Time: A 20:22 DNF
No two ways about it, I found this one hard.
Not even the reward of a comfy seat in the SCC for my troubles. Twenty-two seconds over the cut-off only to find I had put in a C for the second letter of 23a. Some excellent clues though, of which my favourites were the geographically deceptive 6a and the muddled aviator in 19a.
I’ll probably be in a minority in finding this difficult and will be interested to hear how everyone else managed to get on.
Thanks to Joker
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Have drug ready for use in kitchen container (8) |
| STOCKPOT – Cryptic hint. To STOCK (‘Have… ready for use’) POT (‘drug’) is, yes to ‘Have drug ready for use’ | |
| 6 | Piedmont’s capital is a city in Italy (4) |
| PISA – P (‘Piedmont’s capital’) IS (‘is’) A (‘a’)
P for ‘Piedmont’s capital’ as in the capital (either upper case or first) letter in the word ‘Piedmont’. Go to the bottom of the class in Italian geography. I looked at this and thought “Brilliant; Pisa must be the capital of Piedmont, so this is an &lit”, but no, I see that Pisa is in Tuscany. If the whole clue were a GK question, the answer would be Turin, again something I didn’t know. |
|
| 8 | Island of Sark you’ve found empty (4) |
| SKYE – S I think this is better than S |
|
| 9 | Cease talking about Dickens’ Barnaby. Dull work (8) |
| DRUDGERY – DRY (‘Cease talking’) containing (‘about’) RUDGE (‘Dickens’ Barnaby’)
Referring to Barnaby Rudge, a work by Charles Dickens. DRY for ‘cease talking’ as a theatrical colloquialism for an actor to forget his or her lines. In a general sense for ‘cease talking’, DRY would usually be followed by “up”. |
|
| 10 | Means of persuading cleaner (4,4) |
| SOFT SOAP – Double definition
SOFT (-) SOAP as an informal term for ‘persuasive flattery or cajoling’ (OED), originally a US colloquialism derived from the second def. Far from being a write-in for me. |
|
| 12 | Large show in former post office (4) |
| EXPO – EX (‘former’) PO (‘post office’)
Phew, a not too difficult one at last. |
|
| 13 | Faster flying in attack from the air (6) |
| STRAFE – Anagram (‘flying’) of FASTER | |
| 15 | Called bird came first (6) |
| TITLED – TIT (‘bird’) LED (‘came first’) | |
| 17 | Big and impressive electronic image? (4) |
| EPIC – E (‘electronic’) PIC (‘image?’) | |
| 19 | Expert pilot circling Paris confused where to fly (8) |
| AIRSPACE – ACE (‘Expert pilot’) containing (‘circling’) an anagram (‘confused’) of PARIS
Very good. Speaking as an expert armchair pilot who has watched too many episodes of the TV series “Air Crash Investigation”, it really can happen you know. |
|
| 21 | Ruin outside of car and take the edge off (8) |
| DIMINISH – DISH (‘Ruin’) containing (‘outside of’) MINI (‘car’)
Neither DISH for ‘ruin’ nor DIMINISH for to ‘take the edge off’ were the first words to come to mind. I didn’t know DISH in this sense which is given as “informal, mainly British English” in Oxford Dictionaries. DIMINISH for ‘take the edge off’ as in to “the poor quality of the opposition diminished / took the edge off the satisfaction he felt from his victory”. |
|
| 23 | Go from side to side of small vessel (4) |
| SPAN – S (‘small’) PAN (‘vessel’)
My wrong one. I still think SCAN sort of works, as in to look from side to side, but yes, PAN is a more convincing ‘vessel’ and SPAN is the better answer for the def. |
|
| 24 | Creature regularly seen in the briny (4) |
| TERN – T The whole clue can also be read as the def, so this would do as a semi-&lit for me. |
|
| 25 | Policeman in Bridgend, armed (8) |
| GENDARME – Hidden (‘in’) |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Date to make a killing? (4,3) |
| TAKE OUT – Double definition
TAKE OUT as a colloquial term for “to kill”. |
|
| 3 | He is appearing in court case (5) |
| CHEST – HE’S (‘He is’) contained in (‘appearing in’) CT (‘court’) | |
| 4 | Minor lake yielding up new shell (3) |
| POD – PO Another one I found difficult, trying to make ‘up’ a reversal indicator (see 7d), not considering ‘yielding up’ as a deletion indicator and initially thinking ‘Minor lake’ was the def. |
|
| 5 | One praising president over damaged tree (9) |
| TRUMPETER – TRUMP (‘president’) before in a down clue (‘over’) anagram (‘damaged’) of TREE
Another one I was slow to get. At least it wasn’t one of those obscure 19th century US presidents. |
|
| 6 | Colour is good in a lot of red pepper (7) |
| PIGMENT – G (‘good’) contained in (‘in’) PIMENT I don’t think a PIGMENT (a chemical compound) and a ‘colour’ (a perception) as nouns are exactly the same thing, but they can be used interchangeably as verbs. |
|
| 7 | Bind pieces up (5) |
| STRAP – A reversal (‘up’) of PARTS (‘pieces’)
My previous struggles with ‘up’ at 4d bore some fruit with this one. |
|
| 11 | Rope needing right sailor for working (9) |
| OPERATING – ‘Needing’ here as a deletion indicator, which I only worked out after getting the answer. |
|
| 14 | Beware delaying start for sale (7) |
| AUCTION – CAUTION (‘Beware’) with the C (‘start’ (or first letter)) appearing later in the word (‘delaying start’) | |
| 16 | Call former partner with demand (7) |
| EXCLAIM – EX (‘former partner’) CLAIM (‘demand’) | |
| 18 | Quiet trip taken to see lions? (5) |
| PRIDE – P (‘Quiet’) RIDE (‘trip (taken)’)
You could argue that RIDE is ‘trip taken’ here, as there are otherwise three words linking wordplay and def. |
|
| 20 | Father’s thanks for Italian meal (5) |
| PASTA –PA’S (‘Father’s) TA (‘thanks’) | |
| 22 | Female seen in the night (3) |
| HEN – Hidden (‘seen in’) A couple of gentle ones to finish with. |
|
Feeling very pleased today in my comfy SCC chair. I avoided SCAN and knew STRAFE. So feeling pleased to finish given other comments.
