Solving time: 11 minutes
Very enjoyable but not without a tricky moment or two. How did you do?
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 benefit is about right (6) |
| ASSERT | |
| ASSE~T (benefit) contains [is about] R (right). The tilde sign ~ indicates the insertion point. | |
| 4 | To walk around a bit in shoes (6) |
| TOECAP | |
| TO, then PACE (walk) reversed [around] | |
| 8 | Initially Kitchener has a kit inspection so some uniforms appear (5) |
| KHAKI | |
| K{itchener} + H{as} + A + K{it} + I{nspection} [initially] | |
| 9 | Disconcert gunners over abandoning all cover (7) |
| UNNERVE | |
| {g}UNNER{s} + {o}VE{r} [abandoning all cover] | |
| 10 | Manage to get uniform in Royal Navy (3) |
| RUN | |
| U (uniform – NATO alphabet) contained by [in] R~N (Royal Navy) | |
| 11 | Gem of a game (9) |
| SOLITAIRE | |
| Two meanings. A precious stone set in a piece of jewellery by itself. A card game for one player aka Patience. | |
| 12 | Commotion raised by one who rows on river (6) |
| UPROAR | |
| UP (raised), R (river), OAR (one who rows) | |
| 13 | A learner taking on additional confidence (6) |
| MORALE | |
| A + L (learner) contained by [taking on] MOR~E (additional) | |
| 16 | Outlaw road speed changes (9) |
| DESPERADO | |
| Anagram [changes] of ROAD SPEED | |
| 18 | Hunting bird’s cry heard in east London (3) |
| OWL | |
| Aural wordplay [heard in east London]: “{h}OWL” (cry) | |
| 19 | Cause of chemical change damaged a green tree at first (7) |
| REAGENT | |
| Anagram [damaged] of A GREEN T{ree} [at first] | |
| 20 | Bury losing the first of season (5) |
| INTER | |
| {w}INTER (season) [losing the first of…] | |
| 22 | Rather small-minded welcoming king (6) |
| PRETTY | |
| P~ETTY (small-minded) containing [welcoming] R (king). Pretty easy! | |
| 23 | Dog breaking in where pigs are heavy to eat (6) |
| STODGY | |
| Anagram [breaking] of DOG contained by [in] ST~Y (where pigs are). Puddings may be this if made badly. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Request job is not started (3) |
| ASK | |
| {t}ASK (job) [is not started] | |
| 2 | Tool I lost from small basket on bicycle (7) |
| SPANNER | |
| S (small), PANN{i}ER (basket on bicycle) [‘I’ lost]. The French invented the word ‘panier’ and the Americans use that spelling, so why can’t the Brits spell it properly? | |
| 3 | Restoration of controls on gallery male staff beginning to thieve (13) |
| REINSTATEMENT | |
| REINS (controls), TATE (gallery), MEN (male staff), T{hieve} [beginning to…] | |
| 5 | Sight loon trio? That might have me excited (13) |
| ORNITHOLOGIST | |
| Anagram [excited] of SIGHT LOON TRIO. Knowing that ‘loon’ is a bird is the key to this as it indicates the subject matter. I guess this has to be &lit to get us round the double usage but no doubt the enforcers will tell me I’m wrong! |
|
| 6 | Canine clubs Igor’s running (5) |
| CORGI | |
| C (clubs), anagram [running] of IGOR | |
| 7 | Gradual cessation of war reportedly upset male (9) |
| PIECEMEAL | |
| Aural wordplay [reportedly]: “peace” [cessation of war] / PIECE, then anagram [upset] of MALE | |
| 9 | Unpleasant to see guy left distraught (4) |
| UGLY | |
| Anagram [distraught] of GUY L(left) | |
| 10 | Journey using cycle before start of fall? (5,4) |
| ROUND TRIP | |
| ROUND (cycle), TRIP (start of fall?) | |
| 14 | Fuss over point editor took up (7) |
| ADOPTED | |
| ADO (fuss), PT (point), ED (editor) | |
| 15 | Hold back, needing time for one old engineer (4) |
| WATT | |
| WAIT (hold back) becomes WATT (old engineer) when T (time) replaces I (one). James Watt’s work on the development of the steam engine was fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution. | |
| 17 | Receive following second post (5) |
| STAKE | |
| S (second), TAKE (receive) | |
| 21 | Fish that’s regularly greasy (3) |
| RAY | |
| {g}R{e}A{s}Y [regularly] | |
Was worried I wasn’t going to come up with the old engineer, but I knew roughly what was going on and eventually wait occurred which gave me WATT. Stopped the watch on 26:44, so somewhat over target, but given other people’s experiences, I’ll take it. COD to TOECAP. Thanks to our two cards, Jack and Joker.
Dnf gave up on 15dn
Quite tricky in a few places so taken a couple of minutes or so over par at 14:51. A significant portion of that was down to me refusing to allow Mrs T to biff LOI WATT because we couldn’t see the parsing for quite some time. MORALE was our POI. UNNERVE and UPROAR were other examples of see the answer and then work out the parsing. Satisfying to finish though. Thanks, Jack and Joker.
I seem to have bucked the trend, in that I found this fairly straightforward and was well inside my Snitch average.
