35 minutes. I lost a few moments finding my first in, but from then on this was a steady and enjoyable solve.
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 now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Awfully idle pussies outside German city shops (13) |
| DELICATESSENS – Anagram [awfully] of IDLE, then CAT~S (pussies) containing [outside] ESSEN (German city) | |
| 8 | Yell, not about deception (4) |
| SCAM – SC{re}AM (yell) [not about – re] | |
| 9 | A Parisian charging engineers to assess pay (10) |
| REMUNERATE – UN (‘a’ Parisian) contained by [charging] REM~E (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), RATE (assess) | |
| 10 | Dad rushed round, one with a sort of obsession (8) |
| PARANOIA – PA (dad), RAN (rushed), O (round), I (one), A | |
| 11 | Trick lord falling into river (6) |
| DELUDE – LUD (lord) [reversed [falling] and contained by [in] DE~E (river). M’lud (my lord) is a standard form of address to a judge in court. | |
| 13 | Female boss, a long time with little right, in muddle (10) |
| MANAGERESS – AN + AGE (a long time) + R (little right) contained by [in] M~ESS (muddle) | |
| 16 | Get rid of heartless language (4) |
| ERSE – ER{a}SE (get rid of) [heartless] | |
| 17 | Unconventional pronouncement of writer (4) |
| WILD – Aural wordplay [pronouncement of]: “Wilde” (writer) | |
| 18 | New retrial with boy likely to result in freedom (10) |
| LIBERATORY – Anagram [new] of RETRIAL BOY. An awkward word to say which the ODE doesn’t even acknowledge, but it’s listed in other sources. | |
| 20 | Consume with lack of seriousness, we hear (6) |
| INGEST – Aural wordplay [we hear]: “in jest” (with lack of seriousness) | |
| 22 | Security device gets ordered outside — it stops invasions (8) |
| BLOCKADE – B~ADE (ordered) containing [outside] LOCK (security device) | |
| 24 | Show where to go and use hot running water (5-5) |
| HOUSE-TRAIN – Anagram [running] of USE HOT, then RAIN (water) | |
| 26 | Stone, hard, in bit of fruit? (4) |
| PITH – PIT (stone), H (hard) | |
| 27 | Fail to get support after maiden and I separate (13) |
| MISUNDERSTAND – M (maiden), I, SUNDER (separate), STAND (support) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Announcement surprisingly neat and cordial (11) |
| DECLARATION – Anagram [surprisingly] of NEAT CORDIAL | |
| 2 | Proposition from learner meeting novel woman (5) |
| LEMMA – L (learner), EMMA (novel woman). I didn’t know the definition here, but ODE has: lemma – a subsidiary or intermediate theorem in an argument or proof. | |
| 3 | NCO swallowing drug is not spiritual (9) |
| CORPOREAL – CORPOR~AL (NCO – Non-Commissioned Officer) containing [swallowing] E (drug) | |
| 4 | Food and drink after this person’s restricted by disease (7) |
| TIMBALE – I’M (this person’s) contained [restricted] by T~B (disease), ALE (drink) | |
| 5 | Report of wickedness unusual in church body (5) |
| SYNOD – Aural wordplay [report of]: SYN / “sin” (wickedness) + OD / “odd” (unusual) | |
| 6 | Signing up for Lent, men denied minimum of food sadly (9) |
| ENROLMENT – Anagram [sadly] of {f}OR LENT MEN [denied minimum of food] | |
| 7 | Jock getting caught out as one having too much whisky? (3) |
| SOT – S{c}OT (Jock) [getting caught out] | |
| 12 | Record author finally prepared for publication is no longer valid (11) |
| DISCREDITED – DISC (record), {autho}R [finally], EDITED (prepared for publication) | |
| 14 | Deals with a daughter needing wardrobe items (9) |
| ADDRESSES – A, D (daughter), DRESSES (wardrobe items] | |
| 15 | Gets on horses, not entirely secure at first (9) |
| SURMOUNTS – SUR{e} (secure) [not entirely], MOUNTS (horses) | |
| 19 | English inventor of container carried by infant (7) |
| BABBAGE – BAG (container) inside [carried by] BAB~E (infant) | |
| 21 | Small bird atop an enormously important person (5) |
| TITAN – TIT (small bird), AN | |
| 23 | Foreign character ending in dark, only half manifest (5) |
| KAPPA – {dar}K [ending in…], APPA{rent} (manifest) [only half] | |
| 25 | Gosh, male offers some resistance! (3) |
| OHM – OH (gosh!), M (male). The standard unit of resistance. | |
14:42. HOUSE-TRAIN was great!
