The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29491.
Quite a tough struggle, but well worth it for the ingenuity and humour of so many of the clues. Thanks Vlad.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | PAMPAS |
Girl with old man’s plain (6)
|
| A charade of PAM (‘girl’) plus PA’S (‘old man’s’). | ||
| 6 | BUFFETED |
Repeatedly pushed against having meal with my boss (8)
|
| A charade of BUFFET (‘meal’) plus ED (‘my boss’). | ||
| 9 | OFSTED |
Teacher assessors kicked out – there’s a little fantasy for you (6)
|
| OUSTED (‘kicked out’) with the U replaced bya F (‘there’s a little Fantasy for yoU‘). The Office for Standards in Education. | ||
| 10 | LEGHORNS |
Chickens on skewers? (8)
|
| A charade of LEG (‘on’, cricket) plus HORNS (‘skewers’ – HORN, verb, to gore). | ||
| 11 | HONOURS EVEN |
One nervous replaying after home draw (7,4 )
|
| A charade of H (‘home’) plus ONOURSEVEN, an anagram (‘replaying’) of ‘one nervous’ | ||
| 15 | CARIBOU |
Animal cry of dissatisfaction from Johnson’s latest heard (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘heard’) CARRIE (Boris ‘Johnson’s latest’ wife) BOO (‘cry of dissatisfaction’). | ||
| 17 | SUSTAIN |
Cross-country with Mark – keep going (7)
|
| A charade of SU, a reversal (‘cross’) of US (‘country’), plus STAIN (‘mark’). | ||
| 18 | OOH ER MISSUS |
Hussies’ room? Naughty, naughty! (3,2,6)
|
| An anagram (‘naughty’, the first) of ‘hussies room’). A catchphrase of Frankie Howerd. | ||
| 22 | GUMPTION |
Simple-minded lead in movie, one hampered by fashion sense (8)
|
| A charade of GUMP (Forrest, ‘simple-minded lead in movie’) plus TION, an envelope (‘hampered by’) of I (‘one’) in TON (‘fashion’). | ||
| 23 | SUPERB |
Wonderful to be leading in National (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of UP (‘leading’) in SERB (‘national’). | ||
| 24 | SPLURGED |
Son cleared over fifty spent freely (8)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of L (‘fifty’, Roman numeral) in S (‘son’) plus PURGED (‘cleared’). | ||
| 25 | IN ESSE |
Legendary monster, one advancing, actually existing! (2,4)
|
| NESSIE (‘legendary monster’) with the I moved to the front (‘one advancing’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GATEAU |
Those attending university are inside – one’s likely to be rich (6)
|
| An envelope (‘inside’) of A (the second one, ‘are’) in GATE (‘those attending’) plus U (university’). | ||
| 2 | SUPERVISOR |
We object over a guest? That’s not it, boss (10)
|
| A charade of SU, a reversal (‘over’) of US (‘we object’ – ‘object’ grammatically) plus PER (‘a’) plus VIS[it]OR (‘guest’) minus IT (‘that’s not it’). | ||
| 3 | AFGHANIS |
Cycling country is welcoming fellow countrymen (8)
|
| An envelope (‘welcoming’) of F (‘fellow’) in AGHAN, which is GHANA (‘country’) ‘cycling’, plus ‘is’. | ||
| 4 | PROPHECY |
Support Hungary’s financial centre – why I think it’ll happen (8)
|
| A charade of PROP (‘support’) plus H (‘Hungary’, IVR) plus EC (London ‘financial centre’) plus Y (‘why’). | ||
| 5 | MISANDRY |
Fellow is hiding right-wing prejudice (8)
|
| A charade of MISAN, an envelope (‘hiding’) of ‘is’ in MAN (‘fellow’); plus DRY (‘right-wing’, as opposed to those Thatcher called wets). | ||
| 7 | TORY |
Politician getting zero in test (4)
|
| An envelope (‘getting … in’) of O (‘zero’) in TRY (‘test’). Very neat. | ||
| 8 | DOSH |
I should have seen that about Special’s money (4)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of S (‘Special’) in DOH (‘I should have seen that’). | ||
