I found this very hard in places. I took 1 hour but used aids for my last one in and later found an error at 1dn.
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 | Be on mobile phone with old person preferring old-style landline? (8) |
| NEOPHOBE – Anagram [mobile] of PHONE O (old), then BE | |
| 5 | Nick mostly outside playing piece of music (6) |
| SONATA – S~ATA{n} (Nick – the devil) [mostly] containing [outside] ON (playing) | |
| 9 | Upright character enthralled by visits to nymph (8) |
| CALLISTO – I (upright character) contained [enthralled] by CALL~S (visits), TO | |
| 10 | Tried hard with slow movement, but one’s dropped out (3,1,2) |
| HAD A GO – H (hard), ADAG{i}O (slow movement) [one’s dropped out] | |
| 12 | Drunken wager in hotel bar? (8,4) |
| WATERING HOLE – Anagram [drunken] of WAGER IN HOTEL. One of many British euphemisms for a pub – a little more elegant than boozer! |
|
| 15 | Old star, no good in Oxford college (5) |
| ORIEL – O (old), RI{g}EL (star) [no good] | |
| 16 | Plan a chemist worked out for carbon capture (9) |
| SCHEMATIC – Anagram [worked out) of A CHEMIST containing [for…capture] C (carbon). I checked that although ‘schematic’ is more usually an adjective it can also be a noun. | |
| 18 | Walk round area with power to get vote (5,4) |
| STRAW POLL – STR~OLL (walk) containing [round] A (area) + W (with) + P (power). | |
| 19 | The Parisian fellow is deceived (3,2) |
| LED ON – LE (‘the’ Parisian), DON (fellow) | |
| 20 | A dear cat isn’t to be disturbed in garden plant (12) |
| TRADESCANTIA – Anagram [ to be disturbed] of A DEAR CAT ISN’T. I waited for all the checkers and then added the remaining anagrist to make something plausible. This has come up here on a couple of previous occasions but I can’t say I remembered it. | |
| 24 | Each baked item has excellent crust (6) |
| APIECE – PIE (baked item) contained by [has…crust] A~CE (excellent) | |
| 25 | Three characters in succession ’arass traitor? (8) |
| DEFECTOR – D E F (three characters in succession), {h}ECTOR (‘arass) | |
| 26 | Socialist sets on opponents at the table (6) |
| ENGELS – E N (opponents at the table – East and North at bridge), GELS (sets) | |
| 27 | Funny show inadequate, now sadly a disappointment (8) |
| COMEDOWN – COMED{y} (funny show) [inadequate], anagram [sadly] of NOW | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Something groovy — a hit on the radio (4) |
| NOCK – Aural wordplay [on the radio]: “knock” (hit). I had NICK. I wasn’t happy with my answer but it was all I could find to fit the checkers that satisfied at least part of the clue. Collins defines NOCK as: 1. a notch on an arrow that fits on the bowstring, 2. either of the grooves at each end of a bow that hold the bowstring. If I ever knew this I had forgotten it. | |
| 2 | City workers’ industrial action has no limits (4) |
| OSLO – {g}O SLO{w} (workers’ industrial action) [has no limits] | |
| 3 | One due to inherit fantastic wealth including a lot of land (4-2-3) |
| HEIR-AT-LAW – Anagram [fantastic] of WEALTH containing [including] IRA{n} (land) [a lot of…]. This rang a faint bell. | |
| 4 | First sign of bitterness, say, with strong drink’s flavouring (12) |
| BUTTERSCOTCH – B{itterness} [first sign of…], UTTER (say), SCOTCH (strong drink). My AI assistant advises: The flavour originated in Doncaster, England, in the early 19th century. The most widely accepted history traces it back to Samuel Parkinson, a confectioner who began selling “Doncaster Butterscotch” in 1817. It became so popular that it eventually received a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1851. | |
| 6 | Mammal round mountains endlessly (5) |
| ORANG – O (round), RANG{e} (mountains) [endlessly] | |
| 7 | Like a diet of alien, with a pungent spice (10) |
| ASAFOETIDA – AS (like), anagram [alien] of A DIET OF, then A. This would have been my last one in but I knew I wouldn’t know the word so I cut my losses and reached for the Word Wizard. It has appeared before in a Sunday Times puzzle and 3 Jumbos, most recently in 2024, but I didn’t recognise it. |
|
| 8 | Teenager maybe soaring, having received financial help (10) |
| ADOLESCENT – A~SCENT (soaring) containing [having received] DOLE (financial help) | |
| 11 | Artist, male, one facing challenge rendered circle (12) |
| MICHELANGELO – M (male), I (one), anagram [rendered] of CHALLENGE, then O (circle) | |
