It doesn’t seem that long since I blogged Brummie’s last puzzle but, on checking, that was 2½ weeks ago so time has been passing more quickly than I though (so what’s new in that!). In order to allow more time for work in the garden, I am currently restricting myself to one puzzle a day, rather than the usual three, and this one proved to be a good choice even if I hadn’t agreed to stand in for flashling. Thanks Brummie for a pleasant start to the day even if I don’t fully understand 4dn.
Across
8 Central heating also aggravated old lady’s skin condition (8)
CHLOASMA – CH (central heating) plus an anagram (aggravated) of ALSO plus MA (old lady)
9,25 Origami work that’s only superficially strong? (5,5)
PAPER TIGER – cryptic def.
10 Social gathering following complaint (4)
BEEF – BEE (social gathering) F (following)
11 Primate taking in conference party air? (10)
APPEARANCE – APE (primate) around (taking in) PEAR (conference) ANC (party)
12 Organisation responsible for other people having died (3,3)
THE MOB – THEM (other people) OB (died) with an extended def.
17 Orbit’s not stable with constant spinning (7)
STROBIC – an anagram (not stable) of ORBITS plus C (constant)
20 Drug movie, Scum, which runs for hours (4,4)
EPIC FILM – E (drug) PIC (movie) FILM (scum) with another extended def.
22 Singular doctrine that does away with rate reversal at heart of economic policy (6)
MONISM – MON[etar]ISM (does away with rate reversal at heart of economic policy)
23 Western Asian strait once cheekily stolen — help! (10)
HELLESPONT – an anagram (cheekily) of STOLEN HELP – this could well be a third extended def.
24,24down Unchecked downward motion caused by trip over natural obstruction (4,4)
FREE FALL – FALL (trip) around (over) REEF (natural obstruction) – Brummie is enjoying his extended definitions today
26 Broad English chronicler (8)
TROLLOPE – TROLLOP (broad) E (English)
Down
1 Main animal / that replaced agricultural labourers (8)
THRESHER – double def., the first referring to a shark
2,18,14 Virginia, possibly deprived of oxygen, wearing a fleece — more scary than it looks (4,2,6,8)
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING – WO[o]LF (Virginia, possibly deprived of oxygen) IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING (wearing a fleece)
4 Paparazzi Paparazzi allowed space for Frank and his buddies (3,4)
RAT PACK – double def. – but I don’t understand the ‘allowed space for’ – single def. RATPACK (paparazzi) with a space inserted (allowed space) – thanks Andrew @1
5 Make a bold statement after second point disallowed (5,3)
SPEAK OUT – S (second) PEAK (point) OUT (disallowed)
6 Securing place in band with Sad Space Mission’s end? (10)
SPLASHDOWN – PL (place) in SASH (band) plus DOWN (sad)
7 Beacons required to follow this, if range is to be obtained (6)
BRECON – cryptic indicator with the ‘range’ being the Brecon Beacons in Wales
13 Gloomy playing besets universal, faithfully reproduced Chopin study, maybe (10)
MUSICOLOGY – an anagram (playing) of GLOOMY around (besets) U (universal) SIC (faithfully reproduced)
16 Delegate English female to change, discarding top (8)
EMISSARY – E (English {again!}) MISS (female) [v]ARY (to change, discarding top)
19 Meaning to have singular items brought in (7)
IMPORTS – IMPORT (meaning) S (singular)
21 Player’s quick to eliminate right-winger from City (6)
PRESTO – PRESTO[n] (to eliminate right-winger from City)
22,15,3 Oldie inappropriately turned out to be last damned USSR suspect after top spy (6,7,2,4)
MUTTON DRESSED AS LAMB – an anagram (suspect) of TO BE LAST DAMNED USSR after M (top spy)
Thanks Gaufrid. Chambers gives RATPACK as a single word for the paparazzi sense, so perhaps it has to be “allowed [a] space” to become RAT PACK?
