Having blogged a few stiff ones recently this was welcome relief. I cantered through in four and a bit minutes. Lots of lift & separate, and some cracking anagrams.
| Across | |
| 1 | Huge local inn manufactured mind-altering substance (12) |
| HALLUCINOGEN – anagram (‘manufactured’) of HUGE LOCAL INN | |
| 9 | These Europeans couldn’t be further apart (5) |
| POLES – double definition of sorts | |
| 10 | Shakes audibly and chatters, not quietly (7) |
| RATTLES – PRATTLES minus P (quietly) | |
| 11 | Study exquisite pen (7) |
| CONFINE – CON + FINE | |
| 12 | Nothing in urge to reform villain (5) |
| ROGUE – anagram (‘to reform’) of URGE with O inserted | |
| 13 | Doctor Dread beginning to rub part of chest (6) |
| DRAWER – DR (doctor) + AWE + R for rub | |
| 14 | Clever bishop, such a reverend (6) |
| BRIGHT – B + RIGHT. A bishop’s title is Right Reverend | |
| 17 | Charge by a Spanish holiday area (5) |
| COSTA – COST + A | |
| 19 | Tells stories about a steamship for girls from Glasgow (7) |
| LASSIES – LIES around A SS | |
| 21 | Misgiving about extremely large jacket (7) |
| DOUBLET – DOUBT outside of L[ |
|
| 22 | Quantity of paper covering large field of study (5) |
| REALM – REAM over L | |
| 23 | Again found communist is being screened (12) |
| REDISCOVERED – RED IS COVERED | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Short set of maps welcoming worker in Georgian city (7) |
| ATLANTA – ATLA[ |
|
| 3 | Not so much about feeble musical (3,10) |
| LES MISERABLES – LESS outside of MISERABLE | |
| 4 | Restricted where mangy dog sleeps? (6) |
| CURBED – CUR BED | |
| 5 | Character to do duty again in wildlife sanctuary (6,7) |
| NATURE RESERVE – NATURE (character) + RE-SERVE | |
| 6 | Camp originally ghastly, useless looking after guests (5) |
| GULAG – acronym | |
| 7 | Most inquisitive, having no afternoon rest, almost (7) |
| NOSIEST – NO + SIEST[ |
|
| 8 | Tiny mark reported in detailed plan (4) |
| SPEC – sounds like SPECK | |
| 13 | Last month, dire playing in tie-break (7) |
| DECIDER – DEC (the last month of the year) + anagram (‘playing’) of DIRE | |
| 15 | Scowl from serious expert (7) |
| GRIMACE – GRIM + ACE | |
| 16 | Hopelessly drunk as bachelor? Bingo! (6) |
| BLOTTO – B (bachelor) + LOTTO | |
| 18 | Group of players in small courtyard (5) |
| SQUAD – S + QUAD | |
| 20 | Upset crime scene extends across house (4) |
| SEMI – reverse hidden word | |
For the first time since I first got a pink square today marks the day when the leaderboard shows me having zero errors in the last month. Heady days. Good puzzle today – particularly enjoyed DRAWER, got there via wondering if ‘drader’ might be a medical term so I was truly misdirected by Teazel. Ended up all green in 8.31 to end a tricky week on a high.
Good effort on the pink squares.
I had exactly the same problem with DRAWER and must have wasted a good minute on increasingly improbable anagrams of DREAD+R. Well done with the lack of pink!
Similarly I wondered whether DENFINE Was a type of pen I was unfamiliar with
14 minutes, so just within my extended target. Nice puzzle, but I lost time unravelling the long anagram at 1ac and needed some checkers to get all the letters in the right order.
I got this clue quite quickly because recently there have been several programs on Radio 4 about the use of hallucinogens in counter culture : LSD, DMT, mescalin etc. Apparently Jean-Paul Sarte took mescalin in the early 30s and for several weeks had the hallucination of being chased by giant lobsters. He knew the lobsters were not real, they eventually faded. Not long after this he wrote what many claim to be his seminal work on existentialism : Nausea.
Some light relief after a tough crosswording week.
Started with SPEC and finished with DRAWER in 5.36 with CsOD to HALLUCINOGEN for the surface and CURBED because I enjoy a good pun.
Thanks to Curarist and Teazel
I enjoyed this very much. I was deceived into thinking a drader is a medical term for the chest for a while then the penny dropped. All well.
