A light-to-medium offering from Kenny, which seems easier in retrospect than it appeared at the time. 6 minutes for me.
| Across | |
| 1 | British leading French eleven getting third prize (6) |
| BRONZE – BR for British + ONZE, 11 in French. Edit: typo corrected thank you to Kevin below. | |
| 4 | Catcall, with fuss in field (6) |
| MEADOW – MEW is a cat’s call, ADO inside it | |
| 8 | Enthusiastic about, maybe, Geordie’s chants (7) |
| INTONES – INTO is enthusiastic about + NE’S which is a bit of a clumsy way of saying Geordie’s | |
| 10 | Type of film show cinema is fitting in initially? (3-2) |
| SCI-FI – initial letters of Show Cinema Is Fitting In | |
| 11 | Like fibre of male politician confronting Yankee (5) |
| HEMPY – HE + MP + Y | |
| 12 | Break down in lane, say, when travelling around (7) |
| ANALYSE – anagram (‘travelling around’) of LANE SAY | |
| 13 | Fantastic lionesses, silent (9) |
| NOISELESS – anagram (‘fantastic’) of LIONESSES | |
| 18 | Blake, maybe, is going to one in the morning (7) |
| WILLIAM – WILL (is going to) + AM with I inside. | |
| 20 | Stole letters from Walsh, cunningly (5) |
| SHAWL – anagram (‘cunningly’) of WALSH. Stole as in a garment. | |
| 21 | Formally correct old part of duet (5) |
| PRIMO – PRIM + O | |
| 22 | New tavern is full of European idiots (7) |
| NINNIES – N + INN + IS with E inserted | |
| 23 | Makeshift bookmark found in party clothes (6) |
| DOGEAR – DO + GEAR | |
| 24 | Sacred music and, I would add, charity (6) |
| PSALMS – PS (and I would add..) + ALMS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Intelligent leader of British Conservatives? (6) |
| BRIGHT – B + RIGHT | |
| 2 | Pithy saying upset an old Turkish person (7) |
| OTTOMAN – MOTTO backwards + AN | |
| 3 | Vibrant, somewhat amazing youngster (5) |
| ZINGY – hidden word: amaZING Youngster | |
| 5 | Trap poor Ann’s caught in before (7) |
| ENSNARE – anagram (‘poor’) of ANNS, inside ERE | |
| 6 | Trouble in yard upset charwoman (5) |
| DAILY – AIL inside YD backwards | |
| 7 | Writhe, with convulsions, becoming increasingly pale (6) |
| WHITER – anagram (‘with convulsions’) of WRITHE | |
| 9 | Respected leader imposing conditions on island (9) |
| STATESMAN – STATES (conditions) + MAN (IoM) | |
| 14 | Girl not all in Tbilisi do rate (7) |
| ISIDORA – hidden word: TbilISI DO RAte. I wasn’t aware of this spelling but it is a common variant, apparently. | |
| 15 | Range that is large for a dog (7) |
| SPANIEL – SPAN + IE + L | |
| 16 | Stolen, as bank card may be? (6) |
| SWIPED – cryptic definition | |
| 17 | Catches 150 snakes (6) |
| CLASPS – CL (150) + ASPS | |
| 19 | Prone to dishonesty? (5) |
| LYING – double definition | |
| 20 | Hymns, perhaps: no good in plea for help (5) |
| SONGS – NG inside SOS | |
12 minutes for this one, missing my target 10 for the fourth consecutive day. I didn’t find it hard but there were more than a couple of clues that required revisiting along the way and that made all the difference.
Kenny is making only his third appearance as QC setter but he is one of Richard Rogan’s squad of former Coleraine FC managers most of whom usually bring us a theme or Nina or some other box of tricks. We haven’t spotted one of these by Kenny so far although there was a feeling that something American was going on in his first contribution #1041 which appeared in March 2018.
One thing of note is that Kenny’s most recent puzzle before today was #1244 (December 2018) and this is #2244, exactly 1000 puzzles on!
Edited to say merely that there is a theme.
