I went through this very quickly for 04:53 and an Excellent Day. No obscurities, I think, except maybe 14a. A very neat, well-constructed puzzle; hope you all enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fortitude in champion, British individual (8) |
| BACKBONE – BACK [champion] + B [British] + ONE [individual]. | |
| 5 | Wicked Satan abandons daughter (4) |
| EVIL – {d}EVIL [“abandons daughter” indicates remove a D]. | |
| 8 | Some sensors on a radio locating system (5) |
| SONAR – hidden. | |
| 9 | Check bloodsucker removed (4,3) |
| TICK OFF – TICK [bloodsucker], OFF [removed]. When our children were small they often picked up ticks on holiday in the Highlands; to soften the blow my wife introduced a rule that they got a sweet for every tick removed. That led to our youngest sneaking out to roll around in the heather to ensure a good tick/sweet count … The Law of Unintended Consequences in action. | |
| 11 | Factors then for cooking breakfast item (6,5) |
| FRENCH TOAST – anagram [for cooking] of “factors then”. | |
| 13 | Reportedly, seat cast away (6) |
| THROWN – aural wordplay [reportedly] of thrown/throne [seat]. | |
| 14 | Returning distance runner first to pass early test (6) |
| PRELIM – P [first to pass] and MILER [distance runner] all reversed [returning]. I have just read Melvyn Bragg’s Another World (his time at Oxford) so PRELIM for “early test”, which I think is mainly an Oxford thing, came easily. People who like to chunter about Oxbridge bias in the crosswords may now clear their throats and proceed. | |
| 17 | Virtuoso dismissed reputation (11) |
| OUTSTANDING – OUT [dismissed] + STANDING [reputation]. I hesitated over the definition for a moment but then thought “virtuoso performance/outstanding performance”. | |
| 20 | Wild region capital of Denmark passed over (7) |
| IGNORED – anagram [wild] of “region” + D [capital of Denmark]. | |
| 21 | After villa, terraced houses (5) |
| LATER – hidden [houses]. | |
| 22 | Strand of narrative? (4) |
| YARN – definition with a cryptic hint (a good yarn/good narrative). | |
| 23 | Rent lower — evidence of distress? (8) |
| TEARDROP – TEAR [rent] + DROP [lower]. My LOI. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Work of art in smithereens? (4) |
| BUST – definition with a cryptic hint. | |
| 2 | Trick with fire damaged tree (7) |
| CONIFER – CON [trick] + an anagram [damaged] of “fire”. | |
| 3 | Drink, breaking law, try a beer! (6,5) |
| BARLEY WATER – anagram [breaking] of “law try a beer”. “Mr Matthias Robinson invented Robinson’s Patent Barley and Barley Groats in 1823”, according to the BBC. Robinson’s then moved into the rather nicer-sounding lemon version in the 1930s. They did a sponsorship deal with Wimbledon from 1935 to 2022, which explains why I remembered it as being associated with tennis. | |
| 4 | See it once when camouflaged (6) |
| NOTICE – anagram [camouflaged] of “it once”. Such a neat clue, COD from me. | |
| 6 | One found in book, a musical instrument (5) |
| VIOLA – I [one] inside [found in] VOL [book] + A [a]. All the viola players I’ve ever met have told me they took it up because it was so much easier to get into an orchestra as a viola than a violin. | |
| 7 | Corrupted file, item in existence (8) |
| LIFETIME – anagram [corrupted] of “file item”. | |
| 10 | Provide food and support for little animal (11) |
| CATERPILLAR – CATER [provide food] + PILLAR [support]. | |
| 12 | Mixture of ricotta and gravy, ultimately an abomination! (8) |
| ATROCITY – anagram [mixture] of “ricotta” and Y [gravy ultimately]. Can’t see that recipe catching on. | |
| 15 | Smoker’s accessory easier to pick up (7) |
| LIGHTER – double definition. | |
| 16 | Figure with digger regularly worried (2,4) |
| ON EDGE – ONE [figure] + DGE [digger regularly]. | |
| 18 | Singer with cash for the audience (5) |
| TENOR – aural wordplay [for the audience] with “tenner” [cash]. | |
| 19 | Stay forward (4) |
| PROP – double definition, the second one being a position in rugby (league and union). | |
6:12
Biffed PRELIM, parsed post-submission. Straightforward otherwise.
I did need the parsing of prelim to see it, even though I suspected it was a likely answer. Barley water is not a thing in the US, but I had heard of it. Everything else was pretty easy.
