Time: 10:06
The ever-reliable Teazel. Not too hard but with a few speed bumps along the way.
There were a few write-ins but I found many of the clues needed some thought. Nothing unfair or too difficult and a nice way to spend some time inside on a day here for which a maximum temperature of 44° – that’s nearly 112° in the old money – has been forecast.
Thanks to Teazel
Definitions underlined in bold, letters in wordplay not appearing in answer or deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dance curtailed by proper royal residence (8) |
| BALMORAL – BAL |
|
| 5 | Grand decay producing rubbish (4) |
| GROT – G (‘Grand’) ROT (‘decay’) | |
| 8 | Being alone outside, wandering around lake (8) |
| SOLITUDE – Anagram (‘wandering) of OUTSIDE containing (‘around’) L (‘lake’) | |
| 9 | Boundary shrubs trimmed at front and side (4) |
| EDGE – One of the speed bumps. For such an innocent looking clue this was surprisingly difficult to parse. I wondered if the whole clue was the definition, but that would hardly be cryptic, or if it was an unusual clue with two definitions – ‘Boundary’ and ‘side’ – and the wordplay as just ‘shrubs’ giving HEDGE, with ‘trimmed at front’ indicating the first letter deletion. This is over-complicating things though and I doubt this is what Teazel intended. |
|
| 11 | Obvious some applause means faultless performance (5,5) |
| CLEAR ROUND – CLEAR (‘Obvious’) ROUND (‘some applause’)
For example, in a horse show jumping competition. |
|
| 14 | Old, crowded Danish city (6) |
| ODENSE – O (‘Old’) DENSE (‘crowded’) | |
| 15 | Intelligence chief’s name for emoji (6) |
| SMILEY – Double definition
For the first def, George Smiley, the spymaster in John Le Carré’s novels. For the second, I think I used one… once. Well, only a few (defined very elastically) times anyway. |
|
| 17 | Was a Spice Girl performing nothing on this instrument? (10) |
| DIDGERIDOO – DID GERI DO (‘Was a Spice Girl performing’) O (‘nothing’)
Parsing the first bit of the wordplay together, rather than as separate words seems to make this easier to explain. GERI for Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (even I knew that), now married to Christian Horner, formerly of Red Bull F1. |
|
| 20 | Vestment right to go with medal (4) |
| ROBE – R (‘right’) OBE (‘medal’) | |
| 21 | Very personal hint (8) |
| INTIMATE – Double definition
A homograph but not a homophone. |
|
| 22 | Depicted Scottish saint, omitting a name (4) |
| DREW – Deletion of A (‘a’) and N (‘name’). St. Andrew, the apostle and the patron saint of Scotland – since 1320 according to Wikipedia. I think we had a discussion here relatively recently about N for ‘name’; I can’t recall the details but it was given the TfTT seal of approval. |
|
| 23 | Emotionally arouse boy entertaining sorceress (6,2) |
| SWITCH ON – SON (‘boy) containing (‘entertaining’) WITCH (‘sorceress’) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Transport tons in chest (4) |
| BUST – BUS (‘Transport’) T (‘tons’)
No, not the buried treasure sort of chest as the surface would have us believe. |
|
| 2 | Three learners welcoming university’s reduction in activity (4) |
| LULL – L L L (‘Three learners’) containing (‘welcoming’) U (‘university’) between the first and second L’s. | |
| 3 | Dismissed from lesson, could one say, nothing like as good as the others? (10) |
| OUTCLASSED – Definition with cryptic hint.
Someone ‘Dismissed from lesson’ could be said to be (‘could one say’) OUTCLASSED – or sort of anyway. |
|
| 4 | From the heights of Peru, a new cathedral head (6) |
| ANDEAN – A (‘a’) N (‘new’) DEAN (‘cathedral head’)
In yesterday’s 15×15 we had a RURAL DEAN, a senior parish priest in the Roman Catholic and Anglican church. According to Birketts Ecclesiastical website, referring to the C of E, a Dean is “the senior member of the clergy team at the Cathedral, and heads the Cathedral Chapter and its senior management team. The Dean will also be the senior member of clergy within a Diocese after the Diocesan Bishop”. Something I’ve learnt today. |
|
| 6 | Counter-bid from rebel duo failing (8) |
| REDOUBLE – Anagram (‘failing’) of REBEL DUO
Something else I’ve learnt today. REDOUBLE is a term used, as a verb or noun, in (the card game) Bridge: “(a call that) double(s) a bid already doubled by an opponent” (Oxford Dictionaries). |
|
| 7 | Regular occurrences of dust easy to transform (8) |
| TUESDAYS – Anagram (‘to transform’) of DUST EASY
“I play golf (on) Tuesdays” indicates this is a ‘regular occurrence’ or maybe it’s simpler than that and just referring to TUESDAYS as ‘regular occurrences’, occurring every seven days. |
|
| 10 | Is one’s playing career on the slide? (10) |
| TROMBONIST – Cryptic definition
Definitely another speed bump. I had the right idea but couldn’t get the guitar playing technique out of my head until I had a few crossing letters. My COD. |
|
| 12 | Mused about pool before first of dives (8) |
| PONDERED – POND (‘pool’) ERE (‘before’) D |
|
| 13 | Possible to interpret assortment of bread and ale (8) |
| READABLE – Anagram (‘assortment’) of BREAD ALE | |
| 16 | To separate wheat from chaff is instant success? (6) |
| WINNOW – An ‘instant success’ would be a WIN NOW
The question mark maybe indicating a cryptic hint. |
|
| 18 | Heavy blow for party (4) |
| BASH – Double definition | |
| 19 | Somewhat safer nutrient for plant not flowering (4) |
| FERN – Hidden (‘Somewhat’) in Having ‘not flowering’ as part of the def was a bonus and did help me to see the answer. |
|
14:06 for this enjoyable solve capped by a comedy of errors. The perils of on-line solving led to a stray B appearing in the grid (by magic!), leaving me staring hopelessly at OB_E_S_ [on edit, actually it must have been OBE_S_] at LOI 14a. At long last I asked myself how it got there, and the answer appeared. Moreover, I thought of 21 INTIMATE immediately but somehow believed it wouldn’t fit. I need a minder. As usual the (I assume) sports term CLEAR ROUND was unknown to me but it was a fair clue. Ditto for the (I suppose) bridge term REDOUBLE. Ditto for SWITCH ON. Loved DIDGERIDOO. TUESDAYS was sly.
Thanks Teazel and Bletch 🙂
I’ve occasionally noticed before that I solve better when I’m very tired, and judging from the comments that seems to hold today. A bit below my average at 13:47 and no real problems except ODENSE, which I bunged in with crossed fingers.
Thank you for the blog!
Cruising towards a 15 min finish but fail in Didgeridoo (cracking clue). Thanks all
Totally missed that saint was already in the clue and thought we were removing STAN (a name) from ST. ANDREW.
Far too difficult for a “quick cryptic” which is nothing new. Grids such as this are just a little ‘time trial’ for expert solvers to massage their egos. Does the crossword Editor ever take notice of this blog or is he/she one of the boffins ?
Quick and fun but a OUTCLASSES means I was OUTCLASSED on this one.
COD DIDGERIDOO although I can’t help but think of a certain TV personality when I see that word.
Thanks blogger and setter.
19:21 Just left Melbourne for Sydney which is cooler but still got a bust didgeridoo.
Ta BRAT
13 minutes.
6 short on 15 x 15.
Week still a washout after yesterday’s disaster.
12:06. NHO Odense which took quite a while to get in the end.