| 1 |
People again rebuilding Aleppo — true (10) |
|
REPOPULATE – ALEPPO TRUE* |
| 2 |
Eastern scripture, tons exported from Syrian port to the West (5) |
|
SUTRA – reversal of tARTUS; Syria’s second largest port, after Latakia. No, I hadn’t heard of either, either. |
| 3 |
Sage Derby perhaps eaten by mum (7) |
|
MAHATMA – HAT (Derby perhaps) in MAMA; the Sanskrit word means ‘great-souled’, so sage is a natural progression. Gandhi was actually named Mohandas and Mahatma was an honorific. |
| 5 |
Answer I had over European Union? Goodbye (5) |
|
ADIEU – A I’D reversed EU |
| 6 |
Briskly run, seized by the greatest possible self-confidence (7) |
|
ALLEGRO – R in ALL EGO |
| 7 |
Brands including surplus boilersuits (9) |
|
COVERALLS – OVER in CALLS (as in, ‘she was branded a coward for her stance’) |
| 8 |
Choice of measurement for printer’s rule (4) |
|
NORM – N OR M, referring to the en and em typographic units |
| 9 |
Vegetable, unknown Chinese one stuffed with duck’s heart (8) |
|
ZUCCHINI – dUCk in Z (unknown) CHIN (abbreviation for Chinese) I |
| 13 |
Iberian ruler and knight guarding carved holy figure (10) |
|
POLYHEDRON – HOLY* (the anagram indicator is ‘carved’) in PEDRO N; Pedro of Castile, known as Peter the Cruel or Peter the Just – presumably, depending on how you played your cards – was the King of Castile and León from 1350 until his death in 1369 |
| 15 |
Exposed hiding pirate is beaten in shoot-out (9) |
|
OUTGUNNED – GUNN (Ben Gunn is a pirate in Stevenson’s Treasure Island, me hearties) in OUTED |
| 17 |
Crypto assets IT company treated as rubbish? (8) |
|
BITCOINS – IT CO in BINS. Go on, think about it! |
| 19 |
Old crusading king losing third of unit in field at Jaffa? (7) |
|
ORCHARD – O (old) RiCHARD (Richard without the third letter of the word unit); the clue definitely needs a question mark, as the eponymous orange is not, and has never been, grown (in any significant way) at Jaffa. That is the port city from which it is exported. The groves (now diminished) have traditionally been in the Plain of Sharon to the north-east. |
| 20 |
Avian rail at present on lake (4,3) |
|
BARN OWL – BAR NOW L |
| 22 |
Composer’s rising frenzy limiting length (5) |
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ELGAR – L in RAGE reversed |
| 23 |
Finds text between covers with this? (5) |
|
INDEX – fINDs tEXt (the parts of the words between their covers); I’m not sure how to categorise this and will bravely plump for an extended all-in-one. |
| 24 |
Chap that’s fallen — could be slope of stage (4) |
|
RAKE – DD. I spent a lot of time on this; the first part is easier – a rake is a dissolute man – while the second is tougher (and unknown to me) – the slope of a stage from the back towards the footlights |
12ac LAST (terminal) in PICS (images).
35 minutes for all but 3 answers which I eventually gave up on as I was getting nowhere: POLYHEDRON, SUTRA and BUSHY. Somehow I have managed to live for nigh on 80 years, never more than 50 miles from London, without having heard of the second largest of the royal parks before today!
Perhaps a silly question re 2dn, but can a reversal be legitimately indicated by ‘to the West’ in a Down clue?
So in full it is LAST inside PICS, + URGE + RY
If you look at the “News in Pictures” page of The Times, which I usually do, Deer in Bushy Park frequently turn up..
I guess you’re meant to visualise the word first. Or the setter forgot it was a down clue?
I would give credit to the setter for misdirection, Tartus is on the Mediterranean coast , in the extreme west of Syria.
But then there’d be no reversal indicator. Personally I think it’s an error.
Conversely I’ve never lived within 14,000km of London and Bushy Park is one of my favourite locations!
Beautiful tranquil parklands with a delightful cricket ground tucked away in a corner of the park. Then there’s the deer, magnificent creatures.
Bushy’s most modern claim to fame of course is that it’s the site of the original Parkrun.
My understanding of the convention has always been that you can treat the answer to a down clue conventionally (i.e. as if it were written horizontally before being inserted in the grid) but you’re not allowed to do it the other way round. Having said that I’ve no idea where I got this notion from so perhaps I just made it up. When applied like this it certainly looks very odd.
Thanks. I can’t say I recall ever hearing that so you may have invented it. The only relevant convention/rule I can think of is with reference to ‘on’ which at The Times has a specific meaning regarding placement in Across clues. Along with that goes the convention that ‘on’ in a Down clue indicates ‘on top of’, and in that instance the solver is expected to think vertically rather than horizontally. I suppose there’s no reason why these things always have to be consistent, but it does go against the grain to think west/east in a Down clue rather than north/south.