| 12 | SOUTH KOREA |
After vacant house to rent round King’s Head (where the neighbours aren’t friendly) (5,5)
|
| An envelope (’round’) of K (‘King’s head’) in SOUTHOREA, an anagram (‘rent’) of AR (‘AfteR vacant’) plus ‘house to’. | ||
| 13 | BANSHEES |
Spirited females allow men only to speak (8)
|
| Sounds like (‘to speak’) BAN SHES (‘allow men only’). | ||
| 14 | UNUSABLE |
Good-for-nothing Dawn shortly about to bale out (8)
|
| A charade of UNUS, a reversal (‘about’) of SUNU[p] (‘dawn’) minus its last letter (‘shortly’); plus ABLE, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘bale’. | ||
| 16 | BLOATERS |
Those having fun on the river catching large fish (8)
|
| An envelope (‘catching’) of L (‘large’) in BOATERS (‘those having fun on the river’). | ||
| 19 | IGUANA |
Reptile again running round university (6)
|
| An envelope (’round’) of U (‘university’) in IGANA, an anagram (‘running’) of ‘again’. | ||
| 20 | AGES |
Women missed out on pay for a long time (4)
|
| [w]AGES (‘pay’) minus the W (‘women missed out’). | ||
| 21 | AMYL |
Radical left supporting high-flier Johnson? (4)
|
| A charade of AMY (‘high-flyer Johnson‘ – not Boris this time) plus L (‘left’), with ‘supporting’ indicating the order of the particles. |
Is this a record for the fastest blog? I haven’t even printed the puzzle yet. Well done, PeterO.
Thanks for the blog. I only managed to parse MISAN in MISANDRY and could not think why dry=rightwing, nice one, well they weren’t, but you know what I mean.
SOUTH KOREA parsing eluded me as well. I was trying to vacate house.
Thanks to Vlad as well, lots of smiles.
Too hard for me I’m afraid. Gave up after about 6 clues and then getting nowhere further. Looking at the blog, a few of my issues were obscure UK GK (ooh er missus, ofsted and Carrie J all quite hard for those from elsewhere! )
Thanks P and V! I wondered a bit about the implied homophones of “you” and “why”
Not for me this one. And thats all i have to say about that.
crackers@5 I agree.
All I can say is thank you PeterO . I’ve said that before but I don’t think it’s come up this time.
I’m still struggling with the second A in GATEAU. ARE = A???
Frankie@8, A = Are is a unit of measurement for an area of 100 sq m.
Vlad turning up the pressure today, with complicated parsings and evasive definitions. Needed a word search for LEGHORN, BANSHEES and GATEAU, so defeated in the end. Assumed OFSTED was the answer for 9, but took me ages to justify it. Liked GUMPTION and SPLURGED. Thanks to Vlad and PeterO.
Frankie The Cat: ‘are’ is a decimal unit of measurement – you have probably encountered ‘hectares’? An are would be one hundredth of one of those and, yes, abbreviated to A. For my part, I’m wondering about home = H. I can see why it ‘might’ be: one does see H/A meaning home/away in fixture lists but I did not know it was a standalone, bona fide abbreviation. Like Ilan Caron @4, a raised eyebrow for ‘you’ and ‘why’ appearing without any suggestion of homophone or text-speak. A tough puzzle in which BANSHEES and AFGHANIS totally defeated me.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
Thanks postmark @11. Every day is a school day.
Yes PostMark @11, H for home is not in the usual references, or A for away either. I don’t see why it shouldn’t be though, given, as you say, that it appears a lot in fixture lists. The other one that puzzles me is the absence from abbreviation lists of Y=yes and N=no given the number of times that I’ve seen (Y/N) on forms.
