This one was a lot easier than many we’ve had over the last couple of weeks or so. I breezed through in 9:18, with the only hold-up being in the SW corner, where I tried to be too clever by three-quarters for BORNEO and spent too much time concerned that I knew nothing about X Factor.
COD to TENOR, very clever.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Worry about rugby player’s Rastafarian hairstyle (10) |
| DREADLOCKS – DREAD (worry about) LOCK’S (rugby player’s). | |
| 8 | Sorcerer, one close to Oz, enters part of hospital (6) |
| WIZARD – I (one) + last letter of [close to] oZ in WARD (part of hospital). | |
| 9 | Thin man finally gets pointer? (6) |
| NARROW – |
|
| 10 | Drink absinthe at first in sea (4) |
| MEAD – A |
|
| 11 | Churning out meals for perfect partner (4,4) |
| SOUL MATE – (OUT MEALS)* | |
| 12 | George Weasley, say, gets extremely grave pain (6) |
| TWINGE – TWIN (George Weasley, say) + outer letters [extremely] of G The Weasley twins are in the Harry Potter series of books, in case you’ve been living under a rock since 1998. |
|
| 14 | Unfortunately let pop fall over (6) |
| TOPPLE – (LET POP)* | |
| 16 | Merlot I’d distributed for senior citizen (3-5) |
| OLD-TIMER – (MERLOT I’D)* | |
| 18 | Part of Royal Society in addition (4) |
| ALSO – Hidden in [part of] |
|
| 20 | Carried oxygen for large Asian island (6) |
| BORNEO – BORNE (carried), O (oxygen).
I tried to get too clever here, looking for a word meaning “carried” where I could swap an O for an L to give me the island. |
|
| 21 | A second food carrier is off course (6) |
| ASTRAY – A + S for second + TRAY (food carrier). | |
| 22 | Run into hamper that’s in poor condition (10) |
| RAMSHACKLE – RAM (run into) + SHACKLE (hamper).
I’m so used to R for “run” that it took me a little while to justify where the “AM” came from. That was a real “d’oh!” moment when it arrived. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Boost beams of light for the audience (5) |
| RAISE – Homophone [for the audience] of “rays” (beams of light). | |
| 3 | Desert a professor embracing prohibition (7) |
| ABANDON – BAN (prohibition) inside A DON (a professor). | |
| 4 | Boy content to skip starter (3) |
| LAD – |
|
| 5 | Copper, say, one giving out tickets (9) |
| CONDUCTOR – Double definition, the second as in “bus conductor”. | |
| 6 | Get lost with small pack (5) |
| SCRAM – S for small + CRAM (pack). | |
| 7 | He lost bananas in budget accommodation (6) |
| HOSTEL – (HE LOST)* | |
| 11 | Store ammo haphazardly in humid location (5,4) |
| STEAM ROOM – (STORE AMMO)* | |
| 13 | Wood that’s amazing outside, poor inside? (6) |
| WILLOW – WOW (that’s amazing), with ILL (poor) inside. | |
| 15 | Synthetic material finally captured by photograph (7) |
| PLASTIC – LAST (finally) inside PIC (photograph). | |
| 17 | Singer from X Factor ignoring true statement? (5) |
| TENOR – TEN (X in Roman numbers) + |
|
| 19 | Stop running market stand (5) |
| STALL – A double definition. | |
| 21 | Top cut off money tree (3) |
| ASH – “Top” for first letter works for a down clue. |
|
Other than TWINGE I found this quite straightforward. Harry Potter remains a mystery to me, and I won’t read the books just to help solve a QC. As a former bus conductor (Eastern Counties while on breaks from University) I was so pleased that the honourable profession has not been forgotten!
Don’t read the books to solve a QC. Read them because they’re, as Ron Weasley might have said, bloody brilliant!
Enjoyed this and finished happy . . . But a bit lonely in the SCC.
But you’re not alone. If you turn round and look behind you you should see me in one of the seats at the back.
6.24 Much easier today. I finished with TWINGE and WILLOW. I never did work out what was going on with TENOR. Thanks Doofers and Trelawney.
Finished correctly in 55 minutes. First for a while. Hooray !
A doable one for a change. More of the same for tomorrow, please.
