Several helpful anagrams and hiddens to get us started on this one, and the rest went in pretty smoothly. Thanks to Anto.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | FORAGES | Hunts persistently? (7) FOR AGES |
||||||
| 5 | WATCH IT | Be careful with cat that’s gone wild (5,2) (WITH CAT)* |
||||||
| 9 | A AND E | Treatment centre hosted by Pamela Anderson (1,3,1) Hidden in pamelA ANDErson |
||||||
| 10 | RETICENCE | Crete: nice, surprisingly – that’s not saying much (9) (CRETE NICE)* |
||||||
| 11 | BLOOMSBURY | Literary set gets flowers put in the ground (10) BLOOMS (flowers) + BURY – a reference to the Bloomsbury Group |
||||||
| 12 | BOLT | Wolf down sandwich with duck filling (4) O (zero, a duck) in BLT (a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich) |
||||||
| 14 | STRATOSPHERE | Engineer restores path; it’s very high above us (12) (RESTORES PATH)* |
||||||
| 18 | MARCEL PROUST | Time-poor French author misinterpreted as nostalgic? (6,6) Proust is known for his series of novels À la recherche du temps perdu, literally “in search of lost time”, so “time poor”, but sometimes translated as “Remembrance of Things Past”, so “nostalgic” |
||||||
| 21 | NAVE | Where religious crowd congregate to see villain beheaded (4) A headless KNAVE |
||||||
| 22 | BALDERDASH | It’s more obvious having race later is nonsense (10) BALDER (more obvious) + DASH (race) |
||||||
| 25 | BOOMERANG | Carnage regularly follows elderly American – and it returns repeatedly (9) BOOMER (person born in the “baby boom” between 1946 and 1964) + alternate letters of cArNaG. I don’t think boomer is just a US term, and some might question the “elderly” part for the younger end of the cohort |
||||||
| 26 | PINTO | Keep in touch, having stabled horse (5) Hidden in keeP IN TOuch |
||||||
| 27 | ESSENCE | Pure quality of German city church (7) ESSEN (German city) + CE (Church of England) |
||||||
| 28 | STEPHEN | Name of female acquired on re-marriage? (7) Such a female might be a STEP-HEN; |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | FLABBY | Inject vitamins into skin that’s loose (6) B B (vitamins) in FLAY (to skin) |
||||||
| 2 | RANDOM | Published party minute – that’s irregular (6) RAN (published, e.g. as a newspaper story) + DO (party) + M |
||||||
| 3 | GREY MATTER | Dull count showing some capacity for thinking (4,6) GREY + MATTER (to count) |
||||||
| 4 | SCRUB | Stand-in accepts credit for clean-up (5) CR in SUB[stitute] |
||||||
| 5 | WATER POLO | Game played mostly by those out of their depth (5,4) Cryptic definition |
||||||
| 6 | TACO | Starts to trudge around coffee outlet providing food (4) First letters of Trudge Around Coffee Outlet |
||||||
| 7 | HANGOVER | Afghan governor hides suffering in the morning? (8) Hidden in afgHAN GOVERnor |
||||||
| 8 | TWENTIES | Scores left during games (8) WENT (left) in TIES (games) |
||||||
| 13 | APOSTROPHE | Bananas perhaps too often what’s misplaced by grocers? (10) (PERHAPS TOO)*, the definition referring to the Grocers’ (or more often Greengrocers’) Apostrophe |
||||||
| 15 | ALPHA MALE | Top guy provides upset pal with meat and drink (5,4) |
||||||
| 16 | AMENABLE | Final word, effective and quite open (8) AMEN (final word of a prayer) + ABLE (effective) |
||||||
| 17 | PREVIOUS | Vicar delving into religious sins of the past (8) REV (vicar) in PIOUS |
||||||
| 19 | LAUNCH | Open fire! (6) Double definition, though the two are closely related |
||||||
| 20 | SHOO-IN | Violent gangster endlessly engages in evil? It’s almost guaranteed (4-2) HOO[d] in SIN |
||||||
| 23 | DEGAS | Dead, for example, like this old artist (5) D[ead] + E.G. + AS (like) |
||||||
| 24 | SEWN | Stitched up in every direction (4) The word SEWN contains the four cardinal points of the compass |
||||||
Yes, I have to admit this was almost a SHOO-IN, apart from the fact that with an A and an P in place for the drink that I thought was needed for the definition of 15d, I had pencilled in Apple for the first part. Which held me up at the end, with last two in LAUNCH and STEPHEN, one that I couldn’t parse. But some very pleasing, smooth clues along the way…
I seem to remember the last offering from Anto was difficult, but this flowed in without a problem.
