An enjoyable puzzle with a few tricky parsings that were fun to work out. Thanks to Fed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 9 | CAPRICORN | Sign of top hat scratching head (9) CAP (top) + [t]RICORN (hat) |
||||||
| 10 | TRADE | Job swap (5) Double definition (for the first, as in “what’s your job/trade?” |
||||||
| 11 | ONGOING | Happening as drums extremely deficient before Ringo’s discovered (7) [b]ONGO[s] + [r]ING[O] |
||||||
| 12 | HIDEOUT | Skin on show in retreat (7) HIDE (skin) + OUT (on show) |
||||||
| 13 | NYALA | Nomad found in area between two large US cities (5) A[rea] between Los Angeles and New York. On skimming the Wikipedia article on the nyala I can’t see anything to suggest that they’re particularly nomadic, but perhaps Fed knows better |
||||||
| 14 | JOAN OF ARC | Rivers maybe on flood alert – Red Cross initially delivering heroic sort (4,2,3) JOAN (Joan Rivers, US comedian) + first letters of On Flood Alert Red Cross |
||||||
| 16 | FAHRENHEIT SCALE | Nice flat here has strange way to tell temperature (10,5) (NICE FLAT HERE HAS)* |
||||||
| 19 | REMINISCE | Recall cars park outside, close to garage (9) MINIS (cars) in REC (park) + [garag]E |
||||||
| 21 | PAPER | Secretary for a broadsheet? (5) PA (secretary) + PER (a, as in twice a/per week) |
||||||
| 22 | DIGITAL | Back muscle stiff right away – using fingers (7) Reverse of LAT (lateral, muscle, coincidentally in the back) + RIGID less R |
||||||
| 23 | CARTOON | Comic actor working in animation (7) ACTOR* + ON (workjng) |
||||||
| 24 | OBELI | In just seconds, conscientious objector declines class with daggers (5) Second letters of cOnscientious oBjector dEclines cLass wIth. Obeli are daggers in typography, sometimes used to indicate footnotes; thus: † |
||||||
| 25 | ELABORATE | Explain worry about work European Union abandoned (9) LABOUR in EAT (worry) + E[uropean] less U[nion] |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | ACCOUNT FOR | Represent Foreign Office visiting a cold region briefly (7,3) F.O. in A C[old] COUNTR[y] |
||||||
| 2 | EPIGRAPH | New pie chart’s inscription (8) PIE* + GRAPH (chart) |
||||||
| 3 | SILICA | Glass maker is rejected by student arts venue (6) Reverse of IS + L (student driver) + ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, venue in London) |
||||||
| 4,14 | LONG JOHN SILVER | Pirate’s mistress, after removing old underwear, said ‘aye’ to get things going (4,4,6) LONG JOHNS (underwear) + I (homophone of “aye”) + LOVER less O[ld] |
||||||
| 5,23 | ANTHRACITE COAL | Oddly the Arctic Circle in particular provides fuel (10,4) (THE ARCTIC)* + O (circle) in ANAL (fussy, particular) |
||||||
| 6 | STUDIOUS | Film companies – including Universal – eager to learn (8) U in STUDIOS |
||||||
| 7 | SAMOSA | Turnover seen when Konsa goes up against Mo Salah (6) Hidden in konSA MO SAlah. The “up” is just part of “up against”; no reversal needed |
||||||
| 8 | MEAT | Side swapping ends makes game? (4) TEAM with the “ends” swapped |
||||||
| 15 | CLEARANCES | School governors organised clubs in church – with small sanctions (10) LEA (Local Education Authority, so “school governors” + RAN (organised) + C in CE (Church of England) + S[mall] |
||||||
| 17 | EINSTEIN | Perhaps Albert Finney’s content with set I redesigned (8) Anagram of [f]INNE[y] SET I |
||||||
| 18 | APPROVAL | Okay looking up somewhere to go or following Google Maps, say (8) APP (e,g, Google Maps) + reverse of LAV (lavatory, somewhere to go) + OR |
||||||
| 20 | MAGNET | Metal drawer (6) Cryptic definition |
||||||
| 21 | PARDON | Forgive you what? (6) Double definition |
||||||
| 22 | DOOR | Nameless benefactor gets access (4) DONOR less N |
||||||
Very difficult. Ran out of time and gave up on SW corner – failed to solve 22, 24ac and 17d.
I could not parse the ILVER bit of 4/14d; 7d first SA bit but had a feeling I saw the MO SA not knowing why exactly; 15d apart from C + CE S – was not sure about the A in LEARN=school bit – I have never heard of the LEA Local Education Authority.
New for me: ANTHRACITE COAL; ICA = Institute of Contemporary Arts.
A delight from start to finish. I could happily have ticked the whole thing.