Straightforward, as far as I can remember. Curarist, you’ve got a typo at BRONZE: it’s BR + ONZE. 5:54.
Second day in a row that carelessness cost me a pink square – today’s blunder was whiteN, grrr.
Apart from that I found this a fairly straightforward solve, working my way from top to bottom to finish with PRIMO and ISIDORA.
Had a strange flashback to childhood when looking at 18a when the first Blake that sprung to mind was the old TV show Blake’s Seven
Lots to enjoy along the way with my favourite being DOGEAR.
Thanks to Curarist
If you ever find “Blake, maybe” clueing “ROJ”, let me know: it’s probably my kind of crossword 🙂
My childhood was longer ago – first thought was of Sexton
I was thinking of the pirate captain from John Carpenter’s The Fog.
24 minutes of enjoyment, all parsed along the way other than the BIFD ENSNARE parsing post-solve.
NHO or forgotten PREMO but the WP was clear.
FOI: BRONZE.
LOI: PSALMS.
I marked too many as my favourite to list but NINNIES is my COD.
In piano duets the parts are often labelled Primo (upper part) and Secondo (lower part)
I took a short while to get into a rhythm. I biffed some and paid the price at the end when I had to revisit my entry of intense instead of the correct INTONES. ISIDORA is such an unusual girl’s name that I am glad it was spelled out and I also learned that Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia. I’m awarding my COD to DOGEAR. It made me laugh as it is something I frequently use much to my daughter’s annoyance. I have yet to spot the theme! 8:38 for a good day
11:35 Mallorca time and I have ‘finally’ worked out the theme.
I really enjoyed that. Lots of interesting and clever clues (though HEMPY? Really?). I took a long time trying to parse PSALMS before writing it in, but couldn’t. I also had to spend a minute plus trawling for NHO PRIMO. Lots of COD candidates but I’m a sucker for neat anagram so lionesses to NOISELESS gets my vote.
All done in 09:26 for 1.6K and a Slightly Sluggish Day. I can’t see the theme – I assume it’s about someone called William Shaw but have no idea who that might be.
Many thanks Kenny and curarist.
Templar
I thought HEMPY a bit odd too, but it is in the answers for a reason.
No particular problems with Kenny today.
LOI was ANALYSE where I missed the anagram at first and wanted it to end GE (say =eg- reversed). Trying to overcomplicate things.
About 12 minutes.
David
Having been reminded by Jackkt’s comment that there might be a theme, I enjoyed a retrospective search of the grid for the thematic answers, of which I found 6 (or 7 if you count the homonym), but there may be more I didn’t spot. The crossword was good fun too. I liked the surface with its questionmark at 1D, and LYING, but COD to SWIPED. Thank-you Kenny and curarist. 5:19.
Just avoided the SCC with 19 minutes, but I did spot a theme – which is very topical. I found some of the answers were unusual in a QC, such as HEMPY, ZINGY and ISIDORA, and I had trouble getting used to Kenny’s style. Otherwise, no real problems. LOI INTONES. Thanks both.
Yet another DNF for me at 30 mins. Are these QC’s getting harder or am I losing the knack? Today I could not solve INTONES although, in my defence, clueing ‘nes’ as ‘maybe Geordie’s’ is probably the worst clue element I have seen in three years of doing the QC. It simple does not work which is a shame as there was a lot to like otherwise about this puzzle.
Prof
INTONES. As a Geordie myself, found this difficult to parse. NES????
Add the S at the end of Geordie’s to NE…but I know what you mean!
Please forgive my ignorance … what is a Geordie and why NE’S?
A Geordie is someone from NE England/river Tyne area, hence the Crosswordese NES for North Easterners. (proper Geordies may refine my definition)
Thanks, being in Canada has disadvantages.
Not unusually, I started very well but my hopes were dashed by the SW (oops! I stupidly wrote SE earlier) where I crawled. My LOI was PRIMO (which I should have known right away) and I hesitated over ISIDORA which was a new spelling for me. I managed to equal the rotter’s time and I do share his surprise at some of the answers.
Some good clues in there, though.
Thanks to both. John M.
