Pasquale in gentle mood today, with almost no obscurities (for me, anyway: others may disagree). Mostly very straightforward clueing, with a couple of devices that have been round the block a few times. The strange grid means fewer clues than usual, so it was a very quick solve for me, but still fun. Thanks to Pasquale.
| Across | ||||||||
| 4. | COPING | Managing to be top (6) Double definition coping is a top layer of a brick wall, also seen in coping-stone |
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| 6. | MINISTRY | Short garments test out the cloth (8) MINIS (miniskirts) + TRY (test out); cloth as in man of the cloth |
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| 9. | RAT RUN | Greek character, sailor, about to cross river the quickest route? (3,3) R[iver] in NU (Greek letter) + TAR (sailor), all reversed |
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| 10. | STUMPING | Perplexing activity on the cricket field (8) Double definition |
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| 11. | PROPINQUITY | Support wickedness, bumping off one in proximity (11) PROP (support) + INIQUITY less the second I. The word reminds me of the quip nothing propinks like propinquity”, which (as I think I once knew but had forgotten) is said by Felix Leiter in the James Bond novel Diamonds are Forever |
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| 15. | CANTINA | Bar money in famous wedding location (7) TIN (money) in CANA (site of the wedding where Jesus turns water into wine in John 2) |
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| 17. | UNDERDO | Perform inadequately as less fancied competitor? Not good (7) UNDERDOG less |
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| 18. | KIDNEY STONE | Donkey isn’t moving with energy a hard problem (6,5) (DONKEY ISNT)* + E |
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| 22. | COURIERS | Messengers and companions wasting time (8) COURTIERS less T |
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| 23. | POLISH | Smooth language (6) Another (very familiar) double definition |
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| 24. | MALIGNER | A gremlin up in the air is a malicious type (8) (A GREMLIN)* – I saw the anagram almost at once, but wasnt sure it was right, asking myself is there such a word as malig-ner? Of course its actually one who maligns |
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| 25. | TOUGHS | Hooligans attempted to switch sides (6) SOUGHT (attempted) with the outer letters swapped |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | ANNULI | To cancel, one rings (6) ANNUL + I |
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| 2. | DISTRIBUTE | Broadcast from underworld with acclaim (10) DIS (Roman underworld) + TRIBUTE |
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| 3. | DISMAYED | Demoralised, like the Tories with Theresa gone? (8) DIS-MAY-ED, as the Tories were when Theresa May ceased to be leader and PM |
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| 4. | CARAPACE | Get cover quickly behind vehicle (8) CAR + APACE |
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| 5. | POT-BOUND | Like a plant in difficulty spots show this (3-5) POT is bound in sPOTs |
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| 7. | TWIT | Namely, loveless idiot (4) TO WIT less O (love) |
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| 8. | YOGA | Immature adult a Parisian lacking discipline (4) YOUNG A less UN (French a) |
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| 12. | QUANDARIES | When in Paris, stars will create difficult situations (10) QUAND (French when) + ARIES (constellation). Seems a bit strange to have Parisian/in Paris in consecutive clues |
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| 13. | DROOLING | Slobbering attracted Heather, it’s said (8) Homophone of drew ling |
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| 14. | JOSEPHUS | Jewish historian to tease our sort, penning record (8) EP (record) in JOSH US this was easy for me from the definition, as I dont think I could name another Jewish historian |
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| 16. | INKLINGS | Oxford literary group in Cambridge college, entertaining learner (8) L in IN KINGS. The Inklings included C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien |
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| 19. | SPOT ON | Boy that’s 5? You’ve got it! (4,2) POT in SON. We have to read thats as that has for the cryptic meaning |
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| 20. | SCAM | Being heartless, get away with trick (4) SCRAM less its middle letter |
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| 21. | BULL | Good shot brings oppressor to premature end (4) BULL[Y] |
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Easier than yesterday, I thought. Not a pretty grid, somehow, but that doesn’t spoil the pleasure. A couple of parsings weren’t clear until I came here.
Thanks to Andrew and Pasquale.
