Solving time: 17 minutes
This must be a personal best, or would be very close to it if only I knew what it was! Most answers were written in after a single reading of the clue, with only one (at 26ac) giving me cause for doubt until the checkers confirmed what it had to be.
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 | Spicy sauce in vessel at university (7) |
| KETCHUP | |
| KETCH (sailing vessel), UP (at university) | |
| 5 | Trendy youngsters torn apart by start of unnerving nightmare (7) |
| INCUBUS | |
| IN (trendy), CUBS (youngsters) containing [torn apart by] U{nnerving} [start]. Remembered from many a previous puzzle. | |
| 9 | Stop luxury car hemming in a road-mending vehicle (11) |
| STEAMROLLER | |
| STEM (stop) + ROLLER (luxury car – Rolls Royce) containing [hemming in] A | |
| 10 | Teacher, possibly, avoiding time in jail (3) |
| SIR | |
| S{t}IR (time in jail) [avoiding time] | |
| 11 | Insect heading off close to rug (6) |
| EARWIG | |
| {n}EAR (close) [heading off], WIG (rug – slang for a hairpiece) | |
| 12 | Supporter male chancellor ultimately required during a depression (8) |
| ADHERENT | |
| HE (male) + {chancello}R [ultimately] contained by [during) A + DENT (depression) | |
| 14 | Alluring old PM, the centre of attraction (8,5) |
| MAGNETIC NORTH | |
| MAGNETIC (alluring), NORTH (old PM). Lord North was Prime Minister 1770-1782 at the time of the American war of independence. I lost a moment or two here wondering if we’d had a PM called Field. | |
| 17 | Eccentric newlywed glum about key varsity sportsman (9,4) |
| CAMBRIDGE BLUE | |
| CAM (eccentric), then BRIDE (newlywed) + BLUE (glum) containing [about] G (key). This was almost biffable with assistance from enumeration but having been beaten on my last blogging day by ‘eccentric / CAM’ I was onto the wordplay immediately. | |
| 21 | Attorney framing European legislation concerning US state (8) |
| DELAWARE | |
| DA (District Attorney) containing [framing] E (European) + LAW (legislation), then RE (concerning) | |
| 23 | Continental resort in island by border (6) |
| RIMINI | |
| RIM (border), IN, I (island) | |
| 25 | Low state of mind daughter’s thrown off (3) |
| MOO | |
| MOO{d} (state of mind) [daughter’s thrown off] | |
| 26 | Predatory reptile in cold air swimming without company (11) |
| CROCODILIAN | |
| Anagram [swimming] of IN COLD AIR, containing [without] CO (company). I didn’t know this as a noun but I suppose it works as a class of creature in the same way as ‘amphibian ‘ does. I note that it also includes alligators. |
|
| 27 | Researcher originally assisting lab in some way (7) |
| ANALYST | |
| A{ssisting} + L{a b} [originally] contained by [in] ANY (some) + ST (way – street) | |
| 28 | Angry about name attached to a religious painting (7) |
| MADONNA | |
| MAD (angry), ON (about), N (name), A | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Fate one’s suffered supporting king (6) |
| KISMET | |
| K (King), I’S (one’s), MET (suffered). I was a bit dubious about ‘suffered / MET’ but SOED has meet – encounter, experience, suffer (one’s death, a certain fate or treatment, etc). There is a musical called Kismet based on music by Borodin. | |
| 2 | Formula in geometry maybe or English grasped by other people (7) |
| THEOREM | |
| OR + E (English) contained [grasped] by THEM (other people) | |
| 3 | Married woman beset by need for food, an excellent person (9) |
| HUMDINGER | |
| M (married) + DI (woman) contained [beset] by HUNGER (need for food) | |
| 4 | Share game on table (4) |
| POOL | |
| Two meanings | |
| 5 | Youth taken in by devil is terribly misguided (3-7) |
| ILL-ADVISED | |
| LAD (youth) contained [taken in] by anagram [terribly] of DEVIL IS | |
| 6 | Cut up roast, initially restricted by word of warning (5) |
| CARVE | |
| R{oast} [initially] contained [restricted] by CAVE (word of warning). ‘Cave’ is from the Latin ‘cavere’ meaning ‘beware’, and ‘keep cave’ was very much part of schoolboy slang at one time meaning to look out for approaching masters. | |
| 7 | Blacken name of woman in pub (7) |
| BESMEAR | |
| ESME (woman) contained by [in] BAR (pub). Has anyone been named Esme in the past 50 years, I wonder? | |
