Not the most elegant puzzle, but I found this pretty straightforward if clunky at times. Loads of fairly clearly indicated anagrams, some of the them quite clever, such as 8dn. Solving time: 6 minutes.
| Across | |
| 1 | Excitedly say “wow” at finding hidden traveller (8) |
| STOWAWAY – anagram (‘excitedly’) of SAY WOW AT | |
| 5 | Enthusiastic singer recalled (4) |
| AVID – DIVA backwards | |
| 9 | Mock food rations (5) |
| SCOFF – double definition | |
| 10 | Girl men recollected as source of bad luck (7) |
| GREMLIN – anagram (‘recollected’) of GIRL MEN | |
| 11 | Bevvies taken regularly the night before (3) |
| EVE – alternate letters of bEvViEs | |
| 12 | Frank, missing outsiders, dates person sitting exam? (9) |
| CANDIDATE – CANDID (Frank) + ATE (DATES minus the ‘outsiders’) | |
| 13 | Helpful hint about container for vegetable (6) |
| TURNIP – TIP outside URN | |
| 15 | Animal sound in south, pleasing to the ear (6) |
| SMOOTH – MOO inside STH. Less common than S but a valid abbreviation for south. | |
| 17 | Money mart turned out to be short-lived (9) |
| MOMENTARY – anagram (‘turned out’) of MONEY MART | |
| 19 | Cunning political group removing extremists? (3) |
| ART – PARTY minus the extreme letters | |
| 20 | Racecourse employee, one looking fixedly (about time) (7) |
| STARTER – STARER outside T for time | |
| 21 | A temptation, by the sound of it, to diminish (5) |
| ABATE – sounds like A BAIT | |
| 22 | Cook, most important, I dropped off (4) |
| CHEF – CHIEF minus I | |
| 23 | Meant to be home at ten, delayed, late, behindhand in the end (8) |
| INTENDED – IN + TEN + last letters of delayeD latE behindhanD | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Surmise religious group will accept us provisionally at first (7) |
| SUSPECT – SECT with US + P inserted | |
| 2 | Love area’s clean, bracing air (5) |
| OZONE – O + ZONE. I love this idea that ozone is clean and healthy. If you can smell it, you are either being poisoned by industrial pollution, or being sucked out of an aircraft at 40,000ft. | |
| 3 | Loving fat fee with action settled? (12) |
| AFFECTIONATE – anagram (‘settled’) of FAT FEE ACTION | |
| 4 | Gas somewhat dear, go nuclear (5) |
| ARGON – hidden word: deAR GO Nuclear | |
| 6 | Volume company supports, including article that’s hot stuff in it? (7) |
| VOLCANO – VOL + CO with AN inserted | |
| 7 | Social occasion’s proud ancestry to some extent (5) |
| DANCE – hidden word: prouD ANCEstry | |
| 8 | Happy-go-lucky, calm, ready — I’ve changed! (5-3-4) |
| DEVIL-MAY-CARE – anagram (‘changed’) of CALM READY IVE | |
| 14 | Right morning leaf storm (7) |
| RAMPAGE – R + AM + PAGE | |
| 16 | Oath he’d let loose — excitable guy (7) |
| HOTHEAD – anagram (‘let loose’) of OATH HED | |
| 17 | Pleasing sound from Greek characters in charge (5) |
| MUSIC – MUs (greek characters) + IC | |
| 18 | Protective clothing in airport area (5) |
| APRON – double definition, the latter being the bit you park the planes on. | |
| 19 | A charge for medal, say (5) |
| AWARD – A + WARD (as in ward of court) | |
I started quickly (spotted Stowaway in seconds) and many fell without too much trouble – then got stuck on the Ozone Scoff couple for some time.
14 minutes all done and correct for a very pleasing day.
Thanks all
John
While ozone is toxic (briefly – it quickly degrades) it’s association with clean and bracing is legit. It is used to sterilise operating theatres, and is a pleasant-smelling alternative to chlorine in swimming pools.
Philip
Solved over two sittings – the first being a nowadays rare visit to a Costa Drive-Thru where the seating was very busy – maybe WFH/TWaTs (see recent Times2 article) types? So noisy I’d rather be in an office! I suppose that’s one benefit of hearing aids – mine can be ‘muted’. So finished off at home. Thought this would be harder than it turned out. No problems with Scoff as I already had the second F. A bit slow to resolve some of the anagrams but the middle word in 8d seemed possible and soon the PDM came.
