Hi all, and happy bank holiday if that applies to you. It’s good to see Wurm again so soon.
I thought a 8a was a very nice charade, but I’m struggling to pick out specific highlights even though I enjoyed this puzzle more than usual. In general I thought the definitions were nicely incorporated, not too plainly in sight but not so disguised as to push the difficulty sky high. For example 2d, does mean to burn in both surface and definition – but in the answer we find a bit more than the sunburn suggested by the surface!
Speaking of burning, we travel to the Devil’s island (20a), correspond with Lucifer (3d) and meet a beast at 18d. Add this to some injury/punishment (4a, 10a) and the aforementioned catastrophe (8a) and you can see why I chose the blog title. I nearly went with “on fire, then burned!” which describes my solve: I was on course for a near-record time when I found myself stalled for a more than a minute on a clue which shouldn’t have troubled me, 22a. I have occasional anagram blindness and it struck here. This is despite having solved enough crosswords to know perfectly well what “present time” is likely to mean. It is too hot!
I hope you are keeping cool and had as much fun as I did today. Thanks Wurm.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed part is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 1a | Returned raincoats and fleece (4) |
| SCAM — Backwards (returned) MACS (raincoats). A nicely disguised definition | |
| 4a | Cut shifting ale crate (8) |
| LACERATE — An anagram of (shifting) ALE CRATE | |
| 8a | The writer limited personal catastrophe (8) |
| MELTDOWN — ME (the writer) + LTD (limited) + OWN (personal). | |
| A catastrophe is what a kitty uses to indicate missing letters or possession … | |
| 9a | Quiet river untainted (4) |
| PURE — P (quiet) + URE (river) | |
| 10a | Cat in large wood (4) |
| LASH — The answer – a whip, not a feline – is found in L (large) plus ASH (wood) | |
| 11a | Leak from eastern embassy (8) |
| EMISSION — We get this answer from E (eastern) + MISSION (embassy) | |
| 12a | Coastal path announced for port (6) |
| BEIRUT — Sounds like (… announced) BAY ROUTE (coastal path) | |
| 14a | Team quits after Spanish article (6) |
| ELEVEN — EVEN (quits) after EL (Spanish article) | |
| 16a | Mike in Ford van to send signal (8) |
| TRANSMIT — M (Mike) in TRANSIT (Ford van) | |
| 18a | Stall closing early in Wellington? (4) |
| BOOT — BOOTh (stall) stopping short of its last letter (closing early) | |
| 19a | Biblical victim talented they say (4) |
| ABEL — ABLE (talented), soundalike (they say) | |
| 20a | Devil’s Island? (8) |
| TASMANIA — The island of the Tasmanian devil | |
| 22a | Cultivated hybrid at present time (8) |
| BIRTHDAY — An anagram of (cultivated) HYBRID AT | |
| 23a | Fuel container in Panzer say (4) |
| TANK — Two definitions | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Old woman in Greek island to burn (7) |
| CREMATE — MA (old woman) in CRETE (Greek island) | |
| 3d | Correspond with Lucifer? (5) |
| MATCH — A double definition, the second originally from a brand of matches but now generic (and increasingly archaic, but still going strong in crosswords) | |
| 4d | Pope the French love (3) |
| LEO — LE (the, French) + O (love) | |
| 5d | Seasoning minced not ground (9) |
| CONDIMENT — MINCED NOT anagrammed (ground) | |
| 6d | Sharp answer given in Tripos test (7) |
| RIPOSTE — The answer is given in tRIPOS TEst | |
| 7d | Tangled roots and trunk (5) |
| TORSO — An anagram of (tangled) ROOTS | |
| 11d | Guessed wrong date and times (9) |
| ESTIMATED — An anagram of (wrong) DATE and TIMES | |
| 13d | Lock phone, rented (7) |
| RINGLET — A lock of hair. RING (phone) + LET (rented) | |
| 15d | Schoolboy son Tallinn resident expels? (7) |
| ETONIAN — S (son), which E[s]TONIAN (Tallinn resident) removes (expels) | |
| 17d | Artist, two bishops, one Jewish scholar (5) |
| RABBI — RA (Royal Academician, artist) + B B (two bishops) + I (one). | |
| An artist, two bishops and a Rabbi walk into a bar. Is this some kind of joke? | |
| 18d | Live as good person or horrible one? (5) |
| BEAST — BE (live) + AS + ST (good person) | |
| 21d | Very last bit of salty sauce (3) |
| SOY — SO (very) + the last letter of (last bit of) saltY | |
Thank you, Kitty, for confirming LASH. I thought one might receive a LASH from a cat o’nine tails, but can’t see how LASH = the cat itself. Otherwise this was a perfect QC until my LOI BEIRUT which took a while to see. Thanks, Wurm.
