Big fat DNF OWL for me, failing on the (NHO, he whines bitterly) word at 12a. Would have been just under 6 minutes, so otherwise straightforward.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Novelist means to track man with Chinese porcelain (9) |
| HEMINGWAY – WAY [means – Collins sense 1 “a manner, method, or means”] comes after [to track] HE [man] + MING [Chinese porcelain]. A somewhat jumbled IKEA. | |
| 6 | Modest attempt (3) |
| SHY – double definition. | |
| 8 | Cocktail Ronnie mixed with a drop of gin (7) |
| NEGRONI – anagram [mixed] of “Ronnie” and G [a drop of gin]. | |
| 9 | American university lecturer initially following a routine (5) |
| USUAL – US [American] + U [university] + L [lecturer initially] after [following] A [a]. Another mixed-up IKEA. | |
| 10 | Encountered army corps just beyond the yard (5) |
| METRE – MET [encountered] + RE [Royal Engineers – army corps]. A METRE is 1.09361 yards, hence “just beyond”. | |
| 12 | Dog doctor on the radio (6) |
| HEELER – I failed on this and was irritated by it. It’s in the dictionaries as a piece of Antipodean slang (e.g. Collins “3. (Australian and New Zealand) a dog that herds cattle by biting at their heels”). Obscure, I would suggest. But more to the point, when you’re looking at H*E*E* and looking for a homophone [on the radio] of “doctor” (pretty obviously “healer”), you’ve got two choices: “heeler” or “hieler” (given that “ie” is generally “ee” in the usual patterns of English vowel digraph pronunciation). I thought of both but plumped for “hieler”, on the basis that it looked a bit more like a dog breed I didn’t know than “heeler”. There was no way of telling which was right and given the obscurity of the word I felt aggrieved.
On edit: it turns out that there’s a cartoon series called Bluey about a Blue Heeler puppy, so if you have children or grandchildren the right age then this is well-known! |
|
| 14 | Aristocrat somewhere in New Zealand leaving wife for jazz musician (4,9) |
| DUKE ELLINGTON – DUKE [aristocrat] + {w}ELLINGTON [somewhere in New Zealand “leaving wife”, i.e. omitting the W]. Bit of a gimme but a lovely surface. | |
| 16 | Sack amateur belonging to force (3,3) |
| LAY OFF – LAY [amateur] + OF [belonging to] + F [force]. | |
| 17 | Paddy left son going back (5) |
| STROP – PORT [left] + S [son] all reversed [going back]. A paddy is “a fit of temper, a rage; a hot temper” per OED, dating first from 1894. | |
| 19 | African animal fine alongside a Greek character (5) |
| OKAPI – OK [fine] followed by [alongside] A [a] + PI [Greek character]. | |
| 20 | Furious with a kid in middle of diner (2,1,4) |
| IN A RAGE – this took me a while. I could see that “middle of diner” = INE and that “a” = A. So I now had IN A ***E, and the *** had to be a word meaning “kid”, with the whole thing meaning “furious”. But I couldn’t decide whether it was “in a rage” or “in a bate”, since neither “rag” nor “bat” obviously seemed to mean “kid”. In the end I decided that since “rag” means “tease”, that was probably close enough to “kid”. But I didn’t think “kid” for “rag” was great, to be honest. | |
| 22 | Stuart regularly avoided tasteless stuff (3) |
| TAT – every other letter [regularly avoided”] of “Stuart“. | |
| 23 | Dark horse’s dreadful experience (9) |
| NIGHTMARE – NIGHT [dark] + MARE [horse]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Had me and cast developed using manual skills? (8) |
| HANDMADE – anagram [cast] of “had me and”. | |
| 2 | Pot noodle (3) |
| MUG – double definition. MUG and “noodle” both mean silly or foolish person. | |
| 3 | Circle filling part of body? Hangman uses this (5) |
| NOOSE – O [circle] going inside [filling] NOSE [part of body]. | |
| 4 | Women’s rowing team boosting sport (13) |
| WEIGHTLIFTING – W [women’s] + EIGHT [rowing team] + LIFTING [boosting]. | |
| 5 | I accept that our time will come after year (5,2) |
| YOU’RE ON – OUR [our] + EON [time] after [come after] Y [year]. | |
| 6 | Dodgy sweet and sour producing wind (9) |
| SOU’WESTER – anagram [dodgy] of “sweet” and “sour”. SOU’WESTER is an alternative for south-wester, “a wind or gale blowing from the south-west”. It also means the sort of wide-brimmed oilskin hat beloved of Captain Birdseye, worn to protect against the rain often brought by sou’westers. | |
