In general I found this a little easier than Nutmeg can sometimes be, though with a few tricky moments. However, it is of the usually high quality and full of invention. Thanks to Nutmeg.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | REPRESS | Check those printing religious tracts? (7) An R[eligious] E[ducation] PRESS might produce the tracts |
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| 5. | BIRCHED | Beaten revolutionary featured in flyer (7) CHE [Guevara] in BIRD |
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| 9. | FOR TOFFEE | How sugar can be used, if at all? (3,6) Double definition – Chambers defines “for toffee” as “at all”, giving the example “he can’t dance for toffee”; the “if” seems redundant for the cryptic reading |
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| 10. | PARKA | Chest protected by father’s waterproof (5) ARK (a chest, as in the Ark of the Covenant) in PA |
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| 11. | TOOK | Brought books back on approval (4) Reverse of O[ld] T[estament] + OK (approval) |
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| 12. | STICKS AT IT | Perseveres and catches a little bird (6,2,2) STICKS (catches – in the meanings “to jam” or “to be detained by an impediment”) + A TIT |
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| 14. | QATARI | Gulf national sounding full of cold (6) Homphone of “catarrh-y” |
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| 15. | OUTVOTE | Brexiteers asking for this defeat on polling day (7) The Brexiteers wanted (and unfortunately got) a VOTE for “OUT” |
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| 16. | SUSTAIN | Bear from America digging into soil (7) US in STAIN |
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| 18. | PUREST | Most utter support after turning up (6) Reverse of UP + REST |
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| 20. | BODMIN MOOR | Bloke gets the way things are done in small part of Cornwall (6,4) BOD (bloke) + MO (modus operandi) in MINOR |
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| 24. | AHEAD | Each individually at an advantage (5) A HEAD (each) – I’m not sure what “individually” is doing here, as the surface works without it: does it just intensify “each”? |
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| 25. | EPITOMISE | Sum up chapter cut from historic volume one’s penned (9) EPIC less C[hapter] + 1’S in TOME |
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| 26. | HASTENS | Speeds up in speech, as ten strikes (7) Hidden in speecH, AS TEN Strikes – “in speech” might lead one to expect a homophone here |
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| 27. | EASTERN | Oriental crane ultimately like seabird (7) [cran]E + AS TERN |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | REFIT | Update troops before attack (5) RE (Royal Engineers, troops) + FIT (an attack) |
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| 2. | PERGOLA | An account traveller set, up providing support for climbers (7) Reverse of A LOG + REP (travelling salesman) |
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| 3,21. | ETON CROP | Liberal prone to adopting Conservative hairstyle (4,4) C in (PRONE TO)* |
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| 4. | SAFETY IN NUMBERS | Crowd security? (6,2,7) Cryptic definition |
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| 5. | BREACH OF PROMISE | Case based on word of chap, or chaps, before I’m involved (6,2,7) (OR CHAPS, BEFORE I’M)* |
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| 6. | REPOSITORY | Treasury theatre put on old romance with current investment (10) REP (theatre) + I (symbol for electric current) in O STORY |
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| 7. | HORATIO | His friend has Hamlet’s first speech abridged (7) H[amlet] + ORATIO[n], and Horatio is Hamlet’s friend in the play (“there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…”) |
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| 8. | DRAFTEE | Doctor gets a payment covering time he has to serve in US (7) DR + T in A FEE |
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| 13. | TARADIDDLE | Tense liar added ridiculous nonsense (10) T + (LIAR ADDED)* |
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| 16. | SABBATH | Rebellious graduates wash thoroughly one day a week (7) Reverse of B.A.S + BATH |
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| 17. | SADNESS | Injured Danes coming aboard in gloom (7) DANES* in SS (in a ship, so “aboard”) – perhaps a reference back to Hamlet |
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| 19. | SERVILE | Abject drunk lives without ever losing heart (7) E[ve]R in LIVES* |
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| 22. | PREEN | What diver may do with bill, on cutting pound (5) RE (about, on) in PEN (animal cage, pound), and a diver (bird) preens its feathers with its bill |
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| 23. | JOBS | Employment from IT entrepreneur? (4) Double definition, the second referring to the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of the Apple corporation |
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Elegant and fairly easy.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
Good heavens, am I the first to finish? Surely not.
