I lost track of time on this one but it must have taken me nearly an hour. The top half of the grid had been fine apart from one obscure answer, a foreign word that baffled me to the end and I needed aids to find it, but the lower part of the grid had very few write-ins for me plus at least two answers I have never heard of before.
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 | Feature of garden city after call to incorporate river (8) |
| BIRDBATH – BI~D (call) containing [to incorporate] R (river), BATH (city) | |
| 5 | Diplomat’s gift starts off incredibly cunning ruse (6) |
| TACTIC – TACT (diplomat’s gift), I{ncredibly} + C{unning} [starts off…] | |
| 9 | Cartoon dog and cat keeping animator ultimately a rich person (9) |
| PLUTOCRAT – PLUTO (cartoon dog – Disney), C~AT containing [keeping] {animato}R [ultimately] | |
| 11 | A lot of sentimental nonsense reflected by completed review (3,2) |
| SUM UP – MUS{h} (sentimental nonsense) [a lot of…] reversed [reflected], UP (completed) | |
| 12 | English Republican backed following European stand (7) |
| EPERGNE – E (European), then ENG (English) + REP (Republican) reversed [backed]. An ornamental centrepiece for a table: a stand with holders for sweetmeats, fruit, flowers, etc. Not a word I’m aware of but it has appeared here on a handful of occasions, most recently in 2022 when it was clued as an anagram and I managed to work it out. Today the wordplay was too tricky for me so I resorted to aids. ENG for English and REP for Republican are quite rare in wordplay by comparison with the ubiquitous E and R, and just didn’t occur to me. | |
| 13 | Body of learning that is recalled about large element of Rhine mythology (7) |
| LORELEI – LORE (body of learning), ~, IE (that is) reversed [recalled] containing [about] L (large). The mythical siren and the actual rock on the Rhine on which she is reputed to have sat whilst luring sailors to their doom. | |
| 14 | Released Iran papers etc in coverage from that area? (7,6) |
| PERSIAN CARPET – Anagram [released] of IRAN PAPERS ETC. I wasn’t sure about ‘released’ as anagram indicator and Chambers doesn’t list it, but I think it works in the sense of ‘set free’. |
|
| 16 | Bit of childish fun agitating press barons, I finally assume (9,4) |
| PRISONERS BASE – Anagram [agitating] of PRESS BARONS I {assum}E [finally]. A children’s game involving two teams, members of which chase and capture each other to increase the number of children in their own base. Another resort to aids here. I was going to say I never heard of it but it appeared once previously in a puzzle 15 years ago when I also didn’t know it. | |
| 20 | Gamble, losing power? Regret past fabrication (7) |
| UNTRUTH – {p}UNT (gamble) [losing power], RUTH (regret). I think ‘past’ indicates an archaism. | |
| 21 | Old ideal shattered, split by pressure of some Freudian concept (7) |
| OEDIPAL – Anagram [shattered] of O (old) IDEAL containing [split by] P (pressure) | |
| 23 | Delete time stamp except at the outset (5) |
| ERASE – ERA (time) then S{tamp} + E{xcept} [at the outset] | |
| 24 | Unused capacity? Way best to harness it when recalled (9) |
| POTENTIAL – LA~NE (way) + TOP (best) containing [to harness] IT all reversed [recalled] | |
| 25 | The very thing to be included in college constitution (6) |
| POLITY – IT (the very thing) contained by [to be included in] POLY (college). A form or process of civil government or constitution. Another resort to aids. Never heard of it. Never been seen here before today. | |
| 26 | Trees etc depicted in lines by English writer (8) |
| GREENERY – GREENE (English writer), RY (lines – railway) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Shepherdess’s dance involving physical exercise and energy (2,4) |
| BO PEEP – BO~P (dance) containing [involving] PE (physical exercise) + E (energy) | |
| 2 | Pathway unconventional, but getting right to the top (5) |
