Solving time: 11 minutes. I was slow off the mark with this one and must have read more than half-a-dozen clues before writing in my first answer. After that I had to keep hopping around the grid in order to keep up what little momentum I had managed to achieve. Lovers of anagrams will be disappointed because the first one doesn’t appear until 10dn and even then it’s only partial, consisting of 4 letters. Two clues further on we get the second and final anagram of the day, and again it’s partial and only 4 letters.
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 usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Liberal workers sign without giving name (8) |
| HANDSOME | |
| HANDS (workers), OME{n} (sign) [without giving name] | |
| 5 | Fool losing last friend (4) |
| CHUM | |
| CHUM{p} (fool) [losing last] | |
| 8 | Sign Liberal runs area (5) |
| LIBRA | |
| LIB (Liberal), R (runs), A (area) | |
| 9 | Damage after overturning some component of fortification (7) |
| RAMPART | |
| MAR (damage) reversed [after overturning], PART (some) | |
| 11 | Support odd instances of these (3) |
| TEE | |
| T{h}E{s}E [odd instances of…] | |
| 12 | Escapes when it’s time for bed? (6,3) |
| LIGHTS OUT | |
| Two meanings. I’ve never come across the first one and had difficulty tracking it down, but I found it eventually in Chambers where ‘light out’ is defined as ‘decamp’. | |
| 13 | Friend with excellent luxurious residence (6) |
| PALACE | |
| PAL (friend), ACE (excellent) | |
| 15 | Live link initially with small creatures in location of bats? (6) |
| BELFRY | |
| BE (live), L{ink} [initially], FRY (small creatures – tiny fish). A reference to the saying ‘Bats in the belfry’. | |
| 18 | African country doctor taken aback about one test subject (6,3) |
| GUINEA PIG | |
| GUINEA (African country), then GP (doctor) reversed [taken aback] containing [about] I (one) | |
| 19 | Bitter conflict recalled (3) |
| RAW | |
| WAR (conflict) reversed [recalled] | |
| 20 | Got a tan around end of August? Very surprised (7) |
| STUNNED | |
| SUNNED (got a tan) containing [around] {Augus}T [end of…] | |
| 21 | Animal Patronus at first abandoning boy wizard (5) |
| OTTER | |
| {p}OTTER (boy wizard) [patronus at first abandoning…] | |
| 22 | Debut for Oxford United due (4) |
| OWED | |
| O{xford} [debut for…], WED (united) | |
| 23 | Regrets blocking activity by the writer producing horror (8) |
| GRUESOME | |
| RUES (regrets) contained by [blocking] GO (activity) + ME (the writer) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Hospital operation limiting unwell time? That’s a high point (7) |
| HILLTOP | |
| H (hospital) + OP (operation) containing [limiting] ILL (unwell) + T (time) | |
| 2 | Half-heartedly bribe an aristocrat (5) |
| NOBLE | |
| NOB{b}LE (bribe) [half-heartedly] | |
| 3 | Rocky rubble around shopping centres, note, as seen on TV? (5-6) |
| SMALL-SCREEN | |
| SCREE (rocky rubble) containing [around] MALLS (shopping centres), then N (note). Not so small these days, but it’s by comparison with a cinema screen. | |
| 4 | Illusory vision? I’m upset with anger (6) |
| MIRAGE | |
| I’M (reversed [upset], RAGE (anger) | |
| 6 | Teacher unacceptable? Leave (4,3) |
| HEAD OFF | |
| HEAD (teacher), OFF (unacceptable) | |
| 7 | Satisfied about religious texts for choral setting (5) |
| MOTET | |
| MET (satisfied) containing [about] OT (religious texts – Old Testament) | |
| 10 | Different attempt to interrupt new version of some pantomime (6,5) |
| MOTHER GOOSE | |
| OTHER (different) + GO (attempt) contained by [to interrupt] anagram [new version] of SOME | |
| 14 | The French island: certain to offer relaxation (7) |
| LEISURE | |
| LE (the in French), I (island), SURE (certain) | |
| 16 | Back half of cemetery we rebuilt, incorporating English cemetery plant? (3,4) |
| YEW TREE | |
| Anagram [rebuilt] of {ceme}TERY [back half of…] + WE, containing [incorporating] E (English). Yew is commonly found in churchyards. | |
| 17 | It may appear when sportsman needs a rest (6) |
| SPIDER | |
| Cryptic. Spider is a type of rest used in cue sports. | |
| 18 | Enthusiasm filling us today? Not entirely (5) |
| GUSTO | |
| Hidden in [not entirely] {fillin}G US TO{day} | |
| 19 | Proportion scoundrel presented with binary digits (5) |
| RATIO | |
| RAT (scoundrel) I + 0 (binary digits) | |
I didn’t find this difficult, even though I biffed grotto with only one checking letter – and that was a wrong one. I knew nobble, and knew light out, which I associate with late 19th-century American slang.
