Time: 17:31
Music: Shostakovich, Symphony #5, Berstein/NYP.
Here we have a typical Monday offering, which should not prove very challenging for most of our regular crew. The use of words like arrestment and thearchy seems a little forced, but the cryptics are very helpful. With only the early solvers in, the SNITCH is at 62. I did have to write down the letters for the longer anagrams, but then I saw them at once. The only biff was accompaniment, which is a bit tricky.
| 1 | What goes with endless fear encapsulated by current criticism? (13) |
| ACCOMPANIMENT – A/C COM(PANI[c])MENT. Comment and criticism as in the sense of literary criticism. | |
| 8 | Dodgy dealer bowling top people over (4) |
| SPIV – VIPS backwards, a bit of a chestnut. | |
| 9 | Driver to acclaim, restricting a disturbance (10) |
| CHARIOTEER – CH(A RIOT)EER. | |
| 10 | Explosive women at matches in the isles (8) |
| HEBRIDES – H.E. + BRIDES. | |
| 11 | Fade away very quietly with end of the port (6) |
| DIEPPE – DIE + PP + [th]E, the site of the famous disaster in 1943. | |
| 13 | Bank’s ideal after change, split up into smaller units (10) |
| BALKANISED – Anagram of BANK’S IDEAL. | |
| 16 | Keen on being at home with set of books around (4) |
| INTO – IN + O.T backwards. | |
| 17 | Girl suffering alongside Jack (4) |
| JILL – J + ILL, which many will biff because of Jack and Jill. | |
| 18 | Stoppage? Restart somehow involves workers (10) |
| ARRESTMENT – Anagram of RESTART around MEN. | |
| 20 | Join forces as side promoted (4,2) |
| TEAM UP – TEAM + UP. | |
| 22 | The cunning strategy’s ending divine rule (8) |
| THEARCHY – THE + ARCH + [strateg]Y | |
| 24 | South Americans support huge numbers reportedly (10) |
| BRAZILIANS – BRA + sounds like ZILLIONS. | |
| 26 | Suffering from severe cold, Greek character encounters doctor (4) |
| NUMB – NU + M.B, classic crosswordese. | |
| 27 | Chair’s fresh prop is so shaky (13) |
| PROFESSORSHIP – Anagram of FRESH PROP IS SO. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Drug Emma, suffering with the pain (11) |
| AMPHETAMINE – Anagram of EMMA + THE PAIN. | |
| 2 | Protect cold maiden maybe (5) |
| COVER – C + OVER. | |
| 3 | End up entertaining super fellow in part of southern Europe (9) |
| MACEDONIA – M(ACE DON)IA, i.e. AIM upside down. | |
| 4 | Collects are primarily associated with church services (7) |
| AMASSES – A[re] + MASSES. | |
| 5 | One young man penning one long poem (5) |
| ILIAD – I L(I)AD. | |
| 6 | Ditched female maybe shakes, not half — is male displaying bigotry? (9) |
| EXTREMISM – EX + TREM[bles] + IS + M. | |
| 7 | Bond and M avoiding prison sentence (3) |
| TIE – TI[m]E. | |
| 12 | New form of heat pump not widely established (3,2,3,3) |
| PUT ON THE MAP – Anagram of HEAT PUMP NOT. | |
| 14 | Buddhist monk with musical instrument going about US city (9) |
| KALAMAZOO – KA(LAMA)ZOO. | |
| 15 | Perhaps vending machine is getting spender confused outside (9) |
| DISPENSER – Anagram of SPENDER around IS. | |
| 19 | What may be observed in spiritual settings? (7) |
| RITUALS – Hidden in [spi]RITUAL S[ettings]. | |
| 21 | Plant’s vitality (5) |
| PULSE – Double definition. | |
| 23 | Top section of tree farm (5) |
| RANCH – [b]RANCH, a chestnut for sure. | |
| 25 | Rebuke artist on piano (3) |
| RAP – R.A. + P. | |
Good fun. In line for a PB even though I’d never hear of THEARCHY or ARRESTMENT, but for some reason got stuck for several minutes on MACEDONIA and CHARIOTEER. I liked BRAZILIANS and BALKANISED.
THanks to Vinyl and the setter
23 mins but made a right meal of this. Putting monarchy instead of thearchy, struggling to spell accompaniment and several other brain fades.
The super solvers would have found this far too easy, but for us lesser mortals, ones like this give us the confidence to carry on in our attempts to solve these crosswords on a daily basis
Hear Hear. It certainly encourages me.
I don’t usually complete in one sitting but this was just right although I would have been quicker had I started with the Down clues. Can’t do that. I’m a slave to routine.
