Times 29129 – where’s Antonio, then?

37:03

A roughly average time for me, but it felt harder while solving, and contains a couple of real gems. I went right to left, saving my COD 3dn for close to the end, and a guess at 20dn for my LOI.

Definitions underlined.

Across
1 Where peer may sit, in Lords, returned to power (10)
CHAMBERPOT – CHAMBER (Lords, for example), then reversal of (returned) TO + P (power). Where pee-er may sit. If I’ve got the parsing right, we’re missing any indication of the DBE, but I don’t mind.
6 Artist losing urge, knocked back wine (4)
HOCK – HOCKney (artist) minus the reversed ‘yen’ (urge).
8 Northern residents reportedly ruled this place in the East End (8)
REINDEER – sounds like “reigned” (ruled) and “here” (this place), if you say it in an East London accent.
9 Lacking sleep, son leaves city (6)
NAPLES – NAPLESs (without sleep) minus ‘s’ (son).
10 Nothing to cover area one’s quick to protect (4)
NAIL – NIL (nothing) containing (to cover) A (area). It protects the quick, the living tissue under the nail.
11 Government department put female in igloo? (4,6)
HOME OFFICE – F (female) contained by HOME OF ICE (igloo?).
12 Wine store in future undergoing merger? (9)
COMBINING – BIN (wine store) contained by COMING (future).
14 Squad’s not in contact with Ancient Greek (5)
PLATO – PLATOon (squad) minus the ‘on’ (in contact with).
17 Dash of colour in spun yarn produces striking effect (5)
ECLAT – first (dash) of Colour, contained by a reversal of (spun) TALE. Not an anagram of *cyarn then, thankfully.
19 Dissenters on reflection no different in south-west (9)
WESLEYANS – reversal of (on reflection): NAY (no) + ELSE (different), all contained by SW. I liked this one, but it was pipped by 3dn…
22 Stirring up old men, the writer Voltaire, say (3,2,5)
NOM DE PLUME – anagram of (stirring) UP OLD MEN + ME (the writer).
23 One opposing extraordinary action, Conservative must go (4)
ANTI – ANTIc (extraordinary action), minus the ‘c’ (Conservative).
24 Like and court nymph at first overcome with emotion (6)
ASWOON – AS (like) +  WOO (court) + first of Nymph.
25 For light work tree with a pot should be moved (8)
OPERETTA – anagram of (should be moved) TREE + A POT.
26 A mother needed for man thus deprived? (4)
ADAM – A DAM (a mother).
27 Sea round building restricting boy’s interfering (10)
MEDDLESOME – MED (sea) + DOME (round building) containing LES (random boy’s name).
Down
1 Line featured in very bad European account (9)
CHRONICLE – L (line) contained by (featured in) CHRONIC (very bad) + E (European).
2 Ascendant bird is source of magic in primitive religion (7)
ANIMISM – reversal of (ascendant) MINA (bird) + IS + first (source) of Magic.
3 Adele ultimately inclined to throttle pub trumpeter (8)
ELEPHANT – last of (ultimately) adelE + LEANT (inclined) containing (to throttle) PH (public house, pub). Really enjoyed the surface reading and PDM on seeing it.
4 Motel being one in road, we turn to map when lost (11,4)
PORTMANTEAU WORD – anagram of (when lost) ROAD WE TURN TO MAP. Another chortle from me.
5 Second-rate cash prize (6)
TINPOT – TIN (cash) + POT (prize).
6 Games packed in Orcadian island with any luck (9)
HOPEFULLY – PE (games) + FULL (packed), all contained by HOY (island in Orkney).
7 Canal company introduces arrangement of locks (4,3)
CREW CUT – CUT (canal) which CREW (company) introduces. Nice, but you can’t catch me out that easily anymore, setter.
13 Pole with blade died, restrained by cleaner in executive suite (9)
BOARDROOM – OAR (pole with blade) + D (died), all contained by BROOM (cleaner).
15 Stubborn batting contained by over bowled, say (9)
OBSTINATE – IN (batting), contained by O (over) + B (bowled) and STATE (say).
16 Indecent call is a bloomer (8)
BLUEBELL – BLUE (indecent) + BELL (call).
18 Put in from wing, Batty scored, grabbing second (7)
CROSSED – anagram of (batty) SCORED containing (grabbing) S (second).
20 Girl anything but restrained climbing tree (7)
ANNATTO – ANNA (random girl’s name), then OTT (over the top, anything but restrained) reversed (climbing). The internet informs me this is a tree from the tropical Americas.
21 America perhaps putting horse into space? (6)
EPONYM – PONY (horse) contained by EM (printer’s space).

