Thanks to Maskarade for a mostly gentle Tuesday puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | CLOSING DOWN | First of the chickens moulting as programmes finishing once (7,4) C[hickens] + LOSING DOWN (moulting); the definition refers to the way television channels used to “close down” for the night |
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| 9 | HAM ROLL | Poor actor’s part as expressed on picnic menu (3,4) HAM (bad actor) + homophone of “role” |
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| 10 | NO CAN DO | Bottle party? (2,3,2) A bottle party could be a DO with NO CANs. This really needs a definition of the usual meaning of the phrase, I would say |
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| 11 | LUTHERANS | Martin’s followers reform most of unearthly beliefs ultimately (9) Anagram of UNEARTHL[y] + [belief]S |
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| 12 | DOWNS | They’re not here, but are in Sussex and Hampshire (5) We’re in the acrosses rather than the down clues, and there are ranges of hills called DOWNS in those counties |
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| 13 | DEAN | College official – idle, vain, absent now and again (4) Alternate letters of iDlE vAiN |
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| 14 | PERSIAN CAT | Welsh girl about to be cuddled by cute pedigree pet (7,3) SIAN + CA (circa, about) in PERT (cute) |
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| 16 | LOUD HAILER | Rude hallo I might produce? (4-6) (RUDE HALLO I)* &lit |
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| 19 | FETA | Regularly – often – tea is cheese (4) Alternate letters of oFtEn TeA |
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| 20 | HELEN | Beauty captured by the lens (5) Hidden in tHE LENs; HELEN of Troy was described as “the face that launch’d a thousand ships” in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus |
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| 21 | RETROUSSÉ | Trousers, lost at the start, eventually turned up (9) TROUSERS* + E[ventually] |
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| 23 | ARTISTE | Tastier dancing from this performer? (7) TASTIER* |
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| 24 | NO SCORE | Duck. On reflection, 20! (2,5) Reverse of ON + SCORE (20); a duck is a score of zero in cricket; the first of several references to the sport |
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| 25 | PRODIGAL SON | NT character making drop-goals in error (8,3) (DROP GOALS IN)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | COME TO A FULL STOP | Finish one’s sentence and heed driving instructor (4,2,1,4,4) Double definition |
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| 2 | OZONE | Invigorating air in Gozo? Never! (5) Hidden in gOZO NEver |
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| 3 | ILL FAME | Sick notes lead to notoriety (3,4) ILL (sick) + FA ME (two notes of the sol-fa scale) |
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| 4 | GENESIS | Band’s origin (7) Double definition |
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| 5 | ORCADIAN | Islander’s love of pastoral life lacks initial attractiveness (8) O (love, zero in tennis) + ARCADIAN (of pastoral life) less A[ttractiveness] |
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| 6 | NINE WICKETS DOWN | Windies won – Kent gets caught out, when the last man is batting (4,7,4) Anagram of WINDIES WON KENT C[aught] – another cricketing reference |
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| 7 | PHILADELPHIAN | Letter to boy questionable help getting Botham as US citizen (13) PHI (Greek letter) + LAD (boy) + HELP* + IAN (Botham former cricketer) … and another |
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| 8 | WORSE THAN EVER | It’s deteriorated a lot, sadly wasn’t over here (5,4,4) (WASN’T OVER HERE)* |
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| 15 | THANKS TO | F. Gump actor cuts toe, because of … ? (6,2) T[om] HANKS (who played Forrest Gump) + TO[e] |
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| 17 | ISRAELI | Sharon, say, is PM, losing head (7) [d]ISRAELI – probably referring to Arial Sharon, former prime minister of Israel |
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| 18 | ESTONIA | Land collapsing into sea (7) (INTO SEA)* |
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| 22 | OASIS | Orchids, originally unaltered, an ikebana requirement? (5) O[rchids] + AS IS (unaltered); Oasis is a foam used in flower arranging, though I suspect not in traditional Ikebana |
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It had to happen eventually – a Maskarade puzzle I enjoyed 🙂
Ticks for LUTHERAN, RETROUSSE, 9 WICKETS DOWN and many others
Biffed in ASTAIRE without checking the fodder so Mr Hanks took a while to turn up
Cheers M&A
Had to Google ikebana, but the wordplay was clear enough.
