DNF. I did well here. Fell asleep at one point, woke up re-energized and finished all but one. Lots of clever clueing here and tasty answers. In the end, I was stumped by a clue where I knew neither the definition nor a relevant piece of wordplay.
| Across | |
| 1 | Still laborious lassoing horse (6) |
| THOUGH – TOUGH (laborious) around (lassoing) H (horse) | |
| 4 | Drug taken by doctor — former PM almost ready for fight (8) |
| EMBATTLE – E (drug) + (taken by) MB (doctor) + ATTLEE (former PM) without last letter (almost) | |
| 10 | Subordinate brought to northern river stays perhaps (9) |
| UNDERWEAR – UNDER (subordinate) + (brought to) WEAR (northern river) | |
| 11 | Make quick note sailor’s wearing part of Highland dress (5) |
| JABOT – AB (sailor) in (‘s wearing) JOT (make quick note)
This is one of the ones I saw immediately after my nap. It’s a frill of lace. |
|
| 12 | Pegasus perhaps wingless in beginning to catch space ship (7) |
| CORSAIR – HORSE (pegasus perhaps) without first and last letters (wingless) in (in) first letter of (beginning to) CATCH + AIR (space) | |
| 13 | Important line as seen in Spielberg movie with soldiers (7) |
| EQUATOR – QUA (as) in (seen in) E.T. (Spielberg movie) + (with) OR (soldiers) | |
| 14 | Rely on tanky at last coming in for start of union meeting (5) |
| TRYST – TRUST (rely on) + last letter of TANKY (tanky at last) replacing (coming in for) first letter of (start of) UNION | |
| 15 | Cracked enigma involving a final letter [in] publication (8) |
| MAGAZINE – anagram of (cracked) ENIGMA around (involving) A + Z (final letter) | |
| 18 | Family servant kept rook in daughter’s place (8) |
| RETAINER – RETAINED (kept) with R (rook) instead of D (daughter) | |
| 20 | Line removed from ordinary Bellini work (5) |
| NORMA – L (line) removed from NORMAL (ordinary) | |
| 23 | Two dogs [finding] prune (7) |
| CURTAIL – CUR TAIL (two words meaning dog) | |
| 25 | Titled woman about to take in French island sent message (7) |
| EMAILED – DAME (titled woman) reversed (about) around (to take in) ILE (French island) | |
| 26 | Love upset where learner moves across college (5) |
| ORIEL – O (lover) + RILE (upset) with L (learner) moved | |
| 27 | Veronica fit to join expedition (9) |
| SPEEDWELL – WELL (fit) next to (to join) SPEED (expedition) | |
| 28 | Dodgy boss nearly murdered lackey (8) |
| DOGSBODY – DODGY BOSS without the last letter (nearly) anagrammed (murdered) | |
| 29 | Tragedian Edward[‘s] name on marble (6) |
| ALLEYN – N (name) next to (on) ALLEY (marble)
The setter made this as fair as they could — after all, the clue could have been “Author’s name on marble” or something like that. But sadly I did not know Teddy Alleyn the tragedian, nor did I know of an alley marble, so this one did me in. If this answer had contained the only Y in the puzzle, I would have smacked myself, since the pangram possibility could have given a hint. But there are several other Ys in the grid. I was thinking of the marble as a ‘shooter’ or something, and accordingly was looking for _ L _ ERN, if anything. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Chest picked up by crew reportedly [in] dock? (8) |
| TRUNCATE – TRUNK (chest) replaced by homophone (picked up) + (by) EIGHT (crew) replaced by homophone (picked up)
Another post-nap write-in. |
|
| 2 | Trot raised in Paris suburb [becomes] attendant (7) |
| ORDERLY – RED (trot[skyite]) reversed (raised) in ORLY (Paris suburb) | |
| 3 | Giant fish a month back devouring worker? (9) |
| GARGANTUA – GAR (fish) + AUG (a month) reversed (back) around (devouring) ANT (worker?)
