Found this a slow solve, with some tricky parsing and several bits of Googling required after the fact. Favourites 9ac, 11ac, 22ac, and 15dn. Thanks to Imogen.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PANCAKE | A race of tossers? (7) |
| Pancake races are run while tossing pancakes in frying pans | ||
| 5 | SIDE ARM | Sailor’s first thought to acquire marine weapon (4,3) |
| Sailor’s first letter + IDEA=”thought” + Royal Marine | ||
| 9 | WIVES | Henry had six weeks, not even taking four (5) |
| Henry VIII had six wives WeEkS without the even letters; taking in IV=”four” in Roman numerals |
||
| 10 | TEA GARDEN | Refreshing place, Newgate Forest (3,6) |
| New/gate gives: (gate)*; plus Forest of ARDEN [see wiki] | ||
| 11 | AID AND ABET | Criminally assist operatic website, masking fingerprint (3,3,4) |
| AIDA NET=”operatic website”; around DAB=”fingerprint” | ||
| 12, 21 | CONGEE | Permission to leave last of the porridge (6) |
| =a rice “porridge” CONGÉ=a dismissal, “Permission to leave”; plus last of thE [congee is also listed as an alternative spelling of congé] |
||
| 14 | MIDDLE TEMPLE | MP, perhaps, in place of barrister? (6,6) |
| =one of the Inns of Court [see wiki] “MP” are the MIDDLE letters of TEMPLE |
||
| 18 | ALL INCLUSIVE | Uncle’s villa I let out with no extra charges (3-9) |
| (Uncle’s villa I)* | ||
| 21 | See 12 | |
| 22 | ENDOSCOPIC | Crazy picosecond of peering into people (10) |
| (picosecond)* | ||
| 25 | AMNESIACS | Opening a manuscript, change in case we forget (9) |
| A ManuScript around (in case)* | ||
| 26 | MAYOR | Resistance to dressing for ceremonial office (5) |
| MAYO=”dressing” plus Resistance | ||
| 27 | DRY-CURE | Avoiding alcohol, French priest to preserve by adding salt (3-4) |
| DRY=”Avoiding alcohol” + CURÉ=”French priest” | ||
| 28 | SINE DIE | No way at first for nasty types to be executed, no date being fixed (4,3) |
| =Latin for ‘without a day’ SwINE=”nasty types” with “No way at first” + DIE=”be executed” |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PAWPAW | Keep handling fruit (6) |
| =a fruit similar to the custard apple; or =papaya PAW and PAW again=”Keep handling” |
||
| 2 | NEVADA | State prosecutor found at bottom of Russian river (6) |
| District Attorney after NEVA=”Russian river” | ||
| 3 | ASSENTIENT | Tending to agree ant’s head is only half conscious (10) |
| =compliant, from ‘assent’ Ant’s head letter + only half of iS + SENTIENT=”conscious” |
||
| 4 | ENTIA | They exist in actuality and in potential (5) |
| =beings or entities hidden in potENTIAl |
||
| 5 | STATELESS | Make fewer pronouncements, being displaced (9) |
| STATE LESS=”Make fewer pronouncements” | ||
| 6 | DEAL | Old port in the wood (4) |
| double def: =Deal, former port town in Kent [wiki]; =a soft wood | ||
| 7 | ANDY CAPP | Strip of paper better, say, submitted to prince informally (4,4) |
| =a comic strip found in the Mirror [wiki] CAPP is a homophone/”say” of ‘cap’=surpass=”better”; after/”submitted to” ANDY=Prince Andrew, informally |
||
| 8 | MENINGES | They protect brains of women in gestation (8) |
| hidden in woMEN IN GEStation | ||
| 13 | SERVICEMAN | He may have to fight racism, even in disguise (10) |
| (racism even)* | ||
| 15 | DELINEATE | Describe where prepared food is eaten after cooking (9) |
| DELI=”where prepared food is” + (eaten)* | ||
| 16 | VANGUARD | Railwayman taking over his place in front (8) |
| VAN=railway carriage, so VAN GUARD=”Railwayman” – not sure what to make of the ‘taking over…’ part of the clue | ||
| 17 | ALDERNEY | Tree’s strong desire to shoot up in island (8) |
| ALDER=”Tree” + YEN=”strong desire” reversed/”to shoot up” | ||
| 19 | SPAYED | Best friend thus rendered incapable of dropping litter? (6) |
| cryptic definition: “litter” as in the young of an animal | ||
| 20 | SCARCE | Unwarranted alarm about carbon being in short supply (6) |
| SCARE=”Unwarranted alarm” around Carbon | ||
| 23 | OASIS | Band that holds cut flowers (5) |
| double def: =the Britpop Band; =a brand of foam used to hold cut flowers for floral arrangements | ||
| 24 | ESAU | Gets value intermittently for cheated brother (4) |
| in the Bible, Esau lost his birthright to his brother Jacob intermittent letters from GEtS vAlUe |
||
Thanks Imogen and manehi
I actually found this easier and more enjoyable than most Imogen’s, though I had an unparsed EXTRA at 4d. I loved WIVES.
