Quite a fiendish challenge from IO this morning.
I managed to complete this but not without difficulty. I always find IO’s puzzles very enjoyable nonetheless! Do leave a comment if you disagree with any of my thinking below.
EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, there is a Famous Five theme, with the five characters all appearing in the grid. In the first book of the series, Five on a TREASURE ISLAND, the dog who became known as Timmy was introduced as Timothy.
Cryptic definition
N[arc]O becomes NO when it is without ARC (or ARC-LIGHT)
C (caught) + FELON* (*breaking) and entering SEVENA< (7A, <from the rear)
Anne of Cleves was Henry VIII’s fourth wife
RE (about) joining TA (former volunteers, Territorial Army) + SURE IS LAND (is certainly light)
Cryptic clue
A play on the two meanings of ‘spotted’; ‘dick’ being an old term for ‘pudding’.
[goatski]N APPA[rently] (its source)
Nappa leather can in fact be either sheep or goatskin.
SHOT (try) + LASS (Morag perhaps) with G[lenmorangie] (a drop of) in – semi &lit
MAN with HIS* (*poached); IDE (fish) skewers
[B]L[yton] (‘s second) + [f]I[v]E [s]T[o]O[d] (in periodical instalments)
‘Lie to’ is a nautical phrase for keeping a ship still, especially in bad weather.
NO TONE (lacking elasticity)
CROSS (check) on GEORGE (autopilot)
‘George’ is cockpit slang, so a pilot might say ‘George has control of the plane now’.
(CANADA LE[a]RN[s] (losing A + S (second))* (*about) on JUL 1 (Canada Day)
(IT (sex) + WAS (used to be)) on a rota + ERE (before)
‘On a rota’ meaning ‘cycling’ in this case, as in being ‘in a round/rotation’.
Cryptic clue
P (positive) + ARTISAN (this skilled tradesman) is PARTISAN (biased)
CO (firm, company) about RED (communist)
IN (at home) + SAT (on sofa) + I + ATE (enjoyed)
(SO NO RADISHES)* (*unfortunately)
AS (when) visiting KIN< (rellies, relatives, <taking turn about)
A Nasik square or magic square is a square arrangement of numbers where the sums of all rows, columns and diagonals are equal.
BALE< (Christian, <twisted) + ORATE (harangue)
F1 (motorsport) + D (director) + GETS (is given)
I’M (one’s) gathered in TO (for) + THY (your, old) + GRASS (rat)
POE (storyteller) collects IN (home) + TILL (work) after a break
I.e. the break in homework to create home + work.
(OLD (aged) + C (college)) dons [retirin]G (close to) + REST (support)
(M[o]UNT (horse) + JAC[k] (donkey)) (OK escaping in bits)
‘In bits’ implying that the O and K separate.
OB[v]ER[s]E (head; [famou]S (ultimately) and V (five) are muddled)
The obverse side of a coin is the front side showing the head/portrait.
ATE (had) to carry GR (grain)
[s]OLDIE[r] (army man, ex SR (senior))
Perhaps there is a more elegant solution – mine implies ‘senior’ does double duty?
I’m not surprised there are no comments. Beyond fiendish – absolutely brutal and, needless to say, a DNF for me.
Great blog though Oriel.
Well.
I got one. (2D)
Thanks for the blog tho 🙂
OLDIE
I think it’s an intended &lit.
SPOTTED DICK
Pud is given as vulgar slang for penis.
The def is ‘pud’ as underlined in the blog (or does the whole clue
work as the def, somehow?)
Plenty of faves. Superb puzzle. Very high quality blog as usual.
The Io-Oriel combo is a real treat.
Thanks Io and Oriel.
I took the wordplay for SPOTTED DICK as ‘picked out’ = SPOTTED + ‘eye’ = DICK (as in private eye).
I never attempt IO. Always beyond me. I just come here to see the solutions and parsings and to see how far beyond me it is. This was very far. I probably would have got 2D. Otherwise, no . . .
…on a Treasure Island is the first Famous Five book
Thanks for the blog , tricky in parts but the perimeter clues seemed easier and helped a lot with letters later on . It also seemed to fit with my general knowledge for once .
SPOTTED DICK – I agree with Hovis@4 , just straight definition plus the wordplay @4 . A very traditional Pud(ding) .
The Famous Five are all in the grid . Timmy the dog must be Timothy .
Normal service is resumed 🙂
I think ex may be an instruction to take OLDIE out of soldier (army man)?
Cheers I&O
As usual with Io I managed about a third of it. Of those, I got five from just the definition and had no idea how the wordplay worked. It helps when a lot of the answers are phrases and you have the numbers to tell you how many letters there are in each word (unlike some crosswords where instead of saying for example (6,5) it says (11. Two words.)
22D the only one I managed after a couple of passes through the clues, then I gave up. Thanks for the blog, extremely useful.
An admirable puzzle, as ever with IO, completed with a couple of parsings undone – had no idea about Canada Day, for instance, so thanks to Oriel for enlightening me in the excellent blog. Parsed SPOTTED DICK as Hovis@4.
A special credit from me to IO for, in 15D, flagging that one had to split the word in the clue: I wish Philistine and others would do the same.
Bodycheetah@8 Can you have an indirect hidden like that? I managed to fill the grid, but needed help with a couple of parsings. Sometimes the fact that I know Io is going to be difficult gets in the way of solving and parsing. A sort of panic sets in.
Great puzzle as ever from this setter. Just struggled parsing the last across and down clues, many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks Io and Oriel
15dn: I agree fully with the final sentence from Perplexus@11. Splitting of clue words is perfectly reasonable in itself, but should be signalled. Io has shown us how this can be done with elegance.
As Roz@7 mentioned, I managed to find a few easier clues to get me going. I did finish, but it took so much time, and included so many guesses without parsing, and so much use of the check button. I should also mention there were so many NHOs.
I too agree with the final sentence from Perplexus@11 on word splitting.
Thanks I0 and Oriel
Thank you to Io and Oriel. As always, a struggle with this setter but this time I only managed a total of five answers. It’s definitely a lesson in humility especially after completing the last dozen or so puzzles. I still have a lot to learn.
Thank goodness for the blog!
Dang, started off with 3 quick solves, thought this would be smooth sailing, and then not even getting close to one more solution.
I gave up after getting a handful of answers. I’m sure if I’d persevered, I’d have got a few more, but I, a busy person would never ever have reached the end. ,
No pleasure whatsoever
I admire those few who can solve this puzzle, but I do wonder about its place in the FT. An opportunity to offer many more people pleasure is sacrificed for the delight of a few.
Thanks, couldn’t get to the bottom of NASIK using search engines and I don’t remember reading the Famous Five books, would have helped me get to TIMOTHY earlier.
P@12 well you can but whether you should is another question 🙂 I tend to assume anything goes with IO
bodycheetah@20: the fact that Io signalled the splitting of a clue word in 15dn, as discussed above in comments 11, 14, and 15, suggests to me that he does not belong to the “anything goes” school of setters. Io is clearly capable of being creative while sticking to the principle of saying what you mean.
How can one without a knowledge of obscurities distinguish between NASIK and NISAK? For all the undoubted intelligence there is a failure to consider the solver.