Time: 46 minutes. Very enjoyable with no unknown words.
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 | On air row traumatised and exhausted Robert Plant (9) |
| LIVERWORT – LIVE (on air), anagram [traumatised] of ROW, then R{ober}T [exhausted]. Apparently Robert Plant was the lead singer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. | |
| 6 | Piercing, principally shrill instrument (5) |
| SHARP – S{hrill} [principally], HARP (instrument) | |
| 9 | Smashing racket crime? (8,2,5) |
| CONTEMPT OF COURT – Cryptic with reference to tennis | |
| 10 | Disease from beer we knocked back (6) |
| MILDEW – MILD (beer), then WE reversed [knocked back]. A plant disease caused by fungus. | |
| 11 | Imperative to get little George a close friend (5,3) |
| ALTER EGO – Imperative here is an instruction, so ‘to get little George ‘ / GEO you ALTER EGO | |
| 13 | Huge letters used to spell “Dad”, being popular in China (5,5) |
| GIANT PANDA – GIANT (huge), P AND A (letters used to spell PA – Dad) | |
| 14 | Knock down chap emitting cry of pain (4) |
| FELL – FELL{ow} (chap) [emitting cry of pain] | |
| 16 | Chief taking off first of the month (4) |
| ARCH – {m}ARCH (month) [taking off first] | |
| 17 | Write uninspiring incomplete ending for literary work (10) |
| PENTAMETER – PEN (write), TAME (uninspiring), TER{m} (ending) [incomplete] | |
| 19 | Italian snail unexpectedly seen around here in France (8) |
| SICILIAN – Anagram [unexpectedly] of SNAIL containing [seen around] ICI (‘here’ in France) | |
| 20 | Husky is a cracking four-legged friend (6) |
| HOARSE – A contained by [cracking] HO⁁RSE (four-legged friend). From the days of Uncle Mac and Children’s Favourites on the radio. | |
| 23 | Inspector isn’t overworked by this perfunctory luggage check? (4-3-4,4) |
| OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE – Two meanings | |
| 24 | This compiler heading west bumped into tourist (5) |
| EMMET – ME (this compiler) reversed [heading west], MET (bumped into). Cornish slang for a holidaymaker. In Devon they’re called Grockles. | |
| 25 | Turned on Conservative about regular instances of vilest infamy (9) |
| NOTORIETY – ON reversed [turned], TOR⁁Y (Conservative) containing [about] {v}I{l}E{s}T [regular instances of…] | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Substitute officer upset uniform men at the start (5) |
| LOCUM – COL (officer – Colonel) reversed [upset], U (uniform), M{en} [at the start] | |
| 2 | Sweet eclair Calvin ordered each month (7,3,5) |
| VANILLA ICE CREAM – Anagram [ordered] of ECLAIR CALVIN, then EA (each), M (month) | |
| 3 | Staggers after receiving shock treatment, puts back in power (2-6) |
| RE-ELECTS – REEL⁁S (staggers) containing [after receiving] ECT (shock treatment – electroconvulsive therapy) | |
| 4 | Served up spirit, just missing king … sorry! (4) |
| OOPS – SPOO{k} (spirit) reversed [served up] [just missing king] | |
| 5 | Grotty old vagrant last seen in cave? (10) |
| TROGLODYTE – Anagram [vagrant] of GROTTY OLD, then {cav}E [last seen in…]. A troglodyte was a cave-dweller so I guess the whole clue has to be the definition here. | |
| 6 | Way to accommodate long bag (6) |
| SACHET – S⁁T (way) containing [to accommodate] ACHE (long) | |
| 7 | Cameramen used at broadcast games screened here (9,6) |
| AMUSEMENT ARCADE – Anagram [broadcast] of CAMERAMAN USED AT | |
| 8 | Post Office worker struggling to pen book, one written to raise cash (9) |
| POTBOILER – PO (Post Office), T⁁OILER (worker struggling) containing [to pen] B (book). Not sure where to place ‘struggling’ in this, but ‘toil’ suggests hard work. The definition refers back to ‘book’. | |
