Cryptic crossword No 29,723 by Imogen

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29723.

After appearing yesterday in his other hat as Vulcan, Imogen here provides a stiffer challenge, with enjoyable results. Among many good clues, I think I would give the palm to 22A MR TOAD.

ACROSS
7 IMPOSING
Grand, far too large home constrained by appalling fuel economy (8)
An envelope (‘constrained by’) of OS (outsize or oversize, ‘far too large’) plus IN (‘home’) in IMPG (1 mile per gallon, ‘appalling fuel economy’).
9 WEEKLY
Magazine regularly feeble on the radio (6)
Sounds like (‘on the radio’) WEAKLY (‘feeble’).
10 TREX
Removing earth, make big effort to overturn band of rock (1,3)
A reversal (‘to overturn’) of [e]XERT (‘make a big effort’) minus the first E (‘removing earth’), for the rock group.
11 PERSEPHONE
Greek goddess by herself quietly perfect (10)
A charade of PER SE (‘by herself’ – gender unimportant except for the surface) plus P (piano, musically ‘quietly’) plus HONE (‘perfect’, verb).
12 SNIPER
Marksman again tacks back (6)
A reversal (‘back’) of RE-PINS (‘again tacks’).
14 GRIMOIRE
Serious hope, on and off, to comprehend Irish spelling book (8)
A charade of GRIM (‘serious’) plus OIRE, an envelope (‘to comprehend’) of IR (‘Irish’) in OE (‘hOpE on and off’). A new word for me, clearly clued.
15 THREADY
Pulse so weak, hydrate madly (7)
An anagram (‘madly’) of ‘hydrate’. Not a meaning of the answer that I had come across before.
17 ASCRIBE
A small Christmas scene completed with minimum of expensive credit (7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus s (‘small’) plus CRIB (‘Christmas scene’) plus E (‘minimum of Expensive’).
20 ALCOPOPS
Apparently soft drinks range catches constable out at first (8)
An envelope (‘catches’) of COP (‘constable’) plus O (‘Out at first’) in ALPS (mountain ‘range’).
22 MRTOAD
Hall proprietor, motorist at first tense, captivated by highway (2,4)
A charade of M (‘Motorist at first’) plus RTOAD, an envelope (‘captivated by’) of T (‘tense’) in ROAD (‘highway’), for Toad of Toad Hall, who first appeared in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. The definition is extended.
23 UNDERSTOOD
Got overlay? (10)
A double negative: UNDER STOOD for ‘over lay’.
24 DARK
Secret drawer’s opening chest (4)
A charade of D (‘Drawer’s opening’) plus ARK (‘chest’).
25 PALATE
Ability to taste article in dish (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of A (indefinite ‘article’) in PLATE (‘dish’).
26 TEAMMATE
One wearing your shirt beginning to mix in two infusions (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of M (‘beginning to Mix’) in TEA plus MATE (‘two infusions’).
DOWN
1 AMARANTH
Unfading bloom? In a few weeks nothing’s left for a painter (8)
A MONTH (‘a few weeks’) with the O replaced by ‘a’ plus RA (member of the Royal Academy) (‘nothing’s left for a painter’). The definition suggests an everlasting, but I cannot trace any amaranth so used; however, at least one species does provide a red dye, which might account for the ‘unfading’.
2 COAX
Into position, tease cable (4)
Double definition; the ‘cable’ being coaxial.
3 NIPPER
Infant crab perhaps, one with turn of speed (6)
Triple definition.
4 OWLERIES
Homes for wise old birds, low-rise, new-built, energy included (8)
An envelope (‘included’) of E (‘energy’) in OWLRIES or OWLERIS, an anagram (‘new-built’) of ‘low-rise’.
5 TECHNOCRAT
Expert manager sporting trench coat (10)
An anagram (‘sporting’) of ‘trench coat’.
6 ELINOR
Marianne’s sister extremely eager to install wipe-clean flooring (6)
An envelope (‘to install’) of LINO (‘wipe-clean flooring’) in ER (‘extremely EageR‘). Elinor and Marianne are the sisters central to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and whose names formed the working title of the novel.
8 GARAGE
Losing heart, rubbish stored on your premises here? (6)
A subtraction: GAR[b]AGE (‘rubbish’) minus it middle letter (‘losing heart’), with an extended definition.
13 PHENOMENAL
Amazing disinfectant, name curiously covered up (10)
An envelope (‘covered up’) of MENA, an anagram (‘curiously’) of ‘name’ in PHENOL (‘disinfectant’).
16 DOORSTEP
Domestic animals cross over this? (8)
Cryptic definition.
18 BIARRITZ
Lounge about one luxury resort (8)
A charade of BIAR, an envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’) in BAR (‘lounge’, in a public house – this might well be regarded as an indication by eample); plus RITZ (‘luxury’).
19 ASSORT
Classify old stars going supernova? (6)
An anagram (‘going supernova’ Anagrind overkill!) of O (‘old’) plus ‘stars’
21 LANDAU
Secure a uniform for horse-drawn carriage (6)
A charade of LAND (‘secure’) plus ‘a’ plus U (‘uniform’).
22 MEDLAR
Caught one poking nose in fruit (6)
Sounds like (‘caught’) MEDDLER (‘one poking nose in’).
24 DEMI
Two-thirds failure? Half, when combined (4)
A subtraction: DEMI[se] (‘failure’) minus the last two letters (‘two-thirds’). ‘When combined’ to indicate the prefix.

