Time: 10 minutes. Today we have a very enjoyable puzzle from Oink to mark the return of a classic QC following some of the excesses of the past week. I hope you liked it as much as I did.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Second person falling for nightclub artiste? (8) |
| STRIPPER – S (second), TRIPPER (person falling) | |
| 6 | Husband withdrawn from Hunt inquiry (4) |
| CASE – C{h}ASE (hunt) [husband withdrawn from…] | |
| 8 | Member of Pride? (4) |
| LION – Cryptic with reference to the collective noun, a pride of lions. | |
| 9 | Who gets gran shot? (8) |
| GANGSTER – Anagram [shot] of GETS GRAN | |
| 10 | Australian state champion backing AI (8) |
| VICTORIA – VICTOR (champion) then AI reversed [backing] | |
| 12 | Couple of policemen I knocked over (4) |
| ITEM – MET (policemen – Metropolitan Police) + I, reversed [knocked over]. ODE: item – a couple involved in an established romantic or sexual relationship. | |
| 13 | Socialist darlings changing leader (6) |
| ENGELS – ANGELS (darlings) when changing leader can become ENGELS. Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895). | |
| 15 | Line the pockets of Frenchmen Richelieu entertains (6) |
| ENRICH – Hidden. {Frenchm}EN RICH{elieu} [entertains]. | |
| 17 | Complain Trump is protecting Republican (4) |
| CARP – CA~P (trump) contains [is protecting] R (Republican) | |
| 19 | A little off colour, as golfer may be (5,3) |
| BELOW PAR – Two meanings, |
|
| 21 | Practise on slow-moving vehicle (8) |
| REHEARSE – RE (on), HEARSE (slow-moving vehicle) | |
| 23 | Bachelor leaving dull country (4) |
| LAND – {b}LAND (dull) [Bachelor leaving] | |
| 24 | Old man’s sons go by (4) |
| PASS – PA’S (old man’s), S (sons) | |
| 25 | Lousy ref worried solver in particular (8) |
| YOURSELF -Anagram [worried] of LOUSY REF | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Giving lessons to Inuit in trouble (7) |
| TUITION – Anagram [in trouble] of TO INUIT | |
| 3 | Pub first, then sex, right? (5) |
| INNIT – INN (pub), IT (sex) | |
| 4 | Retired GP eating last of salami? Greedy chap (3) |
| PIG – G~P reversed [retired] containing [eating] {salam}I [last of…]. Our setter’s customary porcine reference. | |
| 5 | Sound familiar, as Quasimodo should do? (4,1,4) |
| RING A BELL – The hint refers to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. | |
| 6 | I search all over the place for sack (7) |
| CASHIER – Anagram [all over the place] of I SEARCH | |
| 7 | Reportedly witnessed incident (5) |
| SCENE – Aural wordplay [reportedly]: “seen” (witnessed) | |
| 11 | Jam-maker’s disgusted utterance (9) |
| RASPBERRY – Two meanings | |
| 14 | Former journalist, say (7) |
| EXPRESS – EX (former), PRESS (journalist) | |
| 16 | French fashion designer taking new course (7) |
| CHANNEL – CHAN~EL (French fashion designer) containing [taking] N (new) | |
| 18 | Regularly agree on North American stadium (5) |
| ARENA – A{g}R{e}E [regularly], NA (North American) | |
| 20 | Mournful cries heard in the Principality (5) |
| WALES – Aural wordplay [heard]: “wails” (mournful cries) | |
| 22 | Aussie speedster married in Brussels (3) |
| EMU – M (married) contained by [in] E~U (Brussels) | |
Yes, a nice start to the week with a very friendly offering from Oink. Pretty much everything went in from definitions with the exception of ITEM, as I was thinking it might start with ‘ID’ for one of two policeman reversed before I saw the ‘couple’ meaning: a classic case of needing to lift and separate. Liked RASPBERRY and CASHIER. COD to YOURSELF.
Thanks Jack and setter.
8:34
Very slow for some reason (just about bottom o the SNITCH). I suspect that BELOW PAR (=off color) doesn’t derive from golf; a golfer shooting below par is doing well.
Quite right. I should have realised that myself!
A golfer would be under par….
I, too, was a quite slow on this – I should have seen answers like stripper and ring a bell instantly. Well, at least I saw and parsed item right away, but I had to leave the obvious lion until last, hoping when I came back it would be obvious – and it was.
Time: 8:24
8.27, so smack in the middle of the peloton. Had to think about GANGSTER for a while but was pleased to get VICTORIA promptly, seeing I’m sitting in it. Thanks to Jack and Oink.
Getting to ‘angel’ from ‘darling’ was tough and I wasn’t thinking of individual socialists so ENGELS added a good old chunk of time at the end. BELOW PAR started life as ‘under par’ but quickly corrected. LAND and REHEARSE were were both slow to come to mind. All green in 9.33 after getting seven on the first pass of acrosses.
