37:29, but with a dictionary to hand.
Lovely surface readings and enough tricky (but conventionally so) wordplay to keep the cogs whirring. We really get to explore the depths of general knowledge with these puzzles, don’t we? Presumably there are now no more dog breeds left to reference. That wasn’t the clue that did me in, though, as it was generously laid out. I will have to educate myself about photography in Bradford’s Science and Media Museum once it has re-opened for the City of Culture year…
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Location reference after chapter and verse (8) |
| POSTCODE – POST (after) + C (chapter) + ODE (verse). | |
| 5 | The king has false teeth (6) |
| CROWNS – CR (the king) + OWNS (has). | |
| 9 | Spades suffice for flipping turf (3) |
| SOD – S (spades), then a reversal of (for flipping) DO (suffice). | |
| 10 | A blessing turning in, to nice bed (11) |
| BENEDICTION – anagram of (turning) IN TO NICE BED. | |
| 12 | Plebeian at heart desires property (10) |
| BELONGINGS – middle letters of (at heart) pleBEian, then LONGINGS (desires). | |
| 13 | Undiscovered monster still what gets inspector going (4) |
| YETI – YET (still) + first letter of (the letter that starts, what gets it going) Inspector. | |
| 15 | Associate day with purpose (6) |
| FRIEND – FRI (day) + END (purpose). | |
| 16 | Paper plane out of an illustration (7) |
| EXAMPLE – EXAM (paper) + PLanE minus (out of) ‘an’. | |
| 18 | Thus returning seabird in reservoir (7) |
| CISTERN – SIC (thus) reversed + TERN (seabird). | |
| 20 | Beastly drink got stirred in trough (6) |
| ROTGUT – anagram of (stirred) GOT, contained by RUT (trough). | |
| 23 | For men, women’s clothes seem uninteresting (4) |
| DRAG – double definition. | |
| 24 | Spend time inside bank after door locks quietly (2,8) |
| DO PORRIDGE – RIDGE (bank), after DOOR contains (locks) P (quietly). | |
| 26 | On one’s holiday too? How fantastic (4,4,3) |
| AWAY WITH YOU – cryptic hint. | |
| 27 | A point, going with twenty-two’s sport (3) |
| RUN – I think this is a cryptic definition referring to a run in cricket, a sport with 22 players and 22 yards between the wickets. I don’t really understand it though. | |
| 28 | Cancel opening at 45 degrees? (6) |
| NEGATE – GATE (opening) after NE (North East, at 45 degrees). | |
| 29 | Dry veg cook peeled stews OK (4,4) |
| VERY GOOD – anagram of (stews) DRY VEG + the middle letters of (peeled) cOOk. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Ignore ticket times (4,2) |
| PASS BY – PASS (ticket) + BY (times). | |
| 2 | Seat maker left stuffing more down (7) |
| SADDLER – L (left) contained by (stuffing) SADDER (more down). | |
| 3 | Potholer cut by scrap iron in desperation to get out (5,5) |
| CABIN FEVER – CAVER (potholer), containing all of (cut by) BIN (scrap) + FE (iron). | |
| 4 | Dog coming from Sedan died in Montpellier (6,7) |
| DANDIE DINMONT – hidden in (coming from) seDAN DIED IN MONTpellier. | |
| 6 | Republican likely winner in contest (4) |
| RACE – R (republican) + ACE (likely winner). | |
| 7 | All the way to the summit sounded flatter on paper (5,2) |
| WRITE UP – sounds like “right up” (all the way to the summit). | |
| 8 | Guard deployed to trouble spot, perhaps, felt exposed (8) |
| SENTINEL – SENT IN (deployed to trouble spot, perhaps), then the middle letters of (exposed) fELt. | |
| 11 | Photograph duke and fit Tory peer jogging (13) |
| DAGUERREOTYPE – D (duke) + AGUE (fit, of fever) + an anagram of (jogging) TORY PEER. | |
| 14 | First see rider’s speed then hide (10) |
| CANTERBURY – CANTER (rider’s speed) + BURY (hide). | |
| 17 | Account empty following one sharp fall (4,4) |
| ACID RAIN – AC (account), then DRAIN (empty) after (following) I (one) | |
| 19 | Gibbon lives up a tropical fruit tree, mostly (7) |
| SIAMANG -IS (lives) reversed (up) + A + most of MANGo (tropical fruit tree). | |
| 21 | Suffer in Berlin and consequently in Rome (7) |
| UNDERGO – UND (in Berlin ‘and’) + ERGO (consequently in Rome). | |
| 22 | Daughter given pasta first did shut up (6) |
| PENNED – D (daughter) with PENNE (pasta) first. | |
| 25 | Keen learner pulls over (4) |
| SWOT – TOWS (pulls) reversed (over). | |
Oh all right, this was a VERY GOOD puzzle even though it was exceedingly tough in some places and drove me mad in others. About 40, with no idea about that stupid hidden dog or the gibbon or how NEGATE worked (thanks William). I too don’t get RUN, but it looks like a decent game is building in NZ despite Kiwi catching collywobbles. Good weekend to all.