Time: 7:49
Yes, at the end of Huckleberry Finn the hero says he has to “light out for the Territory” before his aunt adopts and tries to civilise him.
On the magnificent title track of his superb Return of the Grievous Angel album, c1975, the late Gram Parsons referred to someone who ‘lighted out for some desert town’ and that got me over the line here straight away.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across ‘light out’ aside from Huck’s famous comment. I biffed HANDSOME, BELFRY, YEW TREE without parsing, MOTHER GOOSE without reading the clue. 6:07.
I think ‘player’ would have been a better choice than ‘sportsman’ for SPIDER, thinking snooker and other cue games are not really ‘sports’. I found lots of this requiring some thought and like Jack didn’t get my first answer for a while till I saw HILLTOP. Worked all over the grid and picked up pace after a few went in, but couldn’t see MOTHER GOOSE after thinking it was an anagram of ‘attempt some’ until GUINEA PIG put paid to that. NHO of LIGHTS OUT for escapes but biffed it given ‘time for bed’. COD to HANDSOME.
Thanks Jack and setter.
Sportsman was often used ironically for someone who was not very athletic at all.
Did not know that. Thanks.
There is a long article “Cue Sports” on Wiki, and the term is used widely elsewhere. E.g. While cue sports might not have the same level of intense physical exertion as field sports, the combination of skill, strategy, competition, and the physical demands involved firmly places snooker, pool, and billiards within the realm of sports. They do require hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and the ability to maintain focus and composure over long periods. Professional players often emphasize the importance of physical fitness for endurance in tournaments.
And a litheness and agility for the more difficult shots.
The World Championship Final, continuing today, is 35 frames (games of snooker) played over two days. Requires, among much else, a lifetime of practice.
I recalled that some of the older World Championships took more than 35 frames … for example, having just looked in wikipedia, the 1947 final was played over 145 frames – won by Walter Donaldson over Fred Davis by 82 frames to 63 after 12 days! Actually he won 73-49 but they played out the ‘dead’ frames!
Surely, for a crossword, whether it’s debatable if snooker is a sport or not is irrelevant? The mere fact that it is commonly described as such is sufficient?
Oh yes, I agree, but since the matter was raised…
Thinking back to my days of playing pool in pubs, I don’t think the level of ‘hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and the ability to maintain focus and composure over long periods’ can be overstated…
15:30. LOI OWED, but slowed by MOTHER GOOSE, where MICKEY MOUSE was tempting. As was HEAD OUT , which also means “leave”
Liberal=HANDSOME required a think, but “after a good meal he gave a handsome tip” fits.
The only reason I knew yew trees are associated with churchyards is from Harry Potter, which meant OTTER at 21a came to mind immediately after solving YEW TREE.
I had to jump around the grid a lot and carefully check all the parsing, but finished a bit under my average time.
For the link between a ‘cemetery’ and a YEW TREE your Harry Potter is my Midsomer Murders.