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
A slow start – POLISH was FOI – but after a few others were entered, the rest went surprisingly quickly. I didn’t parse RAT RUN or TOUGHS.
Not too keen on the “Get” in 4d.
Favourite was CANTINA. I knew of the Inklings, but that one might have been difficult for those who didn’t.
Thanks, Andrew. I imagine some will complain about the knowledge required for the wedding feast of Cana which was the fodder for 15a CANTINA, and 14d JOSEPHUS the historian, as has happened before when religious references have been included by Pasquale. But I liked both these clues, and though I know much more about world religions that cricket (although it is a religion for some, I guess), I felt pleased that I got STUMPING at 10a. I also ticked 12d QUANDARIES, and decided that its crosser, 11a PROPINQUITY, is a really lovely word, although I can’t imagine where I might slip it into a conversation. An enjoyable puzzle, so I would like to thank Pasquale for today’s offering.
Yes, fairly gentle for Pasquale. Couldn’t get TOUGHS (put in ROUGHS, and couldn’t parse). Never heard of JOSEPHUS, but somehow it jumped out at me. Thanks to P & A.
[Once I saw it, I also really liked YOGA, another religious reference, at 8d, which was my LOI.]
Good challenge. I was slow to complete the NE corner because I had entered CONtribute in error
Like: SOUGHT, SCAM, PROPINQUITY, POT-BOUND
New: JOSEPHUS (found via google), RAT RUN, COPING = a capping along the top row of stones in a wall, designed to protect it from the weather.
Interesting and enjoyable crossword which moved along nicely. FOI: SPOT ON and LOI: TOUGHS (as I did not get the second part of the clue). Favourites: ANNULI, PROPINQUITY, QUANDARIES, CARAPACE and INKLINGS, which was new to me but derivable. JOSEPHUS also new, but guessed it from the crossers and confirmed by Google. Still a few others I could not completely fathom (e.g. Heather in 13d). [I am a lockdown newbie so I dont agonise if an answer only fits the crossers and the definition.]
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.
Thanks Pasquale for an enjoyable crossword, and Andrew for the blog. Andrew, I think there’s an error at 17, it should read ‘UNDERDOG less G’.
More benign than expected for a Pasquale, with the unknowns in CANA for ‘famous wedding location’ and JOSEPHUS both easily gettable. Watching too much “Morse” or “Lewis” – I can’t remember which – does have its advantages as I otherwise would have had trouble with INKLINGS. I agree with JinA about PROPINQUITY, a word I like but have probably never used in my life.
Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew
I found this very straightforward for once, with every clue eminently gettable from the wordplay, irrespective of any esoteric or religious references. I was familiar with Josephus from reading Mary Beard’s SPQR so that went in easily as did Inklings which as a literary group, was new to me.
Thanks Andrew and Pasquale.
Phew – I saw the name “Pasquale” and thought I was still going to be at this after lunch but as Andrew says, he was in gentle mood. It’s always hard to know about GK but having been a big Tolkien fan, “inklings” was a write-in. I am an arch-Atheist who makes Dawkins looks like someone with potential religious convictions, but even I know the Wedding at Cana. “Jospehus” was not the write-in Andrew found, but a couple of crossers, the obvious “EP” and the name came back to me, so perfectly solvable by knowing the name and a biblical connection, without the details needed.
All above board, smoothly put together and a mark of a top solver that he can choose to pitch his puzzles to pretty much any level. Thanks to the Don and to Andrew.
Hmmm in Oz @7 – “Ling” meaning a type of heather is one of those crossword staple words to which setters return again and again; it felt like reconnecting with an old friend today, and Andrew has not thought it even needed defining. Any mention of heather in crossword land should send your mind to ling or erica. I am sure there are many other types of heather, but they are for the moor or garden rather than the grid.
