With two 13-letter and two 12-letter anagrams including 1 across and 1 down, you would have been in good shape if you had your anagram hat handy. Sadly, anagrams are my kryptonite. I needed 19:05 to finish this, with large areas staying stubbornly blank for a long time.
My favourite clues of the day are the two on the bottom row: THYME is very neat, and the instruction on how to build DEFEND was brilliantly hidden – at least from me. I also liked the northern chap’s touching line.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (THIS)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Denies bodice ripped in act of insubordination (12) |
| DISOBEDIENCE – (DENIES BODICE)* | |
| 8 | Up, making case in court, not quiet at first? (7) |
| LEADING – As in “She was leading/up in the race”. |
|
| 9 | Some getting easement in shade (5) |
| TINGE – hidden in [some] |
|
| 10 | Slide into swimming pool in hotel, attractive on outside (5) |
| CHUTE – CUTE (attractive), outside H for hotel.
Fortunately I didn’t spend too long trying to justify NICHE as the answer here. |
|
| 11 | Cheers northern chap’s touching line (7) |
| TANGENT – TA (thanks, cheers), N for northern, GENT (chap).
Tangent as in geometry, where it is literally a “touching line”. Nice misdirection: nothing to do with the spoken word. |
|
| 12 | Twitter abandoning core elements? Finish to be widely discussed (5) |
| TREND – T This wasn’t the first definition that came to mind, but I guess if you are “trending on social media”, then you are being “widely discussed”. |
|
| 14 | Hint: it’s a dog (7) |
| POINTER – A double definition. | |
| 15 | Second joint phase rearranged in good order (9) |
| SHIPSHAPE – S for second, then HIP (joint), then (PHASE)*. | |
| 17 | Frequently one feels tense initially (3) |
| OFT – first letters [initially] of O |
|
| 19 | Financial predicament means Starmer must reform, bringing in billions? (13) |
| EMBARRASSMENT – (MEANS STARMER B)* – the B indicated by “bringing in billions”.
Fortunately I remembered that this word has both double-R and double-S. |
|
| 21 | Support ultimately continued use of the loan word (6) |
| DEFEND – Last letters [ultimately] of This was my last one in, taking a good 4 minutes all by itself. I didn’t parse this until just now: it went in unparsed as the only word I could come up with that matched _E_E_D that could mean “support”. |
|
| 22 | Herb, formerly your setter (5) |
| THYME – THY (formerly ‘your’), ME (setter).
Very nice. I’m happy that the answer didn’t actually depend on the setter’s name, since I can’t see that while solving on my phone in the Times app. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Shop’s nice deals set in motion (12) |
| DELICATESSEN – (NICE DEALS SET)* | |
| 2 | Certain about trait regularly noticed in level of achievement (7) |
| STATURE – SURE (certain) containing [about] every other letter [regularly] of T |
|
| 3 | Newlywed losing grand in card game (5) |
| BRIDE – BRIDGE (card game), losing G for grand.
This clue seems a bit backwards to me, but you could say “lose the G in ‘bridge'” and it would be at least comprehensible. |
|
| 4 | Figure — like it a lot (5) |
| DIGIT – DIG IT (like it a lot). | |
| 5 | Sixteen becoming involved, extremely valuable, far-reaching (9) |
| EXTENSIVE – (SIXTEEN)*, then the first and last letters of V |
|
| 6 | Nice ref, not coy, put out sweets? (13) |
| CONFECTIONERY – (NICE REF NOT COY)* | |
| 7 | Annoy noble, taking in septic tank at first (6) |
| PESTER – PEER (noble), including the first letters of S |
|
| 13 | Merit of French tennis shot (7) |
| DESERVE – DE (‘of’, in French), SERVE (tennis shot).
That’s “merit” as a verb. |
|
| 14 | Notice location for the most part north of a road (7) |
| PLACARD – PLAC In a down clue, North and South can mean top and bottom, or above and below, like on a map. |
|
| 16 | Inspire one making bold, unusual, effort at the outset (5) |
| IMBUE – I (one) and then the first letters [at the outset] of M I faintly knew this word, but “inspire” wouldn’t have been my first definition. But, per Oxford Languages: “imbue: inspire or permeate with (a feeling or quality)”. So there you go. |
|
| 18 | Handle difficult IT lessons? Not entirely (5) |
| TITLE – Hidden in [not entirely] |
|
| 20 | Prescribe stage scenery (3) |
| SET – A double definition | |
9:13 a Rare Sub Ten and QTPi. Might have been a PB with just one left but Hurley managed to defend my attempt. Wavelength Synchronicity.
TADAH!
08:09. luckily the big anagrams jumped out at me. those were the easiest bits today. I used to write them all down but since Simon Anthony mentioned just doing them in your head (something I’d not really considered) I’ve done so and on a good day they tend to appear quickly. loved the puzzle.
Just over half on 15 x 15. Even worse than my performance on QC. At my wits end trying to improve and failing miserably. ☹️
. . . I thought the 15×15 was way harder than suggested by the Snitch (75)
Really difficult for me.
I think some of the clues would not have been out of place in the main puzzle – ‘shipshape’ for example.