I didn’t find this easy, and kept wandering off down blind alleys until the right paths emerged. Once again there’s one I’m not quite happy about, the parsing of ABEL at 6a. I liked LLOYDS LIST best.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Firebrand with clout in King Edward, say? (3-7) |
| TUB-THUMPER – THUMP (clout) inside TUBER (of which King Edward potato is an example). I was working with POT-something initially but the checkers told me otherwise. | |
| 6 | Biblical character, presidential predecessor of Andy J? (4) |
| ABEL – ABE Lincoln was President after Andrew Jackson, not his predecessor, (there were no Andrews before Jackson) so I’m not sure how “presidential predecessor of Andy” works, and L comes after J not before, so likewise; Andrew Jackson pre-deceased Lincoln (1845 and 1865) so we can’t use predecessor in the “died first” sense. Someone please explain what the setter had in mind here. | |
| 9 | Seeds in powdered crackers (10) |
| GROUNDNUTS – GROUND means powdered and crackers means NUTS. I was trying to work with an anagram of IN POWDERED at first. | |
| 10 | having returned from Belfast? (4) |
| INFO – OF (from) NI (Northern Ireland) all reversed. | |
| 12 | Inductive scientific approach doctor combined with an oath (8,6) |
| BACONIAN METHOD – (COMBINED AN OATH)*. I didn’t know what this was until I read it up, but deducing METHOD from the anagrist left me with the letters for BACONIAN as in Francis Bacon’s publication in 1620. | |
| 14 | Seafood that’s variable filling roll, first wiped (6) |
| OYSTER – Y an unknown goes into [R]OSTER, where roster = roll. | |
| 15 | Announcer of visitors — return of family ’avoc (8) |
| DOORBELL – BROOD (family) returned, followed by ‘ELL for ‘AVOC. | |
| 17 | Provided back in work, one works on side of building? (8) |
| GRAFFITI – GRAFT (work), insert IF reversed and add I. I think we’ve seen this before. | |
| 19 | What’s left after shelling? Nuts! (6) |
| SHUCKS – double definition, one the husks after shelling, one an expression of disappointment. | |
| 22 | Wound, as if new, risks being cut by my bladed tool (5,4,5) |
| SWISS ARMY KNIFE – (AS IF NEW RISKS)* with MY inserted. I’ve got a left-handed one of these, it’s a fine piece of kit. | |
| 24 | A short man, related (4) |
| AKIN – A, KIN[G], a man / piece in chess. | |
| 25 | Bag round tip that is black, for refuse collector (7,3) |
| WHEELIE BIN – WIN (bag) with HEEL (tip) I.E. (that is) B[lack] inserted. | |
| 26 | Stunt that may backfire just the same? (4) |
| DEED – The rest of the clue indicating a palindrome. | |
| 27 | Pretence so false, common knowledge (4,6) |
| OPEN SECRET – (PRETENCE SO)*. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Country earmarked for expulsion? (4) |
| TOGO – “TO GO” meaning it has to be expelled. | |
| 2 | I love meat originally covered in fish — quantity of livers? (7) |
| BIOMASS – I, O, M inserted into BASS a fish. A bit of a clumsy surface, but the wordplay was clear. | |
| 3 | This vagrant touring Hampshire town heading for Fareham fast (4,4,4) |
| HAND OVER FIST – if you knew ANDOVER is a town in Hampshire, you were on the way to getting this. I did, but was looking for a Lent-type fast at first. ANDOVER and F[areham] go inside (THIS)*. Fareham is also in Hampshire so the surface makes some sense. | |
| 4 | Insect with a thousand enemies (6) |
| MANTIS – M (a thousand in Roman numerals) ANTI’s (enemies). | |
| 5 | Muscle spasm’s beginning in retired singer? (8) |
| EXTENSOR – An EX TENOR being a retired singer, insert S[pasm]. | |
| 7 | Spirit in plague embodying that lady (7) |
| BANSHEE – a BANE is a plague, insert SHE = that lady. I spent too long trying to insert HER into something. | |
| 8 | Tilting of bank where ships observed? (6,4) |
| LLOYDS LIST – witty double definition cryptic, LLOYDS being a Bank and list meaning tilt. | |
| 11 | Lost, seen reaching for source of information (6,6) |
