My crosswording ability seems to have taken a dive over the last few weeks, perhaps due to a self-imposed reduction in chocolate intake, and this was a very patchy solve for me, despite three of the four long answers being anagrams. I looked at 7D several times and even realised it was likely to be DI????OW, but the answer only came to me when I had all the checkers. I’m not sure I’ve encountered it before. 9A might not be familiar vocab to all and I’m sure some solvers will be glad that the vowel positioning in 11A is pretty much determined by the checkers.
If you’re having trouble accessing the puzzle, it can be found here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150608/5822/
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fellow’s beginning to influence Gallery? Demur (8) |
| HESITATE – HES (Fellow’s, i.e. he’s) + I (beginning to influence, i.e. the first letter of “influence”) + TATE (Gallery?) | |
| 5 | Act the same on return (4) |
| DEED – the wordplay tells us only that the answer is a palindrome, but even if you couldn’t think of any words meaning “act” then this palindromic quality would be sufficient to solve the clue given that the checkers are the 2nd and 4th letters | |
| 9 | Error about Washington lover (5) |
| SWAIN – SIN (Error) about WA (Washington, i.e. the US state). I would perhaps have liked to see some indication that this isn’t an everyday word – Chambers labels it as “poetic, often ironic; also archaic”. It’s from the same root as coxswain and boatswain, but that connection isn’t likely to be very helpful. | |
| 10 | Pacific islanders not about to meet difficulty on way back (7) |
| TONGANS – reversal (about) of NOT, + reversal (on way back) of SNAG (difficulty) | |
| 11 | Shockingly axe grannie, as senior citizen (12) |
| SEXAGENARIAN – anagram (Shockingly) of AXE GRANNIE AS, for the word meaning someone who is 60 or between 60 and 70, e.g. Bonnie Tyler or Tim Berners-Lee, both of whom have birthdays today | |
| 13 | Answer very frivolously or with enthusiasm? (6) |
| AVIDLY – A (Answer, as in say Q&A) + V (very) + IDLY (frivolously) | |
| 15 | Like some quote Kate recalled (4,2) |
| TAKE TO – hidden reversed (some … recalled) in quOTE KATe | |
| 17 | Get dancing? Ay! In arrangement this facilitates? (6,6) |
| DATING AGENCY – anagram (In arrangement) of GET DANCING AY, for what seems to be a slightly strained extended definition, though my ownership of two left feet means that dancing is one of the activities I positively seek to avoid on a date, unless the drunkenness of both parties has reached a certain level | |
| 20 | Fabulous girl in dream, I’m excited! (7) |
| MERMAID – anagram (excited) of DREAM I’M | |
| 21 | Small area one’s leased (5) |
| ISLET – IS (one’s, i.e. 1’s) + LET (leased) | |
| 22 | Tyneside road – cosy place (4) |
| NEST – NE (Tyneside, i.e. North-east) + ST (road, i.e. street) | |
| 23 | What enhances appearance of Lorna, men think (8) |
| ORNAMENT – hidden in (of) LORNA, MEN Think | |
| Down | |
| 1 | He entertains large number (4) |
| HOST – double definition | |
| 2 | Move fast chasing second allocation (5) |
| SHARE – HARE (Move fast) after (chasing) S (second) | |
| 3 | Bitterness about shout of triumph in shelter? Cowboy wears it (3-6,3) |
| TEN-GALLON HAT – GALL (Bitterness) + ON (about) + HA (shout of triumph), all inside TENT (shelter). There doesn’t seem to be any consensus on how this hat got its name, though it was probably the anglicisation of a Spanish phrase and certainly nothing to do with the quantity of water the hat could hold. | |
| 4 | Named songbird was first (6) |
| TITLED – TIT (songbird) + LED (was first) | |
| 6 | Dictator in river – investigate (7) |
| EXAMINE – AMIN (Dictator, i.e. Idi Amin) in EXE (river) | |
| 7 | Take income from detective post? That hurts (8) |
| DISENDOW – DI (detective, i.e. Detective Inspector) + SEND (post) + OW (That hurts). This word seems to be used most commonly in connection with churches. | |
| 8 | An inane nark, annoying at first, transformed into classic work (4,8) |
| ANNA KARENINA – anagram (transformed) of AN INANE NARK and A (annoying at first, i.e. the first letter of “annoying”), for the tragic Tolstoy tome that opens with “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” | |
| 12 | He does odd jobs, hard, with many shifts (8) |
| HANDYMAN – H (hard) + AND (with) + anagram (shifts) of MANY | |
| 14 | Trainees one after another, we hear, succeeded (7) |
| INTERNS – homophone (we hear) of IN TURN (one after another), + S (succeeded) | |
| 16 | Stork, say, crossing north, to go astray (6) |
| WANDER – WADER (Stork, say) around (crossing) N (north) | |
| 18 | Girl in church originally learnt Old English (5) |
| CHLOE – CH (church) + L (originally learnt, i.e. the first letter of “learnt”) + OE (Old English). You could also read the OE as O (Old) + E (English). | |
| 19 | Numerical fact – something tried and trusted primarily (4) |
| STAT – initial letters (primarily) of Something Tried And Trusted | |
Edited at 2015-06-08 06:41 am (UTC)
Edited at 2015-06-08 06:17 am (UTC)
Favourite ORNAMENT.
Didn’t find this too bad, but originally put in Celoe and thought, that’s an unusual name before correcting myself. Also decided that Handyman was a anagram of Hard and many, but with a typo until the penny dropped. Not that I am too easily convinced of my own brilliance ;).
I think it very much depends on the day and the setter – I usually find Izetti hard.
I got stuck with three clues left. I went back to it and finally got 13a and 6d (it took a while as there are a lot of rivers and quite a few dictators).
I managed to grind out 7d, my last in by some measure -like many others it seems. The answer was in the clue and I had DI and SEND well before OW. David
Particularly enjoyed 13a.
I’m not like you lot – I suspect yre all Pacific Islanders haha – me being from London and also unlike you in that your ten minute time is prob what I take to get the first clue BUT I do finish the puzzle and do one nearly every day (from when they started). Don’t know how to speed up – my W I think will divorce me if I carry on like this – so I’m not complaining.