I found this tricky in places and was held up a few times before eventually finishing in a bit over 11 minutes. Some anagrams helped as did the double def at 9a. Favourite was ZEPPELIN – easy to bung in from the def but harder to parse.
I know it’s probably been done to death, but whenever I see the 15d answer, I always think of the “Two girls, one on each knee (7)” clue by Roger Squires (his two millionth) and the title of the crossword book by Alan Connor.
Thanks to Hawthorn
Definitions underlined in bold. Deletions shown as strikethrough
| Across | |
| 1 | Harvest queen captured by Constable (4) |
| CROP – R (‘queen’) contained in (‘captured by’) COP (‘Constable’) | |
| 3 | Unknown mix of people deprived of oxygen in airship (8) |
| ZEPPELIN – Z (‘Unknown’ in a mathematical sense) anagram (‘mix’) of PE |
|
| 9 | Gift’s here (7) |
| PRESENT – Double definition
A gift indeed |
|
| 10 | Release toy that’s time consuming (3,2) |
| LET GO – LEGO (‘toy’) containing (‘consuming’) T (‘time’) | |
| 11 | Irish county’s lake borne in mind (5) |
| CLARE – L (‘lake’) contained in (‘borne in’) CARE (‘mind’)
We’ve had the county town Ennis in a couple of crosswords lately |
|
| 12 | Become exhausted and leave quickly (3,3) |
| RUN OUT – Double definition | |
| 14 | Decline leadership to shock constituency (4,1,4,4) |
| TAKE A BACK SEAT – TAKE ABACK (‘shock’) SEAT (‘constituency’)
I initially thought a constituency was just the body of voters in a parliamentary seat or electorate but the district or seat itself of course is another sense. |
|
| 17 | Broadcast famous cook showing how eggs may be prepared (6) |
| BEATEN – Homophone (‘Broadcast’) of BEETON (‘famous cook’)
Mrs. Isabella Beeton, author of “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management” or “Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book”. She has been discussed here before and I believe was not responsible for creating most of the recipes published in her magnum opus. I didn’t know that she had died aged only 28. |
|
| 19 | Electrical engineer’s shocking tales (5) |
| TESLA – Anagram (‘shocking’) of TALES
The surface could be read as referring to the Tesla coil Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), famous Serbian-American inventor and ‘Electrical engineer’ who amongst many other innovations, helped to develop alternating current (AC) for the supply of electricity |
|
| 22 | Doctor abridged column for her stand-in? (5) |
| LOCUM – Anagram (‘Doctor’) of COLUM |
|
| 23 | Charm of some French antiques (7) |
| ENCHANT – Hidden (‘some’) in ‘FrENCH ANTiques’ | |
| 24 | Individual imitates backsliding judge (8) |
| SEPARATE – SEPA (‘Imitates backsliding’=reversal of APES) RATE (‘judge’)
Individual as an adjective, not as a noun as I’d first thought |
|
| 25 | The reason to drink last of horrible watery residue (4) |
| WHEY – WHY (‘The reason’) containing (‘to drink’) E (‘last of horrible’=final letter of ‘horriblE’)
Sounds like it too |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Volume of reduced car parking by a large town (8) |
| CAPACITY – CA |
|
| 2 | Norma, perhaps, gets a rope tangled (5) |
| OPERA – Anagram (‘tangled’) of A ROPE
The setters’ favourite opera and an easy one for us to remember. Anyway, gives me an excuse to include a music link: “Variations on ‘Casta Diva’ from Bellini’s Norma” by Arban, played by Alison Balsom, trumpet |
|
| 4 | Broken internet meant making up leisure activities (13) |
| ENTERTAINMENT – Anagram (‘Broken’) of INTERNET MEANT
Apt surface. |
|
| 5 | Tower of nameless synthetic material put under pressure (5) |
| PYLON – |
|
| 6 | Permit union organisation before everyone finally leaves (7) |
| LETTUCE – LET (‘Permit’) TUC (‘union organisation’) E (‘everyone finally’=last letter of ‘everyonE’)
A bit of a chestnut but sucks me in every time. Could have been cos, rocket, salad, tea or cha(r) on another day. |
|
| 7 | Back-to-back refusals for a time (4) |
| NOON – NO and NO (‘Back-to-back refusals’), with the second NO reversed to place the two O’s (the ‘back’ or second letter of NO) next to each other (‘Back-to-back’)
I see what’s going on, but it’s hard to explain and I’m not sure I have this right, particularly ‘back’ as a last letter v reversal indicator. |
|
| 8 | Avenge bombing in Swiss location (6) |
| GENEVA – Anagram (‘bombing’) of AVENGE | |
| 13 | Secretive and quiet, grabbing duck and coot’s tail (8) |
| STEALTHY – SHY (‘quiet’) containing (‘grabbing’) TEAL (‘duck’) and T (‘coot’s tail’ = last letter of ‘cooT’) | |
| 15 | Bone Ken fractured with backward step (7) |
| KNEECAP – Anagram (‘fractured’) of KEN followed by ECAP (‘backward step’=reversal of PACE) | |
| 16 | Tacky set of clothes for sport before school (6) |
| KITSCH – KIT (‘set of clothes for sport’) SCH (‘school’) | |
| 18 | Device for measuring minutes in a row (5) |
| TIMER – M (‘minutes’) contained in (‘in’) TIER (‘row’) | |
| 20 | Laceration made by small whip (5) |
| SLASH – S (‘small’) LASH (‘whip’) | |
| 21 | Papa left us a sign (4) |
| PLUS – P (‘Papa’ in the NATO alphabet) L (‘left’) US (‘us’) | |
8.04
Thought this was quite quirky for some reason. Some nice surfaces and thought LET GO was rather good. Liked it.
