This was tough – lots of tricky parsing, and I’m not fully confident in my reading of a few clues – have now made multiple edits thanks to Jack Of Few Trades, KVa, and Shirl in the comments. Favourites were 9ac, 3dn, and 8dn. Thanks to Enigmatist
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 4 | OXFORD STREET |
Where you might shop for Dexter’s new diverting books (6,6)
|
| definition: a street in London known for retail
anagram/”new” of (for Dexter’s)*; inside OT (Old Testament, “books”) |
||
| 4 | OXFORD STREET |
See 1
|
| 9 | REMAINS TO BE SEEN |
Personage perhaps lying in state is unknown for now (7,2,2,4)
|
| Someone’s body “lying in state” would be their REMAINS [being publicly displayed] TO BE SEEN | ||
| 10, 11 | DIESEL-ELECTRIC |
Day chosen for replacement of corps in retiring company, generating some power (6-8)
|
| DIES=”Day” (from Latin); with ELECT=”chosen” (e.g. ‘an elect group’) replacing C (corps) inside reversal/”retiring” of CIR-[C]-LE=”company” (someone’s circle = the company they keep) | ||
| 11 | DIESEL-ELECTRIC |
See 10
|
| 12 | CHILL OUT |
Keeping in touch, poorly Enigmatist’s going to take a break (5,3)
|
| I’LL=I will=”Enigmatist’s going to”; inside (kept in) an anagram/”poorly” of (touch)* | ||
| 14 | UNMAKE |
Ruin preparation of minute steak: two internationals sacked (6)
|
| anagram/”preparation” of (m [i] nu [te st] eak)*
two ‘internationals’ are removed: ‘i‘ for international; and test‘ as in an international e.g. cricket match |
||
| 15 | TARGET |
Cover one’s tracks maybe to achieve objective (6)
|
| edit: TAR=”Cover one’s tracks maybe” + GET=”achieve”
|
||
| 18 | PITPROPS |
Very good supports covering us when blasting? (8)
|
| for definition, “blasting” is part of the process of coal mining, and PITPROPS are timber supports in a coal mine
PI (Pious, “Very good”) |
||
| 21, 22 | MOOCHING AROUND |
A cracking feature set into low floor in the middle of a lounge? (8,6)
|
| A (from surface), inside (“cracking” into): CHIN=facial “feature” set inside MOO=”low” + GROUND=”floor” | ||
| 22 | MOOCHING AROUND |
See 21
|
| 24 | THROUGH THE NIGHT |
Considered Scotswoman correct to hide face away from sundown to sunrise (7,3,5)
|
| THOUGHT=”Considered” + HEN=Scottish term of endearment for a woman + R-IGHT=”correct’ with the first letter/”face” R moved/hidden away earlier into the order of the letters | ||
| 25, 26 | ROBERT REINER |
Top director, top tester and theatre’s top checker (6,6)
|
| definition: a film director
edit: a P-ROBER is a “tester”, and to “top” means to remove the first letter T is the top letter of T-[heatre] REINER=”checker” (to ‘rein’ = to ‘check’) |
||
| 26 | ROBERT REINER |
See 25
|
| DOWN | ||
| 1, 16 | ONE WITH ANOTHER |
Taking a Number 13, how busy, on average? (3,4,7)
|
| definition: a phrase meaning ‘considered together’ / ‘taken on an average’
anagaram/”busy” of (thirteen how)*; around A NO (A No. = “a Number”) |
||
| 2 | FLATS |
When the tide goes out one might view such accommodation! (5)
|
| reference to ‘tidal flats’ that are covered at high tide, and uncovered/visible when the tide goes out | ||
| 3 | RONALDO |
Striking Brazilian moorlands discovered on tour (7)
|
| definition: the name of a Brazilian footballer [wiki] who played as a striker
anagram/”on tour” of [m]-OORLAND-[s] with the outer/cover letters removed i.e. dis-covered |
||
| 5 | TABLEAU |
Pause when performing play of disreputable author (7)
|
| definition: in theatre, an interlude where the actors freeze in place
hidden inside [disrepu]-TABLE AU-[thor] |
||
| 6 | EAST TIMOR |
At times rocky, otherwise mountainous country (4,5)
|
| anagram/”rocky” of (At times)*, plus OR=”otherwise” | ||
| 7, 20 | THE PINK PANTHER |