Liked OFSTED (I didn’t question the you clueing u), SUPERB, GATEAU, AFGHANIS (Mainly the WP–I have a question about the def) and UNUSABLE.
AFGHANIS
AFGHANI is the monetary unit of Afghanistan and that country’s national is AFGHAN. Or is AFGHANI used in both senses?
PROPHECY
I questioned why ‘why’ for Y (with no home or text-speak indicator as PM says). Yes (or Y in text-speak!), I didn’t question you for U. Double standards.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO! Great (tough one) puzzle. Excellent blog.
I parsed SUSTAIN as STAIN (mark) around US (cross-country), which saves the reversal of US.
I needed the blog to parse a couple – definitely Vlad in Impaler mode.
I hear Afghani for the nationality as well as the currency, but neither are in my Chambers (99)
Thank you to PeterO and Vlad.
I am not convinced that “dry” was ever used to describe the Tebbit-like wing of the Tories, although “wet” was used for any Conservative MP who was against Thatcher. Nho IN ESSE, but I was brung up by wolfs.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO
Rather frustrating – lots of bits (rather than whole clues) I didn’t see – the F in OFSTED, HORNS in 10, SUPER in 2, DRY in 5, UNUS in 14. I saw the Y in 5, but thought it should have been indicated as textspeak.
I liked SUPERB, and AMYL (of course!)
I got back from Zante after a 5 hour flight delay, feeling a bit battered and when I saw the setter, I almost gave up there and then, but I’m glad I didn’t. This was tough but SUPERB and I just seemed to be on his wavelength, even seeing the SUNUP trick and the DRY in MISANDRY, maybe helped by TORY on the same row. I laughed at OOH ER MISSUS, GUMPTION, BANSHEES and the couple of Johnsons. I parsed SUSTAIN as Shanne @15.
Ta Vlad & PeterO.
Almost finished, but stumped by BANSHEES. Had POPSIE pencilled in for 4a for a long time, which didn’t help. Good fun though. Thanks to V & P.
Shirl @16: I seem to remember that Thatcher’s faction were referred to as the dries, although the wets were certainly more familiar.
Apologies for the pic, so early in the morning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wets_and_dries
SUSTAIN
Looks like the alternative parse is better.
If we read it as ‘cross US with STAIN’, all words are used up.
(I admit I parsed it as PeterO did).
Afghani for the nationality Shanne @15 is not in Chambers or the various Oxfords (NOAD, ODE, SOED) or Wiktionary if you trust that source. It is marked in Collins as American English. It is after all an Afghan coat and an Afghan hound.
The “Ghan” is a rail journey from Adelaide to Darwin named after the Afghan cameleers in Australia. It’s why the non-native camel exists here.
Tim C @22: fascinating link, thx.
AFGHANI
(wiktionary)
Afghani (plural Afghanis)
Alternative letter-case form of afghani (“Afghanistan’s unit of currency”)
(uncommon, proscribed) An Afghan; a native, inhabitant or national of Afghanistan.
Usage notes
The usual term for a person from Afghanistan is Afghan; Afghani is uncommon and deprecated by some style guides.
We discussed this some time ago on 225 (AZED probably), I think.
I also parsed 17a SUSTAIN as Shanne @15. [“Cross-country” — an unusual “tedious” L&S of 2 words already separated by a hyphen.]
18a OOOH, ER, MISSUS! The Frankie Howerd Story (1992) is available on the BBC iPlayer — with an extra “O” and a “!”
[That makes 8 Frankies in the blog so far.]
Apart from his first sentence I could echo every word of AlanC’s comment @18. I loved this puzzle from beginning to end.
Many thanks, Vlad and PeterO.
Very hard indeed. Used up all my crossword time this morning – just about finished with some parsing needed from blog.
Thanks Vlad and Peter
Oed.com has AFGHANI as: ‘
1. 1826– The Eastern Iranian language spoken by the Afghan people; = Pashto n.
2. 1927– The principal monetary unit of Afghanistan, divided into 100 puls.
