Thanks to Vlad – not a write-in for me. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
There are quite a few references to pictures/paintings, but I can’t think of a theme as such.
Across
1 See 10
5 Thinks like detective finally cracking problems (7)
ASSUMES : AS(like/similar to, “don’t do as we do”) + [last letter of(… finally) “detective” contained in(cracking) SUMS(arithmetical problems).
9 ‘Out!’ Eric is exposing body parts (5)
UTERI : Hidden in(… is exposing) “‘Out!’ Eric“.
10,1 Geezer half-cut, but right price negotiated, which takes everything into consideration (3,6,7)
THE BIGGER PICTURE : Anagram of(… negotiated) [1st 3 letters of 6(… half-cut) “Geezer” + BUT RIGHT PRICE].
11 Head ignored what’s naturally said about place being discreet (10)
DIPLOMATIC : 1st letter of(Head) deleted from(ignored) “idiomatic”(what’s naturally said/describing the language form spoken in a particular area that comes naturally to the speakers, such as a dialect) containing(about) PL(abbrev. for “Place” as with building addresses).
12 Band of light finally disappearing (4)
TORC : “torch”(a light/a flashlight) minus its last letter(finally disappearing).
14 Note he’s showing everything current inside, but he doesn’t do 26 16s (11)
MINIATURIST : MI(syllable representing one of the notes in the musical sol-fa scale) + NATURIST(he or she who’s showing everything in a nudist camp) containing(… inside) I(symbol for electrical current in physics).
Defn: An artist who doesn’t do/paint great(answer to 26across)/large paintings(plural of answer to 16down), but small ones.
18 Peers briefly stand up to Conservative nonsense (11)
ARISTOCRATS : “arise”(to stand up) minus its last letter(briefly …) + TO + C(abbrev. for a “Conservative” eg. an election candidate) + RATS!(nonsense!/an exclamation of rejection/scorn).
21 Long-distance runner in Spain with nothing on (4)
NILE : E(abbrev. for Spain) placed after(with … on) NIL(nothing/0).
Defn: A long one that runs/flows.
22 When to expect a nasty shock? (3,4,3)
BAD HAIR DAY : Cryptic defn: A time period when your shock of hair looks bad/nasty.
25 Puerile comments about sex incredibly asinine (9)
INANITIES : IT(euphemism for sex/intercourse, as in “they were caught at it) contained in(about …) anagram of(incredibly) ASININE.
26 Marvellous young environmentalist’s moving article (5)
GREAT : GRETA(Thunberg, Swedish teenage/young environmental activist) with “A”(an article in grammar) changing its position in the word(moving …).
27 Divine intervention by king in rejected plague story (7)
GODLIKE : K(abbrev. for “king”) contained in(intervention by … in) [reversal of(rejected) DOG(to plague/to follow closely and persistently) + LIE(a story/a fabrication)].
28 Possible you are getting picked up for nothing — tough! (7)
DURABLE : “doable”(possible/feasible) with homophones, respectively, of(… getting picked up) [“you” “are“] replacing(for) “o”(letter representing 0/nothing).
Down
1 Repeatedly attacks number of French in schools (6)
POUNDS : UN(French for the number 1) contained in(in) PODS(schools of whales and other marine animals).
2 Bloke describing sweetheart — old and trashy, but affordable! (6)
CHEAPO : CHAP(a bloke/a guy) containing(describing) middle leter of(…heart) “sweet” + O(abbrev. for “old”).
3 Further education class on computer work — why it’s monotonous (10)
UNIFORMITY : UNI(short for “university”/further education after leaving school) + FORM(a class/a group of students learning/being taught together in school) placed above(on, in a down clue) IT(abbrev. for “information technology”/computer work) + Y(abbrev. for “why” in text messaging).
4 Start off following artist over (5)
EXTRA : 1st letter(Start) deleted from(off) “next”(the one following) + RA(abbrev. for “Royal Academician”, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts/an artist).
5 States things are breaking in camera shot (9)
AMERICANA : A(abbrev. for “are”, an area equivalent to 100 square metres) contained in(breaking) anagram of(… shot) IN CAMERA.
Defn: Things/collectibles from the United States.
