Time: 45 minutes. A lively and enjoyable puzzle. Fun to solve.
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 Caret 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 | Cloth covering prostrate bloke leaving hospital (4,3) |
| FLAT CAP – FLAT (prostrate), C{h}AP (bloke) [leaving hospital – h] | |
| 5 | Star worker in Spain will be retiring (7) |
| ANTARES – ANT (worker), then SERA (in Spain “will be”) reversed [retiring]. Despite several previous appearances here I didn’t know the star so had to rely on wordplay. I’ve never visited Spain or studied the language so my knowledge of Spanish is very limited, but I happened to know SERA from the title of a 1950s popular song: Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). It was a hit for Doris Day who performed it in the Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. I now learn that the correct Spanish would be “Lo que será, será” and the Spanglish version is down to the song having been written by Americans, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. | |
| 9 | Revolutionary turned, checking on cause of explosion (9) |
| DETONATOR – ROTA⁁TED (turned) reversed [revolutionary] containing [checking] ON | |
| 10 | Stunner posed on the counter with hesitant expression (5) |
| TASER – SAT (posed) reversed [on the counter], ER (hesitant expression) | |
| 11 | Port for one tucking into pork pie (5) |
| LIEGE – EG (for one) contained by [tucking into] LI⁁E (pork pie – CRS) | |
| 12 | Not sleeping at home regularly once man is fooling around (9) |
| INSOMNIAC – IN (at home), anagram [fooling around] of O{n}C{e} [regularly] MAN IS. ‘Insomniac’ is an adjective here. | |
| 14 | Business offering protection perhaps involved in more disgrace (9,5) |
| ORGANISED CRIME – Anagram [involved] of IN MORE DISGRACE | |
| 17 | Someone whose treatment might incense their workplace (14) |
| AROMATHERAPIST – Cryptic | |
| 21 | Mostly try and measure diamonds from the east in cup (9) |
| DEMITASSE – ESSA{y} (try) [mostly] + TIME (measure) + D (diamonds) reversed [from the east] | |
| 23 | Course about nursing available (5) |
| ROUTE – R⁁E (about) containing [nursing] OUT (available) | |
| 24 | New start, rejecting second instrumental group (5) |
| NONET – N (new), ON{s}ET (start) [rejecting second – s] | |
| 25 | On vacation, people expected to ring back golf teacher (9) |
| PEDAGOGUE – P{eopl}E [on vacation], D⁁UE (expected) containing [to ring] AGO (back) + G (golf) | |
| 26 | Famous English setter’s not losing heart (7) |
| EMINENT – E (English), MINE (setter’s), N{o}T [losing heart]. Oh joy, to be spared references to the ‘artist’ with the untidy bed or the rap singer with his tail cut off! | |
| 27 | Indecisive article in journal’s replaced with another (7) |
| DITHERY – DIaRY (journal) becomes DITHERY when one article (a) is replaced with another (THE) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Complicated foxtrot lazily interrupted by duke (6) |
| FIDDLY – F (foxtrot), ID⁁LY (lazily) containing [interrupted by] D (duke) | |
| 2 | Animal is unable to stand without beginning to collapse (7) |
| ANTBEAR – {c}AN’T BEAR (is unable to stand) [without beginning to collapse] | |
| 3 | Briefly had sheep rearing a pony (9) |
| CONNEMARA – CONNE{d} (had) [briefly], RAM (sheep) reversed [rearing], A. I vaguely knew of the place but not the pony. |
|
| 4 | Head of Science spied their new lab equipment (5,6) |
| PETRI DISHES – Anagram [new] of S{cience} [head of…] SPIED THEIR | |
| 5 | Cockney’s shock appearance (3) |
| AIR – {h}AIR (shock) [Cockney’s] | |
| 6 | Something symbolic in anthem swapping first and last parts (5) |
| TOTEM – MOTET (anthem) swapping first and last parts becomes TOTEM | |
| 7 | Composer somewhat cross initially (7) |
| ROSSINI – Hidden in [somewhat] {c}ROSS INI{tially} | |
| 8 | Tooth broken by penny sweet is fixed (8) |
| SPROCKET – S⁁ET (fixed) containing [broken by] P (penny) + ROCK (sweet) | |
| 13 | Led race to secure region occupied by husband and daughter (11) |
| SPEARHEADED – SPE⁁ED (race) containing [to secure] AR⁁EA (region) itself containing [occupied by] H (husband), then D (daughter) | |
| 15 | Officer close to despondency over Conservative restriction on reproduction (9) |
| COPYRIGHT – COP (officer), {despondenc}Y [close to…], RIGHT (Conservative) | |
| 16 | I’m sorry cast made porn (6,2) |
| PARDON ME – Anagram [cast] of MADE PORN | |
| 18 | Very large African nation adopting name of Turkish empire (7) |
