Mostly very enjoyable but I was 40 minutes in and missing two letters from the grid when I realised I was looking for an answer I probably wouldn’t know, so I cut my losses and used aids to finish things off.
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 | Appropriate how birds returned (6) |
| ASSUME – AS (how) then EMUS (birds) reversed [returned] | |
| 4 | What’s Oscar carried back in preserve bottle? (8) |
| JEROBOAM – O (Oscar) + BORE (carried) reversed [back] contained by [in] J~AM (preserve). Roughly 4 normal bottles. | |
| 10 | Creature natural at jumping (9) |
| TARANTULA – Anagram [jumping] of NATURAL AT | |
| 11 | City lover from Scotland surrounded by noise (5) |
| DIJON – JO (lover from Scotland) contained [surrounded] by DI~N (noise) | |
| 12 | Food processor gives diet out by leaflet (9,5) |
| DIGESTIVE TRACT – Anagram [out] of GIVES DIET, then TRACT (leaflet) | |
| 14 | Pottery line coming in handy (5) |
| DELFT – L (line) contained by [coming in] DEFT (handy). Been there, bought some pottery. | |
| 16 | Dingy tee I transformed with this? (3-6) |
| TIE-DYEING – Anagram [ transformed] of DINGY TEE I | |
| 18 | Debacle minutes after agent for change nearly admits Conservative (9) |
| CATACLYSM – CATA~LYS{t} (agent for change) [nearly] contains [admits] C (Conservative), then M (minutes) | |
| 20 | Give birth with assistance (5) |
| WHELP – W (with), HELP (assistance) | |
| 21 | The giving of second award for sketch, perhaps (14) |
| REPRESENTATION – RE-PRESENTATION (the giving of second award) | |
| 25 | Hatred banning leader from platform (5) |
| ODIUM – {p}ODIUM (platform) [banning leader from…] | |
| 26 | Desire to cease cooking wheat in chef’s creation (5,4) |
| DEATH WISH – Anagram [cooking] of WHEAT contained by [in] D~ISH (chef’s creation) | |
| 27 | Intend to stuff, say, great vegetable (8) |
| EGGPLANT – PLAN (intend) contained by [to stuff] EG (say) + G~T (great) | |
| 28 | Garment belonging to Glaswegian bachelor smells (6) |
| BREEKS – B (bachelor), REEKS (smells) – trousers / breeches | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Learner without instruction went to work under car (10) |
| AUTODIDACT – AUTO (car), DID ACT (went to work) | |
| 2 | Tiny excerpt from Pilgrim’s Progress (5) |
| SPROG – Hidden in [excerpt from] {Pilgrim’}S PROG{ress}. ‘Tiny’ is a noun here. | |
| 3 | Disapproves of alien attitude (7) |
| MINDSET – MINDS (disapproves of), ET (alien) | |
| 5 | Eliminate onset of Americanisation in language (5) |
| ERASE – A{mericanisation} [ onset of…] contained by [in] ER~SE (language) | |
| 6 | Controlled German article seized by French airport (7) |
| ORDERLY – DER (German article) contained [seized] by OR~LY (French airport) | |
| 7 | Fair goal (9) |
| OBJECTIVE – Two meanings | |
| 8 | Times piece introduces language of island race (4) |
| MANX – MAN (chess piece), X (times) | |
| 9 | Internal lake splits dock in an odd way (8) |
| QUAINTLY – INT (internal) + L (lake) contained by [splits] QUA~Y (dock) | |
| 13 | Plant cookware in stove so (10) |
| AGAPANTHUS – PAN (cookware) contained by [in] AGA (stove) ~THUS (so). Aka: African lily. | |
| 15 | Latvian band including English characters (9) |
| LETTERING – LETT (Latvian) ~ RING (band) containing [including] E (English) | |
| 17 | Cooked mean melt with this? (8) |
| EMMENTAL – Anagram [cooked] of MEAN MELT. Cheese. | |
| 19 | Artist dressed in light brown or dark brown (7) |
| CARAMEL – RA (artist) contained by [dressed in] CA~MEL (light brown) | |
| 20 | Erode article, erode all round (7) |
| WEATHER – WEA~R (erode) containing [all round] THE (article) | |
| 22 | American transporter used van failing to start (5) |
| SEDAN – {u}SED + {v}AN [failing to start]. US word for a saloon car. | |
| 23 | Organic compound one is digging up? (5) |
| IMINE – I MINE (one is digging up). As mentioned in the intro I realised I wouldn’t know this word so I’m glad I gave up on it and used aids. ‘Is’ is superfluous to the wordplay and led me to believe the answer would contain an S, which proved a distraction. But for that I might just have stood a chance of spotting how the clue worked and arriving the correct solution. | |
