A reasonably gentle offering which took me about twenty minutes. This week, I think I have adequately explained all the clues. Overseas solvers may not have the knowledge required to explain 23d, but they only need think of a synonym for cream.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Drink a large coffee at the outset before work more than once (7) |
| ALCOPOP – A, L[arge], C[offee], OP, OP. | |
| 5 | Gruesome lairs tons avoided (7) |
| HIDEOUS – HIDEOUTS loses its T. | |
| 9 | Element in National Trust into reforming tourism (9) |
| STRONTIUM – NT inside (TOURISM)*. Element 38, best known for its isotope strontium 90 in radioactive fallout, which accumulates in bones as strontium has very similar chemistry to calcium. | |
| 10 | Corvette, say, lacking power versus a destroyer (5) |
| SHIVA – SHI[P], V, A. One of the three top Hindu Gods. | |
| 11 | Being in jail, in custody receiving constant allowance (13) |
| INCARCERATION – IN, CARE (custody), insert C (a constant), RATION (allowance). | |
| 13 | Correspond about officer commanding move (8) |
| RELOCATE – RELATE (correspond), insert OC = officer commanding. | |
| 15 | Working granite when one’s missing more colourful stone (6) |
| GARNET – (GRAN TE)*. | |
| 17 | Plan of school heads in early mainstream education (6) |
| SCHEME – SCH[ool], then first letters as above. | |
| 19 | Massacre of Manchester City in safe game (8) |
| PETERLOO – PETER = safe, LOO a card game. Massacre in 1819 when cavalry charged at rioters demanding parliamentary representation. | |
| 22 | Short story by Oscar in Italian, perhaps involving politician’s reverie (13) |
| CONTEMPLATION – CONTE (a short story, from the French word); MP (politician), LATIN (perhaps Italian) with O for Oscar inserted. | |
| 25 | Report eating British food (5) |
| TABLE – TALE (report) with B inside. | |
| 26 | Old arbalest could be such an old instrument (9) |
| ASTROLABE – (O ARBALEST)*. An ancient astronomical instrument, of which I had vaguely heard. | |
| 27 | Cheerfully banning book with good reason (7) |
| RIGHTLY – [B]RIGHTLY. | |
| 28 | Bashful modesty of company head (7) |
| COYNESS – COY (abbr. for company), NESS (head). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Recess well over prior to the end of June (4) |
| APSE -SPA (well) reversed, [jun]E. | |
| 2 | Warm drink (7) |
| CORDIAL – neat double definition. | |
| 3 | Grass snake in enclosed space might cause this? (5) |
| PANIC – double definition. As I suspected, panic, or panicum, is a common genus of grass. | |
| 4 | Abbot’s number two has it, with yen for preference (8) |
| PRIORITY – a PRIOR being a number two to an abbot, IT, Y for yen. | |
| 5 | Meat for each picnic basket (6) |
| HAMPER – HAM = meat, PER = for each. | |
| 6 | I fight in engagement that’s unequal (9) |
| DISPARATE – insert I SPAR (I fight) into DATE = engagement. | |
| 7 | What could make one cry receiving private investigator’s view (7) |
| OPINION – an ONION might make you cry, insert PI for private investigator. | |
| 8 | People after deer, not what one expects in the Flow Country? (10) |
| STAGNATION – STAG (deer), NATION (people). | |
| 12 | Lawyer’s plain text nicked by men (10) |
| PROSECUTOR – PROSE (plain text), CUT (nicked), OR (men). | |
| 14 | Able to enter Nato, regularly (9) |
| COMPETENT – COMPETE (to enter), odd letters of NATO as above. | |
| 16 | Hoped to have the House go against Conservative hairsplitting (8) |
| PEDANTIC – HOPED loses HO[use], so PED, ANTI (against) C. | |
| 18 | Help steal American’s purse (7) |
| HANDBAG – HAND (help), BAG (steal in America). | |
| 20 | Bond worked over weakling — not the first (7) |
| LINKAGE – (EAKLING)*, the W removed from weakling for the anagrist. | |
| 21 | A quiet airy ground where one keeps hives (6) |
| APIARY – A, P (quiet), (AIRY)*. Where bees live. | |
| 23 | Cream engine, the last on railway (5) |
| IVORY – IVOR THE ENGINE being an animation TV series by Oliver Postgate, add Y from the end of railway. | |
| 24 | Real highlights of English Mikado’s lead in G&S (4) |
| GEMS – put E M into G and S. | |
After yesterday’s ordeal this came as a welcome relief and I completed it in 31 minutes.
