One on the easier end of the scale today, and for the first time while blogging I finished inside my 15 minute target, finishing in 13:06. I found the top half went in quickly and the lower half was slower.
I’m learning that any time I don’t recognize a setter’s name, there may be a theme of some sort, and I spotted one as I was writing the blog. I won’t give it away now, but as a hint, it may be easier to spot the theme here than in the puzzle. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that I’ve only spotted part of the theme.
Definitions underlined in italics, wordplay indicators in square brackets, synonyms in round brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | A research centre a graduate found in US state (7) |
| ALABAMA – A LAB (A research centre) + A + MA (graduate). | |
| 5 | Bitterness surrounding bishop and his favourite book? (5) |
| BIBLE – BILE (bitterness) surrounding B for bishop (from chess notation). | |
| 8 | Burns Dot’s pies after messing up Chinese dish (5-4,4) |
| BIRDS-NEST SOUP – Anagram [after messing up] of BURNS DOTS PIES. | |
| 9 | Smart to follow each part of grid reference (7) |
| EASTING – STING (smart) after EA for each, as seen on invoices. | |
| 10 | Protestant churchman’s articles in Spanish and German (5) |
| ELDER – EL (‘the’ in Spanish) + DER (‘the’ in German). | |
| 11 | In Tenerife we stay least of all (6) |
| FEWEST – Hidden in TeneriFE WE STay. | |
| 13 | The fashionable thing to do? Certainly (6) |
| INDEED – Double definition, the first being ‘the in deed’.
I initially parsed this as just IN (fashionable) + DEED (thing to do), but then it struck me that reading it as a double definition meant that the “the” was not just a filler word, so I went with that parsing. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference, really. |
|
| 15 | Left tip for waiter in time, generous (5) |
| LARGE – L (left) + tip [last letter] of waiteR in AGE (time). ‘Generous’ in the sense of ‘a generous tip’. | |
| 16 | Notes shed’s given an inappropriate role? (7) |
| MISCAST – MIS (notes) + CAST (shed, as a snake skin)
MIS is clearly (ahem) the plural of MI, as in Do-re-mi. |
|
| 19 | Inane folk broadcast at home wearing ladies’ underwear (13) |
| SCATTERBRAINS – SCATTER (broadcast, as seeds) + IN (at home) inside [wearing] BRAS (ladies’ underwear).
This was my LOI: I needed all the crossers. |
|
| 20 | Teacher’s disapproving expression: nothing right! (5) |
| TUTOR – TUT (disapproving expression) + O + R. | |
| 21 | Talks incessantly as my REM is playing (7) |
| YAMMERS – Anagram [is playing] of AS MY REM. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Doctor grabbed by porter, perhaps for leisurely stroll (5) |
| AMBLE –MB (Doctor) inside [grabbed by] ALE (porter, perhaps). | |
| 2 | RN restart a war with new order that’s issued to police? (6,7) |
| ARREST WARRANT – Anagram [with new order] of RN RESTART A WAR
The awkward ‘RN’ in the clue is a dead giveaway that this is going to be an anagram. |
|
| 3 | Some wassailers, very musical (5) |
| ASSAI – Hidden in [some] wASSAIlers. Assai is the term in music notation for ‘very’, as in allegro assai for ‘very fast’. | |
| 4 | Retaliate for Geneva’s corruption (6) |
| AVENGE – Anagram [corruption] of GENEVA. | |
| 5 | Confined to wager, very small note (7) |
| BETWEEN – BET (wager) + WEE (very small) + N (note).
Confined to = between, as in ‘between you and me’. Also, N for note is so common that it goes in automatically, but where does it come from? |
|
| 6 | Beloved tailor, fantastic member of one’s family (5,8) |
| BLOOD RELATIVE – Anagram [fantastic] of BELOVED TAILOR. | |
| 7 | Old flame blushing, holding Greek letter, died (7) |
| EXPIRED – EX (old flame) + RED (blushing), holding PI (Greek letter). | |
| 11 | Where Hollywood actors may be, spouting leftism (4,3) |
| FILM SET – Anagram [spouting] of LEFTISM. | |
| 12 | Lieutenant in rank finding protection (7) |
| SHELTER – LT (abbreviation for lieutenant) in SHEER (rank, as in ‘rank nonsense’). | |
| 14 | Unctuous sergeant major meeting host (6) |
| SMARMY –SM (abbreviation for sergeant major) + ARMY (host). | |
| 17 | Casually play Street Spirit (5) |
| STRUM – ST (abbreviation for street) + RUM (spirit). | |
| 18 | Teacher initially requests jobs (5) |
| TASKS – First letter [initially] of Teacher + ASKS (requests).