Its do-re-mi isn’t it? Not do-re-me in 3d?
Nice crossword. Fav…10a.
Thanks both…
Lovely enjoyable journey in crosswordland. For 10ac surely to bottle something is the same as no can do? Thanks both.
H@2 chambers has mi: “The third note of the scale in sol-fa notation (also anglicized in spelling as me)
Favourites: NINE WICKETS DOWN, NO SCORE
I wondered about the definitions of both 10ac and 17d (thought the same as Andrew).
New for me: ORCADIAN = relating to Orkney; OASIS = a type of rigid foam into which the stems of flowers can be secured in flower arranging.
I’d parsed 10A as a double definition, bottle being “bottle out”, so no can do!
Thanks Maskerade for a fun start to the day and Andrew for an excellent blog.
I started off thinking that it was a bit clunky with lots of anagrams, but then got onto the good stuff. Quite easy though.
Liked CLOSING DOWN and NO CAN DO.
Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
Bit of a write-in, so got a reasonably early night. NO CAN DO and PRODIGAL SON were my standouts. OASIS was new and although there were 3 DOWNs in the grid, it didn’t seem significant.
Ta Maskarade & Andrew.
I wondered if there was a Trumpian theme. DOWN DOWN DOWN, PERSIAN, ISRAELI, WORSE THAN EVER, ILL FAME and possibly a couple of others.
I also had a double think about NO CAN DO. My first thought was that’s not right for bottle which usually means courage to do. But it may just be a simple joke.
PHILADELPHIAN was nicely constructed. And liked the nudge that Maskarade gave us with F Gump to use the initial of T HANKS.
If only we’d known that Helen was a beauty, we’d have given the name to our daughter. 😉
Couldn’t work out what OASIS had to do with ikebana. I learnt some more about English geography. Pert/cute didn’t quite click for me, but no doubt it’s in Chambers.
When I checked the meaning of RETROUSSE, I got “turned up at tip”, which brought to mind a possible outcome after accidently putting something in the garbage bin.
FT solvers will encounter a nearly identical clue for RETROUSSE in today’s puzzle in the same place in the grid.
NO CAN DO would also fit a Trumpian theme. Not legal, and not achievable.
Nice and easy. I liked the clues for NO CAN DO and ESTONIA.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Agree with the blogger on NO CAN DO.
paddymelon@9
Maybe there’s a Trumpian theme. Hope COME TO A FULL STOP is part of the theme and it comes true in respect of the war (or whatever you call it).
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.
Yes, KVa @13. That’s my hope too. I also considered that CTAFS was one of the possible themesters, and Maskarade’s message.
Paddymelon @9 – yes, BOTTLE as a noun = courage, but BOTTLE as a verb, in this instance = back off i.e. “he bottled the header”
Easy does not have to mean it ain’t fun and I really enjoyed this. What I like about clues like “no can do” with its play on “bottle” is that, although you might be able to nitpick that it does not work perfectly in meaning, once you see the answer you are sure it is right. And it got a chuckle. Isn’t that enough?
5dn reminds me of a message I sent to friends once I arrived on Orkney a couple of years ago: “Et in Orcadia ego”.
Thanks Maskerade and Andrew.
Nice puzzle (though rather too much cricket – this isn’t the Telegraph!).
My pick: LUTHERANS, LOUD HAILER, RETROUSSE. ESTONIA is neat; I don’t recall having seen it before, unlike NO CAN DO, which was a write-in for me as I recognised it from the past. I’m sure the first time I saw the device (was it Vlad?) it did have a second definition – perhaps someone else with a better memory can confirm this?
Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew
GDU @ 10 Please don’t post spoilers for puzzles elsewhere.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Impossible bottle party? (2,3,2) Matilda G 28376
Simon I didn’t think it was a spoiler when it’s an identical clue. What have I given away?
“No can do” is a famous Taupi clue. He was brilliant.
Any chance of a moratorium on the bottle party clue? As good as it is, compilers and editors must know it’s been done several times before. I can’t think of any other chestnut that’s appeared so many times.