Oh dear, came here hoping to see comments on how tough it was. A real battle to finally get over the line in a whopping 30.45
After a nice quick start we ground to a halt and L2I Engels and Lion just wouldn’t come for ages.
Thanks!
Fairly straightforward apart from ENGELS where I had a double whammy. Like Mendesest, I struggled with angel/darling and my ignornance meant that I had no idea he was a socialist. If I’d had to put money on it I’d have linked him with Hitler’s mob.
Started with LION and finished with ITEM in 7.04.
Thanks to Jack and Oink
15:45 with a lot of time taken to rehearse Engels raspberry. Would have been well below par otherwise.
TaJAO
18.10 Slow on ENGELS, PDM with LION – needed the blog to parse EMU.
Biffed TASMANIA before realising the error of our ways and the relevance of a victor.
Not familiar with sack > CASHIER, though happily himself was.
COD REHEARSE
Thank you Oink and Jackkt
4:29 I’m another who was slow to see ENGELS. The usual neatness from Oink. No marks on my copy except the letters in the grid and my time. Thank-you Oink and Jackkt.
11 after 20 minutes, nothing after that, under par didn’t help.
STRIP CLUB on Friday, revelling in lust on Saturday and now STRIPPER today. Spring has arrived in the Setters Common Room.
Big fat DNF for me, having had no issues last week with the puzzles Jack calls excessive. Couldn’t see “angels” for “darlings” and also thought I was looking for a word meaning socialist, not the name of a socialist. Gave up in a huff after about six and a half.
Many thanks Oink and Jack.
Ah, ENGELS – took a while for that penny to drop…. Liked RASPBERRY and REHEARSE, both also confused me for a while. GANGSTER was good. Maybe this week will be less stressful?
7:11 for a fast Monday solve, with only LOI ENGELS delaying me at all. And yet another outing for sex=IT, the third day in a row it has featured. Do they talk of nothing else in the Setters’ Commonroom?
Many thanks Jack for the blog.
😂 It’s like the time Merlin was chuntering about Eton and they then put it in every day for a week.
IT is forgiven as part of the modern slang INNIT, but probably already passé amongst the South London gangs where it started.
18:35 – about par for me (neither above nor below), with ENGELS and RASPBERRY causing most difficult. Getting fed up with IT = SEX appearing yet again. At least ETON happily seems to have bitten the dust of late.
It is reminiscent of many Private Eye Cryptic Crosswords. ‘IT’ is a staple there.
So much was easy (LION went straight in) that it was really annoying to fail on ENGELS. Thanks, Jack. If we are talking about frequent entries, ARENA is surely a candidate.
My index finger plaster is still causing typos – it is so annoying that my brain is so reluctant to let my adjacent finger do the typing but the plaster is non-conducting. So, I ended up with lots of re-types, missing letters and stupid slips like cICTORIA but couldn’t see all my errors at first.
I started well but was thrown by entering UNDER PAR at first and was slow to see CAP for trump. EMU was bifd and my LOI ENGELS took an age.
Still, I managed to avoid the SCC by a whisker.
Thanks, both.
. . .another Under Par here.
How does SACK = CASHIER?!
Old military slang, where an officer being reduced in rank was “cashiered”
The verb “to cashier” means to dismiss someone from service, often dishonorably.
Reason being you were sent to the cashier to get your last wages before being slung out (You have to try quite hard to get sacked from the armed forces)
Another DNF. Breezeblocked by SCENE, partly because not convinced about CASE=incident.
7:09. Of which at least 2 minutes on ENGELS. Darlings = angels isn’t easy, I didn’t know ENGELS was a socialist, and only the unhelpful -N-E-S checkers to boot. Tough clue which made this a much slower time than it would have been.
Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.
From STRIPPER to ENGELS in 8:04. Took a while to see GANGSTER and CASHIER. Thanks Oink and Jack.
15 mins…
Could have been quicker, but got stuck on 13ac “Engels”. I managed to parse it, but wasn’t sure if it was actually right.
FOI – 6ac “Case”
LOI – 13ac “Engels”
COD – 3dn “Innit”
Thanks as usual!
Very fast then DNF ENGELS. I didn’t realise we were looking for a specific Red.
I liked many inc BELOW PAR, CASHIER, CASE, REHEARSE and EMU.
Thanks vm, Jack.
Having misread Failing for Falling, and then hesitated over the ‘too obvious’ Lion, my foi didn’t make an appearance until Exchange. The downs were slightly more forgiving, though Wales/Wails changed sides more than once before Land settled the dispute.
Victoria (after a very careful examination of the clue to confirm Capone’s absence), and Raspberry finally opened up the LHS, but loi Engles needed an alpha-trawl that pushed me into the SCC.
I’m afraid the clue for Engles and the dreadful ‘Innit’ spoilt what was an otherwise entertaining QC. CoD to Rehearse for the smile. Invariant