A very enjoyable brain workout, thanks Nutmeg and Andrew. I only failed to parse PREEN, so obvious now.
[BTW, had a bit of trouble finding the blog as it had the number as 27.414]
Pipped at the post!
Digbydavies @2
Thanks for the heads-up, number now corrected.
Yes, as Auriga says, fairly easy – certainly compared to yesterday’s Tramp. I liked BODMIN MOOR, ETON CROP and FOR TOFFEE. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
Took me a little while to get started, but the more of this was in place, the easier it got. Nutmeg is a top class setter.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew
For some reason this took longer than it should. I liked 7 down. Very nicely constructed. I can’t believe how long I pored over 27 across. I didn’t like 9 across because the superfluous ‘if’ is inappeopriate misdirection.
I think the “individually” in 24a is “a head” as in, it’s £10 a head.
Nice puzzle.
Defeated by ETON CROP but enjoyed the rest. Thank you Nutmeg.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
For some reason I didn’t enjoy this as much as usually with Nutmeg. I found the SE particularly difficult, and PREEN eventually went in from definition only. I tried FARADIDDLE (a word I know), but checking showed the unparsed F to be wrong, hence a new word for me is learnt. I didn’t parse BODMIN MOOR (apart from the BOD bit) either.
I recognise that “brought to” could be equivalent to “took to” (“I brought/took my harp to the party, but…”), but without the “to” they seem to imply opposite directions; “brought” towards, “took” away.
I rather liked QATARI, though I confess I brought up a map of the Persian Gulf in order to solve it!
Thanks Nutmeg, Andrew
Very satisfying. It took a while to get a toehold, but the ever-reliable Che came to my rescue. Favourites BREACH OF PROMISE, BODMIN MOOR, ETON CROP (eventually, after lazily bunging in LAID BACK), PREEN
Like beery@6, I was slow to start, with only three solves on the first pass. But I love the way Nutmeg’s puzzles gradually open up, one clue after another, as I attune once more to her way of thinking. Because her wordplays are always spot on, I find it’s just a matter of perseverance.
I was unfamiliar with the phrase FOR TOFFEE at 9a, but it made more sense than FOR COFFEE and sounded vaguely familiar. My LOI was 20a BLODWIN MOOR which also rang a bell from some crime novel or other, but which, like muffin@10, I failed to parse. Agreeing with Frankie the cat@7, HORATIO was very good, my favourite among many.
With thanks to Nutmeg for a fine puzzle and Andrew for an informative blog.
JinA @12
“Blodwin Moor” sounds more Welsh than Cornish. Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn is on Bodmin Moor.
Good, enjoyable crossword that yielded bit-by-bit.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
I particularly liked the clue for PREEN, and got greatly misled by the clue for PERGOLA where the unparsed crampon didn’t seem to fit with the crossers.
Julie in Australia@12: I couldn’t agree more.
Many thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
I wish someone at the Grauniad would correct the misplaced comma in 2d (it’s in the paper too).
Little things/little minds!
Anyone else have OUTCOME for 15a?
copmus @17
I thought of OUTCOME first, but I wasn’t happy with it as I couldn’t make it mean “defeat on polling day”.
Definitely a gradual yield rather than a straightforward solve for us. My favourites were 4d (I like short concise clues – especially when they have long answers) and 23d which I came to mind early on but I didn’t make the IT entrepreneur connection and it was only when going through the alphabet to solve it the the penny dropped so it ended up being the loi.
Yes, I had OUTCOME and don’t really see how the clue makes sense, but then that’s how I feel about the result so I’ll leave it there.
Thanks to Nutmeg for a good workout and to Andrew for the blog.