Thanks Andrew and Anto
We have plenty of boomers in Australia too. I’m one. I learnt about Proust and Bloomsbury. I liked STEPHEN.
LOI was LAUNCH, which wasn’t very satisfying. Otherwise all fairly straightforward, more like a Vulcan Monday.
I found this easy apart from the SE corner. I didn’t like STEPHEN and the very weak LAUNCH. These two were the loi.
Otherwise good fun. Liked FORAGES, FLABBY, GREY MATTER with its Jeeves reference, and ALPHA MALE.
Thanks Anto and Andrew.
Andrew – ALPHA MALE is (PAL)* + HAM + ALE
I think 15 should be anagram of PAL then HAM (= meat) and ALE.
Nice straightforward puzzle with some clever clues e.g. APOSTROPHE,
LAUNCH was last, though very simple in the end.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I failed to solve 26a having written SHOE-IN for 20d. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it written down before and in my head it’s always been spelt my way.
Never having written it, always assumed the phrase was shoe-in, so that held things up for a while.
I like the two neat hidden words in PINTO & HANGOVER.
Relatively gentle offering but enjoyable nonetheless.
Many thanks, both.
SEWN was in a similar clue and position to the other day. It turns out RETICENCE and eccentric aren’t quite anagrams. STEPHEN was LOI, Proust was clearly the answer but needed a Google check. Good quick puzzle.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Favourites: MARCEL PROUST, ALPHA MALE, FORAGES, 8d TWENTIES (loi).
New for me: the term greengrocers’ apostrophes; also the fact that I am part of the baby BOOMER generation – I thought they are/were older than me!
I enjoyed this but can’t see why PIOUS is ‘sins of the past’.
Step-hen – said no-one, ever!
I assume previous means past crimes as well as of the past. As in “he’s got previous for armed robbery “.
CG@23 “sins of the past” is PREVIOUS – a slang term for criminal convictions and also more generally used to refer to someone having a track record of something.
I thought this was a blast with some clues feeling almost Rufus-like e.g. FORAGES & PINTO
I think the word boomer originated in the USA?
Cheers A&
Chris Ferrary@13
STEPHEN
STEP-HEN is whimsical. Hence the ?
Crispy@6 and SZJoe@7 – yes, that is how I parsed 15. There is no T in the solution. Small error by our terrific blogger.
This was enjoyable and luckily not too difficult; my last one in was BOLT. I didn’t know about the “lost in translation” re: PROUST, him being outside my sphere of interest. Regarding STEPHEN, I think “re” is essential as at least one of the parties would have been previously married to give rise to “STEP-“.
In defense of LAUNCH, I think the wordplay is genuine as one could say e.g. “launch an investigation” vs. “launch a missile”. Not great I guess but quite ok. Not sure where “sins” in PREVIOUS fit in. Agree with SZJoe@15 re: ALPHA MALE.
Overall, I liked the witty clueing as well as the conciseness of the blog. Thanks Anto and Andrew!
Martin@ 10. I too missed the faulty anagram ECCENTRIC/RETICENCE. Bad booboo. Need test solvers. You could offer your services?
Surely PREVIOUS is simply defined by PAST, and religious sins give you the pious part.
I liked BOLT and FORAGES, but STEPHEN was a STEP to far!!
It seems I’ve accidentally typed a “spoiler” @10. Oh well, as with the other day’s situation, it wouldn’t be one for anyone who’s completed today’s puzzle.
