I rather struggled through this, my flow being glacial rather than the pyroclastic referred to in the puzzle. Only that mountain appeared out of the nowhere of my forgettery/never’eardery, and with the crossers even that was possible with the kind wordplay. It felt an age before anything except a tentative book went in, and I finished in a sedate 33.15, after what I’ll describe as a good contest, as nothing actually made me annoyed. Our setter appears to delight in testing the limits of manipulating word order, and I was regularly flummoxed, though nothing is actually unfair.
Definitions in underlined italics, [square brackets] indicate excluded or deleted letters.
| Across | |
| 1 | Mount or fasten a bath with ring (8) |
| PINATUBO – You’ll all remember when this Philippine volcano blew up in 1991, causing a world wide temperature drop with sulphurous mist across most of the stratosphere. Well all right, neither did I, constructing it from likely guesses on the wordplay – fasten: PIN, A, bath: TUB and ring: O – and checking its existence. | |
| 5 | Man snubbed sullen young woman (6) |
| DOUGAL – It’s a snubbed, shortened version of DOU[r] from sullen, and a young woman is represented by GAL | |
| 8 | Smooth caress? (3) |
| PAT – Two definitions: I toyed with the first as in memorising and repeating something off pat, and indeed was satisfied with that, but I think it’s better as a verb: both definitions mean much the same thing. | |
| 9 | One’s movement on track: replacement for old women’s lib (10) |
| SNOWMOBILE – My last, and a real struggle as a I misunderstood the definition, more properly one of these things derives its movement from tracks. And it’s an anagram (replacement) of O[ld] WOMENS LIB. | |
| 10 | Playground belonging to us, source of enjoyment — and of help? (8) |
| RECOURSE – A playground is a REC, especially when Bath RUFC play there. Belonging to us is OURS, and the E is derived from the “source” of Enjoyment. In my opinion, source is doing a kind of double duty. | |
| 11 | End protest (6) |
| OBJECT – In short order, a second double definition, though differently pronounced. | |
| 12 | Centre for leisure — and for schooling on top (4) |
| LIDO – This time, centre is doing double duty, requiring you to find the centre of schoOling, and attach it to the top, or LID. | |
| 14 | Second dismissal having unwanted effect (10) |
| BACKFIRING – To back a proposition, you second it. And FIRING is a dismissal | |
| 17 | Still unwell at home, visited by nurse giving drug (10) |
| PENICILLIN – So a still is a PIC, unwell at home is ILL IN, and a nurse, or E[nrolled] N[urse] visits the ensemble where he/she can do most good. | |
| 20 | Nobleman expected to receive king (4) |
| DUKE – At last an easy one DUE for expected takes in K[ing]. | |
| 23 | Accountant returned to blow the rest of the kitty? (6) |
| CATNAP – A bit of yodaspeak here An accountant is a CA, and it’s PANT for blow that’s reversed/returned, not the accountant. | |
| 24 | Set criminal on underworld! (8) |
| HELLBENT – I (and Chambers) would put a hyphen in there, but it’s a BENT criminal on HELL as the underworld. Set as in determined. | |
| 25 | Suggested getting hammered after getting paid (10) |
| PROPOUNDED – (Someone) getting paid is a PRO, and hammered supplies POUNDED. | |
| 26 | Bird’s leg bone skinned (3) |
| EMU – This leg bone is a [f]EMU[r] | |
| 27 | Problem in photography studied and indeed spoken of (3,3) |
| RED EYE – Both studied READ and indeed AYE provide the sounds (spoken of) for the required words. | |
| 28 | Converting current to energy, entirely transformed material (8) |
| TERYLENE – So take the word ENTIRELY, change the I (electric current) to an E[nergy] and anagram, transform it. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Stationery item obtained from secretary with a piece extracted (9) |