| 13 | Put artist into mob to negotiate effectively (5-5) |
| HORSE-TRADE – SET (put) + RA (artist) contained by [into] HOR~DE (mob) | |
| 14 | Left one quiet Berkshire town getting message silently (3-7) |
| LIP-READING – L (left), I (one), P (quiet), READING (Berkshire town) | |
| 17 | Little creature struggled to walk, beginning to meander off in distance (9) |
| MILLIPEDE – LI{m}PED (struggled to walk) [beginning to meander off] contained by [in] MIL~E (distance) | |
| 21 | Old learner heard to get top grades? (5) |
| EXCEL – Aural wordplay [heard]: “Ex” (old), “L” (learner) | |
| 22 | Emperor, someone very funny cycling around (4) |
| OTHO – HO/OT (someone very funny} cycling around becomes the Roman Emperor OTHO | |
| 23 | Measure of certain fish caught and smuggled (4) |
| CRAN – C (caught), RAN (smuggled). Collins: a unit of capacity used for measuring fresh herring, equal to 37.5 gallons. A word I learnt from crosswords many decades ago. | |
Amazing, I solved this correctly without aids. I did a fair amount of biffing, including asafoetida, although I really couldn’t tell you what it is. The vowel placement in tradescantia was easy enough, but the T and the D could easily have been wrong. Nock? Not a clue, but the cryptic was clear. I did have a bit of trouble with Oslo, but having considered slowdown, go-slow was not too far away.
Time: 21:36
DNF
like Jack, I put in NICK faute de mieux, although looking at the definitions now, I think I vaguely knew NOCK; not that I’d ever have thought of it. I also put in NERO (one-r cycled), which of course put paid to DEFECTOR. Biffed TRADESCANTIA (knew the person, dnk the eponymous plant) and ASAFOETIDA (thought it was a herb).
I had NERO at first too (cycling “oner”). DEFECTOR betrayed my error.
17:03. Thank goodness we’ve moved on from obscurities like WATUSI to familiar everyday words like ASAFOETIDA and TRADESCENTIA! Think I’ll celebrate with a CRAN of herring.
Good challenge today, liked OSLO. Thanks setter and Jack.
I had never heard of NOCK, my POI—before I worked out the NHO TRADESCANTIA. Two plants clued by anagrams, damn!—but I knew the other one. CRAN as a measure of herring was a NHO too; Collins says the origin is unknown, but there is a French word spelled the same that seems related to “measure,” via “notch.”
I believe that a flick knife is known in French as a “couteau à cran d’arrêt”, presumably because the locking mechanism includes a notch.
So the puzzle is top-and-tailed with two different words meaning “notch”. If only we knew!
Serious question: Is there some Cryptic Tournament of Champions coming up soon over there across the pond? I’m not used to seeing this much gobbledygook on Monday and Tuesday until September.
DNF in thirty minutes.
I prefer ‘Employer of barmaid, one with large bust.’ for WATERING HOLE
Superb David. One of yours?
How I wish! It was a Dean M from memory but others may know.
Liked this one. I wouldn’t recognise a tradescantia, not a native species, but i did know the word. Similarly asafoetida, an ingredient of Worcester sauce. No, it was the little words that held me up, nock, Otho (nho) and cran. Good stuff.
22.34 but held up in the NW corner where I needed aids for BUTTERSCOTCH and NEOPHOBE (both LOI and COD). Pleasing and elegant puzzle.
Thanks J and setter.
DNF doing the old Eric Morecambe with all the right letters in the wrong places for the spice and the flower. Like others I had NICK as no other alternative came to mind, and I had OTTO (“toot”? nah…) though I did know him as a Holy Roman Emperor.
Thought I did well with everything else but without the GK it was too much of a lottery for me.
Thanks Jackkt and setter
Nope. 44 minutes but with what I thought was a plausible TRADEACANTIS at 20. Bah.
49 minutes. Two hard ones to start the week. I somehow knew TRADESCANTIA and ASAFOETIDA but the ‘Emperor’ OTHO was an NHO, for which I went down the same route as Kevin and Guy with an initial NERO. The four-letter words were no write-ins; I recognised CRAN from previous appearances but submitted NOCK with fingers crossed, not being certain if the last letter was a K or an H.
Same as Jack and others, an incorrect NICK and an aided ASAFOETIDA. I think unknown emperors should be banned from cycling but I did get him. I’ve usually grown TRADESCANTIA indoors. COD to LIP-READING. Thank you Jack and setter.