| 24 | Pizza shunned by California region (4) |
| ZONE – {Cal}ZONE (pizza) [shunned by California] | |
Same problem as Jack with IMINE, not a word I knew and was convinced the answer would contain an ‘S’. Also failed to see BREEKS, another NHO and missed what now seems like a simple piece of wordplay for the answer. I liked this and thought a lot of the clues quite misleading – in a good way. DEATH WISH for one where I thought it would be an anagram of ‘wheat and chef’ at first. Liked JEROBOAM and CATACLYSM. Thought AUTODIDACT was very good and took most of the crossers for me to see it. Liked DELFT. COD to MANX.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Somehow, AGAPANTHUS was constructed from wordplay, early on, much more quickly than I was able to think of IMINE, my LOI. POI JEROBOAM.
Fortunately, I did eventually parse imine, and entered it as a likely organic compound. I was uncertain how to spell jeroboam, and had to wait for the crossers. On the other hand, I biffed autodidact, death wish, and cataclysm. My LOI was zone, and I puzzled over the cryptic for a while before suddenly seeing what was going on.
Time: 23:38
‘One is digging up’ translates to I MINE quite neatly, if you think of ‘one’ as a pronoun that can in formal contexts replace ‘I’. Imagine King Charles speaking, for instance.
That said, I had to look it up too!
I’ve reached a milestone with this puzzle, not a personal best time by a long shot, but the first time finishing a 15×15 with everything parsed. (Not that I knew IMINE, of course not, but the wordplay suddenly came into view.)
45 minutes of enjoyment and a real sense of accomplishment, what could be better? Why am I awake, it’s way past my bedtime. Good night. Thanks to setter and jack.
50:27 but had to look up IMINE. I was looking at words for like (=dig), reversed.
COD DELFT
35 minutes but failed on the NHO IMINE. I had heard of IMIDE as a chemical term probably also from one of these crosswords, so in it went and of course it didn’t parse. Spotted the pangram which helped greatly with JEROBOAM and MANX. COD to ZONE.
Yes, IMIDE seemed familiar to me too (not that I have any idea what it is) and I see it appeared here only about 6 weeks ago on February 11th in Times cryptic 29463.
9:17, of which at least 4 minutes spent trawling the alphabet for IMINE. I nearly gave up. I don’t think ‘is’ is superfluous: indeed I don’t think the clue works without it, because it requires ‘digging up’ to indicate MINE. As u says you have to take the whole phrase together.
I’ll get in before Jerry to point out the Americanism at 27ac 😉
I think it still might get mentioned in dispatches…
Yes. The clue requires ‘is’. But ‘one digs up’ would also have worked and misled us nicely, while being slightly more concise.
My there are a lot of EMUS about these days. Anyway I too failed at IMINE, throwing in the towel at 23.12. An enjoyable puzzle, thanks to Jack for the parsing of JEROBOAM and MANX (oh, chess piece, doh!).
From You’re A Big Girl Now:
A change in the WEATHER is known to be extreme
But what’s the sense of changing horses in midstream?
I’m going out of my mind, oh, with a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Ever since we’ve been apart
34 minutes. A relief from yesterday’s which for some reason I found difficult. Still, even with our old friends the EMUS I had some problems thinking of AS for ‘how’ at 1a and much later I needed the checked letters for AUTODIDACT. The extended non-cryptic defs for TARANTULA and EMMENTAL bought a smile and I thought WEATHER was clever.
IMINE was new though seemed the most likely answer from the wordplay. The OED def, probably a dumbed down version from some weighty Chemistry tome, is completely incomprehensible to me and will remain so!
A rare completion before going to the first tee. About 22′ so easier than yesterday but also not as interesting I thought.