| PAPERCLIP – Secretary is PA, that naughty a becomes PER (t0 you, darlin’, 50p a pahnd) and an extracted piece (more Yoda) is a CLIP. I once tried and failed to move a paperclip with mind power. That’s probably why it’s stationery. | |
| 2 | Observed having escaped hit squad? (7) |
| NOTICED – A hit squad will be trying to kill you, and if it fails, especially if it’s American, you’re NOT ICED. | |
| 3 | Go for the King’s Head, perhaps, turning up drunk to drink (4,2) |
| TOSS UP – I’m still not used to having Chas on my coins instead of his Mum. A drunk is a SOT, reverse it/him/her, and add SUP for drink. | |
| 4 | Reserves unlikely attraction for Reading people (9) |
| BOOKSTALL – If one reserves something, one BOOKS it. Add TALL for unlikely. | |
| 5 | 23 maybe to become less (4,3) |
| DROP OFF – You’ll eventually discover that 23a is CATNAP. Pretty much the same thing if it’s a verb. | |
| 6 | Japanese warrior mostly in uniform twice bloodied, not wounded (9) |
| UNINJURED – I’d be grateful if someone else will admit they tried samurai first, but it’s the other one, a NINJA. remove its A, put a U[niform] fore and aft, and add RED for bloodied. | |
| 7 | Some female NCO near town in France (7) |
| ALENCON – My first entry, for once spotting the hidden French town, in femALE NCO Near. If you’re writing your answers in, you can put the cedilla under the C. | |
| 13 | One in mood smashed up vault (5,4) |
| ONION DOME – I suppose the inside of a dome is a vault. Here it’s an anagram (smashed) of ONE IN MOOD. | |
| 15 | Eking out, retaining fodder, in critical position (5,4) |
| KNIFE EDGE – An anagram (out) of EKING with FEED for fodder inserted. | |
| 16 | English banker to polish off beef sandwiches (5,4) |
| GREAT OUSE – A familiar enough crosswordland definition of a river – it has banks! Beef or GROUSE “sandwiches” EAT for polish off. | |
| 18 | Short appeal in support of test case (7) |
| EXAMPLE – A short appeal is a PLE[a], and test is an EXAM. | |
| 19 | Better way to act: on impulse, ultimately (7) |
| IMPROVE – Acting ad lib is IMPROV, to which you add the last of [impuls]E | |
| 21 | Instrument in Junkie Blues lies neglected in odd places (7) |
| UKELELE – I knew it had to be UKELELE, but struggled to make it an anagram of junkie blues without the letters of lies. Much easier to cut the odd/even letters of jUnKiE bLuEs LiEs. | |
| 22 | Ease with which daughter’s restrained until nightfall? (3-3) |
| ALL-DAY – D[[aughter] is contained/restrained in ALLAY for ease. | |
Thanks, Z. I needed that.
Tricky indeed, and I had to use some help here and there to ensure I could rely on the crossers in answers I’d come to instead of having to try again.
My LOI was SNOWMOBILE too, since I took far too long to realize it was an anagram, and then even longer to see what it had to do with tracks. My POI was TOSS UP, again taking too long to see what was going on (plus convinced the King’s Head stuff meant that it was PUB up as part of what I was looking for, which it was not). Nice crossword with some tricky wordplay. Luckily I remembered PINATUBO and so it was my FOI, getting off to a good start.
Same first and last entries as me. I quickly put PIN A TUB O together as it sounded familiar — a mount? A variety of horse ?! (Then I looked it up.)
Champion Two year-old 2019, and top class colt in 2020 who ended up rated 122.
Now a stallion in Newmarket.
Around 90 minutes but DNF since NHO DOUGAL and crossers didn’t help me since I couldn’t work out that man was the definition. Took a long time on PAPERCLIP seeing the definition initially as extracted and hence put SEPARATED. I really needed the blog today.
Thanks Z
Tricky, but no real hold-ups. Remembered Pinatubo and we had tub only yesterday, so straight in. NHO Alencon, didn’t know who snubbed Dougal (oops), knew Ouse but thought it was small, couldn’t parse 1dn having PER being A PIECE, is ukElele a spelling error? LOI also SNOWMOBILE. Not my finest effort, but all correctand enjoyed lots of the off-beat definitions. Thanks all.
