Struggled to finish this, with several left unparsed until the end – I still can’t work out 16dn (Edit: thanks PGreen). Favourites 13ac and 8dn. Thanks, Screw.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TIDDLIER | After more shots, touring international’s pathetic catch (8) |
| =more tiddly/drunk. TIDDLER=”pathetic catch” around I[nternational] | ||
| 5 | ICE CAP | One cold to walk over? (3,3) |
| &lit definition – I=”One”, plus C[old], plus reversal/”over” of PACE=”walk” | ||
| 9 | WARMISH | How arm is holding bags quite close (7) |
| warm=close when guessing e.g. a location, as opposed to cold=not close. Hidden in [Ho]W ARM IS H[olding] | ||
| 10 | TOPMAST | Part of ship‘s history after 12 boards (7) |
| TOAST=”history”, as in ‘you’re toast!’ / ‘you’re history!’, around PM=”after 12″ | ||
| 11 | CIVIC | Public unmoved by direction of study (5) |
| a palindrome i.e. “unmoved by direction of study” | ||
| 12 | BUNFIGHTS | More than one spat feathers, initially, taking chaotic night bus to house (9) |
| F[eathers], housed by (night bus)* | ||
| 13 | FOR THE RECORD | To put things straight on before my daughter (3,3,6) |
| FORTH=”on”, plus ERE=”before”, plus COR=”my!”, plus D[aughter] | ||
| 17 | ARACHNOPHOBE | Web designer gives one a turn (12) |
| cryptic definition – with “Web designer”=spider | ||
| 20 | PER CAPITA | A head cold — and a paper it spoilt (3,6) |
| (c[old] a paper it)* | ||
| 22 | WINCE | About to suffer from alcohol consumption, seeing shrink (5) |
| C[irca]=”About”, consumed by WINE=”alcohol” | ||
| 23 | COUPLET | Lines of one metre given minor revolution! (7) |
| COUP=”revolution”, with the diminutive suffix -LET, so “minor” | ||
| 24 | TROUSER | Pocket rocket’s last one to get up (7) |
| =to appropriate money etc. [rocke]T, plus ROUSER=”one to get up” | ||
| 25 | ONSITE | Model’s only clothing at the scene (2-4) |
| SIT=”Model”, with ONE=”only” clothing it | ||
| 26 | ODDMENTS | Out there, soldiers empty this for scraps (8) |
| ODD=”Out there”, plus MEN=”soldiers”, plus an empty T[hi]S | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | THWACK | Slap the bonkers (not their bottoms!) (6) |
| TH[e] plus WACK[y]=bonkers, without their bottoms | ||
| 2 | DERIVE | Gain initiative, when storing energy (6) |
| DRIVE=”initiative”, storing E[nergy] | ||
| 3 | LOINCLOTH | Turned to “on”, chill gear downstairs (9) |
| (to on chill)* | ||
| 4 | EXHIBITIONIST | Flash fan — is it in the box I packed up? (13) |
| =a fan of flashing. (is it in the box I)* | ||
| 6 | CAPRI | Island‘s Casanova to start misleading date (5) |
| an Italian island. C[asanova], plus APRI=APR[il] 1, or April the 1st=April Fool’s Day=”misleading date” | ||
| 7 | COATHOOK | C-word looks extremely inadequate — one’s for hanging! (8) |
| C, plus OATH=”word”, plus [l]OOK[s] without its extremes | ||
| 8 | PUT ASIDE | To save editor, I took notice after raise (3,5) |
| ED[itor], plus I, plus SAT UP=”took notice”, all reversed/”after raise” | ||
| 10 | TENDERHEARTED | Kind of present her date ordered (13) |
| TENDER=”present” or offer a proposal, plus (her date)* | ||
| 14 | ELBOW ROOM | In Barcelona, the head bouncer marks space (5,4) |
| EL=”In Barcelona, the”, plus BOW=”head” of a ship, plus ROO=kangaroo=”bouncer”, plus M[arks] | ||
| 15 | GAZPACHO | Briefly contemplate a chop reserved for Spaniard’s meal (8) |
| GAZ[e]=”Briefly contemplate”, plus (a chop)* re-served | ||
| 16 | HAIRCUTS | Stocked by seafront supermarkets, they’re top styles (8) |
| Edit thanks to PGreen – [se]afro[nt] and [su]perm[arkets] both stock haircuts |
||
| 18 | UNISON | Peacekeeping force works in harmony (6) |
| U[nited] N[ations]=”Peacekeeping force”, plus IS ON=”works” | ||
| 19 | DES RES | Looser sediment holds up enticing digs (3,3) |
| =desirable residence. Hidden reversed/”holds up” in [Loo]SER SED[iment] | ||
| 21 | ALLOT | Share out scores in audition (5) |
| sounds like ‘a lot’ =”scores in audition“ | ||
Is a BUNFIGHT a spat? I thought it was a party. No idea about HAIRCUTS either.
