I’ve no solving time for this because I nodded off briefly as happens all too often these days! I found most of this straightforward getting myself bogged down over 4 or 5 clues at the very end which would surely have extended my solve way beyond my target half-hour even allowing for the nap.
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 | In general, large crowd retreating, initially blocking projectile (7,4) |
| CLUSTER BOMB – L (large) contained by [in] C~USTER (general), then MOB (crowd) reversed [retreating], B{locking} [initially] | |
| 7 | Shake drink (3) |
| JAR – Two meanings. We recently had ‘jar’ clued as ‘beer’, and that’s the drink it would usually refer to. | |
| 9 | WW2 fighter restarted following reassembly (6,3) |
| DESERT RAT – Anagram [following reassembly] of RESTARTED | |
| 10 | I’m surprised service drained members of flock (5) |
| GEESE – GEE (I’m surprised), S{ervic}E [drained]. Geese when not in flight. | |
| 11 | Withdraw US president over time (7) |
| RETRACT – CARTER (US president) reversed [over], then T (time) | |
| 12 | Spin managed to protect Liberal after negative comment designed to cause friction? (7) |
| NONSLIP – NO (negative comment), anagram [managed] of SPIN containing [to protect] L (Liberal) | |
| 13 | Book managed to engage one’s mind (5) |
| BRAIN – B (book), RA~N (managed) containing [to engage] I (one) | |
| 15 | Contents of Italian song aroused poignant memories (9) |
| NOSTALGIA – Anagram [aroused] of {i}TALIA{n} [contents of…] SONG | |
| 17 | Walkway accessed centrally by flyer in aircraft (9) |
| ESPLANADE – {acc}ES{sed} [centrally], then AD (flyer) contained by [in] PLAN~E (aircraft) | |
| 19 | Food gives us hiccups to some degree (5) |
| SUSHI – Hidden in [to some degree] {give}S US HI{ccups} | |
| 20 | Do second language before finally graduating (7) |
| SHINDIG – S (second), HINDI, {graduatin}G [finally]. ‘Do’ as in a celebration. | |
| 22 | For example, box contains a hundred pounds and something sweet (7) |
| TREACLE – TRE~E (for example, box) contains A + C (hundred) + L (pounds) | |
| 24 | United beginning to struggle during Lincoln’s attack (5) |
| ABUSE – U (united) + S{truggle} [beginning to…] contained by [during] AB~E (Lincoln) | |
| 25 | Screened select group losing heart in scrap (9) |
| SHELTERED – EL{i}TE (select group) [losing heart] contained by [in] SH~RED (scrap). I lost loads of time on this as my LOI because I had entered the answer at 23dn incorrectly. | |
| 27 | Power one connected to back of satellite dish (3) |
| PIE – P (power), I (one), {satellit}E [back of…] | |
| 28 | Labour representative shared post with criminal (4,7) |
| SHOP STEWARD – Anagram [criminal] of SHARED POST W (with): ODE: A person elected by workers, for example in a factory, to represent them in dealings with management. | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Firm discipline to begin with one getting battered? (3) |
| COD – CO (firm), D{iscipline} [to begin with] | |
| 2 | Happy with TV or not? (5) |
| UPSET – UP (happy), SET (TV). The definition is reflexive. Not sure if anyone refers to TV sets and radio sets these days, but it was commonplace at one time. | |
| 3 | Land quietly, away from turtle (7) |
| TERRAIN – TERRA{p}IN (turtle) [quietly – p – away from…] | |
| 4 | Feeling uplifted about austere character, first to leave literary setting (9) |
| RURITANIA – AI~R (feeling) reversed [uplifted] containing [about] {p}URITAN (austere character) [first to leave]. A fictional European country created by author Anthony Hope in 1894 as the setting for The Prisoner of Zenda and various sequels. | |
| 5 | Frequently losing head in temper (5) |
| OFTEN – {s}OFTEN (temper) [losing head] | |
| 6 | Crossing over, possibly being a border resident? (7) |
| BEGONIA – Anagram [possibly] of BEING A containing [crossing] O (over). A very late arrival in the grid for me. | |
| 7 | Man in the street’s duty to obtain key records implicating leader of government (3,6) |
| JOE BLOGGS – JO~B (duty) containing [to obtain] E (key), then LOG~S (records) containing [implicating] G{overnment} [leader of…] | |
| 8 | Part of jamboree MP has is exacerbating stress again (2-9) |
| RE-EMPHASISE – Hidden in [part of] {jambo}REE MP HAS IS E{xacerbating} | |