I was pleased to remember the only unusual word ASTROLABE from a previous appearance. Also on that clue I was amused to see ‘arbalest’, a word (with variations) I had expounded on at some length in my QC blog on Monday. Prior to that it had been mentioned only once before in a TfTT blog re a Mephisto in 2014
hallo jacket..I’m the person who does the crossword the day after everyone else! I just wanted to say two things.. thanks for the explanation for Tuesday’s cryptic but also to say Sienna is one of the best Italian cities.. famous for the palio di Sienna.. it is a beautiful city so try and visit!
Many thanks, Clare.
Lovely, but only 1 “n”. Italian spelling!
11:21. Mostly straightforward though I had a lingering doubt about the Y in COYNESS having expected company to indicate CO. Clearly COY had to be an alternative abbreviation but I don’t recall ever seeing it before.
Coy is what is used in the army as the abbreviation for Company (cf Bn for Battalion etc).
19m for this enjoyable offering. Thanks to Piquet for the explanation of 22ac which I didn’t get, not knowing ‘conte’ as a short story.
Coyness, have seen Coy but couldn’t remember where. Thanks Pootle.
Sure enough, IVOR was my LOI! Don’t think I’d ever seen COY for “company” before.
Military I believe.
9:52, a nice puzzle, quite gentle. Same thoughts as others on COY.
Thanks both.
Around 40 minutes. Fast time for me. FOI APIARY LOI RIGHTLY Good to get an easy one for a change. Saw most of answers without parsing. Parsed later but had three I needed the blog for. Put in SHIVA when I saw destroyer. INCARCERATION and CONTEMPLATION were nice.
Thanks Piquet
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
(To His Coy Mistress. Marvell)
15 mins mid-brekker. Gentle, neat and tidy. Eyebrow twitching at Company=CoY and enter=compete (but I see you’ve got to be in it to win it).
Ta setter and Pip.
Completed in 35 min.
Main struggle was RELOCATE where I had RE for about and MATE for move (in chess).
IVOR the engine, nice reference. I tried to make IRONY work, with IRON=engine, plausible slang.
Not happy with COY = company. Why not Bashful modesty of company with unknown head (7)
I don’t think that would make sense. You can refer to the coyness of the boss of a company, but if the boss was unknown then you wouldn’t know if they were coy or not.
Like everyone else, I hesitated with this, but Tringmardo explains above that it’s an army abbreviation, which is good enough for me. 🙂
12.55
Back from a week off crosswords in Vienna, nice to start back in with something gentle.
It took me some CONTEMPLATION to realise that 22ac didn’t involve an anagram of Italian, but being PEDANTIC is never a bad thing.
Overseas solvers might not be aware of The PETERLOO Massacre, but I’ve been back to Manchester to commemorate it on 16 August several times, including a march from Stockport on the 200th anniversary five years ago.
LOI PROSECUTOR (Go Kamala!)
COD IVORY
25 minutes, helped by my son’s visiting puppy. COD to IVORY, despite the engine not being from Rev Awdry’s shed. Pleasant. puzzle. Thank you Pip and setter. Can someone please get this dog off my neck?
Lol!
POI 23d Ivo-ry, an engine in Rev Awdry’s Thomas the Tank is called Ivo Hugh. Took me a while to find, and thank goodness I can’t remember him. From Wiki (yawn):
“New Little Engine, Book no. 40, Published 8 August 1996
Stories: Speedkiller, Sir Handel’s Plan, Dirty Water, I Name This Engine…
The Skarloey Railway needs another engine. The Thin Controller announces that a new one will be built. In the meantime, Peter Sam is sent to visit the Talyllyn Railway. The engine is finally completed, and the railway’s engineer, Mr Hugh, is to unveil the name. He is surprised to discover that the engine has been named Ivo Hugh – after himself!”
I never thought of Oliver Postgate’s books.
🐶
20 mins, with lots of biffing and post-parsing. Thanks for explaining CONTEMPLATION. NHO of COY as company, and unimpressed by compete = enter, but nothing else to get worked up about.