(Coincidentally, yesterday evening I was walking past a litter bin and heard a rustling noise. Suddenly a rat appeared, holding something from the bin in its mouth, jumped off the rim and ran away into some bushes.)
Thank you, Gaufrid, happy gardening.
Pity, I was hoping you’d be able to explain RAT PACK. Simple enough to get but I can only assume ‘allowed space for’ is surface padding.
PAPER TIGER, MUTTON DRESSED AS LAMB & WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING went in early and I was expecting more imposters in the same vein.
I thought EPIC FILM a shade weak for this setter. ‘Movie’ in the clue rather gives the game away. In fact I stared at it for some time suspiciously before the crossers nailed it. Perhaps it was a double bluff!
Enjoyed this puzzle, many thanks, Brummie.
Nice week, all.
Andrew @1, very elegant parsing, thank you I’m sure that’s it.
Thanks Andrew @1
That explains 4dn. I had noticed the single word ‘ratpack’ in Chambers but didn’t make the leap to adding a space to give the single definition.
William @2
Not so much gardening more reconstruction work (chasing out and repointing flagstones).
Thanks Gaufrid – can anyone explain why the N of Preston in 21d means a right winger?
Hi Shirley @5
“… can anyone explain why the N of Preston in 21d means a right winger?”
Brummie has used the allusion of a football reference to indicate the right-hand letter of Preston.
@Shirley
Maybe because there are two wingers, S and N, we are told to eliminate right-winger, that is one at the right.
Thanks, Gaufrid and Brummie. [And Andrew for 4dn.]
I agree with William re 20ac and thought 24ac and dn weaker still, with FALL in the wordplay and the answer but I enjoyed the rest of this, especially the long answers and THE MOB.
Thanks Gaufrid.
I finished the top-right triangle (above the top-left to bottom-right diagonal), but couldn’t make any head way with the bottom one. MUTTON… failed to spring to mind despite having the WOLF… one. So I gave up.
Not a good day – look forward to tomorrows.
Rishi @7, good morning. I don’t think so. Left & right wingers perhaps but not north & south. See Gaufrid @6 and the blog itself.
Eileen @8, good morning. Re 24ac&dn, I wonder if my edition is different…I don’t see FALL in the wordplay in the pdf I printed off?
Thanks Brummie and Gaufrid.
I found this hard, but enjoyed getting the long answers and PAPER TIGER. I also liked THE MOB, MONISM and MUSICOLOGY. BRECON Beacons reminded me of happy camping holidays there.
After stating yesterday that I did not use the cheat button, I did today to get CHLOASMA (I only know of the condition in its butterfly mask form). The THRESHER shark was new to me. I needed help with parsing APPEARANCE, always forget that pear, and SPLASHDOWN. Thanks to Andrew @1 for explaining RAT PACK.
Gaufrid is going easy on the Captcha for me, 1 + one = ?
Hi William @11
Perhaps I didn’t mean ‘wordplay’: FALL round REEF to give FREE FALL doesn’t seem very elegant to me.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I needed all the checkers before I was happy to enter CHLOASMA, and APPEARANCE was my LOI. I thought the clue for FREE FALL was a kind of double-bluff rather than inelegant.
This looked hard to me at first glance, but once the long clues were solved it was fairly straightforward. Favourites were APPEARANCE, SPLASHDOWN and PAPER TIGER. Many thanks to Brummie and Gaufrid.
I really struggled with this one. I finally broke through but needed Gaufrid’s parsing to understand what I had pieced out. CHLOASMA was new to me (as was CH for central heating); the conference pear in APPEARANCE is not one of the varieties I normally come across; I got THE MOB from crossers but missed “them” and OB and also missed the reversed “rate” subtracted from monetarism for MONISM; and last in was BRECON (again from the crossers) because I did not know Brecon Beacons (and MUTTON DRESSED AS LAMB was also new to me). Thanks to Brummie and especially to Gaufrid.