picture of the completed grid

66 comments on “Cryptic crossword No 29,723 by Imogen”

  1. DOORSTEP
    PETS (domestic animals) ROOD (cross) <—over
    +cryptic def/CAD
    Amaranth
    Found on a site
    This flower is found in both South America and Greece in Europe and was named 'Amaranth' which in Greek means 'the never fading flower'. Amaranth has throughout history been a symbol of immortality because the Amaranth flower doesn't wither and retains its vibrant color when dried.

  2. Don’t know whether there are places (other than Hogwarts) where owls actually gather, as in rookeries, but whatev. Ta for the Amaranth research, KVa @1; vaguely familiar post-solve, for which needed to guess-and-check the first a. T- Rex and coax then followed. Enjoyed, thanks Im and Peter.

  4. Thanks Imogen and PeterO
    A couple of parses I needed; I don’t think I would ever have seen how BIARRITZ worked, and I hadn’t heard THREADY in that sense either.
    Favourite PERSEPHONE.
    Tiny quibblet: “Marianne’s sister” would be better as “Marianne’s older sister”; Margaret is so often forgotten.

  5. Understanding the definition for AMARANTH just needs Chambers (definition 1)…

    amarant or amaranth
    noun
    1. A fabled never-fading flower, emblem of immortality
    2. Any species of Amarantˈus or Amaranˈthus, the love-lies-bleeding genus, with richly coloured long-lasting spikes, giving name to the family Amarantāˈceae or Amaranthāˈceae, related to the goosefoots
    3. (amaranth) a highly nutritious S American cereal (also grain amaranth)
    4. A type of dye used for colouring foodstuffs

  6. I thought DOORSTEP was masterly, parsed as KVa @1. Super puzzle, with some real head-scratchers in NW and SE particularly.
    Maybe RITZ for luxury was a little dodgy – I’d have thought ‘ritzy’ was more usual, but no doubt there are examples where it is so used. But otherwise a really splendid challenge, thanks to Imogen and to PeterO for the ever-elegant explanatory work.

  7. Hard but fair and worthwhile. A couple of tricky one-word anagrams in THREADY and TECHNOCRAT. It took ages to see how BIARRITZ parsed, and I’m still not sure exactly how UNDERSTOOD works: yes, it’s a double reverse of “over lay”, but how is that indicated? As usual, I couldn’t think of the word that had to be truncated to make DEMI, though the answer was clear enough.

