Solving time: 26 minutes
I thought I was in for a quick solve when I put in the first five at sight, starting at 1 across. While I completed the top half relatively quickly, I slowed in the bottom half, and came to a complete halt for a while in the SE. Eventually I saw the obvious ‘petrol’, and was able to finish with ‘beachhead’ and ‘rummage’.
Music: Beethoven, Kreutzer and Spring Sonatas, Rubinstein/Szerying
Across | |
---|---|
1 | FISHERMAN, F[ill] + I + SHERMAN. |
6 | ALOOF, AL(O,O)F. |
9 | NARWHAL, RAN backwards + W + HAL. ‘Initially’ refers to the placement of the first two elements, not the first letter of ‘west’. |
10 | PATELLA, PATEL + LA, one of the hotelier Indians. |
11 | IDE, ‘IDE, of course, as said in an allegedly Cockney area, although it’s probably full of Russian oligarchs by now. |
12 | SADDLE HORSE, SADDLE + sounds like HOARSE. ‘Saddle’ in the sense of stick you with something or someone undesirable. |
14 | DETOUR, anagram of ROUTED. |
15 | COGNOMEN, CO(GNOME)N, the kind of financier found in Zurich, not the one in gardens. |
17 | FLOODLIT, F(L)OOD + LIT. |
19 | PETROL, P[-a, +E]TROL, a simple letter-substitution clue that stumped me for a while. I consider a ‘patrol’ to consist of more than one man, so the literal is questionable. |
22 | INTERREGNUM, anagram of TRUE MEN GRIN. I was delayed by crossing out the wrong letters. |
23 | MUD, a simple double definition. |
25 | EMBARGO E(M.B.)AR + GO….and not an anagram of ‘organ’ at all! |
27 | UNREADY, UNREAD + Y[outh]. |
28 | TORSO, ROT backwards + SO. |
29 | BEACHHEAD, B(E)ACH + HEAD. I was taken aback, because Mrs. Amy Beach was an American composer, but then I saw how the clue worked. However, a beachhead is not really part of a fortification, but a temporary line of incursion from the sea into an enemy-held country. |
 | |
Down | |
1 | FUNGI, sounds like FUN GUY, a chestnut. |
2 | SERPENT, S(E,R)PENT – it wouldn’t do to cross the Queen! |
3 | ECHO SOUNDER, E.C. HO + SOUNDER. |
4 | MELODY, M(DOLE upside-down)Y. I wasted some time trying to use ‘me’. |
5 | NAPOLEON, NAP + O + NOEL upside-down. |
6 | AIT, A + IT, in the crossword-puzzle sense. |
7 | OIL DRUM, [d]O(I)LDRUM[s]. |
8 | FRATERNAL, anagram of LEFT ARRAN, and a very easy one. |
13 | HUNGER MARCH, HUN(GERMA[n] + R)CH. I had to parse the cryptic for the blog, since this was an obvious write-in. |
14 | DIFFIDENT, DIFF(-er,+ID)ENT, a more venturesome substitution clue. |
16 |
|
18 | OCTOBER, [d]OCTO(B[e]E[f])R. |
20 | RUMMAGE, RUM (M) AGE, one I should have seen much more quickly than I did. |
21 | UNGULA, A(U[sefu]L)GNU, with the exterior, but not the interior, upside-down. |
24 | DRYAD, D(RY)AD. Those looking for L or LL will be disappointed. |
26 | RIO, [dinne]R + I + O, a compendium of cryptic cliches. |
A fast 15 min, wondering if there was an Indian city Patella.
Rob
Nice start to the week. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Like Vinyl I too got into high dudgeon about Amy Beach, clearly letting my fondness for her life story and compositions cloud my parsing judgement.
We need Dr Thud to tell us if PATELLA is bone. I agree about BEACHHEAD.
Very easy puzzle with a lot of chestnuts. I thought my days of running straight through the clues were gone but this never gave me pause.
Got through this one in 21 minutes (good, for me) with no major hold-ups. NHO of AIT, though I might have recognized it if I’d known it was an alternative spelling of “eyot”. I also failed to parse several (OCTOBER, BEACHHEAD).
My anti-CODs in this one were MUD (which seemed quite feeble to me) and IDE (because, for some reason, I find these Dick van Dyke clues irritating). Overall, though, I quite liked this one.
Oh, and a Happy New Year to everyone!
What is the last bone to ossify?
I agree with the previous comment that 23 was rather weak.
Ok … maybe not.
I very much like your NAPOLEON clue vinyl – great surface!
I like Jack’s imaginary Isherman tank in Jimbo’s virtual science lab.
Biffed PATELLA and still don’t understand it. I knew it is a bone, and I see it is also a genus of limpet. But can’t find an Indian city so named, or closer than Patna.
I like Dr Thud’s evolution theory; I soon stopped at the couch potato stage so my knees are good.
Probably no better!
“Emperor penguin starts to mix with a loon.”?
I am off for a brandy … you know which one.
Still, you have demonstrated that you knew all along that it was TIME BOMB, and that’s what counts.
Keep up the good work.
Like many others I didn’t parse PATELLA at all.
I didn’t parse 10ac PATELLA and 29ac BEACHHEAD WAS LOI.
fyi UNGALA was the first words poken by John Bird in the ‘Zulu’
Silk Cut cinema ad many years back.
horryd Shanghai
Thought Detour was very nicely clued.
Pig of an answer?
I found this too difficult; managed ten and a half clues (that is progress of a sort) but did get Time Bomb as I recall the daily refrain in English pubs at 1030 pm. David
The logical conclusion is, that the only way to get going on the big puzzle is just to start trying to do it every day, and read the blog to find out where you went wrong. If you have the ability, you should advance quickly.
I’ll never be among the quickest solvers, but that doesn’t bother me. As others have said, don’t despair and don’t give up: if you are like me, every improvement will increase the pleasure, and enjoyment is what crossword solving should always be about. By all means, keep going with the Quick (I still do it), but, if time allows, give the main puzzle a go too.
I’m late to the party, as usual, and a bit out of practice due to family duties taking up valuable crossword time.
Count me as another who failed to parse the obvious ‘patella’, but, otherwise, I found it an approachable crossword.
I echo the sound advice and encouragement to David.