| SEARCH ENGINE – (SEEN REACHING)*. | |
| 13 | Part of New York marathon is alight (4,6) |
| LONG ISLAND – marathon here simply means long (in duration), IS, LAND meaning alight. Clever stuff. | |
| 16 | Features in spacecraft (8) |
| STARSHIP – STARS = features, featured artists; HIP meaning IN, trendy. | |
| 18 | Silly figure after a number minus ten (7) |
| ASININE – NINE a figure, after A SI[X] = another number minus X for ten. | |
| 20 | A month in vehicle where alcohol sold (4,3) |
| CAFE BAR – A FEB[ruary] inside CAR. | |
| 21 | Wings of vulture and of raven under those of weighty mythological flier (6) |
| WYVERN – W[eight]Y, V[ultur]E, R[ave]N. | |
| 23 | Bird in a tangle? (4) |
| KNOT – a kind of wading bird. | |
I struggled to complete this and ended after an hour with one error.
Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln upon his assassination in 1865.
LLOYD’S LIST took far too long to emerge, and then only after an extensive alphabet trawl. I’m a customer of Lloyd’s bank following a takeover and I knew of Lloyds Register of Shipping through a friend who worked there for many years, but I had forgotten about their journal published daily since 1734 – now only online, I believe.
I added to my difficulties at 11dn (my last-but-one in) because I suspected it might be an anagram but then miscounted the potential anagrist ‘seen reaching’ as 13 letters and ruled an anagram out. I reckon this added at least 10 minutes to my time.
My error was at 19ac where another extensive alphabet trawl presented only one possibility, CHICKS, as ‘what’s left after shelling’. A quick google revealed that there is a popular food, not a brand name, called chick nuts which to my mind might very well be referred to CHICKS. I don’t recall ever hearing of husks as SHUCKS, and the expression of disappointment is not in my vocabulary although now it has been mentioned I believe I may have seen it used by characters in the American strip cartoon Peanuts in my childhood. Another unsignalled Americanism.
Thanks for Andrew Johnson, your US Presidents knowledge is far ahead of mine (as you would expect!)
I don’t recall ‘shucks!’ from Peanuts–Charlie Brown’s favorite expression was ‘Rats!’ (and of course ‘Good grief!’) I associate ‘(Aw,) Shucks!’ with (bad) Westerns, where the modest hero would say that in response to praise from, usually, a young lady. Not an expression of disappointment.
You may be right. It was a long time ago.
Finished in 30 minutes. I enjoyed GRAFFITI and SEARCH ENGINE. Needed all of the crossers for BACONIAN METHOD.
Forgive me, but if anyone is interested, my third novel in the series, The Violin and Candlestick, was published yesterday by Hobeck Books (please visit their website). I am David Jarvis, as many of you know.
Congratulations David. I look forward to reading it.
Me too.
I shall ask my local library to get a copy in, David.
Congratulations David
‘Twas delivered to my Kindle yesterday 🙂
Just bought books 2 and 3 on Kindle, David, I’m looking forward to reading them.
Thanks to everyone who has bought them and posted a reply here. Let me know what you think.
I took 50 minutes. I thought this was a really good puzzle. I held myself up a long time by being convinced that 8ac was an anagram of “in powdered” and would be something along the lines of thistledown. It probably took me a good 10 minutes to let go of this obsession , at which point first TOGO and then GROUNDNUTS became obvious. That left me with the NE to do, and there it was suddenly cottoning on to LLOYDS LIST that enabled me to finish up the rest of the puzzle.
I think predecessor should probably be successor at 6ac?
Thanks setter and blogger
Abe L preceded Andy J
46 minutes. Tough going and as my LOI I just about put in WHACKS at 19a, not knowing SHUCKS could be a noun. I didn’t know BACONIAN METHOD either. I see Jack has put us right about ABEL.