3. 1966– A native or inhabitant of Afghanistan. Cf. Afghan n. A.1.’ [No suggestion of proscription, uncommonness or deprecation] …
That was tough, but excellent. I feel bruised and battered, but happy that I survived the impaling. I solved some by the crossers along (CARIBOU, for example…I was trying to incorporate BO for Bo-Jo), so thanks very much PeterO for the detailed parsing.
Some excellent misdirection there…it took me a while to equate GATE with “those attending”, but a fiendish and satisfying puzzle.
Thanks S&B
Only had half a dozen in place after first pass. Did wonder whether 9ac could be OFSTED or 23ac could be SUPERB, but could see no indication from the clueing for either. And 18ac just had to be an anagram, but I couldn’t fathom it out . After my second run through I had nothing further filled in. Reluctantly gave up and hit the reveal button. OO ER MISSUS an expression I’ve not heard uttered in a long while. Muttered a few words of frustration myself this morning as even when I revealed certain clues they still held out on the parsing for me. Above my pay grade this morning, though those clamouring recently for something a bit more challenging will be happy…
… And Afghan can be the language or the native (but not the money), as well as a coat, a rug, a hound, and ‘… 6. 1934– New Zealand. = Afghan biscuit, n.’ (TiLT).
Aaagh! No wonder I couldn’t parse SUPERB – or rather, I could parse it as super=wonderful plus B(e) but then hadn’t got a definition. Couldn’t sort out the SUPER half of SUPERVISOR either, though once I had the VIS(it)OR it couldn’t be much else. Other failures: AFGHANI, SOUTH KOREA, DRY=right-wing, and AMYL was a jorum.
Loved OOOH ER MISSUS, TORY, CARIBOU, BANSHEES. I thought (wrongly?) that GUMPTION meant courage rather than common sense (though I enjoyed the clue).
Two that get me nearly every time: are (the measurement) for A; on for LEG (or vice versa). Both horribly present today, and I spotted them! Feeling rather smug. Thanks Vlad and especially PeterO.
Definitely one for those who crave something harder. I was well and truly beaten by this.
Thanks to Vlad and Peter
Ah Vlad. I knew I would need a coffee first,
then turn on, tune in and not drop out as this was all deftly done.
Loved OFSTED for surface, SUPERVISOR and PROPHECY for construction.
Thanks to Vlad & PeterO
Gave up after solving 7 clues as I was not enjoying the struggle.
Of the ones I solved – new for me: BLOATERS = fish; OOH ER MISSUS = naughty.
Beyond my pay-grade but mostly fair. However I think DRY for ‘right-wing’ is very poor and lets the puzzle down.
Excellent puzzle! I felt the construction of SUPERVISOR was a bit contrived though. Managed to back-parse it (if that’s a thing). Didn’t twig ‘A=Are’ but it had to be GATEAU
Splendidly challenging puzzle from my favourite setter amongst those currently appearing in the Grauniad.
Lots of good clues but special mention for the combination of construction and surface in OFSTED, MISANDRY and TORY. AMYL was a write-in for this (retired) chemist (muffin @17!) and it was good to see OOH ER MISSUS in an otherwise smut-free puzzle 🙂
I had forgotten the A = ‘are’ trick, but it came back to me once I had the final U and saw the solution.
Many thanks to Vlad and PeterO
Thanks for the blog, my favourite puzzle of the year so far , good to have a setter who sees wordplay as the priority . Too many great clues to mention .
DRY was definitely used in the 80s by the WETS to describe the even more useless tories than themselves , where is all the oil money ?
ARE is unusual as a unit , being far better known from hectare which has a prefix.
Roz @39: high praise indeed and even this KPR fan wasn’t fooled by Vlad this time 😉
[ AlanC@ 40 I thought I had managed to slip that insult past you , it is nothing personal . I often use Millwall fan or just football fan. ]
Brutal. I think I need a lie down after that.
