Solving time: 46 minutes
I didn’t find this very easy but it was an enjoyable solve and I was never in doubt that I would finish it.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Only half of stores getting prompt delivery (6) |
| RESCUE | |
| {sto}RES (only half), CUE (prompt) | |
| 5 | Individual emulates retiring judge (8) |
| SEPARATE | |
| APES (emulates) reversed [retiring], RATE (judge) | |
| 9 | Honour a rebel leader admitting heightened depression (8) |
| ACCOLADE | |
| A, then CADE (rebel leader) containing [admitting] COL (heightened depression – it’s in the mountains). Jack Cade (1420–1450), leader of the Kent Rebellion. | |
| 10 | Runs remote IT equipment (6) |
| ROUTER | |
| R (runs), OUTER (remote) | |
| 11 | Constrained style of book, long dull volume with Gaelic appendix (5,5) |
| BLANK VERSE | |
| B (book), LANK ( long dull – as hair may be described), V (volume), ERSE (Gaelic). ‘Appendix’ is unnecessary as positional indicator but it adds to the surface. This is verse that doesn’t rhyme. I don’t know enough about it to be sure how ‘constrained’ works as part of the definition but presumably blank verse has its own rules and conventions that need to be observed, so in that sense it’s constrained. | |
| 13 | Assess age of fruit (4) |
| DATE | |
| Two meanings | |
| 14 | Mineral box (4) |
| SPAR | |
| Two meanings. I knew ‘feldspar’, but there are many other examples of this category of mineral. | |
| 15 | Virtual realm PC creates by expressing time irregularly (10) |
| CYBERSPACE | |
| Anagram [irregularly] of PC CREA{t}ES BY [expressing – pressing out – time] | |
| 18 | Frantic detectives directed across river (10) |
| DISTRAUGHT | |
| DI‘S (detectives), TAUGHT (directed) containing [across] R (river) | |
| 20 | Just less than a shilling to look after? (4) |
| TEND | |
| TEN D (just less than a shilling). Pre-decimalisation there were 12 old pennies (12d) in a shilling – the ‘d’ stands for denarius or denarii. | |
| 21 | Cross US conflict zone returning from island (4) |
| MANX | |
| X (cross) + ‘NAM (US conflict zone) reversed [returning]. Inhabitants of the Isle of Man including tailless cats are described as ‘Manx’. | |
| 23 | Convoluted message backing Communist blocks (10) |
| MEANDERING | |
| RED (Communist) reversed [backing] is contained by [blocks] MEANING (message) | |
| 25 | Clothes, left out for Adelaide’s friend (6) |
| COBBER | |
| C{l}OBBER (clothes) [left out] | |
| 26 | Right method introduced to smother rodent (8) |
| DORMOUSE | |
| R (right) + MO (method – modus operandi ) contained by [introduced to] DOUSE (smother flames etc) | |
| 28 | Strategy for playing softly in percussion group (4,4) |
| GAME PLAN | |
| P (softly) contained by [in] GAMELAN (percussion group). I think the group has come up before. SOED defines it as an Indonesian orchestra consisting mainly of percussion instruments. Here’s a sample. | |
| 29 | Fine blade was first to pierce further (6) |
| TOLEDO | |
| LED (was first) contained by [to pierce] TOO (further) | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Play shot with cue — it features down under (9) |
| EUCALYPTI | |
| Anagram [shot] of PLAY CUE IT. Their leaves are eaten by koalas and used in the production of oil that has a number of medicinal properties. |
|
| 3 | See nothing out of place in examiner soothing singer (7) |
| CROONER | |
| CORONER (examiner) becomes CROONER (soothing singer) when O (nothing) moves ‘out of place’ | |
| 4 | Lady‘s formal greeting reflected (3) |
| EVA | |
| AVE (formal greeting) reversed [reflected] | |
| 5 | Promise son to be in (5) |
| SWEAR | |
| S (son), WEAR (be in clothes) | |
| 6 | A much-loved rogue journalist executed (11) |
| PERPETRATED | |
| PER (a), PET (much-loved), RAT (rogue), ED (journalist) | |
| 7 | Slightly overestimate assembly (7) |
| ROUNDUP | |
| ROUND UP (slightly overestimate). The assembly can take a hyphen. |
|
| 8 | Daily robbery? (5) |
| THEFT | |
| THE FT (daily newspaper – The Financial Times) | |
| 12 | Mild avarice troubled leader in service (4,7) |
| VICE ADMIRAL | |
| Anagram [troubled] of MILD AVARICE | |
| 16 | Buddhist’s heading for one to pray (3) |
| BEG | |
| B{uddhist’s} [heading], EG (for one) | |
| 17 | Condemned in a second, as was Jeanne d’Arc (9) |
| CANONISED | |
| Anagram [condemned] of IN A SECOND | |
| 19 | Propose carrying Times article, subject to official charges (7) |
| TAXABLE | |
| TABLE (propose a motion) containing [carrying] X (times) + A (article) | |
| 20 | Upheaval due to stated limit on fossil fuel (7) |
| TURMOIL | |
| TURM sounds like [stated] “term” (limit), OIL (fossil fuel) | |
| 22 | Where Plato met commander gathering troops? (5) |
| AGORA | |
| AGA (Ottoman commander) containing [gathering] OR (troops – Other Ranks). A Greek assembly place, especially a marketplace. | |
| 24 | One who wrote poetry from a university hideaway (5) |
| AUDEN | |
| A, U (university), DEN (hideaway). Here’s his poem Night Mail written in 1936 for a short film about the nightly London to Scotland postal train. The music is by Benjamin Britten. | |
| 27 | Go off tripe (3) |
| ROT | |
| Two meanings | |
I enjoyed this. Started brightly, got a bit bogged down in the middle, but finished more quickly than I thought I would. LOI PERPETRATED, but I very much enjoyed it when I got it. A statistical anomaly: yesterday I finished the cryptic in 10 minutes exactly, which is satisfying enough in itself. Today I submitted with the time on – 10 minutes exactly. Again. Two days running.
