It’s not often that we see Goliath on a Wednesday, and not often that I find him as tricky as I did this morning.
Apologies for the delay in getting the blog published – I ran into some technical issues with the site.
Overall a wonderful challenge, although there were a few clues that had me stumped for a while.
Many thanks to Goliath!
ACROSS
1/4. Doctor here treats lucratively, first and last (6,6)
HARLEY STREET
(HERE TREATS L[ucrativel]Y (first and last))* (*doctor) – &lit
‘First and last’ are redundant for the definition, but to exclude this gives us a technically strange clue
8. Endless ropes for sailors in budget carrier outdoors (4-3)
OPEN-AIR
[r]OPE[s] (endless) for RYA (sailors, Royal Yachting Association) in RYAN-AIR (budget carrier)
I found this quite obscure, but perhaps the RYA is well-known, just not to me!
9. Go ahead and place a bet, lady (7)
DOWAGER
DO (go ahead) and WAGER (place a bet)
11. Transport crew overwhelmed by stress (5,5)
STEAM TRAIN
TEAM (crew) overwhelmed by STRAIN (stress)
12. Sharp as a group of police officers (4)
ACID
A + CID (group of police officers, Criminal Investigation Department)
13. Come round socially aware by the first of November (5)
WOKEN
WOKE (socially aware) by N[ovember] (first of)
14. Divers risk finding neglected sides in old city (3,5)
THE BENDS
N[eglecte]D (sides) in THEBES (old city)
16. Footwear, half-sandal, reeks awfully (8)
SNEAKERS
(SAN[dal] (half) + REEKS)* (*awfully)
18. Joint that should be distinguishable from the rear (5)
ELBOW
This one has me a bit stumped:
Is it: BELOW (rear) with B (be) distinguishable?
EDITED: Cryptic definition referring to the idiom “not knowing one’s arse from one’s elbow”
20. Sounds like the FT’s time (4)
HOUR
“OUR” (the FT’s, “sounds like”)
21. Pretence contrived about square dance (10)
MASQUERADE
MADE (contrived) about SQUARE* (*dance)
23. German guy and Turkish guy in bed (7)
OTTOMAN
OTTO (German) + MAN (guy)
The only way I can make sense of this is that Goliath has given us two definitions
24. Rat music, for example (3,4)
ART FORM
ART* (*form)
A reverse anagram for RAT
25/26. Disturbing sexy film lines recited for no good reason (6,6)
FLIMSY EXCUSE
(SEXY FILM)* (*disturbing) + “CUES” (lines, “recited”)
DOWN
1. Leave Native American forest at last (3,2)
HOP IT
HOPI (Native American) + [fores]T (at last)
2. Rifle fire controlled to begin with (7)
RANSACK
SACK (fire); RAN (controlled) to begin with
3. Being sixteen upset the established church (9)
EXISTENCE
SIXTEEN* (*upset) + CE (the established church, Church of England)
5. Sharp point in the centre of muntjac antler (5)
THORN
[mun]T[jac] (centre of) + HORN (antler)
6. A setter after cheese and beans (7)
EDAMAME
A + ME (setter) after EDAM (cheese)
10. Volume of fizzy drink heard in dream (9)
FANTASISE
“FANTA SIZE” (volume of fizzy drink, “heard”)
13/7. Disappeared as a result of defenestration (4,3,2,3,6)
WENT OUT OF THE WINDOW
Cryptic definition
There is a literal and an idiomatic meaning at play, but a bit too literal in my opinion
15. Will manager report scams with previous old money? (9)
EXECUTRIX
“TRICKS” (scams, “report”) with EX (previous) + ECU (old money)
ECU is an abbreviation for European Currency Unit, predecessor of the Euro
17. Theoretical monk in the middle of the road (1,6)
A PRIORI
PRIOR (monk) in the middle of A1 (the road)
19. Flier ‘behaved as expected’, said complaint (4,3)
BIRD FLU
BIRD (flier) + “FLEW” (behaved as expected, “said”)
21. Signifies wealth (5)
MEANS
Double definition
22. Lament turning in the griddle (5)
DIRGE
[th]E GRID[dle]< (<turning, in)
18a is a reference to the expression “he doesn’t know his arse from his elbow”.
Great puzzle. For 18ac the saying for an idiot is: he does not know his arse from his elbow.
Thanks to Goliath and Oriel
18d. I think Goilath is saying the elbow can only be seen from the rear.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel.
Of course – thanks for the comments on 18a. As always – seems so obvious once the correct solution is pointed out. I’ll amend the blog.
I couldn’t make sense of ELBOW either. Thank you, Andrew. Royal Yachting Association? Good heavens. And I don’t think the wordplay works either. Is “ropes” doing double duty? And the clue for OTTOMAN doesn’t do much for me. I originally had GONE OUT OF THE WINDOW, and could see no way for the clue to help me correct it. I didn’t think that that clue was cryptic, apart from perhaps the use of an unusual noun. Am I missing something?
I’d never heard of EDAMAME (although easy to get from the crossers and wordplay), nor HOPI in 1d.
Despite my list of quibbles, most of this was enjoyable. Thanks Goliath & Oriel.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel
OTTOMAN isn’t the first time Goliath, or his alter ego Philistine, has given two definitions like this.
