Middling difficulty, better-than-middling quality.
Lots to like today from Hurley, including a fun bit of &lit with our breakfast NIBBLER, and a couple of decent anagrams at 14ac and 4d, but my favourite was the novelty of 8ac.
I came home in 05:21 (with a fair bit of biffing), but with the early quitch hovering around 100 it seems I found that elusive wavelength. (The value, perhaps, of tackling this shortly after yesterday’s tough 15×15 puzzle.) Much enjoyed – many thanks to Hurley!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Conservative girl with scope for teaching here (9) |
| CLASSROOM – C(onservative) LASS (girl) with ROOM (scope) | |
| 6 | Write further — parent missing outsiders (3) |
| ADD – dADDy (parent) missing “outsiders” | |
| 8 | Cutback altered at the outset for remote area (7) |
| OUTBACK – “alter at the outset” = change the first letter, so CUTBACK becomes OUTBACK. In this instance, however, ALTER could more precisely mean MODIFY, as to get from C to O we simply need to add a bit to complete the circle. Very neat. | |
| 9 | Exit permission (5) |
| LEAVE – double definition | |
| 10 | Team welcoming large playground feature (5) |
| SLIDE – SIDE (team) welcoming L(arge) | |
| 12 | British visiting new deli: everything to begin with is good to eat (6) |
| EDIBLE – B(ritish) visits/enters an anagram (“new”) of DELI; and then E (Everything “to begin with”) | |
| 14 | Out on bail, unsafe sadly, bringing heroin in (13) |
| UNFASHIONABLE – anagram (sadly) of ON BAIL UNSAFE, bringing H(eroin) in. H and Horse are both (quite possibly rather dated) slang for Heroin. | |
| 16 | Ultimately excellent party line — progress (6) |
| TRAVEL – T (“ultimately” excellenT) RAVE (party) L(ine) | |
| 17 | What may be used to trace small amount of money reportedly? (5) |
| SCENT – sounds “reportedly” the same as CENT (small amount of money). The clue could work just as well without the word “reportedly”, as the wordplay could simply be S(mall) and CENT (amount of money), but this way gives some extra clue diversity from the otherwise similar 3 down. | |
| 19 | Study tragic king, initially normal (5) |
| LEARN – LEAR (tragic king) N (“initially” Normal) | |
| 20 | She’s primarily not into big breakfasts, leaving eggs, rashers? (7) |
| NIBBLER – a semi-&lit clue, where the whole clue provides the definition, but only some of it is cryptic wordplay (as opposed to a full &lit, where all of it must be). Here, SHE’S is not doing any wordplay, which is the “primary” letters of the rest of the clue. | |
| 22 | Favourite caress (3) |
| PET – double definition | |
| 23 | In recent past? Indeed, before time, ready unexpectedly (9) |
| YESTERDAY – YES (indeed) before T(ime), anagram (unexpectedly) of READY | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Erase reference to our costs wrongly (5,3) |
| CROSS OUT – anagram (wrongly) of OUR COSTS | |
| 2 | Suitable warpath regularly taken (3) |
| APT – “regularly taken” letters of w A r P a T h | |
| 3 | Small step in vast area (5) |
| SPACE – S(mall) PACE (step) | |
| 4 | Place royal kindness transformed (6,7) |
| ORKNEY ISLANDS – anagram (transformed) of ROYAL KINDNESS.
And what kindness that we are generally given something more specific than “place.” |
|
| 5 | Factory supported by region, not half a multitude? (7) |
| MILLION – MILL (factory) supported by |
|
| 6 | On hand, a covering fabric, we hear, masterly (9) |
| AVAILABLE – A, VAIL (“we hear” the same as VEIL, covering fabric), ABLE (masterly) | |
| 7 | Owed pounds for fight (4) |
| DUEL – DUE (owed) L (libra = pound, hence the £ sign) | |
| 11 | Source of news on firm — maltreated worker (9) |
| INFORMANT – anagram (maltreated) of ON FIRM, and ANT (worker) | |
| 13 | Recollected extremely raw, sleety wind (8) |
| WESTERLY – anagram (“re-collected”) of RW (“extremely” RaW) and SLEETY. If collect = assemble, recollect = reassemble. | |
| 15 | Number, divisible by two, in animals’ home (7) |
| SEVENTY – EVEN (divisible by two) in STY (animals’ home) | |
| 17 | Foils a break-in carrying weapon (5) |
| SABRE – is “carried” by foilS A BREak-in | |
| 18 | Fuss, female friend upset (4) |
| FLAP – F(emale) PAL (friend) “upset” | |
| 21 | Boy is happy but not good (3) |
| LAD – gLAD (happy) but not G(ood) | |
Another disaster.
DNF in 25 mins after putting AND for ADD.
I am completely fed up with this daily humiliation. I don’t enjoy this because I don’t know how to improve. I spend hours trying and I get nowhere.
There is no pleasure or satisfaction in being a failure and I’ve given up on ever finding the secret which most of you possess.
How is it possible to become worse at these wretched puzzles? DUEL, NIBBLER, MILLION took forever to get and yet they are easy. Much more of this and I’m giving up cryptics!
Just to compound the misery, I failed by 2 on 15 x 15, which was arguably easier than the QC. Both were straightforward and should have been obvious.
Another wretched performance to add to my burgeoning collection.