A peach of a puzzle.
Some gloriously sneaky stuff, a pleasure to solve and blog, thanks Orlando.
Definitions underlined as appropriate.
Across
4 Course in old form may be trimmed (6)
LOPPED
PPE or Philosophy, Politics and Economics (or Modern Greats) in OLD*
6 Oscar’s in stir — result of excessive speed? (8)
NARCOSIS
[OSCARS IN]*, speed as a drug
9 Number one trapper in big city (6)
NINETY
1 & NET trapper all in N(ew) Y(ork)
10 Work on the railway seconds after game (8)
SHUNTING
S(econds) & HUNTING (after game)
11 Drive away tram — see bendy bus (11)
ROUTEMASTER
ROUT (drive away) & [TRAM SEE]* bendy
15 Pay almost anything to enter competition (5,2)
COUGH UP
OUGH(t) in CUP
17 Say what someone said about academy having sufficient people (7)
QUORATE
R(oyal) A(cademy) inside QUOTE
18 Location while holding contest (11)
WHEREABOUTS
BOUT contest in WHEREAS while
22 Take care of claim (8)
MAINTAIN
Double definition
23 Burn final bit of timber retained by engine driver (6)
STREAM
(timbe)R in STEAM (the engine’s driving power), nicely disguised definition in the surface
24 Take off a garment and go without (8)
TRAVESTY
A VEST in TRY, without is the inclusion indicator and a slightly unusual definition
25 Less open Conservative defeated opponent (6)
CLOSER
C(onserverative) & LOSER
Down
1 It’s held up by little dog (6)
WESTIE
IT’S reversed in WEE little
2 Russian symphony quite different when used by French film company (10)
PATHETIQUE
QUITE* after PATHÉ which is this work by Tchaikovsky rather than this one by Beethoven [Edited slightly to make who wrote what less ambiguous]
3 Heartless reactions, awkward situation (8)
SCENARIO
Middle letter removed from [REAC(t)IONS]*
4 Bag with zip for a pig (8)
LANDRACE
LAND bag & RACE zip, run for a breed of pig
5 Swinger with ghastly nude in Victoria? (8)
PENDULUM
NUDE* in PLUM victoria is a variety
7 Captain Jack’s last to replace learner in error (4)
SKIP
(jac)K replacing L(earner) in SLIP
8 Chat up eastern guru (4)
SAGE
GAS chatter reversed & E(astern)
12 See prize (10)
APPRECIATE
Double defintion
13 Feuding family turning up in ruined castle (8)
CAPULETS
UP reversed in CASTLE*
14 Man of steel raised corps to support queen (8)
BESSEMER
R.E.M.E. reversed after queen BESS, Bessemer invented a method of making steel. OK how many of you were looking at Superman/Kent etc?
16 Ground zero with gun (8)
HOWITZER
[ZERO WITH]* is ground
19 British PM ultimately wanting fight (6)
BATTLE
B(ritish) & ATTLE(e)
20 Old German with 7 (4)
OMIT
O(ld) & MIT German for “with”. 7 is SKIP which means OMIT
21 Mike’s predecessor in capital (4)
LIMA
Phonetic alphabet time, Lima comes before Mike
*anagram
A nice elegant puzzle from Orlando, setting me up cheerfully for the day.
Thanks Flashling – sorry to be picky but it was Tchaikovsky that wrote the Pathetique symphony his number 6 – hence the Russian in the clue. Beethoven was German.
Great blog to a fun puzzle.
Thanks, flashling – you lucky chap, landing such a gem of a puzzle.
I found it sheer delight, from beginning to end – fizzing with wit and mischievous misdirection, with superb surfaces, as ever, throughout. Far too many examples of all this to mention – but must just mention 6ac, 10ac, 24ac, 2dn, 5dn, 13dn. 16dn. [You see what I mean – I must stop.]
I held myself up just a little by reading ‘train’ for ‘tram’ in 11ac – I was doing it in bed, with the curtains still drawn – so didn’t see the anagram for a while.
The sun is shining, I’m shortly going out for a walk and there’s a big smile on my face. Huge thanks for a lovely puzzle, Orlando – I think you had great fun with this one. I certainly did! 🙂
Hi Shirley @2
I think flashling’s links show clearly who wrote what. 😉
@shirley That’s what the blog says if you click the links!
Another one enjoyed! I liked 6ac especially.
Oops sorry Flashling – I clicked on the wrong link! Not used to having two links in one clue
Now that’s what I call a crossword! Lots of goodies. Tough but not a single doubt about the cluing.
A very enjoyable puzzle, fairly clued throughout – even though I’d never heard of landrace.
One minor quibble is the grid. It has so many cells blacked out at top and bottom it’s closer to 13×15 than 15×15. Why does the Guardian continue to use it?
Thanks flashling and Orlando.
