The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29976.
I found this quite tough, needing some very careful parsing, and not helped by the intersecing pairs of clues (10/2, 22/22. 24/24) the first of which gave me the most trouble.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | SHOEHORN |
Its application could help you get into Oxford? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition, depending on reading ‘Oxford’ as a shoe. | ||
| 9 | ODOURS |
Understood our son’s bedding smells (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘bedding’) in ‘understoOD OUR Son’. | ||
| 10, 2 | SEAT BELT |
House band feature in saloon (4,4)
|
| A charade of SEAT (‘house’ – particularly a mansion) plus BELT (‘band’). | ||
| 11 | IN GOOD TIME |
Early on, I go to party with deviant I’d met (2,4,4)
|
| A charade of INGOO, an anagram (‘to party’) of ‘on I go’; plus DTIME, an anagram (‘deviant’) of ‘I’d met’. ‘To party’ is an unusual anagrind, but might be just a means of calling up a single anagram indicated by ‘deviant’. | ||
| 12, 3 | FRENCH POLISH |
Finish, as elements of Marie Curie’s typical description are transposed? (6,6)
|
| Marie Curie was of Polish extraction, and French by naturalisation, thus Polish-French. | ||
| 14 | IRON-CLAD |
Warship covered by press (4-4)
|
| A charade of IRON (‘press’) plus CLAD (‘covered’). I would have said that iron-clad is an adjective menaning certain, while the ‘warship’ is an ironclad. | ||
| 15, 8 | NO PAIN NO GAIN |
Turning on Paganini number to begin – as motivation for fitness class? (2,4,2,4)
|
| A charade of NO (‘number’) placed before (‘to begin’) PAINNOGAIN, an anagram (‘turning’) of ‘on Paganini’. | ||
| 17, 19 | FERRIS WHEELS |
Ferraris and Rolls are mostly stolen for joy rides? (6,6)
|
| The word order is confusing: a charade of ‘ferr[ar]is’ minus AR (‘ar[e] mostly stolen’) plus WHEELS (‘Rolls’ – with the capital letter, it is an indication by example; alternatively it is a deceptive capital). The surface is splendid. | ||
| 20 | DEVILISH |
Stayed over in Soho – oddly it’s diabolical (8)
|
| A charade of DEVIL, a reversal (‘over’) of LIVED (‘stayed’); plus ISH, odd letters (‘oddly’) of ‘In SoHo’. | ||
| 22, 22 | COOKIE CUTTER |
Template censor used after identifying code (6 -6)
|
| A charade of COOKIE (‘identifying code’ – ‘code’ is a little off, I think) plus CUTTER (‘censor’). | ||
| 23 | REARMAMENT |
Fresh investment in Arsenal meant changes on wing at kick-off (10)
|
| A charade of RE (‘on’) plus ARM (‘wing’) plus AMENT, an anagram (‘changes’) of ‘meant’, with ‘at kick-off’ indicating the order of the particles. The capital ‘Arsenal’ is misleading. | ||
| 24, 24 | STAR SIGN |
Perhaps Leo Sayer’s trying another rewrite – initially with chorus moving note lower (4,4)
|
| A charade of STAR, first letters (‘initially’) of ‘Sayer’s Trying Another Rewrite’ plus SIGN, which is SING (‘chorus’) with the N (‘note’) moved down (‘moving … lower’). | ||
| 25 | FRINGE |
Less important call when 14 (6)
|
| An envelope (CLAD) of RING (‘call’) in FE (‘chemical symbol, IRON), where IRON-CLAD is the answer to clue 14A). | ||
| 26 | SVENGALI |
Supreme influencer leaving a little something out (8)
|
| An anagram (‘out’) of ‘leaving’ plus S (‘a little Something’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SHEEP RUN |
Place to ruminate clue for ‘ewer’? (5,3)
|
| A charade of SHEEP (‘ewe’-) plus RUN (-‘r’). Sheep are ruminants. | ||
| 2 |
See 10 Across
|
|
| 3 |
See 12 Across
|
|
| 4 | MONOTONE |
One colour only – second one not included (8)
|
| AN envlope (‘included’) of ‘not’ in MO (‘second’) plus ‘one’. | ||
| 5 | MONTE CARLO |
Resort to cornmeal unfortunately (5,5)
|
| An angram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘to cornmeal’. | ||
| 6 | CRIMEA |
