I have no solving time for this as I worked over 3 sessions and nodded off during one of those. Much of it was straightforward enough but other bits seemed unnecessarily obscure. I bunged in several answers with a shrug knowing they had to be correct but still having doubts about the clues.
Many thanks to vinyl1, galspray, glh and mike harper for covering during my absence.
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 | Overcome by male brown bears falling down crack? (5,3) |
| STUNT MAN – STUN (overcome), T~AN (brown) contains (bears) M (male). One meaning of ‘crack’ as a noun is an expert. | |
| 6 | Quit roughly filling barrel with earth (6) |
| VACATE – CA (roughly) contained by [filling] VA~T (barrel), then E (earth) | |
| 9 | Film star playing Lance Armstrong originally British? (9,4) |
| CHRISTIAN BALE – Anagram [playing] of LANCE A{rmstong} [originally] BRITISH | |
| 10 | Walk in street, then travel by bus? (6) |
| STRIDE – ST (street), RIDE (travel by bus?) | |
| 11 | Perhaps Pedro Sánchez drops back to probe political adviser (8) |
| SPANIARD – RAIN (drops) reversed [back] contained by [to probe] SPA~D (political advisor – SPecial ADvisor). He’s the PM of Spain, but we didn’t need to know that. | |
| 13 | After beginning of incarceration, very brave group put back in cells (10) |
| ISOGAMETES – I{ncarceration) [beinning of…], SO (very), GAME (brave), then SET (group) reversed [put back]. I got so far with constructing this from wordplay then gave up and used aids. NHO it, and this is its first appearance in any puzzle in TfTT’s 20 years. | |
| 15 | House-trained, thanks setter (4) |
| TAME – TA (thanks), ME (setter) | |
| 16 | The right way to eat cold Mexican food? (4) |
| TACO – TA~O (the right way) contains [to eat] C (cold). In Chinese philosophy Tao is the way or code of behaviour that is in harmony with the natural order. | |
| 18 | To obtain fondle, one must be good at pulling (6-4) |
| TOWING-ROPE – TO WIN GROPE (to obtain fondle). The usual sources have this as an alternative to ‘tow rope’, but I’ve never heard of ‘towing-rope’ before today. Collins lends support to the hyphen. | |
| 21 | Now smile about extremely tractable protein (8) |
| INTEGRIN – IN (now) ~ GRIN (smile) containing [about] T{ractabl}E {extremely]. I don’t know how ‘now / IN’ is supposed to work. Another NHO that until today had managed to escape the attention of Times setters since TfTT was founded. | |
| 22 | Cheers as I’ve made a mistake (6) |
| WHOOPS – Two meanings – cheers as in whoops of joy | |
| 23 | Our bubbly guest’s first to give money cobbled together (5-3-5) |
| ROUGH-AND-READY – Anagram [bubbly] of OUR, then G{uest’s} [first], HAND (give), READY (money) | |
| 25 | American politician following clergyman and pimp (6) |
| REVAMP – REV (clergyman), A (American), MP (politician). Collins: pimp – to adapt or embellish in an ostentatious manner. | |
| 6 | Problem with gas having surfaced, is inclined to throttle man, bachelor (3,5) |
| THE BENDS – T~ENDS (is inclined) containing [to throttle] HE (man) + B (bachelor) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Historian’s outrageous catsuit (7) |
| TACITUS – Anagram [outrageous] of CATSUIT | |
| 3 | What psychometry is doing in care facility (7,4) |
| NURSING HOME – What psycHOMEtry is doing | |
| 4 | Stroke hunk on bottom in lounge (5) |
| MASSÉ – MASS (hunk), {loung}E [on bottom]. In billiards and snooker this is a stroke that swerves the ball. | |
| 5 | Ale isn’t fantastic in punch (7) |
| NAILSET – Anagram [fantastic ] of ALE ISN’T. NHO. This had one outing here 6 years ago when I also didn’t know it. | |
| 6 | Having space in containers at home is minor infraction (6,3) |
| VENIAL SIN – EN (space) contained by [in] V~IALS (containers), IN (at home) | |
| 7 | Tea and conversation cut short (3) |
| CHA – CHA{t} (conversation) [cut short] | |
| 8 | Proposition in article more convoluted (7) |
| THEOREM – THE (article) then anagram [convoluted] of MORE | |
| 12 | Make a mistake blocking a fan of opening question (11) |
| INTERROGATE – ERR (make a mistake) contained by [blocking] INT~O (a fan of) + GATE (opening) | |
