Solving time: 26 minutes
I found this mostly straightforward with a handful of clues that wouldn’t be out of place in an easy Quick Cryptic. How did you do?
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 | Broadcast Ella Fitzgerald? (7) |
| SCATTER | |
| A cryptic hint supports the main definition. Ella (following on from a name-check at 2ac yesterday) was famous for scat, defined by Collins as a type of jazz singing characterized by improvised vocal sounds instead of words. I can’t find any support for SCATTER as a noun with reference to this so it’s a play on words and doesn’t qualify as a double definition. I love many types of jazz but I can’t stand scat. | |
| 5 | Why pull a face on the radio? Spectacular fail! (7) |
| WIPEOUT | |
| Aural wordplay [on the radio]: “why” + “pout” (pull a face) | |
| 9 | Calculator’s standard on decline (5,4) |
| SLIDE RULE | |
| SLIDE (slide), RULE (standard). My father had many of these so I was aware of them from an early age but sadly I never learned to use one. | |
| 10 | The first British martyr from Scotland originally? (5) |
| ALBAN | |
| Saint Alban was indeed the first English martyr. His entry in Collins goes on: He was beheaded by the Romans on the site on which St Alban’s Abbey now stands, for admitting his conversion to Christianity. The second part of the clue provides another way to the answer based on ALBA as the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland (this has come up here a couple of times recently) so a person from Alba might at a pinch be said to be ALBAN. As for the Saint, despite the suggestion in the clue, he certainly didn’t come from Scotland and was actually a Roman citizen. | |
| 11 | Plays outside in small box, perhaps; pressure on to keep dry (6,7) |
| STREET THEATRE | |
| S (small), TREE (box, perhaps) + HEAT (pressure) + RE (on) containing [to keep] TT (dry – teetotal) | |
| 13 | Patronise monarch heartlessly, overwhelmed by worry (8) |
| FREQUENT | |
| QU{e}EN (monarch) [heartlessly] contained [overwhelmed] by FRET (worry). ‘Fri-quent‘ (visit) rather than’ ‘Free-quent’ (often). | |
| 15 | Penny says to collect large walking aid (3,3) |
| PEG LEG | |
| P (penny), EG + EG (says – say x 2) containing [to collect] L (large). Sadly the humorous song on the subject is now spoiled forever by association. | |
| 17 | Decline to get rid of American memorial (6) |
| TROPHY | |
| {a}TROPHY (decline) [to get rid of American] | |
| 19 | Intended leaving European country, frankly (3,2,3) |
| MAN TO MAN | |
| M{e}ANT (intended) [leaving European] , OMAN (country) | |
| 22 | Remarkable X-ray editor ran is fake (13) |
| EXTRAORDINARY | |
| Anagram [fake] of X-RAY EDITOR RAN | |
| 25 | 17? A child (5) |
| AWARD | |
| A, WARD (child). The cross-reference clue directs us back to TROPHY. | |
| 26 | Make rough old woman wail when leading couple ejected (9) |
| GRANULATE | |
| GRAN (old woman), {ul}ULATE (wail) [when leading couple ejected]. Collins: to make or become roughened in surface texture. NHO this meaning but the wordplay was helpful. | |
| 27 | Secretly look around motor racing track’s entrance for health programme (4,3) |
| KEEP FIT | |
| PEEK (secretly look) reversed [around], F1 (motor racing) T{rack’s} [entrance] | |
| 28 | Equal working conditions (2,5) |
| ON TERMS | |
| ON (working), TERMS (conditions) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Elite soldiers start to show impertinence to Green Beret (4) |
| SASS | |
| SAS (elite soldiers – UK Special Air Service), S{how} [start to…]. The Green Berets are US army special forces and are mentioned here to indicate that the answer is an American word. | |
| 2 | A paper handkerchief is being discussed (2,5) |
| AT ISSUE | |
| A, TISSUE (paper handkerchief) | |
| 3 | Reportedly that place is belonging to that person (5) |
| THEIR | |
| Aural wordplay [reportedly]: “there” (that place). I regard using the plural to refer to the singular ungrammatical but it’s all too common these days in order to avoid gender pronouns. | |
| 4 | Heavy defeat initially exposed United’s direct style of football (5,3) |
| ROUTE ONE | |