The last four down clues all used basically the same mechanism: abbreviation + synonym. |
|
You’re right – I didn’t notice while I was solving, but I tend to concentrate on solving. This one was not too difficult, but blood relative and arrest warrant were a little tricky, and I just left them until I could see the obvious answer – a good trick if you want to be a speed solver. But my LOI was scatterbrains, where I was trying to use slips until I had all the checkers – and then I biffed it.
Time: 8:09
SCATTERBRAINS was my LOI, too; it and BLOOD RELATIVE took me some time to sort out. 5:12.
What’s it all about, Alfie…?
I’ve noticed something but I doubt it would count as a theme so I look forward to hearing more about what the theme really is. I was going well until SCATTERBRAINS which was my LOI too. Favourite was the disapproving teacher at 20a who would have little time for inane folk who talk incessantly.
Thanks to Alfie and thanks (and well spotted) to Doofenschmirtz
Maybe “theme” is too strong. Perhaps “constraint”, or even “gimmick” would have been better.
In my haste, I forgot to thank you for the blog yesterday. Apologies – as usual, it was informative and entertaining!
Gary
11 minutes, so my target was missed again but only just.
I take the point about INDEED but think that given the enumeration in the clue (6) ‘the IN DEED’ version has to count as wordplay rather than another definition.
I noticed all the A’s and B’s in the first row but that idea didn’t seem to lead anywhere much. Taking the tip about reading the answers on the page rather than the grid I can see the same sort of progression in the two lots of answers but it doesn’t seem much of a theme. I wonder if there’s more? [Doofer’s comment above hadn’t been posted when I wrote this].
Found this tricky and slow. NHO Assai. or Yammers or Easting LOI Miscast
Add me to the list of those finishing with SCATTERBRAINS. Even with all the checkers I stuggled, mostly because I don’t associate being inane with being a scatterbrain. I’ve met lots of very serious scatterbrains. The other big hold up was parsing LARGE – not sure why, all the information is there. All green in 11.
‘Gimmick’ spotted but only after Doofers’ hint to BR!
I also had a MER at ‘inane / SCATTERBRAINS’ but having checked the dictionaries they support it. They don’t all have to be the same I suppose.
Pesky dictionaries setting out what words actually mean…
I thought I was going great guns but was disappointed to find that I had almost strayed into the SCC when my time appeared. I spent a while convincing myself that the obvious LARGE was really the answer to 15a. I was slow with the long answers and I didn’t bother to parse SCATTERBRAINS. There were some intriguing anagrams. A MER at MIScast from me, I had not encountered EASTING before, and I won’t spend time looking for a theme.
Thanks to both. John M.
Gentle going for this top to bottom solve with just LOI SCATTERBRAINS requiring some thought.
I figured there would be a theme seeing as it’s Alfie but nothing jumped out after a brief perusal of first letters etc, so I shall await enlightenment.
Finished in 5.56.
Thanks to Doofers
16mins and I found this ok but it felt a little clumsy overall but I can’t put my finger on exactly why. LARGE my LOI for some reason.
FILM SET my COD because I didn’t see the anagram for a long time.
I think I see the “gimmick”.
Thanks Alfie n Doof.
Doofers, is it okay to pool our thoughts and discoveries about the ‘theme’ now? We’re far enough down the thread that anything below this will not by seen by somebody casually opening the blog, and your intro will alert them to the presence of something extra if they are interested.
17 mins. FOI AMBLE, LOI BLOOD RELATIVE, COD STRUM, DNK ASSAI.
Found the ‘gimmick’ but only after its presence was pointed out above! Looks obvious when you know it’s there. For a while thought there might be a 90s rock theme but Street Spirit was by Radiohead, not REM.
Thanks to Alfie and Doof.
7.00
Nothing much to add. Liked FILM SET
Thanks Alfie and Mr D
All solved in 9 minutes, though with Assai a “cross-my-fingers” entry as I did not know the term. But the wordplay was very clear. Scatterbrains needed the checkers and was my LOI, as for several others; definitely an “enter then try to parse” clue, and much enjoyed when I worked it out. But COD to the Smarmy Sergeant (though I suspect he was only smarmy to those above him, and if anything like sergeants I have known, a terror to those below him).