Andrew @25 — the definition is just “sum up,” not “sum up chapter” — chapter is needed for the wordplay.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. Like others slow to start but gradually started to unfold. Could not parse preen and Bodmin Moor fully (thanks again Andrew). I also get held up by spending too long toying with editorial as an option for 25a. Finally doh, I also went for outcome for 15a. Two days on the trot for me in terms of one clue out. Hey ho nearly got there again and there is always tomorrow.
[muffin@13 – a sort of a typo – embarrassingly more of a misremembering without the crossword in front of me as I typed, but some kind of muddling with a descendent of a Welsh family (coal miners from Ipswich, Queensland) named Blodwyn… But thank you for remembering the book that related to Bodmin Moor, not a crime novel as such, but a classic Daphne du Maurier!]
A nifty puzzle from Nutmeg! My favorites were BREACH OF PROMISE, HORATIO, and (my CotD) PUREST.
We have discussed in past 15^2 blogs the little bird in 12ac, and the fact (or at least my lifelong impression) that the vast majority of people here in the US would not think of a bird upon hearing this three-letter word, even in a discussion that is unmistakeably and solely about birds. Still, I found myself wondering how Paul (at his Paul-iest) might have clued STICKS AT IT.
And, while I certainly enjoyed SAFETY IN NUMBERS as clued today by Nutmeg, I also found myself thinking that there might have been more amusing (and amusingly tricky) ways for clueing this answer.
Many thanks to Nutmeg, Andrew and other commenters.
DaveMc @23
“Tit” is actually short for “titmouse”, but you virtually never hear the longer version. I believe you call them “chickadees”.
Thanks to Nutmeg and gaufrid, for an easier solve than I have come to expect from this setter.
I was an “outcome” at 15 across.
I liked 12 across, as there is a sort of reference to the cruel way that small birds can be caught, by liming a stick.
Thanks both,
I liked the misdirection in 23a and the other clues people have said they liked. Overall, a bit easier than yesterday’s crossword.
Muffin@24: my Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds of N America seems to think that the Paridae, the family to which most European tits belong (but not the bearded tit), are generically titmice in N America, among which are the chickadees.
Tyngewick @26
Quite right. After I posted, I found this
I don’t think I was firing on all cylinders today. I was another OUTCOME though I could see it didn’t work. Then I wanted PARADIDDLE for 13d thinking P might stand for past or present or any of the other “p” tenses. And finally I tried to make 25a into EDITORISE.
I haven’t heard FOR TOFFEE used in a long time – made me smile.
The long ones were the FOI – 4d, 5d, 12a, 20a. I usually find them easier, especially if they comprise more than one word.
Julie in Australia @22. I think there should be somewhere called Blodwyn Moor. It has a good ring to it. (Mr. Crossbar had an aunt of that name.)
Thank you for sorting it all out for me Andrew. And perhaps I’ll be more up to the challenge next time, Nutmeg, enjoyable though this was!
me@25 – oops, many apologies Andrew.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. I made some of the false starts already noted (outcome, paradiddle), and FOR TOFFEE, ETON CROP, and BODWIN MOOR were new to me, but I did eventually get through and much enjoyed the process.
muffin @24, 27 and Tyngewick @26 –
Thanks for your comments on titmice and chickadees (and muffin, I believe you posted the link @27 as I was locating pages to link on the tufted titmouse and the black-capped chickadee). Those two species are widespread and very well known here in the U.S. (or at least in the eastern US), but not likely to be confused with one another.
The tufted titmouse is the only kind of titmouse I have any familiarity with. And, as noted in that prior discussion many months ago (back in September or so?), even the 8-letter word “titmouse” may elicit a snicker from (non-birding enthusiast) US listeners due to the first three of those letters, and virtually nobody here (other than birding enthusiasts) would ever call a bird simply a “tit”.
When FARADIDDLE wasn’t right, I did look at “paradiddle”. Unlike faradiddle and taradiddle, it doesn’t mean “nonsense” – instead it’s a particular sequence of drumbeats.
Quite a bit more straightforward than yesterday’s. Filled in about half quite quickly (for me) which had me thinking this was easier. The rest came more slowly and the last few in NW were real bears – each one dragged out painfully. At least FOR TOFFEE was amusing once cracked. Totally fine with OUTVOTE which parses nicely.