6 Parking in wrong drive (4)
SPIN : P(abbrev. for “parking”) contained in(in) SIN(a wrong/an offence) .
Defn: …, a short one in a car, as “let’s go for a spin in my new wheels”)..
7 End up taking original along — some painters like it (8)
MAGNOLIA : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) AIM(an end/an objective) containing(taking) anagram of(original – Surely an unusual/original anagram indicator; or am I missing something) ALONG.
Defn: …, the colour, that is.
8 Agreed to keep one pet meerkat? (8)
SURICATE : SURE(agreed/an expression of assent as in “Please do this” “Sure”) containing(to keep) [I(Roman numeral for “one”) + CAT(an example of a pet).
Defn: … by its native South African name.
13 He’s good at drawing intimate mounting — hang about! (10)
GUNSLINGER : Reversal of(… mounting, in a down clue) SNUG(intimate/close together) + LINGER(to hang about/loiter around).
Defn: …/unholstering his pistol, in the Wild West.
15 Ancient queen initially misrepresented as one with a smooth skin (9)
NECTARINE : Anagram of(… misrepresented) [ANCIENT + ER(abbrev. for /initially, “Elizabeth Regina”, the Queen)].
Defn: A variety of peach, with a smooth skin.
16 One eager to go outside is putting coat on (8)
PAINTING : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(… to go outside) PANTING(eager/longing for or to do).
Defn: …, a coat of paint, that is.
17 14, bad one, employed by firm (8)
HILLIARD : [ILL(bad/unwell) + I(Roman numeral for “one”)] contained in(employed by) HARD(firm/unyielding).
Answer: …, Nicholas, painter of Elizabethan England.
The artist’s works: Himself and his Queen:
19 Brave New World’s ending welcomed, perhaps wrongly (6)
ADVERB : Anagram of(… New) BRAVE containing(… welcomed) last letter of(…’s ending) “World“.
Defn: An example of which/perhaps is “wrongly”.
20 Coming over, go into wood for plant (6)
MYRTLE : Reversal of(Coming over, in a down clue) [TRY(a go/an attempt) contained in(into) ELM(wood from the elm tree)].
23 Strictly orthodox Jew can prove who he is (5)
HASID : [HAS ID](possesses papers/etc to identify/prove who he is).
24 Vital leak announced — one can’t take off (4)
KIWI : Homophone of(… announced) [“key”(vital/essential) + “wee”(to take a leak/to have a pee)].
Defn: …, a flightless bird, that is.
Back in the day, a Friday puzzle was expected to be tough, but no such logic applies now, so this was a welcome surprise. I will admit to using a few shortcuts and parsing retrospectively, but this is a fine puzzle.
Thabks to Vlad and scchya
Thanks for parsing of GRETA/GREAT-GREAT PUZZLE -no surprise from JT
Apologies for misspelling scchua – this site is now banned by my office proxy so I had to comment on the phone, and I can’t see what I am typing in the lower part of the box.
Some puzzles are write-ins. Some are like peeling an onion, with each layer revealing the next. This was more like peeling a coconut with my fingernails. Everything fair and above board but nothing easy. A great work-out and I thought “hilliard” a gem of a clue – no expectation you’d know the name but totally gettable from wordplay and crossers with certainty you’d get it right.
I thought a couple were on the border (idiomatic -> diomatic) and “er” mixed in with the anagram fodder but they were just very hard not impossible or unfair.
A nice one for scchua to illustrate – thank you – and thanks Vlad for a really tough Friday.
Thanks both. Are you using a non-standard font, scchua?
{is it just me, or is there some pink visible through the Boris thatch since his brush with Covid?}
Phew, bit of a workout. Staring blankly with a dozen or so in, forced to grind the 10,1 ana, which fell out ok but didn’t help a lot. Headless idiomatic in 11ac was clever, as was 14ac..I mean it’s Vlad, so expect gnarly, ie ‘not great’ suggesting small, miniature. Ditto 16d, one=i [with] eager/panting to go outside it; knew the answer early, but thick about the parse…how many Vlads do I have to do to wake up! Ho hum, all part of the fun, best one of the week. I too wasn’t sure how the ‘a’ of the ‘along’ got into posi for magnolia, but it seems ‘original’ is an anagrind, as you say scchua. So thanks, and thanks Vlad for the chewy workout.
