Wednesdays seem to be one of the “fun puzzle” days of the week lately; we haven’t had a hard one for ages but I enjoyed knocking this off in less than 15 minutes.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | If not old, king must be protected by judicious people (9) |
| OTHERWISE – O (old) then R (king), inside THE WISE (judicious people). | |
| 6 | Produced a low, sullen feeling, we hear (5) |
| MOOED – sounds like “MOOD”. | |
| 9 | Was a criminal almost sent west in Irish town? (5) |
| ENNIS – SINNE[D] reversed. County town of Clare, a pleasant if unexciting place. | |
| 10 | One that’s battered in sport tussle, completely gutted (9) |
| CROQUETTE – CROQUET (sport) T[ussl]E. Mrs P and I think that croquettes are usually rolled in egg and breadcrumbs before frying, not battered, but maybe the setter does his differently. | |
| 11 | Case of academic curiosity, but not in materialism (15) |
| ACQUISITIVENESS – A[…]C = case of academic, [IN]QUISITIVENESS i.e. “not in”. I wanted to spell this with a Z not an S but it would give me a red square. | |
| 13 | Right back loth to make cross (8) |
| TRAVERSE – TR = RT reversed, AVERSE to = loth to. | |
| 14 | Silky material in the country changing hands (6) |
| ANGORA – ANGOLA changes L to R. | |
| 16 | Soft fur for boy in school for spells (6) |
| POTTER – P (soft, in piano music), OTTER presumably the fur of an otter when worn. | |
| 18 | Dip into awful magazine at last and take issue (8) |
| DISAGREE – SAG (dip) inside DIRE (awful) then E from end of magazine. | |
| 21 | On a visit, he at once concocted a trifle (1,4,2,3,5) |
| A DROP IN THE OCEAN – A DROP IN being a visit, (HE AT ONCE)*. | |
| 23 | Business groups organise return of capital after fraud (9) |
| CONSORTIA -CON (fraud), SORT (organise) then AI (A1, capital) reversed. | |
| 25 | Note fate’s spared nothing in place of iniquity (5) |
| SODOM – SO (a note) DO[O]M = fate spared O. | |
| 26 | Harry investing £1000 in bank (5) |
| RIDGE – I’m not sure I understand either the definition or the parsing here, so perhaps someone can improve on this. I can see HARRY might mean “ride”, be on top of, annoy, at a stretch and G could be a grand, £1000, and a ridge could (at another stretch) be a bank, but it’s weak. | |
| 27 | That man’s touring Asian area, these being the high points of his trip? (9) |
| HIMALAYAS – HIS (that man’s) around MALAYA, an Asian area as not a country any more, it is an area of Malaysia. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What Columbo ends with: great series finale (5) |
| OMEGA – “series finale” as it’s the last letter of the Greek alphabet. O the end of Columbo, MEGA for great. Mrs P is a great fan of Columbo. | |
| 2 | Large piece of meat concealed around northern lodge (11) |
| HINDQUARTER – N in HID then QUARTER = lodge, give quarters to. | |
| 3 | Impatient Republican and I see TV broadcast (7) |
| RESTIVE – R then (I SEE TV)*. | |
| 4 | That thing I stored in box is most irritating (8) |
| ITCHIEST – IT (that thing) then I inside CHEST = box. | |
| 5 | Involving striptease that’s sexy, got stick for undressing (6) |
| EXOTIC – go to the naughty step if you put in EROTIC (as I did at first). the three words are “undressed” as above. Is striptease exotic? Seems an odd definition to choose, unless the setter also was thinking about clueing EROTIC which doesn’t parse. EDIT it seems from below comments exotic dancing is a common euphemism for striptease in this context and is in Collins as such. | |
| 6 | Woman’s family member given lidless serving bowl (7) |
| MAUREEN – MA (family member) then [T]UREEN. | |
| 7 | Promise to leave rugby goal in grass (3) |
| OAT – OATH loses its H which in capital form looks like rugby goalposts. | |
| 8 | Velocity in both directions somewhere far from earth (4,5) |
| DEEP SPACE – SPEED reversed then PACE not reversed. | |
| 12 | Green cornfield cultivated in Kenya periodically (11) |
| ECOFRIENDLY – E Y being periodic letters of Kenya, insert (CORNFIELD)*. It’s allowed in Collins with and without a hyphen. | |
| 13 | Performer of rap act with end going wrong (3,6) |
| TAP DANCER – (RAP ACT END)*. | |
| 15 | Somewhat oafish? Far more breeding’s expected here (4,4) |
| FISH FARM – hidden words as above. | |
| 17 | Go off east, following retired policeman? (7) |
| EXPLODE – EX PLOD being slang for a retired policeman, then E for east. | |
| 19 | Waking from bibulous revelry having lost head (7) |
| AROUSAL – CAROUSAL loses its first letter. | |
| 20 | Appropriate in society, of course (6) |
| SNATCH – S (society) “NATCH” slang for naturally, of course. | |
| 22 | New house put up for Gallic commune (5) |
| NIMES – N for new, SEMI (house) reversed (put up). Nîmes is an interesting city of 150,000 or so, in Gard in the south of France, known as “the most Roman city outside of Italy” because of its extensive Roman remains. it’s only 24 miles from Avignon so you could visit both and dance “sur le pont“. | |
| 24 | Agree this would make Leander less fat? (3) |
| NOD – if LEANDER had “No D” it would be LEANER so less fat. | |
Again like others wasn’t sure about ridge, and have never come across a battered croquette. Finished in 62 minutes which was disappointing looking at the finished grid, and feel I should have been much speedier. The main culprits for my slowness today were MAUREEN and ANGORA. At least I finished with all correct I suppose, but with my problems with the QC as well, it was a poor day.
