Barring one or two pieces of tricky vocabulary, this is all very straightforward. So much so, that I was disappointed with my time of 16 minutes. Not often will you hear me say that.
I expect PBs from not a few…
| Across | |
| 1 | Reportedly regret dig in simulated chatter on stage (7) |
| RHUBARB – sounds like’rue’ BARB (dig/ negative comment) | |
| 5 | Employed regularly at first in Surrey town (7) |
| WORKING -R[egularly] in WOKING; a nondescript railway town in Surrey put on the map by a pizza allegedly ordered by Andrew Windsor | |
| 9 | Disloyal ultimately thus to amend promissory notes (9) |
| SEDITIOUS – [thu]s EDIT IOUS; very difficult to avoid being jailed for this in Hong Kong these days if you disagree with the views of the unelected oligarchs on either side of the border (oops!) boundary | |
| 10 | Dull, but finally played minster organ (5) |
| DREAR -[playe]D [ministe]R EAR | |
| 11 | Exotic inn accommodating artist in Lambeth Palace area (5) |
| SERAI – RA in SEI; I guess a country pub in England would be exotic to someone from the middle-east, if they were just popping in for an orange juice | |
| 12 | Frantic burst of speed leading to charge (9) |
| DESPERATE – anagram* of SPEED RATE (charge – noun) | |
| 14 | See way lessee keeps place for crown representative (4,10) |
| LORD LIEUTENANT – LIEU (place) in LO (see) RD (way) TENANT (lessee) | |
| 17 | Eccentric English poet, he, transfixed by Irish county (14) |
| CAMBRIDGESHIRE – CAM (eccentric in a mechanical sense) [Robert] BRIDGES IR (IRrish) in HE | |
| 21 | Defame prudent woman hiding second pill (9) |
| DISCREDIT – DISCREET with the second E (pill as in ecstasy) replaced by DI | |
| 23 | Bid dyke-builder talked of (5) |
| OFFER – sounds like Offa, who only did one thing in his life, but what a thing! | |
| 24 | Stoneworker’s mother’s old name (5) |
| MASON – MA’S O N | |
| 25 | He scores one, oddly, but she succeeds jointly (9) |
| COHEIRESS – HE SCORES I* | |
| 26 | Spoilt daughters left in school (7) |
| CODDLED – DD L in COED | |
| 27 | Customer outside entrance to shop, a jocular type (7) |
| PUNSTER – S[hop] in PUNTER | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Oppose others touring islands (6) |
| RESIST – IS in REST; when I was studying at that hothouse of radicalism that is Lancaster Univerity, I took a Language & Feminism course, run by an assortment of very serious women and one bemused-looking man. They taught us the importance of ‘contesting and resisting the hegemony of powerful institutions’. A friend of mine attempted to resist theirs and barely passed the course. | |
| 2 | Endure French and German articles on energy (7) |
| UNDERGO – UN DER (articles in Frnech and German) GO (energy, as in ‘she has lots of go’) | |
| 3 | Legal process once secured, we’re told, by King Edward (9) |
| ATTAINDER – sounds like ‘attained’ ER (choose from any of eight) | |
| 4 | Looked after by American woman with liberal views (5-6) |
| BROAD-MINDED – BROAD (American woman – probably not one of the contesting and resisting persuasion) MINDED (looked after) | |
| 5 | Wrasse regularly used to be! (3) |
| WAS -W[r]A[s]S[e]; I used to say that this was the sort of clue that even an Australian could get, but I was subjected to a bit of cancel-culture, even though I was just trying to engage in a bit of banter. So, instead of saying that, I will toe the modern line, be sensitive to the needs of disadvantaged groups and merely say that this was quite a simple clue. Notwithstanding that, I applaud the setter for catering to the many different groups that attempt this crossword and not just to the middle-aged whi… [okay – enough of that, Ed.] | |
| 6 | Travel across top of Grampian elevation (5) |
| RIDGE – G[rampian] in RIDE (travel, on a bus etc.) | |
| 7 | Flower arrangement president originally admired propping up bar (7) |
| IKEBANA – BAN (bar) in IKE A (‘originally A[dmired]) | |
| 8 | Blokes adopting a jolly set of clothes (8) |
| GARMENTS – A RM (‘royal marine’) in GENTS (blokes) | |
| 13 | Fellow dropping art damages joint position at college (11) |
| STUDENTSHIP – STU[art] DENTS (damages) HIP (joint) | |
| 15 | African national primarily involved in playing the piano (9) |