I found this tough, but I got there. After the first pass, all I had was GREAT. Slowly the SE filled, then the NW, even more slowly the NE, and finally the last bit – definitely a game of four quarters for me (like Aussie Rules). Although everything went in eventually, I was frustrated by entering something after a bit of the wordplay and/or a hint of a definition brought a word to mind that fitted, and sort-of, maybe at a stretch parsed – not the ‘aha – it must be that’ of a tough but clear parsing which is for me the joy of cryptics. So I used the check button quite a bit – I like to avoid it altogether. As TheZed said – nothing was easy. Thanks for the challenge, Vlad, and the elucidation for some I never did parse, scchua.
Tricky but enjoyable. There was a fair bit of solve and parse later for me in this puzzle. Needed some help from google to parse.
Favourite: GUNSLINGER
New: SURICATE, TORC, HILLIARD
Failed: KIWI
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Thanks for the blog, scchua.
I agree with all of TheZed’s first paragraph @4 – beautifully put! [I did know Hilliard – but for some reason I had the idea he was spelt Hillyard.]
Many thanks, Vlad – super puzzle.
Cracking stuff! Is there something mildly ironic going on with the juxtaposition of THE BIGGER PICTURE and MINIATURIST perhaps?
TORC was my favourite.
…oh, and when, O when, will I learn the A = are gag?
Generally speaking great fun. I particularly enjoyed 16d and 24d. One small moan in respect of 3 down. ‘Uni’ is typically a place of Higher Education as opposed to Further Education. The latter, what happens in FE Colleges, is predominantly sub-degree level.
Otherwise, many thanks to Vlad and Scchua
Shirl@5, yes. I’ve switched to a different computer for my last blog and this one. The font on the ViewPost screen somehow comes out different from the EditPost screen. Any advice please?
After PANTING and ADVERB went in I found myself muttering “This a test”, “A real test boss” and was transported back to the joys of this classic Graham Taylor documentary
I should warn those of a delicate disposition that it contains swearing and scenes of painfully inept football management
Fabulous fun (the crossword)
Great work Vlad & Scchua – cheers
A truly challenging and enjoyable puzzle to round off a mediocre week. At first I found it quite difficult to get a significant foothold on the grid, but once established the the solutions flowed naturally. Not much for the parsing-police to run amok with, I suspect, but then, I could be wrong ……
Great puzzle – strangely, I got stuck on NECTARINE. Loved MINIATURIST and GUNSLINGER in particular. Many thanks to V & s.
I remain to be convinced that ‘rats!’ is used as a synonym for ‘nonsense!’ rather than an expression of disappointment.
A proper work-out: many thanks to Vlad and scchua. I don’t remember ever spending so long on a solve, but all the more enjoyable for that. I particularly enjoyed the puns.
Thanks Vlad and scchua
UTERI was FOI, then POUNDS, but only very tentatively as I thought the definition was rather loose. I didn’t parse several – thanks scchua. I didn’t know SURICATE, but it was pretty clearly clued.
Favourites BAD HAIR DAY, GUNSLINGER, and ADVERB.
I thought the DOG in 27a was a (rather GKy) reference to the Richard Adams book The Plague Dogs.
Parts of this were good fun – especially BAD HAIR DAY, GUNSLINGER and HILLIARD.
Thanks Vlad and Scchua.
Having never previously had occasion to refer to more than one uterus, 9a took longer than it should, but, should the need ever arise, I shall henceforth confidently say “humeri” and, of course, “ani”…
Unlike others, I found this oddly straightforward for a Vlad with nothing to cause pause (a reflection of his great clueing rather than my ability I hasten to add). And what a puzzle! Packed with fun. So many favourites included: DURABLE, GREAT, SPIN, GUNSLINGER, BAD HAIR DAY (though rung bells?), ADVERB, KIWI, MINIATURIST with my standout favourite the superb ARISTOCRATS.
Fantastic Friday fun.
Many thanks to Vlad.
And thanks to Scchua – I enjoyed your choice of pictures!
I had a bit of a BAD HAIR DAY with this one. Liberal use of word searches to try to make sense of it. Got there in the end with TORC, SURICATE and HILLIARD unknown.
