14.41, as I took my time making sure everything was parsed and nothing was going to produce an unwanted pink. There’s one I’m not fully convinced by, which usually means I’ve missed something obvious – I’m sure, that being the case, wiser counsels will gently and kindlily put me straight.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly exciting here, but it’s decent, honest stuff and so long as you don’t get flummoxed by the rebel, there shouldn’t be anything too obscure. I fully expect to be corrected on that comment too.
Definitions underlined in italics, everything else hopefully plain enough, though I have reduced my use of [] because I thought it was making my blogs look a bit scruffy.
| Across | |
| 1 | Brazilian ready to follow team of stars (8) |
| SIDEREAL – The currency of Brazil is presumably the REAL. Place it after SIDE for team. | |
| 5 | Pieces invoking the name of great character (6) |
| GATSBY – We’re into Yankee gangsterspeak here, in which pieces and GATS are guns. I’m not sure of the BY bit: the best I can come up with at the moment is that “by AN Other” brings AN Other’s name to the fore. The “great” references F Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby.
I like dr.shred’s invocation of “by George!” more than my attempt. Thanks! |
|
| 8 | Clearly show strong desire to break into retail somehow (10) |
| ILLUSTRATE – LUST for strong desire contained in an anagram (somehow) of RETAIL. | |
| 9 | Employee benefit for every last piece of work (4) |
| PERK – PER comes from for every, and the last piece of work is simply K. | |
| 10 | Dissertation about unknown number that is somewhere in the UK (3,3,8) |
| THE SIX COUNTIES – No extra points for naming all of the Northern Ireland counties, but it helps to know there’s 6 of them. THESIS for dissertation envelops unknown X, COUNT for a verbal number, and I.E. for that is | |
| 11 | At last obtain a garment I will wear, the ultimate in green (7) |
| NAIVEST – The last letter of obtaiN plus A VEST for a garment, “worn” by I. | |
| 13 | Of course, warning was rejected as expected (7) |
| FORESAW – FORE is a warning of (a golf) course, and was rejected gives you the SAW. | |
| 15 | Fine stonework in church choir finally covered by board (7) |
| TRACERY – CE is the standard abbreviation for the Anglican Church, add the last letter of choiR and place both inside TRAY for board. | |
| 18 | Trick’s missed in unreliable moment (7) |
| INSTANT – Think INCONSTANT for unreliable and leave out the tricky CON. | |
| 21 | It matters little I indicate after noon, provided I withdraw before the finish (14) |
| INSIGNIFICANCE – I, then SIGN for indicate follows N[oon]. Provided gives IF, I again, and CANCEL for withdraw loses its last letter. | |
| 22 | Mineral preserved by chemicals (4) |
| MICA – Hidden in cheMICAls. | |
| 23 | Empty room hottest, a result of breaking this (10) |
| THERMOSTAT – Somewhat &littish, an anagram (result of breaking) ROOM without its interior characters plus HOTTEST and A. If you prefer, you can just have “this” as the definition. | |
| 24 | Start to reel in touchy follower without restraint (6) |
| FREELY – First letter of Real in FEELY for touchy, and commonly seen in combination as touchy-feely, hence the “follower”. Unwise for cookery programme presenters these days. | |
| 25 | Order pig to be slaughtered for food (8) |
| PORRIDGE – An anagram (slaughtered!) of ORDER PIG | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Severely affected hand nurse holds (7) |
| SMITTEN – Hand is MITT, and SEN is a standard abbreviation for a State Enrolled Nurse. | |
| 2 | Remixed vocal edit for Life of Riley (5,4) |
| DOLCE VITA -An anagram (remixed) of VOCAL EDIT translates the Irish phrase into its equivalent in Italian. | |
| 3 | Uneasy setter’s supporting others (7) |
| RESTIVE – When you see “setter’s” it’s good to remember it might indicate me, I, I’m or in this case I’VE. In a down clue, it supports, is underneath, REST for others. | |
| 4 | Foolish time to start to climb up tree (7) |
| APRICOT – APR 1 is All Fools Day. Add TO and the first letter of Climb reversed (up in a down clue). | |
| 5 | Recruit in growth area giving up employment for navy (9) |
| GREENHORN – New and inexperienced. Growth area is GREENHOUSE. Replace USE for employment with R[oyal] N[avy] | |
| 6 | Cut heads on fish (7) |
| TOPSIDE – A choice cut or joint from a bovine bottom. Heads gives TOPS, and an IDE is a fish whose commonest habitat is the crossword. | |
| 7 | In pubs, one cheers brewer (7) |
| BARISTA – Put I for one in BARS for pubs, and add TA for cheers or thank you. No points for spotting that baristas brew coffee, not beer. | |
| 12 | Full of vitality, agent recruits a couple of hands (9) |
| SPRIGHTLY – An agent is a SPY, taking in RIGHT and L[eft] two hands differently presented. | |
| 14 | National Theatre’s welcoming days stopped developing (9) |
| STAGNATED – A bit of Yodaspeak. NAT for national is welcomed by STAGE, synecdoche (look it up) for theatre. | |
| 16 | Having more showers is way to control foul air rising (7) |
| RAINIER – A way to control is a REIN, and and anagram (foul) of AIR gives IAR. Put them together and reverse (rising) | |
| 17 | Roughly struck in the head, rebel falls (7) |
| CASCADE – Roughly is CA, struck in the head is just S. Jack CADE led a briefly successful rebellion against the government of the day in 1450, occupying the streets of London until his supporters turned to looting and rioting and were forcibly expelled by the outraged citizens. | |
| 18 | Conclude not a single blazing thing! (7) |
| INFERNO – Conclude gives you INFER (at least here, today) and not a single just gives NO. | |
| 19 | Help someone easily deceived by reporter (7) |
| SUCCOUR – From the hymn “Christ of the upward way”: “And leap at once with kind and helpful deed, To the sure succour of a soul in need.” We with a naughtier eye would nod sagely and hint that there’s no surer sucker than a soul in need. The same idea is going on here, the other way round, the sound of someone easily deceived, SUCKER (by reporter) producing our answer. |
|
| 20 | Frame that supports way over lake in part of forest (7) |
| TRESTLE – ST[reet] for way plus L[ake] within TREE, definitely part of a forest. | |
Technically the phrase ‘invoking the name of’ describes the function of ‘by’ but it is not itself a definition, ie you couldn’t replace ‘by’ with that phrase. But I don’t mean to cavil, setters should be indulged in this sort of area.
