Felt on the hard side to me, at least compared to yesterday’s where I was biffing left and right.
Following on from my comment last week, I decided to compute the average Scrabble point score for the words, to see if there was a preponderance of obscure letters. It is 1.39. One large analysis of over 400,000 English words calculated the average points per letter to be 1.15 points. So crossword Vocab has a higher preponderance of obscure letters, but not by much. At least not today’s QC.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Standing deer attracting new insect (8) |
| STAGNANT – STAG(deer) + N{ew} + ANT (insect) | |
| 6 | Endless remorse for fraud (4) |
| SHAM – SHAM{e} (remorse) | |
| 8 | Mass slaughter mainly gains nought (4) |
| KILO – KIL{l} [“mainly” indicates drop last letter]+ O (nought) | |
| 9 | Turning over tablet seen in puddle … it’s a big sweet (8) |
| LOLLIPOP – PILL (tablet) inside POOL (puddle) all reversed
Is a lollipop always a big sweet? I think the stick is the definitive attribute, maybe the clue could have been “it’s a sticky sweet?” |
|
| 10 | Red meat I moved a distance across plate? (8) |
| DIAMETER – (RED MEAT I)*
Since a plate is circular, then the distance across must be definition be a diameter. |
|
| 12 | Have a gander to hold back (4) |
| PEEK – KEEP (to hold) reversed
“Have a gander” is thought to simply come from the characteristic way geese seem to extend their necks when looking. Though I don’t know why this is restricted to the male of the species. |
|
| 13 | Lad embracing insolence as something easy to get into (4-2) |
| SLIP-ON – SON (lad) contains LIP (insolence)
Slip-ons are leather shoes, with a full heel which do not have buckles or laces. They were first known as “loafers”, surprisingly George VI (not know for sartorial innovation) was an early adopter. |
|
| 15 | British arrangement on which customs are based (6) |
| BORDER – B{ritish} + ORDER (arrangement)
The definition is cryptic/whimsical, although customs are based “at” the border, I can’t quite make “on” formulation work. |
|
| 17 | Suspicion of strike around November (4) |
| HINT – HIT (strike) contains N{ovember} | |
| 19 | Lift to reveal ground (8) |
| ELEVATOR – (TO REVEAL)* [“ground” = anagram] | |
| 21 | Concrete motorway consumed initially resulted in all going short (8) |
| MATERIAL – M{otorway} + ATE (consumed) + R{esulted} + I{n} + AL{l}
Lots of construction needed on the Motorway to get this all sorted, with a couple of diversions in there: “consumed” and “in” are not containment indicators. “Initially” applies to the next two words. |
|
| 23 | Help to import Cape bitter (4) |
| ACID – AID (help) contains C{ape} | |
| 24 | Dispatched perfume as ordered by phone? (4) |
| SENT – homophone [ordered by phone] for SCENT (perfume) | |
| 25 | Advocate international exhibition having indemnity regularly (8) |
| EXPONENT – EXPO (International exhibition) + {i}N{d}E{m}N{i}T{y} | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Worthless four imprisoned by court hearing (7) |
| TRIVIAL – TRIAL (court hearing) contains IV (four)
This also works with six (VI). |
|
| 3 | Depression of key on weaving machine (5) |
| GLOOM – G{key} + LOOM (weaving machine)
I’m not a fan of the “key” convention when it is a crapshoot for the first seven letters. Although LOOM was pretty easy. |
|
| 4 | Alone when one is left completely (3) |
| ALL – AL This is an unusual construction where a sequence of three letters is replaced with a single letter. Leads to a great surface. |
|
| 5 | Not bad distributing beer to all (9) |
| TOLERABLE – (BEER TO ALL)* | |
| 6 | Captain having small fish for breakfast? (7) |
| SKIPPER – S{mall} + KIPPER (fish for breakfast)
I’m not good with fish but the “for breakfast” was a friendly hint from the Joker. The word SKIPPER is nothing to do with Skipping but comes from the Dutch for a captain. |
|
| 7 | Fuss concerning worship (5) |
| ADORE – ADO (fuss) + RE(concerning) | |
| 11 | Ordered a green tin for fruit (9) |
| TANGERINE – (A GREEN TIN)* | |
| 14 | Calm person in hospital(7) |
| PATIENT – Double def | |
| 16 | Feeling European movement (7) |
| EMOTION -E {uropean} + MOTION (movement) | |
| 18 | Current judge is very angry (5) |
| IRATE – I (current) + RATE (judge) | |
| 20 | What speculator hopes to make once more (5) |
| AGAIN – A GAIN (what speculator hopes to make)
Not strictly a double def, since the enumeration is different (1,4) |
|
| 22 | Ace breaking old record for circuit (3) |
| LAP – LP (old record) contains A{CE} | |
An annoying DNF for SCAM. I couldn’t parse it and so put a circle round the clue to come back to at the end. Having stopped my watch at 11:57, just 10 seconds slower than yesterday, I did relook at it, but I couldn’t think of anything better and by then the time wouldn’t have been good anyway. Oh well, thanks Joker and Merlin.
I solved this earlier today, but only now have the opportunity to post my comments (and I won’t be able to read everyone else’s until later, I’m afraid).
I was very pleased to finish all correct in just 23 minutes, which is very fast for me with Joker. A slow start with only PEEK going in until I reached the bottom of the grid, but my early frustrations didn’t last for too long. I enjoyed finding LOLLIPOP and struggled a bit at the end with SLIP ON, PATIENT and (LOI) MATERIAL.
Mrs Random blitzed it today in 13 minutes, her innate ability to (randomly) guess correctly coming to the fore. I think I’ve forgotten what a family point looks like.
Many thanks to Joker and Merlin.
Surely BORDER on which customs are based refers to activities rather than custom duties. Such as caber tossing is a Scottish custom?
Another day of frustration and woe.
All done bar 15ac in 9 mins and then a horrible 8 mins to come up with BORDER for a poor 17 mins overall.
I’ve tried (really) to be pleased with the first 9 mins, but cannot get over the complete brain freeze on the last clue. This is now happening so often that I hit panic mode as soon as I reach the last one.
Another chance for a sub-10 missed and towards the bottom of the class again.