Not the hardest, but for me, one of the most fun Wednesday puzzles for a while. Quite an eclectic mix of popular culture, classical references and regular chestnuts, but nothing obscure. I (and the setter, presumably) hope you enjoyed it.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics
| Across | |
| 1 | Still presented as fair (4-6) |
| EVEN-HANDED – EVEN = still, HANDED = presented. | |
| 6 | Dad’s time is gone (4) |
| PAST – PA’S = Dad’s, T for time. | |
| 10 | Tasteless, if popular, drink one had (7) |
| INSIPID – IN (popular) SIP (drink) I’D (one had). | |
| 11 | Old race vehicle out of gas rounding port (7) |
| CHARIOT – CHAT (gas, gossip) around RIO (de Janeiro). | |
| 12 | Complete reversal of stage act getting some applause (9) |
| TURNROUND – TURN (stage act) ROUND (of applause). UK spelling; I think it is more often spelt turnaround in the USA. | |
| 13 | Over to the left, drawings by European (5) |
| EXTRA – all reversed (over to the left); ART, X (by) E(uropean). | |
| 14 | Fly close to ground in fighter jet, heading east (5) |
| MIDGE – D (end of ground) inside MIG (Russian plane) E for East. | |
| 15 | Fury after backing pose with Apple gadget (9) |
| TISIPHONE – SIT (pose) reversed then I-PHONE. Tisiphone was one of the mythological Greek goddesses of vengeance, collectively the Furies or Erinyes. If you put in TELEPHONE in a hurry, you shouldn’t be doing The Times crossword. | |
| 17 | Half-heartedly mock lame eccentric touring American city (9) |
| JERUSALEM – JE[E]R = half heartedly mock, (LAME)*, insert US. | |
| 20 | Fool touching gunpowder ingredient (5) |
| NITRE – NIT (fool) RE (touching, about). Potassium nitrate. | |
| 21 | Game official using computers for makeover (5) |
| REFIT – REF (game official), IT. | |
| 23 | Champagne’s outside in case with a single ale, almost heavenly! (9) |
| CELESTIAL – C[hampagn]E, LEST (in case) I, (a single) AL[E] (ale almost). | |
| 25 | Picture five thousand coming in to compete (2,5) |
| TV MOVIE – V (five) M (thousand in Roman) inside TO VIE = to compete. | |
| 26 | Pilot in need of a route from Italy to Qatar finally (7) |
| AVIATOR – A, VIA (Roman road) TO, R (end of Qatar). | |
| 27 | Dodge marshal, overwhelmed by fear, perhaps (4) |
| EARP – hidden, as in Wyatt Earp, of Dodge, Deadwood, Tombstone etc. | |
| 28 | English finish before Scotland ultimately could get started (10) |
| ENGENDERED – ENG[lish], END (finish), ERE (before) D (end of Scotland). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Be unfair to her, maybe, starting a little late (5) |
| EXIST – being unfair to a “her” could be being sexist, so starting late would make it EXIST. It took me a while to stop looking for “be unfair” as the definition. | |
| 2 | Film is something additional after a stroll in the park (4,5) |
| EASY RIDER – EASY (stroll in the park) RIDER (additional clause). I’m not at all a movie fan, but I do remember liking this 1969 Dennis Hopper / Peter Fonda classic, mainly for the great music. | |
| 3 | Priest I envy: he’s awfully prone to overreact? (14) |
| HYPERSENSITIVE – (PRIEST I ENVY HES)*. | |
| 4 | Agreement nothing but false, certainly (2,5) |
| NO DOUBT -NOD (agreement) O (nothing) (BUT)*. | |
| 5 | Disguises knight in green dress every so often (7) |
| ENCODES – ECO (green), insert N for knight, then D r E s S. | |
| 7 | Inclined afterwards to improve — looking tired initially (5) |
| ATILT – initial letters of Afterwards To Improve Looking Tired. | |
| 8 | Meeting with milk producer in balance uneasily cut short (4-1-4) |
| TETE-A-TETE – TEAT (milk producer) inside TEETE[R]. | |
| 9 | Choose lipstick perhaps with care, to cover broken nose (4,2,4,4) |
| MAKE UP ONES MIND – MAKE-UP (lipstick maybe) MIND (care), insert (NOSE)*. | |
| 14 | Girl leading procession millions resolved to jeer at (9) |
| MAJORETTE – M (millions) then (TO JEER AT)*. | |
| 16 | Reveal more appropriate place to shop (9) |
| OUTFITTER – OUT = reveal, FITTER = more appropriate. | |
| 18 | Desk in small room briefly overturned on seabird (7) |
| LECTERN – CEL[L] reversed then TERN a seabird. | |
| 19 | He must keep fighting harmful programs (7) |
| MALWARE – MALE (“he”) with WAR (fighting) inside. | |
| 22 | Strange pair after CD lifted bone (5) |
| FEMUR – RUM = strange, the pair after C D is of course E F, reverse all (“lifted”). | |
| 24 | Right to become centrepiece of easily understood graphic (5) |
| LURID – LUCID exchanges the centrepiece C for R. | |
22:10. Blissfully unaware of the missing clues, US origins and other vexations. Seemed like a fairly bog-standard puzzle to me – in a good way. LOI, by some margin, EXIST.
