Solving time: 25 minutes with one answer missing, so technically a DNF. Shame I couldn’t manage a clean sweep within my half-hour target for my 700th 15×15 blog.
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 man going round front of African deity’s temple (6) |
| PAGODA | |
| PA (old man) containing [going round] A{frican} [front of…] + GOD (deity) | |
| 5 | Erudite academic with Afghan possibly in Bow (8) |
| PROFOUND | |
| PROF (academic), {h}OUND (Afghan possibly) [in Bow – cockney] | |
| 9 | Share regularly billed and apt for citation (8) |
| QUOTABLE | |
| QUOTA (share), B{i}L{l}E{d} [regularly] | |
| 10 | Declare supporter to be overcome by drink (6) |
| ALLEGE | |
| LEG (supporter) containing [to be overcome by] ALE (drink) | |
| 11 | Worst Irish cause to get moving (6) |
| BESTIR | |
| BEST (worst), IR (Irish). ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ can both mean ‘defeat’ in a competition or battle. | |
| 12 | Amateurish agent brought back in one immediately following (8) |
| INEXPERT | |
| REP (agent) reversed [brought back] contained by [in] I (one) + NEXT (immediately following) | |
| 14 | English dialect confusing man — Brit or Hun (12) |
| NORTHUMBRIAN | |
| Anagram [confusing] of MAN BRIT HUN | |
| 17 | Anorak Del Boy possibly carries travelling in spa? (12) |
| TRAINSPOTTER | |
| TROTTER (Del Boy possibly) contains [carries] anagram [travelling] of IN SPA. A reference to Derek “Del Boy” Trotter, the lead character in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. |
|
| 20 | Monkey in scruffy state seen around Lincoln? (8) |
| MANGABEY | |
| MANGY (in scruffy state) contained by [seen around] ABE (Lincoln). NHO this making its first appearance here today, but I worked it out. | |
| 22 | Certain stars will accept conclusion of this prayer (6) |
| ORISON | |
| ORION (certain stars) containing [will accept] {thi}S [conclusion of…]. Archaic or literary. | |
| 23 | Marksman’s son backtracking about method of authentication (6) |
| SNIPER | |
| S (son), RE (about) + PIN (method of authentication) reversed [backtracking] | |
| 25 | Evidence of injury restricting first person with German sword (8) |
| SCIMITAR | |
| SCAR (evidence of injury) containing [restricting] I (first person) + MIT (with, in German) | |
| 26 | A sidekick bored by this writer’s bitterness (8) |
| ACRIMONY | |
| A, CRONY (sidekick) containing [bored by] I’M (this writer’s) | |
| 27 | Course in French given by elder? (6) |
| ENTREE | |
| EN (in, in French), TREE (elder). ‘By’ is sufficient for placement so ‘given’ must be there just for the surface. | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Charm of talisman originally supporting a cross (6) |
| AMULET | |
| A, MULE (cross), T{alisman} [originally] | |
| 3 | Superior? Not in status (11) |
| OUTSTANDING | |
| OUT (not in), STANDING (status) | |
| 4 | Warning over fat, some say, a waxy substance (9) |
| AMBERGRIS | |
| AMBER (warning light on a traffic signal), then oral wordplay [some say] GRIS / “grease” (fat). Extracted from whales and used in perfume-making. | |
| 5 | Tetchy expression of contempt involving old magistrate endlessly (7) |
| PEEVISH | |
| PISH (expression of contempt) containing [involving] {r}EEV{e} (old magistrate) [endlessly]. Two old-fashioned elements of wordplay here. There’s a Reeve’s Tale in Chaucer which may be how many know of the second one. | |
| 6 | Old man of wisdom, a Native American of the past (5) |
| OSAGE | |
| O (old), SAGE (man of wisdom) | |
| 7 | Creature found in oxbow lakes (3) |
| OWL | |
| Hidden [found] in {ox}OW L{akes} | |
| 8 | African abandoned reign after initially breaking hip? (8) |
| NIGERIAN | |
| Anagram [abandoned] of REIGN, then A{fter} [initially] contained by [breaking] IN (hip) | |
