A chewy Wurm today. I took a while to get going and came in a couple of minutes over par. There are several cryptic definitions – wry statements ending in a question mark with no wordplay involved – which I know a lot of beginners struggle with, so I’ll be interested to see how it is received. COD probably 1 dn.
| Across |
| 7 |
Ruddy duck? That’s a wader! (8) |
|
FLAMINGO – FLAMING + O |
| 8 |
Greek character is out tracing Achaean origins (4) |
|
IOTA – acronym |
| 9 |
Improvement achieved in Bible class? (6) |
|
REFORM – RE (religious education) + FORM (class). Not sure about defining ‘reform’ as ‘improvement’. Those of us who worked for the NHS know those two things are not synonymous. |
| 10 |
Wide excavation complete (5) |
|
WHOLE – W + HOLE |
| 11 |
Expert‘s unbeatable service (3) |
|
ACE – Double definition, the second referring to tennis. |
| 12 |
Sidearm having first round in place (6) |
|
PISTOL – IST + O inside PL |
| 14 |
Signal functioning beyond stream (6) |
|
BECKON – ON (functioning) after BECK |
| 16 |
Vessel for home brewing? (6) |
|
TEAPOT – cryptic definition |
| 18 |
3 devouring rook and chicken part (6) |
|
BREAST – 3 (down) is ANIMAL, BEAST is an animal, insert R |
| 19 |
Lubricate old rifle regularly (3)
|
|
OIL – O + alternate letters of rIfLe |
| 20 |
Ally ousting Republican devil (5) |
|
FIEND – FRIEND minus R for Republican |
| 21 |
Cloth in Aragon woven (6) |
|
ANGORA – anagram (‘woven’) of ARAGON |
| 23 |
Son needing place to go — Ukrainian maybe (4) |
|
SLAV – S + LAV |
| 24 |
Explosive reagent claims eastern youngster (8) |
|
TEENAGER – anagram (‘explosive’) of REAGENT with E inserted |
| Down |
| 1 |
In Africa it flows down meandering line (4,4) |
|
BLUE NILE – BLUE (down, depressed) + anagram (‘meandering’) of NILE |
| 2 |
Magazine’s explosive content? (4) |
|
AMMO – cryptic definition |
| 3 |
Mania uncontrolled, learner becomes savage (6) |
|
ANIMAL – anagram (‘uncontrolled’) of MANIA + L for learner |
| 4 |
We British following horse and trap (6) |
|
COBWEB – WE + B after COB. Nice example of a common phrase (horse and trap) used as camouflage for the definition (trap). |
| 5 |
Spouse no longer covered bust, one admitted (8) |
|
DIVORCEE – anagram (‘bust’) of COVERED with I inserted |
| 6 |
Excluding line from fashion causes visual problem (4) |
|
STYE – STYLE minus L |
| 13 |
Principal thug somehow unstable (3-5) |
|
TOP-HEAVY – TOP (principal) + HEAVY (thug). Not sure what the word ‘somehow’ is supposed to be doing, it rather suggests an anagram which isn’t there. I think clues should have no superfluous elements, rather like the ‘Chekhov’s gun’ principle in drama. (“If there is a gun on the wall in Act 1, it should be fired in Act 3”) |
| 15 |
Interested spectator ripped rev’s robe (8) |
|
OBSERVER – anagram (‘ripped’) of REVS ROBE |
| 17 |
Thus far the lonely heart’s desire? (2,4) |
|
TO DATE – self-explanatory |
| 18 |
Is it smoking jacket that becomes one? (6) |
|
BLAZER – cryptic definition |
| 20 |
Chap avoiding pained expression gets cut down (4) |
|
FELL – FELLOW minus the OW! |
| 22 |
Girl receiving ball shows intention (4) |
|
GOAL – GAL with O inserted |
Another shocker for me.
30 mins with some utterly stupid mistakes. Had FLAMER rather than BLAZER for ages (why??) and so couldn’t get the so simple BREAST.
There were a lot of relatively straightforward clues which should have made a decent time possible, but I struggled with TEAPOT and TOPHEAVY. I also put DIVORCEE in and out a few times. I (honestly) didn’t think this QC was that hard.
Another truly awful week. 58 mins to Wednesday, followed by yesterday’s nightmare and today’s struggle. Over 2 hours and only 4 completions. Not good enough in a week when most of the QCs were straightforward.
Not at all happy with my performance once again. I should have done much better than this, but perhaps I need to accept my inadequacies. Progress is non-existent.
Another weekend of self-criticism is in the offing.
Thanks for the blog.
PS Finished the Quintagram but took ages. No satisfaction in that.
Progress may take a while. Several of our less able solvers did the puzzle for several months, read the blog and noted the tricks, and didn’t make any progress. Then, all of a sudden, they took off and went from 50 minutes to 15 minutes.
I suspect that once you get to a certain level, besides being better, you have more crossing letters from the easier clues to guide you.
Thanks Vinyl1. I can achieve some quick solves, but I need to eliminate the daft mistakes. I will persevere. 😊
29:51
Blimey, that was tough. The SE went in easily and half done in well under 10 mins. But the last few took an age finishing with AMMO and LOI REFORM.
Another tough puzzle. It took three seatings to get through as the first break got me only a little progress.
FOI 11a Ace
LOI 5d Divorcee – failed to spot the anagram…
COD 14a Beckon
Now we have to wait until Monday! So I suppose I’ll just have to finish those Christmas Cards…
more difficult that it seemed at first so a bit of a breeze block.
Did not like 2d or 23a
Full house this week for the first time ever 😁😁😁😁😁
Well done 👏 👏👏
I’m trying to remember the feeling but it’s been a long time since I achieved that!