Martin@21 Naughty, naughty, but was a write-in as a result!!!
STEP -HEN has to be that one of the couple re-married. Doesn’t matter which one. The question mark does it for me.
I liked it. A visual pun, equally as valid as an aural one.
Agree wiith Bodycheetah @15. PREVIOUS is a criminal record. Sins of the past.
Top fvaes: A AND E, MARCEL PROUST, STEPHEN, APOSTROPHE and PREVIOUS.
Thanks Anto and Andrew.
Agree with others on ‘sins of the past’. “He has previous” is a common (?) phrase. I also agree with Layman on LAUNCH. I think these are very different meanings.
22a Balder ? Bolder, surely.
Jojohooligun@27
BALDERDASH
BALDER seems all right to me. Bald in the sense of plain/obvious (a bald statement).
Classy surfaces, I hope the poor Afghan governor checks into Pamela Anderson’s treatment centre. APOSTROPHE my favourite. Thank you A&A
The ‘American’ reference in the clue for BOOMERANG is just for the surface allusion to you-know-who. I thought it very apt. Agree with the general consensus that this was reasonably straightforward. Only STEPHEN took me a while to see. Enjoyed the allusive clue to MARCEL PROUST, Thanks to Andrew and Anto.
Is Anto American perhaps, or aware of continental differences? On One look theve are more American dictionary references for the spelling of SHOO-IN, PREVIOUS I’m familiar with from American films/TV crime shows, but it also comes up as British in dictionaries (please come back iAlanC we need you).
BOOMER is.very common here in Oz. I”m one and iit’s now a dirty word. We’ are blamed for everything affecting the next generation (list too long to go into). Don’t know what Anto means by “elderly”. I’m 73, my mother 94 ..
Thanks SueB @14 and Bodychertah @ 15
I don’t understand the ‘misinterpreted’ in 18a. Proust’s oeuvre is certainly nostalgic (though more than just that of course).
(I’m reminded of Flann O’Brien’s French cocaine dealer Neiges D’Antan).
Otherwise this was pretty smooth and easy-going, though I was held up by STEPHEN.
This was on the gentle side but entertaining with a lot of good surfaces, the religious crowd congregating to see the villain beheaded for example.
I think the idea of the baby boom, and baby boomers, was originally American. The more pithy BOOMER definitely sounds American to me, though it has spread to other countries. As for elderly, I’m a boomer and am certainly of an age that I would have considered elderly when I was young!
(paddymelon @31: I believe Anto is Irish.)
Many thanks Anto and Andrew.
Just want to say that, whatever the quibbles, I really enjoyed Anto’s puzzle, especially for the sense of humour and playfulness with words. My favourite kind of puzzle. Particularly liked FORAGES, APOSTROPHE, BOOMERANG and STEPHEN.
MARCEL PROUST
Google AI says:
The “Nostalgic” Misconception
A common misunderstanding is that Proust is primarily a novelist of nostalgia, focusing on the sentimental recollection of childhood.
The Reality: While memory is central, Proust is more concerned with how memory is reconstructed and how time distorts experience, rather than simply preserving it. He often suggests that the past is only truly recaptured through art, not just memory.
Did Anto mean something like this? Quite deep!!!
My father was adamant that the postwar baby boom was over (in the UK at least) before I was born in 1952. I am therefore a New Elizabethan.
Enjoyed the crossword and blog, thank you.
Oh, that’s right Lord Jim @34. It has been said before that Anto is Irish. Been a long day for this boomer. Brain fade.
Thank you very much KVa @36 for your explication of the MARCEL PROUST clue.
CanberraGirl@23 et al. The origin of “previous” is shorthand for “previous convictions”.
Anyway, this was fun if over somewhat too soon, and I join the Greek chorus regarding LAUNCH.
This is what I looked at: “À la recherche du temps perdu (translated into English as In Search of Lost Time, earlier Remembrance of Things Past).”
There was quite literally a mistranslation of the book’s title when it first appeared in the UK.
Would anyone care to explain to me the significance of posts about eccentric/reticence?
Where has ‘eccentric’ been mentioned? Why would it be a spoiler?
