Time: 22 minutes. My fastest solve for a very long time. I expect some of the speed-merchants to finish before they have started today.
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 | State agent caught you — beginning of life in pen (8) |
| REPUBLIC – REP (agent), aural wordplay [caught] U / “you”, then L{ife} [beginning of…] contained by [in] B~IC (pen) | |
| 6 | Deft chopper eliminating American (6) |
| CLEVER – CLE{a}VER (chopper) [eliminating American] | |
| 9 | Support in French monarch’s household protects mature people (13) |
| ENCOURAGEMENT – EN (in – French), COUR~T (monarch’s household) contains [protects] AGE (mature) + MEN (people) | |
| 10 | Black cat energy (6) |
| BOUNCE – B (black), OUNCE (cat) | |
| 11 | True account by cleric (8) |
| ACCURATE – AC (account), CURATE (cleric) | |
| 13 | When drunk, never share, lacking resistance and respect (10) |
| VENERATION – Anagram [when drunk] of NEVER. then {r}ATION (share) [lacking resistance] | |
| 15 | 100 trapped in mine maybe frozen (4) |
| ICED – C (100) contained by [trapped in] I~ED (mine maybe – improvised explosive device) | |
| 16 | Join a returning vessel (4) |
| ABUT – A, then TUB (vessel) reversed [returning] | |
| 18 | Upset record previously charted at fourth and fifth positions only (10) |
| DISCONCERT – DISC (record), ONCE (previously), {cha}RT{ed} [at fourth and fifth positions only] | |
| 21 | Expert meeting crude dancing farmer? (8) |
| PRODUCER – PRO (expert), anagram [dancing] of CRUDE | |
| 22 | Band beginning to sound rubbish (6) |
| STRIPE – S{ound} [beginning to…], TRIPE (rubbish) | |
| 23 | Aging tips, time to change — it looks no different! (8,5) |
| SPITTING IMAGE – Anagram [to change) of AGING TIPS TIME. The wordplay forces the alternative spelling of ‘ageing’. | |
| 25 | Got hot soaking up bit of sun? (6) |
| BASKED – BA~KED (got hot) containing [soaking up] S{un} [bit of…] | |
| 26 | Biased eastern revolutionary driven through with spike (8) |
| SKEWERED – SKEW (biased), E (eastern), RED (revolutionary) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Carbuncle I noticed when chatting (7) |
| EYESORE – Aural wordplay [when chatting]: “I saw” (I noticed). ODE: carbuncle – British English – something, especially a building, that is unsightly or visually intrusive. | |
| 3 | Without trial incarcerating prisoner — no questions asked? (11) |
| UNCONTESTED – UN~TESTED (without trial) containing [incarcerating] CON (prisoner) | |
| 4 | Look to take advantage of miserable individual (5) |
| LOUSE – LO (look), USE (take advantage of) | |
| 5 | Cash for one slicing tea bread (7) |
| CHAPATI – PAT (Cash, for one – Australian tennis player) contained by [slicing] CHA~I (tea) | |
| 6 | Cries, deleting one chapter, done with rewriting climax (9) |
| CRESCENDO – CR{i}ES [deleting one], C (chapter), anagram [rewriting] of DONE. I’m tempted to quibble over the definition but the usual dictionaries support it. | |
| 7 | Jacob’s mother possibly lives in Tunbridge Wells (3) |
| EWE – Hidden [lives in] {Tunbrid}E WE{lls}. Jacob is a breed of sheep. | |
| 8 | Name read back — misspelt it nevertheless — missing some letters (7) |
| ENTITLE – Hidden and reversed [read back…missing some letters] in {missp}ELT IT NE{vertheless} | |
| 12 | Engineers instinctive about vehicle revived with new body (11) |
| REINCARNATE – RE (engineers) + IN~NATE (instinctive) containing [about] CAR (vehicle) | |
| 14 | Sailor read aloud, not enjoying the first time, gave up (9) |
| ABDICATED – AB (sailor), DIC{t}ATED (read aloud) [not enjoying the first time] | |
| 17 | Bans volunteers no longer welcoming one member of serving staff (7) |
| BARISTA – BAR~S (bans) + TA (volunteers no longer – Territorial Army) containing [welcoming] I (one) | |
| 19 | Four of them are on the fiddle! (7) |
| STRINGS – Barely cryptic with reference to he number of strings on a violin. | |
| 20 | Full development of much of Peterlee (7) |
| REPLETE – Anagram [development of] PETERLE{e} [much of…] | |
| 22 | Dash into store on vacation for waders (5) |
| SNIPE – NIP (dash) contained by [into] S{tor}E [on vacation] | |
| 24 | Fish leaving hint it might have been kept in well? (3) |
| INK –INK{ling} (hint) [fish leaving] | |
Really enjoyed this. Nearly bunged in ‘quartet’ for the STRINGS answer but held off until a few checkers were in. DISCONCERT and SPITTING IMAGE put paid to that anyway. Found this similar to yesterday where many of the clues could be assembled by following the wordplay or working out the anagram. SNIPE had to be but didn’t know it was also the plural of the bird. Same thought as Jack re CRESCENDO, always thought it was the whole of the build-up of sound, but apparently not. I had the wrong anagrist for VENERATION, ‘as+neve+shae’ but managed to see my error eventually. COD to REPUBLIC.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I would have said you should see climax as a verb process rather than an end state.
