The cluing is impressively concise and there are some nice misleading touches in the wordplay, but with more than a few borderline chestnuts this did feel like an expanded QC at points. Nothing wrong with that of course, they’re all quality Times Crosswords, Monday or Friday, big or small. COD to the excellent anagram and smooth surface at 5dn, and many thanks to the setter!
1 Flying stunt cut — nothing in it (4)
LOOP – LOP, O in it
4 British soldiers began without resolution, going west (6,4)
DESERT RATS – STARTED without RES, read from right to left
9 Withdrawal of touching drawing (10)
RETRACTION – RE TRACTION [touching | drawing]
10 Almost broke cover (4)
SKIN – SKIN{t}
11 One refusing to acknowledge some yarn (6)
DENIER – double def
Denier is “a unit of weight by which the fineness of silk, rayon, or nylon yarn is measured, equal to the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of the yarn and often used to describe the thickness of hosiery”
12 Present Queen holds a view that’s disguised (8)
GIVEAWAY – GAY [queen] holds (A VIEW*) [“that’s disguised”].
A rare sighting of a “queen” in a crossword that doesn’t clue ER, R or QU.
14 Rough projection of Conservative newspaper (4)
CRAG – C RAG [Conservative | newspaper]
15 Merchant to supply white wine (10)
MONTRACHET – (MERCHANT TO*) [“supply”]. This is supply as in “in a supple way”, a sometimes-seen anagram indicator that is probably one of the cleverest. Much classier than “pants”, too.
17 Rogues copy Hitchcock character (10)
REPROBATES – REPRO BATES [copy | Hitchcock character]. The unimpeachably filial Norman Bates from Psycho.
20 Busy with leader of party out for change (2,2)
UP TO – (P{arty} OUT*) [“for charge”]
21 Some trust a gnat eventually to stop moving (8)
STAGNATE – hidden in {tru}ST A GNAT E{ventually}
23 Detain working student (6)
INTERN – double def
24 Nag man to adopt a change of direction (4)
MARE – MA{l->R}E. Left becomes right; nag as in a horse, not to pester.
25 Depressed on holiday, son collapses (10)
BREAKDOWNS – DOWN on BREAK + S
26 Helper overcoming fear finds machine taking money (4,6)
CARD READER – CARER overcoming DREAD
27 They may have it after motion, one’s recollected (4)
NOES – (ONE’S*) [“recollected”]
DOWN
2 Excessively serious English composer’s appearing in public (11)
OVEREARNEST – E ARNE’S appearing in OVERT. Thomas Arne, 1710-1778, best known for a little number called Rule Britannia.
3 One calling to support unfinished harbour vessel (9)
PORRINGER – RINGER to support POR{t}
4 Good form last month nothing unusual (7)
DECORUM – DEC O RUM [last month | nothing | unusual]
5 Avoiding work whilst engaged in plays (8,3,4)
SWINGING THE LEAD – (WHILST ENGAGED IN*) [“plays”]
6 Exceed time limit for survey (3,4)
RUN OVER – double def
7 Not straight like part of SW London (5)
ASKEW – AS KEW, home of the famous gardens
8 Cheerful address to a lad overheard (5)
SUNNY – homophone of SONNY
13 Stripper bringing wrong tone into a country house (5,6)
AGENT ORANGE – bringing (TONE*) [“wrong”] into A GRANGE
16 Noble not up for launch preparation (9)
COUNTDOWN – COUNT DOWN [noble | not up]
18 Walk by brother to gather berries (7)
BRAMBLE – AMBLE by BR
19 Second fiddle is one making a hum (7)
STINKER – S TINKER. Hum as in pong.
21 Small tree French writer’s climbed (5)
SUMAC – CAMUS from bottom to top.
22 Drying equipment is lighter after top’s removed (5)
AIRER – {f}AIRER
Never knew that about denier. OED says “The unit is based on a length of 450 metres of yarn weighing 0·05 gramme” .. some pretty fine measuring equipment needed
I wondered about GAY and “Queen” too. Maybe it’s a bit derogatory—because presumptuous, so seemingly intended to be offensive—only if you don’t consider it merely a definition by example (all “queens” in that sense may be gay, but all gays are not queens).
Edited at 2018-07-20 07:21 am (UTC)
I had a slight frisson over gay/queen, not because I have any objection, but because in today’s minefield of personal orientations someone will inevitably find it offensive, rather analogous to non Jews telling Jewish jokes. In Crosswordland, we are used to words being interchangeable just because they are, ignoring potential baggage.
At least, for once, Queen didn’t clue ER – or is their something we should know?