| 7 | Cry, lacking courage, emitting “ow” (4) |
| YELL – YELL{ow}. | |
| 11 | Severely criticise Kate changing a role (4,5) |
| TAKE APART – anagram [changing] of “Kate” + A [a] + PART [role]. | |
| 13 | Old relative keeps recording style of garment (3-5) |
| ONE-PIECE – O [old] + NIECE [relative] including [keeps] EP [recording – see here]. | |
| 15 | College pupil from north European country, not south (7) |
| ETONIAN – Breadman leans closer to Merlin and whispers “Darling … they’re playing our song.” E{s}TONIAN. Bonus point to Breaders for remembering that it’s a college. | |
| 17 | Begin small pastry dish (5) |
| START – S [small] + TART [pastry dish]. | |
| 18 | Commanding Officer visiting Afghan maybe (4) |
| COAT – CO [Commanding Officer] + AT [visiting]. Those sheepskin coats with fur trim, once beloved by hippies. | |
| 21 | Turkish officer appearing in gangway at regular intervals (3) |
| AGA – every other letter [appearing … at regular intervals] of “gangway”. “In Muslim countries (esp. under the Ottoman Empire): (originally) a military commander or senior officer; (subsequently also) a civil officer or tribal chieftain. Frequently as a title of distinction (e.g. in Turkey for a powerful landowner).” (OED). | |
HEELER, being in the antipodes myself, posed no problem as the Blue Heeler and Red Heeler are both well-known breeds here, but appreciate it might be unknown in the northern hemisphere.
For some reason, I was fixated on ‘yield’ for 5d, YOU’RE ON before seeing the light. LAY OFF didn’t come easy either. No issues with ‘rag/kid’. USUAL was my last in as I just couldn’t see it. Loved your comment re Eton/Merlin, T.
Thanks Templar and setter.
This is how we learn you don’t have young children who watch Bluey 😀
I only knew of heelers because my grandchildren watch Bluey.
My thought exactly!
I solved it, but I handled the unknowns by guessing. Never heard of negroni, not familiar with the Heeler, don’t remember the Afghan as a coat, but they seemed likely enough. I also biffed southwest instead of sou’wester, all that was straightened out quickly. Here in New England, we have nor’easters instead.
Time: 13:36
A tough solve in places, I finished in about 11 but WOE…not knowing what paddy was I decided it was something you hit people with, so entered STRAP. I decided ‘part’ and ‘left’ were interchangeable, which they’re not. Not sure about kid = rag or mug = pot, but happy to see one of Australia’s delightful cattle dogs going for a scamper around the grid. Thanks Breadman and Templar.
16 minutes.
HEELER as a dog is totally out of place in an otherwise excellent puzzle.
Yes of course I looked up HEELER, even webpages listing dogs beginning with H didn’t have it. NHO of the dog and would never have got to ‘healer’ for doctor without that knowledge (although I see Templar says it was ‘pretty obvious’!). Also found ‘YOU’RE ON’ tricky so I was missed a letter from both at the end. Too hasty with HANDMADE starting with ‘homemade’ and didn’t correct the E (or a typo to the north) to give a pink square for HANeMADE. Two on the first pass of acrosses, then lots of downs and built from the bottom up. I’ve been doing these in the garden, cold fingers this morning.
DNF, failing on LAY OFF, as I didn’t see Lay for Amateur. I usually encounter lay with that sort of meaning at my church, which has Lay readers as unordained assistants, and while they are unpaid, they are far from amateur. So thumbs down from me on that clue.
And thumbs, fingers, hand and the full arm down for HEELER, where I totally agree with Jack. I got it, as a blind guess, but once again one is left wondering why a setter feels the need to include such an obscure word in an otherwise very orthodox and enjoyable puzzle.
Many thanks Templar for the blog.
In sporting terms, the distinction between amateurs and professionals was whether they were paid or not. It’s only thirty years ago that Rugby Union stopped being an amateur sport.
And Hockey still is, largely I think that very few people undestand the rules (Including quite a few players and one or two umpires). Also because the ball is small and travels so fast that it is very difficult for TV cameras to track it.
