Envious of Monday’s special occasion, I tried hard to find a reason to celebrate the 1,003rd QC, but 1,003 really is a boring number. I thought initially it might be prime, but it has factors 17 and 59, so it doesn’t even rate on that score. There was nothing boring about this crossword though, with a good smattering of General Knowledge needed (1a, 8a, 13a, 19a, 3d, 15d, 18d and 22d), plenty of anagrams and some other nice devices – there was also a generous helping of nobility involved.
My time was a smidge outside my target of 15 minutes, so I would rate this average in terms of difficulty, despite the GK needed to solve. I also had one answer (10a) not properly parsed, when it was answered. Here’s how I did it.
Across
1 Paris money once I study for Friar (10)
FRANCISCAN – FRANC (French (or Paris) money once upon a time – before the Euro) I (I) and SCAN (study). FRANCISCANs are the mendicant religious orders founded in 1209 by Francis of Assissi.
7 Revolving component in car maybe unchanged on reversal (5)
ROTOR – Palindrome (unchanged when reversed) name for a component in a car. Maybe is there to indicate that ROTORs can exist elsewhere, and the car is given as an example.
8 Go North after Sarah uncovered region of Spain (6)
ARAGON – Sarah uncovered gives {s}ARA[h} (i.e. remove first and last letters) followed by GO and N{orth}. ARAGON is a region of NE Spain, not to be confused with Aragorn, a fictional character in Lord of the Rings.
10 Journey ultimately with no stop (3)
HOP – I really struggled to see the correct parsing for this when solving, even though I was confident that I had the right answer. HOP as a journey, or a stage of a journey (particularly in airline travel) is obvious enough. My thinking was that perhaps it is an &lit since such a hop is one stage, to be followed by another, hence no stop. Alternatively, it could be based on the expression ON THE HOP – in a state of restless agitation, hence no stop. Obviously, I was missing something, and thankfully the penny dropped by the time I wrote the blog, avoiding my blushes. The rest of the clue is ‘ultimately’, meaning last letters of {wit}H {n}O {sto}P
12 Popular building material? About right for something added on(9)
INCREMENT – IN (popular) CEMENT (building material) about R{ight} to give INCREMENT. I think the question mark is because we don’t build with cement itself, but use it to bind other building materials, such as sand and gravel (in ‘aggregate’), or bricks in a wall when it is used to form mortar.
13 British directive for march (6)
BORDER – B{ritish} and ORDER (directive). My online Chambers has boundary or border as the second definition for ‘march’, usually in the plural. Less well known is that such Marches give rise to the titles Marquess and Marchioness (in England), along with equivalents in France, Germany and Scotland, in the same way that counties are traditionally ruled by Counts or Countesses.
14 Note duke getting in ale for drinking bout (6)
BENDER – BEER (ale) with N{ote} and D{uke} inside.
17 Orderly fit to sail?(9)
SHIPSHAPE – A sort of double definition. Something that is SHIPSHAPE is ‘squared away’ or orderly, and a ship is made SHIPSHAPE by ‘squaring away’ or lashing down anything that might move when the ship rolls under the influence of the waves encountered at sea.
19 Italian writer represented by English firm (3)
ECO – E{nglish} and CO (firm or company). Umberto Eco wrote, amongst other things, The Name of the Rose, where Franciscan (see 1a) friar William of Baskerville investigates a series of murders at a monastery, set in the 14th century.
20 Desire often extremely unrestrained (6)
WANTON – WANT (desire) and ON (O{fte}N extremely)
21 Happy suggestions at end of day (5)
TIPSY – TIPS (suggestions) and {da}Y (end of or last letter)
23 Sense to protect flying eagle from Africa (10)
SENEGALESE – Anagram (flying) of [EAGLE] inside (protected by) SENSE
Down
1 Defensive position he based on famous footballer having good intention (3,3,4)
FOR THE BEST – FORT (defensive position) HE (he) BEST (famous footballer – George Best)
2 Insect in pants? (3)
ANT – hidden inside {p}ANT{s}. At first, I thought this might be FLY, but the checkers quickly disabused me of that notion.
3 Explosive line on site after leader leaves (7)
CORDITE – CORD (line) and {s}ITE (leader leaves). CORDITE is a family of smokeless propellants (explosives)
4 Ascent transformed attitude (5)
STANCE – Anagram (transformed) of [ASCENT]
5 Oddly ignored Zambian seen as lower in rank (5)
ABASE – Even letters (oddly ignored) of {z}A{m}B{i}A{n} S{e}E{n}. To ABASE is to degrade, or to lower in rank.
6 Extremely lazy, lie on bed possibly (4-4)
BONE IDLE – Anagram (possibly) of [LIE ON BED]
9 Sadly see poet try overused idea (10)
STEREOTYPE – Anagram (sadly) of [SEE POET TRY]
11 Quiet craftsman, biased (8)
PARTISAN – P (quiet, as in Piano) and ARTISAN (craftsman)
15 Choose artist – complex woman (7)
ELECTRA – ELECT (choose) and RA (artist as in R{oyal} A{cademician}). The ELECTRA complex is one where a daughter has a strong attachment to her father, accompanied by hostility to her mother.
16 Spotted in Amritsar – niece’s snack perhaps (6)
SARNIE – Hidden in {amrit}SAR – NIE{ce’s}. SARNIE is an informal word for a sandwich (snack)
18 Composer from South – a draw (5)
SATIE – S{outh} A (a) TIE (draw). Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, French composer and pianist, maybe a stretch for the QC
22 Initially praised one excellent US writer (3)
POE – as in Edgar Allan POE. From first letters (initially) of P{raised} O{ne} E{xcellent}
Edited at 2018-01-11 02:12 pm (UTC)
COD Bone idle.
Thanks for your kind comments,Rotter.
Edited at 2018-01-11 05:56 am (UTC)
Thanks for the blog rotter – I’d never really thought about where aristocratic titles came from before.
PlayUpPompey
Thanks setter and Rotter.
LOI was 9d which took me too long to solve even with all the checkers. 20 minutes in total. COD to to 1d for memory of a great player. David
Still, all the rest went in in strict order. One day I’ll manage it…