17.58, but as I was going through this write up, I was increasingly convinced that it should have been quicker. Lots of clearly telegraphed first, last and middle letters, and a compendium of very common single letter abbreviations. The word IS turns up four times in both clue and answer (once backwards, admittedly). Most of the definitions are pretty straight translations not requiring much lateral thinking. Towards the end, three consecutive clues require reversing all or part for the entry. I did like the way the Burning Man festival was used. I didn’t like the fact that my whole week with a zero error record was fatally compromised. Oh well.
Definitions underlined in italics, Excluded letters are indicated in [square brackets], and everything else should make sense.
| Across | |
| 1 | Business is secure in refuge (7,6) |
| TRAFFIC ISLAND – Business translates to TRAFFIC, and secure to LAND, with the plain IS added. | |
| 9 | Chuck book back in library corridor (5) |
| LOBBY – LOB from chuck, plus B[ook], plus the back of [librar]Y. | |
| 10 | Flashy vehicle regularly involved in accidents (9) |
| AMBULANCE – A just about cryptic definition, which fell out once I stopped trying to use alternate letters of vehicle. Reference the blue lights, of course. | |
| 11 | Diet of mother possibly bearing Irishman’s son? (10) |
| PARLIAMENT – That meaning of diet. Mother is an example of a PARENT, insert LIAM, who might just as well be an Irishman or his son. | |
| 12 | Half of rabble repeated notes (4) |
| RIFF – A rabble is a RIFF-raff. | |
| 14 | Tricked, go back to capture pawn (7) |
| TRAPPED – Go is to DEPART, which is reversed (back) with P[awn] inserted. | |
| 16 | Destructive little creature: call it home at last (7) |
| TERMITE – Call: TERM plus IT and the last of [hom]E | |
| 17 | Chants relax tension (7) |
| INTONES – An anagram (relax) of TENSION | |
| 19 | Honest about element of visual receptivity (7) |
| RETINAL – Honest is REAL, the inserted element is TIN. | |
| 20 | A band item (4) |
| ALSO – One hopes the London Symphony Orchestra doesn’t mind being called a band. A before the initials. Chambers says the also meaning is archaic, a direct translation of Latin. | |
| 21 | Russian city is, in different ways, working OK (10) |
| PERMISSION – PERM is on the banks of the Kama river near the Ural mountains. Add IS both forwards and backwards and ON for working | |
| 24 | One takes first bit of LSD at Burning Man we hear (9) |
| LARCENIST – The first of L[SD] plus a soundalike (we hear) of ARSONIST, a man who burns things. | |
| 25 | A bit kept to one side (5) |
| APART – Very simply A PART for a bit. | |
| 26 | Appearance of male lice, possibly, not new (13) |
| MANIFESTATION – Male gives you MAN and lice are an example of an INFESTATION, from which you delete the N[ew] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Broadcast each little play on psychic channel (14) |
| TELEPATHICALLY – An anagram (broadcast) of EACH LITTLE PLAY | |
| 2 | Warning signal is a gong, right? (5) |
| AMBER – A plus the MBE medal, or gong plus R[ight] | |
| 3 | Race, leaning over and dropping in the wrong place (3-7) |
| FLY TIPPING – I gather if you live in strike-hit Birmingham at present you don’t have much option bar this otherwise antisocial practice. Here it’s FLY for race and TIPPING from leaning over. | |
| 4 | Heart of sanctum violated given special protection (7) |
| CHARMED – The middle letter of sanCtum plus HARMED for violated. | |
| 5 | Small section of cake executive eats (7) |
| SUBUNIT – A colloquial executive is SUIT, taking in a BUN or cake. | |
| 6 | Turner cut round back of panel (4) |
| AXLE – AXE from cut, and the back end of [pane]L inserted. | |
| 7 | Study Renaissance artist’s sound teeth (9) |
