Having blogged a few stiff ones recently this was welcome relief. I cantered through in four and a bit minutes. Lots of lift & separate, and some cracking anagrams.
| Across | |
| 1 | Huge local inn manufactured mind-altering substance (12) |
| HALLUCINOGEN – anagram (‘manufactured’) of HUGE LOCAL INN | |
| 9 | These Europeans couldn’t be further apart (5) |
| POLES – double definition of sorts | |
| 10 | Shakes audibly and chatters, not quietly (7) |
| RATTLES – PRATTLES minus P (quietly) | |
| 11 | Study exquisite pen (7) |
| CONFINE – CON + FINE | |
| 12 | Nothing in urge to reform villain (5) |
| ROGUE – anagram (‘to reform’) of URGE with O inserted | |
| 13 | Doctor Dread beginning to rub part of chest (6) |
| DRAWER – DR (doctor) + AWE + R for rub | |
| 14 | Clever bishop, such a reverend (6) |
| BRIGHT – B + RIGHT. A bishop’s title is Right Reverend | |
| 17 | Charge by a Spanish holiday area (5) |
| COSTA – COST + A | |
| 19 | Tells stories about a steamship for girls from Glasgow (7) |
| LASSIES – LIES around A SS | |
| 21 | Misgiving about extremely large jacket (7) |
| DOUBLET – DOUBT outside of L[ |
|
| 22 | Quantity of paper covering large field of study (5) |
| REALM – REAM over L | |
| 23 | Again found communist is being screened (12) |
| REDISCOVERED – RED IS COVERED | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Short set of maps welcoming worker in Georgian city (7) |
| ATLANTA – ATLA[ |
|
| 3 | Not so much about feeble musical (3,10) |
| LES MISERABLES – LESS outside of MISERABLE | |
| 4 | Restricted where mangy dog sleeps? (6) |
| CURBED – CUR BED | |
| 5 | Character to do duty again in wildlife sanctuary (6,7) |
| NATURE RESERVE – NATURE (character) + RE-SERVE | |
| 6 | Camp originally ghastly, useless looking after guests (5) |
| GULAG – acronym | |
| 7 | Most inquisitive, having no afternoon rest, almost (7) |
| NOSIEST – NO + SIEST[ |
|
| 8 | Tiny mark reported in detailed plan (4) |
| SPEC – sounds like SPECK | |
| 13 | Last month, dire playing in tie-break (7) |
| DECIDER – DEC (the last month of the year) + anagram (‘playing’) of DIRE | |
| 15 | Scowl from serious expert (7) |
| GRIMACE – GRIM + ACE | |
| 16 | Hopelessly drunk as bachelor? Bingo! (6) |
| BLOTTO – B (bachelor) + LOTTO | |
| 18 | Group of players in small courtyard (5) |
| SQUAD – S + QUAD | |
| 20 | Upset crime scene extends across house (4) |
| SEMI – reverse hidden word | |
Teazel and I seem to share a wavelength today, which is highly unusual and led me to what must be my fastest completion of one of his puzzles, at 8:59. Very refreshing; I look forward to being monstered by Trelawney tomorrow.
Thank you for the blog!
You would think if hallucinogen is a write-in, this would be an easy one. But no, I was not on the wavelength at all. I did biff drawer, but then I parsed it. Curbed and confined should not have given trouble, but did, and I manage to write rouge instead of rogue, making Gulag very difficult.
Time: 11: 46
Enjoyed this QC despite feeling awkward with the wordplay for Semi.
Nice end to the week. Thanks all.
Found this to be of average difficulty so slightly not on the wavelength of the other commenters here
15:58 for me
A fairly gentle one today led to my only halfway acceptable time of the week – 18 minutes. 2 of those were spent on my LOI (SEMI) where I completely failed to see the reverse hidden. I also spent a little time trying to anagram dread+r at 13ac but sanity prevailed after a while.
FOI – 9ac POLES
LOI – 20dn SEMI
COD – 16dn BLOTTO
Thanks to Teazel for providing me with a chance to redeem myself before the end of the week and to Curarist.
DNF
Off to a flying start with FOI HALLUCINOGEN – or so I thought.
Well in to the SCC when I called time not being able to see 13a DRAWER. Hit the reveal button and was very disappointed with myself.
