ParkSolve time: 35:30 on another delightful Autumn morning.
Again I have the pleasure of blogging a Saturday Joker and it’s the sort of high-quality puzzle we’ve come to expect.
Let us know how you went. Meanwhile I’m heading off for that most punishing of experiences, watching a movie with a bunch of people who have all read the book when I haven’t. Wish me luck.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics. In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Army chap destroyed source of drugs (8) |
| PHARMACY – (ARMY CHAP)* | |
| 5 | X in “waXwork” is supersized (4) |
| KISS – Hidden in waxworK IS Supersized
X for kiss being an early form of text-speak. |
|
| 8 | Trying to find roof beam when the first goes missing (5) |
| AFTER – Not the most obvious definition but I like it. |
|
| 9 | Bad smell around place is disgusting (7) |
| OBSCENE – OB [BO (bad smell) reversed (around)] + SCENE (place) | |
| 11 | Wanton unoccupied suffering change of heart in favour of one (11) |
| UNINHIBITED – UNINHABITED (unoccupied) with the middle letter changed (suffering change of heart) to I (one) | |
| 13 | Getting on, feeling the chill a bit without cape (6) |
| OLDISH – |
|
| 14 | Cowardly Charlie chased by bird (6) |
| CRAVEN – C (Charlie) “chased by” RAVEN (bird) | |
| 17 | Lure of saint leaving Italy in 1922-43? (11) |
| FASCINATION – ST (saint) “leaving” FASCI |
|
| 20 | Spear I had found in river (7) |
| TRIDENT – ID (I had) found in TRENT (river) | |
| 21 | Head of arboretum donated succulent (5) |
| AGAVE – A (“head” of Arboretum) + GAVE (donated)
As in the cactus-y meaning of succulent. |
|
| 22 | I encountered returning pair of lovers (4) |
| ITEM – I + TEM [MET(encountered) reversed (returning)] | |
| 23 | Clergyman always gripped by right objective (8) |
| REVEREND – EVER (always) “gripped by” R (right) + END (objective)
A couple of chestnuts to round off the Acrosses. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mountain, say, cut off at the top (4) |
| PEAK – |
|
| 2 | Surprise tons with a noise outside (7) |
| ASTOUND – T (tons) with A + SOUND (noise) “outside” | |
| 3 | Two fish pierced by tip of sharp metal implement (11) |
| MARLINSPIKE – MARLIN + PIKE (two fish) “pierced by” S (tip of Sharp)
Mainly used for managing ropes and knots in marine environments. On edit: Judging by the early comments, marlin is a much less recognized species of fish than I’d have thought. Have to say I’m genuinely gobsmacked by that. Just goes to show how differently we experience the world. |
|
| 4 | Crowd in church with English dress (6) |
| CLOTHE – LOT (crowd) in CH (church) + E (English) | |
| 6 | Inadequate IT holds author up (5) |
| INEPT – IT “holds” NEP [PEN (author) reversed (up)]
As in lacking proficiency. |
|
| 7 | Mailing involving poster initially paying out (8) |
| SPENDING – SENDING (mailing) “involving” P (Poster initially) | |
| 10 | Secondary route Sinbad organised (11) |
| SUBORDINATE – (ROUTE SINBAD)* | |
| 12 | Alternative to rice cold? Often it’s cooked (8) |
| CONFETTI – C (cold) + (OFTEN IT)*
Clever clue. We don’t throw rice at weddings any more, but I think most churches banned confetti long ago as well? |
|
| 15 | Struggle introducing new label showing year wine’s made (7) |
| VINTAGE – VIE (struggle) “introducing” N (new) + TAG (label) | |
| 16 | Rook cat’s chewed and half left (6) |
| CASTLE – (CATS)* + LE (half LEft) | |
| 18 | Small price paid for renting horse (5) |
| SHIRE – S (small) + HIRE (price paid for renting)
An English breed of draught horse, as you probably know. |
|
| 19 | Animal running up for grass (4) |
| REED – DEER (animal) reversed (running up) | |
13 minutes. MARLINSPIKE with MARLIN as a fish for wordplay in a QC? Good God! That clue seemed totally out of kilter with the rest of the puzzle.
I find this intriguing. In my experience marlin would have a dramatically higher recognition factor than pike as a species of fish. But other commenters support your perspective.
