A toughie from Redshank which I needed help to complete.
I managed to complete this puzzle, but three of the parsings had me beat, so I needed some assistance with DELTOID, SEVER and LOCKJAW. I was sure that DELTOID and LOCKJAW was correct, but was not 100% about SEVER.
Thanks to brucew@aus and Eurobadalla (see comments below) the parsing is now complete, so this was a group effort this morning. I should have got LOCKJAW, but I think I’d have stared at the clues for a long time before SEVER and DELTOID revealed their workings to me.
I actually thought this puzzle was going to be straightforward as the first few clues slotted in fairly easily, then I hit the wall at 29 ac. The down clues and the last few across ones held out a bit longer until I was left with the unparsed ones. I knew that KILLJOY and LOCKJAW had to be right as I somehow managed to retrieve Jean-Claude Killy, probably the only skier whose name I know, and checked Chambers for JO. It also helped that I was looking for a J to confirm that the puzzle was a pangram.
Thanks, Redshank, for getting the grey cells working early this morning.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIESEL | Chicago train conks out first – has this run out? (6) |
| EL (elevated “train” in “Chicago”) with DIES (“conks out”) first | ||
| 4 | CALVADOS | Roughly, boy drinks very, very big brandy (8) |
| Ca. (circa, so “roughly”) + LAD (“boy”) drinks V (very) + OS (outsize, so “very big”) | ||
| 10 | CATSEYE | Snubbing a gent, estate agency designed driving aid (7) |
| *(steaecy) [anag:designed] where STEAECY is (e)S(ta)TE A(g)E(n)CY snubbing the letters A GENT | ||
| 11 | BACILLI | Airline gets reckless – I hear they transmit diseases (7) |
| BA (British Airways, so “airline”) gets homophone [I hear] of SILLY (“reckless”) | ||
| 12 | DONE | Completed 501 (4) |
| D (500 in Roman numerals) + ONE = 501 | ||
| 13 | SEISMOLOGY | Study of plates messily spread with goo (10) |
| *(messily goo) [anag:spread] | ||
| 15 | STRAW | Unsightly growths set back remains of crop (5) |
| <=WARTS (“unsightly growths”, set back) | ||
| 16 | BEWILDER | Be right about Oscar’s puzzle (8) |
| BE + R (right) about (Oscar) WILDE | ||
| 19 | LORIKEET | Fancy film about golden parrot? (8) |
| LIKE (“fancy”) + ET (“film”) about OR (“golden”) | ||
| 21 | BULLY | Bribe takes in students beginning to game (5) |
| BUY (“bribe”) takes in L + L (learners, so “students”)
Bully is the term for the beginning or restart of a hockey match. |
||
| 25 | RENDEZVOUS | Meeting’s nervous, worried about returning last letter (10) |
| *(nervous) [anag:worried] about [returning] <=ZED (“last letter”) | ||
| 26 | ACER | A hole in one rare tree (4) |
| Double definition, with the first being a rare word. | ||
| 28 | OBLIQUE | Compel queen to go in for good? It’s not straightforward (7) |
| OBLI(g>QU)E (“compel” with Qu. (queen) going in for (i.e. substituting for) G (good)) | ||
| 29 | KILLJOY | Wet blanket ace skier put round sweetheart (7) |
| (Jean-Claude) KILLY (“ace skier” who dominated downhill skiing in the late 1960s) put round JO (“sweetheart”) | ||
| 30 | ENTREATY | Petition to dine among competitors (8) |
| EAT (“to dine”) among ENTRY (“competitors”) | ||
| 31 | DRAWER | Artist’s first to drink more bitter (6) |
| [first to] D(rink) + RAWER (“more bitter”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DECADE | Years of debauchery ignoring religious books (6) |
| DECADE(nt) (“of debauchery”) ignoring NT (New Testament, so “religious books”) | ||
| 2 | EXTINCT | One-time Tory leader in court vanished (7) |
| EX (“one-time”) + T(ory) [leader] + IN + Ct. (court) | ||
| 3 | EPEE | It’s used in fencing partly to keep ewes back (4) |
| Hidden backwards [partly to…back] in “kEEP Ewes” | ||
| 5 | AMBUSHED | President in a Middle East dilemma initially attacked (8) |
| (George) BUSH (“president”) in A ME (Middle East) D(ilemma) [initially] | ||
| 6 | VICTORIOUS | Beating evil controls rising corruption (10) |
| VICIOUS (“evil”) controls <=ROT (“corruption”, rising)
Not sure that “beating” and victorious” are synonymous. I can’t think of an example of “beating” as an adjective. |
||
| 7 | DELTOID | John almost prepared curtains, triangular (7) |
| (John) ELTO(n) [almost] curtained by DID (“prepared”) | ||
| 8 | SHIPYARD | Carts pulled up filled with fruit in dock (8) |
| <=DRAYS (“carts”, pulled up) filled with HIP (“fruit”, as in “rosehip”) | ||
| 9 | SEVER | Long runner’s short cut (5) |
| SEVER(n) (“long runner”, cut) | ||
| 14 | KAFKAESQUE | Fake squeak’s potentially nightmarish (10) |
| *(fake squeak) [anag:potentially] | ||
| 17 | GLORIOLE | Headlight seen in lumber room, one might say (8) |
| Homophone [one might say] of GLORY HOLE (“lumber room”)
A gloriole is an aura or halo, so a light around the head. |
||
| 18 | HEAVIEST | The most obese struggles in preliminary round (8) |
| VIES (“struggles”) in HEAT (“preliminary round”) | ||
| 20 | RINGLET | Curl right round fireplace (7) |
| Rt. (right) around INGLE (“fireplace”) | ||
| 22 | LOCKJAW | Secure shark briefly showing disease (7) |
| LOCK (“secure”) + JAW(s) (“shark” in the movie) | ||
| 23 | LUCKY | Fortunate and brave, except for the start (5) |
| (p)LUCKY (“brave”, except for the start) | ||
| 24 | PRAYER | Collect 30 (6) |
| Double definition, the 30 referring to 30 across (entreaty) | ||
| 27 | SLUR | Slight sign above bar (4) |
| Double definition, the second relating to a curved line placed above a bar in music to indicate that notes should be sung to one syllable or played with one bow | ||
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Agree that it was a toughie.