    MR TOAD was my first in and a lovely clue: the sort of motorist who gets the 1 mpg from IMPOSING out of his vehicles!

  8. MOH@6 Chambers has…
    Ritz /rits/ noun
    Ostentatious luxury (chiefly N American)

    KVa@1 thanks for DOORSTEP.
    Held up thinking FLEX for 2d.

  10. Thanks Jay @8 – I should have checked Chambers before posting! I also realise I was reading ‘luxury’ as an adjective rather than a noun.

  11. Tough but an enjoyable excursion. Loved TREX (glam rock to be accurate, Marc Bolan’s shrine is nearby in Putney and well worth a visit), DOORSTEP (parsed as KVa @1), PERSEPHONE, TECHNOCRAT and MR TOAD. GRIMOIRE and AMARANTH new as was the meaning of THREADY. Great puzzle.

    Ta Imogen & PeterO.

  12. Forgot about the sisters in Sense and Sensibility, but ELINOR was clearly clued, so thanks to PeterO for the elucidation. I parsed DOORSTEP as others. COAX was my LOI as I was fixated on a cable being a telegram. THREADY and GRIMOIRE were unknown to me and I confess to using outside help to solve GRIMOIRE (there are more synonyms to serious than ‘grim’). Agree with others about clever and inventive clues and Imogen must surely have been pleased with MR TOAD. Thanks to him and to PeterO.

  13. UNDERSTOOD
    If you over lay (you were lying down a lot), then you didn’t stand much—>UNDER STOOD
    (overlay? —>? is the indicator).

  14. I think perhaps me wanting to term Vulcan and Imogen as the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of crossword setting might be on the extreme side. I find it extraordinary that this fine setter manages this, from Monday to Tuesday. Suffice to say I managed to solve only seven clues before reluctantly throwing in the towel. And then coming here to see how it should all be done. MR TOAD did raise a happy memory of a very young me appearing in a school production of A.A.Milne’s Toad of Toad Hall adaptation of Wind in the Willows, when my role was as a non-speaking Chief Ferret. I’ve probably already said quite enough this morning…

  15. GRIMOIREs also appear in Harry Potter, and THREADY pulses in lots of literature, usually describing someone near death. AMARANTH surfaced from somewhere, I’ve eaten it as a different grain.

    [AlanC @11 – I’ve visited the Marc Bolan shrine – there’s a Geocache based on it.]

    Thank you to PeterO and Imogen.

  16. After two passes I thought this would be a DNF, but Persephone got me going and I slogged my way through. Thank you Imogen for a great challenge and PeterO for an outstanding blog.

  17. Thanks, PeterO, for explaining BIARRITZ. I really should have twigged AMARANTH sooner, as I spent a pleasant hour or so yesterday thinning out my annual crop. They’re not just unfading, they’re everlasting in the sense that the self-sown seeds from each plant produce hundreds of babies the following year.

  19. Beaten by BIARRITZ and could not parse UNDERSTOOD so thanks to both blogger and KVa for helping me understand that one. A fine puzzle and, yes, remarkable how this setter can change his level of difficulty. I particularly enjoyed DOORSTEP and MR TOAD.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

  20. I grow AMARANTH for the leaves but the never-fading aspect was new to me. I like KVa’s parsing of UNDERSTOOD. Lots to like.

  22. Not easy for me! I failed to solve 7,22,24ac and 18,24d.

    New for me: AMARANTH.

    I could not parse parse 20ac.

  23. [AlanC@11 – it was, in fact, in Barnes, that Bolan’s car crashed and where he died. At least, that’s what I was led to believe when I drove past it thousands of times as a (much) younger man in the ’70s. Unless, there’s another shrine of which I’ve never heard! Putney is very close to Putney but he definitely died in Barnes, not in Putney!]