I thought ANDY CAPP and OASIS were a bit parochial.
Thanks to Imogen for some tricky but very fair clues, and to Manshi, especially for the parsing of 28a. I took 16d to be ‘guard’ with his ‘van’ over. I have very fond memories of reading the Andy Capp cartoons as a child. There were some very funny jokes in those. The Perishers were also very witty, I recall.
Tricky today and definitely needed help on here to parse Middle Temple and Sine Die. Is the best friend in spayed because it’s a dog?
Liked wives, aid and abet, tea garden and drycure best.
Thanks Imogen and Manehi.
Knew about fat Tuesday by osmosis but not about the race custom, so pancake was a biff. Otoh I do know both conge and congee, but would they bubble up through the neural porridge…nope! So while checking ‘cangoe porridge’ it corrected me to congee. Teatray and dnf!
Otherwise a steady solve with not too much head scratching. Entia were not in either my Collins or SOED but it had to be, and checked out online; but assentient was though I’ve never seen or heard it used. Haven’t seen Andy Capp for decades (still going according to wiki), but no problem. And had no idea of Oasis the flower-holding product, so a parsing ? next to that clue. Oddly enough pawpaw was LOI although a gimme. Quite a few ticks, including pancake once I’d looked it up, 15d delineate, and 19d spayed once I’d stopped trying to use ‘ai’ or pal.
Thanks Imogen for the fun and Manehi for the blog.
Like muffin@1 I had unparsed EXTRA for 4d. Couldn’t parse quite a few – thanks manehi. Favourites were TEA GARDEN, AID AND ABET and ENDOSCOPIC. Many thanks to Imogen.
This was very hard I thought and I actually didn’t finish as I had MIDDLE PEOPLE (unparsed) biffed in at 14a. Have not heard of MIDDLE TEMPLE and did not get the wordplay. I also had SINS DIE at 28a (thinking it was half of “sinners”) which sounded vaguely Latin. So a couple of TILTS today. Of the ones I got, I also really enjoyed 9a WIVES. Other ticks for 1d PAWPAW and 8d MENINGES. Have we had DEAL 6d somewhere else recently?
Thanks to Imogen and manehi.
Enjoyed this very much.
Don’t understand the “parochial” complaint, Muffin. Am I committing some solecism in saying we’re very lucky to have such an excellent and free crossword service? The Guardian is a Brit paper and, IIRC, Andy Capp would be well known to older solvers there. Oasis certainly weren’t “parochial” but pretty well known.
Mind you, I always feel miffed if I haven’t the required general knowledge to complete a crossword but with myself, not the setter.
Unlike JinA I found this easier than most Imogens. That said like Hedgehog I had several unparsed solutions and also don’t get the whole of SPAYED. Loi was ANDY CAPP which is a bit of stretch with the wordplay as well as the GK required for a well disguised definition. WIVES MAYOR and OASIS got ticks. Thanks to Imogen and manehi for help with the parsing.
Thanks all. 16dn ‘taking over’ is reference to guard formerly being in ‘guard van’ on train.
Congee and Andy Capp were too tricky and obscure for me this morning, I’m afraid..
Thanks for parsing of ANDY CAPP-I was thinking (h)andicap +p so missed the punchline although I got the entry
And with OASIS I was tying to get two rivers one of them being (I)SIS so I waited for this blog-thanks.
I hadnt heard of that other definition but being a big draw in America is not parochial.
And thanks Imogen for a great puzzle with a couple of banana skins thrown in.
Thanks Imogen and manehi.
Usually I hardly notice the quality of surfaces, but IMO these were very good, as was the crossword as a whole. I particularly liked TEA GARDEN, ANDY CAPP and SPAYED.
The only doubts were regarding PANCAKE, in spite of the great surface (it’s not a race, it’s a type of race) and AID AND ABET (net and website are not eqivalent).
ENTIA and ASSENTIENT were fairly clued, but new words for me, which I doubt I’ll ever see again outside a crossword.
I didn’t find this quite as hard as some Imogens but very enjoyable. I’m at home this week and was sitting muttering the clue to 1a to myself when Mr CS said ‘pancake’ which was helpful as I’d have been muttering a while longer on that one
Thanks to Imogen for the entertainment and manehi for the explanations. I parsed the vanguard in the same way as Norbrewer @2
MrsCS@13 – exactly the same in our household except that it was MrsW who said PANCAKE 🙂
Seems like many of us had to rope our spouses in on this. I needed Mr. C for MIDDLE TEMPLE as my mind had gone a complete blank on places full of barristers apart from Lincoln’s Inn. But once he gave me the answer I loved the clue.
