Solving time: 38 minutes
Not a particularly speedy solve for me, but I liked this for containing some lively and interesting clues, and even the clue I have slated at 5dn I enjoyed in a masochistic sort of way.
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 | One caught in face, the whole thing seen in theatre (5,4) |
| MUSIC HALL | |
| I (one) + C (caught) contained by [in] MUSH (face), ALL (the whole thing).’ Mush’ is slang for mouth or face, but either way it has to be pronounced ‘moosh’ as in ‘push’, not ‘mush’ as in ‘hush’. | |
| 6 | Animal taking look outside for snare (5) |
| LASSO | |
| LO (look) containing [outside] ASS (animal) | |
| 9 | St John’s view as he converted sectarian (8,7) |
| JEHOVAHS WITNESS | |
| Anagram [converted] of ST JOHN’S VIEW AS HE | |
| 10 | Turning to large caviare sandwiches for grub (6) |
| ROOTLE | |
| ROE (caviare) contains [sandwiches] TO reversed [turning] + L (large). Pigs hunting truffles grub or rootle about. | |
| 11 | Poison a drink back at home with MDMA (8) |
| ATROPINE | |
| A, PORT (drink) reversed [back], IN (at home), E (MDMA – ecstasy). Obtained from deadly nightshade | |
| 13 | Rock one to settle in European river (10) |
| RHINESTONE | |
| I (one) + NEST (settle) contained by [in] RHONE (European river). As in the title of the Glen Campbell hit song. | |
| 14 | Sing Bachelor Boy when daughter’s born (4) |
| BLAB | |
| B (Bachelor), then LAD (boy) becomes LAB when d (daughter) changes to b (born). The surface refers to an early Cliff Richard song from the film Summer Holiday. ‘Sing / blab’ means to inform on. | |
| 16 | Star not quite convert to compassionate eating? (4) |
| VEGA | |
| VEGA{n} (convert to compassionate eating) [not quite] | |
| 17 | 2’s paradoxical states exhibited in zombies? (6,4) |
| LIVING DEAD | |
| LIVING + DEAD (2’s paradoxical states). To be honest I only noticed the cross-reference when I came to write the blog. I know what a paradox is and that zombies are called the LIVING DEAD so the answer came quite easily. More about this at 2dn. | |
| 19 | Hard cutting cost of transport in Hannibal’s birthplace (8) |
| CARTHAGE | |
| H (hard) contained by [cutting] CARTAGE (cost of transport) | |
| 20 | Stupid or wise as Member of Parliament? (6) |
| OWLISH | |
| Cryptic. The collective noun for owls is ‘parliament’ which comes up here regularly. I’ve heard of owls described wise or solemn, but never stupid, however Chambers has it. It’s quite fitting really when one considers the quality of many members of the Westminster parliament in recent and not so recent years. | |
| 23 | Rolling cask into best clubs, do they bother in saloons? (8,7) |
| BACKSEAT DRIVERS | |
| Anagram [rolling] of CASK contained by [into] BEAT (best), DRIVERS (golf clubs). The definition is cryptic. | |
| 24 | Guard leaving southern gate (5) |
| ENTRY | |
| {s}ENTRY (guard) [leaving] S (southern) | |
| 25 | Don’t do away with Phoenician city corporation (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE | |
| SPARE (don’t do away with), TYRE (Phoenician city). ‘Corporation’ meaning large belly annoys some of our regulars, and ‘spare tyre’ is just a variation. This answer appeared in yesterday’s 15×15 with wordplay ‘relieve ancient city’. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Significant ruin besetting Scots sweetheart (5) |
| MAJOR | |
| MAR (ruin) containing [besetting] JO (Scots sweetheart). SOED has ‘jo’ as a Scottish word for ‘sweetheart’ going back to the early 16th century. | |
| 2 | Thought experiment good in chain store with CD-Rs distributed (12,3) |
| SCHRODINGERS CAT | |
| G (good) contained by [in] anagram [distributed] of CHAIN STORE CD-RS. I knew nothing of this but at least I’d heard the expression and the anagrist got me to the answer. The paradox cross-referenced at 17ac as explained by my AI assistant is taken on trust and reproduced here: Schrödinger’s Cat is a famous thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger to illustrate the concept of quantum superposition. A cat is placed in a sealed box with a device that has a 50% chance of releasing a deadly poison. According to quantum mechanics, until the box is opened and the cat’s state is observed, the cat is considered to be both alive and dead simultaneously. This paradox highlights the strange behaviour of quantum particles, which can exist in multiple states until measured. |
|