| 12 | Plucky wife, endlessly zealous officer in reserve (4,6) |
| GAME WARDEN – GAME (plucky), W (wife), ARDEN{t} (zealous) [endlessly] | |
| 13 | Young man’s backing good quality statesman (9) |
| GLADSTONE – G (good), LAD’S (young man’s), TONE (quality) | |
| 15 | Deceitful character put up motorway notice (8) |
| IMPOSTER – M1 (motorway) reversed [put up], POSTER (notice) | |
| 18 | Plastic factory beginning to implement cuts (6) |
| PLIANT – I{mplement} [beginning to…] contained by [cuts] PL⁁ANT (factory) | |
| 21 | Lament English cricket side, the ultimate in ignominy (5) |
| ELEGY – E (English), LEG (cricket side – as opposed to ‘off’), {ignomin}Y [the ultimate in…] | |
| 22 | Congress supporting leaders of White House a tiny bit (4) |
| WHIT – W{hite} + H{ouse} [leaders of…], IT (congress). A little weak having ‘white’ in the clue although of course it adds to the surface. | |
26 minutes for me, also with no unknown words. Wasted some time trying to justify PARK WARDEN for GAME WARDEN. EMMET is apparently the Cornish word for “ant”. It seems a bit of a stretch to call PENTAMETER a literary work rather than just a little bit of one, but the wordplay was clear enough. I liked OPEN AND SHUT CASE.
The definition of PENTAMETER is just ‘literary work’ (no a), which you can read as ‘some literary work’.
True, I balked hard at PENTAMETER as a ‘literary work’. I also thought (14ac) ‘emitting’ for ‘omitting’ was reaching.
I wondered whether ’emitted’ should have been ‘omitted’ in 14a FELL, but ’emitted/sent out’ seems reasonable. Took a while to get started on this but answers started appearing and was able to get a good foothold. Don’t think I’ve heard of WHIT before but the wordplay left no doubt. GIANT PANDA had me fooled for ages. Didn’t know that meaning of POTBOILER either. Loved OPEN AND SHUT CASE but it was very slow to come. Liked TROGLODYTE but thought the anagrist was ‘old vagrant’ at first. So, the cricket side wasn’t ‘XI’ in 21d ELEGY, had me for a while.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Whit used by Shakespeare, Richard III, spoken by Hastings.
18:55
‘Literary work’ just seems wrong for PENTAMETER.
Agreed
See above: read it as ‘some literary work’ rather than ‘a literary work’ and it seems fine to me.
I’ve reconsidered, and though the definition didn’t keep me from finding the word, the clue still seems like it’s trying too hard to be elusive.
I’m glad the wordplay is clear that the less-common spelling of IMPOSTER is wanted, since the E is not crossed.
19:00, enjoyable but mostly on the straight and narrow compared to today’s rather wild QC clues! ‘Games screened here’ was a very clever def, I thought.
Haven’t been doing crosswords this year much, so excited to get back into regular solving; just a bit worried as getting really into it last year correlated with being generally unhealthy and miserable, in contrast to this year. I’m sure it wasn’t the crosswords’ fault, though!
Thanks Jack and setter!
Minor correction: the leg side in cricket is also called the on side, so it’s the off side that is its opposite.
Thanks, now corrected. I knew that, but my fingers ran away from my thoughts.
I thought this was average difficulty, but there were some really good clues. I used the cryptic to get liverwort, game warden, and amusement arcade, but biffed contempt of court, notoriety, and troglodyte. Once again, I was held up because I couldn’t read my handwriting.
Time: 31:26
A great start to the working week at a tad under 30 minutes. Agree that pentameter is not a literary work but a compnent of one. But what else could it be?!