| 13 | Eg Raeburn’s characteristic is encapsulated by wine (11) |
| PORTRAITIST | |
| TRAIT (characteristic) + IS contained [encapsulated] by PORT. Did not solve. Simple enough wordplay but since I hadn’t the remotest idea who or what Raeburn might be I had no clue as to the meaning of the word I was looking for. Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 – 1823). The only one I knew of was an agony aunt on Capital Radio in the 1970s. |
|
| 15 | Rocky object encountered mounting old English ceremony (9) |
| METEORITE | |
| MET (encountered), then O (old) + E (English) rversed [mounting], RITE (ceremony) | |
| 16 | American Republican publication is able to set up drink (8) |
| ARMAGNAC | |
| A (American), R (Republican), MAG (publication) then CAN (is able to) reversed [set up] | |
| 18 | Poem about unknown ship on unknown travels (7) |
| ODYSSEY | |
| ODE (poem) containing [about] Y (unknown) + SS (ship), then Y (unknown) | |
| 19 | Journey’s over in five year period (6) |
| VOYAGE | |
| O (over) contained by [in] V (five) + Y (year), then AGE (period) | |
| 21 | Limited accommodation for rabbit or donkey (5) |
| BURRO | |
| BURRO{w} (accommodation for rabbit) [limited] | |
| 24 | Greek character’s afterthought on India (3) |
| PSI | |
| PS (afterthought), I (India) | |
Around 35 minutes of an enjoyable puzzle. It seemed to me it had a number of previous Times Cryptic answers that were write-ins with or without a crosser eg PAGODA, AMULET, ORISON, ACRIMONY, OSAGE, VOYAGE. I knew MANGABEY and the wordplay gave the correct spelling. NHO ARMAGNAC but the wordplay gave the answer.
Thanks Jack
I thought the NHO was going to be mangabey, which I NHO. It was a likely but not certain answer, as _ A _G Y has other possibly solutions. I did know Armagnac, and portraitist does fit the cryptic and produces something that Raeburn might be.
Time: 21:54
Didn’t know Raeburn, but refrained from looking him up, nor the Trotter chap, but didn’t need to. Guessed the monkey but then checked.
PORTRAITIST is “characteristic is” inside PORT.
Thanks
All correct despite NHO MANGABEY, Raeburn, or Del Boy, but the wordplay didn’t leave anything else that would fit. Having lived in France for several years ARMAGNAC was a write-in once I had AR.
Cue the Flanders & Swann song about De Gaulle – “Cognac Armagnac Burgundy and Beaune, this old man thinks he’s St. Joan.” The context was de Gaulle’s “non” to allowing Britain into the EU. Ironic.
Excellent! Thanks for introducing me to that!
COD was METEORITE for me, obviously.
Not all meteorites are rocky. Many are metallic.
Thought I was heading for a fast time, with 2 clues to go around the 16-min mark, but found myself alpha-trawling the dozens of possibilities for 11a -E-T-R, unaware of that meaning for BEST, also concerned about the unknown MULE for “cross” in 2d.
Eventually came up with the goods, only to find that my downfall was an unconvincing BAGGABEY. 25:50 fail.
I considered BAGGABEY as well
I considered RAGGABEY
That was dancing around too…
DAGGABEY here.
DNF at 18:47
“Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remembered,” says Hamlet to Ophelia, probably the only time I’ve seen the word. DNK Raeburn, so I looked him up.
I biffed TRAINSPOTTER, having no idea what Del Boy’s name was. I don’t understand what ‘of the past’ is doing in 6d; the OSAGE aren’t extinct, and even if they were, ‘Native American’ is sufficient.
Yep, the Hamlet speech is what saved me too. Wouldn’t have known ORISON without it. NHO MANGABEY, either, but trusted the wordplay and crossed fingers. Everything else here was fair, though not always easy.
12’13”, no issues apart from the aforementioned MANGABEY (nho) and PORTRAITIST (who he?).
ODYSSEY is a particularly good clue as the ships in the epic are never named.
Thanks jack and setter.