Commonly known fish in my experience, often appearing in television programs about fishing, wildlife documentaries, etc. General knowledge is difficult to predict but seems fair enough for a QC
Only really know of MARLIN through Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man And The Sea’, otherwise might have struggled.
19:37 Struggled around fascination with confetti and done in by the marlinspike.
TaGAJ
Marlin was easy enough with the checkers but I wouldn’t have got it without. Pike took a while even though we had it yesterday.
18 in about an hour. SW missing mostly.
I spent a long time looking at 12d trying to identify the anagrind and the anangrist and the cryptic definition.
Thanks J & G
I found this fairly tricky but manageable in the end.
Started with PHARMACY and finished with FASCINATION in 10.21.
Thanks to Galspray and Joker
8:19 but WOE, and a frustrating one at that, as after navigating a number of clues that required a bit of thought – including the little-known marlin fish – I put in OLDeSt for my LOI. A bit careless as even as I put it in I wondered about the parsing. But it didn’t (much) spoil the enjoyment of another fine puzzle by Joker.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog and a good weekend to all.
Also put in OLDEST. Garr… respectable (by my standards) 11:27.
18 minutes when I finally took a punt on KISS, I missed the hidden and thought something really clever was going on with the big X. Which of course there was.
Lots to enjoy here but awarding CoD jointly to FASCINATION and the aforementioned KISS.
Thanks Joker and Galspray
I raced through this delightful puzzle but like Cedric came a cropper with OLDEST instead of OLDISH. Clearly the latter is the better fit for the definition and clue.
KISS made me smile when I spotted the hidden and while CONFETTI was my COD FASCINATION was a close second.
Thanks Joker and Galspray. Hope you enjoyed the film.
Thanks Ian, but I did not! Nor did the smug pre-readers for that matter.
(Project Hail Mary, in case anyone’s asking).
Quite a hard one, I thought, and one wrong. Like Cedric and IanV above I went for OLDEST, ignoring the question mark hovering in my head. I liked CASTLE but COD to CONFETTI.
Thanks to Joker for a fine puzzle and thank you galspray for the blog
Slow but sure – I persevered with OLD. . . and saw OLDISH after MARLINSPIKE (ugh!) emerged. I was determined to finish and parse this testing puzzle and did so but I was a minute into the SCC when I got the all clear. I would have been a bit quicker if I had not gone for shorter/easier? clues to start with, missing the easy 1ac until later; it would have been a simple FOI had I looked at it first…. LOI CLOTHE.
Some clever clues, not least KISS, CONFETTI, and FASCINATION but I will revisit them all with Galspray’s blog.
Thanks, both.
FOI PHARMACY, POI FASCINATION, LOI CONFETTI. No problem with MARLINSPIKE. Knew both fish and the implement. Still a bit sluggish overall though. 9:06. Thanks Joker and Galspray.
I enjoyed this, though I was quite slow (20.06) but a good challenge. Marlin a familiar fish from Hemingway, though I’m not sure I’ve heard of a Marlinspike: just had to assume it was right.
Fair enough, though I’m not keen on OLDISH. Surprised Marlin is apparently not well- known – I’m no fisherman, buts it’s very familiar to me from somewhere. Presumably 13D was intended as the wicked gotcha it is ? spent ages trying to anagram “ often its “ into some weird hot rice dish, particularly as all the crossers fitted. OK mister setter – you got me fair and square! Did no one else fall down that rabbit hole? ….. Just me then – sigh.1
Thanks to both
I found this difficult but enjoyable, needing some help to complete.
I’m not entirely comfortable with “oldish”, it just doesn’t seem to be a good clue to me. However, I did answer it correctly but wasn’t convinced.
I liked the 1922-43 clue. I was a bit lost at first but I was convinced it had something to do with Mussolini and/or a dictatorship.
First lap: 9
Answered (no help): 20
Answered (help): 4
Time: 45:25
37:31 and my longest time for a QC for a while. Struggled to get going but by the end had thoroughly enjoyed it. Clever clue constructions and lots of ‘aha’ moments. OBSCENE took me far longer than it should have done and I needed the blog to understand parsing of UNINHIBITED which I biffed from the checkers. MARLINSPIKE went in straight away – I am always amazed at the wide diversity of general knowledge of QC-ers. I was fortunate today but the many music-related words usually trip me up on other days.
