Time: 31 minutes
Music: Beethoven, Piano Sonatas, Wilhelm Backhaus.
This was a bit more difficult for a Monday, although I managed to race through most of it in about 15 minutes before getting stuck. I was also slowed down when I discovered that my printout was missing the last word and enumeration of 29 across, and had to start up a computer to get the missing bits. There is a little obscure vocabulary here, as well as a few convoluted cryptics, but the bulk of it is straightfoward enough. It’s probably about average overall.
Now for some important blog business. Simon Hanson, a long-time Jumbo blogger, has been forced to resign due ot ill health. I have gotten a temporary substitute for the next one, but we need a permanent blogger. I am therefore seeking someone who wants to join our crew of volunteers at Times for the Times, and is willing to blog a Jumbo cryptic about once every five weeks. You can either just indicate your interest in your comment, or sent me a LiveJournal private message.
Across | |
1 | What is true about English I love, America being flippant? (9) |
FACETIOUS – FAC(E)T + I + O + US. | |
6 | Place for Jacob’s ladder, not hotel plant (5) |
BETEL – BET[h]EL, if you have the crossers your weak Biblical knowledge should not matter much. | |
9 | Survive in the open before bad turns (7) |
OUTLIVE – OUT + EVIL backwards. | |
10 | A broadcaster in Ireland, female, almost a goddess (7) |
ARTEMIS – A + R.T.E. + MIS[s], an obvious biff. | |
11 | Set against warrant officer, everyone appears insignificant? (5) |
SMALL – S.M. + ALL, that is Sergeant Major, and not W.O. as you might suppose. | |
13 | Covering church fellows provided with time for memorial slab (9) |
HATCHMENT – HAT + CH + MEN + T, a word not everyone will know. | |
14 | Seek changes in accommodation for minister and be reasonable (4,5) |
MAKE SENSE – MA(anagram of SEEK)NSE. | |
16 | Holy circle in church a lot (4) |
HALO – Hidden, in [churc]H A LO[t]. | |
18 | Continue to be someone foolish (4) |
GOON – GO ON, a chestnut. | |
19 | Lousy rent — raise various amounts paid in advance (9) |
RETAINERS – Anagram of RENT + RAISE. | |
22 | One making a song and dance, these days, always going on (9) |
BALLADEER – BALL + AD + EER. | |
24 | Swimmer finished poetically, clinching races (5) |
OTTER – O(TT)ER. | |
25 | Protester did wrong breaking into vehicle behind back of school (7) |
LUDDITE – [schoo]L + U(anagram of DID)TE. There aren’t too many three-letter vehicles starting with a vowel. | |
26 | Flats maybe by trail in Cornish town (7) |
PADSTOW – PADS + TOW. | |
28 | Spaniard to make departure twice? (5) |
DIEGO – DIE + GO. | |
29 | Something edgy about sport bringing bit of bad language (9) |
SWEARWORD – S(WEAR)WORD, easy enough if you have the whole clue! |
Down | |
1 | Wet rubbish? Female in the morning collects a great deal (7) |
FLOTSAM – F (LOTS) AM. | |
2 | Nursery item’s function (3) |
COT – Double definition, a child’s bed and a cotangent. I initially put COS, thinking of the wrong kind of nursery. | |
3 | Competitor making mistake, not quite among the top people (8) |
TRIALIST – TRI[p] + A-LIST, I think. This was a very hesitant biff, since I couldn’t figure out what “among” was doing. | |
4 | Honour a husband, showing a sort of charm (5) |
OBEAH – OBE + A H. | |
5 | Most hare-brained guy meeting restrictions on entering street (9) |
SCATTIEST – S(CAT + TIES)T. | |
6 | Bishop getting uncomfortable becomes spiteful (6) |
BITCHY – B + ITCHY. | |
7 | Agency worker taking time signified outspoken attitude (11) |
TEMPERAMENT – TEMP + ERA + sounds like MEANT. | |
8 | The foreign boozer, little house in the country (7) |
LESOTHO – LE SOT + HO. | |
12 | Recognise legend, wacko in peculiar guise (11) |
ACKNOWLEDGE – Anagram of LEGEND WACKO, although some solvers may play around with LEGEND + GUISE. | |
15 | Feeble or calm and collected? (9) |
NERVELESS – Double definition. | |
17 | Hell, with a group of religious folk creating chaos (8) |
DISORDER – DIS + ORDER. | |
18 | Gulped, giving brief account of what happened when tooth came out? (7) |
GOBBLED – GOB BLED, not what the turkey said, but what the hungry folks did at the feast. | |
20 | Fixed a strip of wood or metal around front of window (7) |
SCREWED – SCRE(W)ED. A strip of wood or metal is about the 5th definitin of “screed”. | |
21 | Boy in love is in clover (6) |
LADINO – LAD IN O. One I didn’t know, but the cryptic hands it to you. | |
23 | Regret when school subject is squeezed — money found (5) |
RUPEE – RU(PE)E, when I couldn’t get ruble to work. | |
27 | Number in company excessively audible (3) |
TWO – Sound like TOO, a clue escaped from a Quickie. |
V, thanks very much for the blog. A minor correction – you have an IO missing in 1A.
