Flew through this then came to a juddering halt in the SE corner…
… the culprits being the crossing TILT and COLD TURKEY. The latter I banged in on first pass, thinking I’d parse it in the blog & then finding I couldn’t. Still can’t. And I’d never come across this meaning of ‘tent’ although it has the feel (like ‘wine’ for the same) of a crossword old favourite. One for the note-book.
Still, got there in the end and looking forward to a new tree to bark up for that curious ‘November’ element. Thanks to Jason for the work-out.
| Across | ||
| 8 | REVERE | Respect change in direction – succeeded leaving (6) |
| REVERsE (‘change in direction’) minus S[ucceded]. | ||
| 9 | UNBEATEN | Like leftovers with a slice of bacon tucked in? Always a winner (8) |
| UNEATEN includes 1st letter of Bacon. | ||
| 10 | JABS | Shots which should protect Jamica and The Bahamas (4) |
| JA[maica] + B[ahama]s. The misprint is irrelevant, if a little irritating. | ||
| 11 | DUFFEL COAT | Locate rips on poor-quality jacket (6,4) |
| DUFF (‘poor quality’) + anagram (‘rips’) of LOCATE. | ||
| 12 | DOOR | Crucifix is going back for this entrance (4) |
| Reversal of ROOD (cross, ‘crucifix’). | ||
| 13 | CAPPUCCINI | Top composer supplies what Italians enjoy in cafes (10) |
| CAP (to ‘top’) + PUCCINI. | ||
| 17 | YETI | Still in front of one mysterious beast (4) |
| YET + 1. | ||
| 18 | OKAPI | Browser is fine with a Greek character (5) |
| OK (‘fine’) + A + PI. | ||
| 19 | LIMO | Some from the east undergo miles in this (4) |
| Reversed (‘from the east’) inclusion in ‘undergO MILes’, w sort-of whole-clue def. | ||
| 21 | AFTERSHAVE | Sweets possess a fragrance (10) |
| AFTERS + HAVE. | ||
| 23 | TILT | Pitch tent (4) |
| Double definition. Doubtless the ‘tent’ is a chestnut but new to me, I confess. | ||
| 24 | ADJECTIVES | Excited cadet jives in qualifiers fast and furious, eg (10) |
| Anagram (‘excited’) of CADET JIVES. | ||
| 28 | RANK | Where cabbie stands off (4) |
| Double definition. I see to remember this being clued as a quadruple def recently. | ||
| 29 | PRACTICE | Cost surrounding anything done for, eg GP’s business (8) |
| PRICE around ACT. | ||
| 30 | TIERED | Blushing couple initially rowed (6) |
| RED (‘blushing’) preceded by TIE (‘to couple’). Clever 3rd meaning of ‘rowed’. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LETALONE | Never mind being recently up in solitary (3,5) |
| LATE (‘recently’) reversed in LONE. | ||
| 2 | TEA SERVICE | Conundrum failing the afternoon set (3,7) |
| TEASER (‘conundrum’) + VICE (‘failing’). | ||
| 3 | MENDACIOUS | High comedian on you and me is not honest (10) |
| Anagram (‘high’) of COMEDIAN then US (‘you and me’). | ||
| 4 | CUFF | Copper with great force might do this in apprehension (4) |
| CU (‘copper’) + FF (fortissimo, ‘with great force’). ‘Apprehension’ = arrest, of course. | ||
| 5 | ABLE | Clever move – time to go (4) |
| tABLE (to ‘move’, as of a motion in debate), minus T[ime]. | ||
| 6 | NARC | This agent working for the DEA is a grass, reportedly (4) |
| DEA being the Drugs Enforcement Agency, so ‘NARCotics agent’ w homophone of ‘nark’ (= ‘police ‘informer’ or ‘grass’). | ||
| 7 | REMAIN | Stand with a miner demanding change (6) |
| Anagram (‘demanding change’) of A MINER. | ||
| 14 | PLAYA | Fun on a Mediterranean beach? (5) |
| PLAY (‘fun’) + A = Spanish for ‘beach’. | ||
| 15 | UNIVERSITY | Reading, perhaps, in survey it must develop (10) |
| Anagram of IN SURVEY IT | ||
| 16 | COLD TURKEY | Sudden purging such as you may get in November? (4,6) |
| I can’t for the life of me think why November (Thanksgiving?), so I think I may be missing something here. Suggestions as ever welcome. | ||
| 20 | MALINGER | Throw a sickie and hang around close to mum (8) |
| LINGER by MA. | ||
| 22 | FEDORA | Iron road is buckling – it’s a thing which is usually felt (6) |
| FE (‘iron’) + anagram (‘buckling’) of ROAD w cryptic def. | ||
| 25 | EACH | Leaving present address for every one (4) |
| prEACH (‘address’) minus PR[esent] (‘tense’). | ||
| 26 | TAIL | Dog’s shadow is behind (4) |
| Triple def, although the first 2 are synonymous. The last is given by Chambers as informal for ‘buttocks’ (‘behind’). | ||
| 27 | VIEW | Struggle with opinion (4) |
| VIE + W[ith]. | ||
*anagram
I too struggled with the SE corner – I have no idea why turkey would be cold in November, unless of course you are American??
