A few unusual words in this one that may cause problems for those who aren’t yet grizzled crossword veterans. I’m talking about 23A and 1D in particular. As such, I would put this at the harder end of the spectrum but be warned that my assessment of such things has been shown to be way off beam on occasion.
The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20150914/9713/
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Unfeeling in a way to mention retiring (9) |
| APATHETIC – A + PATH (way) + reversal (retiring) of CITE (mention) | |
| 6 | Sent back rotten fish (3) |
| DAB – reversal (Sent back) of BAD (rotten) | |
| 8 | Difficult to understand relative with what’s inside ears (7) |
| UNCLEAR – UNCLE (relative) + {e}AR{s} (what’s inside ears, i.e. the letters inside the word “ears”). Good surface. | |
| 9 | Thus beer made half-heartedly is not drunk (5) |
| SOBER – SO (Thus) + BE{e}R (beer made half-heartedly, i.e. the word “beer” with only one of its two middle letters) | |
| 10 | Talk with pensioner upset about tasteless articles (12) |
| PRESENTATION – anagram (upset) of PENSIONER, around TAT (tasteless articles) | |
| 12 | Eurozone’s leader involved in nuisance with a former currency (6) |
| PESETA – E (Eurozone’s leader, i.e. the first letter of “Eurozone”) in PEST (nuisance), + A. According to Wikipedia, as of ~2011 there were still about €1.7 billion worth of pesetas floating around, though holders have until 2020 to convert them. | |
| 13 | Memorised Shakespearean role prior to National Theatre (6) |
| LEARNT – LEAR (Shakespearean role, referring to King Lear) + NT (National Theatre). Though NT is in Chambers and is pretty straightforward to guess at from “National Theatre”, I’m not sure I’ve seen it used much (or even at all) in the main cryptic. | |
| 16 | Bold and imaginative Greens in trip for recycling (12) |
| ENTERPRISING – anagram (for recycling) of GREENS IN TRIP | |
| 19 | Small piece of land has a tenant? (5) |
| ISLET – IS LET (has a tenant) | |
| 20 | Working lazily, not beginning to be inadequate (7) |
| LACKING – {s}LACKING (Working lazily, not beginning, i.e. the word “slacking” without its first letter) | |
| 22 | Take the sun over in Anatolia (3) |
| TAN – reversed hidden (over in) in ANATolia. Perhaps a more realistic surface reading with Anatolia rather than, say, Inverinate. | |
| 23 | Popular leader gambled over reversing EU move (9) |
| DEMAGOGUE – reversal (over) of GAMED (gambled) + reversal (er, reversing) of EU + GO (move). It’s very tempting to begin this with DEMO- as per other words from the same root, but fortunately the wordplay doesn’t allow it. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A strange plant (4) |
| ARUM – A + RUM (strange). Chambers: “1. A perennial plant of the cuckoo pint or wake-robin genus Arum, 2. Any of several related plants, esp the arum lily”. Tracy clued this in Quicky 71 in June of last year as “A strange plant with arrow-shaped leaves” though I would doubt if that extra detail was the difference between solving or not solving the clue. | |
| 2 | Agrees with account over beheaded noblemen (7) |
| ACCORDS – ACC (account) + {l}ORDS (beheaded noblemen, i.e. “lords” without the first letter) | |
| 3 | Gardening tool regularly available in chrome (3) |
| HOE – alternate letters (regularly available) of cHrOmE | |
| 4 | King working in the queen’s seat? (6) |
| THRONE – R (King) + ON (working), all inside THE | |
| 5 | Arrange a test scan for sound generators (9) |
| CASTANETS – anagram (Arrange) of A TEST SCAN. Not easily guessable from just the definition. | |
| 6 | Name key island Emirate (5) |
| DUBAI – DUB (Name) + A (key, as in a musical key) + I (island) | |
| 7 | Ban on alien hereditary title (7) |
| BARONET – BAR (Ban) + ON + ET (alien) | |
| 11 | Half of Saturday deemed to be very wet (9) |
| SATURATED – SATU{rday} (Half of Saturday, i.e. the first half of the word “Saturday”) + RATED (deemed) | |
| 12 | Foretell proportional representation in advance of official order (7) |
| PREDICT – PR (proportional representation) + EDICT (official order) | |
| 14 | Managed with playing card ordering (7) |
| RANKING – RAN (Managed) + KING (playing card) | |
| 15 | Three fail finally in stiff and correct entrance exam (6) |
| PRELIM – {Thre}E + {fai}L (Three fail finally, i.e. the last letters of the words “Three” and “fail”) inside PRIM (stiff and correct). Chambers has: “A preliminary or entrance examination”. | |
| 17 | Short lecture on form of bird’s claw (5) |
| TALON – TAL{k} (Short lecture, i.e. the word “talk” without its last letter) + ON | |
| 18 | Man-eating giant therefore returned (4) |
| OGRE – reversal (returned) of ERGO (therefore) | |
| 21 | Investing finally following company projection (3) |
| COG – {Investin}G (Investing finally, i.e. the last letter of the word “Investing”) after CO (company). I tend to think of a cog as a wheel with teeth rather than the teeth themselves, but Chambers has as its first definition: “A projection, eg on a toothed wheel”. | |
If any of the newer recruits to this lark fancies a crack at the 15×15, today’s is pretty straightforward (in fact I found several of the clues here in the QC harder to wrestle than those in it’s bigger sibling). Have a go!
Another difficulty was parsing 2dn as I solved, as I’m not used to thinking ACC (rather than AC) for “account”.
I would endorse Nick’s recommendation to try the 15×15 today as it’s not often I solve the Quickie and the main puzzle in exactly the same time (also 17 minutes).
My LOI was 1d as it took me a while to think of a three letter word other than odd for strange. 2d also too a while to figure out.
I finished with 1A, which gave me Accord and Throne. I thought of Throne from the start, but didn’t get the parsing until the end.
I think Joker has some of the best clues going.
Brian
Prelim I know as the results a company posts before they are audited. Never seen it in the context of exams.
Anyway all correct and enjoyed it.I have definitely learnt a lot from past QCs and this blog. David