Must admit I always thought the spelling was SHOE-IN, referring to old door-to-door salesman getting a ‘shoe in’ the door to stop it being slammed in their face. Seems I’ve always been wrong!
Andrew Sceats @ 41. . RETICENCE I misread Martin’s post @ 10 and didn’t check the original. Nothing wrong with the anagram of crete nice.. (No wonder no-one else has commented.)
The spoiler that Martin mentioned @ 10 was not that one, but one that came up very recently in another puzzle. We’re not supposed to mention other puzzles.
Wolf@42: you are not alone.
Thanks for explaining MARCEL PROUST, which went in once the checkers were in place but I had no idea why. Like some others, I felt the SW corner let down what was otherwise a fun puzzle, with STEPHEN and LAUNCH defeating me and both, in my opinion (of which I seek acceptance from no-one), being very weakly clued.
A virtual SHOO-IN is a term used in the horse racing world to indicate an almost certain odds-on favourite’s chance, so that’s why that version of how to spell the expression immediately came to mind in my case. Maybe like a true Irishman, Anto likes to have a bet…
Nice puzzle, not too strenuous.
I only remember seeing/using BOLT DOWN for wolf down, but apparently fhat’s just me, dictionaries are ok with BOLT alone.
Would anyone care to explain to me the significance of posts about eccentric/reticence?
Where has ‘eccentric’ been mentioned?
I have no idea why my comment appears twice. I am a boomer, and easily confused by technology.
Andrew @49 : perhaps because it still hasn’t been explained. I’m confused too.
Nothing to add to general comments about the puzzle, but if I were a bachelor and married a spinster who had a child by another man out of wedlock, the child would surely be my stepson or stepdaughter, or whimsically STEPHEN if it was a hen, even though neither of us were remarrying. I think the ‘re’ in the clue is just there to confuse.
paddymelon@31 Next week I will be 72, my mother 93. She’s most certainly elderly but I consider myself just old (seems a less loaded word). Boomers are blamed for all of the troubles of the young here too.
Very much enjoyed the cryptic. That’s two days running. APOSTROPHE made me laugh and I liked the literary clues. I knew it had to be BLOOMSBURY as soon as I saw ‘literary set’.
Very enjoyable, and all really spottable (if in hindsight sometimes). Anto often gets a bad rap in the Quiptic slot for being difficult but this one seemed spot on in terms of difficulty for a Quiptic let alone a mid-week cryptic. Loved time-poor French author amongst many gems, and like others I am a boomer in the younger end of the set and so was a tad aggrieved at elderly, and American for that matter although my online dictionary does have the term as American in origin. Thanks Anto, and Andrew.
Another kind day. Thanks Anto, the crossword editor and Andrew.
Favourite clue in ages 18ac – “Time-poor French author misinterpreted as nostalgic? (6,6)”:
In a crossword sense for its elegant misdirection: on my initial across pass I spent at least two minutes trying to come up with anagram of FRENCH AU(T)HOR meaning NOSTALGIC before I relaised tthat was only 11 letters. In a cultural sense for the elevated literary critique: With the crossers in place the solution becomes obvious, but thanks Andrew for the expert parse which makes it all clear – recalling that earlier English translations rendered the the title as “Remembrance of Things Past” (“misinterpreted as nostalgic”).
PS Andrew, Thanks for the mis-parse of ALPHA MALE. It is a pleasure for us mere mortals when you expert bloggers (very occasionally) do this. I really appreciate the work you do under such time and peer pressure!
I think you’ve hit on it KVa@36. Moncrieff chose the title for his English translation from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30: “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought / I summon up remembrance of things past”.
Though the two men were on cordial terms, Proust did complain in a letter to his translator that the title inaccurately imputed a nostalgiac cast to the work.
Thanks A & A
Andrew Sceats@41 “Eccentric” got into the clue because of confusion with a clue in an earlier puzzle. It doesn’t appear in today’s. The answer, as our blogger says, is an anagram of “Crete nice.”