| ETHIOPIAN – I[nvolved] in THE PIANO* | |
| 16 | Scholarly friend in Paris caught sheltering rebel (8) |
| ACADEMIC – CADE (crossword rebel – look him up in Wiki if he’s a NHO) in AMI C | |
| 18 | Badly-treated girl embracing aristocratic boy (7) |
| MISUSED – U (aristocratic, according to a silly system invented by toffs like the Mitfords) in MISS (girl) ED (a random boy who’s not Stuart) | |
| 19 | Think about French leader suppressing the French court (7) |
| REFLECT – RE (about) F[rench] LE (‘the’ in French) CT | |
| 20 | It expunges Times leader dismissing heavy metal (6) |
| ERASER – ERAS (times) [lead]ER; geddit? | |
| 22 | Like kidneys finally eaten in proper setting (5) |
| RENAL – [eate]N in REAL | |
| 25 | Ungentlemanly type originally courting publicity (3) |
| CAD – C[ourting] AD | |
As usual a DNF on the biggie for me, beaten by three: SERAI (would never have biffed it even if I’d known that Lambeth Palace was SE1 and not SW1), ATTAINDER (NHO for me and wouldn’t have biffed it either) and DESPERATE (which I really should have landed).
Fingers crossed on entering IKEBANA but a distant bell was ringing that can only have been from a previous puzzle.
Needed the blog to parse DISCREDIT and CAMBRIDGESHIRE – thanks for your fine work Ulaca.
Thanks too of course to the setter.
15:40. LOI DISCREDIT, which I imagine is – unusually – more or less impossible to derive from the wordplay without knowing the answer.
15:59
Initially bunging in LORD CHANCELLOR didn’t hold me up for long as I’d spotted IKEBANA within a minute or so. However mistyping RESIST as RRESIT meant my entries for 9a and 11a were slow to appear – once the correct starting letters for each were in place, the answers fell into place.
Trickier were ATTAINDER (from definition and all checkers) and ERASER (same) both of which I completely failed to parse.
Batter my brain with enough random poets and they’ll stick eventually – luckily seen this one before as Jack pointed out.
Thanks setter and Ulaca – my daughter may be at Lancaster Uni from September, I’ll warn her about ‘contesting and resisting the hegemony of powerful institutions’!
Relieved to see my last two in were correct, SERAI and ATTAINDER, because both were guesses.
I asked ChatGPT to solve the clue for 1 across. It responded THEATRE.
Looks like the human race won’t be annihilated just yet.
I’ve seen it demonstrated a few times now that AI can’t do cryptic clues. Can’t write ’em, can’t solve ’em. Some setters may be glad to have that to fall back on when robots take over most everything else. 😏
23:02
Generally straightforward, but for once it was the longer ones that slowed me down. Completly bamboozled by CAMBRIDGESHIRE and spent some time rummaging through half-remembed bits of Gilbert and Sullivan trying to find a more exotic crown representative.
Thanks to the setter and to Ulaca for the excellent blog.
I was galloping towards the hour mark with this one, so the crossword editor has a way to go to cater ‘to the many different groups that attempt this crossword and not just to the middle-aged whi…’
Enjoyed the blog. No offence taken 😂
Apologies to Ulaca but nowhere near a PB today! About 50 mins total either side of a much more fruitful golf game. Thought I was on track fot completing before leaving but became bogged down in the SE corner. Not much better when I returned and anyway had quite a few biffs (incl ERASER, DISCREDIT ). Also spent time trying to parse funster when PUNSTER parsed so easily. Nevertheless got there in the end and thanks to Ulaca and setter.
I started well but ultimately found this oddly tricky, coming in just under the 30-minute mark. Didn’t parse DISCREDIT, and the nho crossing pair of SERAI and ATTAINDER held me up, as did ERASER.
Thanks Ulaca & setter.
That fellow Cade has appeared again. I think it was only last week I was saying I’d never heard of him. Like busses, I expect he’ll come along again quite soon.
Straightforward today, pleased with my 15 minutes.
24 mins. Tx for the blog and explaining DISCREDIT and ERASER for me.
I don’t have a time, not even an estimated one which is probably a good thing as I did this over two sessions and the second a very long one. I just seemed to take an age to dig out the answers and parse.
