Solving time: 35 minutes
I found this quite straightforward. There are two living person references. I had no problem with the singer but I had to take the soccer player on trust.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Old, major player in financial services circles (4) |
| ORBS | |
| O (old), RBS (major player in financial services – Royal Bank of Scotland). I was planning to quibble about the definition here as to my mind a circle is a two-dimensional shape whereas an orb is a three-dimensional sphere or ball, however the first definition of orb in Chambers and SOED is ‘circle’ and Collins has it too although qualifying it as an archaism. | |
| 3 | Having more irregular spots, clothes rip when spun (10) |
| SPLOTCHIER | |
| Anagram [spun] of CLOTHES RIP | |
| 9 | Northern people touring edges of other county (7) |
| NORFOLK | |
| N (Northern) + FOLK (people) containing [touring] O{the}R [edges] | |
| 11 | Business in Spain with physics lab (7) |
| CONCERN | |
| CON (in Spain, with), CERN (physics lab). The European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva is known as CERN from the French: Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire | |
| 12 | By way of example, they make firm declaration (13) |
| PRONOUNCEMENT | |
| PRONOUN (by way of example, they), CEMENT (make firm) | |
| 14 | Subject of article about space (5) |
| THEME | |
| THE (definite article) containing [about] EM (space – in printing) | |
| 15 | Displaced individual denied right to provide further details (9) |
| EXPATIATE | |
| EXPAT{r}IATE (displaced individual) [denied right] | |
| 17 | Infamy? No politician accepts that is ultimately pleasant (9) |
| NOTORIETY | |
| NO, TORY (politician) contains [accepts] IE (that is) + {presen}T [ultimately] | |
| 19 | Some boats, eastbound away from the land (2,3) |
| AT SEA | |
| Hidden in [some] {bo}ATS EA{stbound} | |
| 21 | Self-assured novice fronted broadcast (13) |
| OVERCONFIDENT | |
| Anagram [broadcast] of NOVICE FRONTED | |
| 24 | Source of possible leak in party close to governor (7) |
| INSIDER | |
| IN, SIDE (party), {governo}R [close to…]. SOED has this as a person who is party to a secret and therefore possibly may leak it. | |
| 25 | Start to feel — with some bias — you should enjoy yourself here (7) |
| FUNFAIR | |
| F{eel} {start to…], UNFAIR (with some bias) | |
| 26 | Abrasive meeting of Premier League manager and directors? (5,5) |
| EMERY BOARD | |
| EMERY (Premier League manager – NHO), BOARD (directors) | |
| 27 | Boss requiring endless scrutiny (4) |
| STUD | |
| STUD{y} (scrutiny} [endless] | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Being all-powerful, I’m open to changing books (10) |
| OMNIPOTENT | |
| Anagram [changing] of I’M OPEN TO, then NT (books of the New Testament) | |
| 2 | Fish included in simple product lines? (7) |
| BARCODE | |
| COD (fish) contained by [included in] BARE (simple). Neat definition! | |
| 4 | Resident of China reaching a high level with comfort, we’re told (9) |
| PEKINGESE | |
| Aural wordplay [we’re told]: “peaking” (reaching a high level), “ease” [comfort] | |
| 5 | Single housing around university is exactly as expected (2,3) |
| ON CUE | |
| ONE (single) containing [housing] C (around – circa) + U (university) | |
| 6 | Focusing cash primarily on helping to support change in America (13) |
| CONCENTRATION | |
| C{ash} [primarily], ON, CENT (change in America), RATION (helping) | |
| 7 | A mixture of leaves and rocks? (4,3) |
| ICED TEA | |
| Cryptic. Leaves = tea, rocks = ice. | |
| 8 | Hindu Queen led India (4) |
| RANI | |
| RAN (led), I (India – NATO alphabet) | |
| 10 | Eco-safe plastic refined in Australia exclusively (5-8) |
| OZONE-FRIENDLY | |
| Anagram [plastic] of REFINED contained by [in] OZ (Australia) + ONLY (exclusively) | |