I spotted the “gimmick”, even saw it as I was doing the puzzle (a very rare occurrence!). Though it is a little harsh to describe it thus I think. “Clever quirk” perhaps?
Many thanks to Doofers for the blog
Cedric
Just could not see BIRDS NEST SOUP , and without it I wasn’t confident enough to enter the unknown ASSAI. So those two held me up at the end for a proper breezeblock finish. (Does anyone else remember the Beano/Dandy drawings of BIRDS NEST SOUP with actual nests floating in it? The memory made me chuckle when the penny dropped.)
I see the “gimmick”, though I think that’s a hard word and would prefer something like “riff”. Setters are like jazz players, I think, and though they have to stick with the beat most of the time every now and then they break off into a free spirited solo, improvising as they go. That’s how I see the themes/tricks/Ninas – jazz solos.
A slow finish in 10:06 for 2K and a Must Do Better Day.
Many thanks Doofers and Alfie.
Templar
Oh yes, I like the jazz analogy, although I don’t know enough to be sure that “riff” is the right term. But I’m going to shamelessly steal that concept in the future, thank you!
Taken to 18 minutes by two main hold-ups. The first was solving 21a, and thinking of the similarity of the answer, YAMMERS, to the nickname of an acquaintance, YABBERS, and typing in the latter instead of the former. That held up the drunken Sergeant Major. My second hold-up was not being able to get SCANTIES out of my head for inclusion in 19a. It fitted well with the 4 checkers I had at the time SxAxxxxxxxIxS, and with the ladies underwear thing. It was only when the middle checkers came that I saw where I should have been headed.
Given the prompt above, I saw the theme / constraint / quirk from Alfie. Thanks both.
I didn’t find this one easy and I didn’t notice a theme. All four of the long ones slowed me down and I parsed my penultimate entry SCATTERBRAINS post solve. My LOI was EASTING. I thought of the word earlier in the solve but I needed all the checkers including the I from ASSAI before I would commit. Both the latter words are unknown to me. 10:45
As usual the ‘theme’ or ‘gimmick’ passed me by and I just concentrated on individual clues. A very good offering from Alfie I thought which hit the mark with me, and I was pleased to be under target at 9.12. Like others my LOI was SCATTERBRAINS, and the only other thing that held me up was biffing BLOOD RELATION for 6dn, not taking the trouble to check the available letters of the anagram. All correct in the end however.
Seeing Alfie as the setter immediately put me in mind of the recently deceased Burt Bacharach. On the tribute to him on the tv news I was staggered how many of the top twenty hits (as many as 57 I think they mentioned) were penned by him. Truly a prodigious talent.
Put me in the tricky club rather than the easy club.
Not on the wavelength, especially seeing as LARGE was my LOI, and I bunged it in with hope rather than expectation – I forgot there are 2 “tips” to waiter…
8:46
Not as easy as it first appeared. FOsI ALABAMA, AMBLE. Biffed BIRDS NEST SOUP and ARREST WARRANT straight away and luckily the crossers fitted. Did know EASTING but had to biff NHO ASSAI.
Slow on BLOOD RELATIVE and vv slow on PDM LOI SCATTERBRAINS.
Liked EXPIRED, TUTOR, SMARMY among others.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
Theme?
This QC felt awkward. I enjoyed it but there was something about it that caused me to think it was, compared to others, a rather clumsy QC. I felt that a couple of the clues were poor.
32:20
DNF due to one wrong answer
3/3
The theme that I spotted is simply that all the across answers and the down answers are in alphabetical order. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, “gimmick” might have been more accurate, while “constraint” might have been kinder.
I didn’t feel that the puzzle was harmed by the setter’s self-imposed rule. However, I’m new enough to blogging these things that I rarely even think about the elegance of a puzzle while writing it up.
If the setter is Alfie (a pseudonym of our editor) there will always be some alphabetical gymnastics in the filling if the grid. As a compiler with my pals Phil and Sawbill of Weekend Quick Cryptics where mine (generally) have a theme or Nina (you can find our crosswords here) I can tell you what our setter has achieved today is no mean feat. Getting all the acrosses to have answers in alphabetical order is one thing, but to have the intersecting downs in alphabetical order at the same time is rather clever to say the least. Thank-you Alfie.
I’m curious about the process of setting a puzzle: does one person come up with the grid, and then someone else produce the clues? It would seem like those two tasks would require very different skills.
Except for crowdsourced puzzles like TfTTs previous “Christmas Turkeys”, no. Setters (I think) like to choose words they already have a clue for or think they can readily come up with a clue for when choosing how to populate the grid (and avoid words that are hard to clue).