| ROUT (heavy defeat), E{xposed} [initially], ONE (united). NHO this but the wordplay was easy. Premium Oxford Dictionary: In soccer, the use of long kicks upfield as an attacking tactic. Origin: from a phrase used in the 1960s television quiz show Quizball, in which questions graded in difficulty led to scoring a goal, Route One being the direct path. | |
| 5 | Anger about second letter from Merrick Garland (6) |
| WREATH | |
| WRATH (anger) containing [about] {M}E{rrick} [second letter from…]. I never heard of this guy but apparently he was US Attorney General 2021-2025 under Biden. Yet more American stuff which seems to be increasingly prevalent in Times crosswords in recent months. | |
| 6 | Stick with lap dancing before gaining work experience from this (9) |
| PLACEMENT | |
| Anagram [dancing] of LAP, then CEMENT (stick) | |
| 7 | Examination about small section in ring road (7) |
| ORBITAL | |
| ORAL (examination) containing [about] BIT (small section) | |
| 8 | Perhaps Thomas Brown unusually keen to drink alcohol (4,6) |
| TANK ENGINE | |
| TAN (brown), anagram [unusually] of KEEN containing [to drink] GIN (alcohol). Thomas the Tank Engine first appeared in 1946 in a series of books by Wilbert and Christopher Awdry. | |
| 12 | Rank those people on boat, which is wrong (3,3,4) |
| OFF THE MARK | |
| OFF (rank – having a foul or offensive smell), THEM (those people – cf 3dn), ARK (boat) | |
| 14 | Harry found her appalling at first — that’s without precedent (7-2) |
| UNHEARD-OF | |
| Anagram [harry] of FOUND HER A{ppalling} [at first] | |
| 16 | Chief in California turned up on a list (8) |
| CAPITANO | |
| CA (California) then ON + A + TIP (list) reversed [turned]. From the Italian, but now valid as an English word apparently. | |
| 18 | Abandoned cat in tree beginning to eat biscuit (7) |
| OATCAKE | |
| Anagram [abandoned] of CAT contained by [in] OAK (tree), E{at} [beginning to…] | |
| 20 | Mother, charming individual, cycling in expensive area of London (7) |
| MAYFAIR | |
| MA (mother), then FAIRY (charming individual) ‘cycling’ becomes YFAIR | |
| 21 | Smart bishop not mistaken (6) |
| BRIGHT | |
| B (bishop), RIGHT (not mistaken) | |
| 23 | Woman possibly read ultimatum, but not from start to finish (5) |
| ADULT | |
| Hidden in [not from start to finish] {re}AD ULT{imatum} | |
| 24 | Glorify going topless? Not so much (4) |
| LESS | |
| {b}LESS (glorify) [going topless] | |
Straightforward indeed. After yesterday’s pink-square disaster, I was happy to finish this one in a hair over 10 minutes. Would have loved to get under 10! (Meanwhile, I couldn’t even finish the quickie…)
29:20
Never really got going with this but then it is stupid o’clock in the morning – missed a few which I should have probably seen earlier such as WREATH, OATCAKE which could have resulted in an earlier resolution. Finished with the unlikely CAPITANO.
Thanks Jack and setter
Not at all straightforward for me; I biffed a bunch and never parsed them: ALBAN, STREET THEATRE, MAN TO MAN, … Garland’s name looked familiar and I should have recognized it; not that it mattered. I didn’t know that SASS was an American word, and had no idea what the Green Berets were doing. DNK ROUTE ONE,
I missed a few in this, Just couldn’t see SLIDE RULE for the life of me and didn’t know ALBAN, put in Albon. TROPHY wouldn’t come to mind which meant AWARD was missed. Everything else was OK. Liked PEG LEG and STREET THEATRE once I’d figured out the parsing. THOMAS was a hoot and managed to spot it quickly. Liked SASS, I think the British equivalent is ‘brass’ if I’m not mistaken. Ella twice in two days. COD to UNHEARD OF.
Thanks Jack.
28.15, with CAPITANO taking quite a while at the end. I thought this was a nice mid-range crossword with some very tricky elements. A special AWARD to Jack for figuring out STREET THEATRE.
From Roll On, John:
Tyger, tyger, burning BRIGHT
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
In the forest of the night
Cover him over, and let him sleep
Shine your light
Move it on
You burned so BRIGHT
Roll on, John
I had major problems in the NE corner because of the British-isms although I finally solved it. NHO ROUTE ONE which does not sound like a style of football. PLACEMENT does not sound like a way of getting work experience. NHO first British martyr and did not know ORBITAL was a noun in that it is short for “orbital road”.
Thanks Jack.