Lovely to see Orlando back again. My favourite setter these days for his elegant cluing, unlikely answers and light touch. I particularly liked 6a, 10a, 18a,16d and 20d.
er Beethoven’s pathetique was a sonata, not a symphony
Thanks all
I have struggled a bit over past Orlando’s but this one seemed to slipby with out a tremor.
I hesitated over closer = less open , still prefer more closed,
Last in was ‘Lima’. I was not too familiar with M= Mike.
First in was ‘narcosis’, a bit obvious.
@10
I think that is also covered in the blog – flashling says the answer can’t be Beethoven’s Pathetique, it has to be Tchaikovsky’s.
Good crossword – I struggled a bit but wondered why when the completed grid emerged (always the sign of a good setter.)
Thanks flashling; I’m surprised that people remembered/knew BESSEMER – I just about recalled it from schooldays in the context of the BESSEMER Converter.
I did like the simple STREAM where I didn’t see the ‘burn’ definition for a while.
I do agree with Jim @8 that the grid is horrible.
Re 15a – not convinced that anything is a correct definition of ought ( or vice versa if you know what I mean ) !
Thanks flashling and Orlando.
RP Hissocks @14 – ought is an alternative spelling of aught, so ‘anything’ as a definition seems fine.
British Prime Minister Attlee is appearing in the FT today too. One of them must be an imposter!
I agree with all the positive comments – this was fun without ever seeming too difficult, but there was enough there to make it last and lots of a-ha moments. Last in was LANDRACE – I was vaguely familiar with but not absolutely sure of the name and it took me a long time to see why zip and race were synonyms (more doh than a-ha). If I had to single out one favourite, it would be ROUTEMASTER. No problems with BESSEMER (apart from unfamiliarity with the REME acronym) as I vaguely the Bessemer process from school chemistry.
Thanks to Orlando and flashling.
Thanks Orlando and flashling
I didn’t know LANDRACE. Apart from that I enjoyed it.
What’s the general opinion on crossword clues relying on knowledge of a foreign language? I’m quite competent in French and Italian, but “mit” stretched my (non-existent) German to its limit!
Now I know why I stopped adding links for a while 🙂 Incidentally for 6a, the former Reading jail of Oscar fame is likely to become a theatre, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-27716889
muffin @17 – for me “mit” is a lot less obscure than yesterday’s oblast, but then I did O Level German and I might struggle with the Spanish or Italian equivalents. On the whole I’m happy with such things…
Needed a bit, but probably only just the right amount of, winkling out, in other words, pretty much as it should be.
My quibble with the grid is that it’s one of those with only two links between each half, L-R in this case, but honestly today I don’t care.
Us Londoners who remember the successive replacements of tram (well not quite) by Routemaster by bendy bus will salute the brilliance of 11.
This definitely wasn’t Orlando in Quiptic mode. I started slowly, made inroads on the RHS, and then the LHS gradually fell into place. LANDRACE was my LOI from the wordplay and I was glad to see it existed when I checked it post-solve. An excellent puzzle that required a fair degree of close attention to the wordplay.
Yes – a very enjoyable puzzle indeed. Huge thanks to Orlando. However, I differ from those who praised 6ac as, for me, it disturbed the fluidity of an otherwise excellent crossword. After all, narcosis implies torpor and sleepiness whereas the result of excessive speed (amphetamine sulphate, for example) is anything but!
In fact, 6ac very much an EH?? clue. On reflection, I’m rather surprised that so many commenters, whom hitherto I assumed to be reasonably educated, could think that narcosis would be the effect of excessive speed. Not all drugs are narcotics, only those which induce torpor, drowsiness etc. I’m particularly saddened that some of us with a classical education failed to know the meaning of “narcosis” :’-C
I didn’t enjoy this as much as some solvers apparently did.
Completed it but I’d never heard of a LANDRACE or PPE. The pig was guessable from the wordplay but LOPPED was only entered because it seemed the only match for the what I thought was the definition.
Perhaps I should have heard of the pig but I fail to see how I should have heard of an acronym for a course which is only given at Oxford?
I assume that describing Philosophy, Politics and Economics as “Modern Greats” is a joke. Perhaps “great” has a different meaning under the “dreaming spires”.
Thanks to Flashling and Orlando
William F P @23 – I’m glad that a classical education helps – I didn’t really think about the linguistics, and I suppose some of us just haven’t been educated about what the effects of an overdose of speed are (I think most have us would have some idea what a “normal” dose does and I would agree there’s nothing narcotic about that…)
I am always far too late to send a relevant and/or timely comment since I take the xwords from the Guardian Weekly sent to me here in Germany, so I did not see this one until 17 June. Nevertheless it’s always a pleasure to read the erudite entries and of course the explanations of the clues I couldn’t manage to solve. Best wishes to all, not least Orlando.