This will be a brief one as I only got back from the Championships mid-afternoon yesterday and was immediately confronted with an impressive laundry list of family problems that had somehow managed to pile up in the mere three days that I’d been away.
Oran is an infrequent visitor to Quickyville, putting in an appearance only once every three months or so. I didn’t find this offering particularly difficult but there were some not-so-obvious bits of wordplay, such as in 4D and 18D, which I enjoyed. I don’t know how well-known 8A will be nor the unit in 6D but otherwise solvers’ vocabulary is not likely to be stretched far. A pleasant start to the week, with my COD award going to the smooth 5D.
Definitions are underlined, {} = omission
| Across |
| 1 |
The Speaker’s feeble for a few days (4) |
|
WEEK – homophone of (The Speaker’s) WEAK (feeble) |
| 3 |
Rapidly get large cocktail (8) |
|
SNOWBALL – double definition, the second either referring to booze (Chambers): “A drink of advocaat and lemonade” or (perhaps less likely …) drugs (Chambers): “A mixture of cocaine and heroin (slang)” |
| 8 |
Bishop among peers getting bribes, perhaps (7) |
|
NOBBLES – B (Bishop) among NOBLES (peers), to give the third person singular of a word meaning (Chambers): “To win over, persuade or dissuade, eg by bribery or coercion” |
| 10 |
Wheels: posh ones! (5) |
|
ROLLS – double definition, the second referring to the slang term for a car, of which a Rolls (Royce) would be an upmarket example |
| 11 |
Warn old dear, raving about crime prevention (3-3-5) |
|
LAW-AND-ORDER – anagram of (raving) WARN OLD DEAR. The “about” is in the definition because the hyphenated version of this phrase is used in an adjectival sense. |
| 13 |
Small item baby wears, fashionable (6) |
|
SNAPPY – S (Small) + NAPPY (item baby wears), with the answer perhaps most often seen in the expression “a snappy dresser” |
| 15 |
Oddly ignored ulna: x-rays next part of windpipe (6) |
|
LARYNX – all the even letters (Oddly ignored) in uLnA x-RaYs NeXt |
| 17 |
Reaction to serious setback with rent? (5,4,2) |
|
THAT’S TORN IT – an extended definition with a cryptic hint hoping to make us think of rent in the sense of rental rather than tearing |
| 20 |
Country dacha: it impresses on the inside (5) |
|
HAITI – hidden in (on the inside) dacHA IT Impresses |
| 21 |
Hotel, so dilapidated, in African state (7) |
|
LESOTHO – anagram of (dilapidated) HOTEL SO
|
| 22 |
Having several marriage partners from old college and high (8) |
|
POLYGAMY – POLY (old college) + GAMY (high – both words meaning having the flavour of (hunted) game) |
| 23 |
Hero having nothing to do on radio? (4) |
|
IDOL – homophone (on radio) of IDLE (having nothing to do) |
| Down |
| 1 |
What waiter brings perhaps is left in wet, dissolving (4,4) |
|
WINE LIST – anagram of (dissolving) IS L (left) IN WET
|
| 2 |
Joint dismissal? (5) |
|
ELBOW – none of the usual sources give elbow as a direct synonym for dismissal however “to give someone the elbow” means to dismiss them, so the question mark helps us to make the equivalence |
| 4 |
One failing to turn up — boy turned up, by the way (2-4) |
|
NO-SHOW – reversal of (turned up) SON (boy), + HOW (the way – consider “This is how to do it” and “This is the way to do it”). One of those rare occasions when “way” doesn’t translate to street, road, lane, path, etc. |
| 5 |
Old forum was surprisingly very well-known (5-6) |
|
WORLD-FAMOUS – anagram of (surprisingly) OLD FORUM WAS
|
| 6 |
Partner touring work unit gets bad reaction (7) |
|
ALLERGY – ALLY (Partner) around (touring) ERG (work unit, i.e. the unit of work in the CGS system, equivalent to 10−7 joules in the SI system) |
| 7 |
Girl seen in mirror, topless (4) |
|
LASS – {g}LASS (mirror, topless, i.e. the word “glass” (mirror) without its first letter) |
| 9 |
Desire to take in drama — and like some records? (4-7) |
|
LONG-PLAYING – LONGING (Desire) around (to take in) PLAY (drama) |
| 12 |
Way-out method of predicting elections? (4,4) |
|
EXIT POLL – gentle cryptic definition, where the setter is hoping we will think of “Way-out” in the sense of eccentric rather than a means of leaving a place |
| 14 |
Section of coelacanth, illogically, found in insect colony (7) |
|
ANTHILL – hidden in (Section of) coelacANTH ILLogically |
| 16 |
Fantastic sum lay in a safe place (6) |
|
ASYLUM – anagram of (Fantastic) SUM LAY
|
| 18 |
Observed absence of small boy? (5) |
|
NOTED – if Edward is a boy then a small version of his name might be Ted: his absence will mean that there is NO TED
|
| 19 |
Hack Charlie’s first dance (4) |
|
CHOP – C (Charlie’s first, i.e. the first letter of the word “Charlie”) + HOP (dance) |
If you are looking for difficult, try today’s 15 x 15. It is not for beginners, whatever the SNITCH may say.
dnk gamy = high.
COD Noted.
Congrats on your result in the competition, Mohn2! With the field as it stands these days, being the runner-up counts as a Win in my eyes.
16:26, with a few minutes spent on LOI/COD, THATS TORN IT, with the ‘rent’ providing the misdirection.
Nice puzzle today, on the easy side, for sure.
Seemed to get on a roll with many clues feeling similar.
Some nice clues and my only problem was 17a which I left till last.
Finished in 16 minutes having put Tears Down It which did not seem great, but I am in a bit of a hurry today. Ah well … David
PS article about the Champs in the paper today.
Found this less difficult than most quickies but took some time over my LOI, 17a. Like others, I was sure the first word was tears but finally saw torn. 18d also went in unparsed. COD to 5d.
I got SNOWBALL without knowing the ingredients and frankly both variants sound pretty disgusting!
Thanks for the blog and thanks Oran for a good start to the week – sadly it didn’t continue into the 15×15.
I don’t know whether to be pleased at the use of ERG as something vaguely scientific rather than the usual military/cricket/literary, or frustrated as the CGS system (of which erg is a member)was dropped in favour of the MKS system (no erg), which was in turn replaced by SI (System Internationale, also no erg) in 1971. If anyone under 60 managed to parse it I would be amazed, fortunately it wasn’t difficult to guess. I am aware that some of the bloggers are American, the USA never adopted any of the three systems, goodness knows what they thought.
Edited at 2017-11-06 02:48 pm (UTC)
17a the loi with fingers crossed as dnk tear=rent.
Mighty