Most of this was relatively straightforward, if a bit anagram-heavy, but goodness me, I struggled in the top left corner. I ended up completing the puzzle in 21:51, but with 2 errors on 1d and 8a.
After about 17 minutes, I still had 1a, 1d and 8a to do. I sent myself entirely the wrong way on 1a by thinking that the “extra number” might be a term for the bonus ball in the National Lottery, unknown to me as a non-UK resident. But eventually the cricket sense of the clue came to me, which left me looking at N?? for “Goose egg” and ??N?E for “Touch metal and get cut”. After another 4 minutes or so, I thought of NIL for “Goose egg”, which I’m reasonable sure I’ve heard of in sports. I didn’t see how the clue was at all cryptic, but clearly L?N?E could then be LANCE, which definitely means “cut”. Bingo! 2 clues I thought I would have to come back to parse more carefully for the blog, but it seemed to fit together nicely. Quick, hit submit! THREE dreaded pink squares. Boo.
My FOI was SON, LOI (and second error) was LANCE, but easily my favourite today was LOSS, for the great “photo finish” misdirection.
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 | Extra number at dance (2,4) |
| NO BALL – NO (abbreviation for “number”, as in “No 10 Downing Street”), BALL (dance).
Sorry, non-cricketers. A no-ball is when the bowler does something wrong when delivering the ball, like stepping over the line. One run (an extra) is added to the batting team’s score, and the bowler has to do it again. |
|
| 4 | Old musical which contains old piano (3,3) |
| TOP HAT – THAT (which) containing O for old and P for piano, as in musical notation. | |
| 8 | Touch metal and get cut (5) |
| TINGE – TIN (a metal) + GE |
|
| 9 | Bran ultimately required in variety of cereal — daily? (7) |
| CLEANER – Last letter [ultimately] of braN in (cereal)*. | |
| 10 | Boy with short tune (3) |
| SON – SON |
|
| 11 | Instrument in choir a man played (9) |
| HARMONICA – (choir a man)* | |
| 12 | Historic Irish province shaping result (6) |
| ULSTER – (result)* | |
| 13 | Walk with sway on street (6) |
| STROLL – ROLL (sway) on ST (abbreviation for street). | |
| 16 | Good Lord, puff announcing new Pope? (4,5) |
| HOLY SMOKE – “Holy smoke!” and “Good Lord!” are both expressions of surprise. The second part of the clue refers to the practice where colored smoke is used to indicate whether a pope has been selected or not. | |
| 18 | I appreciate that head on naked bronze (3) |
| TAN – TA (thanks: I appreciate that) + first letter [head on] N That’s “bronze” as a verb, meaning to acquire a sun tan. |
|
| 19 | Newspapers onto former lover, direct (7) |
| EXPRESS – PRESS (newspapers) after EX (former lover).
Direct = express as in trains. |
|
| 20 | Give a lecture hosted by governor at Eton (5) |
| ORATE – hidden in [hosted by] |
|
| 22 | Figure resident of nest is rent payer (6) |
| TENANT – TEN (figure) + ANT (resident of nest).
Of course ants have nests. D’oh. |
|
| 23 | Journalist tried novel: nothing in it (6) |
| EDITOR – (tried)* with O (nothing) included. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Goose egg (3) |
| NIT – A double definition, the first as in “you silly goose”, the second as in the eggs of lice. | |
| 2 | Crazy bunch? (7) |
| BANANAS – A double definition. | |
| 3 | Tenets in Chile destroyed country (13) |
| LIECHTENSTEIN – (tenets in Chile)*
I was terribly smug that I remembered there is a rogue “T” in the middle of Liechtenstein. |
|
| 5 | Last drink available at motorway services? (3,3,3,4) |
| ONE FOR THE ROAD – A definition and a cryptic hint.
The idea of having one last drink “for the road” has rather fallen out of fashion as people have realised that drunk driving is a very bad idea. |
|
| 6 | Capital of Hungary, a number one capital! (5) |
| HANOI – first letter [capital] of H |
|
| 7 | Aunt April knitted something waterproof (9) |
| TARPAULIN – (Aunt April)* | |
| 9 | Top hooks right for fish (4) |
| CARP – CAP (top) contains [hooks] R (right). | |
| 10 | How US test changes direction (9) |
| SOUTHWEST – (How US test)* | |
| 14 | Survive moving to Tulsa (7) |
| OUTLAST – (to Tulsa)* | |
| 15 | Defeat: head hidden in photo finish? (4) |
| LOSS – What a great surface. Worth the price of entry by itself in my opinion. |
|
| 17 | Flower left in higher place at home (5) |
| LUPIN – L (left), UP (in higher place), IN (at home). | |
| 21 | Effective auditory receptor, primarily? (3) |
| EAR – First letters [primarily] of E A semi-&lit, since the word “primarily” isn’t part of the definition. |
|
15 mins – okish – should have managed 12 minutes
A little slow to get going on this, HARMONICA was our FOI, but normality returned (though quite slow to get TAN) until we revisited the NW corner. BANANAS got us to NO BALL but POI NIT and LOI TINGE were rather slow in coming. I could see NIT as an egg but not how it related to goose until Mrs T provided the connection. Even then TINGE took quite a bit more staring. Good clue though and we found this quite enjoyable. Our 14:18 is slower than our average, reflecting how it felt and, as the Quitch is currently 77, I wonder if it’s another occasion on which it’s not reflective of a higher than average number of DNFs? Thanks anyway to Doofers and Mara.
Super crossword, tricky but fair, always my favourite combo. 8½ minutes, COD TAN.
Thanks Mara and Doof.
Needed more coffee to get across the line today. Same hold-ups as everyone else. Liked HOLY SMOKE, but COD to the wonderful LOSS. Many thanks Mara and D.
Joined others with the nit, tinge clues being wrong. Otherwise a pleasant solve, the many anagrams suited us.
HOLY SMOKE, what started as a STROLL turned into a long and winding ROAD but I managed to OUTLAST my opponent and avoid a LOSS without going completely BANANAS, finishing well into the Club at 23:56. Indeed the NIT/TINGE crossing was admirably, elegantly cryptic.
Some days the gears just have sand in them and that was me today. Loved HANOI, HOLY SMOKE (hoho), and TINGE.
I’m getting the feeling that the setters are having some fun mercilessly teasing Merlin. There are lots of ways to write that clue, yes? “… by rector at Emmanuel”?
Thanks to Mara and Doof.
Very good
6:21 today but I’m another who was very uncertain about the NIT/TINGE combination. Strangely, I had been contemplating whether to book to see the musical Top Hat just before tackling the crossword so that was a very welcome clue. For the record, I still haven’t decided whether to see the show!
My COD was HOLY SMOKE but mainly because I could hear the words said by Robin from the classic 60s series Batman!
Thanks to both Mara and Doofenschmirtz.
19:09
I also found this had a sting in the tail but I didn’t find it in the NW corner (1A and 1D were my first two in)
Found this to be a reasonable QC. Enjoyed the fresh surfaces for “Loss” and “One for the Road”.
10:47 LOI was HOLY SMOKE which raised a smile. NHO NIT for goose but guess both mean a silly person. Nice puzzle if on the challenging side. thanks both