Despite the attentions of three needy dogs and a tetchy cat (not Pumpa) I managed to get through that quite briskly, so this was Joker in benign mood. As usual the funny man has given us a lovely mix of clues, some slightly elliptical definitions and a lot of fun. 06:33 here; how was it for you?
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 7 | Irritate girl and boy, losing head (5) |
| ANNOY – ANN is the girl, then take away the first letter (“losing head”) from bOY. | |
| 8 | Bravery of print media about Oscar Wilde at the beginning (7) |
| PROWESS – PRESS = “print media”, which goes around (“about”) OW for the first two letters (“at the beginning”) of Oscar Wilde. Altogether now:
“Have some madeira, m’dear, Flanders & Swann there using “prowess” in the first Collins sense (“superior skill or ability”); Joker means it in the second sense (“bravery or fearlessness, especially in battle”). |
|
| 10 | Inactivity at home I rate terrible (7) |
| INERTIA – IN for “at home” + an anagram (“terrible”) of “I rate”. | |
| 11 | Magazine company must introduce colour at the outset (5) |
| COMIC – CO for “company” + the first letters (“at the outset”) of “Must Introduce Colour”. | |
| 12 | An opinion about Daniel’s evasion (9) |
| AVOIDANCE – my LOI; I couldn’t conjure up A VOICE for “an opinion”, but that was what was needed. That goes around (“about”) DAN. Please don’t use “evasion” as a synonym for AVOIDANCE when marshalling your tax affairs; HMRC does not think that they are the same thing. | |
| 14 | Number, note, new (3) |
| TEN -my brain is so conditioned by crosswords that I assumed the “number” was going to be an anaesthetic. It wasn’t, it was just a number. TE is the note (“do-re-me-so-fa-la-te” – unless the setter needs “mi” or “ti”, of course), N for “new”. | |
| 15 | Regularly pursue advantage (3) |
| USE – every other letter (“regularly”) of “pursue”. I was so unsure of “advantage” as a definition for USE that I counted the letters more than once, but of course it’s in Collins – sense 11 – “usefulness; advantage – it’s of no use to complain”. | |
| 16 | Legally qualified European held in contempt unfortunately (9) |
| COMPETENT – E for “European” inside an anagram (“unfortunately”) of “contempt”. Chambers has “legally capable” as sense 3. A bit marginal but I suppose it works: competent to drive/legally qualified to drive, though I have known people who were one but not the other. | |
| 18 | Deduce subordinate has abandoned one old Romeo (5) |
| INFER – INFERior without (“abandoned”) the IOR (“one old Romeo”). | |
| 20 | Strop made by part of fractious harp ensemble (7) |
| SHARPEN – sneaky; here we need the verb to strop (to sharpen a blade) rather than the more familiar noun. It’s a hidden word, inside “fractious harp ensemble”. | |
| 22 | Kitchen device rotates for cooking (7) |
| TOASTER – anagram (“for cooking”) of “rotates”. | |
| 23 | Tea with fashionable set (5) |
| CHAIN – CHA for “tea” + IN for “fashionable”. [On edit: there have been several queries this morning about why “chain” = “set”. My own thinking was immediately to equate a “chain” of hotels (or pubs, or shops or whatever) with a “set” of hotels. The first definition for “set” as a noun in Chambers is “a group of related people or things”, which seems close enough for me.] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Who might ridicule heartless Costa Rica sightseer losing ring (12) |
| CARICATURIST – this was where I started, lured by the prospect of all those lovely first letters. CA = “heartless Costa” + RICA + ToURIST (“sightseer losing ring”). | |
| 2 | Pet alone upset graceful creature (8) |
| ANTELOPE – anagram (“upset”) of “pet alone”. They’re not all graceful – the kudu and the hartebeest are like bricklayers in a ballet class. (No offence to any passing brickies; I’m sure that your battement tendu is amazing.) | |
| 3 | Growth of some juicy strawberries (4) |
