Times 28,037: Horses for Courses

As traditional lately, I did a video of the live solve for this, which can be seen at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1095032043 (starts just before the 22 minute mark).

Certainly a less exquisitely convoluted puzzle than last week’s, with a number of borderline chestnuts. But I did very much like “the right-of-centre putsch against Washington” (22ac very much my COD), and also the “ruler holding on to France”, the “country rejecting centre ground”: a little bit of politics goes a long way, especially when incorporated seamlessly into surfaces like these. Very good work, setter!

Definitions underlined, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.

Across
1 Feed dung, spread by back of bush — its growth could prove fruitful (5,4)
HEDGE FUND – by {bus}H, (FEED DUNG*)
6 Dispatched casually: certainly laid back (5)
OFFED – reverse of DEFFO, a *very* casual way of saying “certainly”
9 A sin to grasp at riches, primarily (7)
AVARICE – A VICE “grasping” A{t} R{iches}, &lit
10 Target of this perhaps bit sailor from behind? (3,4)
RAT TRAP – reversed PART TAR [bit | sailor], semi-&lit
11 Artist to take the air? (5)
DEGAS – or DE-GAS, take away a gas
12 Wet weather during break time is a limitation (9)
RESTRAINT – RAIN during REST T
13 Element of ringtone jangled (8)
NITROGEN – (RINGTONE*)
14 Being responsible, deduct billions from payout (4)
ONUS – {b}ONUS
17 Easily impressed, possibly, by inside track (4)
WAXY – X [= times = by] inside WAY
18 Staff cut laid out (8)
POLEAXED – POLE AXED [staff | cut]
21 Spending money in a new local, getting drunk (9)
ALLOWANCE – (A NEW LOCAL*)
22 Right-of-centre putsch against Washington — sound of America’s extremists? (5)
SCHWA – {put}SCH (everything right of the middle of the word) against WA. The first and last letters of “America” are schwas, that is, unstressed vowels
24 Hide issue with family (7)
KIDSKIN – KIDS with KIN
25 Not stopping with others to accept errand, oddly (7)
ETERNAL – ET AL “accepting” E{r}R{a}N{d}
26 Relationship ends (5)
TERMS – double def
27 Interim ruler holding on to France, mounting a comeback (9)
RESURGENT – REGENT “holding” SUR [on, in French]
Down
1 Difficult, possessing nothing, to save (5)
HOARD – HARD “possessing” 0
2 One often seen lying in doorway is teetotaller? (7,8)
DRAUGHT EXCLUDER – double def with the humorous idea that a “draught excluder” might be one who excludes draught (beer) from the temple of their mouth
3 Discharge key errand (8)
EMISSION – E MISSION [key | errand]
4 Almost indefinite number in university education like money for old rope? (8)
UNEARNED – NEAR N [almost | indefinite number] in U ED
5 Coercion to get you in gear (6)
DURESS – U in DRESS
6 Country rejecting centre ground’s protest (6)
OUTCRY – (COU{n}TRY*)
7 A French ex going crazy with energy, getting ready for holiday? (7,8)
FOREIGN EXCHANGE – (A FRENCH EX GOING*) + E. Ready as in cash
8 Was standing in exercise the wrong way, caught in act (9)
DEPUTISED – reversed SIT-UP in DEED
13 Track emerging trade opportunity (9)
NEWMARKET – double def with NEW MARKET
15 Cold — 0 and below! (8)
LOVELESS – LOVE [0] + LESS [below]
16 Soldiers behave like troopers in jacket and tie? (8)
MENSWEAR – or MEN SWEAR
19 To that extent, holding vigil is stirring (6)
AWAKES – AS “holding” WAKE
20 Where you might find a US MD getting increasingly silly (6)
INANER – or IN AN E(mergency) R(oom)
23 Divide up complete set of Genesis Numbers etc? (5)
ALLOT – or ALL O(ld) T(estament). Shame about the necessary capitalisation of Numbers really

54 comments on “Times 28,037: Horses for Courses”

  1. I got held up at the end since I couldn’t really see why OFFED fitted most of the clue, the DEFFO thing went right past me.

    And I couldn’t convince myself that TERMS meant either ends or relationship, so I thought there might be another possibility (but TORUS, TYRES, and the rest were even less likely). So I put it in and was pleased to see an all-green grid.

  2. I forgot to note my solving time but it was a little past my target, I think, because I had to do an alphabet trawl on my LOI at 26ac. Quite easy for a Friday, not that Friday puzzles are more difficult than any other day of course…

    Edited at 2021-07-23 04:53 am (UTC)

  3. Since I had today off work, I thought I’d stay up to have a crack at the puzzle just after midnight, then watch your Twitch stream live, Verlaine. Very enjoyable – and I even got a mention on the QC!

