I don’t think I’ve covered a Pipsqueak puzzle before and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I found it at the easier end of the scale and I thought I was on for a fast time (for me), but then the last three took me as much time as all the rest combined, and I finished in 14:07. Inside my target, but when I think of what could have been…
The ones that held me up were the two intersecting anagrams at 9 across and down, where I was convinced that the scientist would be a GEOLOGIST until I counted the anagrist carefully. Anagrams are my kryptonite, but I’ve no excuse for my last one in, where SAMOA just wouldn’t come to mind, despite knowing exactly how the clue worked.
COD to the FAT ALLY, with a close second to the inebriated woman, but only because that’s my mother’s name. Hi Mum!
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fruit on bus heading west very nice indeed (7) |
| SUBLIME – LIME (fruit) on BUS reversed [heading west]. | |
| 5 | Restrain two females going after copper (4) |
| CUFF – F for female, twice, after CU (chemical symbol for copper). | |
| 7 | Alien found in Irish parliament? It’s a fact! (6) |
| DETAIL – ET (alien) in DAIL (Irish parliament). | |
| 8 | Old man’s attempt to make a cake? (6) |
| PASTRY – PA’S TRY. | |
| 9 | Desperate Merton needs support (11) |
| ENDORSEMENT – Anagram [desperate] of MERTON NEEDS. | |
| 10 | Gangster loves to be a bringer of misfortune (6) |
| HOODOO – HOOD (gangster) + OO (loves, as in tennis). | |
| 12 | Son visiting island state for a bite to eat (6) |
| SAMOSA – S (son) in SAMOA (island state).
My LOI: just couldn’t see the state, even with the checkers in place. |
|
| 14 | Cheating, as bluegrass musician might be? (2,3,6) |
| ON THE FIDDLE – double definition, the second being a reference to the instrument, of course. No moral judgements of bluegrass musicians here. | |
| 17 | Nick quietly angry (6) |
| PIRATE – P (quietly, from musical notation) + IRATE (angry).
I think this works as a verb: to pirate (music, films etc) = steal = nick. Nice placement of the definition to make it look like a name. |
|
| 18 | So cult indecently produces stripper? (6) |
| LOCUST – Anagram [indecently] of SO CULT.
Oh, that sort of stripper. A reference to what locusts do to vegetation. |
|
| 20 | School taken in, by the sound of it (4) |
| ETON – Homophone [by the sound of it] of EATEN (taken in).
Other schools are available. |
|
| 21 | Disastrously obese friend (7) |
| FATALLY – FAT ALLY.
So neat. The recipient of a smiley face on my printed copy. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Woman regularly soused (3) |
| SUE – Every other letter [regularly] of SoUsEd. | |
| 2 | Governing body and editor got on (7) |
| BOARDED – BOARD (governing body) + ED (standard abbreviation for editor). | |
| 3 | Increasingly sick murderer losing head (5) |
| ILLER – |
|
| 4 | Very quick to communicate (7) |
| EXPRESS – double definition. | |
| 5 | Actors initially enjoy class (5) |
| CASTE – CAST (actors) + first letter of [initially] E |
|
| 6 | Drunken street oaf getting warning (9) |
| FORETASTE – anagram [drunken] of STREET OAF. | |
| 9 | Scientist terribly close to GI (9) |
| ECOLOGIST – anagram [terribly] of CLOSE TO GI. | |
| 11 | By whom an autobiography is written? (7) |
| ONESELF – A barely-cryptic definition. | |
| 13 | LA detectives turning up to support me in examination (7) |
| MEDICAL – LA (from the clue) + CID (detectives), reversed [turning up], below [supporting] ME.
Did anyone else toy with words ending in DPAL and then realise that there wouldn’t be enough letters? |
|
| 15 | Spitting Image entertaining a US novelist (5) |
| TWAIN – TWIN (spitting image) containing [entertaining] A.
Not a hidden, then. I don’t need to feel bad about not knowing the works of Tingi. |
|
| 16 | Opening succession of Latin letters (5) |
| INLET – hidden in ([a] succession of) |
|
| 19 | Sneaky agent having change of heart (3) |
| SLY – SPY (agent), with the middle letter [heart] changed. | |
It seems that we must have found this slightly trickier than yesterday because I made (and corrected) fewer typos but we finished up with an identical time of 8:53. COD to PASTRY for the image of someone setting out to make a cake and ending up with a pastry. LOCUST was a very close second. Thanks Pipsqueak and Doofers.
Enjoyable puzzle, solving interrupted by a visit by the plumber. Missed out with hoodoo.
24 minutes
The usual inept performance from your resident village idiot.
First 12 clues were write-ins and then blanket fog descended.
Why am I so utterly useless at this? I look at your times and wonder how I can be so bad.
PS All bar two on big crossword but took forever and many unparsed.
I needed some help with this one, as Hoodoo stumped me. Also was stuck for a bit on 6 D as really wanted it to be Free Toast – probably what a drunken street oaf could do with!
I found this pretty easy and a fast solve (for me, dallying over a late Costa).
FOI 5a Cuff
LOI 12 Samosa
COD 13d Medical.
Well, I polished off the top third in only slightly over a minute. Very exhilarating – is that how you clever cloggses feel all the time?
Anyway, normality resumed for the rest of the puzzle and I finished in 11:50, which is still pretty decent by my standards. I too wondered for a while whether I should have heard of the novelist Tingi.
Thank you for the blog!
16 mins…
I thoroughly enjoyed this and thought there were some really amusing clues. Nearly came a cropper by initially putting “Spy” for 19dn, and was slightly held up with 10ac “Hoodoo”; but, other than that, the rest went in at a steady pace.
FOI – 1dn “Sue”
LOI – 10ac “Hoodoo”
COD – 21ac “Fatally”
Thanks as usual!
Cracking puzzle, 06:34, many thanks Doofers and Pip