LLOYDS LIST is even better, as LISTS (yes, admittedly in the plural) are fields where are a jousting, or ‘Tilting’ tournament is held.
22:44. For a long time I was convinced that LLOYDS LIST was an obscurity I didn’t know, having thought there was no word I knew that fitted L_O_D_. Thankfully once I came up with LIST the penny dropped.
I feel I should have got HAND OVER FIST sooner given that I live fairly close, and several times when driving past I’ve commented to my wife “‘and over fist”!
Driving north towards Bishops Stortford you pass two consecutive signs for Thorely, which inevitably prompts a quick chorus of “he has borne our griefs…”
😁
Around 30 minutes. Not terribly hard. FOI OPEN SECRET then WYVERN, KNOT, CAFE BAR and I was able to fill out the the puzzle with no difficult areas. Lots of phrases helped a lot. I was able to parse the lot myself LOI ABEL. BACONIAN METHOD was made easy by my physics/engineering and history of science background. MANTIS made simple by remembering ANTI=enemy from a recent puzzle.
I found this very hard to get to grips with, but a faltering start at INFO led to some momentum on the eastern front and before too long I was backing my way via BACONIAN METHOD and SWISS ARMY KNIFE back to where I’d started, finally filling in the last leftover at SHUCKS. Quite a tough challenge considering there was nothing particularly obscure to me to find.
35:50
Some chewier stuff here but mostly gettable – didn’t know BACONIAN METHOD but managed to sort the anagrist with four checkers in. I’ve heard of SHUCKing before but needed both H and C checker to think of SHUCKS here. Painstakingly built up the NW corner to leave just NE. Took a while to see the ABEL trick, which gave BANSHEE, but then took an age to see LLOYDS LIST, which led to DOORBELL and finally EXTENSOR – had been thinking that this last word would be a singer or type of singer in reverse with an inserted S, however it dropped into place once I’d thought that X might be the second letter.
Nice workout setter, and thanks to P
Yes, I wondered about a Ronette backwards.
13.50
Another early searcher for an anagram of ‘in powdered’, but TOGO refused to accept expulsion.
NHO BACONIAN METHOD, but enjoyed deducing the anagram.
“If someone’s got a TUB we’re going to THUMP it
It’s more fun the playing polo with the Duke.”
(F&S, ‘Sounding Brass’)
LOI and COD LLOYD’S LIST
I enjoyed this a lot but struggled with much of it, and it took me about an hour. At one point the bottom half was nearly complete and the top half almost empty. Thanks to piquet for the informative blog. I agree that ‘aw shucks’ isn’t an expression of disappointment as I’ve heard it. I only know shucking in the context of prising open a serve of beautiful, fresh Clyde River oysters on a summer’s day on the south coast of NSW, with a bottle of chilled sauv blanc…he said, looking out the window at the Melbourne rain.
From Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues:
Now if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a KNOT
And I don’t have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend my doctor won’t even tell me what it is I’ve got
…or in England sitting in a kitchen “shucking” peas into a saucepan rather more mundanely.
41 minutes, and then with an error. Aw, SHUCKS! I do know the expression but it’s many decades since I last heard it. Didn’t know it as NUTSHELLS. Anyway, I put in CHOCKS as a blind guess. COD to LLOYDS LIST. I liked the WHEELIE BIN too. BACONIAN was retrofitted from the anagram plus METHOD. I found this tricky. Thank you Pip and setter.
Really enjoyed, but alas, came unstuck on SEARCH ENGINE (no excuse for getting that wrong), SHUCKS (I had ARECAS, trying to convince myself that it could be BARE CASE shelled!), and KNOT (having KNIT instead and not having heard of the bird). Spent too long doubting self on HAND OVER FIST by not realizing that it could be a synonym of ‘fast’, instead vaguely thinking it meant ‘begrudgingly’.
48:26 some of which is down to doing it on my mobile on a train.