I also put in CANGOE in desperation. Had totally forgotten CONGEE though I think I’ve seen it better.
Challenging but very enjoyable puzzle for me. Good witty surfaces.
Thanks Imogen and Manehi.
That should be before, not better. Oops.
Thanks to manehi and Imogen. Very enjoyable but a hard solve. I thought I was so clever to get ‘Rwanda’ at 2dn, finding out than Wan is an alternate spelling of the river Vaan. Then I got 9 ac and found I’d been too clever by half…..
WIVES was very good, but I didn’t know CONGÉ so DNF. ANDYCAPP is part of popular culture. OASIS the band is certainly not niche, but I would call the flower product extremely obscure.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi. Very tough going for me, so much resort to Google. I struggled with OASIS, CONGEE, ENTIA, ASSENTIENT, and ANDY CAPP.
Thanks Imogen; as CS @13 said, not as dastardly as some of Imogen’s productions, although I didn’t know CONGE(E), ENTIA and the flower thingy, OASIS, although Mrs Robi did.
Thanks manehi; I agree with Norbrewer @2 about the parsing of VANGUARD. I especially liked MIDDLE TEMPLE and the operatic website.
Thank you Imogen and manehi.
I spent a long time trying to think of names of flowers and rivers that could be cut short to parse OASIS, all I could come up with was pOA and iSIS …
Very good crossword. 18ac was one of my first ones in. Once I got a few key clues (3dn, 14ac, 13dn) the rest of the crossword yielded easily. Incorrectly put Cango(e) for 12/21 – (An intended elephant trap?).
Is Gee a word? Seems like cheating if it isn’t.
Yet another for ‘cangoe’ which parsed very nicely as what I thought just had to be a colloquialism for a prison. One more example of the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. Had no idea about the flower holding foam and 3d and 4d were both new to me, but gettable.
I liked the ‘Strip of paper’ def for 7d, the parsing for MIDDLE TEMPLE and the wordplay for SINE DIE.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi
Howard@23 Gee is clarified butter much used in Indian cooking, but doubtless someone will have posted this before I press send. Most of this went in quite quickly but I was held up by the difficult Parking’s of 7 and 28.
Sod autocorrect. Parsings.
The Indian clarified butter is generally known as GHEE, but Chambers gives 6 different definitions for GEE per se.
As ever, a beautifully constructed puzzle from our own “No. 1 Gem cryptic setter (6)” though agree with muffin, WhiteKing, crypticsue, Robi that this was a swift solve by Imogenic standards. I particularly enjoyed MIDDLE TEMPLE and SPAYED and thought the anagrist for ALL-INCLUSIVE was a lovely spot.
Many thanks to Imogen and manehi.
I was a bit rushed this morning (heading out to golf), so I didn’t explain my “parochial” comment fully. I agree that the band Oasis are known worldwide, but is the flower-arranging material? Is it used elsewhere? I don’t know.
Andy Capp is a long-running cartoon strip in a British paper that I expect that those of us here rarely read (barbers’ perhaps?) and Andy for Prince Andrew is also rather British orientated.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi. I found this tough going (often do with Imogen) and a DNF for me. Failed on con gee, middle temple, and entia. However enjoyed what I did and another fan of wives and Andy Capp. Thanks again to Imogen and manehi.
btw I can’t stand touching Oasis (the flower-arranging stuff) – it sets my teeth on edge. Does anyone else have this reaction?
Thanks Imogen and Manehi. This was obviously up my street as I got through in less than an hour, aided by a little judicious googling and by the fact that I’m not usually
bothered if I can’t completely parse an answer before I come here. Too many favourites to list them all so I’ll just go with MIDDLE TEMPLE and ANDY CAPP. A large thank-you to my Grandad for taking The Mirror all those years ago !
@muffin 31 No, but I do have the same reaction when I hear the band 🙂
This was a mixed bag for me:most of it was quite easy but some made me scratch my head -including PANCAKE which in retrospect is excellent. Didn’t know ENTIA- LOI- and I had EXTRA to begin with!,or CONGEE, I needed Mr Google for the latter.
Good fun mostly.
Thanks Imogen.
Haven’t been able to post successfully before, but here goes anyway …
The latin answers jumped off the page to me. SINE DIE (without day/date) is, or was, a standard optional clause in a contract, with the meaning of no termination date, but I needed to come here for the correct parsing. “ENTIA non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate (praeter necessitatem)” is one of the historical re-statements of Occam’s Razor – still one of the fundamental basic tenets of the science method 700 years later. [“Things should not be compounded unnecessarily” or “If in doubt, choose the simplest explanation”]
As an ex-pat living in Virginia, I can report that Andy Capp still makes a weekly appearance in my local newspaper.
