| 1 |
Check pub in charge of vicious individuals (8) |
|
BARBARIC – BAR (check) + BAR (pub) + IC |
| 2 |
Judge has sessions reduced (6) |
|
ASSESS – hidden word |
| 3 |
Member of pack or crew (4) |
|
JACK – sort of double definition. Jack is a card or a sailor. |
| 4 |
Fisherman’s position on river (6) |
|
ANGLER – ANGLE (position, as in opinion) + R |
| 5 |
Crooked looking superior I had reported (4-4) |
|
BOSS-EYED – ‘superior’ is BOSS, and EYED sounds like ‘I’d’. I like crooked looking (note no hyphen) as the definition. |
| 6 |
Speaker’s introduction was anxious and fearful (6) |
|
SCARED – S + CARED |
| 7 |
Monotonous sound extracted from monotonous instrument (4) |
|
DRUM – I suppose this is just a double definition of sorts unless there’s something else going on that I’ve missed Edit: HUMDRUM (monotonous), minus HUM (monotonous sound). Quite a neat clue now I understand it. Thanks to Kevin for the correction |
| 13 |
Harbingers of death and distressing things overwhelming woman (8) |
|
BANSHEES – BANES (distressing things) surrounding SHE. From Irish folklore, a spirit that presages death by turning up outside your house and screaming. |
| 15 |
Laid around like this, very much in love (8) |
|
BESOTTED – BETTED (laid) around SO (like this). Is ‘betted’ a word? |
| 17 |
Everyone among staff raised money (6) |
|
DOLLAR – ALL inside ROD backwards |
| 19 |
Captain disowns son who’s out of it (6) |
|
KIPPER – [S]KIPPER. One who kips |
| 20 |
Former English MP last in parliament not subject to tax (6) |
|
EXEMPT – EX + E + MP + last letter in parliamenT |
| 21 |
Singer hosted by ambassador (4) |
|
BASS – hidden word |
| 22 |
Only down-to-earth part of Oxford? (4) |
|
SOLE – double definition. ‘Oxford’ in crosswords always means shoe. |
HUM (monotonous sound) is deleted from HUMDRUM.
Enjoyed this offering from Asp- all done in 9:53 but alas for about third time this week a fat fingered typo.
LOI was JACK inexplicably as I’d anticipated the card reference almost immediately.
Thanks Curarist
The only real issue I had was trying to work out which geographical state could fit the checkers for NAKEDNESS, until I finally realised that it was a very similar clue to the ‘condition’ that caused me difficulty yesterday.
Started with ABSTAIN and finished with JACK in 6.45. COD to KIPPER.
Thanks to Curarist and Asp
Another day of staring at too many clues for too long. Kept at it and finally got there in 30.06.
Spent a long time trying to think of some obscure part of Africa that began N?K until a very clanging PDM.
Lustrum was a long time coming and then vaguely remembered from the Robert Harris books we listened to earlier this year,
Thanks Asp and Curarist
8:53
NHO BOSS-EYED. Biffed OSCAR, BESOTTED. (ODE has b0th ‘bet’ and ‘betted’; I doubt that I’ve ever come across ‘betted’. So why is it ‘let’ not ‘letted’, while ‘petted’ not ‘pet’?)
Have to confess, I didn’t really enjoy this one. Several clues didn’t really sit well, even after seeing the answer. Biffed a lot of them.
I couldn’t get away from (S)TENCH for 22a or LONGING for 11a. The correct answer for 22a still doesn’t quite work for me.
However, I did learn a few new definitions which was interesting and useful.
Maybe Asp is a little too clever for me!
Jack as in sailor! Got it. A tussle today and yet another typo to round off a week of pretty casual typing. BOoS-EYED today – not sure I managed that. 16 minutes.
15 minutes so the expected degree of difficulty from Asp. I liked the OSCAR &lit and the thematic answers to which BLEAK, JACK, DRUM and DOLLAR(fish) can also be added.
Thanks to Curarist and Asp
19 minutes. Shocking for me. I started well but was left with a nearly blank quarter where I was stuck for ages.
19:56. Just opening the door to the SCC when SKATE popped into my mind.
I found this quite hard and an odd mix of barely cryptic and ‘let’s think about this from a different angle’ clues. Being convinced that 22a should be ‘stench’ (despite not fitting) and that 23a was ‘wheel’ held me up for way too long.
LUSTRUM was new to me but easily deduced and beyond knowing that they wailed I didn’t know what BANSHEES were.
I don’t know if I enjoyed this or not. It’s good to be pushed in different directions mentally and I liked DRUM, RASPBERRY and KIPPER which made me smile.
Thank to Asp and Curarist.
