Not too much resistance from the Asp today, though many answers were easier to work out than their parsings. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable solve and blog. Just under 6 minutes for me.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Company allowed to keep politician involved (9) |
| COMPLICIT – CO + LICIT with MP inserted | |
| 6 | Beat player with international experience? (3) |
| CAP – double definition. In various sports when players are selected to play for their country, they are said to be awarded a ‘cap’. I don’t know if they get an actual cap, if so Jos Buttler must have a room full of them. | |
| 8 | Refer to one not in novel (7) |
| MENTION – ‘one’ here is the royal version, meaning ‘me’. Add an anagram (‘novel’) of NOT IN. | |
| 9 | Receive grant (5) |
| ADMIT – double definition | |
| 10 | Job gets son covered in dirt (5) |
| DUSTY – DUTY with S for son inside. Not sure if ‘covered’ is supposed to be wordplay or definition, but it probably works best if it’s doing double duty | |
| 12 | Ground rent is something that has been introduced (6) |
| INSERT – anagram (‘ground’, past tense of ‘grind’) of RENT IS | |
| 14 | Got brief experience of something becoming enjoyable (8,5) |
| ACQUIRED TASTE – ACQUIRED (got) + TASTE (brief experience) | |
| 16 | Judge is hardly entertaining female companion (6) |
| GEISHA – hidden word | |
| 17 | Actor killing lead character in film (5) |
| LAYER – PLAYER minus the first letter | |
| 19 | Meandering route deviating considerably from the norm (5) |
| OUTRE – anagram (‘meandering’) of ROUTE | |
| 20 | Forced setter’s model to meet daughter (7) |
| IMPOSED – I’M (the setter is) + POSE + D | |
| 22 | This woman and that man are naked (3) |
| HER – HE + [ |
|
| 23 | Orange, light brown and green I mixed up (9) |
| TANGERINE – TAN + anagram (‘mixed up’) of GREEN I. Obviously a tangerine is not an orange, but as colours they are similar. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Clown’s trick spread by newspapers and TV perhaps (8) |
| COMEDIAN – CON (trick) ‘spread’ (i.e opened up) by MEDIA | |
| 2 | Masculine article? (3) |
| MAN – M (masculine) + AN (article), plus the whole thing is the definition (an &lit). | |
| 3 | People not belonging to the clergy abandoned Italy (5) |
| LAITY – anagram (‘abandoned’) of ITALY | |
| 4 | What may be taken into account for payment? (13) |
| CONSIDERATION – double definition. ‘Consideration’ means payment in legal contexts. For a contract to exist, some sort of consideration has to be paid, which is why completely bankrupt companies get bought for £1 rather than being given away. | |
| 5 | End of freight trains disrupted movement of goods (7) |
| TRANSIT – T + anagram (‘disrupted’) of TRAINS | |
| 6 | Appeared covered in spots? Unwilling to be photographed (6-3) |
| CAMERA-SHY – CAME RASHY | |
| 7 | Top athletes going round track (4) |
| PATH – another hidden word, which I took ages to spot | |
| 11 | Separate witness providing case for search (9) |
| SEQUESTER – SEER (witness) outside QUEST (search) | |
| 13 | Resent move to imprison beggars periodically (8) |
| BEGRUDGE – BUDGE (move) ‘imprisons’ the alternate letters of bEgGaRs | |
| 15 | Small creature visited by quiet vet (7) |
| INSPECT – INSECT ‘visited’ by P | |
| 17 | Fault in circuits on radio (5) |
| LAPSE – sounds like LAPS | |
| 18 | I’m surprised silence follows game (4) |
| GOSH – SH after GO | |
| 21 | Go downhill rapidly and almost lose control of vehicle (3) |
| SKI – SKI[ |
|
Really enjoyed this one, it had a few challenges – COMEDIAN, SEQUESTER and DUSTY spring to mind – but nothing that really stumped me.
Started with COMPLICIT and finshed with ADMIT in 7.21. COD to CAMERA SHY.
Thanks to Curarist and Asp
Yes I agree, some clues easier to solve than parse. I never parsed MENTION (one = me is a new trick to me, but obvious when pointed out), or HER – my excuse for the latter is that it was my LOI and so I got the “game over” screen straight away. The two definitions in ADMIT were also both slow to emerge. But all done in a pleasing 11:27 for a nice start to Friday. COD to the very clever CAMERA-SHY.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
18:17 for the solve for the Quitch. About what I’d expect from Asp on a Friday. Took twice as long as any of this week’s puzzle but a decent challenge. Just a general undermined feeling of confidence throughout – couldn’t have told you the meaning of SEQUESTER or LAITY – the latter missed it was an anagram and though I was being expected to do something clever with inserting IT into LAY. Missed the hidden GEISHA until it was LOI. A lot going on in many of today’s clues.
The week coming in just under 53mins but two DNFs both of which were a bit silly. That killed a streak of 34 solves – interesting that I’m always a bit sloppier when they are going in fast as they have this week than when they are struggle as they were in April.
Thanks to Curarist and Asp. Have a good weekend everybody 👍
I was initially slow to make progress with this puzzle. I was frustrated but, for some reason, soldiered on. The answers seem to come slowly but my pace picked up gradually. My LOsI were MENTION and COMEDIAN and I was relieved to find that I had avoided the SCC by a minute or two (my entry had seemed inevitable early on).
Not a friendly QC for some of us but a correct finish gave some satisfaction in the end so thanks to Asp for a Friday challenge. It makes a change for me to finish an Asp NVQC in under 20 mins.
Thanks to Curarist; I clearly found it more of a challenge than he did. I bifd a couple so I will now explore his blog to check some post-solve parsing.
19mins for a fully parsed Friday Asp suggests that our setter has turned over a new leaf/shed a skin, or I was very lucky: either way I’ll bank the sub-20, especially as the 18th minute was spent spotting the hidden Path 😉
1ac/d and both long answers went in with barely a crosser in sight, and after that it was just a case of using the starters to best effect. Geisha was a lucky spot, and I always thought Sequester was more like ‘seize’, but I suppose ‘separate’ works just as well.
CoD to the early front runner, Camera Shy, though I did also like the surface of Inspect. Invariant
Very much on Asp’s wavelength today, finishing in 9:57, with LOI ADMIT.
PATH was very well hidden – I wasted time trying to make PROS make sense.
Thanks Curarist and Asp
Completed in a tad under 50 minutes. I can’t claim solved as my first one in was a bifd camera-shy.
It’s another thanks to C&A
13 minutes
7.47 – so the toughest of the week, but not too hard.
Enjoyable throughout. I liked BEGRUDGE and COMEDIAN best.