Loon’s fourth puzzle, a bit gentler than the others.
Loon’s previous puzzles have been 101, 131, 109 on the Quitch. I found this to be on softer terrain, with the top half being a fairly straight solve, and, despite a few stickier things in the south, I came home in a nice neat 5:55.
Much enjoyed – many thanks to Loon!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | Australian native’s time to settle down (5) |
| ROOST – ROO’S (Australian native’s) T(ime) | |
| 8 | This suggests Laura’s excited to receive love (7) |
| AROUSAL – anagram (excited) of LAURAS to receive O (love), with the definition referring to the rest of the clue. | |
| 10 | I retain peculiar disinclination to move (7) |
| INERTIA – anagram (peculiar) of I RETAIN | |
| 11 | Son follows description of six and eight irons? (5) |
| EVENS – S(on) follows EVEN (description of six and eight). As in to iron/press/flatten/even. Hands up if you briefly joined the “what on earth do eight irons have to do with evens?” club. | |
| 12 | Item from bakery and fizzy water brought up for auditor (4,5) |
| SODA BREAD – SODA (fizzy water) and BREAD “for the auditor” sounds the same as BRED (brought up/raised) | |
| 14 | Friend coming round for drink (3) |
| LAP – PAL (friend) reversed | |
| 15 | What encourages Sergio García? Endless holes (3) |
| OLE – is HOLES “less the ends”. Very nice! | |
| 16 | Chopped up wood taken for one-on-one combat (9) |
| TAEKWONDO – anagram (chopped up) of WOOD TAKEN. Can be three words or one. | |
| 18 | Having returned, make strong argument against potato? (5) |
| TUBER – reverse REBUT (make strong argument against) | |
| 20 | Herbivore’s blunder eating skinned bird (7) |
| GIRAFFE – GAFFE (blunder) eating IR (“skinned” |
|
| 22 | Unusual small portion is tasty snack (7) |
| RAREBIT – RARE (unusual) BIT (small portion) | |
| 23 | Assign everybody books (5) |
| ALLOT – ALL (everybody) OT (Old Testament = books) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reputedly boring individual teaches ceramicist (12) |
| TRAINSPOTTER – TRAINS (teaches) POTTER (ceramicist) | |
| 2 | Too lazy to work, Blondie beginning to eat bananas (4,4) |
| BONE IDLE – anagram (bananas) of BLONDIE and “beginning” of E |
|
| 3 | Restore this section of permafrost ethically (4) |
| STET – “section of” permafroST EThically. Latin for let it stand, used in editing, etc. that I first encountered in a crossword (and have never seen in the wild). | |
| 4 | Ruin wild party pinching silver (6) |
| RAVAGE – RAVE (wild party) pinching AG (silver) | |
| 5 | Sweetheart delivered sufficient melon (8) |
| HONEYDEW – HONEY (sweetheart) and then DEW is “delivered” or spoken the same as DUE (sufficient) | |
| 6 | Ascending sequence in Handel’s Imeneo is key (4) |
| ISLE – “Ascending sequence” in handELS Imeneo. KEY for ISLE from Spanish cayo. | |
| 9 | Changing sport, reply to office for recovery of kit (4,8) |
| LOST PROPERTY – anagram (changing) of SPORT REPLY TO | |
| 13 | Bad breath surrounds old boy in loose clothing (8) |
| BATHROBE – anagram (bad) of BREATH surrounding OB (old boy: abbrev. as in a school alumnus) | |
| 14 | Descend below ground, where cruise ends (8) |
| LANDFALL – FALL (descend) goes below LAND (ground) | |
| 17 | Some scores important having lost wicket (6) |
| EIGHTY – WEIGHTY (important) having lost W(icket). In the score = 20 sense, of course. | |
| 19 | Scottish child, heartlessly, in outhouse (4) |
| BARN – BAIRN (Scotting child) “heartlessly” = remove the centre | |
| 21 | Raise seat (4) |
| REAR – double definition: the first as in either to lift up or to breed; the second as in REAR-END, with Chambers defining the relevant sense of SEAT rather strangely as “That part of the body or of a garment on which on sits”. | |
I was strangely helpless for the first seven or eight minutes, getting few answers, and all of a sudden my brain clicked into solving mode and I started to rapidly enter the answers. Maybe it was just that I finally had enough crossing letters to biff like mad.
Time: 12:28
Inertia could just as accurately be defined as disinclination to stop moving!
Early arrival in the SCC by a minute. 4 am is probably not the optimal time of day for me to be puzzle solving but I suspect that had I been fully awake I’d still have been slow. A enjoyable crossword with nothing unknown but plenty of misdirection. A good number of anagrams prevented an even slower solve.
My CoD is often one that makes me smile and today that’s TRAINSPOTTER. An honourable mention to GIRAFFE and RAREBIT,
Thanks Loon and Roly
I did okay on Loon’s first appearance with a respectable 12 minute solve, but his next two took me to 18 minutes, missing my extended target time. Today I needed 25 minutes. Looking back on it now I’ve no idea why as there’s nothing remotely obscure or oblique in it. Probably just down to me on the day except that I note vinly1, as a very experienced solver, struggled just a bit. .
Saw ‘eights’ would fit and nearly fit the definition but surprising discipline made me parse more intently and there was EIGHTY, very nice. Seven on the pass of acrosses, probably more on the downs and then some mopping up. Lots to enjoy. Except I can’t (couldn’t hopefully) spell TAEKWaNDO – careless for an anagram, especially when I knew there was scope to go wrong. So not all green but a shade below 10.
I took a while to get going but then things went smoothly to finish in 10.01. I forgot what a rave was which cost some time. I hesitate to ask because I never get these things right, but is the 8ac clue giving AROUSAL an &lit? Thanks to Loon and Roly. You’re unlikely to have seen STET in the wild because it is only used by sub-editors working on hard copy as an instruction to compositors, and never to be set in type and published. These days hard copy is virtually obsolete so you’ll only ever see it here.