| ROUTE – OUTRE (unconventional) becomes ROUTE when R (right) is moved to the top. | |
| 3 | Internet commentator and forestry worker supporting book (7) |
| BLOGGER – B (book), LOGGER (forestry worker) | |
| 4 | The strike will incur a lot of staggering urgent government business (5-4,4) |
| THREE-LINE WHIP – TH~E WHIP (the strike) contains [will incur] REELIN{g} (staggering} [a lot of]. A written notice, underlined three times to denote urgency, to members of a political party to attend a parliamentary vote. | |
| 6 | A curtailed court case involving America and another country (7) |
| AUSTRIA – A ~ TRIA{l} (a court case} [curtailed] containing [involving] US (America) | |
| 7 | We will capture circuit and end of race using special photography (4-5) |
| TIME-LAPSE – TIME~S (we) contains [will capture] LAP (circuit), then {rac}E [end of] | |
| 8 | Mediterranean islander represented in Troy epic (8) |
| CYPRIOTE – Anagram [represented] of TROY EPIC. This appears to be the French spelling of Cypriot that’s found its way into English as an alternative. I’ve not seen it before; nor has TfTT. |
|
| 10 | Potent starlet revealed by my working? (6,7) |
| TALENT SPOTTER – Anagram [revealed by] of POTENT STARLET | |
| 14 | Isn’t in lead over the whole war game (9) |
| PAINTBALL – AIN’T (isn’t) contained by [in] PB (lead), then ALL (the whole) | |
| 15 | English dog, surrounded by offspring, reared to be smart (6,2) |
| SPRUCE UP – E (English) + CUR (dog) contained [surrounded] by PU~PS (offspring – of dog] all reversed [reared] | |
| 17 | Lavish work curtailed, then advanced (7) |
| OPULENT – OPU{s} (work) [curtailed], LENT (advanced) | |
| 18 | Depression, drowned in beer, not yielding much? (2,5) |
| AL DENTE – DENT (depression) contained by [drowned in] ALE (beer). Undercooked vegetables. | |
| 19 | Likely to have Liberals displaced in Yorkshire town (6) |
| ILKLEY – LIKELY with the Ls (Liberals) displaced becomes ILKLEY as referred to in the Yorkshire song On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at (On Ilkley Moor without a hat). | |
| 22 | Chief, though not number one? (5) |
| PRIME – The hint in support refers to the number 1 not being a prime number. | |
Never heard of THREE LINE WHIP or PRISONERS BASE. Also didn’t know of ILKLEY but it does ring a distant bell. Apart from those three everything else was pretty straightforward. I managed to see what was going on with EPERGNE and just wrote engrep-E and then reversed it and crossed my fingers. SPRUCE UP took a bit of working out as I thought that the offspring was ‘pup’ in the singular, so assumed the answer began with a ‘P’. Liked PRIME and liked the clue for TALENT SPOTTER and wondered if the crossing POTENTial was leading to something. COD to TIME-LAPSE for the cunning ‘we’ as ‘Times’.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I was a bit annoyed at PRIME, which I suspected but rejected, since 1 is not a prime number just as a dog is not a prime number. Could not find EPERGNE — I did wonder if ENG or REP could be abbreviations, but with Es and R already in the mix there were simply too many possibilities. Thank you for the parsing of THREE-LINE WHIP, which I could not see.
I think the idea with PRIME is that the average person with only a passing acquaintance with maths might expect 1 to be a prime number. They may remember a rule that a prime is divisible by itself and 1 whilst forgetting that the two divisors have to be different. In other words the clue is referring to a common misconception whereas nobody would expect a dog to be a prime number.
I was surprisingly successful. I managed to dredge up epergne after briefly considering etalier, which probably doesn’t even exist. I just biffed three line whip as the obvious answer, while using the cryptic to write in potential backwards. Ilkley was a bit unfair for US solvers, but I had vaguely heard of it, and the cryptic is kind.
