This one took me a long time: 24:27, practically double my average. After my first pass through the acrosses I had precisely two answers: TRAGIC and ROCK AND ROLL. Things picked up when 6 of the first 7 down clues went in at first look and then slowed to a crawl again, finally finishing with an alphabet trawl to find WAFFLE. But looking at the clues, there’s nothing really fiendish here, so maybe I was just having an off-day.
One opinion I’ll offer: two sets of linked clues is two sets too many.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bristle, awfully sore (7) |
| BLISTER – (BRISTLE)* | |
| 5 | Weakness in gripper? (4) |
| VICE – A double definition. | |
| 7 | Go on, have it for breakfast! (6) |
| WAFFLE – A definition and a cryptic hint, or two definitions? Doesn’t really make any difference.
This was my last one in. On my first pass through, I pencilled in EGGING, as in “on”, even though it didn’t really parse. Fortunately that didn’t survive contact with 1d. |
|
| 8 | Deadly time to spread message (6) |
| MORTAL – T (time) inside (spreading; making wider) MORAL (message). | |
| 9 | Choir’s range is extraordinary — you can bet on it! (5,6) |
| HORSE RACING – (CHOIR’S RANGE)* | |
| 10 | Pledge I have, I say! (2,4) |
| MY WORD – I think this is MY (I have) + WORD (I say), but I’m not really convinced by either half of that parsing. | |
| 12 | Very sad US soldier in wagon, retreating (6) |
| TRAGIC – GI (US soldier) in CART (wagon), reversed [retreating].
This was the first one I was confident of. |
|
| 14 | Music the fate of Sisyphus? (4,3,4) |
| ROCK AND ROLL – Another one that could be a DD or a definition and a cryptic hint.
Sisyphus, as you’ll remember, was the character in Greek mythology condemned to always push a ROCK up a hill and then have it ROLL down again. |
|
| 17 | Seek a part of a church (6) |
| ASPIRE – A (in the clue) + SPIRE (part of a church). | |
| 18 | Said leader of opposition decorated after victory (6) |
| VOICED – V for victory, + O (first letter [leader] of Opposition) + ICED (decorated, as cakes).
Is V for victory just from Churchill? I’m struggling to think of anywhere where V is used as a substitute for victories: in league tables it is “W” for “wins” not “V” for “victories”. |
|
| 20 | Run over wild animal (4) |
| WOLF – FLOW (run), reversed [over]. | |
| 21 | 1 down, say, exhausted having crushed old monarch (7) |
| SERPENT – SPENT (exhausted) including [having crushed] ER (old monarch).
I’m not 100% convinced that ‘having crushed’ can really mean ‘including’, but I can’t see anything else here. This is part of the first of our two sets of linked clues today. If, like me, you got here before you looked at 1 down, you probably also just passed over this one with a shrug. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Finish off swine, reptile (3) |
| BOA – BOA |
|
| 2 | Fire in plant, out initially (7) |
| INFERNO – IN (in the clue), FERN (plant) + O Didn’t we have “fern” in a clue just yesterday? |
|
| 3 | Yonder tree seen briefly in which he hides (5) |
| THERE – HE is hiding inside TRE |
|
| 4 | Sheep with gasp rearing up (7) |
| RAMPANT – RAM (sheep) + PANT (gasp).
“Rampant” in heraldry means an animal is standing on its hind legs. Like this (src: Wikipedia):
|
|
| 5 | Maestro, drive round the bend (5) |
| VERDI – (DRIVE)* | |
| 6 | Cleaner part of fish that’s about right for cook (9) |
| CHARGRILL – CHAR (cleaner) + GILL (part of fish) containing [about] R (right).
Does anyone actually use the word “char” in this sense today, or is it only seen in crosswords? I tend to the latter opinion. |
|
| 9 | Spell words in prose they misspelt (3,6) |
| HEY PRESTO – (PROSE THEY)*
That’s “spell” as in “magic spell”, not the verb “to spell”. |
|
| 11 | Underwear — chest items? (7) |
| DRAWERS – A double definition that took me far far too long to spot. Don’t ask.
The second definition is as in “a chest of drawers”, of course. |
|
| 13 | Cuckoo is gone, a worry (7) |
| AGONISE – (IS GONE A)*
Not a wasted letter in this clue. Nice one. |
|
| 15 | First one put in cooker (5) |
| CHIEF – I (one) in CHEF (cooker – one who cooks).
I’d been doing these puzzles for a long time before I realized (or someone told me) that I = one isn’t just because “I” looks like “1”: it’s also 1 in Roman numerals. Just saying, in case I’m not the only person… |
|
| 16 | Bird 5 down stuffed (5) |
| DIVER – (VERDI)* (the answer to 5 down)
I think “stuffed” as an anagram indicator has to be a nod to the “..in that case we’re stuffed” colloquial usage. The second of our two sets of linked clues. |
|
| 19 | Polish off the extra dessert, last of all (3) |
| EAT – last letters of |
|
MY WORD: I read this as my word=pledge I have, ‘I say!’=MY WORD.
Is ‘Hey presro!’ a spell? And does any magician still say it?
I’ve always thought that one=I in that it’s used–by certain people–as ‘I’: one would think that …, etc. There’s a Monty Python sketch on this.
Nice one Doof with the Rampant pic. I just wonder if the clue for ‘My Word’ is a triple def? Can you substitute ‘I have’ for ‘My Word’?
The QUITCH shows that this puzzle is harder than yesterday, but I found it easier. A MER at Verdi as a maestro, a smile at rock and roll, and a shrug at the multiple cross-references. I just took the clue for my word as a double definition; pledge I have is my word, and I say as an expression of surprise is equivalent to my word.
Time: 11:22
18 minutes for the second consecutive day. Hm. On days like this it’s worth remembering that Mara is one of The Guardian’s most devious of setters (as Paul).
I’ll be kind and simply say I didn’t have a particularly enjoyable time with this puzzle.