| 13 | About to get streamed freely, as classic albums often are (10) |
| REMASTERED | |
| RE (about), anagram [freely] of STREAMED | |
| 16 | Suffering due to representing a team with no leader at the outset (6,3) |
| PAYING FOR | |
| P{l}AYING FOR (representing a team) [with no l{eader} at the outset] | |
| 18 | Child’s foot too small to fit inside restraint (7) |
| TOOTSIE | |
| TOO, then S (small) contained by [to fit inside] TIE (restraint) | |
| 20 | Rod possibly set out to cover two opposing points (7) |
| STEWART | |
| START (set out) containing [to cover] E + W (two opposing points of the compass) | |
| 22 | Hold items and run after vehicle (5) |
| CARGO | |
| CAR (vehicle), GO (run). Hold – a compartment in a ship or aircraft below the (lower) deck, where cargo is stored. | |
| 23 | Stop working around noon and have something to eat (4) |
| DINE | |
| DIE (stop working) containing [around] N (noon) | |
Around 60 minutes. Easy start with STUD, AT SEA, OMNIPOTENT and THEME but then it got a bit harder and I worked at a steady slower pace to finish. One quibble I had was with focusing and CONCENTRATION is that CONCENTRATING is more the synonym. The range of dictionaries I sourced did not show “focusing” separately as a noun. As a result I initially put in concentrating and I wasted some significant time without solutions until I was forced to try CONCENTRATION which allowed the solution.
Thanks Jack for for the blog.
I think you’ll find that a precise echo between the definition and the answer is generally avoided. If the clue offers a gerund, the answer is likely not, though equivalent to, another word ending in -ing. And I wholeheartedly approve. (My approving is my approbation.)
I started my solve with the same four answers!
I put in ORBS last precisely because the word doesn’t mean “circles” in contemporary parlance. But also because I’d never come across RBS before! I knew the answer EMERY BOARD but (of course) had no idea about the “Premier League Manager.”
I also put in ORBS last, despite having worked for RBS for a while! D’oh.
22:23
NHO EMERY, of course. Knew Rod STEWART, also of course, but never parsed the clue, taking ‘set out’ to be (set)* and giving up. STUD and RANI two QC wannabies. ORBS my LOI; never did get RBS.
Just realized that I never bothered to parse STEWART either.
EMERY has come up quite a lot over the years, both in its own right and as EMERY PAPER but I think this may be the first time we’ve had EMERY BOARD. Sometimes it has been clued with reference to the late comedian Dick Emery.
ORBS last in (having ditched ‘Open’ once I got the excellent BARCODE). 15 minutes plus change.
Unai Emery has one of the best names in football. Too many vowels to anagrammatise easily, though, I would suggest.
hallo ulaca I just wanted to let you know the limerick about Kilkenny cats( yesterday’s cryptic)
There once were two cats from Kilkenny
Each thought that was one cat too many
So they started to fight
And to scratch and to bite
Now instead of two cats there aren’t any.
apparently they did leave their tails behind!
Thank you. I must say it is new to me.
My Kilkenny limerick doesn’t mention the cats. It’s a bit rude so prepare to be shocked by the rate of inflation…
There was an old “girl” from Kilkenny
Whose regular charge was a penny.
But for half of that sum
You could fondle her bum.
A source of amusement to many.
I.e., a rum yen?
It was mostly straightforward enough, but I couldn’t see the answer for 15 quickly due to an absence of the relevant crossers – could it be ELABORATE? ELUCIDATE? EXPLICATE?
I thought of those three, in that order; put in ELABORATE, where it sat for a while.
I didn’t realise living person references were allowed. When did that change?
Within the past two months. So far it has been more prevalent in the Quick Cryptics leading to many discussions here.