I would say mostly gentle, as I got through all but three pretty quickly, but the last three took a while. BULL was a bit of a face palm when I saw it, but TOUGHS was hard – so hard that, like drofle @4, I had ROUGHS – with a (sort of) parsing, as a homophone for RUFFS. Attempted as a homophone indicator (?), and – I dont play bridge at all – but isnt a ruff something about changing sides – from the East hand to the West or something??? Once I had the O crosser, I saw SPOT ON, but didnt know why it workrd – I hadnt seen the parsing for 5d either. I liked PROPINQUITY and INKLINGS [side track story time: Once when living in Brum for a while, we drove through Oxford at lunchtime, and stopped at a pub at random. When we sat down, I noticed a plaque on the wall: JRR Tolkein, CS Lewis and the Inklings used to meet in this snug to discuss their books (thats the gist, anyway). Narnia! Middle Earth! Right here! Blew my mind. The pub – The Eagle and Child. Thats one of the main joys of travelling in England. I have a similar Watership Down story if Richard Adams ever appears in a crossie.]
As usual, I am full of admiration for Pasquale. Someone recently said he had become their favourite setter and I’m leaning that way myself. Clever wordplay, generally accessible and some trademark definitions: not obvious when solving but often brilliant in retrospect. ANNULI, MINISTRY, YOGA (like JinA, my last one in once its top crosser appeared) are all top class in my book. I’m another fan of PROPINQUITY and it was nice to come across the INKLINGS in a crossword. The only (very slight) disappointment was POLISH which, as Andrew observed, is a bit of a chestnut.
I couldn’t parse TOUGHS and confess I entered ROUGHS and only discovered my mistake on Checking All. I’d, rather hopefully, wondered if there was an obscure definition of Loughs connected with attempts/tries and then switched R for L. Ho Hum.
Ref the Inklings, I read once that Lewis and Tolkein both became interested in writing fictions set in worlds apart from our own. Lewis opted for separated by space, coming up with Out of the Silent Planet etc whilst Tolkein went for separated by time with the idea that Middle Earth is somehow a precursor of our own times. I haven’t been able to verify this on the Web this morning so am quite happy to be disabused if others know better. And, of course, Tolkein’s thinking that ultimately lead to Middle Earth began before Lewis’s influence.
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
A bit loose by Pasquale’s standards, I thought (which obviously would be very rigid for most other setters!)
STUMPING and DISMAYED were a bit underwhelming. Does MINISTRY need the ‘out’ in its clue? And ‘attempted’ = ‘sought’? Hmmm…not convinced.
PROPINQUITY was the key to it for me: one that was filled in, then QUANDARIES was obvious and everything dropped into place. Like everyone else, it seems, JOSEPHUS more or less filled itself in. I struggled with TWIT because I always spell it ‘to whit’. Somehow missed the anagram for KIDNEY STONE so the SE corner was last in. YOGA and COPING were my favourites, the latter doing splendid work not only as a dd but by both definitions being a little misleading.
What a difference a day makes 🙂 A delightful round of lexical lock-picking albeit a tad heavy on the subtraction device? Less is more so they say and no complaints here. Faves DISMAYED & CARAPACE – what a lovely word. I take it UP has been grudingly (by some) accepted as an anagrind now? Everyman used it last week without any brouhaha and here it is again. Cheers all
I thought it was going to be tough as I only had 2 across clues on the first pass – then half of the down clues went in and the rest followed readily apart from TWIT, YOGA and TOUGHS. It took some time to get MALIGNER as I was put off by MALicious in the clue which presumably is the same derivation.
Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew – plenty of the day left to get on with the hard landscaping project.
Sagittarius @12: Thanks for this; duly noted. I did not know of the Cana Wedding either … but I have a little GK Spanish, good enough to clinch 15 ac from ‘bar’ and the crossers.
I didn’t know CANA either despite having an scaped an A in RS afew decades ago. I assumed it was something to do with people getting hitched Punta Cana and moved swiftly along in my state of blissful ignorance
Sorry all – bluetooth keyboard keeps skiping leters!
My only observation is that both cryptic puzzles this week have been significantly easier than the weekend quiptic, which seems odd to me. I’ve found this is often the case recently, and in fact I’m working through old quiptics for a better and more consistent challenge than that provided by modern cryptics.
Yes, a grid for a busy setter with only 26 clues to write.
