A challenge from IO that was well outside my limits.
I can’t rate this puzzle as the difficulty level for me was far too high to solve without help. The puzzles that I rate at difficulty levels 10 are usually puzzles that took me a long time to fully solve or in which I had one or two clues unsolved. I got to around 40% of this one before conceding ( which means others here would have found it much easier than the usual IO offering ).
Given that its a boxing day puzzle, there are several references to weight categories from the sport of the same name.
Some parsings can be improved upon so looking for elucidation from the experts.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | UNSAFE |
Insecure Ryder Cup team employing new iron (6)
|
| [ N ( new ) in USA ( ryder cup team ) ] FE ( iron ) | ||
| 4 | MEEKER |
Increasingly submissive timekeepers riled out of spite (6)
|
| [ tiMeKEEpERs ( without the letters of ‘SPITE’ ) ]* | ||
| 9 | SOOTY TERN |
Flyer Spoonerised the part everyone plays in physics lab (5,4)
|
| spoonerism of TUTTI ( part everyone plays ) CERN ( physics lab ) | ||
| 10 | STRAW |
Set about, with skill, the beginning of sherry trifle (5)
|
| reverse of [ W ( with ) ART ( skill ) S ( Sherry, first letter ) ] | ||
| 11 | WLTM |
What makes I’m at a low ebb periodically an appeal for company… (4)
|
| hidden, reversed, alternate letters of “..iM aT a LoW..” ; short for Would Like To Meet | ||
| 12 | ATOM |
You can’t further subdivide this Encyclopaedia (Vol.1 of two)? (4)
|
| cryptic def; 1st vol of the encyclopaedia could be from A TO M, and second from N TO Z | ||
| 13 | LIGHT |
Idle rest day (5)
|
| cryptic def? | ||
| 16 | FEATHER |
Birds, as a whole, are frightened by the parts (7)
|
| THE in FEAR ( ~ are frightened ) | ||
| 17 | MONARCH |
Ruler against having border crossing (7)
|
| ON ( against ) in MARCH ( border ) | ||
| 18 | CRUISER |
In sound, helps to sail a yacht (7)
|
| sounds like CREWS ( helps to sail ) A | ||
| 20 | BRIDGER |
Coward’s role in poky bedroom: bedding a range of high-ups (7)
|
| BR ( bedroom ) containing RIDGE ( a range of high-ups ); refers to noel coward’s role in the italian job as mr.bridger | ||
| 21 | MIAOW |
West End Oscar’s cutting about — that’s very spiteful (5)
|
| reverse of [ { W ( West ) AIM ( end ) } containing O ( Oscar ) ] | ||
| 22 | MINI |
Reduced 60-sec cycles (4)
|
| cryptic def; 60-sec = 1 MIN , cycling i.e. first to the last | ||
| 23 | GSOH |
…requirement that helps to make anything so hilarious? (4)
|
| cryptic def; hidden in “..anythinG SO Hilarious” ; short for Good Sense Of Humor | ||
| 25 | SUPER |
Suffering reverse concerning matter of exceptional quality (5)
|
| reverse of RE ( concerning ) PUS ( matter ) | ||
| 27 | A CAPPELLA |
Unaccompanied product of R Smythe Henderson? (1,8)
|
| ? | ||
| 29 | MIDDLE |
Medium large bust extends race (6)
|
| DD ( large bust ) in MILE ( race ) | ||
| 30 | ANGSTY |
Troubled person who’s engaged in religious profession departs an unclean abode (6)
|
| ?? STY ( unclean abode ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | UNSEW |
Reverse work of seamstress you and I endless check over (5)
|
| reverse of WE ( you and i ) SNUb ( check, endless ) | ||
| 2 | SCOTT BAKULA |
Actor sadly backs out at about fifty (5,6)
|
| [ BACKS OUT AT ]* around L ( fifty ) | ||
| 3 | FLY |
Knowing for a little while cheese is out (3)
|
| brieFLY ( for a little while, without BRIE – cheese ) | ||
| 4 | MINIMUM |
Me and my mother, embracing at least (7)
|
| [ MI ( me ) MUM ( mother ) ] containing IN ( at ) | ||
| 5 | EX SILENTIO |