Time: 23:50
ETAGERE was the possible alternative that crossed my mind. Agreed, some biffs on my part too
Given the number of references to College Basketball and Baseball in NYT puzzles, I think a bit of parochialism is clearly fair game!
Must’ve seen EPERGNE somewhere before. The NHO THREE-LINE WHIP and PRISONERS BASE were much harder.
We’ve had THREE-LINE WHIP several times (including a QC), as recently as 2023. I knew EPERGNE from Our Mutual Friend, where the Podsnaps have a ‘corpulent straddling epergne, blotched all over as if it had broken out in an eruption rather than been ornamented’ on their dining table.
28.09 but once again one answer shy of perfection – EPERGNE. Quite a lot of biffing required today and the blog was needed to untangle a couple post-solve, so thanks Jack.
From Spirit On The Water:
You think I’m over the hill
You think I’m past my PRIME
Let me see what you got
We can have a whompin’ good time
10:52, with a minute or so at the end thinking I wasn’t going to crack 12ac. As jackkt says the appearance of both ENG and REP in the wordplay make this tricky.
Also needed wordplay for the unknown PRISONERS BASE.
I’m sure I’ve seen CYPRIOTE spelled like that somewhere else recently.
I can never quite remember how you apply the principle of a PRIME number being divisible by itself and one, so long ago I learned the simple mnemonic ‘one isn’t a prime number’.
I suspect you’re thinking of CORFIOTE, which I think cropped up in last month’s Special.
Ah yes, that could be it. It was a Mephisto I think (I don’t do the Special).
27 minutes. Watching low-brow TV does come in useful sometimes. Those antiques programmes quite often feature EPERGNE(s); to each his/her own, but not really my thing and sounds like Charles Dickens may not have been a big fan either – thanks for the quote, Kevin.
NHO PRISONERS BASE but it and the other less common words (and variant spelling) could be worked out one way or another. I wasn’t sure of the intended mood for ‘be smart’ (?imperative) for SPRUCE UP.
Thanks to Jack and setter
DNF with NHO EPERGNE. Like others too many Es and Rs confusing me, but would probably have needed an anagram to get it. Wrote in CYPRIOT, then wondered what to do with the “E” so bunged it in at the end.
Never heard of PRISONERS BASE but it fitted and sounded right. We played the same game but with a different name which I can’t now remember.
Thanks Jack and setter.
No undue problems, nho the game but worked it out from the anagrist and a crosser or two. Epergne we’ve had before. MER at CypriotE but it had to be ..
I was doing well with this one until totally stumped by EPERGNE, so a DNF. NHO PRISONERS BASE but the anagram delivered it. I had put in CYPRIOTE an POLITY too from the wordplay, so its a shame to have fallen at the last
Here I am baht ‘at, PRISONERS BASE and EPERGNE. I guess a bit of work could have produced the unknown child’s game but by then I’d banged my head against the brick wall of EPERGNE so many times that I gave up. I ‘d really enjoyed the puzzle until that point. Thank you Jack and setter.
16:11 Held up at the end for a minute or so by the once-seen-but-soon-forgotten EPERGNE. DNK PRISONERS BASE but it had to be and helped me stop thinking 15D had to begin with a P. Thanks Jackkt and setter.
Another that I found tough at 32 mins. Unlike yesterday’s brain fog I made steady progress but it was a lot of hard work.
NHO EPERGNE but that was less trouble than the NHO and LOI childrens game which needed all the crossers, a very careful anagrist check and a lot of trust.
Liked AL DENTE. Thanks jackkt and setter.
DNF, defeated by the unknown EPERGNE.
– Had to trust that PRISONERS BASE is a game played by children
– Hadn’t come across that spelling of CYPRIOTE before, though it had to be
– Went on a trawl around Yorkshire before I realised the key to the answer was right there in the clue for ILKLEY
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Three-line whip
The Times Cryptic is only puzzle where I take note of my completion time as it is a feature of the blog. I’m not a slow solver, on the whole – 21 minutes for this one – but, as I approached the end of the top row with some 8 clues solved, I realised I had already passed the time in which some of the really quick solvers can complete a puzzle!
