A very enjoyable and ingenious puzzle from Fed. Most of it went in pretty smoothly, though for some reason the NW corner help me up at the end. Thanks to Fed for the entertainment.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | TO COME | Expected firm book binding (2,4) CO (company, firm) in (bound by) TOME (book) |
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| 4 | IMPERIAL | Risk touring America in August (8) A[merica] in IMPERIL |
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| 9 | OVERT | Up first in The Open (5) OVER (up) + T[he] |
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| 10 | POSTDATES | Comes after Poles gathered in fruit (9) DATE (fruit) in POSTS (poles) |
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| 11 | PUNCH LINE | Judy’s husband having job say, to get to the other side … (5,4) PUNCH (as in Punch and Judy) + LINE (job); “to get to the other side” is the answer to “why did the chicken cross the road?”, so an example of a punchline (Chambers agrees with me in thinking this is a single word) |
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| 12 | RURAL | … of the country. Largely regret going by rail – without one … (5) RU[e] (regret) + RAIL less I |
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| 13 | RACKETEERING | … track engineer working close to train shed – it’s extortion (12) Anagram of TRACK ENGINEER with [trai]N removed or “shed” |
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| 17 | TAX INSPECTOR | Revenue man in quiet zone checks in on duty at the earliest opportunity (3,9) TAX (duty) + IN + P in SECTOR |
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| 20 | SAY-SO | Rumour is, many Ascot odds must be cut (3-2) Remove the odd letters from iS mAnY aScOt |
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| 21 | INNKEEPER | Cool name – probably number one part in nativity play? (9) IN (fashionable, cool) + N[ame] + KEEPER (the goalkeeper in football usually wears the number 1 shirt) |
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| 23 | ASPIRATES | Supplies air to a buccaneer on board ship (9) A + PIRATE in SS (ship) |
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| 24 | PHASE | Worry in audition for stage (5) Sounds like “faze” (to worry) |
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| 25 | STANDARD | Day after Laurel and Hardy discovered model (8) STAN (laurel) + D[ay] + [h]ARD[y] |
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| 26 | ATTEST | Every now and then say, Tati is in French show (6) Alternate letters of sAy TaTi + EST (French for “is”) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | TROUPERS | Small story about taking posh cast on tour … (8) U (posh) in reverse of S REPORT |
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| 2 | CREW NECK | … band drink meaning Jersey’s cut? (4,4) CREW (band) + NECK (to drink) – crew neck is a style of pullover or jersey |
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| 3 | MATCH | Spill double (5) Double definition |
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| 5 | MISREPRESENTS | Theatre feel bitter about lines girl delivers inaccurately (13) REP (repertory theatre) + RESENT in (“lining”) MISS |
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| 6 | ENDURANCE | Doctor: cure can – having killed cold – end patient suffering (9) Anagram of CURE [c]AN END |
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| 7 | INTERN | Trainee from Bury on reception, ultimately (6) INTER (to bury) + [receptio]N |
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| 8 | LUSHLY | Sumptuously drunk, sitting on lavatory, exhausted (6) LUSH (a drunk) + L[avator]Y |
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| 10 | PRIME MINISTER | Ready before clergyman describes Eden? (5,8) PRIME (to ready) + MINISTER (clergyman) – Anthony Eden was PM from 1955 until 1957, his career effectively ended by his handling of the Suez crisis |
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| 14 | ENAMOURED | Charmed by change of demeanour (9) DEMEANOUR* |
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| 15 | STOPPAGE | Check warehouse facility using powers to knock out door at the back (8) STORAGE (warehouse facility) with [doo]R replaced by two P[ower]s |
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| 16 | PRURIENT | Juicy gossip for you – Salvador Dali Tate Modern exhibit finally showing (8) Last letters of gossiP foR yoU salvadoR dalI tatE moderN exhibiT |
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| 18 | OSCARS | Very upset about Mark getting awards (6) SCAR (mark) in reverse of SO (very) |
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| 19 | MYOPIA | Viewer’s complaint leads to Musical Youth’s opening piano number being cancelled (6) First letters of Musical Youth’s Opening + PIANO less NO (number) |
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| 22 | EXPAT | Cross old man in Egypt on vacation – he’s far from home (5) X (cross) + PA (father, old man) in E[gyp]T |
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Thanks Fed and Andrew
I thought the “take some letters” trick was overused. Worth doing for STANDARD, though.
