Time: 28.17
Music: Altan, Local Ground
I found this puzzle a bit difficult, and felt like I was working at the extremes of my skill level. Many of the clues were pretty tricky, at least until they clicked. This was definitely a quality puzzle, and probably requires an experienced solver to understand. I did biff some of the long ones as I was solving, but since I am writing the blog I will now parse them.
| Across | |
| 1 | Angry about being corralled by one with even stricter diet than me (10) |
| VEGETARIAN – VEG(IRATE backwards)AN. | |
| 6 | I can’t tell you to succeed (4) |
| PASS – Double definition, although a pass degree is not considered very successful. | |
| 10 | Recent pupil pines for the quadrangles (7) |
| OBLONGS – O.B. + LONGS. | |
| 11 | In Yemeni capital ran across man of note (7) |
| SMETANA – S(MET)ANA. Unfortunately, the capital of Yemen is Sanaa, but I biffed Smetana anyway. | |
| 12 | Current one working bearing string instrument (9) |
| ACCORDION – A/C (CORD) I ON. | |
| 13 | One capped once, career’s beginning to run into the sand (5) |
| DUNCE – DUN(C[areer])E. | |
| 14 | Wanting too much golf, does have to step back (5) |
| GREED – G + DEER backwards. | |
| 15 | Almost all the time in Britain, yes? This isn’t (6,3) |
| GALWAY BAY – G(ALWAY[s])B + AY. | |
| 17 | Cook lunch: I bet one so needs food for two? (2,3,4) |
| IN THE CLUB – Anagram of LUNCH: I BET. | |
| 20 | Scottish title compared with English (5) |
| THANE – THAN + E, one of the few easy ones. | |
| 21 | Heading off, risk walk (5) |
| AMBLE – [g]AMBLE. | |
| 23 | Ark struggling with no more sail (9) |
| MOONRAKER – Anagram of ARK + NO MORE, not the first sail you might think of. | |
| 25 | At first look daggers at a bloomer (7) |
| LOBELIA – L + OBELI + A. | |
| 26 | Game John edited in periodical (3-4) |
| MAH-JONG – MA(anagram of JOHN)G. | |
| 27 | Like a fish, very hard? No way (4) |
| EELY – [st]EELY. I had biffed oily, but couldn’t parse it, so erased it. | |
| 28 | Implores to move to city (10) |
| METROPOLIS – Anagram of IMPLORES TO. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Shipwrecked heroine that may be found in bed (5) |
| VIOLA – Double definition, one in Twelfth Night, one in a flower bed. | |
| 2 | One perhaps flying over grand, ancient hilltop (9) |
| GOLDCREST – G + OLD + CREST. | |
| 3 | Oddball turning up part of nose properly over small town (9,5) |
| TUNBRIDGE WELLS – NUT upside down + BRIDGE + WELL + S, one I biffed. | |
| 4 | Reacting to oxygen in sport with sharp pain (7) |
| RUSTING – R.U. + STING. | |
| 5 | Succeeded entering stadium, left side (7) |
| ARSENAL – AR(S)ENA + L, a football side. | |
| 7 | A win? Not once (5) |
| AGAIN – A + GAIN. | |
| 8 | Emergency for journey to relieve ancient city (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE – SPARE + TYRE. I can’t say I like the literal. | |
| 9 | In principal role, one part of body controls another (14) |
| HEADMASTERSHIP – HEAD MASTERS HIP. | |
| 14 | Endlessly questioned about investment in painting (9) |
| GRISAILLE – GR(ISA)ILLE[d]. Those not in the UK might not know ISA. | |
| 16 | British: why they can’t swim in resort? (9) |
| BLACKPOOL – B + LACK POOL. | |
| 18 | Not be honest about alcoholic drink and soft one (7) |
| LIMEADE – LI(MEAD)E. | |
| 19 | 50s child eating large loaf (7) |
| BLOOMER – B(L)OOMER, another easy one. | |
| 22 | Confused situation of black murder victim (5) |
| BABEL – B + ABEL. | |
| 24 | Hindu themes initially appearing in lesser newspapers (5) |
| RAGAS – RAG(A[ppearing])S. | |
Shame about Sanaa… I didn’t know better, and didn’t check.
This took longer than I thought it would for a while. The English town held me up, and the BAY was LOI.
I think we should cut the setter some slack here. Spelling Arabic words is an inexact science. Lawrence of Arabia made a point of annoying his publisher by spelling every placename differently this time from how he did last time.