From Positively 4th Street:
You got a lotta nerve to say you are my FRIEND
When I was down you just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that’s winning
AND
I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a DRAG it is to see you
I had all but 4 answers in the SW after 35 minutes but required another 19 minutes to finish them off including one look-up needed to unblock the dam.
That was the unknown SIAMANG – never before seen in these parts, even in a Mephisto. Despite its obscurity I was annoyed with myself over that one because I had worked out all the elements of wordplay – reverse IS, A and MANG{o} – but the result looked so unlikely I didn’t go with it and instead decided to use Reveal.
After that the remaining three answers fell into place and the arrival of CISTERN made me realise I had written the dog at 4dn as DANDIE DIDMONT as that’s the name I thought remembered and I neglected to checked the wordplay carefully even though I realised the answer was hidden in the clue.
I’m not sure I understand the definition of WRITE UP.
I think Will’s interpretation of RUN is correct but without the length of pitch being relevant. I took the apostrophe as denoting the ‘sport of 22’ players.
To “write someone up” is to flatter them on paper. To “talk someone up” is possibly more familiar.
I thought WRITE UP was what you did when you give an employee an official reprimand.
As Robert Plant used to say, you know sometimes words have two meanings!
Thanks. I’ve found it in Collins now although it’s perhaps more an American thing than British. I recognise ‘talk-up’ as you suggested but for me to write up is nothing more than write an account of something after an event, e.g. a report. ‘On paper’ (not specified in the dictionary entries) seems very dated now when nearly everything written is created electronically.
Figuratively one can ‘talk someone up’ in writing, but ‘write someone up’? Not convinced-unless it’s yet another Americanism.
A very rare “submit without leaderboard” for me having spent half an hour trying to justify RUN and failing to do so. Thanks for trying to unpack it William but surely there’s more (or less) to it. I look forward to my deep dissatisfaction giving way to a PDM.
Very nice puzzle otherwise. Was building up another head of disgruntlement regarding the NHO (and clearly made up on the spot) dog, but it’s hard to complain when the answer is literally spelt out for you in the clue.
Around 60 minutes for a nice puzzle. Steady solve with no particular holdups.
Thanks William
Like everyone else, I’m still puzzling over 27a (run). Thought it might be N (compass point) on RU (rugby union, with its 22 (yard line). Also considered the cricket reference .
That’s how I read it. However, the 25 yard line became the 22 metre line during my playing days which finished well before the end of the last century!
It’s the 22 metre line. Used to be 25 yards in old money.
Yes, that’s how I saw it too
It is a 22 metre line or still to me the 25 which I justify as 25×0.88m.
36:44
Like Galspray, I could make nothing of 27ac, and submitted off leaderboard. DNK SIAMANG, of course. I flung in BRIDGE at 5ac, foolishly thinking I’d return to it and see how it worked, and of course didn’t until I’d got sick of trying to get 7d and 9d. Never parsed NEGATE.
Well, 37 mins, But I too had to look up up the gibbon. Luckily the NHO dog was available in plain sight!
I liked DO PORRIGE and CANTERBURY. First see indeed.
Thanks William and setter.
68m 06s
My 7d was WRITE ON for a while as I thought it was a play on that late 60s phrase ‘right on’ as clued in ‘all the way’.
In Row 3, there speaks a very bored Catholic altar boy! (Don’t know. Does the RC church still celebrate the rite of benediction? It did when I was at primary school in the 50s)
I thought 4d was very cleverly hidden. I remember Clare Balding talking about a Dandie Dinmont winning a category at Crufts one year.