    5m 57s, with LOVELESS the LOI after I realised it didn’t being CO-. As you say, on the easy side for a Friday.

    1. I haven’t been around here long, but I think that’s the fastest time I’ve seen posted – amazed! (Not least because I doubt whether I could type fast enough to do that, even if I instantly solved every clue).

      Back in my somewhat less high-powered world, I thought I was going to get my first Friday completion since becoming a regular solver – and I was one clue away at around 38m: 15d

      -O-ELESS. After trying every possible CO_ELESS variant, felt my head was about to explode, so I reseorted to a missing-letters solver. 45:50

      1. Thanks! Stick around long enough and you may well see today’s blogger polish one off in about half that time.
  4. 20 mins pre-brekker.
    Some nice touches. Not sure I see why ‘Target of this’=Rat Trap.
    Thanks setter and V.

    Edited at 2021-07-23 06:37 am (UTC)

      1. Ta. Of course. I had forgotten that one of the defining features of rats is that they notoriously bite sailors from behind.
  5. 22′ 14″, with TERMS LOI, still not sure of TERM = end. Only know SCHWA from here, will try to remember what it means.

    Thanks verlaine and setter.

    1. I had no problem with this at the time, but now I can only think of pregnancy.
  6. DNK DRAUGHT EXCLUDER; having the first word, I looked it up. Also DNK ‘deffo’, but inferred it. I had a MER at DEPUTISED, not knowing that it could be intransitive. I liked RESURGENT & LOVELESS.
  7. Zombie vocab is stuff that we know
    But just wouldn’t say, like deffo
    Words like OFFED seldom are
    Used in discourse, and SCHWA
    Wastes neurons i shouldn’t let go
  8. I found much to like today but I agree with Verlaine that SCHWA is the standout. I quite liked DRAUGHT EXCLUDER as well for its deceptive simplicity (at least for me). HEDGE FUND was also good, having me thinking along the lines of fruit trees, even to the point when I had HEDGE and wondered momentarily if there was such thing as a fruit hedge.
  9. 27 minutes with LOI and COD MENSWEAR. Up until that point, the honour was going either to the delicious anagram for HEDGE FUND or the DRAUGHT EXCLUDER, called the sausage in our house back then. I started off like a house on fire but limped home, thinking that I must be missing something with TERMS. But a good puzzle. Thank you V and setter.
  10. Sorry to nit-pick but you seem to have the wrong puzzle number and the wrong date. SNITCH cannot find your ever useful and entertaining blog.
    Dave W
    1. Yes, I’d alluded to the puzzle number in my posting above. The date is probably accounted for by posting US time.
  11. Thank heavens this was not a repeat of last Friday’s tortuous exercise.
    Like others, including johninterred and boltonwanderer, I cannot equate TERMS with relationship.
    Nevertheless, there were some very pleasing clues/solutions:
    UNEARNED, DEGAS, SCHWA and OUTCRY for example; but my COD to WAXY.
  12. A little on the easier side but not too much, enjoyed this one.

    Was not too sure about terms = relationship, but Collins says: “(usually preceded by on) a mutual relationship or standing, eg
    they are on affectionate terms.” .. which seems near enough for me. But then I am easily pleased

    1. Yes, that was how I justified it when solving but is there a context where can they can be substituted without changing other words around them, or doesn’t that matter?

      E.g. They have a good relationship / they are on good terms.

      1. You can get within a single word, eg in/on, of a substitution and that is near enough to make it a fair clue in my opinion. Though as I say, I like to cut setters a little slack where I can and not get too rule-bound. Nobody has said they couldn’t solve the clue, so far anyway..
        1. Thanks. I can’t get over-excited about it but it seemed a little unusual for The Times. Since I took to doing The Guardian puzzle every day I’m having to learn to accept almost any whim the setter may choose to indulge!

          Edited at 2021-07-23 10:16 am (UTC)

  13. Just under the hour, but all done and dusted and a crossword I really enjoyed. Some excellent clues. I loved SCHWA, RESURGENT, DEGAS AND HEDGE FUND. Took a while to see « track » = a venue. Good one. Thanks V and setter. Now to your vid, V….. Always interesting to see how those little grey (supercharged?) cells work!
  14. I was off to a good start in the NW, with HEDGE FUND going straight in, rapidly followed by HOARD and AVARICE. I worked steadily round the grid and slowed considerably when I reached the SW. LOVELESS also held me up and was my POI. NEWMARKET eventually opened up the corner, but I struggled to see TERMS as ends, although I could see the relationship aspect (eg on good terms with) so spent some time trying to find an alternative. I eventually submitted with bated breath, but all was well. 43:12. Thanks setter and V.
  15. 19:08 lingering at the end for a minute or so before deciding I couldn’t find an alternative to TERMS… and I still can’t see why it fits RELATIONSHIP. Probably me being thick, but I see others have the same problem. Thanks V and setter.
    1. I can see the relationship definition as in being on good terms with someone, but I’m struggling to see how it means ends, unless it’s an abbreviation for terminates!
      1. It’s a straight dictionary definition John. In fact the first def in my Chambers app under TERM is “an end”.
    2. Now you mention it, I can see they are connected but not interchangeable I think whereas ‘terms’ and ‘relations’ can be synonymous. But maybe there’s an example that we haven’t thought of.
  16. I absolutely flew through this (currently with the lowest WITCH of the day) with the only real hesitation over my LOI TERMS, and I still don’t really understand the relationship definition.