Thanks all
Nice mix of gentle and some more challenging clues today. Particularly liked TAKE A BACK SEAT and KNEECAP. LOI WHEY, after much head-scratching over STEALTHY. All parsed along the way apart from LOCUM (thanks to BR for explaining). Pleased to remember TESLA and Mrs Beeton. Thanks Hawthorn. Pitched just right for a QC.
15.17 plus a few seconds. Having struggled with STEALTHY I hit submit without realising I still hadn’t done CROP. Back to my usual form so it wasn’t the magnesium.
Beaten was LOI. I have heard of Mrs Beeton but I didn’t have her in the cook camp, plus I see she died more than 100 years before I was born and after scrambled, poached and boiled I had to work hard for how eggs are prepared. Ended up all green in 13. Another good puzzle!
I have heard that eggs are sometimes also fried.
. . .the really lucky ones make it all the way to Oeufs en Meurette 😋
Jet lag had me reaching to a 3am local time, sub 15 minute finish, before lapsing back to sleep with just WHEY and STEALTHY left to finish, desperately trying to cram a ‘O’ where none would fit. Took 10 minutes to get while pondering over a coffee, so, still back to my usual corner seat in the club which is looking rather convivial today with welcome occasional joiners. Blue sky and sunshine in abundance.
Thanks Bletch and Hawthorn. Suitably prickly.
No idea of time because of interruptions.
But some nice clues (zep, enchanted, geneva, and kneecap) but COD to let go.
An enjoyable offering from Hawthorn, and nothing to add to the observations of other satisfied customers.
FOI CROP
LOI STEALTHY
COD ENTERTAINMENT
TIME 4:11
12:21 – a similar experience to yesterday, when I zipped along quite quickly to start with and then slowed right down for my last few! It didn’t help that I put TAKE A BACK STEP in at 14a, which made LETTUCE and STEALTHY quite difficult 😅 I like Hawthorn’s puzzles – they always make me smile. Ticks went next to BEATEN, ENTERTAINMENT and WHEY, although that one also made me feel just a little bit icky.
I too always think of the clue / book whenever I see KNEECAP or patella. I did a search for the book at my local library and they had no record of it! However, it is available in my local Waterstone’s – maybe I’ll just have to splash out.
FOI Zeppelin LOI Lettuce COD Take a back seat
Many thanks Hawthorn and BR
Lovely and clever puzzle to dawdle over whilst enjoying an Italian sandwich lunch in Market Harborough. FOI 9a present. LOI 3a zeppelin. COD 1a crop.
That’s the best way to complete a crossword. Your lunch sounds interesting, where was it?
Upon my soul, a spaghetti butty !
Similar time as yesterday loi 1a crop. No real holdups and within our 30m target.
9 minutes – didn’t immediately see the parsing of LOCUM but no problems. ZEPPELIN was fine but I didn’t get teal as a duck for a little while in STEALTHY. Thanks for the blog.
A late start to the week for me as didn’t feel mentally up to doing yesterday’s QC at the time, so started at 6pm on Tuesday on a pleasantly full stomach.
Flew through Myles QC from yesterday in 15.16 – thought I was going to have a PB and first sub-10 but was stopped by my last three.
Then onto this Hawthorn. Again I flew into it. Helped by remembering CAPACITY (big confab when it came up last year as Orpheus had defined it as “dimensions”), getting PRESENT and GENEVA. Luckily had seen PYLON in a crossword I did in the last day or so. Biffed TAKE-A-BACK-SEAT and STEALTHY as couldn’t parse them, had to get the pen&paper out for ENTERTAINMENT and LOI was BEATEN – bloody food&drink 🙄
Finished in 14.59 … that’s four consecutive SCC escapes to start June 😮😮😮
As you have been instructed on several occasions, get rid of those plates as they’re no longer needed 🤣🤣
Best of luck for five escapes on the bounce tomorrow 🤞🤞
Slow going for me, eventually coming in at 25:35. Wasn’t helped by reading ‘inmates’ instead of imitates. Thought I’d come across a somewhat derogatory new term for prisoners, but actually just more evidence that the time for going to Specsavers might be drawing near. Not yet though, I can hold out a while longer. Thanks Hawthorn and BR.
An excellent QC with some great surfaces and word play.
I should be happy with 18 mins, and yet I feel dissatisfied with my performance. Having got KITSCH, stupidly put in TASER for 19ac without reading the clue properly. This led to significant issues with STEALTHY before the penny dropped (also not helped by thinking duck meant O).
It was an SCC escape but too much biffing and not enough parsing.
43 mins is ok for Monday/Tuesday, but harder challenges are surely to come.
Excellent blog BR and hat tip to SRC and Mozbadel for some brilliant repartee! Congrats also to L-Plates for a stunning start to June and to James for a brilliant return to form. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Well done GA – not too far behind me with your times this week 👍 The sub-2 possibility exists – I actually have a rolling 5-day 1hr36 total!
There’s almost certainly something harder down the road this week but hey, let’s just enjoy today’s escapes 🥳
Wise words! That’s a fantastic rolling time.
Nice to get out of the SCC. I’m having a celebratory 🍷tonight.
Enjoyed this one. Finished after dinner due to busy day. Managed to spend only about £35 on plants at Wisley – beautiful as ever.
I actually own a copy of Mrs Beeton’s oeuvre. Full of ENTERTAINMENT.
FOI CROP, LOI STEALTHY, unparsed.
Liked ZEPPELIN, WHEY, TESLA, CAPACITY, LETTUCE.
Thanks for much needed blog, BR.
Congrats to all for above group wit!