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 | |
Stinking cold and couldn’t sleep but on the plus side this resulted in having the time to complete the puzzle in one go on day of publication (a rarity these days) and at a super quick time for me (25:26).
I was a bit slow. I saw disobedience and embarrassment immediately from the anagram letters, but I needed crossers for delicatessen and confectionery. It’s the vowels that always get me in these long words, but the key vowels were checked. I also had to think about defend, but eventually I got it from the cryptic.
Time: 7:44
Decent puzzle, this, with DEFEND, as Doofers says, a little jewel of a clue, and bringing up the rear for me too. 8:54
5:47
I biffed the four long anagrams, never bothered to check. ‘Ultimately’ is frequently used to indicate final letters (as ‘initially’ is for initial letters), so I should have been quicker to get DEFEND. I suspect ‘ripped’ hasn’t been used as anagrind before, but I can see how the setter couldn’t resist; 1ac a lovely surface.
9 minutes marks a return to form after yesterday’s DNF when I gave up on JAVA. The parsing of DEFEND was the last hurdle here but the answer came easily enough with all the checkers in place.
I had also looked twice at the parsing of EMBARRASSMENT where strictly speaking B (billions) is not part of the anagrist but an enclosure indicated by ‘bringing in’.
9.21. DEFEND was also my LOI, nice clue. Thank you Hurley and the Doof.
Surprised to see a pink square – but deserved. Had ‘eight’ for figure but invented my own homophone requirement to make ‘ate’ mean “like it a lot”. –G-T was too much for me to resist. Then didn’t notice when DISOBEDIENCE changed the starting letter to D. Add me to the list of those that ended with DEFEND – nice to have a clue at the bottom left at the end for a change! Not all green in a shade under 10,
8:16
I didn’t have much in the bottom half for a while, and needed SHIPSHAPE to come up with each of 13d, 14d and 16d. Same as others on this blog, finally left with DEFEND – had pencilled in LEGEND for a short while (LEG = support) but obvs couldn’t justify it. Eventually spotted the trick…
Thanks Doofers and Hurley
With 1A and 1D both very long anagrams I looked elsewhere to start this puzzle and that resulted in a bitty solve, jumping all over the grid. I didn’t get the definition of TREND, but otherwise all solved and parsed eventually. Like several others DEFEND was my LOI – it was slow to come and pushed me out to a 10:47 solve.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
I had one of those days where everything clicked. The 1s went straight in and everything else followed at a gallop before finishing with DEFEND in 4.54.
Thanks to Doofers and Hurley
Started solving at the bottom, then realised the anagrams were not that difficult so went back to the top and finished fairly quickly.
Liked SHIPSHAPE, THYME, TANGENT. DIG IT kinda 50s or 60s speak.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
Enjoyable. I was very quick…until I wasn’t. 13:38.
Pi ❤️
As usual, exactly the same experience as Plett; also as usual, a little slower than him. 05:02 for an Excellent Day.
Other notes. I was lucky that the E in CONFECTIONERY was checked or I’d have had a DPS – I’d have given you any money that it ended ARY. DEFEND also LOI and COD for me; took a wee while to spot! 1a a cracking surface.
18:33 – not a bad time at all for me to finish this well pitched puzzle. Biffed DEFEND, not seeing it was the last letters. My LOI was POINTER, not being a doggy person.