ACROSS
1 HISTOGRAM His (chap’s) TOGRAM (rev Margot Asquith)
(deliberately left vacant)
9 SUPREMO *(Euro mps)
10 YORKIST Sounds like you’re kissed (bussed)
11 YALTA Y (last letter of away) ALTA (r)
12 BLASPHEME *(lamb sheep)
13 PHARISEE Ins of H (horse) Arise (to get up) in PE (exercise)
14 MAYA Ins of AY (always) in MA (parent)
17 LODE L (line) ODE (poem)
18 CARLISLE Carl (Nielsen, the Danish conductor) Isle (detached place) BTW, Carlisle is a cathedral city; hence defined as “see”
21 CAESAREAN Ins of S Area (southern region) in CAEN (French city) and of course, we know Macduff of Macbeth fame was not born naturally
22 INUIT I (single) NUIT (French for night)
24 DEAD LEG Rev of GEL D(A)ED, from ins of A into Gelded (neutered)
25 COTE D’OR Sounds like “coat door” (paint entrance) Red wine from this French place
26 GODLY G OD(d)LY
27 RETICENCE Ins of ICE (reserve) in *(recent)
DOWN
1 HUSKY Cha of HUSK (the worthless outside of seeds/grain + Y (end of day)
2 SUPPLY AND DEMAND Supply as in supple-ly (flexible)
3 OPERATIC Op (work) ERRATIC minus an R
4 ROOT BEER Ins of BE in Root-er (one shouting)
5 MAYDAY dd May Day is first of May, International Labour Day and of course, the distress signal is Mayday
6 ABRUPT AB (sailer) In of UP (promoted) in RT (right)
7 WHITE MAN’S BURDEN *(semi brand new hut)
8 NOTRE DAME No + ins of RED (revolutionary) in Tame (peaceful)
13 POLICE DOG Ins of Iced (cooled down) in Polo (game) G (good)
15 WAINSCOT *(tonic was) for wall panelling
16 ELLIPTIC Ins of PILL in CITE and the whole thing reversed
19 FAULTY FA (c) ULTY
20 BEGGAR Beggars can’t be choosers…ins of Scotch EGG in BAR
23 TORTE A tortoise is slow but take away “o” & “is” and it becomes TORTE, a rich sweet cake
Times 23,967 – Slow Love is not Sweet
Quite a challenging puzzle which took me slightly more than 30 minutes including time to mull over and digest the wordplay; since I knew I had to blog this. Some of the definitions were tricky but the clues were very Ximenean and fair,
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram
Two tweaks to Uncle Yap’s notes: at 18, Nielsen did conduct (and play the violin) but is now best known as a composer. I can imagine the combination of his forename and the diocese of Carlisle ruffling a few feathers. At 23, it’s “O IS” that has to be removed from the tortoise.
The number of clues solved from the wordplay and working back to the definition was above average for me and cracking them this way often leads to a real sense of achievement when the penny finally drops so I found it an exceptionally satisfying solve.
23 is my COD with 25 running it a close second. The one I liked least was 18 as the wordplay suggests to me Carlsisle rather than Carlisle. The definition here is “See” btw.
Thanks too re my comment on 19. The element of uncertainty was about whether my example worked. I’m sure somebody could have come up with a better one.
19 – what’s the def? Faulty is an adjective. Error is a noun, ‘in error’ is an adverb. Can’t see it.
1a – Who? The only Margot I know is in The Good Life. The only Asquiths I know are the PM and the “Confessions of…” actor.
18 – Who? (again). The only Nielsen I know is the killer (an ex-girlfriend’d mum turned down a date with him). Also see Jack’s comment on Nielsen’s = Carl.
21 – why should I know that MacDuff had a ceasarean birth? Elitist twaddle. The setter could easily have clued this some other way.
7 – so now we’re supposed to know what poems Mr Kipling wrote? Jeez. And how does it fit “colonial duty” anyway? Pah
Rant over, COD 16, elliptic.
I had no idea that Macduff arrived that way either but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the clue.
I don’t mind literary etc obscurities if there is “another way in” to the answer and, furthermore, the reference can at least be understood.
And I now know a useless fact about a Shakespeare play which is consequently stored away for possible pub quiz usage 🙂
Tom B.
Some nice wordplay in there, 16 was a clever construction, but for the surface and making this heathen smile, I’ve got to go for 26 as COD.
I don’t think the Caesarean reference to Shakespeare is that obscure – is it elitist to have to know some Shakespeare? Boris Johnson was talking about Mercutio yesterday in reference to knife crime … OK, perhaps BoJo *is* elitist.
I got White Man’s Burden without knowing it was related to Kipling, just the ‘colonial “duty”‘ meaning.
All in all I thought today’s a standard Times, whereas yesterday’s had cleverer clues in general.
The definition in 19 is not “error”, but “in error”, which equals faulty. I know jackkt has already suggested this, but there was an element of uncertainty in the comment.
There’s far less to complain about today than yesterday, in my view.
However – and perhaps this is a personal thing – I’m not sure Carl Nielsen is quite such fair game. I have to admit the composers, cities, flowers, wines and coinage are not strong points of mine, so I dread them coming up.
I don’t like the past tense (lost) used for the deletion of C, so I wouldn’t defend this as a good clue but that’s a separate issue.
40 mins – 18 was a bit obscure. The only reason I remember Margot Asquith was because of a supposed conversation with Jean Harlow reminding her of the correct pronunciation of her name – “No dear, the “t” is silent, as in “Harlow””. Apocryphal I’m sure, but memorable.