Very pleased to have had a successful completion today – I have no idea why I know EPERGNE but I do. The other nhos – CYPRIOTE and POLITY – came together from wordplay along with PRISONERS BASE – LOI, for which I needed every crosser. PLUTOCRAT, THREE-LINE WHIP and ILKLEY were all faves but COTD goes to the beautiful TALENT SPOTTER.
Thanks to setter and blogger
The Club site will tell you that the current average time for solving this thing is 24.05, which you have comfortably beaten. The number of solvers who regularly go at less than 10 minutes is small, and polluted by people who mysteriously post spoof sub-5 times – only a tiny elite can normally manage that for real. You’re “better than average”!
27.40 but needed aids for LOI EPERGNE.
Eric Fenby wrote a parodic piece of music called “Rossini on Ilkla Moor” which is highly entertaining.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Has anyone heard of PRISONERS BASE? I haven’t either.
Knew EPERGNE was a word but couldn’t have defined it. LOI TACTIC.
I have heard of it, so it’s not nobody.
A few NHOs slowed things down a bit (PRISONERS’ BASE, EPERGNE and LORELEI), but I managed to apply myself and figure them out in reasonable time (22:14). There is a solver by the name of LoreleiBill who is the only reason I saw LORELEI quite quickly, so thanks Bill. EPERGNE is completely new.
All in all, I really enjoyed this.
25:56 but was expecting to be a few letters out again with EPERGNE, LORELEI, POLITY and PRISONERS BASE all new to me.
I did feel uneasy about PRIME despite it going straight in. Agree with previous comment that there are a lot of things that are ‘not number one’.
COD ILKLEY. I seem to recall it was once (part of) a bellwether constituency but it has now firmly displaced their liberals.
Quite enjoyed this one.
Thanks blogger and setter
41:17
Got epergne from some dark recess of my memory. Cypriote is a spelling I haven’t seen before in English, despite having lived in Cyprus for 16 years.
Thanks, jack.
18.42, parsing SUM UP to be sure of it only just before submitting. PRISONERS’ BASE sounds a lot of fun, in which, thankfully, I will now never participate. Sounds similar to British Bulldog, which we played on an asphalt playground with Rugby League level brutality. How we made it through childhood is a mystery.
Three clues in a row, 14, 16 and 20 have remarkable and immediately contemporary resonances which together with 2d and 4d give a certain pause. Maybe MI5 should investigate.
Decent crossword, though I get that some with find the vocab challenging. We live and, sometimes, learn.
My thanks to jackkt and setter.
Well not impossible but I needed aids so DNF. The NE went in OK but the rest was slow.
12a VHO, Epergne biffed, from crossers, and looked up. I don’t have any of these on my table. ENG and REP never crossed my mind.
16a Prisoner’s base. HHO Nero Wolfe but NHO this book, NHO the game, and a bit cross at the def, but fair enough I suppose. At least as an anagram I was pretty sure it must be right.
20a Untruth, DNK Ruth in this sense; it is marked as “now rare” in Wiktionary.
25a HHO Polity, but couldn’t define it. Biffed.
4d 3 line whip biffed.
8d Cypriote marked as archaic by Wiktionary.
26:18. This took quite a bit of unravelling and EPERGNE involved a dictionary scan. I liked AL DENTE, PAINT BALL and THREE LINE WHIP.
I’m another who remembers BRTISH BULLDOG as our version of PRISONERS BASE . Whilst I wouldn’t class myself as a Fotherington- Tomas, I always tried to avoid it.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
I couldn’t remember the name of the game, thanks!
At least PRISONERS BASE, of which I’d never heard, has a rather more sensible name than a similar-sounding game, which I loved, and which I’ve never heard of since I was a child — 123 Block. All pleasant despite for some reason my being very slow to get started, and whip = strike (in 4dn, THREE-LINE WHIP) struck me as very unsatisfactory. Had to use aids for EPERGNE, of which I’d only vaguely heard.
