A pleasant ramble until I lost my way at the very end.
I didn’t have any trouble with this until my last in, 21a. Not for the first time, sucked in by the wordplay, so spent about 5 minutes on this until the not very difficult answer appeared.
Despite this self-induced frustration, an enjoyable QC pitched at the right level without obscure words or intricate wordplay. All finished in 13:46.
Thanks to Jalna
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Vermeer somehow encapsulates love, always (8) |
| EVERMORE – Anagram (‘somehow’) of VERMEER containing (‘encapsulates’) O (‘love’)
I don’t know how the fine arts cognoscenti interpret the painting, but “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” would fit the wordplay nicely for me. My COD to kick off the day’s solving. |
|
| 5 | Vehicle carrying unknown leader once (4) |
| CZAR – CAR (‘Vehicle’) containing (‘carrying’) Z (‘unknown’)
CZAR seems to be in common use now for any powerful person, eg one appointed to have overall responsibility for dealing with a large task or problem such as the response to COVID, or for an organised crime kingpin. |
|
| 8 | Heave big container alongside church (5) |
| CHURN – URN (‘big container’) in this case following (‘alongside’) CH (‘church’)
MER at URN as ‘big container’; yes, it can be ‘big’ but doesn’t have to be. However, Collins has as sense 1: “a vaselike receptacle or vessel, esp a large bulbous one with a foot”, so Jalna is off the hook. |
|
| 9 | Amount of sound indicated by central part of soundboard? (7) |
| DECIBEL – The letters dB, the symbol for DECIBEL, make up the central letters of ‘soundBoard’.
I have no idea if the output in dB of a ‘soundboard’ really is indicated on its ‘central part’; maybe the question mark is meant to suggest this. If so, the whole clue could also act as the definition. |
|
| 11 | Fitting take (11) |
| APPROPRIATE – Double definition
The first as an adjective, the second as a verb, with different pronunciations, ie heteronyms. (OK, I admit it, I had to check that, though it helped that Jack used the term in his blog yesterday. I always muddle up homonyms, homophones, heteronyms and homographs. Just to muddle things up even more, heteronyms are homographs that are not homophones). |
|
| 13 | Ancient ewer principally covered with a precious metal (3-3) |
| AGE-OLD – E |
|
| 14 | Branch seen in river? Good heavens! (4,2) |
| DEAR ME – ARM (‘Branch’) contained in (‘seen in’) DEE (‘river?’)
I think it’s been pointed out before here. The River Dee – one of four in the UK and one in Ireland. |
|
| 16 | A tavern is struggling to accommodate eg, plant eaters (11) |
| VEGETARIANS – Anagram (‘struggling’) of A TAVERN IS containing (‘to accommodate’) EG (‘eg’) | |
| 18 | Given lubrication, outer parts of gear moved smoothly (7) |
| GREASED – G |
|
| 19 | Silly passport, possibly with nothing in it (5) |
| IDIOT – ID (‘passport, possibly’) followed by (‘with’) O (‘nothing’) contained in (‘in’) IT (‘it’)
I parsed this as ‘Silly’ as a noun, used to describe someone who has just done something unwise or stupid. I wondered if IDIOT could be used colloquially as an adjective in place of “idiotic” but on second thoughts I’m not convinced. |
|
| 20 | Mediocre serving of miso soup (2-2) |
| SO-SO – Hidden (‘serving of’) in ‘miSO SOup’
Could have been a double def, or def + cryptic hint, if there had been a question mark to complete the clue. Just joking. |
|
| 21 | They’re extremely keen to welcome new youngster (8) |
| TEENAGER – T I initially opted for ‘They’re extremely keen’ being the definition even though ‘youngster’ was in the singular. Very hard to shift with the pressure of the clock ticking. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Every single train failing to start (4) |
| EACH – |
|
| 2 | A guest deduces incorrectly this is not mere conjecture (8,5) |
| EDUCATED GUESS – Anagram (‘incorrectly’) of A GUEST DEDUCES | |
| 3 | Deftly handles lost upset animal (11) |
| MANIPULATES – Anagram (‘lost’) of UPSET ANIMAL
‘Upset’ being part of the anagram fodder this time, not an anagram or reversal indicator. |
|
| 4 | Right editor on very good paper (3-3) |
| RED-TOP – R (‘Right’) ED (‘editor’) above (in a down clue) (‘on’) TOP (‘very good’)
Amusing surface reading, giving the idea of a RED-TOP as being a ‘very good paper’. From the ‘very good’ Wikipedia entry on the subject: “Red top tabloids, named after their distinguishing red mastheads, employ a form of writing known as tabloid journalism; this style emphasizes features such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news.” |
|
| 6 | Way of changing sides laid out in black and white? (5,8) |
| ZEBRA CROSSING – Cryptic definition | |
| 7 | Underwent an experience again, full of energy and happy (8) |
| RELIEVED – RELIVED (‘Underwent an experience again’) containing (‘full of’) E (‘energy’) | |
| 10 | My family member provides a connection (11) |
| CORRELATION – COR (‘My’) RELATION (‘family member’)
No shortage of exclamations today. With 14a, we have ‘Good heavens!’, DEAR ME, ‘My’ and COR. |
|
| 12 | Recovers from Las Vegas revelling (8) |
| SALVAGES – Anagram (‘revelling’) of LAS VEGAS
From the surface, I was expecting the intransitive sense of ‘Recovers’ so this took longer than it should have. |
|
| 15 | Marriage partner will reportedly show anger (6) |
| BRIDLE – Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) on BRIDE’LL (‘marriage partner will’) | |
| 17 | Celeb ultimately craves that extra honour (4) |
| STAR – Last letters (‘ultimately’) of ‘ |
|
For all of you who are proud of your under 10 minute solve – today I can announce that for only the 2nd time in 4 years of trying – I did it! Took me from 9am until 16.30 with many breaks in between. Was this easy or could I possibly – POSSIBLY – be getting just a tad better at this lark! A splendid day for me what struggles!
Well done, Mme/Mlle G! I hope you achieve your next full solve relatively soon.
👏👏👏
Enjoyable quickish solve for us, but we had red hot for 4d. Red Top seems very old fashioned for these days.
17 minutes (very fast for me), so a welcome day out from the SCC. My FOI was EVERMORE and LOI was AGE-OLD. Much buffing along the way, but all parsed before the clock stopped. Only 22 clues today, but that just ups the pressure on those clues (especially the long ones).
Many thanks to Jalna and BR.
No problem with this, except for DECIBEL being described as an amount of sound. Decibels are not a fixed quantity but a ratio of comparative loudness. So you can describe a sound as being an increase of 10 decibels on a previous one, but that doesn’t indicate its actual loudness. Perhaps I’m being picky…
Anyway, a super crossword as ever from Jalna, with nothing holding me up for long… (I will be in trouble when My ceases to represent Cor, as I tend to write it in automatically!)
I raced through this in 7:56, greased lightning for me. Liked DECIBEL the most, I think, but there were lots to choose from.
Thanks to Jalna and BR.
13 minutes.
Happy with that until I saw some of the amazing times here. Now it doesn’t seem all that special. Tina’s time was outstanding! I was more than twice as long!!!!
For anyone at my level, the big crossword has been relatively approachable for the last 2 days if you were wanting to have a crack at it.
Lost Times 2 until just now; glad I found it as 7:12 is far and away my best ever.