A good mid-level difficulty offering from Hurley today.
I say mid-level but I was taken out to over 10 minutes by just one clue – 20a, you’re the guilty party. The other five double definitions weren’t too hard and for the rest there was nothing that I found too obscure or difficult. Finished, with a sigh of relief at eventually getting 20a, on a not very speedy 13:39.
My favourite today was the surface for 21a, including the necessary question mark for me anyway, although some people in colder climes are a bit more resilient in the face of such discomfort.
Thanks to Hurley
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | IT device firm silent about parking by right (8) |
| COMPUTER – CO (‘firm’) MUTE (‘silent’) containing (‘about’) P (‘parking’) followed by (‘by’) R (‘right’) | |
| 6 | National with magnetism? (4) |
| POLE – Double definition
I initially parsed this as a cryptic def as that the second ‘with magnetism?’ def is pretty vague for POLE. Overall though I think it works better as a double, rather than a cryptic def. |
|
| 8 | Religious Education most important, don’t leave (6) |
| REMAIN – RE (‘Religious Education’) MAIN (‘most important’) | |
| 9 | Member of clergy welcoming time in Swiss region (6) |
| CANTON – CANON (‘Member of clergy’) containing (‘welcoming’) T (‘time’) | |
| 10 | Formerly of note primarily associated with Church (4) |
| ONCE – O |
|
| 11 | Sudden and surprising act, raid, many initially upset (8) |
| DRAMATIC – Anagram (‘upset’) of ACT RAID and M |
|
| 12 | Personal belongings fill up (5) |
| STUFF – Double definition | |
| 13 | Pleasing quality, allowing extra time to pay (5) |
| GRACE – Double definition again
“A period officially allowed for payment of a sum due or for compliance with a law or condition, especially an extended period granted as a special favour” (Oxford Dictionaries (online)). |
|
| 15 | Holiday area, cold, with unusual pastime (8) |
| CAMPSITE – C (‘cold’) and anagram (‘unusual’) of PASTIME | |
| 17 | Stolen items in goods wagon (4) |
| SWAG – Hidden (‘in’) in ‘goodS WAGon’ | |
| 19 | Establish ascendancy over naval vessel, expected to arrive (6) |
| SUBDUE – SUB (‘naval vessel’) DUE (‘expected to arrive’) | |
| 20 | Sandy’s liveliness (6) |
| GINGER – Double definition
As mentioned in the introduction, I had trouble with this which was my LOI by some margin. I think of GINGER as more of a reddish colour, and GINGER for ‘liveliness’ didn’t occur to me. Both senses are in the usual places with GINGER as “yellowish-brown” in Collins. |
|
| 21 | Enthusiastically greet cold weather? (4) |
| HAIL – Double definition
The question mark indicates that HAIL is often associated with ‘cold weather’ although it can hail in summer. |
|
| 22 | Model agency worker departed (8) |
| TEMPLATE – TEMP (‘agency worker’) LATE (‘departed’) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Regularly on cue, rain in Pacific maybe (5) |
| OCEAN – Every second letter (‘Regularly’) of ‘On CuE rAiN‘ | |
| 3 | Flat metal piece, gold, to remain at stable price (7) |
| PLATEAU – PLATE (‘Flat metal piece’) AU (‘gold’)
I presume ‘price’ was included in the def for the surface reading, as PLATEAU as a verb can be applied to more than just ‘price’. |
|
| 4 | Brown belt (3) |
| TAN -Double definition
Ginger’s close relative; maybe subconsciously this helped with 20a. |
|
| 5 | Playground quarrel — four sides in it? (9) |
| RECTANGLE – REC (‘Playground’) TANGLE (‘quarrel’) | |
| 6 | Pundit’s first with answer describing police car (5) |
| PANDA – P |
|
| 7 | Stars, not quite ten, referring to pride maybe? (7) |
| LEONINE – LEO (‘Stars’=the constellation Leo) NINE (‘not quite ten’)
The ‘pride’ in the clue was a bit of a giveaway and appeared in the same sense in a very recent QC. We also had LEONINE as an answer only a few days ago. |
|
| 11 | Lacking confidence, I’d end tiff somehow (9) |
| DIFFIDENT – Anagram (‘somehow’) of ID END TIFF
I’ve always thought of DIFFIDENT more as “shy” or “modest” but lack of (self-) confidence is given as the first sense in Collins and Chambers. I think the ODE def, combining the two, is best: “modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence”. |
|
| 12 | Something for kitchen — pasta, extremely useful when stirred (7) |
| SPATULA – Anagram (‘when stirred’) of PASTA and U |
|
| 14 | London players are captivating south: north also? Not so! (7) |
| ARSENAL – ARE (‘are’) containing (‘captivating’) S (‘south’) N (‘north’) AL Is there an Arsenal supporters club in Liverpool or Manchester? Maybe someone knows. |
|
| 16 | Sound of laughter about daughter’s foot-operated device? (5) |
| PEDAL – PEAL (‘Sound of laughter’) containing (‘about’) D (‘daughter’)
Last week it was TREADLE, this week the less exotic (?) PEDAL. |
|
| 18 | Some dealer, thorough, shows warning (5) |
| ALERT – Hidden (‘Some’) in ‘deALER Thorough’ | |
| 20 | Heard fellow exercising here (3) |
| GYM – Aural wordplay (‘Heard’) of ‘fellow’ JIM
Hope he doesn’t mind, but I’ve pinched “Aural wordplay” from Jack, our Monday blogger; I think it’s a good term. |
|
Tired after a long day, so particularly happy to be out of the SCC at 17:34. Quite a lot of that was spent staring in bafflement at what turned out to be ARSENAL, TEMPLATE and GINGER (in that order).
Breezeblocked by GINGER 😅 But I did get there after a minute or so to finish in 11:15.
Otherwise no problems. I can’t say the same for the biggie – I’ve been struggling off and on throughout the day and still have the top half to go!
FOI Computer LOI Ginger COD I really liked the simplicity of Tan
Thanks Hurley and BR