Well, I breathed a sigh of relief after having completed this very challenging puzzle from Aardvark, having started off with ten solid minutes of blank stares.
I thought that the complexity of the clues was in the service of a pangram, but there is actually no “Y” this time. I am not 100% certain what Aardvark was getting at in 2D or 19D, and please let me know if I have missed any other subtleties.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GASTROPUB |
Chat about pet heading for usual eatery (9)
|
| GAB (chat) around (about) {STROP (pet) + first letter of (heading for) U[SUAL]} | ||
| 6 | COBRA |
One won’t serve cups for government committee (5)
|
| CO (one won’t serve, i.e., conscientious objector) + BRA (“cups”), referring to Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms | ||
| 9 | RUN-IN |
Argument over Uni needing fences (3-2)
|
| Hidden in (fences) [OVE]R UNI N[EEDING] | ||
| 10 | LASSITUDE |
Frailty of girl linked with X-Factor, regularly subdued (9)
|
| LASS (girl) + IT (X-factor) + alternate letters of (regularly) [S]U[B]D[U]E[D] | ||
| 11 | SHANE WARNE |
Cricketer no more, a pioneering maestro (5,5)
|
| SH (no more, i.e., an admonition to silence) + A + NEW (pioneering) + [Thomas] ARNE (maestro), with the entire surface a sort of &lit | ||
| 12 | TEEN |
Youngster repeatedly gutted the extension (4)
|
| Outside letters of both (repeatedly gutted) T[H]E + E[XTENSIO]N | ||
| 14 | AUDIBLE |
Car, to remain around pound, can be picked up (7)
|
| AUDI (car) + {BE (to remain) around L (pound, i.e., £)} | ||
| 15 | IRONMAN |
Sports event being played in Irish castle possibly (7)
|
| ON (being played) inside (in) {IR. (Irish) + MAN (castle possibly, i.e., in chess)} | ||
| 17 | THREADS |
Clothing Rex put in the trailers (7)
|
| R (Rex) inside (put in) THE + ADS (trailers, referring to the cinema) | ||
| 19 | CHASSIS |
Beetle’s skeleton, maybe cold, entertains relative (7)
|
| C (cold) + HAS (entertains) + SIS (relative), referring to a Volkswagen | ||
| 20 | OLAV |
North European chap switching round Toilet Duck (4)
|
| LAV (toilet) + O (duck) with the elements “switching round,” referring to a Norwegian man’s name | ||
| 22 | CUP-AND-BALL |
Sort of joint joiner put on prize plaything (3-3-4)
|
| CUP (prize) + AND (“joiner”) + BALL (plaything) | ||
| 25 | GARIBALDI |
Famous Italian golf champion crosses rough (9)
|
| G (golf) + AI (champion, i.e., A1) around (crosses) RIBALD (rough) | ||
| 26 | USHER |
Escort with silencer, according to Cockney (5)
|
| [H]USHER (silencer) unaspirated (according to Cockney) | ||
| 27 | DELVE |
Letter allows insurance company to investigate (5)
|
| DEE (letter, i.e., “D”) around (allows) LV= (insurance company, formerly Liverpool Victoria) | ||
| 28 | DEAR KNOWS |
English boat currently guarded by cop? I’ve no idea (4,5)
|
| E (English) + ARK (boat) + NOW (currently) inside (guarded by) DS (cop, i.e., Detective Sergeant) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GERMS |
Hamburgers, say, not a new source of disease (5)
|
| GERM[AN]S (Hamburgers, say, i.e., inhabitants of Hamburg) minus (not) {A + N (new)} | ||
| 2 | SANTANDER |
Financial institution smoother, having leather interior (9)
|
| SANDER (smoother) around (having . . . interior) TAN (leather), referring to the bank. |
||
| 3 | RUNNER BEAN |
Climber reportedly lived beyond river (6,4)
|
| I think this parses as: RUNNER (river) + homophone of (reportedly) BEEN (lived) | ||
| 4 | POLEAXE |
Rod on guitar fell (7)
|
| POLE (rod) + AXE (guitar) | ||
| 5 | BASENJI |
Dog foundation Jack established in Northern Island (7)
|
| BASE (foundation) + {J (Jack) inside (established in) [N (Northern) + I (Island)]} Was this supposed to say “Northern Ireland”? | ||
| 6 | CRIB |
Kid supports constant card game (4)
|
| C (constant) + RIB (kid), referring to cribbage | ||
| 7 | BRÛLÉ |
Bully’s first straightener sugar-coated? (5)
|
| First [letter of] B[ULLY] + RULE (straightener) | ||
| 8 | APENNINES |
Writer plugging American baseball team’s peaks (9)
|
