Time taken: 10:02. I thought I was going to be around 8 minutes but I drew a blank on 14 across for quite a while, even though the answer was not too difficult, just had a bad brain moment.
There’s a bit of everything here… except a direct anagram! In fact this puzzle has one of the smallest number of anagram components of any cryptic crossword I have encountered.
Away we go…
Across | |
1 | Constant area for one to circulate in prison (4) |
CAGE – C(constant), A(area), then EG(for one) reversed | |
3 | The clan is excited about daughter of the northern isles (10) |
SHETLANDIC – anagram of THE,CLAN,IS surrounding D | |
9 | Passage was published, second one to appear in Times? (7) |
TRANSIT – RAN(was published), S(second) and I(one) inside TT(times) | |
11 | India invested in factory working to get quantity of money? (7) |
MILLION – I(India) inside MILL(factory), ON(working) | |
12 | Conference item to be delivered with speed? This should fix your notes (5-4) |
PAPER-CLIP – at a conference, you might present(deliver) a PAPER, then CLIP(speed) | |
13 | Aquatic mammal showing excessive energy beside river (5) |
OTTER – OTT(over the top, excessive), E(energy) next to R(river) | |
14 | Street right through area of land — unknown quantity — it may never be restored (4,8) |
LOST PROPERTY – ST(street) and PROPER(right) inside LOT(area of land) and Y(unknown quantity) | |
18 | Oversight from treating things as a lark for example? (5-3,4) |
BIRDS-EYE VIEW – cryptic definition based on seeing from overhead | |
21 | Depression, after initially fading, is difficult (5) |
ROUGH – TROUGH(depression) missing the first letter | |
22 | Job assessment? Shock to receive extra pay cut (9) |
APPRAISAL – APPAL(shock) containing RAISE(extra pay) missing the last letter | |
24 | Most of confirmation about volume is stipulation (7) |
PROVISO – remove the last letter from PROOF(confirmation) and insert V(volume), IS | |
25 | Keen political faction suppressing misfortune (7) |
WILLING – WING(political faction) containing ILL(misfortune) | |
26 | Brutally treated after backsliding, a politician offering insults (10) |
DEROGATORY – GORED(brutally treated) reversed, then A, TORY(politician) | |
27 | Unfunded, missing new part of comedy show (4) |
SKIT – SKINT(unfunded, broke) missing N(new) |
Down | |
1 | Project a gentle touch within religious group (8) |
CATAPULT – A TAP(gentle touch) inside CULT(religious group) | |
2 | Upright piano in part of India misplaced (8) |
GOALPOST – P(piano) inside GOA(part of India), LOST(misplaced) | |
4 | Mostly very good about limitations of the accommodation (5) |
HOTEL – Remove the last letter of HOLY(very good), and insert the external letters in ThE | |
5 | Watch report of herb superior to rest? (9) |
TIMEPIECE – sounds like THYME(herb) above(superior to) PEACE(rest) | |
6 | Observer overlooked what another type of paper would catch? (1,3,2,3,4) |
A FLY ON THE WALL – double definition, the second based on what you might get with flypaper | |
7 | International in time becomes choice (6) |
DAINTY – INT(international) inside DAY(time) | |
8 | Stop using campaign item about Republican rumour (6) |
CANARD – CAN(stop using), then a campaign AD surrounding R(republican) | |
10 | Being unappreciative about holiday illumination (5,8) |
STRIP LIGHTING – SLIGHTING(being unappreciative) surrounding TRIP(holiday) | |
15 | Distinguished fellow initially obtained two degrees? Not seen around university (3,3,3) |
ODD MAN OUT – first letter of Obtained, then the two degrees are DD(Doctor of Divinity) and MA(Master of Arts) followed by NOT surrounding U(university). Distinguished here meaning set apart. | |
16 | Cosmetic comments that are impertinent don’t go away (8) |
LIPSTICK – LIP(comments that are impertinent), STICK(don’t go away) | |
17 | Drunk comes round not quite roaring early in the evening (8) |
TWILIGHT – TIGHT(drunk) surrounding WILD(roaring) missing the last letter | |
19 | Work in malicious gossip, reversing support for paparazzo? (6) |
TRIPOD – OP(work) inside a reversal of DIRT(malicious gossip) | |
20 | Pretend to agree with expression of doubt, filling time (6) |
HUMOUR – UM(expression of doubt) inside HOUR(time) | |
23 | Might at last trap someone in red? (5) |
POWER – last letter of traP, then OWER(someone who is in the red) |
Edited at 2022-04-27 11:57 pm (UTC)
Collins has the following amazing definition for million: a million (unspecified but understood) monetary units, as dollars, pounds, francs, etc.