RE 16d – both seafront and supermarkets ‘stock’/contain haircuts/styles ie. ‘afro’ & ‘perm’.
Brilliant crossword IMO – thanks to Screw and manehi.
Thanks for the explanation, PGreen!
Thanks for the blog, manehi. I was foxed by HAIRCUTS, too, so thanks to PGreen for that – great clue! I won’t quibble that a perm isn’t a haircut but I agree with Jason about BUNFIGHT.
Many thanks, Screw – it was tough but very entertaining.
Many thanks, Screw and manehi – and PGreen for parsing 16D.
Re BUNFIGHTS, see http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bun2.htm
Several dictionaries give bunfight as party/function or argument.
eg. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bun-fight
Thanks PGreen for parsing of 16(great stuff) and thanks manehi-last of all thanks Screw.
This and IO made a brilliant pair. Stormy Wednesday?
Thanks, manehi.
Whilst I finished I was doubtful about several answers. It wasn’t an enjoyable time.
Some of the definitions I found wanting: TIDDLIER, ARACHNOPHOBE.
I wasn’t happy at first about TOAST = history, nor the apparently superfluous ‘s in “ship’s”, but I now see that as part of “is history” which redeems the TOAST.
Thanks for the explanation of HAIRCUTS PGreen. Whilst perm may be a style, it is not really a haircut, is it?
Sorry, Eileen,, we crossed in the composition.
Agreed that a BUNFIGHT is a party not an actual fight. Thanks for FOR THE RECORD and ELBOW ROOM, and thanks PGreen for HAIRCUTS. The first two of those come into my life’s-too-short category of laborious parsing: the last one is just very, very clever.
Lots of guess first and parse later for me: kudos to anyone who got all of these the “right way round”.
Rather preferred the blog to the puzzle on this occasion.
Don’t want to sound overly negative, there’s some clever stuff here. I loved COUPLET and the HAIRCUTS (although I failed to parse the latter) but there was rather too much of a strain elsewhere to make it enjoyable imho.
“Only” = “one”; & “out there” = “odd” are a couple of examples.
I also found some of the sentence surfaces a bit strained…”After more shots touring international’s pathetic catch”; “In Barcelona, the head bouncer marks space”; and for me the worst of all, “More than one spat feathers, initially, taking chaotic night bus to house”. To paraphrase a certain Mr Brooks, a US defence lawyer, I respectfully suggest that those sentences be taken outside and shot. It’s here if anyone’s interested.
Many thanks, Screw, nice week, all.
Well, thank heavens for the check button, today, or I would never have got anywhere!
Agree with the comments so far – one or two really clever clues, more than one or two that were too elliptical for their own good!
Thanks to setter and blogger!
Thanks manehi and Screw. I found this tough and a tad contrived but my estimation was improved after coming here.
Folk who did yesterday’s Brendan may be interested in the following Guardian letter on the answer to 5 ac COURAGE (I include it here because people will be more likely to see it):
Your crossword compiler “Brendan” (Cryptic No 26,898, 31 May) predicates a clue on the idea that “bottle” is cockney slang for courage: “Bottle, or something Dutchman can get from one (7)”. In fact, just as “loaf” (loaf of bread) means head, as in “use your loaf”, so “bottle” refers to something that rhymes only when you complete the phrase. The phrase in this case is “bottle and glass” and it rhymes with, er, arse. Cockneys wishing to avoid the Chaucerian vulgarity call an arse an “Aris”. This is not a misspelling of arse, like the American “ass”, but rhyming slang. Aris is short for Aristotle; Aristotle = bottle; bottle and glass = arse.
So “to lose your bottle” means to lose your arse or, vernacularly, to shit yourself. Someone who loses her bottle displays cowardice.
Rhyming slang is designed to be impenetrable by the uninitiate. It is not surprising that the uninitiate should guess “bottle” means courage. It sort of does; but only sort of. A person with “a lot of bottle” might not be brave at all (but might be Kim Kardashian).
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Mainly the error doesn’t matter. Mainly, in fact, it is desirable. The less the middle classes and the mockneys understand rhyming slang, the better it is doing its job. Cryptic crosswords, however, depend on the precision of the clue and the accuracy of the solver’s knowledge. Clues should not be accessible only to the equally ignorant, and it behoves erring crossword compilers to extract their loaves from their bottles with alacrity.
Keith Kirby
Llanwytherin, Monmouthshire
Thank you Screw, manehi and PGreen.
