A head-scratcher from Io this morning.
This was a tough puzzle to solve and an even harder one to blog. I didn’t want to hold up the blog and I have other things to do this morning, so two clues (those for THE ANCIENT WORLD and MIXED BAG) remain unparsed as I type this. I’ll keep my thinking cap on, but if any early commenters know how to parse them, feel free to put me right. [Edit – thanks to KVa (comment #1) for putting me right on THE ANCINET WORLD]
Thanks, Io.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1/9 | DEVIL’S COACH HORSE |
Six-footer cooks train outside rear of brasserie (6,5,5)
|
| DEVILS (“cooks”) + COACH (“train”) + HORS (“outside”) + [rear of] (brasseri)E | ||
| 10 | GANESH |
Drunk hangs around Elephant’s Head (he has one) (6)
|
| *(hangs) [anag:drunk] around E(lephant) [‘s head] | ||
| 11 | OPERA SERIA |
Jots on front of Otello programme? India rubber’s needed before a stage production (5,5)
|
| [jots on front of] O(tello) P(roogramme) + I (India, in the NATO alphabet) with ERASER needed before + A | ||
| 12 | HAIRDO |
Old HMRC busts were endowed with zero style (6)
|
| IR (Inland Revenue, “old HMRC”) busts HAD (“were endowed with”) + O (zero) | ||
| 13 | LADY CHAPEL |
Where fold receives aura of deity into a small place of worship? (4,6)
|
| LAPEL (“where fold”) receives [aura of] D(eit)Y into A + Ch. (abbreviation for church, so “small place of worship”) | ||
| 15 | GELATO |
Proceed to care for relation over 3 (6)
|
| GO (“proceed”) to care for <=TALE (“relation”, over) | ||
| 16 | FENCE |
Injury, but not from criminal (5)
|
| (of)FENCE (“injury”, but not OF (“from”)) | ||
| 19 | NIACIN |
Murderer looking back at white crystalline substance (6)
|
| <=CAIN (“murderer”, looking back) + IN (“at”) | ||
| 20 | SWEETHEART |
My beloved sons go to take the Knowledge (10)
|
| S (sons) + WEE (“go”) to take THE + ART (“knowledge”) | ||
| 23 | WIDGET |
Can device finish off extended answer? (6)
|
| [finish off] WID(e) (“extended”) + GET (“answer”)
A widget is a device in a can of beer that helps to produce froth when poured. |
||
| 24 | DIMINUENDO |
Dropping off obscure suggestion for those attending (10)
|
| DIM (“obscure”) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [for those attending] of INNUENDO (“suggestion”) | ||
| 26 | RHOMBI |
Figures in endless runs when opening batting for both sides (6)
|
| HOM(e) (“in”, endless) with R (runs) when opening (i.e. going first) + BI(sexual) (“batting for both sides”) | ||
| 27/28 | PERIPHERAL DAMAGE |
Side-effects of injury made pied piper signal the arrival of a magician (10,6)
|
| *(piper) [anag:pied] + HERALD (“signal the arrival of”) + A MAGE (“a magician”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | EMANATES |
Decided on a title for boosting issues (8)
|
| <=(SET (“decided”) on A + NAME (“title”, boosting) | ||
| 3 | ICE CREAM |
I see a lot of paperwork to secure the City cooler (3,5)
|
| I + C (see) + REAM (“a lot of paperwork”) to secure EC (postcode of the “City” of London) | ||
| 4 | SCHOOL OF THOUGHT |
Where Descartes did his course in self- actualisation? (6,2,7)
|
| Cryptic definition. The philosopher Rene Descartes is famous for the quote “Cogito ego sum” which translates as “I think therefore I am”. | ||
| 5 | BASE |
Foot transplant causing lamb to become lame? (4)
|
| The B in “lamb” becomes E in “lame”. so the E stands in for B, so B AS E
Think of an actor playing a part, so Anthony Hopkins becomes Hannibal Lecter, or in other words, Anthony Hopkins AS Hannibal Lecter |
||
| 6 | THE ANCIENT WORLD |
A forgotten Earth, was it once, land not as developed? (3,7,5)
*(erth w it once land) where ERTH is E(a)RTH with A forgotten and W is W(as) not AS.
