I found this one straightforward and therefore very welcome after the past few days of tricky puzzles. I completed all but two clues in 35 minutes but 5dn and 9ac delayed me for a little longer. There’s really very little to say about any of it so I won’t waste time trying to say more.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | BALDERDASH – BALDER (plainer), DASH (taste, as in a dash of lemon) |
7 | PESO – Hidden |
9 | BUDDHIST – DD (Doctor of Divinity, hence divine) + HI (word of welcome) inside BUST (break). Definition: ‘prayer’ as in a person who prays. |
10 | ALLURE – A, LL (lakes), URE (river) |
11 | STAPLE – Double definition |
13 | GO TO TOWN – Double definition, one sort of cryptic |
14 | CREME FRAICHE – Anagram of CAME FREE RICH |
17 | GLASS CEILING – Barely cryptic definition |
20 | SUDANESE – DANES (people from Europe) inside SUE (petition) |
21 |
SIGNET – Sounds like “cygnet” (ugly duckling, |
22 | NO BALL – NOB (head), ALL (everyone). Our cricketing clue du jour. |
23 | TIMELESS – ‘Reason’ is ‘treason’ less T (time) |
25 | MULE – Double definition |
26 | TRENCHCOAT – Anagram of TECHNOCRAT. The enumeration is incorrect here as all the usual sources have it as two words. Even ‘One Look’ can only find it in Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary and other less than reliable on-line publications. |
Down |
|
2 | ADULTERY – Anagram of TRUE LADY |
3 | DUD – Single definition leading us to a palindrome |
4 | RHINE – First letters of Running High In Northern Europe |
5 |
ANTIGUA – ANTI (fighting), GUA |
6 | HEARTACHE – HEAR (catch), TACHE (something hairy) |
7 | PULL THE PLUG – Double definition of sorts. To do this is to stop something, hence ‘act as stopper’. |
8 | SCREWY – Double definition of sorts. Nuts, as in ‘mad’. |
12 | POMEGRANATE – ‘OME (‘ouse) + GRAN (relative) inside PATE (head) |
15 | FLAGEOLET – Double definition. The musical instrument is similar to a recorder. Edit at 07:05: I assumed the other meaning, a type of bean, would be well-enough known not to warrant mention, but two contributors of those so far have said they didn’t know it so I’m adding this now. |
16 |
UNDERSEA – ERSE (tongue) inside |
18 | SHEATHE – HEAT (warm) inside SHE (woman) |
19 | SUDOKU – The M (1000) inside SUMO (wrestling) changes to D (500, so 50% down), followed by the first letters of Kit Up |
21 | SUMAC – CAMUS (French absurdist, Albert) reversed. I know this tree only through crosswords. |
24 |
LAC – |
5d was second in but 25a held me up terribly making 19d tough until the U turned up.
If it took jackkt around 40 minutes why describe it as straightforward? Starightforwardish perhaps?
horryd
I think you are confusing me with some of the other faster contributors around here! It’s all subjective anyway, but after the problems I had solving Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, today’s was undoubtedly straightforward.
Another factor is how easy the blog was to write. The structure of the clues is pretty basic throughout so there were no complicated explanations of parsing to go into, or obscure words or references.
I deleted your first comment since you posted a correction. If you sign up for a free Live Journal account you will be able amend your postings yourself.
Edited at 2014-07-11 02:27 am (UTC)
Quite a foody theme to this one, which never plays into my hands, with both CREME FRAICHE and FLAGEOLET as a bean unknown. SUMAC, on the other hand, not a problem, as I am currently reading ‘The Plague’ – even if I haven’t been able to find much absurdity.
Edited at 2014-07-11 02:09 am (UTC)
Slowed down dramatically after that, with BUDDHIST, ANTIGUA and TRENCHCOAT (great anagram) proving particularly hard to crack.
Then it all came to nothing, as I had no chance of getting FLAGEOLET, having never heard of the bean or the instrument.
Thanks setter and blogger.
My apology, Jack, I commented on the club site before coming here – I should have known you would have been most thorough in your homework. TRENCHCOAT’s a fine anagram spot, and it didn’t occur to me while solving that it shouldn’t be (10).
FLAGEOLET a write-in for me: ‘er indoors “makes” (that is to say, she directs ‘im indoors in the making of) bean salad for those occasions when it’s a bring and share supper, as it was on Tuesday last. The recipe goes “find as many different beans as you can on Tesco’s shelf, wash and mix together with petits pois and some sort of vinaigrette”. As it happens, they didn’t have flageolets this time, but they usually do.
SUDOKU didn’t look as if it could be anything else, though I hesitated long until I saw the wordplay for what it was. What have the Romans ever done for us?
Didn’t immediately think of Camus as an Absurdist, but did think of Jarry, the father of ‘Pataphysics, because I walked by the charming shop in Shoreditch yesterday. Sadly, YRRAJ isn’t a tree.
Edited at 2014-07-11 07:18 am (UTC)
Also caused myself problems with a careless Rhone at 4d, before finally figuring out the BUDDHIST.
Enjoyed this one very much. I think it’s all about surfaces for me, which is maybe why I still regularly tackle and enjoy The Telegraph — it may be much easier but it’s nearly always elegantly put together.
Edited at 2014-07-11 08:56 am (UTC)
Climbing tree, he pondered the human condition (5)
Edited at 2014-07-12 12:10 pm (UTC)
Think I’ll do the quick cryptics to get back the right thought process…
I was puzzled by ‘do well’ as a definition for GO TO TOWN, but I was reading it in the sense ‘didn’t he do well?’ rather than ‘if a thing’s worth doing…’.
I don’t have a problem with the enumeration for 26ac. A quick google demonstrates that TRENCHCOAT is pretty common, so it’s just a question of the dictionaries catching up.
Edited at 2014-07-11 08:32 am (UTC)
Personally I think it’s a better clue this way, because it’s a neat anagram and (5,4) would have been too easy.
Edited at 2014-07-11 09:34 am (UTC)
I was a crossword club member given a complimentary subscription to the Times site which ended 30th June. On email invitation I renewed via telephone (first 3 months half price etc) setting up a direct debit and so on. Since I have been able to access the daily cryptic as before (ie without entering the Times site) it was only yesterday when I decided to have a go at the Quick Cryptic for the first time (my level found at last) that I found that I was denied access and invited to subscribe. I tried to resolve using the chat line but that was annoyingly useless – the person I was chatting to kept insisting I had cancelled the sub – and eventually was told when I telephoned that there was a computer system problem with “some” former crossword club members whose renewed subscriptions were erroneously cancelled. So I had to set up a new sub, new direct debit etc.
I’d call SUDOKU a puzzle rather than a game, as it’s not usually played against an opponent.
Edited at 2014-07-11 10:17 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-07-11 04:09 pm (UTC)
At least my three latest Times crosswords from the archive have been comparatively easy (though still more difficult than the modern ones, for me at any rate).