Yew is poisonous, definitely to pet dogs and perhaps to humans, and was historically confined to (walled) churchyards.
7.24 with the odd Hail Mary (MOTHER GOOSE, SMALL SCREEN, YEW TREE) which Jack helpfully explained, thanks to both.
9.45 but with one wrong – put OPEN for OWED and never went back to it.
21:26 for the solve. Reached last pair of CHUM and HEAD-OFF at nine mins so it was an increasingly miffed alphatrawl until HEAD sprang to mind for the teacher. Of course headteachers spend their time managing the school rather than doing much teaching these days. Don’t think I’ve referred to any of my friends as a chum since I read The Beano and Dandy.
Will be interested to see if there are howls at the SPIDER clue as I’m sure it’s come up before and people saying they didn’t know it was a snooker rest. I don’t think there’s anything else in the clue to point you towards that answer although I’m not sure much else will meet the checkers.
Thanks to Jackkt for the blog and to Pedro for once again ensuring I have a day out in the SCC. This was my fastest solve of his puzzles this year.
Re SPIDER, my comment in the blog originally mentioned the habit of spiders to suddenly appear out of nowhere, but I deleted it as probably not relevant although it had definitely occurred to me when reading the clue. I can’t be bothered to look it up again as I think it went on and on, but if I remember correctly the bone of contention last time was the difference (if indeed there is one) between a spider rest and a bridge.
and where does a ‘jigger’ fit into all this? I recall same being asked for by snooker players… many decades ago..lost youth and all that.
When I was a youth and we talked about jiggling balls, we weren’t referring to snooker 😜
With bank holiday rain looming, I decided to look it up. Last September #2779 Oink gave us “A rest for Ronnie O’Sullivan? (6)” and the less than helpful S-I-E checkers for which our esteemed blogger Templar informed us there are 72 possibilities. The main complaint seemed to be from those people who didn’t know who Ronnie O’Sullivan is. I guess “sportsman” is a better option than Zhao Xintong!
Another grid hopper here. Needed all the crossers to see HANDSOME. From HILLTOP to SPIDER in 9:04. Thanks Pedro and Jack.
A bit slow to get going but nothing too tricky here.
Started with LIBRA and finished with MOTHER GOOSE (which I’ve either NHO or it’s buried very deep) in 7.11.
Thanks to Jackkt and Pedro
I was slow here, taking 15:18, but looking back on completion I can’t really see why. Like Merlin I had HEAD OUT at first but BELFRY corrected that. Otherwise definitely tricky, but nothing too obscure or unsolvable, and a very nice inner reference in the clue for OTTER, as a patronus is I gather a creature (spirit? guardian angel?) in the Harry Potter books.
Many thanks Jack for the blog.
Started with chum and pretty much worked clockwise. LOI owed took some thinking, as open seemed likely but couldn’t parse.
The otter clue is clever, as for those of us that enjoy the HP books, we know that the Patronus spell conjures up an animal representation of the wizard, COD
NHO liberal = handsome but Mrs RH saw that straight away (she’s much better read than me!)
Thanks Pedro and Jack
The clue could have been even cleverer for fans of HP as Hermione’s Patronus is actually an otter. But that might have been a little too obscure for those not familiar with the books.
A good puzzle. I started quickly but my rate dropped as I grid-hopped. I was held up by HANDSOME until the ‘liberal’ penny dropped (d’oh) early on and by RAMPART later but mostly by GRUESOME even though I saw RUES (double d’oh) which took me to the SCC entrance. Ah well….
Thanks to both.
I found this difficult, biffing several answers. I got the final clue ( 23ac) with use of the check button.
I was slow with SPIDER but thought it reasonable ( and PDM) once I had decided it was not the seemingly obligatory cricket clue.
I would have much preferred the use of “sportsperson” not sportsman. Some on here will disagree but I personally find this casual sexism very grating.
Is patronus in the dictionaries? I couldn’t find it in Chambers or Collins.