In the vernacular, quali’y stuff from Nutmeg. Why do so many people fail to pronounce their t’s? Irrita’in’, in’i’!
TM @34
Wha’s this glo’al stop, then?
No teeth.
Not the puzzle, I mean that’s why people can’t talk properly 🙂
Elegant stuff, no problems at all.
One of my late start days so I’m glad she wasn’t at her toughest. Wrote in RESET at 1d which didn’t help my NW corner but resolved in due course.
Enjoyed this. The Eastern side went in quite quickly but the West was rather slower despite TARADIDDLE being my FOI. However, once SAFETY IN NUMBERS went in, the rest followed smoothly enough.
I liked QATARI.
Thanks Nutmeg.
Blessed relief after yesterday! No real problems here – liked especially FOR TOFFEE.
I recall a terrible old joke which went something like: The director tells a celebrated crooner [best unnamed] to chew on a sticky sweet before going on stage. He retorts “But I won’t be able to sing, for toffee”. The next line is ….
OK – enough. I agree that the ‘if’ in that clue is maybe superfluous, but I’m not complaining!
PREEN was also good. And as for 15a – if only! 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
I entered 15a OUTCOME (my LOI) without even thinking about it – my fault, my loss. It has to be OUTVOTE if Nutmeg (always a precisian) is the setter.
The typo in 2d PERGOLA evidently put me off more than it did other solvers. I needed the last three (of four) crossers to get that one, and then I realised how the clue should have been printed.
This was an enjoyable solve as usual from Nutmeg. As usual, though, I took a while to solve four clues in the NW corner and one (22d PREEN) in the SE corner, because although they were all very straightforward types of clue they were not that easy to solve (for a non-intuitive solver like me).
I entered BODMIN MOOR and PREEN without spending enough time on them to parse them properly (again, my loss!), and I think I would have had to give up on 23d JOBS if I hadn’t heard of Steve Jobs, the IT entrepreneur.
All in all, though, a satisfying solve with some excellent, clear clueing. I liked HORATIO best.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
No insurmountable problems in completing this one, but I struggled a bit on EPITOMISE where I was looking for a word with CH to remove. TOOK took me far longer than it should have.
Not too keen on the cryptic definition for SAFETY IN NUMBERS or with the “if” as a linker in 9 (I wondered if it might be FOR COFFEE too). I liked ETON CROP very much. Never heard of TARADIDDLE but it was readily parsed.
Nutmeg sometimes does a theme or a Nina but I can’t see either here. Doesn’t mean they’re not there, of course.
Thanks, S&B
Thank you Andrew & Nutmeg. I enjoyed this despite failing to parse 23dn.
Much better than today’s FT cryptic IMHO.
Like Julie in Australia I considered for coffee, not knowing the expression, but then I found it in chambers.
I had budmin moor first, guess I need to read more daphne du Maurer.
I enjoyed the brexiteer clue, and I got the long down clues quickly which helped, to the point I didn’t even realise 5d was and anagram, very nice.
Excellent puzzle, I really enjoy this setter
Many thanks nutmeg and Andrew
Beat Mrs Job (PVB) hands down today – a rare occurrence.
Lots of ticks, all mentioned above, although I disapproved of TOOK, which implies conveyance in the opposite direction to the definition.
That apart many thanks to Nutmeg, and to Peter O especially for parsing BODMIN MOOR
Nice compiling and an unusual grid with the two long answers down the middle. SAFETY IN NUMBERS was worthy of Rufus: neat if not difficult wordplay; BREACH OF PROMISE was a nice anagram. SUSTAIN was another clue of note, though it seemed familiar. And JOBS was my last one in despite the fact I am typing this on a Mac. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew
I was (given my habitual late start) very happy with myself for having managed to completely finish this one.
Even though it took me about 80 minutes, and I’m another impatient/careless twit who had written-in ‘outcome’ for 15a, despite always knowing that it wasn’t quite right, and that there was a better (i.e correct) answer hiding in my brain somewhere.
