Times 23715/it’s Tuesday again

Author   ilancPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Sorry I’m late with this – I’m in a new job and had to interleave solving this with a million other things. None of which I managed to finish at work. Had to wrap this up at home. Anyway, a typical hardish Tuesday puzzle. No particularly simple clues to start with and challenging wordplay in many cases (e.g. 11A, 1D, 17D, 4D…). No idea how long this took over the course of the day… probably a total of an hour.

Across

1 LEVER=”leaver” – which doesn’t work in America as you probably know since LEVER is pronounced to rhyme with “sever” (not Tony!).
4 CA,N(V)ASSER – ref. NASSER former Egyptian Pres.
9 DON,A(TELL)O – “academic” is a noun in the cryptic reading, thus DON.
10 SH,EAR – SH as in “belt up”!
11 CR(OWN)IMPER,1,A,[sa]L[on] – convoluted wordplay for an obscure “plant”. Not my fav clue.
19 IDLE=”idol” – “Without basis” as in IDLE chatter.
21 DOLLY MI(X=”ten”)TURES – X in (Model is truly)*
25 MO(USE)DE,ER – unfamiliar DEER (or MOUSE for that matter) but the wordplay led me there.
27 O,BE(IS)AN,CE – “runner” is a kind of BEAN here.
28 MOULD – I wanted this to be ROUND for awhile.

Down

1 LA,DY(CHAP)E,L – CHAP as in chapped or cracked lips here.
5 NOOS=rev(soon),[racecourse]E – took me a bit to understand the wordplay since “northward” isn’t part of the definition (e.g. N) but the reversal indicator.
6 [c]AUS(PIC)ES
7 SPELL,BIN=rev(nib),DER=rev(red)
12 ON C(LOUD, N,IN)E –
16 C,ON,FIGURE
17 OBE,[b]LIS(K)S – I found this fairly hard wordplay from which to reach the answer and needed all the crossing letters first.
22 Y(EM)EN
23 D(AD)O – “plug” is an AD and not part of the insertion indicator.
26 EMU – hidden in “thE MUnchkins”.

16 comments on “Times 23715/it’s Tuesday again”

  1. 10:00 for this one. Hadn’t realised that crown imperial is a plant, nor that ‘dolly mixture’ ever has an S added to the end.
  2. Oddly, on first pass DOLLY MIXTURES was my first entry and I didn’t think twice about it. But after 30 minutes I was left with 19A and I’m still puzzling over it.
  3. …by 20D, 6D and 28A so resorted to on-line help.

    My excuse is that the puzzle didn’t appear until mid-morning in the Crossword Club so I lost all the quality solving time on my journey to work.

    I was also surprised by the two PB has mentioned already.

  4. I thought some of the clues for the short entries were inventive ,10a,23d and 26d.
    19a – Sounds like “idol” – idle as in idle gossip
    21.26 today as almost every clue needed some thought.
    I always thought of dolly mixtures in the plural form.
    JohnPMarshall
  5. Found today mostly straightforward. I didn’t know crown imperial, but it was put in fairly confidently with the (interesting) wordplay.
    Last to go in were 20D and 28A – I briefly considered ROUND for 28A, thinking after yesterday’s ‘band’ that anything circular or spherical could be round!
  6. I enjoyed the puzzle, even though I felt a bit slow on it (12:35, not as bad as it felt actually). There were several well disguised ones including the two sound-based ones (1A and 19A), and I also didn’t know CROWN IMPERIAL as a plant, only as a (M)ARCH. It is so long since I ate DOLLY MIXTURES that I had no idea any longer whether they were normally singular or plural. Jason J
  7. Chugged my way through and was surprised to see I had taken 40 minutes. No raising of blood pressure at obscurity etc and some nice clues (I like DADO and SHEAR). Don’t recall seeing NASSER trotted out for quite a while. Jimbo.
  8. Made very heavy weather of this one, also getting as far as DOLLY MIXTURES before I could enter an answer (I always eat them in handfuls, so they’ll always be plural as far as I’m concerned). After 25 mins, I was on the verge of taking a break, but then the NE corner suddenly fell into place and I raced through the rest. Annoyingly got stumped by IDLE though
    Enjoyed this one a lot as there were a number of answers which required real scrutiny of the wordplay (CANVASSER and MOUSE DEER to name but two)

    Ali

  9. It’s taken me ages to figure out the wordplay in this one. Misled by “crown” as top of the head, and therefore having hair. CR(OWN)IMPER at last revealed itself five minutes ago. Maddening! I had all the rest, but even knowing the answer from the blog, I couldn’t legitimately fill in Crown Imperial…
    –JR
  10. I struggled a bit. Canvasser I got right off the bat, dolly mixtures hung on til the end. It’s not a term I know!

    Barb

  11. Gave up after 2 hrs, with quite a few unsolved. This one defeated me, but tomorrow is another day.
  12. Ten “easies” left out in this one:

    14a Walk with maiden out to be playful (4)
    (M) ARCH. So Moriarty was Holmes’s playful nemesis?

    15a Diplomacy in (Orient)* not properly on record (10)
    DISC RETION. Followers of the Leyton Orient not known for their diplomacy?

    18a Unreasonable alien soldier perhaps guarding stadium after revolution (10)
    E XORBI T ANT. What is “easy” about Ibrox backwards? Home of another set of supporters not known for their diplomacy?

    24a One not married after answer is wrong (5)
    A MISS

    2d Leading part for camper (3)
    VAN

    3d Stout from cask in bar (6)
    RO TUN D

    4d Expense cut by old boys missing a writer (9)
    CO (A) LUMNI ST

    8d Choice about supporting artist (4)
    RA RE

    13d Complete eccentric (renounces)* daughter (10)
    UNCENSORE D

    20d Stumped by large amount in course (6)
    ST REAM

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