I’m perhaps chancing it here, but I don’t think there will be too many complaints about the difficulty level of this puzzle. This is Peridot’s fourth appearance and his first in almost six months. An anagram of the Peridot pseudonym gives a clue as to the setter’s real identity as alluded to here in the comments section of the TfTT blog for QC 2708, Peridot’s second puzzle; scroll down about 15 comments to see johninterred’s post and the next few following it.
As usual, I was slow getting 1a after becoming stuck on ANTI for ‘opposing’ but otherwise there weren’t many headscratchers to delay progress. No cryptic defs, for which again no complaints from me. Favourites were the image of our alcoholic friend luxuriating in the bubble bath at 19a and the other nationalist party that wasn’t at 18d.
All finished in 6:18.
Thanks to Peridot
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions or letters in wordplay not appearing in answer shown by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Voice opposing general drift (12) |
| COUNTERTENOR – COUNTER (‘opposing’) TENOR (‘general drift’) | |
| 8 | Mediterranean country turning in waybill (5) |
| LIBYA – Reverse hidden (‘turning in’) ‘ |
|
| 9 | Social circle in crib by lake (7) |
| COTERIE – COT (‘crib’) ERIE (‘lake’)
This word seems to me to be used more often in the sense of a group of people or faction working together to a particular end. The dictionaries however emphasise the “exclusive of other people”, or clique aspect. |
|
| 10 | Either way round, she’s in order (3) |
| NUN – A palindrome (‘Either way round’) of a woman in an ‘order’ or religious community
A three-letter answer containing only two different letters but such a good clue. As well as the religious group meaning, the letter sequence and the tidy or organised senses of ‘order’ can also come into play in the surface reading. |
|
| 11 | Returned copies evaluated and split up (9) |
| SEPARATED – Reversal (‘returned’) of APES (‘copies’) then RATED (‘evaluated’) | |
| 13 | Authority in charge of football international lacking conviction (5) |
| FAINT – FA (‘Authority in charge of football’) INT (‘international’)
See below… |
|
| 14 | Half-hearted kidder’s upset and annoyed (5) |
| IRKED – Anagram (‘upset’) of KI |
|
| 16 | Wasted an age with ease in waters off Greece (6,3) |
| AEGEAN SEA – Anagram (‘Wasted’) of AN AGE EASE | |
| 17 | Post Office making U-turn after small concession (3) |
| SOP – Reversal (‘making U-turn’) of PO (‘Post Office’) following (‘after’) S (‘small’) | |
| 19 | Place for soak that’s squiffy, into bubbly? Not half (7) |
| BATHTUB – Anagram ((‘is) squiffy’) of THAT contained in (‘into’) BUB The ‘is’ in the parsing from the apostrophe s in ‘that’s’. Great surface; all the while sipping on the champers. |
|
| 21 | Train diagram covering the country (5) |
| INDIA – Hidden (‘covering’) in ‘ |
|
| 22 | Scorned shiny fragments pulled together (12) |
| SYNCHRONISED – Anagram (‘fragments’) of SCORNED SHINY | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Punctuation mark that’s part of tract (5) |
| COLON – Double definition
Another good surface, suggesting a different type of ‘tract’ entirely. |
|
| 2 | Lacking flexibility, not stopping to take in Britain (9) |
| UNBENDING – UNENDING (‘not stopping’) containing (‘to take in’) B (‘Britain’) | |
| 3 | Last train can’t break down crossing pond (13) |
| TRANSATLANTIC – Anagram (‘break down’) of LAST TRAIN CANT
Requires a lift and separate of the ‘can’t’ and ‘break down’, which the surface reading discourages. |
|
| 4 | I creep around to get set of instructions (6) |
| RECIPE – Anagram (‘around’) of I CREEP | |
| 5 | Former name given to one country’s destruction (13) |
| EXTERMINATION – EX (‘Former’) TERM (‘name’) I (‘one’) NATION (‘country’)
Nothing to do with Persia, Siam, Rhodesia etc which was my first thought. |
|
| 6 | Row, expelling hot air at regular intervals (3) |
| OAR – I think crossword land is the only place I’ve come across OAR as a verb. |
|
| 7 | Maiden over fixed (6) |
| MENDED – M (‘Maiden’) ENDED (‘over’) | |
| 12 | Picks up date in Rome to join party? (4,5) |
| TAKE SIDES – TAKES (‘Picks up’) IDES (‘date in Rome’)
Another good surface. I’d always thought that the Ides was the 15th day of all Roman months but my browser “AI Overview” tells me the Ides corresponded to the rise of the full moon and fell on the 13th day of the month in all months except March, May, July and October. Not as good as “Thirty days hath September…” but: In March, July, October, May So not today then. |
|
| 13 | Meat wrapped in iron — a match needed for this dish? (6) |
| FLAMBÉ – LAMB (‘Meat’) contained in (‘wrapped in’) FE (‘iron’)
Not that it matters for entering the answer into the grid, but the usual dictionaries all have the accented FLAMBÉ(E) spelling and don’t give the unaccented spelling. |
|
| 15 | I very much exclude feature of weather map (6) |
| ISOBAR – I (‘I’) SO (‘very much’) BAR (‘exclude’) | |
| 18 | Half of nationalist party in tartan (5) |
| PLAID – PLAID No, not the other ‘nationalist party in tartan’. |
|
| 20 | Attempt touchdown (3) |
| TRY -Double definition | |
08:26
Started slowly and then gathered pace.
