Time: 36 minutes to get within one answer of completing the grid but I was unable to finish even after resorting to aids so I gave up and revealed the answer. Apart from that I enjoyed this puzzle.
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 | Insert provided in posh catalogue (8) |
| CLASSIFY – IF (provided) contained by [insert…in] CLASS~Y (posh) | |
| 5 | Call secretary to return ring (6) |
| APPEAL – PA (secretary – Personal Assistant) reversed [to return], PEAL (ring) | |
| 9 | Standard item of cavalier language (8) |
| PARLANCE – PAR (standard), LANCE (item of cavalier) | |
| 10 | Signal to turn right? (6) |
| BEACON – BE A CON (to turn right – become a Conservative) | |
| 12 | Heading for escalator, passed on lift (5) |
| ELATE – E{scalator} [heading for…], LATE (passed on) | |
| 13 | Before promotions, implement toxic growth (9) |
| TOADSTOOL – TO (before), ADS (promotions), TOOL (implement) | |
| 14 | Warning to PR team, scrambling behind collapse (6,6) |
| CAVEAT EMPTOR – CAVE (collapse), then anagram [scrambling] of TO PR TEAM. “Let the buyer beware” is a principle in commerce and contract law. | |
| 18 | Man contributing to partnership on home ground? (12) |
| HOUSEHUSBAND – Cryptic | |
| 21 | Java product, perhaps filling island cocktail (9) |
| APPLETINI – |
|
| 23 | Broad humour out of reach these days (5) |
| FARCE – FAR (out of reach), CE (these days – the Common Era) | |
| 24 | Swear in cricket match? (6) |
| AT TEST – Cryptic hint | |
| 25 | Teacher training left large blunder in writing (8) |
| MISSPELL – MISS (teacher), PE (training), L (left), L (large) | |
| 26 | Tiresome, what judges get up to (6) |
| TRYING – Two meanings | |
| 27 | Trusting pub with old foreign money (8) |
| INNOCENT – INN (pub), O (old), CENT (foreign money) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Heavy metal piano bores manager (6) |
| COPPER – P (piano) is contained by [bores] COP~ER (manager) | |
| 2 | Each nest individually overturned antenna (6) |
| AERIAL – EA (each), LAIR (nest) individually reversed [overturned] = AE, then RIAL | |
| 3 | Friend pursuing tasteless drawing (9) |
| STALEMATE – STALE (tasteless), MATE (friend) | |
| 4 | Misshapen ice? A chef must accept consequences (4,3,5) |
| FACE THE MUSIC – Anagram [misshapen] of ICE A CHEF MUST | |
| 6 | Crowd ahead of Spurs on sidelines (5) |
| PRESS – PRE (ahead of), then S{pur}S [on sidelines] | |
| 7 | Cold stuffing on the way, baked in pastry (2,6) |
| EN CROUTE – C (cold) contained by [stuffing] EN ~ROUTE (on the way) | |
| 8 | Letter turned whimsical, gripping as well (8) |
| LANDLORD – DROL~L (whimsical) reversed [turned] containing [gripping] AND (as well) | |
| 11 | Jargon on a ship upset North American — one from Harvard? (12) |
| CANTABRIGIAN – CANT (jargon), A, BRIG (ship), then NA (North American) + I (one) reversed [upset]. That’s Cambridge, Massachusetts | |
| 15 | Possibly some faint political statement (9) |
| MANIFESTO – Anagram [possibly] of SOME FAINT | |
| 16 | Hard to go in for length of friendly game (8) |
| PHEASANT – P{l}EASANT (friendly) becomes PHEASANT (game) when H (hard) replaces [to go in for] L (length) | |
| 17 | Youngster favoured extremely rascally manipulation (8) |
| PUPPETRY – PUP (youngster), PET (favoured), R{ascall}Y [extremely] | |
| 19 | Delivered cheeses for picnic (6) |
| BREEZE – Aural wordplay [delivered] “Bries” (cheeses). ‘Breeze’ and ‘picnic’ are both used to describe something that’s easy. Or as Dorsetjimbo used to say, ‘a walk in the park’. | |
| 20 | Wine selection from customer lottery (6) |
| MERLOT – Hidden in [selection from] {custo}MER LOT{tery} | |
| 22 | Relax topless somewhere in Germany (5) |
| ESSEN – {l}ESSEN (relax) [topless] | |
I saw the heading and wondered if it would be CANTABRIGIAN or APPLETINI that did you in. CANTABRIGIAN was my last in. I think APPLETINI is APPLET for the Java program, then IN (filling), I (island).
Thanks. Now amended.