| 8 | Sentence on introduction of yellow elastic (8) |
| STRETCHY | |
| STRETCH (prison sentence), Y{ellow} [introduction] | |
| 13 | Offer pay for US novice (10) |
| TENDERFOOT | |
| TENDER (offer), FOOT (pay a bill). I knew this word from an early age as there was an American TV Western series called Sugarfoot which for some reason was renamed Tenderfoot when it came to the BBC. I never found out why, but it was pointless as the show had a catchy title song that mentioned ‘Sugarfoot’ repeatedly throughout its lyric. | |
| 15 | Cancelled in full, sadly, by current newspaper boss (9) |
| NULLIFIED | |
| Anagram [sadly] of IN FULL, then I (current), ED (newspaper boss) | |
| 16 | A rebel with intent, rising in scholarly circles (8) |
| ACADEMIA | |
| A, CADE (rebel), then AIM (intent) reversed [rising]. Jack Cade (1420–1450), leader of the Kent Rebellion. | |
| 18 | State of gang girl cut down at Kent port, do we hear? (7) |
| MOLDOVA | |
| MOL{l} (gangster’s girl) [cut down], then DOVA sounds like [do we hear?] “Dover” (Kent port) | |
| 19 | Linguistic device sound on reflection: large one included (7) |
| ELISION | |
| L (large) + I (one) contained by [included] NOISE (sound) all reversed [on reflection] | |
| 20 | After struggle, a stricken man finally raised capital (6) |
| VIENNA | |
| VIE (struggle), then A + {stricke}N + {ma}N [finally] reversed [raised] | |
| 22 | Crazy procedure to seal ends of cask (5) |
| WACKY | |
| WAY (procedure) contains [to seal} C{as}K [ends] | |
| 24 | Voice disapproval of Mike’s resonant delivery? (4) |
| BOOM | |
| BOO (voice disapproval), M (Mike – NATO alphabet) | |
A gentle canter over coffee, completing in 16 minutes with little head-scratching. Was not confident about the parsing of VIENNA, though the answer was clearly right, so thanks for the explanation. I would not have said TENDERFOOT was exclusively a US expression. I am sure it was used in UK contexts (cubs, scouts?) in my distant youth.
FOI – KETCHUP (with or without spice)
LOI – ADHERENT
COD – held over until tomorrow.
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
This must have been a fairly easy one, since my coffee was still hot when I finished it. LOI was VIENNA, which is embarrassing since it is a very easy clue, but sometimes the penny doesn’t drop as quickly as it should.
Hesitated over HUMDINGER because I wasn’t aware of it being applied to people, only to things, but it was clearly the answer, so I wrote it in, and I have since checked that it can apply to people as well. I’m just not up on Americanisms.
Which brings me to WACKY – I just hate the word. If I see the words ‘wacky comedy’ next to a film in the TV listings, I know I don’t want to watch it. (Only exception is ‘Wacky Races’, cult viewing when I was in my early teens.)
Marginally tougher than yesterday for me, although I did take it very steady having had a typo in the QC. Biffed two or three, but all parsed quickly afterwards.
FOI KETCHUP
LOI CROCODILIAN 🐊
COD ILL-ADVISED
TIME 6:18
Initially entered MAD,RE,N,A at 28a, but then couldn’t find this new type of religious painting in the books or on line. Once I realised that ‘about’ in this instance was ‘ON’, ELISION was obvious.
Still, not a perfect solve. Yesterday’s seemed easier to me.
11:50. As easy as they get. Not much else to say.
17:32
Straightforward with no dramas.
Thanks, jack.
I was a bit slow to get going, but once I was off things flowed smoothly. In the end I was only two minutes slower than yesterday’s, with a time of 22 minutes.
I also liked the clue to ANALYST.
Another straightforward puzzle today, 8’04” would be 4th best time ever but for a typo.
Thanks jack and setter.
A speedy solve for me at 19.08 spoilt only by getting 19dn wrong when I stupidly put in ESILION as the answer. As Eric Morecambe would say, all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order.
From Wiki:
Esme was among the 100 most popular baby names for girls in the UK in 2015.
I thought you’al would want to know that.
NHO RIMINI so I plumped for LIPINI, alas. Otherwise an easy day and one of my quicker times… for naught.
