Nice compact offering from Felix, little harder that usual, and with a few that took a while to parse. There are quite a lot of geographical references but if it’s a Nina I can’t see the connection. 8 minutes for me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Tailored suit in a foreign land (7) |
| TUNISIA – anagram (‘tailored’) of SUIT IN A | |
| 5 | Polish Yankee’s gem (4) |
| RUBY – RUB (polish) + Y | |
| 7 | Manage to flee (3) |
| RUN – double definition | |
| 8 | Stares at yours truly and cries out loud (8) |
| EYEBALLS – sounds like I + BAWLS | |
| 10 | Regular features of exposé on ME racecourse (5) |
| EPSOM – alternate letters of ExPoSe On Me | |
| 11 | Tramp around island to find collection of papers (7) |
| DOSSIER – DOSSER round I | |
| 13 | Learning about a hotel in Pakistani city (6) |
| LAHORE – LORE around A + H | |
| 15 | Bargain ultimately not available after struggle to produce capital (6) |
| VIENNA – N (last letter of BARGAIN) + N/A after VIE | |
| 17 | Thumbs down shattered Donna & co (2,3,2) |
| NO CAN DO – anagram (‘shattered’) of DONNA + CO | |
| 18 | Expression of disapproval, note, for the whole orchestra? (5) |
| TUTTI – TUT + TI (do re me etc ) | |
| 20 | Having rest of peelings thrown out? (8) |
| SLEEPING – anagram (‘thrown out’) of PEELINGS | |
| 22 | Girl from eastern America coming west (3) |
| SUE – E (eastern) + US all backwards | |
| 23 | Region that’s part of Far East (4) |
| AREA – hidden word: fAR EAst | |
| 24 | Mouth a sort of English? (7) |
| ESTUARY – double definition | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pasta to order in one round container, finally (10) |
| TORTELLINI – TO + TELL + IN + I with R (last letter of CONTAINER) inserted | |
| 2 | Audible denials from 15 figures (5) |
| NINES – In 15ac (VIENNA), denials are NEINS | |
| 3 | Something pressing? Sadly, it means nothing — about right (5,4) |
| STEAM IRON – anagram (‘sadly’) of IT MEANS + O with R inserted | |
| 4 | Improves as noon strikes? (6) |
| AMENDS – AM (morning) ENDS at noon | |
| 5 | Heads for ravine in awfully narrow coastal inlet (3) |
| RIA – first letters of Ravine In Awfully | |
| 6 | European ale in GB getting drunk (7) |
| BELGIAN – anagram (‘getting drunk’) of ALE IN GB | |
| 9 | Surreal yet real, Vic, in an imaginative way (10) |
| CREATIVELY – anagram (‘surreal’) of YET REAL VIC | |
| 12 | Family time in view: hugging one! (9) |
| SKINTIGHT – KIN + T inside SIGHT | |
| 14 | One interrupting Speaker — drat! — Liberal, before short hesitation (7) |
| HECKLER – HECK! + L + ER | |
| 16 | Coppers in change initially pocketed by Rod (6) |
| POLICE – first letters of In Change inside POLE | |
| 19 | Opera, not from southern California (5) |
| TOSCA – TO (not from) + S + CA | |
| 21 | Some waiter arrives in time (3) |
| ERA – hidden word: waitER Arrives | |
Dnf…
Still haven’t finished yesterday’s (I was away and I got the sense it wasn’t going to be a quickie). On this, however, I had everything after 20 mins but 8ac “Eyeballs” and 4dn “Amends” just wouldn’t come. Nothing too tricky, so not sure why I struggled. In the end, it didn’t matter as I made up “Nonos” for 2dn, obviously getting the wrong end of the stick with the 15ac connection.
FOI – 1ac “Tunisia”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 11ac “Dossier”
Thanks as usual!
I DNF but I got the bulk of it while in a queue for a pop music festival
I didn’t know the other def of Estuary and couldn’t get skin-tight.
See you all Monday!
Very enjoyable. Difficult enough to feel satisfied when completed. NHO Ria, LOI and COD -Eyeballs.
DNF as I failed on VIENNA and hence couldn’t justify NINES. Gave up with 14 minutes on the clock having already guessed at ESTUARY.
Pleased to cross the line in 34 minutes today, especially after yesterday’s nightmare. I got going with RUN, EPSOM, LAHORE and SLEEPING down the LHS, but then put maE in at 22a (very clever mis-direction, Felix). SUE didn’t appear until much later after I had found TOSCA. The NHO TUTTI and RIA were written in faintly (how do you do that when solving online?), as was reacTIVELY before I found CREATIVELY sometime later.
My last two in, which took around 8 minutes, were AMENDS and EYEBALLS. I then needed a couple of minutes more to parse both fully.
Thanks to Felix and Curarist.
Well done Mr Random 👍 What was your total for the week? I came in at a shade over 2hrs.