I don’t really understand why some painters like MAGNOLIA – seems rather vague to me but no doubt I’m missing something (like screws.)
The Guardian online is also showing crossword 1,073 for today – a Matilda with the date of 11 Sep 1933 (sic) – oops!
Thanks Vlad for the torture and scchua for making sense of it.
A delicious offering to be slowly savored, and it was slow! I was on the verge of despair several times, but each answer seemed to provide just enough of a boost to get to the next. Among many ‘aha’ moments, MINIATURIST, NILE, and ADVERB stood out for me. All was clear and fair in the end, though I had to come here for the parsing of DIPLOMATIC and DURABLE. Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
I wonder if anyone else tried tape(r) for 12a?
Very enjoyable, thanks Vlad. Took me a while to get going but it just needed a bit of patience. I thought GUNSLINGER and HILLIARD both excellent. Scchua, clever of you to position the picture of our esteemed PM to illustrate both BAD HAIR DAY and INANITIES.
This was indeed difficult but I thought it was great. 6d SPIN, 23d HASID and 24d KIWI were all brilliant in their simplicity of construction (I don’t mean they were easy to get). I loved the very clever misdirection of 13d GUNSLINGER, where, after getting some of the art-related answers, the “drawing” turned out to be something totally different!
I didn’t have a problem with “original” as an anagram indicator (in 7d MAGNOLIA) – as in an original arrangement. (Isn’t it interesting that “original” can have two almost opposite connotations: “the original version” / “an original interpretation”?)
My one quibble was that mentioned by maarvarq @17 (re 18a ARISTOCRATS). “Rats!” is an expression of annoyance or frustration. I can’t imagine a context where it is used to mean “nonsense”.
Many thanks Vlad and scchua.
@17 & @26 ‘Mr. Appin concluded his remarkable statement in a voice which he strove to divest of a triumphant inflection. No one said “Rats,” though Clovis’s lips moved in a monosyllabic contortion which probably invoked those rodents of disbelief.’
Tobermory by Saki
What a treat – definitely prizeworthy. Faves were MINIATURIST (for the moment he’s showing everything hove into view) ADVERB (for its sheer fiendishnes) and ARISTOCRATS (for the surface – alas all too real for the next 4.5 years).
Thanks to Vlad for a real tussle and scchua for the explication and the pics of Bozo and your girlfriend once again.
Thanks for parsing DIPLOMATIC – don’t think I would ever have sussed that. Parsed lots of these in retrospect and needed Google for the meerkat. Pretty hard going but enjoyable.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua.
This was a real toughie, but an enjoyable one.
Wellbeck @ 20 – I think that collections of uteruses – which is a much preferable plural – are only found in crosswordland.
There was a 17dn exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last year, which I missed as it was just before my cataract operations, and I would not have been able to see the miniatures properly.
I guess that most of us are having continuous 22ac’s just now: I certainly am. And I imagine that if you were subject to the attentions of the original Vlad, you would be having one too…
PS: I don’t think I have ever met the a=are abbreviation: didn’t know such a measurement existed, let alone that it had an abbreviation.
gladys@31, you may be familiar with “hectare” which is 100 ares (careful how you pronounce the latter).
Matthew @27: fair enough, thank you. Though I suspect it’s dated/rare. But then again so are “pi” for “religious” and various others in crosswordland!
I was pleased with myself for “solving” 13d with ‘outswinger’ which I thought was a particularly fine answer for an excellent ‘He’s good at drawing’ definition. Only problem was it stubbornly refused to parse and so meant another Vlad DNF.
Satisfied though with what I could get of the many difficult ones and not unhappy to lose out in the end.
Thanks to Vlad and scchua
That was tough! Several remained unparsed before I came here.
Re Welbeck@20 and Marienkaefer @30. I have often heard and used uteri and never come across the over-sibilant “uteruses”. Time and place, I suppose.
Thanks to scchua for the enlightenment and to Vlad for the challenge.
Ground out. Gave up worrying about parsings in the end and was just pleased to find the likes of NECTARINE and DIPLOMATIC that could roughly be said to have a def somewhere in the clue.
