This one took me 16:39, a little bit over my average, so I’m calling this a fairly moderate one from Teazel. I think the only answer that may be a new word to some is SPINET, but the crossing letters give you 4 of the 6 letters.
I would have been faster if I hadn’t spent fully two minutes staring at FRONTIER, my LOI, completely unable to move on from MAL as “French wrongly” despite the crossers giving me nowhere to put it.
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 | |
| 3 | Heaven is taking part in procession (8) |
| PARADISE – IS (from the clue) included in [taking part in] PARADE (procession). | |
| 7 | Remarkably subtle part of women’s dress once (6) |
| BUSTLE – (subtle)* | |
| 8 | Covered in sweat, talked nonsensically with leader away (8) |
| LATHERED – |
|
| 9 | A resounding honour? (4) |
| GONG – GONG is a synonym for medal (honour), and full-scale gongs resound when struck.
This clue was easier to solve than to blog! |
|
| 10 | Joke was successful when read out (3) |
| ONE – homophone [when read out] of WON (was successful).
“One” = “joke” as in “that’s a good one” |
|
| 11 | Place where old pet is eaten by larger relative (8) |
| LOCATION – O (old) CAT (pet) inside LION (larger relative of pet cat).
The surface reading is a touch macabre. |
|
| 13 | Is separating rook and king a gamble? (4) |
| RISK – R (rook, from chess notation) and K (king) separated by IS (from the clue). | |
| 15 | Warships missing odd parts in the current state (2,2) |
| AS IS – alternate letters [missing odd parts] of w A r S h I p S. | |
| 17 | Countryman failing to finish revolting beer (8) |
| VILLAGER – most of [failing to finish] VIL |
|
| 19 | This vegetable would be sweet in the flowerbed (3) |
| PEA – A cryptic definition, that works on “sweet pea” being a flower and “pea” being a vegetable. | |
| 22 | Team’s day in Rome, the last to move to the front (4) |
| SIDE – IDES (day in Rome), with the last letter moved to the front. | |
| 23 | French wrongly orient border (8) |
| FRONTIER – FR (abbreviation for French), + (ORIENT)*. | |
| 24 | Moving from Ulster, take stock (6) |
| RUSTLE – (ULSTER)*
Very smooth misdirection here. This is to “take stock” as in “steal cattle”, not “reflect on current position”. |
|
| 25 | Scene of battle has to contain pain (8) |
| HASTINGS – STING (pain) inside HAS (from the clue). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Audibly indulge us? Funny (8) |
| HUMOROUS – Sounds like [audibly] “humour us” (indulge us). | |
| 2 | Disgrace of Greek character eating starter of taramasalata (6) |
| STIGMA – SIGMA (a Greek letter/character) containing [eating] the first letter [starter] of Taramasalata. | |
| 3 | Race along and hide (4) |
| PELT – double definition | |
| 4 | Sensible rodent on Scottish island loch (8) |
| RATIONAL – RAT (rodent), IONA (Scottish island), L (abbreviation for loch). | |
| 5 | More difficult to understand physical exercise in browser (6) |
| DEEPER – PE (physical exercise) in DEER (browser, one that browses).
For those who grew up in the US, what you know as “gym class” is “PE” in the UK. |
|
| 6 | Hunt for witness and king (4) |
| SEEK – SEE (witness), K (king). | |
| 12 | Raid popular vehicle in which nothing is picked up (8) |
| INVASION – IN (popular) + VAN (vehicle) including O IS (nothing is), reversed [picked up, for a down clue]. | |
| 14 | Regularly delay its transforming (8) |
| STEADILY – (DELAY ITS)*
As in “the clock beat steadily”. |
|
| 16 | Early keyboard of wood set in stone (6) |
| SPINET – PINE (wood) inside [set in] ST (abbreviation for stone, the unit of weight). | |
| 18 | Donkey is above one Italian town (6) |
| ASSISI – ASS (donkey), IS, I (one). | |
| 20 | Stretch of land in Near East (4) |
| AREA – Hidden in neAR EAst | |
| 21 | Mistakes by love god, preferring Romeo to Oscar (4) |
| ERRS – EROS (love god) with R [NATO Romeo] replacing O [NATO Oscar]
That’s “mistakes” as a verb. |
|
From PELT to HUMOROUS in 7:15. I put in LATHERED from blathered and checkers but was unconvinced about the ‘covered in sweat’ definition. Personally, I lather myself to remove sweat! ONE = joke was very week IMHO. COD to PEA. Thanks Doofers.
