Time: 14:20
Music: Vaughn Williams, Symphony #9, Previn/LSO
Here we have a real Monday puzzle, featuring a number of clues that would not be out of place in the easier Quick Cryptics. I biffed my way through most of it, but upon writing the blog I discovered most of the parsing was fairly straightforward. Yes, some of them are a bit convoluted, but parsing is much easier if you know what the answer is. And answers like accessible, self-confident, and concluded do seem to point to rapid solving – even if you are a beginner, you may manage to finish sooner or later.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Silly notice rejected by paper (4) |
| DAFT – AD backwards + F.T. | |
| 3 | Expert entertaining church playing Bliss is easy to follow (10) |
| ACCESSIBLE – AC(CE, anagram of BLISS)E. | |
| 9 | Storyteller mostly lives on in secretive affair (7) |
| LIAISON – LIA[r] + IS ON. | |
| 11 | Excellent area surrounding a city in Spain (7) |
| GRANADA – GRAN(A)D + A. | |
| 12 | Recalled Maxim interrupting worship with hint about abyss (10,3) |
| BOTTOMLESS PIT – B(MOTTO backwards)LESS + TIP backwards. | |
| 14 | Country house short of good variety (5) |
| RANGE – [g]RANGE. | |
| 15 | Record florid appeal? Rubbish (9) |
| DISCREDIT – DISC + RED + IT. Rubbish and discredit as verbs. | |
| 17 | Story involving nobleman and king in difficult task (4,5) |
| TALL ORDER – TAL(LORD)E + R. | |
| 19 | Land force not available (5) |
| CHINA – CHI + N/A. The use of chi for force has stepped up lately. | |
| 21 | Send client off newly assured (4-9) |
| SELF-CONFIDENT – Anagram of SEND CLIENT OFF. | |
| 24 | Fortune spent in the end to charge a conspirator (7) |
| PLOTTER – P(LOT,[spen]T)ER. Another a = per, which has been seen frequently lately. | |
| 25 | Football team always working to contain opposition’s No 7 (7) |
| EVERTON – EVER ([opposi]T[ion]) ON. A team even I know. | |
| 26 | Doctor backed nonsense by opening speaker going on and on (10) |
| MOTORMOUTH – M.O. + ROT backwards + MOUTH. | |
| 27 | Gang not allowed in hearing (4) |
| BAND – Sounds like BANNED. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Careful editor coming up with release (10) |
| DELIBERATE – ED upside-down + LIBERATE. | |
| 2 | Fine coffee on new level (7) |
| FLATTEN – F + LATTE + N. | |
| 4 | Deception foolish cuddle ended (9) |
| CONCLUDED – CON + anagram of CUDDLE. | |
| 5 | Rows of bushes ignoring height limits (5) |
| EDGES – [h]EDGES. | |
| 6 | Part about very quiet artist with constant nervous action revealing fraud? (5,8) |
| SHARP PRACTICE – SHAR(PP + RA + C + TIC)E. A rather elaborate cryptic for an answer most solvers will just biff. | |
| 7 | Spoke proudly, sad to be struggling (7) |
| BOASTED – Anagram of SAD TO BE. | |
| 8 | Test, complex, amended in part (4) |
| EXAM – Hidden in [compl]EX, AM[ended]. | |
| 10 | Role star played, entertaining old emperor eventually (6,2,5) |
| SOONER OR LATER – Anagram of ROLE STAR around O NERO. | |
| 13 | Characteristic energy put into studies in review affected by financial constraints (10) |
| STRAITENED – S(TRAIT,E)NED, where the outer letters are DENS backwards. | |
| 16 | Rigorous line followed by medical department (9) |
| STRINGENT – STRING + E.N.T. | |
| 18 | Behave aggressively in Los Angeles and yell (4,3) |
| LASH OUT – L.A. + SHOUT. | |
| 20 | Passivity during irate rioting (7) |
| INERTIA – IN + anagram of IRATE. | |
| 22 | Load vehicle and set off (5) |
| CARGO – CAR + GO. | |
| 23 | Plans raised for unsolicited messages (4) |
| SPAM – MAPS upside-down. | |
11:39
Definitely one for the QC solvers to try. I biffed BOTTOMLESS PIT without reading the clue, biffed SHARP PRACTICE. Fortunately I parsed 3ac, and corrected my biffed ACCESSABLE.
20 minutes. This was the day I’d have achieved the elusive sub-15 minute solve if I had not continued my normal practice of annotating my print-out to indicate the parsing of each clue.
15.49, so a nice easy one to start the week. I might have been quicker but got inexplicably stuck on several obvious answers, like BAND, CHINA and LOI STRINGENT. It certainly seemed that a number of these had stumbled in from the QC, thanks V.
From Nettie Moore:
I’m the oldest son of a crazy man
I’m in a cowboy BAND
Got a pile of sins to pay for and I ain’t got time to hide
I’d walk through a blazing fire baby, if I knew you was on the other side