Tough one today, I confess to opening the doors to the SCC today with a time of 20:20.
Definitions underlined in bold, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, synonyms in (parentheses), deletions in {curly brackets} and [ ] for other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Adversary not against being messed around (10) |
| ANTAGONIST – (NOT AGAINST)* | |
| 8 | One taken in by unacceptable idea (6) |
| NOTION – NOT ON (unacceptable) contains I (one) | |
| 9 | Reasonable indication of approval about to be announced (3,3) |
| NOT BAD – NOD (indication of approval) contains TBA (To Be Announced) | |
| 10 | Fair lot, by the sounds of it (4) |
| FETE – Sounds like FATE (lot) | |
| 11 | Small matter involving money from overseas, arbitrarily (2,6) |
| AT RANDOM – ATOM (small matter) contains RAND (money from overseas)
On seeing the enumeration, and needing a FOI, I thought NO TROUBLE would work. (= small matter, and Rouble for the money) |
|
| 12 | Diplomacy leads to improved communications strategy (6) |
| TACTIC – TACT (Diplomacy) + I{mproved} + C{ommunications) | |
| 14 | Where you might put your holiday items to be safe (2,4) |
| IN CASE – Double def | |
| 16 | Piteous account of terrible boss meeting politician (3,5) |
| SOB STORY – (BOSS)* + TORY (politician)
Piteous/pitiful/pitiable : very subtle shades of meaning here. |
|
| 18 | Old, mostly whitish gemstone (4) |
| OPAL – O{ld} + {PAL}e (whitish)
And of course an opal is whitish. |
|
| 20 | Plant, in retrospect, had trouble making a return (6) |
| DAHLIA – HAD reversed [in retrospect]) + AIL (trouble) reversed [making a return] | |
| 21 | Item of clothing that provides protection for work (3,3) |
| TOP HAT – THAT contains [provides protection for] OP (work)
I don’t usually think of headwear as an item of clothing, but of course it is. And that that=that, that was nice misdirection. |
|
| 22 | Doing extra obfuscated personal reason to get involved (3,2,5) |
| AXE TO GRIND – (DOING EXTRA)*
There’s a wealth of information on the origins of this phrase here : https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/158346/origin-of-to-have-an-axe-to-grind |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Not a single person of twelve came in the end (2,3) |
| NO ONE – NOON (twelve) + cam{E}
Tricky parsing, I thought DOZEN was going to be involved. |
|
| 3 | Soldier perhaps eating fruit for nourishment (7) |
| ALIMENT – ANT (soldier perhaps) contains LIME (fruit)
My LOI, as I had assumed that the ANT would be split AN- – – – T. And its a word that I only know from Alimentary Canal, and looks too much like AILMENT. |
|
| 4 | Have one’s way, nastily at first (3) |
| OWN – O{nes} W{ay} N{astility} | |
| 5 | Nicer, tiny, re-developed area downtown (5,4) |
| INNER CITY – (NICER TINY)* | |
| 6 | Important individual engaged in some activity up north (5) |
| TITAN – AT IT (engaged in some activity) reversed [up] + N {orth} | |
| 7 | Renowned American doctor beset by endless bother (6) |
| FAMOUS – A{merican} + MO (doctor) contained in FUS{s} (bother)
The abbreviation for American is AM in 99% of cases, but today it needs to be the “seen only in Collins” A. |
|
| 11 | A ridiculous charge on port (9) |
| ANCHORAGE – A + (CHARGE ON)*
There is a port in Alaska called Anchorage, so this neat clue works in both ways. |
|
| 13 | An exam in the morning? That’s unethical! (6) |
| AMORAL – AM (in the morning) + ORAL (exam)
I sometimes get this word confused with “amorous”, with hilarious results. |
|
| 15 | Police officer seizes hard, bladed weapon (7) |
| CHOPPER – COPPER (Police officer) contains H{ard} | |
| 17 | Some colossal sausages and tomato-based sauce (5) |
| SALSA – Hidden in colossal sausages | |
| 19 | Type of cooker fashionable once more (5) |
| AGAIN – AGA (type of cooker) + In (fashionable)
Other cookers are available. “AGA” stands for Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator, the original Swedish manufacturers. |
|
| 21 | Extremely short pitchfork, maybe (3) |
| TOO – {TOO}l (pitchfork maybe) | |
Tough non-QC indeed. I had to parse many after getting the answers. Also, using “beset” as a containment indicator when it could clearly be an anagram indicator is devious. Although, I have seen that technique in use before.
9:31
Another left with the ALIMENT FETE cross after a few minutes, then….
Thanks all.
Yes, definitely quite tricky, but also much better than NOT BAD! As is my custom, I started off quite well but slowed right down. It took me the same amount of time to do the last six as it took to do the rest of the puzzle. I parsed everything but FAMOUS took its time.
Funnily enough, a couple of those – NOT BAD and ANCHORAGE – were among my favourites today, so it was worth the effort. I really liked TACTIC, IN CASE and INNER CITY too.
I didn’t think too much about the difference between TACTICS and strategy, but I’m sure SRC will have something to say about the difference between RANDOM and arbitrary.
15:54 FOI Fete LOI Too COD Notion
Many thanks Jalna and Merlin
DNF (defeated by the NHO aliment and with fete unfilled too) but reading the carnage in the comments has cheered me up no end. Thanks all – we go again tomorrow
Finished in just under 10 minutes a minute or two above my average.
Not as straight forward as other QCs but didn’t find it too bad. I seemed to be on wavelength with the multiword clues which gave a good framework to polish off the rest. However, it was the comparatively simple ANCHORAGE that gave me the most trouble. I really wanted it to start ARCH. I was thinking of somewhere and I’m not entirely sure where or even if it was a port. It will come to me tonight. Silly error.
Great fun with a few spicier bits but think all within the QC brief.
Thanks blogger and setter
I really am useless.
22 minute DNF. Put MENE (many?) for FETE after 5 minutes of head scratching. Making up words again.
True incompetence. I am totally incapable of doing this. Embarrassing.
Too fed up to even look at 15 x 15 today. ☹️
Harsh as it sounds, it’s reassuring to read of others having such days. Recently, we were on an upward trajectory (and yes, ‘we’ two of us, so you’d think our joint times would be faster than they are, however, such thought would be to ignore the obvious – that alone, we each would be so much slower). Your summary of feelings of failure is word perfect for how we felt last (?) Friday. We DNF by a major mile. No one else seemed to ‘hate’ it as much as we did. I suggested we never wanted to do cryptics anyway. Humphing like a child. Yet here we are again, having fun, still thrilled if not in SCC – and much improved from when we first started. Onward – and good luck!
Thank you. Let’s hope we all get there in the end!
Gary
There is no “there” there. The journey is the destination, or so says my little dog.
Well said SC!
one smart little dog
the nose knows
: )
Just over 15m, which is a good time for us – much enjoyed, whilst sitting comfortably for 5 hrs on a GWR train.
LOI DAHLIA, close on the tails of 11D ANCHORAGE – though those two added about 2 minutes.
Thought AXE TO GRIND very clever.
Needed the blog to parse TITAN and NO ONE… and had failed to notice role of ‘leads’ in TACTIC.
Thanks to Jalna and to Merlin and to all contributors. It was interesting to read of (and to better understand) the content variation between dictionaries.
I do try hard, had the T and N of 7d and thought THORn with the anagram of north and Thor the god of thunder and lightning (up north). Must get all the crossers, lesson learnt.