This was quite a workout but very enjoyable nonetheless. The GK was a little obscure, as is some of the international English. The wordplay is convoluted at times, but rewarding if you stick at it. Might be one where confidence plays an important part. It’s also a pangram. Very over-par 8min 30 for me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Area clear and dry (4) |
| ARID – A (area) + RID (clear) | |
| 3 | Wedding attendant is French male in bar (4,3) |
| BEST MAN – EST (‘is’ in French) + M (male) all inside BAN (bar) | |
| 8 | Homespun savoury biscuit accompanies quantity of beer (7-6) |
| CRACKER-BARREL – CRACKER is a savoury biscuit and BARREL is a quantity of beer. This is an American phrase referring to barrels of biscuits found in country stores, around which customers would discuss issues of the day. I have never heard it used outside of the US. | |
| 9 | Born in June: female, finally (3) |
| NEE – last letters acronym | |
| 10 | Detach page following French article, for example (5) |
| UNPEG – UN (French article) + P + EG | |
| 12 | Cooking vessel two pets smashed (7) |
| STEWPOT – anagram (‘smashed’) of TWO PETS | |
| 14 | Alien sport broadcast over ancient European region (7) |
| ETRURIA – ET (alien) + RU (rugby union, sport) + AIR (broadcast) backwards | |
| 16 | Last part of fish Alan halved (5) |
| FINAL – FIN (part of fish) + AL (half of ‘alan’) | |
| 17 | Australian truck silent, heading off (3) |
| UTE – MUTE minus the ‘M’. What the Australians call a pick-up truck when they’re not cheating at cricket. | |
| 20 | Controls art gallery intended, we hear, for restoration (13) |
| REINSTATEMENT – REINS (controls) + TATE (gallery) + MENT (sounds like ‘meant’). Restoration in the ‘monarchy’ sense. | |
| 21 | Maybe porter rests on this, worker Rex covering (4,3) |
| BEER MAT – Essential crossword knowledge: porter is a type of beer. BEE (worker) + R (rex) + MAT (covering) | |
| 22 | Enclosed area: three feet (4) |
| YARD – double definition. The easiest clue of the century and I stared at it for ages trying to find something more complicated. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Shrewd king protected by outstanding old nobleman abroad (8) |
| ARCHDUKE – ARCH (shrewd) + K (king) inside DUE (outstanding, owing) | |
| 2 | Country artist probing level of brightness? (4) |
| IRAQ – RA (Royal Academician, i.e. artist) inside IQ | |
| 3 | Prevents going around NE area of London (6) |
| BARNES – BARS (prevents) round NE. Classic deflection technique which makes you think of North London, when Barnes is of course south of the river. | |
| 4 | Serious illness — Mark felt awful continually (7,5) |
| SCARLET FEVER – SCAR (mark) + anagram (‘awful’) of FELT + EVER (continually) | |
| 5 | Ruin zest, an ingredient for cake? (8) |
| MARZIPAN – MAR (ruin) + ZIP (zest) + AN | |
| 6 | Duck initially enters river (4) |
| NILE – NIL (duck, i.e. zero) + E for ‘enters’ | |
| 7 | Poor Romans asking for a huge sum of money (1,5,6) |
| A KINGS RANSOM – anagram (‘poor’) of ROMANS ASKING | |
| 11 | Every bovine animal skin in East End getting bleach (8) |
| PEROXIDE – PER (every) + OX (animal) + ‘IDE (cockney saying ‘hide’). Doesn’t work as a noun, as bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), not peroxide (H2O2), but their effects are similar so it works as a verb. | |
| 13 | Narrative books by editor possessing special aptitude (8) |
| TALENTED – TALE (narrative) + NT (New Testament, i.e. books) + ED (editor) | |
| 15 | Familiar with a universal force on small island (2,4) |
| AU FAIT – A + U + F + AIT (small island in a river) | |
| 18 | Card game nap taking place here? (4) |
| CRIB – Double definition, the first short for cribbage. Solved only with an alphabet trawl | |
| 19 | Napoleonic battle seen in mundane journal picked up (4) |
| JENA – reverse hidden word. Battle of Jena, 14th October 1806. Not one I was familiar with. The sum total of my Napoleonic Wars knowledge is that he lost. | |
DNF
Oh, that’s annoying! Four letter country IRA? Biffed IRAN. So obvious once the pink square appeared. Even more so as I used the pangram to get my LOI which held me up for ages, ARCHDUKE taking me over my 20 minute target.