The first thing I thought of when seeing ‘famous wedding location’ was Cana, yet it took me far too long to complete the word. Bodycheetah @16; I think the anagrind is ‘up in the air’, which is an improvement over ‘up’.
TILT: (The) INKLINGS; JOSEPHUS.
I liked the compact YOGA and POT-BOUND.
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.
Yep, over in a flash, Don Gentile oggi [but delayed coming here by listening to an interview with Vincent Bevins; anyone into world realpolitik, look him up].
So, quite fun, thanks Pasquale and Andrew, though I’d forgotten where He famously refilled the carafes and what Josephus wrote (thanks once more more for my back-education, wiki… a pure service in a wicked world … next donation forthcoming). Enjoyed the 5/19 liaison and didn’t mind the yogic subtraction. Shall now peruse the above with a quiet shiraz or two. Keep keeping safe, all.
Failed to parse 25A, and did not know 14D or 16D, though both were obvious from wordplay and crossers. Nice to see a reference to my old college in 16D, while 18A less nicely reminded me of a problem I’ve had on and off for years.
PS underdo was the only slight clunk.. more to do with steak than performance (apols if already said above).
TheZed @11, “a top solver” eh, but you do know self praise is no praise!! DNF for me as I did not know JOSEPHUS and apart from the EP nothing jumped out, although I saw it all soon enough once I applied a word search. Favourites in a very enjoyable crossword were KIDNEY STONE (I’ve had ’em three times and they were hard to pass) CANTINA, I loved the ‘tin’ for money, and PROPINQUITY such a lovely word! Very many thanks to The Don for the work out and to Andrew for too many parsings than I care to admit to.
Boffo @15. I don’t see anything wrong with “test out” for TRY in 6a. And Chambers has “to aim at, to try” for seek, so I think attempted=sought in 25a is fine too.
I enjoyed this one from Pasquale, whose clues I have often found devilishly difficult, but I wouldn’t condemn this one with “gentle”. OK, there were quite a few write ins, but the cluing was always witty – well, except maybe POLISH. (Can anyone remember a decent clue for this frequent appearer? Surely there’s something can be done with POLIS+H, for example. I suppose the problem is the definition(s) make it so obvious. Perhaps, like the river Ouse, it should be retired.) Even the less obvious answers like INKLINGS & JOSEPHUS were so well clued that I could write them in with confidence, despite them being well hidden in my memory banks.
My loi was 25a, which I thought was appropriately tough. Like others I looked at rough but couldn’t make it work. TOUGHS looked right but I had to come back a few times from other clues before the penny finally dropped.
Thanks to Pasquale for the entertainment, and Andrew for the blog.
Doing the same, rodshaw@21, currently back to Pan, 6th March (I think)..much tougher than this but, whatever, I’m ok with the vagaries of the tuffometer…
Seem to be the odd ones out today, for some reason we struggled with this and it ended up a DNF as we put unparsed DODGES for 25a.
New words: PROPINQUITY, INKLINGS, MALIGNER, JOSEPHUS and the second definition for COPING.
Favourites: INKLINGS, MINISTRY.
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.
Needed to come on here to see how YOGA was arrived at. Tricky little NE corner was last to reveal its secrets, with MINISTRY my favourite clue once I’d nailed it…
I’m another who enjoyed this – so many thanks to Pasquale for a fine crossword (and Andrew for the excellent blog).
With regards to Josephus, I first became aware of him through the problem that bears his name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_problem
It’s a fun puzzle (or set of puzzles) if you like that sort of thing.
SPanza @26 Thanks for pointing that out. In modern parlance “my bad”. Equally, in modern parlance, perhaps a kidney stone could be defined as “a hard pass”…
TWIT made me wonder whether I’ve been wrong using “to whit” all these years, and it turns out that I have.
On the positive side, it reminded me of a limerick I wrote in 2012 (with one letter removed for this 2020 version):
When I see her my soul flies anew.
Oh, tell me just what must I do?
Should I finally mention
My lifelong intention,
Which is strigine; to wit, to woo.
