NOTE FROM Jackkt: Because of confusion at The Times the puzzle presented as 28679 in the Club and online is different from 28679 in the printed newspaper and the facsimile epaper. William has blogged the Club/ online version so discussions here should be limited to that one. Please don’t give away answers to the alternative puzzle (1ac: After restraint finding outlet for being creative again) as Mick Hodgkin (Times Puzzles Editor) has confirmed it will be appearing online the week after next and we shall blog it for discussion then. Thanks.
Now back to William’s blog:
DNF
A mixed bag of clues, continuing the generally easier-than-average theme of the week. Perhaps buoyed by false confidence, maybe just a silly error, I managed to put in an answer I knew to be wrong (7dn). Chambers wholeheartedly supports the setter, so I’ll just put this down to a lesson learned.
As usual for me, there were several other clues that were either half-known, half-remembered, or guessed (6dn still eludes my tiny brain). But despite the travails, it was 27:32 well spent.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Curlers having clothing with name written inside (5) |
| TONGS – TOGS (clothing) containing N (name). | |
| 4 | System of rules suppressing rebellious nonsense leads to uprising (4,5) |
| COUP DETAT – CODE (system of rules) containing UP (rebellious), then TAT (nonsense). | |
| 9 | Card game dropping one of its players in quality Home Counties town (9) |
| TONBRIDGE – BRIDGe (card game) minus an ‘e’ (East, one of its players) contained by TONE (quality). | |
| 10 | Cathedral dignitary, head of chapter, not giving name? (5) |
| CANON – first letter of Chapter + ANON (not giving name). | |
| 11 | Turn into fossil? Most of fossil badly done, ending in ignominy (6) |
| OSSIFY – all-but-the-last of (mostly) FOSSI |
|
| 12 | Little from Escoffier to fill primate’s hunger (8) |
| APPETITE – PETIT (‘little’ from Escofier, i.e. in French) contained by APE (primate). | |
| 14 | Unsympathetic emperor’s replacing one with offspring (10) |
| IMPERSONAL -IMPERiAL (emperor’s) replacing ‘i’ (one) for SON (offspring). | |
| 16 | Remote distance recalled after leaving end of line (4) |
| SLIM – MILeS (distance) reversed, excluding the ‘e’ (last letter of line). | |
| 19 | Upset about river excursion (4) |
| TRIP – TIP (upset) containing R (river). | |
| 20 | Small particular changes ignoring an area of Biblical studies (10) |
| SCRIPTURAL – S (small), then an anagram of PARTICULAR excluding one ‘a’ (area). | |
| 22 | Lake expert spinning in Black Sea, unable to progress? (8) |
| BECALMED – L (lake) + ACE (expert) all reversed, contained by B (black) + MED (sea). | |
| 23 | Drunkard throttling glutton delivering tap (6) |
| SPIGOT – SOT (drunkard) containing PIG (glutton). | |
| 26 | Teacher rejected backing key component of education? About time (5) |
| TUTOR – OUT (rejected) reversed, then R (one of the three, key component of education), containing T (time). | |
| 27 | Part of London — I pass to North (9) |
| ISLINGTON – I + SLING (pass) + N (north). | |
| 28 | One new bird observed in US city is a thing of no importance (9) |
| NONENTITY – ONE + N (new) + TIT (bird), contained by NY (US city). | |
| 29 | Very keen about hard working, engaging leaders of our teams (3,2) |
| HOT ON – H (hard) + ON (working), containing the first letters of Our and Teams. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Drumming is beginning to threaten — you’ll see me turning to hide (9) |
| TATTOOIST – TATTOO (drumming) + IS + first letter of Threatening. | |
| 2 | Number getting endless home service (5) |
| NONES – NO (number) + NESt (home) without its end. | |
| 3 | Father will collar United over match official for certain (8) |
| SUREFIRE – SIRE (father), containing U (united) + REF (match official). | |
| 4 | Mock opera’s ultimate conclusion (4) |
| CODA – COD (mock) + last letter of operA. | |
| 5 | Machine put to work without much impact (10) |