I agree. If you were being pernickety then Sanaa (صنعاء) could also (and sometimes is) quite legitimately be spelt Sana’a with the apostrophe indicating a missing ‘ain’, a sound which does not occur in English. Sanaa is merely a convention, not a transliteration, and I think we can be happy with Sana which does the job.
I agree too. I’ve often seen it spelt San’a which makes Sana perfectly acceptable in punctuation-free crosswordland.
21:08
This didn’t feel like a Monday puzzle, and I was surprised to finish as quickly as I did. I wondered if Sana was a variant spelling, but no, just an error. DNK the bird. Not being in Britain is an odd definition of GALWAY BAY. And it was odd that ‘bloomer’ would be part of one clue and the solution of another.
Enjoyed this. Didn’t know MOONRAKER was a sail (thought it was just a Bond film) and didn’t know GRISAILLE. Where was Martin P when you needed him?
32 minutes.
Late on parade, I’m afraid, Ulaca!
22:44 so pretty fast for me. I did know both the capital of Yemen and the Czech composer so no hold up there. I knew MOONRAKER was a sail and not just a James Bond novel (and film). SPARE TYRE held me up for a moment since “emergency for journey” sounds more like a FLAT TIRE than a SPARE TIRE, but obviously FLAT doesn’t fit and I wondered if there was another choice that did. I knew VIOLET was a flower, but not VIOLA. But I did Twelfth Night for O-level so “shipwrecked heroine” pretty much only has one candidate.
And I’ve seen ‘Shakespeare in Love’.
Liked this although I failed to see SMETANA. Some really nice clues here and felt more like tricky Thursday than a Monday. Only knew MOONRAKER as the smuggling term. BLACKPOOL came to mind quickly with the B from GALWAY BAY. VEGETARIAN had me in a twist but got it from the checkers and figured out the cryptic after, clever. Loved ARSENAL with only ‘side’ as the literal but the wordplay was plain and gets my COD.
Thanks V and setter.
Yes, it would be fun for setters to clue it with the literal ‘by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.’
Perhaps an anagram with ‘delusional’ as the indicator?
I’m sensing you’re not their biggest fan…
My daughter, with whom I used to watch the Premier League live from the age of six, turned to me after perhaps a year and told me she was an Arsenal supporter.
As a lifelong United fan, it was something I have still not come to terms with.
🤣
But which United is that? Southend? Hartlepools? Cambridge? You surely aren’t suggesting that ManU is the only United? (Except in crosswordland of course – see 15×15 passim).
I’m a Brighton fan, but I have to thank Arsenal for providing me with the sight of one of the great performances: 5-1 away to Milan in 2003 with Thierry Henry playing wide on the left and tearing the Inter defence apart, Cannavaro and all. I was living in Italy at the time and watched it on TV.
About 70 minutes. A bit more difficult than the usual Monday fare but most enjoyable. The NE corner slowed me at the end. Loved SPARE TYRE. Using one word side for ARSENAL was clever. VEGETARIAN and TUNBRIDGE WELLS particularly the latter are deviously constructed.
Thanks V.
35 minutes with one look-up.
I was stuck on 11ac and decided to give myself a little help by checking the capital of Yemen,. But when I found it was SANAA (NHO) there was no way to fit that around the checkers I gave up and used aids to come up with the answer. I was annoyed with myself because I had realised I was looking for the name of a composer and I had blogged a clue with reference to Smetana barely a month ago when the answer was MA VLAST.
Elsewhere I was pleased to construct GRISAILLE from wordplay. It’s interesting that its 3 most recent references here (aside from a Jumbo last year) have all been blogged by today’s blogger!
I have no reservations about PASS defined as ‘succeed’.
No, but if it was FAIL being clued as ‘succeed’, different story!
A hard puzzle, made harder by trying to watch the cricket at the same time. 44.48 but I failed on GALWAY BAY, and we’re all going to be in trouble if this business of defining somewhere as being not in Britain catches on. There were some excellent clues here but when I got absolutely nothing after several minutes I feared a rout. Thank you vinyl, I had forgotten about those pesky obeli and wondered how the biffed LOBELIA worked.
From Blind Willie McTell:
Well God is in his heaven, and we all want what’s his
But power and GREED and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St James Hotel
And I know no-one can sing the blues like
Blind Willie McTell
Great, great song.