Failed on BASKED in about 25, and like yesterday didn’t find this as easy as our blogger (and many other solvers to follow, no doubt). Many thanks to Jack for untangling what was going on with REPUBLIC (quite the cryptic there), ICED, CRESCENDO and of course BASKED.
From Subterranean Homesick Blues:
Get sick, get well, hang around a INK well
Ring bell, hard to tell if anything is gonna sell
Try hard, get barred, get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail, join the army if you fail
Look out kid…
Yes, even easier than yesterday’s!
But if I were a Yank newly arrived here, I would have been mystified by EYESORE, since the last part doesn’t sound anything like “saw” when I say it. This sense of CARBUNCLE also has a local provenance, originating with an architectural critique of the now-king Charles in 1984.
The clue for INK might be the most daring here, chopping off over half of an implied word.
Not just Yanks but also the Scottish contingent!
Thank you for standing up for us Yanks on this one. Mystifying unless I roleplay a bit as a Londoner.
I think it works for parts of our Northeast as well.
7:22, my fastest ever Tuesday according to the Snitch.
Hesitated over LOI ICED, but eventually spotted the IED before it blew up in my face.
Thanks setter and Jack.
I did not find this so easy – snipe gave a lot of trouble, as I knew I needed a plural and I knew it ended in E. Skewered was also a bit elusive. I ended up with the ink/basked crossing, where I finally biffed ink without seeing the cryptic, and then basked was obvious.
Time: 21:18
Quick today, only one cup of coffee required.. but I never did quite work out 24dn. Fortunately the answer was obvious.
I was so confident that it would be QUARTET that I wrote it in boldly in ink, leaving me with a messy looking grid when SPITTING IMAGE hit me straightaway afterwards. I sulked, leaving STRINGS to be LOI. COD to EWE, magnanimous of me having spent a couple of minutes remembering REBECCA in vain. A good puzzle with all irritations self-inflicted. Thank you Jack and setter.
DNF, defeated by the INK/BASKED crossing. The clue for INK had me completely stumped, and in the end I just bunged in IDE as it was the only three-letter fish-related thing beginning with I that I could think of, which of course then left me with no chance of getting BASKED (where I even went on a trawl of types of cooking that somehow didn’t include baking).
No other issues, though it wasn’t until after I put in CHAPATI that I realised how ‘cash’ was giving Pat.
Thanks Jack and setter.
COD Snipe
Well, not so quick for me at 49 mins, but hey, I finished it. Last two SNIPE & SKEWERED held me up a bit. Otherwise good fun.
I liked (and needed) ENCOURAGEMENT.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I had BANKED for 25a, definition Got, then baked soaking up the other end of sun. Is this valid? Otherwise one of my fastest solves at under thirty minutes despite a slow start.
Conventionally, indicators like a bit of/a slice of/a taste of/a glimpse of etc apply to the initial letter of the fodder. If ‘a bit of’ could mean any letter in the fodder, it could become very confusing. Which sadly means your alternative does not quite work. ‘…last bit of sun’ could indicate N.
Fair point. Although I also note that basking means lying in a warm place rather than increasing in temperature so it doesn’t really work on that basis.
18:04 so bit more difficult than yesterday for me. A lot of ‘of course’ moments when the answers did come so maybe I am just not on form today.
BASKED held out the longest not helped by a biff’d IDE (can see I’m not the first to do that today). BASKED can have COD honours, I did like it when the penny dropped.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Quickish but edged over 20 trying to justify LOI CHAPATI and failing. Fixating on tea = CHA didn’t help. Easier than yesterday and more IKEA solving. Another good exercise for the QC’er?
I enjoyed SNIPE and SPITTING IMAGE most and BASKED was a neat &lit.
Thanks Jackkt and setter.
I still think banked could work. Basked is a tighter answer, but banked also works when compared to precision in other puzzles.
15 mins exactly – but one typo despite checking. CREDDENDO
COD: BASKED
Thanks to jack and our setter.