Sailed through this one until my LOI, MOLDOVA, which, by taking me almost 1 minute to solve, tipped me over the 10 minute mark. Biffed ANALYST. 10:21. Thanks setter and Jack.
I thought I’d have a quick look at this before lunch and then raced through it whilst Michael Portillo was visiting Bolton. He’s a happy wanderer.
Well under 30 minutes with LOI ANALYST taking a couple of minutes. Not timed exactly sadly as PB territory was probably in sight.
Cade was on University Challenge last night (in a question).
I liked MAGNETIC NORTH, almost my first in.
David
Another quick one for me, though not bothering my PB.
Bottom right was what held me up, though once ELISION had been worked out, the rest soon fell into place.
11:19
Mostly read and write – apart from 22d which I mulled over.
I’ve just looked at the Telegraph cryptic. The first clue that I saw (5a) seemed familiar: “Sauce – something sailor may use up” (7)
13:05 but…
Had all but three after ten minutes, though I had spent some time on ACADEMIA having mistakenly thought of CAD for ‘rebel’ and wondering where the E came from.
Last three were RIMINI, VIENNA and LOI NHO ELISION – as I didn’t know which I to put the L in front of, I looked it up i.e. I parsed all of the letters, but the setter presumably assumed that everyone would know this unheard-of word, or else they merely overlooked it…. hence a technical DNF.
1hr15 technical dnf.
Had to resort to checking at 1hr with 8 left and discovered that “strop” for “cut up” was wrong and why I was blocked. Then got the barely heard of INCUBUS and CARVE and so on up in NE. Left with TENDERFOOT (which I needed the checker to get the starter letter) and LOI ANALYST.
Just a checker here or there makes such a difference. Only six on my first pass but as soon as I tried the K (for king of kismet) that whole area filled up.
As yesterday, nothing to say about this gentle stroll in the park. Re the Sugarfoot-Tenderfoot point raised by our blogger, the BBC did the same pointless title change when the cartoon series ‘Top Cat’ crossed the Atlantic. Never mind the fact that ‘close friends called him TC’ and Officer Dibble never once yelled ‘Boss Caaaaat!. The problem was that the strictly non-commercial BBC couldn’t have a programme with the same name as a then-leading brand of tinned cat food. Maybe there was a similar issue with Sugarfoot, though I can’t think what product that name might have been used for.
I’m inclined to think that they changed it to ‘Tenderfoot’ because ‘Sugarfoot’ meant nothing to Brits. It doesn’t appear in Chambers to this day with this sense. Apparently there is a dance step called ‘sugar foot’ (as two words), but that’s it.
14 minutes!! Unlike yesterday I kept up the pace. That’s a pb I think. Of course glancing down the comments it will be a pb for many people today. But it’s still nice to get sub 15 finally without discovering I’ve done the quick cryptic by mistake.
One or two definitions seemed slightly dodgy, I don’t think a theorem equates to a formula for instance. But not complaining!
27 1/2 minutes, one typo caught in time, very easy, not much else to say. Theorems have to have proofs or they are just conjectures. Formulas could be wrong. So they are definitely not the same. But of course some theorems can be expressed by means of a (correct) formula.
Last one in was 24d, BOOM, while listening to Boom Radio. Ask Alexa …
12.19. Probably a P.B. Last one in ‘crocodilian’.
Ye Gods. Not only finished (rare) but finished in 13:08, which is just ridiculous. I might retire now, because I’ll never do it again!
Thanks all
Templar
Don’t do that!
Same Snitch as yesterday but it took me five minutes longer. Bottom right slowed me down. 13’47”
Glad (nearly) all of you found it so easy. I gave up on VIENNA; just couldn’t see it; and after I’d guessed where to put the L in NHO ELISION too.
No problems here except I had to resort to actually reading the news for the rest of the morning’s commute. Thanks for the blog.
12.16
Certainly one of my top ten times
Liked BESMEAR
Thanks Jackkt and Setter
08:42. A belated solve waiting for a train last night. Nice to see CAMBRIDGE BLUE after the clean sweep of the boat races on Sunday. Walking a stretch of the Thames path on Monday which included all of the boat race course (except in the wrong direction) we came across banners annotated with GDBO and GDST, which were a mystery to me until I read this, although “shoe the tabs” remains unexplained – yes canTABrigians, but “shoe”? Thanks Jackkt and setter.
All said: no dramas, except getting CURSE in place of CARVE ( doing what Pootle did).
Another confidence-booster.