Amen to that
I think the cleverness of the ‘Almost all the time in Britain…’ clue is that GB is defined as England, Scotland and Wales. Then you have the United Kingdom, which also ropes in Northern Ireland. But Galway Bay is in the Republic of Ireland and therefore only part of the British Isles. There is quite a lot of confusion over the various divisions even within these countries! There’s a helpful map – https://www.britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-great-britain-and-the-united-kingdom which explains it all.
14:09. I thought I was going to get stuck at the end with GRISAILLE as I don’t recall seeing the word before and I was looking for a synonym for investment rather than a specific type. However ISA came to me before too long. Elsewhere I was possibly helped by remembering the composer SMETANA but not the Yemeni capital, thus not facing any dilemma regarding the clue not quite working.
18:09, not the usual gentle start to the week. SMETANA and GRISAILLE were tough and I made hard work out of RAGAS and GOLDCREST.
ARSENAL again eh? When do Bolton Wanderers get a turn?
Thanks setter and Vinyl.
PRESTON NORTH END fits beautifully too.
Bolton Wanderers didn’t feature amongst the answers, but Blackpool did!
12.00
A bit chewy for a Monday, but fun. GRISAILLE new to me. I did almost try RAGTS as a Hindu caste, but thankfully came to my senses. SMETANA was quite tough – I’ve only come across the composer in crosswords I think, and didn’t know the capital, so was unburdened by knowledge of its correct spelling.
Thanks both.
36m 40s As Amoeba has said, ‘a bit chewy for a Monday’.
I enjoyed 3d as I went to grammar school there -The Skinners’ School. Happy days!
I also enjoyed 9d; very clever.
Thank you, Vinyl.
I biffed VEGETARIAN, and was fortunately blissfully unaware of the capital of Yemen. I note that I was technically wrong to take Sana on trust, but I’m due some luck this week.
I’m an OB of Altrincham Grammar School, but having left in 1963 I’m not sure that “recent” really belongs in the definition.
FOI OBLONGS
LOI GOLDCREST
COD GREED
TIME 9:04
… Is now no more
Than struts of greed, a last
Charred smile, a clawed
Crustacean hatred, blackened pride …
(On being twenty-six, Larkin)
30 mins pre-brekker. A high quality crossword with some lovely constructions, e.g. the irate vegan and head masters hip. I liked it.
Ta setter and V
No time but not quick. Bit of a slog really but I did manage to finish with L2I GRISAILLE, which I know from the French as grey, cloudy and gernerally wet, but not as a painting, and EELY. DNK the Yemeni capital but the crossers fit the composer.
I liked IN THE CLUB.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
A whole lot of biffing going on… 27′ but not particularly satisfying, with VEGETARIAN, GALWAY BAY, and LOBELIA unparsed. The painting and Hindu themes I constructed but were NHOs and I looked for a long time at LOI HEADMASTERSHIP before it came to me. No complaints about the puzzle, some excellent clues, just my brain still in 2nd gear. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
32 minutes with LOI RUSTING. I was too wrapped up in watching the sun go down on GALWAY BAY to see it earlier. SANAA would have been a terrible shame if I’d known how to spell it in the first place. Dud of the Day instead to SPARE TYRE. COD TO BLACKPOOL, noted for fresh air and fun. I took GRISAILLE on trust.Enjoyable. Thank you V and setter, and Galspray for highlighting the one and only Wanderers.
And Strictly Come Dancing!
Just over 10 minutes.
– Haven’t heard of Sanaa so missed the error in the clue for SMETANA
– Didn’t know that a MOONRAKER is a sail
– Didn’t parse HEADMASTERSHIP
-Needed the wordplay to get the unknown GRISAILLE
Thanks vinyl and setter.
FOI Ragas
LOI Pass
COD Vegetarian
13m on the dot. I got held up at the end in the north-west corner, where I struggled to justify VEGETARIAN (I wanted the whole thing to be an anagram) and was not sure if a VIOLA was a flower.
8d seems off to me. ‘Emergency’ doesn’t have the required meaning as far as I’m aware (and having checked the usual dictionaries).
‘A substitute in reserve’ is the 5th meaning of ‘Emergency’ in Chambers (13th edition). I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used like that before, so it did seem pretty odd.
Actually, come to think of it, I think I have heard of having an emergency item, like an emergency spare tyre. I’ve just always assumed it meant either for actual emergencies, or was intended as a kind of hyperbole (like emergency biscuits).
That meaning is in the other dictionaries too but it refers specifically to sport.
‘Emergency’ can function as a modifier in the way you suggest but in that context it is not synonymous with SPARE TYRE.