I put a typo in my typo! Actual typo was CREDCENDO.
12.37, so as quick as I get in my dotage. I paused long enough over INK to make sure I had it right. ST apparently isn’t a fish, but LING is one of the other setter-friendly ones and it emerged soon enough.
I think we have to give up on insisting CRESCENDO means getting louder, dammit. Chambers has. As GdS says, we have our environmental enthusiast King for adding the architectural meaning of carbuncle: English is a language in thrall to constant development and we have no equivalent to Académie Française to protect it. Makes cryptic crosswords more fun!
Thanks Jack, especially for spotting PAT Cash: I don’t think I had any sensible parsing for that one.
If it’s any consolation the Academie Française fails comprehensively in its attempts to ‘protect’ the French language. In spite of their best efforts nobody says ‘couriel’!
Apologies if this sort of comment is not allowed, but here goes anyway…
…are any of you considering cancelling your Times subscription? I subscribe mainly for the puzzles but do read some of the other content. However, I’m finding nowadays that the other content insults my intelligence as The Times morphs into just another right wing tabloid. Just me?
PS I don’t often comment here but I do read this every day and enjoy it greatly. Many thanks to everyone.
If you’re intelligent, right-wing views are obviously insulting. Try the Guardian. All the super intelligent people read it. You’ll fit right in.
I negotiated a cut price rate. I pay £6.50 a moth at present. It only lasts for 6 months, but I have already renewed it once.
I find the News content too biased.
I solve this problem by simply not reading the other content.
All right, fellow solvers, no more of this. If I may quote from the Commenter Tips:
“It is better to avoid religion and politics – don’t assume that anyone smart enough to complete these puzzles will necessarily agree with you on these matters!”
I believe there is an option where you can read a few articles a month for £5, that includes full access to the puzzles, but they don’t advertise it – you have to call them.
Yes, it can be found via their website: https://www.thetimes.com/puzzles/subscribe
Not for international subscribers, just FYI.
Hold the phone. One minute after I posted this, the customer service guy said that he’d now been advised that he could in fact make the puzzles-only offer available to me.
I’m all aquiver to see how this plays out…
Done! That’s about $500 a year in my skyrocket instead of Rupert’s.
Thanks for the prompt.
International subscribers get a good deal anyway. Somehow they figured we don’t care to read the paper.
Subs are also cheaper outside the UK. I tend to read the Weather Eye, Obituaries and Cricket, and leave it at that.
Yes, the Times has leaned heavily into lowest common denominator dross under its current editor. It’s always been right-leaning, and I’ve been a reader/subscriber since the late 80’s, but it’s unreadable for me these days.
I have a puzzles-only subscription.
In my opinion The Times is the best of the cryptic crosswords, by some distance.
If you are not of the same opinion then, of course, try alternatives. But to move from the Times cryptics because you don’t like the tone of the articles seems to be a good example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
One of the many great things about The Times crosswords is the lack of political bias in the clues and solutions.
That does not apply elsewhere.
Take this from a recent Independent clue.
Bars leaders of ICE, nauseating Nazi scumbags. (4)
That clue, whether you agree or not with the sentiment, would never (I hope) be allowed in The Times.
At first pass I had only two filled in, and assumed this was going to be very difficult. But then, oddly, the answers came thick and fast. Finished in 25 mins, with only LOUSE and BOUNCE giving any real trouble. Used to moan about CRESCENDO, but it’s like DECIMATE: the real meaning is now long lost. Let it go.
An easier offering today. From REPUBLIC to BASKED, with INK and BASKED holding me up at the end. 11:37. Thanks setter and Jack.
Not as easy as many are claiming here. I failed to get 7 answers in the end: REPUBLIC, ABUT, BARISTA, BASKED, INK (I also put ‘ide’), SNIPE and SKEWERED. I’m not sure SKEWERED really works as ‘biased’=‘skewed’ rather than ‘skew’. It could be parsed as SKEW(E)(R)ED instead, I guess, but then ‘R’ surely can’t be an abbreviation of ‘revolutionary’?
‘Skew’ is also an adjective:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/skew
After a plodding solve of yesterday’s easy offering, this one came quite quickly at just over 20′. Nothing too much to report that hasn’t already been said, an unparsed bathed became BASKED and had to presume SNIPE could be plural.
Thanks Jack and setter
CHAPATI a mystery: although Pat Cash is fairly familiar to me I never thought of him. I entered ide at 24dn for the same reasons as others then cheated with the Check button to confirm and then saw what was happening. The IED at 15ac was unknown to me but I took it on trust. Although yes we are stuck with dictionaries and CRESCENDO, I suspect I know what the STRINGS would say it meant.
