ACROSS
1 ABDUCT AB (able-bodied seaman, sailor) DUCT (channel)
5 MECHANIC Ins of EC (East Central part of London forming the City where the financial establishments are mostly located) H (hospital) in MANIC (frenzied)
9 CARDINAL dd
10 MODEST MODES (procedures) T (time)
11 HEARTSEASE Cha of HEARTS (Heart of Midlothian Football Club, more commonly known as simply Hearts, are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the West of Edinburgh) EASE (rest)
13 MANX Tichy way to say “Man has the vote (represented by X on the ballot paper)” on the Isle of Man
14 SHOO SOHO (part of London) with middle letters interchanged
15 REMISSNESS RE (about) MISS (what to call schoolmistress) NESS (head)
18 DESCENDANT Ins of END (death) in DESCANT (to me, a new word which can mean top line of hymn)
20 NARK Sounds like NARC (drug agent)
21 CHAV CH (church) AV (Authorized Version which is the King James Bible for many years – nowadays, most churches use the NIV (New International Version) A CHAV is someone, especially a working-class person, who is not well educated, who dresses in designer clothes and wears a lot of gold jewellery but whose appearance shows bad taste (from Macmillan, surprisingly my Chambers does not carry this word)
23 10-lettered answer with 5 checked deliberately omitted
25 GLORIA Ins of I (one) in *(LARGO)
26 BOLIVIAN B (British) OLIVIA (girl) N (number)
28 COMPADRE COME (approach) minus E + PADRE (member of the clergy)
29 BOSOMY Ins of SOM (rev of MO’S, medical officer’S) in BOY (lad)
DOWN
2 Anagram answer deliberately omitted
3 UNDERDO Cha of UNDER (unconscious) DO (party)
4 TAN TrAiNs To bark is to tan leather (Chambers 2)
5 MALTA MAL (rev of LAM, beat) TA (Territorial Army)
6 COMPENSATED Ins of *(PET NAMES) in COD (nonsense)
7 ABDOMEN Ins of B (first letter of bulge) in AD (ADvertisement or notice) O (old) MEN (chaps) What a lovely clue; and so true, too. Easily my COD by a mile
8 IBSEN NESBIT (Edith Nesbit, 1858 – 1924, was an English author and poet whose children’s works were published under the name of E. Nesbit) minus T and reversed for Henrik IBSEN (1828 – 1906) a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet.
12 SPRINGBOARD SPRING (season of growth) BOARD (directors)
16 MOA Ins of O (egg) in MA (old woman) for an extinct bird from New Zealand
17 STRONG-ARM A fielder in the deep will need a strong arm to throw the ball back to the wicket-keeper
19 COVER-UP Ins of OVER (finished) in CUP (sporting competition e.g. FA Cup)
20 NATIVES ALTERNATIVES (other possibilities) minus ALTER (change)
22 HALLO HALLOW (make holy) minus W (wife)
24 CABLE CAB (vehicle) L (learner) E (last letter of dyke)
27 LAB BLAB (let out a secret) minus B, the leading letter
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
I had a wrong answer of ‘mom’ for a while, i.e. M(O)M, where the year MM might be considered a yesteryear. Fortunately, 18 was rather obvious.
The word ‘nark’ is from the Romany for nose, one of the few Romany words to make it into the English language.
HEARTSEASE cropped up in July of this year – 24,893, if memory serves (oh, alright, Google) and a couple of years back in 24,259, both blogged by Tim.
Last in: HALLO
COD 23a.
On the other hand, of course, I couldn’t actually remember that I had seen it before until now, so perhaps I’m just forgetting other stuff to make room for the new information. Now, where did I leave my keys?
The TAN/bark thing was completely new to me.
Another very nice puzzle of moderate difficulty.
Didn’t understand NATIVES until I arrived here, thanks to our blogger for the explanation.
CoD to NATIVE – smooth construction, neat device.
Rattled through this in good style but at the end ran into a serious problem having put BELIZEAN, inventing a new girl’s name in the process. Since 20dn was also hard it took me a little while to unravel!
CHAV is in Chambers 11th edition which says “probably from Romany chavi – a child”!. Also chavette, suggesting CHAV is male only
The Pansy scared me for a moment but fortunately childhood memories of football results being read out on Grandstand came to my rescue, and perhaps an unconscious memory of the last time HEARTSEASE came up.
CHAV doesn’t seem to be in Collins either, which is a little surprising.
Darryl
>Even Tiger Woods wasn’t that dominant.
Maybe not, but John Sykes was.
I could have done with this tomorrow when it’s my turn to blog!
I originally had brake hose at 2 so was looking at _O_O with the definition “part of London” seemingly in the middle of the clue.
FWIW I liked bosomy.
I am a lurker in this forum and very grateful for all the help given by the regular contributors. Please forgive me for taking over Jimbo’s role for one day as the grumpy old man.
I am afraid that making the words mechanic and engineer equivalent is both ignorant and lazy. A mechanic is someone who mends your washing machine (with very useful and valuable skills). An engineer is someone who designs your washing machine (or mobile phone or any piece of tech kit you can think of). They are not the same. I have not checked any dictionaries as I do not care what they say in this instance. The long decline in the UK’s industrial base is, in large part, due to the chattering classes thinking that an engineer is merely capable of mending not of creating. Many ignorant schoolteachers have counselled against bright students going into engineering as it is thought of as somehow second best to science (or even better, the arts).
Rant over.
Chris
If you’ve been lurking for a while you’ll know that I carry a spanner for the inclusion of matters scientific and related disciplines in the Times cryptic. So well said. I was disappointed when I realised that the answer was MECHANIC rather than the name of a famous engineer – I get so tired of all those poets, authors, composers and so on whilst the imbalance is something the Crossword Editor should be ashamed of.
By the way – not so much of the old
I have some sympathy for your view but the reality is that in certain contexts the word “engineer” is used in a sense that is synonymous with “mechanic”. The person who fixes my boiler calls himself a heating engineer. We might think he’s overselling himself but we can’t control what words mean and if enough people think this is what it means, then this is what it means.
Incidentally this meaning is in Collins, so the beef (if beef there be) is with the dictionary not the setter.
I have made this complaint at least three times previously to the Times, with the results we see…
But it does, doesn’t it? Isn’t that the point?
As an engineer myself, I enjoyed working in parts of Europe (Norway, Italy, Holland) that weren’t in the UK (England, Scotland) – continental engineers are held in high esteem. Home in Australia tall-poppy syndrome reigns supreme; I’m happy if anyone elevates themselves to engineers, and I don’t get abused for being pompous.
Rob
As regards to whether an engineer is a mechanic, well, way back when, i did a city and guilds in mechanical engineering, so i’m with the setter on that one.
Stephen.