TheZed @32 my tongue was well ensconced in my cheek. As I intimated I have passed three of the buggers and actually in my case the passing was far easier than the week or two while they were lodged in the urethra! I have a friend who has both given birth and had a kidney stone and she attests that the kidney stone was the more painful. Just stating!!!
Great fun Phil J!!
Well thats more like it after yesterdays loose and messy offering. Clear, fair, and witty. Thanks to the Don for yet another entertaining teaser and to Andrew for the blog where I have learnt about CANA, and untangled TOUGHS which I just couldnt parse.
I parsed 19D as S (for son) + POT ON, which is what you do with a plant which is POT BOUND.
sheffield hatter @ 27:
Language was changed by Private Eye journalist (6)
Hislop (editor of Private Eye) -> Polish
(anagrind is ‘was changed by’).
Hmmm…neat, but the grist is, er, private…
a fun solve, held up for LOI DISTRIBUTE till I remembered ‘dis’= underworld. Chuckled at KIDNEY STONE and DISMAYED, enjoyed seeing the word PROPINQUITY as others have mentioned, and likewise doubt I will ever use it in conversation. Fav was TOUGHS.
Thanks to Pasquale for the fun and Andrew for the blog.
Chuffed to have solved and parsed all, even if not as easily as some appear to have done. Pasquale seems to have eased off the gas pedal recently, and thats not intended as a criticism. He used to tie me in knots with half a dozen obscure words per puzzle, and now he just offers a good stiff workout. The only words unknown to me today were due to my country of residence: INKLINGS, RAT RUN and BULL (have only heard bulls-eye over here), both clearly clued. Favourites in a gallery of good clues were DISMAYED and POT-BOUND.
Boffo @15, the ‘out’ in 6d served a misdirectional purpose, at least for me. It suggested an anagram of ‘test,’ so I wasted a few minutes trying to parse CULOTTES as a ‘short garment.’
Thanks to Pasquale for the fun and to Andrew for the blog.
sheffield hatter @ 27: What about:
Refine lithium in high-quality environment (6)
Pretty obvious I guess but it does avoid using the language.
sheffield hatter @27 (and Hmmm @38 and Rick @42) Using your original suggestion, what about “In Athens or Sparta, hard to find cultivation (6)” ?
Thanks both,
Mostly a straightforward solve until the last few where I found the temptation of plausible but unparsed solutions too great e.g. ‘Pull’ for 16 d.
Like togs @24, I enjoyed the mention of the old college (I was/ am year of 1968).
‘Cantina’ surfaced from the dimly remembered lyrics to (the now definitely politically incorrect) ‘You’d better come home Speedy Gonzales’.
Finally, why are ‘courtiers’ ‘ companions’? OED doesn’t give such a meaning.
Mr Sheen from Szczecin (6), from a UK crossword
While this was much easier than Pasquale’s July 3rd crossword in the FT (Bradman) it was not quite a write-in. I missed the very clever POT BOUND so the parsing of SPOT ON was somewhat mysterious to me. Otherwise this was mostly fun with MINISTRY, TOUGHS, and SCAM being favorites. Thanks to both.
Not a quick solve for me today – found that much harder than yesterday! Possibly lack-of-sleep related though…
Another of the few who found this a bit on the tough side. Little things went against me, like thinking the wedding venue was Caana not Cana, and having an R to start 9a,assuming the Greek character was RHO. Still, all misconceptions were eventually put aside.
@ various (sh, Hmm, Rick, Mark, VW)
Unclothed folk aboard ship ruin sophisticated look (6)
Cut back a bit in solidarity? (6)
This setting larks’ harder than it looks 🙂
Btw in the (hopefully temporary) absence of the Beery Hiker I’ve restored by database of Guardian crosswords (Postgres SQL + Node.js for the geeks in the audience)
POLISH has been clued …
European buff (6)
Refinement in Chopin’s words? (6)
European finesse (6)
European resembling pond life, if a tad over the top? (6)
Refinement in one of classy speech, on the surface about fifty (6)
European’s elegance (6)
European may be French (6)
European refinement (6)
Finish, though not Finnish? (6)
Nationality could be French (6)
Foreign language could be French (6)
bodycheetah@50 & 51: Setting is indeed challenging but great fun (if you’ve only got one to do!) and, personally, I don’t think the combined contributions above compared too badly with the list you’ve kindly compiled! Self recused, naturally.