| 3 | Incautious having wine and pork pie before run (8) |
| CAVALIER | |
| CAVA (wine), LIE (pork pie – Cockney rhyming slang), R (run) | |
| 4 | Commander horrified — good man lost (4) |
| AGHA | |
| AGHA{st} (horrified) [good man – st/saint – lost]. I don’t recall seeing this spelling of Aga before. | |
| 5 | Police Muswell Hill area: rising crime brings court action (4,6) |
| LAWN TENNIS | |
| LAW (police), N TEN (Muswell Hill area – London N10 postal district), then SIN (crime) reversed [rising]. The police are often referred to as ‘The Law’ e.g. ‘I’ll set the law on you’. Last week we had comments when Notting Hill appeared but at least that’s quite well-known outside the UK because of the popular / infamous [delete as applicable] film starring Hugh Grant. However Muswell Hill, an area of north London that includes bits of Hampstead and Highgate must surely be more difficult for overseas solvers, and knowing that its postal district is N10 is even more of a challenge. I didn’t know it myself even though I was born and raised 9 miles away. On top of all that, the solver has to change N10 to N TEN, something you will never ever see. Definitely a clue best suited to biffing and moving on unless you are the unfortunate person on blogging duty! | |
| 6 | Around over time, cat’s getting cream (6) |
| LOTION | |
| LION (cat) containing [around) O (over) + T (time) | |
| 7 | Volunteer officer with Labour offering faster service (7,8) |
| SPECIAL DELIVERY | |
| SPECIAL (volunteer officer – more police e.g. special constable), DELIVERY (labour – childbirth) | |
| 8 | BEF endlessly destroy supply ships — in Pearl Harbour? (6-3) |
| OYSTER-BED | |
| Anagram [supply] of DESTROY contains [ships] BE{f} [endlessly]. The definition is pleasantly whimsical. The surface reading is less pleasant with its evocations of wars in which the UK sent British Expeditionary Forces to fight in Europe. As for the idea of them being in Pearl Harbour attacking, presumably American, supply ships, that’s very odd! | |
| 12 | Fish with line and instrument for deep sound (6,4) |
| STRING BASS | |
| STRING (line), BASS (fish). The string bass aka double bass is the lowest pitched member of the string section of an orchestra. | |
| 13 | Island insurance recalled as subject to cancellation? (9) |
| REVOCABLE | |
| ELBA (island – the site of Napoleon’s first exile) + COVER (insurance) reversed [recalled]. I know ‘irrevocable’ but for the opposite meaning I would write ‘revokable’. Both are valid along with ‘revokeable’ but the ‘k’ spellings are pronounced differently from the one with the ‘c’. Also you can’t put ‘ir-‘ in front of the ‘k’ versions. All very strange, but perhaps there a logic to it somewhere. | |
| 15 | Meringue ingredient for example affected weight (3,5) |
| EGG WHITE | |
| EG (for example), anagram [affected] of WEIGHT | |
| 18 | Beater at Murthly finally getting dram (6) |
| WHISKY | |
| WHISK (beater), {Murthl}Y [finally]. Murthly is a village in Perthshire I never heard of and judging by its Wiki page doesn’t seem to have a lot going for it as its featured picture is of an ugly garage on a main road. | |
| 21 | Be unable to stand, necking last of Chablis in hurry (5) |
| HASTE | |
| HATE (be unable to stand) containing [necking] {Chabli}S [last of…] | |
| 22 | Middleman oddly ignored hypothesis (4) |
| IDEA | |
| {m}I{d}D{l}E{l}A{n} [oddly ignored] | |
Found this quite difficult and some of the long anagrams were lost on me. Eventually remembered the cat experiment in 2D but the spelling was not easy. So, Muswell Hill is N10! Who knew? Not me, but whenever I see ‘court’ I usually think tennis. Liked the LIVING DEAD link to 2D but normally find links to other clues/answers a pain. COD to OWLISH as Member of Parliament.
Thanks Jack.
Several entries I biffed but didn’t know all the bits of the wordplay anyway, such as N10 postcode, MUSH for face as opposed to mouth, and I think a couple more. I hate really long anagrams where basically you have to biff the answer and then work out which words in the clue are the anagrist if you care by then. No problem with SCHRODINGERS CAT since I had to study quantum mechanics (my second least favorite course with only Fluid Dynamics being even worse). I have been to Elba twice as a teenager so that is an island that always springs to mind (even when it is the wrong island). But an enjoyable crossword overall.