75 comments on “Times 29129 – where’s Antonio, then?”

  1. Thanks William. This was clunky for me but got there in the end – 42 minutes. Needed your help on 20d. I don’t enjoy random boys/girls names in clues.

  2. I didn’t find this easy and needed 54 minutes to fill the grid. I started well with ELEPHANT as my FOI because I was immediately triggered by ‘trumpeter’, and PORTMANTEAU WORD leapt out at me too. The LH side followed quite smoothly but the RH was a different matter and I really struggled with some of it.

    CREW CUT and NAPLES might have gone in early if I’d understood the wordplay from the start but I delayed writing them in until I’d understood the parsing.
    I was put off at 6dn by not knowing any Orcadian islands, or so I thought, and it was only after I’d come up with HOPEFULLY as a word that fitted the checkers and definition that I remembered The Old Man of Hoy and the parsing became clear.

    ANNETTO or ANNATO at 20dn? It could have gone either way but I picked the right one. I’ve probably met the tree before but couldn’t bring it to mind.

    1. You may well remember, Jack, as I do, the televised ascent of The Old Man of Hoy in the 1960s. Can’t remember who the climber(s) were.

        1. .didn’t he use the ‘monkey grip’, where he put his hand into a narrow crack, then clenched his fist to secure, and went from there…

          1. That I don’t know but it sounds perilous with possible consequences akin to those experienced by the climber Aron Ralston who once had to amputate part of his right arm after it had become trapped. There’s a Wikipedia page on him.

      1. Martin, Yes, that’s where I first heard of Hoy. I hope at the time I realised it’s in the Orkneys, but all I could recall is that it’s somewhere in Scotland.

      2. Also climbing was Ian McNaught-Davies (Mac) later to present BBC Micro Live and my former boss at Comshare. As a footnote, after Mac died his wife remarried Chris Bonington.

  3. DNF. Forgot to confirm the existence of the ANNETTO tree. Bah.

    New rule suggestion: Those of us who care little for such things should be allowed to spell them how we want!

    18:11 otherwise and I actually quite enjoyed it, especially REINDEER, NOM DE PLUME and MEDDLESOME.

    Thanks setter and William.

    1. You are absolutely allowed to spell things your way, and your reward is a grid tastefully pebbledashed with pink!

  4. This took me ages, and I never did figure out how a couple of the clues worked: DNK HOY, for instance, or any Orkney for that matter; and DNK the cricket bits of OBSTINATE. Is an antic an extraordinary action? I was thinking ANTI was an anagram after removing the c and o from ‘action’, and wondered how the o was deleted. DNK the tree. COD to CHAMBERPOT, although as Wm says, there seems to be no DBE indicator.

    1. Isn’t the DBE indicated by ‘may’? If the definition were ‘Where peer sits’, that would be unconditional.

      1. I was looking for an indicator to the definition CHAMBER from the example ‘Lords’. Not sure if it’s even an issue, but…

  5. I parsed ANTI differently, and thought there must be a mistake.
    “Extraordinary action” sure looks like an anagram of “action.”
    With C(onservative) taken out… but also O, which isn’t indicated…
    Really, “antic”? Oh, well…

  6. Couldn’t get the tree so a DNF in about 45. I found some of these very hard and would never in a million years have figured out what was going on with PLATO, HOPEFULLY and ANTI (Guy has my vote there) without William’s help. Some terrific clues though, and some lovely PDMs with ELEPHANT, REINDEER and PORTMANTEAU WORD.

