Oh my. At 4:20 pm California time this afternoon (12:20 am UK time), the Times app on my phone still wasn’t showing the “Crossword Club” tile, which is where I normally solve these. I reluctantly pulled out the laptop, even though I don’t know how to use the web interface very well. So I was all discombobulated when I started solving this one. Things did not get better for me from there on.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, anagrams are my least favourite type of clue, and we have a bumper helping today, including both the answers that span the grid.
As well as the anagrams, I struggled today with clues that on other days would have been fast: SHERRY, TUDOR, BREAST and BOREDOM were among the culprits.
My last one in – by a mile – was AMERICA (where I live, d’oh! – although no-one here actually calls the country “America”). I had a total brain freeze, and after my time went over the 30 minute mark, I allowed myself to look at Chambers’ Word Wizard, which told me there were no words that match A_E_I_A. Well, thanks a bunch, Chambers. After that I started trying to remember fictional countries, until in desperation I turned to the bloggers’ WhatsApp group, where I got the answer in seconds.
Ultimate time: 32:56, one of my slowest times ever, and almost definitely the slowest when I’ve been writing the blog. Sometime you just have one of those days.
I wasn’t so grumpy that I didn’t think about a Clue of Day: my vote goes to NUMBER, because I do like a good pun.
Apologies if this is all self-indulgent “oh poor me”-ing. But everyone struggles sometimes, even those of us who write these columns. And to those of you who check whether you were faster than the blogger, you’re welcome 😉.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (THIS)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Pull dependant back (4) |
| DRAW – WARD (dependent), reversed [back]. | |
| 3 | Scholar’s account interrupted by media broadcast (8) |
| ACADEMIC – ACC (account) containing [interrupted by] (MEDIA)*. | |
| 9 | Old and short, quite wrinkled (7) |
| ANTIQUE – AN |
|
| 10 | Jargon in advance written on back of manual (5) |
| LINGO – IN (from the clue) and GO (advance) after the last letter [back of] |
|
| 11 | Vessel in amphora, or tankard (5) |
| AORTA – Hidden in amphorA OR TAnkard.
A blood vessel, of course. |
|
| 12 | Fluff found in modest drink (6) |
| SHERRY – ERR (fluff, as in lines) in SHY (modest). | |
| 14 | Ultimate ban on rocky peak that’s flat (5,8) |
| TABLE MOUNTAIN – (ULTIMATE BAN ON)*.
I spotted that “peak’s that flat” has 13 letters, so spent too long trying to make that anagram work. Once I got the N from NUMBER I realized that couldn’t be right. But did I ever bother counting the letters in “ultimate ban on”? I did not. |
|
| 17 | For example, some chicken run circled by wild animal (6) |
| BREAST – R for run (cricket), contained in [circled by] BEAST (wild animal).
I think “For example” at the start just makes this clue harder by adding another piece that looks like a cryptic element but ends up having to be part of the definition. |
|
| 19 | Bird beginning to make a raucous cry (5) |
| MACAW – first letter [beginning] of M |
|
| 22 | Strange tour taking in back of terraced house (5) |
| TUDOR – (TOUR)* containing the last letter [back] of As in House of Tudor. Which took me a long time to spot. |
|
| 23 | Country song featured in musical (7) |
| AMERICA – double definition. The second definition is a reference to the song from West Side Story.