SHOO-IN isn’t a reference to footwear but to “shoo!”, what you say to an animal you’re chasing away. You said “shoo!” to the answer so it would scuttle into the puzzle.
I was surprised that the BLT sandwich is known in the UK.=, thought it was just a Yank thing. I’m quite fond of them myself.
Thanks Anto and Andrew.
If you marry someone who has a hen from a previous marriage (??) is she your step-hen?
Yes, my comment about eccentric and RETICENCE was merely a self-deprecating reference to me having considered the wrong word, which almost fits the clue but doesn’t quite work for the anagram. Apologies for any confusion (but thanks for noticing!).
LOI MARCELPROUST which I only got from the crossers and my memory of him having owned a haddock…at least according to the sketch setting up the Eric the Half-a-Bee song on Monty Python’s Previous Record.
Just for any budding mathematician.
RANDOMness does not exclude the regular, since such an exclusion would violate the randomness.
[Winston Smith @58: if I remember correctly, Proust was also mentioned in one of the Nigel Molesworth books (Down with Skool etc). Molesworth is asked by one of the masters what he has read over the vacation and he replies with Proust’s Swann’s Way. The master refuses to believe him and says there is no such book.]
I seem to be out of sync with most of the comments today in that I wasn’t impressed by MARCEL PROUST, a CD which required somewhat specialized knowledge, but liked LAUNCH very much, being a DD with no extraneous words and a great surface.
Failed to spot STEPHEN, so no banana for me. Faves: FORAGES, WATCH IT and the craftily hidden A&E.
Thanks, A&A
Great fun and not too difficult but did struggle to recall MARCEL PROUST. I did try to read his works once but found it hard to get into. I think like Stephen Hawking more people have lied about reading their work than have actually read it.
Liked STEPHEN although it took an age to understand why it was right.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
After finishing the crossword I had a cup of coffee with a Madeleine.
I got stuck on the last two, STEPHEN and LAUNCH. STEPHEN clicked eventually, after I’d gone out for the day for a walk in the sunshine, but LAUNCH, despite my going all up and down the alphabet for the missing blank letters, yielded only to a “what fits this?” website. So a DNF for me.
I especially enjoyed the (green)grocers’ APOSTROPHE. One of our local markets has an excellent green-grocer -still selling by the pound – who are not only inventive with their placing of apostroph’es but also with their spelling of the more exotic items: who could resist a big bunch of Corryandah? Or a couple of Oboe’s for knocking up a quick ratatouille?
I had a mild coffee-spit moment at seeing a Boomer described as “old”; but I suppose I am, having had my bus pass for some years now.
Thanks, Anto & Andrew!
I used to call my older brother STEP HEN, quite liked the wordplay there.
I shrugged at SHOO IN, having always thought that it was football commentatorese SHOE IN, a ball requiring a light tap, not even a boot, into an open goal.
LAUNCH was a bit of a flat one on which to finish in an otherwise jolly puzzle.
DTS, 64, indeed, I’ve also seen “sparrowgrass”.
Cheers all.
Etu 65. Here in Norfolk asparagus is often called sparrowgrass.
I’ve always thought of shoo in the sense of chasing an animal as Valentine 56 says. We once looked after a relative’s house and their small flock of hens that we had to “shoo” into their coop at night. It was quite an easy task as they were all nearby and ready to retire.
Etu@65: I’ve read, I think, “Sparrow-grass” used as an accepted term in period novels, or maybe Joan Aiken or similar, though I couldn’t put my finger on a specific instance. Wikipedia has:
“The English word asparagus derives from classical Latin but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin sparagus. […]
Asparagus was corrupted by folk etymology in some places to “sparrow grass”; indeed, John Walker wrote in 1791 that “Sparrowgrass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry”. The name ‘sparrow grass’ was still in common use in rural East Anglia, England well into the twentieth century.”
[Having read all of Proust–and like everyone who has done so not missing an opportunity to mention the fact–I would recommend him to all–it establishes the basic grammar of the modern novel and has some of the most stunning passages of writing in existence.