Why is it that the setter’s name is never given except on Sunday? It seems pointless thanking someone who is anonymous.
route one; ‘ kick it long down the middle’ and ideally have someone like Erling Harland get on the end of it
A pink square for misspelling Haaland.
Different newspaper, different editors. I for one hope the policy at The Times doesn’t change as I like to approach my puzzles with a completely open mind , not knowing what to expect based on past experience of a particular setter. I was sorry when setter names were introduced for the Quick Cryptic and still don’t like it.
Offhand comments given by Mick Hodgkin at a recent conference in Oxford suggest that this is under active discussion for the main puzzle.
Given that, as you say, this does affect the solving experience, I hope there will be some discussion with solvers (including those not on this site, of course) before a decision is made.
Oh, dear, can’t they leave anything alone!
I agree with you about preconceptions. Impossible now to approach the Sunday cryptic with an open mind. Maybe the setter could be disclosed with the solution, not before?
That’s a good suggestion for maintaining the enjoyment some of us take from anonymous solving, but sadly I imagine we’d be reading speculation here all day long about who the setter might be and that would spoil my enjoyment of the blog. Perhaps we could propose a ban on that too?
Placement:
the temporary posting of someone in a workplace to enable them to gain work experience.
“students spend one year on industrial placement”
Did Route One not originate in Quizball, a sixties tv quiz show precursor of A Question of Sport?
I said that in my blog!
I thought it originated with Dave Bassett with Cambridge and Wimbledon. Watford were also associated with the style. The people who moaned about it were the ones who couldn’t deal with it!
I remember Quiz Ball – the contestants who were professional footballers, could choose the toughness of the general knowledge questions. Route One was a single tough question that got you straight to goal, while at the other end of the spectrum was Route Four, which naturally consisted of four straightforward questions. Being a West Bromwich Albion fan, I loved to watch one of the more successful contestants, John Osborne, our then goalkeeper, who always went Route Four. Simple pleasures!
8:02. I liked this one, it felt a bit quirky.
Merrick Garland may prove to be one of the most consequential Attorneys General in US history.
‘Their’ as a singular possessive pronoun has been in regular use in English for at least 600 years.
It still grates on me. Here’s the entry from Fowler’s Modern English Usage:
Fowler (1926) was among those who objected to the use of their in contexts that call ‘logically’ for his (though this use of the masculine gender to cover both is now contentious) or his or her. Examples: But does anyone in their heart really believe that Ireland is only that?; no one can be easy in their minds about the present conditions of examination.
The issue is unresolved, but it begins to look as if the use of this plural third person determiner to refer back to a singular pronoun is now passing unnoticed by standard speakers (except those trained in traditional grammar) and is being left unaltered by some copy editors, though among many it is a bone of contention. Its value lies in its being gender-neutral and avoiding the inherent sexism of his and the cumbersomeness of his or her.
Fowler is a highly subjective style guide, not a work of grammar. What he calls ‘traditional grammar’ is a largely a set of arbitrary and completely unfounded ‘rules’ invented in the 19th century. People have been using ‘their’ as a singular third person determiner for hundreds of years, its use as such is ipso facto grammatical. You are still perfectly entitled to dislike it!
I remember being given a copy of Fowler during an early stint in the civil service. If I recall correctly his views on split infinitives provoked much discussion.
If I remember rightly Fowler is actually sensible on split infinitives.
Exactly, not everyone was though!
The split infinitive is the archetypal example of the silly and completely arbitrary ‘rules’ that were invented in the 19th century by people who thought English should be more like Latin. I suspect the objection to ‘their’ is of similar origin.
I liked the Trekkies starting with “To boldly split infinitives….”
I’m afraid that like it or not, it is here to stay and will become only more widespread, in the minefield that pronouns have become..
‘His’ in this context is not really sexist – it relates to ‘homo’ (man, as in ‘man cannot live by bread alone’) rather than ‘vir’ (a bloke specifically).
As important as Garland’s term as AG, he was the Obama nominee for the Supreme Court who was never considered because Mitch McConnel stalled out the last 10 months of Obama’s term. Neil Gorsuch was subsequently appointed.
Indeed. And having argued that it would be improper to appoint a new justice in the dying months of an outgoing president’s term he rammed through ACB when the 2020 election was already underway.
I wish that Garland had been rather more consequential, and he could have been, had he wanted to.
He had the opportunity to be consequential through either action or inaction. He chose the latter.
Yeah, and I knew that’s what you meant, actually.