Del Boy? Raeburn? MANGABEY? Crumbs, that’s quite the GK challenge. Fortunately anorak gave TRAINSPOTTER without too much trouble, PORTRAITIST (my LOI) seemed the only option once all the crossers were in place and the monkey was ground out from the WP. 23.35, held up at the end by an extended search for a typo after getting the ‘not quite’ message. Thanks Jack, congrats on 700, we all appreciate the effort you put in.
From Blind Willie McTell:
Well, I heard that hoot OWL singing, as they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens, can strut their feathers well
And nobody can sing the blues like
Blind Willie McTell
11:41
A few unknowns (OSAGE, ORISON, RAEBURN, MANGABEY) but no major hold-ups and I plumped for the most likely looking option for the cheeky monkey at the end.
Although at the easier end of the scale I really enjoyed that one.
Thanks to both.
11 minutes.
– Didn’t know MANGABEY but worked it out from wordplay
– The wordplay also helped for the dimly remembered ORISON
– Didn’t fully parse NIGERIAN and only ruled out ALGERIAN once I got PROFOUND
– NHO Raeburn but once I had all the checkers, plus the word ‘trait’ in mind, PORTRAITIST had to be
– Not familiar with ARMAGNAC but it sounded plausible
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Pagoda
LOI Portraitist
COD Odyssey
36m 59s
No problems. I just want to say congratulations to Jack on reaching the marvellous figure of 700 15×15’s.
That must qualify you for a gold watch, Jack!
Seconded! Tremendous dedication to the cause.
I did have problems – but only with 20ac – RAGGABEY was my final, incorrect, guess.
👍
A DNF
I really struggled to get any momentum in this although I slowly worked my way into it. I couldn’t see the BESTIR or AMBERGRIS pairing despite the latter having come up recently and BESTIR being very fairly clued (well maybe a bit mean to have best=worst). Also had OMAGE instead of OSAGE. I suppose ‘mage’ isn’t really synonymous ‘man of wisdom’
It seemed doable in hindsight so I will put it down as an off day.
COD to TRAINSPOTTER for which I tried in vain to fit in ‘trader’ before the penny dropped.
Thanks setter and blogger.
A mage is a man of wisdom all right, but not the right one.
I do so love a community where some people consider Sir Henry Raeburn to be more accessible general knowledge than Derek Trotter.
Half a mile up the road from me is the biggest single collection of his works (Raeburn not Trotter).
🙂
And vice versa, of course.
31 minutes with LOI the PORTRAITIST, that well known headless apple. I came up with the other unknown, MANGABEY, quite early but without sufficient conviction to put it in until BURRO became clear. I was a trainspotter in the fifties, as were most boys, before anoraks had been invented. We wore windjammers. I was quite enjoying this until the obscurities. Thank you Jack and setter.
27 minutes without fault or illicit devices – for once! I couldn’t parse PROFOUND and NHO MANGABEY (or Raeburn) but stored away for future reference I hope.
Almost forgot that a mule is a cross – possible allusion to Holy Week?
BESTIR took longer than it should have considering it was familiar.
Thanks to setter and jackt.
14:59 NHO MANGABEY, so I had to hope that MANGY was the only possibility, but apart from that I found this straightforward.
Thanks setter and blogger
Congratulations Jack, a fantastic achievement. I was lucky here with the monkey and other unsure ofs being correct. Actually took me less time to do this than the quick cryptic mainly because I couldn’t see the setters name there- solving both on my phone!
A day like this really brings home how much work 700 of these blogs represents. Congrats and many thanks.
Way off the average at 34 mins held up by TRAINSPOTTER, PORTRAITIST and ENTREE. The latter was a nice one, the others nasty.
Quite alot of NHO in there but Trotter was about my cultural level.
Thanks both.
Started quite smartly which warranted a customary quick glance up to check I hadn’t selected the Quick Cryptic by mistake. Then hit some NHO’s which slowed things down considerably. A very nice puzzle.
15.14 with MANGABEY POI and BURRO LOI. As a Raeburn enthusiast I leapt on PORTRAITIST with unseemly glee. Many thanks to setter, and thanks and congratulations to Jack.