Oh dear oh dear. I spent 10 minutes gazing at A_E_I_A with nothing coming to mind. As mentioned above, the bloggers’ WhatsApp group came up trumps for me: many thanks to glheard. I was so convinced this would be a word for “song” contained in the name of a musical that I never even considered the possibility of a double definition. |
|
| 24 | Revolutionary made it with no control (8) |
| DOMINATE – (MADE IT NO)* | |
| 25 | Everything going past bat originally — for example, a bouncer (4) |
| BALL – ALL (everything) after B A bouncer is a type of delivery in cricket. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Tarnished tin made a shiny material (8) |
| DIAMANTE – (TIN MADE A)*. | |
| 2 | Remove top of beam later (5) |
| AFTER – Follow the instruction and remove the top of |
|
| 4 | Cook at once sees hot snack (6,2,5) |
| CHEESE ON TOAST – (AT ONCE SEES HOT)*
Clever anagram, but to be honest I had had my fill of anagrams by this point. |
|
| 5 | Five hundred pixies shortened burrow (5) |
| DELVE – D (five hundred in Roman numerals), plus ELVE That’s the verb sense of “burrow”, as a rabbit does. |
|
| 6 | Main rock almost formed island (7) |
| MINORCA – (MAIN ROC |
|
| 7 | Animal scoffing hot dog (4) |
| CHOW – COW containing [scoffing] H for hot. | |
| 8 | Fuddy-duddy in shape (6) |
| SQUARE – Double definition, the first being perhaps slightly dated. | |
| 13 | Mushroom, advocaat and lemonade (8) |
| SNOWBALL – Another double definition.
My first thought on reading this clue: “Ugh, what a terrible recipe.” |
|
| 15 | State showing little interest in colour during time of prosperity (7) |
| BOREDOM – RED (color) during BOOM (time of prosperity). | |
| 16 | One, perhaps, is less sensitive (6) |
| NUMBER – Another double definition.
This time it is “number” in the sense of “more numb”, but also watch out for “number” to mean “anaesthetic” or “anaesthetist”. |
|
| 18 | Protective garment worn regularly after month in spring (5) |
| APRON – APR (standard abbreviation for April), and then |
|
| 20 | Strike beginning to affect country (5) |
| CHINA – CHIN (strike), plus A |
|
| 21 | Learning, no end, for macho man (4) |
| STUD – STUD A pair of mirror image clues to finish the downs. |
|
I didn’t have too many problems with the anagrams (with the exception of TABLE MOUNTAIN, which came late) (and I didn’t know it was an anagram) but the lower half was a challenge for me. I didn’t know chin could mean strike, for a start, so rejected CHINA from the get-go. I also didn’t remember AMERICA being a song, and in the end hold-ups like these gave me a finish time of 10.42. Some of these clues (ANTIQUE, for instance) would not have been out of place in the 15×15 – not that there’s anything wrong with that. I enjoyed it, thanks to Mara and the Doof.
Maybe this puzzle actually is hard. I had to guess that snowball might be some bizarre drink, and cheese on toast might be a thing. Diamante? Never heard of it. And yes, I struggled with America.
Time: 13:02
Maybe the biggest and most famous production number in West Side Story?
A quite chewy but enjoyable puzzle, I thought. I agree with Lindsay that some of the clues could be escapees from a biggie. The ones that held me up were BREAST (Duh!), SHERRY and DIAMANTE. AMERICA was a write-in so that’s my ear worm sorted for a while. Liked ANTIQUE and LINGO. Thought BOREDOM was going to be a geographic state until I finally saw it. COD to TUDOR when I realised the type of ‘house’ required.
Thanks D and setter.
8:58
Biffed ACADEMIC, LINGO, TABLE MOUNTAIN, SNOWBALL, & AMERICA, parsed post-submission–except AMERICA, which I never figured out. I knew the song, didn’t know its title. Also DNK SNOWBALL; I suspect that even without the mushroom I’d say, ‘Ugh, what a terrible recipe’.
16:34. Slow for me, with AMERICA and the long anagrams holding me up too. Looking back, nothing unfair so can’t complain. Some good surfaces for MACAW, CHEESE ON TOAST and SNOWBALL and I liked the BOREDOM def.
Thanks to Doofers and Mara
PS, Doofers, If you’re still up and about, check your current Quick SNITCH time; very impressive!
Heh, yes I had noticed that. The “4:20 pm” in my first sentence was interpreted as my time! I’ve sent a note to starstruck_au to see if it can be fixed.
13 minutes, so a little slower today but within my extended target of 15. I remember the popularity of the SNOWBALL in the 1970/80s but I don’t think I ever tried one as it had a reputation for being very sweet. I know the advocaat was made with egg yolks and there was always the suspicion that it may have gone off if kept on the shelf for too long, like Bailey’s with its cream content.