Thanks to Joker and galspray (I very much enjoyed the Project Hail Mary film and have not read the book either).
I think I suffered from expecting something else from the film.
In any case it prompted plenty of discussion, which I suppose is what we want from these things. And I’ve resolved to read the book.
DNF in 15 minutes. I never did get round to changing the heart of ‘unoccupied’ for 11a from an A to an I so up popped the pink square after submitting. A pity as this was the usual high standard Joker puzzle as pointed out by galspray.
I was toying with PIKE for ‘Mountain’ at 1d; it obviously didn’t fit the wordplay, but lo and behold the word appeared later, this time as part of the correct answer. No problem with MARLIN for the other fish.
Favourite was the supersized X in the cleverly hidden KISS.
Thanks to Joker and galspray
DNF CONFETTI. I eventually found an obscure pasta that fitted but it did not help! ( There is a pretty uninspiring dish served in ski resorts called crozet). Also failed on the clever FASCINATION and OLDISH.
No problem MARLINSPIKE. Liked KISS, TRIDENT and CASTLE among others.
Spent far too long puzzling today.
Thanks vm, Galspray.
9:20 (plus my first sub 30m parkrun)
Slowish start but much helped by the gimmes at the bottom of the grid (REED, ITEM, REVEREND). Took an age to spot what was going on with KISS, and bifd UNINHIBITED working backwards to understand the clue. Know of MARLIN only from Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man And The Sea’, though for some reason, the term MARLINSPIKE seemed familiar – I don’t know why. CONFETTI held out for longer than it should have – almost dreamt up that well known rice substitute FONCETTI. I needed that F to finally get what was going on in Italy between 1922-1943…
Thanks Galspray and Joker
Nice work on the run Mike. A significant milestone!
That was a really good puzzle, I thought, with three superb clues – KISS (where the surface was brilliantly distracting), CONFETTI (with a terrific definition and some very precise wordplay) and FASCINATION (hope three aren’t any visiting Italians today). Bravo Joker.
No problems with MARLINSPIKE here – David Attenborough and Hemingway to the rescue. But I took a long time to get my last three – CONFETTI, FASCINATION and OLDISH.
All done in a pleasingly exact 07:00 for a Good Day. Many thanks Joker and gallers.
24.11. Struggled a bit with this. Didn’t see what was going on with KISS, CONFETTI or FASCINATION for ages. Eventually remembered MARLIN and guessed (S)PIKE, since NHO MARLINSPIKE.
19:27 and a refund needed on my SCC reservation when I saw Joker on a Saturday and resolved to enjoy the scenery. That I did with a fair bit of solve then parse (2d, 15d), Noël Coward coming to the rescue with his otherwise NHO 3d and finally swapping WEED at 19d. Chewed over possible anagrams of a courgetti-type substance at 12d until the amused PDM.
As someone who’s only finished the 15 x 15 a handful of times, I thought this an excellent stepping stone, with smooth, clever surfaces but not obvious wordplay. Many thanks to Joker & Galspray and a happy weekend to everyone.
How does ‘ trying to find’ = AFTER?? Feeling thick in Surrey!
Not thick at all, I read it as… Goes into shop: “I’m after four candles.”
oh and ah! Somewhat tenuous !! Thank you.
I took a while to make sense of this too!
Had to reveal 12d after spending ages looking for the anagram of often its. Not unfair though, we have had partial anagrams before and ones where the letter after the apostrophe is not part of the anagrist, this one just had both. That gave me the reamaining three quite quickly. I am never suprised any more at the range of general knowledge shown, we have had Satie as a composer (known to many), and Queen as a rock band (not known to all) recently. I knew both Marlin the fish, which has a long “nose” spike, and marlinspike. A standard issue WW2 Royal Navy pocket knife has one built in. Goodness knows why, there were no ropes on the ships. I thought it was two words though.
Thanks to Joker and galspray.
Lovely puzzle that took me quite a while to finish. No problems with NHO MARLINSPIKE as knew both marlin and pike 😁 Took a while over KISS and CONFETTI. Was careful with OLDISH. COD CONFETTI for the misdirection. Many thanks both.