Only sheer bloody-mindedness kept me going to the bitter end 🙂
Loved OOH ER MISSUS and ticked almost everything else
Cheers P&V
One for the experts. When I couldn’t parse OFSTED, I let my computer take the strain, and together we got there in the end.
I liked LEGHORNS, CARIBOU, SUPERVISOR, SOUTH KOREA, BANSHEES, and GATEAU. I’m another who doesn’t like unindicated text speak.
Thanks Vlad and PeterO.
Proud to have got and parsed OFSTED and SOUTH KOREA (eventually), but this puzzle puzzled me excessively and I needed a lot of assistance. TON as “fashion” has passed me by, and I doubt that I will remember it. I liked AMYL, SPLURGED and TORY.
Very tough start, but I was gradually able to find my way in, hitting a wall here and there. There are a number of comments over there about how joyless a slog they found it – fair enough, I’ve often said similar, but that wasn’t my experience today. Very difficult, but fun.
I took a break (not least because I had a job interview) then came back to it and finished all bar LEGHORN, which I revealed. I did need help with a number of clues, but a good few revealed themselves with crossers and perhaps me getting more into the mindset.
New for me is HONOURS EVEN, and IN ESSE.
I imagine OOH ER etc and OFSTED might have caused ripples, but I’ll look through the comments after a few more sips of tea.
Gave up after solving 6 clues.
I can’t understand some of your parsing, let alone the clues
Thanks to Vlad for a challenging Wednesday workout, we couldn’t get all the parsing so thanks to PeterO for the blog
Ticks for:
OFSTED, OOH-ER-MISSES, MISANDRY, LEGHORNS
Ed @46 – I’ve found that when I’ve struggled with the parsing in the blog itself, fellow commenters have been invariably patient and helpful when I’ve asked for further clarification.
Largely defeated by this. Even with the blog, many clues for me are “I still don’t get it” or “how did anybody figure that out?”.
Anyway, I’m happy that the highly skilled among us got something satisfactorily meaty, and I shall hope for something more at my level tomorrow.
This is only my third serious attempt at Cryptics.I did reasonably well with Monday’s.Today I only parsed two:7D and 19D 🤢🤢
Braun @50. Don’t be put off. I’ve been doing Guardian crosswords for longer than I care to remember, and got nowhere near finishing this one.
Managed 3 answers before giving up. Reading blog, I feel the clues were just too obscure. Disappointing.
Braun and Jacob @49/50 the Guardian once had a setter called Bunthorne , my first attempt I tried all weekend and did not solve a single clue . Skill at solving is mainly practice and being stubborn . The puzzle today was very tricky .
Sometimes the setter will win , good for the soul and you live to solve another day . Tomorrow is a fresh start . ( and Alastair )
I started solving when Bunthorne was setting, when I was a student. I counted it a win if I got any clues. The bar manager who spent his quiet times solving crosswords behind the bar, and was really good, would occasionally tell us that, e.g., the key stone quotation turned out to be 50 odd letter anagram for a quotation from Patience (G&S operetta) – we’d been chatting about that puzzle on the Saturday. I’d usually manage the Araucaria jigsaw puzzles, but it would take all the time available too.
I learnt an awful lot just trying to get my head around these puzzles, then trying to see how they worked when I could check the answers a week later. I just forgot it all when I stopped solving around offspring. It’s coming back, slowly.
For 5d MISANDRY Oed.com has ‘DRY …5.b. 1983– Politics slang. A politician (esp. a member of the Conservative party) who advocates economic stringency and individual responsibility, and uncompromisingly opposes high government spending. Contrasted with wet n.1 6.’ …
… ‘WET …6. 1931– A ‘wet’ person (see wet adj. 15b); spec. a politician with liberal or middle-of-the-road views on controversial issues (often applied to members of the Conservative Party opposed to the monetarist policies of Margaret Thatcher).’