Excellent puzzle. I’m another who tried to get an anagram of IN POWDERED. (It gives you Eiderdown with P to spare). Also wasted time thinking of spuds and Murphy’s for the King Edward. COD was LLOYDS LIST closely followed by BACONIAN METHOD.
Thanks to Pip and the setter
20:44. Good, chewy fun. Don’t think I knew LLOYD’S LIST but I eventually cottoned on that ‘bank’ wasn’t responsible for LIST and went from there.
I only knew Jackson as an old president, not his place in the order, so wasn’t held up there. You shuck corn, so I was happy enough to imagine you might do so to nuts.
We’ll be singing… when we’re winning…
Thanks both.
36:13
No unknowns but I struggled to piece together quite a few of the clues, with most time spent in the NW.
I didn’t quite feel on-message throughout but I thought down to some clever cluing which often lead me down the garden path.
Thanks to both.
Technically a DNF , bah, after 1hr 15 as I had to look up POI EXTENSOR and suddenly realized I knew it. Damn. LOI BACONIAN METHOD also unknown but once I had all the checkers and got the « method » I luckily plumped for Bacon rather than Cabon!
So, pretty chewy and, as after 15 mins I had nothing entered I began to give up hope. LONG ISLAND & OYSTER opened up the door and off we went.
I liked GRAFFITI, LLOYDS LIST & WHEELIE BIN.
Thanks pip and crafty setter.
Nice puzzle. Not much that could be biffed today! I know we don’t get ninas in the cryptic but surely the positioning of OYSTER and SHUCKS can’t be a coincidence.
Weirdly I cited oyster shucking but never noticed that!
36′ for this super puzzle. Took me until 20d for my FOI, and answers rarely came more than singly.
I too thought of Andrew Jackson, so had banged in ADAM for later thinking about, before I remembered Johnson (I once got 100% on Sporcle).
In an earlier life I worked in newspaper circulation – the form used by newsagents to order from wholesalers had the big papers, followed by the Morning Star, Polski, Lloyd’s List and the Racing Post.
OYSTERS was my POI, which then enabled me to get LOI SHUCKS, I doubt if I would have solved it without that connection.
Thanks pip and setter.
14:42. A tricky one. BACONIAN METHOD was my only unknown.
The usual dictionaries (Collins, ODE, Chambers) all have SHUCKS as an expression of disappointment or regret, irritation. Only ODE has the sense ‘in response to praise, self-deprecation’. I’m sure I’ve come across both but not for a long time.
20.12, which looks quite good for this teasing and innovative puzzle. My ignorance of US Presidents both helped and hindered as I essayed ADAM at first, thinking I’d work out the wordplay (and which Adams it was) when and if I had to. When ABEL emerged, I just assumed Andrew J-anyname fit the bill.
Chambers is OK with SHUCKS expressing disappointment: I was less so with shuck meaning to shell nuts. Peas, oysters and sweetcorn in my food preparation vocabulary, but nuts are shelled or cracked.
AKIN was entered hoping that KIND would be alright for man, didn’t think of KING.
None of the expected pinks, though, and that sense of achievement having negotiated a tricky course.
The wordplay doesn’t refer to nuts though – it’s just ‘what’s left after shelling’ – and the usual dictionaries don’t confine the meaning of ‘shell’ to nuts. ODE gives the example ‘they were shelling peas’.
DNF. NHO Baconian, but I have because it is in my Cheating Machine, a pre-2022 entry; and of course I was taught about Bacon in science subjects. However as a scientist I could never understand (then) why we were being taught “arty” things like History. Oh dear!
58m 46s
Thanks, Pip, for GRAFFITI, SHUCKS, WHEELIE BIN and BIOMASS.
I liked the partial anagram -‘this vagrant’ in 3d.
In 1d I initially opted for CHAD. Collins defines chad as:
‘the small pieces of cardboard or paper removed during the punching of holes in computer printer paper, paper tape, etc’.
That seemed to meet the requirements of ‘earmarked for expulsion’.
