I found a lot to like in the puzzle, not least a comfortable time of 17.02. Pretty well all through our setter has paid attention to the surface readings of the clues, and there are many engaging examples where a theme is carried through without straining the wordplay to any noticeable extent. I didn’t spot any obscurities, and the three place names should be well enough known.
Definitions underlined in italics, and most excluded or deleted letters shown in []
Across | |
1 | Revealing regrettable act in two different records (10) |
DISCLOSING – The regrettable act is a SIN, inserted into DISC and LOG, both in different ways records. | |
7 | Piano note organ put out daily (4) |
SOFT – Purists might argue about the proper definition, but I always referred to the pedal which produces a quiet (P for piano in music) sound as the soft pedal. Here it’s the note SO plus the F[inancial] T[imes], a daily publication. | |
9 | Current and potentially endless obstacle to Labour (8) |
IDLENESS – An anagram (potentially) of ENDLESS tagged on to I for (electrical) current. | |
10 | Cockney recovering part of capital (6) |
EALING – Famous for great British comedies. As all Cockneys always do, pronounce HEALING for recovering without an H. | |
11 | Cub shedding coat with fur fit for purpose (6) |
USABLE – Take the outer letters off CUB and add SABLE fur. | |
13 | Grab break after unlimited cold period (8) |
INTEREST – Transitive verb, grab being a succinct version of “to excite the curiosity of” (Chambers). REST for break follows a stripped down w[INTE]r | |
14 | Violent resistance suppressed by Winnie the Pooh and Snow White characters (7-5) |
TRIGGER-HAPPY – TIGGER being Pooh’s bouncy friend, HAPPY being 1/7 of Snow White’s diminutive fan club. Insert R[esistance] | |
17 | Embargo is stopping United helping City fans’ dream (12) |
URBANISATION – A cutesy definition to maintain the footy motif. Embargo gives BAN, add IS, and place both in U[nited] RATION from helping. | |
20 | Implore daughter leaving meal’s starter (8) |
BEGINNER – Implore gives BEG, then knock D[aughter] off the DINNER meal. | |
21 | Is a hip-hopper keeping cover of Eminem in charts again? (6) |
REMAPS – Another nicely themed clue. Someone who is a hip-hopper I am reliably informed RAPS. Insert the covering letters of E[mine]M who is a popular exponent of the genre. | |
22 | Murmur Tudor ruler gets components for arms (6) |
HUMERI – Your upper arm bones. Murmur gives HUM and ER I is the Virgin Queen of the Tudor dynasty. | |
23 | Another broadcast occupied by one broadcasting (2,3,3) |
ON THE AIR – An anagram (broadcast) of ANOTHER with I (one) included | |
25 | It could give you a better view of French city (4) |
LENS – Double definition | |
26 | Try extremely short article penned by conservative in Reform (2,8) |
GO STRAIGHT – GO is try, the extremes of S[hor]T, article A included in RIGHT for conservative (positional rather than necessarily moral) |
Down | |
2 | Home evidently not cleaned without right diligence (8) |
INDUSTRY – Home is IN, and an uncleaned one would be DUSTY. Insert R[ight] | |
3 | Man successful when racing green cycles around (3) |
COE – Sebastian, now Lord Coe (retired), whose stellar athletics career includes double Olympic golds at 1500 metres. In our clue, green is ECO, which does a minimum of cycling. | |
4 | Daisy Duck getting cross, I heard (5) |
OXEYE – Duck gives the 0, cross gives the X, and I the sound for EYE. | |
5 | Lacking time, change tiny bit of cash at first in town (7) |
IPSWICH – Change leads you to SWITCH, remove the T[ime], and stick IP (one penny) on the front | |
6 | Our distant relatives consume fruit drinks (5,4) |
GREAT APES – EAT is from consume, and the fruit GRAPES “drinks” it in. | |
7 | Losing face, Holst struggles with Mars? Yes, in arrangement of The Planets (5,6) |
SOLAR SYSTEM – Another pretty thematic clue. Take the H face from HOLST, add MARS and YES, anagram the result. Does anyone not know that Gustav Holst wrote The Planets Suite which includes the mesmerising “Mars” with its belligerent, pounding beat? | |
8 | Polish maybe experiencing popularity, adopted by school (6) |
FINISH – Experiencing popularity gives the tiny IN. A school of FISH takes it in. | |
12 | Area of commerce functions aboard double-decker? (3,8) |
BIG BUSINESS – Functions in this instance SINES, included in a BIG BUS the celebrated quintessentially British double decker. | |
15 | Protecting millions in online financial sector (9) |
EMBANKING – As in protecting river banks from rising waters. M[illions] in E-BANKING, the online version. | |
16 | Barkeeper is attractive character in melodramatic series? (4,4) |
SOAP DISH – Whimsical definition, again in a quality thematic clue. Attractive character is a DISH, this one in a SOAP like Eastenders. | |
18 | Far from cool, short anorak seen on you abroad (7) |
NERVOUS – An anorak is a NERD, which is cut short and added to VOUS, French for you. | |
19 | Undemanding job’s axed in firm (6) |
SECURE – An undemanding job is a SINECURE: take out the IN. | |
21 | Gold going up and down dresses heading for Tina Turner (5) |
ROTOR – Gold is OR, and the two versions take in the first letter of T[ina] | |
24 | Every second of service pleases pious priest (3) |
ELI – The second letters of sErvice pLeases pIous, priest in the Biblical story of the prophet Samuel. |
Yes, a nice one. My LOI was SOAP DISH: “Oh, that kind of ‘bar’!”