| PEN (writer) inside (plugging) {A (American) + NINE’S (baseball team’s)} | ||
| 13 | DONALD DUCK |
Goofy companion to dive south of Sutherland perhaps (6,4)
|
| DONALD (Sutherland perhaps) + DUCK (to dive), referring to the Disney cartoons | ||
| 14 | ACTS OF GOD |
Book old fellow used to track upcoming storms possibly (4,2,3)
|
| ACTS (book [of the Bible]) + O (old) + F (fellow) + DOG ([animal that is] used to track) inverted (upcoming) | ||
| 16 | MUSTACHIO |
Greek characters held around station over facial disguise? (9)
|
| {MU + CHI ([two] Greek characters)} around (held around) STA (station) + O (over) | ||
| 18 | SQUALID |
Repulsive seafood with ingredient that’s metallic (7)
|
| SQUID (seafood) around (with ingredient) AL (that’s metallic, i.e., aluminum [or UK, aluminium]) | ||
| 19 | CZARINA |
European country overturning an army she commanded (7)
|
| I think this parses as: CZ (European country, i.e., Czech Republic) + {AN + IRA (army, i.e., Imperial Russian Army)} inverted (overturning) | ||
| 21 | APRIL |
Electoral system in trouble, when foolish things might happen at first (5)
|
| PR (electoral system, i.e., proportional representation) inside (in) AIL (trouble), referring April 1st or April Fools’ Day | ||
| 23 | LORD’S |
Doctor spending time on small sports ground (5)
|
| [TIME] LORD (Doctor [Who]) minus (spending) TIME + S (small), referring to Lord’s Cricket Ground | ||
| 24 | OBOE |
Music producer’s band brought in gong (4)
|
| O (band) inside (brought in) OBE (gong, i.e., a medal) |
SANTANDER
Leather and TAN used in the sense of ‘to thrash/flog’?
CZARINA
Agree with the parsing in the blog. No problem seen.
My top fave: SHANE WARNE (a difficult one to parse. Took ages. There’s some freshness about this wordplay. Excellent surface. Warnie-an all-time great & one of my favourite cricketers), RUNNER BEAN (agree with the parsing in the blog. Can’t see any issue), DONALD DUCK and APRIL.
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria!
CZARINA
I was thinking about the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Not sure if it was the one the setter had in mind.
KVa@2: My first pass at the blog had “Irish Republican Army” for 19D, but that seemed like quite a stretch for just “army” as a clue, even though IRA as referring to that organization is well known. I also considered RA (Royal Artillery), but then could not derive a source for the “I.”
Cineraria@3
CZARINA
I think you are right about IRA. I too toyed with RA.
As you hinted, I wonder what the purpose of this was. I can only say I was glad when I finished. I was running out of time and I could not be bothered trying to parse several obtuse clues. Ironically I did parse 2d and 18d and agree with Cineraria and KVa.
I did wonder whether the editor stopped to consider that many solvers have full-time jobs and/or live outside the UK but I recognize it was my fault- I should not have doggedly kept going to the end.
This is not to say it is a bad puzzle. It just was not for me given the time available. Better for the weekend a slot maybe?
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog , a really good puzzle , took the place of my swim because the rain will never stop. Great set of clues.
Agree with KVa@2 for IRA , it was originally an actual army around 1919 for the war of independence. SANTANDER , when children were often beaten it would sometimes be with a leather belt so to leather/tan became common.
I never notice things like pangrams but since you have mentioned it , OLAV could have been OKAY . I would also say it is the only weak clue, I never like to see names as answers unless it is something very specific or an impossible place in the grid.
I have also spotted the Scrabble letters J,X,Q,Z forming a central rectangle.
Phew! Enjoyed this for the most part. Didn’t care for 11a. Never heard of him and nigh impossible to guess from the clue and then check. Never heard of LV in 27a or the expression DEAR KNOWS but, at least, both these were gettable from the clues.