Well, it amused me.
A lot of head scratching over ROUNDUP and ACCOLADE. Biffed the latter (forgot about Jack, and not sure I’d have parsed it even if I hadn’t – ‘heightened depression’ is pretty lateral) and realised the former must be correct, even though I’ve never seen it rendered without a hyphen. Apparently I must get out more.
I’ve stopped timing myself for the 15 x 15, but this felt slightly harder than average. Did anyone else have an MER at the definition for EUCALYPTI? Surely it should read ‘they feature down under’. Otherwise I liked a lot of this, remembered AGORA, and was pleased to get AUDEN without any checkers. Thanks both.
Yes, I thought that at first, but “it” is part of the wordplay, and “features down under” is the def.
Two goes needed to complete this one. Although I thought of CROONER early on, I couldn’t parse it until I sat down again for a second attempt – not helped by not knowing the word ‘lank’ and wanting to put ‘plain verse’ instead of BLANK VERSE, which would have completely stymied it. The rest was OK, though I took a while to remember the rebel Cade to get ACCOLADE and I had to rely on the wordplay for the unknown TOLEDO blade.
FOI Rescue
LOI Blank verse
COD Distraught
Tricky enough. 23:27.
I didn’t see the anagram in CANONISED so that gets the COD.
Got stuck as noted above, so came back later after a spot of cleaning, to finish. Couldn’t parse ACCOLADE at all – history isn’t my strong point, so despite having heard of CADE I failed to think of him. I briefly considered COL as depression, but again failed to consider a pass as being a heightened depression. Clever…
After spending the best part of a couple of hours struggling to the finishing line, it’s a bit soul destroying to find the Snitch has this one down as average. Still, what doesn’t kill us etc. Also, it’s slightly alarming, from a parsing point of view, to find that nhos like Cade and Gamelan are part of the setter’s repertoire. Invariant
Whilst some went in very easily my last 3 took serious picking at. Eventually saw per for a, to assemble PERPETRATED, which tied in with DISTRAUGHT- which I had assumed was going to end in D, and then finally on re-reading 28 for the hundredth time saw the straight bit and so immediately wrote in GAME PLAN and then saw gamelan! Missed the wordplay in CROONER and CYBERSPACE so thanks for sorting those. Tough for me but satisfying. Thanks setter and blogger.
22.10 this one had me working hard enough to break a sweat. Cyberscape held me up for a bit. The much loved bit of perpetrated was another straggler. Also took a while to recall gamelan. Joan of Arc was canonised and not carbonised then?
Lmao
I got to this late, so when I realised that there were words I didn’t know involved (Gamlan, I’m looking at you) I decided that all the other clues I hadn’t solved definitely used unknown words. Wrong assumption, but it did give me cover to put it down unfinished. thanks, jack
Like others I found the NE corner hardest; LOI was DATE but pleased to be able to parse everything but ACCOLADE (NHO Cade).
As usual, amazed that I started off entering the top clues as I read them, and then slowed in the lower half, but never found it really difficult- unlike many much more seasoned solvers, and unlike yesterday’s offering . Go figure, as they say (or not) over the pond. Fell at the last hurdle with 22d, thinking that with the A and O in place it would start with ATO- -, because of the positional indicator “where”, which of course left me with ???E/PLAN at 28a, which I never did get. Thought others here would be labelling this one a ‘quickie’, but no. CROONER my COD.
“Eucalypti” is the plural of “Eucalyptus’. The clue should have read “…they feature down under.”
JL
‘It’ is not part of the definition (as indicated by my underline) so doesn’t need to agree with the plural. Its purpose here is to link the two parts of the clue (wordplay and definition) and create a credible surface reading.