Solving time: 29 minutes
A very enjoyable solve completed within 1 minute of my target half-hour with all clues fully parsed. 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 | Bird: irrational figure in coal mine (5) |
| PIPIT | |
| PI (irrational figure) contained by [in] PIT (coal mine) | |
| 4 | Stretch limo shortened it to make deadline (4,5) |
| TIME LIMIT | |
| TIME (stretch – prison sentence), LIM{o} [shortened], IT | |
| 9 | Electronic form in register is a good example (4,5) |
| ROLE MODEL | |
| E (electronic) + MODE (form) contained by [in] ROLL (register) | |
| 10 | Film franchise? I will avoid Scream (5) |
| SHREK | |
| SHR{i}EK ( scream) [I will avoid]. I’ve never seen any of the films but I’ve heard of them. | |
| 11 | Expense from parts of arrangement being switched? (6) |
| OUTLAY | |
| LAYOUT (arrangement) [parts of…being switched] | |
| 12 | Branch bearing a half-Andean vegetable (4,4) |
| LIMA BEAN | |
| LIMB (branch) containing [bearing] A, then {And}EAN [half] | |
| 14 | Agree cops should release head of Roman church (9) |
| ACQUIESCE | |
| ACQUI{r}ES (cops – gets, obtains) [release head of Roman], CE (church) | |
| 16 | Mixture of everything two-thirds of crossword solvers recalled (5) |
| ALLOY | |
| ALL (everything),then YO{u} (crossword solvers) [two-thirds of] reversed [recalled] | |
| 17 | Acceptable area to house South African in Japanese city (5) |
| OSAKA | |
| OK (acceptable) + A (area) containing [to house] SA (South African) | |
| 19 | Cut deal with university after money and drink (9) |
| COINTREAU | |
| COIN (money), TREA{t} (deal) [cut], U (university). Orange flavoured liqueur. | |
| 21 | Composer, German, with quiet success (8) |
| GERSHWIN | |
| GER (German), SH (quiet), WIN (success) | |
| 22 | Just appear pale, in the grip of drink (4,2) |
| SWAN UP | |
| WAN (pale) contained by [in the grip of] SUP (drink). Not to be confused with ‘swan-upping’, SWAN UP means to arrive somewhere casually or gracefully. Of the usual sources I found it only in Chambers. | |
| 25 | A lot of maps moving westward end of water table (5) |
| ALTAR | |
| ATLA{s} (maps) [a lot of…], reversed [moving westward], {wate}R [end of…] | |
| 26 | Italian maestro’s Italian opera: popular, repeatedly returning (9) |
| TOSCANINI | |
| TOSCA (Italian opera) then IN + IN (popular, repeatedly) reversed [returning]. The acclaimed conductor died in 1957 so I imagine many solvers may not know his name although it lives on through his many recordings. | |
| 27 | Cheap tyre burst, for example (9) |
| ARCHETYPE | |
| Anagram [burst] of CHEAP TYRE | |
| 28 | Start of hundred inch garden feature? (5) |
| HEDGE | |
| H{undred} [start of…], EDGE (inch) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | A pregnant soprano losing lead in Puccini having developed unacceptable figure (7,3,5) |
| PERSONA NON GRATA | |
| Anagram [having developed] of A PREGNANT SO{p}RANO [losing lead in Puccini] | |
| 2 | Trial scheme bringing in electric current (5) |
| PILOT | |
| PLOT (scheme) containing [bringing in] I (electric current) | |
| 3 | Tense? My rising alarm shuts out constant sources of drumming (7) |
| TYMPANI | |
| T (tense), then MY reversed [rising], PANI{c} (alarm) [shuts out constant]. Apparently this is an alternative spelling of ‘timpani’ – kettledrums. Since the Y is unchecked this clue may prove to be something of a beartrap for speed solvers who don’t bother to parse everything fully as they go. | |
| 4 | Considerable trouble in darkest Yorkshire at the outset (4) |
| TIDY | |
| T{rouble} + I{n} + D{arkest} + Y{orkshire} [at the outset]. As in a tidy sum of money. | |
| 5 | Obstinate type trimmed US magazine to help rising use of many information outlets (10) |
| MULTIMEDIA | |
| MUL{e} (obstinate type) [trimmed], TIME (US magazine), then AID (help) reversed [rising] | |
| 6 | Scoundrel losing head in American city opera house (2,5) |
| LA SCALA | |
| {r}ASCAL (scoundrel) [losing head] contained by [in] LA (American city). ‘Opera house (2,5)’ would be enough for many solvers to write the answer straight in. | |
| 7 | Man penning newspaper’s last stories about French city (9) |
