A very elegant puzzle that took me just over my target of 6 minutes. One of the best collection of surfaces I have seen for a while. My favourite is the flawless 18dn. In addition, there’s definitely some sort of theme going on. Lots of solutions have repeated Bs and all but four have a repeated letter of some sort. Not sure what that all means, so over to you…
| Across | |
| 1 | Permitted drops of water to escape, but not the ball? (8) |
| DRIBBLED – double definition of sorts | |
| 5 | Fashionable greeting among Conservatives (4) |
| CHIC – HI with a C for Conservative on either side | |
| 8 | Plane maybe carrying a pair of bishops, bearing more weight? (8) |
| FLABBIER – FLIER with A B B inside | |
| 9 | Muse about painting being returned (4) |
| CLIO – C (about) + OIL (painting) backwards | |
| 11 | A sister’s on for making new statements (10) |
| ASSERTIONS – anagram (‘for making new’) of A SISTERS ON | |
| 14 | Top monks like to carry books and Old Testament (6) |
| ABBOTS – AS (like) with BB (books) and OT inside | |
| 15 | Film maker arrived with artist (6) |
| CAMERA – CAME + RA (Royal Academician) | |
| 17 | Big city fails: if let off, they’ll be fuming! (5,5) |
| SMOKE BOMBS – SMOKE (big city) + BOMBS (fails) | |
| 20 | Bait boss regularly, producing childish articles (4) |
| BIBS – alternate letters of BaIt BoSs | |
| 21 | A search to the east of pet cemetery (8) |
| CATACOMB – A COMB (search) to the ‘east’ of CAT | |
| 22 | Finally see Hammond bowled by spinner (4) |
| EDDY – last letters of seE hammonD bowleD bY | |
| 23 | Used soy sauce primarily for cooking Greek on epic journey (8) |
| ODYSSEUS – anagram (‘for cooking’) of USED SOY + S for sauce | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Silly daughter at the back (4) |
| DAFT – D + AFT | |
| 2 | One minute before noon, prayer leader appears (4) |
| IMAM – I + M + AM | |
| 3 | One minds young graduate being next to model (4-6) |
| BABY-SITTER – BA + BY + SITTER | |
| 4 | The Spanish yet to produce a cricket team? (6) |
| ELEVEN – EL + EVEN | |
| 6 | Sacred greeting by day (8) |
| HALLOWED – HALLO + WED | |
| 7 | Part of goal to get from one end of pub to the other? (8) |
| CROSSBAR – double definition | |
| 10 | Vessels: most at base, after refit (10) |
| STEAMBOATS – anagram (‘after refit’) of MOST AT BASE | |
| 12 | Father’s dark brown — or fair? (8) |
| PASSABLE – PA’S + SABLE. I thought sable was black, but what do I know? | |
| 13 | A little brother’s sitting up in bed, rapt (8) |
| ABSORBED – BRO’S (a little brother’s) backwards inside A BED | |
| 16 | One’s yellow jersey, perhaps, found on a road (6) |
| COWARD – COW (e.g. Jersey) + A RD | |
| 18 | One hundred and one becoming ninety-nine? (4) |
| CONE – C (100) + ONE. This is genius. Non-UK solvers may not be familiar with the ubiquitous British ice-cream van product called a Ninety Nine, which is a soft-serve ice cream cone with a chocolate flake stuffed in it. | |
| 19 | Goes out on the beach? (4) |
| EBBS – cryptic definition | |
4:36 this morning. I realise I’ve not posted anything for ages but felt today that I had to record my appreciation of a particularly well designed QC from Felix, a really satisfying solve.
COD (among many) 18 d “cone”, although I’m aware non-Brits might have found it a little mystifying if not irritating.
Incidentally, I’m still reading and enjoying the blogs and comments every day but will give myself a hundred lines “I must contribute more again”!
Thanks to Felix and Curarist and Jack.
Nice to see you again!
I absolutely loved this QC today. 18 mins of steady solving and pausing to admire the clever surfaces and references. That said I did not notice the BBC reference so thanks for pointing that out. Lots to like but COD was always going to be CONE.
Prof
10:33
Seeing Felix’s name once again, I suspected a nina but didn’t spot it (well done Jack) though I considered a football theme as others did.
Liked CONE and DRIBBLED.
Thanks setter and Curarist for deciphering.
A tricky and elegant puzzle. I liked CONE, CHIC and COWARD as clues.
I had a careless DRIBBLES at 1ac- I didn’t check the clue tense- so I’ve joined the OWL club today!
Thanks for the blog, and thank you Felix
An enjoyable solve with some lovely surfaces. FOI DAFT and LOI SMOKE BOMBS. I liked the cluing for IMAM, STEAMBOATS, ABSORBED and CONE but my COD goes to COWARD. On target in 8:23
13.57 This was very enjoyable. Thanks to Felix and Curarist.
7.49 with no issues. CLIO was my LOI. I keep intending to learn the Muses but never seem to get round to doing so.
18dn was my favourite clue.
No fun at all for me today. Perhaps I’m just being grumpy, but I thought 1ac was a slightly ‘iffy’ clue.
No complaints about the rest, but I’m just not with it at the moment. Took somewhere in the region of an hour and never on the wavelength. Avoided a DNF but that’s about it.
Thanks for the blog Curarist and best wishes to everyone for the weekend.
Slower than the last two days, but finished in a reasonable time for us. Solved 18d from the word play, but missed and had forgotten the 99 reference. Enjoyable puzzle.
18:03. Saw a lot of B’s early on and was curious. I think looking for more B’s helped me with FLABBIER , ABSORBED, and DRIBBLED. Not sure how the “not the ball” in latter clue quite works sense- or grammar-wise. As I responded to Paul above I had CONE as “0ne under one hundred= 99.
Am I the only one to carelessly put in Dribbler for 1a? Oh well nearly.
No time to report as it was very interrupted but it was on the very difficult side to me…Clio LOI not known and Odysseus was only just fathomable.
Enjoyed it though
Thanks all
John
35:59
Perhaps my slowest ever solve. I usually give up on the QC at 30 minutes. But the answers kept coming, just very slowly! FLABBIER troubled me but it was the bottom right where the real problems arose: CATACOMB, CONE, EBBS (was sure it was TIDE) and LOI COWARD.
Struggled manfully, but needed help to finish SE corner. COWARD, CONE hard to get and (perhaps unforgivably), didn’t know CLIO. Not my best day
, but appreciated an elegant puzzle.
Elegant is right. Some perfect surfaces.
Finished this morning after giving up late last night with DRIBBLED, BABY SITTER and ASSERTIONS still unsolved. Eventually over the line in around 30 in total. LOI by a good 6 mins was DRIBBLED – couldn’t get past ‘permitted’ as definition… Anyway, got there in the end and enjoyed getting the grey cells working this morning. Agree with others about CONE, definitely my COD. I never spot a theme so as clueless as usual re BBC. Thanks Felix and curarist.