Peninsula of Palermo – if rock climbing regularly (6)
|
| Alternate retters (‘regularly’) in reverse (‘climbing’ in a down light) in ‘pAlErMo If RoCk’. | ||
| 8 |
See 15 Across
|
|
| 13 | NAPKIN RING |
Family group putting down first part of table setting? (6,4)
|
| A charade of NAP (‘down’ – Chambers nap: a downy covering or surface on anything) plus KIN (‘family’) plus RING (‘group’), with ‘putting … first’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 16 | IMITATED |
Cambridge university worried boring papers will be copied (8)
|
| An envelope (‘boring’) of MIT (‘Cambridge university’ – Cambridge Massachusetts, that is) plus ATE (‘worried’) in ID (‘papers’). | ||
| 18 | SUITABLE |
Appropriate clubs potentially qualified (8)
|
| A charade of SUIT (‘clubs potentially’) plus ABLE (‘qualified’). | ||
| 19 |
See 17 Across
|
|
| 21 | EMEERS |
Appear upset about King supporting Eastern Arabic rulers (6)
|
| A charade od E (‘Eastern’) plus (‘supporting’ in a down light) MEERS, an envelope (‘about’) of R (‘King’) in MEES, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of SEEM (‘appear’). | ||
| 22 |
See 22 Across
|
|
| 24 |
See 24 Across
|
|
6 of the downs didn’t have their own clues, which I think is too many; clues that fill multiple slots have the effect that if you are struggling you have fewer clues to help you out, but if you’re on a roll you roll faster. Neither is a particularly satisfying experience, imo.
Liked FERRIS WHEELS and SVENGALI.
Tx F&P
Boy, was I barking up the wrong tree with SHEEP RUN. Knowing RUN was and anagram of “urn” — a ewer — I thought perhaps that “sheep” was some sort of unfamiliar anagrind. I should have remembered that Fed has done this type of thing before …
All else was uneventful and enjoyable.
SVENGALI is a delightful clue; likewise FERRIS WHEELS. Worth doing for those two alone. I see I am not alone in finding the intersecting pairs difficult: I eventually had to reveal SEAT BELT where I was getting nowhere.
Thanks both
I agree with Dr WO @1 re the number of clueless downs. FERRIS WHEELS reads fine to me if you take it as FERRARIS (and) WHEELS, then take the AR out rather than dealing with the two words separately.
I interpreted wheels as a synonym of the verb rolls, rather than a definition by example.
Liked all of the puzzle, but had trouble with the parsing of Svengali and imitated.
This was the toughest Fed I can remember. A large part because of what I considered the two toughest clues SEAT BELT and COOKIE-CUTTER having very few checking letters given they intersected.
FERRIS WHEELS was a super clue though.
Thanks Fed and PeterO
My faves: F POLISH, F WHEELS, REARMAMENT and SHEEP RUN,
Found it tough but enjoyable. Great blog by PeterO.
Thanks both.
When you tell online operators that you accept cookies, what actually are they — lines of code? And yes, loi was 10/2, needed the t to twig house=seat and saloon=car, d’oh! Good chewy puzzle, ta Fed and Peter.
A nice crossword on the whole. I agree with Dr What’s On @1 and Crispy @4 about the linked clues, especially since the pairs share a letter and some are only 4 letters, but to me it’s a fairly minor point.
Cookies are often an “identifying code” but don’t have to be. For example they often, somewhat ironically, store a user’s cookie preferences. Close enough for most people I guess.
grantinfreo @8 cookies are just a way a web application can make a web browser store data, usually about the user’s choices, login identity, or pages they have viewed.
If you want to see examples, web browsers have development tools that allow you to see what cookies are stored. For example in Chrome right click anywhere on the page, choose Inspect from the menu, and find the application tab. The value is often obfuscated though.
