I’m feeling well and truly impaled by this morning’s puzzle, with lots of tricky (though of course ingenious) clues. There are a couple that I haven’t been able to parse, and I don’t have time to think about them any more, so over to you. Thanks to Vlad
| Across | ||||||||
| 9,10 | MASON-DIXON LINE | Lost in London (I am close to King’s Cross eastern boundary) (5-5,4) Anagram of IN LONDON I AM [king’]S X (cross) E[astern] |
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| 11 | GAMBOLLED | Skipped school (retired hurt, LOL) (9) GAM (school of whales) + LOL* in BED (i.e. retired) |
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| 12 | BLEAT | Complain win against one side’s overshadowed (5) L (left, one side) in BEAT (win against) |
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| 13 | ISRAELI | Dizzy missing end of Grand National (7) DISRAELI (politician, known as “Dizzy”) less [gran]D |
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| 15,26 | SWEENEY TODD | ‘Won’t ed see daily covers?’ – gnarled old Fleet Street worker (7,4) Anagram of WONT ED SEE D[ail]Y – Sweeney Todd is the Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
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| 17 | PASSÉ | Half of those on bus superannuated (5) PASSE[ngers] |
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| 18 | EID | Passover is a festival (3) Reverse (over) of DIE (to pass) |
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| 20 | REALM | New farmer’s content to have fifty in field (5) L (50) in anagram of [f]ARME[r] |
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| 22 | TOOTING | Driving impatiently in South London? It’s commonplace (7) Double definition – Tooting is a South London borough with a common |
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| 25 | DWELL ON | Don’t stop thinking of teacher receiving fine (5,2) WELL (fine) in DON (teacher) |
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| 26 | THING | Object to government lacking depth (5) A government lacking depth is a THIN G |
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| 27 | DREAM TEAM | Not in reality the best players? (5,4) Cryptic definition |
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| 30 | DISPLEASE | Upset president involved in underworld contract (9) P[resident] in DIS (underworld) LEASE |
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| 31 | ASTIR | Scrubs up? (5) Apart from the definition I have no idea how this works |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SMUG | Sticks up for superior (4) Reverse of GUMS (sticks with glue) |
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| 2 | OSTMARKS | No way coffers filled with money in disused currency (8) M[oney] in O (zero, no) + ST[reet] + ARKS |
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| 3 | INFO | Expecting Republican to get put away – dope! (4) IN FOR (expecting) less R |
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| 4 | ADELAIDE | Helen’s mum picked up on road north to Delaware’s state capital (8) Reverse of LEDA (Helen of Troy’s mother) + A1 (road between London and Edinburgh) + DE[laware]; Adelaide is the state capital of South Australia |
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| 5 | EXODUS | Leaving bash held back in old country (6) Reverse of DO (party, bash) in EX US |
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| 6 | KNOBKERRIE | Sexual liaison lifted simple-minded singer (Jim, that is) in club (10) Reverse of BONK (sex) + KERR (Jim K, singer with Simple Minds) + I.E. |
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| 7,29 | LIFE ON MARS | Show strange alien forms (4,2,4) (ALIEN FORMS)* – Life on Mars was a TV series first shown in 2006 |
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| 8 | WELT | Dieter’s World is hit (4) WELT is German for “world”, and someone called Dieter might use it |
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| 13 | INPUT | Contribution from bad Vlad set down (5) Another one I can’t parse |
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| 14 | EVENING ALL | 10 anticipating Tory levelling-up policy? (7,3) “EVENING ALL” was a line spoken by the title character of Dixon of Dock Green |
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| 16 | YEMEN | Royal servants taking over country (5) YEOMEN less O[ver] |
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| 19 | DODDERER | Comic before getting tip from mover and shaker (8) (Ken) DODD (comedian) + ERE + [move]R |
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| 21 | AILMENTS | Letters posted when cycling separately causing complaints (8) MAIL SENT with both words cycled by one letter |
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| 23 | OTIOSE | Useless in practice so it ought to be returned (6) Hidden in reverse of practicE SO IT Ought |
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| 24 | GODDAM | Stupid to follow up oath (6) Reverse of MAD (stupid) DOG (to follow) |
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| 28 | MOAS | Old birds back from tea in seconds (4) [te]A in MOS (moments) |
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31A Scrubs = wormwood scrubs = a prison = a stir
13D Bad Vlad = Putin. Set = put moved down = input
Man that was tough! Thank you Andrew and Vlad (at least, I think I thank you – glad I was up early!)