| 11 | Approve of masseuse, small and compact? (11) |
| RUBBERSTAMP – RUBBER (masseuse), S (small), TAMP (compact) | |
| 14 | A representative lied about nursing trade union’s size (9) |
| AMPLITUDE – A, MP (representative), anagram [about] of LIED containing [nursing] TU (trade union). Another answer that was a long time coming. | |
| 16 | End of ascent is within range — mostly straightforward for climbers (9) |
| SWEETPEAS – {ascen}T [end of…] contained by [is within] SWEE~P (range), EAS{y} (straightforward) [mostly]. Yet another late arrival. | |
| 18 | A duke departs on ship for where he lives? (7) |
| ADDRESS – A, D (duke), D (departs), RE (on), SS (ship) | |
| 19 | Warmth retained by woman’s shroud (7) |
| SHEATHE – HEAT (warmth) contained [retained] by S~HE (woman) | |
| 21 | Pleasure craft capsizes traversing Southern Ocean originally (5) |
| GUSTO – T~UG (craft) reversed [capsizes] containing [traversing] S (southern), then O{cean} [originally] | |
| 23 | A pain in the neck? Not quite up and about (5) |
| CIRCA – A + CRIC{k} (pain in the neck) [not quite] reversed [up] | |
| 26 | Impersonated police officer, meeting with division’s chief (3) |
| DID – DI (police officer – Detective Inspector), D{ivision’s} [chief]. Older Brits may remember the TV impersonations panel game back in the 1970s called Who Do You Do? | |
Whoopsie. Custer was a Lt Colonel to the day he died.
While Custer was apparently only a Lt Colonel in the US Army, he was made a Brigadier General in the US Volunteers at the age of 23.
Over promoted?
RETRACT held me up for the longest time, not being able to get ‘retreat’ out of my head and thinking that it was a US president around a ‘t’. Custer for the general took some time even though I could see it was CLUSTER BOMB, just bamboozled me for a while before the penny dropped, stupid really as it comes up enough. Found SWEETPEAS quite difficult not really seeing ‘sweep’ for range. Liked UPSET. Thought ADDRESS was clever, five bits of wordplay for a seven-letter word. RURITANIA was my LOI not seeing the puritan until after parsing. Also liked CIRCA.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Not a difficult puzzle for me, with a lot of biffing. Desert rat was my FOI, begonia my LOI. I did parse a few after putting them in, but I didn’t bother with Ruritania, sweetpeas, rubberstamp, shop steward, and begonia. I did like the puzzle, as it had some unusual but not obscure vocabulary.
Time: 19:20
Favourite clue JOE BLOGGS; last to fall SWEETPEA. 22:46
Seeming to remember that in the novel ‘Little Big Man,’ Custer is called a general, I checked and he was indeed ascribed the rank of Major General. Further research shows he was a Brevet Major General (temporary rank) from the Civil War, though merely a humble Lt Col at Little Big Horn.
11:29, but somehow didn’t enjoy too much, I think because of many references to things I’ve never knowingly encountered in real life, or words I wouldn’t use (Joe Bloggs, Ruritania, sweetpea, begonia, desert rat, cluster bomb (except in the Worms video games!)).
In case Starstruck happens to be reading, my personal page that I check sometimes if I think I’ve had a fast (for me) time seems to have been contaminated by two phantom performances at the top (4:00 and 8:00): https://times.xwdsnitch.link/solvers/4163
Thanks setter and Jack!
Thanks for pointing them out – now fixed 🙂
33:11 quite straightforward
LOI SHELTERED, partly because I didn’t equate GUSTO with pleasure.
I fluked 1a by having “a large crowd” as CLUSTER.
RE-EMPHASISE was an impressive “hidden” across 5 elements.
COD SHINDIG
Yes, the CUSTER thing has come up here before. I didn’t mention it in the blog because I couldn’t remember the various arguments pro and con, but I seemed to remember the consensus of opinion was that it was okay for one reason or another.
24 minutes, which I was happy enough with. I initially bunged in RURITANIA as a semi-guess so before submitting spent a few minutes working out the parsing. I liked the “assemble as instructed” ADDRESS and the not so obvious ‘about’ def for CIRCA.
The dictionaries at hand all put a hyphen in the verb form of “rubber-stamp” (and a space for the noun). Or I would’ve gotten it sooner, obviously! 🙄
I agree.