Film figure’s piano recording’s retained: 16 loses nothing (3,4,7)
|
| to THINK=to “figure” plus P (piano), with EP (extended play “recording”) retained inside; ANOTHER=16dn, losing O=”nothing” | ||
| 8 | AT BEST |
Still preferring bishop to rook, extremely optimistically (2,4)
|
| AT R–EST=not moving=”Still”; replacing R (rook in chess) with B (bishop in chess) | ||
| 13 | LOGIC BOMB |
Ultimately harmful combo, big effects if activated (5,4)
|
| anagram/”activated” of ( L combo big)*, with L as the ultimate letter of [harmfu]-L
&lit definition: pre-set computer instructions to do harmful things if certain conditions are met |
||
| 16 | ONE WITH ANOTHER |
See 1
|
| 17 | TRIGGER |
Fire obsessive bouncer for pinching clubber’s bottom (7)
|
| TIGGER=character from Winnie-the-Pooh [wiki]=”obsessive bouncer”; around/pinching the bottom letter of [clubbe]-R | ||
| 18 | PIGSTY |
School’s out when psychologist waves pen (6)
|
| anagram/”waves” of (p s y cholo gist)*, with letters from school taken out | ||
| 19 | TRAPEZE |
This bar’s swinging ex-Palace favourite who likes scoring after gin (7)
|
| EZE = Eberiche Eze [wiki] who used to play for football club Crystal Palace = “ex-Palace favourite”; after TRAP=”gin” | ||
| 20 | THE PINK PANTHER |
See 7
|
| 23 | ORION |
There but for all to see, our most prominent, looking skyward? (5)
|
| O-U-R (from surface) minus U (Universal, “for all to see”, with “but” indicating exclusion); plus reversal (looking skyward) of NOI=No. 1=number one=”most prominent’
&lit definition: a prominently visible constellation of stars in the sky |
I completed it but not sure I would have without the check button. The top half went in OK and I thought RONALDO was a gem but the bottom was trickier. Pleased to see an ex-KPR player referenced in TRAPEZE, and he scored a worldy for Arsenal on Tuesday. Favourites were OXFORD STREET, REMAINS TO BE SEEN, MOOCHING AROUND, THROUGH THE NIGHT and the sadly departed, ROBERT REINER.
I can’t find the T in PITPROPS, which you haven’t included manehi.
Ta Enigmatist & manehi.
For “pitprops” I had “pi” + anagram of “supports” without the “us” (covering us) and &lit. Otherwise the “t” is unaccounted for.
For “target” I had “tar” as a “cover for tracks” i.e. a road/street cover and “get” = “achieve”.
many thanks Manehi for figuring this all out and delaying the blog to force me to go back and fully parse “pink panther”! and thank you enigmatist for a really tricksy but fun workout.
PITPROPS
Very good=PI
(SUPPORT less US)* blasting=TPROPS
TARGET
cover one’s tracks=TAR
achieve=GET
25a I think that ROBER is “prober” that has been “topped”.
Shirl@6
ROBERT REINER
Agree with you
Agreed JOFT @2 and Shirl @6. Ta.
For 1A, worth noting that Colin Dexter wrote the Inspector Morse books, which is another way to get to Oxford.
Anybody else find the association of (Colin) Dexter with Oxford helpful? Can’t decide if it’s deliberate or not.
For the “rober” part of ROBERT REINER, I had [p]rober – tester “topped” i.e. with the top removed (and I now see that others had the same thought).
Despite the presence of the very sadly late Spinal Tap director, I didn’t feel that Enigmatist turned this one up to 11 quite as often as in a couple of his recent puzzles, but it was still pretty hard compared to most!
Thanks, JH and manehi.
Cogito@9 – well somebody did!!
Couldn’t get most of the SE – mostly due to insufficient GK. The clueing is exceptional I must say – it was a pleasure. Thanks Enigmatist and manehi!
Many thanks to Enigmatist for a challenging solve, and to manehi for the blog. Couldn’t parse 19d TRAPEZE because NHO Eberiche Eze … I couldn’t account for the T in PITPROPS, so thanks to JOFT @ 2 and KVa @4, and agree with KVa @4 and Shirl @6 re (P)ROBER.