| MARSEILLE | |
| MALE (man) containing [penning] {newspape}R [’s last] and LIES (stories) reversed [about] | |
| 8 | Astonished and attracted to almost certain start of presidential revolt (5,2,8) |
| TAKEN BY SURPRISE | |
| TAKEN BY (attracted to), SUR{e} (certain) [almost], then P{residential} [start of], RISE (revolt) | |
| 13 | Branch of medicine that could make you stay chirpy (10) |
| PSYCHIATRY | |
| Anagram [could make you] STAY CHIRPY | |
| 15 | Question over description of sea omitting one island in equation (9) |
| QUADRATIC | |
| QU (question), ADR{i}ATIC (description of sea) [omitting one island]. I remember wresting with quadratic equations at school and probably understood them then but I’ve long forgotten everything but their name. Simple and simultaneous were two other types. | |
| 18 | Supply heater’s source of wood (3,4) |
| ASH TREE | |
| Anagram [supply] of HEATERS | |
| 20 | Flaxen fibres gently touch hard walking surface (7) |
| TOWPATH | |
| TOW (flaxen fibres), PAT (gently touch), H (hard). ‘Tow’ is sometimes used to describe very fair hair, as is ‘flaxen’. Debussy wrote a famous piano solo called La fille aux cheveux de lin which is usually translated as The Girl with the Flaxen Hair. | |
| 23 | Radiant, unconfined free spirit (5) |
| NAIAD | |
| Anagram [free] of {r}ADIAN{t} [unconfined] | |
| 24 | I fish, letting nothing escape is key (4) |
| ISLE | |
| I, S{o}LE (fish) [letting nothing escape]. Key is a low island, sandbank, or reef, as in ‘Florida Keys’. | |
Another easy one! SWAN UP gave me a slight pause; Collins says SWAN in this sense is “usually foll by around or about.” And I had to squint to discern whether we wanted “tree spirit” or “free spirit.”
Sounds British to me, as in “don’t think you can just swan up to me all innocent after that nonsense you pulled yesterday”.
…Guy du Sable is unlikely to make the summer social, but you never know, they might just swan up…
I biffed most of them: time limit, role model, lima bean, taken by surprise, quadratic, naiad, Cointreau, acquiesce. Tympani is the more common spelling in the US, and seeing ‘my’ upside-down gave me the answer. I did need the wordplay for Marseille, which I can never spell correctly.
Time: 16:18
Marseille is Marseilles in French.
Yes. Nice puzzle. I too swanned about with that clue. FOI PERSONA NON GRATA with lots of crossers. LOI ISLE where I was delayed by “key” I wanted to put in ISLE but hesitated until I finally remembered key was an island as well as a musical key.
Thanks Jack
Another quite easy puzzle but still enjoyable. I’ve always associated the phrase SWAN UP with being very casual, as in ‘you just decide to swan up whenever you feel like’, but also familiar with ‘swanning around’. I can never remember that ‘Qu’ is also an abbreviation for question so was slow to get QUADRATIC and ACQUIESCE but saw ‘acquires’ for ‘cops’ so in they went, my last two in. Took me a while to see what I was looking for in 1d, PERSONA NON GRATA until I had a few checkers in and the ‘G’ from GERSHWIN sorted it. Liked MULTIMEDIA which I thought came together very nicely with the wordplay. Didn’t know ‘tow’ for the fibres but knew TOWPATHs as the walkway along canals.
Thanks Jack and setter.
14:48
I biffed a lot, pretty much the same ones as Vinyl, parsing post-submission. I think I spell TYMPANI with an I, so I made sure of the wordplay before typing it in. SWAN UP was new to me. ‘Italian maestro’ made TOSCANINI a gimme. I remember seeing him on TV.
18 minutes, which is very fast for me. I didn’t parse everything as I went, worked out the parsing later (except ACQUIRES which I didn’t see how it worked). Easy but enjoyable.
A nice puzzle! Thank you for explaining TOW which I didn’t know. I fell into the TIMPANI trap in what otherwise would have been my second-fastest completion at 12:05. That combined with QC typo will keep my top-50 leaderboard dreams at bay for another month. Oh well – I’m coming for ya, concise leaderboard!
A speedy one. Plenty I didn’t even bother with what looked like complicated word play – ACQUIESCE, MULTIMEDIA etc. Needed the wordplay for TYMPANI which is not how I would spell it.
