Catching Up [Aug 8 - 13]

I suppose this is the compensation for those poor Aged types having to wait the extra day ...

However, I'm keen to uphold my silver medal position behind our esteemed leader - having found 9076 a bit of a doddle, I'm now on a run of 5. Mind you, just because it was a doddle doesn't mean it wasn't good fun. COD for 14ac and the setter's cheek for a) including such a lovely word and b) putting it in that slot rather than 17ac, where the unches would have given him/her a free pass.

Also found the juxtaposition of 1 and 2dn confused me for a bit, nicely done, and 17ac was the laugh out loud clue for today.

I agree with Anthony and liked the various literary references (although Hogwarts could have been mentioned but wasn't). Some of the smaller clues were a bit pedestrian. Overall quite enjoyable.

Good workout, 9076, with a query attached to 4ac, and a smile for 21ac. You'll need to call on your erudition for 6dn. That's two for me, vexingly.

Quite enjoyed today's, but the only clue to earn an RK tick was 21ac.

I will join you on two, DA. (The real battle is obviously for third spot.)

ah, I would've been there DA, Arcadia being a mere stroll from my place, but alas I was selling games of Which? at the Rose Street Art Market. And doing your xword between victims, I mean customers. ELITISM backwards dammit. I was sure it was a scrabble "mistile" reference (with the 7 letters and all)

9077 in the bag and which I thought was fairly 1A. I reckon I'm seeing a few repeat clues... eg 27A and 22D.

First in was 6D, last 28A.

24A was Meh and nasty, I thought.

Today's fave 16D (reminded me of honey bear).

17dn was the nasty one, for any solver who doesn't know his virtuosi. (Read, me.) This guy may well be my Airy, on Puzzle 3!

A very 1ac puzzle, agreed Bon. Thought 6dn was redeemable, 13ac was decent too. While 2dn is my huh. (Knew the line, but can't see the wordplay's full intricacy, unless it's as bad as I suspect.)

No problems with this one, except an echo of DA's huh for 2dn.

17dn is much more widely known than Mr Airy, but I guess if you're not sure of it the setter hasn't been very helpful.

Decidedly unhelpful, I'd argue...sneakily plugging Bernini in a few clues earlier, just so your subconscious would be more likely to look for a BL_I_O_I answer. And then to use 'note'! I was tempted by ALBIFONI ;-)

Still in the hunt. I liked 10ac for the sly anagrind hint.

Just sat down to tackle 9078 with a cuppa and got all of two.

Oh dear.

1dn is pretty tough, unless you know it. An absolute cracker of a clue though.

Long way to go yet.

I feel your pain - just 7 answers at first cuppa. But the clues are adroit, and the hunt is on. Good luck all chasers.

Me too - got most of the RHS out at first blush but have really hit the mud with the rest of it. I imagine there will be some interesting commentary on this as we plough through.

I can proudly say I just got 13dn with only the third last and last letters. Love it!

That's impressive - I also have the top two checkers but still can't twig to it.

Ten entries left. But I'm an expert on the NW passage!

Hmm. I also had it, but trusted an insufficient online dictionary. My apologies for joking around.

Seven left for me, mostly in a north-westerly direction.

(And by the way, you gave yourself a clue for 13dn Anthony)

That's what comes from not refreshing.

Good lord, what a Herculean task. Managed to bang out the last dozen with a White Rabbit stout, and enjoyed the ardour. And the chestnut notes too.

A tick for 21ac, 26ac and 27ac, with a tsk-tsk for 4ac (seems to reheat the same word for def and wordplay), plus queries for 20dn and 24dn.

My last entry (after figuring the lettering for 1dn) was the bloke invoked in 28ac. Not sure why, but this name fit.

Yowch. What an ambush, though 10x funner than yesterday's anaemic affair. More of the same, please. Loved the challenge.

Finally got there. That was the cleverest one I've done in a long while. It felt like there were a few more liberties taken than usual which caught me off guard, but it was refreshing all the same.

