Solving time: 1 hour with one wrong answer. I started out thinking this was going to be quite easy but became progressively bogged down and beset by liver problems.
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 | Supreme being in everything I see (5) |
| ALLAH | |
| ALL (everything), AH (I see!) | |
| 4 | Broker fast investing with silver (4,5) |
| LAND AGENT | |
| LENT (fast) containing [investing] AND (with) + AG (silver) | |
| 9 | Spy preserves relationship protecting European (5,4) |
| JAMES BOND | |
| JAMS (preserves) + BOND (relationship) containing [protecting] E (European) | |
| 10 | Fabulous flyer wearing Curie’s bloomers (5) |
| CROCI | |
| ROC (fabulous flyer) contained by [wearing] CI (Curie – unit of radioactivity). Didn’t know Ci. | |
| 11 | Wave beginning to enter wife’s wader (6) |
| CURLEW | |
| CURL (wave – hair), E{nter} [beginning], W (wife) | |
| 12 | Quibble about it being put in favourite pea soup? (8) |
| PETTIFOG | |
| IT reversed [about] contained by [being put in] PET (favourite) + FOG (pea soup). This word hasn’t appeared very often over the years but it had a recent outing in the QC on 2nd November. | |
| 14 | I’m in old city-state without proper approval (10) |
| IMPRIMATUR | |
| I’M + AT (in) + UR (old city-state) containing [without] PRIM (proper). I didn’t know this word defined by Collins as: sanction, authority, or approval, esp for something to be printed, but I arrived at it eventually via checkers and wordplay. | |
| 16 | French seen with old Mike, sometime Tube traveller? (4) |
| OVUM | |
| O (old), VU (French for ‘seen], M (Mike – NATO alphabet). A whimsical definition and somewhat loose assembly instructions. | |
| 19 | Large vessel’s cutter abandoning Plymouth at last (4) |
| EWER | |
| {h}EWER (cutter) [abandoning {Plymout}h at last] | |
| 20 | She runs house — assume good family’s taken in (10) |
| HODGKINSON | |
| HO (house) + DON (assume) containing [taken in] G (good) + KIN’S (family’s). Liver problems here for me. So somebody of this name recently won a gold medal in Paris and apparently we’re all supposed to know of her. I’m weary of this new rule already. | |
| 22 | Conservatives in Scot’s better room cheer up (8) |
| BRIGHTEN | |
| RIGHT (Conservatives) contained by [in] BEN (Scot’s better room). NHO this, but apparently “Ben” is a Scottish word meaning the best room or end of a house. | |
| 23 | Eagerly consume one New Hampshire beer (6) |
| INHALE | |
| I (one), NH (New Hampshire), ALE (beer). Another obscure meaning. According to Websters via Collins on-line ‘inhale’ can mean to consume rapidly or voraciously, and it gives the example to inhale one’s dinner. If somebody said that to me I’d imagine someone choking. I can’t find this meaning anywhere else. | |
| 26 | Second skin returning for a period, having dropped off (5) |
| SLEEP | |
| S (second), then PEEL (skin) reversed [returning] | |
| 27 | Performer possibly seen and heard (2,7) |
| ED SHEERAN | |
| Anagram [possibly] of SEEN HEARD. Oh FGS, another liver problem for me in the same grid! Never seen or heard here. | |
| 28 | Obstacle in shabby toilet makes one wee on foot (6,3) |
| LITTLE TOE | |
| LET (obstacle) contained by [in] anagram [shabby] of TOILET | |
| 29 | Conservationists engaging a certain ensemble (5) |
| NONET | |
| NT (conservationists – more like revisionists these days) containing [engaging] ONE (a certain) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Wasted perhaps, deejay on MDMA in voice (9) |
| ADJECTIVE | |
| DJ (deejay) + E (MDMA – ecstasy tablet) contained by [in] ACTIVE (voice – grammar) | |
| 2 | Creature in the wall at Avignon? (5) |
| LEMUR | |
| LE MUR (‘the wall’ at Avignon – in French) | |
| 3 | This year rioting shows wild emotionalism (8) |
| HYSTERIA | |
| Anagram [rioting] of THIS YEAR | |
| 4 | Can monster’s head seem ominously close? (4) |
| LOOM | |
| LOO (can – American WC), M{onster’s} [head] | |
| 5 | Ultimately swingeing cuts exposed twice — know what I mean? (5,5) |
| NUDGE NUDGE | |
| {swingein}G [ultimately] contained by [cuts] NUDE (exposed) x 2 [twice]. Probably a reference to the recurring character played by Eric Idle in Monty Python sketches whose catchphrases included ‘Nudge nudge’, ‘wink wink’, ‘say no more’, ‘know what I mean?’ | |
| 6 | Writer’s account embracing Pound hardly measured (6) |
| ALCOTT | |
| AC (account) containing [embracing] L (pound), then OTT (hardly measured – over the top]. Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. | |
| 7 | Handball game on TV — fee is to be revised (4,5) |
| ETON FIVES | |
| Anagram [to be revised] of ON TV FEE IS. An historic handball game played in a three-sided court. | |
| 8 | Difficult to ignore Yankee in Dacorum town (5) |
| TRING | |