I had: D- ELTO[N] – ID – for DELTOID – representing the Greek letter; SEVER[N] with the long runner being the river; LOCK (secure) + JAW[S] (the shark from Peter Benchley)
Thanks Loonapick and Redshank.
I think the long runner is the Severn. The John in deltoid is Elton
And JAWs was the shark in the movie perhaps
BTW … needed your explanations for KILLJOY AND GLORIOLE
We had two themes in the other puzzles today so a pangram was a nice balance.
Nice puzzle
Thanks all
Thanks to Eurobadalla and brucew@aus – I have namechecked you in the blog.
Another who failed to parse DELTOID. Strangely, I noticed that the middle letters form an anagram of TOILE(t) “John almost prepared” but that didn’t help.
I had ACE for the hole in one in 26a (not a particularly rare word and in Chambers) + R for “rare” which isn’t in Chambers but I’m sure I’ve seen it before.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
Agree this was a tricky one. I caused myself a lot of trouble by putting in ACIDER (A[rtist] + CIDER) at 31a.
Phew, yes, that was a toughie – but a most enjoyable and satisfying one.
I went down exactly the same (dead end) road as Hovis with DELTOID and I parsed ACER as he did. We always have a discussion about R = rare and I don’t think it’s ever really been resolved. I think people have suggested that it’s used in philately (which will get you nowhere) or that it might be a note made by a waiter re the cooking of a steak.
I had ticks for DIESEL (it seems a long time since we saw the railway – it used to pop up all the time) SEISMOLOGY, BEWILDER, LORIKEET (tried for too long to parse parakeet) RENDEZVOUS, EXTINCT, VICTORIOUS and GLORIOLE, which made me laugh.
Many thanks for a super blog of a super puzzle.
As Eileen says an enjoyable and most satisfying toughie – there have been some difficult crosswords lately which left me grumpy but I was left with a smile after solving this one. If I may make a tiny quibble, surely 10a should be 4-3 not 7?
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick
Re VICTORIOUS at 6d, I suppose there’s ‘world-beating’ which certainly suggests ‘victorious’ but ‘beating’ on its own is a stretch as an adjective.
Ooh, it is not often that the FT is a quantum level higher in difficulty than the Guardian.
I thought 1ac had something going with the Chicago trains being run on diesel (googling gave me Pioneer Zephyr), but perhaps not.
DNF for me, especially with parakeet put in at 19ac out of exhaustion. But I did enjoy getting KILLJOY and LOCKJAW.
Great puzzle Redshank! Thank you loonapick for the blog
The Severn is my local river so SEVER came to mind and I got LOCK (then JAW) from the crosser with ACER (which I parsed as Hovis and Eileen. I’ve seen it before clued like this). I made the same error as Andrew, whilst thinking ACIDER is an ugly word, and I’m another parakeet. DELTOID was unparsed and GLORIOLE unsolved. Virtually every clue was top notch. I did wonder if a SHIPYARD and a dock are the same? I thought the first builds them and the second is for repairs or loading/unloading. There is clearly correspondence between shipyard and dockyard but not necessarily with dock.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
‘Be still my beating heart’ is certainly an adjectival use.
Many thanks to Redshank and loonapick. I also got stuck with TOILE(t) and ACIDER for a while. But with ACER, my parsing is the same as a few above. An ace is a hole in one but I do not ever recall the shot being called an Acer. It certainly is not in any dictionary I have access to. Like Hovis@6, I am sure I have seen this parsing before. An enjoyable late afternoon struggle which required an elderly gentleman’s nap to completely solve.
CATSEYE #9, that was my original thought too, but Collins dict has it as a single word, not hyphenated
DNF after breezing through Qaos in the Guardian. The NE corner killed me. Still, OBLIQUE, HEAVIEST, and LOCKJAW brough me pleasure. Thanks to both.
Thanks for the blog, Loonapick
Using runner to mean river just makes me angry.
DNF. Too many British colloquialisms for me. Never heard of a catseye as a driving aid, bully as the beginning of a game, or glory hole as a lumber room. I’ve heard of JO as a sweetheart, but I’d forgotten it.
At least my vocabulary is growing.