After breezing through half this puzzle, I needed to engage with a bit more attention to work out the other half, with Neo offering several truly ingenious clues, with quite a few witty surfaces.
I am not 100% certain about the parsing of 23D. I think that there is a missing apostrophe in 25D, although the clue might plausibly work without it. See Neo@9.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LONG-DRAWN-OUT |
Like sword in stone, it’s 10! (4-5-3)
|
| Cryptic/double definition, referring to the legend of Excalibur, with “10” from the solution to 10A TEDIOUS | ||
| 10 | TEDIOUS |
One brought in used to ground that’s flat (7)
|
| I (one) inside (brought in) anagram of (ground) {USED TO} | ||
| 11 | GRAVITY |
Italian covered in sauce shows natural attraction (7)
|
| IT. (Italian) inside (covered in) GRAVY (sauce) | ||
| 12 | NAPES |
Scruffs from Campanian city wanting lire (5)
|
| NAP[L]ES (Campanian city) minus (wanting) L (lire) | ||
| 13 | CANE TOAD |
Punish rotter — toxic 15 creature (4,4)
|
| CANE (punish) + TOAD (rotter), with “15” from the solution to 15A AUSTRALIAN | ||
| 15 | AUSTRALIAN |
Tips on apparel found in one national or another (10)
|
| Outside letters of (tips on) A[PPARE]L inside (found in) AUSTRIAN (one national), the clue indicating “another [national]” | ||
| 16 | VEIN |
Dracula to open this French wine that’s spiked? (4)
|
| E (i.e., ecstasy) inside (that’s spiked) VIN (wine [in] French), in other words, the wine has been adulterated with a drug | ||
| 18 | DOGE |
Trick allowing last duke to escape old magistrate (4)
|
| DO[D]GE (trick) minus (allowing . . . to escape) last [i.e., second] D (duke) | ||
| 20 | BANGLADESH |
Commercial breaks charm quiet Asian land (10)
|
| {AD (commercial) inside (breaks) BANGLE (charm)} + SH (quiet) | ||
| 22 | OBSIDIAN |
Old boy joining Vicious and Dury in this rock? (8)
|
| OB (old boy) + SID (Vicious) + IAN (Dury) | ||
| 24 | ARROW |
Archer’s first and last quarrel? (5)
|
| &lit and first and last [letters of] A[RCHE]R + ROW (quarrel). According to Chambers, a quarrel is also “a square-headed arrow as for a crossbow.” | ||
| 26 | EARMARK |
Flag shown with damage carried in E-boat? (7)
|
| MAR (damage) inside (carried in) {E + ARK (boat)} | ||
| 27 | ALLEGRO |
Declare shortly: runs at Oval scored briskly (7)
|
| ALLEG[E] (declare) minus last letter (shortly) + R (runs) + O ([an] oval), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 28 | CRYPTANALYST |
GCHQ sort can party insanely (then said to keel over) (12)
|
| Anagram of (insanely) {CAN PARTY} + homophone of (said) LIST (to keel over). GCHQ = Government Communications Headquarters: “We are the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency.” |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OEDIPUS |
Complex man’s complex iPod use? (7)
|
| Anagram of (complex) {IPOD USE} | ||
| 3 | GLOSSARY |
Word list fool’s written up in delight (8)
|
| ASS (fool) inverted ([is] written up) inside (in) GLORY (delight) | ||
| 4 | RASH |
Reckless Marcus at United denied cross (4)
|
| RASH[FORD] (Marcus [forward] at [Manchester] United) minus (denied) FORD (cross) | ||
| 5 | WAGGA WAGGA |
Comedian with Georgia appearing twice in 15 city (5,5)
|
| WAG (comedian) + GA (Georgia) reduplicated (appearing twice), with “15” again from the solution to 15A AUSTRALIAN | ||
| 6 | ORATE |
Men worried speak at length (5)
|
| OR (men) + ATE (worried) | ||
| 7 | TRITONE |
Sea god heading for exit in musical interval (7)
|
| TRITON (sea god) + first letter of (heading for) E[XIT] | ||
| 8 | STANDARD MODEL |
Regular shape needed in theory (8,5)
|
| STANDARD (regular) + SHAPE (model) | ||
| 9 | DYED-IN-THE-WOOL |
Why Dido let one out is confirmed (4-2- 3-4)
|
| Anagram of (out) {WHY DIDO LET ONE} | ||
| 14 | FLEA MARKET |
Where traders are quick to hide a blemish (4,6)
|
| semi-&lit and FLEET (quick) around (to hide) {A MARK (a blemish)} | ||
| 17 | PARALLEL |
Trim line shown with everyone aboard or alongside (8)
|
| {PARE (trim) + L (line)} around (with . . . aboard) ALL (everyone) | ||
| 19 | GASTRIC |
Stomach-related wind mostly an illusion (7)
|
| GAS (wind) + TRIC[K] (illusion) minus last letter (mostly) | ||
| 21 | ENRAGES |
Charlemagne in the end destroyed Angers? Angers! (7)
|
| Last letter of (in the end) [CHARLEMAGN]E + anagram of (destroyed) ANGERS | ||
| 23 | DIARY |
Reversed second line in Daily Record (5)
|
| I think this parses as: AID (second, as in “support”) inverted (reversed) + RY (line, i.e., railway), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 25 | FAUN |
Larks circling a goat-legged deity (4)
|
I too struggled to parse DIARY. Never heard of a CRYPTANALYST (“codebreaker” would have been my choice), nor indeed GCHQ, which I initially thought might have been part of a rather contrived anagram. Another UK-centric clue that was beyond me was RASH, but I did remember OR. On the other hand I felt very much at home with the Wagga Wagga cane toad! I couldn’t find a definition for ARROW.