Liked LASSIES, NATURE RESERVE & REDISCOVERED.
Thanks to Curarist and Teazel
Gentle for a Teazel. Biffed DRAWER then took ages with the parsing. Same with SEMI, only rather belatedly to spot it was a hidden. LOI CONFINE which gets COD. Many thanks both.
Managed to solve it steadily in 40 minutes. Funnily enough, thought RATTLES was a double definition, but turns out I’m just using it incorrectly as a way somebody speaks 😁 Thanks for the blog 😀
Some people do ‘rattle on’ – meaning ‘ talk incessantly’ (and usually boringly) so you are not wrong.
10 mins…
Slightly easier than I thought it was going to be. Took a while to spell and parse 1ac “Hallucinogen”, but other than that the rest went in fairly quickly.
FOI – 9ac “Poles”
LOI – 13ac “Drawer”
COD – 21ac “Doublet”
Thanks as usual!
Not a good week, and CONFINE spoilt a quick finish today
12.30 Slow throughout for no obvious reason and finished with COSTA. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.
It’s unusual that I find the Friday crossword easier than the Monday but I’m not complaining! I’m another who spent time looking for an anagram of DREAD + R before spotting the answer. Again, not complaining as I’m in very good company.
5:16 with thanks to Teazel and Curarist.
Beaten by CONFINE. CON = study is not in my vocabulary and definitely not happy with FINE = exquisite. For me exquisite is several leagues about FINE.
And yes clearly “doctor” means anagram . . . except today when it didn’t. D’oh.
I would have said fine wines and fine arts are the top of their fields and therefore exquisite fits
8:55. Smooth sailing today.
Yet another DRADER considerer. 5:21. I found that revisiting the surface ‘Misgiving about extremely large jacket’ after I’d finished caused me to laugh out loud. A very good one.
15:13 with one error: I thought the mangy dog might sleep in the CORNER. Didn’t like it much, but it kinda-sorta worked and all the crossers fitted. Ho hum. On to tomorrow.
Thanks to Curarist and Teazel.
OK – I was tired after golf on a very hot day and drinks were involved afterwards, but I found this hard.
18 minutes bunging in CORNER as LOI and failing totally to see Curbed. I thought a dog could sleep in the corner and the verb can mean something like restrict.
But I get that it does not parse.
I will be fresh for tomorrow’s challenge.
David
PS I have just seen that the comment above agrees with me!
Tough week for me but this was straightforward in 7:46 – I reckon a good couple of minutes wasted through mucking about with several improbable spellings of 1AC
12 minutes. Should have been under 10 but I couldn’t get SEMI for 3 minutes (idiot, Gary!).
Nightmare week:
M – 26
T – 20
W – 46 DNF
Th – 13
F – 12
Total – 117 minutes
Nowhere near where I want to be and very dispiriting.
Ages spent on 15 x 15 to get just 4 answers. Several clues were perfectly gettable with the right way of thinking, but my mind does not see the clues as they are meant to be read, however hard I try. I can learn all the abbreviations etc but, when it comes to the ability to read a clue correctly, I’ve come to the conclusion that you either have it or you don’t. Sadly, I don’t.
Made hard work of this one. Completed but fell into the “doctor” bear trap, took ages to spot what was going on with gulag. Inexplicably was convinced there was only one L in local so 1 across.held me up. Didn’t know con for study but bunged it in ‘cos I had nothing else.
FOI Poles
LOI Squad
COD Drawer
Thanks Curarist and Teazel
Very late…. did this on a plane… under 15 minutes which, while slow compared with many, is good for us. Besides, it is the enjoyment, yes? And that being so – a definite yes.
Thanks to all.
Late solve, 13:40, another DRADER, bur eventually cracked it.
Went to see Les Miserables in London a weak ago, still a Fab show.
CON=study is just about crossword-only these days I think.
Away for weekend, took this with me, did just about finish it within the designated 24-hour period. LOI SQUAD. Battled with spelling of HALLUCINOGEN but reckoned if you start with HALLUCIN(ate) the rest just fills the remaining spaces. Good puzzle, thank you, Teazel.
Aarrggh – got CURBED wrong, must admit that is clever. Drat…. but thank you, Curarist, for putting me right.