This is the first Enigmatist puzzle that I’ve been able to solve and mostly parse, albeit with the support of the Check button.
RONALDO and the appearance of EZE didn’t cause a problem, and I parsed the ROBER in ROBERT REINER the same as manehi’s original.
Challenging and fun. I’m going to reward myself with an earlier tea and biccies.
Thank you Enigmatist and manehi.
Weirdly, I completed this more quickly than yesterday’s, but I do tend to drift further from competition conditions with Enigmatist. As on the occasions of my previous completions with this setter, people are straight in with “well, it’s not his hardest” type comments, but I don’t mind and tend to agree. I parsed most of it and I was pleased when THE PINK PANTHER led me to ONE WITH ANOTHER. If I had to choose a favourite, REMAINS TO BE SEEN is certainly my kind of clue.
I thought ROBERT REINER was going to be the solution to 25,26 for a while but couldn’t see a parse. When checking Chrome for alternatives, he didn’t come up on the list of R directors! What’s going on there?! He had one of the greatest runs in cinema history.
Thanks Enigmatist and well done to manehi and your esteemed helpers.
Finished but with a few parsings only explained by you clever people. I’m patting myself on the back, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve beaten the setter. More of a grind than a fun solve! Thanks both.
This was a strange experience today for me. Normally when I see Enigmatist as the setter I feel rather intimidated and rarely solve many clues. However, for whatever reason OXFORD STREET, THROUGH THE NIGHT and THE PINK PANTHER came to me quickly, although the parsing seemed impenetrable. Thereafter I managed to get as far as having just three unsolved at the very end, MOOCHING AROUND, PIGSTY and ORION.
So many thanks Enigmatist and very well done Manehi for all the unravelling…
Jings, that was hard!
Somehow, after a long time, managed to fill the grid, but couldn’t fully parse DIESEL ELECTRIC, TARGET, PITPROPS, ONE WITH ANOTHER, LOGIC BOMB and ORION.
So many thanks to manehi – and to the commenters thanked by manehi.
And thanks to Enigmatist for a real challenge. The clue for AT BEST is very clever.
Thanks Enigmatist and manehi
My fault, but I didn’t get much enjoyment from this. I filled in the grid, but more than half of the solutions were from definition, with no parsing.
I raised an eyebrow at ROBERT REINER as he was invariably known as just Rob.
Liked most of this but found Robert Reiner just way too convoluted to be fun
I usually only (try to) solve the cryptic on a Thursday, this being my one day off, and my heart sank when I saw the setter. Nevertheless, I managed to solve it with loads of checking letters and fortunate guess. Only revealed my last one (25/26 across), never heard of him. Like Mrtin @17, I tried the help of a browser, buthe dod not show up under directors starting with Robert. I needed this blog to parse a number of clues, including 10/11 across, 18 across and 21/22 across (all too clever for me), and 19 down (never ehard of Eze). I missed the hidden word in 5 down… Despite being too difficult for me, I enjoyed the puzzle. Favourite 9 across. Thanks, Enigmatist and manehi
Completed all except Robert Reiner, as not being a film buff of any sort I have never heard of him (my fault, not his!). A couple of my parsings were a little iffy, so I’m pleased that manehi had a couple of issues too. An enjoyable workout, so thanks to Enigmatist and manehi.
Tortuous slog, did not enjoy.
Put in OXFORD STREET, guessed because of the Dexter/Morse connection, then gave up.
There were five I couldn’t parse – DIESEL ELECTRIC, TARGET, THROUGH THE NIGHT, ONE WITH ANOTHER, ORION – which would usually leave me grumpily feeling that the setter was being too-clever-by-half rather than clever; but when teased out by the clever ones on here all of those clues are ingenious, sound and fair. So my reaction was a nod to the setter for being too clever for me.
While I can quite understand the reaction of Alastair @26, “one man’s meat”, etc., and I enjoyed this.
Thanks to the ingenious Enigmatist and to manehi and his clever helpers.
That was above my pay grade, but I don’t mind the occasional puzzle that might challenge the more skilled solvers here. I filled in most of the grid, but with several not entirely parsed.