| DENTITION – Everything in me was screaming O not A at the end, but for some reason I thought the definition was sound teeth, still wrong. Study is DEN and the sound of the artist TITIAN give you the rest. | |
| 8 | Often, wellbeing results from cooking this rich food (4,10) |
| BEEF WELLINGTON – An anagram (results from cooking) of OFTEN WELLBEING. | |
| 13 | City urchin is hot stuff (10) |
| BRATISLAVA – Capital of Slovakia. Urchin: BRAT, plus IS, plus LAVA for hot stuff. | |
| 15 | Lower oneself, rolling round in rotten manure: it conveys immunity (9) |
| ANTISERUM – Lower oneself is SIT, which is reversed (rolling around) and inserted into an anagram (rotten) of MANURE. | |
| 18 | Official in force shoots up, injecting heroin (7) |
| SHERIFF – F[orce] plus FIRES from shoots reversed (up), with H[eroin] inserted. | |
| 19 | Viewer about to hold annual test for wireless devices (7) |
| REMOTES – Viewer is SEER, to be reversed (about). In the UK, the MOT (Ministry of Transport) test is mandatory for cars over 3 years old. Insert. | |
| 22 | I spoil one type of porcelain (5) |
| IMARI – You might guess, correctly, that it’s Japanese. I plus MAR for spoil plus I (one) | |
| 23 | Humble, with endless resources (4) |
| MEAN – resources are MEANS from which the end disappears. | |
Slow start to this and found it pretty tricky but once a few answers went in it started to come together. Failed to see PARLIAMENT for ‘diet’ and of course was looking for something food related. Had PERMISSION but didn’t parse it, never heard of Perm for the place. BEEF WELLINGTON was a write-in from the anagrist. No idea about that meaning of ALSO. COD to MANIFESTATION.
Nice to have the correctly sized printout back and the introduction of word-breaks in the printout is a nice touch. Note, if it’s a hyphen it’s indicated by a small horizontal or vertical line from what I can see anyway as there are no hyphenated across clues in either of today’s cryptics.
Thanks Z and setter.
The printed version certainly is an improvement on yesterday’s vision test, but it’s missing a rhs border and the font for the clues is smaller and lighter than that previously used. The word breaks and hyphens (there is one in 3d) are a welcome addition though.
As far as I’m concerned there was nothing at all wrong with the original PDF format and this feels like change for the sake of change.
Enjoyable crossword though.
Well said, MikWak, and you’ve save me a lot of writing! The QC print suffers from the same defects, plus it now has the same size grid as the 15×15 puzzle (12.5cm by 12.5cm), which for a 13×13 puzzle makes the squares look unnaturally large. Before the change it was 9.5cm by 9.5cm. Also the setter’s name which disappeared yesterday is still missing when printed.
I found to my horror yesterday that they have also interfered with another of my pleasures, the Killer Sudoku print which had so far remained unaltered. They’ve made the grid a little larger, which is a small improvement, but the vertical and horizontal lines (as opposed to the number cages) are very unsatisfactory. The bold lines making up the nine large divisions are so thick that they are intrusive and distracting. And the lines making up the 81 subdivisions are so thin and light that many of them are invisible. There was absolutely nothing wrong with how it was before, so why tinker about with it?
where does the Setter’s name appear ? I have never noticed it except on Sundays.
The daily 15×15 crosswords are staunchly anonymous, apart from Sunday. Sometimes, we can guess!
I did notice the very faint RHS border but didn’t notice the font size was smaller and lighter. I think I was just pleased to see the grid had reverted to the correct size.
Grrrrr I don’t want to see word breaks and hyphens. They don’t appear in the online version. It smacks to me as being yet another “oversight” of the renowned Times IT team. They’veveven managed to remove the Super Fiendish Sudoku.