17:32 Um.. well that’s what held me up. That and a jack. Oh and didn’t dismiss that bellboy until the banshees wailed RTQ. LOL at that part of Oxford.
Ta CAA
Asp always has me in trouble and this was no exception, although setter not shown. I liked BOSSEYED and NAKEDNESS. Couldn’t miss the fishy theme. Redfish and sheepshead (drums) are my preferred catch and cook fish when fishing near the mangroves – delicious. 26 minutes.
Thanks Curarist and Asp.
Not much to add to the above. I found this a tough and very quirky QC which gave me limited satisfaction and took me to 19.50. I confess that my parsing was poor – HUMDRUM, BANSHEES, BESOTTED (betted??), SKATE. I fell into the BELLBOY trap until KIPPER emerged. NHO LUSTRUM but lust was all I could find to preface rum.
Thanks to Curarist.
20:26 to finish – surprisingly quick considering that I had to biff several answers: BESOTTED (does BETTED exist?), LUSTRUM (NHO), SKATE, BANSHEES, DOLLAR etc.. Not very satisfying to have to resort to so much guessing.
I also found this tough, taking 15:45, with the SE corner particularly chewy. I didn’t understand DRUM where I couldn’t see the wordplay, so thank you Kevin for explaining that, or NAKEDNESS, as I’m never any good at straight cryptic clues. “Out of it” for KIPPER also took an age. In fact overall I was just not on Asp’s wavelength here, and while I won’t go as far as blow the puzzle a RASPBERRY, I was very far from BESOTTED with it.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
9:26. Another good one from Asp. I liked RASPBERRY and the BANSHEES. I totally missed the fishy theme, although I did spot bass drum.
Thank you Curarist and Asp
I thought it was Siouxsie!
Raspberry and the Banshees never achieved chart success. Looking back, it’s easy to see what they got wrong
This genuinely made me laugh!
Me too 😆
🤣
…and while I’m here: another lovely puzzle from Asp, 8 mins of fun. Thanks Asp and Curarist!
😂
11:07
I have read all of Robert Harris’ Cicero novels, so LUSTRUM was known, if not immediately spotted.
JACK and LEAK were my last two in.
It felt trickier than my time implies.
Thanks Curarist and Asp
First of Asp’s I have finished . Took 27mins.
Some biffed – including the hidden ASSESS.
Enjoyable.
Thanks Asp and Curarist
I had 10 after 20 minutes. Missed both hiddens. Got the eyes but was thinking cockeyed….there is an explanation there somewhere…
Thanks C & A
There is another link of sorts there too for our English readers. Never too old for a bit of school boy humour and I turn 75 tomorrow.
🙂
Duplicate post
Cracking good puzzle, with a couple of clues that I needed Curarist and Kevin to understand and appreciate. Now that I see how OSCAR and DRUM actually work I am lost in admiration. Joint CODs from me.
Amazingly (given that it was our Christmas party last night, sleep is in short supply, I haven’t had a coffee yet, I got interrupted for a ticket check and I tried to submit at 98% complete, having forgotten that I’d left JACK for later) that only took 06:30 for a Red Letter Day.
Many thanks to Curarist and His Aspiness.
Impressive!
DNF. COCK-EYED looked good, as never heard of BOSS EYED, and cock=superior as in”cock of the walk”, “cock of the North”. And at school, the best fighter was called “cock of the second year”. This botched LUSTRUM, which I have never heard of. Went with LIKERUM.
COD SKATE
I’ll see you and raise you for which of LIKERUM and LONGRUM were more ahem unlikely.
I had heard of BOSS-EYED, but unfortunately thought of COCK-EYED first, with the same reasoning. Thus also ended up with the NHO LIKERUM, which seemed a bit weak for ‘desire’, but then, what else fitted L-K-? HHO LUSTRUM, so a shame I didn’t get that first.
Dnf…
I found this tough and made a number of errors, including “Salt” for 22dn, “Smell” for 22ac and “Long” rather than “Lust” for the first part of 11ac, meaning I struggled with 5dn “Boss Eyed” and 15dn “Besotted”. Some good clues though.
FOI – 8ac “Abstain”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 14ac “Dab”
Thanks as usual!
Must have been tough when I’m in the top 100 and the SCC at this time of day
Very enjoyable puzzle, eventually completed in 20:09
A very hard one for me, and I ran out of time after 25 minutes with five left unsolved, and low confidence in several that I’d placed. Oh well, perhaps this is one of the puzzles that illustrates the gulf between experienced and inexperienced solvers.
Thank you for the blog!
Also had COCK-EYED. NHO LUSTRUM. Found this quite chewy today, parsing several after entering the answers.
