Time: 22 minutes
Music: Rossini Overtures, Szell/Cleveland Orchestra
Nothing very difficult here. I got a little hung up on dipstick before I saw how it worked, but I aced the two bits of parliamentary knowledge required here. There were not many chestnuts, but the novel clues were rather on the simple side, and the literals were rather literal. I expect very fast times from our speed merchants.
Across | |
1 | One decent, if somehow flawed (9) |
DEFICIENT – Anagram of I DECENT IF. | |
6 | Penniless clergyman causing offence (5) |
ARSON – [p]ARSON, a chestnut. | |
9 | Gas maybe the product of identical factors (5) |
POWER – Double definition, where gas is probably meant as a verb. | |
10 | Cashing in? It’s true, I confess (9) |
REALISING – REAL, I SING. | |
11 | Jog back alongside river? It’ll hurt! (7) |
TORTURE – TROT backwards + URE. | |
12 | Overview of conditions in June, might one say? (7) |
SUMMARY – Sounds like SUMMERY. | |
13 | Slovenian actor surprisingly chatty (14) |
CONVERSATIONAL – Anagram of SLOVENIAN ACTOR. | |
17 | Bishop fell after broadcast, being dizzy (14) |
SCATTERBRAINED – SCATTER + B RAINED. | |
21 | Callaghan sardonically accepting record of his speeches? (7) |
HANSARD – hidden in [Callag]HAN SARD[onically], which I biffed before seeing the hidden. | |
23 | In army almost turn blind eye to married woman (7) |
SIGNORA – S(IGNOR[e])A. | |
25 | The elders wrongly given sanctuary (9) |
SHELTERED – Anagram of THE ELDERS. | |
26 | Intends to move European minister’s accommodation (5) |
MANSE – MEANS with E moved. | |
27 | Old goat who’s taken your clothes? (5) |
SATYR – SAT + Y[ou]R….well, what do you think? | |
28 | Remove money from girl with son inadequately dressed? (9) |
DISINVEST – DI + S IN VEST, where a vest is an undershirt in the UK, but not in the US. However, this is a UK puzzle. |
Down | |
1 | Idiot slopes away with Mo (8) |
DIPSTICK – DIPS + TICK, probably the hardest clue in the puzzle, and my LOI. | |
2 | Not so many in turmoil after change of heart (5) |
FEWER – FE(-v,+W)ER. | |
3 | Fat NCO advanced without uniform (9) |
CORPULENT – CORP(U)LENT. | |
4 | Deny opening to those longing for profitable ventures (7) |
EARNERS – [y]EARNERS, not learners for once! | |
5 | Poles visit property in passing (7) |
TRANSIT – TRA(N,S)IT. | |
6 | Saw American chopper landing on island (5) |
AXIOM – AX + IOM, the American spelling and the Isle of Man. | |
7 | How to make Aryan invent excuse? (4,1,4) |
SPIN A YARN – Reverse cryptic: if you follow the instructions, you get ARYAN. | |
8 | Article about painter depicting city in Japan (6) |
NAGOYA – AN backwards + GOYA. Never hear of it, but the cryptic is crystal-clear. | |
14 | Clubs in midday match but outcome not in doubt (2,7) |
NO CONTEST – NO(C)ON TEST. | |
15 | Protestant in row in sultanate (9) |
ORANGEMAN – O(RANGE)MAN. | |
16 | Near staff officer on very little money (8) |
ADJACENT – ADJ + A CENT. | |
18 | Remarkably, Dundee Republican survived (7) |
ENDURED – Anagram of DUNDEE R. | |
19 | Too many social workers, perhaps, holding policemen up (7) |
BESIDES – BE(DIS upside-down)ES. | |
20 | Premise of article on MI6 (6) |
THESIS – THE + SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service. | |
22 | Reactionary corrupts a pioneering MP (5) |
ASTOR – ROTS A backwards, wtih a bit of UK history. | |
24 | Fresh start for dimwit in Oz (5) |
OUNCE – (-d,+O)UNCE, another letter-substitution clue. |
BESIDES was my favourite, I do enjoy a cleverly disguised definition.
And I’m taking 24ac as a direct reference to my re-appearance on this site!
Thanks Vinyl, have a good week everyone.