I didn’t parse TROUPERS properly. I was trying to do something with TROPES for the small story. I really struggled to make TAX INSPECTOR work too.
Elsewhere, all good fun as usual. I was an INNKEEPER.
I liked PRIME MINISTER, MATCH, STANDARD and STOPPAGE.
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Can someone please explain the earliest opportunity’ bit in the tax inspector parsing? I can’t see it at all.
Quite tough but also enjoyable. The bottom half was easier for me.
I could not parse 15d and 19d IA=’number being cancelled’ as I had MYOP as first letters of Musical Youth’s opening piano – but now I see where I went wrong.
As usual the football trivia went over my head. I did not know that in football (soccer), the number ONE is the main starting goalkeeper on a team (for 21ac) but thanks Google AI for pointing it out to me!
New for me: spill = a thin strip of wood or paper used for lighting a fire, candle, etc. (for 3d) which I guess is like a MATCH.
Shoogled@3 – In the clue, ‘duty at the earliest opportunity’ means put TAX at the start of the answer
Yes, me too held up at the last with the NW corner, which as I tried starting there, made for a slow start. The capital A in AUGUST rather threw me off the scent for that one, and PUNCH LINE was another where I hesitated with Punch in place, but could not quite see the relevance of the whole clue, so thank you, Andrew. INNKEEPER took a while to see as well. Even with this World Cup surrounding us. Does the goalkeeper always wear number one on his back? I don’t suppose the goalie subs on the bench do. Small point…
I liked STANDARD, CREW NECK, PRIME MINISTER. I struggled to put the various bits of TAX INSPECTOR and MISREPRESENTS together.
Comment #7
Loved it, once I’d tortured out the misdirections in the wonderfully slick surfaces. Favourite probably POSTDATES. And 14down for the jolly earworm…
Tricky stuff but well put together I thought. Lots to like. For me TAX INSPECTOR and MISREPRESENTS stand out. Needed help parsing PUNCHLINE and MYOPIA so thanks Andrew.
ronald@5 It does say ‘probably number one’
Couldn’t see the def in PUNCH LINE, just the constituent parts.
The various ellipses in 11d, 12d, and 13d seem to add nothing of substance.
I liked IMPERIAL and RACKETEERING. Demeanour/ENAMOURED is a bit of a chestnut. I’ve certainly seen it more than once.
Toughest puzzle in a while and I also struggled in the NW. My favourite was STANDARD and I also enjoyed the convoluted TAX INSPECTOR, ASPIRATES, INNKEEPER, LUSHLY, PRIME MINISTER and PRURIENT. The use of ellipses in 11, 12 & 13ac was particularly well done.
Ta Fed & Andrew.
Ronald@5
I grew up in England with the old fashioned version of football (soccer), where players wore numbered jerseys according to their positions
1 goalkeeper
2 right back
3 left back
4 right half
5 centre half
6 left half
7 right wing
8 inside right
9 centre forward
10 inside left
11 left wing
I don’t think this formation is used these days, but it is the traditional numbering, so I assume still valid in crosswordland ?
Thanks Fed – a pleasant solve, and not too challenging.
Thanks for the the blog , good set of clever clues with STANDARD standing out for me .
INNKEEPER is a reference to water polo , the keeper will always wear cap 1 .
Never knew a taper to light a candle was called a spill
Had to fill in twelve answers this morning, not an easy puzzle.
I didn’t know that goalies are traditionally at No. 1, though maybe the rest of the sequence no longer exists? Dunno.
Thanks, Fed and Andrew.
Many thanks for explaining things, Andrew. This was too intricate for me. STANDARD and RURAL favourites of the ones I managed.
Am old enough to have used spills occasionally to light a candle from an open fire, or an open fire from a match. So I enjoyed that clue too. Roz @15: humour and succinctness as ever.
Chemistry labs had spills in a jar to light one Bunsen from another, already alight.
Good fun with a nice selection of clues. I liked IMPERIAL in August, the train engineer RACKETEERING, the Laurel and Hardy STANDARD, Eden as PRIME MINISTER, and the STOPPAGE at the warehouse facility.
Thanks Fed and Andrew.
Thanks to Fed for some very innovative surfaces, and to Andrew for the blog.