21:07
Good fun generally but I’ve never seen a CROQUETTE in anything other than breadcrumbs, and RIDGE seemed bit lame. I lked OTHERWISE, ACQUISITIVENESS and FISH FARM. Having a sister called MAUREEN may have helped slightly.
According to the US Department of the Interior, sea OTTERs have the thickest fur of any animal and can eat 25 percent of their body weight in food every day. I really need to get out more,
Thanks to Pip and the setter.
FOI, OMEGA, LOI HINDQUARTER. Liked the H trick for OAT. Agree CROQUETTEs aren’t battered. Liked ACQUISITIVENESS. Managed to spot the trick for EXOTIC before considering EROTIC. In fact I liked the puzzle a lot. Thought RIDGE was weak though. 17:50. Thanks setter and Pip.
Thanks for the blog and the explanation for RIDGE above.
Enjoyable puzzle. Ridge was my last one in, entered with little conviction but nothing else would fit there.
25 mins but on the naughty step for putting in erotic. Final one in was ridge which was the only answer I could think of to a rather impenetrable clue. The setter should join me on the naughty step.
Other than that , a very enjoyable puzzle. Thx setter and blogger.
Found it a bit tricky, no walk in the park. RIDGE no problem – ride for harry and the bank both OK by me. Didn’t notice the battered croquettes, but then again it’s not something I’ve eaten more than twice in the past 60 years. Finished with the two 1s, OMEGA then OTHERWISE. Liked NOD, but for some reason not so keen on the H rugby goal.
A fine puzzle; we’re being spoilt recently.
28:29 for me. Gradually acquiring checkers helped unravel a lot of the clues. Enjoyable crossword. I liked OATH.
Fun crossword this, entertaining.
A mer at croquettegate, but no problems otherwise. I have walked over very many banks/ridges and can’t see a problem there
Steady solve on the Penzance to Paddington train. Top half all in before my first cup of rather unpleasant British Railesque styrofoam cup of tea. How hard can it be to pour water on a tea bag? Slowed up by (the tea experience and…) DISAGREE (always forget sag as a useful synonym) and the SODOM/NIMES crossers.
FOI MOOED
LOI NIMES
Didn’t parse OAT. So thank you for that and the rest of the blog
Beaten by CROQUETTE because it simply is not on my radar as something battered. Minutesteak or schnitzel (with an hammer) all kinds of fish, Mars bars, baseballs/softballs ??? maybe….
OAT is clever I got it but with an MER: the posts are shaped as H but are they ever referred to as such?
Agree with all comments on RIDGE
C_O_U_T_E, what on earth else would it be?! The moment you manage to associate a Q with the U all becomes clear, breadcrumbs or not..
Simply because if you don’t then it doesn’t. Congrats though on your success. One day I’ll see a battered croquette and I will raise a glass.
Same as pretty much everyone with CROQUETTE and RIDGE. In fact, so unsure was I that the latter could be correct that I did an alphabet trawl to ensure I hadn’t missed something, and the former took me forever to think of the game – sorry, sport. Probably because they’re not battered! Liked MOOED and OAT, my first and second in – particularly the unusual clueing of ‘rugby goal’, and also NOD, my COD. Otherwise no real problems, though it did take a long time before I cottoned on to the definition of 16A, looking for a school or a soft fur instead. I nearly put in OPERA for my LOI, being mystified, but luckily a few seconds more thinking it through gave me the answer.
22 minutes, LOI MAUREEN, got RIDGE without parsing it (did anyone in the end) did parse CROQUETTE be it breadcrumbed or battered, velocity and speed being mixed up doesn’t bother me though momentum and force being equated a few weeks back did, thanks setter and blogger
20 minues five seconds. It felt harder than the 89 on the snitchometer. Isn’t that the second ITCHIEST in. a few days? Don’t know anything about battering, so the great CROQUETTE debate passed me by. Maybe you can ‘batter’ things with coverings other than batter.
Same feelings as most about RIDGE, don’t know if there’s a UK/US split in the feelings about that one? Otherwise no problems. Thanks for the blog!
DNF in 45m. Could not remember NÎMES, and had EROTIC instead of EXOTIC.
Same issues as everyone else with RIDGE.
Thanks for the blog.
Held up by “Madison” as a serving bowl in 6d!! Making Croquette impossible!!
Mostly thoroughly enjoyed, especially NOD and OAT. Moved on swiftly with RIDGE (only possible answer), liked ACQUISITIVENESS too.