Edited at 2021-09-20 01:46 am (UTC)
Otherwise very easy 11m
I was held up because I couldn’t parse this one, or OUNCE for a while. Nothing too testing otherwise, and the quick cryptic had a similar wordplay element in (Y)EARN, which must have helped a little.
Entered with a shrug.
FOI 1ac DEFICIENT
LOI 24dn OUNCE – somewhat tortured clue
COD 21ac HANSARD
WOD 17ac SCATTERBRAINED!
Time 27 Monday minutes
After 20 mins pre-brekker I decided LOI had to be Ounce but remarkably I couldn’t parse it. Nor could I parse Satyr.
Pity. there is some neat clueing otherwise.
Thanks setter and Vinyl.
Fairly easy solve.
Thanks, v.
LOI: DIPSTICK
COD: OUNCE
My solving times got very big
Perhaps rooting in soil
Takes ones brain off the boil
But today’s was not such a pig
Did you find anything? Carnalw, a little to the East might also be worth a look
FOI: DEFICIENT
LOI: DISINVEST
Held up at the end by trying (and failing) to parse SATYR – and resolving the SE corner. Sadly time would have been better spent with a quick check – with EARNERS incorrectly entered as EERNERS.
Thank you to vinyl1 and the setter.
Always thought it strange that Britain’s first lady MP to take her seat was an American. This feat probably has protected her from being “cancelled,” her family having been big slave owners.
FOI DEFICIENT
LOI OUNCE
COD HANSARD (was Sunny Jim ever sardonic ?)
TIME 7:10
And it so nearly worked a treat. FOI SIUMMARY, and few delays as I worked my way through the grid, admittedly biffing some (POWER, SATYR). LOI was DISINVEST at 23m-something and got the dreaded Unlucky – grid check showed one pink square for ASTER. I was of course biffing the name of Nancy A – and if I’d given myself a few more seconds I would have got it right, because actually I know that family name from reading Love in a Cold Climate, and other exposures.
Anyway – even though it wasn’t an unqualified success, I’m still saying that a refreshing pre-solve swim is a great way of boosting solving performance – next experiment Wednesday. And it may have the welcome side-effect of shedding a few pounds as well!
I had assumed DIPSTICK had originated in Fools and Horses, but the OED gives a first reference from the USA in 1968: “Boy! That guy’s a class A dipstick.”
Thanks to v and the setter.
Gas definitely fits POWER — professional cyclists of all nationalities talk about going ‘full gas’.
COD to SATYR, great construction. Knew NAGOYA only from Civ2.
13′ 40″, thanks vinyl and setter.
Odd to find two random letter substitutions in one grid, though neither held me up for long. SPIN A YARN was a fun reverse cryptic and my last in.
My perceived SA army was the Sturmabteilung, employed with a mild shrug. Didn’t think of the Sally Ann.
15 minutes and a couple of seconds.
Still, nice anagram for CONVERSATIONAL and I thought ASTOR had a very good surface.
One of these days I’m going to learn military abbreviations – ADJACENT went in with fingers crossed.
Those of you who hadn’t heard of NAGOYA clearly don’t know enough about Gary Lineker or Arsene Wenger’s careers 😉
Didn’t understand the craptic SAT and having not seen the IGNOR(E), only pennydropped the pencilled-in OUNCE right before submitting. ASTOR or ASTER? Saved by the cryptic.
I have also decided that while a crossword makes the lunchtime constitutional great exercise for the brain as well, it probably adds 10% to my times though slower typing/more typos to be corrected.
Edited at 2021-09-20 01:11 pm (UTC)
After Wednesday and Friday last week, I thought I was losing the plot. Glad to have a bit of rehab today.
Thx setter and blogger.
O?N?E for about 5 minutes (even thinking of OUNCE, but disregarding it as a cat), before pressing reveal in a huff at 23 mins.
Blinking crosswords…:)
Ounce was my second LOI; followed by the unparsed SATYR with a shrug.
LOI 24 d “ounce” where I only discovered the correct interpretation of Oz after dredging my limited pool of antipodean vocabulary and then the characters in the movie.
COD 7 d “spin a yarn” — clever.
Thanks to Vinyl and setter
I too thought SATYR loose.
David
Had SEWER for POWER for some time (sewer gas, another DBE)
COD DIPSTICK. Dukes of Hazzard.
Thanks
Thanks for the blog.