At least “ lay” wasn’t “ laic” ( same meaning, but overly obscure IMHO) as in yesterday’s 15*15
I second your thumbs down regarding Lay. Following the ecclesiastical theme, lay members of synod are unordained members rather than amateur and often bring their own professional skills to the role. Let alone Lay Clerks virtually all of whom are professional musicians.
Collins:
lay
in British English
adjective
2. nonprofessional or nonspecialist; amateur
Yup, whatever the word, you can always find a dictionary to give you a definition that nobody agrees with!
It is all the dictionaries to be fair.
Chambers:
“2 not having specialized or professional knowledge of a particular subject”
OED:
“3.b.
1821–
Non-professional, not expert”
Yep – but those terms describe quite a few paid people too!
Olymic gold medallists are amateur.
Very slow to get going but once I’d tuned in I made decent progress. HEELER was unknown but seemed to me to be clearly signposted by the homophone and COAT for Afghan was dredged from the depths.
Started with SHY and finished with LAY OFF in 7.51. COD to DUKE ELLINGTON.
Thanks to Templar and Breadman
All in all a pretty decent 16.22. Almost as long as it took to stop laughing from Templar’s Merlin/Eton comment 😂
Heeler of course was LOI, obvious from homophone but without knowing the antipodean dog, rationalised it as something that walks at heel.
Thanks Breadman and of course Mr T
16:43 Mug a Heeler? You’re On! Almost ‘thrown’ by Shy, a word I now associate with Coconuts as well as Kajagoogoo. Don’t say crosswords haven’t done anything for me.
TaTAB
14:49 – quite a bit quicker than usual for me. Just a couple of biffs required HEELER (NHO), IN A RAGE and COAT.
A slow start with only a few acrosses on the first pass although the DUKE was a big help. Happily the downs fell more readily and it was relatively plain sailing from there on in. No worries about heeler as I’m interested in dogs and consequently was surprised that others found it obscure, GK is a curious and individual thing. Yesterday I felt like the only person on the planet who couldn’t place the rialto in Venice!
No time due to interruptions but probably about 15 minutes.
Thanks Breadman and Templar.
…is another’s DNK obscurity. NHO HEELER. Managed the left half, but six on the right had no idea, difficult or obscure or both. Thanks, Templar.
Dived in with HEELEd after a minute of alphatrawling panic. While my 9mins is decent enough, quite a few of the clues had me mentally stuttering to parse them – not least IN-A-RAGE, LAY-OFF, TAKE-APART, “means to track” in HEMINGWAY plus mug for noodle and shy for attempt not entirely obvious and of course the NHO HEELER.
Thanks to Templar and Breadman nonetheless
10:07 Like others, NHO HEELER, but LOI YOURE ON.
Mustn’t disappoint my fans without commenting on ETONIAN.
Nice use of minuscule in the blog, Templar.
😉
All green in par time of 9:30. NHO Heeler but having recently made my first foray into the dog owning world, having acquired a Border Terrier puppy getting her to walk to heel is a distant dream so in it went. Wasn’t sure about LOI YOURE ON as wasn’t sure if protocol permits an apostrophised word.
Thanks Templar and Breadman.
Every time the dog gets in front of you stop or do a U-turn. It can get tedious but it does work. Terriers are hard to train. Cocker spaniels are much easier. Both have a lot of energy. Whatever you let a dog do when it’s a puppy it will carry on doing when it’s an adult.
Well said!
DNF and didn’t enjoy this. NHO HEELER (it came to my desperate mind but I discarded it). As others, I didn’t get LAY OFF or COAT. IN A RAGE was bifd.
I did like DUKE ELLINGTON but, overall, I thought this was just too clever clever for a QC. Breadman puzzles seem to be either low/mid-teen solves for me or else out of sight.
Thanks to Templar for a good and amusing blog.
Lancashire Heeler is a small terrier used to herd cattle in the UK. It is an endangered breed.
8:49, with LOI HEELER. I assumed that since a well trained dog will obey a command of “heel”, maybe this was obscure slang for a dog.
A friend of mine at university frequently wore a malodorous Afghan COAT, which we always referred to as his “goat”, so it required an effort to type C rather than G.
Thanks Templar and Breadman
No precise time today but 7 or 8 mins.