I too would have had ORBS as my LOI, except I couldn’t figure it out so hit the fence at 33 with a DNF. I figured there was a reference to some arcane financial entity and I think at that point my brain retreated. Like Jack I don’t think of orbs and circles as the same thing, whatever the dictionaries say. Anyway a fun solve overall. Liked BARCODE once I got it, and the REMASTERED surface. I too thought an anagram of set was the start of STEWART and was mystified about ‘wart’ so appreciate the parsing. As for PEKINGESE, it’s been a while. Possibly the length of Rod’s career.
From Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream:
Haul on the bowline
We sang that melody
Like all tough sailors do
When they’re far away AT SEA
I didn’t care for this very much, but it is noteworthy for being the first 15×15 that I’ve solved quicker than the corresponding day’s QC!
I biffed ORBS, and the Royal Bank of Scotland would never have occurred to me. However the current Aston Villa boss, and the man responsible for torturing the Sutherland Brothers masterpiece “Sailing” caused me no problems at all.
Surely being self-assured is merely confidence, so 21A doesn’t really work for me.
FOI SPLOTCHIER
LOI ORBS
COD BARCODE
TIME 8:43
I thought the same about ‘overconfident’. I think, perhaps, ‘complacent’ would be better (other synonyms are available). I’ve always taken self-assurance to be a positive trait, whereas overconfidence, almost by definition, is a negative.
The years fall off and find me walking back
Dragging a stick along the wooden fence
Down this same path, where, forty years ago,
My father strolled behind me, calm and slow.
(Norfolk, Betjeman)
25 mins mid-brekker. Neat and tidy. MER at Unai Emery cropping up here. Now I’m looking forward to Lopetegui and Postecoglou.
Ta setter and J
I sincerely hope you’re not thinking of clueing them any Sunday soon!
12:55. Much of my time was spent on ORBS and BARCODE. I found it very tricky to see the definition for ORBS, and thought it a good clue for such a short word.
I liked the appearance of some extant people today though I biffed EMERY BOARD so Unai completely passed me by until reading the blog.
5:56. No problems today. NHO the football chappy but it wasn’t necessary. MERs at ‘circle’ for ORB and OVER in 21ac. And do we say PEKINGESE any more? Is there a Beijing-based equivalent?
I look forward to ‘I thought living people weren’t allowed’ being the new ‘I thought brands weren’t allowed’ for many years and perhaps decades to come 😉
31 minute with LOIs ORBS followed by BARCODE. I wasn’t expecting to see Unai EMERY here today, nor Rod STEWART for that matter. Both are well known to me but somehow I feel Unai isn’t quite eminent enough for Times Crossword inclusion. Would Dick Emery have been? COD to OZONE-FRIENDLY. Quite enjoyable. Thank you Jack and setter.
Or even “Fine victory for Ken” (7)
I’m too good for this place aren’t I?
I’d forgotten Ken Goodwin. He’s been dead a while now though and could have been clued despite being too good.
EMERY was clued with reference to him in July 21 and July 22.
About 15 minutes.
Slightly surprised by the reference to Unai Emery in EMERY BOARD, only because Premier League managers tend not to last very long so he could soon be out of the Premier League, and therefore out of the UK consciousness, for good (although of course things are going pretty well for Aston Villa right now). STEWART felt like a much more solid example of the new policy of allowing references to living people.
OZONE-FRIENDLY was the only clue I struggled to parse, as it took me a long time to realise that ‘plastic’ was the anagram indicator. And I shared Busman and keriothe’s queries re OVERCONFIDENT and PEKINGESE respectively.
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Rani
LOI Stewart
COD Ozone-friendly
50m 05s
Well, yes, we were warned that ‘warm bodies’ were on the way. Fortunately I had no problem with either 26ac or 20d.
With 1ac I wanted the ‘major player in financial services’ to be the Bank of England. That would have made the solution OBOE but, alas, no circles there.
Thank you, Jack.