13dn was my favourite but I also liked 7dn, 3dn and 8dn for various reasons. I've a question mark beside 20dn.

(I don't think I could handle one like this every day, DA.)

And a few liberties in the answers for that matter. I've never seen 27A hyphenated, for example. And I wonder if I have the Dan Brown answer right?

I'll thank my lucky stars now that I've been reading AA Milne to my 2 y.o.

Liked the Crufts clue and some others already mentioned.

Curses. Looks like I'll be either up late or claiming the wooden spoon again.

Clues flying thick and fast here! Herculean indeed ;-) The Dan Brown one did give that one away, Bon, though it just confirms my likely guess for 23dn where I have absolutely nothing on the wordplay. Haven't visited enough Malaga brothels, I guess.

I'm OK with 4ac - the defn seems sneaky enough to me, and the same word is applied with different parsing and meaning. Not sure why you'd be upset at 24dn, seems fine to me. Looks like we're all in the dark on 20dn, where I presume there's some cultural reference escaping us.

For the record, still seeking 21ac and 18dn, 6 and 7dn, 10 and 16ac. Fresh eyes, let's see how they go...

Feeling silly that I'd picked the first part of 7dn, and the defn, and not got it much earlier.

Still waiting for 10ac and the SW two.

Ok, have a loose-ish wordplay that works for 10. Can I dodge the bullet?

Squeaked in. 18dn last in, once I decided to abandon Yoko Ono. A good decision, I guess. But rattled enough that I doubt #8 will fall into place for me nicely tomorrow :)

Offa ruled England for nearly 40 years and built a dyke that runs almost the entire length of the Welsh border. Seems unfair that Hadrian gets more press.

ERRK! I blew 9078 and so must gracefully plummet to zero. Not that I didn't enjoy it - it was great fun really and left me with a pb of 21. Only wish I'd kept trying with it.

Never heard of Tiepolo (which I managed to fluke) and I still don't fully get the wordplay for ANNAL - anyone?

Bizarrely Bon, ANNAL was my first in. Look at the 'tips' of the saucy travelogue: sea captain in Malaga brothel.

I survived, though not without a few scraps. SILAS I suppose is heard to sigh less. How the hell does HISTOGRAM work? I knew the word, but dind't get hip to the play. (And energy as INPUT was pretty footloose too.)

But a great leveller. Like the look of 9079's pattern, and the brevity of the clues. Think my tally is on 2. Or 3 - the number since my FINE/WINE slip anyhow.

Thanks DA - when I first looked at that clue I considered and disregarded SCIMB of course - but didn't even look at the ends. Lessons.

With HISTOGRAM, I was working with MARGO backwards.

With INPUT, where's the "partial" indicator?

Anyway, onwards and upwards (I hope).

@DA - and S for singer, apparently, is a legit abbreviation.

Bon - what was your error?

Today's so far shows plenty of easy openings in each quadrant, though no corner has fully cracked yet. 8dn seemed a pedestrian clue for what could have been witty done right. And 10ac seems a bit dodgy?

9079 in, so I've reopened my account with the grand total of 1, with any luck. It became a bit of fill-in after a while, I don't think anyone will have any trouble with it.

First in 6D, last 24D. Liked 1D (I think exchanges can be excellent when done properly). Thought 23A a bit meh - the surface reading is at least huh, although I get the machinations of the clue itself.

And I've seen 7D on several occasions.

From the rear of the peloton,

Bon

@Anthony: I got 1D out of order. Back to the books (the Odyssey or Iliad or whatever it is).

Commiserations, Bon - it really was a cruel anagram clue.

Eight for me. The brandy snapped the last two. You're right, Bon - 1dn was a nice substitution.

A brisk trot. No zingers but fun.

Not sold on how 18dn operates - and a twin meh (mild) attached to 1ac and 13dn. See their mutual flaw?

