They’re all going a bit bonkers for the living people thing now, aren’t they? Hey ho, I suppose it’ll settle down. But given the possibilities that have now opened up, how odd that they’ve all hit on one Britpop band!
Tricky grid, lovely puzzle, some really witty clues. Cracking fun, thanks Mr Piggy. I thought that that was a little harder than the average Oink, and I suspect that one answer may turn out to be an NHO for some solvers. Let’s see! Regulation 08:36 for me; hope it went well for you.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 7 | Delight as first of penthouses let (6) |
| PLEASE – P for “first of penthouses” + LEASE for “let”. The verb to delight/please is what we needed here. | |
| 8 | Penniless knight defeated (6) |
| BROKEN – BROKE = “penniless”, N for “knight” (chess notation). I had this the wrong way round for a while, thinking it started with N followed by a word for “defeated”. | |
| 9 | Hope coppers finally arrest criminal (8) |
| PROSPECT – this is a very well hidden anagram (blogger code for “I completely failed to spot it”). The anagram indicator is “criminal” and the anagram fodder is “coppers” + T, the last letter of “arrest” (“finally arrest”). Well played Oink, you did me all ends up there! LOI. | |
| 10 | Knock back lager and fall over (4) |
| SLIP – “pilsner” is a type of lager, often shortened to “pils”; reverse pils (“knock back lager”) and voila. The name originates in the Czech city of Plzeň, anglicised as Pilsen, where in the 1840s Josef Groll (a Bavarian hired to run a new brewery) came up with a winning recipe using Saaz hops. It took Europe by storm. | |
| 11 | Determined to find cheap accommodation here? (6) |
| INTENT – “determined” as in being INTENT on something. If you live in a tent you could be said to be in “cheap accommodation”, though the price of some of the fancier geodesic tents these days is astonishing. | |
| 13 | Picky Chinese diner spotted in Co-op and Asda? (5) |
| PANDA – oh I did like this definition. Very good indeed and COD from me. It’s hidden (“spotted in”) inside “Co-op and Asda”. I don’t know why we make all this effort to save pandas, because if you decide only to eat something which your body isn’t really adapted to digest and then be a difficult eater anyway, you fully deserve to go extinct. | |
| 14 | Second person said to be a sheep? (3) |
| EWE – sounds like (“said to be”) “you” (grammatically the “second person”). Ye Olde Chestnutte. | |
| 15 | Committee fed up, one might say (5) |
| BOARD – sounds like (“one might say”) “bored”. | |
| 17 | Never-ending Oriental festival (6) |
| EASTER – EASTER[n]. | |
| 19 | A precious stone returned? That’s great! (4) |
| MEGA – A GEM backwards. We suddenly keep getting MEGA, too. Breadman used it in QC 2772, Jalna used it in QC 2759 … they’re all at it. Do you think the setters regard this as latest slang? Scenes in the Setters’ Common Room: “I say Breaders old chap, what do you think the youngsters say instead of ‘spiffing’ these days?” “I once saw a film in the 1990s where they said ‘mega’ a lot, try that.” | |
| 20 | Horribly garbled English in European capital (8) |
| BELGRADE – Anagram (“horribly”) of “garbled” + E for English. Having started with the downs, fortunately I had the checkers in place by the time I got to this. | |
| 22 | Comparatively ill-considered option for your breakfast plate? (6) |
| RASHER – aaaaaaaaaaaand here it is, the piggy clue. Excellent, I do love a running joke. Double definition – deciding to jump out of the window instead of using the stairs (for example) would usually be the RASHER thing to do, and you might have a RASHER with your egg. | |
| 23 | A rest for Ronnie O’Sullivan? (6) |
| SPIDER – if you listen carefully you may hear the faint echo of howls of outrage in Australia, the US and elsewhere. Ronnie “the Rocket” O’Sullivan is a living person and in my book he definitely passes the “famous enough to be included?” test, because he’s one of the greatest snooker players of all time. But then I am aware of snooker, and I have to accept that it’s a sport with a more limited global (or even national) reach than, say, football. So not everyone will know him. But the real issue here is having to know not only (a) who he is and what he plays, but also (b) that snooker players sometimes use a thing called a “rest” to balance their cue on (if the cue ball is in an awkward spot which they can’t comfortably reach with their cue hand) and (c) that one particular (rather rarely used) type of such “rest” is called … a SPIDER. Sense 9 in Collins: “billiards, snooker: a rest having long legs, used to raise the cue above the height of the ball”. I play pool and snooker and in fact I actually own a SPIDER but even so it took me a wee while to crack it because there’s no wordplay to guide you. Good luck if you had to trawl this – there are apparently 72 words that fit S-I-E-. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Obscure Britpop band (4) |