I would dispute “Remembrance of Things Past” is “misinterpreted”. It’s from the brilliant (and I would say still best, especially with the Enright and Kilmartin revisions) C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation and is taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30. Proust initially wanted to stop the English translation because of the changed title but ended up admiring Moncrieff’s capacity to capture the lyricism of the French. Shortly before his death he nonetheless suggested to Moncrieff that his change of title missed the “intentional ambiguity of my Temps perdu, which corresponds to the Temps retrouvé that appears at the end of my work.”]
Doubloon @68 “Remembrance of things past” is not a translation of “A la recherche du temps perdu.”
Another here for whom STEPHEN and LAUNCH were the LOIs; that’ll be most of us, it seems! I didn’t think they were weak, though both needed all the checkers and some thinking.
Thanks everyone for the explanation of MARCEL PROUST. I think that’s a great clue – and guessable from the checkers if the detail meant nothing (which was my case).
So a good puzzle which went quickly except for those three mentioned. Fave was probably PREVIOUS.
I think the “elderly American” reference for BOOMER reflects the fact that this label is applied to a somewhat different age range in the US than it is in the UK (and possibly elsewhere); see for example https://tomorrowtodayglobal.com/2010/12/07/uk-and-us-baby-boomers-are-not-the-same-so-please-stop-generalising-generations/ .
Thanks both
Not easy for me. Second in a row that simmered all day. My last two, 12a BOLT and 7d HANGOVER fell late in the day, but I failed to folve 28a STEPHEN and 19d LAUNCH, both fair and gettable. Much to enjoy, particularly 9a A AND E, 3d GREY MATTER, and 7d. Thanks to Anto and Andrew
Happy to see Roz’s favourite sport at 5d WATER POLO
8d TWENTIES, not sure why “games” = TIES. Just games that end in a tie?
Winston Smith @58, “…so if you’re calling the author of À la recherche du temps perdu a loony, I shall have to ask you to step outside!”
Mig@71, in British parlance a tie can mean a match, most familiarly in a football (soccer) Cup competition in which the two particular teams competing in a given match aren’t predetermined but rather are the result of the outcomes of previous matches. Think those World Cup charts that you fill in as the competition progresses, a staple of printed media in the run-up to the event.
(I think it applies to any sport.)
Well, it does apply to predetermined matches as well, but maybe only to ones which are the result of a draw that determines all matches in a given round (usually the earlier rounds). In the first paragraph of the following news article from the English FA, they talk about the draw/confirmation of the “second round ties” presumably as a synonyn of the “second-round schedule” used in the headline: https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/nov/06/efac-second-round-broadcasts
Someone (anyone) more interested in football than me will tell us whether the word applies to e.g. league matches too. My instinct is that the word implies a blank slot that gets filled in somehow at a certain point, rather than league draws in which the whole shebang is determined at the outset without fanfare.
I’m a day behind, but this was a rapid solve this morning, after a hesitant start. I’ve quickly skimmed through the 73 posts in this thread and I reckon it’s got the most misunderstandings of either the blog, or the clues, or of other people’s posts, of any I can remember. Most enjoyable!
Also quite surprising that so many solvers here don’t understand the origin and hence the spelling of SHOO-IN. I like (Etu@65) the easy tap in that you don’t need football boots for!
Thanks to Jim@60 for the Molesworth quote. Maybe I’ll have to acquire a copy of MARCEL PROUST’s famous work. If Nigel has read it, why shouldn’t I?
Favourite was the STEP HEN, with the comment @13 that no one ever says that! Classic.
Thanks to Anto and Andrew.
Thanks AP@72,73
Lord Jim @60 You have also rung a bell deep in my memory bank that Swann’s Way got a mention also in Python’s All England Summarise Proust Contest.
Also, looking back at this crossword, am I alone in my annoyance at the way far too many businesses and establishments not only misplace but completely ignore apostrophes? I have nothing good whatsoever to say about McDonald’s…apart from the fact that they don’t call themselves McDonalds.
Winston.
I often omit apostrophes on plural possessives because they look plain odd.
I personally find omitted ones far less irritating than superfluous ones.