    From It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue:
    All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home
    All your REINDEER armies, are all going home
    The lover who just walked out your door
    Has taken all his blankets from the floor
    The carpet too, is moving under you
    And it’s all over now, Baby Blue

  7. 55′. I usually give up before by this time but I did enjoy the puzzle and could watch golf while I solved. Quite a few unparsed but delighted to get to the end of a Friday. Thanks William and setter.

  8. 43 mins. Ok I did check to see if ANNATTO was a thing before I clicked submit, but otherwise it would have been a toss-up in an already tricky clue.

    In future, couldn’t setters use the BOLEYN/KARENINA differentiator in these cases rather than just ‘girl’s name’ to help out non-botanists like myself?

    1. Or, better from this plant-challenged solver’s point of view, one in one out. We allow living persons, and we ban plants. All in favour?

  9. Around 90 minutes I found it quite hard particularly the NE and SE corner. FOI NAIL LOI NAPLES Had a lot of the answers but hesitated because I couldn’t parse them at the time.
    Thanks William

  10. DNF beaten by WESLEYANS and the NHO tree. Drat.

    Otherwise tough but enjoyable.

    I liked REINDEER.

    Thanks William and setter.

  11. 33:56, ok for a Friday. Some really good clues, REINDEER my personal COD. FOI CREW CUT, LOI NAPLES. Struggled with ANNATTO, which I know only as a condiment and food colouring (used, inter alia, to dye anglers’ maggots).

  12. DNF with the tree. Enjoyed this otherwise, but I prefer it when wordplay leads unambiguously to the answer for an uncommon word. Probably hard to spot while setting/editing if you already know the word, however.

    Thanks both.

  13. 26 mins but if you weren’t aware of the tree, it was a lottery between anna or anne. Fortunately, I guessed the right one but a bit disappointed with the choice of word.

    Aside from that, on first reading I thought I would struggle with this. Fortunately , portmanteau word, nom de plume and eclat helped. Loved chamberpot, meddlesome and obstinate.

  14. 14:53. A breezeblock for me today, with over a third of my time spent on two clues in the NW.
    I found this a bit frustrating. I hardly engaged with the wordplay at all on most of the clues, and felt a bit miffed at the end when I finally spotted the alternative meaning of ‘peer’. I don’t have a hard-and-fast objection to unindicated DBEs but I really think an indication was needed here. ANNATO is also not a good clue although I happened to know it. All in all a little grump-inducing.

  15. The last couple of dailies have seemed to me rather un-Timesy, and perhaps a tad towards the easy side, so this was a welcome return to type, and style.

    There were a good few gems here, especially 1 across, which gets my laurels for today. Probably my favourite type of clue this, where the punning or misleading definition is supported by wordplay that enforces the ruse, so bravo setter for that one. HOME OFFICE, CREW CUT and MEDDLESOME are also on my list of goodies.

    I had no problems with ANNATTO, as there is no such thing (that I know about) as an ANNETTO. That still could be the most loose clue of the batch.

    Thanks William and clever setter. Done in 26 minutes.

  16. LOI 18d Crossed, probably because I hate footie.
    I seem to distantly remember 20d Anatto from previous Xword(s), but had to look it up so DNF, only to find Wiktionary thinks it is a shrub, so boo.
    1a Chamber Pot was very clever. My Cheating Machine had it only as 7,3 so single word added.

  17. 18:27. Some great surfaces. I liked CHAMBERPOT. HOME OFFICE, OBSTINATE, CROSSED and COD ELEPHANT. Thanks WIlliam and setter.