This was hard going. I parsed 5a as ICE “one cold” and CAP “to walk over”, but was suspicious as this is not Screw’s style. The parsing of TOPMAST and HAIRCUTS was beyond me.
cholecyst @13, that may be so, but “bottle” is given as British slang for “courage” by the Cambridge, Oxford and Collins dictionaries.
Cookie @15 – I’m not surprised (so does the BRB) but who is the final arbiter on words’ meaning? (Whoops, sorry, I don’t really want to resurrect that debate!)
I used the check button a lot for this puzzle as I was not on Screw’s wavelength at all. I failed to solve 7d and guessed a lot of answers – I could not parse 13a, 21d, 23a, 16d, 10a, 17a, 3d, 11a, 1a.
New for me were TROUSER = pocket or steal and DES RES.
My favourite was PUT ASIDE.
Thanks manehi and Screw
cholecyst @16, if bottle = courage in all these dictionaries, a setter has every right to use this meaning in a clue.
Hard work with almost nothing entered after the first couple of passes, though eventually managed to get there after spending goodness knows how long. I’m another who missed HAIRCUTS (great clue) and mis-parsed a few others including not getting TOAST for ‘history’ in TOPMAST. A good challenge which was satisfying to have finished, admittedly with a bit of frustration along the way. Favourites were LOINCLOTH, even if it was ‘just’ an anagram, and TIDDLIER.
Thanks to Screw and manehi.
Brilliant stuff from Screw, a bit too hard for me in places, I can see why I missed the parsing of HAIRCUTS, but if I’d seen it I would have loved it. Ticked TOPMAST, ARACHNOPHOBE, THWACK, LOINCLOTH and DES RES. The NW corner held out longest with TIDDLIER last in.
Thanks to Screw and manehi
This was a strange and mixed experience. In the time I had I completed all but two (1A and 1D), but having seen the answers I’m not at all sure I would have got them even with more time. I failed to parse a few clues (or at least not fully): 5A, 10A, 13A, 22A, 1D and 16D. Spat for bunfight is really stretching it, I thought, and the use of ‘packed up’, ‘over’ and ‘inadequate’ to indicate devices like anagram, reversal and removal (and there may have been other examples) rather took the shine off this very clever puzzle.
I admired some of the clues, though, especially 20A (PER CAPITA), 2D (DERIVE) and 8D (SET ASIDE). If it wasn’t for ‘spats’ in 12A (BUNFIGHTS) that would have been a favourite too.
Thanks anyway Screw, and thanks manehi for the plucky blog.
Great way to pass a pleasant sunny lunchtime. Thanks for the explanation of 16th. Tiddler last in. First in was the relatively easy 24th. Now for siesta time!
Blasted autocorrect! You know what I meant!
Started this at the dentist’s and preferred my experience in the chair. Too tough for me so I’m not a fair judge maybe – HAIRCUTS was my one official failure, but I needed help with TIDDLIER and TENDERHEARTED, and solving the likes of BUNFIGHTS akin to having teeth drawn.
I’m not totally unappreciative, eg I liked the ‘reserved’ anagrind at 15d.
We did this on a plane, so quite pleased to nearly complrte it (without parsing HAIRCUTS, of course). Only errot TIDDLIES – pathrtic catches, with “tiddles”=”shots” in tiddlywinks!
Well, a consensus (almost) seems to have been reached on this puzzle. It was rather too laboured to be truly enjoyable and the best clues-CAPRI, COUPLET,TIDDLIER we’re rather spoilt by the annoying ones- BUNFIIGHT,TOPMAST and HAIRCUT. There were a number parsed retrospectively and some, like the aforementioned HAIRCUT,that I couldn’t parse at all! I managed to avoid the check button but it was a near thing. Not the setter’s finest hour.
Still,thanks Screw.
Trailman @24
Like you, I really liked ‘reserved’ as an anagrind – I was careful not to include that among my minor gripes concerning anagram, reversal and removal indicators.
I’ve met ‘resort’ or ‘resorted’ a few times but never ‘reserved’ as far as I can remember.
14 ghastliest of the lot….among some tortured and tortuous stuff.
I don’t agree with ‘Keith Kirby’.
‘Aris’ = arse is one of those occasional ‘double bubble’ cockney slang formations, as Aris/ totle = bottle and bottle &/ glass = arse: but it’s only been arrived at due to the sonic similarity between the two bookend terms.
The origin of bottle = courage is straight pot valiance.
Alan Browne ’27 [and 21]
I rather liked ‘packed up’ as an anagram indicator: both Collins and Chambers give ‘break down’ as a definition. Collins has [‘of an engine, etc’].