‘Ukulele’ was the original Hawaiian spelling, but UKELELE is a valid alternative which probably came about after the popularised instrument had been abbreviated to ‘uke’.
43 minutes of enjoyable solving but it required concentration to keep going.
PROPOUNDED was my LOI having finally managed to think past the answer being a word derived from ‘propose’.
I was a little surprised to see TERYLENE as it was once the leading man-made fibre used in clothing. It may still be for all I know, but I haven’t heard mention of it in advertisements or seen it on a label for decades.
NHO PINATUBA or ALENCON but both were easy enough to construct from wordplay and checkers.
According to Google, terylene is a brand name for a polyester fabric. But the generic seems to have overtaken it in common usage.
ukulele is the correct spelling. the same mistake was made a few months ago.
Finishing this felt like quite an achievement, even if it took me 48.31. There were some seriously devious tricks on display although (as usual) in retrospect it mostly seems straightforward. I still don’t get SNOWMOBILE and despite Jack’s explanation I think UKELELE looks all wrong. But never mind, that was the best part of an hour well-spent, thanks Z.
From Nothing Was Delivered:
Nothing was delivered, and I tell this truth to you
Not out of spite or anger, but simply because it’s true
Now, I hope you won’t OBJECT to this
Giving back all of what you owe
The fewer words you have to waste on this
The sooner you can go
About 30′ with some construction here and there and few parsings requiring Z’s help. Initially pencilled Palomino for the mount but couldn’t make it work, eventually constructing PINATUBO, but still assuming it was a horsey thing. Saw the SNOWMOBILE fodder but not the definition. Couldn’t parse EXAMPLE, in part because I saw the definition as “test case”, not “case”. Otherwise it flowed reasonably, if not quickly, and very enjoyable. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
16:44. I was convinced I was looking for a horse at 1A but wasn’t sure what word I was thinking of, so thanks to Gerry for mentioning palomino. I had never heard of PINATUBO which I feared I may have invented. Also like Paul I wanted 3D to end -B UP.
I had at least heard of ALENCON due to it being twinned with Basingstoke, which is near to where I live.
Pinatubo was/is both.
53 minutes with LOI UKELELE. I’ve always spelt it with two Us, as did George Formby and president of his fan club George Harrison. Lennon and McCartney never reached such dizzy heights.I put the unheard-of PINTATUBO in on my first run through, not expecting it to survive. COD to CATNAP. Tricky but worth the effort. Thank you Z and setter.
ukulele is the correct spelling. the same mistake was made a few months ago.
25 minutes.
– NHO PINATUBO but got there by following the instructions
– Didn’t parse LIDO or PENICILLIN
– Guessed the right position of the consonants for TERYLENE
– Like Paul above, thought 3d might involve pub for a while and even briefly considered PISS UP
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
FOI Emu
LOI Pinatubo
COD Catnap
40 mins. Finally got it only to find pet should have been pat. Will have to find a cat to kick now. Much harder for me than the previous offerings this week.
Pinatubo was a dim recall but parsed beautifully. Lots to like – terylene, recourse ( though I originally opted for resource) and others but ultimately I had toss up as my COD. Spent a while seeking a fit for T—b up!
38 mins, another LOI SNOWMOBILE which probably took ten minutes all on its own.
Did like TOSS UP though, my COD.
A very chewy Thursday!
So All Day long the noise of battle roll’d
Among the mountains by the winter sea
(Morte d’Arthur, Tennyson)
25 mins with brekker after a slow start. I liked “rest of the kitty” but I don’t see the point of including random locations like Pinatubo and Alencon.
Ta setter and Z.
20:21* (1 x typo)
PINATUBO and ALENCON were the only unknowns but I was slow to piece together SNOWMOBILE, IMPROVE, and DOUGAL.
All fairly clued and no excuses for my ham-fistedness.