| 14 | Second body missing foot in boat (9) |
| MOTORSHIP – MO (second), TORS{o} (body) [missing foot], HIP (in) | |
| 17 | Description of fair racecourse? (7) |
| AINTREE – I had no idea what was going on here although AINTREE was obvious from ‘racecourse’. Google advises: “Aintree Fair” usually refers to the popular Aintree Antique and Collectors Fair, a large monthly event held at the iconic Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool. Who knew? I had this down as two definitions and thought it one of the most feeble of that type I have ever seen in a Times crossword because they are linked to the same venue. |
|
| 19 | One helps to secure arm and head (4,3) |
| WING NUT – WING (arm), NUT (head) | |
| 20 | Church leader, you once said, finally agog (7) |
| POPEYED – POPE (church leader), YE (you once), {sai}D [finally] | |
| 22 | Inferior son was dressed in trousers (5) |
| WORSE – WORE (was dressed in] contains [trousers] S (son) | |
| 24 | Lizard found in Bhutan (3) |
| UTA – Hidden [found] in {Bh}UTA{n}. NHO. | |
I found this really tough, and had two wrong answers for a long time: stencil and stroll. The bottom was OK, as I knew the slang meaning of pimp, and could biff rough and ready. I did put in Aintree, and then erased it – but after examining the cryptic carefully, I saw that FAIR is A in FIR, which is a kind of tree. Aha!
The wrong words in the top half gave considerable difficulty, not to mention never having heard of Christian Bale, the evident answer from the anagram letters. I was finally left with _T_N_ M_N. Well, it’s got to be some kind of man, but it took an alphabet trawl to come up with a plausible answer. I stopped the clock without deciphering either the literal or the cryptic, which is probably just as well.
I am glad to see one of our oldest and most prominent bloggers back at his post!
Time: 64:19
I seemed to be on the wavelength again with this and really enjoyed it. I managed to piece together ISOGAMETES from the wordplay but it was a NHO. The same process gave me INTEGRIN, another NHO. CHRISTIAN BALE came without much effort once CHA and THEOREM were in. Really liked THE BENDS. Took me a while to see the parsing of AINTREE, clever. WHOOPS, very good. STUNT MAN was my LOI but never parsed it as didn’t think to associate ‘crack’ with expert. Liked NURSING HOME. Remembered that a NAILSET is a nail punch, I think this is what it’s called in the US but not 100% sure. MOTORSHIP doesn’t sound quite right to me. Didn’t know the meaning of MASSÉ.
Thanks Jack and good to have you back.
Very similar to you, I ended up on 1ac as well and couldn’t parse it to save my life. Looked here. I am sorry but I simply cannot read ‘falling down crack’ as ‘expert in falling down’. I just don’t think that works.
Physics, fine. Maths, fine. Mechanics, fine. Chemistry, mostly fine. Biology, nope, uh uh, no sir. And today we got it twice, or, rather, my dictionary got it twice.
When the penny fell in the crack, I liked the falling down feller. Thanks, jack
I also found this tough. DNK INTEGRIN, ISOGAMETES, UTA. Sort of knew NAILSET somehow, but checked to make sure (in my E-J dictionary, not in ODE); ditto for BALE. DNK Sanchez, not that it mattered; and couldn’t parse the clue. Couldn’t figure out AINTREE; thanks to Vinyl and Quadrophenia.
Finally came up with STUNT MAN, but had no idea what the def was. All in all, not my finest (half) hour.
I found this tough as I biffed my way through many without a clue about the word play. NHO CHRISTIAN BALE but I knew the given name and got BALE from list by going through a list of people with the given name in in Wikipedia.
Many thanks Jack for the parsing.
Hi Jack. Welcome back!
I puzzled about21 ac, but have just realised NOW and IN can both mean FASHIONABLE.
Really? I’ve never heard ‘now’ in that sense.
Shorter Oxford has, late in the entry for “now”: “modern, fashionable, up to date”. It’s supported by a quote from Germaine Greer.
Quirky (VENIAL SIN, POPEYED etc) – enjoyed this. AINTREE is very good; SPAD is an apt political word: ugly and anaemic.