LOI NHO NAIAD for which I had to trust the wordplay after nothing better came.
Great COD in PERSONA NON GRATA (although my heart skipped a beat when it slowly became apparent it was going to be a Latin phrase)
Thanks blogger and setter
A very sneaky ‘you’ in 13d had me questioning the parsing. But it works!
At 21.54 I was a few minutes slower than yesterday but that’s still a quick solve for me. I’m more at home with swan in, often used in the context of someone being reprimanded for swanning in half an hour late, say. With TYMPANI I biffed it early and checked to see if it was correct, and thus revealed the Y not I spelling. LOsI were COINTREAU and PSYCHIATRY. Thanks Jack.
From Murder Most Foul:
Don’t worry Mr President, help’s on the way
Your brothers are coming, there’ll be hell to pay
Brothers? What brothers? What’s this about hell?
Tell ‘em we’re waiting, keep coming, we’ll get them as well
Love Field is where his plane touched down
But it never did get back up off the ground
It was a hard act to follow, second to none
They killed him on the ALTAR of the Rising Sun
25:36 WOE. TIMPANI was my downfall. I should have paid more attention to the wordplay which was very clear. LOI the scary PERSONA NON GRATA which turned out not to be so difficult after all
13.32, fell into the TYMPANI bear trap at the end. But I agree, overall a very enjoyable puzzle.
FOI PIPIT
LOI TYMPANI
COD ISLE
Thanks blogger and setter.
I wrote in TYMPANI correctly, while thinking of the eardrum. Like others, lots of biffing once a few crossers were in – ACQUIESCE, TIME LIMIT, COINTREAU, PSYCHIATRY etc.
LOI was PERSONA NON GRATA, the first time I actually gave it some attention.
8’53”, thanks jack and setter.
Fortunately I checked the parsing for TYMPANI carefully, knowing it could be spelt either way. I had to write out the anagrist and eliminate the checked letters before my LOI fell into place. A very enjoyable puzzle.
FOI PIPIT
LOI PERSONA NON GRATA
COD ACQUIESCE
TIME 8:12
Quick today. No problem with tympani since it is not a word I use often anyway.
Lima beans, which I would call butter beans, are indeed Andean in origin so get cod., despite the Americanism.
For some reason I always want to put an S on the end of Marseille(s).
Marseilles is just the English for Marseille, like Munich for München. Or at least it used to be, you don’t see it so much these days.
Although she spoke excellent French my grandmother always pronounced it “mar sales” and Reims to rhyme with dreams.
There’s nothing wrong with that in principle of course: we don’t say ‘Paree’, after all. ‘Reems’ is probably as close as you can get with Rheims in British English: the French pronunciation sounds a bit like an American saying ‘rance’.
and you are saying she was wrong?
People used to put an s on Lyon, too. Goodness knows why.
The French use Munich for München, too. Maybe they started it
A final S is optional. It is the correct older form in French, but still valid today. Brits nearly always add the S.
26 minutes with LOI TOWPATH, not knowing the fibres. I’ll be swanning up to the George on Saturday, an expression I do still use. COD to PERSONA NON GRATA which emerged from unpromising fodder. Enjoyable. Thank you Jack and setter
DNF, back in OWL Club as I fell into the TIMPANI trap. Serves me right for not bothering to parse it properly, though I can’t recall seeing the TYMPANI spelling very often, if ever.
– Biffed LIMA BEAN but was then worried as I couldn’t parse it for a while (I worked it out eventually)
– Didn’t know tow as flaxen fibres for TOWPATH
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Persona non grata
DNF
We were enjoying this one until I suggested PAGANINNI for 26ac – based on a check which indicated that PAGAN was the alternate title for an opera.
This made some other clues difficult in the lower half.
Which of course is not spelled correctly any way – so not my finest hour.
20:10. Similar to yesterday but more awake.
LOI NHO TOSCANINI but thats just my ignorance and even I’ve heard of Tosca.
I parsed TYMPANI not being sure of the spelling anyway. My closest call was trying OUTPAY at first but it didn’t look right. Thought that was going to account for all the errors.
AFAIK SWAN UP is unconnected to Swan Upping.
Thank jackkt and setter
17:43
No typos, no major hold-ups and under 20 which is my new target.
I made the mistake of looking at the leaderboard though and any sense of satisfaction immediately disappeared. 3:35 for Verlaine! 3:35. Even if I knew all the answers beforehand I couldn’t type them in at that speed.
Thanks to both.
