Solving time – 7:24.
Easy start to the week but there were a few answers here and there where I waited for some checking letters before filling anything in. If I’d trusted my instincts and just gone for it I think I would have had a time nearer the 5 minute mark. 19A is still not clear to me though. My COD would be 17D.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | (WHO HAD)* – the anagram only occurred to me once I had ???D?H filled in. I think I knew HOWDAH (what you might sit on when you ride an elephant) but didn’t want to commit myself until I had the O in place. |
9 | F,ESTIVAL – saw this straight away wasn’t 100% convinced that ESTIVAL meant “of summer” so this was another one that I had to wait until some checking letters were in. |
11 | ERG,I< in FILE – ERG is always the first thing I think of when a clue mentions “measure of work” (or a variation of that) so I got this pretty quickly. |
13 | UNA,FRA,ID – spent a bit of time pointlessly wondering if there might be a relevant word ending in -BROID. |
19 | SKITTISH – not sure I completely understand this one. Surely SKIT doesn’t mean the same thing as “hoax”? In “it’s hard and unpredictable” is “unpredictable” both the anagram indicator and the definition. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? |
20 | WEE< in LAY – was really tempted to fill in LAYMAN but managed to resist. |
21 | (READY AS I)* – “as I can be” looked quite tempting as the anagram fodder, especially followed by “made, probably”. |
23 | V,O,ICEBOX |
24 | TIDE,OVER – this was very annoying as I could see it had to be ???? OVER but that first word just wouldn’t come to me. |
25 | GUY,ANA – an ANA is a collection of anecdotes, literary gossip etc. |
Down | |
3 | (I TRUSTED)* – DETRITUS. |
4 | AVERS in HACK – one of my crosswording blind spots in thinking beyond “ed” for journalist. |
5 | (I NEVER GET OLDER R)* – with some long anagrams, just to be sure, I write out all the letters of the fodder then cross them off as I spell out the answer but with this one there never seemed any doubt in my mind that GOLDEN RETRIEVER was right. |
7 | COCK,AT,OO – I guess COCK here means “turn up” in sense of “cock an ear towards the door”? |
14 | IM,I,TATI,NG |
15 | LI in PC in EXIT |
16 | ON RECORD – easy enough but I thought the surface ready was a bit daft.. |
17 | I,EVER in THY – I really liked this clue and you couldn’t hope for a better surface reading: “I always get caught by your wrong doing”. Excellent. |
18 | A,CAR in MOON – the surface reading here is even more daft than 16D: “Dream about a vehicle in biscuit”. Come again? |
19 | SO-AND-SO – “mediocre” is SO-SO so I guess “build-up” indicates adding the “and”? |
COD contenders: 21, 17D (lots of other good ones, but it felt as if I was solving them from memory – these are ones that seem fresh. This isn’t an objection to reusing old clues or old ideas, just my COD selection policy.)
I couldn’t explain how “a fund of reminiscences” became ANA in 25D. Chambers was no help, but trusty Collins came up with the goods in the end.
The Times Cryptic link goes to puzzle 23763 dated November 19th but presumably tomorrow’s puzzle. 23762 is dated November 18th and can be found under Yesterday’s Solution.
I was struggling to reconcile anax’s and PB’s comments with the crossword I’d solved earlier…
At 9 across I thought the English spelling was “aestival” with the “a” dropped in the US? If I’m correct I think it should be the “summer in the US” or some such indication.
At 15 across I think “upset” indicates an anagram whereas this is a reversal. So “God who suffers a reversal is cross” is fine but “God, if upset…” is an indirect anagram. Jimbo.
15A: upset = both “disturbed” (anag. indicator) and “overturned” (reversal indicator), I think – so you have to work out which is being used. I think you can rely on the Times puzzle not using indirect anags, so it must be the latter in this case.
Can you have “a debris” or “a detritus”? Aren’t they both uncountable? I would have thought “Debris I trusted…” would have been better.
Dave
Oxford
I printed it off from the online version. The previous clue is missing the ellipsis at the end as well.
Mystery solved!
Dave
Thanks for the explanation about the “A” at the start of the clue to 3D, which had been bothering me.
There are nine “easies” not in the blog:
5a Be successful and travel (2,6)
GO PLACES
10a Turned and fled, pusued by police (6)
RAN CID. Some commenters’ COD.
12a Necessitate English translation of (Latin)* (6)
E NTAIL
15a God, if upset, would be cross (4)
EROS. Sore = cross upset or backwards. Some do not like using upset for backwards in an across clue it seems.
17a Book featuring schoolboy East (4)
TOM (Brown) E
22a It’s unclear how stupid fellow grasps university year (6)
CLO U D Y
2d Crack I discovered on vessel (3-5)
ONE LINER. We have to accept that I = 1 here.
6d Got to know writer with the name Edward (7)
LEAR N ED. I wonder if Edward Lear was known as Ed?
8d Take out of the picture subsidiary activity (8)
SIDELINE