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). | |
Quietly plugged away at this, checking some of my answers but ultimately defeated by LOI SIAMANG. Special mention to UNDERGO and NEGATE. Needless to say RUN was biffed and not parsed – enjoying the debate about this clue. Thanks all.
A reunion with old work colleagues meant that I had no time to attempt this puzzle; I just came on here to see the solution.
I am sure I would have had to spend a lot of time on it and would almost certainly not have finished.
Some of the clues are excellent – I really like dandie dinmont.
As for RUN, I’ve read all the comments above and come to the conclusion that the clue is, for want of a better word, crap.
Didn’t like “associate” = FRIEND either; since when did association imply friendship?
I enjoyed this, defeated only by the dog which I did not know but the clue was perfectly fair. Thanks for the blog!
I found this tougher than it probably was, finishing in 38 minutes. I share others’ doubts about 7dn and 27ac. If a clue generates so much discussion it suggests to me that it can’t be a good clue. DANDIE DINMONT was an impressive hidden clue, the best I recall since BATH AND WELLS some years ago.
FOI – SOD
LOI – ROTGUT
COD – CROWNS.
Thanks to william and other contributors.
I struggled with this for an hour and a half, enjoying it more and more as all of the empty spaces got filled. But, a DNF with a silly mistake: I misread the wordplay and definition in 28ac and put in NOGATE (“cancel opening”) — with all of the other entries I have never heard of I was able to convince myself that this might actually be an adjective describing a 45 degree angle, and of course I never saw NEGATE, which I would have been able to parse immediately. But among the many unknowns I did solve correctly were ROTGUT, DO PORRIDGE, SIAMANG, and DANDIE DINMONT — quite a lot for one puzzle! But no complaints — it’s Friday (and black Friday, at that).
37.46. I thought that I was very slow, but see from the comments that I was pretty much on a par with other contributors whose times are generally close to mine, one way or the other. ‘ Siamang’ was, of course, an unknown for me, but could be deduced from the wordplay, and ‘run’ was just a shrug.
I found a copy of the Times on the train (I mostly just do the Guardian online), what a wonderful treat! I couldn’t help smiling at the surfaces all through the journey.
I couldn’t parse RUN and had DRAB instead of DRAG, thank you very much for this blog.
DANDIE DINMONT was the most spectacular, many other ticks and I though SWOT was very neat.
45 minutes. Explanation of RUN – RU = rugby union (sport) + N = point (of compass, ie north). V messy!
Too tough for me. I fell short with the photograph and the DRAG act. I got SIMANG but had to check it in Chambers. I know of Gutrot, but not its inverse.
A brilliant hidden clue though! Chapeau to the setter, and thanks for the blog, William.
And now I will see what ‘Cracking the cryptic’ think…
Done on Monday finally. A poor time — 50’03”. The dog was hiding in plain sight, but hiding very effectively! I had DIED IN MONTPELLIER as MORT, which fitted — so I totally missed the hidden words. I think POINT for RUN is just fine, if not actually brilliant. I mean if you were explaining cricket to someone, that’s exactly what runs are!