Re: your putting them in faintly question. In the Crossword Club online, you pencil them in using the Pencil option!! But that means faffing between modes so I’ve never used it.
My method is just to put in the checkers and leave the unches blank.
Well done, L-P! I think you have overtaken me now. The four I completed took me 2 hrs 18 mins. However, yesterday’s Izetti was a 70-minute DNF with 7 clues unsolved.
27.57 WOE. I put TORTELLINI, but I was sure it was spelled TORTELLONI so I changed it. Apparently tortelloni are big tortellini. Gah! I should have parsed it more carefully. VIENNA, AMENDS and NINES were the last few in but I was slow throughout. Thanks to Curarist and Felix.
Didn’t get NINES, not seeing that 15 was linked to the clue (even when I got VIENNA) and put NONOS as a hopeful guess. AMEND took a while (if you amend something you don’t necessarily impove it), and EYEBALLS last in – can’t see a “sounds like” in the clue to suggest BALLS = BAWLS. All the rest pretty straightforward, although guessed RIA (NHO).
My take on it was that the MEND part of AMENDS improved it.
I believe the ? at the end of the clue leaves amending open to the possibility that it won’t necessarily improve it.
I’d say bawls=cries and “out loud” is the homophone indicator
Nina?
The greatest cover version of all time, if it will let me post the link …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8cixXyuT68
Arrggh – I even mentioned Ultravox in my post! But had never come across Vic Reeves’s version, on an album called RUBY Trax.
For the curious, Vic’s lyrics may be found here – https://www.flashlyrics.com/lyrics/vic-reeves/vienna-76
They include the BELGIAN POLICE, SUE, TORTELLINI, AMENDS, peelings and no doubt more.
😁
Brilliant.
Have just viewed the YouTube video on my computer, with lyrics on my phone. The last word is Tortellini!
Had not seen this before -thanks.
Thank you Felix – I had been thinking No 2s in the UK charts – VIENNA famously kept off the top by Joe Dolce; RUBY don’t take your love to town….. but ran out of steam very quickly
Bother! I forgot numbers like 15 are linking to answers within the crossword. So it was a DNF because of 2d NONOS rather than NEINS. Liked RIA because of holidays in Vigo 😀. I’m still claiming my seat in the SCC though!
Started off very well on this one, getting most of the across clues on the first pass. Unfortunately I found the downs more intransigent, so slowed appreciably after that. I eventually finished in 18 minutes but didn’t parse TORTELLINI (had all the crossers so it was obvious) or NINES (hadn’t solved 15ac at the time and didn’t understand the reference). Not sure whether I’ve ever heard of RIA – seemed to ring a very faint bell.
FOI – 1ac TUNISIA
LOI – 15ac VIENNA
COD – 4dn AMENDS
Thanks to Felix and Curarist
A good level of QC for me, challenging but doable with a bit of head scratching. I don’t time accurately, but around 15 to 17 minutes kept me out of the SCC where I often finish up. The Nina was way beyond me as I’m not familiar with either the Ultravox or Vic Reeves versions.
RIA was obviously correct but never ever heard of it before
26:41. Slow but thoroughly enjoyable. Last two in were AMENDS and EYEBALLS, which were also my two favourite clues. I find that happens a lot!
Thanks to Felix and Curarist.
My misery is complete.
Thought I had everything bar 8ac and 4dn after 10 mins. Then took 23 mins to get EYEBALLS and AMENDS. I’m definitely not complaining, but I would never have guessed AMENDS was a synonym for improves (shows how thick I am).
Of course, that was just the appetiser for my disappointment. The main course was served up when I DNF’d, having put nonos rather than NINES. How could I be so dumb when the word audible made it screamingly obvious it was a homophone? Over three years experience and I still miss the obvious. Why did I miss the reference to 15ac? It couldn’t have been clearer.
So a DNF in 33 mins for my worst week since I stopped using aids. 4.5 hours and two DNFs. My best for the week was a 40 minute solve. Truly appalling and completely unacceptable.
I only aspire to avoid the SCC regularly and there was a time when that seemed possible. Now I can barely finish, and, if I do, any satisfaction is replaced with frustration as I will doubtless have been breeze blocked. Hard to believe I once hoped to move on to the ‘proper’ crossword.
My Achilles heel has always been to compare myself (unfavourably) to others. I am now so far behind people that I was once on a par with that I can barely believe it. Several weeks of horrific times tell their own story. Feels like 3 plus years of struggling have been for nothing.
FWIW I am determined to continue – not sure why.
Have a good weekend and thanks for the blog.
Will you stop being so hard on yourself, please, Gary?
I DNF by a long way on this one Gary!
6:49 but…
NUTS! Bunged in a careless TORTELLONI from checkers without parsing – I blame it on the Abbot Ale…
DNF again. Entered Mae instead of Sue and couldn’t see it even after thinking 19d might be TOSCA. Didn’t get Vienna or tutti either.
Finished at a ridiculous 1:33:14 on this. Had difficulties all over the grid.