We were left with two queries. Thanks to michelle@4 for solving the parsing of 17 across; we are however still puzzled by the parsing of 3 down, MATCH. The clue ‘Spill double’ is shown as a double definition. This does not work for ‘spill’. A spill does not ignite itself – it is used to transfer a flame [one of my regular duties as a Churchwarden when lighting the church candles].
Valentine @17 In the old days, the starting players wore numbers 1 through 11, with 1 always being the goalkeeper and the numbers more-or-less reflected the players position, regardless of which individuals were playing.
IIRC Liverpool were the first English club to switch to the modern system of “squad numbers” where each player has a permanently assigned number regardless of what position they are playing. These days you will rarely see a starting line-up wearing numbers 1 through 11.
You still hear echoes of the old system, for example you might hear a commentator refer to a player as “an old-fashioned number 10” or a “false 9” to describe their position, regardless of the number on their back. At the World Cup you will hear Pickford referred to as “England’s No. 1”.
One other echo is that low squad numbers remain prestigious, suggesting that the player is normally first choice at that position, and almost always the first choice goalkeeper wears number 1.
Roz @15: no disrespect, but I think you will find that the goalkeeper in soccer wearing number 1 is far more widely known than the water polo keeper.
Xerxes @19
I had heard “spill” in that sense, but “splint” was much more frequently used.
I agree with Shropshi*e Lass @21 that a spill isn’t the same as a match.
I started well but then got bogged down, particularly the NW. I was not on the right wavelength and couldn’t parse some answers at all after writing in the only possible word. So many thanks to Andrew for shedding light on this.
Not the fault of the setter but this was more of a slog than fun for me. I did like INNKEEPER with its topical football reference, ASPIRATES, and PHASE. And can we give the phrase ‘on vacation’ a rest?
Thanks to Fed and Andrew
Thanks Fed for an enjoyable and challenging puzzle and to Andrew for the usual helpful blog. I have to agree with ShropsireLass@21 though about 3 down MATCH. The wordplay does not work. That aside, it was a lovely puzzle with lots of very clever surfaces and several favourites, inc LUSHLY, PUNCHLINE and ENDURANCE.
[Very sorry for my unfortunate typo @23. The sentence was already an edit, so I ran out of time to correct it.]
Thanks Andrew I really struggled with parsing a number of these so very helpful to see where Fed was coming from.
Smooth solve with only TROUPERS unparsed. Like a previous commenter got obsessed with tropes being stories when they aren’t really.
Enjoyed INNKEEPER and STANDARD.
Thanks Fed and Andrew
Came to find out what was the double definition of MATCH. Thanks to all who commented on this one. Thanks Fed for a tough challenge, and Andrew for the blog.
Like most I struggled to parse TROUPERS and Tax Inspector (I suppose SPECTOR is a zone with quiet in it), and didn’t know the ‘other’ meaning of MATCH.
‘To get to the other side’ is a fantastic definition for punchline!
Thanks Fed & Andrew
Jacob @22: Roz likes to refer to football as water polo or diving as a way of denigrating the beautiful game. All in good fun.
AlanC @ 31 I have mentioned before that the beautiful game was coined by Ervin Zador of Hungary in 1956 to describe water polo . Most football fans cannot even spell baeutifull .
Fun puzzle. Not much to add – my favourites have already been flagged up often. I also found the NW quadrant the last to yield.
I was familiar with the meaning of spill as ‘taper’, and hence ‘match’. Chambers lists this as the second meaning of ‘match’, the third being ‘fuse’ (as in ‘slow match’ = ‘slow fuse’). Wiktionary states that these secondary meanings are ‘obsolete’, though presumably they predate the modern one.
Thanks to Fed and Andrew
I always look forward to Fed’s puzzle, and as usual I really enjoyed this one. Like Andrew the NW was last to fall, with last two in, 1d TROUPERS (like Martin@2 I was working on TROPES = “Small story”) and 9a OVERT, unparsed (as well as a few others). Thank you for clarifying, Andrew! I did enjoy the clever triple ellipses at 11, 12, and 13 — they do make a coherent surface
Favourites 4a IMPERIAL (August evidently a bad month to tour the US), 11a PUNCHLINE, 13a RACKETEERING (“close to train shed”), 21a INNKEEPER (definition), 25a STANDARD ( The incomparable “Laurel and Hardy”), 8d LUSHLY (funny), 10d PM (misdirecting surface and definition)
Far too many water polo references in these crosswords! 🙂
Happy Canada Day everyone!