Is the ‘a’ in ‘a month’ a slight looseness? Or is the setter saying we should be looking for an “A” month? 😉 |
|
| 5 | Grower to celebrate extraordinary green trade (6,8) |
| MARKET GARDENER – MARK (to celebrate) anagrammed (extraordinary) GREEN TRADE | |
| 6 | University supporting article on little woman [in] duchy once (5) |
| ANJOU – U (university) under (supporting) AN (article) + (on) JO (an eponymous little woman)
Nap helped here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Anjou |
|
| 7 | Asian [should have] Greek character encased in metal (7) |
| TIBETAN – BETA (Greek character) in (encased in) TIN (metal) | |
| 8 | Milk [and] old cake not finished (6) |
| EXTORT – EX (old) + TORTE (cake) without last letter (not finished) | |
| 9 | Medicines laid out across counter finally declared legal (14) |
| DECRIMINALISED – MEDICIENS LAID anagrammed (out) around (across) last letter of COUNTER (finally) | |
| 16 | Wine unknown in cooler shown upside-down (9) |
| ZINFANDEL – Z (unknown) + IN + FAN (cooler) + LED (shown) reversed (upside-down)
My only true biff. |
|
| 17 | Cutter[‘s] crew as before left at home (8) |
| MANDOLIN – MAN (crew) + DO (= ditto, as before) + L (left) + IN (at home) | |
| 19 | Attention drawn to collar [and] jewellery (7) |
| EARRING – EAR (attention) + (drawn to) RING (collar) | |
| 21 | Comfort resistance woman tempted to swallow pork pie? (7) |
| RELIEVE – R (resistance) + EVE (woman tempted) around (to swallow) LIE (pork pie?) | |
| 22 | Harmony [from] A string with another note held (6) |
| ACCORD – A + CORD (string) around C (with another note held) | |
| 24 | Improvised short excuse to involve Democrat (2-3) |
| AD-LIB – last letter removed from (short) ALIBI (excuse) around (to involve) D (Democrat) | |
Like Jeremy, Kevin and many others I was stumped by our Edwardian actor today, having been very happy to work thru what i thought was a chewy, but excellent puzzle in 45 minutes. I did know alley as a marble but it was a piece of childhood knowledge that proved impossible to extract. I thought that mandolin as a cutter was spelt mandoline but apparently not- my COD.
Thx Jeremy and setter
46’20”
Game but workmanlike, one paced throughout, a slow one.
Started in the SW with the magazine and zinf—– then Norma, so having the n from mandolin,
I correctly surmised Teddy was a nudge towards an obscurity, so left it, hoping my subconcious would dredge up the marble, which it did 43 minutes later.
I used to drink with an Old Alleynian in The Champion of the Thames; Mike Guy, a polymath genius who troubleshot Cambridge University’s computing headaches. On winter evenings you could tell how much snow had settled by Mike’s arrival; only if there were more than two inches would his sandals be exchanged for brogues.
I enjoyed this immensely as the pennies began to slowly drop; thank you very much setter and Jeremy.
Humph! Not a happy bunny here. DNF.
Decided to cheat for ALLEYN/MANDOLIN and failed as never for a moment considered a mandolin as anything other than a musical instrument. OK I should have known, as it has cropped up before, but totally slipped my mind.
Alley=marble? I played marbles at primary school but don’t remember any of the plethora of names for marbles listed endlessly in Wiki. Could have got ALLEYN from a crime novel hero, but not from an undated “tragedian” called Edward. Wiki does not say anything about tragedies, just about being an actor. I was totally unaware that Dulwich College was founded by him, so I accept that he is famous, but.
Paused a long time before entering CORSAIR as a ship, but post-event I see that is correct. I thought it was just the pirate, and I also thought they were North African/Mediterranean, but no, specifically St Malo, N France. Well!