Thanks to both.
Did it with an ex-teaching colleague (ou est le common room d’antan) – fairly straightforward at a leisurely pace. Enjoyed NOTICED and took an age to see SNOWMOBILE. All good.
Definitely on a roll! 34 mins with only PINATUBO NHO but fitted cluing nicely.
SNOWMOBILE gave most trouble and was LOI.
Delighted when GREAT OUSE came to mind immediately.
But COD for me was HELLBENT – very neat.
Thanks to setter and Zabadak.
PET instead of PAT. I think both work but hopefully someone will tell me why they don’t.
I also had P*SS UP for a while before remembering it was the Times and not Private Eye. PINATUBO I was reluctant to put in but there are probably more mountains I don’t know than do so in the absense of anything better I opted for it.
Not a good first pass on this but slowly worked my way up from the bottom but the grid revealed itself.
NHO ONION DOME
COD: CATNAP
Thanks blogger and setter
I think PET works fine for caress, but I can’t see a way to get to smooth. Open to suggestions!
Maybe it’s my 20 years living in Bristol but to smooth a cat is synonymous with to pet a cat. Is smooth used that way in other dialects? I’m in two minds so would be great to hear from the floor.
Yeah, immediately I posted I thought of my experience stroking/petting a tiger: if you don’t do it the smooth way, it gets cross (like any cat) but you really don’t want to get a tiger riled. Bigger teeth…
The Kremlin and Onion Dome are always associated with each other, for me. Too many poor spy stories read 40 or 50 years ago.
I’m from Wales and have heard “smooth” as in “stroke/pet” but usually used by children or adults talking to children: “Smooth the cat gently, bach”.
Haven’t heard it since moving to the Midlands.
My FOI was PAT, then DUKE. I stayed in the SE confidently entering EMU, GREAT OUSE and UKULELE, which held up HELLBENT for quite a while. TERYLENE came along easily too. The rest of the puzzle took a lot more concentration and SNOWMOBILE held out almost as long as LOI, DOUGAL. Previously, BOOKSTALL indicated that TUB was a possibility for bath, instigating —ATUBO, and PIN seemed more likely that ZIP, so with PAT also in place, PAPERCLIP and NOTICED duly arrived. A bit of a challenge, but quite enjoyable. 27:11. Thanks setter and Z.
43m 28s
No problems with PINATUBO and ALENÇON. I remember the eruption and I used to live near ALENÇON.
It’s a very pleasant town but the government built a prison just to the west of it. Curiously, it was covered in netting. I presume that was to stop cons getting deliveries by drone and/or to prevent daring helicopter escape attempts.
I did like 23ac: ‘the rest of the kitty’!
DNF after 49 mins with DOUGAL missing. Couldn’t find any satisfactory way to parse it and 10 mins on one clue is more than enough. Thank you for putting me out of my misery.
Shame because I enjoyed it up to that point, hard work well rewarded.
COD SNOWMOBILE which was a remarkably tricky anagram.
Thanks all round.
Tooyoung for the Magic Roundabout?
I wish. Thought of Dour and of Gal but that Snubbed bamboozled me. Time for bed!
Still don’t get SNOWMOBILE. If the definition is ‘one has movement on…’ then it should be ‘tracks’.
No matter, a good challenge, finished in 25’36”.
Thanks z and setter.
Same here, Rob. Not a good clue imho.
Snowmobiles normally have a single track.
On edit, oops sorry.
30 mins.
Tricky. Happy to get through it.
Thanks, Z.
50 minutes and on the trickier side for me and, as our blogger says, a fair amount of mental gymnastics was required. LOI PROPOUNDED. SNOWMOBILE took a while too.
I liked Go for the King’s Head. I often do, given half a chance!
Thanks Z and setter.
Steady solve today, loi hellbent, missing its hyphen.
The rest of the kitty has to be cod. A neat clue.
17:45. I whizzed through about half of this, then slowed down significantly, then got completely stuck at the end. Eventually I realised that 24ac was HELLBENT and reluctantly changed UKULELE to something that looked like a spelling mistake to me.
