I particularly enjoyed this offering from Orpheus – one of my favourite QC’s for some time. Several challenging ones to start to get the mind ticking over, mixed with a few gentler clues to help provide crossers for those holding out till the end.
All done and dusted in a bit over 8 1/2 minutes.
Thanks to Orpheus
Definitions underlined in bold
| Across | |
| 1 | Shaky cover provided around City area (8) |
| INSECURE – INSURE (‘cover’) containing (‘around’) EC (‘City area’=postcode area for the City of London) | |
| 5 | Do the bidding of old Turkish governor (4) |
| OBEY – O (‘old’) BEY (‘Turkish governor’) | |
| 8 | Disney film buff beginning to tour vast continent (4) |
| FANTASIA – FAN (‘buff’) T (‘beginning to tour’=first letter of ‘Tour’) ASIA (‘vast continent’) | |
| 9 | Pass one’s required to visit Virginia (4) |
| VISA – IS (‘one’s’) contained in (‘to visit’) VA (‘Virginia’) | |
| 11 | Gemstone of silver polished off (5) |
| AGATE – AG (chemical symbol for ‘silver’) ATE (‘polished off’) | |
| 12 | Stylish English worker welcoming support (7) |
| ELEGANT – E (‘English’) ANT (‘worker’) containing (‘welcoming’) LEG (‘support’) | |
| 13 | Trick scatty parent (6) |
| ENTRAP – Anagram (‘scatty’) of PARENT | |
| 15 | Wedding bouquet’s first delivered by little Albert (6) |
| BRIDAL – B (‘bouquet’s first’=first letter of ‘Bouquet’) RID (‘delivered’) AL (‘little Albert’=abbreviation for ‘ALbert’)
As in ‘Wedding’ gown = BRIDAL gown |
|
| 18 | Extremely tractable girl’s period as leaseholder (7) |
| TENANCY – TE (‘Extremely tractable’=first and last letters of ‘TractablE‘) NANCY (‘girl’)
Nancy is today’s first random female name |
|
| 19 | Bloke eating very soft fish (5) |
| GUPPY – GUY (‘Bloke’) containing (‘eating’) PP (‘very soft’ (pianissimo) in musical notation) | |
| 21 | Arrest felon at last, and be sick (4) |
| NAIL – N (‘Felon at last’=last letter of ‘feloN‘) AIL (‘be sick’) | |
| 22 | Supporter of lupins initially in bloom (8) |
| FOLLOWER – OL (‘of lupins initially’=first letters of ‘Of Lupins’) contained in (‘in’) FLOWER (‘bloom’) | |
| 23 | Only lightly cooked? That’s not common (4) |
| RARE – Double definition | |
| 24 | New Etude in D not prepared for publication (8) |
| UNEDITED – Anagram (‘New’) of ETUDE IN D | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Aggravate trendy sweetheart (7) |
| INFLAME – IN (‘trendy’) FLAME (‘sweetheart’)
Flame for ‘sweetheart’ as in “old flame” |
|
| 2 | Small insect, a visitor in December (5) |
| SANTA – S (‘Small’) ANT (‘insect’) A (‘a’) | |
| 3 | Talk with woman custodian of castle (10) |
| CHATELAINE – CHAT (‘Talk (with)’) ELAINE (‘woman’)
Not a common word and this was my last in, needing all the crossing letters. Elaine is today’s second random woman’s name – a bit easier than some we’ve had in the past anyway. |
|
| 4 | Brought up — or torn down, do we hear? (6) |
| RAISED – Homophone (‘do we hear?’) of RAZED (‘torn down’) | |
| 6 | Pirate’s gear adopted by gang (7) |
| BRIGAND – RIG (‘gear’) contained in (‘adopted by’) BAND (‘gang’) | |
| 7 | The old way to secure a baker’s requisite (5) |
| YEAST – YE (‘The old’) ST (‘way’=abbreviation for “street”) containing (‘to secure’) A (‘a’)
Is YE really an old form of the word ‘the’? I know this has been discussed here before. Here’s a succinct explanation from the American Heritage Dictionary. Maybe we can mount a campaign to revive the thorn. |
|
| 10 | Unkempt educationalist teased about leggings, principally (10) |