35 mins and I’m another who’d NHO RAEBURN but found the answer once the checkers were all in. LOI BESTIR took a little while to work out ( I often miss the best/worst thing) and got the monkey once I saw MANGY and Mr Lincoln.
I liked NORTHUMBRIAN.
Thanks and well done to Jack on the 700.
18.14 with a stuttery middle and a quick finish. Bamboozled myself trying to make 3dn start with over. LOI bestir . FOI pagoda which I think has been in fairly recently.
Liked profound but a tie for COD between trainspotter and ambergris.
Jakkt- just read your intro . Terrific achievement. Are you in your 90s?😉
12ish minutes for all but the NHO monkey for which I tried several plausible looking answers except the right one…
It took me a while not to attempt something to do with sunglasses at 13d, and then to generate the monkey from the wordplay, assuming it appeared in Japanese cartoons. My failure today came from attempting a spelling of METEORITE with an I rather than an E, which rather cratered my 14 minute time.
DNF. 11a Bestir didn’t come to me. I tried Better but not a very good idea was it?
17a Trainspotter, had forgotten Del Boy was called Trotter, so biffed, doh!
20a NHO Mangabey, cheated. It should have been gettable, but it looks such an odd word. It turns out they were named for part of Madagascar where it now appears they are not native, so an unusual boo-boo for Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, naturalist.
22a Orison, HHO but couldn’t define til I looked it up. Not a word I’ll be using IRL.
6d Osage, rang a bell, but not familiar to me.
13d Portraitist, HHO Raeburn but forgotten.
My knowledge of Raeburn is limited to one painting, ‘The Skating Minister’, but it’s a good one and I immediately thought of him from the very first moment I read the clue. NHO MANGABEY and of course I know about the Trotters. As for ‘windjammer’, I read it in Lord of the Flies but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in the wild.
I progressed smoothly through this and thought I’d finished,in 20 minutes, to then find I had not completed the monkey, *A*GABEY, which I then guessed and checked. The rest was good.
No problems today despite nho mangabey and thinking Raeburn was a sort of stove. My parents had one.
When you have all the checkers characteristic/trait is not much of a leap and anyway, what other word fits?
Well done on 700 not out Jackkt. You must be well in the lead by now ..
I remembered the vicar skating but couldn’t have told you that Raeburn was a PORTRAITIST. All straightforward enough, although I’d never heard of the MANGABEY, which I assembled from wordplay and then checked. 30 minutes, with NIGERIAN entered only because it had to be and then parsed afterwards. After the cognac, armagnac etc, this old man came rolling home, as well.
You beat me then, as I had 5 left. After checking on Google Books, the Lord of the Flies actually refers to a ‘windbreaker’ not to the even more obscure ‘windjammer’ (or ‘wind cheater’) , FWIW.
DNF – One of the apparently few who didn’t think of mangy and plumped for raggabey, which still seems just as (im)probable.
That’s what I thought of, initially, but wasn’t convinced and kept at it…
Maybe 40′, in between ongoing grandad duties! I did check MANGABEY though (having worked it out as a possible, but an NHO). Spent some time on the parsing of the otherwise write-in TRAINSPOTTER… I misremembered Del Boy as Potter(!) so wondered where “in spa” played a part, eventually just going with it. Knew of Raeburn somehow. Enjoyable, thanks Jackkt (and well done) and setter
17:03 but…
NHO MANGABEY so cheated with that – could easily have been RAGGABEY or some other word that I’d not thought of – as always, the answer should be crystal clear from the wordplay, which, on this occasion, did not appear to be. NHO ORISON nor OSAGE nor Raeburn (apart from Anna as alluded to by Jack), but at least neither could really be anything else.
Otherwise, blasted through this, with pauses only for PEEVISH (I was thinking PAH rather than PISH) and LOI VOYAGE.
Thanks Jack and setter
11 mins quite possibly a PB. When I was 5 I had a book called Mammals of the World that I was obsessed with (still have it!) so I knew of the MANGABEY even then.
Quite a lot of common crossword fixtures like MULE for cross made this easier.