Thought 7d BRÛLÉ meant burnt, not “sugar-coated”. Admittedly, the sugar on top of a crème brûlée is caramelised with a blow-torch, but that’s feminine, so a different word. Coudn’t find it in Collins, on oed.com, or at Wiktionary, but of course “It’s in Chambers”: ‘brûlé … adj with a coating of caramelized sugar. [Fr, burnt]’
So that’s all right, then, isn’t it? [No, it isn’t.]
Liked 20a OLAV, explicitly chosen over commoner alternatives for its ‘lift and separate’ and advertising opportunities – ‘Toilet Duck‘.
I ended up with a filled grid but am not sure I was entirely on Aardvark’s wavelength today. I did not parse SHANE WARNE – I was nowhere near equating ‘no more’ with SH and, whilst ARNE is a name I recognise when prompted, I was nowhere near coming up with that either! As Hovis says, at least DEAR KNOWS was parseable: it is a phrase I have never encountered. For what it’s worth, I’m another who took army to refer to the Irish version of IRA and I agree with KVa on the leather/TAN equation.
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria
Well that was tough, and having (very smugly) put in ROD-END-BALL at 22A, I couldn’t then complete 18 and 19D. Even now I’m not entirely happy, as BALL AND SOCKET is anmuch more familiar term to me. I also had BRUTE as a bung-in at 7D, after I rejected BRULE for lacking the final E. But actually I’m quite pleased I got so far. Thanks to all for the puzzle, the blog and the parsings. Have a good day, at least the garden doesn’t need watering.
For 28a DEAR KNOWS oed.com has an appropriate !rish citation from 1916 The dear knows you might try to be in time for your lectures. – J. Joyce, Portrait of Artist…
…I know it from the !rish (or Scottish) folk song I Know Where I’m Going | I know who’s going with me | I know who I love | The dear (or de’il) knows who I’ll marry’…
…as featured in the closing credits of the 1945 Powell and Pressburger film of the same name.
I think the dear in dear knows is short for ‘the dear lord’.
Quite a crossword, and terrific blog, so thanks Aardvark and Cineraria.
Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria. A challenging puzzle but very do-able over a couple of leisurely drinks tonight.
@Martyn5. Maybe the point is that, if you don’t have time to do it justice, don’t do it.
Not sure if I loved this puzzle or hated it. I plowed through it with what I would consider a very inelegant solve, but I felt a great sense of satisfaction when I was done. I still can’t decide if the definition of 22A is “Sort of joint” or “Plaything” . Both could have either “Ball” or “Cup and Ball” as the answer, although the wordplay certainly favors the former. As someone living in California (very hot here) who has only seen part of one cricket game in his life the name Shane Warne was new to me, although he was easy to look up. Also, I had to rely on Cineraria for the explanation of the insurance company being LV. Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria.
Nope. Not for me. Thanks all.
Horrible
Really horrible
Gave up early
Unknown words
Impenetrable parsing
My sense is that the FT is publishing more and more of this dross, aimed at very low handicappers. What about the rest of us??
It would’ve taken me hours and hours to finish. Where are we supposed to find the time?
Yuk yuk yuk.
Dross is too strong, but unfathomable, self indulgent puzzles should have no place here.
I didn’t like this puzzle. Why? Because it was way beyond my skill and knowledge level. I noted 8 NIAMY parsings – never in a million years.
BUT, just because it was too difficult for me doesn’t make it a bad puzzle. I don’t equate my ability to solve a puzzle with the quality of the puzzle.
(And for those who are better solvers than I, it’s good that there are puzzles that challenge them. As for me, I chalk it down to experience, maybe learn a little, and look forward to a more enjoyable challenge tomorrow. (Or the next day, if IO appears tomorrow 😉)
I agree with much of what you write @21 cellomaniac.
But for me the issue is whether the FT is the place to publish such complex contrivances, which are accessible to just a few solvers.
I say no.
They should be in specialist publications.
As I’ve written on several occasions previously, therr can only be a handful of readers of the paper who can manage to solve this puzzle. Quite possibly, they’re not even readers of the paper.
My contention is that there should be a more consistent and accessible standard of puzzle published in the FT. Of course some variation but not the Himalayan peaks which seem to be regularly offered. I sense it’s got worse.
It would be great if one of the setters could comment on whether their instructions have changed.
I’m by no means an expert solver but learning as I go. If I don’t have time to solve the puzzle on the day it’s published, I keep it and chip away at it when I have a free moment. I enjoyed this one very much and was thrilled to finish it today even though I couldn’t parse a couple of the answers. Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria.