Quite remarkably for me I solved this in 5 minutes – my fastest time achieved only once before, 440 puzzles ago, back in May 2015. I’ve always promised myself that if I find I am solving within 5 minutes regularly I shall start using a stopwatch and record both the minutes and seconds, but there doesn’t appear to be much likelihood of that with only two such qualifying times so far and 18 months between them, especially as I am strict about including full parsing in my timings (unless otherwise stated). I’ve indicated a couple of clues that I think are perhaps a little on the trickier side but I shall be interested to read how others got on.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Person who digs a gambling game? (5) |
| POKER – Two meanings, the first being vaguely cryptic | |
| 7 | In mire, spied damaged layer of skin (9) |
| EPIDERMIS – Anagram [damaged] of MIRE SPIED | |
| 9 | Slumber an old PM’s rejected (5) |
| SLEEP – PEEL’S (old PM’s) reversed [rejected] | |
| 10 | Unfashionable sponsor, one dwelling in the bush (9) |
| OUTBACKER – OUT (unfashionable), BACKER (sponsor). I’m not sure I knew this as a term in itself, but I’d heard of “the outback” and the “the bush” and there was helpful wordplay too, so it didn’t take much working out. | |
| 11 | News about union leader’s sister (3) |
| NUN – N,N (news) containing U{nion} [leader] | |
| 12 | Dreary routine to, at first, study John Stuart? (9) |
| TREADMILL – T{o} (at first), READ (study), MILL (John Stuart). I suppose there could be some difficulty for those who have not heard of the politician and economist, but fortunately for me, I had. | |
| 14 | Removes / non-representational paintings (9) |
| ABSTRACTS – Two meanings | |
| 16 | Farm animal that makes us scatter? (3) |
| SOW – Two meanings | |
| 18 | One who demonstrates in favour of examiner (9) |
| PROTESTER – PRO (in favour of), TESTER (examiner). Lots of these about over the past weekend! | |
| 20 | Girl keeping record in warehouse (5) |
| DEPOT – DOT (girl) enclosing [keeping] EP (record – Extended Play). In the heyday of vinyl 45s, the EP had four or sometimes six tracks instead of the standard two that were on a single. | |
| 21 | Habit-forming preservative, say, going round clubs (9) |
| ADDICTIVE – ADDITIVE (preservative, say) enclosing [going round] C (clubs) | |
| 22 | Verse initially reconciling him, you and me (5) |
| RHYME – First letters [initially] of R{econciling} H{im} Y{ou}, ME | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Odd points identifying part of engine (6) |
| PISTON – Anagram [odd] of POINTS | |
| 2 | Do as promised — retain a single weapon (4,4,4) |
| KEEP ONE’S WORD – KEEP (retain), ONE (single), SWORD (weapon) | |
| 3 | One providing information on malt liquor? (8) |
| REPORTER – RE (on), PORTER (malt liquor). Another trickier one for those not aware of PORTER as a drink or its malt content. Also some may tend to think of liquor as being a little stronger than beer. | |
| 4 | Small untruth about teetotal Liberal (6) |
| LITTLE – LIE (untruth) containing [about] TT (teetotal) + L (Liberal) | |
| 5 | Put money on a Greek character (4) |
| BETA – BET (put money on), A | |
| 6 | Like a star in last rally (6) |
| ASTRAL – Hidden [in] {l}AST RAL{ly} | |
| 8 | Be quick — teasing the dog may do this! (4,2,6) |
| MAKE IT SNAPPY – A figurative expression and a cryptic hint | |
| 13 | Ailment riders do suffer (8) |
| DISORDER – Anagram [suffer] of RIDERS DO | |
| 14 | Attraction priests originally found in a set of bells (6) |
| APPEAL – A, P{riests} [originally], PEAL [set of bells] | |
| 15 | Spike of flowers in mosaic at Kingsville (6) |
| CATKIN – Hidden [in] {mosai}C AT KIN{gsville} | |
| 17 | Summons he delivered, making us squirm (6) |
| WRITHE – WRIT (summons), HE | |
| 19 | Make an impression, and so on, with husband (4) |
| ETCH – ETC (and so on), H (husband) | |
COD 12ac TREADMILL – John Stuart is ever with us.
WOD GROPERFUHRER
Jack for 22a I think you need the whole me, not just the first letter.
Haven’t heard of John Stuart, the hidden word indicator for astral was “in” so I didn’t spot it straightaway.
For me, parsing was unclear:
11a Nun I was thinking N(news) containing UN{ion} [leaders?]
12a I biffed.
2d stupidly I was trying to equate word with weapon.
17d I wasn’t sure why delivered was needed apart from improving the surface.
So thanks for the blog.
Edited at 2017-01-23 05:20 am (UTC)
Re your parsing of 11ac, I expect you realised that the containment indicator [about] would have been redundant and “leader’s” would have needed to be read with a greengrocer-style apostrophe to indicate the plural.
Re 17dn I’m sure “delivered” is mainly there to improve the surface, and after all writs are delivered so it fits perfectly, but I wouldn’t say its entirely redundant in telling us how to read the clue to find the answer.
20:18 a fast one for me too. Top half flew in, bottom half more sedate. Had block seeing DISORDER even after parsing the anagram early. COD, 8d, a favourite expression of my daughter. LOI 17d.
Pretty straightforward today. Monty Python’s Philosopher’s Song came in handy yet again at 12ac.
Thanks Orpheus and Jack.
For those with time to spare , yesterday’s Sunday Times puzzle was an enjoyable test for the experienced QCer. David
Edited at 2017-01-23 11:14 pm (UTC)