15:13. I found this quite tricky, but when I came to write up the blog I couldn’t for the life of me see why. The clues are for the most part very simple and elegant. This combination is often the hallmark of a fine puzzle, which is what we have here. Lots of very smooth surfaces which is something of a hallmark of this setter.
The top and bottom rows appear to say ‘a tacticians training rates’, in a gloriously awful manner.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Struck, a Tesla changed course |
| ATTACKED – A, T, TACKED. | |
| 5 | Nutritionist die-casting for an artist |
| TITIAN – |
|
| 9 | Fungi lead to tummy upsets |
| TRUFFLES – T |
|
| 10 | One’s into wine, right, and expensive food |
| CAVIAR – CAV(I)A, R. | |
| 12 | Good person eating little for pudding |
| SWEET – S(WEE)T. | |
| 13 | Listen endlessly to girl’s instrument |
| HARMONICA – HAR |
|
| 14 | Decreasing support for evening dress? |
| IRONING BOARD – CD. ‘Decreasing’ meaning ‘removing creases from’, of course. | |
| 18 | Unexpected warmth in rum maidens distilled |
| INDIAN SUMMER – (IN RUM MAIDENS)*. I learned quite recently that the origin of this term is not the subcontinent as I had always assumed but North America in the late 18th century. | |
| 21 | Youth claims to possess a large sum |
| SALAD DAYS – S(A, L, ADD)AYS. This one originated in Antony and Cleopatra | |
| 23 | Lover of old paintings backing more of the same |
| EXTRA – EX (lover of old), reversal of ART. | |
| 24 | Be excluded from ridicule? Barely! |
| LITTLE – |
|
| 25 | Ecstasy inspired by mint not whipped cream |
| OINTMENT – (MINT NOT)* containing E. | |
| 26 | Air pressure filter |
| STRAIN – triple definition. | |
| 27 | Who won’t appreciate one’s trendy jars? |
| INGRATES – IN, GRATES. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Time to interrupt a trial witness |
| ATTEST – A(T), TEST. | |
| 2 | Rug to go around central columns |
| TOUPEE – TO( |
|
| 3 | Cold air circulating round a festival eatery |
| CAFETERIA – C, reversal (circulating) of AIR containing A FETE. | |
| 4 | Ten sheep all worried about a large predator |
| ELEPHANT SEAL – (TEN SHEEP ALL)* containing A. | |
| 6 | State contribution to Florida holidays |
| IDAHO – contained in ‘Florida holidays’. | |
| 7 | Batting I wrongly claim is hostile |
| INIMICAL – IN, I, (CLAIM)*. | |
| 8 | Home of William and not Amanda |
| NORMANDY – NOR, MANDY. The Conqueror, presumably. | |
| 11 | Schools ignoring current campaign broadcast |
| TRANSMISSION – TRA |
|
| 15 | Yeoman’s drink containing iron and tea mixed |
| BEEFEATER – BEER containing FE, (TEA)*. | |
| 16 | Fried food is only eaten by pros periodically |
| RISSOLES – |
|
| 17 | One admires what the bride said afterwards |
| IDOLATER – I DO, LATER. | |
| 19 | Way soda tastes at first without lime? |
| STREET – S |
|
| 20 | Clubs do something American; something we can’t grasp |
| CACTUS – C, ACT (do something), US. | |
| 22 | Hotel key one carries in Indian territory |
| DELHI – DEL(H), I. | |
23:47
Judging from my time, I found this pretty easy for a Robert Price puzzle, but enjoyable as always. I especially liked 5ac (die-casting) and 8d.
31 minutes for this very enjoyable puzzle. Maybe the easiest ever from this setter, but perfectly crafted.
Don’t think it was the easiest ever, and the last 3 down clues held me up for a while ( must remember that lime can be tree as well as a fruit )but overall, very enjoyable.
Really enjoyed this with some clever and quirky clueing. Like IRONING BOARD and (die)TITIAN. Cream for OINTMENT threw me for a minute before seeing the light. Knew INDIAN SUMMER from an old movie set in New York during a hot summer.
Thanks K and setter.
Delightful puzzle with some lovely misdirection, particularly IRONING BOARD, which I bifd, and then it took some looking to figure out. My COD. Also liked TITIAN and NORMANDY a lot. 10a, being my favourite tipple, was a gimme.
K, having had the clever nina pointed out to me, I can’t help thinking there’s a tongue-in-cheek reference also to the Merchant of Venice in SWEET HARMONI(CA).
Or possibly the classic 1991 house track by Liquid, or even the 1993 song by The Beloved!
Ha, you have the advantage of me there!
15 minutes. Can’t recall seeing the ‘central’=’middle letter’ device before as used in TOUPEE, but straightforward otherwise.
Thanks Robert and keriothe.
FOI Attest
LOI Strain
COD Salad days
My first reaction to this was that it was dodgy, like ‘first division’ to indicate D. But then I reflected that ‘central London’ means ‘the middle of London’, so I think it’s fine.
Indeed. I’m reluctant about “essentially” meaning the same thing, but solvers seem so used to it that most of them don’t question it.
19.42
Another faultless example of a cryptic crossword imho.
Also couldn’t parse STREET (my LOI) but it kind of had to be. Otherwise NORMANDY is the sort of clue that gets me smiling, and IDOLATER was enjoyable as well.
Interesting stuff in the blog. Thanks Keriothe and Robert.
Delightful, but that’s always the case on Sundays. 36 minutes for this very elegant and consistently misleading puzzle, though it was somewhat easier than is the norm. I enjoyed IDOLATER and NORMANDY, too, but my COD would be IRONING BOARD, because just when you have caught on to it you see that there is more coming: not only de-creasing, but it’s for evening a dress. Thank you, Robert, as always.
I gleefully put Paris in as the old lover until crossers forced a re-think. The parts are there (pari is frequently-used Latin for the same, and S is the back end of paintings) but the grammar doesn’t quite justify my haste.
I liked Normandy.
thanks, RP and K
Thanks Robert and keriothe
It must have been on the easy side as it only took 34 minutes, which is about as fast as I can solve these puzzles. Was able to basically work my way down from the top to the bottom without too many hold ups along the way. Have seen that ‘decreasing’ trick enough to spot the IRONING BOARD early on. Learnt that DELHI was a territory as well as a city. Thought that TITIAN was very neat and was my pick of a good bunch.
Finished with STRAIN, INGRATE and CACTUS. Was looking out for the top and bottom ninas – spotted them without them giving any real help with the solve.
Although I found this quite easy, namely I actually got it all out which is rare for me (just forget about timing myself — it can take all week), I was very puzzled by DEL for key in 22down, until I realised it refers to the delete key on a computer keyboard.