08:03 – about average he said hopefully. I enjoyed the HP reference, panicked when I saw X Factor! a nice offering. thanks both!
Nice to finish in a reasonable time for us. Enjoyed the comments above.
A couple of other partial connections for the record. HogsMEADE, whomping WILLOW. Entertaining puzzle finished just on 10 minutes when DREADLOCKS clicked – which could be another connection with the nightbus. All sorts of gk are needed from comics to classical music to the periodic table – whether we’re interested in them or not.
An unsatisfying, albeit on the faster side, 10:42 because we really didn’t get what was going on with TENOR before coming HERE, and we only got that after a delay with BORNEO and also flirting with TENET. LOI RAMSHACKLE was a blessed relief. I’m with Merlin in believing that ram (deliberate) is not really the same as ‘run into’ (more accidental). I read at least the earlier HP books to my children many moons ago but still didn’t remember that George was a twin until reminded by Mrs. T. Thanks also to Doofers and Trelawney!
10 minutes today with LOI TENOR, unparsed. I now see what a clever clue it is.
A fun puzzle and no unknown GK for me.
COD to SOUL MATE.
David
10:24 today. After quite a quick start, I got breezeblocked on RAMSHACKLE and CONDUCTOR, and I didn’t properly parse the former. I was being a bit too literal because I thought of hamper as an alternative to the verb hinder, so struggled to make the connection with shackle, which I was thinkning of as a physical restraint. And yes, I fully realise that shackle can be a verb too 😅
MrB is very keen on a glass of Merlot, but is not an old-timer yet! A good clue 🍷
FOI Dreadlocks LOI Conductor COD Hostel made me chuckle
Thanks Trelawney and Doofers
I hesitate to recommend the biggie after yesterday’s discussion, but I found it quite user-friendly 🤞
We enjoyed what we felt was a genuine QC today – thanks to Trelawney. Took a while to click that George Weasley was one of the twins (I also thought he was the dad.) And we struggled with Ramshackle (does shackle really = hamper), and willow. But great clueing and a decent time for us. Thanks to Doofers too for the blog.
All pretty straightforward stuff today and when my GK ran out (other than Ron, the Weasley clan are a bit of a backwater for me) it wasn’t hard to work out the right answer.
FOI 1a Dreadlocks
LOI 6d Scram
COD has to be 11a Soul Mate
Perhaps a tad on the too easy side? Refreshing anyway! Thx both.
10 minutes
Yes, I know that’s quick for me, but I’m still nowhere near a really fast time. Took ages to get DREADLOCKS (idiot!) and guessed TWINGE and TENOR. NHO anyone called WEASLEY and thought he might be a living person (actor or pop star)!
Hard to get enthused after the total ruination of my week yesterday.
Took forever to break in to the big puzzle. May have solved it correctly – not had time to check yet. Took about an hour.
PS No, of course I didn’t finish the big puzzle correctly. A stupid, dumb mistake cost me. Any fleeting satisfaction has disappeared to be replaced by my usual self-loathing. Gah!
PPS The comments on the blog for the big puzzle suggest it was as easy as a QC. I give up! ☹️
If you’ve NHO George Weasley, I can’t recommend the third Harry Potter book highly enough its magnificent.
15:50
Held up forever after biffing ATACAMA for the desert. Only when I realised the mistake could I get MEAD and TWINGE. LOI CONDUCTOR after trying to find words starting CU for copper. Still well inside target though.
12:13, I’m glad to be back to solving after two Very Complicated Days. A pleasant stroll, no hangups, liked RAMSHACKLE because it’s just a good word. Okay, a good clue too, no offense! DNK the rugby player, who I see from Wikipedia is not Mr. Lock, but 1A was FOI anyway. I liked WILLOW a lot. The TENOR clue was tricky, cute when I finally saw it after the fact.
Thanks to Trelawney and Doof!
11:18 for me. Thanks all. Very entertaining comments today!
OK so my FOI was BORNEO that leapt off my lovely new tablet but I only did a couple more before I had to do something else so had a nonsensical time. Held up irritatingly by DREADLOCKS and still unsure why. Surprised nobody else seems to have made my mistake of SCRUM for SCRAM. Small pack, no? LOI WILLOW. Thank you!