Like others, NHO Ruin = Dish.
And surprised no real comments about STRAFE. Clearly most of us grew up reading war stories?
👏👏👏
21:36 Argggh!
Joker had me fooled with this one. At OPERATING I was well and truly misdirected about that R. And I had to resort to the dreaded alphabet trawl for SOFT SOAP, and I was hung up at DIMINISH with “polish” and “demolish” running around in my poor brain, and NHO “dish” for “ruin”.
The usual high-quality puzzle from J, with AIRSPACE my COD.
Ok, after reading the SPAN/SCAN controversy, I admit that if I had thought of CAN before PAN I might have been another victim. Particularly since doing the occasional 15×15 has accustomed me to accept definitions that I would describe as more than a little off. So I agree the clue could probably have been improved.
Thanks to Joker and Bletch. Special thanks for explaining “dry” for “cease talking”, I had to semi-biff that one. And to ND for the hilarious clip.
I wish it had been one of the more obscure presidents.
. . . deepest sympathy at your current predicament from this side of the pond
thanks
My miserable day was complete after I couldn’t get 5 answers and had 1 answer incorrect on 15 x 15. Blogger described it as being in the easier side!
I have no confidence left. I can’t read clues properly and get held up regularly as I can’t think laterally. My enjoyment level is at an all time low because I do not know how to improve. I attempt the 15 x 15 almost every day and I still can’t complete a week of QCs without some monumental error. I was better than this 2 years ago – how is that possible?
You are not alone Gary!
It can be very demoralising to read some of the comments on here – some people are incredibly clever!
Be happy to know that most normal folk couldn’t even answer one clue correctly. Keep your chin up!
Thanks Zatopek – I appreciate your kind words.
23:11 and all correct, if you allow SWAY for 23a, which fortunately I do. A curious mixture of write-ins and pain, and I needed help to parse a few of them.
Thank you for the blog!
So how do you justify SWAY? Where do you see a “vehicle”?
Just curious.
I don’t, but “vessel” can mean a tube for carrying liquids, and “way” can mean “passage”, which I think is arguably close enough. As I posted further up, you have to squint quite a lot but we’re used to that.
A medium paced solve for me this morning, but I spent a good two or three minutes trying to resolve TAKES OUT and STOCKPOT – it’s so frustrating when the first two clues end up being the last ones to solve, but it happens frequently to me! And DIMINISH was quite tricky too – I thought of ‘dish the dirt’ but couldn’t quite reconcile dish for ruin.
All the same, I enjoyed this – even those three, once I realised what was going on! Off to read the blog in full now 😊
FOI Pisa LOI Stockpot COD Auction
Thanks Joker and BR
A casual bird person and I didn’t see TERN, we do have it quite often, and I never improved on Sway, silly. I’d take advice on STOCKPOT as a container, it’s just a pot unless it has ‘stock’ in it I think …
Thought I’d strayed into 15×15 land in error. With only Pisa & Expo in the first 5+ mins. Luckily it got easier as I worked my way down.
But a DNF. Sway and didn’t get Soft Soap (easy on reflection- with most of the checkers) and Operating.
Thanks Joker and BR
DNF for me too, stumped by soft soap. I couldn’t parse operating as I didn’t understand needing meaning to remove and went with sway initially. Tough day today.
DNF
Didn’t even come close ☹️
I put “sway” despite not seeing how “way” could mean vessel, and paid the price!
I struggled a bit between STOCKPOT and CROCKPOT – a “rock” of crack is cocaine prepared in a smokeable form so it did seem to parse – until I got TAKE OUT, which resolved that quite neatly.