  25. PERSEPHONE was good, as was MR TOAD (which I failed to spot), but although I bunged UNDERSTOOD I don’t really think it works despite the explanations. The question mark is not enough to indicate a double negative, if that indeed is the justification.

  26. I also thought RITZ = luxury was a bit of a stretch then I remembered the Irving Berlin song “Putting on the Ritz”, where the meaning is clear.

    And it’s been going round in my head ever since!

  28. grantinfreo @2 I think an owlery would most commonly be a rescue centre or sanctuary. Alan Partridge goes to one on a date at one point so they do exist.

  30. Quite a challenge, but an excellent puzzle with so many great clues.
    Thank you PeterO for your blog and for explaining the parsing of ALCOPOPS and the relevance of ‘when combined’ in DEMI. (You’re right. In English, it’s used as a prefix.)

    I parsed MR TOAD a little differently. ‘Hall proprietor, motorist’ as a more precise definition, with T (at first tense) inside (captivated by) M ROAD = Highway.

    Favourites: T REX, COAX, PERSEPHONE, MR TOAD, UNDERSTOOD, DOORSTEP.

    Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

  33. 22D defeated me, never having heard of MEDLAR and not spotting the meaning of “caught” here.

    Otherwise, I had all the necessary GK. I enjoyed the misdirection of “spelling book” in 14A, and MR TOAD was a firm favorite.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and put on the Ritz.

  34. This felt like a return to the Imogen of old and all the better for it. Top ticks for MR TOAD, GRIMOIRE & IMPOSING – my old R32 could do 3.9 MPG if you really caned it. Clearly I wasn’t trying hard enough 🙂

    cheers P&I

  37. Poc@25 it is not a double negative , it is the same thing . I was lying down all day – I over lay .
    I did not stand up hardly – I under stood .

    Thanks for the blog , steady solve with a lot of neat clues and a lot of variety . I agree that supernova is rather extreme for an anagram and I have to say that only young stars go supernova but does not matter for wordplay .

  38. grantinfreo@2

    I saw an owlery (though only now know what it’s called) while visiting a garden in the heart of Prague. It was a tall, shallow cave (behind wire) – the owls were perched up high and looked like huge balls of wool. It took me a while to realise what I was seeing. They were really quite startling.

  39. I do struggle with Imogen. That being said it was only AMARANTH I needed a little cheat-on today although it was taxing throughout. GRIMOIRE was new to me but managed to assemble from the wordplay.

    I thought DOORSTEP was poor before coming here and realising it wasn’t a cryptic definition. I take that right back.

    Liked IMPOSING and MR TOAD

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

  41. Possibly the most often-read use of “thready” occurs in the opening paragraphs of the Sherlock Holmes tale “The Priory School”, where the pulse of his suddenly-fainting client is so described by Dr Watson.

  42. Peter@40 I do not understand your 1a or the white dwarf host ?
    The clue for ASSORT has “going supernova” , this only happens for massive stars that go through their life-cycle very quickly and explode when young .
    A supernova remnant can be a black hole , neutron star or rarely a white dwarf . These may end up being old but this is after the event itself .

  43. Agree with those praising DOORSTEP and MR TOAD. And overlay UNDERSTOOD makes sense now. Thanks Roz et al – and to setter and blogger, natch. 😊

  44. Sorry Peter I just realised what you mean , not 1across but Type 1A Minkowski classification .
    Fair point , people still call these supernovae , old terminology .

  46. 15 is at least a semi &lit; a thready pulse is an indication of low blood pressure, often due to severe dehydration.

    24d: DEMI also form half of the letters of COMBINED.

  47. To expand on my quibblet @4, Elinor is of course Marianne’s sister, but the expression “Marianne’s sister” has the implication that she has only one, whereas she does have two (Margaret being the other).