10.26
Some cracking times (Plett/Templar) for what I thought was a real toughie but it turns out more folks had heard of BOSS-EYED and LUSTRUM than I imagined. No excuse on the latter as I did Classics but once LONGRUM went in, it proved difficult to remove. A BELLBOY didn’t help. I won’t go on!
Liked OSCAR. Thanks Curarist and Asp.
I knew that the word “lustrum” existed … but if I’d been asked to define it cold, I’d probably have gone for something like “mother-of-pearl”!
8:22 for the solve. On a slower day I’d probably be harumphing but have to say I enjoyed this and didn’t have to tussle with too much. Actually most of my tussle was getting to the first Across clue where I kept skipping/tabbing past it!
I was highly appreciative of some of the clues, particularly OSCAR, EXEMPT, DAB and BOSS-EYED. Didn’t like DRUM when I thought it was a double def but seeing Kevin’s explanation, I’m now okay with it. SMELT was my only cause for concern as “scent” fits the checkers and my fish knowledge isn’t that good but the clued “strong” edged me to the correct answer. JACK was loi.
Interesting week – two DNFs – one excusable, one not-so – and coming in for a total of 57mins.
Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to Curarist and Asp.
6:41
My second fastest time against Asp – behind 6:11 back in June, average against Asp before today was 11:25 – I usually find they are the toughest opponent. However, I seemed to be on my game this morning, even though I failed to see how OSCAR was constructed before coming here – very good. LUSTRUM I didn’t know, but perhaps it has popped up before around these parts – the wordplay was unequivocal though. LOI was NAKEDNESS as needed all of the checkers to finally see it.
Thanks to Curarist for explaining the bits I missed, and to Asp for the puzzle
Suppose I cheated really ‘cos it wasn’t going to be LoveRUM or LikeRUM, so not guessable, shamefully looked up five-year period and there it (obscurely) is. NHO of course; how many have?
LOI BESOTTED but same MER as others at BETTED?
Golly, so that’s how OSCAR works! Thanks Curarist.
Oh – nice to have a friendly first across clue as FOI.
I was pleased to finish under target with this one, as I thought it on the tough side of average. I only just squeaked in at 9.45, but bearing in mind how slowly I started, I’m more than happy with that. I didn’t realise there was more to OSCAR than just a straightforward cryptic definition, so well spotted Curarist. My main problem in finishing was putting in LONGRUM for 11ac, which made my LOI BOSS EYED a problem. Eventually LUSTRUM (never heard of it) came to me, and BOSS EYED (which I had heard of) quickly followed.
My total time for the week is 39.36 giving me a daily average of 7.55. The first time for quite a while I’ve averaged under eight minutes.
From ABSTAIN to BANSHEES in 7:28 via an incorrect d-old-RUM (LUSTRUM was a guess). I had no idea how the parsing of DRUM worked so thanks for that Kevin. I didn’t particularly like the cluing for SKATE or NAKEDNESS but there were plenty of other clues to enjoy. My personal favourites were RASPBERRY and BESOTTED. Thanks Curarist
DNF as detailed above, but love all the fishy answers, including DOLLAR and DRUM in the list. Did I notice while I was putting them in? Of course not… There’s also a JACK fish and a BARB. Anyone else got any more?
Scar
My thanks to Asp and Curarist.
Quite tricky I thought, and a DNF at 7d Drum where I misread the clue, decided it was a hidden, and entered NHO Trum from insTRUMent.
11a HHO Lustrum, but it wasn’t right at the front of my mind.
1d Bar Bar IC took a while to believe.
Am I the only person who always thought the expression was BOZZ-EYED?
Am I the only person who always thought the expression was BOZZ-EYED? That made 11 across nigh on impossible as I had NHO LUSTRUM!
I also tried COCK-EYED but that didn’t work either. Oh well!
I fortunately gave up trying to parse Besotted when the coach seats started being taken at an alarming rate – I doubt ‘Betted’ would have come to mind in a month of Sundays. Still, I’m happy enough with a sub-25 for Asp.
Usual mix of straightforward and left field clues from this setter, who continues to be a stiff challenge. CoD to Oscar for the parsing. Invariant
Slow but steady on this one but I managed to slot my last one in as I was walking up the driveway to the club. All done (but by no means all parsed) in 19 minutes. LUSTRUM (NHO) entered from wordplay. OSCAR, BARBARIC, BANSHEES and BESOTTED biffed.
FOI – 8ac ABSTAIN
LOI – 19dn KIPPER
COD – 5dn BOSS-EYED
Thanks to Asp and Curarist
RASPBERRY (as in the golden kind) reminded me of LouisaJaney! I wonder what she would have made of this?