I do have to gripe about DIESEL ELECTRIC though. If we’re going to lapse into Latin, some indicator would be appreciated, especially for a word that AFAIK does not come up in English much (DIEM, as in Carpe Diem, I would consider fairer game.) And reducing Corps to its initial letter seems a bit iffy to me, although I’m sure I’ll be informed that its “common” in crosswords and/or in Chambers. As to the latter, I’ll repeat my usual mantra: being in Chambers may be necessary, but it’s not sufficient.
The usual for me with this setter, bung likely things in and hope that I can even understand the parsing when it’s explained to me.
Unable to complete.
The less said about it the better.
I have rarely been completely defeated, but this one was impossible
Guessed a couple then gave up. One of the hardest and, for me, least satisfying puzzles I’ve ever encountered. And I generally complete the cryptic. Ah well. Code word it is then.
A toughie but a goodie! Failed on parsing three of them so very grateful for the blog and the early comments chipping in with explanations.
Loved REMAINS TO BE SEEN, MOOCHING AROUND and TRAP-EZE (although sympathies to those whose GK didn’t stretch to the now Arsenal player and his amazing goal on Tuesday night).
Thanks to Enigmatist (I still remember your first puzzle in the Guardian all those years ago) and to manehi
Had a hard time with this. Even by the usual loose standards for envelope indicators, I can’t see how 12ac can be read to make “Enigmatist’s going to” keep “touch poorly” rather than the reverse. And for the big one at the bottom, I have never seen Rob Reiner called “Robert”; this is like having an answer be Joseph Root or Edward Sheeran. These may seem petty but with a puzzle that is turned up to eleven like this throughout, with several NHOs in the other clues, little obstacles loom larger for me.
Several excellent clues though, like MOOCHING AROUND and ORION (both of which I had to bung once the crossers were in and then work out the parsing), and on the gentler end UNMAKE and TRIGGER and the cleverly hidden TABLEAU.
Thanks to Enigmatist, to manehi for tackling this for the blog, and to the commenters who filled in the rest of the parsing.
I’m another that’s only ever heard the director referred to as Rob
I wonder if this puzzle is an advertisement for the genre. I see many comments above, far more than usual, being “deleted or awaiting moderation”. I hope the moderator here realises that it is healthy to have some criticism of puzzles. We don’t want to live in a world that stifles criticism. For me, and I quite often do the “Genius” puzzles when I have spare time, the complexity here was not rewarding. But I did enjoy three or four of them.
I agree with Muffin @21 and Matt W @38 about ROBert REINER’s name being used in full when neither he, nor anyone in his industry ever did. Like Matt says, on a day when every letter counts, this felt unreasonable.
PS. I liked Spinal Tap but I actually preferred Bad News that the Comic Strip Presented the year before. Just a sucker for that Young Ones energy I guess.
RIP Rob. (And Rick)
PIGSTY & PITPROPS last by a long distance. I thought psychologist might contain ‘school’ but waited to follow that lead; I forgot about PI even though the right mental image was there for PITPROPS and I saw the supports trick.
EZE was nho and too loosely defined to be easily referenced.
Thanks manehi and Enigmatist. Thought this was not as impenetrable as previous grids from this setter, since I was able to solve a few clues without help, but generally speaking I found some of the clueing here to be a bit on the lugubrious side. A lot of ‘solve first, parse later (or not at all)’ types. And would also agree with others, particularly matt w @38, that ‘Robert Reiner’ is not a fair clue since he was very much a Rob and not a Robert.
Like Curly Wurlies, a bit too elaborate for me.
EZE was a nho for me too, but I never had any problem with that one. I spotted straight away that a gin is a type of trap and a bar that swings could be a trapeze. It just required a quick google to confirm there was an ex-Crystal Palace footballer called Eze.
Having had a few puzzles recently that were fun but not too difficult I wondered if it was time for Mr Henderson to pop in! As with all his puzzles they require a lot of thinking through. I’m convinced the Dexter deference to Oxford was deliberate. Although I couldn’t finish without some revealing it was, to me, very satisfying to get most of it. Thanks E (JH) and blogger for a real workout.
…”Ebs” to his teammates…
Much too convoluted for me. I can’t follow the scrambled parsing of DIESEL ELECTRIC. Who’d ever think of “prober?” (Quite a lot of you, apparently, but not me.)
I thought in 13a ILL might mean I’LL, but also that it might mean “poorly,” and why would it be in twice?