Before coming here & finding the correct (& entirely fairly clued) answer to that error, I had been feeling very pleased with myself for remembering the existence of the word ‘taradiddle’.
I suppose that’s what I get for hubris, eh? 😉
My thanks to Nutmeg, to Andrew, and to the others here who admitted settling for ‘outcome’. It makes me feel less alarmed by the prospect of incipient senility 😀
Cheers,
Gem.
I’m glad some found this easy but I struggled mightily. I wasn’t helped by not knowing ETON CROP or FOR TOFFEE.
I had the same reaction as muffin @ 10 in feeling that “brought” and “took” implied opposite directions. I went diametrically opposite to him though on BODMIN MOOR. “Bod” was the part I didn’t parse although I had the answer thanks to a recent visit to Cornwall (loved it!).
Despite the difficulties, there was a lot to like in this puzzle: HORATIO, DRAFTEE, BIRCHED and QATARI, for instance.
For once I was at variance with Muffin@10. I was fortunate to know TARADIDDLE (somewhere in G and S?) but FARADIDDLE would have defeated me.Otherwise business as usual.
I seem to remember the tit/titmouse discussion appearing not so long ago.
I quite enjoyed this – rather less clunky than yesterday’s, or in my case today’s Tramp, but less to admire.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
Gem @46
I’m glad you are another ‘outcome’ (15a), joining this small club. As you seem to imply, there’s ‘safety in numbers’ (4d), and your comment on ‘incipient senility’ encourages me to believe that my senility is only incipient and not actual.
Very nice crossword (as ever from Nutmeg), just like Arachne last week touching on her Quiptic history. Agree, however, with everyone who thinks ‘brought’ doesn’t equate ‘took’.
I’d never heard of TARADIDDLE (nor had my solving partner who’s British) but I really had no problem finding it. I’m quite good at acknowledging that something must be a word. For me this was in the ‘toodle-pip’ category.
I thought SAFETY IN NUMBERS to be a great clue, bringing back memories of the late 70s. In 1978 a band called Crack The Sky released an album with Safety in Numbers as its title, an album that I’m quiet fond of. Safety in numbers and numbers don’t lie.
Finally, we considered ‘outcome’ but it didn’t make sense. Last one in, therefore, OUTVOTE [which doesn’t make sense either – in real life, that is, as Brits will find out sooner or later].
I’m surprised how many people hadn’t heard of taradiddle – it was one of my first in and an everyday (well maybe not everyday but commonplace) word in our Lancashire home. Is it a dialect word? On the other hand I’d never heard of faradiddle.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
Apropos of 11: “I brought the subject up with the authorities” / “I took the subject up with the authorities”. No implication of distance or direction required.
… but no equivalence here. Bringing up a subject would be raising it whilst already in conversation with the authorities, whilst taking it up would be initiating such a conversation.
Sil v d H
OUTVOTE [which doesn’t make sense either – in real life, that is, as Brits will find out sooner or later].
We shall see Sil. Howvevr I wouldn’ t bet too much on your prediction.
The EU is dead. Long live the EU
:-;
Me@48
Taradiddle appears in the Gand S Iolanthe.
According to Merriam-Webster it is also used by Balzac! And Chesterton.
Pino @55
[I seem to be following you around the world of opera and comic opera – see my comment on the following day’s blog (Crucible), following your comment. I also knew ‘taradiddle’ from the G&S operas but wasn’t sure which one. Now I know.]
Adding my two penny worth, albeit to what is probably a dead thread since this one took me two days! I think everyone else has made the points I would have. I was another who put OUTCOME even though I sensed something was not quite right.
I’m getting used to having to cheat. I’d rather STICK AT IT and maybe eventually use the check button than come here earlier but maybe that will change. I made liberal use of the online dictionary which meant I found taradiddle when looking up paradiddle.
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.
“taradiddle, taradiddle tol lol lay”, as the peers sung in, indeed, Iolanthe, and I know because I was one of them in 1960 at Bristol U. Never heard of paradiddle, so the T-word was first in for me.