As a Glaswegian (well almost) and married to a Jo, I still get caught out with the Scottish lover, its NHO apart from here (and don’t quote Burns, it would help me!). Also I’ve never called my trousers BREEKS, though I have heard it obviously.
Another “appropriate” today and the Flower built from parts. Fairly straightforward.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I cleared last winter’s rotted-down leaves from my AGAPANTHUS at the weekend, revealing the new year’s growth beneath. I’m told that leaving last year’s mess on top until Spring works as frost protection, and that’s my excuse for being lazy about it.
Anyway, it certainly helped with this puzzle, as did noting the pangram possibility just before considering JEROBOAM. Fairly straightforward solve spreading top-to-bottom, left-to-right to finish with IMINE, which seemed reasonable given that I’d heard of “amine”. 39m.
22:36. I’m enjoying this week a lot more than last.
We had IMIDE recently so IMINE makes sense, I know of Amines and Amides and the parsing fitted. There were a few that seemed recently familiar leading to more biffing, e.g. AGAPANTHUS and WEATHER.
Particular faves were JEROBOAM and CATACLYSM.
Thanks jackkt and setter.
I thought this crossword straightforward, with some easy clues but also a couple of quite tricky ones, IMINE I’m looking at you here. I’m generally comfy with science-related clues but like BletchlyReject, I don’t even understand the Collins definition never mind the OED’s.
I’ve had a JEROBOAM once or twice.. one needs a lot of friends around when one opens it.
As for EGGPLANT, yes as a vegetable it is generally seen as a foreign word for aubergine, but the setter is on firm ground as Collins does not have that as a specifically US usage: “Eggplant: A tropical Old World solanaceous plant, Solanum melongena … also called: aubergine.” And nor does the OED, which has several quotes back to 1752.
So the setter gets off Scot-free, this time.
Interesting: apparently this is one of those cases where our American cousins can claim to be preserving an older usage than us. There’s no doubt that it’s a US (and Austalian/NZ) usage today though. You never see the word ‘eggplant’ in a UK supermarket, or the word ‘aubergine’ in a North American one.
A double fail in the SE. 1963 A level Chemistry didn’t have any imines in the syllabus that I can remember. And in Lancashire we had breeches but no BREEKS. We’d have called them pants anyway, similarly to Americans. Otherwise, an enjoyable crossword. COD jointly to AUTODIDACT and AGAPANTHUS. When all else fails, read the instructions. Thank you Jack and setter.
I was doing well and on my way to a sub 20 minute finish until the extreme SE. The penny dropped on BREEKS – I had been expecting a more obscure bit of local language about which I could complain but that word is hardly outre. And then I ran into a brick wall with IMINE and threw in the towel after a couple of fruitless minutes. For me, a tough construction for a nho but I can see the parse is fair enough.
Particular faves WHELP, BREEKS and LETTERING.
Thanks to setter and blogger
DNF, defeated by the unknown IMINE.
– Expected an indication of US usage for EGGPLANT, but clearly that’s not necessary as JerryW explains above
– Trusted the wordplay for the unknown BREEKS
– Not familiar with camel=light brown, though CARAMEL was obvious from the checkers
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Emmental
Gave up. Defeated by IMINE, DIJON and OBJECTIVE. IMINE just didn’t look like a possible chemical compound so I didn’t persist with the parsing. NHO JO in that sense so, although I thought the city was DIJON, lost heart despite suspecting a pangram which supported the inclusion of a J. Took too long to recognise BREEKS despite having worn them in a past life. Misspelled JEROBOAM too. Bit of a dim day for me.
Thanks to setter and jackkt.
Really dim! Just realised we already had the J in the bottle.
All correct and 54:09 on The App’s timer.
I didn’t know Latvian could be LETT, so thanks for explaining that. I’ve seen IMINE in a barred puzzle somewhere.
Thank you Jack and Setter.
Two nice puzzles so far this week.
I was helped by remembering Cole Porter: ‘Lithuanians and Letts do it …’
50 mins but with a bunged in LOI, IMIDE, not knowing the other word. Drat.
In Champagne, the JEROBOAM is considered the optimum size for ageing the fizzy stuff!
No probs with the plant, but BREEKS (NHO) was my POI.