But I enjoyed FLATS. I knew the tidal meaning because of what I thought were called the Berkeley Flats, a stretch of tidal/non-tidal sand on San Francisco Bay where for several decades locals would assemble bits of float-ashore debris into imaginative sculptures, which everyone driving past could enjoy. Apparently they’ve been demolished now.
Thanks Enigmatist and manehi.
Am I the only one left who attempts the crossword in the paper edition without recourse to the Internet? Or the check button, of course. However, I must thank the bloggers on this site for their elucidation online when I’ve been utterly defeated, as I was today.
Couldn’t get a single clue. Gave up. Credit to those who enjoyed and parsed it.
[@Martin – More Bad News, ending with our heroes being bottled off at Castle Donnington, was even better.]
[For those unfamiliar with Eberechi Eze, here’s what he did for Arsenal in the Champions League last night. (At 1’12”)]
I must admit, I didn’t enjoy this much. I finished it, but couldn’t parse several of them, and some others I did parse seemed a bit tenuous.
I’m sure the Dexter reference was supposed to point us to Oxford. Unfortunately I overthought it, remembered that Dexters are a breed of cattle, and wondered if the answer to “where you might shop for Dexters” was CATTLE MARKET. Oh well.
Did about three quarters of this but it was mostly too much like hard work. I liked REMAINS TO BE SEEN.
A pleasure to solve, the odd bit of abstruse GK and a little turgidity apart, there were some coruscating clues (ORION is a doozer). But ‘lugubrious’? I can’t see how…
Many thanks both and all
Why no hidden indicator for TABLEAU? That seems deliberately unhelpful. Other than that I enjoyed the experience, even if I could not parse all of the clues.
Finished it but it wasn’t fun.
Yikes I don’t think I have ever completed a crossword when I haven’t understood such a large number of clues: ORION, PIGSTY, PITPROPS (I solved it by incorrectly getting props=supports and then choosing the most likely second letter), ROBERT REINER and more.
Least the blog got a good read.
Thanks Manehi and Enigmatist
Tough and needed 2 sittings to get there in the end. Thanks to M for the blog as there were a few, 10 11a and 21 22a, which I couldn’t parse.
Good grief, Impaled again … oh wait, that’s the other one!
Some really knotty parsing (DIESEL ELECTRIC, ROBERT REINER…), some answers guessed without fully understanding (LOGIC BOMB, ORION), one objectionable Ar**nal reference (EZE), and lots of inspired clueing (REMAINS TO BE SEEN, EAST TIMOR, UNMAKE, RONALDO, PIGSTY, TAR for “cover one’s tracks” etc).
I wonder if there’s an extra “s” in 7D/20D (from “Film figure’s…”), though it helps the surface make sense.
Thanks to Enigmatist, my brain has stopped hurting now.
And, thanks to manehi and various clever posters above, I can see it all makes sense in the end, and live to solve another day.
This guy setting puzzles reminds me of Stan Laurel playing himself at noughts and crosses in “Towed in the Hole” – only he can win.
Thanks for the blog , glad to see the split clues were in the right order . PITSTOPS and PIGSTY very good . I thought I would have to scratch my head but a burst at the finish got me home just before my train got me home .
RONALDO is surely Filipe Eduardo , the great Brazilian water polo player from the 1930s . In a simllar vein , TRAPEZE must refer to Ngozi EZE , former goalkeeper for Crystal Palace WPC , the place where the sport was born .
[ AlanC@1 tops the charts yet again , the weather yesterday forced me into the sea so did not have chance to ask you a question . For your first assignment at QUB did you have to correct all the spelling mistakes ? ]
The other problem with the Robert Reiner clue is that there is no such agent noun as “reiner” in English.
Ronaldo was portugese not Brazilian!!
He still is. A previous Ronaldo was transcending the sport in the 90s and early noughties.
ARhymerOinks@56: I think the ‘of’ can be justified as the containment (hidden) indicator for TABLEAU. Chambers has, as it’s 2nd defn for ‘of’: “belonging to (or connected with) something (or someone)”. My best memories of ROB[ERT] REINER are from his breakout role as Michael “Meathead” Stivik in Norman Lear’s All in the Family. It was only later on that I found out that this show, like so many of ours, had a British original: Till Death Us Do Part.
