I know it’s not cricket to blog that something was easy, or easier than another thing,
pour pas les autres décourager, but I was surprised to find myself writing in answers as fast as I could use a pen, for most of this; I even wondered if I’d mistakenly printed off the Quickie. It did help that Mrs K and I are keen on our dog-ology, there are few breeds we’ve not heard of, although I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a 8a in the flesh, or coat. 12 minutes is an equal PB for me I think, and the parsing was no sweat either.
I’m not sure what 4d means, in regard to the chap’s scribblings, but I’m sure Verlaine does (and many more).
Across |
1 |
Men in further education giving warning on course (4) |
|
FORE – OR (ordinary ranks, men) inside F E for further education. |
4 |
Fellow pupil beginning to serve chilled infusion outside hotel (10) |
|
SCHOOLMATE – S (beginning to serve) COOL (chilled) insert H for hotel, add MATE being an infusion of a kind of tea. |
9 |
First of several kittens edgy about cheerful little dog (10) |
|
SCHIPPERKE – S K E (first letters of several kittens edgy), insert CHIPPER for cheerful. A little black Belgian dog breed. |
10 |
Conclusion sometimes drawn by an organist (4) |
|
STOP – Organists pull out the stops. |
11 |
Swamp primarily surrounding Irish lake (6) |
|
SLOUGH – Not the charming town near Heathrow; a swamp, derived from S first letter of surrounding, LOUGH as in Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles by area. (Are we still allowed to use the term “British Isles” after tomorrow?) |
12 |
Wooden panelling in old wagons by country dwelling (8) |
|
WAINSCOT – WAINS are old wagons, COT is a term for a cottage. |
14 |
Reportedly something that beats a mature male deer (4) |
|
HART – Sounds like HEART that beats. There are enough pubs called “The White Hart” with a stag picture on the sign, you have no excuse for not knowing this beast. |
15 |
Agree to exchange letters (10) |
|
CORRESPOND – double definition. |
17 |
Fantastic eastern wit, a discriminating drinker (4,6) |
|
WINE TASTER – (EASTERN WIT)*. |
20 |
Catch a glimpse of some state’s pyramids (4) |
|
ESPY – hidden word as bold above. |
21 |
Break in regularly after pinching item of jewellery (8) |
|
INFRINGE – IN, then insert RING into a F t E r. |
23 |
Note that makes us tremble! (6) |
|
QUAVER – double definition. |
24 |
Sole Liberal in west end of Oklahoma City (4) |
|
ONLY – O (‘west’ end of Oklahoma) L(iberal) inside NY (city). |
25 |
Repaired rail is best steadying device (10) |
|
STABILISER – (RAIL IS BEST)*. |
26 |
Africans visit Kent area, taking in Tyneside lass (10) |
|
SENEGALESE – insert NE and GAL into SEE SE = visit where Kent is. |
27 |
Follower of 1980s subculture became stylish in the end (4) |
|
GOTH – GOT (became) H (end of stylish). |
Down |
2 |
Outstanding Liverpudlian singer madly into swing (11) |
|
OSCILLATION – OS (outstanding) CILLA (as in Cilla Black, what’s yer name and whure d’ya come from) (INTO)*. |
3 |
English mostly snigger about that French behavioural code (9) |
|
ETIQUETTE – E(nglish) TITTE(R) = mostly snigger, insert QUE = that in French. |
4 |
Download Horace’s first letter, thus written about like his odes (7) |
|
SAPPHIC – APP (download; apps have to be downloaded, usually) H(orace) all inside SIC Latin for thus. |
5 |
Rebel leader from this place fighting duke on the Wash (8,3,4) |
|
HEREWARD THE WAKE – HERE (this place) WAR (fighting) D (duke) THE, WAKE = wash. He was a chap from the Fens who took exception to invading Normans. These days he’d probably be called WOKE instead, as Wake means watchful, kind of PC. |
6 |
Former ace, a man with energy (3-4) |
|
ONE-TIME – ONE (ace) TIM (a man) E. |
7 |
Old Mexican Indian, a variable investigator (5) |
|
AZTEC – A, Z a variable, TEC for detective. |
8 |
Assistant replacing one in flight — one living abroad (5) |
|
EXPAT – Replace the I in EXIT with PA. I’m an EXEXPAT. |
13 |
Ubiquitous old politician with grudge about Islington area (11) |
|
OMNIPRESENT – O for old, MP, RESENT (with grudge) insert N1 postcode for Islington into the MP bit. |
16 |
Coming before what a hawk may be doing (9) |
|
PREDATING – Double definition. A hawk is a predator so he “predates”. Unusual as a verb, but it exists. |
18 |
Confusing names initially is a pathological condition (7) |
|
AMNESIA – (MANES)*, I(s) A. |
19 |
Pay back half of rent? Absolutely (7) |
|
REQUITE – RE(nt), QUITE = absolutely. It’s usually love that is requited. Or unrequited, more often. |
21 |
Clubs criminals were sometimes clapped in? (5) |
|
IRONS – Golf clubs, and bad guys were ‘clapped in irons’. |
22 |
Crook fleeces exec at first, taking half of capital (5) |
|
FELON – F E (fleeces exec at first) LON(don). |
Edited at 2020-12-30 06:18 am (UTC)
PREDATING seemed obvious at 16dn but I just couldn’t see the ‘hawk’ connection so I did a lengthy alphabet trawl in the hope of finding an alternative. ‘Presaging’ was under consideration for a while before being discarded, and it didn’t help that at some point I started thinking ‘hawker’ instead of ‘hawk’ which brought all sorts of possible travelling salesmen into the equation. Anyway I settled on PREDATING and gave up, revealed the answer on the Times site and immediately registered the alternative pronunciation of PREDATING that made it fit.