Absolutely snap. Part of my Biochemistry course at now defunct UMIST in the 70s had to cover some physical chemistry – quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics all like being hit over the head with a soggy bag of sugar.
I got SCHRODINGER’S CAT immediately from “paradox” in the cross-reference. I didn’t bother parsing the actual clue. Only question about the spelling (an unseen umlaut on the O, or OE?) was settled by the enumeration.
Didn’t know OWLISH could mean “stupid”—and it seems so wrong!—and didn’t check Chambers. Whew, that’s OK then.
Got the answer, but didn’t know what was clued by “Muswell Hill,” a name I learned from the Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbilly.”
17:24
I did a lot of biffing; the cat, LAWN TENNIS, SPECIAL DELIVERY, RHINESTONE, inter alia. NHO Muswell Hill, which made parsing impossible (NHO Murthly either, but that didn’t matter). I was surprised to see SPARE TYRE again; and surprised to see it equated with ‘corporation’ (=paunch); a spare tire is a roll of fat around the waist. I liked BLAB, my LOI.
Around 45 minutes allowing for interruptions. Most enjoyable. SCHRODINGERS CAT, the most quoted thought experiment was a write in as was LIVING DEAD. Loved OYSTER BED and BACKSEAT DRIVERS. NHO London postal districts let alone N 10. No problem biffing the answer.
Thanks Jack particularly for clarifying OWLISH.
Sandy isn’t the only one who remembers that Kinks album, but really, nearly everything here was a biff. Lawn tennis, music hall, oyster bed, backseat drives, living dead – it all just flowed in very nicely. I was pleased to remember Schrodinger’s cat, as well as about how to spell it.
Time: 20:06
7:49. My FOI was JEHOVAHS WITNESS and with all those nice crossing letters it was full speed ahead from there. I thought SPARE TYRE rang a bell, though I didn’t realise it was only yesterday it appeared! Like others OWLISH for stupid was a new one on me.
My quick time enabled me to complete a rare double – cryptic and concise in under 10 minutes. Good timing with the busy work day I have today!
Excellent time(s).
Outstanding!
Thanks to jakkt and setter. But I can’t quite resolve 8d despite seeing all of the elements. “BEF endlessly destroy supply ships” gives one BE and DESTROY, which can “supply” an anagram of “oyster bed”. But what are the “ships” doing there?
It’s ‘ship’ in the meaning of ‘take on board.’
Here “supply” is an anagram indicator (“supple -y”, ho ho, worth remembering because it comes up so often I now remember it). So it’s “destroy supply” [anagram of destroy] “ships” [has inside it] “BEF endlessly” [be, being the first two letters of BED]. You have to read the clue in a Yoda voice for the grammar to make sense! Hope that helps.
24 mins fully parsed but with a silly typo, which happens very often because I’m solving on my phone on a train and often standing. Really enjoyed this – lots of clues raised a smile including OYSTER BED, BACKSEAT DRIVERS, SCHRODINGERS CAT and LIVING DEAD. I didn’t know Muswell Hill was N10 but it didn’t hold me up. Unlike some others here I am quite partial to the occasional cross-reference. One a week is enough for me.
That’s even more impressive than Pootle’s stunning double. How do you hang on to the strap?
Owls — they whinny down the night;
Bats go zigzag by.
Ambushed in shadow beyond sight
The outlaws lie.
(Outlaws, Robert Graves)
35 mins pre-brekker. Nice and chewy. Mostly I liked ‘pearl harbour’, backseat driver and Elbacover.
Ta setter and J
16.05
A lot of biffing going on there, but at least I did manage to spot the tremendous anagram at 9ac.
I hesitated with OWLISH as I couldn’t see how it meant stupid, but then remembered Billy Bunter, ‘Fat Owl of the Remove’ (unlikely now to undergo a revival).
LOI BLAB
COD JEHOVAH’S WITNESS
It is actually an 18th-century thing – in the world of Pope and Swift, the owl was the symbol of solemn stupidity.
37m 00s
Like Guy says, Muswell Hill reminds me of the Muswell Hillbillies from The Kinks.
Regarding ‘OWLISH’, Billy Bunter was the ‘owl of the remove’ but was that because he was dim or because he lookjed owlish?
Thanks, Jack.
A bit of both – illustrations actually do show him resembling an owl, have a look.