When you said mutual flaw, I thought you'd go after 11ac and 6dn. Do you mean mutual, or a 'you can't have your cake and eat it too' type flaw?

Now that it's late, I can say that GANG = BAND in both wordplay and solution, just as SWALLOWTAIL is named in honour of the SWALLOW. What I called Tapeworm Syndrome, as explained in Puzzled, but I won't go on -

All in all, a succinct sweetmeat.

Perhaps a different nuance to BAND, but yes, I'll concede that. 'Ring with silver on popular style' or something similar perhaps.

9080 complete except for a major ?? on 21A. A knowledge of botany will come in handy and in keeping with that, 1A could have been clued using its anagram.

25A is too basic - I think it tried to be a cryptic def but didn't get there, IMO.

But there are treasures here too - 10A, 18A, 12D, 20D.

ALALLL good fun!

Knocked this one over pretty quickly.

I got a bit of a shock when I saw 21ac. It's a word I once stumbled upon in my dictionary and took a shine to, so I decided to insert it into my vocab (as you do). I've never come across it in any other context until today.

Totally agree with you Bon about 25ac. Where's the cryptic?

I think 25 is meant to be a cryptic definition - which it barely is - or a tee hee, pretending to take the answer literally in some sense.

I fear I may be relinquishing the lead shortly. Seems heavy weather today, after a fairly good start. Serious vocab challenge issues - 1ac, 6dn, 7dn - and they're the ones I've got. Now that I hear RK's seen it twice in her life, I fear 21ac...

We return to normality. I punted on the made-up word for 21, being unfamiliar with the word and the smaller component of the wordplay. I was never any good at football, so the punt sailed wide.

Back to zero. At least I punted on 7dn correctly. And I still have DA's own ahead of me.

If it's any consolation, I'm joining you at the bottom of the pile, Anthony. I didn't know 21A and wrongly punted on ETHE as a deletion of G and O from GOETHE, all the while fretting about railway. I now see that the right answer is in Chambers and some online ditionaries but not in any of my other major dictionaries. A word on the edge if ever there was...

AEROLIFTER
ZEROSITTER
DEMONISTER

Sounds like you lot had no troubles with that 'air trip' clue - but I'm snookered. Could be back to zero unless I find epiphany over the next espresso.

(Off to meet a quorum of DA Trippers now, in a paisley flak jacket.)

I won't say no troubles, but it was definitely a sneaky clue.

For what it's worth, this weekend's DA puzzle was quite tough, but fun. The NW corner held me up (I wasn't sure you could say that in a family newspaper...) - for a moment I contemplated entering 1ac as AWFUR and blowing a raspberry!

As for today's (still going)...well, I'm quite happy with 14dn, let's just say that. 17ac was fun, and 16ac was nasty but guessable.

9081 done without a hitch.

9A has to be one of the most common words in these - I've seen it at least half a dozen times in the last year.

And there's that fellow again in 10A.

Nice deception in 3D, I think DA might like that one.

Just sat down to begin today's offering, only to discover no crossword with my delivered Weekend Oz (or Review or magazine for that matter). Heads will roll. Or I'll reluctantly throw a couple more bucks News Limited's way tomorrow.

Very tough Sunday Times today. Hardest for a long time! #749

I'm done too. Nice to bounce straight back after ECHT stopped me at ACHT.

3dn was clever - 7dn too, for a different reason.

RK, I think it's worth the couple of dollars - but you could go for a trial of the Oz's online replica that's free for a week, if you're impatient!

NEGOTIATOR....I don't believe it. A darn anagram under my nose, when all the while I presumed the clue was a pun.

Red-faced now, I'd been looking at air trip as an oblique reference to a broadcast blooper, or a song melody, or a transit flight, or a...anything but an anagram. Some days you just feel a dope. I was got.

So, back to zero, with Saturday's a timid one in the plus column. (Made a few game stabs in the NW corner.)