Elsewhere I didn’t know the dog, but was pleased to assemble it correctly from the instructions.
I don’t think the status of the name ‘British Isles’ has ever been in question.
Cedric
FOI 4ac SCHOOLCHUM!
COD 4dn SAPPHIC
Nice to see HEREWARD back in the saddle at 5dn
Dec 2016 blogged by ulaca – said I didn’t know or had forgotten but got it from wordplay.
Apr 2017 blogged by Pip – said it gave me problems.
Plus one appearance in a Mephisto
Hereward may be ancient history but he showed up here recently enough that I remembered him early on.
Pretty sure I learned the meaning of “requite” from Charlie Brown’s unrequited crush on the little red-haired girl.
Very similar to Pip’s experience, typing in the answers as fast as I could (it’s difficult to be speedy using a beak), for a time of 13’49”
Thanks, Pip, for SAPPHIC, INFRINGE and EXPAT. All went in OK but parsing them was more problematic.
11ac: SLOUGH. That’s where we get those picture-postcard Cotswold villages Upper and Lower Slaughter from, of course.
COD for me was PREDATING.
FOI: stop
LOI: schipperke (DNF)
Many thanks for the blog Pip.
LOI: SCHIPPERKE
Filled in 16D incorrectly: PREDARING
A woodland rivulet—a Poet’s death.
Less than 20 mins with yoghurt, banana, granola, etc. LOI was the dog.
I think this is the “first letter” setter again with over 24% of the clues using it: beginning to, first of, primarily, west end of, first letter, initially, at first.
Thanks setter and Pip.
Edited at 2020-12-30 08:43 am (UTC)
To boast of the time that you get
But no QUAVER or STOP
Filled it in from the top
ONLY I can’t quite believe it just yet
This might have been a PB but for the fact I managed to lose some steam/focus/whatever about halfway through and the bottom took a fair bit longer than the top despite not being much harder, in hindsight. My falling out of the “flow” like that seems to happen quite a lot at the moment.
When I lived there, I always thought Ely should have made more of its connections to Hereward the Wake.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Happy Christmas to all here, especially our tireless bloggers, and to the brilliant setters. I gave myself a pukka telescope this year, which has guaranteed cloudy skies in Orkney ever since. Still hoping for just one glimpse at the conjunction as I doubt I’ll be here to see the next one in 300 years.
Thanks Pip and setter.
Edited at 2020-12-30 10:08 am (UTC)
I associate the hart with Richard II, am unaware of any link to James I & VI.
Andyf
Andyf
Andyf
For Horace, I thought he might be a Sophist, so struggled mightily to get that in.
And on paper, you don’t get little Red letters, so I just discovered that my PREFACING for “Coming Before” turned out to be wrong. I know nothing of falconry, so guessed that some kind of aerial maneuver could be referred to.
COD HEREWARD THE WAKE
Edited at 2020-12-30 11:10 am (UTC)
Andyf
Wish I’d gone through the alphabet backwards.
Edited at 2020-12-30 11:56 am (UTC)
Enjoyable solve.
Enjoyable. Interesting how often Cilla appears these days.
David
The adjacent AZTEC EXPAT in the NE corner made me wonder if there ever was such a thing.
COD ETIQETTE
Of course, I’d only blearily heard of the dog, which only seems to exist within the confines of a grid. I associated it with the Mephisto.
Second day running we’ve had a setter teasing us with enough 10 point Scrabble letters to deceive us into pangramticiation, only to leave us de-j-ected.
Anybody who thinks GOTHs are an 80s thing has obviously never been to Whitby.
She was quite good on oscillation and quaver.
So not technically a PB, but quite pleasing in that all the other entries were fully parsed. And more importantly, good fun, and I aim to make the 15×15 a more regular part of my day in 2021 as a New Year’s resolution.
Many thanks to Pip for the blog
Cedric
Ironic my FOI was fore, been on the course today for the niggardly 9 holes but better than nothing.
Good puzzle .
FOI: 21d IRONS
LOI: 19d REQUITE
Time before use of aids: 60 mins
Total Answered: 18/29
I was bored, and so I thought I would print out this crossword and try it for size. Not only did I do this because I had nothing else to do, but I thought it would gauge my progress with cryptic crosswords. Following my recent attempts at the QC I felt encouraged to give this one a go.
I have to say that I did better than I thought I would. At first nothing came to me, but once I got IRONS and a couple more, my confidence grew.
I did need quite a bit of help from the Crossword Dictionary after about an hour.
22d FELON came to me when I considered the “half of capital”. Naturally, the first capital that came to my mind was London. Half of London is Lon … then the answer hit me. FELON.
My brain hurts. I need a cup of tea!