I don’t have a solving time for this one as I was interrupted and lost track. I also found on coming to blog it that I had left one clue unsolved that I had been intending to return to as it had been giving me so much trouble. Before I could have found the correct answer I would have needed to notice that I had one of its checkers wrong because of a careless error in an adjoining answer.
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 | Girl’s name featuring in collections of stories (4) |
| ANNA | |
| N (name) contained by [featuring in] ANA (collections of stories – a word I know only from crosswords) | |
| 3 | Having possessions, duke put on appropriate neckwear (10) |
| PROPERTIED | |
| PROPER (appropriate), TIE (neckwear), D (duke). I carelessly wrote PROPERTIES here which prevented me solving 8dn. | |
| 10 | Follow leftist’s leisurely movement (7) |
| DOGTROT | |
| DOG (follow), TROT (leftist – Trotskyist) | |
| 11 | A speaker’s right to applaud (7) |
| ACCLAIM | |
| A, then -CCLAIM sounds like [speaker’s] “claim” (right) | |
| 12 | Book posh seats initially, engaging with chap in charge of play (5,10) |
| TITUS ANDRONICUS | |
| TITUS (book of the Bible) + U (posh) + S{eats} [initially] containing AND (with) + RON (chap) + IC (in charge) | |
| 13 | Dismal medic unknown to receive attention (6) |
| DREARY | |
| DR (medic) + Y (unknown) containing [to receive] EAR (attention) | |
| 14 | Language lawyers use when winds burst into shelter! (8) |
| LEGALESE | |
| GALES (winds) contained by [burst into] LEE (shelter) | |
| 17 | Aching to seize half of rabble’s fuel (8) |
| PARAFFIN | |
| PAIN (aching) containing [to seize] {riff-}RAFF (rabble) [half] | |
| 18 | Jazz musician misses entry? Help! (6) |
| ASSIST | |
| {b}ASSIST (jazz musician) [misses entry] | |
| 21 | Branching out, police officer introduces poetic technique (15) |
| DIVERSIFICATION | |
| DI (police officer – Detective Inspector), VERSIFICATION (poetic technique) | |
| 23 | Dance leaders of chamber orchestra approached at speed (7) |
| CORANTO | |
| C{hamber} + O{rchestra} [leaders}, RAN TO (approached at speed). I constructed this from wordplay, never having come across it before but I assumed (correctly as it turned out) that the word is a variation on the French ‘courante’. According to SOED it’s the Italian name for it and it’s effectively obsolete. It’s one of the many early courtly dances such as minuet that appear in keyboard and orchestral suites by composers such as Handel. | |
| 24 | Area of land teacher cultivated (7) |
| HECTARE | |
| Anagram [cultivated] of TEACHER | |
| 25 | Destined to accept benefit, start to hire musical instrument (6,4) |
| BASSET HORN | |
| BORN (destined) containing [to accept] ASSET (benefit) + H{ire} [start] | |
| 26 | Cipher once used in Belize routinely (4) |
| ZERO | |
| Hidden (used in) {Beli}ZE RO{utinely}. I’ve taken the definition to refer to this entry in SOED: ‘zero – a worthless person or thing; a cipher’, but I think it could be ‘zero once‘ involving matters beyond my ken, so I’ll leave it to others to explain them. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | A universal new diet finally prescribed and checked (7) |
| AUDITED | |
| A, U (universal), anagram [new] of DIET, then {prescribe}D [finally] | |
| 2 | Curious thing on river? It’s what the retiring may assume (9) |
| NIGHTWEAR | |
| Anagram [curious] of THING, then WEAR (river). The river flows through Durham and enters the North Sea at Sunderland. The Thing/Night anagram is a chestnut. | |
| 4 | Harshly rebuking ordinary seaman (6) |
| RATING | |
| Two meanings | |
| 5 | Interferes with atmosphere in treeless grasslands (8) |
| PRAIRIES | |
| AIR (atmosphere) contained by [in] PRIES (interferes with) treeless grasslands. I’m not sure if ‘with’ is part of the wordplay or just a link word, but in any case I’m having difficulty equating ‘prying’ with ‘interfering’ as I thought prying was just being nosey. | |
| 6 | Survey study going into period of revival (14) |
| RECONNAISSANCE | |
| CON (study) contained by [going into] RENAISSANCE (period of revival) | |