Love the combination, possibly at the cost of my mortal soul!
🤣🤣
37 minutes, with the hidden-but-still-fairly-unbelievable dog LOI. I’m never good with sports references so I came here expecting to have RUN explained to me, so I’m surprised to find everyone else apparently sharing that particular boat.
A 41 minute fail. I didn’t know, or rather had forgotten, 19d and tried to be too clever by half, remembering the ylang-ylang as a ‘tropical fruit tree’ and therefore guessing SIALANG despite LANG not even being ‘mostly’ taking the hyphenation into account, as well as the the first letter, not the last, being left off. Thank goodness for the checkers in the spelling of DAGUERREOTYPE.
I parsed RUN as did Nigel F-H but can’t see the def, so I think there’s another explanation.
15.22
A couple of minutes where I think I left the timer running when interrupted, and a couple more puzzling over RUN at the end. I remain puzzled. The NHO dog and gibbon were both nicely done.
Thanks both.
Excessive subtlety Negates itself: it is like winking, with both eyes.
As was the case for me today. Having decided RxN was beyond me, I gave up on NE Gate and the NHO Siaxaxx.
Pity about those. The rest was brilliant.
Ta setter and W
Is there a source for that (if it is, per usual) quotation? Google doesn’t know it.
I too have looked for a source but without success. I heard it about 30 years ago. I can’t remember who said it. It may even have been my excessive subtlety that was being derided. I have made use of it ever since (several times on this site), but I’ve never heard anyone else use it.
Never heard it before but looking forward to using it at the first opportunity.
Here is some food for thought on witty quotations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLKx4rSv1k
Excellent.
” In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice.” Evelyn Waugh
A very reasonable 25′ for me today with FOI BENEDICTION reminding me of being marched to church (RC) on wet October nights and the overwhelming smell of incense – I see Martin above has similar memories… RUN couldn’t be anything else with the crossers though the clueing wasn’t great (my only complaint) and NHO the dog (though it did correct my inital write in of “postcard” at 1 ac). I trawled LOI DRAG, considering “drab” before the penny thankfully dropped. Thanks William and setter.
Submitted off board because I had the crossword open and running for 21 minutes or so while absent, but stopped the clock at 38 minutes with a tentative RUN, reasoning that the definition was (to) sport via a 3 point thesaurus turn. A point (can be) N, but how the RU comes from 22 I can’t (yet) illuminate, not least because 22d is the unpromising PENNED.
Otherwise, this was an intellectual cracker. I could have wished the photo rather than the dog was a hidden: I struggled to spell the former and the latter was a write-in before seeing how the clue worked. That said that’s a remarkable hidden!
That gibbon was odd but generously clued.
The bilingual UNDERGO was the one that appealed most.
27 ac is an &lit. As Nigel F-H says, it’s just RU (twenty-two’s sport, because rugby has a 22 line) + N (a point). The whole = a ‘point’ in cricket.
I don’t want to sound Contrary, but I don’t think the 20 metre line is sufficiently close to being vital as to specify Rugby Union. 30 men would be a more specific number.
But just possibly the run itself is sort-of 22 yards (one chain)? Although you actually have to run from crease to crease I think, about 2 yards less. But I’m no expert.
The 22 metre line is a quite specific line that is referred to in rugby.
In Chambers, there’s an entry: “twenty-two – a line on a rugby pitch . . “
Has a run in cricket ever ever been described as a point? A point in cricket is a fielding position.
I also cannot think of an occasion when Rugby Union has been defined as 22’s sport: the 22 is a line in Rugby, sure, but so’s the the touchline and touch-in-goal line, try line, halfway line, dead-ball line, the 5-metre line , 10-metre line and 15-metre line.
Personally, I’m inclined to think the clue is a mess, a pity in such a good crossword
One on-line dictionary has run as a “point” in baseball, which I’m sure would be as grating to our American friends as the thought of young Brook continuing on 132 points tomorrow.
You’d definitely be right that trying to use “point” to describe anthing in baseball would grate on pretty much everything there was to grate on.
I agree that run = point is a bit tenuous, but I think 22’s sport for RU is absolutely fine. As I say, ‘twenty-two’ is in Chambers. The definition is oblique, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with that.
Ah sorry, I made 2 errors there. It is 22 metres, was 25 yards. The 5 metre line also gets a mention.
on edit – this crossed with Zabadak’s, hence the scrambled sequence.