As above, I found it a confusing mix. Initially I thought that Asp was being a bit kinder to us, but my last few put paid to that notion 😅 In fact, I went away for five minutes or so and came back to solve LUSTRUM, KIPPER, NAKEDNESS and BANSHEES in quick succession. I never did parse DRUM though (thanks Kevin). I didn’t notice all the fish!
About 16 minutes FOI Abstain LOI Banshees COD Raspberry got a smile
Thanks Asp and Curarist
I’m sure she would have given one to Lustrum !
Yes, I think so too 😅 I did – not really a suitable word for the quickie, although I got it from wordplay, after abandoning like and long. But I would have guessed it meant something to do with lustre, and shiny things!
LouisaJaney and her Exasperometer.
Yes, I’d say this might have scored quite highly 😅
Defeated by this. I never seem to be on Asp’s wavelength. Didn’t know LUSTRUM (I tried LONGRUM) and couldn’t get KIPPER or NAKEDNESS. A frustrating end to the week.
I didn’t do well. Boss-eyed is another UK expression that is little-known over here, and I vacillated for a long time between bellboy and bellman before seeing the obvious. I biffed besotted and lustrum, and put in drum with a shrug. I was left with the banshees at the end, which eventually appeared.
Time: 14:50
We are scarcely on nodding terms with Boss-eyed this side of the pond either.
Actually, people of my age (80s) most probably are!
. . .then what a difference a decade makes
I must say I didn’t like this one at all. A bad start (not even knowing the fishy theme) was TENCH for 22a S(trong) + tench = aroma. I had nakedness for ages without being able to parse it, where does the “demanding” come from?
Confidently tried to put in barbarians in 1d, having missed the importance of “of” which is quite often a meaningless filler word. DNK Lustrum. In retrospect it was just me not getting the tune, but that happens. Only real mistake in it is Bet=Lay, the punter goes into a bookie and bets, the bookie lays the bet by accepting it. (trust me 5 years at Corals), you lay a bet by accepting someone else’s proposal. If you think that is picky then does it matter who proposes marriage and who accepts? Lightened by some great clues, e.g. 22d, and covers e.g. 2d. Thanks to Asp and Curarist, just because I didn’t get it doesnt mean there was a problem with it.
Enjoyable. Finished all correct eventually. LOsI JACK and BLEAK. OSCAR seemed too easy. Vaguely heard of LUSTRUM, e.g. as a Robert Harris title, without knowing what it means. COD ECLIPSE, also liked BARBARIC. Knew BOSS-EYED though maybe old-fashioned.
Hesitated over the naked BELLHOP and KIPPER.
Thanks vm, Curarist.
28.14 SMELT and SOLE were slow but then I was completely bogged down with a guessed LONGRUM getting in the way. I eventually deleted it, got BOSS-EYED and LUSTRUM and realised I had seen the latter before. Bah. Thanks Curarist and Asp.
Well I filled in the answers but only understood them all after coming here.
Pleasantly surprised when DOLLAR appeared after I typed in ‘rod’ backwards around ‘all’ backwards.
NHO Boss-Eyed.
Thanks Curarist for your explanations and Asp for a tricky puzzle.
13 solutions entered in twenty minutes and one wrong! Better than yesterday but still going round in circles!
Got there in the end after crossing out BELLBOY for BELLHOP and drawing on my Irish roots for BANSHEES, about whom I was reading recently. State at 18a misled me for a while until the towel dropped or the mist parted! Didn’t really know my lustrum from my decade but lust followed by rum had to be. Enjoyable but a good 25m… Thanks Asp and blogger
7.31.
Another failure.
22 minute DNF. Put COCK EYED for 5dn and LIKERUM for 11ac.
A week that began with a 7 minute solve ends with 3 DNFs and me feeling like quitting. I don’t enjoy being defeated by a puzzle.
Not that I want an explanation, but I’m struggling to equate BOSS EYED with crooked looking. To me they are different things. I also hardly think that LUST and desire are quite the same thing, at least not in my world.
I’m too fed up to even look at the 15 x 15, which is probably just as well given it’s a Friday puzzle. 🤣 I have no confidence left.
If you are boss eyed you see things crookedly. S0 crooked looking…
Got it, thanks for the clarification 👍
I tackled this after golf and found it hard. I nodded off after about 10 minutes with less than half done, and did not time my whole solve. This was a difficult QC which I eventually finished with an unparsed DRUM- nothing else seemed to fit.
I constructed NHO LUSTRUM. BANSHEES held me up and NAKEDNESS took a while.
So lots of time spent but a correct finish. A struggle today. COD to DAB.
David