7:57. Can’t have been that easy – it took verlaine nearly 5 minutes!
I winced a bit when I saw the definition for CRESCENDO: ‘there will be complaints’, I thought.
As yesterday i seem slower now than i was a year ago when folks say its easy. I took 30 mins both days and i regularly did sub twenty last year on so called easy ones. Enjoyed both, thanks all.
17:50 – could not/didn’t bother to parse CHAPATI or INK though, like much of the rest, the answers were never in doubt.
23:32
Missed the Cash reference, and had no idea what do with 24d – fortunately the two checkers made the answer obvious. Everything else enjoyed.
Thanks Jack and setter
49 minutes, same as Rosédeprovence. I was doing well until I only had two to go and then spent ages trying to work out INK and BASKED, thank goodness avoiding the strong temptation to stick with our old friend the IDE. Good to see Pat Cash earn a mention in dispatches.
Well, we are not « basking » much at the moment down here, with a mistral of over 100KPH blowing !
I always liked Pat Cash, an underrated player IMHO and a gentleman. I was so glad when he won his Wimbledon title.
All completed for a happy solve in 50 mins. The parsings for ICED, CHAPATI and INK took quite a lot of that time. The multiple SNIPE needed a hard look too.
Nice to get a name check today (7d) but always disappointing when you have struggled through to eventually finish, the experts here tell you it was a doddle.
38:29. I did not find this one a doddle. INK and BASKED were my LOIs. Both nice clues, as were lots of others, but so many of them needed thinking time
I found this to be fairly easy with only one or two clues causing me to pause any great length of time. The clues in question were SNIPE being my LOI, and CHAPATI because I couldn’t parse it. Pat Cash never occurred to me, but the answer had to be right. No time to report as I dropped off in the middle of completing it (no reflection on the setter), but somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes I would say had I remained conscious!
A very well crafted simple puzzle – 17 mins. No problems except with SKEWERED’s wordplay, as I didn’t know that SKEW, as opposed to SKEWED, could mean ‘Biased’. First in was ABUT and last REPUBLIC. Favourite three clues: to BASKED, EWE and STRINGS. Thank you Blogger and Setter.
I didn’t know Chipati, so I definitely think Pat Cash is a little abstract. Otherwise, I thought yesterday’s was a very nice example of cryptic definitions, and today’s a very nice example of follow-the-directions- and-it-will-all-work-out. Thanks, jack, and congrats on the well-sub 30 min time.
Cruised through this but ground to a halt with 24, 25 and 26 unsolved. On arrival here, I find myself baffled at how INK and BASKED got past me, but I don’t think I’d have got SKEWERED if I’d spent the rest of the day looking for it (probably because I thought ‘biased’ was ‘askew’ rather than ‘skew’: now off to see if my dictionary allows the variant or if I’ve just got it wrong for several decades).
Edit: It does.
I wasn’t familiar with the wading bird so spent a lot of time trying to work out if any other combination of letters would do the job. Fortunately they didn’t. Apart from that easier than yesterday I thought.
FOI ACCURATE
LOI SNIPE
COD INK
36:15
I found this tough going but this may be because I have a heavy cold.
Completely missed the Pat Cash reference but got it anyway. He lived near us in Fulham for a while and was regarded by all that met him as a very nice bloke.
I know SNIPE from a line somewhere in Dance To The Music of Time. “He’s so wet you could shoot snipe off him”
COD EWE. I learnt from a crossword a long time ago that Jacob’s mother was Rebekah and a fat lot of good that did me.
Thanks to Jack and the setter
INK/BASKED did me in. I got tired and went for ISH/BATHED (don’t ask….) Otherwise it wasn’t hard and I enjoyed it. Thanks setter and Jack.
Not too easy for me, but a steady solve. INK my LOI as I was sure the answer was going to be IDE until I worked out BASKED where I was also trying to see if bathed worked. Nice when the clues keep falling at a steady pace. Thanks to blogger and setter for their labours, it is much appreciated.
Without trial also works as definition of UNCONTESTED
Failed with a “Reveration” instead of VENERATION, and dint understand the INK and ENTITLE clues.
I found it harder going than yesterday’s puzzle.
Thanks Jack
My 26’35” doesn’t look so good now I see other times. I think I made unnecessarily heavy weather of it. REPUBLIC should have been a doddle but it was LOI! I read the CAUGHT to mean INCLUDING, rather than HEARD — which was obviously what the setter intended. All good stuff. I was just slow.
Nice to be thrown a bone by the 15*15 gods occasionally- this one was satisfyingly gentle ( so there’s probably something incomprehensible lying in wait next !). C’est la guerre ! Thanks to setter and blogger.