I thought this was a well-judged QC, and I solved it just about at my average time, 12:16. As Columbus said when he raised the telescope to his blind eye, “I See no Nina”. (see what I did there)
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Lack of progress from unruly antagonist (10) |
| STAGNATION – (Antagonist)* [unruly]
Another straight 10-letter anagram, maybe seen before, but not by me. Actually this website has 1000 of them if you’re they type that likes to learn things, I hope to see Australian / Saturnalia soon |
|
| 8 | Second grade in a trial, ideally (2,4) |
| AT BEST – B (Second Grade) inside A TEST (A Trial)
Since we are in A-Level season I should point out that a B is actually the third grade, after A and A*. |
|
| 9 | Gents at sea capturing one small seal (6) |
| SIGNET – (GENTS)* [at sea] contains I (one)
A Signet is a seal small enough to fit on to a ring. |
|
| 10 | Awesome, ace, flawless person making a comeback (4) |
| MEGA – A + GEM (flawless person) reversed [making a comeback]
The OED doesn’t have a separate entry for GEM as a person, but Collins has it. I think I’ve heard in phrases such as “That new intern is an absolute gem”. And MEGA as an adjective already feels pretty dated. |
|
| 11 | Have a siesta, then shower? Check! (8) |
| RESTRAIN – REST (Have a Siesta) + RAIN (Shower) | |
| 12 | Periodic payment given by father and mother, maybe (6) |
| PARENT – PA (per annum) [periodic] + RENT (payment given)
Parsing a pit tricky. That Periodic usually indicates alternate letters in the next word, but not today. Edit: Kevin below has an alternative parsing which works a bit better. |
|
| 14 | Some slides aren’t about to get destroyed (6) |
| ERASED – Hidden in slides aren’t then reversed [about]
I didn’t spot the “about” instruction, so actually looked up ESAREN. Perhaps Esaren International (“a one stop shop for your global commodity, investment and property needs) are wondering about the extra traffic on their web site today. |
|
| 16 | Defensive equipment meant to be deployed by a group of soldiers (8) |
| ARMAMENT – A + RM (Royal Marines) [ group of soldiers] +(meant)* [to be deployed]
Are Armaments Defensive? Surely the Ukrainian tanks and artillery pieces that have crossed the Russian border are not defensive equipment. Would have worked better as “Military Equipment” |
|
| 18 | Swimmer flagging at the outset, kind of (4) |
| FISH – F{lagging} + -ISH (kind of)
ISH can be used standalone to mean “kind of”. Eg “I thought Jalna’s puzzle today was easy, what about you?”. … “Ish”. |
|
| 20 | Slow song from fancy dance promo (6) |
| BALLAD – BALL (Fancy Dance) + AD (Promo) | |
| 21 | Last bit of orange put in port? Bliss! (6) |
| HEAVEN – HAVEN (port) contains {orange}E
Haven=port is the original meaning, with metaphorical use following in later centuries. |
|
| 22 | Teams write about something unproductive (4-6) |
| TIME-WASTER – (TEAMS WRITE)* [about] | |
| Down | |
| 2 | It is included in the tax (5) |
| TITHE – THE contains IT
Very smooth and my COD, for using both IT and THE for the word play, words that are usually overlooked when scanning a clue. |
|
| 3 | Explosive anger possibly ends in wild dispute (7) |
| GRENADE – (ANGER)* [ possibly] + {wil}D + {disput}E | |
| 4 | Fat cats oddly ignored decree from parliament (3) |
| ACT – {F}A{T}C{A}T{S} | |
| 5 | Resolute aim to get hold of family member (9) |
| INSISTENT – INTENT (aim) contains SIS (family member) | |
| 6 | Northern Ireland, Germany, and another country (5) |
| NIGER – N{orthern} I{reland} + GER{many}
This African country and its neighbour MALI make frequent appearances in crosswords. Its other neighbour Burkina Faso less so. |
|
| 7 | Scoff at extremely dire rollercoaster? (6) |
| DERIDE -D{IR}E + RIDE (roller-coaster) | |
| 11 | Nasty sort starts to drink all my port (9) |
| ROTTERDAM – ROTTER (Nasty Sort) + D{rink} A{ll} M{y}
And let’s raise a glass to The Rotter (Jeff Marshall), who blogged regularly on TfTT and who died December, 2023 |
|
| 13 | A minor thoroughfare in Europe, say (6) |
| ABROAD – A B-Road
B-Roads being the minor roads in Britain. |
|
| 15 | A group of words said to indicate breaches of the peace (7) |
| AFFRAYS – Sounds like A PHRASE (group of words) | |
| 17 | Complete collection of books set aside (5) |
| ALLOT – ALL (complete) + OT (Old Testament: books, of the Bible) | |
| 19 | Unseemly outburst is noticed on a podcast (5) |
| SCENE – Sounds like SEEN (is noticed)
“On a podcast” is a new way of indicating a homophone. “One the Radio” is the more common indicator, but many people listen to podcasts instead of the radio, so this is a good update. |
|
| 21 | Part of the wall fell (3) |
| HEW – the wall
This would be fell the transitive verb, such as felling a tree. |
|
15 mins
Very happy indeed with that until I came here and saw that many found it straightforward.
Butchered the Quintagram usual, which put me in the wrong frame of mind to begin with.
Another slog through the mire of the big crossword. Several clues eluded me.
Thanks for the blog.
PS Now seen the blog for the biggie. Aargh…I could have finished this had I the courage to put in answers I can’t parse!
17:15
Didn’t know SIGNET apart from swans but nothing too tricky here. LOI ABROAD.
11.55 – took a while to see ARMAMENT and ABROAD. The rest seemed to go fairly smoothly, and I thought it was a well-judged puzzle and very enjoyable.
32 mins…
A good puzzle from Jalna, but I felt I should have done better – I blame being away on holiday and having to do this online rather than my usual paper copy. Main issues were around the SW corner, where my instinct was to put “Avenue” for 13dn and “Regiment” for 16ac, but they obviously wouldn’t parse. Even 21dn “Hew” was cunningly hidden.
I’m guessing a few of us immediately thought of Rotter when we completed 11dn.
FOI – 1ac “Stagnation”
LOI – 16ac “Armament”
COD – 8ac “At Best” – even if it’s a little out of date.
Thanks as usual!