A good challenge. Like Geoff @2, I saw the urn anagram at 1D and also considered short run instead of SHEEP RUN, as I thought a run-off could be a sewer. The saloon sorted me out in the end and that NW corner was the last to fall. I liked the paired clues; there are fewer of them that way, but the shared letters really help.
Favourites on the day were REARMAMENT, SEAT BELT and the best one, FRINGE.
More top bombing from Fed.
Thanks to him and PeterO
Gave up on 10ac/2d, 12ac/3d, 22ac/22d, 24/24 and 1 & 18d. I found it difficult to understand/read Fed’s clues and I can see Dr. WhatsOn’s point @1 re the linked clues that fill double slots being challenging. Overall, not an enjoyable experience for me today 🙁
Of the ones I solved, I could not parse 23ac.
New for me: spelling of EMEERS which I normally see as EMIRS.
Like Nickel67@5, I interpreted wheels as a synonym of the verb rolls, rather than a definition by example.
The fact that PostMark @3 had to reveal SEAT BELT makes me feel better!
A tough one but with a lot of very nice clues, of which FERRIS WHEELS, STAR SIGN and SVENGALI particularly stood out.
Thanks, both.
Fed is such an interesting setter, COOKIE CUTTER and SEAT BELT were my final entries as well. I thought the combo of IRON-CLAD and FRINGE was exquisite and I also enjoyed FRENCH POLISH, STAR SIGN, SVENGALI, MONTE CARLO and CRIMEA. Arsenal making too many appearances recently for my liking, I’m not a fan.
Ta Fed & PeterO.
Yes, I too was rather irritated by all those split clues…
Spent ages at the very end trying to figure out SHEEP RUN and SEAT BELT.
And in its own way the 1860 launched IRONCLAD, HMS Warrior, in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is every bit as impressive for its time as The Victory and The Mary Rose…
Fab fun from Fed. Double ticks for COOKIE CUTTER, FRINGE & SHEEP RUN
If you ignore all capitalisation, punctuation, font effects etc then you won’t be misled 🙂
I like the way the four pairs of words filled the corners
Cheers F&P
I liked MONOTONE, but not much else. The numerous crossed clues were annoying, as others have said. Completely stumped by SHEEP RUN.
Grantinfreo@8: cookies are not ‘lines of code’. I mention this as some IT-challenged journalists describe them as small programs, which they absolutely are not. They are an unfortunate necessity used to maintain the illusion that one has a semi-permanent ‘connection’ to a website, when in practice that’s not what is happening.
Another who had to cheat to get SEAT BELT (I had seat and house as verbs) FRINGE and FERRIS WHEELS were my favourites. I have seen the Marie Curie French Polish connection somewhere else recently.
I found this difficult, but thoroughly enjoyable. Lots of misdirection from Fed: “resort” wasn’t an anagram indicator, “leaving a little something out” wasn’t a deletion indicator, the “ewer” wasn’t an urn (despite RUN in the answer) and many others.
FERRIS WHEEL and SVENGALI were my top favourites – the latter being my LOI and eliciting a curse under my breath for having been misled for so long.
In SEAT BELT I parsed SEAT as a verb (e.g. housed/seated in).
Having worked in software for about 40 years, I’d say browser cookies are definitely “identifying code” – code in the sense that they don’t mean anything in isolation (often appearing to be just random strings of characters), but when used by the server that generated them they identify an ongoing interaction with a user.
Many thanks to Fed and PeterO
A SHEEP RUN is hardly a place to ruminate! The sheep are too squashed and hassled to digest anything..
I have to say, Fed, that I think intersecting linked clues are an abuse of the crossword-setter’s art and well beneath you. To find eight such lights in the same crossword is definitely too many – especially when four of those only have a single other crosser! For me they just make solving the puzzle frustrating and ultimately less satisfying – although I did particularly like 12 and 3 FRENCH POLISH
I held out to get SEAT BELT but it’s over three hours since I finished the rest.
Apart from cookie cutter this was OK. I still have no idea what a cookie is, even after all the explanations.
I like variety and really appreciated the symmetry of the linked solutions.