23:23 WOE – another TiMPANI… rest seemed straightforward enough though I had twigged that it didn’t completely parse. NHO that spelling, and hopefully will recognise it next time! great puzzle.
30m 51s but another one who entered TIMPANI.
I won’t go into the long story here but I have a book called “Great Operatic Disasters” by Hugh Vickers.
In it he describes two hilariously disastrous performances of TOSCA including one where the final scene firing squad shoots at the wrong person.
12:10. A steady solve. I liked the ‘heater’s source of wood’ most. Thank-you Jackkt and setter.
I thought it was odd to clue MI with MY but shrugged and put it in anyway. Less of an excuse for OKASA (“mother” apparently) which only almost parses. Otherwise 15.08 for this one, and this time at least I got PIPIT right.
I don’t think I regard myself as a speed solver these days – it’s more the case that when I’ve put in an answer that looks right no amount of thinking time will prompt a correction, even though appearance of pink squares immediately prompts the right answers.
Another inexcusable OKASA here. After a run of single word errors, I try to proofread before submitting, but the errors keep hiding.
‘Mother’ would be okaasan.
I was exactly the same. Had no idea of the alternate spelling and nothing would make me put in TY as it just seems completely wrong. Even more galling to me that I many years ago did biochemistry as a degree so should have been familiar with the spelling of TYMPANIC membrane. Oh these setter just love to toy with us don’t they.
Excellent puzzle – 17:45 with my chombo. Thanks J and setter.
Enjoyed this one. A 40 minute triumph, considering we had a bird and opera references which is normally kryptonite for me. In fact, if I’d seen the word ‘spooner’ in one of the clues I may well not have even started.
😅
22:57, fast for me. LOI ROLL MODEL.
Not seen “a lot of” for a truncation indicator, so couldn’t parse ALTAR. The spelling of TYMPANI needed care.
MARSEILLE used to be written as Marseilles, along with Lyons, and also spurious final S in Tangiers and Algiers. The French returned the favour with Londres and Douvres. There’s a great article here : https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/472001/adding-s-to-french-city-names
ROLE MODEL. But no doubt that was a typo, since you’d have been told.
Wil, I don’t see an error. ROLE is in the answer, ROLL (register) is in the wordplay.
Interesting .. the article has convinced me that the best thing to do is to spell it however you prefer, since various spellings will be extant.
Off to Pekin, next month 🙂
Ypres and Armentiers are famously traditionally said in a very non-native way in England and there’s a ‘Versailles’ in America which should be said with the ‘l’ and ‘s’ pronounced. I’m not sure what the situation used to be for ‘Troyes’.
35:22
Nice puzzle with no dramas.
Thanks, jack.
16.07 WOE
Exactly as Zabadak said though with the city correct. Tbf I have never knowingly seen the alternative spelling TYMPANI. Or at least I have now 🙂
Thanks all
5:27 WOE.
‘Since the Y is unchecked this clue may prove to be something of a beartrap for speed solvers who don’t bother to parse everything fully as they go’.
Yep.
FOI was 1a Pipit, a gimme. Then I examined the anagrist for 1d Persona Non Grata and observed that for the 3 letter word both AND and THE could not be. So I decided it might be Non, and PNG leapt out at me. Pretty much all downhill from there on.
Thanks jackkt and setter.
I can’t see why some people don’t parse them fully. Only then do you see how clever the setter has been. But actually I can see why: they’re after a fast time.
35 minutes. Perhaps in view of what I’ve just said it’s pointless to post a time. But I know I wouldn’t be much faster even if I didn’t parse properly. SWAN UP seemed odd and I was surprised to see it in Chambers. ‘Swan in’ is more familiar to me, but probably seems as odd to most people as the up version seemed to me.
Not pointless, Wil, as I think many posters include some if not all parsing in their quoted times. I know I do. I’m meticulous on the QCs, but on the 15x15s I stop timing when I have the grid completed and feel I’ve made a reasonable effort to parse it all. I don’t agonise and consider a puzzle unsolved if I’ve missed a few.
I never post a time because I don’t care what it is anyway .. perk of being retired, perhaps
Yep too
Apparently TOSCANINI did conduct GERSHWIN at LA SCALA.
Are there any more on this theme?
Enjoyable. 32 mins, all parsed, though I wrote in TIMPANI before going back to have another look and revise.
11:55 – but a biff too far with timpani. An alternative spelling to remember (fat chance).
FOI was PIPIT. I was surprised by TYMPANI as it’s not a spelling I’m familiar with, but I followed the wordplay. A biffed SOYA BEAN was quickly removed when SOYB was obviously not a branch. No particular holdups elsewhere, and I finished with MARSEILLE and MULTIMEDIA. 14:37. Thanks setter and Jack.