Coy for company is a military usage for a section of a regiment. I had no problem with it. I biffed both 13 letter across clues, and must thank Pip for parsing them, otherwise this wasn’t too tricky – though I did slow down in the SW quadrant.
FOI ALCOPOP
LOI RELOCATE
COD PETERLOO (but then I’m a local)
TIME 9:42
55 mins so not quick. My only excuse is that I did have a number of interruptions.
Good fun and some interesting words. STRONTIUM dragged up from Pointless! ASTROLABE guessed at once I figured out ASTRO at least was “something”.
Thanks pip and setter.
11:13. I see BUSMAN has already explained that coy. is a military company. Held up most by the long acrosses and CORDIAL. LOI PANIC looking for something more than a cryptic hint second definition in the wordplay. Thanks Pip and setter.
13:47
After a tough couple of crosswords this had more of a typical Monday feel.
No real problems, though I admit I didn’t think too hard about the unknown elements of some of the clues (CONTE, COY, PANIC) as the answers were obvious.
3 of these on the 19th October please Crossword Gods.
Thanks to both.
Enjoyable solve. About an hour, which is quick for me.
Thanks for explaining PANIC, and COYNESS (perhaps the setter is an army man?).
I enjoyed the reference to Oliver Postgate’s little engine- one of my son’s favourites.
Many thanks to blogger and setter.
By the way, I think the Times might want to alter the software slightly on the app. When you submit the last clue, your chance to correct any “fat thumb” entries is gone, and you get the dreaded “that’s not quite right”. Perhaps a warning after the penultimate entry? When I solve on paper, I tend to be more precise.
In the top left-hand corner of Wales…
Needed half an hour for this, finishing with the dimly remembered ASTROLABE. Didn’t parse CONTEMPLATION or COMPETENT, had to assume that ‘coy’ can be an abbreviation for ‘company’ to get COYNESS, and had no idea that PANIC is a kind of grass.
For RELOCATE, you need to insert ‘oc’ rather than ‘co’ – presumably ‘oc’ is an accepted abbreviation for ‘officer commanding’?
A relief to get this crossword after yesterday’s struggles – thanks piquet and setter.
FOI Apse
LOI Astrolabe
COD Strontium
16.59 for me, one of my best times. Interestingly that included a few I had no idea about, including PANIC, IVORY and CONTEMPLATION – a real challenge to parse as Nelson’s helpful blog explains. I was aware of ASTROLABE because it was a French vessel that circumnavigated the globe in the 1820s, including a stop-off in Australia, and has a street named after it in Canberra’s Red Hill.
From Joey:
One day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York
He could see it coming through the door as he lifted up his fork
He pushed the TABLE over to protect his family
Then he staggered out into the streets of Little Italy
About 20′ which is on the speedier side for me. While I struggled with some of yesterday’s offering I found this, on the other hand, just a little bland (maybe apart from the Ivor reference). In saying that, while PETERLOO was a write-in I didn’t know its meaning as “safe”; also “conte” was new to me, so still learning. Thanks Piquet and setter.
21:11
Straightforward solve with a few Crosswordland favourites: peter, panic, people, ration.
Thanks, p.
15.59
Nice puzzle. Always like a footie clue so COD to PETERLOO. No problem with COY. In fact when I started doing these things some years ago this came up and I remember thinking it was one to clock. First time it’s come up since.
30m 51s
Thanks, Pip, particularly for PANIC/PANICUM.
IVORY made me laugh because it reminded me of the Aussie impersonator, Billy Birmingham, aka ‘The Twelfth Man’. ‘Back in the day’ He used to do great impersonations of the likes of Tony Greig, Bill Lawrie and, above all, Richie Benaud. Richie always used to wear the same colour jacket. On one record, TTM had ‘Richie’s wife’ ask him: “What colour jacket do you want today, dear, the cream, the bone, the off-white, the IVORY or the beige?”
I’m sure galspray will remember that!
Certainly gentle enough, and though I slowed down in the south I completed in 14.54.
Being PEDANTIC (sometimes!) I had to look up the status of Manchester at the time of PETERLOO. Sadly, yes, it was a city in 1819, so there goes my chance of being clever clogs of the day.