27:39
I biffed CAVEAT EMPTOR from E_T, T, parsed post-submission. APPLETINI: I suppose I must have come across it somewhere, because I had no idea of the wordplay until I typed it in; and it took me a while before I parsed it, the same way as George.
Misparsed the never heard of APPLETINI (my Java thingme was Apple, leaving ‘tin’ for the filling), while the crossing CANTABRIGIAN took a bit of working out, and will surely trip some people up.
‘To’ for ‘before’ had me stumped before I realised it had to do with telling the time: ‘twenty to four.’
A good puzzle, marred by the, albeit oblique, reference to the other place.
35:17
18:27. I got APPLETINI after finally thinking of TINI as a likely cocktail ending, then it had to be APPLE, but I couldn’t parse it. I enjoyed this one because I only got a single across on the first sweep, so was terrified that it would be a 150 or so. But downs turned out to be more gettable.
56:46 All green, no aids
LOI PHEASANT which is a chestnut, and I saw the l to h device too, but thought it was two words. My wife made Crantini cocktails (with left over cranberries) for Boxing Day, and once I saw Java=App, figured APPLETINI must be something similar.
COD CANTABRIGIAN
I had to work this one online, as it seems I need a new printer. Felt on the wavelength, up to the last few clues. Last one in was the cocktail, which was obvious with all the checkers.
34:11. Found this easier than yesterday though the Snitch suggests otherwise. Got the cocktail from the crosses and the Harvard scholar from the charade. COD LANDLORD.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
I was through this in under the half hour apart from CANTABRIGIAN and APPLETINI, with a MER at STALE being TASTELESS. I eventually remembered the former from the original Cambridge having failed to construct it, but didn’t come up with APPLETINI despite assuming it was something to do with computer programs. Is there a club where happy girls and boys sing “we are the APPLETINIS”? Thank you Jack and setter.
I too was held up for a long time on APPLETINI, where I thought I was looking for a Java product like a CAPPUCINO or similar. Got there in the end though, probably because back in the 90s I produced a few Java applets, and happened to watch the excellent sitcom Scrubs in the 2000s—the APPLETINI is main character JD’s favourite cocktail. (“Easy on the ’tini.”)
I did not find this at all easy to complete after making a decent start. TOADSTOOL eventually defeated me – I did not connect ‘before’ with ‘TO’ so was on the wrong track from the get go. Although it’s a bit of a chestnut, BE A CON did not stand out (ironically) and I took far too long to see ‘manager’ = COPER. Fortunately, I did manage to make sense of the cocktail and, once I’d got the incorrect CANTABRIAN out of my head, the alumnus. All told, in the region of 35 minutes which is slow for me for a Tuesday puzzle.
Thanks to setter and blogger
36 minutes.
Well a substantial improvement on yesterday despite the higher snitch. LOI was PHEASANT, preceded by HOUSEHUSBAND, both of which should have been only too familiar. COD to APPLETINI simply because it sprang surprisingly quickly to mind.
Somewhat misled by the use of ‘heavy’ in reference to COPPER: Chambers does not describe it as such but my AI chum informs me that although it is commonly so classified, ‘the term “heavy metal” lacks a strict IUPAC definition and varies by context’.
Thanks as ever to setter and jackkt.
I suspect your AI is hallucinating, having gathered all the incorrect usages and then proclaimed it to be true. Does anyone know how to switch it off completely?
They say if you swear it doesn’t show it’s head. Not: Is copper a heavy metal? More: Is that copper s*** a f***ing heavy metal?
Beaten by APPLETINI, which is a NHO but I’m annoyed because I may have got it if I hadn’t carelessly bunged in PUPETTRY for 17d and didn’t spot my error. Damn!
I liked househusband.
Thanks Jack and setter.
About 20 minutes.
– Thought of TOADSTOOL early on, but hesitated as I initially didn’t see how to=before
– Biffed APPLETINI once I had enough checkers
– Didn’t know COPPER is a heavy metal
– Wondered if CANTABRIGIAN might have a D in it, but clearly it doesn’t
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Attest
LOI Beacon
COD Classify
19’51”. Nho APPLETINI, same struggles and parsing as others. I should have got CLASSIFY earlier.
Many of the teachers at my school had MA (Cantab) after their names – it did get me wondering for a few years why they’d all gone to Canterbury. 🙂
Thanks jack and setter.
14:43, with quite a long pause at the end trying to parse APPLETINI. I was fixated on the Java product being an APP, and eventually just gave up and bunged it in.
Didn’t know the term for people educated at that Cambridge. MER at ‘heavy metal’.
Copper was a semi-MER. As light as steel and iron, not nearly as heavy as gold or lead or tungsten or mercury or others. Though in a different context copper is one of the heavy metal poisons. A major constituent of anti-fouling paint on ships because it’s so toxic to marine life, but an ecological disaster in oceans and ports especially.
