This puzzle kept me pretty busy.
The solve was quite hard. I was happy to get 1A immediately, and about half the answers in place over about half hour. But the rest took more than one session with much use of dictionaries and other resources to get the last few. So I must rate this puzzle as quite hard – for me.
It required the solver to have knowledge of a few words and phrases that have got into the English dictionary but by anyone’s estimation are foreign. Some of these I knew, e.g. sine die from previous crosswords, kia ora from attendance at the cinema as a youth. Some I did not, 20A I’m looking at you.
When I got the Z of Zip drive (which helped massively with 10D) I wondered if a pangram might be on but no joy there. When I got the wordplay of 5D with its reference to Melancholy I remembered 20A’s mention of Indolence and I wondered if there was a theme based on Keats’ Odes, but no sign of Nightingale, Psyche or Grecian Urn so that’s ruled out. If there is a theme it will be news to me.
More chat on a per clue basis below.
Help needed with wordplay of 10D
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SESAME | Tips for sentence with unchanged opening word? (6) S[entenc]E SAME (unchanged) First one in for me and a suitable word to enter the labyrinth of this puzzle. |
| 4 | MOSSAD | Kate and Bill are people with intelligence (6) [Kate] MOSS AD (bill) Last one in – completely misled into thinking “Bill” would be a reference to a person and did not spot Miss Moss till all crossing letters were available, which didn’t happen till the very end due to the 9A mistake qv. |
| 8 | STUN | Brain in head’s spinning (4) NUTS< (heads, spinning) I presume the definition is “brain” as a verb meaning to clobber |
| 9 | DICKEY BOWS | Iffy salutations, welcoming king in formal attire (6,4) K[ing] inside (welcomed by) DICEY (iffy) BOWS (salutations) – I gave myself trouble by writing in DICKIE BOWS from the definition (without parsing the wordplay) which meant I could not get 5D till that was resolved |
| 11 | PADDINGTON BEAR | Peruvian perhaps fat, with a lot of weight to carry (10,4) PADDING (Fat, perhaps) TON (a lot of weight) BEAR (to carry). Famous Peruvian, like Michael Bentine, who also liked marmalade sandwiches |
| 12 | AS WELL | Neither worse nor better, what’s more (2,4) Double Definition. |
| 14 | ZIP DRIVE | Zero energy in computer storage device (3,5) ZIP (Zero) DRIVE (energy) |
| 16 | PARMESAN | Male cuts clothes, an Italian import (8) M[ale] inside (clothed by) PARES (cuts) AN (an). |
| 18 | KIA ORA | Greeting a group of men in Korean car (3,3) A OR (Ordinary Ranks, a group of men) inside KIA (a Korean car) The Maori greeting which translates as “G’day” |
| 20 | DOLCE FAR NIENTE | Indolence, after getting translated? (5,3,6) (INDOLENCE AFTER)* AInd: getting translated. From the Italian literally “sweet idleness”, pleasant relaxation like doing crosswords but without the idleness, i.e. indolence. So: semi-&Lit |
| 23 | GET UP STEAM | Group of players put on outfits for speed (3,2,5) GET-UPS (outfits) TEAM (group of players) |
| 24 | OTTO | German weaver denuded (4) [b]OTTO[m] Bottom from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a weaver, Otto is our stereotypical German from crosswordland |
| 25 | SICKLE | One cuts two thirds of time off (6) SICK LE[ave] (time off, last third removed) It took me ages to see this wordplay and it gave me a jolly good groaning laugh when I did |
| 26 | INSTEP | Like a march or an arch? (6) A March can be IN STEP, and the INSTEP on your foot is like an arch |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUTRA | Buddhist scripture possibly drawing humanity heavenwards (5) ART (possibly drawing) US (humanity) all reversed (heavenwards) |
| 2 | SINE DIE | Lacking date, one’s rejected by Kelly and Irene heartlessly (4,3) IS< (one’s rejected) NED (Kelly) I[ren]E. Given the trouble I had with 5A, I was lucky to think of Ned Kelly early on. |
| 3 | MCDONALDS | Host’s scoffing a duck in eatery (9) DONALD (duck) inside MCS (hosts) |
| 5 | ODEON | Melancholy may follow this in ancient concert hall (5) Wordplay is a reference to “Ode on Melancholy” by Keats. The word Odeon as a theatre and Ode as a poem come from the same Greek root meaning “I sing”. |
| 6 | SABREUR | Swordsman in bar sure to get drunk (7) (BAR SURE)* AInd: to get drunk. Tricky. I did not know this word and had to check it (wiki on Sabre fencing) |
| 7 | DOWNRIVER | Have to enter club nearer to the sea (9) OWN (have) inside DRIVER (club). I like the definition here, but now I (over-)think about it: Places such as the headwaters of the Amazon and its tributaries in Peru are only a couple of hundred km from the Pacific, but downriver is thousands of km to the Atlantic. So, having thought of that, would I add a “?” to the clue? – Nah. |
| 10 | CITIZEN KANE | Picture Spur Harry after his dream move? (7,4) Ref, Harry Kane footballer captain, England and Spurs, leading to the answer which is Orson Welles most famous film. Help needed here: I cannot understand how becoming a Citizen would be Harry Kane’s “dream move”. |
| 13 | ST ANDREWS | Cooks stocks along with recipe for famous courses (2,7) AND (along with) R[ecipe] inside (stocked by) STEWS (cooks) – I wondered why “courses” not realising there is more than one course at St Andrews – a glance at the map shows it is riddled with the blighters! Virtually every piece of green or sand! |
| 15 | PEKING MAN | Primitive human in games with two chess pieces (6,3) PE (games, Physical Education) KING MAN (two chess pieces) – Peking Man (wiki) is the ancient hominid(s) whose bones were found in cave near Beijing about 100 years ago |
| 17 | MOLLUSC | Partner of gangster from America caught a slug? (7) MOLL (partner of gangster) US (America) C[aught] |
| 19 | ALECOST | The price of a pint for one in Daisy’s family (7) Cryptic Def. giving ALE COST The flower alecost is in the family Asteraceae like daisies (wiki) |
| 21 | EASEL | Frame deceitful sort, getting beheaded (5) [w]EASEL |
| 22 | TOT UP | Count golf shot, without ball rising (3,2) PUTT (golf shot) around (without) O (ball) all reversed (rising) |
I did find this pretty testing, and also resorted to some external help (Madame Google) but ultimately satisfying. Once I’d discovered the phrase at 20a was a thing I had to admit the clue was stunningly stylish. Thanks beermagnet for the blog – hadn’t understood Odeon.
