Straight down the middle from Mara, with lots of neat setting and a surplus of double definitions. 07:32 for me, thanks to Mara and I hope that you all enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Astonishing looker going off (3-7) |
| EYE-POPPING – EYE [looker] + POPPING [going off, like a firework or a party popper]. It took me some while to escape the mind-trap of “eye-rotting”, which made no sense at all but had lodged itself in my frontal lobes. | |
| 7 | Bird dog loses lead (5) |
| EAGLE – {b}EAGLE [dog loses lead]. The poor old beagle gets beheaded quite a bit in these parts. | |
| 8 | Heart shown by men, but not head, in second performance (6) |
| ENCORE – EN [ |
|
| 10 | Sure easy forgetting a cryptic! (3) |
| YES – anagram [“cryptic”, not sure I’ve seen that as an anagram indicator before so I looked twice at this] of E{a}SY [easy forgetting a]. Pretty tricky for a three letter clue! | |
| 12 | Tailor cut and ironed present (9) |
| INTRODUCE – anagram [tailor] of “cut” and “ironed”. Here it’s the verb to present/introduce. | |
| 13 | Respect paid by a gentleman originally welcomed into house (6) |
| HOMAGE – A [a] + G [gentleman originally] go inside [welcomed into] HOME [house – the verb, as in house/home a refugee]. | |
| 14 | Go over card game (6) |
| BRIDGE – double definition #1. | |
| 17 | Novel race in paper (9) |
| NEWSPRINT – NEW [novel] + SPRINT [race]. Collins says “an inexpensive wood-pulp paper used for newspapers”. | |
| 19 | Mark dead on target, initially (3) |
| DOT – first letters of [initially] “dead on target”. | |
| 20 | Small enough specimen (6) |
| SAMPLE – S [small] + AMPLE [enough]. Elegant. | |
| 21 | A question: one on Irish Asian (5) |
| IRAQI -A [a] + Q [question] + I [one], all going on IR [Irish]. I tend to think of the Middle East as not being part of Asia, but that is because I am rubbish at Geography. | |
| 23 | Wild cactus near crab, say (10) |
| CRUSTACEAN -anagram [wild] of “cactus near”. I was recently in Baja California and the cacti grow all the way down to the sea, so this is not an impossible image! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | All in plate, very thin gruel (10) |
| EVERYTHING – hidden [in] “plate, very thin gruel”. Very good! | |
| 2 | The scrambling thing, ultimately? (3) |
| EGG – last letters [ultimately] of “the scrambling thing“. Since you could, whimsically, say that an egg is “the scrambling thing, ultimately” I’m going to risk being beaten up by the Clue Police and suggest that this might well be the lesser spotted &Lit. | |
| 3 | Initial opportunity (7) |
| OPENING – double definition #2. | |
| 4 | Quite appealing (6) |
| PRETTY – double definition #3. | |
| 5 | Chip on a chop, partly (5) |
| NACHO – fantastic surface, I loved it and COD from me. Hidden [partly] in “on a chop”. | |
| 6 | Punished as a teenager, Don urged to reform (8) |
| GROUNDED – anagram [to reform] of “Don urged”. | |
| 9 | Tedious walker (10) |
| PEDESTRIAN – double definition #4. Piece of cake, this blogging lark. | |
| 11 | 4 down mates who modelled (8) |
| SOMEWHAT – anagram [modelled] of “mates how”. Do I think that it’s a bit rubbish to be told that the definition is the answer to another clue? Reader, I do. | |
| 15 | Stainer ruined drink (7) |
| RETSINA – anagram [ruined] of “stainer”. Any mention of RETSINA revives teenage trauma of over-indulgence on a school trip to Athens. Aaarrghh. | |
| 16 | Diggers children heard? (6) |
| MINERS – aural wordplay [heard] between MINERS/minors. | |
| 18 | Musician narrowly beat queen (5) |
| PIPER – PIP [narrowly beat] + ER [queen]. | |
| 22 | Cut tax evasion to some extent (3) |
| AXE – hidden [to some extent] within “tax evasion”. | |
Fairly straightforward. I was held up for a time on MINERS, my LOI. For some reason I just couldn’t see it.
Like Paul, I had trouble coming up with MINERS. Otherwise, pretty straightforward. Like just about everyone, I dislike clues that refer to other clues. 6:55.
I was also in the eye-rotting club and it took me most of the crossword to get away from it, PRETTY providing the letter that helped me solve it. PEDESTRIAN just wouldn’t come, I mean how easy could it be? Think I was thrown by tedious. Agree with you on EGG being &Lit. Liked GROUNDED for teenage punishment. I suppose an anagram is the most common form of cryptic clue so I suppose YES = ‘esy’ cryptically. Took me a little while to see the hidden in 1d after having gruel on the brain. COD to EGG.
Thanks Templar and setter.
Well I solved somewhat first – that’s the only possible anagram, right? I was going to use the answer to solve 4 down, but I just biffed it. I was slow to see the hidden everything, and ended up having to think miners for 10 seconds or so. The Quitch says easy, and I can’t argue with that.
