Entertainment of a fairly gentle kind, this week, which caused me no problems; I knew what a Nile sailing boat is called. A few more tricky to parse in detail, but 20 minutes to solve.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, DD = double definition, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Kind of pie mainly containing sheep’s smoked meat (8) |
| PASTRAMI – PASTI[E] has RAM inserted. | |
| 5 | Heading for Italy, opera-singer stopping short, victim of flight problems (6) |
| ICARUS – I, CARUS[O] as in Enrico; the chap whose wings melted. | |
| 10 | Where you might be expected to keep still? (10,5) |
| PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM – cryptic Def. I spent the first minute thinking about whisky stills. | |
| 11 | Dispassionate cricketing body in the past welcomes conclusion of game (3-4) |
| ICE-COLD – ICC (world cricket body) OLD (in the past) insert [gam]E. | |
| 12 | Bloaters at sea giving up a seafood (7) |
| LOBSTER – (BLO TERS)*. | |
| 13 | Faithless lover is scared to move (8) |
| CRESSIDA – (IS SCARED)*. The one who was unfaithful to Troilus. | |
| 15 | Unreliable and profligate about spending, ultimately (5) |
| ROGUE – ROUE with the G of spending inserted. | |
| 18 | Greatly enjoy being ahead after part of race? (3,2) |
| LAP UP – LAP = part of race, UP = ahead. | |
| 20 | Shakespeare on demand, as it were: a lot of choice? (4,4) |
| FREE WILL – light hearted second definition. | |
| 23 | Cracked beam twisting round back of another part of mast (7) |
| YARDARM – MAD (cracked) RAY (beam) all reversed with [anothe]R inserted. | |
| 25 | After distribution of fuel, account backed Nile vessel (7) |
| FELUCCA – (FUEL)*, ACC reversed. | |
| 26 | Novel form of uranium fluoride to expel iodine? About time (3,6,6) |
| OUR MUTUAL FRIEND – (URAN UM FLUORIDE)* with T inserted. | |
| 27 | Inclination to follow English North? Sign up (6) |
| ENLIST – E, N, LIST = inclination. | |
| 28 | Superficial company things backed by company’s leader (8) |
| COSMETIC – CO[mpany], ITEMS reversed, C[ompany]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Father with length in fabric (6) |
| POPLIN – POP = father, L, IN. | |
| 2 | Succulent seed produce (9) |
| STONECROP – STONE = seed, pit; CROP = produce. Stonecrop is also called sedum, there’s a lot growing on the stone wall around our garden. | |
| 3 | Wild Brazilian city according to the Times? (7) |
| RIOTOUS – RIO to us where us = The Times. | |
| 4 | Anger suppressed by doctor unable to move easily (5) |
| MIRED – an MD is a doctor, so referred in the USA; insert IRE = anger. | |
| 6 | Opening of cut on shepherd’s shin? (7) |
| CLAMBER – C[ut], LAMBER. A ‘lamber’ could be a shepherd, and you can SHIN up or clamber up a steep slope. | |
| 7 | Regular character in SF book entering base (5) |
| ROBOT – ROOT with B[ook] inserted. | |
| 8 | No specific group to bridge river in county (8) |
| SOMERSET – SOME, SET, with R inserted. | |
| 9 | Wise to limit medicine waste (8) |
| SPILLAGE – SAGE with PILL inserted. | |
| 14 | One with sense to restrict family of ill repute (8) |
| INFAMOUS -I, NOUS = sense, insert FAM[ily]. | |
| 16 | Bird’s prize for being first to reach summit (9) |
| GOLDCREST – GOLD for prize, CREST for summit. | |
| 17 | Blade increasingly under soil (8) |
| CLAYMORE – CLAY for soil, MORE = increasingly. Scottish sword. | |
| 19 | Cartoon strip generating little money (7) |
| PEANUTS – DD. | |
| 21 | Heavy metal to damage stream after tipping (7) |
| WOLFRAM – damage, stream = MAR, FLOW; reverse all. Alternative name for element 74 otherwise known as TUNGSTEN; it is 1.7 times heavier than lead. | |
| 22 | Detectives turned up following obstruction of poet (6) |
| BARDIC – BAR = obstruction, CID reversed. | |
| 24 | You are upset over protest excluding one from the country (5) |
| RURAL – UR (you are) upset = RU, RA[i]L = protest excluding one. | |
| 25 | Mount painting from book (5) |
| FOLIO – mount (reverse) OIL (painting) OF (from). | |
54:10 but with one error. CHAMBER for CLAMBER. This was my LOI and I never thought of shin=climb. Chamber is definitely an “opening” and not much else fitted.