| TR{y}ING (difficult) [to ignore Yankee – NATO alphabet]. Another obscurity, although this one I happen to know because I live close to Dacorum and worked there for 20 years prior to retirement. To quote Wiki: Dacorum is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire (It was created in 1974 by Grocer Heath’s government). The council is based in Hemel Hempstead. The borough also includes the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring and surrounding villages. The definition is designed to fox overseas solvers and a good many native Brits I shouldn’t wonder. | |
| 13 | Compo absorbing a shock endlessly in beguilement (10) |
| CAJOLEMENT | |
| CEMENT (compo) containing [absorbing] A + JOL{t} (shock) [endlessly]. I admit to using a dictionary for this one to look up ‘compo’ but only read as far as it being a building material. I then worked out ‘cement’ myself. Compo in the surface reading is probably intended as a reference to a character of that name in the unfunniest TV sitcom ever made called Last of the Summer Wine. Inexplicably it ran for 37 years with all 295 episodes written by its creator, Roy Clarke. | |
| 15 | Leader attentive appearing in papers? On the contrary! (9) |
| PRESIDENT | |
| PRESENT (attentive) contained by [appearing in] ID (papers) on the contrary becomes ID contained by [appearing in] PRESENT. As far as I can see, for this clue to work ‘attentive’ would need to mean ‘attending’ but I have been unable to find any evidence that it can. | |
| 17 | Pulse finally brisk in one obsessed with fiscal matters? (6,3) |
| MONKEY NUT | |
| {bris}K [finally] contained by [in] MONEY NUT (one obsessed with fiscal matters) | |
| 18 | Gladly, no longer said to be supporting small local party (4,4) |
| SINN FEIN | |
| S (small), INN (local), then aural wordplay [said] FEIN / “fain” (gladly, no longer – archaism). More obscurity, but I was helped by a question on The Chase last Friday (the TV quiz referred to in last Thursday’s 15×15): Is ‘Fain’ is an archaic word for (a) Gladly (b) Bitterly, or (c) Sadly? | |
| 21 | Oratory from HCE and ALP enigmatical (6) |
| CHAPEL | |
| Anagram [enigmatical] of HCE ALP. I tried to make sense of the surface without success, Late evening edit: My AI assistant Gemini came up with this which I posted in a comment below and it found favour with those who understand it: HCE and ALP are the initials of the central characters in James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake. HCE stands for Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, while ALP stands for Anna Livia Plurabelle. They represent archetypal figures of the Everyman and the Earth Mother, respectively. This link posted by keriothe explains more, although sadly I have to admit that it’s all beyond me. |
|
| 22 | City of low morals to Lima’s north (5) |
| BASEL | |
| BASE (of low morals), L (Lima – NATO alphabet again). It’s in Switzerland and sometimes spelt Basle. ‘North’ is unnecessary as a placement indicator but it enhances the surface reading. | |
| 24 | Workwear article that covers behind (5) |
| APRON | |
| AN (article) containing [that covers] PRO (behind – in support of]. I had a wrong answer here which I won’t go into as it was stupid. | |
| 25 | Man being one to deceive not outwardly bonkers? (4) |
| ISLE | |
| {m}ISLE{ad} (deceive) [not outwardly bonkers – not mad) | |
Sorry to go against the grain here but if you live in the U.K. and / or read the Times I don’t know how you would not have heard of Keely Hodgkinson or Ed Sheeran. Is that any more unreasonable than knowing which administrative borough Tring belongs to? I’m always very conscious that my general lnowledge based on my background and education appears to be very different to most solvers in the community. I’ve never read the bible so don’t know the names of the books in the OT. I dislike classical music so most composers are unknown to me. I’ve never seen a Shakespeare play so references there leave me baffled. I don’t study music so musical directions and instructions confuse me. I don’t know the names of obscure flora and fauna either. Last week a reference to the tabard inn meant nothing to me uni I had checkers to find the hidden word. What I’d like to say is that “classical” general knowledge has no more merit or value than any other general knowledge. You know it or you don’t. If the wordplay is fair then the clue is fair in my eyes. I don’t like what appears to me to be a “superior”attitude that of course we expect solvers to know relatively obscure 18th century composers but not Olympic gold medalists.
Rant over.
Enjoyed the puzzle, finished in just under 30.
Thx J and setter
Enjoyed the blog more than the crossword today! DNF due to cajolement and hodgkinson.
25:41. I’m a fan of the living people being included in the Times crossword answers and I knew both.
COD: LITTLE TOE.
60:19. That was pretty hard for a Tuesday. I liked LITTLE TOE a lot, but several of the others I found a little convoluted/forced. COD was 4a LAND AGENT.
I despise having living people in the crossword at an almost molecular level.
Thanks both !