I think critics of 17ac are being unfair. Pentameter (or any type of verse) is the product of literary work as opposed to say, scientific work, and the definition is perfectly valid in my view. If the clue defined it as ‘a literary work’ they would have a point.
I should read the comments before commenting myself!
Let’s not get too radical…
26.54, a nice puzzle with some clever clues and cunning definitions. Jack has convinced me re PENTAMETER (work, not A work) but I’m all at sea with the various Cornish definitions of EMMET. I knew it as ant from Blake (The emmet’s inch and eagle’s mile) and he was wholly a Londoner. I never figured out ALTER EGO or the panda, so thank you J.
From Romance In Durango:
Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head is vibrating, I feel a SHARP pain
Come sit by me, don’t say a word
Oh can it be that I am slain?
Another good one, this. Liked the open etc case, the panda and the plant. Robert Plant used to live down the road from my daughter in W Sussex. He and Jimmy Page bought houses near each other.
No problem with pentameter, beyond knowing what one is…
He now lives in Primrose Hill, NW London, just around the corner from my old family home. Still see him around there.
And Jimmy’s in…Holland Park, is it?
I think you are right.
Nice to know folk are keeping tabs on their whereabouts! 🙂
Probably got more than one house, mind. But I don’t think they have the Crawley Down ones any more. And Wikipedia places neither of them in London now. They’ve been around, in every sense..
is he still in an argument with Robbie Williams?
Whats going on, another PB, in 21 mins! I got the 4 long clues straightaway and the rest was plain sailing. The only slight hold up was the crossing of EMMET & PLIANT (L2I). Good fun.
I liked GIANT PANDA and the two juicy long anagrams.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Congratulations!
8:50. Nice puzzle for a Monday morning. No unknowns.
I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin quite a lot recently. Truly one of the greatest bands.
Even though it’s Tuesday!
First day of the working week!
22 minutes for all but one clue then had to come back to ALTER EGO. My brain convinced me it was some unknown Latin phrase for imperative. Spotted it immediately when I opened up the page an hour later. Needed the blog for the word play though.
COD TROGLODYTE
Thanks blogger and setter.
I enjoyed this one. I did wonder about “emitting” as opposed to “omitting”, and also checked the surface of IMPOSTER carefully as I usually spell it with a penultimate ‘O’.
FOI SHARP
LOI NOTORIETY
COD HOARSE
TIME 6:32
About 2o minutes. Was baffled by ALTER EGO – I get it now, though I’ve never seen “Geo” as a shortened form of George – but had no other major issues.
Thanks Jack and setter (Rob Jacques, based on his Bluesky post).
FOI Sharp
LOI Alter ego
COD Liverwort
Yes you have!
https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/times-cryptic-28814
I remembered this because I commented then that I’d never seen the abbreviation, and someone mentioned Geo. F. Trumper, which is a shop I walk past almost every working day of my life! I had seen it a thousand times and just never registered it.
Ah! Thanks – clearly that hadn’t lodged itself in my brain (and I’m still not sure it ever will!)
I’m reminded of it every time I walk past the shop, so I will now never forget it!
It’s also the abbreviation used in the official title of statutes.
E.g. The Law of Property Act 1925, being 15 & 16 Geo. V, chapter 20.
12:05. Nice puzzle.
Thanks to jack and our setter.
Another 26 minute job. Great relief after yesterday’s debacle. Took a while to get a toehold but steady progress thereafter until the two long across clues. OPEN AND SHUT CASE was my COD but CONTEMPT OF COURT eluded me as I never think of it as a real criminal offence although I know it can be visited with the full range of penalties and the reference to racket had me thinking of clubs. PENTAMETER didn’t bother me, on the basis that near enough is good enough.
Thanks to setter and jackkt.
20:47 – but frustratingly I bunged in SACHEL instead of SACHET. This was just careless as I had parsed it correctly.