DNF. Gave up missing PENNED, RUN and CANTERBURY.
NHO the dog or gibbon but both were clued generously.
With the benefit of hindsight and our bloggers help I can see its clever, high quality stuff but beyond my 1 hour time limit today.
Gave up on the 30 min mark. DNK DANDIE DINMONT and SIAMANG and wouldn’t have got them. RUN seems wilfully obscure.
I’m another ‘run’ shrugger – would love to know how it works – but otherwise a really great crossword. 33 minutes, including an Amazon delivery. Received, that is.
Way too hard today, the bottom half was almost completely unfilled (though VERY GOOD was the FOI) and I had to cheat on nearly every clue. To me, ‘write up’ is the opposite of ‘write something flattering’, it’s what you hear in American prison dramas like ‘Prison Break’ or ‘Orange is the new black’ all the time. You hear things like: “The CO wrote me up, gave me a shot and sent me to the SHU”
Wavelength is a wonderful/terrible thing. Nearly 30 mins yesterday on a puzzle with a SNITCH of 101. A sniff over 18 mins today on a puzzle with a SNITCH of 127 giving me my best WITCH in weeks.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and even the NHO’s like SIAMANG and DANDIE DINMONT fell pretty quickly. LOI was NEGATE after ACID RAIN unlocked the bottom left corner, which was looking like it might hold out.
Thanks william_j_s and setter.
18:13
18:24. I nearly biffed DRAB instead of DRAG which was my LOI. Lots of nice clues including DRAG, EXAMPLE and CANTERBURY.
Drab did me in I’m afraid – made no sense but I missed drag. Doh
25:43
A cracker of a puzzle to round off a good week. A Rue DAGUERRE in nearby Tours helped as did the weekly BENEDICTION at school. On the other hand, it’s probably my age that makes me think that the word ACID will always be followed by drop rather than rain and this slowed me down for a while. Needed William to fully explain EXAMPLE and still don’t understand RUN.
Thanks to William and the setter
4d Dandie Dinmont was placed into the Cheating Machine in April or May 2022 I think, and I very, very vaguely remembered it. As it’s a hidden I got it right, unlike the 11d DAGUERReOTYPE that wasn’t long enough. I spent awhile finding that second E, only completed after I drifted off somewhere else to get some crossers.
DNF, BIFD 23a DRAb. Doh!
Cheated for the NHO 19d Siamang.
COD 20a Rotgut, although it took a long time to get.
Have we seen 5a (His Maj) Crowns before? I quite enjoyed him popping up.
Can’t offer anything much on 27a Run.
Plenty of excellent clues and a very nice concoction, despite what seems like a rather messy RUN, where I share people’s bewilderment. To call a run a point in cricket seems very weak, and to call RU 22’s sport because it has a 22-line equally weak. We don’t call cricket ‘slip’s sport’ or suchlike. DAGUERROTYPE came up a letter short and took a while to sort out. The dog was at the back of my memory (clever hidden but did the setter mean Sudan?) but I had to look it up. 57 minutes, with aids by the end.
23:06. NHO the dog (and took ages to see it was hidden) or the gibbon (derived from the wordplay eventually). LOI NEGATE when I finally saw how it worked. I’m another who thinks RUN doesn’t work. Yes I saw RU + N but what’s the definition? I liked the rest, though, mostly… Thank-you William and setter.
RUN is an &lit
Then it’s not a good one!
“Twenty-two’s sport” to define rugby seems like a stretch. Especially when it in no way benefits the surface reading of the clue.
I’m still hoping we’ll get a more definitive parsing.
20:05
Probably a bit rusty as this is the first puzzle I’ve been able to have a go at this week.
I struggled with the photograph as like Wil above I thought it was just DAGUERROTYPE which didn’t use up enough letters.
The dog recalled from crufts, the gibbon from wordplay and RUN a baffler for sure.
Good puzzle, I didn’t get SENTINEL – I spent 60′ intermittently doing this while watching the debate on Assisted Dying.
Thanks william and setter.
16:01, with several minutes at the end staring in increasing desperation at the completely baffling 4dn until the very obvious penny dropped with a huge clang.
I know little about sport but it seems clear to me that 27ac is &Lit: the surface reading (and definition) refers to the length of a cricket pitch, the wordplay refers to the ‘twenty-two’ (which I hear in Bill Beaumont’s voice) in rugby union. Clever.