Yes, an enjoyable puzzle, although I didn’t bother to parse many of the answers. I figured it was 50/50 whether there was a French city of Lens or not, and I came up a winner. Soft was actually my last one in, and I had to go through all the possible answers before I saw the obvious. I was considering whether so-fa might be a piano note, but I couldn’t get the rest of the clue to stand as a cryptic.
Time: 33:49
Couldn’t get the French city, dammit, so threw in the towel at about 30 for a DNF. There were some terrific clues here, my favourites including SOLAR SYSTEM, BIG BUSINESS, GO STRAIGHT and URBANISATION where I was initially fearful that some UK-centric football knowledge would be required. There were a number of wing-and-a-prayer answers (eg HUMERI and EMBANKING) but all (mostly) good in the end, thanks Z.
From From A Buick 6:
She don’t make me NERVOUS she don’t talk to much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don’t need no crutch
She keeps this 4-10 all loaded with lead
If I go down dyin’ you know she
Bound to put a blanket on my bed
Very fun, thanks all. By 17′ I was left with just the NHO daisy, which undid me. Some small comfort derived from my entered OMETE at least very nearly satisfying the wordplay.
I thought this was going to be very difficult at first. But then I started to understand the setter and the grid began filling. Never heard of LENS as a French city. HUMERI was beyond me.
COD to the fun TRIGGER HAPPY.
Started quickly. FOI ON THE AIR then ROTOR and ELI. Then problems. My major problem centred on URBANISATION where the definition was completely unclear to me and I cannot see how the blog answer relates to it. How is “City fans’ dream” remotely related to URBANISATION? NHO anorak as nerd. Lack of cool seems to me not particularly related to NERVOUS. The problems with these and others reverberated around to make me unsure of other answers that were correct. As a result I was nowhere near completing the puzzle.
People who like cities are in favour of urbanisation.
Not necessarily. Especially if you have to live in one.
Indeed, those that live in them tend to want to raise the drawbridge.
Dream is hardly favour.
I can’t get used to the names of people still alive being used, so COE defeated me. Glad to see the county town of Suffolk get a mention. I liked HUMERI.
And we had the county town of Norfolk in yesterday’s QC!
10:02. Should have been a sub-ten but I fumbled the mouse in my excitement.
A lively and enjoyable challenge with OXEYE and HUMERI being the last to fall.
Thanks Z and setter.
All but three answers in 32 minutes but I needed another 12 for DISCLOSING (although DISC had been obvious right away), COE (I’m bad on sportspeople), and my LOI OXEYE where I had been fixated on ‘aster’ as the most usual answer for ‘daisy’, and was thrown off course when it clearly couldn’t be correct.
I enjoyed OXEYE for its pdm and for its mention of Daisy Duck who was actually Donald’s girlfriend.
Apart from Mars, the other well-known piece of Holst’s The Planets is the big tune taken from Jupiter, the hymn and now national song I Vow To Thee, My Country.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
30 mins pre-brekker. I took ages coming up with Lens and LOI Secure. No excuses.
Mostly I liked Barkeeper.