I was expecting a call at 8pm so I wanted to get the blog out quickly. If I write it as soon as I do the puzzle the wordplay is pretty fresh in my mind so it doesn’t take that long.
Thanks!
Didn’t feel like I was zipping through it, but managed not to get bogged down anywhere. In that sense a solving time is a bit like a stroke score in golf. It doesn’t measure how many good shots you play, just how many bad ones.
LOI TIMEPIECE. COD BIRDS-EYE VIEW, but I think it would have been better without the “for example” at the end, given that it also has a question mark.
Thanks George and setter.
Time: 23 minutes.
And my LOI was TIMEPIECE, which was suddenly obvious after I had worked out the anagrammed SHETLANDIC.
The crossing of BIRDS EYE VIEW and FLY ON THE WALL is pretty neat.
Edited at 2022-04-28 06:59 am (UTC)
Edited at 2022-04-28 04:56 am (UTC)
COD 10d STRIP LIGHTING, I think. I liked the surface, perhaps because of my struggles with finding holiday accommodation with decent reading lights in the past!
20 mins pre-brekker — but then some time on LOI. It was.. Canard.
Thanks setter and G.
Edited at 2022-04-28 07:00 am (UTC)
Haven’t been feeling very connected recently, crossword-wise – so in the end I was happy to get an orderly completion with no unparsed clues or finger-crossing. Thanks George and setter.
I see from yesterday that a glossary entry for “semi &lit” is requested. No problem, but I need a snappy definition for the entry. Off the top of my head, how about this? Comments or alternative suggestions welcomed:
“In an &lit (qv) clue, every word is part of the wordplay and also of the definition. In a semi&lit clue every word forms part of the definition, but not necessarily of the wordplay.”
I wouldn’t use the word ‘necessarily’ because if this condition isn’t met the clue is &Lit.
There is a section on this in Don Manley’s book, I’ll look it up later.
Edited at 2022-04-28 10:49 am (UTC)
Thanks G and setter.
One difficulty I made for myself was spending time pondering ‘ho(no)ur’ as a solution for 20d.
Favourites today were (T)ROUGH and GOALPOST. With the latter I wondered if P might need to be fitted inside an anagram (‘misplaced’) of a part of India, like Gujarat.
32m 08s
Thank you, George.
Edited at 2022-04-28 08:14 am (UTC)
FOI Cage
LOI Humour
COD A fly on the wall
It seems I’m relatively rare today finding this a tougher challenge than anything else this week. Perhaps it was the wordy (but excellent) clues that slowed me down, perhaps a desire to parse everything properly before entry (POWER, for example, took ages) but I clocked at 22.17.
Some evocative doubles today:
ROUGH APPRAISAL given or received?
DEROGATORY SKIT plenty of examples available
DAINTY LIPSTICK Possibly a contradiction in terms
GOALPOST HUMOUR Anyone care to come up with examples?
TRANSIT MILLION Ukrainians in Poland?
Didn’t fully parse three:
LOST PROPERTY — saw ST and Y but couldn’t blunder through the rest in quicktime.
HOTEL — holy just did not spring to mind — saw the ‘TE’ and the checkers confirmed the definition.
GOALPOST — saw the P but the rest was only parsed post-solve.
Edited at 2022-04-28 09:30 am (UTC)
Slight hold-up at 24a because I misread it as ‘stimulation’, but otherwise nothing too tricky.
SHETLANDIC definitely WOD.
Clever but easily doable is my comment.
Thxs setter and blogger.
But worse was to come, tragically
For our setter was sneaky
And sneaked in something beaky
For a CANARD’s a duck in Paris
It seems I’m relatively rare today finding this a tougher challenge than anything else this week. Perhaps it was the wordy (but excellent) clues that slowed me down, perhaps a desire to parse everything properly before entry (POWER, for example, took ages) but I clocked at 22.17.
Some evocative doubles today:
ROUGH APPRAISAL given or received?
DEROGATORY SKIT plenty of examples available
DAINTY LIPSTICK Possibly a contradiction in terms
GOALPOST HUMOUR Anyone care to come up with examples?
TRANSIT MILLION Ukrainians in Poland?