|
| 7 | BODEGA |
Two details of origin when looking up Rioja here? (6)
|
| <=(AGE + D.o.B. (“date of birth”) (“two details of origin”), when looking up) | ||
| 8 | ASSIZE |
Salvation Army raised importance for old people sitting (6)
|
| <=SA (Salvation Army, rasied) + SIZE (“importance”) | ||
| 14 | DONNA |
Woman in Vatican retiring, and staying on (5)
|
| [retiring] <=AND staying ON
Donna is the Italian for “woman” |
||
| 17 | WARDROOM |
In elevation use painter to bring brass hats together (8)
|
| [in elevation] <=(MOOR (“use painter”) + DRAW (“to bring”)) | ||
| 18 | MIXED BAG |
Miscellany for us individually aces super crisp cask! (5,3)
|
| 21 | WAIVER |
Change involving a single act of forfeit (6)
|
| WAVER (“change”) involving I (one, “a single”) | ||
| 22 | ELICIT |
Extreme happiness outsiders are unable to attend occasion (6)
|
| [outsiders are unable to attend] (f)ELICIT(y) (“extreme happiness”) | ||
| 25 | NORM |
Which nasal pattern? (4)
|
| N OR M (“which nasal”) |
THE ANCIENT WORLD
A forgotten Earth=ERTH
Was it once land not as=W ITONCELAND
ERTHWITONCELAND developed
&lit
MIXED BAG (I am not convinced fully about my parsing)
Super crisp=MIXED (referring to ‘mixed and super crisp’, I think)
Cask=BAG
Def1: miscellany
Def2: us, individually aces
Do you have Aces and Super Crisp beers?
A cask with these beers will be a MIXED BAG?
Us, individually could be def 2 meaning that each of us is a MIXED BAG
“us” is italicised in 18d, which may be significant, but I can’t make anything of it.
An internet search produces two or three beers with ‘ace’ in their names, and says that ‘super crisp’ is a description applied to certain beers. There’s also cask beer (which, unlike the others, I have heard of). So individual components of a mixed bag (of beers) might be ace, super crisp and cask. Best I can do – if it’s what IO intended I think it’s way too obscure.
I couldn’t parse MIXED BAG either – we can buy multi-bags of crisps, (as in potato chips in the US) in a variety of flavours in the UK, which could be a MIXED BAG, but the rest I couldn’t twist into making sense. You can, at this time of year, buy boxes of beer cans or more usually bottles covering a range, usually from the same brewery, but we don’t call them ace, super crisp and cask – more likely to be mild, bitter, IPA, stout, brown ales. I wondered if the us was referring to an Americanism.
Fun puzzle – but double tough today.
Thank you loonapick and Io.
One last attempt at MIXED BAG
us individually could be u and s—->unsatisfactory, satisfactory,
u, s, aces (and) super crisp are various grades (academic and others)—MIXED
A cask with such ‘grades’ (of anything) is a MIXED BAG.
Thanks loonapick and Io.
MIXED BAG: “aces” “super” “crisp” and “cask” are each anagrams of bags: CASE, PURSE, SCRIP and SACK
Very tough crossword, but very satisfying to complete.
Thanks both.
I think Milo has it – and I don’t think I was ever going to get close. Many hard yards but with a definite endorphin rush when finished!
Thanks for Io for a really tough puzzle and loonapick for sheer bravery as well as erudition and detective work.
I did not enjoy this with a large number of clues with vague definitions accompanied obscure cryptic wordplay adding up to a lot of jamming in words via ccs and seeing if they could be derived from the clue. It’s revealing that even our faithful blogger has been defeated in a couple of cases.
I know 225 is protective of the setters on negative comment but this is very much harder than the usual FT level and simply not fun and I don’t see why as a paying subscriber I shouldn’t say so.
Example dislikes: use of hors for outside, Ganesh defn, “jots” to mean initial letters, odd definition of assize, waver to mean change, “n or m” does not mean “which nasal” to me. But there were many other annnoyances and no laughs at all, and it seems odd that the ft uses a setter whose approach differs so much to the others.
Sorry, was pressed for time with my earlier comment. Now I have more time I want to say this was an excellent crossword. Making a hard crossword isn’t an achievement in itself: if anything it’s easier than making an easy one. But this wasn’t hard because of sloppy logic or obscure words: it was precise, it was clever and original, the surfaces were pretty much universally first-class, and while the difficulty was consistently high, once you found a foothold it was always possible to make progress (thanks in part to a very heavily checked grid, which was welcome!). Really superb. And thanks to loonapick for blogging it so well: I couldn’t parse WARDROOM at all and was missing a few little bits elsewhere, all of which you cleared up for me.