Never heard of TISIPHONE even though I assumed it was classical reference. As a result I had TISAPHONE as my answer, taking the A from Apple and phone as the gadget. As I use an IPhone, I can only conclude after Piquets rather harsh comment in his blog that I shouldn’t be doing The Times crossword!
I took about 35 minutes to finish all but three, and then a further 20 plus minutes to crawl over he line
7:51. I solve online so the clues were all there and I was unaware of the special status of the puzzle, but I did notice an unusual number of US references as I solved. No problems though.
Took me 35 minutes. Partly because of the missing clues (thanks for putting them up here! I should have looked sooner) Partly because I took much too long to do my last three in, which were CHARIOT ENCODES and LOI EXIST.
But that was a good crossword today I thought if it wasnt for the missing down clues. Probably on the easy side for the experts but just right for me.
Thanks again to setter blogger and commenters 🙂
I was wondering whether the missing down clues were deliberate- a new form of Sunday special puzzle, like an AZED ‘Carte blanche’!
DNF
I’ve “sort of” learned all my muses, graces and furies, just not well enough to know how to spell them all. TESIPHONE.
One error at the one hour mark, but pleased to winkle out the troublesome 5 letter words at the end: EXIST, EXTRA and ATILT. Pink square was for TESIPHONE, where I had set=pose, and knew that it was a Muse/Fury I was missing.
Did not parse LUCID, also looked up LUID as maybe some dialect version for “understood”.
COD EXIST, that two letter definition was nicely hidden
33:22
Didn’t feel as if I was particularly slow today but I am just outside my Snitch target time (84 = 32 mins). Everything parsed OK and didn’t even notice anything American about this. Fine with EARP, even got the Fury without checking it actually existed first.
I always use the print edition so no problems with missing clues. No beefs about the American tilt, which I hardly noticed as such. But i do object to enumerating ‘TV MOVIE’ as ‘2,5’, rather than as ‘1,1,5’. TV most certainly ain’t a two-letter word — it’s an abbreviation. I’ve seen this before in The Times and have never liked it.
It is a two letter abbreviation and most definitely should be rendered as 2 and not 1,1
Great fun, thoroughly enjoyed even though tisiphone, outfitter and LOI engendered had to be ground out.
Same three problems as you, Chris, being LOsI. Had forgotten the Furies (or maybe never knew them), and ENGENDERED had me all flummoxed over the E’s …didn’t know why LURID was correct either, but bunged it in. The wily BE in one down was not seen, and I was distraught to think that Apple had put out yet another new gadget without my knowledge! Otherwise plain sailing, and enjoyed, especially the hidden EARP.
Missing clues all present & correct on the CC website, so no problems in a very straightforward puzzle brought home in an energetic, middle-age-defying 13:54.
24:10
Enjoyable solve.
Thanks, p.
I totally agree with Jack. This was like swimming uphill through treacle. I particularly disliked TV MOVIE, EXIST, and TURNROUND. At least I slew the beast.
FOI PAST
LOI CHARIOT
COD MAJORETTE
TIME 9:26
30:50. Good fun. I was unaware of the missing clues or the American connection. I had more than usual trouble with the parsing. Half a dozen clues with PDMs post-solve from the blog. So, many thanks Piquet. LOIs EXIST and ATILT. I liked the Dodge marshall and the pair after CD
INSIPID was FOI and EXIST brought up the rear. TISIPHONE rang a bell. Fortunately, proof reading revealed typos at JERUUSALM and LECTTRN. 21:03. Thanks setter and Pip.
I agree with our blogger: not the toughest, but very enjoyable. Beaten by a lack of classical education (again). NHO TISIPHONE also a fun DNF.
A glitch-free 29 minutes. Enjoyable puzzle. I liked the chariot and the well-hidden EARP.
I was well behind my normal cohort on this, hitting 33’24”. I expected Snitch to be much higher. Probably just tiredness. I have noticed playing pelmanism with my three year-old, she beats me hands down most times. But occasionally in the morning I get the better of her. The brain definitely slows down as the day progresses. EXIST and TURNROUND took up a good chunk at the end. TURNAROUND is for me a more normal word.
This took me just over 2 hours, but I finished it eventually.
I don’t know enough mythology, so had to look up lists of the Furies to get TISIPHONE.
LOI was ENGENDERED.
An enjoyable slow solve.
Thanks
Could someone parse FEMUR for me?
Already commented in my reply to Chris. Thankfully I solve on paper (the rest of which I chuck immediately) and a month after the regular crowd, so avoided all the hoo-ha around America.