Not a tremendous amount of arcane general knowledge required for this one. That combined with generally friendly wordplay puts this in the typical Monday category, I think.
The NITCH is 75 after 76 contributors have been counted, so I was a bit slack with my time of 20:27.
| Across | |
| 1 | A route out of India? Unlikely, in such peaceful surroundings (4,4,2,3) |
| AWAY FROM IT ALL -A WAY FROM I (India) TALL (unlikely) | |
| 8 | On radio, grumble is cut (4) |
| MOWN – sounds like moan | |
| 9 | Our quintet is playing, but this stops the flow (10) |
| TOURNIQUET – anagram* of OUR QUINTET | |
| 10 | Hacker stood less on ceremony at first (8) |
| CLAYMORE – C~ LAY MORE (i.e. ‘stood less’) | |
| 11 | Child’s play receives large hug (6) |
| CLINCH – L in CINCH | |
| 13 | One criminal to turn in another? About time (10) |
| SHOPLIFTER – SHOP (turn in) T in LIFER | |
| 16 | Did work against sanction (4) |
| TOOK – TO (against, as in ‘He put his ear to the floorboards’) OK (sanction); take=work, as in ‘The drug took first time and he was on the road to recovery’) | |
| 17 | Car manufacturer lacking agreement from German plant (4) |
| GUAR – |
|
| 18 | Earth and hill reduced to dust? (6,4) |
| GROUND DOWN – GROUND DOWN | |
| 20 | Meal is about over (6) |
| REPAST – RE PAST | |
| 22 | Perplex crowd wanting leader to pursue expeditionary force (8) |
| BEFUDDLE – BEF (British Expeditionary Force – sounds more fun than it actually was) |
|
| 24 | Very small thing inhibiting professional heavyweight? (10) |
| ANTIPROTON – ANTI (inhibiting) PRO TON | |
| 26 | Empty vessel in the sound (4) |
| VAIN – sounds like vein | |
| 27 | Affected by exposure, wife collapsing beneath a tree (7-6) |
| WEATHER-BEATEN – W (BENEATH A TREE*) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Play or plaything (1,5,5) |
| A DOLLS HOUSE – double definition | |
| 2 | Jack’s parted from brisk relative (5) |
| AUNTY – |
|
| 3 | Making sense of plump sort of pigeon (9) |
| FATHOMING – FAT HOMING | |
| 4 | Rich old university cushioned by endless wealth (7) |
| OPULENT – O U in PLENT |
|
| 5 | Order for building barrio nice houses (5) |
| IONIC – hidden; other Classical orders include Doric and Corinthian | |
| 6 | Cleared a cold and departed (9) |
| ACQUITTED – A C QUITTED | |
| 7 | First to see down solution (3) |
| LYE – ELY is the bishopric/see, and its first letter is dropped down to get the dyeing solution | |
| 12 | Romance will flourish, as with Oliver (11) |
| CROMWELLIAN – ROMANCE WILL* | |
| 14 | Each app fails with Charlie irate (3,6) |
| PER CAPITA – APP C IRATE* | |
| 15 | Phone and receiver clearly separate (4-5) |
| RING-FENCE – RING FENCE | |
| 19 | Gold tooth perhaps rounder (7) |
| ORBITER – OR BITER | |
| 21 | In alternation, two preach Jewish law (5) |
| TORAH – alternate letters of T |
|
| 23 | Following doctor’s lead, I almost choose to get lump removed (5) |
| DIVOT – D~ I VOT |
|
| 25 | Have to get name promoted immediately (3) |
| NOW – the last letter of OWN is moved up (gets N promoted) | |
Sadly this has to count as a technical DNF. I stopped the clock after 26 minutes as I had two 4-letter answers missing that would probably need alphabet trawls, but I was too tired to be bothered. On returning this morning the trawls didn’t produce any convincing answers so I had to think again..
Eventually I plumped for VOID at 26ac on the basis that it fitted the checkers and the definition ’empty’, and then I used aids to see if there was anything better. ‘VEIN’ as ‘vessel’ worked, and finally its soundalike ‘VAIN’ came to me – not that ’empty’ was a synonym that would exactly spring to mind.
