Very fast for me, at 7:08, so I think this is very much on the easy side.
With multiple Qs, and Zs, this felt like a pangram but it’s missing the letters J, P, V, and X.
Trelawney likes a bit of misdirection. “in speech” and “broadcast” appear today but not as homophone indicators.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | After phone call, promise something trendy in speech (8) |
| BUZZWORD – BUZZ (phone call) + WORD (promise)
As in “I’ll give you a buzz”, although phones have not buzzed for a long time. The most common ringtone on our mobiles is the stylised rendering of the bells on an old analog phone. Perhaps “buzz” now means the sound made by a vibrating phone on silent. “Word” as in “my word is my bond”. And “in speech” is not a homophone indicator today. Tricky clue all round for 1A, and was my LOI. |
|
| 5 | Wading bird with bit of hibiscus (4) |
| IBIS – Hidden inside hibiscus
The adjective “wading” is put in there to help us narrow down the list of potential birds, not that I knew that was the habitat of the IBIS. |
|
| 8 | Move computer key (5) |
| SHIFT – Double def | |
| 9 | Acrobat’s glass (7) |
| TUMBLER – Double def
Although I unaccountably banged in JUGGLER, thinking that might be a name for a glass as well. |
|
| 11 | Enemy froze at regular intervals (3) |
| FOE – F{r}O{z}E | |
| 12 | Bequeaths, effortlessly (5,4) |
| HANDS DOWN – Double def
The second meaning comes from Horse Racing, with reference to a jockey dropping the hands, and so relaxing the hold on the reins, when victory appears certain. |
|
| 13 | Booze, something black and sweet, lacking ice (6) |
| LIQUOR – LIQUOR {ice} (something black and sweet) – ICE
Although the words look very similar, they come from quite different roots (pun intended). |
|
| 15 | One of five kids with extremely coarse fruit (6) |
| QUINCE – QUIN (one of five kids) + C{oars}E
Quins are obviously very rare (1 in 60 million births), so this word wasn’t needed until the famous Dionne Quintuplets were born in 1934. The word appears soon after, probably due to newspaper headline shortening. |
|
| 18 | Flat suitable to accommodate male painters? (9) |
| APARTMENT – APT (suitable) contains ART MEN (male painters)
I am sure we all parsed this after the fact. |
|
| 19 | Feathered creature eats more urgently at first (3) |
| EMU – E{ats} M{ore} U{rgently} | |
| 20 | Prison wine is mixed (7) |
| STIRRED – STIR (prison) + RED (wine)
Stir=prison is used much in crosswords, but pretty well unheard of in the vernacular now. |
|
| 21 | Dark time is unusual thing (5) |
| NIGHT – (THING)*
Very nice clue, simple and smooth surface. I’d add that to my list of examples to explain to an interested outsider what a cryptic clue actually is. |
|
| 22 | Keys broken in Scottish island (4) |
| SKYE – (KEYS)* [broken] | |
| 23 | Water and ink ruined woolly clothes (8) |
| KNITWEAR – (WATER INK)* [ruined] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dwarf’s party at capacity, we gather (7) |
| BASHFUL – BASH (party) + FUL (sounds like FULL)
He’s one of the seven Dwarfs. And in Disney’s latest reworking of Snow White they are still dwarfs but normal-sized. Go figure. |
|
| 2 | Zulu mostly broadcast in former African country (5) |
| ZAIRE – Z{ulu} + AIRE{d} (broadcast)
Tricky misdirection as “broadcast” often indicates a homophone, or an anagram. When the regime was overthrown in 1997 one of the first acts was to restore the original name “Democratic Republic of the Congo.” This was done to symbolically break with the dictatorship and return to the country’s post-independence identity. Of course, countries that have “Democratic” in their official names are usually anything but. As in DPRK (North Korea) and DDR (East Germany). |
|
| 3 | Wizard initially yearning to tamper with healer (5,6) |
| WITCH DOCTOR – W{izard} + ITCH (yearning) + DOCTOR (tamper with) | |
| 4 | Fresh tear in part of the eye (6) |
| RETINA – (TEAR IN)* [fresh] | |
| 6 | Benefit when carrying completely inflatable item (7) |
| BALLOON – BOON (benefit) contains ALL (completely) | |
| 7 | Father beginning to notice warning sound (5) |
| SIREN – SIRE (Father) + N{otice} | |
| 10 | Some sumos quit, one testing way to stop bites? (8,3) |
| MOSQUITO NET – Hidden in “sumos quit, one testing”
Another one which turned out to be different from how I parsed it at first glance. It’s actually “hidden” across four words, and is not an anagram. |
|
| 14 | Characteristic fairness abandoned by leader (7) |
| QUALITY – e{QUALITY} (fairness) | |
| 16 | Messed up a quote — Romeo’s line about the earth? (7) |
| EQUATOR – (A QUOTE R{omeo})* [messed up] | |
| 17 | Nurse concerned with connective tissue (6) |
| TENDON – TEND (Nurse) + ON (concerned with)
The full name of Darwin’s book is “ON the Origin of Species”, where the “On” means “concerning the”. |
|
| 18 | Endlessly examine beasts of burden (5) |
| ASSES – ASSES{s} (examine)
Does anyone ever say ASS for donkey these days? Seems like it would always be misunderstood. |
|
| 19 | Frequent flyer well below par? (5) |
| EAGLE – Double def.
Flyer = bird = EAGLE. And an EAGLE in golf is two shots under par, so “well below par”. I don’t know what Frequent is doing in this clue. I don’t think it makes a Triple Def, and don’t see how it assists in “flyer”. |
|
8:36 is firmly on the faster side for us but a long way short of a PB and having now read the blog comments it seems positively pedestrian! Didn’t even parse POI APARTMENT until after completion. LOI HANDS DOWN. Thanks, all.