| BLUR – what, again? These words escaped me as I solved this clue and they cost me several minutes as I had to explain to Mrs Templar what I was on about. (Which was this: Biggy 28953 (26 June, 6d) – “Racier English Britpop band covers (5)” QC 2768 (Wurm, 30 August, 20d) – “Obscure band that rivalled Oasis (4)”; QC 2766 (Jimmy, 9 September, 19d) – “Promotional material Britpop band put on book (5)”.) Do you think this is another “Scenes From the Setters’ Common Room” thing? “I say chaps, does anyone know a popular rhythm combo more recent than The Beatles?” After a lot of umming and erring someone shouted out that their grandson liked Blur and they all wrote it down. | |
| 2 | Girl’s story involving donkey (6) |
| LASSIE – a “story” is a LIE and inside it (“involving”) we have an ASS. | |
| 3 | Disconsolate daughter expelled (8) |
| DEJECTED – D for “daughter” + EJECTED for “expelled”. | |
| 4 | A chance to help (4) |
| ABET – A + BET. Bet isn’t a square-on synonym for “chance” but it’s close enough for me. | |
| 5 | Relative caught in fiasco US instigated (6) |
| COUSIN – hidden (“caught in”) inside “fiasco US instigated”. | |
| 6 | Think date and time must be wrong (8) |
| MEDITATE – anagram (“must be wrong”) of “date” and “time”, Lovely, elegant clue. | |
| 12 | Aristocrat with millions invested in Lebanon unfortunately (8) |
| NOBLEMAN – anagram (“unfortunately”) of M for “millions” and “Lebanon”. | |
| 13 | Unrivalled description of House of Lords when empty? (8) |
| PEERLESS – double definition-ish, the second one being more of a cracker joke. If there was no-one in the House of Lords it would be peer-less, ho ho. | |
| 16 | Native American quickly concealing husband (6) |
| APACHE – quick, a Native American tribe including H … Sioux no … Navajo no … Cherokee is too long … aarrghh … APACHE! I knew that watching all those Westerns as a boy would come in handy one day. APACE (“quickly”) with H for “husband” inside (“concealing”). | |
| 18 | Anxiety of son on Eurostar? (6) |
| STRAIN – S for “son” + “TRAIN” for “Eurostar?”, the question-mark indicating that this is a definition by example. | |
| 20 | Writer of biography introducing Republican (4) |
| BIRO – BIO for “biography” (a bit weak, perhaps) including (“introducing”) R for “Republican”. “Who invented the ballpoint pen?” is a classic pub quiz trick question, because the answer is not László Bíró but John Loud, an American lawyer/inventor. Loud’s version was too clumsy, however, and it flopped. Bíró was a Hungarian journalist who wanted a pen filled with the ink used to print his newspaper, because it didn’t smudge. But it was too sticky for a pen, so he enlisted the help of his brother (a dentist and chemist) to reformulate it. The brothers patented the pen in 1938 but as Jews they had to flee Hungary; in 1943 they ended up in Argentina (supposedly after the Argentinian President spotted Bíró using an unusual pen at a hotel in Yugoslavia … honestly there’s a film here) where commercial success ensued. | |
| 21 | German article about Google’s latest browser (4) |
| DEER – DER is German for “the” (“German article”) and it goes around (“about”) E for the last letter of “Google” (“Google’s latest”). DEER feed by browsing on vegetation and so a DEER is a “browser”; cunning misdirection. | |
DNF, but then I never do. Feeling reassured that several experts here also DNF, so feeling in good company!
Late finish today
NHO Ronnie O’Sullivan but The Gentleman had. Neither of us had heard of a SPIDER but once we realised BRIDGE wouldn’t do we worked it out.
The never-ending Oriental festival caught the rest of the family out, so I could feel smug about that one.
Some fun clues, especially the description of the House of Lords when empty – do go and eat in their dining room on the rare occasions when the House is empty and it’s open to the public!
Thanks Templar and Oink.
7:17. Not too much to worry about here. I liked PANDA best (I think even for the QC Oink could have left out the word Chinese from the clue which would have been more fun). thanks both!
30 minutes
An abysmal performance, largely due to spending well over 10 minutes on PROSPECT. Not an easy clue, but should have seen it sooner.
Need 34 mins or less tomorrow to achieve target. Not overly optimistic, but then again I never am. I’ve had too many bad Fridays to expect a good result.
Finished big crossword in 80 mins. Like wading through treacle.
Steady solve- about half an hour. Initially thought the Ronnie O’Sullivan clue was a cockney dropped “H” clue, but too much time wasted watching the snooker meant it was relatively easy for me.
A pleasant dessert course after a hardish 15×15 today (for me anyway).
Many thanks to blogger and setter
Fail due to Prospect. But a great puzzle. Thanks Templar and Oink