Yes, several sources including Chambers mention ‘bespectacled’ when referring to looking owl-like / owlish and I suspect that’s why Bunter came to be nicknamed ‘the fat owl of the remove’ rather than his stupidity. Actually in some respects he was quite wise, just not very keen to follow school rules.
👍
14:16 with a typo.
Like the cat I thought this could be considered both hard and easy at the same time.
For the most part I raced through it before slowing towards the end. When I saw the final clue I rushed to press submit and came a cropper. I stubbornly refuse to learn my lessons though.
Thanks to both.
28 enjoyable minutes with LOI BLAB.I know many hate linked clues but the combination of SCHRODINGERS CAT and the LIVING DEAD borders on genius. And who’d have known what ELBA COVER was like in reverse? I’ve lived in North London long enough to deduce N10 but that perhaps was unfair. A lovely puzzle otherwise. Thank you Jack and setter.
26:21 (1 error)
All went well (only partly parsing 5D before bunging in) only to enter my LOI at 6D as LTTION. How owlish is that?
Thank you to jackkt and the setter.
Really enjoyed this puzzle (second day running).
You know those amusing videos of cats playing with cardboard boxes? Always struck me as advertising ideal presents for budding young physicists.
I read all of Billy Bunter as a boy (after being given a free copy of ‘Billy Bunter at Butlins’ when we went on holiday in Clacton). I’ve just now, more than sixty years later, made the ‘dim’ connection.
14’23”, thanks jack and setter.
8:36 but with a careless “atEopine”. Is “finger thinning” available on the NHS?
COD HASTE
9:10. Thought SPARE TYRE was familiar. Decent puzzle.
7.31
Another very enjoyable one I thought. I stuck in LIVING DEAD from the enumeration, and that gave me SCHRODINGERS CAT before looking at the clue, which rather helped. Needed to construct ATROPINE, although I’m pretty sure it’s been seen before.
I spotted the familiar SPARE TYRE, and also the echo of yesterday’s QC in IDEA.
Thanks both.
Yes, liked this one.
Owlish, like others, from Billy Bunter.
Schrodinger devised his cat experiment as a criticism of quantum superposition, not an explanation of it.. and its subsequent adoption as a cornerstone of quantum theory must have irritated him, one would think.
Sadly biffed several of the longer clues so never noticed the Muswell Hill Problem.. once you have L_W_ and court action, the answer leaps out rather.
Useful to know – thanks.
Just under 20 minutes.
– Had to construct the unknown ATROPINE from wordplay
– Didn’t parse RHINESTONE as I assumed the river in the clue was the Rhine, not the Rhone
– Can’t recall seeing OWLISH mean stupid before
– Slightly disappointed to see SPARE TYRE two days in a row
– Not familiar with Jo as a Scottish word for a sweetheart, but MAJOR was obvious enough
– Didn’t fully parse LAWN TENNIS
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Idea
LOI Atropine
COD Blab
Just under 17 mins.
I paused at 17d, as on this side of the Irish Sea the preference is for WHISKEY. All good – biffed LAWN TENNIS without knowing or noticing the N10 complication.
Wow, a lovely one for me, my first time under 10 minutes on the 15×15. I think I must have got lucky on the way somewhere, as I biffed quite a few. Also had JEHOVAHS WITNESSES and BACKSEAT DRIVERS in very quickly, which would have helped a lot.
Thank you to Jack and the setter. Really enjoyed that.
“While I pop upstairs and ROOTLE
for another safety pin.”
Betjeman, ‘The Flight from Bootle”.
The whole poem (too long to quote here) has to be read to realise that it is not as jejune as it would seem.
“John Anderson my JO…”
R. Burns
Gosh! That’s two today!
Liked this one, in about 25 minutes, especially the quantum cat which I studied at uni but always found a difficult notion to swallow. I’d never have thought of spelling revocable with a k although I use the verb revoke in bridge games. Thanks jackkt.
8:38. N TEN and ‘stupid’ are both a bit of a stretch but you don’t really need either to solve the clue so I’m inclined to cut the setter some slack. I’m not generally a huge fan of cross-references but this one is very clever. ‘Pearl Harbour’ is also excellent, I wonder if it’s been done before.
On the various incarnations of ‘revoke’, looking for logic in matters of language is generally a recipe for frustration!
23:43
Good fun, No problems with OWLISH having read all the Bunter books as a boy. Eddi Reader’s “John Amderson my Jo” helped with MAJOR.
I agree that MUSWELL Hill seems a bit niche – I cetainly didn’t know its post code. COD BACKSEAT DRIVERS.