I managed to get in just under 30 minutes, so similar to our blogger. No real issues except NHO (or maybe have forgotten when I’ve seen it in previous crosswords) TOW with this meaning. Enjoyed the long anagrams, especially PERSONA NON GRATA, which took me a long time to get, and needed nearly all the crossers. I guess that is par for the course with me and latin phrases.
I didn’t notice anything odd with TYMPANI, maybe I’m in the minority there.
Re: SWAN (UP / ABOUT etc), I don’t recall SWAN UP before but it made sense. I think the most common usage, at least in my sphere, is to SWAN IN or ABOUT “like you own the place”. Usually used disparagingly, I think often in connection with either being late (Swanning in) or arrogant (Swanning about). I realise there may be regional, or even sub-regional or cultural, variations!
17:51
No real issues today – PIPIT and TOSCANINI only known from these crosswords, TYMPANI carefully parsed. Didn’t know TOW and removed the wrong letter for 1d anagrist, but the answer was obvious from all but one checker.
Thanks Jack and setter
All done over a swift lunchtime pinta in 13 minutes – an unexpected PB. I found this easier than yesterday’s puzzle, with no major hold-ups. I was pleased to avoid the bear trap with TYMPANI. NHO LIMA BEAN but it was readily discoverable from the clueing. No issues on this enjoyable solve.
FOI – PIPIT
LOI – LIMA BEAN
COD – SHREK
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
Maybe 20′ but interrupted by a plumber who arrived quicker than expected (have I woken up in a different universe?).
All pretty straightforward and enjoyable though I did almost get caught in the TYMPANI trap. I do think its a little bit unfair to create a clue with a relatively rare spelling when the letter in question is not required as a crosser. The parsing put me straight, but it felt unnecessary.
I did look up Jack’s “swan-upping” which I’d never heard of – to be honest I was hoping for something a little bit more risqué than the reality!
Thanks Jackkt and setter
I don’t agree – clues should be parsed.
(but I got it right 🙂
I thought the clue was very fair, but it did seem an odd choice – and yes, a definite bear trap – to pick that much less common spelling. I assume that’s for the surface opportunities it provided.
Speaking as someone who frequently falls into these bear traps I think they’re entirely fair and I have no one to blame but myself.
I’m not disagreeing with that, I
did parse it and got it right, it actually wasn’t a difficult clue/answer. My point was that the spelling seems to have been chosen just to be awkward and set a trap.
When I first came here I thought posting one’s time was more or less obligatory. I’m now happy to leave it to the SNITCH.
Thought this was great fun. It helped that many seemingly difficult clues were made obvious by the crossers. QUADRATIC brought a shudder-inducing memory of fourth form algebra. A COINTREAU might help erase this.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
Pretty straightforward by 15×15 standards, allowing me to finish in 24.13. I did hesitate at TYMPANI taking care to follow the cryptic direction, so pleased not to fall into the trap that will catch a few. A good puzzle is one that you finish where there is no doubt in your mind that all answers were correct, and this one certainly fits that criteria.
29 min. Was really happy until I found out that timpani could also be spelled with a ‘y’. My fault for banging my own drum and failing to parse it properly. Ergo, cannot blow my own trumpet this time.
13d made me laugh.
Thank you, setter
A slightly sluggish 11:53 for a late afternoon solve, having risen at 5.0 this morning to catch a flight. The view across Crete’s Mirabello Bay is worth it though.
34.17 PERSONA NON GRATA needed most of the checkers. TYMPANI made me think my memory is failing though Grumpyoldmag reminded me that I do know tympanic. TERM LIMIT delayed MULTIMEDIA and I was slow to see the error but got there in the end. Thanks Jack.
27:25 for a successful solve. Surprised to get so much of this so quickly after yesterday’s slog. My first readthrough of the clues took 20mins but I was then only had 8-9 clues to do. The SE was the main sticking point where I didn’t know TOW=flaxen fibres. Should probably have seen pale=wan and edge=inch quicker but got there in the end. Pleased with that.
👏👏👏
I thought PSYCHIATRY was excellent.
Biff-fest giving me a time of 12’05”. I think bear-traps are totally fine. It’s up to us to look out for them and parse carefully when necessary. As I did here.
16:31 today, so only twice the time of Busman, which for me is very good indeed 🙂
Enjoyed this puzzle even though it was not hard.
Thanks setter and blogger