FOI TEAM UP
LOI EXTREMISM
COD BRAZILIANS
I have an opposite routine which carries over from group solves. I start with the three or four letter clues. Failing them I start at the SE corner and work west and up, in the occasionally correct hope that the setter works in the opposite direction and is tiring at the end.
LOI the hidden rituals.
About 10 mins. Nice puzzle, some smart clues among the chestnuts.
I’ve got a girl in Kalamazoo
I don’t want to boast but I know she’s the toast
Of Kalamazoo
Had to biff Extremism, so thanks for the parsing.
22:13
Reasonable progress until the last half dozen all of which were towards the top of the puzzle, and tended (apart from AMASSES) to be longer answers all of which involved sticking bits together or inserting this into that. Final two in were EXTREMISM and CHARIOTEER. Not familiar with ARRESTMENT or BALKANISED as words, but both were fairly easy to guess with enough checkers. Not aware of THEARCHY either but it makes sense, I guess.
Thanks V and setter
Apologies for posting after a long absence but this is the only community which will appreciate my excitement at completing this puzzle in 16 min 56 sec which smashes my personal best. Never completed under 20 minutes before.
Thanks as always to the bloggers for your explanations which I continue to need every week and to the other commenters for the many interesting and entertaining digressions.
Many congratulations!
Thank you
30 something minutes, my fastest ever.
No doubt indicative of a very easy puzzle!
As the blogger said, Anagram city, which dedpite anagrams being a long way down my list of favourite things (I know other people love them) I nevertheless finished in 15:27 and that was including some stoppage time as it were, so more like 13 minutes real time.
Thanks setter and blogger
12.06
Quick until BALKANISED and KALAMAZOO. Didn’t know the former and was head scratching the possible BALAMANJO until I remembered the place from a previous puzzle.
Did this on a computer rather than phone. It felt a lot slower moving around the grid but I suspect it is way quicker typing and more accurate to boot.
Nice Monday fare.
Thanks setter and Vinyl
22:57. Fairly straightforward – was hopeful of a record briefly but was held up by ACCOMPANIMENT and BALKANISED among others. Thank you for an excellent Monday puzzle.
20 mins inc a phone call! VHO THEARCHY and ARRESTMENT.
Speedy sub 20. No spooners and no less than obvious musical terminology always helps! I liked BALKANISED and I’m sure I’ve misnamed a Kazoo a KALAMAZOO sometime in the past. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
Having somehow missed Spiv🙄, I managed to get all the way down to 16ac Into before I wrote one in, but after that wavelength check the answers came more easily. Held up by nho Arrestment, and for that matter I wouldn’t regard Thearchy and Balkanised as everyday words, but everything was put to bed for a time measured in minutes, albeit quite a few of them. Invariant
I’d NHO BALKANISED, but it had to be, and the rest was straightforward and a lot of fun. 18:10. COD MACEDONIA for making me smile.
Thanks setter, and vinyl.
Early in our regular ‘solving day’, we’re usually late nighters with the 15 x 15, and one of our better ones at 23:30. ACCOMPANIMENT was a case of guessing the word from a few checkers and then working out the parsing. It helped us with our LOI EXTREMISM where getting EX at the start and ISM at the end was the key. The NHO THEARCHY on the other hand was entirely from wordplay. Thanks, vinyl1 and setter.
Monday nature confirmed by my 16:12, scenes!! All parsed except RANCH.
Many thanks vinyl.
14:26 but with a break in the middle given some back to school drama. I won’t count it though as HEBRIDES and CHARIOTEER came to me whilst at work.
NHO KALAMAZOO but had a post solve Google and went down the rabbit hole of some excellent looking breweries.
COD HEBRIDES
Thanks blogger (although all understood today) and setter.
Indeed very easy, 18:54 after proofreading and probably my PB. Not much to say about this. I also liked JILL (in combination with Jack) and fortunately the Z in BRAZILIANS was a crosser, since place names often tend to take up German spellings (with an S in that position) in my brain, since those are the ones I see more often in public where I live.
Slowed down by AMASSES and CHARIOTEER at the end, I completed this in 15’10”. Which I do not reckon was a good time. But it’s late and I’m knackered. Many thanks!
Scraped under 40mins. Held up for about the last 10mins by CHARIOTEER / EXTREMIST
25:23
NHO KALAMAZOO, but very helpful wordplay.
Biffed EXTREMISM – thanks vinyl for explaining it.
LOI was CHARIOTEER.
I rarely attempt the 15×15, so I was pleased to complete all but one clue in just over half an hour, late this evening. I just couldn’t see HEBRIDES, but it was getting near my bedtime.
Harder for me than most of you here, as I was severely held up by not being able to shoe-horn in THEOCRACY, wrote in the wrong answer for ARRESTMENT (NHO), and didn’t see the hidden RITUALS. But a good score for me, so not unhappy. COD BRAZILIANS.