Solving time: 22 minutes. Dead easy. I imagine there will be many PBs recorded today as this is a biffer’s paradise with 14 answers defined by the first word of a clue. 8 of these are consecutive in the Down section. I would expect a little more variety to be on offer, even in an easy puzzle.
I noticed we have two 5-letter types of tree/wood in symmetrical positions in the grid (4dn and 21dn).
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 | Bachelors visiting famous footballer ruin external wall-coating (6,4) |
| PEBBLE DASH | |
| B + B (Bachelors) contained by [visiting] PELE (famous footballer), DASH (ruin – one’s hopes, for example). A rather unattractive method of facing external walls of buildings which seems to be out of favour these days. Also available with a hyphen and as a single word in its verbal form. | |
| 7 | Bloke with yen for evidence of 21 across? (4) |
| BODY | |
| BOD (bloke), Y (yen). The cross-reference is to MURDER at 21 across. | |
| 9 | Underworld goddess mostly associated with old doctor’s sacrifice (8) |
| HECATOMB | |
| HECAT{e} (underworld goddess) [mostly], O (old), MB (doctor). Collins: Hecatomb – in ancient Greece or Rome, any great public sacrifice and feast, originally one in which 100 oxen were sacrificed. | |
| 10 | Shade sister found outside a church (6) |
| NUANCE | |
| NUN (sister) contains [found outside] A, then CE (church) | |
| 11 | Particular house in warm and friendly environment (6) |
| CHOOSY | |
| HO (house) contained by [in…] COSY (warm and friendly) [… environment] | |
| 13 | Lament retired academic unknown by most of the proverbial crowd, it’s said (8) |
| THRENODY | |
| THRE{e} (proverbial crowd – two’s company etc) [most of…], DON (academic) reversed [retired], Y (unknown). Perhaps not a word known to all but fortunately I’ve come across it before. | |
| 14 | Bury receiver, ringing about distortion of signal (12) |
| INTERFERENCE | |
| INTER (bury), FENCE (receiver of stolen goods) containing [ringing] RE (about) | |
| 17 | Doctor visited Rio, taken in by ecological variety (12) |
| BIODIVERSITY | |
| Anagram [doctor] of VISITED RIO contained [taken in] by BY | |
| 20 | Blue berets rushed round back of farm, suffering no hurt (8) |
| UNHARMED | |
| UN (blue berets as worn by United Nations troops), HARED (rushed) containing [round] {far}M [back] | |
| 21 | Dispatch old racehorse from the East (6) |
| MURDER | |
| RED RUM (old racehorse) reversed [from the East] | |
| 22 | One who manages without current reproducing device (6) |
| COPIER | |
| COPER (one who manages) containing [without – outside] I (current) | |
| 23 | Download tip backing team: it may be found in a book (8) |
| APPENDIX | |
| APP (download), END (tip), then XI (team) reversed [backing] | |
| 25 | Report gladly at first on prohibition (4) |
| BANG | |
| BAN (prohibition), G{ladly} [at first] | |
| 26 | Thinner lad working in undeveloped area (10) |
| HINTERLAND | |
| Anagram [working] of THINNER LAD | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Stylish being finally leaving for pub — a rogue, possibly? (8) |
| ELEPHANT | |
| ELE-G -ANT (stylish) becomes ELE-PH-ANT when being [finally] leaves and is replaced by PH (pub – Public House). We had a ‘rogue elephant’ reference in a puzzle as recently as 2nd February. | |
| 3 | Stole keys, pinching ring (3) |
| BOA | |
| B + A (musical keys) containing [pinching] O (ring) | |
| 4 | Tree identified by European of skeletal build (5) |
| EBONY | |
| E (European), BONY (of skeletal build) | |
| 5 | Judge a champ right to corner leader of rebels (7) |
| ARBITER | |
| A + BITE (champ) + R (right) containing [to corner] R{ebels} [leader] | |
| 6 | Obstruction old peasant originally negotiated in athletic event (9) |
| HINDRANCE | |
| HIND (old peasant), then N{egotiated} [originally] contained by [in] RACE (athletic event). ‘Old’ may be relevant here as HIND seems to have started out meaning a simple peasant or rustic but with the passage of time it became used for farmworkers of higher rank and with advanced skills. | |
| 7 | Puzzle touring Aintree bars (11) |
| BRAINTEASER | |
| Anagram [touring] of AINTREE BARS | |
| 8 | Clarify MacDiarmid’s last poem about City area (6) |
| DECODE | |
| {MacDiarmi}D [’s last] + ODE (poem) containing [about] EC (City area of London) | |
| 12 | High-handed with regard to deportment (11) |
| OVERBEARING | |
| OVER (with regard to), BEARING (deportment) | |
| 15 | Manhandle head of gang in from entrance, perhaps (9) |
| FROGMARCH | |
| G{ang} [head of…] contained by [in] FROM, then ARCH (entrance) | |
| 16 | Articles granny pens primarily in Greek (8) |
| ATHENIAN | |
| A + THE (articles), then NAN (granny) contains [pens] I{n} [primarily] | |
| 18 | Reserved protégé knocked over in pub |
| INDRAWN | |
| WARD (protégé) reversed [knocked over] and contained by [in] INN (pub). Not a word I was aware of but its meaning seems obvious enough. I note that the enumeration error also appears in the e-paper, so presumably it’s in the printed edition too. | |
| 19 | Marketplace stocking new fur (6) |
| ANGORA | |
| AGORA (marketplace – ancient Greek) containing [stocking] N (new) | |
| 21 | Chap fencing in quiet wood (5) |
| MAPLE | |
| MALE (chap) containing [fencing in] P (quiet) | |
| 24 | Disappointing score upset trendy musical in the end (3) |
| NIL | |
| IN (trendy) reversed [upset], {musica}L [in the end] | |
I’m another who had CATACOMB until seeing ELEPHANT which then meant I took an age to guess HECATOMB. Very relieved to see it was correct.