At 16ac, on the point of giving up I suddenly spotted the wordplay and constructed TOOK.
Same, same with TOOK and VOID but I stayed with VOID.
Just under 11 minutes.
– Wasn’t sure how SHOPLIFTER worked as I didn’t see that the definition included ‘one’ and thought the ‘in’ was a containment indicator, so I was trying to put one criminal backwards inside another
– Didn’t know GUAR but got it from the wordplay (with the U in place, I was tempted to bung in AUDI based on ‘German’ in the clue)
– Also had to trust the wordplay for ANTIPROTON
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Mown
LOI Antiproton
COD Tourniquet
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!
(Home-thoughts from Abroad, Browning)
20 mins, leisurely pre-brekker (pancakes). Mostly, I liked Ring-fence. Mostly, I struggled with parsing Lye even thought See=Ely is a staple.
Ta setter and U.
Completely BEFUDDLEd this morning by a cold, and missed out an answer (TOOK, which I probably wouldn’t have got anyway).
Knew GUAR only from Polygon. VAIN took a while. I have studied A DOLL’S HOUSE (apostrophe missing from blog).
Thanks ulaca and setter
18.22, struggling with a few towards the end because of rather oblique defs/WP. Such as TOOK, and VAIN, and DIVOT, and ANTIPROTON. But all up an enjoyable Monday solve, thank U.
From John Wesley Harding:
’Twas down in Chaynee County, a time they talk about
With his lady by his side he TOOK a stand
And soon the situation there was all but straightened out
He was always known to lend a helping hand
Just to thank the setter for ORBITER – a common term in my universe
I was speeding through this only to fall into the biffers trap of VOID instead of VAIN. I assumed it was a homophone of a NHO boat because there are so many for me. Only got myself to blame as an extra 15 seconds on it I think I would have got to the right answer.
Couldn’t see how LYE worked, so thanks blogger, but all else parsed.
TMNT’d CLAYMORE, my son has been watching Wrestlemania this weekend and it’s the name of a Scottish Wrestler’s finishing move.
Apart from a handful of tricky clues this might be a good one for anyone moving up from the Quick.
Liked FATHOMING and AWAY FROM IT ALL
Thanks blogger and setter.
Edit: Having read other comments maybe not one for stepping up. Maybe I was lucky in getting AWAY FROM IT ALL, A DOLLS HOUSE and CLAYMORE, which opened up the grid, on the first pass. Agree with others though that the shorter answers were very tricky.
Around 35 minutes which should have been 25 minutes except I got hung up on the four letter words 16ac, 17ac and 26ac. Biffed TOOK without a clue if it was correct. I finally got VAIN after thinking it was VOID which I couldn’t parse. Finally had to check that GUAR was a word. FOI A DOLL’S HOUSE which I knew straightaway and that lead to AWAY FROM I(ndia) and I quickly got the rest. COD GUAR.
Thanks U.
26 minutes with LOI VAIN, toying with VOID first. DNK GUAR but did anybody? The cryptic was kind. CLAYMORE came from the Skye Boat Song, learnt in primary school. LYE was deduced from the only see in our world. I hope the Bishop is on a bonus for every mention. COD TO ANTIPROTON. Mainly straightforward, with a few tricks. Thank you U and setter.
GUAR had to be from wordplay and I knew I had met it before. But it was only after looking it up I remembered ‘Guar gum’ and so did our blogger, judging by his blog heading.
Never heard of it! Plumped for it when doing a title-trawl.
A couple of NHOs, GUAR and HACKER = CLAYMORE? Could only think of claymore mines from USA, and hacker as a computer criminal or James of Yes, Minister; but about to ask the question I’ve just realised the reference is the big Scottish hitting weapon.
Otherwise failed to parse the 2 3-letter cyclical words, but no problems elsewhere. Though not speedy, always find the grids with lots of 4-letter words harder. Liked Per capita, Away from it all, and COD to Shoplifter.