| OSMANLI – OS (very large), MA⁁LI (African nation) containing [adopting] N (name). Not a word I knew but it has appeared a few times before, including a puzzle I blogged 7 years ago. | |
| 19 | Self-satisfied delight, finishing early run (7) |
| SMUGGLE – SMUG (self-satisfied) GLE{e} (delight) [finishing early] | |
| 20 | Sage perhaps injecting drug over years as a result of this (6) |
| HEREBY – HER⁁B (sage perhaps) containing [injecting] E (drug), then Y (years) | |
| 22 | Student is trade union supporter of course (5) |
| TUTEE – TU (trade union), TEE (supporter of golf course) | |
| 25 | Very old Scotsman forgets about depression (3) |
| PIT – PI{c}T (very old Scotsman) [forgets about – c] | |
I didn’t know SERA for ‘will be’ in Spanish and only after looking it up did I remember the Doris Day song. I found SPROCKET difficult to parse but eventually realised that ‘sweet’ must be ‘rock’, as in Blackpool. Also thought a sprocket was a cog, not just a tooth but after looking it up it appears to be a synonym of tooth. Saw FLAT CAP straight away but easy to confuse it with the similar ‘prostate’ if you don’t look closely, as was the setters intent probably, given the surface. Couldn’t see ORGANISED CRIME for a long time. Couldn’t get the composer after thinking it would end in a ‘C’ before seeing the hidden. NHO OSMANLI but the wordplay was plain. Liked HEREBY. Didn’t know the pony.
Thanks Jack and setter.
A very enjoyable meander; sufficiently stretching but do-able and, unusually (for me), I understood the rationale behind each answer before entering it. Satisfying & many thanks Setter!
About an hour for an enjoyable solve. I am only solving Sunday and generally Tuesday, Thursday and Friday during the week. I am now consistently finishing all of them which is rather satisfying where previously doing every day I often DNF. I will be 87 in 3 weeks and am happy to be keeping dementia at bay.
In 17 across I took incense to be a verb (anger) and I saw the reason for their anger as being because they could “smell the rapist”.
I thought some of the cryptics were rather advanced, but I used them to solve the clues for answers I only half-knew. Connemara and Osmanli were the two chief culprits, as I was OK with biffing pedagogue, Antares, and demitasse. In fact, the whole puzzle was brilliant without being too difficult.
Time: 25:41
A shade under one hour but one pink square for detanatEr.
FOI ANTARES, I don’t know many stars, but neither do setters who seem to pick from a short list of bright ones. It’s in Scorpio, and is easier for Antipodeans to see, orangeish and can be mistaken for Mars.
LOI CONNEMARA where I didn’t see conned=had. I thought I should check the animal but mistakenly checked Connemara Sheep, and there are some of those too.
Sheep were in my mind because I really tried to make SHEEPHERDED fit for “led”. I learnt that sheep-herder is a real word, but not in the metaphorical sense of leader. The extra P led to attempts to engineer a word ending in Papist for one who incensed.
NHO OSMANLI, but African country of MALI is always one to try.
Excellent, and not too FIDDLY. LOI SPROCKET.
30 mins, with a bit of time dedicated to trying to squeeze arson- and agora- into the therapist clue.
9:59. Steady solve with a bit of a hold up at the end over ORGANISED CRIME, where the definition (‘business’?!) threw me and the unknown CONNEMARA had to be constructed from wordplay.
I’ve been doing these things for long enough that some of the names of stars have stuck. See also RIGEL.
Didn’t know CONNEMARA as a pony nor OSMANLI as anything, but the wordplay was generous in both cases. I think those were the only unknowns. I took 38 minutes but was also cooking dinner so probably 30 mins of real solving. I didn’t think of MOTET as an anthem, but apparently it is. LOI was ANTBEAR since I got ANT immediately but couldn’t come up with BEAR until I got ORGANISED CRIME.
There’s room for debate over detail about motets and anthems but I decided not to go there because broadly speaking they have so much in common.
The definition of motet varies depending who you speak to.
And what century you’re speaking in
Quick today and no unknowns, though osmanli nearly so.
Also hadn’t realised SERA was Spanish, but I did remember the song; and French is very similar (serai). And knew the star, an interesting one because it is a binary star, and one of the two is immense, a red giant.
Il sera?
First-person v third-person I think?