I also found this difficult, perhaps more difficult than it was. For example, I got island easily enough, but could just not come up with traffic, and needed all the checkers for parliament even though I knew it was something inside parent – tried uic, but evidently knowledge of Middle Irish is not required. Working out the anagram for telepathically was fun, starting with -ically, then seeing -path-, and checking what letters remained. Also was my last one in, as I was thinking of ELO for a long time, but had LSO at the back of my mind. Orchestras, I believe, are informally called bands by their component musicians.
Time: 49:32
Eric Morecambe, before his masterpiece performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Andre Previn, asked Ernie Wise ‘Is that the band?’. And, if it’s good enough for Eric Morecambe, who am I to argue?
30:14 to continue a disappointingly slow couple of weeks on the 15×15.
As with Zabadak, I spent a while trying to figure out wordplay for the AMBULANCE clue. I had thought ‘band’ was devilish for LSO but vinyl1 points out a common use. Also once you think of marching bands, bandstands, etc., it becomes less far-fetched (nearer-fetched?). ANTISERUM also took me a while despite being on right track, just as I’d never heard of such a thing.
Does anyone remember the Onion books from around the year 2000–2002? That’s where I was introduced to ‘item’ in (presumably) the ‘also’ meaning, in the parody celebrity news column. The tidbits started with ‘Item!’
About 35, with PERMISSION and ALSO taking a fair while at the end. How also=item in a sentence I would be intrigued to discover. Item I have never heard of FLY TIPPING which did not help, but mostly an enjoyable solve, thank you Z.
From Mississippi:
Every step of the way we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is piling up, we struggle and we scrape
We’re all boxed in got nowhere to escape
City’s just a jungle, more games to play
TRAPPED in the heart of it, trying to get away
I was raised in the country, I been working in the town
I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down
Probably not much help, but Oxford Dictionaries (online) has the definition of ‘item’ as an adverb in (or close to) this sense as “Used to introduce each item in a list” and gives an example quotation as: ‘item two statute books … item two drums’, which gave rise to use of the word ‘item’ as a noun in the 16th century.
Yes, that seems to be right on item/ALSO. See Olivia’s (stupid woman) description of herself in Twelfth Night – “item two lips , indifferent red” etc.
37 minutes. Doing well until I came to A_S_ at 20a at the very end. I’d come across LSO for ‘band’ before so should have just done as the wordplay instructed, but couldn’t see how ‘item’ could mean ALSO. As usual, an alphabet trawl was no help, so I just put in ALSO anyway and – voilà. Maybe ‘item once?’ as the def?
TRAFFIC ISLAND was a good one to get early on and I liked the surface of the clue for ANTISERUM.
Had a go at this one and honestly did not like it – and not because we did not complete – with a little trouble in the NW and W.
I suppose 2d AMBER and 6d AXLE were concise and clever, but there were too many stretched synonyms and structures: Particularly did not like 1ac TRAFFIC ISLAND, 24d LARCENIST, 3d FLY TIPPING and 15d ANTISERUM. And there was no fun really, just hard work.
Apologies for any crossings, will read.
Thank you Zabadak, sorry setter.
About 35′. But also had Z’s A for O in Dentitian so a DNF. Biffed ALSO (seeing the orchestra and the only alternativeseemed “apse”) but no idea of the meaning. Spent a while on S_BUN_T before a trawl gave me the obvious answer. Thanks Z and setter.
45 minutes but with ALSO missing and DENTICIAN wrong. I knew it was. I think I got PERMISSION telepathically. COD to LARCENIST and the cow pie jointly. Quite a tough one. Thank you Z and setter
38 minutes. I took so long to find an answer to write in that I was beginning to panic, but gradually the clues started to fall and things started to flow quite nicely.
I still don’t see the purpose of ‘Irishman’s son’. I didn’t understand ‘item / ALSO’ and despite it being in the dictionaries I’ve never come across it. PERM as as Russian city was also unknown. I don’t suppose RIFF appearing twice in the grid is of any significance.