Poorish fare for me. I liked 12a’s idea and 22.
8a obscure, and partly anagrammed which I think is unfair; 9 25a weak cd part; 17a rather obscure, and I think the apostrophe could have been ditched; 20a seems a very confused clue with indistinct parts; 24 24a pointless really to split FALL which appears anyway; 26a straight Guardian sexism, and poor treatment of women again, this sort of thing should be edited out; 2 18 14 the wrong ‘part of speech’ in the definition (is that more correct PeterO???); 5d the ‘after’ is not really necessary; 7d weak idea.
HH
Thanks Brummie and Gaufrid
I failed to solve 7d BRECON (Beacons) – never heard of it, and although I realise that these puzzles are designed for British solvers, I think it could have been clued in such a way that someone with no knowledge of Welsh geographical features might have a chance to get their foot in the door. I think that this clue simply depended on general knowledge.
New words for me were CHLOASMA and STROBIC – I am fine with these clues as I use a dictionary to assist when I am playing around with anagram fodder.
I was unable to parse 4d.
My favourites were 20a, 22a, 21d, 12a.
I thought this was a very entertaining challenge full of devious misdirection, but that’s just my opinion… CHLOASMA was new to me but very guessable from the wordplay – the THRESHER shark was also unfamiliar but it was the SW corner that held me up longest with IMPORTS last in – EPIC FILM also took a while. Ticked TROLLOPE (some people go out of theor way to be offended), MONISM, PRESTO and WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING.
Thanks to Brummie and Gaufrid…
Thanks to Gaufrid for the blog. I needed you to explain a couple of cases where I had the answer but missed the parsing.
I’m kicking myself over 11a as I frequently eat conference pears. 🙁
Thanks Brummie and Gaufrid
I found this hard, but finished, though I didn’t get the paparazzi part of RAT PACK. I didn’t know CHLOASMA, but it was a simple anagram. Favourite THE MOB.
I don’t think “right winger” works for PRESTO(n) in a down clue, though it would have been fine in an across one.
Why can’t we consider words as words?
If I say so-and-so is a broad or trollop. I am ill-mannered and the person concerned may take offence and castigate me.
Why should mere substitution of one word for another in a crossword where it is mere wordplay raise concerns?
None of the acrosses worked for me on first reading but getting 2,18,14 from the enumeration as much as anything else soon gave me a way in. Soon, 22,15,3 gave another boost. My problem came with CHLOASMA / THRESHER – I was fixated on ‘Central heating’ being T that I failed to spot the obvious.
THE MOB got the clue of the day prize for me.
Well, CHLOASMA is a word for advanced puzzles, an Azed maybe.
Had fun with this. Chloasma new to me (and as HH remarks, rather Azed-ish – but hey! Azed clues are often quite straightforward). Particularly enjoyed the conference party in 11a, my LOI.
hh @24 – I thought CHLOASMA was clued clearly, so much so that I didn’t even feel the need to look it up, so I don’t see the problem. Once the crossers were it place there were only two permutations for the anagram and CHAOLSMA didn’t look pronounceable let alone plausible.
‘Once the crossers were in place’ you can pretty well guess any solution I would say. I’m sorry but such words do not belong in daily puzzles.
I thought the rule was that obscure words were fair game as long as the clueing is straightforward. Don Manley does this all the time, and nobody accuses him of libertarianism (but I really don’t want to continue the argument…)
CHLOASMA and STROBIC are new words for me, but both are clearly clued. I didn’t like “right-winger” to indicate the missing N in a down clue, or the double use of FALL in 24a/24d, but overall it was an enjoyable solve. My favourites were MONISM and the two multi-light anagrams.