  18. 22.04, oddly helped by the very clever cluing. Once you know most of the clues are going to be off-piste you start looking for the weirder possibilities. That said, I didn’t work out the agent noun pee-er, and thought it odd to assume that only nobility used CHAMBERPOTs these days. Do they still employ chambermaids? Lots of smile-worthy clues: both the animal ones and the igloo among them. The sort of puzzle to give that warm glow of satisfaction in the belief that you solved the thing against the odds.

    1. Nobility perhaps; and, according to Philip Larkin, Cambridge dons:

      The candleflames grow thin, then broaden;
      Our butler Starveling piles the logs
      And sets behind the screen a jordan
      (Quicker than going to the bogs).

      (From Livings, 1971)

  19. Guessed the NHO ANNATTO right, but beaten by NAPLES and TINPOT. Another 20 mins racking my brains might have got me there, but time is precious. Liked all of this, esp 10ac.

  20. Add me to the list of those beaten by the NHO tree which now of course becomes the undisputed winner of my ‘worst clue of the week’ award.

  21. Slow but steady and my first complete solve for a while. Started with NAIL and finished with CHAMBERPOT. Embarrassed at how long it took me to see ADAM and PLATO. Plenty of fun clues.

    The dissenters were indeed in the South West. Methodists, Quakers and all. At one point Cornwall was almost completely teetotal. No such nonsense now I’m happy to report.

    Thanks both.

  22. Had all bar the unknown tree in 30 minutes or so, then spent almost 8 minutes on that clue before looking up whether it was ANNETTO or ANNATTO. Even then Google tells me that ANNATTO is a food colouring derived from the seeds of the Achiote tree rather than a tree in its own right. So a GR for that clue. Otherwise, lots of good stuff in this puzzle. Particularly liked CHAMBERPOT and NOM DE PLUME. Thanks setter and William. 37:44.

  23. No problem with ANNATTO since I’ve heard of it somehow. Health food shops? At first all went well enough but I had some trouble finishing and was beaten by the pee-er. The more I think of it the closer I am to being convinced, but certainly at first, after using aids, it struck me as unfair. Nor did I like the unindicated DBE. 61 minutes.

  24. Two goes needed.

    – Didn’t see the ‘peer’ trick in CHAMBERPOT
    – Likewise didn’t work out what ‘quick’ was getting at in NAIL
    – Didn’t parse HOPEFULLY beyond the ‘PE’ bit
    – Plumped for the right vowel for ANNATTO – I echo the criticisms of others for that clue

    Thanks William and setter.

    FOI Adam
    LOI Annatto
    COD Elephant

  25. 31:49

    A tough one. WESLEYANS and ANNATTO took an age. CHAMBER POT and NAPLES the pick for me.

    Thanks to William and the setter.

  26. 32.24, but another ANNETTO, so deprived of the opportunity for self congratulation for solving a difficult puzzle.

  27. 33:34 but…

    Mostly fun but a bit of a rubbish finish, not understanding HOPEFULLY (didn’t know what was meant by Orcadian islands), CREW CUT (didn’t see CUT = Canal), WESLEYANS (no idea that they were dissenters) nor NHO ANNATTO which I had to look up to confirm existence. Rather spoilt some nice moments…

    Thanks William

  28. 34:15 but plumped for Annetto. The tree rang a bell, but clearly not loud enough. Much held up by the peer potty and ANIMISM. Mina is not the sort of bird that springs readily to mind – particularly as I have always seen it spelled with an H.

  29. 35 mins. Having been to Orkney last year, Hoy was the only island it could be. Old Man visible from ferry, a little unimpressive from a distance. Got stuck at one point, it was the PONY that threw me, was looking to put in an H. LOI TINPOT.

  30. 12:19. Thought this was well clued apart from the random boy/girl references in Les and Anna. Seen ANNATTO before but I agree it’s not brilliant for the wordplay to be vague for an obscure word.

  31. 39:47 with one pink square – another victim of ANNETTO, which seemed as likely a name for an unknown tree as ANNATTO.