  48. [In case, like me, you’re wondering if anything rhymes with OWLERIES, Collins defines the excellent “growleries” as “places to retreat to, alone, when ill-humoured” 😏]

  50. Every day’s a school day; I had no idea that (a) Imogen was a bloke; or (b) that he was also Vulcan. Thanks to both of him for a fun puzzle!

  51. Groceries also rhymes with owleries

    So too categories, felonies, and no doubt many more

    Just saying!

  53. Excellent puzzle, with a good half dozen clues worthy of the pantheon. PERSEPHONE and DOORSTEP top for me.

  54. Fowlery is not in Chambers93 but I am sure I have seen it used , a place where chickens etc are kept .

  55. [Simon S @51: you may be on sound footing in the academy, but I gravitate more toward the streets, where most folks would deny that pupil rhymes with purple, or lozenge with orange 😏]

  56. Coloradan @ 55

    Your examples don’t rhyme, and I would never argue that they did

    But there is no convention that the whole word has to rhyme

    Planetarium rhymes with aquarium, surely?

    And while I can’t bring any examples to mind at the moment, I have heard many examples of “street rhymes” which arise through the forced suppression of, eg, a vowel

  57. Interesting discussion point about how many syllables have to be equivalent to count as a rhyme. Planetarium and aquarium rhyme with bum, but would that be counted as a rhyme? I suppose so, in poems…

  58. I dont understand several of these. For eg doorstop. And this hasn’t helped much. I can’t get on Imogen’s wavelength.

  59. I think the convention is that two words have to rhyme starting with their last stressed syllable. Sp aquarium does rhyme with planetarium buy not with bum, and all those words ending with “ies” don’t rhyme at all.

  60. Very difficult for me, many sittings, so impressed by the early day solvers, still enjoyed it despite the hard slog. Roz and Peter, are you playing Mornington Crescent?

  62. The humour of say, a clerihew can – in part – consist of moving the stress between syllables, to make rhyme words which otherwise wouldn’t.

    I found this tough, could even have been a Did Not Start without Mrs. E

    Thanks all.

  63. I knew GRIMOIRE, honestly, but it had escaped this senior memory, and the wordplay failed to help. A search on ****OIRE restored it.

    I got ELINOR from the worplay, and then had to scroll through scores of Eleanors in Wikipedia before finding the misses Dashwood. At first, I thought I was looking for a reference to French Revolutionary mythology.

  64. Thanks PeterO

    And thanks kva @1 for parsing 16 and turning it from a substandard cryptic in my mind to a very good clue. I need to try to remember the word “rood” which appears a lot. I am not great on things religious and it is definitely assumed knowledge for solvers.

    I always find Imogen tough, so must be making headway as I got c 80% on this one before throwing in the towel.

    On 22, I had the M and had gone through possibilities in my head for the first word and largely dismissed Mr as a un-indicated abbreviation – given the universal praise for the clue I guess my lesson is that I shouldn’t expect the most common abbreviations to be indicated

    Thanks Imogen. One day I’ll win. Maybe.

  65. Like Stuart@64 I find Imogen really tough and was pleased to get all but one of the eight or so left over from yesterday. I couldn’t see the opening four words of 20a as a literal definition, I kept on thinking that it was ‘apparently’ or even ‘apparently soft’! And how apparently soft are ALCOPOPS anyway, if they’re referred to with a word starting alco?

    I was incredibly pleased to dig up the only-once-seen-previously GRIMOIRE from a dusty memory cell.

    Thanks to JohnCNZ@41for reminding me where I’d seen or heard THREADY before – it somehow never seemed likely to have been ER or Gray’s Anatomy!

    Belated thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

  66. Almost completed half of this one before bailing. Revealing confirmed I probably wouldn’t have made any more progress given more time

    7a Looking for an anagram of “fuel” to give E…FUL, with “economy” as the def

    15a thought of THREADY as a possibility, but didn’t know the word. Should have looked it up!

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