Time: 5:38
3:53 with LOI EGG. A lively solve with a nice variety of clue types. No issues with cross-referenced clues but I concede I’m in the minority here.
Thanks Mara and Templar.
I vote with you on cross-reference issue.
How rubbish is the clue for 11D?? Not only is the cross reference an unpopular device, but this one is telegraphed and makes the surface much worse! I suppose with their being a 4 across too the full “4 down” is required, but that should have discouraged the use of the device entirely here. “Mates who modelled a little” is a much better clue!
little mate who’s upset 😭
And the surface isn’t great, either.
Off to a flying but wrong start with EYE OPENING. That made PRETTY and OPENING very tricky until I finally went back to to scratch the ‘opening’ for ‘going off’ itch. Much simpler with the right starting letters. Then had to alphabet trawl to MINERS – odd that it seems to have caused such problems today to finish in 16.51 – but with a pink square for a casual NsCHO.
11 minutes.
In the same vein as ‘rotting’, my first thought at 1ac was EYE-TURNING as in dodgy meat being ‘on the turn’, but I never got to writing it in.
Quite inventive and entertaining I thought. Like others I am not keen on cross-references in Times puzzles but have to admit that I enjoy them in Mara’s puzzles for The Guardian (where he sets as Paul) which are usually an extravaganza of inter-related clues. I see there’s one by him there today, so that’s probably my whole morning spoken for, trying to make sense of it. [Later edit: Having said that, there were fewer cross-references in Paul’s puzzle than in this one, i.e. zero,zilch, nada. Most unusual and very disappointing.]
Like Templar I had an awful experience with RETSINA (though I didn’t go to Greece for it) and I’ve never touched it since. Who wants to drink something that smells like lavatory cleaner anyway?
Ditto in Crete but I was 30 at the time. I’ve managed to avoid the technicolour yawn since then.
Praying to the porcelain god…
Big white telephone…
Chunder-rosa (Australian iirc)…
Feel free to add more euphemisms please (!)
Calling up Ruth & Hughey from Europe.
Liquid laugh.
I didn’t know Mara was Paul! They can be more cross reference than clue, and I only attempt if I have a lot of time.
I’ll raise you a crème de menthe. I tried a sip as a teenager, and thought it revolting. A second sip, 40 years later, confirmed my initial impression.
14:11. Enjoyable. Templar’s RETSINA is my Chartreuse. I’m still haunted by it, years later.
Thanks, Templar, for the blog and for resurfacing painful memories.
Pi ❤️
Another LOI for miner here. Took far too long to spot hidden everything and needed a quick trip to Roget to get popping. That unlocked Pretty after nearly putting in plenty and all done in 24.45 which is about par for a Mara in these parts.
We love how one person’s hard is another’s easy, yes was our FOI and just seemed obvious!
Really like egg, brilliant!
Thanks Mara, and Templar for the usual entertainment (it’s Pernod for me!)
Made hard work of this as I struggled with all the long ones and my anagram hat was AWOL.
Didn’t like SOMEWHAT and still don’t really understand it but the answer was clear. Fortunately I have encountered RETSINA far more often in crosswords than in real life.
Started with EYE and finished with MINERS in a sluggish 9.19 with COD to EVERYTHING.
Thanks to Templar and Mara
And me, LOI MINERS. Liked EVERYTHING which I suppose says it all. Smiled at EGG. Paused for my bête noire HOMAGE which grates when affected artistes pronounce ‘omage. 22 minutes of enjoyment.
Thanks Mara and Templar (Meringues for me!)
I think the most affected thing is the Frenchified O-mahj pronunciation instead of just plain English Ommidge( with or without the H).
Wholeheartedly agree!
Crikey, I do sometimes pronounce it in the French manner, come to think of it. Better not confess that. I mean, a courtier might pay hommidge to the king in days of yore but I wouldn’t be offended by a tv prog labelled as an omarj to an artist of some kind.
Clearly I need to broaden my linguistic narrow mindedness!
Me too!…. it is odd how that we do this with words that are spelt the same in French as they are In English although, perhaps we should say it in a latin accent as the word itself is probably from the meaning of a man – ‘homō’.
I always said ‘ommage in my yorkshire tongue until I enrolled in Her Majesties armed forces and started bothering about how I spoke…. what a traitor to my roots I am!
Oh well, C’est la vie!
Started confidently with EYE-openING which held me up for some time as I wrestled, unsuccessfully needless to say, with 3D and 4D. In the end I got 4D from its “dependent” 11D, so I not only agree with those who dislike cross-reference clues, but thought this one a very poor one – Blue92’s clue is much better!
That apart, an enjoyable and relatively straightforward solve in 11:20. Thank you Templar for the blog, and add me to the list of those with awful memories from my youth of Retsina.
12:15 and many chestnuts me thinks. Anyone pine for Retsina?
Ta Templar and Mara (Nod to Don)
Apropos of chestnuts, is “Beagle – B = eagle” the single most common cryptic clue in history? I’ve seen it, or its converse, four times this week in various forms.
7:19. Fast one, despite more than a minute looking for FOI, which was PRETTY. And the LOI, an anagram with five chequers just wouldn’t pop: INTRODUCE. Without those stumbles, PB territory.