Having watched PROSECUTOR Kamala last night (another tricky night for sleeping) I’ve been inspired by her victim to marinade a kitten in white wine in preparation for my lunch. Is that OK?
14:42
We’ve had PANIC grass before, or I wouldn’t have known it. DNK Flow Country, DNK Ivor. PETERLOO no problem, although I couldn’t have told you where it occurred. Were they rioting? COY was new to me; looked it up afterwards. The setter seems inordinately fond of inserting and deleting initial letters: coffee at the outset, heads in early mainstream education, etc., etc., and yet again etc. I did like ‘hoped to have the House go’.
7:51. No problems today.
I’ve never heard of the Flow Country, despite spending many days yomping across bogs there, or very close to there at least. A land where you can tread on what looks like solid ground and go in up to your waist. Dress carefully.
I first came across STRONTIUM in dog form. I don’t recommend eating it.
I’m sure we’ve had COY before, I remember it surprising me, and I think a discussion. It’s a standard abbreviation so fair game, and it’s pretty obvious why we see it less frequently then CO.
In 18dn pip it’s the purse which is American (for HANDBAG), not BAG for steal.
I think that it’s both, K! The definition can be read as American’s purse, as it is the US term for a handbag, or just purse for bag. Take your pick.
You have to account for ‘American’ though, and it doesn’t apply to BAG since that is not a specifically American term for ‘steal’.
23 mins. Thought I’d got bogged down in the bottom half, then the lawyer got me over the finishing line. PANIC biffed, I had no idea about the grass.
I’d never heard of the Flow Country but see it’s a thing. When I was at school we had a book called ‘Contes de Guy de Maupassant’ or something like that, so had always thought that conte was French, but I see it has come to English. Coy no problem: perfectly standard military abbreviation. Enter/compete I never noticed, but now that it’s been pointed out that seems to be the only weakness. 30 minutes.
A nice gentle start to the day with an ALCOPOP. STRONTIUM showers will be here and there, and the end of the world can be watched on Channel Zee, as Don McLean once said. SHIVA popped straight out of the clue when I saw destroyer. No trouble with COY for company, as the military usage came to mind after a moment or two. I wasn’t HAMPERed by the HIDEOUS STAGNATION in the NE. HANDBAG was LOI, but I went back to see why 20d was LINKAGE before submitting. A short spot of 22a revealed the parsing. 16:40. Thanks setter and Pip.
19:55
Wrote in CONTEMPLATION with no real idea why, just to stop the clock under 20’. Roaring start, then struggled with the SW until the lawyer opened it up.
Most enjoyable, thanks all.
14:50 – fairly straightforward, although a question mark over HANDBAG as neither bag nor the whole word in the senses required by the clue seem to merit the US tag.
‘Purse’ for HANDBAG is a specifically American usage.
Yes, I see now that it is sometimes used that way in the US. Apparently some use the two interchangeably and others make a distinction, but it is undoubtedly an Americanism.
Yes I think in North America it can also mean ‘small bag of money’ but in English English it never means ‘handbag’.
Iago tells Rodrigo, “Put money in thy purse!”
Well yes, but he’s not referring to a handbag.
Actually, in Q2 it’s “Put money in thy handbag!”
And in the Second Folio it’s “put money in thy clutch, which by the way is too cute!”
😄
MER 22a Conte-mplation; I can’t find that conte in English dictionaries; Chambers online doesn’t have it, my 1979 Collins has conte meaning conte-crayon, Wictionary has it as French for a short story.
3d Panic biffed. Thanks for the panic grass. Doh, had heard of.
POI 4d Prior-ity; I knew it was a lower grade than abbot, but also knew it is the head of a Priory. But Wiki tells me that in an abbey he is a subordinate.
POI 8d Never knew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_Country
was a thing. It’s in Caithness & Sutherland and is a Unesco heritage site.
Collins has conte: “noun: a tale or short story, esp of adventure”
Candide is the most famous of Voltaire’s “contes philosophiques”.
French film director Éric Rohmer had a series of movies, Six Contes Moraux(My Night at Maud’s and Claire’s Knee were two of the more famous).
Many thanks all, and I doubted not that a dictionary would have it, but I think a hint at its French heritage would not have come amiss. I do have a paperback copy of Candide (in English of course!), but failed to notice any reference to “conte”; my fault there probably.