I thought this was on the harder end, each clue requiring a bit of working through. Enjoyed HEELER – nice for the Times to nod to a generation below the usual with a reference surely derived from Bluey
Fairly new to this but how is you’re a 5 letter word.
The convention in the Times is that they never show the apostrophe when enumerating the clue. So I’LL and HE’S would be shown as 3, YOU’RE as 5 and so on. You just have to get used to it I’m afraid!
I agree. I put youse on, thinking it was some American slang for agreement. Doesn’t fit the clue of course.
Only two on my first pass of across clues meant this always going to be a struggle. I did however pick up, and managed to cross the line in a not overly disappointing 11.49. I would have been a little quicker if I hadn’t wasted the best part of a minute trying to think of an alternative answer to HEELER. The required answer came quickly enough to me, but until I found I couldn’t find an alternative I wasn’t convinced.
Not tempted by HIELER then? Am I the only MUG who did this?
Nope me too – straight 50-50 guess.
I also didn’t like it, even though (for once) I guessed correctly.
Case for the prosecution: Hieler is much more likely to be a name of a breed.
Case for the defence: Yes but dogs are known to come to heel.
Anyone with grandchildren will know it.
Prosecution consults the oracle (Mrs Ham, grandmother to 5) who is a dog fanatic.
“Have you heard of bluey cartoon?” = “Yes its Harrison’s favourite.”
“What breed of dog is in it? ” = “Didnt know there was a dog in it”
“Have you ever heard of a Heeler” = “Nope”
Prosecution rests.
Ha ha, excellent evidence!
Ran (shuffled along) through most of this, with a pause every so often (In a Rage, Lay Off) to work out the parsing. At the club threshold, I was left with three in the NE: 5d and 9, 12ac. I saw that You’re On worked for 5d, but U*u*l stumped me for some time, before I realised (even) the Americans would struggle to make that into a university name.
All that just left the unknown ‘Dog’, which after a while I decided had to be dog in the sense of follow. . . stumps were pulled a frustrating few minutes later for a DNF. Invariant
CoD w-eight-lifting
I managed 11 in 20 minutes. I needed the N to place ming, and the H from 1ac to parse 1d. Coat was easy enough but I never owned one despite there being a shop specialising in goods from that part of the world in my home town. The ultra cool versions had embroidery on them.
We’ll have ankle biter next….
Well into the club at 24 minutes, having spent several minutes trying to justify ‘pay off’ at 16ac. Luckily the penny dropped eventually. Managed to parse everything as I went along except for HEMINGWAY which had become obvious from the crossers so I just moved on. NHO the dog but once the first letter appeared it seemed obvious.
FOI – 10ac METRE
LOI – 16ac LAY OFF
COD – 4dn WEIGHTLIFTING
Thanks to Breadman and Templar
A trickier than usual offering today. Took me slightly over my target time. From NOOSE to HEELER (NHO, but justified it with dogs walking to heel) in 10:10. Needed crossers for HEMINGWAY, NEGRONI, WEIGHTLIFTING, HEELER and others. Thanks Breadman and Templar.
Fortunately friends of ours had a Lancashire HEELER at one stage here in England. Rather a cross little dog. And I used to drink NEGRONIs. I see you can even buy them ready made these days.
A steady solve, but stuck when I just could not decide on 20a. Biffed IN A Bate. Liked DUKE ELLINGTON, YELL, WEIGHTLIFTING and HEMINGWAY among others.
I thought SOUWESTER was a hat. And idiotically I put Copt instead of COAT so double DNF.
Many thanks, Templar.
Seemed quite tricky in places to me. Is a mug a pot? First I’ve heard of it but presumably it must be there in some sense. Anyway, I eventually got all bar 12a and by that point I couldn’t summon the enthusiasm to hazard a guess, so threw in the towel.
Thank you for the blog!
A mug of ale / a pint pot (of ale) ??
I didn’t get it quickly, either.
Yes to a barman (at least a South Coast one like me) a thick glass with a handle and dimples is a mug/pot/jug. A thin glass – as used by any civilised beer drinker IMHO – is a sleeve or a straight glass, the former has a bulge at the top, the latter doesnt. When I moved to Southend 20 odd years ago I had to ask for a “.. in a glass” in the pub. By 10 years ago you would have to ask ” .. in a jug” if that is what you wanted, now they dont even have jugs.