Not my fave kind of solve – a relatively easy puzzle that gets progressively more difficult until I’m bogged down by the end. VAIN and TOOK both required alpha-trawls, and I failed to properly parse the latter except for OK, then found myself facing LOI L-E. Came to the conclusion that LIE was the only valid fit – I don’t know how many times I’ve slipped up on the “see” = “bishopric / diocese” decode, but that’s another to add to the list. 29:30 fail.
Yes. Inconsistency throughout the grid again.
DNF in something less than 20
My limit is three alpha trawls (usually getting increasingly ineffective). Just couldn’t get TOOK though happy enough now I understand it as should have twigged sanction = ok. LYE went in unparsed. MOWN also a late entry as looking for the wrong sort of cut.
Thanks all
Very relieved to see no pinks after 36 mins, 8-10 of which spent on LYE and TOOK.
I knew LYE is a solution made from wood ashes and used in detergents but did not parse the wordplay.
TOOK was just a past participle that sounded better than TROD.
Could not remember if it was A or The Dolls House so hesitated to put that in until I had some crossers.
Otherwise fun and maybe even jaunty, thanks both.
DNF, went wrong with LIE & VOID. Bah.
NHO GUAR but worked out from wp.
Thanks U and setter.
Like several others, DNF due to LYE and TOOK – the rest took me 18 mins, so easyish and fun enough up til those last two.
Thanks U, and setter
Heiio Ulaca – thanks for the blog. NB 12D is an anagram of ROMANCE WILL (not “with”).
Thank you, Olivia.
I’m going to say it before anyone else does: this was not typical Monday fare, which would occupy me for around 13 minutes and be more or less a straight through solve, and my time of 18.44 and the patchy nature of my entries belies that.
It might have been a bit quicker if I’d got more than just AWAY for 1a early on, but those tricky 4-letter clues and LYE have clearly caused most of us difficulties. So a typical Bank Holiday Monday puzzle then, which assumes that we’ve all got more time on our hands than usual.
I think you mean “the patchy nature of my entries betrays [reveals] that.”
Belies (I had to correct this in articles by two different authors last week) means
1. to show to be untrue; contradict
2. to misrepresent; disguise the nature of
the report belied the real extent of the damage
3. to fail to justify; disappoint
32 minutes with GUAR and ANTIPROTON nho, but solved from wordplay. I entered LYE because it is a solution but didn’t understand it until afterwards. It struck me that CLAYMORE = hacker was a very weak definition, but I liked the way 1ac parsed. Can’t get the SNITCH but the page may be available later.
I was delayed by GUAR, VAIN, TOOK and LOI, LYE, but managed to parse them eventually. AUNTY was FOI. PER CAPITA and SHOPLIFTER took a while too. 17:28. Thanks setter and U.
Failed with DIVOT, VAIN and REPAST unsolved and TOOK as LOI but quite quick on the rest of this, I suspect the snitch will be somewhere in the 90-100 range when it’s finally up and running.
DNF, although the puzzle is Monday-ish I just couldn’t see 16a Took. Tempted by Trod but didn’t enter that as plainly rubbish.
1a Away from it all added to Cheating Machine.
1d A Dolls House added to CM.
7d Lye. Never parsed this. Poor effort.
8a Mown, wrongly plumped for Moan. Bother!
26a Vain. I pondered this and plumped for Void, but it doesn’t work. Double bother!
Not a good day for me. Chalk 3 to setter. Thanks ulaca and setter.
6:08 but with a stupid error. I put DUVET at 23dn as obviously the only word that would fit, then looked at the clue and ‘corrected’ it to DIVET. This way of solving is not recommended.
It must be because you were trying to beat the clock.
There’s a first time for everything…
16:35
I enjoyed this. Never hear of GUAR. and needed Ulaca to explain ELY/ LYE – embarrassing as I once lived there. VAIN and TOOK the last two in. I think WEATHER BEATEN hs come up a few times recently, either here or in the Guardian. I liked BEFUDDLE, CROMWELLIAN (another Ely connection) and SHOPLIFTER.