OSMANLI, a nho for me but got it from the wordplay, thank Goodness. CONNEMARA, LOI and, whilst it stirs a distant memory, again the WP was really needed. A very enjoyable puzzle with some delightful surfaces. Faves inc CLOTH CAP, LIEGE, ORGANISED CRIME, DITHERY, ANTBEAR, STRUGGLE and TUTEE. Pleased to finish in 21 minutes and it would have been sub-20 had it not been for the pesky pony.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
59 mins. I found this a bit tougher than some others here but a good challenge. L2I SMUDGE and ROUTE. Your Caret was working overtime today, Jack!
The two long clues both took a while to work out, but I enjoyed them when I got them, and both the unknowns, COONAMARRA and OSMANLI obtained via wp.
I liked SPROCKET.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Just under 20 minutes. Had to trust the wordplay for the unknown ANTARES, CONNEMARA and OSMANLI, which in all three cases was kind, but no other major issues.
Thanks Jack and setter.
FOI Air
LOI Connemara
COD Dithery
Lovely surfaces throughout, I thought. I got a bit lucky here and there—one of our current projects at work is called ANTARES, and I also solved via a route that let me see the CRIME bit of 14a early, which quickly led to ORGANISED—so sped through this in 20m, one of my fastest solves of the year so far, I think.
Very glad the name CONNEMARA sprung out from my unconscious mind at the right moment, as I’m not sure I’d’ve got it from the wordplay, unlike OSMANLI.
17:41. Now that’s what I call on-wavelength. First instinct for both definitions and wordplay elements seemed to be right first time. NHOs kindly clued. Fun.
LOI and COD ANTARES with Sera from the song.
Thanks jackkt and setter.
22’56”, the long answers threw me a lot. Finally spent a while looking at -E-E-Y, trying to fit in a B, then thinking heresy. ‘There’s no such word as herrebee’ I said.
Thanks jack and setter.
21:46 yes I know HEREBY doesn’t rhyme with THERAPY but I’m pretty sure I can’t have been the only one who tried to make it do so under their breath while solving this. Right guys. Right??? EDIT: thank you RobR 🙂
LOI was CONNEMARA once I twigged the ‘had’ part was to do with rookery rather than cookery. COD to ANTARES. Spanish is not something I’ve ever studied but Que Sera, Sera is famous enough that it popped into my brain without too much effort. Thanks blogger and setter.
31:54. This was approachable and fun but not too FIDDLY. NHO the pony nor the Turkish empire but the wordplay was clear in both cases. thanks for a lovely puzzle and parsing.
Good puzzle, all done in near PB of 13 minutes, it just seemed to flow along today without hesitations.
DNF. There are a large number of NHOs here, and CONNEMARA did for me . I also had some typos.
NHO: DEMITASSE, CONNEMARA, OSMANLI. VHO: ANTARES.
I solved all but DEMITASSE and CONNEMARA in less than 20 minutes. Frustrating then to be breeze-blocked by things I’ve never heard of. DEMITASSE was gettable from knowledge of French, but CONNEMARA I just couldn’t see.
Pushed to 20.33 by SPROCKET, looking at the wrong end of the clue, with rock as a sweet only dawning when I tapped in the answer.
My singer for (Beyond) ANTARES is Uhura, accompanying herself on Spock’s lute. Roddenberry should have let her sing more.
ORGANISED CRIME might be a business, but I bet it doesn’t register at Companies House. Or pay tax.
21:40 – very elegant puzzle where most of my limited brainpower was expended on looking for an alternative to Mali in 18dn and anything to fit the crossers in my LOI, CONNEMARA.
Nice puzzle all correctly completed today bar “sprocket” and “pit”.
With the former I messed around with “stricken”/”rich”, looking for an answer meaning “fixed”, and the latter was easyish on seeing the answer.
“Antares” and “Osmanli” were unknown, but clearly clued, and “demitasse” and “Connemara” were dredged up from somewhere.
Thanks very much to both our blogger and setter.
From FIDDLY to CONNEMARA in 19:11. OSMANLI was assembled from wordplay, as was LOI, CONNEMARA, for which I had to write out the crossing letters before I spotted CONNE(d). Very enjoyable puzzle. Liked FLAT CAP and AROMATHERAPIST. Thanks setter and Jack.
47 minutes and really enjoyed it. I had to leave my last three –SPROCKET, CONNEMARA (nho), and ANTBEAR – to simmer in the unconscious overnight, and took ANTARES on faith, though it was gettable if only I had remembered Doris Day. She was a good jazz singer before she became a bland movie star.
Thanks setter and Jack.
DNF, two pink squares in what turned out to be CONNEMARA. Don’t think I’ve come across “conned” = “had” before, I’ll have to try to remember that one for next time. (I probably said much the same the last time I saw it, but you never know).
Thank you for the blog!
Could you give me your phone no.? I’m always interested in folk who say they have never been conned or had! 😉
I have some stuff for sale you will really like!