As for 10a – grrrr – let’s just say supporters of Spurs and several other football clubs would beg to differ with Rodriguez here – isn’t it just a play on Man City’s nickname the ‘Citizens’?
To sum up in one word – brutal.
Thanks, Rodriguez and beermagnet!
10a: I, too, feel the same way as Feebs-o-matic @1.
DOLCE, SICKLE and ODEON are my favs.
10 D
Feebs-o-matic @1 Re. Citizen, exactly so. It was widely reported earlier that Kane wanted a transfer to Man City, and so that could be glossed as his ‘dream move’
A tricky little whatnot, but then it is Picaroon!
I don’t know much about Harry Kane so I am grateful to the previous commenters for explaining the clue. My favourite was 11a
Thanks to Picaroon and beermagnet
I found this incredibly tough. Although I managed to complete it after a struggle, I did enjoy most of it but I thought that 20a, 5d & 10d (even though I did know the Man City reference) were beyond the pale. I didn’t understand the “weaver” in 24a, thinking it could be a reference to “cotton” as something you might weave.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to beermagnet. I’m off for a lie down now …
Apologies to Rodriguez for muddling him up with Picaroon (I’d just printed off the Graun Prize when I posted the comment @6
But Rodriguez is Picaroon, so you weren’t really wrong crypticsue.
Thanks Picaroon and beermagnet
crypticsue @ 8 I doubt Rodriguez would be upset at being mistaken for Picaroon as they are the same person.
Too hard for me, but big respect to Rodriguez (I’ll crack him one day!), Beermagnet and all who battled it out.
[Simon @ 10 – I did know that but felt I should acknowledge the setter with his Indy hat on]
DNF here – 5d where I think I’d made the same mistake as our reviewer where 9a was concerned so was left wondering how ONION fitted with the clue! The other, which I am now kicking myself over, was McDONALDS – how stupid am I!
A tough challenge and I did need to ask Mr Google about the likes of 6d and Keats poetry.
Top three for me were SESAME, AS WELL & SICKLE.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to beermagnet for the review.
Although I needed a little help with this, I thought it was magnificent. So many clever clues, DOLCE FAR NIENTE, SESAME, ODEON and many others.
Having received a positive PCR result for the Corona today, I felt it was important to test my mental faculties and hope that they hadn’t degraded as a result of my condition and enforced idleness. This was a tough puzzle and I’d all but given up until, after a break for some whisky, MCDONALDS appeared out of nowhere and the tricky top let corner started to slot into place. ALCECOST was my fave.
Thanks beermagnet and Rodriguez. Another DNF here, though I enjoyed what I solved.
Re 1d, SUTRA literally means formula (as in Kama Sutra), and often expressed as verse (couplets or other varieties) and not necessarily only Buddhist scripture; so Buddhist scripture possibly could be definition by example, leaving drawing alone for ART, if that is acceptable.
It occurred to me that STUPA is another word, often more directly connected to Buddhism.
Congratulation to Picaroon on his 200th in Gdn, and always nice to see wherever he appears.
Now I don’t feel so bad about having found this so difficult. The SE especially. Never knew what KIA ORA meant, thought it was a drink! One of those crossword where one learns a lot, at least temporarily.
Very difficult indeed, three bites at this only finishing this morning. Most enjoyable.
Thanks Rodriguez and beermagnet.
Thanks beermagnet, I agree that this was chewy and needed to google a few including the Italian phrase having guessed the first word (and I think it is a great clue, fully &lit surely, as the letters are translated for the anagram while the word is translated in the definition?) and would also like to thank Feebs@1 for the MCFC background (I had got as far as Citi = City but tried to work Zen into a dream somehow).
I was thrown by the “for” in 1A so that was penultimate, last then the obvious in hindsight McDonalds!
Hard to pick a favourite from so many great clues but I thought MOLLUSC was superb, Thanks Rodriguez.