31:18
A bit of a mixed bag, in my opinion. Quite a few satisfying penny-drop moments, alongside some definitions bordering on weird. Perhaps I just don’t have the requisite knowledge to appreciate some subtleties. I found the right hand side much harder than the left, except for my LOI 15dn.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fail to take advantage of reasonable mark at university (4,2) |
| PASS UP – PASS (reasonable mark) + UP (at university). | |
| 5 | Doing something with unwelcome intruders? (8) |
| OCCUPIED – double definition / cryptic hint. | |
| 9 | Legitimate target that is less appealing than soccer? (4,4) |
| FAIR GAME – FAIR (less appealing than) + GAME (soccer?). | |
| 10 | Meditative place containing area in a quiet room (6) |
| ASHRAM – A (area), in A + SH (quiet) + RM (room). | |
| 11 | Dire omen disconcerted boss (8) |
| DOMINEER – anagram of DIRE OMEN. | |
| 12 | Diplomacy initially is clearly expedient (6) |
| TACTIC – TACT (diplomacy), then the forst letters of Is and Clearly. Nicely switched part of speech. | |
| 13 | Steps possibly taken by crew in Tube following warning signal (8) |
| HORNPIPE – RN (Royal Navy, crew), contained by PIPE (tube) after HO! (warning signal). | |
| 15 | Law introduced with leader of parliament’s agreement (4) |
| PACT – ACT (law) after first of Parliament. | |
| 17 | Crop frame of blue movie (4) |
| BEET – outermost letters (frame) of BluE + ET (film). | |
| 19 | Note about what listeners practise (8) |
| REHEARSE – RE (note), containing (about) EH? (what) + EARS (listeners). | |
| 20 | What solicitor may do about overturning bulk of legal expenses? (6) |
| ACCOST – CA (about) reversed (overturning) + most of COSTs (legal expenses?). Tout not lawyer. | |
| 21 | Issued new mandate after start of election (8) |
| EMANATED – anagram of MANDATE after first of Election. | |
| 22 | Sport isn’t about entertaining opposing players (6) |
| TENNIS – anagram of ISN’T containing E + N (East and North, opposing players in bridge). | |
| 23 | Unimportant, short-lived ménage à trois? (8) |
| TRIFLING – cryptic definition. TRI-FLING. | |
| 24 | King was convinced to remove bishop no longer showing concern (8) |
| RELIEVED – R (king) + bELIEVED minus its ‘b’ (bishop). | |
| 25 | Moderate urgent legislation’s passage (6) |
| GENTLE – hidden in urGENT LEgislation. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Working in Canada, somehow being able to draw breath? (8) |
| ANACONDA – ON (working) in an anagram (somehow) of CANADA. Is the definition simply ‘animal that breathes’? I get the feeling I’m missing something clever here. | |
| 3 | Uninterrupted sound on recording (8) |
| STRAIGHT – sounds like (on recording) “strait” (sound). | |
| 4 | Earth possibly reduced grass and other plant life (5,4) |
| PLANE TREE – PLANET (Earth possibly) + all-but-the-last-of REEd (grass). | |
| 5 | Theatre objected to supporting extra appearing more often than expected (15) |
| OVERREPRESENTED – REP (theatre) + RESENTED (objected to), all underneath (supporting) OVER (extra). | |
| 6 | Steal the show from leading male character at end of performance (7) |
| UPSTAGE – UP (leading) + STAG (male character) + last of performancE. | |
| 7 | Short ceremony encapsulated by cross and incense (8) |
| IRRITATE – shortened RITe inside IRATE (cross). | |
| 8 | Queen perhaps behind protest involving Republican politician (8) |
| DEMOCRAT – CAT (queen perhaps, a female cat) after DEMO (protest), involving R (republican). | |
| 14 | Sharing Standard piece on which Time article is based (9) |
| PARTAKING – PAR (standard), then KING (piece, in chess) under T (time) and A (article). | |
| 15 | Newspaper most unlikely to charge for each column (8) |
| PILASTER – I (newspaper) + LAST (most unlikely), contained by (to charge) PER (for each). Vaguely remembered architectural feature. | |
| 16 | Expert regularly unveils something hard to get one’s teeth into (8) |
| CRACKNEL – CRACK (expert) + regular letters from uNvEiLs. What I would more likely call peanut brittle. | |
| 17 | Happened to live in a corrupt state (8) |
| BEFALLEN – BE (live) + FALLEN (in a corrupt state). | |
| 18 | Constant checking by particular type of examiner (8) |
| EXTERNAL – ETERNAL (constant) containing (checking) X (by, times by). | |
| 19 | Impatient author’s preceded by everyone else (7) |
| RESTIVE – I’VE (author’s) after REST (everyone else). | |
A mixture of very easy answers and some that were a struggle. ANACONDA was obvious, but I couldn’t see how it worked and then just about realised. Draw seemed a bit unsatisfactory, but as Pootle says above, OK, and Jackkt then makes a good point about us pulling these clues to pieces when actually they can be justified: we should cut the setters some slack. I thought OCCUPIED was pretty feeble, but that may be an example of my failing to do what I’ve just advocated. Agree with what seems to be the majority about HORNPIPE, with its longer definition, but both work. Liked the TRI-FLING. 57 minutes, with some mild aids.