38:19
I think that Aintree is a fantastically clever surface
Got the answer as a biff but thanks for explaining
NHO Christian Bale either!!!
Isogamates and integrin and uta also new
Got there but was a struggle
I might have been among the group (3 so far, but it’s early) who never heard of CHRISTIAN BALE, but 38 years ago I happened to see him (then aged only 13) co-starring in a rather good film called EMPIRE OF THE SUN taken from a novel by JG Ballard and directed by Stephen Spielberg with screenplay by the late Tom Stoppard. I’ve never seen him in anything since.
Another DNF in a couple of weeks that has felt successful in some ways (fast starts) but with my finishing rate falling. Perhaps I’m becoming impatient. I didn’t get STUNT MAN in the end, though I considered all the individual tricks. MASSE and NAILSET went in on a wing and a prayer, so glad to see they were right at least. ISOGAMETES is the kind of word that makes you feel like Mark Goodliffe on a Monthly Club Special video for a few seconds, so I applaud it.
Thanks Jack for some much-needed explanations!
Welcome back Jack. Very tough today, so many NHOs including NAILSET, VENIAL,SPAD, ISOGAMETES (really?) INTEGRIN & UTA. Phew. All scrambled together from crossers and wp. I vaguely know of CHRISTIAN BALE but bunged in without seeing the anag. No time but very long…..
I did like AINTREE, very clever.
Thanks Jack and setter.
A delightfully clever puzzle with some truly obscure words. I admit I failed to parse the superb wordplay for AINTREE, and just assumed there was some reference I wasn’t getting. ISOGAMETES and INTEGRIN were both familiar to me, with my PhD in Genetics, but seemed awfully obscure for a daily crossword. I cheered out loud at several of the clues, in particular NURSING HOME and THE BENDS, whilst VENIAL SIN would have been a lot easier if I could spell.
Very happy with my 40:36 time for this one. Thanks Setter and Jack.
Can there be a clarification on the anag. for Christian Bale? Early morning for me, where are we getting the letter’s that aren’t LANCE B form?
It’s all the letters of BRITISH – ‘originally’ applies to the preceding word, to give the A.
Ah, that’ll be obvious then. My bad, as I say… early morning.
Beyond what’s in the blog? What sort of clarification?
Welcome back, Jackkt!
Steady solve, one or two unknowns but got through OK. Wasn’t Christian Bale one of the Batmen?
Yes, rather famously! He was also the lead in American Psycho.
He’s known for considerable body transformations for his parts. As well as Batman (ripped), he also starred in the Machinist (skinny), and Vice (fat).
And he was absolutely brilliant in one of my favourite movies The Big Short.
44.44. A total brute as far as I was concerned. Too many words I didn’t know and I still haven’t a clue why Christian Bale had anything to do with Lance Armstrong! I will now take a look at the blog post.
Ditto!
24.45
4 NHOs, 5 biffs, 1 insoluble.
LOI AINTREE (the insoluble)
COD CHRISTIAN BALE (a biff)
28:43. While objectively, having read the expert analysis I can see that this was tougher than yesterday I enjoyed this one a lot. Slow start with only CHA for about 5 mins accelerating rapidly before a pause over LOI MASSE.
Esp. liked AINTREE and THE BENDS, less keen on MOTORSHIP.
Thanks Jackkt and setter. I’ll start my week here.
12:46. I enjoyed this one: a few unknowns but the wordplay was clear and I enjoy solving that way. My only real doubt was 1ac, where I couldn’t see a definition. I don’t remember coming across this meaning of ‘crack’ (as a noun) before.
I’m kind of impressed by the number of people who haven’t heard of CHRISTIAN BALE. As jackkt indicates he’s been a fixture of the movie industry for about 40 years and has been an established leading man for decades, Oscar winner etc etc. Quite hard to avoid!
It helps if you haven’t watched a movie since 1978!
Under the old Times regime you’d have been relatively safe, but now that living people are allowed 1978 is too early a cut-off!
The top 7 grossing movies of 1978:
Grease
Superman
Animal House
Every Which Way But Loose
Heaven Can Wait
Hooper
Jaws 2
I can see why you stopped watching movies!
DNF. Revealed last two.
Nho the actor or MASSE.
