Time: 43 minutes
Music: Strauss, Don Quixote, Karajan/BPO
I rather stumbled through this one, either biffing from the literal or working exclusively from the cryptic. Either way, it was slow going. I am not too sure of the accuracy of some of the definitions, but that’s why the cryptic is there. The early rating in the SNITCH shows that some found this easy, but the first solvers are usually pretty good.
Across | |
1 | Pick scruffy lovelorn Rumpole to inspire court (8) |
PLECTRUM – Anagram of RUMP[o]LE around CT. | |
5 | Stars host introduction to solemn prayer (6) |
ORISON – ORI(S)ON. For a long time, I wondered if arises was some sort of prayer. | |
9 | Finished training after Irish backs, past their best? (8) |
OVERRIPE – OVER + IR backwards + PE. | |
10 | A broadcast outside more costly: help from abroad found? (2,4) |
AU PAIR – A (UP) AIR. | |
12 | Batting ruse team judge to be disrespectful (13) |
INCONSIDERATE – IN + CON + SIDE + RATE, and not an angram of RUSE TEAM JUDGE at all. | |
15 | See about, say, dedicated lines (5) |
ELEGY – EL(EG)Y, with a detailed literal. | |
16 | Belted clothing needed in the middle (9) |
CLOBBERED – CLOBBER + [ne]ED[ed]. | |
17 | Church of England admitting fine English cup’s a drink dispenser (9) |
COFFEEPOT – C OF (F) E + E + POT. | |
19 | Bread roll: start to bake a set (5) |
BAGEL – B[ake} + A + GEL. | |
20 | A hundred troops send mad ambassador to get drink (5,2,6) |
CREME DE MENTHE – C + R.E.M.E. + DEMENT + H.E, a brilliant cryptic with an amusing surface. | |
22 | It keeps one blunder within range (6) |
SIERRA – S(I ERR)A. No comment. | |
23 | Greek division with gunners replicated spirit (8) |
DEMERARA – DEME + RA + RA. Demerara syrup is not actually a spirit, although it may be sold in liquor stores. | |
25 | Ring a power unit withdrawing capital (6) |
OTTAWA – O + A WATT backwardds. | |
26 | Gas is initially escaping your tip within hearing (8) |
ETHYLENE – E[scaping] + THY + sounds like LEAN. A total biff – I didn’t have a clue. |
Down | |
1 | Foresight of French invading region (10) |
PROVIDENCE – PROVI(DE)NCE, a little loose in the definition. | |
2 | Picked up second person’s stock item (3) |
EWE – Sounds like YOU in many, but not all, dialects. | |
3 | Strict rule: radio has to impress Yankee (7) |
TYRANNY – T(Y)RANNY. | |
4 | A foreign assassin went ahead without scruples (12) |
UNPRINCIPLED – UN + PRINCIP + LED. Gavrilo Princip is the assassin you want – I just biffed this one. | |
6 | What can be a sweet Polish horse with a shed outside hotel (7) |
RHUBARB – R(H)UB + AR[a]B. The vegetable can be used to make sweets, but is not a sweet itself, as the clue indicates. | |
7 | The first gag could be what unnerves performer (5,6) |
STAGE FRIGHT – Anagram of THE FIRST GAG. | |
8 | Bore put up contribution to ground rent (4) |
NERD – Backwards hidden in [groun]D REN]t. | |
11 | Mean sub: Connacht’s right wing he hit (5,3,4) |
BELOW THE BELT – BELOW + [connach]T HE BELT. Not a good surface. | |
13 | Peacenik competent for part of term (11) |
COEFFICIENT – C.O. + EFFICIENT, where term has its mathmatical meaning. | |
14 | What mature people pay to import eastern lace? (10) |
ADULTERATE – ADULT (E) RATE, one we’ve seen before. | |
18 | Reported Thamessider’s cultivated fuzz (7) |
EYEBROW – Sounds like ‘IGHBROW. | |
19 | On odd occasions worry with beer manufactured here? (7) |
BREWERY – Anagram of W[o]R[r]Y + BEER. | |
21 | Ducks circle outskirts of small city (4) |
OSLO – O(S[mal]L)O. | |
24 | Put away articles husband left out (3) |
ATE – A + T[h]E. |
Depends on how you define it, but I think RHUBARB ‘can be a sweet’ by itself, eg stewed rhubarb which just has water and sugar added. Yum. I used to eat raw rhubarb as a kid, so I suppose you could also have that as a sweet au naturel if you liked.
Ah, I meant the ginger
I knew ORISON, and had heard of COEFFICIENT though I had no idea of its meaning.
The use of ‘Thamessider’ as a ‘dropping H’ indicator seems a bit dodgy to me. ‘Thameside’ (with one s) means simply ‘beside the Thames’ so could refer to literally anywhere along the river’s course. There is however a development to the east of London known as Thameside (again one s) which is probably the reference the setter intended, but try looking it up and it is not easy to find. I ask myself will anyone far away from London know of it?