Time : 8:56
PROP needs to be summarily deleted from the collective consciousness. It’s cost me four minutes this week alone. I should’ve had this puzzle in 3 flat but needed to spend a couple extra seconds on ON EGDE and TEARDROP and then I stared at 19D for a minute and a half before giving up and checking it.
No problems other than losing track of my time. Slight MER at PRELIM, but it’s in all the usual places with Chambers listing it as a word in its own right and ODE has it as an abbreviation dating back to the 19th century.
All quite straightforward until left with the excellent 19d PROP. Took a while on that, but that’s the nature of the beast. Good challenge from the setter.
6:32
Similar to metagloria and ulaca, had it all-but-one done in short order, but then had to have a long, long think about what ended up being LOI PROP. After a minute or two of alphabet trawling, bunged in my best guess, and ended up getting lucky.
Even seeing the correct parsing here with the NOH rugby definition (thanks Templar!), because I’m an (although increasingly less-) ignorant American, I still don’t get it. Consulting Collins and Chambers, it seems that prop means to stop suddenly in AUS and NZ and stay means to stop suddenly in a legal sense, of which I’m familiar. But that can’t be what’s intended (or is it?), so I’m at a loss. If anyone could elucidate how stay = prop, it would be much appreciated. (Again, ignorant American here, so apologies in advance if stay = prop is an obvious synonym across the pond.)
Having said all that, it was nevertheless an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Mara!
7:55
Collins:
stay
in British English
noun
1. anything that supports or steadies, such as a prop or buttress
stay
in American English
(stei) (verb stayed, staying)
noun
1. something used to support or steady a thing; prop; brace
Got it. Very many thanks again!
Had to leave BARLEY WATER to the end,it wasn’t until I had all the other letters that the anagram occurred to me, quite easy when you’ve only got three of twelve letters to place. Started fast with BACKBONE and VIOLA but the V tempted me to change technique and use the V to get VIOLA and build from there – seemed to work, finished all green in 8.19. I was mainly an 800m runner but it was a short stride from there to ‘miler’ so PRELIM went in easily enough, PROP too since Sundays are spent on the touchline of the U14s (roll on summer).
Prelim common in Scotland as the name for exams that I believe are called mocks in England.
I was slow to get going for some reason, but the bottom half fell into place nicely and the top half then followed smoothly enough for a 9:34 finish. Well misled by SONAR, as I expected “on a radio” in the clue to indicate a homophone, and puzzled by OUTSTANDING = Virtuoso until I thought of exactly the same example as Templar.
FRENCH TOAST is probably one of those things, like Dutch courage or Danish pastry, which the people in question would not recognise at all as a thing. But they return the compliment with crème anglaise.
Many thanks Templar the blog.
11:57 French Toast and Barley Water… Outstanding!
TaTAM
8.14, ending with PROP and bunging in PRELIM without really thinking about it. Thanks Mara and Templar.
Only self-inflicted problems today – I got the wrong end of the stick for the homophone at 13a which made LOI BARLEY WATER somewhat baffling until I changed throne to THROWN.
Finished in 5.28.
Thanks to Templar and Mara
My usual start with “ah, Mara, king of misdirection” stood us in good stead. He’s so clever at creating a surface that takes you in the wrong direction, but it does lead to some ringing PDMs. All done, and parsed, in a very decent 15.30.
Favourite, also POI, tear drop, for rent lower looked at let cow!
Thanks both
6.27 – which is not a particularly good time for me for this puzzle I feel. The thing that slowed me down was the the anagrams: BARLEY WATER and ATROCITY in particular, the latter not difficult but for some reason took me a little time. The other slow clue was BUST.
No NHO, no hold ups except self-made. An enjoyable puzzle, COD to FRENCH TOAST.
I’m not a morning person and a much faster solver in the afternoon, but I can never wait till then. Anyone else like this?
Compared to many of the times above a slowish 10:18. Never really got into stride though nothing too difficult with even PROP going in easily enough, admittedly once I had the two crossers. I liked BACKBONE and the abominable sounding (and presumably tasting) ‘ricotta and gravy’.
Thanks to Templar and Mara
As usual with Mara, anagrams abounded – seven of them this time – and they always slow me down.
A very slow 24:21, not seeing for ages several which in retrospect were pretty obvious. Biffed PRELIM. A poor day.
Agree with Templar’s initial comment: this horse (or sheep?) safely grazed, except that for me the obscurity was not PRELIM but NHO MILER. LOI TEARDROP. Liked the surface anagram for BARLEY WATER.