Pleasant today, no queries and no nhos, just a MER at zucchini, which is American for courgette.. and apnea, American for apnoea
15.45
Not sure about a couple of the spellings (LOOFA, APNEA) or wordplays (how does “Time to get in” equate to “insert in”, or “carved” as an anagrind?)
Nice pangrammatic start to the week, though.
LOI TATTOOIST
COD LEVER
I can’t see how that GET works either. Anyone else?
For TATTOOIST: take ‘T’ and ‘to’, and put them inside ‘taoist’ (i.e. they ‘get in’ taoist).
14′, but without APNEA, which I got as soon as my answer came up as wrong. Definitely more challenging than most Mondays. Liked MAHATMA and RAKE. I once had a girlfriend who smothered herself in PATCHOULI oil, is it still in use?
Thanks ulaca and setter.
DNF
Couldn’t get RAKE, although I did know ‘raked’; probably wouldn’t have got it even if I’d continued my alphabet trawl past H. Got everything else, even though I NHO BUSHY Park, DNK Gunn (never read ‘Treasure Is’), DNK Tartus, sure as hell NHO Pedro of Somewhere in Iberia. I had forgotten, until Jerry reminded me, courgettes, so no MER at the time, but I’ll do it now. Patchouli: hate it or loathe it.
20.29
A few tricky ones today but I did see RAKE at the end which helped. Thanks setter/Ulaca.
Thank you for the explanations of the more convoluted clues.
And today I learned that Bushy Park is a royal park, and not spelled like the town in Herts., as I had assumed.
About 40′ of good puzzling. Didn’t see the pangram. A couple of NHOs with NORM and the gut germ, but both biffable from crossers and a little logic. Patchouli I only know from here and nothing suggests I should search it out; I may be wrong? Didn’t know the stage connection of RAKE but knew that meaning from elsewhere, though the fallen man was the main give-away. For some reason tried to develop something from Farage (without the a), I’ll have to clear my head now..
Very enjoyable, thanks
Continuation of RLS theme from yesterday’s ST crossword.
A meaty challenge that nudged me beyond the 20-minute mark. The dreaded _A_E at 24dn had me panicking at the end, but fortunately I started re-watching Rake (one of Australia’s better productions) last week, so the word was front of mind.
Hesitated over BITCOINS as I’m more used to seeing the plural rendered as bitcoin, but either is ok depending on the context.
Thanks setter and U.
I spotted the pangram coming together and suspected I would need it for the last few in the SE but it was not to be and everything settled into place nicely in this fun puzzle. SUTRA was probably the most difficult: it fitted the crossers and def but Google told me the Syrian port was Tartous which does not fit the parse. (And, whilst I acknowledge there are those who maintain you read a clue left to right so ‘to the West’ works as a reversal in a Down clue, I am not one of them so I did wonder if I was missing something)
Faves inc JAMAICAN, BUSHY, MAHATMA, ZUCCHINI, ORCHARD and BARN OWL. 18 minutes.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Eventually finished with POLYHEDRON after constructing BUSHY. I have heard of BUSHY PARK, but not seen it written, so I thought it was the park of Bushey, perhaps with a golf course. I’d no idea about what ENDODERM was but it fitted crossers and anagram. I’m not sure I’ve heard of COVERALLS either. Tough for a Monday. COD to NORM. Thank you U and setter.
24 mins. I too enjoyed the world tour but completion was more luck than judgement in the end. Not straightforward.
RAKE and NORM both based on only half an idea which bit was the definition. I thought APNEA required a US indicator and “Breathless American” would have been a better definition.
The good bits far outweighed the minor quibbles though, COD ORCHARD in ignorance of the facts provided here. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
Currently in Paris for 10 days and without a printer, so I’m obliged to do the crossie on-line, hence a time of 57 mins precisely! Not my forte.
Anyway, I did finish and it was quite enjoyable. I agree with the Syrian port kerfuffle.
I liked PLASTIC SURGERY.
Thanks U and setter.
36 minutes. I was left with _A_E at 24d as my LOI. Thank goodness for the pangram which gave me the K as the only missing letter, saving me from an alphabet trawl which (like Kevin) I wouldn’t have had the patience to complete. Learnt about TARTUS. Not too keen on the APNEA spelling, but just my preference.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
18.51, so no Monday cruise, but a lot of that accounted for by SUTRA, POLYHEDRON and BUSHY. As a clue, BUSHY just had too many wordplay items to solve with any conviction: P[ark], style of [A] royal, quiet, secure, inside. In the end, as with SUTRA (not Tarsus, then!), I opted for the most likely of the few options, and at least it had SH in it. BUSBY was tempting.