Beaten by NHO APPLETINI and CANTABRIGIAN – had no idea about applet as a Java thing.
Disappointing after yesterday’s success. I’ll hope for better tomorrow.
Thanks to the blogger as ever for his work.
24:39. I’m another who got stuck at the end on the unknown APPLETIINI. I’ll have to give that a try some time, but I’ve got some cranberries left so may try Merlin’s Crantini today. I liked LANDLORD and CAVEAT EMPTOR best. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
I quite enjoyed this one. I started with COPPER, which I’d not really class as a heavy metal. APPLETINI was my POI. I’d heard of it and managed to parse it correctly. That seened to confirm that the ship in 11d was going to be a brig, and so CANTABRIGIAN was constructed and completed the grid. Liked TOADSTOOL and HOUSEHUSBAND. 21:01. Thanks setter and Jack.
I agree, copper is not classed as a “heavy metal” but it makes more sense of the surface by referencing the music genre and linking with piano I suppose.
21.39
APPLETINI also LOI but surprisingly did parse it correctly, despite knowing nothing of Java nor that cocktail (other cocktails, that’s a different story).
I tried to comment here at 10.00 but site refused to let me in. 23 minutes for this one, ending with APPLETINI which I had to construct from WP and then Google, which gave me lots of pictures of disgusting looking drinks in martini glasses. A MER at STALE for tasteless., but I liked the definition ‘drawing’.
Did you get a 429 error “Too many requests”? I’ve had a few of those in the past few weeks.
Aha, not just me then – several 429s over the last couple of days. I tried clearing caches and things to no avail, but now working again (obviously!)
I wasn’t sure copper was a heavy metal, but apparently there isn’t a hard and fast definition.
I read it as the spurs (bits shooting off to the side, like a spur road) “on” sidelines meant the first and last of sidelines. I couldn’t get “on sidelines” to mean the edges of spurs. “Sidelines of” would have worked. So I thought spurs might be a nice new addition to our usual edges, boundaries, outsides, on holiday, etc indicators
I liked a lot of the misleading definitions, and learned a new word (Appletini) which I hope never to use, and a new usage (Canatabrigian, viz Cambridge MA) which I might or might not find useful.
31 mins – delays across the board with PHEASANT, PUPPETRY, APPLETINI, CANTABRIGIAN and the unparsed BEACON providing the above-mentioned hold-ups in varying degrees.
For about 25-30 minutes all was going well, with only nine to do, but then there was a break of about 20 minutes when I could make no progress. Eventually I could stand it no more and used aids. Was rather annoyed by a number of things: copper, although it’s quite heavy, is not to my knowledge a heavy metal; I’d never heard of APPLETINI; I was unable to spell CANTABRIGIAN even though it had occurred to me and I had rejected it, thinking it had a D in it like Cambridge. And on top of that I missed the PHEASANT chestnut.
19:18
A bit slow, partly, I think, due to a number of non-obvious meanings (e.g. cave, brig) but also on account of my thinking in the wrong terms whenever there was a choice (oh, that sort of cavalier, that sort of game, that sort of letter, etc.)
Pleasant, with some nice clues. One NHO Cantabrigian, one semi-NHO appletini and one semi-MER copper, as per others above. Crossing Cantabrigian and appletini were last in, though I suspected the cocktail would end -ini and I’ve heard of applets in Java. Even so needed all the crossers, after finally remembering brig instead of bark.
I’m another who found this a bit easier than yesterday, finishing up in 21:23, also with a bit of a pause at the end with the cocktail, the last checker of which I needed to get my LOI PHEASANT. That chestnutty ‘other’ sense of GAME has stalled me far more often than it should: I suppose there aren’t many (any?) usefully short examples of hunting game for it to appear anything like as much as our beloved flowers.
‘Beacon’ was used just a few days ago with similarly constructed clue I think.
50 mins spread over a couple of sessions either side of a journey.
Unlike yesterday which was a case of easy puzzle/slow solver, I thought this was really difficult, full on Friday style. Maybe just off-wavelength but can’t even say I enjoyed the struggle. Oh well, thanks anyway.
DNF – I would never have got the NHO APPLETINI however long I spent on it; I’d assumed that “Java product” gave me ‘APP’ but that was as far as I could get. I also didn’t get CANTABRIGIAN – it crossed my mind because I was vaguely aware that Harvard is in Cambridge; unfortunately, I did not know how to spell ‘CantabriDgian’ – I might have got it if I hadn’t also failed on CAVEAT EMPTOR, mainly because I interpreted “behind” as meaning that the synonym for “collapse” had to come at the end – in my very literal mind “behind” is the opposite of “in front of”.