Without the hyphen it can only be a noun with the qualifying adjective. But it looks like they’ve tweaked it in the meantime to include the hyphen?
Yes, they have!
I’m glad some people take such things seriously!
SWEET PEA is still given as 9, presumably because SWEETPEA is regarded as an acceptable “variant.”
32 mins. I had SWINDLE in mind instead of SHINDIG for a while – just from the crossers. The moral is -if you can’t Parse it, it’s most likely wrong. Otherwise relatively plain sailing.
Snap!
22 mins. Dullish. I like your Santas though. Thanks both.
39 minutes with LOI REEMPHASISE. I liked the botanical clues with the BEGONIA just pipping SWEETPEAS to COD. As a kid playing cricket in the back garden, I had to adjust my cover drive to avoid the sweetpeas. The whole puzzle was good fun. Thank you Jack and setter.
Sounds like you had a bit more control than the current England batsmen!
And probably wasn’t p*seed between innings.
14:02. LOI SWEETPEAS. I liked the clue for PIE. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
About 15 minutes, finishing with SWEETPEAS. Nearly bunged in SLATING for 20a, wondering if that just might equate to ‘do’ somehow, before getting SHINDIG. No other major issues.
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Cod
LOI Sweetpeas
COD Circa
14:17 on wavelength today and only really getting bogged down with RURITANIA which I remembered had come up before but had no idea of its meaning or parsing. Spent a bit of time fruitlessly trying to do something with Narnia to get an ending of nia.
COD JOE BLOGGS
From OFTEN to SWEETPEAS in 19:23. I initially had SHUTTERED at 25a, which fitted the crossers I had but didn’t parse. A rethink came up with SHELTERED and enabled LOI, SWEETPEAS. Nice puzzle. Thanks setter and Jack.
17.33, with SWEET PEAS (sic, Chambers) SHINDIG and GUSTO slowing the end game. I got fixated on “do” in 20a being con, so SWINDLE was hard to dismiss, and ??S?O looked unlikely to be any kind of pleasure.
Our setter seems to have a thing about corrupt MPs, one upsetting people with a jamboree and another lying about nursing trade unions. And two “hiddens” today, just in case we thought there was a rule about such things. “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world….. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Merry Christmas, everyone.
Easy and not particularly exciting, about 20 minutes, with a MER at my LOI SWEETPEAS as was 99% sure it was two words not (9). Mrs piquet now assures me it is one word on the ‘seed’ packets. Lots of BIFfing and parsing afterwards.
18.57
Some mixed views but like Vinyl I really liked this one. I didn’t always know what was going on, positing COUNTER which gave me the R for RURITANIA (unparsed) then realising it was CLUSTER. constructed GEESE with a soft G wondering what the word was. I sometimes wonder how I manage to do these things at all!
Thanks Setter/Jackkt.
A game of seven eighths, for me: 7 parts easy, one part difficult. Tore through everything but the SE corner in 10 mins, then came grinding to a halt. GUSTO and CIRCA held me up for another 20 mins, though the penny finally dropped.
31:49
Made heavy weather of this geting bogged down in the South East. SWEETPEAS TREACLE and BEGONIAS caused the most difficulty. Had MANSE as a possible alternative for GEESE for a while. A clever puzzle.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
About 30′ all parsed. Like yesterday probably should have been quicker and not sure why not…
Tempted to biff “Nuclear” at 1ac, but it made no sense and CLUSTER came quickly enough once I looked at 1dn.
I enjoyed SHINDIG and RURITANIA. I can never remember the book the latter came from, instead mentally misascribing it to the Marx Brothers (Freedonia…).
Thanks Jack and setter.
Twice in this puzzle we had words that were given as one word, although I should have thought they were two, or at least hyphenated: RUBBER STAMP and SWEET PEAS. No doubt some dictionaries somewhere give them as one. Perhaps language has moved on, as we are told it does in this sort of case. This was my excuse for a couple of delays, but otherwise this was a pleasant crossword and it held no more than reasonable difficulties. 38 minutes.
I agree plus Re-emphasise is usually one word but in all 3 cases multiple forms are in the dictionaries.
A fairly mainstream puzzle, all done in 30 minutes. Like others I did a fair bit of biffing, with the parsing coming later. Agree with Wil Ransome about RUBBERSTAMP and SWEEPEAS (and I might have added NON-SLIP), but neither held me up for long. I did flirt briefly with JOE PUBLIC at 7dn before plumping for the correct JOE.