RETROUSSÉ was brilliant in an otherwise generally enjoyable crossword.
Hello Herb, yes, and sorry for the crossed post!
Very odd coincidence with 21a here and 23a I. The FT? Thought I was going mad for a minute.
Slowed down by trying to think of National Trust character and putting in Astaire without checking it properly.
I think I have only ever seen retrousse used to describe a nose.
At least three cricket references, and I don’t like to be reminded about how poorly my county Kent are doing at the game at the moment! Thought RETROUSSE worth the entrance money on its own, though generally this puzzle was a lot of gentle fun today…
Fairly gentle with a few chewier bits but helped having some checking letters. ORCADIAN for example I certainly needed the help.
Didn’t see how HELEN=SCORE until I came here. I don’t think I had fully woke up this morning.
Liked DOWNS and the anagrams in this one.
Thanks Andrew and Maskarade
Mostly smooth sailing, but for some obscurities (RETROUSSE, the Ikebana GK). No hope of getting the anagram at 9d which required at least some knowledge of cricket, and my anagram solver was also stumped (yes?).
You simply can’t have too many cricketing clues.
Enjoyable puzzle with some clever and witty clues. I particularly liked the very neat “Land collapsing into sea” for ESTONIA. (Has this been done before?)
Thanks for the Taupi link, Herb @22. It’s interesting that in the original, “No can do (6,5)” is the clue and BOTTLE PARTY is the answer, whereas in today’s puzzle it’s the other way around. It seems to me that the original works because it’s a cryptic definition, but today’s doesn’t quite work because, as Andrew says, it’s simply wordplay with no definition.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.
I think T. Hanks appears rather too often. “Big star” was probably the most torturous. The bottle clue worked for me.
Ta, both.
For once I have to agree with Andrew’s assessment of “mostly gentle”.
OASIS was last in, having got the wordplay but being stuck on “ikebana requirement”, which is an obscurity as far as I’m concerned, but just one per crossword is fine.
I agree also with Billy@30 about the number of cricket clues, and JOFT@16 about the requirement for a clue to “work”. So much agreeing with others – I think I need to go and lie down.
Thanks to setter and blogger, as always.
Good fun but held up by thinking the NT character must be someone from Australia’s Northern Territory. Obviously not in a UK crossword, but then I am not always logical, sadly
I found this a bit stiffer than most commenters, apparently, and failed to parse ORCADIAN. Also new to me was OASIS in this sense, although with the crossers in place the word play was straightforward.
Oddly I had never heard of ikebana until two days ago, when I cam across it an entirely unrelated context
Wondered if there was a mini-theme related to DOWN, which appears three times in the answers, plus perhaps “coming to a full stop” ending at the bottom of the grid. It feels as if something is ending soon.
DropBear@33: my first thought for the NT character was Crocodile Dundee, but the numeration was wrong! Not much to add to what others have said. Thanks, Maskarade and Andrew.
Dropbear @33: maybe one day a setter will use “NT character” to clue “cobber” or “drongo” or some such, and then you’ll have the edge on the rest of us 🙂
Fun puzzle, but didn’t know the foam meaning of OASIS. Checking around dictionaries to see where it might be mentioned (rarely, as it happens, being a trademark) i saw that (on the oed page I think) it was given as a “vocabulary word” in Martin LUTHER King’s “I have a dream speech”. No theme, of course, just a coincidence,
When did we last have a puzzle without rotational symmetry?
Good puzzle in an unusual grid. RETROUSSE took me as long as the rest of it combined. Favourite NINE WICKETS DOWN, a marvellous surface.
Good puzzle. I didn’t find it easier than yesterday, but it was certainly very accessible.
I liked NINE WICKETS DOWN.
Please let’s not have spoiler police on this site too. You’re all good Geoff @20.
Like you say, it’s basically the same clue. I’ll probably do the FT crossword later and this makes no difference at all.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Mostly straightforward, with a couple of chewy bits and had to bung in OASIS at the end even though I couldn’t see what relationship it had to ikebana. As Andrew says, we don’t use foam here in Japan, but then I didn’t know the term anyway, so no foul no harm. Thanks Maskerade and Andrew.