Remember the fuss there was in the US Presidential election in 2000 about ‘hanging chads’ in the Florida count?
PS…I just about remember the Vauxhall WYVERN car.
I was 10 clues in before starting, then completed all but the NW corner in 11 minutes. It took a further 4 minutes to plough through that. My main problem was NHO BACONIAN METHOD, even though I’d seen what the second word surely had to be. I also spent way too long trying to make an anagram of “in powdered” thinking that “crackers” was an anagram indicator. SLOI TOGO should have been easy to see, and I needed that final crosser for the PDM of my LOI where I never conjured up tuber.
FOI SWISS ARMY KNIFE
LOI TUB-THUMPER
COD HAND OVER FIST
TIME 15:21
Not too hard..
nho Baconian method, but got it from the anagrist.
Not keen on “shucks,” not a word I would use and it smells like an Americanism, especially as a noun.
About 50′, but first this week where I didn’t have to Google an NHO. Lloyds Bell didn’t help timing and a few of the anagrams were well hidden I thought, though once identified they contributed valuable crossers. I did have “Catonian method” (which is a thing) until I realised I realised I missed a “B”. LOI SHUCKS which came to me once other options didn’t work. Enjoyed the puzzle, thanks Piquet and setter.
It appears that we need an ever deeper knowledge of US presidents, New York suburbs and sundry American vocabulary in order to complete and parse the London Times crossword.
Tougher than the others this week, still a couple of blanks after an hour, with LLOYDS LIST being the main holdup. Also thought about CHICKS as left over after shelling.
New ANDOVER was in Hampshire in fact it is the first Hampshire town I thought of, so HAND OVER FIST opened things up fast.
DNF, back in OWL club with ‘shocks’ rather than SHUCKS. I’m familiar with the expression of disappointment, but not the nuts meaning, and I was thinking of shellshock, i.e. what someone might be left with after experiencing shelling.
Eventually dredged up LLOYDS LIST from somewhere; like several others, was looking for an anagram for 9a before the G from TOGO forced a rethink; not familiar with the BACONIAN METHOD but it was the only thing that reasonably fitted; didn’t see how the ‘kin’ part of AKIN worked; and held myself up with EXTENSOR by being convinced that ‘singer’ was referring to some kind of traitor.
Thanks piquet and setter.
COD Hand over fist
Struggled mightily with this one. Eventually after 68 minutes, I was left with 8d and 19a, and was getting nowhere. I threw in the towel and looked up SHUCKS, which I would never have got if I’d kept going all week. That allowed me to get LLOYDS LIST with a metaphorical slap to the forehead. I had managed to correctly solve the rest of the puzzle. I won’t blame testing positive for Covid yesterday, as I feel much better today! 69:21. Thanks setter and Pip.
Generally pretty slow but steady: there were a few entered uncomfortably — I was only vaguely aware of the BACONIAN METHOD and assume that it was about his being the first to have the notion that if an experiment is repeated you’ll get the same result, but inductive … ? GRAFFITI a pleasure. 50 minutes.
53 – Found this very tough, with much puzzling over the unlikely ANABONIC METHOD (penny dropped when the crossers finally did), SHUCKS (saved by the oyster link) and KNOT (whose less common definition has cropped up relatively recently, although where I could not say).
Found this tough. SW corner eluded me until almost an hour had passed – and I never did parse AKIN, so thanks for that. NHO BACONIAN METHOD, but like others I just fitted the letters I’d got into the gaps and hoped for the best. Liked TOGO and LLOYDS LIST.
Kept plugging away long after I would normally throw in the towel, and was surprised to see that I made the top 100 with my time.
DOORBELL LOI immediately after finally twigging LLOYDS LIST. Another (in powdered*) searcher until a second “N” from MANTIS appeared.
V Good puzzle.
35:08
Had to work out BACONIAN. TUB-THUMPER was my LOI.
Have never heard HAND OVER FIST used to refer to anything other than making money.
I think (it’s been a while now) ABEL was my FOI.