FOI – RETRACT
LOI – NONSLIP
COD – UPSET
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
No exact time but around a ponderous 30 minutes, being unable to see past swindle for SHINDIG, which made 21d a bit tricky.
60 mins due to answering the phone. LOI was SWEETPEAS and I feel like this one clue is responsible for more sweat on my brow than any other in the last year. The synonym for ‘range’ just would not come. It’s just one of those words that looks inoffensive but then when you think about it has just so many meanings!
Not too difficult and an enjoyable puzzle.
CIRCA was LOI having biffed Crick early on.
Took a while to see RURITANIA and the definition seemed very broad.
COD to SWEETPEAS.
David
33:23. Still brain fug / not on the wavelength. I think a fairly gentle puzzle with interesting cluing, some of which I didn’t fully parse but mostly I did.
For me the SNITCH score for this one is spot-on. It gave me no problems but still took me 18 mins, which is less than my average solving time these days. It was a very pleasant solve. My favourite clue was to SHINDIG which has a splendid surface reading. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
My thanks to jackkt and setter.
Mainly easy when it was; sometimes it wasn’t.
10a Geese; Gee didn’t occur to me for ages and Corse means nothing AFAIK.
2d Upset almost insisted on being entered but it didn’t make sense, then PDM.
3d Terrain. Turtle looked unhelpful; ah, terrapin, freshwater cousin.
8d Re-emphasise, clever to hide all of that. Hyphen version not in Cheating Machine; added.
16d Sweetpeas, LOI. I thought they were sweet peas, but.
21d Gusto, was not sure about that def, but guessable.
11:54, slowing to a crawl at the end over a few hold-outs.
My general view with single/double/(un-)hyphenated words like SWEETPEAs and RUBBER STAMPs is that it’s a matter of personal taste: do as you please.
Tsk tsk! 😀
23.32. Mostly straightforward but wasn’t initially convinced by gusto and sheltered came slowly- good clue though. Final one was sweetpeas which I chose as my COD but it’s always a bit more tricky when the answer is combined from the more usual two word combinations.
Thx setter and blogger.
Nice puzzle, 20 mins or so.
The Prisoner of Zenda is one of those stories that depends on someone being the exact double of a famous person and so impersonating him. Like A Tale of Two Cities etc. As a child I liked it.
I agree about Sweet Peas, never thought of them as a single word.
14:22.
COD: SHINDIG (not COD).
Thanks to Jack and our setter.
Very straightforward puzzle only extending me only to 23.12, but still challenging enough to stir the grey matter. I liked this puzzle particularly because I was able to parse every clue with confidence that it was right. No head scratching thinking, is there a better alternative that I’ve missed. Well done to the setter.
Monday 30:00, today 29:50. If only i could improve each day bu ten seconds. Enjoyed both thanks setters, bloggers, and all.
Stuffed by swindle for SHINDIG
I was stuffed by ‘sleetless’ for SWEETPEAS. The slang term ‘jars’ for pints of beer always brings to mind the song ‘The Shopping Trolley’ by Irish singer/comedian Richie Kavanagh (https://youtu.be/QrFv9U5fCno?si=NkHc7jleA8vng7W0)
A bit over 25 minutes, but done on phone during Isle of Wight ferry crossing so I reckon I can take 7 or 8 minutes off for unfavourable surroundings.
I’m still at the stage where any sort of finish (slow or even slower) is a minor triumph, so I was quite pleased with how this went today. I wouldn’t claim to know all the US Presidents, but Earter certainly wasn’t one, so Retreat was quickly changed to Retract. Likewise Joe Public didn’t survive a parsing check. Otherwise, a fairly straightforward solve, with Cluster Bomb my favourite, a nose ahead of Re-emphasise. Invariant
25 minutes. Nice easy-ish Monday puzzle
Took me far too long to remember ‘Joe Bloggs’ — all I could think of was Joe Sixpack and John Doe. Watching too much TV probably
28:01
Stuck with the same last half-dozen as our setter by the looks of it. SWEETPEAS was last in. Didn’t recall where RURITANIA came from, but had the notion that it wasn’t real!
Thanks Jack and setter
31:48, spread over 2 days. Paused last night with JAR and JOE BLOGGS unsolved, then came back and spotted them this morning.
Thanks Jack and setter