same as Oriel and Blah
Thanks to Io and Oriel
On 12/18: “Willing auctioneers valued item” = leaving auctioneers a valued item in a will. (No apostrophe needed.)
Thanks for the blog, good to see Io after missing in April, I got more than usual cold solving and then the grid helped me a lot. Every entry has more than half the letters checked including the first letter.Very helpful for BITMAP which I did not know.
SCHRODINGERS CAT is a Gedankenexperiment but I suppose the clue is close enough .
KNACK , can=may? I agree with Blah@1 , can’t really see it.
Minor quibbles for a great puzzle.
Yet another master-class puzzle from Io and a super blog from Oriel. I somehow feel that it’s not easy to blog an Io. There could always be a layer hidden beyond our sight somewhere.
COTD: EAST-ENDER
Several other faves. A long list.
LEAVING A L T B D
I was overthinking…
considered ‘willing auctioneers valued item’ as ‘leaving behind in will a valued item for eventual auctioning’/’LEAVING A LOT-TO-BE (something like a bride-to-be) DESIRED’ (Willing=LEAVING as blah and FrankieG have already said above).
Now I think that FrankieG’s simpler explanation works better.
Toughest puzzle for a while across the GIFT stable, which is hardly surprising given the compiler. I was pleased to finish pretty much everything bar the interlinked INAUGURAL and IBSEN. The first because I didn’t clock how the prior clue was being used and the second because I was thinking of Grieg and IBSEN never entered my head. Doh!
My only query is with HEADBOARD: the Managing Director heads the company but the chair heads the board.
Thanks Io and Oriel
This may be the first Io that I have completely filled out–definitely more accessible than his usual. I quit worrying about parsing a few of these after a while.
We knew we were in for a tough time with Io and were unlikely to solve it unaided. And so it proved, with wordfinder, anagram solver and thesaurus required – but we got it all in the end, albeit without parsing a few answers. We liked 12/18 and 13.
Yhanks, Io for the challenge and Oriel for the explanations.
I always struggle with Io and am thus grateful to Oriel to showing me the way. I share Roz and Blah’s queasiness about 13ac and 11/20ac respectively but that is probably just sour grapes….
Always a pleasure to see an Io. This was, I thought, on the more approachable end of Io’s spectrum and it all went in quite smoothly, though (as ever with this setter) I had two or three not fully parsed: my thanks to the indefatigable Oriel for clarifying those.
Wonderful stuff, Io, and many thanks for the blog, Oriel. Can = may is a common misuse in language (can I have that?, or can I go now?). Grammatically incorrect, but used a lot.
I’ve only been doing cryptic crosswords for about two months, and this one really did my head in!
What is the point of ‘stop’ in 17ac?
Heather@13 Io is the hardest setter for normal daily crosswords , takes a bit of getting used to .Stop=restrain , so ET RAVEL L are inside an anagram of PARSECS .
It’s funny, I fly through three or four puzzles in a row and think I have cryptics mastered. Then a puzzle like this one from IO pops up and slaps me back to reality. I got almost all of the fills, but a few proved above my pay grade. Thanks to IO for both a humbling and a learning experience and to Oriel for a great blog.
I’m with Jay @15. I was on a good run with recent puzzles, including a Monk, only to run into something of a black hole with IO who’s mostly on a different wavelength to me and at least 1 parsec beyond my solving (and parsing) abilities!
Roz@14 Thank you for the ‘stop’ explanation – it makes sense now!
Gave up at about 50%. I have completed Ios in the past but not this one.
No fun
We found it fun, but had to pick at it a few times before we got enough to get going.
Chewy but definitely high FF score
Thanks to Oriel and Io