Tough puzzle. I failed to solve 31ac ASTIR – thanks, Jack@1 for explaining it.
Favourite: ADELAIDE.
I did not parse 11ac (ugh), 13d (thanks, Jack@1), 14d (also, ugh!).
New for me: KNOBKERRIE, DODD = comic, LIFE ON MARS = show (for me, that phrase is best known as a David Bowie song); nickname of Disraeli = dizzy.
Thanks, both.
I struggled with this brilliant puzzle and was soundly defeated. I did get INPUT and couldn’t parse it either until now, when I notice that PUTIN is the bad Vlad, with “set=PUT” moved down in the answer.
Edit – Ah, crossposted with JoFT at 1.
Thanks Andrew and JOFT @1. Tough indeed. Thanks Vlad
Found this much too tough this morning. Did manage a few, include the sparkling ISRAELI.
But when I thought INPUT had to be the answer to 13d but couldn’t parse the IN bit I pulled up stumps prematurely and hit the Reveal button. Finding one or two recent puzzles on here becoming more difficult recently, as a matter of fact…
I didn’t parse INPUT either – but got ASTIR – helped one of the times I was pushed off a bike being near The Scrubs (that one was a motorbike, and I broke my arm at the top of the radius – typical going over the handlebars break – still cycled where I was going, with tears pouring down my cheeks. GP had to pick it up as A&E didn’t, and said he knew because he’d missed the same thing from a policeman on a bike, who’d managed to break both arms.)
Seriously chewy, but when isn’t Vlad? Glad it wasn’t a Prize, so I could use the check button.
Thank you to Andrew and Vlad.
Ran out of time, revealed ASTIR and WELT – couldn’t parse the former (thanks JoFT@1). Yes difficult. My way in was MASON-DIXON LINE from enumeration and back-parsing; this gave me EVENING ALL (would anyone under about 60, or outside the UK, get that definition?) and thus a fair few crossers.
A really excellent puzzle imo, with no real quibbles. Too many favourites to list – I’ll just mention EID for its conciseness.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
…with apologies to Mr Blair (the writer, not another Dizzy PM) I reckon by the end of the day there may well be a few more disgruntled (non)solvers like me, but also plenty of others crowing about how good this puzzle is. It takes all sorts on our Guardian Fifteensquared…
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
Several entered but not fully parsed (including INPUT and ASTIR!) I decided it had to be “expecting” for IN FOR, but it’s a bit loose.
Favourite TOOTING.
Apologies for the rather terse message at the start – I was just very excited to be able to contribute to the blog in a useful way and did not want to write at length and find I was now the 94th contributor!
I found so many of these clues made almost no sense to me on first reading – I had very little idea of the cryptic grammar even, and there was a fair bit of guessing and then working back to see if it parsed. Even then I thought some a bit odd in structure and the “commonplace” part of “Tooting” took a long time for me to see. I wasn’t sure about “to” in “object to government lacking depth” – it does not really work as a conjunction between wordplay and definition in any way I can see, so should be part of one or the other, but isn’t. That made an easyish clue very difficult.
I thought “passe”, “Eid” and “astir” to be very clever and precise, and “ailments” a remarkable spot. The range of GK needed here was broad as well.
[Random fact for the physicists – Charles Mason, one of the surveyors of the semi-eponymous line, was an astronomer and assistant to Nevil Maskelyne. It was Mason who (after a lengthy search) found the Scottish mountain Schiehallion as a suitable one for the first Earth-bound measurement of the strength of gravity, which essentially became a way to measure the mass or density of the Earth. The experiment should be better known for all sorts of reasons – it lead to the invention of contour lines among other things.]
