Took this to be OT(ran)TO; the Castle thereof, by Horace Walpole.

45 minutes with a hiatus or two along the way.

Didn't know the Walpole reference but guessed the emperor correctly. Didn't know white for conservative at 2dn. Enjoyed splitting sides.

...with 'Otto' my first in - yes, I studied 18th-century English lit in Yale grad school.

I had to think about some of the cryptics carefully before understanding them - why 'cairn' is a dog instead of a pile of stones, what exactly is meant by 'after game', why sidearms are funny, etc, etc. A really excellent puzzle with lots of high-quality clues.

I never did fully understand 'Whitehall' - I suppose I should have thought of White Russians. My last in, however, was 'upturn', which gave me no end of trouble for such a simple answer.

Best puzzle of the week so far with much post-solve parsing to be done: ELECTORATE and SIDE ARMS in particular. This grid must be a setter's nightmare with 4 x 4-letters and 3 x 3-letters to fit in and clue. CHICKENPOX raised a bit of discussion at the breakfast table.

No time, I got interrupted, but probably 40 mins or so. Lovely puzzle with some wonderfully disguised definitions. "after game" and "children spotted with it" for example. LOI was SIDE ARMS when the penny dropped (I thought it was going to be something ARMY but SODA ARMY and SIDE ARMY didn't seem too likely)

Top puzzle, 45 minutes. Had 'mark' for MIND before I saw the hidden and 'dad's army' for a while, wondering how they might be killers along the lines of double-Os. 'My name is Mannering, captain Mannering,' does have a ring to it, though.

Gave up on agent/Cain. They went in fine till then. Annoyed with myself. I shall acquaintance strangle and look strange, as the bard said. Still able, faintly, to realise I enjoyed some of the twists and turns till then.

Hardest puzzle for quite a while made more difficult by coming after a longish run of relatively easy ones so that one struggles a bit to up ones game.

I don't think there's a poor clue here and some are real gems - particularly the quirky definitions. Well blogged UY and thank you setter

Thought this was slightly tougher than yesterday's. Was unsure that a cairn was a dog but 17D confirmed that CAIN was right. Was confident that OTTO fitted the definition of 13A but I didn't recognise the Walpole reference and, even with assuming that "legged it" was ran, I couldn't see a likely-looking word combining OTTO and ran. Submitted with fingers crossed.

Excellent workout, 24 minutes, without getting the Walpole reference. Quite a few in the "guess the answer, work out the cryptic later" category: ANTIOCH (even though the cryptic turned out pretty straightforward) and SIDE ARMS (easily my CoD) as examples.
In my family, the "Land of Nod" was synonymous with going to bed. Perhaps, if Philip Pullman is listened to (Times, Monday) such allusions will not quite disappear from public vocabulary.
I appreciated 12, with its use of "player" for "PROfessional" conjuring an image of the bygone days of gentlemen amateurs in sport.

Yippee! All right for once. Liked this puzzle a lot, and was confident that all were ok. This must be because the cryptics all seemed to be very clear (once the penny had dropped). Tried to fit acne into 23 ac for some while (would have thought CHICKENPOX was two words). Didn't know the Walpole ref, but assumed the castle thing could have been 'ottoran'.
FOI: SWEEPS; LOI: METATARSAL; COD: SIDE ARMS.

23:48 … but with the dreaded typo (I really do know how to spell METATARSAL, even though it seems like a while since a famous footballer 'done one').

Brilliant puzzle. Misleading, sly, inventive and educative. What more could you want?

COD: SIDE ARMS .. or CANTINA or PRIEST-HOLE or CHICKENPOX [on edit: or ELECTORATE, which I forgot to mention before ... so many choices]

Edited at 2013-03-21 03:50 pm (UTC)

Came to a halt about 30 minutes in, with most of SW to do - had CAIN from 17, but 12 was recalcitrant. I was sure 'player' had to be PROP, as to setters the only game seems to be RU ;-), while at 23 'Yellow river' suggested something with OR & R. (I did eventually finish, but well outside the hour.)
Had my doubts about 5, as I think side-splitting is more like ROFL than just giggling.

Another excellent puzzle that plays on lots of double meanings. I didn't help myself by marking the bars for 17 wrongly, so rejected LAND OF NOD initially because it didn't fit. Finally sorted out the problem, but the error took my time to over the hour.
Like the previous solver, I also had PROP for player in 12, causing another delay until I had a re-think.

A really excellent puzzle with many superb clues.

This one took me about 50 minutes, but there was quite a lot to savour, as others also seem to think. Perhaps the many misleading definitions were ultimately responsible for this, as the cryptics were all beyond reproach.

The brilliant ELECTORATE is my CoD with all its body-snatching reference.

Thanks Uncle Yap, and to a fine setter.

ANTIOCH - "upheld" - is that a reversal indicator and insertion indicator in a single word?

It also works:
Appeal upheld (TI) by an = ANTI
(pause)
old companion - OCH

Didn't have time to do yesterday's puzzle, but thoroughly enjoyed this one which took 12 minutes. Might be one of those where it helps if you do all the cryptics as CAIN is in one of them today, and Walpole's castle was somewhere else the other day.