| BEDRAGGLED – BED (‘educationalist’=abbreviation for Bachelor of Education) RAGGED (‘teased’) containing (‘about’) L (‘leggings, principally’=first letter of ‘Leggings’)
Amusing surface. Come to think of it, many of my old teachers could be described as ‘Unkempt educationalist(s)’, but of course we never teased them about their appearance. |
|
| 14 | More pungent-smelling Moroccan port(7) |
| TANGIER – Double definition | |
| 16 | Put before duke, arranged in tiers (7) |
| LAYERED – LAY (‘Put’) ERE (‘before’) D (‘duke’) | |
| 17 | Magnate’s time over there securing company (6) |
| TYCOON – T (‘time) YON (‘over there’) containing (‘securing’) CO (‘company’)
Orpheus waxing lyrical in the last two clues with ERE and YON |
|
| 18 | Singer delivering note on radio (5) |
| TENOR – Homophone (‘on radio’) of TENNER (‘note’)
‘Delivered’ contributed RID to the answer for BRIDAL above, but here I think ‘delivering’ is present for the surface, with ‘on radio’ as the homophone indicator. |
|
| 20 | Women’s organisation feeding favourite shore bird (5) |
| PEWIT – WI (‘Women’s organisation’=abbreviation for Women’s Institute) contained in (‘feeding’) PET (‘favourite’)
AKA the northern lapwing; a very handsome looking bird, with a striking crest, he/she is too. Wikipedia reports that it is sadly now listed as “Near threatened”. |
|
After yesterdays brain freeze, was pleased to be back in the groove today crossing the line in 6.49. LOI was 1dn INFLAME which became obvious once I had sorted out the parsing of FANTASIA.
DNF due to ever having heard of CHATELAINE.
16 minutes, same as yesterday. Also the same as yesterday in that I started off quite fast but slowed down appreciably towards the end. Never parsed BEDRAGGLED but it was obvious from the crossers. Nice puzzle.
FOI – 5ac OBEY
LOI – 10dn BEDRAGGLED
COD – 2dn SANTA
Thanks to Orpheus and BR
14 mins…
I also enjoyed this, and thought there were some very good surfaces and subtle definitions. I did wonder about “rid” for deliver in 15ac – but it was the only thing that fit. Luckily, some of the GK I didn’t know (Bey = Turkish governor, “Chatelaine” = Castle custodian) was still obtainable.
FOI – 9ac “Visa”
LOI – 15ac “Bridal”
COD – 10dn “Bedraggled”
Thanks as usual!
9:13 (ongoing struggles between Edward the Elder and various Danes for control of the East of England)
I found this a lot easier than yesterday. LOI was GUPPY, which I should have got faster, since The Guppy by Ogden Nash is a poem I have enjoyed since childhood
Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.
Thanks Orpheus and BR
Also DNK ‘bey’ and ‘chatelaine’ but clear wordplay. Excellent And enjoyable.
Quite straightforward for me, with my iPad behaving itself even for 8a. From SANTA to BEDRAGGLED in 7:01. Thanks Orpheus and BR.
A U for an I typo in BRIGAND ruined VISA to give two errors from one typo – I was being careful too as I’m out and about and solving on a phone. Got my insertions confused in BEDRAGGLED so puzzled a bit on how ‘dragge’meant ‘teased’. NHO CHATELAINE but CHAT and the other checkers got me there even if I’m not sure I’ve ever met an Elaine in real life. Not all green in 14.
Tried the ‘easy’ 15×15 yesterday- ouch! Still not ready to graduate.
I too gave yesterday’s 15×15 a go. It’s snitching at 63 and I did worse than the two last week which snitched at 76 / 78. Same happened a while back where I did better on one scoring in the high 90s than a 70s. So I’m not sure how good of a guide the Snitch is.