Had to come back to this one so no time. I did not find it as straightforward as others. On reflection though I was just not reading a lot of the clues correctly so maybe my brain was not running to full capacity. They did fly in once I came back to it.
THE SIX COUNTIES took an age because the 6 of the 7 checking letters I had were all in dissertation so I became convinced it was an anagram.
APRICOT I have seen APRI as foolish time before so not excuse for why I took so long on this one.
TRACERY also new to me but seemed the most likely word
COD BARISTA
Thanks blogger and setter
Took me nearly an hour. I was very slow getting Stagnated and I had to come here for the parsing thereof, for which many thanks.
Nice puzzle overall – my CODs to the Counties and to the simply constructed Porridge.
Everything was going smoothly enough and I expected to finish in not much over 30 minutes, but then became so bogged down on COPPICE, APRICOT, THE SIX COUNTIES, GATSBY and TOPSIDE that at one point I was considering giving up. Couldn’t parse COPPICE, APRICOT seemed more a bush than a tree, although dictionaries show I’m wrong, THE SIX ____ seemed like Mount Rushmore or something like that, the by in GATSBY was unconvincing, TOPSIDE looked as if it started lop…, so 72 minutes, with all aids flying by the end.
Liked THE SIX COUNTIES for use of unknown number to become XCOUNT instead of the commonplace single letter X Y or Z.
LOI Topside because fixated on definition being fish rather than cut
39:24
Bad day part II. Fairly OK for the first 50%, fairly bad on the second 50%. Didn’t get STAGNATED and shrugged at THE SIX COUNTIES, which I am aware of, but didn’t know of as anything formal. Probably should have got DOLCE VITA more quickly which might have helped with the NW which was very slow.
Thanks Z and setter
Came late to this after golf. DNF, being a bit of a struggle for me, finally failing to find TRACERY. Otherwise OK, though should have been quicker, and a few not fully parsed, eg GATSBY. Thanks Zabadak and setter.
27:30
An enjoyable crossword.
TOPSIDE was my LOI.
I took a while to separate “unknown number” and was stuck for a while trying to think of somewhere beginning “the sin …”.
Thanks Z and setter
33:40 with some difficulty, although in retrospect not sure why; the mark of a good puzzle I suppose.
23:17
LOI APRICOT as the parsing was beyond me.
Very enjoyable puzzle I thought. Challenging clues, not challenging answers.
Thanks all.
My LOI was the NHO TRACERY, which I worked out from the wordplay. I also couldn’t parse GATSBY and realised on reading this that I’d made an error in my parsing of APRICOT.
I had, in my head, got “Foolish time to start” as APRI (April staring but not finishing), and correctly parsed “to start to climb up” as COT, without twigging that (a) I’d used “to start” twice and (b) my parsing was very weak given that (i) the foolish time is specifically the first day of April not the whole month and (ii) I’ve never seen “…to start” indicating the last letter should be removed rather than just indicating the first letter of that something.
So thanks for the parsings Z, and thanks to the setter for what I considered to be a challenging and enjoyable puzzle, but at least one I completed on the day of publication without cheating, unlike some recent Thursdays.
It took me a little short of the hour at 58.56 to complete this, but at least I finished with all correct. I found the lower half a good deal easier than the top, and struggled to parse quite a few. In the end it was only INSTANT and INSIGNIFICANCE that remained unparsed. I didn’t quite understand what THE SIX COUNTIES referred to as well, and even pondered if it may reference ‘the garden of England’.
You’ll know how far off the wavelength I was when I tell you I was preparing a blistering comment regarding the word for ultimate in green -Olivest – until I couldn’t think of any kind of 1d nurse to generate the O. Thanks, z, and one up to you, Mr or Ms setter
ps – the Olivest comment was pretty good, too.
Reached my last pair at the hour but couldn’t get TRACERY and CASCADE – neither of which was likely. Also had TOPSIDE wrong having put TOPPIKE – food & drink is my kryptonite so cuts of meat is easily missed. Other than that parsed almost all of those I got – just GATSBY, STAGNATED and TRESTLE problematic – the first with decent reason, the latter I should have figured out.
Wrong crossword!
Way off the wavelength for this one: GATSBY never occurred to me (gats=pieces), nor did TRACERY for fine stonework (still don’t understand the parsing). I lost patience with INSIGNIFICANCE after fiddling around with is and ifs etc, and did a look-up, so that got me started on some of the lower clues, a few of which were biffs (INSTANT, TRESTLE , CASCADE), but not all. Liked SPRIGHTLY ( because I got it) and INFERNO (ditto), but never did see PORRIDGE or FREELY . Setter 1: Solver 0.