Also thought of distillation for “still”. Misread county for country as I often do, which delayed SOMERSET. Couldn’t parse YARDARM, where I couldn’t see beyond “cracked”as an anagram indicator.
A couple of aids, I looked up PAWLIN as my fabric, (father w{ith}), and saw POPLIN. And I looked up SPORECROP as a plausible plant, with spore=seed. These were both NHO, and the second had all the checkers as well.
I don’t think FREE is the same as “on demand”, Netflix ain’t free, or I’m doing something wrong. “Liberate Shakespeare” might have worked better.
Cod RIOTOUS
Please pardon my moonlighting. Overall, the clues do not look like ‘gimmes’ to me, but clearly that’s somewhat individual.
As a precocious amateur, thought 20ac might have been clued: ‘Cetacean not affirmative in the end with lots of choice’.
Of course, that might be considered an MNT solution and not correct style.
Nice clue, I would have thought Free Willy reference (1993) was more mainstream than Our Mutual Friend, but crossword setters and solvers are a pretty conservative crowd.
40 mins for me. I didn’t know the Nile boat but the correct answer seemed more likely that hte alternatives, but I was still happy to see all green. WOLFRAM is also the reason that the chemical symbol for tungsten is W. Everything else was a steady solve with LOI BARDIC.
Around 75 minutes. I did the same as Merlin initially entering CAMEROON. After lengthy fruitless search for crossers I finally reread it again as county.
Thanks Piquet
The couple of unknowns, FELUCCA and STONECROP, were generously clued, and much of the rest was pretty gentle, as Pip says. 19:18
28:25 but rode my luck with the choice of vowel position for the NHO of FELUCCA and STONECROP going in with a shrug before remembering succulent had another meaning.
Good time for me which with a bird, plant and ancient weapon (all my weak points) is quite surprising.
Helped a lot by somehow spotting PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM and OUR MUTUAL FRIEND straight away. Must have been on form this morning.
COD ICE-COLD
Thanks blogger and setter
Nothing too taxing here, although I only parsed PASTRAMI afterwards, perhaps due to thinking the pie should be a “pasty”. I know nothing about “Troilus and CRESSIDA” but it didn’t prove a hindrance.
I was also briefly led astray at 10A by wondering where a bootlegger might conceal his equipment…
FOI LOBSTER
LOI ICE-COLD
COD ICARUS
TIME 7:25
I didn’t even think of Troilus and Cressida until you mentioned it. I could only think of Cressida Dick.
Do you know something her partner Helen doesn’t?
Oh. I’ll stop thinking of her.
10:59. I half surprised myself that I knew the Nile sailing boat. With hindsight I believe it is a word I’ve only ever seen in crossword land. If past such statements are anything to go by, I will definitely see it mentioned outside of crosswords very soon!
24.56 which seemed pretty good on a day when I didn’t know the plant, the bird or the Nile boat, and like others read country not county. LOI was ROGUE which took a bit of time. While I can see how it means unreliable and roue can mean profligate, both meanings were a little to the side of what I thought the words meant. But all good, many thanks to piquet.
From (the not at all creepy) My Own Version Of You:
I’ll take Scarface Pacino and the Godfather Brando
Mix ’em up in a tank and get a ROBOT commando
If I do it upright and put the head on straight
I’ll be saved by the creature that I create
19’48 with LOI to POPLIN.