Of course, this sounds very exciting! My number is 020 7239 7272 and I’ll look forward to your call!
38:27
Bit of a struggle not helped by an early OTTOMAN (OTT for ‘very large’; OMAN for the country) at 18d, and not getting the pretty gentle PARDON ME for ages. Once I’d written than in and scrapped OTTOMAN, saw 21a, 24a and 26a immediately, and only a short pause more for 17a. However, I was still left with 7 in the top half. Had the second word of 1a as CAP early on, but could not get FELT CAP out of my head. Even when considering that the first part of 2d would be ANT, I still didn’t twig FLAT. It took unravelling the ORGANISED CRIME anagram to fill in 2d and 1a, 7d, 8d and 5a, leaving just the pony which I’ve never heard of.
Thanks Jack and setter
I had exactly the same thoughts on Ottoman and it was only by solving Nonet that I discovered the NHO Osmanli.🙂
28:42. LOI ORGANISED CRIME having had CRIME in for ages without being able to get organised. And the unknowns were kindly clued. COD HEREBY (having struggled with the pronunciation like RobR and Mudge above) and WOD TUTEE
I wasn’t aware Liege was a port…?
It’s a port in the same way Manchester is a port, ie not really but it’s on a river..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Li%C3%A8ge
Liège is the third largest inland port in Europe, trailing only Duisburg (Germany) and Paris (France). It is the largest inland port in Belgium. It sits at the intersection of several critical waterways.
All correct and a very pleasant solve. I thought the surface readings were excellent (liked 1ac in particular. I knew the star from Astronomy club at school (and Patrick Moore’s Sky at night), but I’ve only seen it abroad- it’s too low in the UK sky, unless you have a really clear dark sky.
Thank you Jack, setter and crossword editor- two excellent puzzles so far this week.
26 minutes. Very enjoyable. I happened to remember ANTARES (the other three “crucistars” beginning with an A which have stuck in my mind are Alpha Centauri (>1 star), Arcturus and Aldebaran) and I’d come across OSMANLI in a puzzle before. I was left with the ‘pony’ at 3d as LOI and recognised CONNEMARA, admittedly with the help of crossers, from a recent TV programme. Favourite was SPROCKET.
Thanks to Jack and setter
Just like Rob R above, it had to be HEREBY, but it’s not a word is it? Duh!
My vocabulary just wasn’t up to scratch for this one. Of the five words I didn’t or barely knew I managed to assemble three of them but ultimately failed on ANTARES and PEDAGOGUE. Shame as other than sprocket the rest flew in.
Liked ANTBEAR
Thanks blogger and setter
In 22 mins today. No problems. I think I knew CONNEMARA was a pony as well as a county, and I knew OSMANLI, and that it had something to do with the Turks. First in was ANTBEAR, last ANTARES. I liked the clues, my favourite was to ANTBEAR. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
All done bar the nho CONNEMARA at 36mins. Alphtrawled for about ten mins but unable to get the CONNEd part.
Although I was originally going for the RAM, I opted for a -DAMA ending. Is there anyway to know whether the sheep is a ram or dam? Do they tend to be clued differently?
Glad to see I wasn’t alone in pronouncing HEREBY like heresy in my head which made it my POI. A few unknowns but all fairly confidently entered from the wordplay.
FOI FLAT CAP
LOI ANTBEAR
COD DETONATOR
SNITCH says pretty easy, but I found it a challenge. This setter’s clues are very precise, which helps in getting through smooth-reading bits where the need for a synonym is clear (sweet/rock, eg) but the word iteslf less so. And, this setter seems always to sliptwo slightly unknowns in
.
18:31. Very nice puzzle. I was expecting a pink square for either SPROCKET, which I couldn’t parse, or OSMANLI which I’ve never heard of.
COD: ORGANISED CRIME
Thanks to jack and our setter
A very tidy puzzle although strangely I didn’t enjoy it as much as some. DNF, gave up too easily on ANTARES and SPROCKET both of which I should have got. I could only guess at CONNEMARA and OSMANLI but both guessable from the wordplay. Thanks for the blog.
An enjoyable puzzle, completed in two bites either side of supper. Perhaps the sausages stimulated my brain – all done in 38 minutes. The clueing was very helpful for the words which I was not entirely sure about, ANTARES and CONNEMARA, so a fair competition overall.
FOI – TASER
LOI – HERESY
COD – DITHERY
Thanks to jackkt and other contributors.
I thought I was looking for some Christian Orthodox thurifer, until I smelt the patchouli. In the original Turkish, Osmanli does not have a dot on the ‘i’ and it is pronounced ‘uh’. Some very easy bits to this, and some much harder. I managed it in 21’58”. Many thanks.
35.11. LOI connemara. Bit of a plod today.