A pleasant romp, on the easy side of average I felt. Also slightly bemused by ‘frequent’, which didn’t seem necessary
Thanks to merlin and trelawney
9:40. KNITWEAR and BASHFUL were favourites. I enjoyed “frequent flyer” for its suggestion that the noble EAGLE planned his aerial excursions with the aim of maximising loyalty reward points!
6.54 BUZZWORD was a tricky start. No major hold-ups in the rest. Thanks Merlin and Trelawney.
I finished very quickly for me at 7:59 (my shortest time in 2025 so far) and that’s after an absurd hold-up over WITCH DOCTOR because of course “Harry” was being shouted loudly in the mental background. (I also can’t type well and had to retype several answers, and anyway had a fat-fingered pink square, but “I solved it in my head”.) I expect to see some PBs.
Liked BUZZWORD, which I came back to after getting a Z, when it fell quickly. COD to the apt art men.
Thanks to Trelawney and our resident wizard. I’ve never seen an ibis for real but these beautiful though odd-looking birds are vivid to me thanks to childhood exposure to images of Egyptian art. Interesting about HANDS DOWN, I never thought about it.
Another gentle one today. Hesitated slightly over BUZZWORD/BASHFUL otherwise lots of biff-then-parse. COD BASHFUL. Great blog, especially re: HANDS DOWN. Many thanks Trelawney.
Very enjoyable. 8.06. Apartment puzzled me but that was as far as I thought it through, until I read the blog. Art men. Didn’t see that. Thanks, Merlin and Trelawney.
09:17
First time under 10 mins and a PB- Yippee!
FOI: IBIS
LOI: KNITWEAR (requiring a pen and paper)
COD: APARTMENT
Thanks to Merlin & Trelawney
10:47 here, with the 1s the last two to go in. Once the penny dropped that I could be looking for a specific dwarf, 1d came and was swiftly followed by 1a.
Thanks to Trelawney and Merlin.
Lots of Qs and Zs; very odd.
POI 12a Hands down. Was unaware of the horseracing meaning, I thought it was from cards, e.g. bridge. When holding only winning cards it is common to face the cards and “claim”. I thought that was downing a hand. Wiktionary supports the horseracing option though.
14d (e)Quality took an age, I was stuck on (e)Quitable.
Thanks Merlin and Trelawney.
15 gentle cruise. The Z in Buzzword was putting me off so went elsewhere before the penny dropped. I’m partly clued in to the misdirections noted by Merlin, so glad I jumped solving strategies quickly. Thanks Merlin and Trelawney
I usually struggle a bit with DDs, but today neither SHIFT nor TUMBLER caused any problems. Getting MOSQUITO NET across four words was very clever, but, to me it was quite obvious, so for once I recognised a hidden straightaway! Ticks to EQUATOR and TENDON.
8:45 FOI Ibis LOI Hands down COD Knitwear
Thanks Trelawney and Merlin – I liked the info about Hands down – and congratulations to everyone who got a PB (or near one) today 👏👏👏
Enjoyed this QC. Figured out buzzword after the z checker from Zaire. I had parsed Zaire by taking air for broadcast which left me wondering what the ‘mostly’ was doing in the clue. Then I took the last letter ‘e’ to mean something else. Thanks to the blog for clarifying that.
Also a 7:08 finish – exactly the same time as our blogger. Nice puzzle to come back to after a more or less crossword-free break in Central Asia.
Had a few months away after surgery, back with a 08:52 today which I think is a PB. Nothing too taxing in there for the slower horses among us. Looking forward to getting back into things.
Hoping your successful solve today signals that your surgery went well- welcome back!
Thank you so much!
Around 20 mins, with about a quarter of that time spent parsing apartment before I was happy to write it in. Also spent time rejecting “tedon” as a thing, with a “n” stuck in it, before the blindingly obvious parse dropped.
thanks all.
A tad under 5 minutes which wasn’t looking likely as BUZZWORD was the first attempted but last one in. HANDS DOWN was the only other one that needed a return visit.
Cheers Merlin and Trelawney
Very straightforward qc, today. I prefer a bit more of a challenge. 8m 10s.
Thanks, Merlin and Trelawney.
Well done to the PB brigade. Wish I could have joined you.
10 mins. NHO BUZZWORD.
Missed out on 15 x 15 by one letter! You won’t need to guess how that makes me feel. Over an hour up the spout!
Two firsts for me today. A puzzle completed in sub 20 mins and no aids used. Thanks Trelawney and Merlin.
Well done!
Great work.
The surface of 4d worked particularly well as I had a tear in mine, but I don’t suppose Trelawney knew that
I’m a day late on this one, having been too busy with work yesterday. It seems I was the same as most in finding it on the easy side.
PB for me, 4:34, 19 seconds inside my previous best.
11:38, 20 minutes faster than my previous best, so this must have been a beginner one.
I’m a relative newbie (SCC, I think is the term?) and was rushing here in excitement to brag about my 40 minute finish, being much faster (and more complete) than any I’ve done so far, only to see it’s an ‘easy’ one! Well, I’ll take the win, regardless. I appreciate all of you taking the time to parse, explain and comment. It has helped my progress (a few months ago, I could only get about 40-60% of any puzzle before needing help). I intend to start racing the clock once I’m more regularly finishing them unaided. For now, I don’t worry about time at all, so the 40 minutes may well have included me getting up to grab an IPA and forgetting to stop the clock… wink, wink. Thank you one and all!