Hello again. I found this one about average difficulty, at least by current standards. It had about the usual number of unusual words, with a couple of clues I struggled to parse at first. But no nho’s. I did a fair amount of BIFFING and quite a lot here would have passed me by, if I weren’t blogging it!
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Function of aide in prisoner release (6) |
| PAROLE -PA ROLE | |
| 4 | Does the author have what it takes to keep clubs friendly? (8) |
| AMICABLE – C(lubs) in AM I ABLE | |
| 10 | Better grind out a result here? (5,6) |
| TRENT BRIDGE – *(BETTER GRIND). Wasn’t sure what to underline, this is the first of a number of clues with no definition as such, just an indirect reference. Trent Bridge, Nottingham, one of England’s nicer test cricket grounds. | |
| 11 | One within range for each record (3) |
| ALP – A (per, for each) + LP | |
| 12 | Receiving bill, face down innkeeper (7) |
| PADRONE – AD (bill) in PRONE, face down. This would have been harder if we hadn’t had PADRONE as recently as last Friday! Why anyone would ever call an innkeeper a padrone, beats me. | |
| 14 | Mass this month either side of Easter in church (7) |
| MINSTER – M(ass) + INST, this month, + E(aste)R. Does anyone still use inst or ult, or prox? | |
| 15 | Poem roughly about area belonging to university city (7,7) |
| ORLANDO FURIOSO – LAND OF U(niversity) + RIO, in OR SO, roughly. An epic poem by Ariosto, that I had vaguely heard of. You might struggle with this one, if you hadn’t! It is also the title of two operas by Vivaldi. It has come up on TfTT before, last time in 2022. | |
| 17 | Booted, finally get them sparkling, in military order (7,7) |
| KNIGHTS TEMPLAR – *((ge)T + THEM + SPARKLING). I just BIFD this, I’m afraid. According to Wikipedia the Knights Templar were disbanded in 1312! The similar order, Knights Hospitaller, fared better and is still around today, under different names. | |
| 21 | Take off tights, possibly grabbing pair at the back, and throw (7) |
| UNHORSE – (pai)R in UN HOSE, to remove tights, not that I ever have. Nor been unhorsed, come to that. Must get out more .. | |
| 22 | Citizen breaks into a run around country (7) |
| ROMANIA – OMANI is the citizen, in A R(un) reversed. | |
| 23 | A little spirit, dismissing opening batter with it (3) |
| RAM – (d)RAM, a little spirit. Another one with no clear definition, just a hint to a battering ram .. | |
| 24 | Bearing up, in case police finally call (11) |
| SHOULDERING – SHOULD (in case) + (polic)E + RING, call. There must be some situation where in case = should. How about “In case/should Mr Farage call(s), tell him I’m out.” That very nearly works… | |
| 26 | Randomly choose from Spooner’s few remaining beds (4,4) |
| CAST LOTS – LAST COTS, according to Spooner. I have learnt to love Spoonerisms, but don’t think it was easy. | |
| 27 | Fruit hard to find in foreign school (6) |
| LYCHEE – H(ard) in LYCEE, a French school roughly equivalent to a sixth form college in Britain. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Advertise vacancy where result’s already decided? (3-2,3) |
| PUT-UP JOB – A DD, the first jocular. What some call a “Cryptic hint,” perhaps. | |
| 2 | Crop warped in the ear (3) |
| RYE – sounds like “Wry.” The first definition of which in Collins is “twisted, contorted, or askew” | |
| 3 | Lower rent supported by county (3,4) |
| LET DOWN – LET (rent) and County DOWN. I spent far too long here thinking about cows. | |
| 5 | Grammar essentially a barrier, monarch for one abandoned Japanese (5,9) |
| MADAM BUTTERFLY – MA + DAM (barrier) + (Monarch) BUTTERFLY. |
|
| 6 | City’s vital energy keeping queen up (7) |
| CHENNAI – ANNE, rev. in CHI, vital energy. Chennai, once called Madras, a name that lives on now only in curry houses. | |
| 7 | The Black Horse loans out a room you’d look better to leave (6,5) |
| BEAUTY SALON – (Black) BEAUTY + *(LOANS). Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was required reading for young folk when I was one, not so much nowadays perhaps, though it is still one of the best-selling novels of all time. I remember being very affected by it, and have tried to be nice to horses ever since. | |
| 8 | No longer cheeking master? (6) |
| EXPERT – EX PERT. | |
| 9 | Dismissal from Wellington’s command? (5,2,3,4) |
| ORDER OF THE BOOT – Wellington boots, originally leather but now rubber, were indeed originated and popularised by the (1st) Duke of Wellington. | |
| 13 | Official initially dropped, only had a most unreliable Welsh linesman (5,6) |
| DYLAN THOMAS – *((o)NLY HAD A MOST). Unreliable as an anagrind? I guess. | |
| 16 | One beaten by a different sort of player in a frame of snooker (8) |
| TRIANGLE – The musical “Instrument,” and the frame used to place the red balls for a frame of snooker. | |
| 18 | Gear raised a very large stone (7) |
| GIRASOL – RIG (gear) reversed, + A SO L(arge). A type of opal. | |
| 19 | A parent myself, backing your ostentatious ceremony (7) |
| MUMMERY – MUM (a parent) + ME, myself, + YR (your) rev. | |
| 20 | Chafe over endlessly prolific set of instructions (6) |
| RUBRIC – RUB + RIC(h) | |
| 25 | Sort of mishap, map in parts missing (3) |
| ISH – (m)ISH(ap). | |
Beaten by the unheard of ORLANDO FURIOSO and CHENNAI which I should really have got. An enjoyable 60 minutes in spite of the missing answers.
Still trying to shake off the January blues as I’m on a bad run at the moment. I know setters must struggle to come up with new anagrinds but ‘booted’ and ‘unreliable’ are a bit of a stretch. Knew I was in trouble when I saw ‘stone’ in 18d- gems are often my downfall.
On a positive note, the spoonerism in 26a came to mind immediately -a first.
I refuse to believe this is an “average” SNITCH. Maybe American solvers need their own difficulty rating…
I am always admiring of our American solvers, wrestling as they are with an unfamiliar dialect and environment… eg Trent Bridge … and, my occasional efforts to do the NYT crossword have not gone too well.
But I don’t want the NYT crossword to change to suit me, and I don’t want The Times cryptic to change to suit them. They are what they are, and good for them. Globalisation of national icons should be fiercely resisted.
22 mins and pleased: in total this week so far under an hour; maybe at last I am getting consistent. Anyway thanks to all as usual.
35 mins and my first finish this week. Couldn’t help but think ram would have been better with butter.
Hopefully, my form will improve.
36 minutes. A good crossword but some long answers which meant some quite convoluted clues. All parsed but didn’t know that definition of GIRASOL, and stupidly couldn’t think what the TRIANGLE was in snooker. (I think the “possibly” covers the fact that UNHOSE, as far as I know, doesn’t exist as a word.)
This seemed a fairly easy puzzle when I was solving it, but it still took me two leisurely sessions totalling 31 mins. PADRONE, of course, went in straightaway on reading ‘innkeeper’. GIRASOL was floating around in my memory with no definition attached but it fitted the wordplay. My three favourite clues were to ORLANDO FURIOSO, KNIGHTS TEMPLAR and TRIANGLE. Thank you to Setter for a nice puzzle and thank you to Blogger.
44 minutes, very enjoyable, but stupidly put Orlando Furiosa. As a penance I shall now read the poem.
52:28 – another toughie. I’m still finding things slow going Vs before Christmas when I got flu. is this a symptom of Long COVID?