Despite my moan about 17D my COD has to be SPIDER. It made me chuckle.
Thanks for the helpful blog jackkt
Patronus is well-known to readers of Harry Potter as a magical protective charm guardian. Fortunately you don’t need to know that to solve the clue.
Tx!
7:47 (birth of Charlemagne)
LOI was SPIDER. I half remember the cue rest coming up here before, but it did not come to mind this time.
COD to OTTER.
Thanks Jack and Pedro
13.00 on the dot! Not so far from our PB. A delicious start to our day.
No hold ups, however, far more bifs than usual, most of which were successfully deconstructed after pushing the button before turning to the blog. Needed jackkt’s wise words for BELFRY, LIGHTS OUT and MOTHER GOOSE – thank you.
COD OTTER – particularly when reminded of the workings of the Patronus clue.
12 minutes. I didn’t find this particularly easy and biffed quite a few. I’d NHO the first def of LIGHTS OUT, didn’t know the ‘Patronus’ reference and had trouble with the first ‘Liberal’ clue. On the other hand I was fortunate to have seen a variation on the clue for SPIDER before. I liked the surface for GUSTO; very appropriate for a Monday.
Thanks to Pedro and Jack
NHO LIGHTS OUT meaning escapes. Biffed MOTHER GOOSE before eventually parsing. Good workout today. Thanks Pedro and Jack
Speeding, I missed out an answer, not for the first time, otherwise 5’24”. After complaining elsewhere, good to see two snooker references, if you include ‘potter’.
Thanks jack and setter.
Aargh. I have learnt the word MOTET here, but blindly put Motif, matching LIGHTS Off, as I thought I had heard of the latter expression in the escape sense.
Made heavy weather of this one.
Liked GUINEA PIG(PDM), SMALL SCREEN, RAMPART, BELFRY, YEW TREE.
LOI SPIDER, a guess.
Thanks for vital blog, Jack.
Handsome took a few crossers to see, so I actually started with Hilltop, Libra, Tee and Palace. A duff Ally (🙄) then made the NE tricky, but Lights Out prompted Motet and (the appropriate) Chum(p) then became obvious. An alpha-trawl for loi Owed confirmed that the chance of a sub-15 was indeed forlorn. CoD to the simple but effective Ratio. Invariant
I thought this was on the tougher side of average, and I was pleased to finish under target at 9.38. I was dodging all over the grid to make progress, and although LIGHTS OUT occurred to me as a potential answer for 12ac, it became my LOI as I couldn’t be sure it was something else.
21:00
All fairly straightforward but was stuck for 6 minutes in the NE. Not helped by having ALLY for the friend, thinking Wally without the W. I finally remembered A Chump at Oxford, fantastic film BTW which gave me LOI HEAD OFF.
Like Jakkt, it took me a few clues before I got anything but I then continued fairly efficiently, finishing in 9:20. Spider is perhaps a little arcane, but topical for the May bank holiday.
15 mins…
Like Jackkt, I was slow off the mark here, not helped by 1ac “Handsome” definition which was unknown to me. Similarly, 5ac “Chum” felt like something from a bygone era. In fact, the only person I ever knew who used it was my father, who employed it occasionally when remonstrating with someone (along with “pal”). Personally, I thought he sounded ridiculous and was half expecting someone to punch him as a result of his condescending tone.
Anyway, the rest of the grid went in fairly swiftly by comparison, including 7dn “Motet” that I only know from doing this.
FOI – 11ac “Tee”
LOI – 7dn “Motet”
COD – 17dn “Spider”
Thanks as usual!
When I was 19 and holidaying in San Francisco, my mate and I were waiting in a queue – probably for the boat to Alcatraz (big news there today). I stepped away from the line to go to the toilet and upon returning, I ducked back under the rope to stand next to him. At which point, the big fat American behind us accused me of jumping the queue and as we began to remonstrate. I recall a menacing tone to my voice as I said “listen buddy we’ve been stood here all the time” and the conversation concluded. Not sure I’d do that in this day and age 😂
IMHO the use of “chum” in such circumstances is intended to be threatening.