I never notice pangrams nor NINAs, no change there then.
Wiki does not mention JABOTs in connection with Highland dress, from either direction, so a MER.
Not sure what is important about the equator, so another MER.
Liked the word Tanky in 14a clue. Never thought it would be in the dictionary, let alone with 3 defs.
Definitely not a Friday and I had most of the necessary GK. I thought alley for marble was quite a regular occurrence in Crosswordland and a quick search revealed a number of instances, mostly older though. Didn’t know the actor but knew the name from Ngaio whom I read avidly as a teenager.
JABOT was seared into my memory when many years ago my son, then aged four, was a page-boy at a wedding, and someone decided he should wear a kilt. Morning of the wedding, the outfitters hadn’t included the blessed jabot….cue frantic phone calls. Nearly a no-frills wedding, but they got it there in the nick of time. ALLEYN…had a nephew who went to the school named after him, and remembered reading about him when I was doing the Elizabethans. I see he’s caused a bit of angst. Obscure knowledge always seems fairer if you know it. Still took me near to the hour, so no bragging. Thanks all.
A bit late perhaps. I got over half of this before giving up. ALLEYN easy for a long-time inhabitant of SE London.
But I still struggle with the difference between Old Alleynians and Alleyn Old Boys.
David
To put it politely, I did not like this. Some puzzles are easy (and 99% of this one was) and some are hard (exactly one clue in this one was), but to let me swoop through all of this and then be left with one completely unsolvable clue (guess which one) at the very end is exceedingly frustrating and does not vouch, shall we say, for the artistic and aesthetic skill of the setter. It’s like serving up a dainty and exquisite dish in a restaurant and dousing it in vinegar just as you put it on the table. Pah!
All correct bar ALLEYN, which given I knew neither bits of knowledge required to solve meant I was doomed! Shame because I had enjoyed the rest. Thanks to the blogger.
About 27 mins with LOI extort- very clever I thought. Hadn’t heard of Alleyn but seemed to fit and it did.
A week with a full house after some frustration over the previous month.
Thx setter and blogger.
21:40
Late to the party today having worked a long day. Did 8 minutes’-worth before dinner at 9.30pm and finished the rest just now. Lots to enjoy but stuff missed too:
THOUGH – saw H for horse at the end and wondered what a THOUG was
ORIEL – from checkers – didn’t see the RILE bit
GARGANTUA – is this a ‘real’ giant?
JABOT – from cryptic only
SPEEDWELL – Saw Veronica and bunged it in
ALLEYN – I couldn’t think of anything else with those checkers. A very faint bell rang, perhaps because I used to live in South London not too far from Dulwich? Certainly the cricket side I used to play for played Old Alleynians once or twice. Didn’t know of the tragedian though, and definitely NHO the marble (No one played marbles when I was a kid in the ’70s?)
56:17. quite happy with that given a hard puzzle in my view. some were just write ins, most of the lower half, giving me a false sense of security. top left was a different matter and not solved until my bath rather late on in the day.
47:42
Had heard of Alleyn, thanks to a recent visit to Dulwich to see an exhibition at the Picture Gallery.
Last 15m spent on the NW corner. It took ages to get GARGANTUA- Ibwasted a lot of time trying to parse BARRACUDA, but failing.
LOI was CORSAIR, as the only vaguely sensible word that fitted, but without parsing. Thanks for the blog, which makes sense of it.
I came to this late but survived the tragedian. I was slightly unsure of “declared legal” as a definition for DECRIMINALISED as there’s an important distinction between decriminalising and legalising. Decriminalising isn’t making something legal, it’s just removing the criminal sanctions.
Biffed CENTAUR as a wingless Pegasus perhaps, then unbiffed it when ORDERLY arrived, but, having inked it, forgot about the need to revisit it.
I will travel forward through by a month as the Black Friday offer of £1 a month for a Times subscription has hooked me.