Bit of a confession about HILLIARD. When solved, as I often do with new words, I Googled to check and there he was, proudly defined as a MINIATURIST. I had bits of 14 and all of a sudden I had all of it. Not my fault guv.
Consider the words diarrhea, menorrhea, gonorrhea, etc. – I know, US spellings, but this is a Vlad so follow me here – what they all refer to, rather unappealingly, is things emanating from the body, and they all have the Greek suffix meaning “flow”. If we take that to mean “vital leak”, then 24d has to be RHEA, a flightless bird! Too bad.
Me @ 35 occasionally, rather than often, to be honest.
Tricky one for me, and I gave up on the last half-dozen or so. I guess I didn’t have the patience after a more-Guardian-than-usual week. Either that or I filled in KIWI on the first pass and spent twenty minutes giggling about it like a small boy.
I’m not a big fan of why=Y, you are=UR. Maybe once in a puzzle but not twice. We’re all lovers of language, aren’t we? Let’s not succumb to too much textspeak.
Well, this was tough. Did not finish, what with waiting for the last letter of 12a (which never came) to confirm SURICATE and not recognising “original” as an anagrind, leaving a big hole in the NE. Very hard work, and not many smiles raised. Couldn’t parse several, so thanks to Scchua for the blog.
I think I got more enjoyment from Dr W’s explication of RHEA (@37) and Boffo’s giggle-athon @39 than I did from the crossword.
Sorry, Vlad, for being such a grouch.
Very nearly got there (which would be an achievement for me versus Vlad), but SURICATE defeated me, and a few others I guessed correctly but couldn’t parse. Thanks Vlad for the enjoyable exercise and sschua for the explanations.
Robi @22, I don’t think anyone has answered your question – apologies if someone did and I’ve missed it. “Magnolia” is the name of a paint colour (pale peachy-cream) that is very often used in interior decoration – perhaps so often that it’s become a bit of a cliché. So some painters (interior decorators) like it, but others think it’s a bit boring.
Thanks Vlad and scchua
Magnolia is, or certainly was, the shade of choice for housebuilders for either single houses or entire estates, because it’s neutral and nowhere near as harsh as white, while costing the same. The painters may or may not have liked it, but the developers certainly did.
Bofoo @39 While I agree generally about overuse of techniques, note that here Vlad explicitly used “picked up” to indicate the homophone “UR” so really only “Y” was a text-speak substitution.
Dr. WhatsOn @37 Thank you for that. I tried to squeeze “great auk” in but alas it would neither fit nor parse…
This took me a long, long time to complete. But I enjoyed it. I do think that to use “why”=Y the setter should have added some indicator to qualify the equation.
Magnolia still is the choice for internal walls of places like community centres, as it is neutral. Try to get a committee to choose a colour …
Has anyone else noticed that the ‘Cryptic’ link on the Grauniad Website links both to this tough puzzle by Vlad but also a write in by Matilda. Is this a link error?
As… I see it is today’s Quiptic, from the numbering, which has been put in the wrong place.
[bodycheetah@14 – coincidence or what? The latest marvelous Squires cartoon is on the self-same painful subject! Turnip Taylor’s tactical nous exemplified by when in doubt deploy Carlton Palmer!]
I needed to come back to this, and found the SW corner hard to winkle out. Plenty to enjoy, tough today, I thought
Boffo @39: Loved your comment, another KIWI giggler here. Re your admirable reluctance to adopt txtspeak, it might be worth recalling that the language morphs continuously. I wonder, for instance, if there was a hue and cry when people began shortening words with an apostrophe such as in can’t and won’t. Early editions pf P G Wodehouse for instance insisted on 2 apostrophes in words such as sha’n’t.
Quirister @41; thanks for that – I thought that was probably what was intended, although there are quite a few other ‘popular’ paint shades.
Hornbeam @46; see me @22
How funny that some got KIWI easily: we bunged in WIKI at the death so dnf. Otherwise a lovely testing puzzle by a great setter, and thanks to scchua for the illuminating blog.
There were several parsings I failed to get but should have managed – must try harder, but I doubt I would ever have parsed DIPLOMATIC. GREAT first in and EXTRA last. I enjoyed the challenge but it was tough. Didn’t know SURICATE. Is it ‘sir’icate or ‘shore’icate’? I enjoyed 22a – our PM certainly supplies plenty of examples. Thanks Vlad and scchua.