Thanks, Brummie and Gaufrid.
chas @20
I have a conference pear with breakfast on most days, but I still stared at APPEARANCE for a very long time trying to fit “conference party” into AP(PEARANC)E before the penny finally dropped. I had been thinking mainly of possible political references, as I’m sure Brummie intended.
I agree with Puzzled @22 – TROLLOP has the potential to be offensive when applied to a person, but not when part of word play in a crossword. Also, as an old-fashioned insult, it doesn’t have the sting it used to have and is more likely to be used in a joking, affectionate way these days (“you silly trollop”).
Correction – the two multi-light clues. Only one is an anagram. I blame the heat!
I enjoyed this puzzle, despite a few quibbles, most of which have been aired by others. One niggle I have which doen’t seem to bother anyone else – indeed the clue is praised by a few people. 11A: “conference” is a type of a pear, but the parsing of this clue requires pear to be a type/example of conference, just as, in the same clue, ANC is an example of a political party.
2,18,24 – Brilliant, Had an Idea what it was but had to look on here to get the answer. I didn’t or haven’t heard of V.Woolf but nevertheless, a great clue!
A quick question for you all, are there actual rules or principles connected to an across or Down clue? i.e Do down clues not have certain aspects like an across clue will?
I found this rather difficult. I don’t usually get on with Brummie’s puzzles and I’m afraid this was no exception. I must admit I did this in between gardening, as today was overcast,..so perhaps my mind was elsewhere. I certainly didn’t manage to parse everything and I wasn’t entirely happy with some of the clues although the blog helped in retrospect.
Tomorrow is another day.
Thanks Brummie
THE MOB – THEM (other people) OB (died) with an extended def.
Ob = Died, Is that OB referring to Obituary? I have a list of Abbreviations and OB wasn’t on ther, so just wondering!
I’ve never heard of paper tiger. Might use it in my everyday vocab now though, very nice; very hard, but very nice.
22 Singular doctrine that does away with rate reversal at heart of economic policy (6)
MONISM – MON[etar]ISM (does away with rate reversal at heart of economic policy)
Not quite understanding this ?
RedSoules: “Ob” is related to Obituary, but more specifically is an abbreviation of the Latin obiit meaning “[he or she] died”. It is (or was) used on tombstones and memorials – perhaps also in obituaries!
Monetarism is a school of thought in economics, notably favoured by Margaret Thatcher among others. Remove ETAR, which is a reversal of RATE, and you get Monism, “the philosophical view that a variety of existing things can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance” (my emphasis).
Andrew
Brilliant answer my friend thanks alot very informative, much appreciated.
I’ll have to re-visit latin phrases and vocab so i don’t get caught out again!
Troll. Let’s see who (apart from me on this one very sad occasion) feeds it.
Some great (THE MOB, APPEARANCE, WOLF and MUTTON), some a little weak (EPIC FILM), some posters doing their usual thing on here; too hot to argue.
CHLOASMA: every day is a learning day. I guess sometimes, when the setter has completed every clue but one, then needs must. At least the wordplay was clear.
Thanks all
Enjoyable, Last in was imports.
Re: chloasma, it is a fruitless activity deciding whether your own restricted vocabulary should be applied to the whole world!
That’s ridiculous, RC.
To you hh, not to me!
Thanks Brummie and Gaufrid
Only got to this one early this week and only checked it today.
Like Brummie’s puzzles – they are generally scary for a start but fall away after a bit of work. Personally don’t have a problem with the ‘obscure’ – the new learnings of words, places or events is one of my drivers for doing these things.
As others have said, the long clues were not all that hard to get the definitions (the parsing took a little longer) and that did open up the whole puzzle quite a bit.
Agree with Puzzled@22’s treatment of the wordplay of ‘offensive terms’ – which was one of my last in along with HELLESPONT and PRESTO.
I only get the Guardian Weekly and that’s the only puzzle I do each week. This may be the first puzzle of Brummie’s that I have finished – so I was very happy.
I do check in here occasionally and very much enjoy the explanations.