This is the third time in a row that I have had the pleasure of blogging one of Joker’s offerings. I was definitely on Joker’s wavelength today, finishing this in a decidedly snappy 6:52, which is my third fastest time since the Quick Snitch started tracking them.
Some lovely accurate cluing in here, barely a filler word to be spotted. My clue of the day goes to CONCEALMENT, with honorable mentions to OVERTURN (although I think we’ve seen that quite recently), MEASURED and CHOREOGRAPHER.
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 | Put off post office interrupting mail to northeast (8) |
| POSTPONE – PO (Post Office) inside [interrupting] POST (mail), NE (northeast). | |
| 5 | What might make English church ring? (4) |
| ECHO – E for English, CH for church, O for ring (because it’s round).
I think this is a semi &lit: the whole clue is the definition, but only part of the clue is the wordplay. |
|
| 8 | Tooth damage around filling of gold (5) |
| MOLAR -MAR (damage) around the middle letters [filling] of gOLd. | |
| 9 | Make millions in company position (7) |
| COMPOSE – M for millions in CO (company), POSE (position). | |
| 11 | Hiding cold at one time, illness I avoided (11) |
| CONCEALMENT – C for cold, ONCE (at one time), then A |
|
| 13 | Take no notice of Italian man with son vanishing (6) |
| IGNORE – |
|
| 14 | Artist nominally coming between John and Sargent? (6) |
| SINGER – the wordplay references the name [nominally] of painter John Singer Sargent, but the definition is a different type of artist. | |
| 16 | A China cabal involved in drunken revels (11) |
| BACCHANALIA – (A China cabal)*
“Drunken” is not the anagram indicator this time. |
|
| 18 | Moving report about old soldier (7) |
| TROOPER – (report)* containing O for old. | |
| 19 | Unlike mum not having married (5) |
| OTHER – |
|
| 20 | Moulded actors taking part in play (4) |
| CAST – A double definition. | |
| 21 | Carefully considered element of order USA embassy’s backing (8) |
| MEASURED – Hidden in [element of] orDER USA EMbassy when reversed [backing]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Question turned up on parliamentarian (4) |
| PUMP – UP reversed [turned] on MP (parliamentarian). | |
| 2 | Ill at ease colonies fuss terribly welcoming head of Commonwealth (4-9) |
| SELF-CONSCIOUS – (colonies fuss)* including the first letter [welcoming head of] C |
|
| 3 | Perhaps business of ripper hasn’t changed (11) |
| PARTNERSHIP – (ripper hasn’t)* | |
| 4 | Pinch purse’s last pound coin (6) |
| NICKEL – NICK (pinch), + L for pound comes from the pre-decimal currency of the UK, in which L, s, and d were pounds, shillings and pence respectively. Wikipedia tells me this is derived from the Roman libra, solidus and denarius, which means I have learned something today. |
|
| 6 | Ballet creator‘s tedious task with old plot on eastern queen (13) |
| CHOREOGRAPHER – An IKEA clue, made from the parts. CHORE (tedious task), O (old), GRAPH (plot), E (eastern), R (queen).
Also note the cunning ambiguity of the ‘s: it looks like it is a possessive, but in fact is a contraction of “Ballet creator is…”. |
|
| 7 | Capsize open vessel (8) |
| OVERTURN – OVERT (open) URN (vessel). | |
| 10 | Sweet mouse ill, upset catching influenza (11) |
| MELLIFLUOUS – (mouse ill)* containing [catching] FLU.
What a lovely word MELLIFLUOUS is. I though this might be onomatopoeia, but apparently not. This is autology, where a word describes itself, like “pentasyllabic”. Onomatopoeia is where the word imitates the actual sound, like “buzz”. So now I have learned two things today. This was my second-to-last one in, I was trying desperately to remember a dessert that I haven’t had since I left the UK 30 years ago, thinking it would fit. It came to me while writing the blog: the word I was trying to remember was “blancmange”. The brain is a funny thing sometimes. Well, mine is. |
|
| 12 | Mention effort raised to protect a sufferer from common illness (8) |
| DIABETIC – CITE (mention) + BID (effort), all reversed [raised], including [to protect] A. | |
| 15 | Made up awful tune introducing rugby union (6) |
| UNTRUE – (tune)* containing RU (rugby union). | |
| 17 | Dry run overwhelmed by support (4) |
| ARID – R for run, surrounded by [overwhelmed by] AID (support). | |
25 minutes. Awful.
An ok day ruined by over 10 mins on SINGER. I still don’t understand the clue (no explanation required).
I remain unable to derive either pleasure or a sense of accomplishment from this when it takes me longer to guess a single clue than it takes most solvers to finish!
Thanks for the blog.
No point in my posting a time as the problem with my iPad flicking to other puzzles when I try to enter letters is just getting worse It only happens on the Times site and is extremely aggravating. I’ll just say that I completed the enjoyable puzzle in what I think would have been a respectable time.
1.5 hours on 15 x 15. Four incomplete answers and one incorrect answer. A long, long slog with little to show at the end of it. I thought practice made perfect!
Both cryptics today were quite liberal with the anagrams and I struggled with them in both . I’m usually quite proud of my anagrams skills. Were the anagrams particularly tough today or am I having an off day?
Was there an illness theme? Cold, flu, tooth damage, diabetic and I think others got a mention today.
I had heard of the artist John Singer Sargent but my cryptic brain failed to not lift and seperate the components which made it much harder than my general knowledge should have allowed.
I found this one of the harder QCs I’ve completed although reading the comments others don’t seem to concur.
COD: CHOREOGRAPHER
Thanks blogger and setter
11:37. got there in the end with SINGER and ARID as my LOI. hugely enjoyed this one. thank you both!