| CYST – hidden inside (“some”) “juicy strawberries”. | |
| 4 | Muscle injury from run in country round Madrid (6) |
| SPRAIN – the “country round Madrid” is SPAIN; stick an R for “run” in there. | |
| 5 | What’s used to build clubs on Mediterranean island (8) |
| CONCRETE – C for “clubs” (bridge notation) + ON + Majorca – no – Minorca – no – Ibiza – no – Rhodes – no – Malta – no – CRETE! Phew, finally. | |
| 6 | Appear to notice Mike (4) |
| SEEM – SEE = “to notice” + M (“Mike”, NATO alphabet). | |
| 9 | Unsurpassed moment: much weight borne by one (6,2,4) |
| SECOND TO NONE – SECOND = “moment”; TON = “much weight”; that goes above (“borne by”) ONE. I am currently reading a history of my second son’s regiment the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards – “Second to None” is their motto and the title of the book. | |
| 13 | Trim redcoat going around with energy (8) |
| DECORATE – anagram (“going around”) of “redcoat” with E for “energy”. To trim is to adorn or decorate (eg “fur-trimmed”). | |
| 14 | Article with favourable presentation about a player (8) |
| THESPIAN – THE = “article”; SPIN = “favourable presentation”; goes around (“about”) A. Ah, that sort of “player”. | |
| 17 | Like Scrooge giving away pounds and suffering (6) |
| MISERY – Ebenezer Scrooge was famously miserly. Remove the L (“giving away pounds”) and MISERY appears. I liked this a lot and it got COD from me, because before the Spirits visited him Scrooge would have suffered terribly if he’d given away pounds. | |
| 19 | Plant yielding fibre that’s primarily fine and soft (4) |
| FLAX – F = “primarily fine” + LAX for “soft”. Not only can the fibres of FLAX be turned into thread and woven into linen (which is indeed “fine and soft”, very good Joker) but its seeds make linseed oil and it has beautiful blue flowers to boot. Splendid plant, splendid clue. | |
| 21 | Cunning structure of wedge-shaped stones (4) |
| ARCH – a double definition to end us off, the second one mercifully obvious. | |
10:52
Got stuck on flax.
COD Flax. Lax seems to cause me issues every time it comes up.
12:10
A nice gentle offering. Held up by not looking what I was doing and typing CARICATURIST wrongly only spotting the error with INFER which led me to LOI FLAX.
A steady solve with some biffing going on.
put in China rather than chain (tea plus in) which glued the works for a bit.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, it is with HUGE pride that I must post that I DID IT! I completed this Cryptic – OMG – only the 2nd time EVER that I’ve managed to finish one. I’ve only been trying for …. 4 YEARS! I did finish one a couple of years ago because it was full of anagrams – and I’m good at those … with a little help from Anagram Solver dot com! But … I’m SO HaPPY! I laugh out loud every day at those of you who proudly post your times – 6 minute – 10 minutes .. heaven forbid 30 mins! But there you go – one day it had to happen . I am offically – in the gang! Whoop whoop! Opened some fizz – why not!
Took me all day! With many breaks!
Well done SG – you’ve always been in the gang 👍
You’ve reduced your average completion time by half with today’s effort 😮
Congratulations, SandyG! Do keep persevering, as it’s the only way to complete more. Progress may be slow, but you will hopefully enjoy the journey. Do also keep posting your thoughts. The various side conversations are a delight at times.
Well done SandyG, great performance 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Enjoy your celebration 🎉 🍾
Many congratulations Sandy – as ND says, you’re already part of the gang! Keep posting – and keep enjoying 😊
Heck yeah!
An enjoyable QC. Thanks for the blog.
Can’t read my own writing but did it in either 7:10 or 7:18 today! I did this much earlier, and thought Joker was being very kind. The stroppy harpists made me laugh.
FOI Prowess LOI Annoy (because I forgot to put it in) COD Sharpen
Thanks Joker and Templar
Off to watch Taskmaster now 😅