I don’t suppose I shall ever manage to remember that a GAM is a pod of whales, but that was the least of my troubles today. Failed completely with the MASON-DIXON LINE and the related EVENING ALL, despite being old enough to remember Dock Green. Sorry to have missed the brilliant (d)ISRAELI, and there’s a long list of those I couldn’t parse (INPUT, YEMEN, ASTIR, AILMENTS, GAMBOLLED…)
Of those I did get, I liked the common place, the Fleet Street worker and the simple-minded singer, but I’m also wondering if these are getting tougher or if I’m just losing it. Oh well, that’s what Vlad does to you.
Ronald @8 I’m not sure why you feel the need to accuse people who enjoyed this of “crowing”?
IMHO I thought this was great and thoroughly enjoyed it with top marks for PUTIN, GAMBOLLED & KNOBKERRIE
Cheers V&A
You can acknowledge that this was a brilliant puzzle at the same time as being disgruntled that you failed to solve it: I hope the better solvers will be pleased to get one that’s somewhere near up to their standards – and if they have solved everything, I think a bit of crowing could be allowed?
Just in case I’m accused of crowing, I found this extremely difficult and needed some external help so I didn’t find it completely enjoyable which seems to be a theme of mine recently. A couple of enjoyments did surface…. ASTIR when the penny dropped and INPUT for the bad Vlad. AILMENTS was lovely.
After solving a few I just couldn’t be bothered and resorted to revealing and trying to parse. I did get EVENING ALL but question the validity of the clue. How can the definition be simply ‘Dixon’? And the singer in 6d wasn’t one I’ve heard of. Not Reeves, not Croce, not Morrison, not … etc. etc. etc. I’ve managed to solve other Vlad puzzles in the past but this was a sour experience for me.
@15
It was Dixon line – as in a repeated line of dialogue from a character called Dixon
Can’t crow, because I was defeated by KNOBKERRIE and ASTIR (both perfectly fairly clued, if the former required some fairly obscure GK. The wordplay for the former brings a happy reminder of the only time in my life I managed to be a Guardian Pick)
Didn’t know that a school of whales was a gam, and needed Andrew to get the parsing of YEMEN.
But lots of tough but absolutely fair and frequently very ingenious cluing, and an enjoyable start to the day.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew.
As they say about Twix bars, ‘chewy and delicious’. The only one I failed to parse was ‘input’, but I see that I’m in good company.
Can’t believe how many people have forgotten about Jim Kerr and Simple Minds 🙂
Not crowing, just thankful to be old enough to appreciate the genius of the DIXON LINE / EVENING ALL – among my last in. Just brilliant.
Other gems were ISRAELI, SWEENEY TODD, EID, ADELAIDE (Helen’s mum), *KNOBKERRIE, WELT and AILMENTS. (And I did eventually work out the parsing of INPUT.)
*Many thanks for the story, Neil @17. I’m trying to remember whose clue ‘mad, passionate lovers (8) – or some such – was.
One of the very best puzzles this year. Huge thanks to Vlad and to Andrew.
Glad to be of service (as it were), Eileen @20. I am still reeling from the fact that I managed to get the link to work properly!! Chapeau to the designer of this site.
A difficult solve but an enjoyable one. When I finally twigged scrubs (LOI) I did groan slightly.
NeilH @21 🙂
Me @20 – it’s (7), of course – I always get my enumerations wrong when I cite clues!
Finished with some unparsed but very much enjoyed this. How on Earth did Vlad think of the idea of the (MASON) DIXON LINE / EVENING ALL combination?
Eileen @20, Enigmatist mentioned “Mad, passionate lovers? (7)” as his favourite clue of all time in his Meet the Setter article. It was apparently by Spurius in the Independent.
Many thanks both. (Andrew, the blog is “uncategorised” so not appearing on the Guardian page.)