Otherwise enjoyable and not overly difficult, but: I did not really like emitting for omitting. To me that’s a little bit wrong, not just deceptive. On the other hand, PENTAMETER also seems wrong, but it was so obviously the answer that it didn’t present an issue.
NHO EMMET, VHO LIVERWORT.
I smiled at the Robert Plant reference – it was never going to be anything to do with him was it? And, tbh, rather focused the mind on ‘plant’ as a likely def but it was nice to encounter him. Picking up on geographical connections, he spent a goodly chunk of his early performing life just up the road from me in Worcestershire. As did John Bonham until his untimely passing. [Three of my pals bunked off school to attend the latter’s funeral and reference was made in one of the music press obituaries to the ‘…somewhat incongruous sight of three schoolboys in uniform amidst the heavy rock celebrities.’]
ELEGY, AMUSEMENT ARCADE, SICILIAN and GIANT PANDA were my other big ticks today in a 23 minute solve.
Thanks to setter and blogger
John Bonham, one the truly great and possibly most underrated drummers of his time.
Rolling Stone Magazine named him the greatest drummer of all time, not sure you can call that ‘underrated’!
I read (or heard) just the other day that a Playboy magazine poll once voted John the 2nd best drummer in the world behind… Karen Carpenter. That’s Playboy readers for you I suppose!
She was a very good drummer!
Yes she was and a very fine voice too, I loved her timbre, if that’s the right word. But it wouldn’t have occurred to me to place her best drummer in the world? Maybe a patriarchal bias on my part.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me either but I am much less familiar with her work than I am with JB’s.
I agree. There was a quality to her voice which set her apart from everyone else. Tragic that she died so young.
Enjoyed the puzzle
FOI GIANT PANDA
LOI PENTAMETER
COD LIVERWORT
18.35, twice the time of the last two days, as nothing really came easily. Probably starting with ARROWROOT at the top didn’t help, and things went crumbly from there on.
I write my (occasional) sonnets in pentameters, and I can assure you they take work.
Pleased at the end to work out how TROGLODITE had to be wrong, and finished by realising the reserve at 12d was not some sort of GARDEN. Phew!
Cheers Jack for another precise blog!
20-odd years ago I came across “Alphabetic Jigsaws” for the first time – 26 solutions, one beginning with each of A-Z, no numbers in the grid put them in where they fit. And further read that Araucaria used to write the clues as 13 pairs of rhyming iambic pentameter. True, or a myth? That strikes me as almost impossible.
A google search found at least one Araucaria Alphabet Puzzle in the Guardian from 2011, but not the clues, so I can’t confirm pentameters. But, yes, clues starting (and clued) A-Z and unnumbered, so fit where you can. I’m definitely going to chase this up!
And indeed here it is: https://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2011/11/01/25484.pdf
That’s incredibly impressive. Ever clue 10 syllables, rhyming couplets. And if you strain you can emphasise the correct syllables. I googled but couldn’t find it – Thanks!
21:59
Fun puzzle – all seemed fairly clued and gave up their answers in a smooth procession.
Thanks Jack and setter
All done in 9:34, helped by a personal appearance at 24 ac! Many thanks to the setter and jackkt.
I thought I knew that name as I (finally) entered it!
‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand/This holy shrine, the gentler sin is this…’ Fantastic.
I should have adopted my Monday strategy of reading each clue once, wrestling with LIVERWORT took a while.
Impressed by GIANT PANDA.
15’11”, thanks jack and setter.
Had done two thirds of this after 10 mins, but was then becalmed. ARCH and GLADSTONE were my LOIs, the former taking forever even though it’s pretty easy. Not for the first time, I marvel at how the ‘hard’ ones can often seem far easier than the gimmes.
Disingenuous “apparently Robert Plant”. Reminds me of the apocryphal judge who enquired “what is a T-SHIRT?”
Agree ..there is no ‘apparently’ in it….