LOI transatlantic.
COD Faint.
Is nobody a little tempted to say that today and yesterday were a little to easy to be really fun? There is no shame in a DNF, I don’t fully understand why the hard ones get so much hate
I will contribute the blatherings of a not-very-accomplished solver on your question.
It’s true that the tenor of the comments can get a bit more speed-oriented than really suits me, but I enjoy both easier and harder QCs: the game of “how fast” adds spice, and a quick solve adds sugar to the dish. “Hate” would not be my word for the harder ones, but when I’m stuck, the difficulty can be more unpleasant than stimulating. Maybe it depends on how stubborn the solver is. For us very stubborn people it can be bruising. What is dislikable is the occasional tendency to blame the setter for the would-be solver’s lack of ability. And that, I expect, explains the “hate”. Who wants to admit they’re not up to the mark? Blame it on the setter.
Totally agree with blue92’s comment and also with Steel City’s last few sentences
Nope. I love ripping through a crossword quickly. Gives me a great sense of accomplishment and reinforces that I’ve learned something along the way. I don’t understand why some people (and I am not necessarily saying this applies to you) feel life needs to be a difficult and testing place for them to feel satisfied.
Yes, just shows how different we all are. I love the process of getting stuck in to something that makes me think and honestly don’t care about whether I finish or not (or how long it’s taken).
Actually, on edit, I also feel that worrying about time and completion adds unnecessary pressure to life, when one can just enjoy having a go. I certainly don’t feel satisfied by a ‘testing place’ – quite the reverse actually 😆
13 mins…
Agree with Bletchley Reject – fairly straightforward this I thought. Main hold up was trying to fit “Con” into 1ac “Countertenor” as a synonym of ‘opposing’. The rest went in fairly steadily with some nice surfaces.
FOI – 1dn “Colon”
LOI – 12dn “Take Sides”
COD – 11ac “Separated”
Thanks as usual!
COUNTERTENOR took me a good chunk of my 15:57, possibly because I was hung up on the definition being “voice opposing”. Anyway, all enjoyed.
Thank you for the blog!
No complaints here, far from it! The long answers were fun, especially TRANSATLANTIC. I foolishly threw in COUNTERPOINT (it kinda parses) for 1a which cost me some backtracking time, but no frustrations, and finished in 12:50, respectable for me.
I felt COLON was sneaky but it clicked for me right away. NUN was cute. I didn’t know the rugby meaning of TRY but it couldn’t have been anything else.
Thanks to Peridot and Bletch.
So, am I the only person with 7d as Wedded? It works for me as eg someone wedded to an idea=fixed, and also a married woman is probably no longer a ‘maiden’…..ie maidenhood is over. And I had it as my COD. Any reason why it isn’t a good answer? Otherwise, I’m counting it!
Hard to get started – FOI 16a Aegean Sea but then got the bottom half sorted and worked upwards. LOI 1a Countertenor but obvious with all the checkers by then.
I’d say wedded can correctly be considered to be a synonym. But, as you say, to get the “maiden over” to work you have to change it to “maidenhood”.
That said if you’ll give me Nan as being “She”=gran and a nan (bread) being part of what you order for a curry; I’ll give you wedded 😂
I’m with you!
Mostly slotted in quite quickly, but a slight pause for FAINT. Some very nice clues in this one. 6:17.
7.27.
Enjoyable puzzle, which I did at leisure, after lunch and after the 15×15. I enjoyed the ISOBAR clue.
Perfect puzzle to go through with someone in the early stages of their crossword puzzle career.
No complaints from me today. I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable and perfectly pitched for a QC, thank you.
11 minutes.
Thought I’d had a great day with a tricky puzzle until I saw the difficulty rating and the comments of others.
Not too bad on 15 x 15.
Thanks for the blog.
Also a member of the NAN club. I would argue it works fine as an answer. ‘She’ is certainly always in my Indian order. The long answers took longer than they should have and I waited until I had all the crossers but otherwise smooth sailing and a decent time.
Thanks blogger