FOI 10a Gremlin
LOI 21a Abate – actually a DNF as I opted for ABASE
COD 12a Candidate
I want to cry. I have never achieved an unbroken run of 20 successfully solved QCs, but I was on 18 this morning and (naturally) very hopeful of achieving a new milestone on Monday. Alas, after agonising for 20 minutes over my last two (2d and 9a) I put OZONE and SpOoF. Despite alphabet trawling extremely carefully, SCOFF simply never arrived in my brain, even though I sometimes use the word myself. So, instead of being a celebration, Monday can only see me off the mark once again.
Mrs Random arrived back from her German conversation group just as I was reaching my last two, nonchalantly solved all 26 clues and went off to do something else – all before I had made any further progress. That’s how it goes in this house.
Many thanks to Hurley (except for 9a) and Curarist.
Bad luck, but we are in good company with Spoof !
Take consolation from the fact that your posts are something many of us look forward to reading each day!
A frustrating day for you but bear in mind the progress that had been made.
Actually, with Mrs R around and about I had to man-up quickly. I achieved this by going into the kitchen and having some SCOFF – a boiled egg and Marmite soldiers. Just the job!
I bet the egg was as fresh as could be! What bad luck, but look on it as 18/18. MrB is trying to come up with some soothing (if not SMOOTH) MUSIC for you – he suggests Apollo by Brian Eno. I don’t know it so can’t comment 😅
18 minutes all parsed. By no means a straightforward solve as I had to jump all over the grid knocking off the easier answers until I built up enough crossers for some of the anagrams. I too thought that some of the clues were a bit clunky (esp 23ac where I had no idea what was required on first reading) but everything was fairly clued and there were no obscurities. I’m not qualified to enter the OZONE debate but remember as a child being told that the sea was good for me because of its ozone content.
FOI – 1ac STOWAWAY
LOI – 19dn AWARD
COD – 1ac STOWAWAY for the surface
Thanks to Hurley and Curarist
I never got out of second gear, and needed a third pass to mop up the last clue.
FOI GREMLIN
LOI VOLCANO
COD AWARD
TIME 4:48
I started quickly – 7 or 8 in the first minute or so – but then was interrupted, and somehow that knocked me off the wavelength. I had TEMPORARY instead of MOMENTARY until I checked the clue more carefully, and DEVIL-MAY-CARE took me a long time to see. Finished in 15:05, just outside my target time.
Thanks to Hurley & Curarist.
When I was a child we were told that Ozone is prevalent on seashores, hence presumably the clue “clean and bracing”. We were encouraged to breath in deeply on windy British beaches. Apparently this is completely wrong and attributable to misinterpreting smells given off on beaches. Even if it were true, O3 combines with haemoglobin in preference to O2 and can’t be processed so this was not the cleverest idea!
Just add that to the list of other things we were told were fine and safe to do as kids, only to find out later it was a load of old rubbish 😃
9.45, my first sub-ten for a couple of weeks. I nearly solve most grids in under ten minutes, but I often get stuck on a couple of clues at the end which drags out the time, occasionally by hours. But not today. An enjoyable puzzle.
I too felt this was a bit clunky – there were a few odd surfaces, I felt, but I did also put a few ticks alongside clues, including MOMENTARY and AFFECTION, so rather a curate’s egg of a puzzle for me.
Not much else to say! 10:30. FOI Avid LOI Abate COD Devil-may-care
Thanks Hurley and Curarist
Bit of a mer about party as there is no indication about cunning.
Apart from a comment about our current MPs not sure about this
DNF
Biffed SPOOF for mock and pressed the button too quickly. Otherwise pretty straightforward today and well under target time with LOI ABATE.
Ditto! Ignored the little voice telling me SPOOF wasn’t right but pushed the button after ABATE.
Just escaped the SCC at 19:12. Nothing too tricky I thought. LOI by a very long way was CANDIDATE, although I’m not so sure why. AVID also too a while as I was looking for a bird backwards… Enjoyable and doable. Many thanks all.
I thought this was just right for a QC, perhaps because this resident of the SCC finished happily. And SCOFF is part of my vocabulary, probably indicates my age!
6’48” very late in the day! Pretty straightforward once RAN became CANDID.