UTE reminded me of my student days watching Joe Mangle and Toby taking the ute for a spin with Bouncer in the back.
Clearly this permanent member of the SCC has learnt something! Alien? Must be ET. Sport? Often RU. Broadcast? Could be AIR? And so to ETRURIA!
Actually there seemed quite a lot of Ikea clues, which I enjoyed. But DNF because of UTE (would someone like to sponsor me for a stay in Australia??)
And sorry but CRACKER BARREL will always be cheese and not some bizarre antique Americanism!
34:01, still sick and sick and tired of being sick. My thought processes are like molasses (treacle to you perhaps), but not so sweet.
Enjoyable puzzle, certainly the best part of a day otherwise dedicated to coughing and sneezing for the most part. Like many, I arched an eyebrow, “Oh, so now ARCH means shrewd, does it?”
Enjoyed TALENTED for the way the word went in piecemeal as I read the clue, finishing up with “got it in one.”
Thanks Breadman and Curarist!
47 minute DNF
I put ACCANUTE for 1dn (CANUT inside ACE).
A horrendous week:
M – 18 mins
T – 17 min DNF
W – 24 mins
Th – 51 mins
F – 47 min DNF
157 mins, 2 DNFs, 2 breeze blocked days and 2 nightmare times.
I can’t go on like this. My levels of satisfaction, enjoyment, self-regard and confidence are all at zero.
I stopped playing golf years ago because, despite a reasonable handicap, I was overwhelmed by the frustration of being unable to strike the ball in the correct way. I’m almost at this point here. I can’t see anything when I read a clue. I miss the abbreviations, I get the word play back to front and I have awful mental blocks (see ACCANUTE). I don’t know how to break a clue down or often what type of clue I’m reading.
I’m heartily sick of being the village idiot around here and reading the comments on the blog just worsens my sense of inadequacy. At least you can all get a good laugh out of my incompetence (see ACCANUTE again).
Thanks for the blog. I shall enjoy another weekend of self-reproach.
I also considered ACCANUTE which made sense and ought to be a word. (See the comment I just posted) Do not despair. I think this was a very difficult puzzle, but potentially satisfying. Don’t worry about these amazing people who can do it in the time it takes to boil an egg. I think they must solve it all in their heads before they start filling it in. I do it on paper and start timing from when I read the first clue. I often take half an hour as do many others who contribute to this blog, sometimes more. Keep going for a bit longer. If you use something like the Crossword Genie app, you get practice in seeing which of the possible words fits the clue. Working on it with someone else can be helpful too.
Thanks Blue Stocking, I appreciate your kind advice.
A tricky puzzle which I was really enjoying. I liked the clues that built up to MARZIPAN, PEROXIDE and REINSTATEMENT. I guessed NHO UTE and didn’t know CRACKER BARREL could mean homespun but it had to be that. I avoided Iran and Barnet and thought I was doing very well until I came up against 1d. I thought ‘outstanding’ might be ace and I kept thinking the shrewd king could be Canute. Of course when I used the Crossword Genie the answer came up straight away but nowadays I consider using that as DNF. Still it was enjoyable- thank you Breadman and Curarist.
15:53, a good time on a tough puzzle.
ARID was FOI and COD. A classic cryptic clue. If you want to explain what a cryptic clue is, you could do worse than remember this one as an example.
Struggled with ARCHDUKE, had it backwards, looking for a word for Shrewd containing, CR for king, ACE, and DUC for old nobleman. NHO JENA or ETRURIA. Recognised CRACKER BARREL from the recent 15×15 and also saw it advertised on a water tower in rural Texas this week.
Was Gabriel a particularly shrewd angel?
The demonym Etruscan is more familiar than ETRURIA, where they are from. As is Samaritan.
I found this slightly harder than average, at 14:22.
NHO CRACKER BARREL due to not being American, or JENA (due to it not being in the sphere of War and peace, which is my only source of knowledge on Napoleonic wars). Had heard of UTE, the other non-Engligh-English entry, because of watching Neighbours when I was a kid and a student, although always assume it was spelt YUTE, as it sounds, despite being short for (I believe) “Utility Vehicle”.