I solved SWINGING THE LEAD without initially noticing the anagram, analogous to taking a starring role. Don’t see why not. Unless, of course someone objects, in which case I meant to say “do see why not”. I hope that’s clear.
This must have the record for the two shortest anagrams: P,out and one’s.
Mostly I liked: ‘touching drawing’, Stripper and COD to Repro-Bates.
Thanks setter and V.
Started well with 1a LOOP but then slowed down, dotting around hither and thither to finish in 45 minutes, with fingers crossed for the unknown wine as LOI, which could have been MANTROCHET, for all I knew.
As with “rack” for “chest”, which has come up elsewhere recently, I think “queen” for a particular type of gay man is something I would hesitate to use unless I knew the company I was in would understand that it was meant with affection rather than malice. Seems a bit unusual for a weekday puzzle.
For once the couple of clues I set aside for later resolved themselves immediately on second reading and there were no unknowns. I have heard of MONTRACHET even if I can’t afford it.
Mr Mayer’s in the DT Toughie slot today. I suspect he will be less forgiving…
Edited at 2018-07-20 07:12 am (UTC)
*It’s not.
The crossword? Not as easy as most, held up by unknowns montrachet, porringer (looking for a proper name or a harbour eg Perth), the gather meaning of bramble, and the known but unexpected agent orange.
COD to 5d, nice anagram, not noticed till half written in. Agree with others re ‘queen’. Hmmm, maybe clue ‘straight’ as ‘lothario’ or ‘roué’……
21′ 30” thanks verlaine and setter.
COD to SWINGING THE LEAD which I biffed early on and thought that THE LEAD probably came from ‘engaged in plays’, i.e. the lead role. Now I see it was an anagram I’m much impressed by it.
I dare you Sir!
Should the occasion present itself, avoid the mispronunciation (‘mon’ then ‘Trachet’) encountered from Brits abroad. It is ‘mont’ (‘hill’ silent ‘t’) + ‘rachet’ (‘bald’ in old lingo): mon rash eh.
Now about £600 a bottle retail, four times this in most restaurants, for the vineyard-specific Le Montrachet. Other wines from the general area (puligny-montrachet or chassagne-montrachet) offer some of the fun at reduced prices (starting at £40 retail).
Thanks to setter and blogger alike, and a good weekend to all and one.
FOI RETRACTION
Biffed SWINGING THE LEAD, but spotted the anagrind after finishing. Also biffed LOI MARE, where I spotted that “nag = horse” but couldn’t break a fairly straightforward surface (thanks V).
Did anybody else try to make an anagram from “detain” ? Whilst I dismissed it quickly, it was a nice deception by the compiler.
Unpleasant it may be, but COD AGENT ORANGE. Sensitivity was never one of my many failings !
Looking back, several of these should have come quicker than they did – DECORUM, COUNTDOWN, NOES etc. – so I can see why others found it fairly easy.
I’ll join the usual complaints about anagrams for foreign words – particularly, as a teetotaller, foreign wines! – but fortunately I guessed right on MONTRACHET.
Foreign wines! Unoxymoronic – whatever that may be. Wine has been a foreign concept to the Brits – which is why I am a staunch Remainer. Since I was in short pants I have only once been TT, for half a day – there were tears by bedtime!
As for this Friday offering I must agree with Mr. Mauefw and found it fairly tough – I was rudely interrupted after 26 mins. and I struggled over the line just over 15 minutes later.
FOI 1ac LOOP
LOI 11ac DENIER
COD 13dn AGENT ORANGE (hard work)
WOD 15ac MONTRACHET – darlink, where’s the bottle opener?
Foreign words as anagrams do appear to upset folks –
EX-BRIT
Edited at 2018-07-20 12:13 pm (UTC)
Clever things and nice surfaces, of which the one for REPROBATES was my favourite.
I’ll defend risqué clues (I did so on Sunday) where there’s some wit on show and it’s no more than a bit dodgy, but gay (as a noun) / queen (described without qualification as offensive in some dictionaries) is just incredibly gauche. Strange, unsettling choice in an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
Easy again, of course — though for the benefit of anon who had a pop at me yesterday, I’ll add “relative to other Times puzzles!”
I like AGENT ORANGE once I’d twigged what kind of stripper we were looking at, I was in nightclub mode at first.
PORRINGER was a guess from wordplay once I’d written in RINGER. The rest was clear enough.
Edited at 2018-07-20 04:59 pm (UTC)
R
Obviously I don’t regard MONTRACHET as remotely obscure. I’m a regular drinker of the Puligny- and Chassagne- varieties and I own a few bottles of the real deal, but given what’s been happening to prices in the last few years I will probably end up selling them.