No bones about it – I found this on the harder side though maybe it was just me.
Not off to a good start as both 1a and 1b elicited the usual blank response with the rather oblique definition for 1a not helping. Nothing much came until I started to work up from the bottom of the grid and even then 11d and 22a in the SW corner were slow to come. The definition for 7d was another one which was hard to nail down and it was my LOI.
Difficult enough to feel satisfied after finally getting there. All finished in 16:33.
Thanks to Hurley
Definitions underlined in bold. Deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Militias react badly, hunting for goods? (13) |
| MATERIALISTIC – Anagram (‘badly’) of MILITIAS REACT
Definition on the cryptic side, tough anagram – not exactly a confidence builder at the start! |
|
| 8 | Abnormal feature of Montserrat I cited (7) |
| ERRATIC -Hidden (‘feature of’) MER at ERRATIC for ‘abnormal’. To me (and more importantly the dictionaries) ERRATIC means changing, inconsistent or unpredictable, which isn’t necessarily implied by ‘abnormal’. For what it’s worth though, abnormal is listed as a synonym for erratic (and vice versa) in the Chambers Thesaurus. |
|
| 9 | Mock afternoon meals, old-time ultimately (5) |
| TEASE – TEAS (‘afternoon meals’) |
|
| 10 | Evil one’s betrayer, we hear, one with something to show (12) |
| DEMONSTRATOR – DEMONS (‘Evil one’s’) then aural wordplay (‘we hear’) of TRAITOR (‘betrayer’)
The TRAITOR homophone here seems pretty uncontroversial, but then again, maybe not… |
|
| 12 | Strongly criticise extremely abject course taken (6) |
| ATTACK – A |
|
| 14 | Referring to a child’s motive (6) |
| REASON – RE (‘Referring to’) A (‘a’) SON (‘child’) | |
| 17 | In the end, sad article suggests couple lose hope (7) |
| DESPAIR – |
|
| 19 | Proletariat held back, somewhat annoyed (5) |
| IRATE – Reverse hidden (‘held back, somewhat’) in The answer (and clue type) looks familiar. See last Saturday’s QC. |
|
| 20 | Law that’s no longer strictly accurate (5) |
| EXACT – A ‘Law that’s no longer’ would be an EX ACT | |
| 21 | New red van in front of a gallery (7) |
| VERANDA – Anagram (‘New’) of RED VAN then (‘in front of’) A (‘a’)
A variant spelling of the (to me) more familiar VERANDAH. Of the standard references, Chambers is the only one to specifically mention the word ‘gallery’ in the definition. |
|
| 22 | Note race error (8) |
| MISPRINT – MI (‘Note’) SPRINT (‘race’) | |
| 23 | Genuine regret comes after time (4) |
| TRUE – RUE (‘regret’) following (‘comes after’) T (‘time’) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Not inclined to anger this person, European king (4) |
| MEEK – ME (‘this person’) E (‘European’) K (‘king’)
I had the def and wordplay the wrong way around on first reading the clue. Again, not the most obvious of definitions. |
|
| 2 | Sorry to ignore outsiders in shelter in downpour (7) |
| TORRENT – |
|
| 3 | Proportion of allowance cut short (5) |
| RATIO – RATIO |
|
| 4 | Charge account, copper’s, initially exceeded (6) |
| ACCUSE – AC (‘account’) CUS (‘copper’s’) E |
|
| 5 | Go-between’s re-entry, aim I’d worked on (12) |
| INTERMEDIARY – Anagram (‘worked on’) of RE ENTRY AIM ID | |
| 6 | Extra item to some extent characteristic (5) |
| TRAIT – Hidden (‘to some extent’) in ‘ |
|
| 7 | Following authorisations, beer event with nothing left at finish? (9,4) |
| CLEARANCE SALE – After (‘Following’) CLEARANCES (‘authorisations’) ALE (‘beer’)
As in security CLEARANCES. |
|
| 11 | Pleasant wish, ready-made? Not entirely, resort needed (8) |
| DAYDREAM – Partial anagram (‘Not entirely, resort needed’) of READY MAD ‘Resort’ as in “re-sort”. My thoughts weren’t so pleasant as I was wrestling with this not very difficult anagram. |
|
| 13 | Talk about headgear supplier (7) |
| CHATTER – C (‘about’) HATTER (‘headgear supplier’)
C (or can be CA) for “circa” / ‘about’. |
|
| 15 | Metal tool earns no praise at first in new arrangement (7) |
| SPANNER – Anagram (‘in new arrangement’) of EARNS and N I was glad to see that “spanner” wasn’t a definition for the answer BRIDGE. I took ‘Metal’ to be “made of metal”(Collins does mention a ‘metal’ and has “a steel hand tool…” as the def) rather than “used in working with metal”. Either works, though I imagine there could be non-metal spanners, or spanners could be used in working with materials other than metal. Over to you handymen / handywomen… |
|
| 16 | Determined foolish talk must change finally (6) |
| DRIVEN – DRIVEL (‘foolish talk’) with the final letter L changed to N (‘must change finally’) | |
| 18 | They’re usually in cinemas, small things to munch (5) |
| SEATS – S (‘small’) EATS (‘things to munch’)
Good surface. |
|
Approximately 13.51. I seem to be getting slower.
Brilliant QC for this resident of the SCC.
Lots of circling round the grid as letters went in, so helping with seeing answers . . . But a steady flow of success to keep me encouraged. Challenging yes, but (for me) satisfying and ultimately doable. Thank you Hurley and BR.
Oh, and a masterclass in the need to “lift and separate” (etc). COD to EXACT (if measured by level of groan as the answer was seen) or DAYDREAM because I rapidly saw re-sort (an “aha” moment)
Threw in the towel @ 25mins. Despite having all the checkers could not get Materialistic and Misprint – especially poor of me as I was certain of Mis and was looking for a race! Enjoyed battling my way through the other clues. Thanks BR and Hurley
After a poor day on QC, I flew through 15 x 15. I got all bar two in 30 mins.
30 minutes later I still had two to get!! Saw one but couldn’t parse, so put in something else. Couldn’t get the other!
This is slowly driving me to despair. I can’t catch a break here.
Very late in the day – but I took 19:32, so quite a lot longer than the main puzzle today. The SW held me up, with quite a few clues I found tough (but fair)
Thanks setter and blogger, enjoyable puzzle
Tricky. Not on the same wavelength. Eventually managed most, determined to plod on as a matter of principle rather than as a moment of enjoyment. Couldn’t work out why seats related to cinema.
We usually have no axe to grind with Hurley – even when difficult. Today, too many clues, even when answered, left us wondering….even with the well written blog.
Nevertheless, as always – enjoyed the comments.