Thaks to Ulaca and the setter
14:50 – straightforward solve with much biffing once a few crossers were in place. No problem with VAIN – having seen the device plenty of times before – but TOOK was more recalcitrant accounting for two minutes of my time. Always the short ones…
Thanks for explaining LYE and TOOK, both of which I’d gone with unparsed. Add me to the list of NHO GUAR but seemed obvious from the definition. I agree with SHOPLIFTER as COD.
Another DNF, failing with LYE and VEIN.
Disappointing because I did think it was very Monday-ish, a standard I enjoy.
I was not on the wavelength at all, and struggled to get a foothold. The only one that was obvious was weather-beaten, but solvers need starting letters, not ending letters. It took me a while to see away from it all. I had to carefully parse every clue to make sure I was right, enabling me to get took and vain. I was stuck at the end on lye, which I finally biffed as the only possible, er, solution.
Time: 42:24
Rattled through this in 25 minutes until I came to my LOI “Antiproton” which took me as long again.
I have never heard of an Antiproton – it never came up in Chemistry O-level – I guess it’s in the anti-matter universe somewhere.
My COD to “Fathoming”.
A fairly quick DNF having failed to see the See and NHO LYE so biffed LiE. Otherwise Mondayish. Hesitated over the two homophones to ensure I chose the correct ones, which I did. Didn’t parse TOOK and NHO GUAR. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
34:58 with quite a few clues needing a lot of attention including LOIs TOOK and VAIN. I liked GROUND DOWN and RING-FENCE
I couldn’t get TOOK.
I had TWOC as taken without the sanction of the owner
I echo Vinyl’s opinion – not on the wavelength at all and every clue seemed a struggle. WEATHER-BEATEN FOI, which didn’t help much – then the low-hanging fruit of TORAH and IONIC. Finally was left with TOOK, but admittedly didn’t see the definition – it went in from OK/sanction and I quite expected it to be wrong. NHO ANTIPROTON or the meaning of DIVOT. Definitely not for Quickie solvers!
16.52, but didn’t parse LYE, got it from solution.
Sanction is one of those words which have two almost opposite definitions (cleave is another), making them ideal setter material.
Nice standard Monday puzzle.
13.10 Nice Monday puzzle I thought.
COD to antiproton since I am a physicist.
Thanks for the blog U, and particularly for explaining shoplifter.
TOOK feels like a stretch to me, even with our blogger’s example, a usage which I can’t think I’ve ever heard. Liked FATHOMING, though I couldn’t find the required bird; didn’t see CROMWELLIAN at all. So a DNF and not at all Mondayish for me. And I still can’t find a usage of TOOK which satisfies. Oh, well …
29.30 for a reasonably quick finish until on checking the answers I found that I had neglected to finish 7dn. A blank space between the L and the E meant a very careless DNF. Annoying to say the least, although would I have got it? I guess I’ll never know!
DNF TOOK and VEIN (another to try void). Didn’t know what a claymore was exactly (I do now) but had vaguely heard of. Couldn’t parse ANTIPROTON – many thanks U. Completed in several sittings. Very enjoyable.
Took, vain, and guar had me reeling so took me from a rare sub ten min to 26; four-letter-words is all I can say.
Poor start to the week for me. DNF after over an hour.
Guessed LYE from solution. Couldn’t see TOOK. NHO GUAR.
Rest were straightforward enough.
Must do better!
Thanks. Y
32 mins, all parsed, but delayed by TOOK (LOI, as the short words often are!). Also delayed by trying to make 13 into an anagram. GUAR and ANTIPROTON solved purely from wordplay.
About 36mins with TOOK and VEIN needing correction. Like others went for VOID and followed the advice follow the wordplay and put in words I’ve never heard of with TOOP – TO=timeout=child’s sanction and OP=WORK. Also couldn’t parse ELY or NOW which makes sense now I see they’re essentially the same trick. Thanks to blogger and setter
Failed on LYE and TOOK (I biffed Lie and Trod).
The rest of it solved doing wet bank holiday duties- a trip to Swindon Dunelm being the highlight.
It seemed a little dodgy, but Beef the grumble and Beef the cut of meat do sound alike. Add in the four letter words plus Lye and my solve was longer than it should have been.