As somebody has already asked, is it time now to reveal the ‘theme/gimmick’ for those of us who are too dim to have spotted it despite all the hints?
Thanks in desperation!
(edited) Having just reviewed the grid again I think I have just spotted it but I would still appreciate confirmation!
Your question and my comment revealing what I spotted were almost simultaneous. See a little bit above in the comments. That said, I’m wondering if someone with a bigger brain will point out something more complex than the sorted-ness (is that a word?) of the answers.
If that’s all it is, and it’s certainly more than I spotted without your prompting, Doofers ( for which many thanks) I can’t say I’m impressed. There surely has to be something more to it?
I think you maybe underestimate the difficulty of filling a grid. When I am trying to get words to fit with words I want to include from a theme it generally takes me at least a couple of hours to get a grid that works. Achieving the interlocking double alphabetical orders is quite a feat. If you don’t believe me, then try it yourself.
Point taken, especially as you have a lot of experience of setting puzzles and I have none. I think perhaps my comment was prompted by the fact that Alfie and more generally RR in his other guises has given us so many superb puzzles with Ninas and themes over the years that this one just felt a little flat by comparison.
As ever, I didn’t spot any theme. Found this not so easy, struggling with ASSAI and EASTING (NHO either, guessed) and not familiar with YAMMERS either. SCATTERBRAINS (of course) LOI.
DNF. Couldn’t see SCATTERBRAINS and should have spent more time on the easier FILMSET. Struggled with both of the other long anagrams as well.
ASSAI really is an obscure word.
COD STRUM
I am surprised by all the unhappiness above from many bloggers about ASSAI (very).
Allegro assai, lento assai (very fast, very slow), for example, are so common in music and often form part of the description of a movement in concert programmes, CD booklets, radio 3 programme lists etc. John.
Not unhappy, just ignorant. Will look out for the word in the programme
of the concert I’m going to tonight!
👍😁
Oh, so you are “the listener” Radio 3 announcers talk about. I always wondered…
Doofs
Is that akin to the viewer in Cheltenham as mentioned by Les Dawson in Blankety-Blank?
Biffed assai as playing the right notes in the right order was my maximum possible achievement on the piano. I don’t moan about the music clues as I major on cricket of which there was much chat this week.
All done bar scatterbrains which I’ve never heard though both I and my predictive phone know scatterbrained.
I even remembered army=host. Does anyone know why? J
I think I was echoing Humphrey Lyttleton on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue: “we’ve received a letter from the listener” was the lead-in to many terrible puns.
Host = army is just one definition of ‘host’, most commonly seen in “host of angels”, I think.
Thx. Not everyday parlance But then what is in crosswordland? J
I have Sir Max Hastings to thank for my knowledge of HOST=army, as he uses it in most paragraphs of his wartime histories.
The Lord of Hosts.
PS. Excellent job in spotting the gimmick, I’m worried about my blog next week. I’ve never, ever spotted a Nina.
Or Mrs Trellis from I’ m Sorry I havn’t a Clue!
Ah… see she’s already been mentioned! Oops!
I disagree that ASSAI is obscure, but on the other hand it is quite odd. Literally Assai means Enough, and is related to French assez, enough. But the whole concept of enough is a bit variable. In the musical score it means a lot but in real usage it can mean almost anything from a bit upto MAXIMUM. So, I recognised it as a musical term but had assumed it meant kind of middling. So I removed my MER as soon as I had educated myself a tiny bit in music.
20 mins…
To be honest, I thought I was going to be slower, but managed to pull out 19ac “Scatterbrains” after inserting various women’s undergarments into the checkers (of course, it had to be “bra”).
8ac “Birds Nest Soup” and 6dn “Blood Relative” all took longer than they should. I play the piano, and am familiar with most Italian musical terms, but for some reason I don’t recall “Assai”.
Alas, I didn’t spot the theme.
FOI – 1ac “Alabama”
LOI – 19ac “Scatterbrains”
COD – 19ac “Scatterbrains” – for the amusing surface.
Thanks as usual!
About 7 mins on everything but scatterbrains and then another ten including coffee break on that.
It is hard unless you get scatter for broadcast. I was helped a little by seeing that “in” for at home could only go in one place with all the checkers present, then the last part was going to be trains/brains etc
COD film set.
thanks
On the easier side for me today. 13 minutes. Didn’t know the grid reference but the wordplay was generous, and only knew Assai as a weapon, but again it was pretty obvious what should go in. Liked 5 across. LOI Scatterbrains, but needed the blog to parse it, so thanks Doofers, and setter too of course.