But he rather went with the flow…
13:29. Like LindsayO I was delayed at the end by CAPITANO, which sounds vaguely familiar but which at the same time I can’t recall having heard being used in any context. Normally when I say something like that I see the word used somewhere within a day or two!
I’ve only heard of it in the sense of El Capitano, I think. Just glad it wasn’t an NHO Native American chief!
I think you are thinking of El Capitan, a mountain in Yosemite?
Possibly, although at least consciously I was thinking of El Capitan(o) as a general term for a boss.
I did think for some time that it was going to be a native chief!
14 minutes, held up only by CAPITANO and STREET THEATRE, and not for that long. I got on well with this. COD to WIPE OUT. Thank you Jack and setter.
Cracking time BW!
Usually QC only but today I’m glad played along getting over half the clues before resorting to blog and checkers then helped more. Although tbh many the wordplays were beyond my parsing. Thanks Jack
Another easy one for me, but it did manage to feel a bit weird. As for the American things, please make them stop. Now. At least 17 got rid of American. Good plan.
The THEIR usage is really unwieldy, is it not. If ever there were a case for adding a new word to the language, this was it.
I liked WIPEOUT for its silly internally-generated logic, and completed this in under 20.
Thanks J and setter.
Breezeblocked by CAPITANO, nho.
Thanks jack and setter.
Straight forward but I got stuck in the NE quadrant. Couldn’t see what followed STREET (forgetting box could be a tree which would have given me a foothold into the parsing) and was going through my list of musicians for the second part. I’m not sure I was familiar with the term but it is a Ronseal phrase. I just wasn’t seeing WREATH despite being as easy as they get in the Times (we all have moments like that from time to time right?….right!?). Once that clicked WIPEOUT was straight in. Then the friendly train came (my COD) and the rest finished off in less than a minute.
CAPITANO (LOI) went in with a shrug but I had mulled it for quite a bit and couldn’t think of anything better. Slightly surprised to see it lit up green at the end.
This is one I felt could have been a good time but for unforgivable clue blindness.
Thanks blogger and setter.
In some ways easier than Monday though it took longer at just under 30 mins. Fewer if any NHOs but more wading through trees to get to the wood.
OATCAKEs are a kind of pancake in this part of the world.
I’ve always used THEIR. I never liked the masculine as a default gender and “He/She” is horribly clunky. Maybe because most of my writing referred to “The User” in an IT sense, not a named individual.
Thanks Jackkt and anonymous setter.
I agree with you, about both the usage of ‘they/their’ and the deliciousness of Staffordshire oatcakes. We could do with more regional British slang in our crosswords. Such a clue might be: “Composer eats the first sandwich of Lady Godiva(5)” (I’ll post the solution in a bit, guesses welcome).
‘The first’ wouldn’t pass muster in the Times!
Coming from the city of Lady G as I do, my occasional use of that term causes confusion for my children, who are Wimbledon born and bred.
Is “the first” not acceptable for the Times’ style? I feel sure I’ve seen it before, though it may have been elsewhere.
Other outlets are more relaxed, but my understanding is that the Times still (correctly, in my view) insists on a grammatical link between the indicator & fodder. So “first of X”, “X initially”, and so on.
There is perhaps a grey area with the likes of April 1st, or Labour leader, which can reasonably be parsed as “the first of April” or “the leader of Labour”. But that’s a bit indirect, and in any case quite a subtle reading. It’s probably worth holding the line before then as the subtlety will be lost on many people & cause them to think that “last night” legitimately means T!
I couldn’t replace ‘the first sandwich’ with ‘last night’s sandwich’ either then? Doh! I’m sure there must be a ‘batch’ of ways it could be otherwise clued that I haven’t considered.
About 20 minutes – it was smooth progress until I got stuck on WIPEOUT and WREATH.
– Didn’t parse the ‘ulate’ part of GRANULATE
– Had no idea that SASS is an American word so was wondering what the Green Berets were doing
– Familiar with ROUTE ONE but not its origin, so thanks for the explanation!
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Less
LOI Wipeout
COD Placement
CAPITANO went in with a shrug, and (like Kevin) I couldn’t work out what the Green Berets were doing in the otherwise obvious SASS. Didn’t know ALBAN, but guessed from St Albans; I didn’t get the Scotland bit until reading Jack’s excellent blog. Enjoyable 28′.
I too was puzzled by the Green Berets, who to me are the Royal Marines. (And perhaps more associated with the SBS rather than the SAS.)
Only Royal Marines who have passed the Commando course (I learned from going for a walk with a young Royal Engineer who has also passed the Command course). It was a rather tiring walk (for me).