A late start and a relaxed and steady solve for me in 18 mins.
Clues were a bit variable, I thought. I agree about ONE and LATHERED.
SPINET was no problem. I had a Clavichord for many years when I finally accepted I couldn’t get an organ with pedal board into the house.
The ‘spinet piano’ mentioned by Kevin was completely new to me despite living in the US for some time. The traditional (early) European Spinet uses a plucking action (like a harpsichord) and not a piano-style hammer action so I don’t really understand the (mis-) use of the term in the USA.
Thanks both.
I finished over target once more, but not as badly as yesterday’s effort in 11.40. Having said that I now see that in my haste to properly parse 24ac, RESULT is wrong. I did feel uneasy about it as I entered it, but made the mistake of not returning to it. I also join the list of those that didn’t much care for ONE as ‘joke’, even though plausible explanations have been given for its parsing.
It’s a shame I didn’t think to check it and post in my earlier comment, but ‘one / JOKE’ is in all the usual sources, Collins, Chambers and the Oxfords.
6.47 DNF with RESULT instead of RUSTLE. LOI ONE. Thanks Doofers and Teazel.
6:18
No problems except I had to return to LOI SEEK and POI LATHERED.
COD INVASION for me.
Thanks Teazel and Doofers
DNF
Oh that was careless! Saw the anagram, had the checkers and biffed RESULT rather than RUSTLE.
Dnf…
24 mins, but then saw that I had also put in “Result” for 24ac. Apart from that, the main hold up was the 1dn “Humorous”/11ac “Location” axis – mainly because I couldn’t spell the former. Dnk 16dn “Spinet” and was slightly miffed by the “deer”/“browser” link – any help appreciated.
FOI – 7ac “Bustle”
LOI – 11ac “Location”
COD – 13ac “Risk”
Thanks as usual!
I normally only do the QC to cheer me up after a failure on the biggy. So much for that idea!
2 errors with LITTERED and RESULT. Wittering being something I do regularly but blathering did not occur.
Moderate, occasionally severe, beer later. Thanks both.
That felt quite generous for a Teazel puzzle, taking me 12:46. I wasted a minute or two failing to parse VILLAGER which (with the help of the blog) is perfectly straightforward, so I’m not sure why I struggled with it so much.
Thank you for the blog!
What Templar said about RUSTLE and LOCATION, but in nearly twice the time! I didn’t have the same problem with HUMOROUS, but biffing Acre for the stretch of land in Near East made FRONTIER very difficult. Once I’d resolved that, 20d finally made its appearance – even the simplest hidden seems to give me grief! Not one of my best days 😅
I did like ASSISI, because it reminded me of piglets foraging in the woods above the town, rather than donkeys. A happy memory of a lovely holiday 30+ years ago.
10:59 but DNF
FOI Bustle LOI Area COD Location
Thanks Teazel and Doofers
17:18 for me – enjoyable
10:19
Didn’t notice time passing particularly, just slow I think.
Thanks Doofers and Teazel
Solving after golf so a little tired.
But no excuse for bunging in LOI RESULT after 16 minutes thinking how does that parse exactly?
David
Good time but saw the crossers and biffed RESULT for last one in. A couple more seconds and I would have spotted it. Joke is always pun or one in crosswords (apart from when it isn’t) so that caused no troubles.
I thought this was above par for difficulty.
COD VILLAGER
I can find Teazel puzzles tricky but this one seemed rather gentle. Liked building up RATIONAL, but joint COD to LOCATION and RUSTLE – brilliant! FRONTIER was one I paused over as I didn’t immediately understand the wordplay. I also struggled to parse INVASION 🙄 Many thanks D and Teazel.
Just avoided SCC.
Spent unnecessary minutes (many) on LOCATION – ran through ‘vocation, rotation…’ Oh, dear – what an embarrassing PDM when the answer arrived. Thank goodness it’s late and few will know. Perhaps the hour can be our excuse.
Very much enjoyed – (echo MER with DEER and ONE).
Thanks to all.
I don’t time myself but as a cryptic newbie was very pleased to *nearly* finish this one (another RESULT biffer). It’s a toss-up between RUSTLE and ONE for my COD. Thanks to Teazle and D.