27′ with a bit of time staring at LOI BARCODE, which I thought was pretty good. I know EMERY but wouldn’t consider him well enough known to be included here. Rodders is OK though (I liked him for maybe two albums before he became embarrassing IMO). I took the homophone at 4d to be peak-in-ease. All pretty straightforward
5:31
My fastest ever 15×15 solve by some distance. Just all went down very, very smoothly. Having said that, ORBS was my LOI!
MER at ‘over’ like others, but Chambers Thesaurus lists it (along with just ‘confident’, but also ‘cocky’, which has a similar implication of excess).
I follow football enough to know EMERY, but agree he’s probably not in the wider consciousness.
Thanks both.
Scorchio!
🔥
Needed aids for ORBS, which held out as my LOI. The only EMERY I know is Dick, so that also went in with a shrug. The rest fairly straightforward, though oddly uninspiring.
LOI: ORBS, because I was unaware of the now archaic (but etymologically sound) use of ‘orb’ to mean both circle and sphere. Only got it after entering BARCODE, which was my next to last in.
Unai Emery? No problem. Currently manager of Aston Villa and previously manager of Arsenal, famed for his at times unintelligible English. Possibly the only manager to have a catchphrase, “Good eebening”, with which he begins all post match interviews, regardless of the time of day. To be fair to him, his English is improving.
I share others’ gripe about ‘self-assured’ = OVERCONFIDENT; it doesn’t.
No problems with PEKINGESE at all: where would the Times crossword be without archaisms?
Solving on paper but an estimated 15-20 minutes, not helped by the temptation to listen to other people’s business in the cafe.
ORBS was my last in and caused the most difficulty, as small words are often my downfall.
A decent puzzle so thanks to both.
Fairly straightforward in 15.56, with ORBS, like everyone else, last in after BARCODE finally fell. Fortunately I used to bank with the Bank of Scotland, and often enough had to explain that it wasn’t the Royal one. I didn’t notice that I hadn’t identified Unai EMERY: I always hear him on Match of the Day with two syllables rather than three, and when solving I somehow smeared Emlyn Hughes into the space. I would have taken “choirboy at Epping” for Rod, because it’s true, though “Maggie May” remains unidentified.
PEKINGESE was my particular hold up, because it looked wrong both with the G and an extra N, which I could have justified from the wordplay. Sanity prevailed.
Nice tidy one, easier than yesterday, 16 minutes, ending with BARCODE / ORBS, with a MER at orbs. I bunged in OVERCONFIDENT without seeing it was a neat anagram.
15:41 of which about five minutes was spent on ORBS and BARCODES.
Pretty straightforward over all. I’m happy with the inclusion of well-known living folk but it will be intersting to see how the “famous enough ” boundaries are established. No trouble with Mr Emery who, to me, always bring the TV series Rising Damp to mind.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
Leonard Rossiter?
How did you guess.
12:20. Held up for a couple of minutes at the end by my last two – BARCODE, then ORBS. I too had a MER for that as circles are 2- dimensional and ORBS 3-dimensional but then I didn’t know that was always the case. NHO the football manager, but the answer was self-evident. Like others I went through ELABORATE and ELUCIDATE before I found EXPATIATE after the checking P arrived. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
Emery an unknown until people started giving his first name, when he became vaguely familiar. This new policy worries me, quite unjustifiably perhaps: I fear all sorts of Tik-Tok stars appearing, but really that’s no different from fearing the appearance of people who have faded from public consciousness. 20 minutes, no problems, except for the self-imposed one of a careless ‘concentrating’ at 6dn, which held me up for about 2 minutes. Liked the eco-safe plastic.
I’ll take Moo-Deng over Beerbohm Tree 😉
Made a mistake in SE corner, as I had biffed HEAD for the boss clue. STEWATE didn’t look right, and then it was obviously STEWART and STUDY.
I’ve never heard of EMERY, and thought about BUSBY, but he never managed the new premier league. Not sure about this new rule on the living/ leave that to the Guardian.
