Lovely, on the tricky side.
This is Kybos’s fourth puzzle since first appearing last September, clocking up 120, 115, and 105 on the Quitch, in that order.
This should halt the downward trend, with some cunning definitions and tricks more often seen in the 15×15 than the QC. But we also had a good number of more gettable openers and anagrams that should help to open up the grid.
So nicely-pitched difficulty, I’d say, that took me 7:45 (compared to a notch under 6 yesterday and a notch over 9 on Tuesday). I thought it was a cracker, with lots of wit and satisfying PDMs – many thanks to Kybos!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Giving seat, I moved to the end counter? (10) |
| CHARITABLE – CHAIR (seat) with I moved to the end, TABLE (counter) | |
| 8 | On reflection, treasure, I’d rather cuddles later (7) |
| TARDIER – a hidden (“cuddles”) reversal (“on reflection”) within treasuRE ID RATher. | |
| 9 | Legitimate to return age 50, having left before (5) |
| LEGAL – “return”/reverse AGE L (fifty in Roman numerals), with L(eft) before | |
| 10 | Metal coating for incinerator working (4) |
| IRON – IR (“coating” for I |
|
| 11 | Healthy concealing flings? Most dodgy (8) |
| FISHIEST – FIT (healthy) concealing/covering SHIES (to SHY = to fling) | |
| 13 | Shot took out sheltering king (6) |
| DARTED – DATED (took out) sheltering R (Rex = king). To SHOOT = to speed/dash/dart/etc; and TAKING OUT is a dated term for what the kids are calling COURTING. | |
| 14 | Suddenly drop breathing apparatus during exercise (6) |
| PLUNGE – LUNG (breathing apparatus) during PE (exercise) | |
| 17 | Despite expectations, rate fall is staggering (5,3) |
| AFTER ALL – anagram ( is staggering) of RATE FALL | |
| 19 | Finish second work — about time! (4) |
| STOP – S(econd) OP (opus = work) about T(ime) | |
| 21 | All voices express disapproval over it (5) |
| TUTTI – TUT (express disapproval), “over”/reverse IT | |
| 22 | Horse feeding device began so peculiarly (7) |
| NOSEBAG – anagram (peculiarly) of BEGAN SO | |
| 23 | Behaves contrarily, surrounded by mean people and no-hopers (4,6) |
| LOST CAUSES – ACTS (behaves) surrounded by LOUSES (mean people) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Refuge close to church and leafy glade (7) |
| HARBOUR – H (“close”/end to churcH) and ARBOUR (leafy glade). ARBOUR. Chambers says the origin is Anglo-French herber, from Latin herba grass, with the meaning having changed through confusion with Latin arbor tree. | |
| 3 | Make a mess of text checking someone’s home? (4) |
| RUIN – or, in text-speak, R U IN? (are you in?) | |
| 4 | Vegetable providing clue for PI (6) |
| TURNIP – the sort of reverse cryptic that crops up a bit more in the 15×15 than the QC: if you “TURN” IP you get PI. For the clever surface, PI is Private Investigator. | |
| 5 | Escape damage from crossbow? (8) |
| BOLTHOLE – an ESCAPE as in the 2d sense of a refuge or safe harbour; and then a cryptic hint with a (very much situationally dependent) bit of whimsy. | |
| 6 | Dog avoiding black bird (5) |
| EAGLE – BEAGLE (dog) avoiding the B(lack). B for Black as in HB (hard black) on pencils. | |
| 7 | The cop’s leg fidgets — it could stop trousers falling off? (7,3) |
| CLOTHES PEG – anagram (fidgets) of THE COPS LEG. I like the image of a jittery cop sporting the sartorial innovation of a clothes peg for a belt. | |
| 8 | Tip: try hard to change, providing limited coverage (5-5) |
| THIRD-PARTY – anagram (to change) of TIP TRY HARD. As in insurance. I needed to write the anagrist out for this, my penultimate one in, which I needed for the D for DARTED at 13ac. | |
| 12 | Armies scattered, dividing north and south — close call (4,4) |
| NEAR MISS – anagram (scattered) of ARMIES divides N and S | |
| 15 | Impotent celebrity (7) |
| NOTABLE – NOTABLE as noun: a person worthy of note; and NOT ABLE = impotent. | |
| 16 | Medical centre initially called lab investigating new index cases (6) |
| CLINIC – “initial” letters of the rest of the clue. | |
| 18 | Child, advanced learner, missing nothing (5) |
| TOTAL – TOT (child) A (Advanced: as in A-Level) L(earner) | |
| 20 | Falsely sue a son of Isaac (4) |
| ESAU – anagram (falsely) of SUE A | |
Yes, quite tricky. Could not make any sense of 1a for ages until the penny dropped. BOLTHOLE came to the rescue which allowed me to see table at the end and HARBOUR gave chair. CLOTHES PEG was neat. FISHIEST was also good, we seem to be having a lot of ‘shy/shies’ of late. Liked the textspeak ‘r u in’. TURNIP very good surface with clue included. Fun but tricky. COD to LOST CAUSES.
Thanks Roly and setter.
Looks like a consensus has been arrived at already! 8 minutes flat for this intriguing and satisfying puzzle, with a few at the top causing most problems. LOI FISHIEST, and I particularly liked RUIN and TURNIP. Thanks roly and well done Kybos.
16 minutes but I missed some of the parsing I would normally expect to include in my QC solving time, THIRD PARTY and LOST CAUSES for example. I really liked CLOTHES PEG.
The answers that were obvious were very obvious – iron, eagle, tutti, clinic, near miss, Esau. The ones that were not obvious proved elusive, particularly the bolthole/charitable crossing. I did biff charitable and stopped the clock.
Time: 14:02