I’ve learned there was a more benign PEDRO I in Portugal, (and four others) so perhaps our setter was hedging bets with “Iberian”.
Those were amongst the clues I didn’t much care for, APNEA was another for poor (British) spelling, but I liked the clever &littish INDEX, ORCHARD (neat clue) and the inclusion of the lesser known pirate Ben GUNN.
My thanks to ulaca and setter.
I enjoyed it.
14a Loofa, DNK this spelling.
21a Quiche. I started with Quince but could not make anything of the anagrist.
2d Sutra, NHO Tartus in Syria. HHO Tarsus, but that is elsewhere.
13d Polyhedron. NHO Pedro but it seemed a probable name for a Spaniard.
17d Bitcoins, COD.
19d Orchard, it helped to say the field is at Jaffa even if it isn’t.
24d Rake, DNF, punted Face but without much hope it was right.
Missed the pangram as usual.
Nice and a bit harder than a usual Monday. 31 minutes. Thought 2d was derived from TARSUS, as in Paul of, but put in SUTRA anyway. MER at APNEA, why do Americans need to change perfectly good spellings?
Being unaffiliated with either side of the Atlantic I feel uniquely qualified to arbitrate in these disputes.
So here goes (lights blue touch paper and retires to a safe distance)….
When America changes the spelling of an English word it’s almost always an improvement.
Excellent piece of mischief!
Thanks for the helpful blog. It was a well put together Crosby , but surely the SUTRA clue would have been better using North rather than west given it is a down clue
18:21 with the sub-20 time suggesting this was Monday fare for me. Even incorrectly bunging in POTPOURRI because it was something that smells beginning with P was soon corrected by the sage.
With the first letter an A I was convinced the outer letters had to be Ali for ALLEGRO which meant I spent far too long on what was a straight forward(ish) clue.
Only POLYHEDRON (COD) and RAKE I remember causing any particular troubles.
I was also unsure about using West as a reversal indicator in a down clue but with the checking letters it had to be. I wonder if the clue got moved or I am missing something.
Thanks blogger and setter.
I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this – far too much NHO, particularly on a Monday. PATCHOULI, MAHATMA, ENDODERM, BUSHY, RAKE, Tartus, POLYHEDRON (VHO), N and M being a measurement. What is West doing in 2d?
I got completely fed up so just stuck in NERO for the rule, thinking it must just be another I hadn’t heard of, so ended up with an error after putting in all the work.
Disgruntled, but probably my fault!
19:04 Good fun. RAKE was last in and a guess. I liked LOOFA, LEVER and (COD) POLYHEDRON.
Quiche Lorraine or Ben Gunn’s toasted cheese? A difficult choice.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter
28:20
No major problems with this pangram, completed ahead of target of 31.5 minutes. A few notes:
PATCHOULI – first came across this having bought Madonna’s Like A Prayer LP on tape – the box was scented with PATCHOULI
BUSHY – vaguely aware of it while living in and around London for my first 43 years – but as Galspray suggests, well known in the Parkrun community as the location of the original
APNEA – eyebrow twitch at the alternative spelling, but can’t say I’m surprised
ENDODERM – didn’t know what this is, but seemed a likely configuration of the anagrist
RAKE – the hardest on the grid…. if you’ve only vaguely heard of it
SUTRA – needed all checkers to guess this
OUTGUNNED – fortunately read Treasure Island when at school – remembered the name Ben GUNN
ORCHARD – Had RICHARD written in until TATTOOIST went in
POLYHEDRON – just needed the Y from BUSHY for the penny drop
Thanks U and setter
FOI was REPOPULATE. Didn’t know the Syrian port and was confused by “to the west.” However SUTRA went in regardless. Didn’t know the Royal park but it wasn’t difficult to construct. Shrugged at the spelling of APNEA. Assumed there must have been an Iberian ruler called Pedro. Took a while to insert GUNN in OUTED. Liked BARN OWL. Panicked slightly when I found myself left with -A-E at 24d, but RAKE didn’t take too long to materialise. 23:27. Thanks setter and U.
20:10. Held up quite a lot by several (to me) unknowns – the Syrian port (although I knew of TARSUS), the pirate, the Iberian ruler, the Royal Park, the American spelling of APNOEA, ENDODERM and that RAKE could apply to a stage. I’m another that balked at the reversal for 2D being “to the West”. Surely that can only be applied to across clues? In all, a bit unsatisfactory for me. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
18:16 – good puzzle though I had never heard of Pedro and shared above misgivings about the east to west device as reversal indicator in a down clue. I was familiar with RAKE in the slope sense but as a fallen man it seemed a little off. In that sense surely fallen could be used only to describe a rake’s female conquests?
I wondered about that, but since a rake is dissolute and debauched, he’s already on the slippery slope. So, falling, if not fallen?!