4:32 this morning, with, unlike yesterday, no typos or ambiguous answers.
I enjoyed Kenny’s well pitched puzzle, with only an MER at LOI 8 ac “intones” which was a tad clunky.
Plenty of clues to enjoy including COD 20 ac “shawl”, 5d “ensnare” and 16 d “swiped”.
Still can’t see the theme – no doubt someone will put me out of misery in due course.
Thanks to Kenny and Curarist.
Now that you have mentioned the Nina I have spotted it (in retrospect I have to say). I got off to a very BRIGHT start but I just couldn’t ANALYSE INTONES or PRIMO (not being a pianist) so a disappointing DNF for me today. Having said that, I found it a pleasing puzzle with some very neat clues.
Glad others enjoyed this, but I was way off Kenny’s wavelength and DNF. SW corner did for me, with NHO Primo, and failure to get Dogear either – I’m slightly surprised that Dogear was not hyphenated, as I would write the more common dog-eared.
Even before then I struggled, having put in Wither instead of Whiter (thinking the definition was “becoming increasingly pale”, ie a verb), which made Sci Fi ungetable until I corrected my error, and failing to parse Intones completely – Geordie as NE seems a bit ho-hum to me. In fact with Hempy in the NW an odd word too, not to mention Isidora, we were well treated to the less frequented byways here, and as I was doing the puzzle I thought to myself “that can only mean there’s a NINA here, forcing some of these obscure answers”. I’m pleased to see that that at least I got right – but I still cannot see it and await elucidation!
Many thanks to Curarist for the blog – one point though, in 18A I parsed “one in the morning” as 1 a.m. not AM with I inside, which I think also works.
Cedric
Cedric, I believe the Nina concerns the Lionesses (England women’s football team) and its members.
Well they’re certainly Bright and Zingy, but didn’t they win Gold not Bronze?
Makes 13A an even better clue too.
Bronze is a player as is Bright etc. Not my area of expertise. Others will fill in the gaps.
I thought Kenny was a new setter, especially when the NW corner went in without much difficulty. However the clues lower down seemed a cut above average, and by the time I reached the SW corner I had come round to the view that Kenny was probably another of the editor’s pseudonyms. A good, enjoyable puzzle, and I join the crowd just ahead of the coach fighting over the red flag 😉 CoD looked like being Swiped for a long time, but Dogear came through on the line. Invariant
PS I can see a former tennis no 1 in the centre of the grid, but not much else by way of a nina.
Not on Kenny’s wavelength at all today. It took 29 minutes of (mostly) struggle to complete with everything parsed. NHO primo (not being a piano player) which didn’t help. After coming here and seeing the above comments about a theme I took a look and am pleased to say I spotted it – normally they pass me by completely.
FOI – 1ac BRONZE
LOI – 21ac PRIMO
COD – 13ac NOISELESS, closely followed by 2dn OTTOMAN and 16dn SWIPED
Thanks to Kenny and to Curarist
12 mins with typo.
COD ensnare.
Nine today. I thought of Meadow but was unsure so didn’t write it in. Need to be more confident! Pleased to have realised that island means “man” at 9d but didn’t get the rest of the clue. Also pleased to realise that 150 at 17d meant Roman numerals, but didn’t get that one either. Progress is painfully slow!
Good work Ian. I struggled early on until the SE helped out then slowly worked my way round. Biffed MEADOW and then broke it down. Took me 49-mins in total to DNF with PRIgO, so not as easy as some above would lead you to believe in my opinion.
How did the seminar go?
PS When I’m not sure of an answer I pencil in checkers to see if that triggers something elsewhere.
Seminar is on the 29th October.
Hope it goes well Ian. For 4ac, I’ve found that ‘trouble’ usually means ‘ail’ or ‘ado’. I think you are making progress. Spotting the Roman numeral indicator is a sure sign that you are getting the hang of the wordplay.
Gary
Nice progress, Ian!
Seven minutes, rather longer than usual, but I cannot see the Nina. When will somebody let us know what we should be looking for?
See my reply to Cedric above.