    DEPUTISED and UNEARNED were biffs.

      1. Thanks, it’s almost unheard of for me to kick Verlaine’s butt. I watched his video to make sure he hadn’t had to answer the door, take a phone call or make a cup of tea mid-solve. He didn’t seem to check for typos before submitting. Is that right V?
  17. 16.08, so quite the easiest of the week, but pleasant.
    I put in TERMS thinking I might have to refer to VAR: I could smudge both definitions but quite expected there to be another, blindingly obvious version.
    SCHWA was fun — a word I learned studying Hebrew — though I initially believed the setter had pulled of the impressive feat of left of centre letters from a succession of words. SNGNI fortunately didn’t fit.
    My last in was OUTCRY, confused by which letters to grind: could OPTERS mean country somehow? Connected to the Grand Ole Opry?
    The “getting sillier” INANER managed to tickle most, but as V says there were some very fine clues/surfaces mixed in with some more trivial offerings.
  18. Slightly disappointed to see that you don’t actually resemble James Delaney in ‘Taboo’, more like Robert Peston’s better looking brother but with ten times his thinking speed.
  19. Nice and quick, in fact too quick because I binged in RESURRECT without thinking hard enough about it.. another MER about TERMS.
  20. Very slow, over an hour and a quarter but finally made it home safe and sound. Held up by KIDSKIN which for no good reason I’d never come across before, NEWMARKET for which I was looking for a partial anagram and DRAUGHT EXCLUDER which I also just know as a door sausage.

    I’ll go with others in liking SCHWA and thought WAXY was a good example of an easy four letter answer which isn’t so easy after all.

    Thanks to Verlaine and setter

    1. These days they mostly just call it goatskin, as advertising the murder of baby goats is no longer such a successful marketing strategy ..
  21. 11:47. Nice one. SCHWA the standout as already noted. It’s a term that comes up here in discussions of homophones: people often seem to object to them based on spelling when the relevant vowel is pronounced as a SCHWA.
  22. I saw it as going together: relationship-terms in the sense of the terms of an (e.g. business) relationship. Took me a long time to decide it, mind!

    Peter Giles

  23. Coo, nothing like last week’s. The only trouble was what I made for myself by thinking it was going to be “rat bait” in 10a. Interesting juxtaposition of HEDGE FUND, AVARICE and UNEARNED. Good puzzle. 20.03
  24. Having really struggled with yesterday’s puzzle, I wasn’t expecting to get too far today given the similar Snitch. I surprised myself, by finishing in an hour (and a number of those smaller units that I don’t need to use very often) with loi a finger crossed Terms. Lots to enjoy, including Draught Excluder, Rat Trap and Newmarket, but my favourite was 4d, Unearned. Did anyone else consider Hopeless for 15d, based on playing hot and cold? Invariant
  25. ….I had very few difficulties. A fine puzzle that was right up my street.

    FOI NITROGEN
    LOI TERMS
    COD DEGAS
    TIME 7:13

    1. Congratulations! I, by contrast, had loads of problems but satisfactorily resolved most of them in a lazy afternoon solve. I was particularly pleased to get SCHWA but ended up coming here for MENSWEAR (easy now) and TERMS – couldn’t see it even with all the checkers, been printing the 15x15s and working through and am happy to have caught up, still travelling around so will get behind again. Always good to have something with me to keep me entertained.
  26. I was dreadfully slow on two obvious anagrams — “Nitrogen” and “Allowance” — couldn’t see the wood for the trees today. Pretty slow in general but got there in the end. Never heard of “Schwa” before but it was clear enough.
    Good puzzle. Thanks.
  27. An hour and a quarter, so I found it quite hard, but it also took me ages to solve easy clues like ALLOWANCE. COD to SCHWA — very rare that extremes in the crossword sense are taken to be phonemes!
  28. 27.58. A steady solve. I took a long time over inaner and allowance which I believed was going to be allocated or some such. Loveless was a lengthy alpha-trawl which I began at the end furthest from the V that I was looking for. Hedge Fund, Hoard, Unearned, Avarice all crossing, wonder if the setter is trying to tell us something…Hmm. Initial letters of the first five across solutions are H O A R D. Probably just a coincidence though.

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