No problems with TOWING ROPE (this is a term I use), INTEGRIN, ISOGAMETES , VENIAL.
Nho UTA but cluing was very kind so that went straight in. MOTORSHIP was new to me but it had to be.
An enjoyable cryptic. Thanks jackkt and setter.
46:44. Unfortunately all correct. Further SNITCH damage.
COD: Aintree.
Thanks to jackkt and our setter.
😂
DNF as I didn’t get STUNTMAN even with all the crossers !! Other than that tough but fair. Also NHO INTEGRIN (not has my sister who has a biology degree).
I got stuck almost immediately away on stunt man / masse and binned the whole thing. Not really in the mood, as I’ve got a raft of stuff to sort out today.
Thanks, jack.
38’48”. Thought I was going crazy at the end there as I wrestled with one across which I was convinced began STAND – this leading me to think the whole meant some kind of joke (as in CRACK …. STAND-UP. You had to be there). Not helped by having CHRISTIAN BALE written in and then being beset by doubts (I couldn’t parse it, stupidly), and by never having heard of MASSE or NAILSET. All came out right in the end. Still don’t quite see why NOW = IN. And I didn’t know the PIMP meaning. Good stuff, though. Thanks.
See branch’s comment above: both can mean ‘fashionable’. ODE gives the example ‘see more of what’s now during our autumn catwalk show’.
Didn’t finish today, no STUNT MAN or MASSE.
Wouldn’t have submitted anyway as INTEGRIN was a guess, still don’t understand how now =in.
Liked AINTREE a lot.
Thanks jack and setter.
28:54 I was mostly on wavelength with this even though I had to assemble the two biological terms that were NHOs. They may have been barely heard of because I was 100% confident once they were in.
Same story as yesterday though that it took me a long time with the last two of MASSE (which has stumped me before in crosswords) and STUNT MAN which I didn’t parse until I visited the blog.
COD NURSING HOME
Just realised I misparsed AINTREE which I had as ain’t ree (which I knew was a Scottish word which I hoped meant dark [it doesnt]). Obvious from the checking letters though.
RE: 21ac is something is “now” it is “in” as in fashionable.
e.g. Christmas songs are very now. Just like they always are in December.
I found this one fiddly, was pretty slow at 39:09, but then when I twigged that it contained a few words I’d never heard of, but with pretty generous wordplay, I put them all in from the wordplay and a bit of guessing about likely words (NAILSET, ISOGAMETES, UTA, INTEGRIN, TOWING ROPE, MOTORSHIP) and lo and behold they were all correct and the rest fell in quickly. I didn’t manage to parse STUNT MAN, so many thanks for that.
Well now. I beat 30 minutes by 1 second, eventually entering CHRISTIAN BALE without the parsing, since I couldn’t see beyond B[ritish]. Crossword 911 has an interesting take on the clue, viz:
“Film star: Christian Bale is a well-known actor in Hollywood with a successful career spanning various genres.
Playing Lance Armstrong: Bale portrayed the renowned cyclist Lance Armstrong in the biographical drama film titled “The Program”, showcasing his acting versatility. (No he didn’t, Ed)
Originally British: Christian Bale hails from Wales, which is a part of the United Kingdom, making him British by origin. Despite being British, he has convincingly portrayed characters from diverse backgrounds in his films.”
Nice try. My daughter was a big fan, which meant at least I was familiar.
Great clues in this toughie; I liked A IN TREE, TO WIN GROPE, and the clever NURSING HOME. but had to construct ISOGAMETES and INTEGRIN from wordplay, not being in my specialist fields I spent a while trying to justify SALIENT (a punch through an enemy line?) before vaguely remembering NAILSET.
Do we think Friday’s going to be a Monday East?
Welcome back, Jackkt!
One of my last few in, from definition and wordplay coming about the same time. Not realising what a brilliant clue it was – an &lit right over my head! Not least because I like cycling and consequently despise Lance Armstrong worse than the worst thing in the world (no swearing on this site), so I’d never watch a fillum about him and completely refused to have anything to do with the movie.
Ha, I tried to make SALIENT work too, and it took me forever to get the actual answer, barely remembered from last time.
30:12 but…
…firstly, I was actually quicker, but didn’t hit Submit, not realising for another few (?) minutes.