Too hard to complete in my all-too-brief lunch break, but finished over a leisurely cup of tea when home. Always helpful to have this blog to check parsing. Wasn’t sure about PITPROPS or ROBERT REINER.
Like ArkLark@35 I remember Enigmatist’s debut as a Guardian setter, so I have had ample time to ponder why he has never been my favourite. I like puzzles that challenge and entertain but – for me – this had too much challenge and not enough entertainment. I solved and parsed nearly everything (the exception being the full parsing of DIESEL-ELECTRIC) so I felt I had just about passed the test set by the examiner. I admire several of the clues. But, like muffin@21, I just didn’t enjoy it very much.
Ouch! I didn’t think I would finish this one, and had to make much use of the checker and the strategy of identifying an answer and waiting for manehi to explain the answer. I was reduced to a lot of guessing to finally get PITPROPS. Lots of tricky multistep parsing. I like an occasional challenge personally (tho I’d suffer if this was the usual daily difficulty) and I liked the creative mechanisms in some of the clues, eg I liked PIGSTY a lot once the penny dropped. Thanks Enigmatist and manehi!
I am not surprised that manehi didn’t see the anagram in 18a at first, (I didn’t either), because the anagrind ‘blasting’ is in the definition. Rare (known as recursion) but used now and again. Can be confusing.
A very hard puzzle one for me but that’s Enigmatist for you. Thanks both. Oh and KVa you are a genius.
When trying to solve 19d the only ex-Crystal Palace player I could remember was Gerry Queen, whose involvement in a fight on the pitch led to my favourite Guardian headline “Queen in brawl at Palace”.
Chipped away at this all day and finally completed it. Not all parsed, but all correct — thank you manehi and various commenters for filling in the blanks. Some really great clues, with much diabolical wordplay! A lot of the double-entry clues were only half completed for a long time — 1/4 _ STREET, 9a _ TO BE SEEN, 10/11 _ ELECTRIC, 1/16 _ ANOTHER — but I eventually got them all. Loved the “obsessive bouncer” in 17d TRIGGER. LOI 18a PITPROPS solved via dictionary trawl
19d TRAPEZE, my cousin is a big Crystal Palace fan, so GO PALACE!!
Very satisfying to complete this tough Enigmatist, and happy for Roz to get a bit of a challenge
[Roz @63: spelling mistakes? Flummoxed of Putney.]
[AlanC@74 – Spenser was a well-known cacographist . ]
In 17D where does the ‘for’ fit in? Please tell me it isn’t just there to help the surface flow.
That was a right struzzle, urghh.
Got there, eventually, but every step of the way was painful.
Struggled through this but ground it out with a lot of guessing, check word and assistance from my wife who thought it was very obscure (as did I). Overall not an enjoyable puzzle for me, but maybe in another 5 years or more I’ll be relishing Enigmatist’s grids (maybe) LOL. Thanks manehi for your explanations of wordplay that eluded me, and the to the big E for the brain ache.
Count me with the “finished without much joy” brigade. I almost did the ft instead when I saw the byline but… not quite. We live and we learn.
Thanks for the blog and updates, I had many unparsed to learn from.
I’m afraid Enigmatist is going with Paul in the don’t bother to try box.
I’m with Ed 33: I found this impossible and well above my pay grade. I can usually complete Paul, but Enigmatist, whom I don’t remember meeting before, is another level of unlikely complexity. I went through the blog to find out what on earth it was all about.
I’m with Ed 33: I found this impossible and well above my pay grade. I can usually complete Paul, but Enigmatist, whom I don’t remember meeting before, is another level of unlikely complexity. I went through the blog to find out what on earth it was all about.
[When posting this I get an error message saying it looks like a duplicate comment. Sorry, That is completely wrong. I have never posted anything before, and it’s not, as far as i can see, a duplicate of anything said before – though a bit similar, to be fair.]
Rod #83. If you’re still around. That happens to me very frequently. It may have timed out and saved , or you may have submitted but didn’t have the confirmation yet.. It’s often a question of timing. Trust the message. Your post is there. Just go back and come back down, and you’ll see it. Again depending on the time, you may still have the opportunity to edit it.
This took me a week but I got there in the end. Only PITPROPS and ROBER unparsable.
Now I can finally allow myself to start last Thursday’s! Hope to catch up soon.