  32. 17:13

    I got nowhere with the top half so had to start at the bottom. Eventually the U in NOM DE PLUME made the P word a gimme so I was able to use that to get to grips with the top. The nasty ANNATTO was LOI. The use of PEER was very good.

    As a Leeds fan I enjoyed the fantasy of David Batty scoring twice in a game.

  33. Another who failed because of ANNETTO which rather took the gloss of what was till then an enjoyable puzzle. 43.57 would have been halfway decent had I not missed out.

  34. I liked this one, not easy but finished correctly in about 45 minutes in two sessions either side of a bowl of soup for lunch. I liked HOPEFULLY and ASWOON, a word I must try to use SOON. Thanks for the blog.

  35. Thoroughly enjoyed having a stab at this. The two I couldn’t get (WESLEYANS and NAIL) were both solvable with a little more perseverance – all very encouraging. Needed help with the parsing of OBSTINATE (mind goes blank when I see cricketing terms), EPONYM (must remember that sort of space 🙄) and CHAMBERPOT (hadn’t got the pe-er bit at all – brilliant!). Many thanks for unravelling everything William. Really liked HOME OFF ICE and CROSSED (and CHAMBERPOT of course). Thanks to setter.

    Edit: REINDEER was another highlight

  36. I liked it, especially the igloo and the Reindeer. A technical DNF because I chose not to choose between A and E, and just looked the tree up. Thaks, Wm.

    1. I fared much worse. Threw in the towel with 4 blanks. Is the the DBE mentioned by many a dame reference (gender indicator) I typed in BDE to google by mistake and got something else entirely!
      Arsenal 2

      1. ‘Definition by example’. So defining CHAMBER as ‘Lords’, rather than ‘Lords, for example’ or ‘Lords, say’.

  37. The word play of 20 down could have given either, and so should have been rephrased to remove the ambiguity.
    I very rarely comment here unless I have something positive to say, but to present a puzzle that takes the best part of an hour which then has to be tossed aside as unsolvable, is unlikely to win the setter or editor many friends.

  38. 38 mins. Slow and steady, no parsing problems in the end, although realising that ANTI was not some malfunctioning anagram took a while. As soon as I looked at 1ac I knew it would be lavatorial! As for ANNATO, I knew it purely from previous Times crosswords. A nice end-of-week puzzle.

  39. 51:59. tough one. I did check the dictionary for ANNATTO, and for TINPOT until the last ones in it felt relatively smooth – though tricky. liked NOM DE PLUME and HOME OFFICE a lot. thank you both!

  40. I have to have a moan today. I think ANNATTO is a terrible clue, completely unfair. If you don’t know the obscure tree you have no way to discriminate between Anne and Anna and if you guess wrong as i did you lose.

    Other than that a superb puzzle which I was delighted to battle thru in 36 minutes having got almost nowhere on first pass.

    Thx William and setter

  41. Just over the hour but I did resort to aids for Annatto.
    I was lucky with Naples as I was fixated on Napier, couldn’t make it work, then saw Naples.
    I thought “packed in” was the insertion indicator so had the unlikely-sounding Orcadian island of Hofully.
    Very nice puzzle – my COD to Home Office.

  42. 19.41 WOE

    Couldn’t get close to the parsing for HOPEFULLY which caused uncertainty/delay on my last three – the POT, the other POT and the city (getting which unlocked the other two).

    But was an ANNETTO. I very rarely moan as the setters and editors generally do a fantastic job but I think that clue was a shocker

    Thanks William/setter

  43. Nothing much to add to what’s already been said – I was another victim of the pesky NHO tree. Was puzzling over CHAMBERPOT until reading the blog, wondering why lords would use a chamberpot. Doh! Liked many of these once I’d got them, but REINDEER and ANIMISM took forever.

  44. Gave up, with WESLEYANS and ANNATTO unsolved, but the rest all correct. Some elegant clues, but hard work.

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