A bit of an extended Quick Crossword, this one, so hopefully a few Quickieites will be over to have a stab at this one. I got home in 16 minutes. Expect fast times from the usual suspects.
| Across | |
| 1 | Primate, one replacing duke in cricket ground (5) |
| LORIS – Lord’s is the cricket ground – D replaces I | |
| 4 | Time to tie up outside club, securing old vessel (9) |
| MOTORBOAT – MOOR (to tie up) around (outside) T (time) O (old) in BAT (club) | |
| 9 | Singer, a large youth overcome by drink (9) |
| BALLADEER – A L LAD in BEER | |
| 10 | Prelude written in fortnight going west (5) |
| INTRO – reverse (going west) hidden (in) | |
| 11 | Young rogue backing game with companion taking part (6) |
| URCHIN – RU (rugby union – game) reversed CH (Companion of Honour) IN (taking part – ‘Who’s in?’) | |
| 12 | Support from beneath, subject to identification (8) |
| UNDERPIN – UNDER (subject to) PIN (as in ‘PIN number’, as you will) | |
| 14 | Pressing news outlets to probe unusual item (9) |
| IMMEDIATE – MEDIA in anagram* of ITEM | |
| 16 | Warning given by small number touring Oklahoma (5) |
| TOKEN – OK in TEN; ten is a small number if you’re talking about the number of votes for a candidate; a larger one if you’re talking about the number of children a couple has | |
| 17 | Experience discrimination (5) |
| TASTE – double definition (DD) | |
| 19 | Aggressive man in church trapping female bird (9) |
| BULLFINCH – F (female) in BULL (aggressive man – sheesh! all these derogatory words for men; I don’t know…) IN CH | |
| 21 | Boring type carrying articles for old animal minder (8) |
| NEATHERD – A THE in NERD (boring type); neat is an old word for a cow or other domestic bovine animal. Is a nerd always boring? Debate. | |
| 22 | A lot of people I originally found in a mountainous region (6) |
| MASSIF -MASS (a lot of people) I F[ound] | |
| 25 | Retired woman concealing worry about written work (5) |
| ILIAD – AIL (worry) in DI (random woman) reversed | |
| 26 | Fit to be lived in by husband having a few talents? (9) |
| HABITABLE – H (husband) A BIT ABLE; if someone has a few talents, they might be called ‘a bit able’. Or would that be mean they had one talent, but only to a moderate degree? Discuss. | |
| 27 | Caught in hospital department and ticked off (9) |
| ENTRAPPED – ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) RAPPED (ticked off, scolded) | |
| 28 | Hear possibly bawdy round (5) |
| CATCH – DD; a catch is ‘a type of round popular in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, having a humorous text that is often indecent or bawdy and hard to articulate’. Likely to cause a firestorm on X, formerly known as Twitter, today. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Party passionate about current venture initially requiring many workers (6-9) |
| LABOUR-INTENSIVE – LABOUR (party) I (current) V[enture] in INTENSE (passionate) | |
| 2 | Priest captivated by churchgoer’s saintly memorial (5) |
| RELIC – ELI (our go-to Biblical priest – mentor of Samuel) in RC (Roman Catholic – churchgoing, if not lapsed) | |
| 3 | Main sentence identifying cormorant, for example (7) |
| SEABIRD – SEA (main) BIRD (jail sentence) | |
| 4 | Shabby-sounding carriage? (4) |
| MIEN – sounds like ‘mean’ | |
| 5 | Swiss hero absorbing a tirade over a lively dance (10) |
| TARANTELLA – A RANT in [William] TELL above (over) A | |
| 6 | Right to retain the last word about one’s clothing (7) |
| RAIMENT – I in AMEN (last word in the Bible) in RT | |
| 7 | Forthright Open University man accepting special post (9) |
| OUTSPOKEN – POST* in OU KEN (random man, or boyfriend of Barbie) | |
| 8 | Old Icelandic character appearing personally, a constant irritation (5,2,3,5) |
| THORN IN THE FLESH – THORN (old Icelandic character) IN THE FLESH | |
| 13 | US composer’s endless ambition to produce close harmony (10) |
| BARBERSHOP – [Samuel] BARBER’S HOP[e]; and here’s Barber’s setting of James Agee’s poem ‘Sure on this shining night’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8rd_mJ_bE0&ab_channel=TolosaChoralContest. James Agee’s film criticism is worth looking up. He was a master of the art. | |
| 15 | Many initially help, engaging a good physio (9) |
| MASSAGIST – M[any} A G in ASSIST; sounds more professional than masseuse, somehow | |
| 18 | Shrub ambassador introduced to new padre (7) |
| EPHEDRA – HE in PADRE*; one’s unknown plant du jour | |
| 20 | Frenzied Italian brought up in country, mostly (7) |
| FRANTIC – IT (Italian) reversed in FRANC[e] | |
| 23 | Drunkard pinching a bishop’s footwear (5) |
| SABOT – A B in SOT | |
| 24 | A graduate in education, retired possibly (4) |
| ABED – DD; a B.Ed., on the one hand, and someone who has gone to bed because they want to sleep, rather than because they are ill, say, on the other | |
I started arbitrarily with SABOT, MASSIF and CATCH, and this went pretty smoothly, with SE and NW finished first. I always expected the (damn) plant to be my LOI, but that was NEATHERD.