Hadn’t come across Cypriot with an E before and didn’t know the children’s game, but the wordplay was straightforward with crossers to help. Managed to assemble EPERGNE, which seemed vaguely familiar, although I couldn’t have told you what it was. Liked ILKLEY. BO PEEP was FOI and PRISONERS BASE brought up the rear. 22:32. Thanks setter and Jack.
Tough puzzle with a handful left at the end.
“Epergne”, “lorelei’ and “polity” all unknown to me and jotted down “sum up” but couldn’t parse it so left out.
Indeed a few needed to be written down to fully understand.
Thanks for the excellent blog.
28:30 – not sure where EPERGNE emerged from but emerge it did, although I think I must have gone through a fair percentage of the 17,000-odd combinations for the three blanks to get there.
25 mins. I do not remember PRISONERS BASE, though as a child I played various games involving bases. I think 9A might have been improve by the substitution of ‘canine’ and ‘feline’ for ‘dog’ and ‘cat’; I think having ‘cat’ in the clue was too generous to the solver. And I was not keen on ‘at the outset’ covering two words in 23A. These quibbles apart, it was a nice puzzle. My first one in was BO PEEP and my last EPERGNE (which I did know). My favourite clues were to THREE-LINE WHIP, TALENT SPOTTER and AL DENTE. Thank you to Setter and Blogger.
DNF with ‘epergne’. Setter perhaps needs to check his Opie and Opie to see just how local names for children’s games can be! Figured prisoner’s base out but had not heard of it.
50:59. Very hard for a Tuesday and almost had to give up with LOIs ILKLEY, EPERGNE and GREENERY. But pleased that I chose to persevere. Thanks!
An enjoyable puzzle, all done and dusted in 31 minutes, about average for me. Although I have read Our Mutual Friend, I did not recall the epergne, but I somehow dredged it up from previous crosswords. It was good to be able to understand all the clues and answers, and not have to worry whether something biffed was right or not.
FOI – LORELEI
LOI – EPERGNE
COD – TALENT SPOTTER
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
Beaten by the NHOs EPERGNE and PRISONERS BASE. A bit irritated by POLITY, which I’ve only ever encountered meaning a society (as a political entity). Hey ho.
33:28
The enjoyability factor is considerably reduced if there are too many unknowns. This puzzle just about passes the test as the unheard-ofs in PRISONERS BASE and POLITY were at least pretty guessable from the wordplay. I wonder how many solvers managed to get EPERGNE without aids – not only is the word unknown to many, but the multiple E checkers and places where the ‘republican’ might sit, make this a nightmare for the majority of solvers. It’s a shame as most of the rest of the puzzle was quite enjoyable.
Thanks Jack and setter
Just short of 21 mins but one error. I wondered if anyone else here would have fallen into the same trap? Seemingly not – at least not so far anyway.
Spiro AGNEW was the Republican Vice President to Richard Nixon from 1969-73 who was forced to resign in 1973 over a tax evasion charge. Just one year before Watergate forced Nixon out and Agnew’s successor as VP, Gerald Ford, of course became President.
So I had EWENGAE as the unknown stand with E representing both English and European. I had my doubts – but I didn’t know EPERGNE, so in it went.
Very similar to yesterday for me with a reasonable time of 41.33, but with one clue EPERGNE unsolved. The last five minutes or so of my time were spent trying to solve it without success. I had a few doubts along the way with CYPRIOTE with the extra E, and the unheard of PRISONERS BASE, and POLITY also had me looking for alternatives.
33 minutes dodging sun and showers on a beach in Barbados. NHO PRISONERS BASE but couldn’t see an alternative. Knew EPERGNE only from TV antiques shows. BIFFED FORESTRY for 26ac initially on the basis that there must have been an English novelist of that ilk. LOI SRUCE UP, COD BO PEEP.