Under 30′ Quite a few came very quickly, but others harder to solve. WIPEOUT is a stretch for a homophone, at least for me; my mood not helped by initially pencilling an unparsed “washout” until PLACEMENT found. Never heard of Mr Garland but wordplay straightforward and didn’t parse OFF THE MARK. Enjoyed Thomas… Thanks Jack and setter.
Slide rule evoked memories of using one in my early working days. I had a colleague who regularly used 25 figure logarithms.
Unlike my father’s slide rules, I learned how to use logarithms by looking things up in tables, but as far as I can remember now I never had the slightest idea what I was doing, why I was doing it or to what effect. They just enabled me to provide correct answers and pass tests. You might gather that I didn’t go on to pursue a career involving maths or science.
Like the old joke about Noah, post flood, encouraging the recalcitrant snakes to reproduce by taking them out to a picnic ground, because even adders can multiply using log tables.
Reply to jackkt : Oh, how I remember!
28.29
Strange one here. After 20 minutes had at best a quarter full grid – just couldn’t bring any of the literals to mind. Once I got a toehold, they all came in a rush.
SASS not obviously just American? The Berets also confused me but it went in anyway. CAPITANO also LOI
Thanks Setter/Jackkt
I live in California, speak Spanish and still only know El Capitan, no O. Was beaten by this clue, tried to put MAIN in there somehow or other, Failed! Wrestled for a while, and thus failed with On Terms. But was fun, thanks, C
Italian, innit .. in order to speak Italian, you speak English but add -o to every word. Thought everyone knew that!
I didn’t find this easy, more middle of the road. My SNITCH average of 16:44 is very flattered by those puzzles where I DNF or finish outside the top 100. I think my actual average is around 20 mins.
LOI was OATCAKE. Many clues where I could see how they worked, but not call to mind the relevant synonym, or unravel the anagram. Nice puzzle though I thought.
18:39
The Snitch should pick you up if you’re in the top 100 at any point in the day (even if not by the end) – but yes, I think we’re all a bit flattered by the exclusion of DNFs. The Times leaderboard is less forgiving!
Enjoyed this one, irritating Americanisms apart. Had to construct CAPITANO laboriously from the wordplay..
I still have a beautiful Faber Castell sliderule, tucked away somewhere. Happy days, when all answers could be approximate!
Sorry: I missed your comment before posting my Dad’s definition below.
Thanks for the blog Jack. What are the chances of Ella Fitzgerald appearing across the top row of a Times cryptic two days running – yesterday she was an ingredient of Paella!
COD 2a Why Pout? A homophone that’s not even dodgy.
17a Trophy, biffed. I never thought of atrophy so thanks jackkt.
4d Route one. HHO but only here as I loathe football.
DNF 16d Capitano, NHO, failed to guess it. The wordplay wasn’t helpful. Added to Cheating Machine (slightly reluctantly as I am unsure it is English.)
Thanks jackkt and setter.
I spent 53 minutes on this, no good reason as it all seemed simple enough in retrospect. In his excellent ‘Accidence Will Happen’ Oliver Kamm, after quoting extensively from Jane Austen’s novels, says ‘Singular they is idiomatic and grammatical, and has been used extensively and to effect by the greatest writers in the language. What more evidence do the pedants need?’
That really is an excellent book, and one I have bought for grammar pedants in my life in the hope of curing them!
Thank you – I’ve ordered it.
16:36. I found this quite entertaining and quirky in places. LOI SCATTER took a while to see and I didn’t understand the Green Beret reference in 1D, not knowing the word was American, so hesitated on putting SASS in. I liked Thomas the TANK ENGINE best after been misled, no doubt as the setter intended, into thinking of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
17:30 – and no particular issues, including THEIR, which has a good pedigree as a singular possessive and seems to me in many circumstances to be better than the clumsy alternatives.
21 mins until my bugbear – a long word with only vowels to help. Had a feeling I was never going to get it so Ulu (scrabble help) came to the rescue.
SCATTER was FOI followed by SASS, although I didn’t understand the Green Berets reference. I still have a SLIDE RULE tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Failed to parse STREET THEATRE, having forgotten about the Box Tree. Liked TANK ENGINE. Breezeblocked at the end by 16d, but managed to assemble it from the wordplay eventully. 23:12. Thanks setter and Jack.