Although I struggled to complete this unaided, I still found it wonderful. EVENING ALL was simultaneously brilliant and unfair. I had the same favourites as Eileen. I thought THING was going to involve some kind of Nordic Parliament. Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
I filled all the squares, but like they say about golf scorecards, thank goodness they don’t come with pictures.
A great distraction from feeling sorry for myself with Covid for the second time, despite 6 jabs. Thank you Vlad, Andrew and Jack of no trades (should be all really)
Thanks, Andrew, for explaining YEMEN: I only knew yeomen in the sense of small farmers. And I’ve never heard of (or couldn’t remember) Jim K. Otherwise it all went in, with a lot of sweat and rethinking. For example, once I had the P from passé I thought “Aha. PUT/IN!” But it took me ages to convince myself…
I agree that AILMENTS is a brilliant spot.
As for the reversed BONK, that word never fails to remind me of an international marketing meeting when I was working for a French computer manufacturer. My boss was proposing increased targeting of the financial sector. She spoke almost-perfect English but did pronounce “bank” as the French pronounce “banque”. I can’t believe how I myself and the English representatives managed not to burst into peals of laughter when she kept insisting how keen she was on bonking.
Lots of dnks, like the Dixon telly show (not sure it came downunder), Kerr the muso, or that Tooting has a common. No matter, lots to enjoy. Put belt first, then went Oh right, Dieter ist nicht dieting, nice, and astir took a bit of a stare, neat clue. Missed mister putin tho, ta JoFT @1. All good chewy fun, ta V&A.
Brilliant but so difficult. The Dixon link is a thing of genius. Having worked there for ten years, my favourite was TOOTING. Was going to post the same earworm, so thanks Bodycheetah. And well done to JOFT @1.
Ta Vlad & Andrew.
Now further apologies if my post @8 felt accusatory in any way. So here’s another crow reference. The moral of Aesop’s Fable of the Thirsty Crow. “If we have willingness and determination, anything can be achieved”. Which pretty much sums up our daily endeavours with the Guardian Cryptic…
Thanks Vlad and Andrew
YEOMEN as ‘Royal servants’ surely refers to the Yeomen of the Guard, ie the Beefeaters at the Tower of London.
Anyhow, I’m also one of those who loved it and enjoyed every minute of the solve.
Took so long parsing ASTIR, that I forgot that I also needed to parse INPUT. Now I’ll never know… Great stuff. Vlad isn’t usually this chewy.
Thanks V&A
Nina of NKVD intersecting INPUT. A coincidence?
I was roundly defeated with this. I revealed a couple of clues, but can appreciate there were some absolute gems in there too. I liked AILMENTS, my enjoyment of Wodehouse (and seeing Simple Minds at the NEC back in the 80s) led me to KNOBKERRIE. EID was well clued, and I liked DWELL ON too.
Vlad impaled me, and I’m not even angry. I love a crossword where I learn things, namely DIS as god of the underworld and GAM for a school of whales, and where I feel the cluing is fair. I’d have felt very 1d if I’d have solved all of this, but it’s where I aspire to be.
Thanks V&A
I dont know. Just because its very difficult doesn’t mean is brilliant. Didn’t get much pleasure from the ones I got. A bit flat. Dull. No ahhh moments for me. If you are under 60 even worse.
Pretty much what Eileen said-a tour de force !
I did experience Ostmarks (I think) when a small bunch of us went through Checkpoint Charlie(70s)and as I remember , had to exchange 10 western DM for 10 eastern which was a joke but it was interesting seeing such things as the Brandenburg Gate and a shop selling barbed wire-wish I still had the photo as no-one believes me
We found a tavern where the beer was very drinkable but no sign of food
part of life’s rich tapestry!
I like Vlad generally but if ever a puzzle seemed designed to alienate anyone younger than 50 it was this. I’m not expecting every clue to reference Taylor Swift but almost all of the GK references would be completely ungettable to the younger solver. I’m 54 btw and I solved it (with difficulty) but I would like cryptics to survive and to do so they need to have more modern references
Oddly, INPUT was one of the few I solved from first principles, although it seems to have defeated several much better solvers than me. I also had the GK for 9A (but not the parsing) and 14D. The surface for 7D is brilliant.