19:01. That's two top class puzzles in consecutive days.

Antioch only known from the eponymous holy hand grenade in Monty Python and the Holy Grail so a youth wasted watching the Pythons is good for more than just learning names of philosophers.

I mis-parsed 8 thinking there must be a type of ancient tax called an ermit or emrit with the M raised to the start of the word.

Ref 20d I once worked with someone who, when he wanted me to sign something, would ask me to put my monocle on it.

I think I'll give COD to Medici but it's hard to choose from such a good bunch.

I surprised myself today. For the last week or so I've found the puzzles to be pretty easy, either finishing them or having one or two crosses left that this blog could help me finish.

Today's puzzle seemed much harder, and indeed when I had done all I could I had empty squares all over the grid! But I gave one final push and started guessing all over, throwing in several answers that seemed to be right, even though I couldn't understand the wordplay. Before I knew it, the puzzle was complete.

I came here to check my errors and, somewhat unbelievably, I didn't have any! This is probably one of my most satisfying solves, with no aids. Time probably under an hour?

Maybe I'm just getting better at these things?! Many thanks to the blogger for explaining all the clues that vexed this poor US solver!

I assume that 20a must be obvious as it is not explained. I can see "mind" for watch but how is "d" disorderly house?
Or is the answer something completely different?
I know this has been raised before but what is the point of omitting answers?
This is not the first time that I have failed to understand one of the answers and have come here only to find (annoyingly) that it has been chosen to be omitted.

nor do I

Surely the abbreviations are not there to be liked or disliked but to serve as a guide to my blog. There are only so many common cryptic devices; so abbreviation of these devices save me time while I struggle to solve, research and get the blog out in a timely manner.

Personally I appreciate the yfyap approach: clear, unobtrusive and useful.

Had to do this in two short sessions but enjoyed it a lot - last in was the CAIN/CANTINA crossing (alliteration!). Didn't see the wordplay for SIDE ARMS or OTTO, really liked the clues for CHICKEN POX, the craftily hidden word at 20 across, and an all-time classic surface for MEDICI.

28/31 today with Otto, Issue and Stalking missing. Should have got the latter but the other two were difficult. I didn’t have the GK for Otto.

What is the meaning of "upstairs" in the Issue clue? I can't understand the wordplay for that one.

Thought Medici was an excellent clue - the pick of the bunch.

Thanks Jack - the clue makes sense now.

25m for a tricky and excellent puzzle. I slowed myself down no end by putting PROFIT in at 10ac. It works perfectly, apart from being wrong. Eventually I saw that 7dn had to be ANTIOCH and thought again.
I didn't remember the Walpole reference, although I'm sure it's come up before. And I didn't know where CAIN went on his holidays.
I can see the concept but I don't think the wordplay for 5ac quite works. I'm probably missing something.

Lovely puzzle. No time to comment more. 27 minutes. Ann

29', could have been 4' quicker if I'd been able to convince myself of AGENT; thanks UY for the explication (also for explaining 3d). I generally dislike cross-referencing clues like 17d, but this one convinced me that CAIN was right. Lots of wonderful clues, especially the acrosses, but I think my COD would be 5ac or 23ac.

About 45 minutes for this very clever puzzle, ending with the CAIN/AGENT crossing. Cain was a killer indeed, but my biblical knowledge is lacking because I only connect the LAND OF NOD with sleep, so that clue was somewhat tough. The CAI(R)N wordplay finally came to light, but only due to the very dimly remembered dog. The AGENT clue is my only quibble, as 'agent=vehicle' works, yes, but seems a long stretch to me. Otherwise, as everyone seems to be saying, an excellent puzzle with very clever and well disguised definitions. I'll join the group nominating MEDICI for COD due to its travel brochure silky smooth surface. Thanks to the setter and Uncle Yap for the blog. Regards.

I agree with the general verdict - a top-notch puzzle. By far the hardest for quite a while. All the good clues have already been amply praised. Well done setter - and blogger.

To my mind the clue for 20ac should read houses instead of house.

Hi Martin

The wordplay features three elements, madam, in, and disorderly. This is not to say that these couldn't be considered as a single entity either, but while your reading is available, so is one in which plural usage for the three parts is deployed. Therefore, 'house' ought to be all right.

Cheers
Paul.

11:18 for me. Very much my sort of puzzle, and if I wasn't in the middle of a bad patch, I think I might have posted quite a decent time. As it was I spent ages working out the wordplay for SIDE ARMS and ELECTORATE, even though I was almost certain there were no other possible solutions. My compliments to the setter.

Over an hour here but eventually all correct. Indicative of my relative inexperience as a solver I actually found quite a lot of this irritating rather than enjoyable. I appreciate that regular and longstanding solvers seem always to approve of puzzles which take them longer to solve but at my standard it's just a bit of slog. I wonder for example where else ROM equals gypsy. Many thanks for blog - I also appreciate the style and the clarity though I hadn't twigged the HA reference until now!