jackkt et al). Did this on paper in an unremarkable, but pleasingly rational, 11:44. At first I thought it a bit middle-of-the-road for a Friday puzzle, but actually I think this may be because it both (a) uses exactly the same grid as the last one I blogged, and (b) contains a very similar clue to last week’s 1ac at 22dn, and almost the same answer in the same grid location at 24dn! So a nagging sense of familiarity may have done the proverbial, but I don’t think that’s the puzzle itself’s fault.
Good construction, commendably unbiffable definition parts, and a few smile-raising clues (1dn, 5dn, 17dn) make this an overall winner in the eyes of the Friday judge. My clue of the day though goes to the very clever indeed 11ac. Thanks setter!
Oh, by the way, there are still Plans Afoot for more London-based Setters & Bloggers meetups but I’ve been sick as a basenji all month so November has fallen by the wayside. Anyone got any availability/desired dates for December?
Across
1 Plant employees’ outer clothing protected by uniform (6)
SESAME – E{mploye}S’ [“outer clothing”] protected by SAME [uniform]
4 Variety of tips welcomed by female follower of fashion (7)
HIPSTER – (TIPS*) [“variety of…”] welcomed by HER [female]
9 Outstanding all-rounder finally eliminated from water sport (5)
OWING – {r}OWING [water sport, “eliminating” the final letter of {all-rounde}R]
10 Special operations winkling out European killer (3, 6)
RAT POISON – (OP{e}RATIONS*) [“special…”, “winkling out E (European)”]
11 Affecting circulation of the French best seller? (9)
EMOTIONAL – reverse [“circulation of…”] LA NO. 1 TOME.
12 Sea air I discovered east of Australia (5)
OZONE – ONE [I] discovered east (i.e. to the right) of OZ [Australia]
13 Meaning to dismiss Head, causing disagreement (4)
RIFT – {d}RIFT [meaning, “to dismiss Head”, i.e. its first letter]
14 Lack of harmony is issue in waltz, say (10)
DISSONANCE – IS SON [is issue] in DANCE [waltz, say]
18 Type of bread with pickle, good with some water (10)
WHOLEGRAIN – W HOLE G [with | pickle | good] + RAIN [some water]
20 Fish choking nets (4)
HOKI – “netted” by {c}HOKI{ng}
23 Plant, one found near river, secured by stake (5)
BRIAR – I [one] found near R [river], secured by BAR [stake]
24 Wise caterers employed by Southbank theatre will? (9)
PROVIDENT – said caterers will PROVIDE N.T. (the National Theatre, that is)
25 Flower otherwise withers (5,4)
WHITE ROSE – (OTHERWISE*) [“withers”]
26 Writer‘s current book dispatched without back cover (5)
IBSEN – I B SEN{t} [current | book | dispatched “without back cover”]
27 Prepare for attack from English forest, briefly (2, 5)
EN GARDE ENG ARDE{n} [English | forest “briefly”]
28 Vintage red? We will imbibe one mouthful between meals? (6)
CHEWIE CHE [(Guevara), a famous old-time red] + WE imbibing I [one]. A somewhat annoying word for gum, it seems…
Down
1 Screws up protecting small business? No-one’s a winner with this (5, 4)
SCORE DRAW – WARDERS reversed [screws “up”], protecting CO [“small” business]
2 Good number beginning to faint in science fiction film, perhaps (7)
SPIN-OFF – PI NO. F [good | number | “beginning to” F{aint}] in SF [science fiction]
3 Woman heading off big game, stampeding (6)
MAGGIE – ({b}IG GAME*) [“heading off”, “stampeding”]
4 Accommodation no longer available to rent? That’s a pity, on reflection (5)
HOTEL – LET OH [no longer available to rent | that’s a pity], all reversed [“on reflection”]
5 Advocate not supporting single European currency? (8)
PROPOUND – If you are not in favour of the Euro, you are presumably PRO-POUND instead…
6 Old silver coin collection rejected as well: new (7)
TESTOON – reverse of SET [collection “rejected”] + TOO N [as well | new]
7 Stove with burners – all a stockist has (5)
RANGE – double def
8 £5 I’ve spent on line? That’s the limit (8
FRONTIER – F{ive}R [£5, with the “I’ve” spent] ON TIER [line]
15 Fielder finished top (8)
SLIPOVER – SLIP OVER [fielder | finished]
16 Old weapon put in cold storage for life (9)
EXISTENCE – EX [old] + STEN [weapon] stored in ICE [cold]
17 My twice-used letter opener? (4, 4)
DEAR, DEAR – “DEAR” is the first word of many letters; twice over.