| 7 | Abraham’s son’s current appeal over bill (5) |
| ISAAC | |
| I (current), SA (sex appeal), AC (bill). Father and son appear in Genesis. | |
| 8 | Landed property this writer originally secured in valley (7) |
| DEMESNE | |
| ME (this writer) + S{ecured} [originally] contained by [secured in] DENE (valley). This was the clue mentioned in my intro that I failed to solve. Shame, because it’s quite an unusual word that I happen to know rather well from the days when I used to read conveyancing documents for a living. | |
| 9 | Angry allusion identifying comparison in book (5-9) |
| CROSS-REFERENCE | |
| CROSS (angry), REFERENCE (allusion) | |
| 15 | Remove misguided male in tie (9) |
| ELIMINATE | |
| Anagram [misguided] of MALE IN TIE | |
| 16 | Old settler’s call on husband to conserve energy (8) |
| VISIGOTH | |
| VISIT (call on) + H (husband) containing [to conserve] GO (energy). They settled mainly in France and Spain. | |
| 17 | Fellow in film on a black rickshaw (7) |
| PEDICAB | |
| ED (fellow) contained by [in] PIC (film), then A, B (black). There seems to be some crossover by way of definition needed here as a pedicab involves pedalling and a rickshaw doesn’t, at least traditionally, but I think this from Collins may have it covered: A rickshaw is a simple vehicle originally used in Asia for carrying passengers. Some rickshaws are pulled by someone walking, running or cycling in front. | |
| 19 | Fruit provided by the Spanish during dance (7) |
| TANGELO | |
| EL (‘the’ Spanish) contained by [during] TANGO (dance) | |
| 20 | Woman’s humour first to wilt (6) |
| WITHER | |
| WIT (humour), HER (woman’s). ‘First’ indicates placement. | |
| 22 | Irish American crushed by very nasty bug (5) |
| VIRUS | |
| V (very), IR (Irish), US (American). ‘Crushed’ indicates placement on top of. | |
I don’t understand why some clues have exclamation marks. So far as I know they are either part of the general pronunciation of a sentence, or an indication that the setter is doing something a bit questionable. What is the exclam doing in 14ac? It’s hardly a hilarious joke (and even then I would eschew it — I suspect there are few of them in P.G.Wodehouse), there are no words like psst! or la!, and the wordplay seems unexceptionable. CORANTO pieced together with only knowledge of courante. 24 minutes, after a slow start: my first read through the acrosses only revealed the hidden, and I expected difficulty.
I think that the idea in 14A is to give the indication that the language is somewhat shocking, given the context of the clue. Misleading the solver, in other words, though most of us would be wise to that, I’d hope. 14A obviously should have an exclamation mark, no?
Ximenes memorably said that an exclamation mark at the end of a clue was the setter’s way of showing you how clever he was.
Actually it was a correspondent that told Ximenes that, but he took it on board. The quantity of ?s and !s varies greatly from crossword to crossword; and I often feel that the better the crossword, the fewer there are..
18:12
Nothing too much of a stretch today – a few bifds/unparsed and one NHO:
– TITUS ANDRONICUS – bunged in from six checkers including the two Ts – the parsing looked a bit convoluted so didn’t linger longer
– CORANTO – NHO – waited for all of the checkers to appear before committing
– ZERO – saw the hidden, kind of thought I’d seen cipher = ZERO before somewhere
– PEDICAB – NHO – with PDB checkers, wondered if it might be some exotic word from the Far East, but came up with CAB and worked out the rest
– DEMESNE – well known if you like music and are from South London – Jeff Beck was born at 206 Demesne Road, Wallington
– Liked VISIGOTH and PARAFFIN – as with others, had been expecting half of ‘rabble’ to be part of the answer
17 minutes moving pretty well top to bottom. Built CORANTO from wordplay; quite liked PARAFFIN once I’d spotted riff-raff as a synonym for rabble. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I raced through this in about 14 minutes till I got to the sw corner, and it took me almost as long again to sort this out, eventually crossing the line in 26.20.