Quite liked this one, a couple of ?s eg the snake, but all explainable.
No problem with 5ac, I’m pretty sure the Occupied Territories are “with unwelcome intruders. ”
Count me in the horn+pipe camp, ho ain’t a warning signal. And sailors dance hornpipes.
26:28. Enjoyed this a lot. My last in OCCUPIED just pips ANACONDA as my favourite. Thanks, setter and William.
About half an hour.
Enjoyable challenge. LOI pilaster.
Thanks, w.
Strange, I like and watch soccer and know of Pele and Brazil and “Joga Bonita”, but never heard the English version “the beautiful game”. Failed to parse that, thinking it wasn’t appealing/less than beautiful because so many players cheat and dive. Or something. Also missed the Anaconda parsing, it’s just about OK.
NHO my LOI cracknell, except as Oz actor Ruth, who played Ruthless mother in Mother and Son. Nice puzzle.
42:56
Fairly good going until about 25 minutes with the RHS complete (though I didn’t get the second part of OCCUPIED), I was left with the six in the SW corner, plus 9a and 3d. Stumped for several minutes, I eventually spotted TENNIS which saw PILASTER, RELIEVED and RESTIVE also fall. Another few mins before STRAIGHT and the at-the-time, unappreciated FAIR GAME, leaving just ACCOST (I pencilled in ADVISE initially which of course, led nowhere) and CRACKNEL to, er, CRACK.
Nice Friday workout – thanks setter and William
I was going to finish within my 45 minute target with only one to do, but OCCUPIED kept me occupied for a further four minutes, before crossing the line in 46.35. I initially put ACCUSE in for 20ac, but took the trouble to make sure it parsed before moving on, and quickly saw ACCOST was the answer. My architectural background allowed me to think of PILASTER as a possibility for column, and although I parsed it, I don’t think I would so easily have constructed the answer if the word wasn’t known to me.
Following the well trodden paths above in enjoying the puzzle but struggling to finish in the SW. PILASTER took ages as I couldn’t see the ‘to charge’ bit but it went in with a shrug. 16dn’s biscuit was the hardest to ‘crack’ and became loi.
Thanks for the parsing of Anaconda (I missed the ‘being’). I thought it was Tri(0) Fling.
Mostly I was so far off wavelength that in some clues not only could I not parse, but I couldn’t even find the definition. Partly that was, as Wm noted, some synomyms being just a bit stretched, and I was prepared to be good and grumpy about the whole thing. But on going back for review after I was finished I saw how clever and tight the clues were. Nice job, setter.
Found this fairly straightforward – all done in 16 mins, with everything parsed except for “anaconda” – so thanks to jackkt et al for explaining that. Thanks also to William and setter.
I thought this comparatively gentle for a Friday, and had finished in 30 minutes. For me the test of a good puzzle is the confidence that your answers to all the clues are correct, which was the case here. Agree with other commentators that we should not expect 100% pedantic accuracy in the clueing, so I have no problem with OCCUPIED, ANACONDA, or EXTERNAL.
FOI – ASHRAM
LOI – PILASTER
COD – TRIFLING.
Thanks to william and other contributors.
I thought my LOI BEFALLEN was difficult but I seem to be on my own so maybe it’s just me.
Off to a good start with FOI PASS UP but slow after that with a bit of a shrug for some answers.
COD OCCUPIED
I was not doing the crossword there, but the answer to 5-across actually occurred to me while I was sitting on the toilet! The cubicle sign did occur to me!
I don’t time myself, and allow myself a dictionary and thesaurus. I found this puzzle reasonably tricky. Thanks to setter and blogger.