I, too, hope that beery isn’t absent for long if, indeed, he is missing. I am sure I saw him contribute within the last couple of weeks.
As others have said, not the Don at his hardest, but the clueing was immaculate. I only had trouble with the bottom line – I couldnt fathom TOUGHS, and I was held up by putting in MALINGER instead of MALINGER.
But my main reason for commenting is that this blog confirms that the author of the Hobbit bears one of the most commonly misspelt names of anyone (even by our esteemed blogger). Its Tolkien – i before e, as we were taught at school.
Me @53 – of course I meant MALINGER /MALIGNER. The dreaded auto- correct following my own thought process.
Slow start but I almost got there. Had an unparsed ROUGHS for 25 ac and didn’t twig YOGA but,apart from YOGI which seemed even less likely,I couldn’t think of anything else. I knew both JOSEPHUS and the INKLINGS. The famous wedding location has become a bit of a crossword chestnut so no problems there.
Thanks Pasquale.
g larsen – Thanks for pointing out the correct spelling of Tolkien. Even though I know it (honestly – it follows the pattern of German pronunciation of ei/ie) I still managed to get it wrong 🙁 Now corrected for posterity.
Like many others I found this relatively straightforward. It took me a while to parse YOGA my loi after finally getting MINISTRY having been thinking about miniskirts too much!
I had heard of JOSEPHUS but it had to be dragged out of the subconscious. I didnt fully parse POT BOUND but thought 19d was a lovely clue.
Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
Thanks to Hmmm in Oz, Rick, Mark and essexboy for taking up my POLISH challenge (apologies to anyone I’ve missed). I think bodycheetah’s list @51 shows that a bit of imagination would not go amiss. I liked Mark’s “in Athens or Sparta” + H for hard, although I’d been thinking along the lines of “Edinburgh police horse”; going back to the original meaning of polis is maybe better. Just getting away from European or language, or even European language, was what I would like to see.
Do any other words fit _O_I_H?
Thanks to Andrew and Pasquale
I still can’t work out whether Pasquale regards a collection of fodder segments as singular or plural.
The “will” in 12d suggests he is in the singular camp, whereas the “show” in 5d suggests he belongs to the “whatever suits” tendency.
sheffield hatter @58: I can’t pretend to have done any other than use a crossword checker and it’s a bit late so you probably won’t see this reply – and have probably checked yourself anyway. The checker I tried suggested 18 words that fit. BOYISH has potential, as does POPISH. All but two end in -ISH; of the ones that don’t, I rather like OOLITH and have actually heard of it! Glad you liked my suggestion. You were the one who originally suggested the polis-h split and I do like the Scottish police horse! The long face of the law?
The long face of the law? I bet you can’t get that into a clue for POLISH!
Very late as i found this difficult and only finished (having checked and corrected plenty along the way) just now, so thanks Andrew for a lot of explanation such as YOGA and POT BOUND which explains why I didn’t understand SPOT ON. But was happy to winkle out Josephus and Propinquity somehow, having heard of neither. I looked up “den of iniquity” to see its source as that’s the only reason I know the word – best estimate seems to be biblical. Thanks Rick@31 for your link which I will enjoy reading now, and thanks Pasquale for increasing my crosswording and general knowledge.
I can’t remember (if ever) when I last had so many unsolved clues. It made me feel a bit better when I saw the answers and realised I wouldn’t have got them a lot of them in a month of Sundays
Tin is not a synonym for money. Bollocks
Late entry – but very much enjoyed this and particularly 15a CANTINA and the lovely 11a – very nice. Have to admit I didnt get 5d even with the help of 19d – so with thanks to Andrew for the explanation – although I still find this clue a bit unsatisfying. Didnt see it getting referenxe in other entries so perhaps its just me ; ). Cheers to all and thanks Pasquale!