Ta setter and Z
42 minutes with LOI HUMERI. There’s nothing funny about that. COD to TRIGGER-HAPPY. An enjoyable puzzle I never felt too confident about. Thank you Z and setter.
DNF on SECURE and LENS . Ran out of time and came here but was enjoying it muchly up to that point. Thanks both.
17:00. Lots to like here. Held up in the SW corner by HUMERI and LOI SECURE. COD to the Barkeeper. Nice to see my county town get a mention after the rival one yesterday in the QC, as Jackkt said. Thanks Z and setter.
10.45, another fun one. I had to go to the lower half to get a foothold, but it all went in smoothly once I got going. I had some concern about the daisy (drat, it’s not ASTER), but it turns out I did know it, and the bits and pieces gradually revealed themselves.
FINISH was my LOI, and for a few seconds I was trying to justify FINESS, which satisfies neither the wordplay nor the definition, what with it not being a word and all.
BIG BUSINESS was fun, as were URBANISATION and TRIGGER-HAPPY.
Thanks both.
Just under 15 minutes. The one I wasn’t sure of was SOAP DISH, and the penny has only just dropped as to what kind of bar is being kept.
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
FOI On the air
LOI Oxeye
COD Soap dish
9:42. Steady solve, no major hold-ups, no unknowns. A very nice puzzle.
33:00
That felt like hard going right from the off. I ground to a halt about halfway through but eventually dragged up TRIGGER from my brain and they started to fall. The final hold-outs were HUMERI and SECURE which accounted for the final 5 minutes or so.
Although I felt off-message I enjoyed the solve so thanks to both.
19’01”, nearly breezeblocked by SECURE / LENS, but an alphabet trawl gave me the city known from WW1 history.
Didn’t parse IPSWICH, despite having lived there. Really liked TRIGGER-HAPPY and SOAP DISH.
Thanks z and setter.
Clever and witty puzzle. Thanks setter.
1a Disclosing biffed; saw DISC but not SIN nor LOG.
Liked 14a Trigger Happy. Surprised how long it took for the Tigger bit.
12d Big Business; paused a while to justify the Big bit. Reminded me of the bull in Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm.
37:25
No dramas – good puzzle.
Thanks, Z.
14:40, a few mins slower than my average which was largely due to the NERVOUS/GO STRAIGHT intersection…oh *that* anorak oh *that* foreign word for you. Great puzzle, many thanks to both
40:00
Great puzzle I thought. Had four left on the half hour, then FINISH/SOFT fell in soon after, then HUMERI, leaving 19d. As 40’ approached I plumped for SECURE with little confidence so was delighted to get the all clear.
Any of 14, 16, 17 and 22 would be worthy COD’s.
Thanks all.
A very enjoyable puzzle. DISCLOSING went straight in, with INDUSTRY and OXEYE rapidly following. It was then mainly a merry romp through to POI, SECURE and LOI, HUMERI, very droll. 14:01. Thanks setter and Z.
It’s blowing a hoolie out there, so I was able to get to the crossword early today – every cloud, and all that. Thoroughly enjoyable 31 mins, with TRIGGERHAPPY and BIGBUSINESS making me smile. Lovely crossword, indeed.
11:36
Very enjoyable. I dallied at the end on a couple in the SW corner, struggling to bring “sinecure” to mind and not knowing enough about the Tudors to be sure who was who. I think I got a bit sidetracked trying to squeeze a Henry in there.
Thanks setter and Z.
Ref 1A – A disc is one type of record, and in sport, a losing record (as opposed to a winning record) is another. I reckon the clue would still have worked without the “regrettable act”.
COD – SOLAR SYSTEM obviously
Beaten by IPSWICH, even with all the crossers. Bah. The rest went in slowly but steadily. Some fun/clever clues.
A DNF, as I had biffed in SÉES (lovely town and cathedral) instead of LENS, and had muttered to myself, that doesn’t quite work. LOI was DISCLOSING. I liked SOAP DISH. The cOE clue must be the smallest ‘cycling word clue’ I’ve seen!
Thanks to Z and the Setter for a fine puzzle.
36:26. as with others, took a while on LENS, and SECURE also holding things up (haha). COD was the laugh-out-loud TRIGGER HAPPY. Really lovely puzzle. More of the same. but perhaps without the living person references. Thanks!
Average time I think, pen and paper.