Enjoyable.
Thanks to setter and Jack.
Gave up at the right time, with POLITY, EPERGNE and PRISONERS BASE miles away. I saw BASE as the likely second word, but never heard of this game.
In SPRUCE UP, I saw the E-CUR, and PUP, but was one letter short. PUPS seems a bit unfair for “offspring”, I was working on SON=offspring for phrases ending in ON.
But was able to construct the NHO LORELEI, so there’s that.
COD ILKELY
I was rattling along until I hit the SW corner which was like pulling teeth. I obviously had a sheltered childhood as PRISONERS BASE was completely unknown – we used to play tag and blind man’ s buff.
I can’t believe that I nearly failed to get my LOI EPERGNE. About 35 years or so ago on a visit to my ex-wife’s parents I asked what the thing was in the middle of the dining room table. They told me and I remember thinking then that it was an odd word but one I wouldn’t forget!
DNF … EPERGNE of course. My computer has just underlined it in red, which says it all. Otherwise about 40 mins.
Failed to get SPRUCE UP, POLITY, UNTRUTH or the VHO EPERGNE but I also failed to think of AUSTRIA and I put ‘Assyria’. I suspect I’m the only one who fell into that trap?
I actually thought this was a pretty decent crossword? Elegant, smooth surfaces that make sense, precise, unambiguous, no dictionary trawl needed, reasonably difficult, and, and. . .But I’d better stop there before I go over the top and people start thinking I’ve gone a bit soft.
And come on- I mean, it’s a year (to the day, incredibly) when I last felt able to say this about the cryptic, so once in a while is ok isn’t it? Just don’t be expecting me to make a habit of it, that’s all 😂
16’29” with several minutes on EPERGNE at the end. I eventually worked out the cryptic, it looked like it might be a word, so I went for it. Otherwise all fine. We played British Bulldog. My Frenchified children play something called Epervier, or Sparrowhawk. Nice puzzle. Thanks.
21.10
No problems with POLITY; NHO the game; and worked out EPERGNE at the end. But my biggest hold up was 1A which was a poor effort considering I like BIRDS; BID when I play bridge and – you guessed it – I live in BATH!
All
Correct, apart from unable to get EPERGNE, which is a new word for me. Goodness me! The Times has been one more difficult in the 18 months I’ve not had a subscription. I keep failing on one or two obscure words. It’d be nice to have an all correct at some stage. Has the editor changed the difficulty level recently?
You’re not alone in your observations. It’s an ongoing issue.
Earlier this year we were being offered crosswords of ridiculous difficulty day after day. After a few complaints on here, the editor to his credit responded, and thereafter the crossword was supposed to get less demanding for the most part.
Having said that, I personally feel it still too often strays into the obscure and over-elaborate. Regular inconsistency in difficulty across the grid is another issue for me, as it leads to too many ‘curate’s eggs’ puzzles. But then I’m not easy to please, and the protests from others seem to have abated somewhat, albeit not entirely.
On the other hand I thought today’s pretty much hit the sweet spot, the best we’ve had in a very long while. But it seems most other commenters were less enamoured.
So what do I know?🤷♂️
I went one better than yesterday and managed to finish this one, albeit with reference to the dictionary more than once to check that a word actually existed – Epergne, Polity and Cypriote were all nho. Quite a stiff test for a Tuesday. Invariant
Hooray, finished and correct, despite not knowing the game, POLITY and dredging my LOI, EPERGNE, of course, from the depths of my memory, which clearly goes back at least to 2022 on occasion, since that was when it appeared last, according to Jacket. However, I did work it out rather than biff – memory’s not that good, and only after countless rearrangements of R and E!
I had heard of Prisoner’s Base – and there is also quite a good Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe novel by that title – but I’ve never played it. Had not heard of the French table decor, or the Northern town. Otherwise quite a few which seemed easy once I had them solved, but took a lot of thinking to get them that way.