Thanks to Fed and PeterO
Somewhat DEVILISH but quite enjoyable, although my LOI SEAT BELT was very difficult. I liked the well-hidden ODOURS and CRIMEA, Marie Curie’s FRENCH POLISH, Paganini’s NO PAIN NO GAIN, and Arsenal’s REARMAMENT.
Thanks Fed and PeterO.
Wow, I think someone has jumped the shark of crossword-related overreactions.
Fed, you’ve been a very naughty boy!
Just for clarity – for those not reading the whole thread – I liked this crossword and thought the linked clues were fun.
I didn’t mention SVENGALI before, another beauty.
For SEAT, I took “House” & SEAT as verbs.
Tough but I got there in the end. Lots of misdirection as noted above. Loi SEAT BELT for which I had to walk away from the puzzle to walk the dog before it came to me. Lots of favourite clues including IRON-CLAD (share PeterO’s opinion on the extraneous hyphen) SVENGALI, FERRIS WHEELS.
Had to look up who Mr Ferris was – he built his eponymous wheel in Chicago in 1893.
Thanks to Fed and PeterO
“Alternate retters” in 6D ? Is that “reversed letters”? New word for me if so! Or a typo…
Thanks Ravenrider, poc and TantrumPet for the input. Interesting range of views.
I came to this late today due to ongoing internet outages, and I found the .intersecting double lights a tad frustrating, really because I was in a rush to finish and get on with the morning’s other business. The one that didn’t ho/d me up, perhaps surprisingly, was SEAT BELT. With both E’s in, what could be the shared fourth letter of each half? D? (‘Dead Head’ – I don’t think so. N? (‘Sean Bean’, not on this occasion). T? Bingo! It was COOKIE CUTTER that foxed me in the end. Cookies would be the first thing that I would consign to Room 101, and if I can’t reject them I just don’t pursue interface with the site in question. ‘We value your privacy” Bollocks – only in the sense that we will flog your browsing history to advertisers.
I found this mostly straightforward. Clue for
SVENGALI was brilliant
Petert@18
Independent 12,315 by Math
Gloss over what Marie Curie’s kids were (6,6)
LOI cookie cutter, but that’s because I’d already got SEAT BELT by overuse of the check button.
Loved FRINGE.
Thanks, Fed and PeterO.
Bunged in LOI SHEEP RUN with a bit of a shrug as nothing else would fit. I see how the clue works, but I don’t much like it. Enjoyed the rest though, even if there were a couple too many paired clues. Thanks to blogger and setter.
paddymelon @20
You seem to be using SHEEP RUN as some kind of constriction through which sheep are forced, perhaps for a sheep dip. As far as I can see, most dictionaries define it as a pasture where sheep may safely graze (and the OED says the meaning was originally Australian).
I really enjoyed this, and found it relatively simple to complete. FRENCH POLISH was my favourite,
I did this quickly but it was a good crossword. Thanks to Dave Gorman (Fed).
I agree with DuncT @24 and Martin @26. The symmetrical linked clues are a great constructing achievement and I found them very satisfying to solve. The extra effort it must have cost Fed did not go unappreciated!
Thanks to PeterO for the blog and to all for the lively comments. My apologies to those who found the intersecting clues too much – I appreciate that, especially in the 4,4 examples it’s effectively an extra unch – although the information that two of the letters must be the same can also be a hint in and of itself.
I’ve seen a few people quibbling here and on the Graun about whether or not Cookies are “identifying code” – on this I confess I have no intuitive understanding of what they are and so relied entirely on Chambers which has: “A small piece of persistent code that is downloaded to a hard drive when a website is accessed, allowing the computer to be identified on subsequent visits”
You’re right PeterO. #36. I was thinking of something which is called a race, rather than a run. However, even though the dictionaries give SHEEP RUN as Australian for the area where they graze, I haven’t heard that term used, probably because of the size of the properties in the areas where I lived.
The clue was funny though, for the image of sheep ”ruminating”. They’re not known for their intellect.
AlanC@14 Arsenal don’t appear here anything like as often as QPR and I don’t complain, although as I was born on Du Cane Rd perhaps I should support them instead.