I found this quite difficult at first, but gradually got going and with a couple of biffs scraped home in 26:58. Needed the blog to see what was what!
Grindingly slow, but got there in the end. Re snooker equipment, if my memory serves me correctly, jigger is the rest that is level with the middle of the ball and used for most shots where an extension is required, and the spider is the high one used when you have to cue over another ball. I guess that is because it would look like the cross-section of a spider when seen from behind. Rifle shooting is also classified as a sport, one of the positions is “prone” i.e. lying on your front. Top marksmen (sorry markspeople!) can actually slow their heartbeat to take a shot. You wont get much less physical activity than that in a “sport”.
NHO Liberal to mean handsome. Can’t even find a definition of Liberal in this way online anywhere. Please explain you wise ones!
If you put a liberal sprinkling of custard on your trifle, you might suggest it was a handsome amount. Or see Merlin’s example above about tipping.
Do you sprinkle custard? Surely you apply it in deep thick layers…😅
Good point … my analogy originally started life as sugar on cereal … or something like that …
The old proverb “handsome is as handsome does” means “a generous/liberal person is a goodlooking person”.
“A handsome reward/salary”.
I thought it meant that good deeds are more important than good looks.
That’s a neater way of putting it, thanks, but I think the sentiment is the same!
In days gone by ‘handsome is as handsome does’ was said darkly to keep us young ones down and in our place, to stop us thinking too much of youthful good looks.🙂
5.46
HANDSOME needed all the checkers and was my LOI. Otherwise no animals scared here, helped by no anagrams or DDs but very clear w/p.
Thanks all
I am old enough to remember that tv game What’s My Line. Gilbert Harding would often lecture on the difference between sports and games, as he saw it of course.
I thought this was a tough QC.
Finished in 15 minutes but with several question marks over parsings, particularly LIGHTS OUT and YEW TREE.
I was pretty sure I had all the right answers but…
There was liberal use of LIBERAL and SIGN for example. Sometimes setters seem to do this, perhaps as a teaching mechanism.
David
Succumbed to this slowly as I worked out the wordplays. Thought scoundrels are cads rather than rats who are traitors. Oh well.
Failed to get HANDSOME first up and so started with HILLTOP, then wandered around following whatever letters I had. The result was a sort of diagonal solve, ending up back at HANDSOME/NOBLE as the last two in.
I did like OTTER, which is a very good Harry Potter surface and gets COD from me. SPIDER was in the Saturday Telegraph or it might not have come so easily.
All done in 06:59 for a Very Good day. Many thanks Pedro and Jack.
Finished it (LOI MOTHER GOOSE) but CNP five so can’t imagine it’s all correct. NHO LIGHTS OUT = escapes; it had to be OTTER but couldn’t see how it worked (unless NHO Patronus is something/someone in the HP books? Ah, yes, thank you, several above). SPIDER fit so bunged it in – ah, that sort of rest – would never have occurred to me in a million years.
Activity = GO? Humph – not in Collins or Chambers – how colossal a dictionary do you need for that? (Don’t think anyone has commented on that yet?)
Arrggh, this fence tripped me: tried debut = open (as Horners above), never seen it used as “first letter”. Yes united = wed of course …. So, one to the bad. Thank you, jackkt, for explanations.
Yes HANDSOME was a hard one to parse; Liberal is always L and sign can be so many things. I suppose I thought of the tipping context which does just about work.
ODE has it:
go (informal)
vigorous activity:
it’s all go around here
Thank you – well searched! I had looked up activity and failed to find “go” – I just tried “go” in Collins but despite 76 definitions a noun meaning “activity” is not among them. But I agree it should be; maybe newer editions have caught up.