Top ticks for the pirate, the coal and the Maid of Orleans for the juxtaposition of the Joans
Now back to yesterday’s IO for whatever the opposite of light relief is 🙂
Cheers F&A
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Not too hard to fill in the grid, but parsing was a different matter! Several I gave up the attempts on.
EINSTEIN must be one of the best clues of the year.
“Game” for MEAT seems very loose.
I, too, couldn’t fit the nomad reference in, but like so many in today’s grid the word was readily recognisable from crossers.
A nice gentle start to the day. Same length as a bowl of soup.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew
A minor point
PAPER
for a=PER
GAME
Chambers
20. Wild animals hunted for sport
21. The flesh of such animals
Got most of it. ICE & LEA unknown, unsurprisingly.
Thank you Andrew.
NYALA: Google/AI says: “Nyala antelope, an African species known for its wandering behavior and its status as the “nomad of the antelope world”. Nyala live in loose, temporary herds and are often on the move, making them one of Africa’s most elusive antelope species.”
Also, I had LICA (Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts) for “student art venue”.
Quite right KVa@5. PAPER. We’ve had per/a several times recently. Awake to that one now.
KVa @5
I said it was loose, not wrong. There are lots of games that aren’t meat, just as there are lots of meats that aren’t game. That means “loose” to me!
This spanned quite a large range of difficulty, for me. Plenty of goodness, as we expect from Fed.
Faves, for the surfaces, were JOAN OF ARC, REMINISCE, EINSTEIN and APPROVAL, plus ANTHRACITE COAL (a NHO which matched my initial suspicions based on a couple of checkers), SAMOSA for the trick (after consideration I decided that “seen” was a sufficient indicator there) and the wonderful MAGNET (which had me dredging up or inventing I don’t know how many illustrators).
But I was defeated by SILICA (just couldn’t see it; I’d have accepted ICA as a (NHO) arts institution had the word occurred to me), and by OBELI (yet again, the “seconds” trick defeated me). What with that and (Isle of) Man from yesterday, I feel like I’m being taunted with my blind spots at the moment!
And the parsing of LONG JOHN SILVER was completely beyond me, other than the underwear. Great ideas there – but I don’t understand what’s telling us to put the three wordplay parts in a different random-seeming order.
Like our blogger, I didn’t understand why NYALA is a nomad (paddymelon@7 has explained), but at least I’d heard of it… one of the many things I’ve learnt from these puzzles.
Thanks both
Fed’s my favourite setter and it’s been a while, so I agree with Bodycheetah @2 that this was a real treat and not too time consuming. I’m still not quite there with the Long John Silver parsing, but there’s no question what the solution is.
I liked every clue, but I can imagine Dave being delighted to find the neat little ones like STUDIOUS, MAGNET and CARTOON.
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
AP @11, Martin @12:
“Pirate’s mistress, after removing old underwear, said ‘aye’ to get things going”.
This breaks down, I think, as:
“Mistress, after removing old” = LVER.
“Underwear, said ‘aye'” = LONG JOHNS I.
“To get things going” – put LONG JOHNS I at the beginning.
Very good puzzle, I thought; like many others, I could happily put ticks all over the place.
Thanks as ever to setter and blogger.
That makes more sense, NeilH@13.
I too did put ticks all over the place – such an enjoyable and absorbing puzzle, with lots of PDMs as the parsing fell into place.
Many thanks to Fed for the fun and Andrew for the clear and entertaining blog.
Overall, completed it relatively quickly but with lots unparsed. Didn’t know tricorn, ICA, LEA, long johns, lat or Joan Rivers. SAMOSA is an interesting version of a hidden word clue; I’ve not seen it before but it makes sense. NYALA is (for me) a jorum, if an easy one. EINSTEIN has a great misleading surface. Thanks a lot Andrew for the explanations, and of course Fed!
Couldn’t parse DIGITAL or the last bit of LONG JOHN SILVER (nice surface), though both were fairly obvious from their definitions. I can’t see why CLEARANCES=sanctions and couldn’t parse that either (are LEAs still a thing?) As for the NYALA, the “nomad” definition doesn’t seem to be well known and I was surprised to find the result of the wordplay was correct.
Anyway, lots of fun to be had today with Ringo and his drums in ONGOING, and the anagram that wasn’t as long as it looked in EPIGRAPH. Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Thanks NeilH @13. I think that’s what Andrew was saying, but I see it now. Once I had my long johns in place, I wasn’t too worried!
I enjoyed that. Thanks to Andrew and Fed.
A small point: surely SILICA is a ‘glass maker’ – not just ‘glass’?