For the rest, like several others here I found this overwhelmingly difficult. After filling in about half of the grid with several unparsed and others only tortuously or unsatisfactorily so, I found I was not enjoying myself so I stopped.
Anyway, I’m glad that the top tier solvers here found this satisfactorily chewy, and I shall hope for something a bit more my intermediate level tomorrow.
Excellent workout. One of the toughest and best constructed puzzles this year. On first pass, the only solution which sprung out was EID. Thanks to JoFT @1 (!) for parsing PUTIN and ASTIR, which eluded me as well.
As others have remarked, there are several clues here which must have been impenetrable to anyone under 60 and not from the UK, but they were splendidly crafted for us Ancient Britons.
Lots of ticks here, including WELT, ISRAELI, DREAM TEAM, ADELAIDE, LIFE ON MARS, AILMENTS, OTIOSE – I could go on…
Many thanks to Jim and Andrew (who always seems to get landed with the tricky ones 🙂 )
Past my pay grade but my computer and I “solved” it, apart from WELT, which I had no idea about.
MASON-DIXON LINE is close to an indirect anagram as I thought ‘close to King’s’ might have been ‘g’ and cross could be by as well as x. I parsed INPUT OK, but didn’t get ASTIR.
One for the experts and the ‘Ancient Britons’ as Gervase @41 said.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
A struggle. I couldn’t think of MASON DIXON LINE because my brain was stuck on Sykes-Picot. I recall Dixon Of Dock Green because it was still on Saturday evenings in the mid 70s, in the line up with Basil Brush and Dr. Who, but my entertainment was from the latter two programmes so I couldn’t make the leap to EVENING ALL.
NHO KNOBKERRIE, I got it with help from WordWizard as I was sure KERR would be in there. MOA new to me also.
I was initially going to press ‘reveal’ earlier this morning, but held on and came back to it: with assistance throughout, I was able to get all but maybe five or six clues, which I did reveal in the end. A curate’s egg for me.
Me @41: I realise that I typed PUTIN instead of INPUT. A senior moment (Biden qv 🙁 ).
Let’s see–a line from a British TV show, the name of a different British TV show, a British singer (whose band was a one-hit wonder over here), a borough in London (and not one of the well-known ones over here either), a British prison….okay, I’ll just go home now. At least the border was an American one, so there’s that.
But on that note, I do appreciate that the state capital was Australian. I think setters should do that sort of thing more often–los Estados Unidos Norteamericanos might be the only one that has “states” right there in the name, but we certainly aren’t the only country with states!
I too thought Dixon and Dodd will only be understood by the over 60s.
Did enjoy the crossword. One or two parsings were over my head, or giraffe’s farts as we say in our house. YEOMAN and THING were two. Did get INPUT and ASTIR though.
Thanks for the blog.
Every time I drive through the small Gloucestershire town of Avening I hope to spot its Hall. Then I start thinking of a clue involving a green dock, but by the time I get to Minchinhampton the urge has fled.
Lord Jim @25, if you’re still there – I went out for coffee immediately after my last post (and I’m only just back!).
Many thanks for the link: I don’t think I would ever have found it – but ‘Enigmatist’ somehow rang a bell. I’m pleased I actually remembered the wording of the clue, if not the enumeration first time around. 😉
Me again re LJ @25
More thanks are in order: I’ve had time for further research.
Under ‘Spurius’, I found this treasure chest of classic clues:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/10/17/answers-to-clues-on-the-handouts-for-this-cryptic-world/
Typical Vladdian mix of brilliance and (for me) inscrutability. Revealed WELT and felt bad about it, revealed EVENING ALL, ASTIR, and ISRAELI and did not feel bad about it. (Life on Mars has made it to the US, Dixon of Dock Green has very much not.) Aside from that, is “Tory” doing anything in the clue or is it just there for the surface? I’ve heard about leveling up (and that Samantha Dixon is a Labour frontbencher) but didn’t know if it was strictly a Tory thing.