Really enjoyed this. I had a go last night (I’m on US time) but could only get 4 answers. This morning it fell into place but it took a while. An excellent puzzle; thanks Vlad and PeterO.
I made a decent stab at this but got nowhere close to finishing. I would feel cheated by DRY for right wing (as I certainly never remember it being used as those opposing the wets) however I had so many others that I failed on that were technically getable it is not worth making a fuss.
I was pleased to get IN ESSE from the wordplay despite not being aware of it previously
[ I am a solitary solver , I will help other people with their puzzles but solve mine totally on my own ( Maskarade specials I will sometimes rope in the sprogs ) . I would only look at answers the day or week later , or two weeks for Azed . This made me very stubborn and totally self-taught which I think helps me to remember everything.
I am always a bit surprised when people come on here and say they did not finish. If I have not finished I will be fighting with the puzzle, not looking at a blog . ]
I remember the politics of the early eighties all too clearly. Although the word wet/wets was used often, it was occasionally contrasted with those on the right of the party who were referred to as DRY…I only managed about two thirds of this. Looking at the answers I should have got more. With thanks to both.
AMYL is an old term for a radical with a chain of five carbon atoms, which may or may not be branched. It is perhaps familiar to (some!) non-chemists in the name of the compound ‘amyl nitrite’, aka ‘poppers’ 🙂
Roz@59 I suppose the reason some of us don’t complete is that we have other (perhaps more important) things in our lives that need attending to. I really enjoy the relaxation that solving cryptic crosswords brings. But only up to a certain point and within a definite timeframe…
Ronald@62 everyone is different , I have numerous more important things to do but I have a 20 minute journey home and that is for the crossword, I think 20 minutes is the optimum time for a puzzle. If it is not finished look later for 10 minutes , taking a break is very under-rated and usually very productive .
Well that was a toughie. I did my usual scan through the clues looking for a way in and found absolutely nothing. Then read the comments in the Graun and could see this was prize standard so decided to give it a go. TORY, DOSH and PAMPAS after some hard stares, then it was more focus, synonym searches, counting anagram letters and looking for the extras and lots of checking. Fine with DRY, IN ESSE was a Jorum, A=ARE a new one to put in my poitrine with Roz’s bras. Got SUSTAIN as per Shanne. AMYL was another new one. Glad I stuck with it. AFGHANIS the last one in and that after several checks to tease the letters out and would never have parsed it. Lots to enjoy despite the struggle.
Many thanks Vlad and PeterO.
Finally worked out what KPR means. Very droll.
Gervase @61
“Amyl acetate” (pentyl ethanoate) I always associated with pear drops, though Wiki tells me that the actual flavouring used is a mixture of isoamyl acetate and ethyl acetate.
[btw Wiki has a very odd introduction on the amyl acetate page. It has “Amyl acetate (pentyl acetate)”. Why correct the first part to the modern name, but not the second?]
Had a fair amount of bunging and had to come here for a few parses, and revealed a couple, but mostly fun and I don’t really expect to complete a Vlad unaided! I have gotten used to a few Vlad-isms like “a” = “per” (once SUPERVISOR was bunged) but still got caught by TON and LEG.
A couple of niggles; DRY seems like a stretch even for Vlad, as many have said, and “girl” for PAM is a pet peeve. Not only is it unspecific but I am sure that the vast majority of Pams are over 55 by now. “Dawn in America” would be suitably brutal if needed (in the US version of the office the Dawn character is named Pam). On the other hand this was one of the clues I got and helped me with the NE corner so I should be grateful for small mercies!
Thanks Vlad and PeterO (well done getting this puzzle up quickly!)
Really good, and jolly tough, puzzle.
Am glad of the help parsing DRY in MISANDRY, so thanks, both.
I made heavy weather of this, but got there in the end. I’m not keen on solutions like ‘Ooh Er Missus’, but other than that I really enjoyed the puzzle.
[muffin @65: 3-methylbutyl ethanoate would be a more properly modern moniker 🙂 ]
Too hard for me. Eight left unsolved, though two or three of those I probably should have got.
