A couple of unknowns / new usages as far as I was concerned – 3d (did not know this word, but the wordplay and cross-checkers made it reasonably gettable), 18a was something I’d only previously come across as a prefix (but not much of a stretch to deduce that it might also be a word in its own right), and 15d (a new usage from the second definition).
Previous blogs and comments have indicated some sharp divergences of opinion on whether rare words or obscure usages should be included in the QC, and no doubt that debate will continue to rumble on. For what it’s worth, my personal view is that, if part of the function of the QC is to offer newer solvers a “training ground” from which they can eventually graduate to the full rigours of the 15×15, then such inclusions are a good thing. Most days, even the experienced solvers who hang out on the 15×15 blog find one or two “unknowns” that need to be worked out from wordplay / cross-checkers and an educated guess, and the ability to venture into the unknown in this way is very much part and parcel of the skill set required for becoming a solver of the 15×15 – so the sooner this skill is developed, the better. Anyway, here endeth the homily…
Thanks to Izetti for an excellent offering.
Definitions underlined; DD = double definition; anagrams indicated by *(–)
| Across | |
| 1 | A food offered to friend is nice to eat (9) |
| PALATABLE – PAL (friend) is given (‘offered’) A TABLE (A food) | |
| 6 | Urgent message in taxi left half hidden (5) |
|
CABLE – CAB (taxi) + LE (LE |
|
| 8 | Remember prayer at end of Scripture lesson maybe (9) |
| RECOLLECT – COLLECT (prayer) ‘at end of’ RE (scripture lesson) | |
| 9 | Plant covered in plot usually (5) |
| LOTUS – Hidden (indicated by ‘covered in’) pLOT USually | |
| 10 | See errant drunk, one on US’s Atlantic coast? (9) |
| EASTERNER – *(SEE ERRANT) with “drunk” as the anagrind | |
| 12 | Mostly difficult idiot making trouble (6) |
|
HARASS – HAR (HAR |
|
| 13 | Island volunteers arrive at island’s capital (6) |
| TAHITI – TA (volunteers – our old friends the Territorial Army) + HIT (arrive at) I (Island’s capital) | |
| 16 | Suffered in a French river (9) |
| UNDERWENT – UN (a French) + DERWENT (river) | |
| 18 | Painter formerly concealing name (5) |
| ERNST – ERST (formerly) ‘concealing’ N (abbrev. Name) giving us Max, the surrealist artist. I was not familiar with Erst as a standalone word, but it seemed a decent punt based on the more common “erstwhile” | |
| 19 | In a belief in God, detect tyranny (9) |
| DESPOTISM – SPOT (detect) is ‘in’ DEISM (a belief in God). Great surface, elegant clue all round. | |
| 21 | Prioress denied port and jam (5) |
|
PRESS – P |
|
| 22 | May repent awfully making this recompense (9) |
| REPAYMENT – *(MAY REPENT) with “awfully” as the anagrind | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Intrinsically American, this group of stars (7) |
| PERSEUS – PER SE (intrinsically) + US (American) giving us the constellation. Loved the wordplay and overall surface. | |
| 2 | Bit of a plague place gets over time (6) |
| LOCUST – LOCUS (place) ‘over’ T (abbrev. Time). I think the “bit of” part of the definition is steering us to the singular Locust, since the full-on plague would be a plurality of locusts… | |
| 3 | Mark fell finally into flowing water (5) |
| TILDE – TIDE (flowing water) receives L (‘felL finally’), giving the wiggly horizontal line over n’s in Spanish. Not a word I was familiar with, but easy enough to make a reasonably confident guess from the wordplay and cross-checkers. | |
| 4 | Grumble, not wanting loud buzzer (3) |
|
BEE – BEE |
|
| 5 | Gets rid of examiner, test being botched (12) |
| EXTERMINATES – *(EXAMINER TEST) with “being botched” as the anagrind | |
| 6 | Pay no attention to lamb left over from roast? (4-8) |
| COLD SHOULDER – DD, the second a tad cryptic | |
| 7 | Like some toast, say, in bed (8) |
| BUTTERED – UTTER (say) ‘in’ BED. Nice bit of misdirection with “say” being used to give us a synonym rather than it’s more frequent usage in Crosswordland as indicating an example | |
| 11 | What upsets us – canine creating inconvenience (6) |
| NUISANCE – *(US CANINE) with “what upsets” as the anagrind | |
| 14 | A person renouncing booze – almost futile endeavour (7) |
|
ATTEMPT – A TT (a person renouncing booze) + EMPT |
|
| 15 | Spoil narrow gorge (6) |
| DEFILE – DD. Must admit this went in on a wing and a prayer as I was not familiar with the ‘gorge’ meaning of the word. The origin (as subsequent research has taught me) of the word is quite interesting: when faced with a narrow pass, marching soldiers had to rearrange their formation by reducing the number of files (the width of the formation) – hence “de-filing”. Well there you go – one for the memory bank… | |
| 17 | Little marsupial? Gosh, it’s big! (5) |
| ROOMY – ROO (little marsupial – short form of Kangaroo) + MY (gosh – think ‘My!’). Very neat. | |
| 20 | Dad’s served up juice (3) |
| SAP – PA’S (dad’s) reversed (served up) | |
The second hold-up was over DEFILE where the three vowel checkers were somewhat unhelpful especially as one of the definitions turned out to be rather obscure and Chambers Word Wizard has 83 options for ?E?I?E. Fortunately I have come across the narrow gorge meaning before and I eventually dredged it up from a corner of my brain.
The third and final problem was of my own making as at 12ac I repeatedly misread the clue as “Most diffcult” instead of “Mostly difficult” which led me to believe that the answer would end with -EST and so ended up puzzling over H?REST for some time before I realised my error.
Edited at 2016-01-27 06:06 am (UTC)
For what it’s worth, I think the wordplay and GK needed in this particular puzzle was a wee bit OTT for a Quick Cryptic (with the emphasis on the “quick”). But it does beg the question who are these puzzles actually aimed at? I really don’t know the answer to this one.
Favourite BUTTERED.
Would like to see two of this level a week, a couple of average ones, and one easy-peasy to help my vanity with a quick solve.
RE: 15d, Kipling comes in handy here:
“A scrimmage in a Border Station-
A canter down some dark defile
Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.”
I also didn’t help myself by initially putting ‘pop’ in for 20d which made 19 a tad tricky until I saw my mistake. Too many enjoyable clues today to single one out as COD and as others have mentioned a really tough work out occasionally does assist the learning process.
Agree with others that this was a stern test for beginners but,with hindsight,I thought it was fair enough. And Ernst,the painter, has come up recently. David
But for QC action, Oh my! It’s taken under a week to pop this one in 17d. Cor, what would piglet say, “Phew!”