On the other hand, EID was absolutely brilliant and DWELL ON and KNOBKERRIE too (just the right age to figure out it was Jim from that band, though I had to look his name up). Also big smiles for YEMEN and EXODUS. And it felt unusually gentle for Vlad to ease us in with straightforward anagrams like SWEENEY TODD and LIFE ON MARS.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew!
[OK, when I say Life on Mars has made it over here, I mean that my wife is such a BBC head that we sought Life on Mars out because we were like “Oooh, John Simm and Philip Glenister!” Having been impressed by them in State of Play and Island at War. Not Dixon though.]
Thanks Andrew as I couldn’t parse Yeoman, and Jack@1 for parsing INPUT and all of ASTIR which escaped me entirely. Well said Ronald@32. I enjoyed this a lot, especially as I get to crow about eventually remembering GAM and making the 10A/14D connection for parsing ( all after grid entry – and not the only ones) despite being the ‘wrong’ side of 50 for that purpose. (I do have dim memories of seeing Doddy in pantomime!) I thought some of these sailed close to the wind but enjoyed the test a lot, thanks Vlad.
I may be mistaken, but there seem to be rather a lot of telly police in this:
Dixon (of Dock Green), plus his…er…catchphrase “Evening All”, (the) Sweeney, Life On Mars.
Hardly recent telly, I grant you.
There’s also the real-life Chief Constable, Sir Robert Mark (who did sterling work cleaning up The Metropolitan police).
Was Perry Mason a copper? Probably not.
Although I finished this, and liked TOOTING, ISRAELI and OTIOSE – trying to untangle the parsing of some other parts actually hurt.
I’m going to lie down in a darkened room for a bit.
Thanks to blogger and setter…
Fiendish but fun. Only one I couldn’t parse was ASTIR.
This expat managed DIXON and DODD (I wasn’t an ex- in the 60’s). Surprised the old grey matter was up for it, but it did forget the Scrubs, so there’s that.
ADELAIDE was very clever.
I’m 33, and a clue expecting me to connect “Dixon Line” to ” Line that is regularly spoken by Dixon of Dock Green” is enough to make me pack in these infernal games for good, I swear.
Heaven forfend we ever got a clue that referenced a playstation game, or, I don’t know, Game of Thrones, I think a certain subset of regular solvers’ heads would explode.
I’ve been left with ear worms “Just an ordinary copper just patrolling the beat, around Dock Green…”
“I’m Sweeney Todd the Barber, and evil thoughts I harbour…”
Loved Life on Mars even though it was weird and totally incomprehensible…both the Bowie version and the Philip Glenister version
And “we are the Diddymen, ……”..ouch!
Thank You Andrew for the blog…I needed the explanations today. And Vlad for stretching my brain to the point of no return.
[mrpenney @45: Mexico is officially Estados Unidos Mexicanos (did you already reference that obliquely?) but the only other one off the top of my head is the Federated States of Micronesia. There may be others 🙂 ]
Not the least remarkable aspect of the heroically implausible P C Dixon played by Jack Warner (kindly, gentlemanly, and he was in the Met in the 1950s) was that he was a spin off from the film The Blue Lamp in which P C Dixon played by Jack Warner gets shot dead early on.
There’s a line in that film when some archetypal Cockney rough diamond helps the men hunting Dixon’s murderer with the comment “I don’t like coppers… but I don’t ‘old with ‘avin’ ‘em shot”. I remembered that line after Donald Gump received his pantyliner.
NeilH @57
I think Jack Warner was shot by a very young Dirk Bogarde!
Thanks Andrew and Jack@1 for explaining everything. Being from the southern US, MASON-DIXON LINE was a write-in for me so I thought I was in for an easy solve. Wrong again! This definitely was not cut out for UK solvers and there are two many unknown references for me to research.