Who says civilisation isnt advancing!
Probably just the power of advertising, its hard to print your logo on a jug.
My husband always asks for a handle and it’s getting harder. Dishwashers work better with a plain glass.
NHO HEELER, NHO Bluey, never thought of spelling it with an ‘I’, bullet duly dodged. I do sympathize with Templar on that one (my grandchildren are now adults).
FOI SHY
LOI HEELER
COD YOU’RE ON
TIME 4:04
16:11
Didn’t manage to parse MUG or IN A RAGE – thanks Templar.
But I did get HEELER – but for the wrong reason(?). I took it as a dog walking to heel would be a heeler, heel being a word I frequently use with my two GSDs. Did’t know it was an actual dog breed.
Another learning day!
FOI: TAT (yes, there was a flutter of panic)
LOI: HEELER
COD: NIGHTMARE/WEIGHTLIFTING
Thanks to Breadman and Templar
Same level of difficulty as the last couple of days, but somehow not quite as satisfying. To me to Lay someone off is to make them redundant. To sack them is to fire them for cause. Very different.
(Ive never been fired, I have been made redundant three times). Also agree Lay doesnt equate to amateur at all. Thanks Breadman and Templar.
About average for me. Another to not know HEELER, but what else could it be?! Rhymes with healer and dogs walk to heel… LOI LAY OFF after quite some time solving the LAY part. No quibbles here. I use layperson for a non-professional, although I do understand gripes over more specialist uses. Didn’t parse IN A RAGE at the time – thanks Templar. COD NEGRONI for the surface. Nice one Breadman.
Well it could be Hieler … the annoying thing is I did think of “heeler” and I did think “dogs walk to heel”, but then I thought “But that would be a bonkers name for a dog breed because lots of dogs walk to heel, and it would be like calling a dog a ‘sitter’ because it can sit”.
As you can tell I’m not bitter!
😂
Reminds me of the time my daughter and I tried in vain to solve a clue with sausage as the definition. We came up with all sorts of foreign types of sausage and the answer turned out to be banger 😁
Like a dog with a bone? 😉
Grrrr!
A year ago on this site the use of paddy for strop was described as highly offensive. Today it seems not to have caused a ripple.
https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/times-quick-cryptic-no-3001-by-alex the
Only got three on my first lap and then it went downhill from there. In the end I gave up.
In my opinion … not a QC. Sorry.
YOUR’RE ON and HEELER evaded me, apart from that pleasingly successful
18.54 With a very long time spent on YOU’RE ON and the NHO HEELER. I hope the SNITCH gets better. Thanks Templar and Breadman.
I can’t say we found this straightforward even without the NHO HEELER. Our LOI was IN A RAGE which came to mind quickly but we were slow to see the kid / rag equivalence so delayed entering it until after a substantial ponder and mental search for alternatives. A slower than average 13:55. Thanks, Templar and Breadman.
Dnf…
Got to 30 mins, but had a complete brain stutter on 16ac “Lay Off”. It seems obvious now, but I was convinced that the amateur element was just “am” and was trying to construct something around that to no avail.
Some of the other clues also seemed tricky, which I thought was unusual for Breadman. I didn’t know the expression “Heeler” but I eventually worked it out from the checkers.
FOI – 6dn “Sou’wester”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 4dn “Weightlifting”
Thanks as usual!
Croquet coaching all morning, so didn’t see newspaper until after lunch. Found the parsing tricky in parts, but all parsed and correct in a reasonable time. Did look up HEELER after I had solved, just to check.
Thanks Breadman and Templar
25 unenjoyable minutes.
Took forever for HEELER and YOU’RE ON. Not sure that laying someone off is the same as sacking them?
Don’t know if there is a general problem, but I am unable to access the Snitch for this or the 15 x 15.
Got barely half on 15 x 15. Truly woeful performance as usual. I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing sometimes. My brain just will not work in the correct way to solve these puzzles.
PS Snitch for 15 x 15 now accessible but not QC – I get the message: ‘404 Not Found’
After yesterday’s DNF I was very dogged today and persisted to a finish at 28:28. DNK SHY for attempt, the cocktail, paddy as a fit of temper, MUG for pot (I decided they all meant “head”), or COAT for Afghan (the closest thing to that for me is a crocheted blanket). Fished HEELER out of deep memory after a few looks at the clue, fruitlessly running through my scanty knowledge of British words for “doctor”. To me, to LAY OFF is not to sack (“fire” in my dialect) but to temporarily, um, lay off from a job; that was my last one in after a couple of alphabet trawls. YOU’RE ON and USUAL were delightfully tricky for me. Then SOU’WESTER slapped me with another invisible apostrophe. All these mixed with many gimmes made for a strange solving experience today. COD METRE.