I had PA …. for absolutely donkey’s years so I couldn’t make any parsing work.
Pretty chewy for a Wednesday but I felt everything was very generously clued, and the classical references were on the GCSE side rather than PhD.
25:24
In hindsight it all looks quite straightforward but I really struggled to get going this morning.
FELUCCA was the only unknown and for me there were no real stand-out clues.
Thanks to both.
Thought of photograph booth initially before ROBOT came. NHO STONECROP but got from wordplay.
I would argue that a YARDARM is at the very end of a yard (horizontal spar on a square-rigged sailing ship) and so not part of a mast.
Took a while to think of OUR MUTUAL FRIEND as I had biffed ‘future’ as the middle word. FELUCCA from the wordplay.
Thanks P and setter.
I would argue (and probably so would the setter), that a yardarm is “part of a mast”, as it’s not part of a hull or a superstructure. The mast can be the whole structure, or just the vertical bit, according to the dictionaries.
39 minutes. Ah, so that’s how YARDARM works! Thanks, Pip.
I wonder how I’ve lived so long without knowing FAM as an abbreviation for ‘family’. I was surprised to find it in the dictionaries.
I was going to claim FELUCCA as unknown to me but if my memory went back as far as 2012 and 2014 I would have remembered I had met it here twice before. In any case, by the time I got to it today I had all the checkers in place so it didn’t delay me unduly.
I enjoyed the puzzle a lot, and the ICARUS clue especially.
Doctress Who regularly (and slightly irritatingly) referred to her associates as her Fam. I don’t know anyone else who does!
Think it’s a younger generation thing, which is where the programme makers have been trying to overly spread their appeal (much to the consternation of many long-term older fans).
My kids say ‘fam’, I think mostly to annoy me.
34 minutes with LOI YARDARM, known only as the marker for the first drink of the day. That was given by COD CLAYMORE, known of since we learnt the Skye Boat song at primary school. The unknown FELUCCA was constructed. Otherwise, a workmanlike solve. Thank you Pip and setter.
Completed correctly in 2 sessions totalling 25 minutes.
Probably just me but didn’t seem the usual Times style .
LOI CLAMBER – shin to me suggests climbing with alacrity whereas I could hardly manage to clamber! Also lamber seemed so obvious as to be unlikely.
Biffed FELUCCA and delighted to be able to salt it away.
On a bit of a roll this week but no doubt will be undone by Friday – if not before.
Thanks to setter and piquet.
The list of acceptable abbreviations seems to be expanding? Today FAM and ACC, neither of which I remember seeing before; plus others in the past weeks that I can’t immediately recall, but remember noticing as newbies.
Sorry for the intrusion but Ur callsign/avatar always reminds me of a very nice French beer: Pelforth Brun.
Yes indeed. Assigned to me by a chum while en vacance.
Quick today, and no unknowns. Naturally I thought of distilleries before albums, who wouldn’t?
I know the titles of Dickens’s entire output, despite never actually having read one, at least not all the way through..
Yes it was gentle but 8 minutes to dredge that meaning of shin meant LOI CLAMBER turned 21 mins into 29. Frustrating.
There was a bucolic, old English feel to this: RURAL, SOMERSET, GOLDCREST, the old fashioned plant and element names. Bit of Dickens, some classics and Photograph Album. A gramophone grandad? I was even trying to fit Oak into the shepherd.
Thanks both
Contrary to most, I found this quite challenging, even though I knew the boat and the bird. The NW corner remained stubbornly empty at 35 mins, when I finally saw PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM and the rest fell into place by 50 mins.
Taking a break today, but came to take a look. Don’t think I would find this easy. A couple of strange elements to potentially confound.
Kind regards to all.
About 25 minutes
– Guessed the right order of the first two vowels in FELUCCA (I didn’t know it, and it could feasibly have been FULECCA)
– Relied on wordplay for the unknown POPLIN, and like Merlin above I considered PAWLIN
– Had to hope that STONECROP is a succulent
Thanks piquet and setter.