There are now two entries on the G website for today’s puzzle: Vlad’s, and also puzzle no. 1073 set by Matilda and dated 11th Sept 1933. Weird.
drofle @55
Someone earlier (I forget who) suggested that the Matilda is in fact next Monday’s Quiptic. This sort of thing has happened before – not long ago, in fact.
Thanks, muffin. I’ve never done a Quiptic so I printed it out and had a go. Even easier than Mondays here.
Great puzzle with plenty to chew on. Vlad produces some scintillating surfaces and those for GREAT, CHEAPO, GUNSLINGER and ADVERB stood out for me. I also wondered about rats for nonsense but the Saki quote nicely sorts that out (thanks, Matthew @27). Not sure why there is a question mark in the SURICATE clue – Wiki seems to suggest that they’re simply synonymous, whereas Vlad’s implying ones’s a subset of the other.
Parsings all made sense in the end, but I forgot the Are as a unit of area, and thought it was textspeak for R and that the setter had made a mistake (apologies, Vlad – should have known better). Also had (now inexplicable) trouble parsing PAINTING.
Great workout and a fitting tune-up for the Prize. Thanks, V and s. Loved the suitably inane Boris shot.
drofle @57
The Quiptic is often more fun than the Monday Cyptic. Keep an eye open for ones by Matilda, and also Carpathian. Some of the regular setters of Quiptics have been doing Cryptics over the last year or two.
You might understand the recurrent comment on the Moday Cryptic “easier than the Quiptic” now!
@17 & @39: I agree that the end of ARISTOCRATS is slightly dubious (“Snoopy, I think you’ve caught bubonic plague.” “Rats!”) and I too dislike the laziness of text abbreviations, but then again they are an example of the extra scope afforded to setters by new technology – it all adds to the fun and the challenge. SURICATE was new to me. A tough but excellent puzzle overall.
Robi @22 – “Thanks Vlad for the torture and scchua for making sense of it” – my feelings entirely. Most enjoyable one of the week.
11ac is borderline acceptable, I think, but on the right side of the border.
Like many I found this tough but kept going and then had a break with TORC SURICATE and KIWI still left to do. MrsW had a look and wrote in KIWI straightaway (I too giggled). I then thought of SURE for AGREED and googled SURICATE which brought a smug grin to my face, and then TORC was loi. Favourites have been mentioned several times – MINIATURIST BAD HAIR DAY GUNSLINGER KIWI – some great surfaces. I didn’t parse DIPLOMATIC or
NECTARINE so thanks to scchua for those and the illustrations and to Vlad for an excellent puzzle.
Simply wonderful (with, for me, a déjà vu moment in one of the Down clues).
Sil above – intriguing – not the lovely MAGNOLIA by Mr so laid back he’s horizontal JJCale by any chance?
I was going to post a link earlier but only had my phone.
Is it me or does 15D contravene accepted wordplay – the letters of the anagram are not in the clue – you need to do wordplay to find the letters to then put in the anagram – in this clue maybe not such a big deal – but this seems like the thin end of a wedge – have I missed something – I really don’t ever remember this being acceptable before – the letters of am anagram are always in the clue – sometimes they are first letters or last letters of words alluded to appropriately – but never needing additional intrepretation…
DodgyProf @65 A much-debated topic! It has certainly been the case for a while that anagrams can include additional letters (such as yesterday, a letter swap indicated by words) or common single letter abbreviations such as “r” for king/queen. More recently a number of clues have also included two letter initialisms (such as ER here) where those are common and relatively obvious. Over the top would be an anagram of a synonym (for most people) but this kind of problem has crept in at the very hard end of acceptable for most.
Hi all and thanks Scchua for the parsing.
Clearly as usual Vlad too tough for me, but that’s fine, different levels for different people!
Can someone explain to me what the rules are for what can be an anagrind? I can see how a word that is a synonym for:
Mixed up / changed
Wrong
works to imply the word is a different order of letters…are there other types? How is negotiated an anagrind? Is it meant to be a synonym for changed?