I was another who considered “drader”, but it was my only delay.
FOI HALLUCINOGEN
LOI DRAWER
COD CURBED
TIME 4:29
Got off to a flying start writing HALLUCIOGENIC before realising it wouldn’t fit and changed it to ‘INOGEN’. Then just kept going with crosses in Regulation, waiting for the grinding halt which didn’t arrive. Managed the down slope to finish all green in 12.25 for the first sub 15 min finish in memory. A surprising Friday.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
Same for me with HALLUCINOGENIC, but I did hit a grinding halt with DRAWER 😔
I found this very tough, and I’m not sure why on reading the blog. I started on the wrong foot by not being able to spell HALLUCINOGEN (I thought it had one L at the start), and things went downhill from there. I never parsed RATTLES – didn’t see Prattles at all – and spent ages looking for an anagram of Dread before the penny dropped on DRAWER. Staggered to a 17:23 finish, for which “miserable” seems the appropriate word.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
Lots to enjoy.
23a REDISCOVERED took a while as I initially thought the clue was ‘again found communist’ and the answer ‘screened again’. With RE at the start and RED at the end all I needed was a word for ‘found’. Ah well.
LOI SEMI. Not just a hidden, but a reverse one.
COD CURBED
Thanks Teazel and Curarist. Glad you had an easier one today.
10:41 with the need to correct CURfew and DRAtER having dithered between it and DRAdER. Thought I was being clever to remember that dread=fear=eats at=ate (somehow). Blast – but oh well.
Had a struggle with Acrosses on first readthrough but then the Downs slipped in there, only missing SPEC, NOSIEST and CURBED. Good to see a GRIMACE after yesterday’s SURFACE!
About 1hr08 for the week but with errors today and on Tuesday making it less than satisfactory. Somehow the Monday puzzle was the slowest of the week at 20mins.
Have a good weekend everybody. Thanks to Curarist and Teazel.
18
Further explanation for 4d and 11ac please?
Thanks T and C
Large drink before end of night? I’ll get my coat…
If something is restricted it is curbed and a cur bed might be somewhere a dog sleeps.
If something is confined it might be penned (think sheep)
Cur being an unkempt dog – not a word I’d come across.
Study not meaning den then in this instance then…
Exquisite meaning refined…?
Where does the “con” come from?
Found that further down the blog. Again, not a usage I had come across before. I have only read about 20 novels in my entire life and not great with nonfiction either.
Pen female swan?
“The word “con” can have several meanings, but when used to refer to “study”, it means to peruse carefully, study, or commit to memory. “
7:23
No real hold-ups, but I did nearly put curfew for 4d before spotting CURBED, which thankfully made a lot more sense.
LOI was SEMI.
Thanks CURARIST and TEAZEL
6.03
Also liked CURBED and the NO SIEST(A).
Thanks Curarist/Teazel
As always with a Teazel, I was slow to gain momentum but soon made good progress (the long answers came to me very quickly for once) until nearly 15 mins in when I was stopped in my tracks by LOI 13a. Just couldn’t see D_E_E _
After another 2 mins I twigged that I had a typo in ATLANTE and, given A as the 3rd letter, DRAWER became clear.
Woe! Not Teazel’s fault, though; this was a good puzzle. Thanks to both.
From GULAG to SEMI in 6:22. Liked CURBED. Not so tough on the brain cells today! Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
I was another DRADER but forgot to go back to it at the end!
4:21. I was slow to parse DRAWER looking, like others, for an anagram of DREAD R. Otherwise no hold-ups. I liked HALLUCINOGEN. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
Another DRADER hold-up here, otherwise an enjoyable 5′ breeze, which is much needed on such a hot day. CURBED made me smile.
Thanks C and T
Plodded steadily through in 20:11 with SPEC as LOI. Some neat clues here today.
I enjoyed this although my half- awake brain failed with CONFINE and SQUAD for some reason. Excellent clues so they are my CODs.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
Apart from FOI ATLANTA, it’s been one of those days when I have been far too slow to see the obvious answer. I struggled with the spelling of HALLUCINOGEN, but finally completed most of RHS. Sigh of relief when, as well as the long ones, some easier clues appeared like CURBED, BRIGHT, LASSIES and GRIMACE. Also liked DRAWER, DECIDER, DOUBLET. LOsI CONFINE and SPEC, the latter requiring some extra thought.
Thanks vm, Curarist.