I’ve been looking at old Guardian crosswords, working my way from 25000. By a spooky coincidence, I’ve just done 25006 (Rufus) and that has PUNCHLINE as one word
Thanks Fed for a somewhat challenging (NW quadrant) but very satisfying crossword. I revealed PUNCHLINE to get unstuck, then all else fell into place. Favourites included the oft mentioned STANDARD, TO COME, ASPIRATES, PRIME MINISTER, ENAMOURED (nice surface), and OSCARS. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
Roz @32: good to know 😊
Held up by entering the unlikely RIGHT REVEREND for 10d
Perhaps you should switch sports AlanC@37 , time to put away childish things . Lots of water polo clubs in London and bound to be over 60s . ( this is not meant as a dig , a few years yet for me but I can’t wait to play over 60s ) .
Happy Canada Day to Mig , Cellomaniac and any other Canucks on here .
PHASE last one in because I forgot about the other spelling for the other meaning.
Didn’t know match = SPILL.
The LUSHLY clue is an image I’ll treasure.
Being blissfully ignorant of sporting matters, I just read ‘keeper’ in the current romantic sense, which still kind of corresponds to ‘number one’ 😊🤭🙄.
It’s surprising DG split punchline into two words, given his day job, but then again he’s not really that kind of comedian.
I can’t see how “check” and STOPPAGE can be synonyms.
Cluseau@41 That’s how I interpreted KEEPER as well — a romantic partner who’s “the one”. In ice hockey, goalies are often number 1 or 30
Re ‘ to get to the other side ‘. Don’t forget that a chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
Zoot @44
I would post a smiley, but I’m not sure it deserves it!
[The chicken went on to cross the mobius strip…. to get to the same side.]
The real reason the chicken crossed the road was to lay it on the line
I’d heard of “spill” from the game of “spillikins”, perhaps better known on this (W) side of the pond as “jack straws”. Not quite the same as a MATCH—but, thinking of “matchstick”, close enough IMO. That said, I too found the rest of the NW the most resistant area.
Ice-hockey goaltenders traditionally wore no. 1, 30 or 31, as mentioned, but unlike in soccer I’ve rarely if ever heard one called a “keeper”: the most common alternative is “goalie”, followed at some distance by “netminder”.
(I notice this page has less colour-coding than some others, and no filled-in grid. Any particular reason?)
And happy Canada Day back to Roz et al.!
Odysseus@48 also “masked bandit” (in one song)
How wonderful to be talking about ice hockey goalies on Canada Day!
Roz@32 It seems Ervin Zador borrowed the term from HE Bates, who described football as ‘the beautiful game’ in a 1952 article for The Sunday Times.
Comment #51
Jolly good, from setter, blogger, and commenters I thought.
I’m another for STANDARD as cotd.
Dropbear @ 13 – mmm… I also knew 9and 11 as “outside right” and “outside left”… Zzzz
On the other hand, this puzzle was delightful – I shall have to start looking out for Fed!
Many thanks both and all
I’ve watched quite a bit of non-league football in the last five years. There are no squad numbers, and usually only one goalkeeper’s jersey available, so it’s always number one. There are far more matches in non-league every Saturday than in all the World Cups since the dawn of time.
At kick-off, the referee does a final check to make sure the right number of players are present and alert, and usually calls out “keeper” to each end of the pitch, and receives a thumbs up in return.
A frequent chant at matches – not just non-league – is to praise the keeper for a brilliant save by suggesting he should be “England’s number one”, even if he has 47 on the back of his jersey.
William FP@53. Outside right would be number 7. Number 9 is the centre forward.
Can someone explain U (posh) ? Otherwise, a great xword. I particularly enjoyed lushly and punch/line
U=posh is from U and non-U.
Grizzlebeard@50 , Zador was simply repeating the famous quote from Janos Nemeth at the 1932 Olympics .
Chip, chip away. Started on Wednesday and it seemed like Tuesday all over again – a puzzle that was completely opaque to my solving level. But after many visits light dawned on the workings of many of the clues and I’ve completed it this morning. A bit loose here and there I thought but mostly fair and in hindsight very clear, although spill == MATCH was a NHO. Thanks Fed, enjoyed that challenge and to Andrew for the blog.
Timomithy@56 U is short for “upper class.” U is for the gentry and non-U is not so much for the working class as for people in the upper middle class who are trying to be upper class but who haven’t absorbed the fine distinctions.
Valentin@60 thanks!