BRONZE, BRIGHT, MEAD, HEMP, WHITE, WILLIAMSON, EARPS, DA(I)LY and WALSH and TO ONE (!) in the clues
Enjoyed this puzzle which I solved in short bursts of time as was very busy today. Quite tricky in parts, though I was vaguely on the wavelength for some reason.
FOI BRONZE, LOI ANALYSE.
I gather from above comments these are Lionesses hence HEMPY? The Nina passed me by, as usual.
Thanks all, esp Curarist.
25 mins…but at least a solve!
I thought Kenny was new as well, but it seems from above it is another rare appearance.
8ac “Intones” took a while – not that I didn’t know the NE for Geordie, but I couldn’t see how it parsed until I had the apostrophe “s” pdm. The other hold up was 6dn “Daily” which didn’t immediately come to mind. Chuckled at 1dn which felt somewhat apt today.
FOI – 1ac “Bronze”
LOI – 6dn “Daily”
COD – 22ac “Ninnies” – great word
Thanks as usual!
A mixture of the straightforward and a couple of hard ones: DAILY – could not parse; PRIMO – not aware of this, but guessed it; ANALYSE – didn’t see the anagram until I got the Y in DAILY. Nice touch regarding the Lionesses!
17:32. My biggest hold-up was trusting in ragtag instead of DOGEAR for far too long.Ragtag=makeshift, tag= bookmark, rag(s)= party clothes seemed so likely I didn’t rethink until finally DOGEAR had to be. PRIMO was NHO but clearly constructed. I also had intense first instead of INTONES.Missed seeing motto and yd backwards in parsing so thanks to blogger for those(and more)!
A little over target, maybe thrown by the “new setter”.
Having said that actually, I just reopened the crossword to check what I liked, and it was actually a DNF – I put WHITEN – and N is too far from R on the keyboard to claim that it was a slip that I wouldn’t have made on paper – just a careless error.
No idea re the NINA, the whole event passed me by.
DNF
Needed help to get 8a intones, and did not solve 21. Primo. Otherwise we finished around our target of 30m.
One or two tricky ones today and some answers I felt a bit odd – but as it’s a NINA I can see why.
FOI 1a Bronze
LOI 21a Primo
COD 20a Shawl – took some time to get out of the mis-direction.
Struggled to parse 4a as Meow rather than Mew so thx due to Curarist
Having never heard of this British usage of “Geordie” all I could think of was Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge! 😀
HEMPY!? NE’S?! FFS I say!
No wonder I struggle. I take SO long I’m always last to comment. But never giving up!
Keep going Sandy. I had a tough week but did better than expected today, so there’s always room for optimism
I did the crossword this morning. Just finished. Always late! I knew what primo was asking for but didn’t know the word, sadly. Really liked William, dogear and swiped.
I have heard of the Lionesses but not following the football I have no idea of their names or of those of the men’s team either. Are they Lions? Or are they the ninnies 😆?!!
I’ve been running a day behind since Tuesday, and I would rather not have attempted this one. I found the clues fell into three categories: ridiculously easy, almost impossible or just strange/unsatisfactory.
Most of the left-hand side of the grid gave me real trouble. I struggled with BRIGHT, INTONES, SWIPED, WILLIAM, PRIMO, LYING, ISIDORA and DOGEAR (Is it even a real word?). As for HEMPY … I rejected it during my alphabet trawl as something invented by the I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue team for their Uxbridge English Dictionary. I put HuMeY, with HuMe for ‘male’politician’, as I often have to trust words I’ve NHO.
Result: DNF (1 error) in 51 minutes.
Mrs Random also found it very hard, but finished all correct in 33 minutes.
Many thanks to Kenny and Curarist (“A light-to-medium offering”, my foot!).
Blimey, I managed to beat Mrs Random for once.
I had a steady solve and was done in just under 30 mins. I recalled Geordie being an indicator for NE from a previous QC.
Despite watching most of the Euros, I didn’t see the nina.
Some tricky clues, but I avoided my usual delays with the last few.
COD and also LOI – 23ac. My standard form of bookmark these days!