6:12. I found this rather straightforward, and as I write the blog nearly a week after solving I don’t remember much about the experience. Going through the clues now though I think it’s a very neat crossword, with a lot of very natural surfaces. Good stuff. How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Private pair of hotels opened by American |
| HUSH HUSH – H(US)H x2. | |
| 5 | When one holds end of lit sparkler? |
| ASTI – AS( |
|
| 8 | King exiled from Italian state |
| OMAN – |
|
| 9 | Ham tours with top cast around cold isle |
| PROSCIUTTO – (TOURS TOP)* containing C, I. | |
| 11 | Beastly type of weapon involved in test |
| MARMOT – M(ARM)OT. | |
| 13 | Unusual open arch that’s carefully rounded |
| CAPE HORN – (OPEN ARCH)*. | |
| 14 | Having gathered data, factory is booming |
| PLANGENT – PLAN(GEN)T. Not a meaning I was familiar with. | |
| 16 | Performer performing for pleasure, perhaps |
| TURN ON – TURN (performer), ON (performing). Ooh er. | |
| 17 | Very rainy and primarily overcast urban area abroad |
| SOWETO – SO, WET, O |
|
| 19 | Female court attendant or debutante? |
| BALL GIRL – definition and cryptic hint based on debs going to coming-out balls. | |
| 21 | Struggled to smother blaze revolutionary checked |
| VERIFIED – VIED containing a reversal of FIRE. | |
| 22 | Quick-witted Catholic one pulled by track? |
| CLEVER – C, LEVER. Not sure what ‘pulled by track’ is referring to. The lever on old-fashioned railway points? | |
| 23 | Original vote in vain, reshuffle needed! |
| INNOVATIVE – (VOTE IN VAIN)*. | |
| 24 | Nothing left … deliveries not right |
| LOVE – L, OVE |
|
| 26 | Try and visit King’s Head |
| SEEK – SEE, K |
|
| 27 | Well-worn crack in box by overturned cask |
| CHESTNUT – CHEST, reversal of TUN. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | This gentleman can be seen in Delhi markets |
| HIM – contained in ‘Delhi markets’. | |
| 2 | One making kippers using some citrus and mango |
| SANDMAN – another containment clue, this time in ‘citrus and mango’. | |
| 3 | Do one popular song covering Oscar Peterson’s debut |
| HOP IT – H(O, P |
|
| 4 | Vehicle that’s tracked dropping shells very soon |
| SNOWCAT – S(NOW)CAT. | |
| 6 | Wind posh sailor up with article by foremost of ratings |
| SOUTHER – reversal (up) of U (posh, Nancy-Mitford style), OS (ordinary seaman), then THE, R |
|
| 7 | One recruits irregular for it |
| INTERCOURSE – (ONE RECRUITS)*. Ooh er again. | |
| 10 | Money’s excellent |
| CAPITAL – DD. | |
| 12 | In NY with nothing to do on date, loses out |
| AT LOOSE ENDS – (ON DATE LOSES)*. Presumably this is the American version, the version I’m familiar with is in the singular. | |
| 15 | Sensual art one ripped up outside of cafeteria |
| EROTICA – reversal of A TORE, C |
|
| 18 | Saint in unfinished heroic poem, one of a series |
| EPISODE – EPI |
|
| 19 | Repellent fish on plate’s not very good |
| BADDISH – reversal of DAB, DISH. | |
| 20 | Troublemaker in Putin’s government loses head for good |
| GREMLIN – KREMLIN with the first letter switched to G. | |
| 22 | Game with GM garnish royal left out for husband |
| CHESS – CRESS with R replaced by H. | |
| 25 | Animal bones? |
| VET – CD, ‘bones’ being a slang word for a doctor. | |
While this one apparantly suited the blogger, it did not suit us.
Clever clues I thought were 20d GREMLIN and 7d INTERCOURSE – but the latter only because of the frank and open disclosure. As an aside, a town in Amish country is alternatively called ‘Crossed Keys’.
For various reasons, and amongst other clues, particularly did not like 13ac, 14ac, 16ac and 12d, 15d and 18d; and do not propose to bore by explaining why.
‘Too much monkey business’ is my summary for this one.
Thank you keriothe for the explanations.
34:00
I was puzzled by ‘In NY with nothing to do’ at 12d, as I didn’t know the UK/US difference. This was enjoyable. I liked SANDMAN, CAPE HORN, INTERCOURSE.
Typo at EROTICA: it’s I, TORE reversed.
32 minutes. I had the same query as our blogger about ‘by track’ (22ac) and reached the same conclusion. I’d have thought it many many decades since points were controlled by levers; isn’t it all done remotely by electronic means these days?
I had a query over ‘In NY’ re AT LOOSE ENDS as I solved this, but it was resolved the very next day by Kevin G in his comment re Monday’s QC in which AT A LOOSE END was one of the answers.
I see my comment on Monday (QC 3100) alluded to today’s ST puzzle; odd that the two forms of the expression should appear a day apart.
Some may have found this straightforward, but I really enjoyed it and welcome a Sunday crossword which doesn’t take up most of the day. Not everyone who does the Times crossword is a sub 10 minute solver so let’s try and keep a balance when it comes to levels of difficulty.
Enjoyed this one. I’m not a fast solver but did finish it on the the Sunday.
Six minutes. SIX MINUTES! It took me longer than that even to read all the clues, let alone think about them and write in answers. Which I did for only 12 of ‘em. Found this one tricky and annoying, eg the random initial letters of cold and isle… Frustrating.
Though I’m assured it’s common in certain argots, I was a bit suspicious of “do one” for HOP IT. Average difficulty, really, over 16 minutes or so.
My thanks to David McLean and keriothe.
COD 20d Gremlin. Don’t meddle with Putin:
(Yevgeny) “Prigozhin, along with Wagner commanders Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, died on 23 August 2023 in a plane crash in Russia…” Wikipedia.
15 minutes
– Agree with others that the ‘by track’ reference in the clue for CLEVER is a little dated
– Can never remember the names of winds (even though they’re often obvious enough to figure out), so I needed the wordplay to get SOUTHER
– Also didn’t know that meaning of PLANGENT
– Didn’t work out what the ‘with GM’ was doing in the clue for CHESS
Thanks keriothe and David.
FOI Asti
LOI Chess
COD Cape Horn
I could not figure the GM either. But my friend thinks it might stand for Grand Masters as a more friendly hint as to the game?
Our blogger appears to have a view as it is cited as part of definition.
Yes that’s right, GM is an abbreviation for Grand Master. I didn’t actually know this, I just assumed it!
Had to have help with a few here, I’m ashamed to say, (CAPE HORN, BADDISH – really?, VERIFIED); and I couldn’t spell PROSCIUTTO, which didn’t help me with SOUTHER. Other than that, thoroughly enjoyed, especially HUSH HUSH, INTERCOURSE and BALL GIRL. Nice way to start Sunday.
good one. much pleased by ball girl and vet.
Thanks David and keriothe
Didn’t start this until late in the afternoon on Saturday and needed three sittings to complete it and a total of 59 minutes. A bit over normal solve time so must have found it a bit more challenging than some. Was able to come out error free and managed to parse everything as well – so a good result. My first two were 1d and 2d where I was surprised to see the same device used.
Did like the BALL GIRL clue which was my third to last in, followed by BADDISH and VERIFIED.