PINATUBO was one of those ones where I follow the instructions and prepare to be annoyed when the obviously made-up word results in a pink square.
33 mins. Totally stuck at the end with DOUGAL and TOSS UP. The first I thought must be DOULAS, but that didn’t work and for the second I was desperately trying to fit a K in there.
1a NHO Mt Pinatubo, but I have because I remember reading a Wiki on Clark Air Base which was evacuated because of the eruption. Natch the name went in one eye and out the other without troubling the memory cells. Worked out from wordplay and checked in Wiki.
5a Dougal added to Cheating Machine. The list of Dougals in Wiki didn’t ring any bells so I didn’t add any surnames.
8a Pat, not happy smooth=pat. Waited for P_T and went for A.
17a Penicillin biffed. still=pic eluded me completely. I got the EN=nurse and ILL and IN, but. DOH.
COD 2d NotIced.
3d Toss Up. I was delayed somewhat by going for Piss Up which parses as sip & sup for drink and drunk. Made Pinatubo difficult. I accept toss-up is better.
6d uNINJured Ninja Turtled from Shogun book. Yes, I started with samurai.
7d Alencon. The Civil Service recruitment dept used to be on Alencon Link in Basingstoke. Ninja Turtled again; never been to the French town AFAIK.
21d Wiktionary says ukElele is obsolete version of ukulele. I only knew the former.
Thanks to Zabadak & setter.
The most famous DOUGAL is probably the dog from The Magic Roundabout. No surname required!
Yes!
And “You’ll have had yer tea Dougal” from ISIHAC
Oh yes, of course. I actually know a Dougal too.
I love the “Hamish and Dougal” spin off too.
Mr SR reminded me that there’s also Father Dougal in “Father Ted”: “We’re all going to Heaven, lads – waheyy!”
ETA Not many real life Dougals apart from keriothe’s acquaintance. Must be due a comeback.
NHO PINATUBO, but then why would I, and the clue was easy enough. Struggled rather than waltzed round in 45 mins.
Thanks setter and Zab.
A long slog, not helped by my NHO Mt PINATUBO and by the presence of ‘track’ in 9ac: surely the whole point of a snowmobile is that it doesn’t move on a track: it is free to go anywhere on the snow? I took 65 minutes after filling much of it in fairly quickly by my standards. I agree with Keriothe that UKELELE looks like a spelling mistake, but usage and the job of dictionaries and all that…
Yesterday I thought I had posted on the TQC blog. It’s not there now and it’s quite possible that I forgot to click on POST COMMENT. But if it was moderated (although I can’t remember that anything was particularly controversial) then would I have received an email telling me this? How would I know?
‘Track’ refers to the thing that surrounds the wheels and drives the snowmobile, like on a tank except that a snowmobile normally only has one at the back.
A snowmobile is normally on a blade though?
It normally has two blades or skis at the front and one track (on wheels which are driven by the motor) at the back.
Wil, you have not been moderated, but because you posted late in the day the comment rolled over (with several others) to a second page. If you go back and click on Newer Comments you will find it.
41:33
Pretty tough in places, started off very slowly, just four in after ten minutes before gaining some traction in the bottom half. It took PENICILLIN to see PAPERCLIP (LIDO already being in), then RECOURSE and PAT giving NOTICE, suggested the first part of the unheard of 1a, which I checked out before committing. I had had KEEP UP (PEE (Go) for the K (King’s Head), turning UP) but the definition didn’t work very well, so had to come up with something else.
Finally left with the NE, with only ALENCON in place (remembered from my short 1980s Civil Service job as part of the address of the Civil Service Commission – Alencon Link – complete with cedilla). BACKFIRING gave OFF as the second word of 5d, which gave OBJECT, then UNINJURED and finally spotted the anagram for SNOWMOBILE, leaving DROP OFF and finally DOUGAL.