Hi piquet, apologies if someone has already commented on your musings about ABEL – there are a lot of comments and I haven’t had time to read them all – but I think the setter means ‘Andy J’ to refer to Andrew Johnson not Jackson.
Thanks for the blog and also to the setter for a clever puzzle with several great definitions.
Oh I see that Jack gave the answer early on. I think because you hadn’t corrected it in the blog I was ‘expecting’ to see that it had not been answered. Something to do with confirmation bias I think.
This was tough and took me a long time, as often happens with puzzles with a strong American flavor. I was unable to make a start until I reached 21dn. I emerged successful after 60 minutes, but not before stalling in the NE corner and elsewhere. At 6dn I hit upon the wrong Andy J and spent a while trying to fit John Quincy Adams into the answer. And I was another who tried to make an anagram out of ‘in powdered’. On the plus side I had no problem with SWISS ARMY KNIFE, having sad memories of having mine confiscated at Glasgow Airport some years ago, despite having previously got it through Heathrow. But overall a very fair challenge, which probably should not have taken me as long as it did.
FOI – WYVERN
LOI – SHUCKS
COD – DOORBELL
Thanks to piquet and other contributors.
Failed at my LOI where I put CHICKS instead of SHUCKS. I struggled with ABEL since I first went for ADAM (even though I know he was ADAMS). His first name was JOHN so also a biblica character. The top right was hard.
DNF
Another challenge that defeated me. Some very enjoyable clues commented on already. (Pleased to manage SHUCKS Nuer alia).
Thank you, piquet and the setter
Andrew Jackson was long before Abe. But Andrew Johnson came just after. As we all know Jackson but not Johnson that was really tricksy setting.
Johnson was impeached which made him unique till Nixon. Now it seems it’s almost as frequent as the Clapham Omnibus.
Yes I’d forgotten about A. Johnson , and was only thinking of Jackson. But then couldn’t remember who came before him. The other Adams? Van Buren? Concluded it was all too obscure, and waited till the penny dropped thanks to crosschecking letters. Very slow solve, but I am knackered. 42’09”
LOI was the blessed nuts… I would argue that, as the setter himself has represented, what is left after shelling are the nuts, the oyster, the peas etc, not the shucks – they are thrown away. We don’t shuck nuts in the UK, as others have pointed out and ‘shucks’ is definitely an Americanism, so my best guess was CHICKS, wondering whether there was some obscure connection to ens or some kind of nut. Disappointing, as the rest of the puzzle was finally correctly finished and parsed.
45ish
A real tussle but got there in the end. NW was a real problem but also struggled to see KIN as “short man” forgetting – again – about the chess piece thing despite having spent the last 30 minutes playing bullet.
71’15”
Never at the races but……
…….enjoyed this lots.
Thank you setter and Pip.
Around 50 minutes and done in two sittings, the first much longer but set me up to finish. Never found it easy with the last six being close to torture. Not in order of pain but shucks( which I guessed), Baconian method, Lloyds List, banshee- due to being fixated on her-, doorbell and Abel proved the main problems.
Pleased to get a solve and enjoyed the puzzle.
COD = STARSHIP obviously; not KNOT
The tilting of a bank would have been Lloyds’ List whereas our shipping register is Lloyd’s List.
31.23. Rather tricky and I had to rely on working out the anagram for 12a.
Bad start to a fine crossword! Convinced myself that a firebrand was indeed a HOT POTATO (figuratively speaking)), but of course, couldn’t stretch it to fit! Don’t think I’ve ever heard of a “tub-thumper” per se, but it was a fine clue. Other DNKs were BACONIAN METHOD, ( where the first three words of the clue were enough to bamboozle me), and the order of presidents in the US: another fine clue. I think I remember the big chicken cartoon character often saying “Aw shucks” ( way back), but I think it was a term of disappointment.
Loved HAND OVER FIST (my 1st in) and SWISS ARMY KNIFE, and WHEELIE BIN. LLOYDS LIST held me up for too long – so a look-up there. Everyday is a learning day, even at 80.