11.07, and felt I should have been quicker but took too long to see GULAG, DRAWER and RATTLES. Also got myself into a hopeless muddle over 1ac. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
I reached three-to-go in just 19 minutes (jolly fast for me), but then struggled for 12 more minutes to close it out.
CURBED took 2-3 minutes, but my main problem was trying to complete t_N_I_E at 11a. I had previously biffed SPot at 8d, but had forgotten to add a question mark (my method of ensuring I don’t regard a solution as cast in stone). CONFINE was never going to come, of course, until I’d spotted and corrected my error. Finally, I had another look at DRAWER, but still thought ‘Doctor’ indicated an anagram and therefore couldn’t parse the clue until I came here.
Total time = 37 minutes. Disappointing, given that I had been close to an SCC escape.
Many thanks to Curarist and Teazel.
DNF
Didn’t see dread meaning awe so failed to get DRAWER, tried the random drader. Also struggled with CONFINE as con = study is equally lost on me. Held up with my spelling of HALLUCINOGEN but finished in 14 mins.
Dread=awe is probably the reverse of how most of us define the latter, that was a little sneaky on Teazel’s part. Especially combined with the misdirection of chest. Even though I saw through that; I mentally visualised a box with a lid (e.g. treasure chest)
One across held me up big time, mainly because I couldn’t spell it, and also because I was trying to squeeze an extended version of the word into a space that wasn’t there. It was a challenging crossword for me, although I note quite a few others including our blogger seemed to have sailed through it. I eventually managed to finish in 13.51 for my slowest time of the week. I’m sure ATLANTA came straight to mind for our American solvers, but I was initially pondering how I could squeeze BATH into the answer.
My total time for the week was exactly 53.00, giving me a daily average of 10.36. With only two solves under my ten minute target this week, I’ll take that.
Bucking trend, I thought that was the hardest of the week! But then Teazel has always been my nemesis.
Couldn’t spell 1a ✅
Tried to convince myself drader was a thing ✅
Took ages to see DRAWER ✅
Home in 08:51 for a Sluggish Day.
Cedric spotted yesterday a change in my blogging style. I confessed to him, and now to you all, that this came about because I had constructed a Nina: a farewell message to Scrumpy, a faithful yellow lab whom we had to release recently. It’s an acrostic and it was very useful to me to be able to refer to “crumpets”, which (given her name) saved me some letters!
My condolences, RIP Scrumpy.
Aha – I noticed there was something slightly ‘weird’ in how you had written the first 2-3 explanations but never twigged – thanks for the explanation. RIP Scrumpy
It is hard losing a faithful member of the family and the grief can catch you off guard at the most unexpected times. Fairwell Scrumpy. Lovely acrostic Templar.
I am sorry about Scrumpy. My late Labrador is still there in my ‘atavar’ pic and I don’t have the heart to change it.
Lovely tribute. RIP Scrumpy.
Thank you everyone.
Deepest condolences, rest in peace, lovely old dog.
10:12 and astonished that the Teazler was so merciful today. It felt like a leisurely romp with much to be admired. Glad to read that Dr C(urarist) didn’t get fooled into wasting time on doctoring D R E A D +R like so many of us (including this Dr C) Shock and awe as that penny dropped but it held me up too.
Held up by not being bright enough to get Bright or think outside the Confine of European Georgia for Atlanta. Still a nearly subten and under 3C
Ta C&T
3:45 with the only hold-up being the dreaded drader, until the penny dropped.
The nice chunky anagram across the top was a great way to get a foothold, and it (mostly) flowed from there.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
I got through this pretty quickly. I also, as many people seemed to have, had the NHO (probably because it doesn’t exist) DRADER for 13 ac before reconsidering after filling in the rest. Just over 7 minutes for me, with maybe 30 seconds on 13 ac at the end. Don’t think I’ve managed anything under 12 minutes this week, so it seems to have been a fairly tough week on the QC front.
So that is how you spell HALLUCINOGEN! My initial attempt came up short but once in place I solved at a pace. Just two hold ups. The first was SQUAD….I forgot about the likelihood of a Q before the U and secondly I struggled to work out DRAWER my LOI. 5:52 Thanks Curarist.
5:19
Gentlish Friday fare – nothing really held me up for long, though took a few extra moments to see 23a, and a nice pdm when the answer to 13a popped into my head. Didn’t parse 7d in flight either.
Thanks Curarist and Teazel