15.53 but grumpy because I still can’t spell ACCORDION despite the working assistance from the clue. It took me a while to work out that the investment in GRISAILLE was not the unheard-of SAI.
Still glowing from my lot creating so many records in one game at the Etihad I’m chilled enough not to mind ARSENAL being clued however it’s done.
49 mins, Struggled to get any foothold in the top half but the bottom came together nicely only to be held up for 10 mins on the PASS / SPARETYRE combi . Nothing to complain about but definitely not on same wavelength as setter.
NHO GRISAILLE, enjoyed the does = deer pun.
Surprised to see the snitch as high as it is. I wasn’t delayed by too much by this, except inexplicably by a few easier clues in the top right.
PASS LOI, SMETANA biffed, NHO GRISAILLE constructed.
16:42
Solved on paper with no exact time but in the 20-25 minute bracket.
A couple of grey areas but mostly within my ken. I knew Sanaa and assumed SANA to be an alternative spelling so no problems with the unknown SMETANA. The other true unknowns were LIMEADE and GRISAILLE but the checkers helped out with those.
For some reason I really enjoyed HEADMASTERSHIP.
Overall a nice challenge to kick off the week. Thanks to both.
31:53. LOI GRISALLE which I had not heard of and it took me ages to see ISA.
Didn’t get a look in until I arrived at BLOOMER. Then MAH-JONG joined the club and I made some progress in the SE. This progress spread to the SW and the outlook brightened. The unknown GRISAILLE was assembled from the instructions and TUNBRIDGE WELLS gave me a way into the NW as it quickly led to VEGETARIAN. SMETANA (knew Sanaa and have seen various spellings of it, some including an apostrophe, so there was no MER), SPARE TYRE (knew the ancient city) and PASS closed the proceedings. 22:12. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
16:09
A rather ‘old school’ Times feel to this one for me (I have been doing a few from 2002 recently and have been struck by how different they seem to current offerings). Strange words, a bit of Shakespeare, a composer – all staples of yesteryear.
Knowing the correct spelling of SANAA made the composer trickier than it should have been. An error that shouldn’t have escaped the editor’s blue pencil.
22:20 – I also felt I was just inside my limited capabilities with this one and was pleased to finish in one piece. FWIW, Wikipedia gives Sana as an alternative spelling for Sana’a. I guess the westernised versions of these names are all approximations.
29.07 and a bit of a struggle. LOI goldcrest but it wasn’t the only clue to tax me. Guessed grisaille and then looked it up how I didn’t see ISA straight away is a bit of a puzzle on its own. COD probably Smetana. Good puzzle so thanks setter and blogger- thanks for the explanation on lobelia, I got it but couldn’t find a daggers definition for obeli.
31 mins. Thought GRISAILLE was a bit of a stretch for a Monday, but maybe not for one less of an art philistine than me.
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned, but in the Crossword Centre’s monthly newsletter it says that Jason Crampton will be the new Times Crossword Editor, starting next Monday. He’s been one of the 15×15 setting team since May of last year, sets as Asp for the Quick Cryptic, and sets as Serpent/Jack/Basilisk/Skipjack elsewhere.
Gosh! As Asp he set one of the hardest Quick Crosswords I’ve come across, and I wasn’t the only one – there was a lot of disgruntlement amongst commenters. This could be interesting…
It was Sana when I looked it up to see if it existed, so no problems there. No doubt lots of different spellings. 43 minutes, having for some unknown reason become stuck on 1ac and not knowing who the shipwrecked heroine was. Flora? The fairly obvious approach of using a reversal of a word meaning ‘angry’ never occurred to me, and I used an aid for this and regretted doing so. Then it was obviously Viola, but I couldn’t have explained about the shipwreck.
28.45 with one letter wrong. Biffing TONBRIDGE WELLS was unwise.
Me too
An easy mistake – it’s Tonbridge, Kent and Tunbridge Wells, Kent – not difficult to confuse the two.
32:42
I thought this was hard in places, but wasn’t helped by bunging in SINATRA at 11a (IN inside my mombled SATRA, a parallel universe capital of Yemen), which took a while to sort out. Didn’t parse GALWAY BAY nor VEGETARIAN and didn’t know that VIOLA is a plant (though I’m hardly surprised). MOONRAKER as sail vaguely heard of, but NHO GRISAILLE which needed careful building from the cryptic.
Thanks V and setter
Finished over (long) lunch but cheated by looking up Sana(a) and needed the blog to parse VEGETARIAN and ACCORDION. Hadn’t heard of GRISAILLE but luckily the wordplay was kind. Liked BLACKPOOL. Many thanks all.