I liked HELLBENT, was slightly puzzled by PRO, and delighted to work out ONION DOME in my head with all of those Os…
Thanks Z and setter
23:45 – Wasn’t sure whether a PINATUBO was a mountain or a gaucho name for a particular type of horse, but as unknowns go it was fairly easy to assemble from the provided components. Was a bit mystified by SNOWMOBILE until coming here.
All complete and correct but this fact not acknowledged by Times. Some letters appear heavy print, some light. Can anyone explain?
The light print may be items you ‘pencilled in’ – you can select ‘pen’ or ‘pencil’ at the top of the grid in the app I use on iPad. You need to use ‘pen’ in order for the machinery to acknowledge your efforts.
thank you. I assumed that it was something to do with pen and pencil, but I didn’t select either of these. And I was unable to correct the puzzle by pressing pen and pencil options. It’s as if I am being controlled by the machine.
Of course I tried Samurai at first 😂
Am I the only Doulas at 5 across? Thought it was a snubbed dour and snubbed lass but I did wonder why it was clued just as “man”. For some reason Dougal completely missed – just was not looking for a name as the answer.
Thx Z and setter
I liked it. CODS to catnap and toss up.
I too think snowmobile is a bit weak.
29.24
19 mins at the end on HELLBENT ALL-DAY and the very well concealed anagram for SNOWMOBILE. NHO of the mountain but the instructions were crystal clear. Also surprised by the spelling of UKELELE but CATNAP was vg.
Two sessions meant no recorded time, but circa 50 minutes I would think. I struggled to finish my last few but I was HELLBENT on doing so, and this became my LOI. Having said that it was a DNF due to an unchecked PET, and I’m pretty mad with myself for not getting back to it, as the answer is pretty evident.
SNOWMOBILE LOI as I kept trying to make ‘tank up’ work for 3D. NHO PINATUBO, wrote it in assuming that it was a horse. A shocking time of an hour and a quarter. (I was short of sleep but that’s no excuse!)
I correctly guessed the deeply obscure NHOs: TERYLENE, PINATUBO and NHO/VHO ALENÇON but still left with 5 clues unsolved in the middle of the grid.
Well it did not have to be mountain
Pinatubo was the top rated European 2 year old thoroughbred in 2019. A different sort of mount
NHO pinatubo but easy enough to guess, Penicillin was harder, got the ILLIN but did not discover the pic or the EN, was trying for rarely heard of antibiotics with RN in them. Failed. put penicillin just because, and was delighted to be right. Similarly guessed Lido, after looking at S as the centre of Leisure, and failing to come up with something better than Lido. all good fun, thanks, Cx
Done. 70 mins. Very pleased with PINATUBO as FOI, and like many LOI SNOWMOBILE.
COD “rest of the kitty”
Not sure ALL DAY equates to ‘until nightfall’, even with the question mark hinting at some liberty taken with the clue?
It certainly wouldn’t apply for December in the northern hemisphere
I was going to comment that if I choose to have an All Day Breakfast at midnight it’s definitely going to be after nightfall in these latitudes!
One of the meanings of ‘day’ is ‘the period of light between sunrise and sunset, as distinguished from the night’ (Collins).
FOI RECOURSE, then a hiatus while I tried to find something else. LOI SNOWMOBILE, of course, as I didn’t see the anagram. Once Mr Ego had spotted it, there was no problem solving, but I still couldn’t parse. Likewise with LIDO, so thanks, Z, for the helpful blog. On the whole, I thought it was a great puzzle, though I held myself up on 6D and that corner firstly by looking for samurai, then biffing UNSCATHED. On getting BACKFIRING, that changed to UNSCARRED, still unparseable, and finally realising it was UNINJURED when I got OBJECT, at which point it finally parsed! COD was the wonderful CATNAP, but I also liked HELLBENT and PINATUBO.
Even though I completed this correctly I really needed the blogg to explain a number of the clues, so thanks very much to Z for enlightening me. Tricky stuff.
FOI RECOURSE
LOI DOUGAL