Thanks to Jason and Grant
I too got held up with TILT and COLD TURKEY. Checking a dictionary I think “tent” could refer to the leaning of something against something else as in tenting your fingers together? As regards the cold turkey, apart from the possible American angle, I assume you could buy a frozen turkey in November ready for Christmas, but it’s a bit loose.
Thanks to Jason and Grant.
I’m sure 16d comes from the thanksgiving turkey but I never like Americanisms that aren’t clued as such. Could so easily have replaced “you” with “Trump” or some such. Don’t recall seeing TILT for TENT before. EACH took me a while to parse. Don’t recall seeing PR for “present” before either. Thanks all.
I took a tilt at TILT, not knowing the ‘tent’ meaning, couldn’t parse EACH and COLD TURKEY went in with a shrug. It was good to see OKAPI, the third of our cruciverbal furry friends ending in an ‘I’ to appear in various places over the last few days. Talking of words ending with an ‘I’, the wordplay for CAPPUCCINI presumably included ‘Italians’ to indicate the ‘I’ rather than a non-Italian speaker’s more usual ‘OS’ ending.
I liked the ‘qualifiers fast and furious, eg’ def and my favourite TAIL, almost a combined triple/cryptic def.
Thanks to Jason and Grant.
To Wordplodder…
Re Italian plurals. I’ve said this before but most of the Italian words we use in English are plural: cannelloni, panini, tortellini, macaroni, confetti, graffiti and for Pete’s sake even spaghetti are all plural. It’s our fault if we don’t get it. Sorry, ‘them’.
I think that what you meant in 10a is J[amaic]A rather than JA[maica] (“protect”).
Thanks Grant and Jason.
I interpreted 16d as ‘cold’ (temperatures and infection) and turkey (Thanksgiving) being things you may get in November
TILT – NHO the Tent meaning and COLD TURKEY my last 2 in… the latter I surmised to refer to Thanksgiving dinner leftovers. Otherwise all good. I liked UNBEATEN and AFTERSHAVE.
Thanks Jason & Grant.
in 6d DEA is another Americanism. In the UK in the 1960s DEA meant the Government Department of Economic Affairs.
Thanks to Grant and Jason
At least 5 references with an American slant here but perhaps that’s just coincidence.
10a JA is the IVR for Jamaica, and BS is the internet domain name for Bahamas.
19 Def is THIS with an allusive reference
23a A bit of a stretch because the second implied def is really just an awning – just because it’s often made of canvas doesn’t make it a tent.
To Coby and Dansar:
Yup, yr quite right, Bahamas is BS but Jamaica is JM (JA is Japan, apparently) so mea culpa. Idleness.
But (to Dansar) Chambers gives ‘tent’ as def 2 for ‘tilt’ as noun 2, so I s’pose Jason’s right on this one. Not that anyone else seems to have heard of it.
As to LIMO at 19, I suppose one might argue that the Chinese & Russian oiligarchs (sic) are perhaps the ‘eastern’ characters most likely to be riding round in smart cars these days but in my mind ‘allusive reference’ just means ‘not quite clever enough to be an &lit’, so I’ll stick with the blog, if that’s OK.
As an American I like to test myself by attempting British cryptics. I can’t, however, shed much light on COLD TURKEY. I wrote it in with only having the C and L but I erased it because it’s not a British holiday. It didn’t matter because TILT and RANK were both beyond my grasp anyhow. The SE corner was my downfall but I solved the rest of the clues. Good set — thanks Jason and Grant.
Thanks Jason and Grant
I struggled with Jason’s last one and found this one tough as well – funny … I used to find him one of the easier setters in the FT stable. This took well over the hour across three sittings to get out.
Got held up with TILT (eventually found a definition that pretty much equated to ‘tent’) and the last few that went in – LET ALONE (after writing in an unparsed ALL ALONE initially – thought that it was clever when I finally worked it out), JABS (I’m with Coby@6 here, I think that the definition is ‘shots’ where JA protects (is at the outside of) Jamaica and BS (is the outside of Bahamas)) and PLAYA (a Spanish word that I didn’t know … ahhhh being in the antipodes … far away from those sunny Mediterranean ‘playas’).
Liked AFTERSHAVE a lot and thought that DUFFEL COAT was good, once I learnt how to spell it properly. An unusually challenging Tuesday puzzle which I enjoyed.