Thanks, Neo & Cineraria.
I parsed DIARY as in the blog, but with a shrug, because my other attempts didn’t work. (Starting from daily, swapping the a & I and R for L).
One of my college roommates ended up working for GCHQ when they were more hush-hush, and before she emigrated, so I knew what they did, worked out CRYPT- then the rest had to be that from the fodder. And I knew a quarrel was a crossbow bolt, and of Marcus Rashford, but more for his school meals campaigns.
Thank you to Cineraria and Neo.
Thanks Neo, that was most satisfying with OBSIDIAN, OEDIPUS, FLEA MARKET, and GASTRIC being my top picks. I revealed FAUN and couldn’t parse DOGE, RASH, and DIARY; thanks Cineraria for explaining.
What GDU@1 said although I guessed ARROW before looking it up. I add ENRAGES to Tony’s list of favourites.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
The correct parsing of DIARY eluded me but not CRYPTANALYST which made perfect sense as it – like Neo’s clues in general – were accessibly clued. I liked the Aussie trio, along with OBSIDIAN, OEDIPUS, RASH and DYED-IN-THE-WOOL.
Thanks to Neo for a very worthwhile puzzle and Cineraria for the excellent explanations.
Them pesky cane toads!
Debussy on the other hand divine.
Nice to see Rashy too.
nho 8d ‘Standard Model, n Particle Physics. 1975– A mathematical description of the elementary subatomic particles of matter and the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces by which they interact; frequently with the. … accepted since the late 20th cent. Early 21st cent. discoveries continue to support the validity of the model.’
…
… 1st quotation, a 50th (Golden) anniversary: ‘In quot. 1974 describing a simpler version of what would become the accepted Standard Model of particle physics.
[1974 The possible solution I would like to suggest is that the standard model is right but the resulting low mass Goldstone boson..behaves like quarks and gluons, and does not appear in collisions of color-neutral particles. S. Weinberg in Proceedings 17th International Conf. High Energy Physics (London) iii. 61/2]
What larks Pip!
Thanks Joe 😀
I didn’t see a need for an apostrophe in FAUN. ‘What fun!’ ‘What larks!’ was the equation for me and I see the setter has dropped in to confirm that intention. Our Antipodean solvers are often sideswiped by Britishisms so will be delighted to hear that WAGGA WAGGA and CANE TOAD were my last two into the grid. I did cause myself some problems by an over-hasty entry of CRYPTOLOGIST which I had to subsequently unpick. Plenty of nice clues throughout with my faves being GRAVITY, ARROW, OBSIDIAN, FLEA MARKET (COTD) and DYED-IN-THE-WOOL.
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
Thanks Neo and Cineraria.
25dn: As it happens, Great Expectations was one of my set books for English Literature O level, so I had the allusion given by Neo@9 in my long term memory, but I think there is enough in Chambers 2016. The definitions on page 863 for lark² as a noun include “a frolic; a piece of mischief”. I think each of these gives a good match to “fun” when put into the plural.
Oed.com’s only quotation containing “what larks” appears in the entry for particular, adj., n., & adv:
1861 He wishes me most particular to write what larks. C. Dickens, Great Expectations
Thanks N&C
I liked OBSIDIAN especially when next to ARROW in the grid. It made me wonder where Neo dug them up from. I went down the same detour as Shannen for DIARY. Thanks, both.