Edit: that’s not Bill Beaumont, it’s Bill McLaren.
If “twenty-two’s sport” added something to the surface reading I’d almost* agree, but as it stands the whole clue’s a mess.
*No I wouldn’t.
Yes to be fair the result is a bit clumsy. But it’s a neat idea.
Agree with you on one of those points.
‘Sport of twenty-two’s ‘point’?’ would perhaps have been a bit tidier.
Also as david_ch points out below, it would have worked better if 22dn had been a cricketer. But apart from the structure and wording of the clue, it’s a very good one.
I think we’ve had RU as just sport or game several times so I believe the sport reference to RU is stand alone with no link to the fact that there is a 22 metre line. The point in 22s sport I believe is the &lit meaning you get a point or a RUN when you go 22 yards in cricket. I think it’s clumsy but that is what I think the setter intended. It would be good to hear from either him or the editor to see if we’re all completely wrong😊
In the wordplay N is just ‘point’, so RU must be indicated by ‘22’s sport’. The definition is as you say I think.
I think the initial idea here (to link the 22 in rugby with the 22-yard length of a cricket pitch) was quite neat but the more I look at it the less I think it really comes off in the execution – clumsy, as you say.
58:30. A slow solve today for this most impressive puzzle. Held up most in the south-west. LOIs the unheard-of SIAMANG and the suddenly-obvious NEGATE. Lots to like: cleverest SENTINEL, hardest to spell DAGUERREOTYPE and COD POSTCODE
Surely my first solve of a puzzle with a red snitch (>120).
50 mins with a couple of cheeky checks on the way. Had to confirm SIAMANG but I was lucky because I initially thought of SIMIAN, so the mango was the first tropical fruit I tried. And a careless DRAB before a rethink. Left the middle letters of DAGUERREOTYPE until almost the end.
LOI the rather easy FRIEND, but I had D=day which messed up what was an easy word.
COD CANTERBURY with definition of “first see”
About half an hour.
– Relied on the wordplay for the unknown ROTGUT
– Almost put ‘drab’ before getting DRAG
– Not familiar with AWAY WITH YOU meaning ‘how fantastic’ (or at least it’s not something I’d say)
– Didn’t see what was going on with RUN
– NHO DANDIE DINMONT, which has to be one of the longest hiddens we’ve had in these puzzles
– Hadn’t heard of SIAMANG so again relied on the wordplay
Thanks William and setter.
FOI Sod
LOI Siamang
COD Swot (had me barking up the wrong tree, assuming there’d be an L in it somewhere)
29:51 – artful stuff, though I share the general, if not universal, mystification over RUN. I even wondered if there was cricketer I am supposed to know called Penned (22dn).
26:46 but…
…cheated with NHO SIAMANG – ending with A_G, I had assumed that the tropical fruit tree would be ORANGe, so when DRAG popped up, I was flummoxed. Apart from that, generally felt on form today as the answers leapt out at me, at least until I ran into the sludge – RUN was a bit weird, I assumed twenty-two’s sport was referring to Rugby Union, the point is N – so what was the definition? Rhetorical question that, unless you are the setter or editor.
Thanks William and setter
About RUN: the point is that “twenty-two’s sport” can refer to rugby union (the 22-yard line) *or* cricket (the number of players in two teams). So you can read it either way: as RU + N for the rugby (the wordplay), and as a (somewhat distorted) definition for the cricket. It’s a bit convoluted, but it works for me.
12:19 and enjoyed everything except RUN, which gave me the same reservations expressed by others (I know the penny doesn’t always drop resoundingly, but I think when you’ve got an answer you ought to be reasonably confident it’s right, especially if it’s only three letters). DANDIE DINMONT is the best hidden word clue I’ve seen in ages.
13:56 with a fat thumb typo on the last letter entered. Tough in places but enjoyable. Apart from RUN which was nonsense.
No problems other than for 27 across and 22 down. Should have seen “penned” but I didn’t for quite a while, partly because I was trying to relate it to 27 across, which I did not have at the time. In other words, I assumed that the twenty-two referred to clue 22, which made the whole thing complicated, and reinforced my dislike of cross-reference clues. In the event there is clearly no cross referencing at all.