Really enjoyed this puzzle, with its GK stretching the brain.
Surprised that so many didn’t like GALWAY BAY, given that it’s featured in the best Christmas song ever.
12’41”, with a typo.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
It’s not in any of the six recordings of ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ that I own…
Even though I don’t own even one copy of the song I do get to enjoy it regularly as I can’t resist watching “Love Actually” every week or two.
It’s absolutely my favourite film – along with Brazil!
Agree about the Christmas song.
Galway Bay also features in the best Irish horse racing song set in Cheltenham (admittedly a rather niche category) as the name of the winning horse.
Show of Hands?
Quite a tough workout. I had to get down to 17ac to get started. Loved the long down clues. LOI was SMETANA, which delayed me, as I was thinking of Sa’naa as the capital.
I also managed to finish yesterday’s Mephisto, which I will say no more about, other than it is quite approachable.
21:47, kept me on my toes. GOLDCREST delayed me interminably at the end as I had misparsed and thought it was GULL… or GALF…
Lovely Jubbly, but misspelt Tonbridge Wells. Ugh.
COD to vegetarian as it made me smile.
30:04. Really enjoyed this one, including the GK that somehow stayed just within grasp. GRISAILLE known to mrs k from art school many years ago and she points it out to me from time to time in stained glass windows. I enjoyed the trip from TUNBRIDGE WELLS to BLACKPOOL via GALWAY BAY and then struggled with the METROPOLIS anagram, looking for another place name. LOI RUSTING. I liked HEADMASTERSHIP
29:21
Tough for a Monday but an absolute treat. Needed to come here to understand VEGETARIAN.
Agree with the ‘old school’ comment and, with apologies to Ed Sheeran, would be happy to see more like this.
Thanks to vinyl and the setter
8:54. Tricky for a Monday. Decided SANA must be an alternative spelling. As per Amoeba above, I also dabbled with RAGTS for RAGAS.
I’m very glad that wasn’t just me!
Can you explain what deer has to do with step please? I’ve not put anything on here before and am uncertain how to.
In ‘does have to step back’, the ‘have to step back’ is telling you to put ‘deer’ (=does) backwards to give ‘reed’.
And welcome!
Think ‘doe’, as in ‘doe a deer, a female deer’, so that ‘does’ equals ‘deer.’ You then need to reverse the ‘deer,’ which gives you REED. ‘Take a step back’ is the instruction to reverse the word.
“Step” is part of the reversal indicator. If “does” (i.e. DEER) “have to step back”, they have to return, which gives you REED.
Failed by miswritting pass as pars! Pooh as it was quick for me judging by other people ; twenty mins is my fourth or fifth best ever
Yes, challenging for a Monday. After the first trawl through the Across clues I had just four! The unknown GRISAILLE was one of the early ones in, working just from the cryptic, but was confirmed by the subsequent crossers. Ironically, given that music/instruments, plants, birds and composers are some of my specialities these were among the last in, not least because I thought I was looking for an ancient hilltop and was trying for GULL- like PlusJeremy, and the meaning of ‘man of note’ was very slow in coming! The bottom half was considerably friendlier than the top. I enjoyed it, nevertheless.
Tough puzzle for a lowbrow oik like me today. Sanaa, smetana, raga, grisaille, moonraker. Really? Give me keely hodgkinson any day.
Loved Galway Bay COD.
Struggled home in 45 mins.
Thx v and setter
Keeley Hawes, anyone?
Indeed!
Around 7 minutes, so I found it pretty Mondayish. Wavelength clearly is a thing, or maybe I just happened to have the required GK. I enjoyed this one, a bit quirky in parts I thought.
I eventually lighted upon the answer to 2d once I realised that Llandridnod Wells did not fit.
28 minutes. Luckily I knew Smetana and didn’t know the Yemeni capital so no hold-ups there.
I’ve been sailing for many years and had never come across a MOONRAKER, so was relieved to find it has been obsolete for about 150 years, and even then was an obscure little sail that flew above the Sky Sail, Royal Sail, Topgallant, Upper Topsail, Lower Topsail and Course. Cool name, though.
Thanks setter and blogger. A fine crossword.
DNF
Defeated by GRISAILLE, the given I persuaded me I needed an investment _A_.
Good fun mostly, and two football teams (sadly not Brentford).
Thanks all.
Angry of Tunbridge Wells regarding the Yemen capital