[Hi Eileen @49, many thanks in turn for your link. Some great clues in there, a few of which I’d come across before. BRAINWASH has been in my personal hall of fame for a long time, and that and HIDDEN AGENDA both feature in Sandy Balfour’s book “Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)”.]
Muffin @58 – the most comical part of The Blue Lamp was the last scene at the White City dog track, where all the criminals united with the police to catch Dirk Bogarde…as if…
The crossword? Stratosphericly beyond the likes of me.
[Hi again, Lord Jim – glad you enjoyed it. Yes, a number of old favourites, acknowledged by John, which I thought might interest newer solvers / visitors to the site.
My own favourites include Arachne’s MASTITIS and Knut’s OPOPANAX.]
[Eileen @62: Thanks for sharing that. But where is Araucaria’s wonderful (though now dated): Royal couple flirt (9)?]
Gervase @63 – you’d have to ask Enigmatist! We’re talking here about a quiz that John H devised for a particular occasion, not a crossword and I was taking my examples from that.
I have many more favourites, as I have often quoted. Araucaria’s PHILANDER went straight into my little book of classic clues. (There have been a number of variations on it.) I can actually remember solving it, on a train journey to London and laughing out loud as I did so.
Very surprised to have correctly built the unfamiliar club from deciding KERR was the most likely-looking _E_R surname, which I then convinced myself (but certainly didn’t know) might have been the lead singer of Simple Minds. ASTIR went in without the foggiest, as unlike ACTOR/AFTER it at least fit one definition.
Quite a challenge, but quite a fun one too.
Thanks both.
Thanks to Andrew for a great blog and to others for their comments.
Thanks to Vlad and Andrew; I spotted the telly copper theme quite early on, and wondered if Morse was going to put in an appearance! I’m a bit young for Dixon of Dock Green, although I did get the reference, and some of the clues were pure genius. To the poster complaining about all the British references, the Grauniad is, after all, a British paper … 🙂
Thanks Andrew. Vlad normally defeats me and today no different. Can’t decide if I should feel better because I was defeated at least in part today by lots of GK (rather than just his usual complex clues), some of it quite old.
Im 56 but I can only assume Vlad is pitching at the 70+ market, and assuming that everyone had an old fashioned education and studied classics. Apart from Jim Kerr. I know Jim Kerr. Although it wasn’t enough to help as I’ve never even remotely heard of knobkerrie 😀😀
66….are you the compiler of this crossword?
Bodycheetah@19
I haven’t forgotten Jim Kerr and Simple Minds. Never heard of them in the first place.
I had heard of Jim Reeves but I don’t know any words containig seveer.
Well, I thought that not just any old singer, but a simple-minded singer called Jim was being extraordinarily – even uncharacteristically- helpful from Vlad, in a tough crossie. Thanks, Vlad and Andrew.
Somewhere, possibly, I still have a silver charm of a KNOBKERRIE, given to me by an Irish boyfriend, which I used to wear on a chain because observer’s confusion was enjoyable. It’s a very bizarre silver charm. The combination of that charm and knowing Jim Kerr led Simple Minds made KNOBKERRIE easier than others seem to have found it.
Steffen@69.
‘Fraid so. Please be gentle with me!
We made the wise choice to give up on this after a day of feeling particularly dim. Much of it was lack of UK GK, but some was indeed a failure to spot the brilliant convolution of Vlad’s clues
I’m here to crow about being only two short of completion. Also very pleased to have parsed INPUT when so many didn’t. I somehow managed to write in EID the wrong way round even though I solved the clue correctly. Luckily spotted it in time to solve the crossing entries, though.
Many people have said how fair the clues were, but to go from Scrubs to Wormwood Scrubs to a prison to A STIR seems a very long stretch to me, perhaps appropriately. OK, the clue ends with a question mark, but it’s doing an awful lot of heavy lifting.
Thanks Vlad and Andrew.
I’m surprised that no one connected 22a (TOOTING Common) with King Tut, or is that such a hoary old pun that it didn’t deserve mention?
A lot of general knowledge answers here, and by general knowledge I mean very specific knowledge that only an English Boomer would know.