Another tricky one.
NOSH went in quickly enough, but the next five acrosses were all unyielding, and a fairly patchy solve continued right up until a bit of a stare at my last two of HARARE and CHECKOUT.
So 9:30 on the money, which is one of my slowest solves in a while (although I didn’t get a chance to try yesterday’s).
We were treated to a wide range of interesting clues and some lovely surfaces, and I very much liked it – many thanks to Jalna!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boy sent back hospital food (4) |
| NOSH – SON (boy) “sent back”, H(ospital) | |
| 3 | Investigate where payments can be made (8) |
| CHECKOUT – and to CHECK OUT is to investigate | |
| 8 | Heartless fighter lacking experience around conflict (4,3) |
| BOER WAR – BOXER (fighter) “heartless” = remove the heart/centre, RAW (lacking experience) “around” = reverse | |
| 10 | Bit of quiet on a podcast (5) |
| PIECE – sounds the same (ie, heard on a podcast) as PEACE (quiet). BIT and PIECE can both mean COIN, as well as a generic scrap, etc. | |
| 11 | What magnificent mum does, everybody repeats (11) |
| ALLITERATES – ALL (everybody) ITERATES (repeats) | |
| 13 | Greeting king in a doorway every now and then (3,3) |
| KIA ORA – K(ing) I n A d O o R w A y “every now and then”. Literally “good health” in Maori, and also (with the irony typical of what we would now call a UPF) a brand of fruit juice concentrate that seemed to advertise quite a lot back in the 80s – owned by Coke and defunct in the UK as of 2019. | |
| 15 | Schoolkids about to make mistakes (4,2) |
| SLIP UP – PUPILS (schoolkids) about = reverse | |
| 17 | Pick up certain card in Monopoly or choose Risk? (4,1,6) |
| TAKE A CHANCE – double definition | |
| 20 | Language with individual cases (5) |
| HINDI – is “cased” by witH INDIvidual | |
| 21 | Look to comprehend what others are saying? (3-4) |
| LIP-READ – cryptic definition, tricky without checkers. | |
| 22 | Suspect thug in back yard is affected by wind (8) |
| DRAUGHTY – anagram (suspect) of THUG in a reversal (“back”) of YARD | |
| 23 | Payment finally agreed for satellite broadcast, perhaps (4) |
| FEED – FEE (payment), D (“finally” agreeD) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | State banks are overhauled (8) |
| NEBRASKA – anagram (overhauled) of BANKS ARE | |
| 2 | Great surge (5) |
| SWELL – double definition | |
| 4 | Race around river area in city (6) |
| HARARE – HARE (race) around R(iver) A(rea). It’s in the top ten least desirable cities to live on the planet, apparently, just in case you were thinking of relocating there on a whim. | |
| 5 | Sort of characters making up RNVR in naval vessel (7,4) |
| CAPITAL SHIP – CAPITALS are the “sort of characters making up RNVR”, HIP = in/cool/etc. News to me. The RNVR is the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, if you’re wondering, and a capital ship is simply the largest and most powerful ship in a fleet, only coined fairly recently (in naval terms) in 1909. | |
| 6 | Old writer — with drink — starts speaking candidly (5,2) |
| OPENS UP – O(ld) PEN (writer) with SUP (drink) | |
| 7 | Those people ultimately dealt with ample criticism (4) |
| THEM – the “ultimate” letters of the rest of the clue | |
| 9 | Weirdly awe-striking sport (5-6) |
| WATER-SKIING – anagram (weirdly) of AWE STRIKING | |
| 12 | Added software programme shut down (8) |
| APPENDED – APP (software programme) ENDED (shut down) | |
| 14 | One feels soldier maybe upset the Queen at some point (7) |
| ANTENNA – ANT (soldier, maybe) and then “upset” or upend ANNE (the Queen, at some point) | |
| 16 | Story time incorporating book and iPad? (6) |
| TABLET – TALE (story) T(ime) incorporating B(ook) | |
| 18 | Relative from Greece infrequently heading north (5) |
| NIECE – “from” greECE INfrequently “heading north” | |
| 19 | Dull noise so endlessly deafening at first (4) |
| THUD – THUS (so) “endlessly”, D (Deafening “at first”) | |
Did this in 2 sessions Got about 2/3s in 20 mins at lunch in the office, and took maybe another 10 after getting home. Will try to keep an eye on and post my time in future if my generally slow pace might be helpful to record.
Found this a satisfying solve, and smugly avoided the dahl trap which I fell heavily into last time. NHO capital ship, but fitted the clue and crossers.
FOI Nosh
LOI Draughty
COD Alliterates
Thanks Jalna and roly
Oh so much better than yesterday (grand total of one clue solved). Completed with a little help, after I’d decided dalh/dahl/dhal was wrong.
So out of the rain and in a distant corner of the SCC today, hard work and at the edges of my ability. Helped by knowing both CAPITAL SHIP and HARARE.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who wrote in DAHL but was probably the slowest to realise it didn’t quite work. The NW went in quite smoothly and finished on HARARE where hare=race just not coming to me and wasn’t quite sure where the AR was going (turns out it didn’t matter).
Liked KIA ORA for the childhood memory.
Thanks blogger and setter
DNF
Carelessly put DRAUGHTS instead of DRAUGHTY. A quick start with NOSH after trying DISH and DHAL for the same clue last week!
Made slow progress thereafter and would have been well into the SCC anyway. LOI the unparsed HINDI.
One hour into a flight into Chicago and I just about finished with a sigh of relief. No problem with CAPITAL(S) and SHIP but couldn’t parse “ship” and missed “in’ = hip. Took ages to see Kiaora although well remembered the cinema (rare) treat.
Now coming in to land and change for LHR, so, tomorrow’s puzzle will be available later today, mid flight, assuming I am awake.
Thanks Roly and Jalna, nothing quick about it though.
9.13.