I liked the TOOTSIE and ORBS clues.
My attempt at an all correct week has fallen at the second fence, alas.
Thanks Jack and Setter.
I too feel that there are sufficient words in the English language (and others!) without having to resort to living “celebrities”.
I liked that RBS no longer exists as it has been rebranded to NatWest and thus is indeed an old major player in financial services.
Although, as you say, RBS was taken over by NatWest, it still very much exists as an entity. Both my credit cards and my chèque book are clearly marked Royal Bank of Scotland.
Actually RBS bought NatWest a long time before it exploded itself, and after the dust settled all they had left was a retail banking operation which the high-flying RBS types had regarded as small change.
So when one of the world’s most valuable corporations (about £2 trillion) was shown to be worth a lot less than zero, the rescuer (you, me and the Chancellor of the Exchequer) patched together the slightly profitable retail outlets which remain, today randomly marked as RBOS or NW depending on local taste probably. Meanwhile the outstanding debt has been eaten by the UK taxpayer.
I think we had also Tootsie and Iced Tea over the weekend – but those papers are now long recycled
Nice one that I made somewhat heavy weather of, though never really getting stuck. Main handicap was not addressing SPLOTCHIER sooner.
LOI EXPATIATE. Liked ICED TEA.
17:04
21:53
Pleased to have known of the two living bodies – made completion a little more satisfying knowing that I hadn’t had to let those go with a shrug. Enjoyed ICED TEA and the anagram for SPLOTCHIER – great word. As for others, went with ELABORATE initially but corrected. Didn’t spot that 21a was an anagram.
Thanks Jack and setter
1a / 1d Foxed, DNF, but they came together when I found Barcode in Cheating Machine. Belated COD, but Orbs was unkind because the O was a gimme but O??? is very, very unhelpful for a clue with an archaic use of a word.
20d Rod Stewart biffed; never solved Start & E, W. At least HHO.
26a Emery (board), NHO. Hate all references to “footie”. If Mr Emery is in Wiki I can’t find him by surname. However Mr Google can; this is their extract from Wiki:
“Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the manager of the Premier League club Aston Villa. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world.”
No wonder NHO, can’t even pronounce it, and Emery isn’t his only surname (normal in Spanish.) The weird maternal surname is indeed Basque; they always seem to have a surplus of “x”s.
Of course he is findable in Wiki if you add his maternal surname. What chance of knowing how to spell that???
I haven’t followed football (soccer) for more than forty years and don’t intend to start now. 🙁
What research was done into the impact of this change? Not happy.
Otherwise 13’41” thanks jack and setter
13’41”, thanks jack and setter
27:10, LOI was ORBS where it was thinking of RBS finally got me there. The only Emery I’ve ever heard of is Dick Emery and I’m not a fan of these pub quiz type references to sport and pop stars I’ve never heard of. We’ll be having Love Island next.
Anyway, having got that off my chest, thanks setter and blogger
23:42 on the train across France on the way home from my hols. All green, although I kept doubting the spelling of PEKINGESE. LOI STEWART with a sudden PDM. I liked BARCODE
08:06, with no individual clue delaying me very long, but a vague sense of something being different – I am one of those who vaguely noted the change of convention regarding living people / more contemporary references and wasn’t sure if the change had actually been confirmed. Anyway, I was happy that I had the requisite knowledge, and I’d rather see Unai Emery than Beerbohm Tree. Or possibly even Dick Emery (I often have to remind myself that references I think of as current because they happened in my lifetime somehow turn out to be fifty years old…)
DNF. ORBS & BARCODE beat me. Bah humbug. Liked SPLOTCHIER.
Thanks Jack and setter.
BARCODE and OMNIPOTENT were my first 2 in, but ORBS was LOI when I finally thought of Fred the Shred’s erstwhile empire. EMERY BOARD went in from definition, as the only EMERY I’ve come across is the “Ooh you are awful, but I like you” chap. Took a while to see what was going on at 10d, but got there eventually. 21:30. Thanks setter and Jack.