Thanks to Jack and the setter
21.06 with a typo
The CAT was further to the back of my mind than others as was the spelling but got there. A few things here straight in from previous puzzles (jo and the owl thing) which helped.
Nice crossword – thanks all
13a Misparsed as eston in Rhine. Didn’t understand. DOH!
1d Major. I think we had a discussion a while ago about jo=Scottish sweetheart.
2d S’s Cat came to me as I was pondering if 17a could be Living Dead. So the cross reference helped as well as irritating me.
4d Misspelled Agah as can’t spell aghast. Delayed J’s Witness.
5d Lawn Tennis. Couldn’t resist checking that Muswell Hill is N10.
15d EggWhite present as 2 words in cheating Machine; added plurals and all-one-word.
If you want to start a fight with casual scrabble players, JO and XI are good ways to wind them up.
A fairly sprightly 12:09 . A bit chestnutty in places – LASSO and ENTRY I’m looking at you – and the four long ones yielded quickly giving lots of checkers. I was born in Muswell Hill so that was a freebie!
12.42, on the quicker end of my scale but quirky and enjoyable. Muswell Hill’s postcode didn’t really register, but didn’t need to any more than the whereabouts of Murthly, though it was quite fun taking a Streetmap tour of the latter place post-solve. Lots of expensive-looking homes, a rather unprepossessing stone circle and a “castle” with a striking chapel. And a Nisa store beside that “ugly” garage.
I think the relevant Murthly is this one: https://www.murthly-estate.com/. Shooting is on offer, which makes sense of the clue’s surface reading.
Yes, that’s the “castle” down a very long drive on the edge of the settlement – not sure if it really qualifies as a village. Nice place to have a wedding, it seems.
The clue doesn’t say village! If someone said ‘I’m shooting at Murthly tomorrow’ it would be a reference to the estate. Whether anyone ever actually says that I can’t say.
I mentioned village in the blog because I put Murthly into Wiki and that’s what came up – the first short paragraph mentioning ‘village’ three times. As also mentioned I never heard of the place.
To be fair, it doesn’t say estate either, even if it does start with “beater”. Eggs? Carpets? Are we supposed to know thar Murthly is particularly known for slaughtering grouse?
For the surface to make sense the beater must be a person, perhaps treating him or herself to a scotch after a hard day of beating.
Murthly is a shooting estate.
I’m just putting two and two together, I’ve never heard of it either!
Well, of course, that makes sense, but in my travels around Murthly (!) I saw no indication that I was likely to come across ptarmigan. Found the Uisge Bar Restaurant, the only place in the village where our thirsty beater might purchase a dram!
I found it by googling ‘Murthly shooting’. I expect the setter found it by googling ‘shooting estates in Scotland’ and looking for one that ended in a Y!
Sadly, it didn’t occur to me to add “shooting” to my Google, despite the beater! Nor did it occur to me that a beater (of whatever kind) might not live and drink in the village, though indeed it was an odd place to pick.
14:10 – very satisfying. JEHOVAHS WITNESS goes down as the first answer I have ever written in without looking at the clue. On a minor point of order, the AI explanation of the unfortunate quantum cat is a bit off. From what little I understand, the crucial thing is that the triggering event to release the poison that kills the cat must itself be subject to quantum uncertainty, such as the decay of a particular radioactive particle. Gratifying that AI doesn’t understand quantum mechanics either – unless it is thoughtfully simplifying things for our lesser minds.
26 mins. Got a bit stuck, then inspiration got me to the end. My immediate thought on REVOCABLE was that it can’t be that because it’s REVOKABLE. One of those that you only hear as a negative, ie irrevocable. Yes a lot of biffing, including BLAB, which I had to come here to understand. Thanks!
I enjoyed this, which for some inexplicable reason only took me 18 minutes. Was helped by the anagrams and the four long answers which emerged very quickly. 5dn emerged from memories of driving my son round the North Circular years ago to play in tennis tournaments in N10.
FOI – JEHOVAHS WITNESS
LOI – STRING BASS
COD – BACKSEAT DRIVERS
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
24.46 with a typo on phone so won’t count. A shame as this must be close to a PB for this solver.
LOI OYSTER BED
Lots of COD contenders, some very nice ones in here today – I’ll give my vote to LAWN TENNIS
Enjoyed this one as much as I did yesterday’s. Again, had to go along way down the across clues to get started, and filled in all of the bottom half, before tackling the top. It felt quite London centric with the rhyming slang and postcode.