Plenty of unknowns, but very approachable wordplay.
Apologies for being picky, but I think ‘bad language’ needs to be underlined as the def for your initially deficient 29a.
Thanks for the blog and to our setter
I wasn’t sure about NERVELESS as I didn’t know its ‘feeble’ meaning, something to add to my collection of words like ‘best’ which can mean one thing, but also the direct opposite.
21dn is an answer one just has to guess if one doesn’t happen to know the word, a somewhat obscure plant variety, so that’s quite likely. I picked LAD correctly but given the vagaries of setters when it comes to given names it might just as easily have been SAMINO or PATINO or several other 3-letter boy’s names that would fit.
Andyf
Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Liked BETEL, LUDDITE, and SWEARWORD.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
But I liked GOBBLED (if somewhat vulgar) and the BITCHY bishop. And I did it in 11.21, with quite a bit of back-checking trying to justify all the entries.
Edited at 2021-01-11 09:41 am (UTC)
For the most answers ending in O?
LESOTHO and HALO
LADINO, DIEGO,
And TWO doesn’t rhyme, but there’s PADSTOW
Are the GOON RETAINERS of the GOP to be held responsible for last Wednesday’s BITCHY DISORDER?
And why is LESOTHO SCREWED?
LOI 21D: LADINO (guessed based on wordplay)
Also guessed, based on wordplay – 4D: OBEAH
Thank you vinyl1 and the setter
_A INO wondering whether LADINO was a thing; in a no aids competition I’d have biffed it and hoped. Instead I went to Wiki to learn it is a white variety of clover.
COD: GOBBLED. Here’s my alternative offering.
Quickly swallowed what’s mostly nonsense. (7)
– like Vimto.
Twenty three minutes and a bit of ‘shrapnel’.
FOI 2dn COT
LOI 6ac BETEL even tho’ I’m pretty good on things Biblical
COD 24ac OTTER – and what a swimmer!
WOD 25ac LUDDITE – they prevailed 1779-1813 – did Ned Ludd even exist?
I note that America First (political Ludditism) is not as popular as it once was and that this was a rather English puzzlement. Huzzah!
Andyf
Agree about ladino – could be tomino, regino, etc. etc.
Thanks v.
Didn’t Diego Ladino play for Real Madrid?
Old Vic
How do we know when a random name is preferable? We don’t.
Otherwise successfully guessed BETEL, OBEAH and HATCHMENT.
A plant too many for me in this puzzle but some good clues otherwise. An hour or so.
David
The BITCHY bishop made me smile.
FOI FACETIOUS
LOI RETAINERS
COD GOBBLED
TIME 7:31
LOI ladino but a complete guess. Bit tougher than the typical Monday but enjoyable. Liked betel, artemis and hatchment in particular but pride of place to lesotho if only because it’s so unusual as a crossword answer.
If I can help as an occasional blogger though while you sort things out I’d be very happy to do so. I would just ask that any such assignments take place on a different weekend from my QC spot.
Kind regards
Don
Kind regards
Don
I will answer post #1 in an email.
Took me a long time but got there in the end. I can usually only finish easy ones so happy to see this was at least average difficulty. I read feeble as a cryptic clue for NERVELESS rather than a definition, ie lacking nerve.