‘They were a popular music combo, m’lud’.
24.01 I thought this was excellent with some very witty clues. Hadn’t realised, until Guy mentioned it, that this was the alternative spelling of Impostor. I particularly liked CONTEMPT OF COURT and AMUSEMENT ARCADE.
Thanks to Jack and the setter.
16:40 for a pleasant lunchtime solve. TROGLODYTE LOI once I sorted out the anagram fodder and was left with almost no room for error with my spelling!
Open and shut case raised a smile.
Much thanks to blogger and setter for their efforts.
21:20 – took it easy with this gentle but fun offering. I couldn’t parse ALTER EGO, but happily didn’t have to.
Fun puzzle all correctly solved reasonably swiftly, for me at least, with four to go and then a complete impasse.
Not knowing what a “potboiler” was being one and would never have followed the steps for “alter ego” alone and feels a bit too contrived for me (maybe one of get the answer from the checkers and ponder how it works!).
Some really nice clues and a fun challenge.
Thanks to both our blogger and setter.
Also meant to ask how “IT” equates to “congress”? Shall then add to the long list of learning.
The couple were found to be in congress, ie having sex. Clara Bow, the 1920s star of the silent screen was known as ‘the IT girl.’
Not because of that though.
34.34 done in two spells interspersed with a little nap. LOI Giant Panda , not helped by being fixated on great as the first word. Similarly, I was bamboozled by the sweet till realising it was three words doh!
Very enjoyable but I prefer rum and raisin.
A pleasant puzzle with no silly errors on my part to spoil matters.
Loved the Robert Plant reference, but all the clues were well written and the wordplay was precise.
I pondered over PENTAMETER, but thought it was ok after reading it carefully.
Thanks Jack, and thank you Setter.
Nice puzzle – 15 mins. No hold-ups. Two minor beefs. CONTEMPT OF COURT is not a ‘crime’, it is sui generis and may be either civil or criminal; and I looked for the definition in the clue to TROGLODYTE, and then realised it was meant to be an & Lit. but not (in my opinion) a very satisfactory one. At 09.00 tomorrow I shall be having my monthly visit to Geo. F Trumper, so no problem with 11A! First in SHARP, last PENTAMETER (‘literary work’ is OK by me). Favourite three clues: to FELL, SICILIAN and GAME WARDEN. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Late to the table and probably everyone’s signed off… about 30′. Made unnecessarily heavy weather of a few but didn’t parse ALTER EGO though the “Geo” abbreviation is well known I thought. NHO EMMET though.
Thanks Jack and setter
I remember going to a talk by the architect of a recently completed building.
He said that his practice had potboilers and projects where they hoped to design exceptional buildings.
A student asking him which category this building was in.
I think this is where the expression “between a rock and a hard place” came from!😂
18:30
Two days, two sub 20 mins!
Something seriously wrong.
Oh well, probably back to 30 pluses or DNFs for the rest of the week/month/year.🙂
18:40 for me, so you narrowly pipped me. Yesterday’s should’ve been a PB but it was a DNF as I foolishly put ‘krone’ not ‘krona’ and ‘bale’ not ‘bail’ making ‘capsize’ impossible. Good to see some more of the easier crosswords.
A nice straightforward puzzle which I solved in 27.07. I never quite got my head round the parsing of TROGLADITE, but I knew it had to be the required answer. Delayed a little with my final two before CONTEMPT OF COURT allowed me to finish off with OOPS.
39.22, with LOI FELL.
COD to GIANT PANDA.
Thanks Jack and setter
26 minutes. That’s two consecutive days I’ve completed the 15×15. It will now be weeks before I finish another!
Identified some swallowwort in the garden today. Thought I’d planted it, it was so pretty. But no, it’s wild. Anyway I look forward to it making an appearance in a puzzle. Double-double-u must be rare. Was on the wavelength and completed this in 13’35”. Great fun.