I appreciate Contrarian’s persistent efforts at justifying 27 across, but to me it just doesn’t work, even as an &Lit.
It would be great if the setter could elucidate for us.
34:44, with last two in RUN and PENNED. I assumed it must be RU+ north, with a reference to the 22m line, but I can see how the cricket one also almost works. Either way, not a very straightforward clue.
NHO SIAMANG, so pleased to construct it from the wordplay.
Thanks William and setter
What a great crossword! I got distracted at the dog before I realized it was hidden since “died in Montpelier” could have. been MORT (I had the O and T checkers). Of course I had to create the gibbon from wordplay and trust that such a weird word existed. Unfortunately I had a fat finger and typed SWIT instead of SWOT, so a pink typo.
That would have been ‘. . .est mourir’. ‘Mort’ means ‘dead’.
“is dead,” est mort
“is to die,” est à mourir
“he died,” il meurt
Once again I started quickly with POSTCODE and a few more in the NW, not including the dratted dog which I didn’t spot hiding in full view until much later (I’d shoved MORT at the end provisionally, but took it out again), then ground to a crawl. CISTERN and ACID RAIN, then AWAY WITH YOU gave me a way into the SW with NEGATE, the unknown SIAMANG and DRAG taking ages to see. Struggled with the picture until fit=ague popped into mind. CANTERBURY needed all the crossers. Doh! I spent another few minutes at the end trying to justify RUN and failed. Still can’t make head nor tail of it. Great puzzle apart from 27a. 40:20. Thanks setter and William.
40.35 but with 1 error (and 1 typo). excellent puzzle. loved every clue just about. Epic hidden word just has to be COD. I dimly remembered its name from watching Crufts years ago but couldn’t work it out and then there it was staring me in the face!
wonderful wonderful wonderful. thanks both.
I also entered RUN more in hope than expectation, but as a former rugby player, RU looks good, even if the setter was thinking more about cricket. I was DRAB at 23a which never looked right!
27’55”
Fortunate to avoid trouble at the start, uncharacteristically quickened, stayed on well.
The luck was to spot a sitter down the grid and start there. After that I felt a complete fraud by biffing a couple, seeing red, and biffed on ala Jake la Motta. The clock was stopped with confidence, but five minutes were spent on dotting and crossing. Then a further five wrestling with the 22 I spent so long shivering on as a lad; I read it it as A point (N) + sport that has a 22 = (RU)……and lit. (point in cricket).
Still, a Nitch of 76 is going to get a toast, as is the setter for a real goody!
29 and thank you setter and William.
I think it’s just you have a total of 22 players in a cricket match – 2 teams of 11
33:07
Same reservations as others about RUN. Otherwise a good challenge.
Late to the party as I’m away at the moment. I thought this had some fine clues, and some quite iffy ones.
However DANDIE DINMONT is one of the great hidden clues, I can forgive anything to whoever thought that up…
Oh and whilst point is a bit strange for a run, it’s about as close to a synonym as you can get
52 mins. I understood everything except ‘run’. Knew it couldn’t refer to 22 dn because the word twenty-two was spelt out. Thought about rugby and N for point but eventually concluded that if we ‘go with’ the sport involving 22 men, viz cricket, a run is a point… but am still not happy with it.
There was a discussion here recently about non-numeric cross-references and it turns out that they do appear occasionally. We’d had one that day, which had rather surprised me.
Having finished the QC and having nothing to do, I thought I would have a go at this. Normally, I can get just the odd answer and give up in despair. However, today, with much judicious guessing and sticking in various letters to see if they fitted in words I couldn’t work out (SIAMANG – what’s that??), UNDERGO, RUN ), and seeing (after a bit) to see that the NHO DANDIE DINMONT (is this really a dog??) was an answer, I managed to finish in just over an hour. Having a glass of red to celebrate!
Cheers! I seem to recall that a Dandie Dinmont features hilariously in Gerald Durrell’s ‘My Family and Other Animals’.
Did all the hard yards on this one getting previously unknowns SIAMANG and DAGUERREOTYPE, and then fell at the last by putting in DRAB. On seeing the correct answer, I don’t know how I could have failed to get it. Naturally I couldn’t parse it, but thought I must be missing the point somehow. My LOI was actually RUN, where like nearly everyone else apparently couldn’t be sure what the setter had in mind. 58 enjoyable minutes however.