Time: 10:56. No cryptic definitions from Juji to either speed up the solve or muddy the waters this week.
I found this to be a medium difficulty and enjoyable QC. I can usually take a stab at unfamiliar words or eventually make sense of a def which seems mystifying at first sight, but I had no idea about the 8a def. There were a few other pieces of tricky parsing, so certainly no complaints from me that this was “too easy”.
SUE and EMMA appear in the unchecked letters of two rows of the grid but I can’t see anything else to suggest a theme or Nina.
Thanks to Juji
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bug home connected to separatist group (6) |
| INSECT – IN (‘home’) SECT (‘separatist group’) | |
| 4 | Cries horribly when pierced by tip of little bladed implement (6) |
| SLICER – Anagram (‘horribly’) of CRIES containing (‘pierced by’) L Good surface, if just a bit too graphic! |
|
| 8 | Organised rebrand for turkey farmer Matthews, say (7) |
| BERNARD – Anagram (‘Organised’) of REBRAND
Not too difficult to work out the answer but the def for this one meant nothing to me; unsurprisingly it turns out to be a UK-centric reference. Bernard Matthews (1930-2010) was an English businessman from Norfolk who founded Bernard Matthews Foods, well known for producing turkey products. The TV ad in which he appeared describing his turkey breast roast as “Bootiful” became an instantly recognisable part of the popular culture of the time according to Wikipedia. No disrespect to Bernard Matthews (RIP), but I suspect that when it became well-known, it was one of those ads which elicited a collective groan from those watching whenever it appeared on the TV. |
|
| 10 | Planned article by this writer written in papers (5) |
| AIMED – A (‘article’) then ME (‘this writer’) contained in (‘written in’) ID (‘papers’)
Sneaky one as ‘this writer’ could have been I or ME. The use of ‘written in’ rather than just ‘in’ as a containment indicator puzzled me for a start as well. |
|
| 11 | Overly large and small instruments (5) |
| TOOLS – TOO (‘Overly’) L (‘large’) S (‘small’) | |
| 12 | Game against bridge opponents is not off (7) |
| VENISON – V (‘against’) E N (‘bridge opponents’) IS ON (‘is not off’)
Good piece of misdirection. Yes, that sort of game and nothing to do with playing a game of cards. E and N standing for East and North as ‘bridge opponents’. |
|
| 13 | Told lad loudly to set down bright plant (9) |
| SUNFLOWER – SUN, aural wordplay (‘Told’) of SON (‘lad’) F (‘loudly’) LOWER (‘set down’)
Another one with a couple of confusing components, in this case either ‘told’ or ‘loudly’ as potential aural wordplay indicators. ‘Bright plant’? I suppose so as the large, yellow flower head looks very bright, the plant is named after something bright and I don’t see how ‘bright’ can be part of the wordplay. |
|
| 17 | Grief at destroyed naval vessel (7) |
| FRIGATE – Anagram (‘destroyed’) of GRIEF AT | |
| 19 | Contemptuously reject inducement close to corruption (5) |
| SPURN – SPUR (‘inducement’) |
|
| 20 | Stranger bringing Communist Party to the West (5) |
| ODDER – Reversal (‘to the West’) of both RED (‘Communist’) and DO (‘Party’) | |
| 21 | Turn from far side of embankment and pass water (7) |
| TWIDDLE – TWIDDLE for ‘turn’ as in “twiddle the radio knobs” though that’s not something you hear often these days. I was originally thinking of one of the 3-letter versions of ‘pass water’. |
|
| 22 | Time one stops working and clears up (6) |
| TIDIES – T (‘Time’) I (‘one’) DIES (‘stops working’) | |
| 23 | Ancient mangles oiled at regular intervals (3-3) |
| AGE-OLD – |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very upset? That’s how the cookie crumbles (2,4) |
| IN BITS – ‘That’s how the cookie crumbles’ as a cryptic hint
‘Very upset?’ figuratively and possibly literally. I’m not 100% sure of the parsing of this one; probably not a double def though, as ‘that’s how the cookie crumbles’ isn’t a dictionary definition of IN BITS whereas ‘very upset’ is, at least in Oxford Dictionaries. |
|
| 2 | Earnest revelling in our misdeeds (7-6) |
| SERIOUS-MINDED – Anagram (‘revelling’) of IN OUR MISDEEDS
A nice contrast between def and wordplay. |
|
| 3 | Become ruder about rowers after loss in fifth place (7) |
| COARSEN – C (‘about’) OARS |
|
| 5 | Memorise last bit of carol on organ before November (5) |
| LEARN – |
|
| 6 | Visits we heard couple eventually accepts (5,6,2) |
| COMES AROUND TO – COMES AROUND (‘Visits’) then TO, aural wordplay (‘we heard’) of TWO (‘couple’) | |
| 7 | Maybe rat’s lair surrounded by rubbish (6) |
| RODENT – DEN (‘lair’) contained in (‘surrounded by’) ROT (‘rubbish’) | |
| 9 | Not totally justified, evil men threaten mischief (9) |
| DEVILMENT – Hidden (‘Not totally’) in |
|
| 14 | Cleaning part of leg in movement from side to side (7) |
| WASHING – SHIN (‘part of leg’) contained in (‘in’) WAG (‘movement from side to side’) | |
| 15 | Struggle climbing iron defensive structure (6) |
| EFFORT – EF, a reversal (‘climbing’) of FE (‘iron’) FORT (‘defensive structure’) | |
| 16 | Mean banks abandoning Japanese video game company (6) |
| INTEND – Banks usually don’t get a good press these days, as suggested by the surface reading. |
|
| 18 | Concur, taking part in beer games after reflection (5) |
| AGREE – Reverse hidden (‘taking part in… after reflection’) in |
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