For the surface? She’s bearing, but bearing an Irishman doesn’t sound right. If her bloke’s an Irishman, bearing an Irishman’s son sounds much better.
1 error in DENTITIAN which is not where I was expecting it. 27 mins of which nearly 5 spent trawling for an alternative to ALSO only to shrug and submit it anyway.
Enjoyable though, inventive and humorous. Nice one setter and thanks to Zabadak.
59:14 with a few peaks in the Thesaurus at the end.
Needed thesaurus for urchin (BRAT) and executive (SUIT).
The little four letter words were my last three in. NHO ALSO=item. Only vaguely heard of MEAN=humble, I think in Christmas Carol somewhere Bethlehem is described as a mean little city. And in “once in royal David’s city” the phrase “with the poor and MEAN and lowly appears.
Confused about the Irishman’s son, what is the son doing there? NHO IMARI, but had vaguely heard of PERM. it’s Russia’s 15th largest city apparently.
No, in Once in Royal David’s City it is definitely ‘poor and meek and lowly’.
Correct. I misremembered. The carol with the word “mean” to describe humble beginnings is “What Child Is This?”. The second verse contains the line, “Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?”.
It depends on your hymnbook. A spot check on two of mine (around 1960) reveals MEAN.
DNF, joining a few others in OWL club it seems with DENTICIAN (thinking ‘teeth’ could be used for a dentist in the same way that ‘bones’ can be a doctor).
– I guess the ‘son’ part of PARLIAMENT is just there for the surface reading
– Bunged in ALSO as my LOI with no idea how it might mean ‘item’
– Had to trust that IMARI is a type of porcelain
Thanks Zabadak and setter.
COD Larcenist
Got there OK, a worryingly slow start but was able to keep going fairly steadily after that.
No clue about ALSO/ITEM, no problems otherwise. You need the O in dentition to account for “sound” in the clue.
A dnf in 15′, with a mangled ‘dentician’. No idea at all re ALSO.
Thanks z and setter.
*25:49 (1 x error = DENTITION)
I also fell at the last as I went for the wrong homophone of TITIAN. Otherwise I found this a bit of a slog, with SUBUNIT being my favourite clue just for the ah-ha moment.
A bad week for me thus far so fingers crossed a morale booster lies in store tomorrow.
Thanks to both.
I liked this. I didn’t know PERM but reverse-engineered that it must be a Russian city from the answer. ALSO never heard of ALSO in that sense, and LSO as a band was something where there might have been other possibilities (REM for example, although didn’t fit the crosser). RIFF held me up too, since I guessed it ended FF but assumed FF were the repeated notes and was trying to get Rx from somewhere. Then I saw it. Got there in the end. I liked the Burning Man one.
GRID NOW GREAT BUT FONT SIZE RIDICULOUSLY SMALL STILL
Written in UC so it might get noticed more! Like others, I have no idea why the old format was messed about to the detriment of all print solvers. Please can we get back to normal asap? Not sure to whom I am addressing this plea but I know the blog and comments are widely read, with any luck also by someone at The Times who can fix it.
To the crossword. I also misspelt dentition and was held up at the end by Bratislava (annoying, since I have been there) and permission. Otherwise all OK. Thanks setter and Z.
17:40 with an age at the end before entering ALSO with everything crossed.
28.23. Been trying to get on this site for over an hour. Get so far and then Error 500 internal server error- whatever that means.
Anyway enjoyed this so thanks setter and esteemed blogger.
FROM AMBER to ALSO (nho) in 37,25 but with DENTICIAN. Drat! Thanks setter and Z.
What a rollercoaster that was.
DNF due to a silly misspelling (LARSENIST) and really should have got TELEPATHICALLY quicker after seeing TELE + PATH but couldn’t see the rest somehow. I really felt pleased at getting ANTISERUM as these kind of clues are usually my Achilles heel. Couldn’t see why ALSO meant “item” so I got lucky there. Never seen this archaic usage of it in the wild, but there you go. COD to AMBULANCE because I like fun DDs. Thanks blogger & setter!