Agree! My LOI.
Feel that “Gets on” for SURMOUNTS would have been “Gets over” if not for the sake of the surface. Collins has (def. 3) “put something on top of” (a usage I can’t recall ever hearing); that one thing is resting on top of another can be expressed by saying, for example, that a star surmounts the Xmas tree without implying it is climbing the tree. But the most usual sense of the word as an active verb involves overcoming.
Perhaps ‘masters’ would have been an adequate definition while maintaining the surface.
The definition of SURMOUNT in Chambers is (vt) to mount above; to be on or go to the top of; to get the better of; overcome.
Right, to be on or go to the top.
‘Lud’ apparently largely used in historic contexts such as Charles Dickens novels, not actual courts. And in crosswords of course.
I was always amused by Dickens characters addressing the judge as Your Wash-up.
That would be a magistrate ? “Your worship”.
22:12
LOI HOUSE-TRAIN cost me 3+ minutes; if the grid had shown the hyphen, I might have twigged sooner. Like Guy, for me SURMOUNTS means ‘overcomes’, so I had a mental ? at 15d. COD to HOUSE-TRAIN.
Kevin – I don’t know what technology you usually use, but in the app on my iPad there is an option (bottom of the menu under the cog-wheel at top right) to show or hide word-breaks. The hyphen appears if the option is turned on. Hope this might help you, and, if not, maybe someone else.
I have the same option, and it’s set to show breaks. But a hyphenated word is shown as two words; a thick line separates house and train.
Interesting. It’s a hyphen on my iPad. Maybe an OS issue? Perhaps worth a note to the site owners at The Times.
Maybe just buy the paper? The Times sub- editors know about punctuation.
27.51. Two thumbs up to HOUSE TRAIN, to which I finally twigged after several minutes, and not before I’d guessed there was once an innovative bloke called BABBAGE. Clever puzzle, thank you Jack.
From Make You Feel My Love:
The storms are raging on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing WILD and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet
I felt the puzzle wasn’t too difficult, but required a little knowledge. Lemma I knew, Babbage I have heard of, and liberatory was evident from the cryptic. I biffed a large number of answers, such as misunderstand, discredited, and enrolment. However, I got stuck with three to go. Fortunately, I got a phone call from a friend, and paused the clock. I knew that a half hour of mindless chatter would reset my brain, and when I returned I put in house-train and surmounts as the obvious answers. My LOI was timbales; I had heard of the instrument, but not the food, so I had to get the answer from the cryptic.
Time: 18:28
9:59. I spent some time on my LOI, TIMBALE, where I failed to separate food and drink so ended up looking for a word for both. TIMBALE had been my first thought but I’d disregarded it because it was only food!
7:02. Not difficult but some interesting stuff in here. I had the same thought as GdS and Kevin about SURMOUNT, and also a MER at ‘it stops invasions’, which isn’t what a BLOCKADE does. Loved HOUSE-TRAIN of course.
38 mins and no quibbles. Liked show where to go.
Thanks Jack and setter.
What a fun crossword to follow yesterday’s 15×15 quickie. Took a bit longer to finish this but not much more. Same thoughts as others re, BLOCKADE and SURMOUNT, but they had to be. Most of the answers went in from the definitions and parsed later, and was left with WILD, which came after an alphabet trawl that had me worried I wasn’t going to get it before I reached ‘W’ and saw it, and HOUSE-TRAIN, which had me thinking before I spotted the part anagram. Obviously my COD.
Thanks Jack and setter.
One short at one hour with aids.
