I’m a fairly experienced solver but I’ve only done a couple of blog posts here before, back in the mists of 2012, so please do point out any errors or incomplete explanations that I may try to unintentionally smuggle past you. Based on last week, I would rate this at the gentler end of the spectrum, even taking into account the mental energy I expended on swearing courtesy of the exasperating online interface. I’ve included the clues in this post because I personally find it helpful to not have to constantly refer back to the puzzle – definitions are underlined. I will use the comments as a guide as to whether people like this mode of presentation or not. I’m going to be away from my computer between about 10AM and 3PM UK time today but will respond to any questions when I get back. To the answers …
Across
7 Inn with new storage area (4)
BARN – BAR (inn) + N (new). Seeing inn in a clue should make you consider BAR, PUB, or LOCAL, or maybe even PH (public house).
8 For him, active role OK? No! (8)
ONLOOKER – Anagram (active) of “role OK? No“. The wordplay here is doing double duty, as an onlooker would not have an active role. I think some people call this an extended definition clue – it’s not quite an &lit clue (where the entire clue is the definition) because of the “For him” at the beginning.
9 Sailors said to move smoothly (6)
CRUISE – Homophone (said) of crews (sailors). More often than not, sailors in a clue should have you considering AB (able-bodied seaman), RN (Royal Navy), or TAR (colloquial name for a sailor). But not in this case.
10 Sense of taste Dad taking longer than expected to reveal (6)
PALATE – PA (Dad) + LATE (taking longer than expected). “To reveal” is just padding to improve the surface.
11 Drop all the players (4)
CAST – Double definition, the second referring to actors.
12 Plant using fake diamond maybe (8)
SHAMROCK – SHAM (fake) + ROCK (diamond, maybe). Rock is used in the slang sense of a precious stone. The “maybe” is there because a diamond is only one example of a rock – without the “maybe”, this would be a DBE or “definition by example”, one of the more contentious topics in Crosswordland.
15 Fussy editor opposed to interrupting law officer (8)
PEDANTIC – ED (editor) + ANTI (opposed to), all inside (interrupting) PC (law officer, i.e. police constable). A law officer in Crosswordland could also be a DI (detective inspector), a DS (detective sergeant), a DC (detective constable), or even an MP (military policeman) – they can also be MET (Metropolitan Police) collectively.
17 Valhalla’s large room (4)
HALL – Contained within ValHALLa
18 Numerical information (American) shows social position (6)
STATUS – STAT (short for statistic, i.e. numerical information) + US (American)
21 Regretted being without home, broke (6)
RUINED – RUED (regretted) around (without) IN (home, e.g “Is he in?”). The definition could be either in the sense of broken or having no money (even though the surface reading only admits the latter possibility).
22 Agreeable country dweller welcomes Liberal (8)
PLEASANT – PEASANT (county dweller) around (welcomes) L (short for Liberal). L can be clued in umpteen different ways, including pound (from libra in Latin), Latin, lake, learner driver, fifty (Roman numeral), etc.
23 Raffle is big attraction (4)
DRAW – Double definition
Down
1 Rig a race corruptly for coach? (8)
CARRIAGE – Anagram (corruptly) of “Rig a race“
2 Charge country briefly before court (6)
INDICT – INDIA without its end (country briefly) + CT (court)
3 When it’s warmest, we hear, group will follow cricketers (8)
SOMERSET – Homophone (we hear) of summer (When it’s warmest) + SET (group). The definition refers to the common name for Somerset County Cricket Club (and its associated team(s)).
4 Lose balance, beer knocked over (4)
SLIP – Reversal (knocked over) of PILS, a lager
5 Put bird into care of that woman? Bad mistake! (6)
HOWLER – Put OWL (bird) inside (into care of) HER (that woman)
6 The others take it easy (4)
REST – Double definition, one a noun, one a verb
13 Account by clergyman is correct (8)
ACCURATE – AC (account) + CURATE (clergyman)
14 Where there’s many a U-turn – constant messing with sad clue? (3-2-3)
CUL-DE-SAC – C (constant, the speed of light) + anagram (messing with) of “sad clue“. The surface perhaps expresses the frustration of a compiler struggling to hone a clue.