I felt there were too many clues that I solved today where I relied heavily on the definitions before then trying to unravel the parsing. Last two in were the tricky, for me, ACCOUNT FOR and ONGOING. Many thanks Fed for the challenge this morning, and to Andrew for the clarity…
Tricky “a” = PER, not so tricky “for a” = PER. Today we are not so tricky, as per KVa@5.
Some great surfaces today.
gladys @17
“Sanction” as “allow” rather than “ban”. Well-known “autoantonym”!
Worth it for EINSTEIN alone. A really impressive clue.
The succinctness of MAGNET, PARDON and DOOR were also pleasing.
Thanks Andrew, and a 21 gun salute to Fed.
Muffin@22: I’ve also seen “contronym” for this (and ‘Janus word’, ‘antagonym’ etc.)
I found this rather easier than some recent Fed puzzles, though I admit to not bothering with the parsing of CLEARANCES.
I don’t think I’ve previously come across the device used in 7d, where a hidden answer has to be revealed by juxtaposing separate parts. Not complaining, but is this original?
Greatly enjoyed it. Fun and witty. Although the parsing was difficult and in some cases quite beyond me. Joan of Arc ; had flood means sort of ark with the crossers. Not giving that to myself. Doesn’t count.
Please can someone explain how Metal = Magnet?
I got drawer – that made sense but it was a plug and hope.
NielH@13 re L J S: thank you – it seems obvious now that you’ve spelt it out!
MCourtney@25: MAGNET = thing that draws metal towards it. (It’s a CD not a DD)
AP@26 That makes sense.
Completely misunderstood that one. I need to get better at these things.
Thanks.
Lovely curve here. Took me a while to get anywhere at all, then things started to fall into place quite quickly, then a few at the end took a bit more thinking. In a tricky crossword, it’s nice to have a few relatively easy ones scattered in judicious places like DOOR and STUDIOUS.
Muffin @10: It’s a definition by example, as suggested by the question mark.
Along with Bodycheetah’s juxtaposition of the Joans @2, I also liked the juxtaposition of MEAT SAMOSA and DOOR MAGNET. EINSTEIN is superb but my favourite was the perfect CARTOON. CLEARANCES was by far the hardest to parse. Fantastic puzzle.
Ta Fed & Andrew.
I had a work Zoom meeting on my day off, so started this puzzle late…. Like Hornbeam@19, I also had”glass maker” as the definition of glass. With 23a, I was not sure if cartoon or animation is the definition or anagrind. I has cartoon as the definition, unlike Andrew?
Some new words for me (e.g. tricorn, ICA – I found “Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA)” on google, and assumed this was the student arts venue, but I see now that student = L). I saw the letters or samosa in 7d, but could not quite see how it worked.
Thanks, Fed and Andrew
I’m completely stumped on samosa. Got the answer but what has it got to do with turnover?
Samosa is a turnover in the meaning of some kind of filled pastry
DutchGirl@31 re CARTOON: if “comic” were the def (which indeed it potentially could have been) then the anagrind would presumably be “in animation”, which is also plausible. But that would mean that the fodder is the whole of (ACTOR + ON) where “on” is a synonym of “working”, which would make it an indirect anagram, something that’s generally frowned upon. But it’s interesting that the clue does almost work in both ways.
I enjoyed this puzzle, finished all of it last night (unusual for me).
I don’t think I’ve heard of Joan Rivers, and I definitely haven’t heard of ICA or LEA. I didn’t think of “anal” for “fussy.”
But lots of other clues were lots of fun.
Thanks, Fed and Andrew.
AP@34 Thank for the explanation. Yes, I parsed it the way you say (anagram of ACTOR+ON with anagrind “in animation”), but I see now why this is less preferable than Andrew’s parsing
Finished, but needed parsing help for a few. For ELABORATE, forgot that y’all spell labor wrong. 🙂
Was following Mo Salah every since he started playing for Liverpool, but that was no help, neither was the very recent LIV-AVL game. Crossers allowed both SAMOSA and PAKORA, but the former is more turnoverish, and of course worked with the wordplay when I saw what was going on.
For OBELI, I knew obelus as the dagger symbol and assumed the plural would end in “i”. And suddenly realised that the two heroes from one small village of indomitable Gauls (Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix and Obelix) both have gallicised names corresponding to footnote indicators. Coincidence perhaps?
Thanks dutchgirl. See it now!
Blaise@39 According to wikipedia Asterix was named for the footnote indicator, but his pal Obelix was named for an Obelisk (based on his figure and perhaps his job). But I think your explanation makes more sense. Too bad there were no characters named Pilcrow, Silcrow, and Octothorpe.