Thanks to scchua and Vlad
I love a Vlad as much as the next man and this was studded with gems, but I can’t see “incredibly” as an anagrind, or “what’s naturally said” as an adjective.
Many thanks to scchua for his colourful blog and to all who commented. Agree with Wiggers@25 re the felicitous placement of our dear leader’s photo. Must have been a toss-up between him and Trump.
Dansar: can’t see the problem: the wording was idiomatic/what’s naturally said; incredibly, amazingly, surprisingly.
I was defeated by TORC. I sometimes wonder whether my GK is up to this…
Unless I’ve missed something, no-one has queried ‘peers’ as a definition of ARISTOCRATS. Not much overlap between the two these days.
Thanks for a tricky but very rewarding workout, which was only a DNF because I didn’t think of KIWI.
Stuart @67. A negotiation is a process in which each party has to be prepared to concede a change. As soon as I read the clue I knew that negotiated was the anagrind.
Dansar @68. If asinine turns up as INAN__IES, isn’t that incredible? (I’m pretty pissed off about IT being clued as sex for the umpteen millionth time, but that’s a different complaint.)
Thanks to Vlad for dropping in.
Vlad @69 I only know “incredibly” as “not believably” – the meaning I grew up with, or “very”, the usual meaning these days, but I concede that “surprisingly” etc are plausible.
I still can’t see “what’s naturally said” as “idiomatic” though, only as “idiom”. Unless I am required to edit “what’s” to “what means”.
Utterly defeated by misspelling miniaturist,,..even though I got Hilliard. Sigh
I blithely printed the Mathilda and did it pretty quickly. It was only later that I realised there was a Vlad about and,boy,was it different! Didn’t finish until this morning.
Only point I’d make relates to 3dn- University education is Higher not Further education so the UNI bit is wrong!
Peter: I do appreciate the distinction but crossword language doesn’t always have to be literal and, in general terms, going to university does further your education.
I thought the same thing as DodgyProf @65: 15dn seems to me to be an example of the supposedly forbidden indirect anagram. Of course, ER for queen is one of the most standard substitutions in crosswords, so the clue is quite gettable despite the violation of the rules.
I needed help explaining the seemingly missing A in AMERICANA. I’m sure I’ve seen are = A before, but I’d forgotten it. And I didn’t know why MAGNOLIA was defined as it was until I read the comments here. i also wondered about RATS = NONSENSE. The Saki quote is indeed an example. It looks to be quite dated slang, but there are plenty of other dated expressions found in crosswords, so mustn’t grumble.
I found this puzzle difficult — my first pass through the across clues yielded precisely nothing. But it was very satisfying as it gradually yielded (well, except for TORC, which unfortunately defeated me).
Many of these clues were so elegantly and cleverly constructed that I managed to get a full TWO right on several attempts!
Having resigned myself to revealing the rest I enjoyed the skill of the setting and learning a few things on the way but am now hoping to avoid serious head injury and noise complaints as I put several extra dents in my hi-hat. I haven’t got a tea tray.
One of those puzzles enjoyed in spite of my shockingly exposed ignorance!
Thanks Vlad and thanks Scchua for shining a torch through my ears! 🙂
Hi. Late here. If anyone sees this, can you please explain what definition of ‘describe’ makes it an allowable containment indicator. I know you can ‘describe an arc’ but that’s just drawing an arc. Thanks for puzzle btw. Too good for me.
RobertV @79 – I struggled on quite a few of these but eventually got 2D without really thinking about describe = contain (must have seen it before enough times to register subconsciously). Now I think about it properly I am tending to agree with you. Could we say that describing an arc is equivalent to selecting a set of points contained by a curve? I still don’t think that does the job required. There are plenty of people on here with far sharper brains / more encyclopaedic knowledge of crossword lore than me and hopefully one of them will respond OR next time we see this device you or I could raise the point again and hope for some clarity! Thanks Vlad for a real test, have enjoyed reading about Hilliard, and scchua for sorting it all out for me, and teaching me that are = a – have heard of hectares but never thought to zoom in!
Gazzh@80. Just checked in to see if anyone responded to my comment @79. Thank you for replying. I too have often seen describe used as a containment indicator and accepted it. I’ll do as you have suggested and bring it up more quickly next time. Thanks again.