Welcome to the latest of the new Saturday QCs. And we have a gem from Breadman, with some lovely wordplay, some gently stretching GK and his signature “not quite a pangram” – all the rare and high-Scrabble-score letters are here, but we miss F, M and V.
I found this slightly more challenging than usual, and needed 13:55 to complete it. Several of the clues though were OIH (Obvious In Hindsight), to use the most useful new acronym coined recently, and I expect many will have faster times than me. It is usually the case …
Note: As I am blogging this puzzle, 19 across contains an obvious typo of brink in place of drink in both the Crossword Club and the online Times. This will probably be corrected quickly, and most solvers should be able to guess what was intended.
Thank you Breadman for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 7 | Animal hunted where excavations are carried out (6) |
| QUARRY – A Double Definition to start us off; and if you are like me, the moment you see a Q you start thinking Pangram. | |
| 8 | Companion at home finally cut variable cotton fabric (6) |
| CHINTZ – A “build it from components” clue, with CH (Companion, CH being the abbreviation for Companion of Honour) + IN (at home) + T (finally, ie last letter of, cuT) + Z (a generic variable in algebra). And with the Z appearing, my Pangram alert is redoubled. | |
| 9 | Legendary strongman runs through Chelsea, strangely (8) |
| HERACLES – R (runs) in (Chelsea)*, strangely being one of the more straightforward anagram indicators. Heracles may be better known to some as Hercules; this is the Greek version of his name. | |
| 10 | Artist recalled church’s curved structure (4) |
| ARCH – AR (RA, ie Artist, “recalled”, ie backwards) + CH (church). We have to lift and separate “church” and “curved structure” – this is not necessarily an ecclesiastical arch. | |
| 11 | After, newsman wrote on social media (6) |
| POSTED – POST (After) + ED (the crossword-setter’s favourite newsman, journalist etc). | |
| 13 | Vast coniferous forest where wild cat heard (5) |
| TAIGA – sounds like Tiger (“wild cat heard”). The Taiga area covers over 6 million square miles of northern Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Russia, so I think “vast” is justified. | |
| 14 | Period dresser auntie displays (3) |
| ERA – Hidden in dressER Auntie, with “displays” our clue to look for it. | |
| 15 | Spanish food tramp eats occasionally (5) |
| TAPAS – Every alternate letter (“occasionally”) of TrAmP eAtS. Tapas were traditionally small snacks for enjoying with a drink in a bar; they were usually very salty to encourage people to order more drinks! | |
| 17 | Fictional doctor and wife visiting family member (6) |
| WATSON – W (wife) + AT SON (visiting family member). Ah, that doctor – Sherlock Holmes’s companion. I spent some time thinking the definition was “Fictional” with the wordplay being MO+W (“doctor and wife”) inserted into a word for a family member before the penny dropped. | |
| 19 | Brewed drink left for duck (4) |
| TEAL – TEA (Brewed drink) + L (Left) gives us our waterfowl. A charming little bird, with the males having a brightly coloured head with a striking green flash which gives its name to teal the colour. | |
| 20 | Old poet excited Wilde, say (3-5) |
| DAY-LEWIS – (Wilde say)*, with excited doing duty as the anagram indicator this time. Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate. He died in 1972 aged just 68, so a bit harsh perhaps to call him Old. | |
| 22 | Relatives during gentle run having a laugh (6) |
| JOKING – KIN (relatives) in JOG (gentle run), and the third of the traditional “4 rare letters” appears. The Pangram warning light is flashing fit to bust now. | |
| 23 | Wide county, an ancient English territory (6) |
| WESSEX – W (Wide) + ESSEX (a county). And the 4th of the rare letters duly appears. Now all we have to check is that the other 22 are all present. Ah, I forgot it was a Breadman puzzle … | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Aristocrat and king in outstanding environment (4) |
| DUKE – K (king) in DUE (outstanding). Environment appears to be in the clue merely to give the surface a semblance of sense, rather than as part of any wordplay. | |
| 2 | Animal protecting right area of body (6) |
| BREAST – R (right) inserted into BEAST (animal). “Protecting” is the inclusion indicator here. | |
| 3 | Bikes encapsulating commercial for European archipelago (8) |
| CYCLADES – AD (commercial) inserted into CYCLES (bikes). This time “encapsulating” is the inclusion indicator. | |
| 4 | Reserve small chilled desserts (4) |
| ICES – ICE (Reserve) + S (for small). This is Reserve as in reticence rather than Reserve as in book a place; I’ve not often seen ICE as a synonym for it but certainly one can receive an ICY reception where the other person is unwelcoming and reserved. | |
| 5 | Inspector lifted rule, overseeing one religious festival (6) |
| DIWALI – DI (Inspector, ie Detective Inspector) + WAL (law, ie rule which is then lifted, ie backwards) + I (one). As this is a Down clue, DIWAL is above, so overseeing, the I. Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Lights, and a colourful and joyful occasion. | |
| 6 | Back-to-back felines inside so disconnected (8) |
| STACCATO – TAC and CAT (two felines “back to back”) inside SO. I needed all the checkers to get this one but once they were in place, the clever wordplay leaps out at one. My COD. | |
| 12 | Oscar, then out to lunch, meets Dorothy punctually (2,3,3) |
| ON THE DOT – An IKEA clue, built up from O (O is Oscar in the phonetic alphabet) + NTHE (ie (then)*, with “out to lunch” indicating the anagram) + DOT (short for Dorothy). | |
| 13 | Bird of prey‘s new cry of distress south of Devon river (5,3) |
| TAWNY OWL – Our second Construction clue in a row, with N (new) + YOWL (cry of distress) south of, ie underneath, the Devonian River TAW.
