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) | |
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”
2 short after about 40 minutes (ORBS BARCODE).
Liked EMERY BOARD.
I’m with others in being doubtful about the new living-character rules, on the grounds that it’s not really necessary. STEWART could easily have been clued without any reference to our Rod, eg by some punning on the House of Stuart, or ‘Scot’s culinary skill?’ or some such. And EMERY should not have needed reference to an obscure sporting manager, nor to our Dick either.
28.09 ORBS wasn’t a problem, going straight in after 1d, but STEWART, STUD, BARCODE and TOOTSIE took ages at the end. BARCODE was nice. Much was unparsed, so thank you Jack.
14.32, but, in my defence, I was rather tired when I solved this one.
Also defeated by orbs/barcode crosser. Shrug for Stewart, absolutely NHO that Emery, biffed from y and board.
Tootsie not in my 1938 COED, but tootsy(wootsy) does appear for foot, indicated as ‘nursery’; I’d also always thought of it as toes. My grandad sometimes affectionately called nan ‘toots’.
Did ‘splotch’ bring Molesworth to anyone else’s mind?
COD pronoun cement
Thanks to setter and blogger.