Thanks jack and setter.
Yes .. but then they would say that, wouldn’t they! £400 for a jeroboam of NV Veuve Clicquot, or £3,500 for vintage Dom Perignon..
One wrong in 24 mins. I went with IMIDE for the unknown organic compound.
COD: MINDSET
Thanks to jack and our setter.
I enjoyed this gentle puzzle although I could only guess at JO and BREEKS. Remembered IMINE from its previous appearance. I remember much muttering when Keely Hodgkinson (unfamiliar to most of us) appeared in a previous puzzle but it seems she has the last laugh appearing alongside the crossword today (at least in the printed paper) and still winning. Thanks for the blog.
More like a Monday than a Tuesday, for me, 19 minutes all done and enjoyed. As a once-chemist I knew what an IMINE was, and liked BREEKS when the penny dropped. JO ffor a Scottish lover was NHO but not many cities are DI**N. ODIUM is becoming a chestnut.
10:55 Nice puzzle, and a pangram too. LOI LETTERING. No problem with IMINE which last appeared in TfTT in a Monthly Club Special I blogged, but has also sometimes been seen in the words for Polygon. Lots of lovely clues. I liked MINDSET, EMMENTAL, WEATHER and SEDAN best. Thanks Jackkt and setter
Didn’t understand how LETTERING worked (given I’d NHO ‘lett’), but at least it was clear. Finished all bar IMINE in 32 mins. DNK it, and not interested in guessing weird words unless they’re blindingly obvious.
thanks setter and blogger.
good puzzle.
1a i guessed astern and thought i was clever. for 28a i essayed briefs.
cheated for 23d imine, entered without getting the dictionary out. but otherwise all ok including surprising myself with write-ins for agapanthus and autodidact.
Had done everything except IMINE in 12 minutes. Six minutes later I gave up and used an aid. So technicial DNF. Otherwise 18.07.
I think if the clue had been ‘…one digs up’ instead of ‘one is digging up’ that would have been slightly fairer for a generally unfamiliar word without changing how the cryptic works.
15.42. Spotted the pangram when JEROBOAM turned up, suggesting the Q before U in QUAINTLY. Probably accounts for the setter plumping for ZONE, BREEKS and MANX.
While I sympathise with the NHO IMINE fellowship, having worked on the basis that “one is” usually gives I’M for a while, IMINE is common enough in the esoteric crosswords, and the -INE ending is quite likely for organic compounds. Perhaps that explains why our Stinks chemists didn’t know it?
On my local market, the fruit and veg man had a defiant OBERJEAN’S (complete with apostrophe) so I won’t be drawn into the American or not debate.
I was pleased to get both the AUTODIDACT and AGAPANTHUS oddities without hesitation.
Cheers, Jack.
Gave up on imine (like many others).
Thanks, jack.
Very enjoyable puzzle all correctly completed today.
Jo/breeks were taken on trust; don’t use whelp as a verb; and wouldn’t use tiny as a noun but appreciate all correct.
Someone minding poor little ET raised a smile.
Thanks for the excellent blog and to our setter for a fun solve.
Despite spending around four minutes on LOI, IMINE, I finished in under twenty minutes. Sadly an early fat fingered entry in the NW meant it was all in vain. AUTPDIDACT. $%^&(U&”$$!! Thanks setter and Jack.
I love your mistake. The very thing a self-taught person might write!
Defeated by JEROBOAM in 25:07. I keep saying I am going to learn the bottle sizes as it’s not the first time I have been defeated by them. Not helped by trying to fit a Z in having missed it was already in ZONE. Most of my drinks come from a can or pump.
Enjoyed the anagrams in this one. They were a big help as I struggled to get started.
Thanks blogger and setter.
13:50 – didn’t know IMINE of course, but the cryptic was decisive and it sounded likely enough. Ditto for the Lett component of 15d
For once the pangram helped me, as it only lacked a K when I started thinking about it, so BREEKS became easy. But the I?I?E answer defeated me and I used electronic aids. Unfortunately the first one on the list which was an organic compound or something was imide, so I entered that with no understanding. Lesson: think about the wordplay, which in this case was fairly simple. I think Letts and Latvians aren’t quite the same but close enough and often equivalent in crosswords.