All that said it was eminently biffable.
What is “Chambers online”?
The Chambers app, on my phone, has it: “A short story (as a literary genre).”
I don’t know any other way to get digital Chambers. Had to buy that, but it’s inexpensive.
https://chambers.co.uk/search/
Oh, yes, I’ve seen that before. It’s linked on this page, even.
A long time ago, I tried finding some Mephisto word via that site (The 21st Century Chambers) and realized that it’s not the reference for those puzzles.
You’re right, though—it doesn’t have “conte.” Pas surprenant !
Thanks for explaining PANIC, which I put in as the obvious answer but could not parse, not having heard of the grass in question.
I parsed HANDBAG differently, on the basis that ‘bag’ = ‘steal’ and ‘American’s purse’ was the definition of the answer, since what we call a ‘handbag’ is called a ‘purse’ across the pond.
I enjoyed this puzzle since it met the two essential requirements for me to do so: (a) I had to think a bit, (b) I completed it.
Personal Best at 14 minutes. *Clangs the PB bell*
Plenty of biffing today. I felt that some of the definitions were just too obvious (picnic basket — hamper) although I shouldn’t complain. Some witty clues too. Corvette … destroyer was neat. But my unexpectedly quick time meant I spent the rest of my lunch hour wandering aimlessly around the house, looking out of windows, winding clocks, etc
Completed in about 60 mins which is good for me but had 9 answers I couldn’t parse so thanks go to Piquet for the explanations.
34 minutes, with a pink square. I had doubts about PANIC and LINKAGE – both unparsed – but they were OK. I went wrong by spelling PROSECUTOR with ER at the end. Just annoying. I liked CORDIAL
26’50”
Good early pace but no extra closing stages.
I was pleased to see an astrolabe making an appearance; a thoughtful student, knowing my enthusiasms, found and printed a template for making an elaborate cardboard version, designed by Chaucer, which was a surprise. It may still be on a website somewhere.
Very enjoyable; thanks to the setter, Pip and Myrtilus for memories of a marvellous Marvel-based Listener of many moons gone.
I assume you mean Marvell, unless there was a Listener based on Iron Man & Co 😉
15.35 with none of the obscurities of yesterday to contend with. LOI was gems , one of those four letter devils that can ruin a good time.
Is ‘real’ doing anything in ‘Real highlights of English Mikado’s lead in G&S (4)’ ?
Umm… does it acknowlege that a highlight is usually metaphorical whereas gems are solid/real, and sparkly?
I thought of it as “not just any old highlights, these are the REAL highlights!”
30 minutes, happy with that.
I thought the “snake in an enclosed space might cause this” and the “not what one expects in the Flow Country” references rather oddball definitions. Otherwise, nice puzzle.
I don’t usually attempt these but came over from QC World for a satisfying 34:26 solve, albeit with much biffing, so many thanks for the blog. Thanks also to the setter!
Another QC immigrant (here to eat your pets). Finished that, in amazement and also in 19:35 which for me is jolly good. COD to IVORY. NHO conte or the grass, so many thanks Piquet.
26:54
Twenty mins for everything except five in the SW. Assumed that CONTEMPLATION was correct but had no idea how to parse. Eventually RIGHTLY sprang up, followed by COMPETENT, RELOCATE, PROSECUTOR and finally TABLE. Had no idea either about PANIC being a grass (i don’t really get the over-elaborateness of the second part of the clue), nor COY being a valid abbreviation for company. Every day’s a school day.
Thanks P and setter
I’d heard of Ivor the Engine, without knowing where it came from. But I was confused by memories of the Who song A Quick One While He’s Away, which features Ivor the engine-driver. All done in 16’12”. Always a good start when 1 ac is the first one in. The OP-OP was a giveaway.
29 minutes. Quick for me but it felt hard. Grassy PANIC was new and there were quite a few tricky parses. Thanks piquet for sorting them out.
21:18, did this one late in the day, as everyone already said a straightforward puzzle today, I had to biff a couple so thanks Piquet for explaining Coy and Ivor the engine (I only know Thomas and Gordon!)
20.37. All pretty harmless.
I likes me ‘armless ones! Just on the right level for me. Liked OPINION, PETERLOO, IVORY and many more. Understood HANDBAG to be the US term for a purse.