A river of reasonable length (45 miles long) and some literary fame (it features in the book “Tarka the Otter”), but even so I suspect it might not be known to all – though the fact that all three of its letters are checkers from other clues will no doubt help those who don’t. |
|
| 16 | Place to preach sensational stuff connected to Italian (6) |
| PULPIT – PULP (sensational stuff) + IT (Italian). I biffed this and only then saw the connection between “sensational stuff” and Pulp, as in Pulp Fiction. | |
| 18 | Holy believer initially thwarts robbery (6) |
| THEIST – T (initially, ie first letter of, Thwarts) + HEIST (robbery). | |
| 20 | Appreciates accommodation (4) |
| DIGS – A Double Definition, with both of the terms perhaps now slightly dated. | |
| 21 | Plan article supporting freshwater fish (4) |
| IDEA – A (article) underneath IDE (freshwater fish). The ide is a very useful fish for both crossword-setters and crossword-solvers to know. | |
Slow but fun at 33:25 today. Really enjoyed this puzzle, can’t decide which I like more, STACCATO or THEIST (went around the barn a few times before getting it).
BREAST was FOI, and my first thought for 1d was KNOB, but that didn’t work with the anagrist for 9a. My next thought was EARL which held up 9a, as my outstanding environment, EAR, wasn’t actually ouside of a king. Doh! DUKE then arrived with HERACLES a close follower. TAIGA ruled out the FALCON I was dabbling with at 13d and I had to accept that my knowledge of Devon rivers didn’t include the Taw when N-YOWL fitted the wordplay. No problem with DAY-LEWIS, but LOI, WATSON, took a while as Dr Who took some shaking! I found this quite tricky and crossed the line in 13:37. Thanks Breadman and Cedric.
13:59 here. Enjoyed that, although I slowed myself down by trying to fit TURKEY into 7a, until BREAST made that impossible.
Thanks to Cedric & Breadman.
It still says “brink” and I didn’t even notice! TEAL are good shooting and delicious. Certainly the keeper’s spaniel who wolfed three of mine in the back of a Land Rover last December thought so.
That went in pretty jolly fast with nary a pause apart from last two, DUKE and BREAST.
All done in 06:50 for a sub K and a Red Letter Day.
Many thanks Breaders and Merlin for a lovely blog.
Templar
Enjoyed this one. Got TEAL and decided it was my poor printing that had brink instead of drink. No problem with HERACLES, always spelt it with a C. Mislead myself towards end looking for non existent last few paragram letters!
I avoided the HERACLES trap but fell victim to TAIGA, so 27:31 but with an error. Leaving aside the brink/drink typo I’m afraid that I found today’s puzzle to be somewhat unfriendly, not least the addition of “environment” in 1d.
I too unfortunately put HERCULES straight in. Biffed DAY LEWIS as probably being relative of actor. For some reason struggled with CHINTZ, altogether good puzzle I thought . 30 mins although attention distracted by rugby
Sorry not to share the enthusiasm for STACCATO, but two felines back to back would give SCATTACO. What we have in 6d is two felines facing each other.
DNF. Failed in NW. Should have got QUARRY, and carelessly put HERCULES. Shd have got DUKE, though confused by environment. Looked up Russian forest then realised I vaguely knew the word TAIGA.
OK with the rest. Liked ON THE DOT, STACCATO, DIWALI , POSTED.
Noticed the typo but it had to be TEAL. No problem with Day Lewis, WATSON, CHINTZ.
Thanks vm, Cedric.