The only unknown SERAI I did manage to get from parsing and crossing letters.
BIFD both DISCREDIT and ERASER so thanks for explaining those.
No time as I’ve been dipping in and out of the crossword today – which is to say I’ve been dipping in and out of the work I should have been doing, but enjoying the puzzling more than the work. Can’t say I found this especially straightforward, however, and I needed our blogger – to whom thanks – for the parsing of ERASER and DISCREDIT. Really must focus on the work tomorrow …
I enjoyed this, with a leisurely 45 minute solve. Much of it was easy, but not all of it, and there were some clues I liked a lot (ERASED, for example). I also couldn’t parse GARMENTS until just before submission, trying to figure out what relate GARTS (clothing MEN=blokes) to jolly. At the end, the penny dropped, though.
Completed but in 4 seperate attempts which made timings very difficult. Enjoyable and an interesting mix difficult and easy. Thank you.
30 minutes, quick for me. Didn’t parse “Discredit” and NHO the rebel nor the poet, but didn’t stop me completing.
I had the pleasure of working in Woking for a few years, so that clue fell into my lap.
“Coheiress” is not a word you hear every day – I suppose, by definition, there must always be a minimum of two coheiressesseses (acknowledgement to Count Arthur Strong and his Colossusseseses).
Die Entführung aus dem SERAI(l):
This evoked happy memories of meeting Sergeant/Inspector Lewis’ daughter, who was singing (extremely well) the coloratura lead in the above opera, by the stage door of the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Next to the stage door was a garden table belonging to Indigo Coffee House, where with coffee, crossword and roll-up, my musings were once interrupted by the voice of Nigel Pargeter, and on another occasion I looked up to find Richard E. Grant looking down at me. Not a word was said, for we were both a little startled – I’ve been mistaken for him several times.
So SERAI went in easily, but this nag was completely outclassed in this CAMBRIDGESHIRE handicap with 30 of the field comfortably ahead of me.
Early pace, soon struggling, tailed off:
30′ 27”.
Beaten by SERAI- tried serae which made the homophone impossible. Quite why I should know the postcode of Lambeth palace is beyond me. Thanks blogger
Got held up in the SE corner, failing to spot the anagram at 25A, failing to parse ERASER even after I did get it and totally failing to get the ridiculous STUDENTSHIP from definition, eventually bunging it in when every other letter was in place. Has anyone used that word in anger, ever? I wasn’t helped by being another convinced that I was looking to put in HUR from Arthur minus ‘art’. So not a great time in the end…
A curious experience today. I felt far from at ease throughout and never really thought I was making progress. The same unparsed answers and barely heard of words as others here. I was surprised, then, to achieve a completion time of just under my 30-minute target.
16 mins but nearly had my chips when considering at-ta-in- ter , too obsessed with the spud version of King Edward. Fortunately, I live to fight another day.
If this is a simple 15, I’m never going to graduate from the QC. NHO SERAI or IKEBANA, wouldn’t have parsed DISCREDIT in a million years (had to read the blog three times to understand it!), couldn’t see DESPERATE despite being desperate. I think I have to reconcile myself to being a flat track bully.
Brilliant blog though! I chuckled a lot.
In which year did you graduate at Lancaster, and which college were you in Ulaca?
16.33
Late entry
Quite a few chestnuts and helped that I must have recalled the previous clue for CAMBRIDGESHIRE as that went straight in
STUDENTSHIP took a bit of teasing out even with a few checkers
Pleasant enough but no stand out clues
Thanks Ulaca and setter
Success at last! A fully completed and correct crossword in under the half-hour! So, amidst trying unsuccessfully to pat myself on the back ( too old to do it myself and no-one else around at this ungodly hour of the morning, as oldies tend to be late risers) and drinking my essential first cuppa of the day, I read with astonishment the, as usual, great blog by Ulaca, to find that I was even faster than some really good solvers! I thought this one was going to be trashed on the premise that it was far too easy…
Anyway, enough of this crowing: FOI straight away was RHUBARB ( many bit-parts in school plays assured this one), and I hardly paused thereafter, except perhaps for CAMBRIDGESHIRE, where I was toying with LEICESTERSHIRE for too long, and ATTAINMENT, a NHO, and SERAI, with forgetting the postcode of Lambeth Palace. I now look forward to tomorrow’s ( by Dean no doubt) stinker with a bit more hope …