You’d say Joe Gargery is alluding to more than one frolic, or bit of mischief, when he says ‘what larks’ to Pip. He might have said ‘what A lark’, so from that you’d have to deduce he is referring to many a good time. And as the word fun provides an accurate synonym for the singular or the plural, I do not think we have any difficulties here. Unless you’d prefer to have funs with people.
Among those who have read the odd book, which I would have thought includes us lot, I’d be very surprised if Gargery’s expression isn’t used frequently enough in the vernacular. It certainly is in my crowd of froward and unable worms. ‘We stole some horses, didn’t we’, would be along similar lines, I’d imagine, though perhaps that’s for use more particularly across the pond.
Thanks all, and Cineraria for the blog. Thanks also to Martyn for popping in. I see he didn’t pop out again today.
Thanks for the blog , very neat and clever set of clues.
Frankie@8, Weinberg was not using “The Standard Model” at all , just the usual method of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the words he used are just coincidence.
The Standard Model itself was first set out by Pais and Treiman in 1975 after confirmation of the fourth quark ( named after me ) . It has been expanded to six quarks and leptons.
Loved the puzzle— thanks Neo and thanks Cineraria for a great blog. My only addition is that many would not call obsidian a rock as it is not comprised of mineral crystals. I think the best description of obsidian is a glass, which would have made 22A even more interesting if “a glass” was substituted for “this rock”.
22ac: ODE 2010 p 1225 defines obsidian as “a hard, dark, glass-like volcanic rock formed by the rapid solidification of lava without crystallization”. Chambers 2016 p 1063 starts its first definition with “a vitreous acid volcanic rock”. Perhaps many would not call it a rock, but, in my view, Neo is entitled to do so from these sources.
Yes, this was definitely “fun”.. pleased I read Cineria’s first paragraph in the blurb as I was dipping into the indy blog, and decided to see if it were as described. It was.. I wondered if “Dido letting one out” might end in WIND, while playing with the anagram fodder, but was fortunately disabused of this when ALLEGRO popped in. Some decent anagrams all round, perhaps my favourite being OEDIPUS, “a complex man” being an understatement worthy of special mention… I enjoyed greatly FLEAMARKET, BANGLADESH n OBSIDIAN for the word play in all three.. might have sniffed at FAUN as I understood the Romans called him FAUNUS, but its a trifle..
Thanks Neo n Cineria..
Ps chapeau to Roz@15, not many people have a quark named after them.. impressive
Took me a long time but once it got going I really had larks with it.
Thank you all.
I would not have come up with “CANE TOAD” but for the fact that is an invasive species here in Florida – dangerous to pets apparently. I assumed the the capital D and R in 23d was a mis-direction so had no problem with “DIARY”.
We also have a place called Woy Woy, on the central coast of NSW.
You can call Wagga Wagga “Wagga”, but must never call Woy Woy “Woy”.
I have not just been Wagga and Woy Woy, but also to Bong Bong, Bulla Bulla, Kurri Kurri, Mooney Mooney, and Walla Walla. I am sure there are other double-name towns spread around the country. Similar to what you mentioned GDU, of this lot Kurri by itself is OK but the others need the repetition to be understood
And not many people know how to pronounce Goonoo Goonoo!
[It’s Gunner g’noo].
My first FT crossword. Massively impacted by solving Where traders are quick to hide a blemish as SPOT MARKET. Can’t for the life of me see how FLEA MARKET is a better solution, given that a spot is a blemish, a spot market is settled quickly, traders operate in a market and, well, this is the Financial Times.
Joe@24 good idea with SPOT MARKET but FLEA MARKET is much better.
Where traders are – applies to both as definition.
Quick to hide a blemish – FLE ( A MARK ) ET is perfect .
The wordplay of a clue is always the most important thing.
I am surprised that we have not had an indignant antipodean complaint that the cane toad is not native Australian; as in Florida and other places it is an invasive species (often introduced in the hope of combatting other pests).
Chambers has cane-toad as an Australian word, hence Australian creature. Subtle, but sometimes we are.
It’s kind of like non-Aussie PeterO introducing an indignant … complaint (sic) when he himself is not Australian. Unless he is, in which case just introduce it yourself.
Thanks Roz – I see that now. We live and learn! If someone can also explain how Men = OR I’ll be forever grateful!
Joe@28: OR is an abbreviation for “other ranks” = [army] men.