When I see “fuss” in a clue, my immediate thought is “ado” so ADOPTED was a shoo-in. Had it been “coo” I would have expected the clue to read “fuss over”, as with a baby.
Similarly “hold back” sends me straight to “wait” (or “hesitate” which would be irrelevant here) – so the parsing made WATT obvious to me.
Remember, though, that I’ve been doing cryptics for 65 years. It’s the modern stuff that causes me problems!
FOI KHAKI
LOI MORALE
COD ORNITHOLOGIST
TIME 4:18
23:33
Found this tough, certainly the top right. Was nowhere with the definition for ORNITHOLOGIST but could solve the anagram. TOECAP and PIECEMEAL also slowed me up. LOI SOLITAIRE.
16:58 – difficult
Auk not OWL ruined PIECEMEAL for me
Enjoyed this mostly until I got stuck with Watt. Thanks to Jack’s blog for the parsing.
Toecap, Piecemeal did also take a while to get and parse.
Also, a MER for the definition of Khaki. Felt awkward.
Thought the Uproar clue was pretty good with the way “oar” is implied.
That was hard. 43-44 minutes for me.
My FOI was KHAKI and MORALE was my last. Some gimmes (e.g. ASK, CORGI, RUN, RAY), but plenty of time spent staring blankly back and forth between the clues and the grid. Not sure how I stumbled across the line, really.
Many thanks to Jack and Joker.
Defeated in the NE, specifically by PIECEMEAL and MORALE for which I had to use aids. Otherwise all done in 18 minutes.
FOI – 8ac KHAKI
LOI (of those I actually solved) – 17dn STAKE
COD – 11ac SOLITAIRE
Thanks to Joker and Jack
Lovely puzzle with a sting in the tail for me – just couldn’t get WATT, so obvious now. COD ORNITHOLOGIST (brilliant!). Took a while to parse UPROAR and TOECAP (and MORALE, see above), otherwise ok. Many thanks Joker and Jack.
Just done the 15×15 and would say it’s the easiest for a long time, if anyone wants to go over and have a crack at it. However, there are 2 clues that caused some controversy, one to do with the clueing, the other a very obscure but solvable-from-wordplay-and-crossers term. It took me less time to complete than this one did.
20:32 for the solve. Not what I’d hope to encounter on a Monday but luckily as I still had Izetti’s Saturday puzzle to do (6:56) I suppose that filled in for it.
As Jack says, the ornithologist clue really needs you to know what a loon is and I only knew once I’d filled the answer in from the checkers and anagrist. Found UPROAR hard to parse plus TOECAP, UNNERVE and a couple of others were tough clueing for the QC. Joker seems to have become much wordier in his clueing – and I don’t find the surfaces any the better for it.
Thanks to Jackkt and Joker
19 mins…
Definitely a few tricky clues in this. Dnk “Loon” was a bird, but the anagram couldn’t really be anything else. However, it was more pot luck that I put “Watt” rather than “Wait” for 15dn. If you weren’t sure of the parsing, it would have quite easy to put the latter.
FOI – 1dn “Ask”
LOI – 15dn “Wait”
COD – 4ac “Toecap”
Thanks as usual!
Enjoyable puzzle which took me my standard half an hour or so (I solve on paper, so timings are approximate and I don’t always check the clock). Thanks Jackkt for the parsing of Watt. I guess the spelling of panniers at least makes the pronunciation clear in English?
FOI Ask
LOI Watt
COD Ornithologist
thanks all
Wow, much too much for me, I’m afraid. I managed to get the left-hand side done, but gave up after 25 minutes with five incomplete, and several that I did get were biffed unparsed.
Well done to the majority who did better than me, and thank you for the blog!
Well, today was definitely a game of two halves! I thought I had actually time-travelled from Monday on the left hand side to Friday on the right! I don’t often check the SNITCH but felt compelled to do so today to see if others were struggling. Strange how that gave me the confidence to continue! 10:50.
Thanks to Joker and Jack.
Had Galt instead of Watt – lag backwards plus t for time. Sounded like it could be an old engineer. Also started with Instep for 4a until it wouldn’t fit with 5 and 6 d.
18:32. UNNERVE was my COD, while WAIT, TOECAP,and UPROAR were the hardest to parse.
Like others we found a number of clues tricky and unsolved.
Threw the towel in @ 20 mins with Toecap and Ornithologist (despite it clearly being an anagram of Sight Loon Trio) defeating me.
COD Stodgy
Thanks J & J
18.22 Mostly fine but WATT and ORNITHOLOGIST were slow and I was stuck for ages on PIECEMEAL and TOECAP. Thanks Jack and Joker.
26 minute nightmare.
Having almost completed the puzzle in yesterday’s ST, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Turned out to be this oncoming train! 🤣
I thought that the clue for ORNITHOLOGIST was the cleverest for several months. I’m still smiling about it.
Really enjoyed this challenging and fun QC.
I don’t time myself.
Tough start to the week. Needed to look up a few!
Late to this and very slow. 23:12, with aids needed for TOECAP and STAKE, where I’m unconvinced that “take” is a synonym of “receive”.
Thanks to Joker & Jackkt.