FOI Free will
LOI Stonecrop
COD Photograph album
12:48 Gentle indeed
8:28. No major hold-ups today. I’m not sure I’d have come up with FELUCCA without the wordplay but it seemed familiar once I had.
Short and sweet. 18 minutes but with the hitherto unknown GOLFCREST. A typo in the Quick today as well. Must remember to take off the oven gloves in future. COD PASTRAMI.
Thanks to Pip and the setter
10:40. Not too taxing with plenty of neat clues. Like others I constructed FELUCCA, a word I didn’t know, from the wordplay. From the style and chemical content I’m guessing this is from Andy McCarroll aka Eccles, who has recently joined the Times setting team. Try today’s Eccles in the Independent and see what you think. Thanks Pip and setter.
Thank you to piquet and setter.
This was really hard until it wasn’t. I just could not get an early start. FOI 8d Somerset, a gimme if you read county not countRy.
23a Yardarm. I failed to work this out so biffed.
2d Stonecrop, known only from Xwords.
Still running slow at 22.25. Of course I thought of whiskey and gin first, and when A???M appeared for the second word wondered what sort of alarm would compel stillness. Dull album with just one pic, no? Otherwise after the NE filled itself in grudgingly, the rest flowed pretty smoothly, even remembering (and correctly spelling) the FELUCCA.
Chambers tells me the STONECROP is “any plant of the crassulaceous genus Sedum”. Doesn’t sound that succulent.
Not on the wavelength today, I’d NHO FELUCCA and only learnt POPLIN recently from another Times crossword, though I was quick to enter it this time around. ‘Fam’ is very familiar to me, some people even jokingly change it to ‘famalam’. What modern word will we get next in a crossword? ‘Peeps’ for ‘people’, perhaps?
25′ and same NHOs as others, working out STONECROP and assuming FELUCCA sounded more likely than “fulecca”. I had the same whisky/gin misdirection too, until I had ALBUM from crossers. Can’t remember ever actually reading a Dickens book…. Thanks Piquet and setter.
About 40 mins but with one error, SPORECROP for NHO STONECROP. Crossed fingers for NHO FELUCCA but it seemed likely. LOI CLAMBER.
Spent too long at 10 ac looking for distilleries and whiskey. . .
I also found this very easy finishing in 12:21. LOI was STONECROP where I almost put SPORECROP but luckily wasn’t convinced and a few more letters forward got to STONECROP which I decided I had vaguely heard of.
The Doctor Who companion Vicky changed her name to Cassandra / Cressida and ran off with Troilus.
Seems to be a marmite puzzle today – I’m on the side of those who found it easy. Had heard of FELUCA (sic) but unsure of its spelling, and neither the L or C was clued as being double. Similarly the clue for INKINOUS isn’t clueing a word. Another who mentally pencilled in DISTILLING HOUSE and ENROLL, noting that like INSTAL/INSTALL it could conceivably end with double L. So trickiness, but nothing to slow one down too much.
MIRED was FOI, rapidly followed by PASTRAMI. Despite having several crossers in 10a, including the P at the start, it was almost the end of the solve before SOMERSET joined ROBOT to point me away from the distillery. Once I’d constructed the boat from wordplay, it seemed familiar. The bottom half seemed to drop into place without too much effort once FELUCCA, CLAYMORE and OUR MUTUAL FRIEND were in place. The sticking points were up top, where ROGUE and CLAMBER held me up for a while. Last to fall was STONECROP. 19:44. Thanks setter and Pip.
I was pretty sure of FELUCCA since it seemed familiar, but I checked in a dictionary. Couldn’t have told you what it was, likewise that WOLFRAM/tungsten is a heavy metal or that CRESSIDA was faithless. I’d queried how STONECROP worked but missed that succulent is a noun here. And I failed to notice that ROGUE was an adjective. With YARDARM I stupidly looked at the wrong R and failed to parse it. 36 minutes.