Could not parse OASIS, I did not know either the band or the foam. DNF due to CONGEE.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi.
Got MEMORIALS (memo and Rials) for 25ac which threw me for a bit… more
16d GUARD VAN becomes VAN GUARD,hence “taking over”?
Re parochialism: Andy Capp was widely circulated in US newspapers back in my youth. I don’t take a newspaper with a comics page anymore, so I have no idea if it still is. It was well-known enough for Homer Simpson to refer to it in passing in one episode, without explanation.
Thanks, Ted @38. I had no idea – I wouldn’t have thought it would have appealed to Americans’ (lack of) sense of humour!
Any advance on the global penetration of oasis flower arranging?
I feel like 19d was either over or under-clued. I got the right answer but was grasping for a way to hook “thus rendered” into the explanation… E.g. “rendered->paid->PAYED”, plus an S for “sic”? I’m still not entirely convinced there isn’t an angle here.
I thought this was a great crossword by Imogen, whose puzzles I used to find stodgy and laborious to solve. This year, for some reason (more to do with me than with Imogen, no doubt), I have enjoyed his crosswords very much.
I was aware of several British references in this puzzle and felt some sympathy for overseas solvers, but as JinA and others have graciously pointed out from time to time, all is fair in a crossword published in a British paper.
I cringed a bit at AIDA NET being ‘operatic website’ (which has been commented on already), but apart from that I thought the clues were mostly excellent. I liked the device used in MIDDLE TEMPLE, whereby the answer is a clue to the wordplay, provided its use is limited to, say, one per puzzle!
Thanks to Imogen and Manehi.
Enjoyed this but because I solved it online over breakfast I missed a lot of the subtleties. ENTIA was new to me and CONGEE was dredged up from the deeper recesses once all of the crossers were in place.
Thanks to Imogen and manehi
KSE @ 40
My take on this is ‘Best friend’ = dog (or possibly cat) – ‘thus’ = in this condition – ‘rendered incapable of dropping litter’ = SPAYED (ie having been neutered).
hth
While I like clues like 14ac – the FT’s Wanderer being a champion of these – I had to think of a clue I submitted, ages ago, to Paul’s long defunct Cryptica clue competition.
“W Rooney?” [answer: centre forward].
It got thumbs up from the maestro yet was slightly criticised because of not being precise enough: it should be the centre of forward.
I think, today, the same can be said about 14ac.
While I do agree with Paul, I thought this was a good puzzle.
That said, my solving partner found 1ac’s surface derogative. Anyone else? Not me.
Not the last one in was SINE DIE but we couldn’t parse it.
Many thanks to manehi (for that & more) and Imogen.
Oh dear Muffin!
Andy Capp is a long-running cartoon strip in a British paper that I expect that those of us here rarely read (barbers’ perhaps?)
The British paper in question was I believe the Daily Mirror. This was a rather well respected tabloid of its time. I personally find your statement at best parochial and at worst rather appalling. To suggest that the only place this could be read by “your sort” would be the barbers’ is both ludicrous and elitist.
Shame on you!
OASIS as band well known here in Australia (not that I am fussed on the Gallagher boys) and yes the flower arranging material would be common to anyone who has ever had a flower arrangement labelled by the florist with the admonition “Keep oasis moist”. ANDY CAPP also familiar to older Australians as the comic strip was syndicated to Oz papers too, and was widely read, not just by the barber shop brigade. Dreadfully misogynic but reflective of 1950s.
Alex @45
I realised as I posted that it might sound elitist, but I would guess that it’s also factually correct. How many of us here have read the Mirror in the last 20 years? I haven’t. My barber has the Express and the Mail, the latter a dreadful rag, which, amongst other obsessions, seems to be trying to classify all known substances into either causing or curing cancer.
Indeed it must be over 20 years ago since I last bought a mirror (I used to learn from the quizword). The only time I read it now is when found on a train or in a pub.
As for the crossword, too many unknowns and un-parsables for my liking.
We often see comments about clues not being suitable for overseas solvers. Well can I suggest clues suitable for those who did not do Latin at school. (tongue in cheek).
I’d never heard of OASIS, either the band or the flower stuff, but my newspaper (the San Francisco Chronicle, I think it would have been at the time) did carry Andy Capp. No doubt other American papers did too.
WIVES was super! Clue of the week!
It seems I may be the only one who read 12,21 as a cryptic def and confidently wrote in PAROLE! ALDERNEY fit in nicely but realised my mistake while wrestling with 7d. Thought 2d was a very neat surface so that was my favourite clue today. Thanks to Imogen and manehi.
Muffin @39 — The flower-arranging sense of Oasis is completely unknown to me. That could be because the brand doesn’t exist in the US, but it could just as easily be because of my ignorance of such matters. I do (vaguely) know of Oasis the band.