Nearly brought down by HUMERI, but slammed it in. Ok clues otherwise, tx.
About 40 mins to get 95% of this done before I left for golf, leaving 22ac & 19d unsolved.
Five more mins upon my return to see HUMERI and then SECURE.
Pretty enjoyable. I liked TRIGGER HAPPY.
Thanks Z and setter.
18:40 – much easier than yesterday’s I thought. No particular hold-ups. Though the clue was generous enough not to leave much room for doubt, I would have guessed LENS was in Belgium – but whether that is down to the Flemish-sounding name or any actual acquaintance with the French one’s Belgian namesake, I couldn’t say.
The Belgian one is just a village. The city of Lens is in Picardy, Pas de Calais.
Yes, I know. My comment obviously wasn’t very clear and I have amended it accordingly.
22:33
Pretty happy with this time for a Snitch of 92 (my target is 31 mins these days for this value). Didn’t fully parse GO STRAIGHT, but all of the rest mentally ticked off.
Thanks Z and setter
Lovely crossword, only a one-cup but enjoyable, good surfaces and some nice touches eg the barkeeper.
HA, a good measure, was three cup for me! Cx
Lens familiar because of their soccer team. They beat Leicester City 3-0 last summer in a friendly. Enjoyable crossword.
It took an age for me to get started, but, once I was under way, things fell into place pretty quickly – maybe about half an hour after spending the same staring at a blank grid. A pedant might quibble over ERI as a Tudor queen: ER is fine, but the I isn’t – we’d never accept VRI for Victoria, after all**, and adding it for Elizabeth now on the basis (presumably) that we’ve subsequently had a second one doesn’t sit well with me. That aside, a great crossword with much to like.
** On second thoughts, we might, but only because Victoria was Queen Empress. Elizabeth wasn’t, so my admittedly pedantic quibble still stands.
Surely *all* monarchs have a one added, after a second one has arrived? I doubt if the Normans called William I that ..
Fair point. I was thinking more of the abbreviation, probably distracting myself with a vision of the ciphers which appear on post boxes (and Beefeaters). The few Victorian ones which remain are marked VR, but, of course, that doesn’t negate your point as we’ve only had one of those so far. And all subsequent monarchs have needed a number. I’ll withdraw the quibble from public circulation (and just keep grumbling to myself about it).
That’s what I usually do 🙂
32 mins with a bit of a struggle in the NE corner to slow me up. Nicely clued so no complaints.
45 minutes and all correct (finally).
Very nice puzzle.
Pleased to get all bar LENS and a sneaky check for SOFT. Very enjoyable. Thanks for the blog as there were a few I couldn’t parse, including the ERI of HUMERI. Still unsure how ‘organ’ fits into the wordplay for SOFT though…
Lots to like but favourite probably SOAP DISH. Thanks all.
The FT is an organ put out daily.
Ah, ok, many thanks
Possibly a bit dated now, but newspapers have be described as organs. Chambers has “a means of communicating information or opinions, eg a newspaper. In the list, it comes before mighty Wurlitzers and such.
Thanks so much for explanation
DNF
Well off the pace, partly caused by rushing before heading out, and bunging in INTERVAL which when coming later to finish caused all sorts of intractable problems for …FINISH. Didn’t know OXEYE for daisy which made that one harder than it would have been.
Another who liked the DISH
Thanks Z and Setter
had fun with this but missed OXEYE and Secure. I wrote down sinecure in my doodling but was trying to fit CUT in it. Grr! next time, otherwise took my mind of the fires, thanks! Carolyn
And there was me thinking that 22 was the one rotten clue in an otherwise outstanding crossword, because who pronounces Mary (Tudor) like that? Indeed who pronounces HUMERI like HUM-MERI? More fool me, though it mattered not a jot because I still got the answer right, didn’t I? 18’22”. Some great clue-drafting.
25:47, held up by SECURE, HUMERI, then after being close to thinking I would have to record a DNF finally LENS sprang into my mind from somewhere!
Thanks setter and blogger 🙂
A shocking time of 58 mins, after a long and tiring day but that’s no excuse! Soap dish held me up – but a great clue. Another witty puzzle. (How anyone can complete one like this in ten mins is beyond me!)
knocked off in bed in 12 minutes after a day too busy for crosswords. fun but easy. Lens a write- in, SOAP DISH got a smile.