…secondly, I used an aid for the unknown INTEGRIN – not the greatest, in my opinion, clueing IN with ‘Now’.
However, there were some great moments in the rest of the grid: WHOOPS, TO WIN GROPE and the unparsed A IN TREE. I failed to parse both STUNT MAN and SPANIARD as well, but Ikea’d ISOGAMETES, did know what a MASSÉ is, and have even seen one of CHRISTIAN BALE’s films (American Psycho). NAILSET dragged up and settled on, once it couldn’t be the less likely SALIENT.
Thanks and welcome back, Jack, and thanks also to the setter
From TACITUS to STUNT MAN in 23:19, which is a minute or two more than I actually took, as some tout knocked on the door and vanished before I got there to answer, having forgotten to pause the puzzle. Grrhh! I knew CB as the Batman actor. Had to contruct INTEGRIN and ISOGAMETES. AINTREE was biffed. Very clever now Vinyl has parsed it for us! Liked TOWING-ROPE. STUNT MAN was very clever too. Thanks setter and Jack.
Also DNK INTEGRIN, ISOGAMETES, UTA or MESSE… so DNF. Too hard for me.
Haven’t got time for the Times some days and this was one of them. Had to leave it to catch the train with a few to go.
DNF, defeated by STUNT MAN, INTEGRIN (I guessed ‘now’ might mean ‘in’ in fashion terms but had more or less given up by that point) and MASSE (I was convinced ‘hunk on bottom’ was giving K).
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Nursing home
23:36 – pleased to finish this. The protein, the cell thingy, the lizard and the snooker shot all unknown but generously clued. I struggled to see the definition in the STUNT MAN clue but “falling down expert” is very neat, as is the AINTREE clue.
Only Monday and Tuesday, and already they have been as hard as I can remember at that time. If this continues, …
There is a wonderful video on YouTube of Jimmy White playing a massé shot, confirming my belief that this is different from ‘hitting it with a bit of swerve’, as frequently happens. Like Jack I have only ever seen Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun, where he was very irritating since he always seemed to be running. Not his fault, though. Several that I had to come here to understand, but I did so and am struck by how good it is. ISOGAMETES and INTEGRIN worked out from wordplay. STUNT MAN very clever. 55 minutes.
Mostly straightforward, even the NHOs, but 4 holdouts at the end slowed me down. A curates egg for me, some fantastic and enjoyable clues, but hate having a single mephistoish UTA/INTEGRIN/ISOGAMETES/SPAD let alone multiple of them, even if they went in quickly.
Loved THE BENDS – I’ve worked offshore with lots of divers. Know PIMPing as US slang. Completely missed Christian Bale’s brilliance, thanks Zabadak. Pedro Sanchez known as Don Quixote’s offsider, after deciding there were no tennis players so named. PM of Spain, eh? Who could possibly know that?
No time as again solving between other activities. Constructed the biology solutions but hadn’t heard of them; didn’t parse Aintree and didn’t like MOTORSHIP. NAILSET another constructed NHO.
Other than that (!) it was reasonably accessible. Christian Bale starred in one of my favourite movies of recent times, The Big Short, and was also good in the Ferrari movie.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Ah I should have read all the comments before replying above re The Big Short.
Fantastic movie. Margot Robbie’s explanation of sub-prime mortgages was so instructive that I found myself rewinding the scene and watching it again. And again and again and again…
Agree. I’ve watched it a number of times and not just because Margot Robbie’s in a bubble bath! But so good… And according to people who measure these things it was over 90% accurate even taking into consideration artistic license
My thanks to jackkt and setter.
DNF. I found it a bit odd.
9a NHO Christian Bale. Biffed C Name, didn’t see what was the anagrist; now jackkt has explained I could and should have got it right, bother. I hardly ever remember actor’s names.
11a Spaniard; I wrongly thought that Pedro Sanchez was Don Quixote’s sidekick, who is actually Sancho Panza. Oh dear!
13a NHO Isogametes but managed to work it out.
16a Taco, biffed-ish. I know nothing about Taoism, but HHO.
21a NHO Integrin, tried Ingetrin but it was wrong. Silly not to guess how a protein would be spelt. Added to Cheating Machine.
25a Revamp, not entirely convinced = pimp, but slung it in anyway.
4d NHO Masse and forgot to biff something. Thought the bottom gave us K from hunK not E from loungE. I think I NHO last time as well.