(Oh by the way Kitty, small typo in title: Wurm, not Worm.)
Thanks Martinů – I’ve corrected the title.
The equivalence of LASH and CAT works either if they are both nouns or both verbs. A lash can be a scourge or whip, and Chambers says that to cat is “to lash with a cat-o’-nine-tails” (and the other main dictionaries all have something similar).
Crazy world of Arthur Brown, seen live at The University of Reading circa 1971 /72. Opened with “Fire” and a crucifix which didn’t go down well in some quarters.
I reckon when Churchill talked of naval tradition as rum, sodomy and the lash it was a noun! 8.51, all good, thank you Wurm and Kitty.
5:52
No problem, although I dnk the Ford van and biffed. Biffed MELTDOWN, parsed post-submission.
10 minutes. Both puzzles finished early today so it’s good to have the BH Jumbo in reserve.
I enjoyed this QC without rushing. Lots of good clues and chewy bits. I parsed them all except BEIRUT, a clue that, like MELTDOWN and BIRTHDAY (d’oh) took a while to click and extended my gentle Bank Holiday stroll to 17 mins.
Thanks to Wurm and Kitty.
Raced through this in super-quick time until I was breezeblocked at the CREMATE/MELTDOWN intersection. That took me out to 17:24, which was rather annoying. Otherwise a fun puzzle.
Pi ❤️
PS Waiting expectantly for Merlin’s irritation at yet another Eton reference. 😊
Yes, we too waiting for Merlin 😉
Nice puzzle to enjoy this fine morning among the roundabouts. All done in a pleasurable 17.00 which included about a minute of shade adjustment so we could stop the glare on the iPad screen.
Lots to enjoy, present time was new to us, and our favourite for today. Thanks Wurm and Kitty
All bar five in 20 minutes. One more without revealing letters. Coastal paths for me were always on Cornish cliff tops so the homophone didn’t work for me.
I did recall RA from Saturday.
Thanks Kitty and Wurm
Thanks Kitty for bringing light, and Wurm for a nice puzzle which gave a devilishly quick (for me) and best time of 9:01. I think the generic name for a match is still lucifer in Dutch.
No major dramas today although the homophone for BEIRUT doesn’t really work for me.
Started with SCAM and finished with the aforementioned homophone in 6.50.
Thanks to Kitty and Wurm
13 mins…
Seriously thought I was on for a sub-10 as I raced through the grid – but the NW corner was tricky, with 2dn “Cremate”, 8ac “Meltdown” and 12ac “Beirut” stopping me in my tracks. “Beirut” in particular could be a frustrating solve for anyone new who finished everything else. Usual eye roll at 15dn.
FOI – 1ac “Scam”
LOI – 12ac “Beirut”
COD – 8ac “Meltdown”
Thanks as usual!
Very quick today. CNP BEIRUT, but it had to be. LOsI MELTDOWN, MATCH and LASH.
Liked TASMANIA, BIRTHDAY, ETONIAN(!) and EMISSION.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
It promises to be hot in Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire today.
LASH and BEIRUT unparsed but the rest went in steadily, leading to a very quick (for me) 12:38.
About 5 mins. Only hold up Beirut, which (for whatever reason) isn’t near the top of my list of ports. That took about a minute. But I thought it was a good clue. COD to BIRTHDAY.
10:06 for a most pleasant solve, just right for a lazy bank holiday morning. Might have been even faster but I was held up by my LOI BEIRUT – it’s not an exact homophone for me, as I tend to say Bear-oot not Bay-root, but even so I could’ve should’ve got it quicker. No other problems and pleased to get TASMANIA, which brought back happy memories of a very fine holiday there a few years back.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.