I think the weapon is an “assegai”?
Yes you’re absolutely right. Also Assagai apparently. I had an idea it was some kind of African tribal weapon and having looked it up find it is a hardwood spear, presumably made from the wood of the assegai tree.
Well, the top half went in pretty quickly – the horse’s mouth remained firmly shut for the nho Assai – but the bottom half was a different matter. At the time I blamed a ‘phone call interruption, but I now see others had the same issues. Loi Scatterbrains took me well into the SCC, and nearly out the other side, due to looking at the wrong ‘tip’ as Alfie might say. CoD to the well designed, single service construction of Smarmy, just ahead of Indeed. Invariant
Steady away today. I noticed that the first letters of the first 5 across words in the bottom half spells out FILMS, and 11d is FILM SET. Blood Relatives is a film. ALABAMA is a 2010 TV movie. There is a silent film called ARREST WARRANT. Perhaps there are more. Anyway ALABAMA was my FOI and I also finished with SCATTERBRAIN. 7:31. Thanks Alfie and Doofers.
Found this quite slow going after the first couple and eventually stopped my watch on 27:36 after LOI LARGE. SCATTERBRAINS and SHELTER also held me up (sheer and rank still don’t seem that synonymous to me, although I guess I’ve heard the term ‘rank outsider’ even if ‘rank nonsense’ has escaped me) and I’ve never heard of ASSAI, although I am certainly no musician nor Radio 3’s listener. COD and WOD to SMARMY. Thanks all.
19.50 This was going very well until the last four – FILM SET, SHELTER, LARGE and SCATTERBRAINS – took more than ten minutes.
13:34. EASTING was NHO but solved after ASSAI (remembered from a previous puzzle)went in. Like others SCATTERBRAINS was LOI. The unlikely display of letters presented didn’t look like anything useful until I finally saw scatter=broadcast.
6:24
Very good – I didn’t spot it but clear as day now!
Thanks Alfie and Doofenschmirtz
Scatterbrain is a Radiohead song like Street Spirit (different albums)
Ah Alfie – so I know to look out for some sort of alphabetical theme, but apart from various double letters and the fact that the clues seemed to start with either the same or subsequent letters, I couldn’t see anything. Following the explanation, it would seem that I wasn’t far off after all (unless it’s John D’s film suggestion) but it seems a bit too loose.
At least, apart from the NHO EASTING and ASSAI, there didn’t seem to be too many unusual words to make the theme work. I didn’t parse MISCAST . As others have commented, I thought ‘inane folk’ was a bit of an unfair definition for SCATTERBRAINS – they (we) might be scatty, but it doesn’t make them (us) stupid or pointless! But I take the point the dictionaries back up this definition.
10 minutes, more or less to the dot. FOI Alabama LOI Large COD Bible WOD Scatterbrains
Thanks Alfie and Doofers
I don’t think I’m a SCATTERBRAIN, but I know I’m generally “stupid” (especially after my useless efforts earlier today) and Mrs R often regards me as “pointless”.
A mix of easy and hard I thought. With 5 to go after the allotted hour it was a dnf again.
I thought Indeed was a tough clue especially as I didn’t have the crosser from Between as I searched among crochets, quavers and memos missing entirely n for note and wee for small.
‘sheer’ for ‘rank’ seems a bit of a stretch.
Thanks Alfie and Doofers.
Failed to get 9a easting despite having the crossers, found it tricky.
Very very slow today. Solved in 3 sittings (30 mins or so). In good company with LOI SCATTERBRAINS. Also NHO ASSAI. Spent ages parsing MISCAST – forgot about mi as a note – and slow to see BIRDS NEST SOUP. Liked TUTOR and INDEED. Many thanks Alfie and Doofers. Harder than it seemed at first.
I enjoyed this crossword, and finished in 11:21. LOI and COD was SCATTERBRAINS.
The one clue I did not enjoy was ASSAI. I had never heard of this word, despite having once learnt to play an instrument to grade 8 (failed) and therefore having done music theory to grade 5 (passed).
In my humble opinion, this QC was pitched at just the right level. As usual, any sort of theme passed me by, but there was a mix of the straightforward, the chewy, the quirky and the amusing. I finished in a shade under 20 mins, struggling with SCATTERBRAINS.