16 Base having been shelled, carrier is off course (6)
ASTRAY – AS (the result of removing the outside (shelling) of base) + TRAY (carrier, e.g. for cups and saucers)
17 Origin of haughty attitude by party in shock arrangement (6)
HAIRDO – Initial letter (origin) of Haughty + AIR (attitude) + DO (party). Seeing party in a clue should make you consider DO – failing that, one of the political parties CON, LAB, or LIB. Similarly, seeing shock in a clue should make you think of hair.
19 Swiss hero bringing order (4)
TELL – Double definition, the first referring to William Tell of crossbow/apple fame
20 Row leads to some peevishness at table (4)
SPAT – Initial letters (leads) of “Some Peevishness At Table”
Very professional blog – but what else were we to expect from the cat man? 🙂
I finished in 15 minutes with everything parsed on paper as I went along. I’ve nothing more to say about the puzzle, but on the blog (since you asked) I would prefer not to see the clues. But if others like them there and you want to continue the practice, might I suggest you put an extra space at the end of each item as I found this quite hard to read?
As a matter of interest, did you type them in manually, copy and paste them one at a time or do you have some means of importing them en bloc? Or (d) none of the above?
Edited at 2014-03-17 07:32 am (UTC)
Re the clues, another option (as suggested by Andy) is to add the appropriate HTML tags such that the clue can be seen only by hovering over the clue number. I will go down this route if this first attempt doesn’t prove popular. In either case, I think the only way to enter the clues is manually (via copy/paste or typing) – I did it via typing. I have noted your comment re finding it hard to read.
By the traditional method I find I can scan through a blog in only a few minutes and understand it all without having to think what’s clue and what’s explanation.
Just under an hour for me. CAST=drop in 11a. seems very loose to me. Maybe I’m missing something?
I really liked SHAMROCK and CRUISE.
Personally neither for nor against the clues being in the post but agree a different format would be required to make it more legible.
Edit: I forgot to mention that the setter’s pseudonym is absent from the web version.
Edited at 2014-03-17 09:18 am (UTC)
I’ve noticed Chambers referred to often here. Is it a preferred dictionary of solvers then?
This may explain why I occasionally perceive definitions to be a bit tenuous. I normally use the Oxford simply because it is conveniently built into my computer. I’ll check out the other dictionaries before asking a question like this again.
Thanks again for your help.
All this could change under the new editor of course.
4¼ minutes for this, so definitely at the easy end of the spectrum.
Edited at 2014-03-17 10:20 am (UTC)
Nevertheless, even with the time spent on going back to fix errors, I was done in under 5 min, with nearly all the acrosses being write-ins.
Found this an odd mix of enjoyable clues (liked HAIRDO and CRUISE) and ones I personally found a bit questionable.
The equation of country dwellers with PEASANTs may cause some consternation amongst the rural squirearchy (not, of itself, necessarily a bad thing – but caused problems for me as a humble solver).
SOMERSET as the solution to the definition “cricketers” also seemed a bit iffy – and I say that (in all modesty) as someone who many years ago actually turned out for the Somerset junior teams. If Somerset equals cricketers, does (e.g.) Norwich equal footballers? Whilst appreciating the answer can be derived from the wordplay quite easily, surely a definition should be, well, somewhat definitive?
Chambers has one definition of PEASANT as “a person who lives in the country”, but I would agree that in general use the word has connotations that country-dwellers might be offended by.
I looked at it at around 9am, by which time they had the right puzzle up (although the setter’s name is still missing even now).
@nick – the Times IT department don’t have any (effective) QA, and UAT (User Acceptance Testing, if anybody was wondering) is done by the paying customers. However, the editor did mention that they agreed to put the software in early as they “couldn’t use the old software”, and this was the only way to get the new puzzle online. So they haven’t written the timer or print option yet then…
Edited at 2014-03-17 04:16 pm (UTC)
But unfortunately this marvellous program is only available to bloggers of the crosswords that are on fifteensquared, so not The Times. However, there are plenty of similar offerings out there.