I ground my way through this and it was a steady solve. I didn’t not enjoy it bit I found it irritating because a lot of the time I was saying it sort of works. Nobble, for example, can mean to get at and so it sort of works for bribe, but it’s a bit of a stretch from its usual meaning – to obstruct or scupper. I don’t think that setters should ever resort to obscure usages for the quickie (lights out for escapes). Thanks though!
Finished in 19 minutes with everything parsed. As I always find Pedro a tricky setter I consider this a good time. I had all the requisite GK which helped. To me the phrase “lights out” meaning to leave somewhere in a hurry has a definite transatlantic flavour.
FOI – 8ac LIBRA
LOI – 1ac HANDSOME
CODs – 21ac OTTER and 17dn SPIDER
Thanks to Pedro and Jack
Slow to get going as I just couldn’t work out what was going on with 1a. Jumped around but did eventually cross the line all correct. NHO LIGHTS OUT = escape and wanted there to be two Ls in BELFRY for far too long. Liked HILLTOP and HANDSOME (when I’d finally solved it). LOI CHUM/HEAD OFF (always forget head = teacher). SPIDER known only from doing crosswords. Many thanks Jack and Pedro.
I don’t understand how Handsome means liberal?
See above Sandy G’s comment on the same lines and the collective responses to her query. To give someone a handsome tip would mean to tip them liberally.
I think that’s the second in a row that felt hard but took less than my average time. I was going to complain about Mother Goose not being a pantomime, but it turns out that it is (and recently starring Ian McKellen, no less) so I’m glad that I didn’t.
Thank you for the blog!
Oh no it isn’t …
Tough start to the week for me. Parsed three, biffed one. I did wordle in four at six AM.
Extremely tough! 50-55 minutes for me with several long periods spent making absolutely progress at all. Too many difficulties to describe, which (unfortunately) were only partially compensated by enjoyment. Sorry Pedro, but it wasn’t a QC for me.
Many thanks to Jack for the blog.
1a wasn’t going to leap out at me so FOI 5a Chum(p); V glad I didn’t think of (W)ally!
6d Head O?? left like that (off/out) until 15a Belfry put me right. I agree 12a Lights Out sounds American; I’m sure I’ve heard it in Westerns. LOI Spider; not unfamiliar, I just couldn’t remember what it was called.
11:44. HANDSOME and MOTHER GOOSE were favourites . Lots of fauna today- otter, goose, spider, guinea pig, chum(fish), plus rat, bat, and ram in the clues.
I will be appealing to The Committee. You appear to have posted at 1:15am and now 12 hours later a nice fast time …
Thought I’d posted time already but looking through blog I see I obviously didn’t!
From HILLTOP to the guessed SPIDER in 7:19. The other two answers I was unsure of were HANDSOME = liberal where I relied on the wordplay and the obscure definition for LIGHTS OUT. Thanks Jack
Clearly on Pedro’s wavelength as this went in smoothly with the only holdup being HEAD for teacher – I’ve no idea why that posed a problem! I liked it a lot, particularly OTTER and GRUESOME.
12.47 Sluggish today with little coming easily. Finished with HANDSOME, a biff of BELFRY and correcting HEAD OUT to HEAD OFF. Thanks Jack and Pedro.
Sluggish today with 12:06, LOI MOTET. Top right corner easily took 4 minutes, possibly closer to 6.
Slow going but worked it out. Needed our bloggers help with some of the parsing though.
We were rather slow here at 14:40. I can forgive myself for taking some time to see and parse the rather tricky HANDSOME but SPIDER? given that: a) I play snooker from time to time b) we’re sat here watching the world champs and, more particularly, c) I suspected it could be a snooker reference at the outset! Fortunately Mrs T was at hand to put me out of my misery. Didn’t know the first meaning of LIGHTS OUT but luckily MOTET came readily to resolve the OUT / OFF choice. Thanks, Jack and Pedro.
18:09 here, held up by HEAD OUT in the top right and by a forlorn search for synonyms of “batbox”. The PDM gives my COD to BELFRY.
Thanks to Pedro and Jackkt.