FOI – ALABAMA
LOI – see above
PDM – LARGE
COD – SMARMY
Great blog, many thanks!😀
11:22. A good puzzle. No problem with SCATTERBRAINS – I started at the end with BRAS (so frequently encountered in Crosswordland) and took it from there. But I’ve stopped by because I am so much more impressed than others seem to be with the Setter’s alphabetical riff. I’ve never built a crossword. I imagine it must be difficult. Something like this must make it enormously more complex. Hats off to Alfie. Brilliant. And Doofers too for spotting it
I think you make a very fair point K. We’ve had some amazingly well structured themes and ninas in the past, and maybe we’re getting a bit complacent! Adding a theme clearly is another level of compiling – of course there will be some who say it’s an unnecessary complication! (It’s true that I have been known to moan about the more obscure ones 😅)
On edit: having just read John’s comment below about the alphabetical order of clues, I can now see its much more complex than I originally thought.
Alphabetical. Exactly. An alphabetical riff. It may well be an unnecessary complication, yes, but this one still impressed me
😊
For once I did see the theme and think it is pretty good and not looking for anything more. My main problem was not seeing that leftism was an anagram. Miscast went in unparsed. COD to Birds Nest Soup.
Late to this after golf. I needed 18 minutes.
LOI SCATTERBRAINS -like so many before me.
LARGE also held me up.
NHO EASTING and ASSAI.
Very similar to many previous commentators.
I knew there was something going on but didn’t spot it.
Enjoyed the puzzle.
David
A horrible afternoon! Two hours spent trying to sort out some daily social care to help my elderly parents to continue living independently was sandwiched between a traumatic experience with yesterday’s Teazel and a stupid mistake with today’s Alfie.
I gave up on yesterday’s Teazel after 62 minutes of real struggle. I could hardly get started, nothing came easily and I never solved ASHORE or CASSOCK (an intersecting pair). Thoroughly dispiriting!
By comparison, today’s Alfie was a breeze. ALABAMA and BIBLE went straight in and at the quarter-hour mark I had very nearly finished. SCATTERBRAINS and SMARMY (I nearly put SMARtY) blocked my escape from the SCC, but I was very happy to cross the line in just 23 minutes. Alas, my joy lasted but a few minutes as, upon reading Doofers’ blog, I realised I hadn’t gone back to finish working on 16a (MISCAST). I knew MISpArT was probably wrong, but had forgotten to mark it with a question mark, which is my usual method for preventing such errors. I need a beer!
Many thanks to Alfie and Doofers.
Tough day for you, Mr R.
You aren’t alone in finding yesterday’s offering to be very tricky. I did it in snatches over a long day at work. Had I totted up my total time, it would have been longer than it takes a top athlete to run a marathon. ASHORE was a beast of a clue that I only got by a long alphabet trawl.
Bad luck on today. I know from personal experience how frustrating it is to forget to return to check an ‘iffy’ answer.
Chin up Random 😊 Hope you get things sorted out for your parents. Enjoy that beer!
13:18
After a slow start the answers went in pretty quickly with the aid of a few checkers. Struggled with EASTING and LOI ASSAI.
Somewhat tricky but all done and dusted
Some biffing went on!
3/3
Seeing Alfie was the setter, after ALABAMA and BIBLE, I was sure 8A had to start with a C and 9A with a D, especially when they were followed by ELDER and FEWEST. But where did the C come from in 8A? I got a bit bogged down. But I eventually twigged the theme was more subtle than that and finished in a slowish (for me) 6:26. The clever ALABAMA for 1A and BIBLE for 5A left plenty of space for other letters to start down answers that fit the theme of both across and down answers being in alphabetical order (yes I noticed AMBLE ARREST… ASSAI and AVENGE don’t just start with the same letter but are also in alphabetical order, likewise the other words repeating initial letters). Very clever! As for the answers, I had no problem with ASSAI knowing the musical annotation or SCATTERBRAINS. Nice puzzle even without the theme. Thank-you Alfie (especially for the thematic feat) and Doofers.
4:40 earlier today. Should have been looking for a theme once I’d solved the puzzle but forgot to do so. Even then would probably have failed to spot it.
Whatever, I agree with John that imposing this sort of constraint provides a genuine challenge to the setter – ” and why not?” as Barry Norman used to say.
Liked 7 d ” expired” – fascinating surface.
Thanks to setter and blogger
14 A. Overhaul had me stumped. Surely an overhaul refers to the range of the work to be done rather than the care with which it is done? And where does ER come from? Or am I particularly sleepy today?