Nakamova@37 Haha 😉
Very enjoyable puzzle. Many great surfaces. Lots of favourites including 9a CAPRICORN (“top hat”), 10a TRADE (“Job swap” actually means something!), 23a CARTOON (great surface), 17d EINSTEIN (“Albert Finney” misdirection), 20d MAGNET (“Metal drawer”)
14a JOAN OF ARC, I couldn’t figure out the “Rivers” reference. Nice to be reminded of the great comedian — she was very funny
I parsed 21a PAPER as KVa@5
7d SAMOSA, interesting container, where the particles are separated by filler, as mentioned by poc@24. I don’t think I’ve seen that before
LEA’s are now largely defunct, most schools having converted to academy status, freeing them from the oversight of their local authority. However, schools still have governors, who are like executive directors of a school, making policy directives and budgeting the finances. Work which often put them in direct opposition to the LEA, but now is more likely to see them clashing with their local multi-academy trust.
Blaise@39
As I expect you know the, word for the footnote indicator is asterisk. Many people get that wrong.
Fun crossword. All the answers but not the parsing. Despite living in Bradford for decades I’ve never thought of samosas as turnovers.
I was thinking about the slightly strange definition of JOAN OF ARC and wondered if Fed was referring to ‘sort’ as a Cockney term for girl/woman?
Super puzzle, thought at least fifteen of the clues were tick worthy. I’ll add to the deserved praise for EINSTEIN. I also appreciated the neatly surfaced STUDIOUS and the satisfying construction of ELABORATE.
What a lovely puzzle. We completed it although we had to come here for some of the parsings. MAGNET was brilliant, with lots of other great clues and a few NHOs that we had to check the existence of with Google. Thanks Andrew and Fed
Good as always from Fed. Favourite ONGOING for the clever surface which surely refers to the early Beatles with Pete Best.
Many thanks both.
I’ve got so used to delving below the surface that I didn’t see what was going on in ONGOING until Lord Jim pointed it out @50. Yes, the mystery of why Pete Best was sacked as a drummer is revealed by the recording of their Decca audition when it was clear that he couldn’t keep time!
As others have suggested, solving a Fed puzzle depends on getting enough helpful crossers be able to confidently solve from the definition and parse later. Heaven help us if he ever uses an unfriendly grid! 😁
Most of the clues are very fair, including the question mark for ‘game?’ in 8d, the separation of (actor)* and ‘working’=ON in CARTOON, and the very good CD in MAGNET. Last one in for me was SAMOSA, and in retrospect I think I’ve seen the device – taking two bits of wordplay and shoving them together to create a “hidden” answer – used before, but I’m not sure if it was by Fed. Perhaps he will drop in to enlighten us.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew.
[SH @51
Apparently it’s an apocryphal story, but:
Interviewer:
“We all know that Ringo isn’t the best drummer in the world”
Lennon:
“He isn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles”]
I’m another of those dang furriners who hadn’t heard of an LEA or the ICA, so those two went in unparsed. Otherwise, good clean fun, yielding at just the right rate for my taste.
The American spelling of labor would have made a much more elegant clue for ELABORATE, but of course then you’d have to find a way to signal that, which would’ve made it inelegant again.
Muffin@52. Apparently it was actually Jasper Carrot. 🤔 (Not the drummer, the quote!)
[SH @54
Yes, Google agrees. I wonder in what context Carrott said it?]
[Google finds an earlier example from the radio programme Radioactive (a precursor of SkyTV).]
[Me @56]
Sorry, KYTV. Lots of latterly well known comics started on Radioactive and KYTV.)
Sorry to raise some quibbles, but a MAGNET only attracts a few metals. “Iron drawer” would have been better. And the definition for SILICA must be ‘glass maker’ – assuming an ingredient can be called a maker – because silica (silicon dioxide) is generally found in crystalline form – think quartz – and has to be artificially melted and rapidly cooled, generally with added extras, to make a glass. EINSTEIN was brilliant, though. Thanks, Fed and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew and thanks all.
For anyone interested in a defence of Ringo’s musicianship, I highly recommend this New Statesman piece by the estimable Geoff Lloyd.
Layman @16, Mig@43, Sheffield Hatter @51 – I don’t think instructions to build a hidden clue is an especially unusual device. I’ve certainly used it before in the Indy here, here ,here, here and here. I’d be surprised if I haven’t used something along those lines in the Guardian also – but nothing springs to mind.
TT@58 a magnet draws only a few substances, and they’re all metals. That’s specific enough isn’t it?
An AC electromagnet will attract non-ferrous metals, owing to the eddy currents induced in them by the alternating field, and in turn their own magnetic fields. The better the conductor they are the stronger the effect.
Thanks all.
Gawd ‘elp us
Paul…Boatman…this
Kiss
Love a long complete. Got there with everything and only a couple of parsing where I could tell but not fully extract many thanks!