I rather wish I hadn’t spent quite so long on it…
Clearly I spent too long on it, since what I have written about CAVEAT EMPTOR makes no sense at all 🙂
My thanks to jackkt and setter.
DNF, most of the SW. I came here (after the usual Too Many Requests errors) for NHO Appletini, which allowed me to tidy up the SW. I do feel that “Java product” is a bit vague for Applet.
1d Copper, I have never thought of copper as a heavy metal but Wiki supports it: “Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term.(skipped a bit)… The earliest known metals—common metals such as iron, copper, and tin, and precious metals such as silver, gold, and platinum—are heavy metals.”
11d Cantabrigian, I DNK that it applies to Camb, Mass, as well as our one. Does it apply to MIT as well as Harvard?
22d Essen, it is the usual German city but I was a bit unsure about lessen=relax.
It took me 23 mins today. I was flying along, then was held up for several minutes by CAVEAT EMPTOR, CANTABRIGIAN and APPLETINI. Having eventually got CAVEAT EMPTOR, I then got CANTABRIGIAN through the clear wordplay; APPLETINI was mainly a calculated guess. Had it not been for these answers I would have rated the puzzle pretty easy. My favourite clue was to BEACON, though I feel I may have seen variations of the clue previously (confirmed by DavidL). Like isla3 I have been the victim of ‘Too many requests’ on several occasions. Thank you to Setter and Jack.
Yes, also foxed by Appletini and Canta-whatsit. I had to look them up. I was hung up on “Appletise”, even though I knew it wasn’t a cocktail (and was a brand name), and resorted to aids at that point.
Enjoyable puzzle nevertheless.
Around 40 minutes barring those two.
A gentle puzzle, all done in 30 minutes, so about average for me. It might have been quicker but for a delay over the last couple of clues, including APPLETINI, which I finally biffed, having failed to proceed from APP to APPLET in my parsing. I gave up science at ‘O’ level so I would be happy to regard anything as a heavy metal as long as it fitted the grid.
FOI – ELATE
LOI – APPLETINI
COD – MISSPELL
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
Easier for me than yesterday’s, which I never finished (might have another go at some point) and certainly more fun than today’s Quickie. Lots to like – CLASSIFY, APPEAL, PARLANCE, ELATE, PHEASANT – all quite late in coming, however. Couldn’t quite get TO for ‘before’, but the clock reference makes sense. I didn’t know CANTABRIGIAN and pieced it together laboriously, nor APPLETINI. I’d even got as far as looking up cocktails beginning APP… but it wasn’t listed. Then I worked it out, along the same lines as Jackkt (LET IN = filling). Doesn’t matter how I got to it, fortunately. I didn’t think COPPER was a heavy metal, but the crossers made it obvious. COD to CAVEAT EMPTOR.
20 mins, never did parse APPLETINI but as a one-time Scrubs fan this was a write-in! 🙂
Entertaining crossword but had to resort to aids to finish. I was aware of Cambridge MA but not that CANTAB is short for Cantabrigian. Presumably it is the same for graduates of the original Cambridge? I knew APPLET from having done a bit of JAVA programming back in the day before computer programs became apps. Is it JAVA apping now?
Is Copper a heavy metal? If we look at the figures then maybe, just. A mean density for a list of 79 metals is 8.48 g/cc and Copper has a density of 8.93 g/cc. So it just squeaks in as slightly heavier than average.
Thanks to setter & Jack.
Enjoyed the calculation 👍
58 minutes so just within my self-imposed time limit. Also NHO APPLETINI. EN CROUTE was delightful.
Pleased with my 32 minutes, interrupted by making a cuppa. I got appletini as soon as I saw the i-i ending. Didn’t bother too much about whether copper was a heavy metal, as most things made of copper seem heavy!
44 minutes with one mistake (of course, the cocktail, although if I had thought about Java a bit more I might have seen the APPLET in it). I had APPLES instead, which seemed perfectly reasonable, although the former Dutch colony would probably have named the cocktail APPELSINI and not APPLESINI, if there had been such a cocktail made with oranges.
I put in CANTABRIGIAN without problems but with some misgivings, and indeed, my online Premium OED defines this as “relating to Cambridge (in England) or Cambridge University.” I also attended a major university (the other one, not Harvard) in Cambridge, MA, and would never have dreamed of calling myself a Cantabrigian because of it.
Will somebody please tell me what STALEMATE has to do with drawing?
Also what an MER and LOI are?
A stalemate is when neither side can win so that counts as a draw.
Click on the link to the TfTT Glossary to find out what the jargon means. The exact location of the link will vary according to the device you’re using but it’s on the Help Menu and separately under Useful Links.