Time taken: 13:12. Most of this went in pretty quickly, but there was some head scratching over the last five or so, particularly the crossing of 13 across and 5 down, which were my last in. Given my form this last week or so I was surprised to see that I had everything correct, I’ve had a run of typos and just didn’t get its (missed LIMA yesterday).
In my adopted country Thursday is Thanksgiving, so I hope my American friends have a wonderful day and eat and drink lots. With this blog, I enter my 13th year of contributing every other Thursday to Times for the Times, so thanks as always to our fearless leaders and the other volunteers for providing a fun home for these solutions and chit-chats.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | On appeal, this could prove tedious (10) |
| REPETITION – RE(on), PETITION(appeal) | |
| 6 | Get front of Turkish rug (4) |
| TWIG – first letter in Turkish, then WIG(rug) | |
| 9 | Ray in student group returning smile (7) |
| SUNBEAM – NUS(National Union of Students) reversed, then BEAM(smile) | |
| 10 | Abridged great book, for example (7) |
| EPITOME – remove the last letter of EPIC(great), then TOME(book) | |
| 12 | Strip protection from team without right back (5) |
| UNARM – the team is MAN U, reverse it and insert R(right) | |
| 13 | Area cultivated is doubled, part for farmers (9) |
| APIARISTS – A(area) then an anagram of IS,IS,PART | |
| 14 | Swimmers after water sport gathering in training place (9,6) |
| FINISHING SCHOOL – SCHOOL(of fish, swimmers) after FISHING(water sport) containing IN | |
| 17 | Warmer kind of blue and white escort’s coat (8,7) |
| ELECTRIC BLANKET – ELECTRIC blue then BLANK(white) and the outer letters in EscorT | |
| 20 | Chat about small sources of illumination (9) |
| GASLIGHTS – GAS(chat) surrounding SLIGHT(small) | |
| 21 | Note monarch from the east is no lone wolf (5) |
| MIXER – MI(musical note) then REX(monarch) reversed | |
| 23 | Leaders of town hall are supposed to provide idea (7) |
| THOUGHT – first letters of Town and Hall then OUGHT(are supposed to) | |
| 24 | Involve relative wearing green the wrong way (7) |
| EMBROIL – BRO(brother, relative) inside LIME(green) reversed | |
| 25 | Somewhat nearer a reddish pink? (4) |
| RARE – hidden inside neareR A REddish | |
| 26 | A drug man, roughly, with tips for remedy? (10) |
| APOTHECARY – excellent all-in-one clue. A, then POT(drug), HE(man), CA(roughly) and the outside letters of RemedY | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cabinetmaker’s action — one that ensures new deal? (9) |
| RESHUFFLE – double definition, the first referring to the maker of a parliamentary cabinet | |
| 2 | Letters from Nepali centrally displaying Chinese symbol (5) |
| PANDA – in the middle of Nepal you will find P AND A | |
| 3 | Corps of soldiers love my job getting harder, permanently (13) |
| THERMOSETTING – THE RM(corps of soldiers), O(love), SETTING(the job of the writer of the crossword) | |
| 4 | Drums, monkey stopping to beat one (7) |
| TIMPANI – IMP(monkey) inside TAN(beat), I(one). TIMPANI is the plural, the rarely-used TIMPANO is the singular | |
| 5 | Round figure doctor holds up in window, perhaps (7) |
| OPENING – O(round) then NINE(figure) inside GP(doctor) all reversed | |
| 7 | Club, very familiar music venue (9) |
| WOODSTOCK – WOOD(golf club), then STOCK(very familiar) | |
| 8 | Company hasn’t time to make suppositions (5) |
| GUESS – GUESTS(company) missing T(time) | |
| 11 | Doomed liberal America almost past saving (13) |
|
IRRECLAIMABLE – anagram of LIBERAL,AMERIC |
|
| 15 | King follows his noble, barking Great Dane (5,4) |
| NIELS BOHR – R(king) after an anagram of HIS,NOBLE for the Danish physicist | |
| 16 | Departed before improvement from one side? (9) |
| LATERALLY – LATE(dead, departed) then RALLY(improvement) | |
| 18 | This person’s appealing on record for revered architect (7) |
| IMHOTEP – I’M(this person), HOT(appealing), EP(record) for the designer of pyramids | |
| 19 | Least idle, yet nap endlessly (7) |
| BUSIEST – remove the last letters from BUT(yet) and SIESTA(nap) | |
| 20 | Gold piece comes first for Florida resident, say (5) |
| GATOR – OR(gold) with GAT(piece, gun) first. There are lots of alligators in Florida, but because of the mascot of the University of Florida, inhabitants of the state are also referred to as GATORS | |
| 22 | African‘s vote — I’m surprised about it (5) |
| XHOSA – X(vote) then OH(I’m surprised) reversed, SA(sex appeal, it) | |
Didn’t parse TIMPANI though it was my second in.
As to the puzzle, a very enjoyable 32 minutes. I was diluted to see NIELS BOHR putting in an appearance (once I’d figured out that the other Great Dane, Victor Borge, wouldn’t fit). He’s one of a handful of key physicists who survived their universe being completely changed twice (once by relativity, and then again by quantum mechanics). He was also, apparently, a great goalkeeper, and a dab hand on the ukulele*.
I also appreciated THERMOSETTING, which is the counterpart of the possibly more familiar “thermoplastic”. Thermoplastic things go gooey when heated (and can hence often be recycled, like cheese), whereas THERMOSETTING things are liquids that set hard when heated (and hence often can’t, like pancake batter).
APIARISTS was a nice clue, and brought to mind an image of a Stetson-wearing figure saying “Yup, we run a couple o’hundred thousand head of bee on this ranch”.
But I see that I am rambling, possibly as a result of a recent concussion which kept me out of circulation for a short time. One of the annoying things about falling off a roof (don’t ask!) and concussing oneself is that you can’t remember the actual falling-off bit. It therefore leaves open the question of whether you (a) passed out as a result of falling off a roof, which is entirely reasonable and understandable or (b) fell off the roof as a result of passing out, which requires endless bloody investigation.
(*That last statement was entirely made up, of course.)