Hands up if you’ve ever uttered “Pish”.
🙋 (but only followed by ‘and tosh’, of course)
21:07
I really enjoyed this. Didn’t know MANGABEY but the clue was clear. I particularly liked PROFOUND ad TRAINSPOTTER.
We have a small print of RAEBURN’s Skating Minister hanging on a bedroom wall.
Thanks to Jack and the setter
Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth has the expression
‘hasty orisons’ – the first place I came across the word.
33:19. generally a very smooth solve, mostly parsed. I didn’t get BESTIR until I came to TfTT… Liked MANGABEY as it rang a faint bell, and think those hours as a child looking at animal encyclopedias paid off somehow.
I finished this in 40 minutes. Looking back I am not sure why it took so long, though I did spend more time than usual on the parsing. NHO the monkey, but fortunately I was able to work it out. OSAGE and ORISON are words I only remember seeing in crosswords. RAEBURN I knew from seeing reproductions of the Skating Vicar.
FOI – SCIMITAR
LOI – BURRO
COD – TRAINSPOTTER
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors – and long service medal to jackkt.
Re “pish”, this is a common Glaswegian slang word, usually in the phrase “that’s total pish”. Meaning something not very good; also a term for going for a pee 😁. So I could put my hand up there but for a different context!
No real problems here – Mr SR sorted out the NHO MANGABEY and ORISON (he knew the latter from the Owen poem) and I managed to assemble PORTRAITIST although NHO Raeburn (other than Anna and the stove, both mentioned above).
On looking Raeburn up afterwards, I realised I’d sent Christmas cards with his “The Skating Vicar” on many years ago.
No particular standout COD – just generally enjoyed it all, thanks setter.
Although we didn’t need today’s blog, we always enjoy reading them and a 700th deserves much praise 👏
Many thanks, Jack, for this and all the others of yours we’ve read.
Very well done, that blogger!
DNF – NHO MANGABEY and I’m not completely convinced that mangy and scruffy are quite the same, though scruffiness is certainly a characteristic of a dog with mange. So 32’ and a few seconds with that being the missing item.
Congratulations, Jack – that’s an amazing achievement, and your efforts are much appreciated.
I enjoyed the crossword, though NHO MANGABEY went in with fingers crossed; and struggled to parse NIGERIAN as I didn’t see the HIP/IN bit. Otherwise nicely at my level, for a 23:43 finish.
28 mins. I too remembered ORISON from Hamlet, and I too remembered Flanders and Swann when solving ARMAGNAC (a drink that I’ve always preferred to cognac). Despite my Christmas card depicting the skating minister, I’d quite forgotten who painted it. Got MANGABEY from wordplay, and it seemed a monkey-ish sort of word!
Never heard of Mangabey or Orison, and was so stuck on Voyage I could not believe it. was trying to find a word like decade, for five year period, Quiade was my daft guess! I knew to stick an ABE in the monkey one, but failed to make it work, and was trying very hard to make the prayer into Osiris, presuming ancient eyptians would pray to him, FAILED, but was really fun! Thanks, Cx
I finished in a fairly speedy 28.13, with a fair amount of time spent on my LOI PORTRAITIST before I managed to construct the answer. In the end though, just like the QC I managed to get one wrong when I opted for RAGGABEY in preference to BAGGABEY. The option of using the synonym MANGY never occurred to me unfortunately.
15:17. COD Odyssey.
Congrats to Jack. 👍
DNF
Totally up mucked this sticking in TORDO knowing it was nonsense then making the fatal mistake of not checking my other answers when completely bamboozled by the monkey with a stray T in the middle. Was racing as apart from the breezeblock at the end the rest went in quite smartly.
Nice puzzle though have sympathy with the RAGGABEYs
More importantly, huge thanks to you Jackkt. I’m working my way through a few old ‘uns and you are one of the comparatively few who was there back then and still contributing. Very impressive and very much appreciated.
Many thanks to all who have expressed appreciation of my blogs and it’s good to know that you have enjoyed my efforts.
I think many of us newer solvers and commenters owe a good deal of any improvements we’ve experienced to your explanations- I know I do!