I found this quite tough.
Plenty of tricky clueing, a few uncommon words, some crosswordese, and a couple of random names thrown in the mix for good measure. Yup, after a run of fourteen somewhat gentler puzzles, Izetti seems to have thought it time to revert to type and stretch us a bit. Indeed, we have to go all the way back to February for a 100+ on the quitch from him (124 in QC2905).
Perhaps I was just way off the wavelength (my wavelengthometer has been a bit skew-whiff of recent), but this was my slowest solve for a while at a touch under 10 minutes, compared to 6:30 or so for yesterday’s done just before. All much enjoyed however – many thanks to Izetti!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Carol keeping company with two females expressing derision (8) |
| SCOFFING – to CAROL = to sing, keeps CO(mpany) and FF (two females) | |
| 6 | Headgear attached to front of enormous cloak (4) |
| CAPE – CAP (headgear) attached to E (“front” of Enormous) | |
| 8 | Name of man, ’elpfully nearby? (4) |
| ANDY – HANDY = Helpfully nearby, drop the aitches. | |
| 9 | Planned a short road around mountains (8) |
| ARRANGED – A, RD (“short” road) around RANGE (mountains). A good example of how an extra, superfluous word creates extra difficulty: we are very used to RD = road; having SHORT in there is not designed to help us! | |
| 10 | Girl learning to install shower? (8) |
| LORRAINE – LORE (learning) to install RAIN (shower, as a verb). Easier if you were able to recall the LORE in the ENROL clue yesterday. | |
| 11 | Cunning male dropping off front of procession? (4) |
| ARCH – M(ale) drops off front of |
|
| 13 | Celebrities are pointless, I suspect (13) |
| PERSONALITIES – anagram (suspect) of ARE POINTLESS I | |
| 16 | Tea? This writer is provided with beer mostly (4) |
| MEAL – ME (this writer) is provided with AL |
|
| 17 | Pupil at one sort of school — unhappy creature with nothing to eat (8) |
| BLUECOAT – BLUE (unhappy) CAT (creature) with O (nothing) eaten. I was looking for anagram of CREATURE and O. News to me: a pupil at a BLUECOAT SCHOOL, a type of charity school set up in the 1500s, a number of which are ongoing. | |
| 19 | The daughter crossing stream is very happy (8) |
| THRILLED – THE D(aughter) crosses RILL (stream) | |
| 21 | One small island providing shelter for black bird (4) |
| IBIS – I (one) IS. (“small” Island) provides shelter for B(lack). | |
| 22 | Skilful son of Eve reportedly (4) |
| ABLE – sounds “reportedly” the same as ABEL (sone of Eve). | |
| 23 | Clever upstart we care about is being imprisoned (8) |
| WISEACRE – anagram (about) of WE CARE, with IS being imprisoned. From the Dutch for WISE SAYER (wijsseggher), with an unexplained shift to ACRE. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Partially recant one’s explicit language (9) |
| CANTONESE – “Partially” reCANT ONES Explicit | |
| 3 | Waiting area for receiving you (5) |
| FOYER – FOR receives YE | |
| 4 | I chat endlessly — Scot, maybe or European (7) |
| ITALIAN – I TALk (chat “endlessly”) IAN (Scot, maybe). I couldn’t get IBERIAN out of my head, and was wondering what on earth other European there was that could fit I _ _ _ I A N. | |
| 5 | Eat too much — deep depression? (5) |
| GORGE – double definition | |
| 6 | Meeting prisoner with diplomacy (7) |
| CONTACT – CON (prisoner) with TACT (diplomacy) | |
| 7 | Food needing to be cooked? It’s easy, they say (3) |
| PIE – from the saying “As easy as pie.” | |
| 12 | French knight, honoured companion I reveal abroad (9) |
| CHEVALIER – CH (Companion of Honour = honoured companion) and an anagram (abroad) of I REVEAL | |
| 14 | Cross sailor with hot temper (7) |
| SALTIRE – SALT (sailor) with IRE (hot temper) | |
| 15 | Learner so rude about holy site in France (7) |
| LOURDES – L(earner) and an anagram (about) of SO RUDE | |
| 17 | Inferior to be despicable (5) |
| BELOW – BE hiding successfully in plain sight and LOW (despicable) | |
| 18 | Country chum (5) |
| CHINA – rhyming slang for MATE (chum) | |
| 20 | Mischief-maker beginning to harass old boy (3) |
| HOB -H (“Beginning” to Harass) OB = Old Boy, of a school etc. Wiki tells me that HOB is a diminutive of Robin, itself a diminutive of Robert: apparently hobs (and their related hobgoblins) were mischievous household sprites that would do bits and bobs around the house at night, and were quick to take offence. To make them seem less frightening, they were given breezy little nicknames, and the name that happened to stick was Hob. | |
The most famous Bluecoat school I’m told is Christ’s Hospital, in London for 400 years but since 1901 at Horsham. Old Boys from the old days include Lamb, Coleridge and Leigh Hunt, and in recent times Bernard Levin, Colin Davies and Barnes Wallis to name a few. They uniquely still wear the uniforms.
8:31. Puzzle of two halves, north easy, south quite tricky! NHO WISEACRE nor BLUECOAT, but cluing was fair and perhaps generous. Really enjoyed overall.
Another horrific day.
27 minutes, at least 10 of which spent on BLUECOAT. NHO this or WISEACRE.
Got a pathetic 8 clues on 15 x 15. How bad is that?
As I said yesterday, you either have it or you don’t with cryptic puzzles, and I most definitely don’t. My brain doesn’t read clues correctly and I am frankly blundering around.
I don’t think it is possible for me to ever achieve anything approaching competence here. I simply do not have the natural talent to compete.
The SE corner was a complete pile of sh*t.