16:05
I found this on the gentler side, with the following notes:
– Didn’t know of CRESSIDA’s unfaithfulness, but with two checkers in from the anagrist, it was a worthy punt
– FELUCCA – well known if you have ever sailed a mile down the Nile
– OUR MUTUAL FRIEND – bunged in from first three checkers
– COSMETIC – from checkers, unparsed
– with the P from 10a, POP sprang to mind, though I couldn’t pick out POPLIN in a police line-up
– STONECROP – unknown, though probably heard of it in these parts before?
– RURAL – missed the RA(I)L bit
– FOLIO – missed the wordplay entirely
– CLAMBER – LOI only spotted once I’d considered ‘shin’ as the definition
Thanks P and setter
I enjoyed this and maintained steady progress, finishing in 28 minutes. No issues. Like others I betrayed my alcoholic instincts and spent too long trying to find a remote Scottish island for 10ac. And while rv1 detected a bucolic vibe, I found a Shakespearean one, with 13ac, 20ac, 22dn and 25dn.
FOI – ICARUS
LOI – PEANUTS
COD – PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
19:05 – no particular problems, just a general above usual difficulty level. FELUCCA familiar from the Alexandria Quartet, which seemed to feature a sighting of one on every page (almost invariably while a scattered cloud of pigeons emerged into the night from a distant minaret).
A speedy 15 minutes for me today. I thought I’d add a topical profile picture of one of our regular garden visitors today. Thank you, Piquet and setter.
I like the photo but Astro Nowt won’t be happy!
34:46. having stood on a YARDARM, sailed on a FELUCCA, waved a CLAYMORE and even having a (fantastically dense) lump of WOLFRAM on my desk, I should have made it through this quite a lot quicker! only NHO was STONECROP but it was generously clued so no real issues (I did briefly ponder SPORECROP but it seemed unlikely). I remembered looking up why W is the chemical symbol for Tungsten a while back and luckily I vaguely remembered it. 🙏 both
I found this relatively straightforward finishing in 31.24. It would have been sub thirty but for my last two answers ROGUE followed by CLAMBER. I think the Egyptian vessel has appeared before, but I needed to construct the word from the cryptic clue before recognising it. It also took me a while to get Stephen King’s IT out of my mind for 7dn.
34 mins but with a 10 min snooze! All pretty easy until LOI POPLIN (NHO)
35 minutes of which 10 spent on the permutations for S-O-E-R-P. Luckily opted for the correct one.
11.10
Patrick O’Brian helping again today with FELUCCA straight in. YARDARM and SOMERSET appear frequently there as well.
Slightly crossed fingers for STONECROP but there was a sufficiently faint tinkling there.
Thanks setter/Piquet
30:02
FOLIO my LOI.
NHO FELUCCA. Delayed by assuming account was AC, and then trying to come up with a five letter fuel.
Skye boat song very helpful for CLAYMORE.
Considered SPOLIAGE for 9d, but saved by being unable to make sense of Poli=medicine.
Thanks piquet and setter
Thanks
21.18. LOI robot but only after an alphabet trawl. Glad I could remember Cressida and may well be in a felucca in October.
21 minutes. Had never heard of FELUCCA, but it’s a nice word. (Mind you, I’ve no idea how to pronounce it.)
I think Cressida ran off with someone called Diomede, at least in Chaucer’s version where she is Criseyde. Read it at school. Afterwards, Troilus said he could not unlove her for a quarter of a day. We’ve all been there…
Approximately 19.10.
29.00 Quick in the bottom half. I’ve seen STONECROP here before and I vaguely knew FELUCCA from somewhere. Having read Dvynys’s comment it was probably from Patrick O’Brian. CLAMBER, POPLIN and ICE-COLD were the last few in. Thanks piquet.
This is not going to be my week: third SCC x 2 in a row. And it gets harder usually. Oh well!
Nice puzzle. Knew the boat / ship related words. Sewerage instead of SPILLAGE held me up. Embarrassingly slow to get Somerset as I live in the county. Knew it didn’t end in _shire so assumed the literal was somewhere else. 37 mins.