19 Thinking old doctor will turn up to fix hip at home (7)
OPINING – O [old] + G.P. reversed [doctor “will turn up”], to fix IN IN [hip | at home]
21 Supervised deliveries? Bless! (7)
OVERSAW – OVERS AW [deliveries | bless!]
22 Polish: spoken European language (6)
FINISH – homophone of FINNISH [“spoken” European language]
23 Former singer and blog writer, oddly (5)
BOWIE – B{l}O{g} W{r}I{t}E{r}, “oddly”. Few were odder than the Thin White Duke. In a good way.
24 Experts on English translation exercise (5)
PROSE – PROS [experts] on E [English]
Edited at 2016-11-26 04:23 pm (UTC)
By ‘sick as a basenji’ do you mean ‘suffering in silence’? Hope you’re feeling better, in any case.
I crawled home in 65 mins.
DNK 20ac HOKI presumably a dancing fish served with Coca Cola up in Tokyo?
FOI 17dn Dear Dear! LOI 28ac CHEWIE dear dear!
I note that 23dn (David) BOWIE appears in the Times Xword so soon – is there a decent time lapse for such tributes?
COD 1dn SCORE DRAW WOD TESTOON
I needed 50 minutes but enjoyed it a lot. LBOI was the unknown TESTOON which also caught me out when it appeared in 2010 as TESTON. Still, the wordplay was clear enough and I worked it out correctly, which is always satusfying. LOI was CHEWIE, again worked out from wordplay. This seems to be new to the Times, but once it was solved I thought I had seen it before.
Edited at 2016-11-25 10:22 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-11-25 04:08 pm (UTC)
Luckily the blog not being there first thing to rescue me allowed me to have another stab just now, during lunch, and I finally worked out the rather nice EMOTIONAL and FRONTIER and the bleedin’-obvious-once-seen PROPOUND as my LOI.
All told, about an hour and ten, but possibly with a lot of background cogitation as I spent the morning moving servers around on t’internets. Personally I rather enjoyed this one, though CHEWIE left me a bit nonplussed…
Which reminds me of a joke for the weekend:
‘Who was that woman I seen you with last night?’
‘You mean, “I saw”?’
‘Okay. Who was that eyesore I seen you with last night?’
Edited at 2016-11-25 01:57 pm (UTC)
horryd
BOWIE was the unwelcome reminder of the day, of course, but can I add a Norwegian blue conundrum. He maybe an ex-Bowie, but since he has undoubtedly joined the Choir Invisible, is he a former singer?
I assumed CHEWIE had to be an Australian version of chewing gum, but was propmted (as V) to add a Wookiee flavour. So here’s the clue in Shyriiwook: “aarrragghuuhw aaahnruh huuguughghg huurh huurh huurh hnnnhrrhhh aaaaahnr uughguughhhghghghhhgh raaaaaahhgh” I feel better now.
Edited at 2016-11-25 08:04 pm (UTC)
FRONTIER was my LOI, mainly because I couldn’t get the “-IER” – “more so” concept out of my head. Clearly, though, a frontier is not more front.
I agree about the COD: EMOTIONAL is quite good, even though I didn’t parse the clue completely right (I didn’t quite see why it would mean “affecting circulation”, but of course it doesn’t, so thank you for explaining how the wordplay works).
Edited at 2016-11-25 07:13 pm (UTC)
Like others, I’d never come across CHEWIE before.
Cracking time from keriothe.
FRONTIER, OVERSAW, CHEWIE and EMOTIONAL were outstanding. Thanks setter and Verlaine.
I was there at the front and held Jehnny’s hand to steady her for her final crowd walk!
After my enquiry a few weeks ago about really experienced solvers being able to deduce the identity of the setters Verlaine gave a most illuminating reply for which I was very grateful – and I see that it has proved a minor theme in some of his blogs since which again I have found most interesting when I have caught them.
But I don’t catch them often enough and I must start dropping in more often!
Yes quite enjoyed this one and thanks to setter and blogger, but I found the day before a much ‘chewier’ challenge (although I haven’t looked at the blog yet so don’t know what anyone else thought).
Just dropped in to pick up Verlaine’s blog for Friday and hoping to see some references to Friday’s Savages gig! But there are none that I can see.
I was there at the front and held Jehnny’s hand to steady her for her final crowd walk!
After my enquiry a few weeks ago about really experienced solvers being able to deduce the identity of the setters Verlaine gave a most illuminating reply for which I was very grateful – and I see that it has proved a minor theme in some of his blogs since which again I have found most interesting when I have caught them.
But I don’t catch them often enough and I must start dropping in more often!
Yes quite enjoyed this one and thanks to setter and blogger, but I found the day before a much ‘chewier’ challenge (although I haven’t looked at the blog yet so don’t know what anyone else thought).