Fortunately for me I had an empty morning to go with an empty grid to fill; unfortunately for me I still had to cheat a little to fill the grid. I rather enjoyed unwinding the cryptics; I had a harder time getting all the words either via definition or cyptic or a combo. Nicely done, wee setter.
VERY enjoyable for me this one, even with the two undead entries. And on that, I thought Keely was done well, with a nicely misleading definition (if you fall into its trap), while Ed in my view should have had a more insulting anagrind such as ‘unfortunately’. I am still pleased that The Times is going this way, and is still unashamedly British..
In other, literary matters, I note that one can escape the chore (for many) of reading the Wake whilst still enjoying a simple anagram HCE/ALP*.
A well-written puzzle solved by me in 28 minutes. I’ll plump for 28A (with ‘wee on foot’) for my COD.
I am 73 and Keeley Hodgkinson is well known to me. Athletics is not just for the young to follow. “…and what I don’t know isn’t knowledge”.
It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just vague
53 minutes. I thought this was great fun, not least because it appealed to my childish sense of humour.
I will just say that I’m very anti-living-persons, and I don’t understand why they changed the rule.
I seem to be the only one who put ‘slept’ in 26 across. I had pelt with the ‘pel’ ‘returning for a period’ to form ‘lep’, which at least left me with the right tense for ‘having dropped off’. Since I had no idea what was going on with 21 down, I had equally little chance of either correcting this or finishing correctly.
I’ll take Hodgkinson over Joyce any day of the week, although from what little I’ve heard nothing much is improved by having Ed Sheeran in it. And is croci really the plural of crocus? What’s wrong with crocuses? Am I missing something?
Thanks setter and blogger.
Is it possible that compo is a shortened version of composite, in relation to cement?
I’m not a fan of Mr Sheeran simply because he supports a different team than me.
I’m more Sir Elton John – now there’s a clue for the future…
SOED has it as originally short for ‘composition’ but ‘composite’ and ‘composite material’ appear in other sources. Mortar and plaster are mentioned too.
No time to report as done in three sessions, the final session involved me trying to complete and watch a football match on tv at the same time. It could certainly be estimated to be well over an hour I would think, but I’m glad I persevered as I finished with all correct. It took me some time to get CROCI, but my LOI IMPRIMATUR went in with fingers crossed as it was the only answer I didn’t parse. I knew the word, and it was the only one that I could think of that fitted the checkers.
As an athletics fan HODGKINSON was no problem, though I suspected it may be a problem for those outside the UK, and even some within.
Living in France and following UK news, I had of course heard of Sheeran. But not of Hodgkinson. I assumed this was a ‘liver’ issue, and that she was probably an Olympic athlete, so guessed right. I’m not against all this, but would only query whether Olympic athletes really make the fame-grade, unless they are truly spectacular. But then, it’s all probably to down to age. I could cope with a Coe, an Ovett, a Spitz or a Cape. But I wouldn’t know the name of a single gold-winner this year, UK or French. More fool me, you might say, and you’d probably be right. Tough stuff today but I got there, in 51’12”. Didn’t spot the Joyce reference, but I’ve never read FW. Didn’t even make it through Ulysses so thought I’d better not.
Capes?
Late getting here because I put it to one side with half a dozen left.
All done now though and I did enjoy it. I think Ed Sheeran is completely fair, not so sure about our Keely. I think the people put in should stand a good chance of still being known in, say, 10 years time.
Tring is at one end of the Ridgeway National Trail, (the other end is at Avebury) so I’ve been there several times.
Cajolement I got immediately… once I had looked up compo in Collins!
Solved in 40 minutes, but a right pig of a crossword. I had always thought the Cryptic should offer a pleasurable experience! What a fool!
My morning isn’t complete until and unless I fully solve the Times crossword and yesterday was an incomplete day. The degree of difficulty and obscurity is too much for a weekday puzzle until I realised this was for the Championship. Okay, cancel the plan to enter Times Crossword Championship 2025.
Oh, no. Today’s puzzle is from the Championship, not yesterday’s. Still, not entering 2025
How lovely to hear from you again!
While completing this I learned several things of which I would otherwise have happily remained ignorant. Well done Jack for the explanations of several bifs.
Just a thought. Does ALLAH (pbuh) count as living?
Interesting that one person’s obscurity is another person’s clarity. Like jackkt, I also live near Tring, in Hemel Hempstead (my Dad, recently deceased, was actually mayor of Dacorum). Unlike jackkt, I’m very happy to see contemporary people in the crossword, never having been too much of a student of literature, only ever having read a couple of the Bard’s plays whilst doing GCSE English over 30 years ago.
17D A monkey nut (peanut) is not a pulse, it’s a legume.
Pettifog(ger) brought a smiling memory of the lawyer from the comic Wizard of Id. The forenames Larsen E. supplied by spouse added to the pleasure.
NHO the runner, not a sport watcher. Had to cheat to get Tring.
COD little toe, for the rhyme …all the way home.