Took a while to parse ELBOW & OPEN AIR but got there in the end. Found OTTOMAN confusing though. I know of an ottoman as a cushioned seat but not as a bed. Would have preferred the clue without the last couple of words.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel
Geoff@5 re 8ac: I agree that RYA is obscure, but I do not see any double duty there.
Endless ropes = OPE
for = replacing
sailors = RYA
in
budget carrier = RYAN AIR
Finished, but with some unparsed…
Would never have been able to parse “Open -air”. Ever.
Liked “Hop it”, “Existence” and “Art form”. Like others, found “Ottoman” confusing and 13/7, too literal.
Thank you Hovis@7, for your explanation of “decreasing” yesterday.
Thank you to Goliath for the puzzle and Oriel for the blog.
You’re absolutely right, Pelham.
L2i (last two in): 8a OPEN-AIR and 9a DOWAGER – liked them both. And loved 18a ELBOW! 😀
Thanks G&O
RYA isn’t obscure in sailing – they set the rules for racing/competitions in England certainly – not that I thought of Ryan Air to do the subtraction. (I was dragged up on the banks of sailing clubs whether I liked it or not. I don’t sail now ). Protests against decisions are all quoting rules and regulations from the RYA books.
I love some of Goliath’s cluing.
Thank you to Oriel and Goliath.
Further to my comment @7, just checked in Chambers and Collins. Neither of them has ‘ottoman’ as a bed.
Very nice,
Ryan Air is probably better known than the RYA, but I failed to spot either of them. Confused by 13a: the def gives WAKEN but the wordplay gives WOKEN. As for 13d, the first word could be any number of things. I tried FELL and GONE before finding the intended answer. I liked ELBOW and STEAM TRAIN, DOWAGER and the BIRD that FLU.
Thanks Goliath. I found this gentler than the usual Goliath offering though there were bits I couldn’t parse. I had many favourites as I always do with this setter including ART FORM, FLIMSY EXCUSE, RANSACK, EXISTENCE, EXECUTRIX, BIRD FLU, and MEANS (great DD). My only quibbles were SNEAKERS which skated on the thin ice of the indirect anagram and 13/7 which was hardly ‘cryptic’. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
13ac: We need to take “Come” as the past participle. “She has come round” = “She has woken”.
I am surprised that none of the comments above include 1/4 Acroos HARLEY STREET,
I though it to be the best clue today, comparable to “Bar of Soap” ROVERS RETURN
I found this relatively easy-going. I had similar quibbles to above. OPEN AIR was obscure beyond bounds. As for OTTOMAN, I am so used to words in crossword puzzles taking on unexpected meanings, I did not give the unfamiliar “bed” a second thought. However, I did wonder what the Turkish guy was doing in it. Like Gladys@15 and others, I felt the first word of 13d could be any one of many verbs, and had to wait for the crossers. I also feel HARLEY STREET does not work as an &lit, if I understand that meaning correctly, and is just a clue missing a definition. Sorry KenF@18
So saying, I must have been on Goliath’s wavelength as none of this held me up and I liked many of the clues. I could name so many favourites – I even liked the maligned OTTOMAN. But let me go WITH DOWAGER, ART FORM, EXISTENCE, and MEANS.
All in all an enjoyable puzzle that could have done with a bit more editing.
Thanks Goliath and Oriel
Thanks for the blog, I agree with Ken@18 for the oustanding HARLEY STREET.
I am very strict on &Lit but this one passes for me, the “first and last” are needed to describe motives that focus on lucrative patients and nothing else, no charity work or NHS here.
OTTOMAN I am not sure , maybe the clue has been edited and garbled somewhat. In Chambers the first definition for BED is – a couch or place to sleep on – but stlll a stretch for ottoman which is a very specific furniture item.
Tricky in places but we got it all in the end, though some entries, notably OPEN AIR, went in unparsed. In 15dn we took the ‘old money’ to be the old French coin, the ecu, rather than the European unit – but either will serve.
And if we can retreat into Pedants’ Corner for a moment, in 11ac, stress is not the same as strain, as any engineer or physicist will tell you; strain is the result of stress.
Plenty to like, though. Thanks, Goliath and Oriel.
11ac: As noted by allan_c@21, for their own purposes physicists and engineers give technical meanings to the words “stress” and “strain” as cause and effect respectively. But they do not own the words, and in ordinary usage the words may be used interchangeably. Thus the first definition of stress in Chambers 2016 p. 1539 is “n strain”. As a matter of principle, I believe that everyday use of words should be admissible in crosswords, and I do not expect setters to overrule the standard dictionaries.
Pelham Barton @ 22: Well said.
Loved the puzzle. No issues except for the parsing of 8A. Thanks to Goliath and Oriel for great jobs!
13d,7d reminded me of Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) – Buck Henry as Oliver Farnsworth: “It happened literally overnight.
When Mr. Newton walked into my apartment my old life WENT straight OUT THE WINDOW. In no time at all I got a brand new life and I like it.”
The character is later murdered by being thrown through a plate-glass window, becoming a different kind of Man Who Fell to Earth.