34:08
Quite enjoyable, but tricky to get over the line. Like jackkt, I struggled to enter anything for a while – IMARI was my FOI, after which I saw AMBER and LOBBY. Assumed that 1d might be TELE something, but it took a while to see what it actually was. TRAFFIC ISLAND and BEEF WELLINGTON both gave plenty of letters to work with.
Last five were: ALSO, but as with others, didn’t get the ‘item’ reference; LARCENIST – very good; MEAN = humble? but not sure what else it could have been; PARLIAMENT – very good; SUBUNIT – is a cake a bun? Bath Bun and teacakes would suggest that they could be…
Thanks Z and setter
In “once in royal David’s city” the phrase “with the poor and MEAN and lowly” appears.
Ah, yes, thanks Merlin
See above. It’s ‘meek’, not ‘mean’.
So it is!
My thanks to setter and Zabadak.
Unlike Z I didn’t find it easy and Tricky Thursday came to mind. Maybe I am thick; I think I have shingles which hurts the, seems to be damaging the brain too.
1d Telepathically; I could see telepathy from the anagrist but then lost an L and gained an H and couldn’t make anything of LACHI. Doh!
1a Traffic Island; I was fixated on Trading Estate which didn’t help.
DNF; never had a clue about 20a Also.
22d NHO Imari, so I confirmed it with a lookup.
47 minutes but as with the blogger thinking back through it they didn’t seem exceptionally hard. I think that’s a sign of a good setter. I just thought I was off wavelength today so glad others had similar experiences.
AMBER – Incorrectly in as ALERT at first. A new gong comes up every now and then in crosswordland so I didn’t give LE enough thought.
ALSO -LOI was wondering who LSO were. I prefer their older stuff. Not 100% convinced it was correct but nothing better coming to mind.
IMARI – A crossword word which I never encounter anywhere else but comes up quite regularly.
DENTITION – same problem as the blogger, trying to work out if it was the answer or artist I had spelt wrong.
PARLIAMENT – took an age convinced there had to be an S in there somewhere.
Quite enjoyed this puzzle.
Thanks blogger and setter.
At first scan nothing leapt out, then APART gave me an opening, and before you’d know it, I’d completed top right to bottom left, diagonally, with the other half blank. AMBER gave me the opening I needed to get PARLIAMENT, and off again. The ones Mayfair particularly didn’t like were my favourites! TRAFFIC ISLAND, PERMISSION (helps to know of Perm), LARCENIST (haha) and FLY TIPPING, also MANIFESTATION. After POI ANTISERUM went in, it had to be ALSO, but was convinced by both the LSO and having come across item=also in period novels. Pleased to have finished this unscathed, but luckily DENTITION appeared to be the most likely spelling for ‘teeth’. Very pleasant solve, and thanks Z, for parsing ANTISERUM for me – couldn’t account for the stray S.
C 35 mins. No exact time as it took several sessions. Was way adrift on this one and found it extremely tough to get started and to finish. And the middle bit was tricky too.
I made an almighty hash of this. My biggest problem was writing in SHERRIF instead of SHERIFF meaning I thought 24 across ended in R. That prevented me from seeing LARCENIST. Even without the second checking letter I think an alphabet trawl would have given me MEAN, but deflated by my inablity to get 24 I didn’t bother. So I failed on 3 clues from one simple error.
Would have been interesting were there a Royal Symphonic Ensemble…
I won’t hear a word said against the Royal Society of Edinburgh …
32ish minutes with an age spent trying to find an alternative to ALSO. Went with LSO being a band rather than RSE and PSE. Had I cheated I might have gone with APSU – half an item, with Public Service Union providing the acronym for the band.
37.14 but with DENTICIAN error. Bother! ALSO was a bit of a stretch for me … Nice puzzle though!