35:57
I agree that most of the clues were QC level, but a bunch of them in the SW corner were not, and I got bogged down on these for the latter half of my solve. I assumed 17a would require the removal of US from a word, so took ages to see TROPHY – in fact I didn’t see this until after I got AWARD, and worked backwards from the linked clues.
I remember in the 1990s making use of a SLIDE RULE at work when staff insisted on being given a ready reckoner to covert pressure in mmHg to mbar; I glued up the slide rule at the required ratio (4/3) and stuck it on the wall next to the barometer.
Thanks Jack and setter
DNF beaten, as was Quadrophenia, by the ruddy SLIDE RULE. Having struggled with ALBAN, ROUTE ONE & SASS, I thought at least I’d finish, but no, not to be.
Otherwise quite a lot to like, SCATTER, STREET THEATRE & KEEP FIT my favourites.
Thanks Jack and anon setter, for the time being, it seems?
27.47. I must admit I didn’t find this too easy , especially in the SW area. Having said that, I thought this was a good puzzle. FOI was Alban and LOI Off the Mark.
Probably scatter was my COD. But I did like the interplay between trophy and award. Used to Am or US as the shortform for America.
24’32”, which is not bad for me. My father defined a SLIDE RULE as ‘an instrument used by engineers to tell them that 2 x 2 = 3.99 approximately’. Once upon a time I could use one.
The early electronic calculators would give that answer too!
One of my really dim days.
Although an ardent admirer of Ella F, could never abide scat (which I’m sure I’ve seen spelt with a K) singing.
SLIDE RULE, which I did use way back when, came up in conversation recently but I can’t remember why it should for the life of me.
GRANULATE, in the non- sugar context, evokes painful memories of surgical wounds so sprang all too readily to mind.
COD for me was TANK ENGINE.
Thanks to jack and setter.
It took me 55 minutes of slow thinking, but I didn’t find this too hard (nor too easy). I really enjoyed this puzzle and especially the often involved wordplay coupled with reasonable-sounding surface readings (in many puzzles they are very artificial and just plain silly). The only clues I had any real problems with were the NHO ROUTE ONE and ALBAN, since I am not so knowledgable about British martyrs. But I did know the city of St Albans, so I supposed there must be such a saint and a saint was likely to be a martyr. But the wordplay was very helpful in confirming all of my answers.
Defeated by CAPITANO, but otherwise ok. Found it a bit American tinged.
Thanks Jack and Setter
Like a couple others, I made hard work of an easy-ish puzzle by not thinking of the right synonyms in good time. Possibly, since I had to start work on my taxes once I was finished, I revelled in the extra time I took.
Rare for us to do the 15 x 15 this early in the day. We nearly finished. Used aids to find AWARD, not being able to see the ‘child’ bit and not having at that point, solved either TROPHY or OATCAKE, both of which fell once we had the hint from AWARD. Otherwise we were doing pretty well, the apparent rarity of CAPITANO passing us by. STREET THEATRE was a biff, the parsing of which we left to our blogger. I try to avoid being pedantic – ‘their’ seems eminently sensible – but I suspect that in reality there were many earlier ‘British’ martyrs than Alban and the clue would still have worked well without ‘the first’. Thanks, Jack and setter.
Went quickly through the bottom half of the puzzle but crawled through the top half – this took me about 70 minutes, so pretty slow.
I did enjoy the puzzle, some fine clues, and no complaints.
Nice to see Thomas the Tank Engine in a Times puzzle. I used to read those books to my son when he was very young.
Did this in two tranches but they added up to probably an hour. Held up by SW. As for ‘their’, could the setter not have written ‘those people’ rather than ‘that person’? (I’ve commented above on the two senses of ‘his’!) COD TANK ENGINE – and I too thought initially of Tom Brown’s Schooldays.
23:34
COD: SCATTER
How is “equal” “on terms”?
I must confess that I wasn’t familiar with this expression myself, but when writing the blog I checked that it’s in the dictionaries. Here’s the relevant entry in one of the Oxfords:
on terms
(in sport) level in score or on points.
Example sentences
Crucially, Lam made that seven with a drop-goal 10 minutes from time, leaving Saints needing two scores to get back on terms.
Sam Bailey opened the scoring for Sutton although Heaton were soon back on terms with a penalty.
That score brought Kilcock back on terms but the Moores’ response was swift and sure.
Pleased with myself for remembering Ella’s jazz style, and getting the humorous homophone at 5a. But still needed the same number of look-ups to complete the puzzle. Slow and steady….
A good workout on the public holiday for May Day. Biffed route one, what else could it be? Now I have an ear worm of Wipeout.