Now vocal setter? Believable, as you can’t prove otherwise! (2,8)
|
| EX SILENT ( ~ now vocal ) IO ( setter ) | ||
| 6 | ERR |
Ultimately the King and Queen are human, Pope said (3)
|
| thE ( last letter of ) R ( king ) R ( queen ) ; wonder if ‘are’ has a role in the parse as well | ||
| 7 | WELTER |
Surging mass is enduring great heat when disembarking? (6)
|
| cryptic def; sWELTERs ( endures great heat, leaves SS – disembarking ) ; very iffy about this parse | ||
| 8 | TWITCHER |
Peewee having taken wife back on, I go in search of new bird (8)
|
| [ W ( wife ) in TITCH ( peewee ) ] { reverse of RE ( on ) } | ||
| 14 | GARAGE SALES |
Non-electronic kit sets date of beer trading events at home (6,5)
|
| GeAR ( kit, without E – electronic ) AGES ALES ( sets date of beer ) | ||
| 15 | GHOST WORLD |
Growth’s flourishing along with old cult film (5,5)
|
| [ GROWTHS OLD ]* | ||
| 16 | FACE MASK |
Following question about one mobile respirator? (4,4)
|
| [ F ( following ) ASK ( question ) ] around [ ACE ( one ) M ( mobile ) ] | ||
| 19 | RAMPAGE |
Sheep attendant madly rushing about (7)
|
| RAM ( sheep ) PAGE ( attendant ) | ||
| 20 | BANTAM |
Small and combative outlaw you shouldn’t have married (6)
|
| BAN ( outlaw ) TA ( you shouldnt have , in the context of thanks ) M ( married ) | ||
| 24 | HEAVY |
British service chiefs abandoned Scottish beer (5)
|
| tHE nAVY ( british service, without starting letters ) | ||
| 26 | PHI |
Highly acidic character (3)
|
| cryptic def; read as pH 1 ( highly acidic ) | ||
| 28 | PIN |
Stage that you might need to get ready! (3)
|
| double def; ready meaning cash |
I managed to get two answers which I guess proves that it was easier than most IO puzzles.
Far above my pay grade, and I couldn’t even make out which bit of the clue was the definition, never mind parse it.
Despite using a crossword solver I failed to finish this one.
6d is from Alexander Pope.” To err is human , to forgive divine”
Thanks IO and chapeau to Turbolegs.
LIGHT
Looks like a triple def
FEATHER
are frightened by=FEAR
A CAPPELLA
A(ndy) CAPP by R(eg) Smythe
+ELLA (Henderson)
ANGSTY
AN+PIG STY less PI (pious as a noun)
WELER
The blogger’s parse seems fine
(a minor diff: I took ‘is enduring heat’ as SWELTERS)
Disembarking cryptically to mean ‘removing the bark’, I think.
Thanks Io and Turbolegs
Comment #4
Comment #5
Like all of John’s puzzles today, I found this extremely difficult and, although the RH side of this one was slightly friendlier than the left, I did resort to quite a bit of guess and check
27a RSmythe created the cartoon character A(ndy) Capp and apparently Ella Henderson is a English singer -songwriter.
I did wonder whether 13a was a triple definition
Thanks Turbolegs, not one I’d have wanted to blog without having several days to mutter and think, followed by the traditional lie down in a darkened room
Usually I crack about 3 of IO’s clues, then give up. Today I managed one. I gave up very quickly. If it’s tough for 225’s explainers, what chance do we mere mortals have?
WELTER* (typo in my post@3)
SOOTY TERN
A finer point
the part everyone plays in=TUTTI
(the part (of the musical performance) in which everyone plays
their instruments & sings)
My posts on 225 across all three GIFT puzzles will be somewhat the same. In fact, I could easily have copied and pasted to make life even easier. The only difference was the magnitude of failure with the FT trouncing the other two. I barely got started – thank goodness for a couple of three letter words … Congratulations to anyone who cracked this and many thanks to our blogger for explaining the mystery.
Thanks both