For the first time in a long time achieved a puzzle with no help. And so many clues to smile about. Fab!
Oasis is not used in Ikebana , flowers and branches are fixed on a pinholder. RHS have banned it as not environmentally friendly.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Not a lot to say about the puzzle (except it would have been a good Monday one).
I was OK with “bottle” in the verbal sense meaning to duck out of something for 11a.
I remember my mother using OASIS in flower arranging. I couldn’t bear to touch it – it gave me the same sort of response as chalk being dragged down a blackboard!
I found this much more enjoyable than Monday’s. I enjoy anagrams and hidden words and charades more than cryptic-defs / double-defs but really Maskarade provided a good mix of clue types to suit all tastes IMO; and all fairly clued. RETROUSSE was my LOI and not a word I knew. Thanks Maskarade and Andrew for your blog.
RETROUSSE (NOSE) appears in this Betjeman poem.
Me @48
The xxxxxxxxxxx in line 10 were actually something in Greek (which I can’t translate) in the poem – presumably the site can’t cope with Greek letters. (It sounded like “aye figanoignin”!)
That was I trying to paste in the greek @50
Muffin @49, try “translate xxxxxxxxxx” in google, where the xxxxxxxxxxx is the copy and paste Greek phrase. The AI Overview is interesting
Lovely puzzle. Very enjoyable. Thanks Maskerade and Andrew.
Nicole @3 – in British English “to can” is to use a tin can, “to bottle” is to use a glass bottle (for example tinned peaches or canned peaches come in a tin can, bottled peaches come in a bottle). I believe in US English they are synonymous.
Why do so many people misspell Maskarade as “Maskerade”? Is it deliberate? (It happens on the G site as well.)
Muffin @54 – it’s a standard spelling (or Masquerade)
Muffin @48 – the poem with the Greek visible is here
The Greek is broadly ‘eíthe genoímin’ which appears to mean ‘may it happen’
Thanks to setter and blogger!
Thanks Ralph @55
Google translate gives “I wish I were born” – not sure if that makes sense either!
Very enjoyable. Completed in a couple of sessions, thanks to a few guesses based on wordplay that turned out to be correct. I especially liked 1a CLOSING DOWN (“chickens moulting”), 10a NO CAN DO (funny, but, yes, really needs a definition), 14a PERSIAN CAT (liked the wordplay), 20a HELEN (great hide and surface)
7d PHILADELPHIAN includes IAN Botham, a cricketer I’ve actually heard of! It takes me back to watching cricket on the telly with my late grandmother during one of my visits to the UK long ago. Botham was one of her favourite players
15d THANKS TO, good ol’ T. HANKS — haven’t seen him in a while 🙂
Many thanks to Maskarade and Andrew
Apologies, I don’t have time to read the comments. Maybe more later…
Muffin@54. Maskarade is the Danish spelling of masquerade. It is the title of an opera by Carl Nielsen, who seems to be our setter’s favourite composer. (He’s one of my favourites, too. Though I’ve never heard the opera!)
Thanks HIYD @15 for bottle as verb.
It’s taken me a wee while to get into Maskarade’s puzzles, but I enjoyed this one. Favourite: ORCADIAN, because I am one.
muffin#48, 49 et al
The Greek phrase means, as Betjeman says, “would (that) I were”. It’s also used by Rupert Brooke in The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”.
εἴθε γενοίμην
I wish I were born (Google Translate)
A fun solve – thank you!
I wonder if 15d “F. Gump actor cuts toe, because of … ?” might have been more correct with ‘cut’ rather than ‘cuts’? Cuts suggests that T.HANKS cuts through toe somehow which it doesn’t, and cuts also doesn’t feel like a comfortable direction for removing a letter of the next word? But as usual I might be missing something..
Thanks Andrew. Really enjoyed this puzzle in my Guardian Weekly. (And didn’t have a problem with bottle party!) I missed the Disraeli reference, and thought it was an anagram of Ariel and Is! Which didn’t fit the clue, but I got there…