Like others CORANTO was unknown to me but perfectly gettable. I had come across DEMESNE many a time in scanning property documents in my working life, although I always take pains to spell it correctly.
Pretty straightforward, but I got a bit bogged down in the NW. Didn’t know CORANTO, and it’s a long time since I read about the Visigoths.. Even 1ac (my FOI) made me pause. I have never seen a collection of stories spelled with two Ns.
32 minutes.
Since my collapsed lung my times have got slower. One theory of a friend is that long hospital stays are like long Covid, and induce brain fog.
The collection of stories is one N (ANA) but the definition here is ‘girl’s name’ (ANNA).
A game of a quarter and three quarters, the problematic corner being the SW. I had the rest done in 8 mins, but had to settle for 24 mins in the end. It was the 2NHO’s (PEDICAB, CORANTO) crossing that held me up.
Shot through this with AUDITOR FOI, and TITUS ANDRONICUS biffed from a few crossers, until I hit the wall in the SW. I put the CAB bit at the end of 17d and the H(usband) at the end of 16d, which allowed me to get VISIGOTH. DIVERSIFICATION then jumped out and the PEDICAB arrived along with the PARAFFIN. LOI CORANTO took a while. Like others I knew courante, but had to assemble this version. 12:47. Thanks setter and Jack.
16:36. I had most done in just over 8 mins. The bottom left corner was slow to yield.
COD: VISIGOTH.
I might have squeezed in under the hour if I hadn’t been thinking HaRp instead of HORN. Anyway, pretty happy to be green in just under 65 mins. Knowledge of Jesmond Dene from my student days in Newcastle helped confirm DEMESNE. As for most people, CORANTO was unknown and ANA also new to me. Thanks for the useful blog.
15.20. NHO coranto but managed to work it out. Nothing too stressful and for a blissful moment thought I might get my first sub 10 for a while.
DNF. After 31min, DOGTROT unsolved. Got the DOG, but TROT did not come readily to mind for the leftist, and NHO DOGTROT.
Guessed ANNA, without knowing of the collection of stories, which I will try to remember for the future.
Standard 1hr before checking and had 14 solved. Too much in there I NHO incl. CORANTO, TANGELO, DEMESNE, ANnA, PEDICAB, BASSET HORN.
26’13”
Smartly away, but one-paced throughout.
Rather fortunate not to get a raspberry as I mis-parsed ANNA as ANNA(LS), which I thought defensible. I was slightly surprised nobody else had thought along the same lines.
Lots to like; thanks to setter and Jack et al, especially LouWeed !
I also mis-parsed it as anna[ls] and thought it was rather odd. Quite missed the obvious n in ana.
15.22. Southwest sector held out the longest. J decided that life was too short to parse ‘Titus Andronicus’
Had to use Google, as I had never seen anyone leaving Goodison dancing a coranto, even after we beat City 4-1. Hope Astonvilla1, Koppite and boltonwanderer agree re Villa Park, our former ground and Burnden/Bolton Uni or whatever name is currently attached to the Reebok.
Re-establishing callsign with pic. Enjoyed today’s puzzle, reasonably straightforward.
I guessed CORANAT at 23ac so failed on VISIGOTH. I’m enjoying leisurely paper solves these days – thanks for your help as always.
Failed on NHO DEMESNE, having used dale for valley- would never ever have thought of dene! Otherwise my LOI was wither!
Thanks setter and of course blogger
Made heavy weather of this, whereas most thought it plain sailing: just ‘not on the wave length’ I guess ! Thought 14a was going to start with Total, so little hope of biffing that one in….went back to it and (painfully) parsed correctl, once I had a few crossers. Didn’t know what VISIGOTH meant, and like most had NHO CORANTO, so missed out on those two. I’m sure I would’ve have done better on another day.