35 minutes, no major issues. I always thought Tootsie was a child’s toe (I think it was in our house) but doubtless that’s not so in the wider world.
Not terribly keen on living people being included although, fortunately, I do follow football.
TOOTSIEs are toes here too.
In fact I was playing with my granddaughter’s tootsies (while they were being “piggies”) yesterday.
29:01 with MER about ORBS (I think these are 3D, where as circles are 2D). could just have easily been clued with financial spheres…
another one not having heard of EMERY. Rod Stewart was one of those ones where I’d have to check if he is still alive… he is, isn’t he?
thanks Jack for the parsing, and nice puzzle apart from the living people which gets a big raspberry from me…
A personal best for me today – 13:12, which, by a quirk that I love, is also my birthday. That’s the British date format of dd/mm, just in case our transatlantic friends think I’m being a fool (I really wanted to say ‘numpty’ 🙂). In fact, unless it’s on the 13th December, I don’t want to beat that time.
Orbs was also my LOI, like many others, and the only clue I had to ponder for any length of time, which is certainly not always the case. I had to double check it wasn’t the Quickie.
On a general note, I often notice seemingly random grid positions for the FOI of other solvers, whereas mine is usually the first across clue (not today, obviously), as I have a fairly mundane method of going through all the clues in order, ie all the across clues, then all the down clues, then repeat, then fill in the gaps.
Am I slowing myself down? Ignore today’s time. I probably average 25-30 minutes.
I tend to follow your method- cold solve all the across clues and then the down clues, and then I tackle the most promising quadrant.
I’ve been watching Simon Anthony on ‘cracking the cryptic’ and he tends to start at the top across clues, but if not making a start after 3-4 across clues, he starts on the down clues.
I think getting first letters and helpful consonants like B, F, P is always useful.
8:59, one of my fastest ever, on a topsy-turvy day (QC 9:47 and Concise DNF).
Lost some time on LOI STEWART before the penny dropped. Glad in hindsight that I made no real attempt to parse EMERY BOARD because football managers, living or dead, are not my strong point and so I could have wasted a lot of time.
Thanks to Jack and setter
13 mins with LOI remastered . Eventually solved by realising I’d spelt funfair funfare. Oh the horror..
FOI was oboe which seemed pretty easy until it wasn’t and orbs finally landed.
Made a mess of PEKINGESE unfortunately. Finished like many others with ORBS and BARCODE.
Liked PRONOUNCEMENT but I guess that’s not new.
Not a close follower of footie but knew of Emery.
Tootsie is undoubtedly a familiar word for a child’s toe – never foot.
The Oxfords and Chambers have both foot and toe (M19). Collins has toe, but their on-line reference has foot in the American section.
Revealed ORBS, otherwise (for me) fairly zipped through. Needed a bit of help parsing STEWART and PRONOUNCEMENT. Thanks Jack. Unsure about spelling of PEKINGESE even though seemed to parse. Really liked BARCODE. Thanks all.
47′-ish
Going well until severely hampered by Major Player in the closing stages.
Had the more apposite adjective ‘incompetent’ been applied to the player, I would have finished sooner.
Apart from that it was all quite enjoyable.
Thank you setter and Jack.
20:54
ORBS took a long time to see.
LOI was EXPATIATE.
No good on the names of football managers, but EMERY BOARD had to be the answer.
Thanks Jack and setter
NHO Emery but easily guessed. I also don’t think 21ac works unless “novice” is serving a dual role in the sense that self assurance in the novice sometimes equates to overconfidence but who knows? Thanks for the blog.
This was quite straightforward for me ableit with MERS in same places as most. I enjoyed the low level of obscure words compared to recent crosswords. 13 mins; I’ll get to ten one day.
NHO EMERY. STEWART great in the Faces eg Two button hand-me-down, but Ronnie Lane always my favourite. 13’42”