5d Nailset suddenly came to me, but I thought it a bit techie for the Times. When I need a nailset I call it a nail punch.
6d Venial sin biffed.
14a NHO Motorship. HHO MS with same meaning. Not in Wiktionary. Added to CM.
24d NHO Uta. Nor has Wiktionary, Wiki has them under “Side-blotched lizard.” Added to CM.
15:37. Great puzzle, too many brilliant clues to mention. A challenge to solve and a challenge to parse, but overall a reminder of why we love doing these things.
Thanks setter, and great to see you back on deck Jack.
Struggled a lot with this today. Pieced together stunt man early but could not put it in as I could not see the definition. NHO nailset which did not help with the anagram. My 56 year old and never used degree in Biochemistry did come in handy for isogametes and integrin but I was eventually tripped up by stupidly not being able to get vacate and never having heard of a venial sin. Loved Aintree, COD.
Thx Jack and setter
52 mins but with aids so a DNF. Very tricky for any day let alone a Tuesday! COD has to go to TOWING ROPE. NHO the protein or the cells. that’s quite specialist knowledge!
No fun at all. Far too many NHOs and at least three or four so obscure that I have no space in my brain even to bother trying to remember them. And even with the answer slotted in, like our blogger I can’t parse INTEGRIN. A day when I’d like my money back.
Edit: comments above re INTEGRIN now seen. No idea in which comics ‘now’ means fashionable, but I hope the usage hasn’t infested The Times.
Not much to add to others comments, apart from to say that when I hear ‘pimp’ to mean ‘revamp’ my mind immediately goes to the cheesy former TV series ‘Pimp My Ride’.
No time to record as completed over three sessions, due to stoppages involving my unofficial taxi service for various family members. The solve was certainly over an hour in total, and probably nearer seventy minutes. I was annoyed to find that I’d finished with a single letter mistake with VINIAL SIN, having worked out some more difficult clues including how AINTREE parsed. Although I solved NAILSET I was surprised to find it was right, it just didn’t seem likely.
So Tuesday’s the new Friday is it ?
DNF on ISOGAMETES and INTEGRIN and MASSE. 17 mins for the rest, all parsed including the brilliant AINTREE.
Thanks Jack, great to see you up and about again.
I found this very difficult, but persisted with it, as when I got each clue, it was so satisfying. There are those puzzles where everything is a slog, culminating in ‘Really?’ and there are those with devious but delightful surfaces, that produce an exultant PDM. I realised early on that I would have to dig deeper than normal to extract the meaning and wasn’t surprised to encounter three NHOs in the cells, protein and lizard. However, my last two in were STUNT MAN and THE BENDS. With the latter, I imagined the first word contained TAN, so that held me up considerably since I couldn’t see the definition. The key to the latter was fitting in HE and B to the existing letters and… another PDM… AINTREE was brilliant. Even after putting it in, it took a while to parse. Also liked TOWING ROPE a lot.
Nearly an hour and a half, but except for a typo I did solve it correctly despite being very annoyed about the unnecessary almost Mephistophelean obscurity of some of the clues (INTEGRIN, for example, or the SPAD in SPANIARD). I knew 5dn was an anagram and with the crossers had most of the letters in the right place, but out of frustration forgot to correct NEILSAT to NAILSET before submission.
I’m also very glad Jack is back — he is a kindred soul.
Wow, I had no problem with this until AINTREE, STUNT MAN, and INTEGRIN (specifically the IN) completely undid me. Spent 15 minutes getting all but these three, and 15 minutes not getting the last three, and finally gave up — I’m glad I did.
37:21
Biffed AINTREE. Thanks Vinyl for the parsing.
Several NHO today, including UTA, and INTEGRIN, which was my LOI.
COD to TOWING ROPE.
Thanks Jack and setter
37 minutes. Harder than expected for a Tuesday but I still enjoyed this with the obscure words being gettable from wordplay. I’m glad we don’t have to worry about accents in crossword answers though as I wouldn’t have put on the acute for MASSÉ. Same comments re CHRISTIAN BALE as Jack and like Zabadak, I entered the answer without parsing, not being able to see the correct letters going to make up the anagram. STUNT MAN was a toughie to finish with.
Admittedly only parsed post solve, but AINTREE was a beauty.