Edited at 2021-12-13 07:21 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-12-13 06:45 am (UTC)
But like Hamilton, I slowed on the last lap and crawled to the chequered flag the wrong side of fifty minutes.
LOI 5ac ORISON (a wing and prayer)
COD 4dn UNPRINCIPLED – I knew of PRINCIP and his near- failed attempt on Archduke Ferdinand. The car was a Gräf & Stift ‘Double Phaeton’ carrying engine no. 287.
WOD 16ac CLOBBER(ED)! The gear!
A slightly raised 18dn at 10ac AU PAIR and 8dn NERD.
Edited at 2021-12-13 09:08 am (UTC)
But for me stem ginger is preferred and it works beautifully with ‘powdered’, but it has to be the Jamaican variety. Not with Bird’s custard but Madagascan vanilla ice-cream – svp.
Edited at 2021-12-13 06:57 am (UTC)
FOI: OVERRIPE
LOI: ADULTERATE
CODs UNPRINCIPLED AND ADULTERATE.
The mention of Greek in 23ac has me thinking that, by the time Covid-19 has ceased to be the all-consuming subject it is now, everyone will know the Greek alphabet backwards from the different variants.
After 25 mins pre-brekker I was left raising an eyebrow at my inability to raise Eyebrow.
I was sure the ‘cultivated’ would be ‘grew’. Doh!
Thanks setter and Vinyl.
But nothing was BELOW THE BELT
I was on a gO SLOw
But Princip I did know,
And how DEMERARA was spelt
Edited at 2021-12-13 07:58 am (UTC)
Brands include: El Dorado, Pyrat, Wood’s Navy, Skipper, Lemon Hart, Bristol Black, Uitvlugt, Hamilton etc. Some BG rums were distilled in Port Morant Jamaica.
These overwhelmingly went to The Royal Navy, so has no tradition in the US, where Jamaican and Cuban Rums proliferate. ‘Splice the Main Brace’ – Cuba Libra! Groggy!?
Edited at 2021-12-13 08:33 am (UTC)
Thanks v and setter.
Edited at 2021-12-13 08:29 am (UTC)
I winced a bit at 23ac: we had our office Christmas party last week and one of my colleagues started enthusiastically ordering rum at a certain point, which I don’t think helped me the next day.
I’m another rhubarb fan, and I particularly love it in combination with strawberries. Unfortunately I’m the only person in my family who does so when I used to make strawberry and rhubarb pie nobody would eat it, and I gave up years ago. Perhaps I should give it another try.
Edited at 2021-12-13 08:51 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-12-13 10:27 am (UTC)
I never did parse ETHYLENE, to the extent that now I come to write it up I had to refer back to V’s well-construed solution to remind me how it was done.
Good proper puzzle well blogged.
Thanks Vinyl and setter.
Edited at 2021-12-13 10:37 am (UTC)
Steady solve. This one had a decent level of challenge.
Thanks, v.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
Edited at 2021-12-13 10:47 am (UTC)
COD: STAGE FRIGHT. Nice surface.
Cod stage fright.
I once lost a bet (stake- two pints of bitter) by saying that there was no such thing as the RHUBARB triangle. I suppose that’s what they mean by Lifelong Learning.
Thanks to v and the setter.
Some nice clues (unprincipled, crème de menthe), some clunky clues (below the belt, clobbered), some shoe-ins (Oslo, Ottawa). In my opinion.
Only really slowed down once the last half dozed were reached — solved in this order: TYRANNY, NERD, ORISON (an educated guess once ARISES had been eliminated), ATE (replacing the pencilled EAT), DEMERARA (think the discussion about it being a rum is quite recent), ETHYLENE
Edited at 2021-12-13 03:31 pm (UTC)
It’s high time I stopped lurking. Thanks to all here, the blog is a great resource for those of us learning to solve. Having hung up my scalpel my aim is to solve an error free week. Came v close all of the last 3.
This took about 30 mins with no cheats. Slowed down a little by guessing cafetiere at 17. Though it was quickly obvious that I was wrong.
I forget SA and “it” are interchangeable as sex appeal/it. I understand it when fully spelled out, but where does Tye abbreviation SA live? Is that only in Times Xwords? Where else does that live/did it live?
Also can someone please expand on C.O. as “peacenik”? I can’t see any way to it…
Thanks
On SA = sex appeal, you’ll find it in Collins Dictionary, one of the the prime sources for the Times 15×15 puzzle, It’s available free on-line here: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sa.
I had to unspam your message. I can’t see any reason for it being spammed unless it was that you used the new TfTT cross-reference facility to mention horryd. Best avoid it in future as we managed without it for 11+ years and it really adds nothing to the TfTT experience.
Edited at 2021-12-13 06:06 pm (UTC)
C.O. Makes perfect sense – I know the term, but have never seen it abbreviated before.
FOI AU PAIR
LOI ORISON
COD TYRANNY (which I spelled wrongly, and had trouble with INCONSIDERATE as a result)
TIME 14:45