Couldn’t see the NHO TIMBALE, went for TAMMALE as an alternative spelling of Tamale, which my wife is an expert at making.
Needed help with lud=lord, and the NHO ERSE. I was at Court yesterday and the judge was addressed as “Judge”. No m’lud going on.
Also carelessly had LIBERATION as NHO LIBERATORY.
My BSc in Mathematics has not generally helped much in crosswords, but I did know LEMMA from First Year Analytics.
Spent ages with ENROLMENT in pencil, couldn’t justify the RO. I Had the “for” as part of the definition, so was trying to get it from “denied minimum of food”. Decided RO was some POW/naval slang for short rations.
12.22 which is close to a PB for me I think (I don’t really have much in the way of record-keeping but it felt fast for me) so that makes up for my Chekhov’s blunder yesterday.
Agree HOUSE-TRAIN was the highlight!
30 mins. Totally off wavelength and had to work hard all the way. Satisfying to complete, lots to appreciate but enjoy might be pushing it.
At least the GK for BABBAGE, OHM and LEMMA were all in my hitting zone.
HOUSE TRAIN was indeed fun. Thanks jackkt and setter.
Nearly made the sub-10′, time spent on the nho TIMBALE, and LOsI HOUSE TRAIN and SURMOUNTS.
Good to see LEMMA (cf dilemma) and BABBAGE, a wonderfully eccentric genius.
10’04”, thanks jack and setter.
29 minutes with LOI TIMBALE taking at least five of those. LIBERATORY toook another five. Not keen on WILD as a clue. Otherwise a terrific puzzle with HOUSE-TRAIN COD. Thank you Jack and setter.
31 minutes. Not seeing crossword land’s favourite ‘German city’ at 1a until I had most of the checked letters didn’t help and I was slow to get most of the rest of the mostly not especially complicated parsing. Yes, I’m another who liked HOUSE-TRAIN, after eventually separating out the def from the wordplay.
About 15 minutes.
– More familiar with asunder rather than sunder as used in MISUNDERSTAND
– Couldn’t have told you that a LEMMA is a proposition, but it sounded like it might be and the cluing helped
– Relied on wordplay for the unknown TIMBALE
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Sot
LOI Kappa
COD House-train
34:47 for once no clue proved particularly problematic but then nothing flew in either. Very few if any biffs. All parsed though.
NHO TIMBALE
As with others I share the admiration of HOUSE-TRAIN which got a huh? shortly followed by a of course.
Thanks blogger and setter
I wasn’t on a good day today, and got cross. DNF. Oh dear.
I never sorted out several. So having cheated for TimbalO at 4d I didn’t get 13a Manageress as it didn’t fit. Timbale NHO, and I failed to separate food and drink, so got nowhere near parsing. 17a Wild eluded me, then I got House Train at 24a but mis-parsed as H(ot) Ouse (river) and train from nowhere, so that good one totally wasted on me. Didn’t like 18a Liberatory as it is ugly, totally unneeded in the language, and hard to pronounce. As others, 22a Blockade doesn’t stop invasions, and 15d Surmounts was a poor def. But.
Many thanks to jackkt and setter.
33 mins. Only ERSE and WILD really made me think. Luckily knew BABBAGE and LEMMA, or they might have long delayed me. A generally enjoyable puzzle, just the right gradient of uphill challenge without tipping over into the chasm of ‘too difficult’. Enjoyed HOUSE-TRAIN. Can live with BLOCKADE, because even though it targets trade a blockade may also have the side-effect and/or secondary aim of helping prevent invasion (cf Britain’s blockade of French channel ports, 1805 onwards).
Was a bit sluggish today, which I put down to the heavy cold I’ve acquired. Took far too long to see DELICATESSENS, REMUNERATE and DECLARATION, all of which would have helped with oodles of crossers. Eventually saw POI, SURMOUNTS, but still struggled with LOI, HOUSE TRAINS. Good one, ha ha! 29:10. Thanks setter and Jack.
12.53, so a few seconds longer than yesterday but more than 100 places higher on the leaderboard.