[Zoot @42: indeed you should, but you have probably made the right decision! My comment was tongue in check btw, they are very impressive and I think the choking has been cured at last 😉]
A cookie cutter is not a template.
AlanC@43 [I took your comment as it was intended. I don’t think 1961Blanchflower would be so generous, but he’s got a genuine grievance. As a result of your jousts with Roz I seem to have added QPR to the small list of clubs whose results I look out for.]
Chambers:
Cook’ie-cutter noun (N American)
A template with a sharp edge used for cutting biscuit dough into shapes.
Why do people post things like #44?
I’ve been working on the quiptics, and now looking at some of the harder ones. Excuse a simple question, but I don’t understand what you mean by “capital letter, it is an indication by example” in 17 and 19. Could you explain?
I was pleased to finish this but had to work quite hard and take a break to get the SE corner finished. This was after spotting SEAT (it works for a noun just as well as for a verb) BELT, which helped me to finally relinquish the idea that 1d had anything to do with urns – ‘ewe-r’ indeed! – and complete the NW.
It’s always a surprise to me when other solvers denigrate split answers – I find them refreshingly different. Maybe I would think otherwise if I was attempting to solve on a phone or computer, but in the newspaper it feels normal. Normal but different. 🙂.
And symmetrically arranged, too.
Thanks to Fed and PeterO.
Tony@47: an “indication by example” means that the clue contains a word or phrase which is an example of the answer needed – in this case, a Rolls [Royce] is an example of a car, which can be informally called “WHEELS”. The capitalisation pushes you that way. I, like some others above, took the capitalisation to be misdirection, and got “WHEELS” as a synonym for ‘rolls’ i.e. PeterO’s alternative.
Too much of a challenge for me. I managed slightly less than half the clues.
The surface of 17/19 is particularly nice in view of the fact that in the movie _FERRIS Bueller’s Day Off_ a Ferrari is in fact stolen for a joyride.
Busy day, so coming in late. Happy to see Fed’s name on the puzzle today. I knew we’d be in for a treat, and foi 7a SHOEHORN confirmed it. Consistently readable surfaces, with plenty of humour, especially 10/2 SEAT BELT (“House band”), 9a ODOURS (“our son’s bedding smells”), 17/19 FERRIS WHEEELS (“joy rides”), 5d MONTE CARLO (“Resort to cornmeal”). I enjoyed the symmetrical double corner entries. Couldn’t quite tease out the SE corner, with 22/22 COOKIE CUTTER and 26a SVENGALI unsolved. I did get 10/2 SEAT BELT fairly early on, though, so there’s that!
Thanks both
Another lovely crossword from Fed, who is one of our favourite setters. We found this his most challenging to date, particularly because of the split clues, but that is all part of the fun. We loved FRENCH POLISH and FRINGE in particular. Thanks to Fed and PeterO
Another here who found this the hardest Fed I’ve done. I too had to cheat a bit, as I struggled to get checkers – partly because of the split answers and partly because most of the checkers were Scrabble 1-pointers. I thought SHOWHORN and REARMAMENT were particularly tough. FERRIS WHEELS was my favourite, while I felt SHEEP RUN was a bit “green paint” and I didn’t feel bad about revealing it to make progress.
I wouldn’t describe a cookie as code; it’s a text file which could contain any old thing, though admittedly for brevity they usually contain single-letter abbreviations which only make sense to the website programmer and would look like gobbledygook to anyone else. I never doubted it would have dictionary support, however.
Thanks both
This was a hard one for me. Had to reveal SHEEP RUN. Not familiar it so didn’t think of it. I could see the word play retrospectively though. Pleased with myself about that.
Also had to reveal COOKIE. I could see CUTTER as ‘censor’ and that ‘template’ must be the definition of but not familiar with COOKIE CUTTER as the name of a device.
Not sure why PeterO has misgivings about COOKIE as being ‘code’ when referring to the type of COOKIE that web sites use.
Thanks PeterO and Fed. A very good one that I enjoyed even if a bit beyond me in places..