Yes Eileen, but in this sense ‘pack up’ and ‘break down’ mean ‘stop working’ (‘fail to operate’ in Collins), not break up or shatter. ‘Break down’ can mean ‘crush’ or ‘separate into its elements’, but I’m sure you can’t use ‘pack up’ with this meaning. This is where a dictionary can be a blunt tool!
Thanks to Screw and manehi. I got to this puzzle very late and then had great trouble with it that led to heavy use of the check button. Some of my guesses worked out but I failed to parse a lot of them (e.g., I saw CIVIC as “public” but not the palindrome element and missed the April 1 part of CAPRI). I was stymied by most of the items already cited, though I did enjoy COUPLET and LOINCLOTH. This one was beyond me.
I haven’t been doing the puzzles lately – this was quite a hard one to return to! I was surprised by ARACHNOPHOBE not having two separate parts (definition plus cryptic bit), but all in all I thought it was great. Like others, I thought BUNFIGHT a bit odd and couldn’t parse HAIRCUTS. Many thanks to manehi and Screw.
More proof that our illustrious “editor” is still on his holliers! (Or is he just AWOL?)
This was too tough for me. I did get all the entries eventually, but like others here I had to use the Check button quite a few times and I missed part or all of the parsing of 10a, 13a, 14d and 16d. Some clues seem too contrived, 13a being a prime example, but I particularly liked ICE CAP, ARACHNOPHOBE and ODDMENTS.
Thanks, Screw and manehi.
I cannot see what the problem with BUNFIGHTS is as regards a “scrap” in a crossword clue, Collins is quite clear on the definition.
Sorry to come in so late.
I quite liked this puzzle, although there were several I couldn’t parse for the life of me.
Your explanation for TOPMAST 10a was much better than mine manehi; I thought it was loosely to do with history being about the PAST and couldn’t see what the 12 boards bit meant (in fact I still don’t get the significance of “boards”).
Like others I really liked HAIRCUTs 16d – so clever! – which I got without knowing why, just thought seafront supermarkets would sell HATS, which formed the outside letters.
Like some others, my favourites were 3d LOINCLOTHS and 17a ARACHNOPHOBE (so I disagree with folk like Dave@8 about the latter). Interesting how we see clues differently and have different likes and dislikes.
Have never heard the term DES RES 19d but got it from the crossers. You Brits have some very funny turns of phrase. I have enjoyed the “bottle” discussion a great deal.
Thanks to Screw and manehi.
Why do the best crosswords often receive the most moans here? Only HAIRCUTS was parsed post solve. In my opinion this was one of the best for some time; I thought it…
Beautiful!!
Finally, a puzzle worthy of that word. A delightful scale – one actually had to search out a toehold and the climb wasn’t the, increasingly common, easy trot to the finish.
It cannot be easy to compile a daily that offers some challenge without the need of any abstruse components.
This setter has become a favourite. I hope he ignores the negative (and, in my opinion, unjustifiable) ecomments and treats us to much more of the same. Personally, much as I admire this week’s previous setters I’m afraid I derive little pleasure from five minute solves.
Favourite – so many – but ARACHNOPHOBE just took the biscuit.
Not for the first – or even second – time I am bound to admit that one can’t beat a good Screw!
Thank you.
[cholecyst et al – Please do not comment on other puzzles. It is better to refer people to the other puzzle and add your comment to its blog – they never close! Maybe not in this case, but some folk don’t necessarily solve in order. They may save a favourite setter – particularly if they are too busy during week – and thoughtlessly giving clues and answers as you have – can ruin another’s enjoyment. I would suggest that users of this site do not get tempted into copying this bad behaviour]
Alan Browne @31, remember the song “Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag and smile, smile, smile”…
Thanks Screw and manehi
This one spilt over a couple of days and really set me back with the week’s puzzle allocation !! Enjoyed it a lot though – always find a lot more depth within the clues of this setter than with many others – and once you see through the trick, you often wonder why you found it so hard !
Unlike some, I was able to break into the grid OK with CAPRI jumping straight out at me with ICE CAP and GAZPACHO (not sure why this word is very familiar to me – have never even tried it !!) quickly following. It then slowed down so that each of the rest of the clues had to be mulled over and worked through to their end.
Finally got to that tricky NW corner to finish with THWACK (did have to look up for synonyms of ‘slap’ for this one), TIDDLIER and CIVIC (don’t know why I found this so tough) the last few in
Thanks Screw and manehi.
This required a huge effort to complete and I still didn’t properly parse TOPMAST, FOR THE RECORD, ODDMENTS, or HAIRCUTS.
Agree with William’s comments in general, but…..
On reflection this is a terrific puzzle. Yes, many of the surfaces are a bit clunky but that’s all part of the misdirection.
All fair!