I enjoyed the Bonaparte insurance clue, and OYSTER BED.
We must be due another Crossword championship puzzle tomorrow.
Thanks for the blog, Jack, and thank you Setter.
Yes, last one, the third semifinal one..
I will try to remember that before solving the whole thing and patting myself on the back for a fast time 😉
Really enjoyed this and quietly worked my way through the grid in leisurely manner. As others have said, lots of biffing. Like to parse as I go along but struggled to make sense of RHINESTONE and gave up completely with BLAB and BACKSEAT DRIVERS – many thanks for sorting these out Jack. Didn’t know Jo as sweetheart and only VHO ROOTLE. I liked SPARE TYRE (new clue to me) and CARTHAGE. Thanks all.
We’re really expected to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of London! I’m a Londoner myself, but would never got got ‘Muswell Hill area’ = N TEN. Thankfully the answer was very biffable.
11a rather relevant with the government crackdown on spiking.
FOI – AGHA
LOI – LOTION
COD – LIVING DEAD
SCHRODINGER’S CAT and hence LIVING DEAD were a bit of a gimme, and helped with lots of others. 32 mins. Liked this one. Just the right side of tricky without being too easy.
30:16. this one was a bit easier than yesterday’s for me at least, and found it a bit of a biff-fest (which I parsed mostly before submitting). minor quibble about whether the thought experiment should have had an OE as the spelling of the umlauted Ö, as is normal in German. The length of the clue was obviously helpful in this regard and made for a very pleasant cross reference for the Zombies. normally I don’t much care for cfs but I thought both clues were good. thanks Jack and setter!
Done in 40, with LOI the rather easy WHISKY.
I’m the one who dislikes corporation=belly. Perhaps the new editor can have a review of arcana like this. Rant over.
I liked the paradox of the LIVING DEAD. But I had OYSTER BAY (for Pearl Harbour) for quite some time.
COD AGHA
AGHA and ROOTLE were F2I, followed by MUSIC HALL and MAJOR. JEHOVAHS WITNESS followed making LAWN TENNIS a write in from court action without ever considering the Muswell Hill area. 2d looked at first glance to be starting wih SCHOOL, but nothing came to mind until 11a at which point Zombie and paradox induced LIVING DEAD and a scuttle back to insert SCROEDINGERS CAT at 2d, having to immediately backtrack and change OE to O and SCA to CAT, and shuffle DINGER up the order. Our Phoenician city seems to be doing overtime this week! LASSO and LOTION were last 2 in. 16:10. Thanks setter and Jack.
40 minutes, of which the last 10 spent on Lotion, rather inexplicably, as it shouldn’t be that tough when one has all the crossers.
Very nice puzzle, overall.
16.53. No real problems, but some reservations. I know the Postal District for Muswell Hill, having lived and worked in the London Borough of Haringey for many years until I escaped to Northumberland, but hardly a fair clue for many solvers, and I regard creams and lotions as two different entities, though, no doubt, someone will find a dictionary entry to contradict me.
My fastest ever solving! 30 mins, not impressive compared to most of you but for me, yes! Most trouble with Rootle! And blab! Great fun! Cx
About 30′ pre and post a golf match. Bottom half went in quite quickly before leaving. Top half a bit more chewy, with BLAB (unparsed) and LOI AGHA taking some time (took a punt on agha-st after a trawl offered nothing better and I saw the parsing). JO as Scots for sweetheart eluded me again, despite being Scottish with a wife named Jo…. thus MAJOR was an unparsed biff alongside OYSTER BED. All very entertaining, thanks Jack and setter.
A puzzle full of tremendous ideas, I thought.
1, 9, 17 & 23A, plus 2, 5, 8 & 18D all served beyond the call here for me. 8D probably the one that most showcases the setter’s skills, but a lot of clues were of that kidney or thereabouts today.
I took 27 fun-filled minutes.
Thanks jackkt and compiler.
24:05
My only significant hold up was OWLISH, where I saw the answer immediately but could not make sense of the “stupid” part of the clue – thanks Jack for pointing me towards Chambers.
My favourite clues were the 2d/17a pair. Having previously said I don’t like cross references, I think I may be starting to change my mind.
Thanks Jack and setter
An enjoyable puzzle completed and fully parsed in 34.56. There were a few unknowns to contend with where I was dependent on the setter’s directions. The cat experiment was unknown as was ROOTLE. Being of a certain age I remember reading of Billy Bunters school day adventures, and OWLISH was a term used quite frequently.