There is a definite difference between QC and 15×15 clues – so I think the only way to conquer the latter will be to occasionally try it.
9.06 BEDRAGGLED held me up for a minute at the end. After a couple of weeks of poor form this seemed quite easy.
I was thinking that CHATELAINE is not such an obscure word because it appears in the title of a pop song. When I looked it up I discovered it was more than 30 years ago. Maybe not so pop now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Chatelaine
We join those who found this to be a most pleasant solve, after the struggles recently. Nice cross selection of clues, thanks Orpheus.
Despite spending six minutes at the end on BEDRAGGLED, I really enjoyed this offering from Orpheus. I find him to be one of the most challenging of setters, so to cross the line in just 33 minutes is a real achievement – for me, at least.
I DNK CHATELAINE, BEY for Turkish leader or RID for delivered, and I thought PEWIT was spelt with two Es (I’m sure it was when I was in the scouts all those years ago).
Mrs Random and I are on a (very) short break in East Sussex at the moment. We visited the lovely gardens at Pashley Manor earlier today (it’s their ‘Rose Week’) and we will go to Great Dixter tomorrow morning, before heading home. A visit to GD is always good for the soul. Fergus and his team are simply world class.
Many thanks to Orpheus and BR.
I hope you’re having a nice time. Mrs ITTT and I have come up to Cumbria for a short break. I’m actually walking the Dales in shorts and a tee shirt. Quite astonishing!
Enjoy your break Mr R. Nothing tops a glorious British garden in midsummer.
Very late in the day so most of my points have already been made, discussed and resolved! For the record though I was another who did not parse Bridal, not seeing Rid = Delivered, and did not recognise the spelling of Pewit. That was my LOI, very much put in from the wordplay with fingers crossed, and gave me a 14 minute solve.
Many thanks to BR for the blog.
Cedric
I’m just not in the right mindset at the moment. Took 28 minutes, getting increasingly frustrated at my basic inability to spot things I should know by now.
As an illustration of how confused I get, I spent ages trying to get AU for gold rather than AG for silver into 11ac, when I know perfectly well which is which. Similarly took forever to get VISA when it was blazingly obvious. Other unforgivable errors were not seeing PP immediately for very soft, seeing FOLLOWER straight away for 22ac (but not putting it in as I couldn’t parse it), and not seeing FEEDING as an indicator of a container.
My mood wasn’t helped by the Times 2 clueing 8ac as having 4 letters. Thought immediately of ASIA and would have got FANTASIA in an instant had the right letter count been given (yes I know the grid was right next to the clues but I don’t look at the grid on the first pass of across clues unless I’m putting an answer in).
Should have known BEY from Ian Fleming, but was fixated on Aga (as in Aga Khan), thinking it had an ‘h’ in it.
I did know CHATELAINE (a rare bright spot), but my day was summed up by not getting a single clue until 18ac.
I don’t know how to enjoy the QC at the moment. As so many of you enjoyed today’s offering, the problem is clearly with me. I’ve realised that I’m too competitive/self-critical to simply enjoy the solve, and I cannot fathom why my brain seems to go into meltdown mode the moment I hit a tricky patch.
For the next few days I will spare you my woes and just record my times. All this introspection is getting me down.
Think we have to develop your “Gazball” mindset 🤣
You’re very positive / compassionate towards other people on here. Rather than self-recriminate when it goes wrong; think about how you would coach someone who makes the same errors as you have. What would you say? How would you build them up rather than rip them down?
I like the idea of “Gazball”😊
I’ll need to give some proper thought as to how I can achieve that. I know that beating myself up isn’t a constructive approach, so, as a starter, I’ll try to stop doing it.
I think that simply recording my times rather than making any other comment for the next few days will make a good start. When I begin my daily post, I usually intend to keep it brief, but then get the urge to say much more than that, normally in a self-critical vein. Stopping that will be good for me.
I really appreciate your advice, L-Plates. Many thanks.