A bit sad not to find out why Oyster was the answer to 9 across, since I had decided it could be a little fantasy (“the world is your oyster”)! I’d
never have worked out the real answer.
I didn’t get BANSHEES, but what a clever clue.
This was very hard, even by Vlad’s standards. I had to give up with four clues unsolved, and even getting that far was a struggle.
OFSTED was one of the ones I failed to get. As a non-UK solver, I could claim that I’d never heard of it, but that would be a lie. Still, I’ve heard of it infrequently enough that I’m not too ashamed of my inability to recall it. HONOURS EVEN and OOH ER MISSUS, on the other hand, were completely new to me, but I managed to work them out.
My other failures were LEGHORNS (I don’t know this meaning of HORN, but that shouldn’t have stopped me), GATEAU (“are” = A has fooled me on multiple occasions), and BANSHEES. All are perfectly gettable in hindsight.
I was thoroughly skewered by Vlad today. The UK GK didn’t help – OFSTED, Frankie Howerd, he DRY Tories, and the cricket’s leg at 1a, 18a, 5d and 10a were beyond my ken. This is not a complaint – just a fact of life for us colonels who recognize that the best cryptics come from the UK.
I enjoyed the gems that I got, including 22a GUMPTION, 23a SUPERB and 14d UNUSABLE – great clues all.
And I’m glad that the Guardian finally came up with a puzzle that satisfied Roz. I completely endorse the second paragraph of her comment at 53 – bring on tomorrow’s puzzle.
Thanks, Vlad for the object but fun lesson, and PeterO for the much needed blog.
I’m really surprised that HONOURS EVEN was unknown to at least a couple of posters. I would have said that it’s quite a common expression in English.
muffin @73: ….in British English. It’s unknown in these parts. That one I knew, though, since it’s appeared in these puzzles before.
This was an unusually British puzzle, as it happens. Since it was also unusually difficult to begin with, it was my worst fail in years–I only got about a third of the way through before I started using the cheat buttons.
Thanks to Peter O for bringing enlightenment to many and thanks to others for their comments.
Great to see Vlad today. Lots to chew on in the clueing. I loved OOH ER MISSUS. GUMPTION and BANSHEES were both very good too.
AMYL was FOI for me.
Thanks, Vlad & Peter.
[muffin @65, it’s because acetic/acetate is ubiquitous in industry. I’ve never seen ethanoic/ethanoate used in the wild, despite learning both in high school. Some things just never catch on 🙂].
Took a while, hard but fair. SUPERVISOR my favourite, “we object over” is ingenious wordplay for “us”.
Solved this yesterday, NZ time, but now I can see how all the clues constructed, I have to say some were bordering on actual unfairness , eg Y for “why” , A for “are” and what seems to be me the increasing use of such dubious abbreviations in this and other puzzles – I’m beginning to wonder if there’s any word that can’t be abbreviated by using its first letter. . And “dry” for “right-wing”? come on. I have to ask too what the average age of crossword enthusiasts is, as so many refer back to ancient history, such as Frankie Howard, for instance and although I knew this gentleman, I don’t recall the phrase ascribed to him. Having said that as a 77 year old, generally I appreciate this, but it’d be nice to see some more up to date references for youngsters. Thanks though for your astute deconstruction of this puzzle.
Pretty confident this comment will be unread, having taken all day and night (in between work sessions) to finish! Like Roz@59 I’m a doggedly solitary solver who doesn’t give up, but tragically nowhere near her 20-mins level hence the early hours post. Very tough, a brilliant crossword though, well worth the considerable brain sweat. And so to bed. Thanks Vlad and PeterO!
Wasnt Amyl Nitra(i?)te listed on percussion on Exile on main Street?
Great puzzle, took at least two sittings but worth the effort
Thanks all.
[ Too late to correct the incorrect autocorrect in my post at 72, but I am a civilian colonial, not a colonel. ]