Hogarth’s rake surely was.
You may be right but while I think angels and women can be fallen (in that rather Victorian sense) I just don’t think men can, sexism and hypocrisy being what they were and (to a lesser extent) still are.
In Christian theology, of course, all humans are fallen – rakery optional.
It must be Monday – 18 mins (Friday’s took 61 mins). The only stranger to me was ENDODERM but the wordplay was a straightforward anagram. Thanks, Blogger, for explaining the wordplay to SUTRA: I’ve never heard of the relevant port and consider the clue defective in lacking a reversal indicator. My first one in was PATCHOULI and last RAKE. My favourite three clues were to QUICHE LORRAINE (liked the anagram), OUTGUNNED (v nice surface reading) and INDEX (v clever). I’m intrigued that a number of solvers look for pangrammatic elements in the puzzle. In sixty years of solving the Times crossword I never have. Should I start? Despite my beef about the SUTRA clue, I liked the puzzle. Thank you to Blogger and Setter.
All went in very smoothly and quickly for me at the start, but eventually BUSHY Park and Ben GUNN slowed me down (shouldn’t have, since I had OUT_ _ _ _ ED so the answer should have been obvious) and then APNEA and RAKE caused a long delay. Didn’t like buy = brand in the BUSHY clue. NHO Artus or COVERALLS.
Isn’t it buy = secure?
Yes, but when I said ‘didn’t like’ I should really have said ‘didn’t understand’. At the time, but only really then, I didn’t like it.
Enjoyed this with question marks for “bushy” and “norm” and thanks to our blogger for explaining those.
All correct overall bar “rake” (not knowing the stage bit and not sure I would have defined the first definition like that either).
Lots to like and thanks to both our setter and blogger.
Sorry, forgot to mention above. Off-topic, but today’s (Mon 23/02) FT puzzle by Gaff, introduced as “A centenary puzzle”, may be of interest. I know having a theme means it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the centenary brings back many happy memories.
DNF after two attempts, beaten by RAKE.
– Didn’t realise that APNEA is the American spelling
– Took a long time to figure out the ENDODERM anagram
– Didn’t know Tartus or SUTRA, but guessed the latter based on the Kama Sutra
– Thought of OUTGUNNED early on, but couldn’t parse it at first as I thought ‘exposed’ was just giving ‘out’. Even once I realised it was giving ‘outed’ I had to trust that there was a pirate called Gunn
– Failed to see how INDEX worked
Thanks ulaca and setter.
COD Quiche Lorraine
38:40. found the last few (BUSHY, RAKE) very hard to get, was otherwise fine after about 20 minutes! great puzzle.
Three short at 45 mins. I looked up “syrian ports” but Tartous was spelled with an ous, so that ruled it out. Also not sure about “to the West” for a down clue. I didn’t have RESUME either, and I knew the Em and En business for printers, but couldn’t figure out the clue.
POTPOURRI for “it smells” held me up for ages.
Liked APNEA.
Over from the QC (thanks for heads up U) and pleased to finish all correct (although I did google Syrian ports). Needed the blog to explain OUTGUNNED, POLYHEDRON, LEVER and NORM which were entered with fingers crossed. I rather liked ORCHARD and BUSHY. Many thanks setter and ulaca.
Very enjoyable 17 minute solve today – seemed to be on the wavelength and lucky with the guesses of sutra and rake which I didn’t fully understand. COD to the rather wonderful INDEX.
Thx U and setter
Didn’t find this very hard last night, despite wondering if all royal parks are BUSHY and not having previously encountered ENDODERM (pretty obscure!). The wordplay was clear. LOI RAKE.
A
Mixture of easy and difficult. ENDODERM came out of my memory banks from first year medical school. Didn’t like the SUTRA clue much- going west is a reversal indicator for across clues.
I liked POLYHEDRON
Many thanks blogger and setter
RAKE was the first time I had reverse-engineered an answer from knowing that a pangram was on the loose.
Bunged in SUTRA as an oriental thing, never heard of the port.
LEVER: the hoi polloi voted us in, so it seems only right that they should vote us out again. (Got it right this time).
Nice start to the week. Tx all.
I managed to complete this fairly tricky puzzle in 34.55, although it was a near thing. I must have spent three or four minutes on 24dn, when in desperation I was thinking of just bunging in MALE before the penny dropped, and RAKE came to mind. I have heard of BUSHY, but was unaware of the royal park connection, so was relieved to see it was right.
11:29. I found this mostly fairly straightforward but then got quite badly stuck at the end on BUSHY and POLYHEDRON. ‘Style of’ is superfluous and a bit odd. No complaints though, enjoyable puzzle. When our kids were little we used to go to BUSHY Park a lot.
I hope this isn’t the start of a sequence of ‘miserable Mondays’ Got everything apart from RAKE but took far too long.