| UNEMPHATIC – anagram of MACHINE PUT. | |
| 6 | Appropriate seeing change to older coinage in receipt (6) |
| DOCKET – *shrug*. Can someone help? Vinyl to the rescue – pOCKET (appropriate) with ‘p’ (new penny) for D (old Penny, older coinage). | |
| 7 | Describing glands, look, inside damaged nostril (9) |
| TONSILLAR – LA (look) contained by an anagram of NOSTRIL. Not ‘lo’ then… | |
| 8 | Weight and volume after inclusion of additional unspecified number (5) |
| TONNE – TONE (volume) containing N (unspecified number). Does ‘tone’ = ‘volume’? | |
| 13 | Italian composer in book: iconic in translation that woman penned (10) |
| BOCCHERINI – B (book) + an anagram of ICONIC containing HER (that woman). | |
| 15 | Continue to publish about church in US university city (9) |
| PRINCETON – PRINT ON (continue to publish) containing CE (church). | |
| 17 | Hormone turning in zucchini, not a lemon (9) |
| MELATONIN – hidden in reverse in zucchiNI NOT A LEMon. | |
| 18 | A simple golf-shot starts to cause hesitation in a crisis (2,1,5) |
| AT A PINCH – A + TAP IN (simple golf shot) + first letters of Cause and Hesitation. | |
| 21 | French person’s conclusion is to accept my old coin (6) |
| FLORIN – FIN (conclusion, in French) containing LOR (my). | |
| 22 | Upset no key office staff? (5) |
| BATON – reversal of NO and TAB (key). | |
| 24 | Mean opening of gallery to have famous gallery upset (3,2) |
| GET AT – first letter of Gallery + reversal of TATE (famous gallery). | |
| 25 | Degree of freedom in Shakespeare’s work? (4) |
| PLAY – double definition. | |
Have just come to this as I do the newspaper version. I’m sure tonsillor was intended. A quick look online reveals e.g. from the British Dental Journal, ‘I saw the patient, and noticed that the residual tonsillor tissue on the lateral border of the tongue…’. ‘La’ was used to mean, ‘Fancy!’ or ‘Indeed’ rather than ‘Look’, for which ‘Lo’ is an accepted and common Times equivalent. Far more likely that there was a simple oversight here rather than a cluttering of the playing-field that could not help but be noticed by the setter.
Slow but steady throughout. Not too keen on sling for pass. But I suppose the setter can sling it over. Less keen on tone for volume. Quite often a blurring in the margins these days.
I’m another who had forgotten about the mix up so initially didn’t realise I needed to come here to check the solution. Like many others I had TONSILLOR unfortunately but still enjoyed the crossword.
FOI CANON
LOI NONES
COD AT A PINCH
I am another paper solver who has just completed this puzzle today. I found it fairly straightforward over a lunch break. I didn’t see CODE for ‘system of rules’ but that was my only unparsed clue. Sadly I fell into the TONSILLoR trap, which was a shame after decoding the unknown to me BOCCHERINI. I wonder what percentage actually got TONSILLAR correct? It seems to have tripped up many seasoned solvers.
Thanks for the puzzle finally and the ‘premature’ blog.
Way, way off the wavelength here! Too many of the one-word-inside-another-inside-another type clues, which always leave me reeling. Happy to get the few I did, but eventually gave up when I realised that this was “not my day”. Agree with all the arguments re “La!” v “Lo!” as I’d managed to figure this one out – but it was wrong! Not party to the “wrong crossword” argument, as I do this one on paper a month after you guys…
You are all full of it. No one could solve this fair and square you all cheat. Eg that women is she not her. Are you twerps on this sight real people or AI. I reckon AI sets this time wasting crap now. Before google I could solve these with pen and paper twice a week. I hardly ever buy the Australian these days because of the times but when I do I can never solve this rubbish and I have ten times the skill I had years ago. Wake up to yourselves editors. A good cryptic should be solvable by everybody who knows the rules.