The only thing I can say in favour of SOMEWHAT is that at least on a top to bottom solve you would probably already have solved the straightforward PRETTY. I was another who was inexplicably delayed by my LOI.
FOI EYE-POPPING
LOI MINERS
COD YES (I concur with Templar)
TIME 4:14
11:55 for the solve. Eye-popping was my first thought on getting eye but couldn’t see why popping so until that went in at gone ten mins, I didn’t have opening, pretty or encore (LOI). Very much enjoy GROUNDED. Agree with comments above about SOMEWHAT clue being ruined by “4 down”.
Had to resort to the “check” button to resolve why I couldn’t find answers to 3 and 4 down, having confidently put in EYE-OPENING, and not seeing any obvious alternative even when I first reviewed it. Ironic, given the answer to 3D!
Otherwise, steady meander into the SCC, somewhat pedestrian to borrow from the grid. That poor beagle has taken a lot of punishment lately.
Port – hangover generator par excellence, but unfairly blamed by me given it usually comes after the beers, gins, white wine, red wine… Although there is one port-fuelled New Year that will live in infamy when the sound of dawn breaking was almost unbearably loud…
My Retsina was whisky – part of a student group returning from France on the ferry, the boys collected all our remaining francs and centimes and had just enough to pay for the cheapest and most revolting whisky. Put me off it for life.
Thanks Templar for the entertaining blog.
A slow 18:13 today, not helped by starting with EYE-OPENING which sat there for ages until the double-take when 3dn had to be OPENING. EVERYTHING was clever. Thanks Mara and thank you Templar for a fine blog. For me it was rum and black
Re: Rum and black. Me too!
Ha! Perhaps it was the same occasion? I don’t remember much (obviously). A few schoolmates on a camping trip in the New Forest. We can’t have been more than 16 but the village pub was happy to serve us. I can’t even drink Ribena since then
🙂 No mine was in my local pub in a South West Durham mining village back in the early 70s. A Sunday night as I recall. Took me 4 days to recover, and yes, I’ve avoided purple drinks and rum since then!
23:22 with no real problems. Good one Mara.
LOI EVERYTHING after missing the hidden as usual.
MINERS was easy for me as I remember wondering at University Contract Law classes why coal miners had special treatment until the penny dropped (no slides or handouts in these days)
Thanks Templar for the blog.
13 solved so very pleased with that.
I’ve now got to go back and do the reveal and see if I can figure out the parsing.
I missed grounded as that expression wasn’t in use when I was a teenager. I can’t recall every being told that I couldn’t go out because of bad behavior. A clip round the ear usually did the trick.
Yes, EYE-OPENING diverted me for a while, too. Many other shared experiences with those above, not least my LOI MINERS. Not an easy puzzle to solve but Mara’s are rarely simple for me, these days. 18.43 in the end.
Thanks, Mara. I rather liked SAMPLE, HOMAGE, PIPER.
8:24
Add me to the long list of those who had MINERS as LOI, and who thought 11d a very poor clue.
COD to EGG.
Thanks Templar and Mara
Took 40 minutes today for an enjoyable crossword, and found I didn’t have long periods where I couldn’t work something out. Ended with PEDESTRIAN which took me the longest to figure out, and embarrassed to say I thought of EYE-WATERING for the longest time before realising it was too long! Must double check the answer lengths closely! 😆
Thanks for the explanations Templar
Just too difficult to see MINERS, with only -I-E- (plus the obvious plural S), but will try to remember this one! Thank you, Templar.
We’ve had RETSINA before (quite a long time ago). I repeat: perfect served very cold on a beach in Crete, but try it here and it just doesn’t work.
Oh Mrs M helped with EYE-POPPING (couldn’t stop thinking -drOPPING but as she says that’s jaw-), which unlocked OPENING which unlocked HOMAGE, ditto SOMEWHAT, but finally stuck on those kiddies.
I had this all done, bar 9d, in around 5 minutes, well under target. And that included spending around 90 seconds trying to work out how REDUCTION could possibly mean Present in 12ac before finally deciding it didn’t work and (wisely) resolving to put some checkers in before trying the anagram again as it certainly looked as if there could be multiple words that fit the selection. I then spent a further 15 minutes trying to work out 9d, nipped to the loo, came back and saw it immediately. Nice puzzle.
Slow plod for 23 minutes but at least I finished. Didn’t realise that the definition being the answer to another clue was not the done thing but it annoyed me anyway. Thanks to Templar for another amusing and informative blog.
A steady solve with no great holdups. 17.25 – quicker than usual for me.
8 mins…
Might be a personal best, but I’ll have to check. Definitely my fastest time for the year and maybe even for 2024. Overall, I thought this was very straight forward with nothing too complex and quite a few hidden words.
FOI – 2dn “Egg”
LOI – 16dn “Miners”
COD – 9dn “Pedestrian”
Thanks as usual!
Well done James
Congratulations Mr Ed46!
Not sure, however, how today’s time can be your fastest “for 2024”.
👏 (😢)
Chapeau!
Well done that man ⚡