Thanks to Breadman and Templar. As much amusement from your comment on ETONIAN as from the puzzle. My sympathies over HEELER.
8:00
Only four in from the first pass of acrosses. Another one here that has never heard of the breed, though having owned dogs, I just thought it might be a general term for a dog that walks to heel well. LAY OFF gave me a few moments of worry – wondered if it was necessary to stuff something into RAF (force), but fortunately rethunk.
Thanks Templar and Breadman
Man, a lot of hate for today’s puzzle, largely due to HEELER. I *do* have young children and myself love Bluey (it’s a great show, made as much for parents as it is for kids), and did have a neighbor with Blue Heelers growing up, but even absent those connections, I’ve heard that type of dog mentioned plenty of times through the years, so I was surprised to see so many upset about it.
I struggled mightily with shorter clues, especially the three-letter ones, which relied heavily on Britishisms.
NHO:
SHY as ‘attempt’
TAT (though this wasn’t a struggle due to easy wordplay)
‘noodle’ as a fool
MUG as a fool
MUG as ‘pot’?! If you asked someone for a mug of tea and a pot of it, I assure you you’d get two very different quantities; I still don’t understand the synonymity with that one.
‘strop’ for ‘Paddy’
COD goes to METER, with ETONIAN a close second.
I gave up after an hour as I got stuck with 1a, 8a, 12a, 20a. 1d,(brain fog), 4d and 6d didn’t know.
I have added quite a few words to my vocabulary those that I have not come across.
I had similar problems to decide on the correct parsing.
Thanks Templar.
I started wth METRE and made fitful progress from there right through to the finish line, which I reached after almost exactly 40 minutes. Slower than average for me, but not ridiculously so.
My L5I were HEMINGWAY, MUG, YOU’RE ON, HEELER (everybody’s favourite) and LAY OFF. Phew!
Thanks to Templar and Breadman.
19:57, turned away by the doorman at the SCC. I needed two goes at this: my first 10 minutes yielded almost nothing, but the second visit was much better. The equivalence of “mug” and “noodle” escapes me, but it had to be.
Thanks to Breadman and Templar.
Tee hee Templar – I thought of Merlin too. 15D could be his NIGHTMARE clue, and I hoped he wouldn’t get IN A RAGE, or indeed a STROP! Pace Merlin 😊
I am aware of Bluey and vaguely knew HEELER as a dog, but had no idea they were connected. But I don’t have grandchildren – just two ‘grand’ dogs 😅 Neither are a heeler though! In fact, like many others, I assumed it was just a dog that obeyed the heel command.
I had an embroidered Afghan coat back in the 70s – I saved up for it for ages and loved it! Only problem – it smelt absolutely terrible when it got wet 🤣
SOU’WESTER made me smile, and I liked the simplicity of the clue for MUG. I seem to be the only one!
However: I didn’t fully parse YOU’RE ON and I got LAY OFF wrong. I didn’t read the clue properly and biffed PAY OFF, so a DNF in 9:08. FOI Negroni LOI Coat COD Metre
Thanks Breadman and Templar
“Heeler” as a breed is new to me, but I was satisfied in thinking that a doctor is one who heals and a dog is one that heels.
DNF. Heeler and you’re on eluding me. Tend to struggle with clues where you simply lift a word from the clue (“our”) into the answer – tend to spend ages looking for something twistier, and then get cross when it isn’t. NHO heeler, and swithered over hie or hee.
FOI Nightmare
LOI dnf
COD In a rage
thanks Breadman and Templar
Came to this late in the day and dnf with the dreaded HEELER unsolved…the homonym is now obvious! Got WEIGHTLIFTING and DUKE ELLINGTON early on and that helped with lots of crossers. Found the clue for STROP a bit convoluted but smiled at NIGHTMARE and YOU’RE ON once I’d preceded our eon with a Y! Harder than previous Breadmans that I remember but fun nonetheless. Thanks setter and blogger.