Last in was WILD, one of those clues where the two definitions (especially “author”) invite a host of possibilities, and I was prepared to invoke VAR if my entry was “wrong”.
TIMBALE of course not known (and LIBERATORY was a surprise), but entered on the basis that it might be a variant on tamale.
On SURMOUNTS: I wasn’t entirely sure there was a definition.
24:06
Slightly undone by 18a where I had LIBERATION as an anagram of RETRIAL + B (boy) then ON (likely to result in, as in ‘odds on’), but when stuck on LOI 12d, realised that the answer to 18a needed two Rs. The rest was pretty plain sailing, though I didn’t know LEMMA.
Thanks Jack and setter
Quite a few people have talked about the DELUDE clue as if all is well, so perhaps I am deluded myself. But it seems to me that ‘falling into’ doesn’t signify a reversal, as Jack says, but is simply an insertion indicator and that ‘falling’ is only there for the surface. After all it is an across clue and the answer does have ‘lud’ in the right order. 35 minutes after spending so long on the last one INGEST (unseat? insect? invert?) that I gave up and looked up synonyms of ‘consume’.
Agree, I saw it this way too.
30 minutes on the London bound train this morning. Sad to say but the reservations expressed by other commentators completely passed me by so after a guess at TIMBALE which held me up for some 6 minutes I had an all correct. Hurrah! Thanks to Jack and setter for the entertainment.
I had all bar TIMBALE (NHO) in about 20 minutes, but gave up after another 10. My main problem was that I couldn’t think how to keep each component of the wordplay small enough to keep it all to 7 letters. Doubtless if I’d have twigged TB for the disease (poor that I didn’t) I could have worked it out. Dissappointing.
A pleasant puzzle, all done over a lunchtime pinta in 26 minutes. No issues. I have never come across the word LIBERATORY in the real world, but the same applies to many words used as answers in crosswords. That is part of the fun! Cannot see any problem with m’learned judge falling into the river. I enjoyed the image.
FOI – DELICATESSEN
LOI – TIMBALE
COD – DELUDE
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
A steady solve. Similar to yesterday in terms of difficulty/enjoyment. I thought HOUSE TRAIN was excellent. LEMMA a new word learnt.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
42 minutes – too slow as usual, but all parsed. Like others, I didn’t care for SURMOUNTS.
25 mins. LOI HOUSE TRAIN. Having got it, I spent a few moments trying to work out if a HOUSE TRAIN was some kind of show. Heavy penny drop….
Finished under target at 37.45 with TIMBALE my LOI. Spent a little time on this NHO, and was pleased to see it was correct. Excellent clue for HOUSETRAIN which I got relatively easily.
30 minutes but used aids for my LOI Timbale. I should have persevered because I have heard of it – but the clue just defeated me.
Good puzzle.
21’34” with no quibbles and a wry smile at HOUSE-TRAIN.
21 mins. Quick for me. Agree with the queries raised by others but still an enjoyable solve.
Right I am now going to look up what TIMBALE is …… Ok, it’s a deep-dish filling enclosed in a crust. And baked in a … TIMBALE, which also means kettle-drum. I got the answer right, just had no idea what it was. It ate up five of my 17’35”, so I feel glad we have improved our acquaintance. Many thanks to setter and blogger.
22:25 but with a stupid typo MISUNNERSTAND
LOI the NHO TIMBALE which took me a couple of minutes to work out from the clue
Agree with others HOUSE TRAIN was a great clue
Thanks setter and blogger
Loved the clever misdirection in HOUSE-TRAIN.
23 minutes, even easier than yesterday’s, and actually nothing to write home about … except for HOUSE-TRAIN (just to chime in).
Agree that HOUSE-TRAIN was a lovely clue, and my COD. The rest fell mostly steadily , but was unsure of the TIMBALE’s meaning. Also sillily putting in ALPHA instead of KAPPA ( not wanting to spend time on it!) which meant I spent a lot more time on BLOCKADE which was the obvious answer . Only vaguely heard of BABBAGE, so that took some time, but LEMMA was a guess. Fast solve for me, with only KAPPA looked up, so happy with my effort.