FOI PEBBLE DASH
LOI HECATOMB
COD BIODIVERSITY
16.42 The hangover worked its magic again: nearly five minutes off my PB. Thanks Jack.
Failed on HECATOMB- I didn’t have the knowledge of the answer or the goddess- crosswords are always easy if you have all the knowledge!
18’00”
Lucky to get a clear run, stayed on well.
Whilst chuffed with a Nitch of 49, I couldn’t help thinking it would have have biffed better with my 2B. However, I’m not going to forsake the trusty broad-nibbed Waterman for the sake of a few seconds.
Thanks Jack and we’ll done to Mr. and Mrs. Jack on the first of many, and to the setter for the opportunity for this old plater to show a wee bit of pace.
Sneaky reveal for HECATOMB otherwise a slightly faster than usual plod to the end. Remembered THRENODY from a previous crossword. Plugged in ELEPHANT but didn’t understand it. Everything else went in fairly easily and fully parsed. My house is pebble-dashed (not a great look I admit). Liked CHOOSY. Thanks all.
Fellow QC solvers said this was approachable. They were right. I finished pretty quickly -say 30 minutes- and managed to solve all the clues. I was three short on the QC.
LOI INDRAWN, my only NHO ( I knew HIND somehow). I spent some time trying to fit a three letter word into INN because of the enumeration in the paper. Not a major issue.
Interesting that pebble dash is a UK thing. There’s lots round here. Something look up on Wiki in a minute.
David
I think jackkt has said it all. Not much head-scratching required here, with all done and dusted in 17 minutes, probably a PB. Dimly remembered Classical knowledge helped; I just knew it would be useful one day.
FOI- PEBBLE DASH
LOI – ELEPHANT
COD – ELEPHANT
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
21 minutes. Got held up by the rogue elephant at the end.
DNF and DNL, defeated by the unheard of PEBBLE DASH (well, I got most of it: my version was PEBBLE MASH, but apart from that and PEBBLE WASH I suppose PEBBLE BASH, perhaps CASH, GASH, HASH, LASH, RASH, and with a lot of imagination even SASH might be possibilities. Too bad it wasn’t a checked letter). The rest was not hard, but also not memorable, and sometimes (as in ELEPHANT) rather contrived. RED RUM is indeed a famous race horse, but in the crossword world perhaps mainly because it is MURDER from the east, as we have seen in numerous instances.
12.51. Must be close to a PB if I could only remember what my PB actually is. In fact, my time would have been quicker if my iPad did not keep jumping to an adjacent puzzle if I’m even slightly clumsy on the touchpad. It never happened before the Times rejigged the puzzles format on the website.
Didn’t find this as easy as others seem to have. Maybe because it’s late in the day. Thankfully I had sufficient wits about me not to put in BUBBLE BATH. Boy, did it beckon though. With all the crossers except the first, what else could it be? 18’05” all up.
I thought you summarised this very well, Jackt. Several biffed. I’d come across HECATOMB and THRENODY before but, absent the clues, couldn’t have told you exactly what they meant. No problems with PEBBLEDASH other than I’d always thought of it as one word. A few other answers went in without fully parsing resulting in a final finish time of 22:21 which is a PB for us by in XS of two minutes. Despite still being on a learning curve and expecting to continue to improve I don’t expect to beat that any time soon! Thank you, setter, for a not too taxing late workout.
DNF at 50mins having got down to just ELEPHANT left at 35mins but having bunged in CATACOMB as an “underworld”. Never fully satisfied with the latter so eventually put the rogue in around 45mins but then couldn’t think of an appropriate goddess to get HETATOMB.
Have heard of THRENODY due to David Lynch using Penderecki’s “Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima” in his 2017 TV series – Twin Peaks The Return.
An evocatively discordant piece of music … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3BlFZWJNA