This was pretty tough overall, despite some chestnutty write-ins. One clue that wasn’t a chestnut was CHESTNUT, which I rather liked. Some of the tougher clues were pretty clever, but beyond the scope of a QC I think. A hugely over-target 10 minutes for me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Make amends to stop menace evolving (10) |
| COMPENSATE – anagram (‘evolving’) of STOP MENACE | |
| 8 | Criticise great answer that makes everything better (7) |
| PANACEA – PAN + ACE + A | |
| 9 | Perfect opening we hear (5) |
| WHOLE – sounds like ‘hole’ | |
| 10 | Right measure of current gradient (4) |
| RAMP – R + AMP | |
| 11 | Horse box enthusiast (8) |
| CHESTNUT – CHEST (box) + NUT (enthusiast) | |
| 13 | Barrier that surrounds Slough church (5) |
| FENCE – FEN (slough, swamp surrounding crappy university) + CE | |
| 14 | Unreactive form of nitre (5) |
| INERT – anagram (‘form of’) of NITRE | |
| 16 | Charlie and I learnt bowed instrument (8) |
| CLARINET – anagram (‘bowed’) of C (Charlie, NATO alphabet) + I + LEARNT | |
| 17 | Catch sight of Mark (4) |
| SPOT – double definition | |
| 20 | Junior member of parliament? (5) |
| OWLET – cryptic definition. ‘Parliament’ is the collective term for owls. Who decides on these collective terms? Is there a committee? | |
| 21 | Serving special drink to welcome king (7) |
| PORTION – POTION with R inside | |
| 22 | Supporter of France to be shot (10) |
| BENEFACTOR – anagram (‘shot’) of FRANCE TO BE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Spring runs beneath headland (5) |
| CAPER – R underneath CAPE. To caper is to gambol or spring. | |
| 2 | Friend supporting memorial in tremendous fashion (12) |
| MONUMENTALLY – ALLY underneath MONUMENT | |
| 3 | Design using cutting included in sketchbook (4) |
| ETCH – hidden word | |
| 4 | Severely criticise rotten cheats (6) |
| SCATHE – anagram (‘rotten’) of CHEATS | |
| 5 | Leader of team has trendy place for people to live (8) |
| TOWNSHIP – T for team + OWNS + HIP | |
| 6 | Set off from location south of service area (12) |
| COUNTERPOINT – POINT (location) under COUNTER (where one is often served). Counterpoint as a verb means to emphasise by contrast. | |
| 7 | Musicians send raunchy message containing note (6) |
| SEXTET – SEXT (send lewd texts) with TE (note from the sol-fa scale) inside | |
| 12 | Disparage line in remix of Let It Be (8) |
| BELITTLE – anagram (‘remix’) of L + LET IT BE | |
| 13 | Consideration in favour of incorporating legislation (6) |
| FACTOR – FOR (in favour of) with ACT inside. | |
| 15 | Part of head office for law society (6) |
| TEMPLE – Double definition, the second pretty obscure I would say. | |
| 18 | Singer’s delivery of note (5) |
| TENOR – another double definition. I think the second one is ‘ the time that must elapse before a bill of exchange or promissory note becomes due for payment.’ Which is ridiculously obscure. Or have I got it wrong? UPDATE – thanks to all pointing out that it’s not a DD, but a homophone of TENNER | |
| 19 | Part of Hungarian song (4) |
| ARIA – hidden word | |
Ah, SCC! Hello again, my dear friend. It felt like a thousand years but in fact was 22:30.
Thank you for the blog! (And an extra helping of thanks for not starting it off with something like “An effortless stroll requiring no thought whatsoever”).
At times this felt harder than it really was.
20a OWLET is my clue of the year – lovely misdirection.
Thanks Asp and Curarist
Tough but enjoyable.
6:13. A couple of chestnuts in CHESTNUT (which I’ve seen plenty of times and, coincidentally, came up in a Times Cryptic Crossword Book 26 puzzle I did yesterday) and OWLET but I was held up by BENEFACTOR, WHOLE and TOWNSHIP at the end. I Liked INERT for the surface, SCATHE and PORTION (special drink – ho ho). Thank-you Asp and Curarist.
Came to this late in the day (after trip to London), sat down and thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely 30 minute solve. I found myself in tune with the setter: parliament, ah that will be owls; bowed, ah that suggests an anagram. Ruled out DE in 22a because clue said France, not French, and shot immediately suggested anagram territory! TEMPLE went in without a second thought (passed it on the Circle Line today) but comments above hugely enlightening – maybe not a great clue after all. Cod COUNTERPOINT – loved it (though toyed with some sort of offset PRINT until it dawned on me). Thanks Asp and Curarist
DNF – put PEOPLE for TEMPLE. The clue means nothing to me. No need to explain, I don’t care. I didn’t bother to time myself, but it was dreadfully slow.
I’m so depressed by this. Two DNFs this week, testament to just how bad I am. I cannot think of anything positive to say or any good thoughts to take into next week.
I am simply too ignorant and lacking in mental dexterity for this. Coming here each day is a humiliating experience and I feel thoroughly defeated.
I shall spend another weekend feeling lousy. Being the slowest kid in class is no fun whatsoever. I have tried, I have failed. Time to stop perhaps? Seeing the rest of you sail past me with ease makes me think that I will never become a decent solver.
I have tried so hard to get somewhere with this but have made no progress.