I don’t like being separated from the others, all alone here on a “Newer Comments” page!
You are not alone!
16 mins, wasn’t quite sure about MIEN, but had to be. I don’t quite get doing all the across clues etc. surely once you you’ve got an answer, you’ll use the letters in that answer to help with other clues. At least that’s how I work!
Agree this was veering to the QC side, but it still took me 23 minutes. Like others, NHO EPHEDRA, or TOKEN in the sense of a warning, but there were not really any other options once the crossers were in. Like Zabadak my first thought on 8dn was PAIN IN THE A***, until I realised it wouldn’t fit. Good to see the return of our old friend THORN.
FOI – LORIS
LOI – BARBERSHOP
COD – THORN IN THE FLESH
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
20’35”
Dwelt start, rallied and stayed on well.
A double digit Witch, narrowly, so not as rusty as I thought I’d be after a couple of weeks out of the saddle; avoiding the horrors of Stanstead involved nine trains, an overnight ferry to Genoa and a two day break aboard a boat in Roanne surrounded by CORMORANTS – 13 in one tree!
Fingers were firmly crossed for the shrub, round and warning, but they seemed very plausible.
Thank you Ulaca and setter.
This must have been easy, as I finished it in less than hour, which is possibly even a new Least Worst time. . . A variety of hold ups along the way: trying to parse Catch, wondering how Gold was an aggressive man before thinking of another finch, and struggling to untangle the Ikea instructions in Motorboat, which I needed to get loi Mien. Invariant
15 minutes, which MIGHT be a personal best. I’m going to say WOOHOO! anyway.
I’m a trainee at the 15×15, slowly gaining skill from the QC and following this blog. Most pleased with a record 18 answers before resorting to blog. Even then a few given answers gave me checkers to complete many more.
Thanks all
Well done!
Thanks but today went BACK to poor form
How to know that 1A is LORIS and not LORDS, both seem possible to me?
If you look at the clue carefully, it is clear that I replaces D, (not what the blogger put!)
10.41 reasonably quick for me. Held up a little on the SW but guessed ephedra after entrapped worked out and the rest fell in place including the unusual massagist. LOI neatherd.
Not many holdups. LOI the unlikely and deprecatory MASSAGIST. Lots of biffing today, though followed the cryptic direction to get MOTORBOAT, and thereby MIEN. I didn’t enter TOKEN until I had the crossers, as it seemed unlikely.
Storming through for a faster time than todays QC, but fell at the last with last two: Motorboat/Mien.
A rare finish, and only a whisker over 20’. So I can confirm the “big QC” status. Spent a long time trying to justify the “bawdy” bit of CATCH; in the end shrugged, submitted and came here for elucidation. Thanks ulaca.
Templar
Thanks for the tip on the QC blog to give this a try, and I was pleased with a 27 minute completion. Both Token and Catch entered from wordplay but their meanings of warning and bawdy song respectively were new to me. Guessed Neatherd was a word because I knew crossword setters love the otherwise totally archaic word neat for cattle – I wonder when it was last used in real life. Otherwise, a slow, steady and successful foray into 15×15-land for this QC-ite.
Many thanks Ulaca for the blog
Cedric
NHO TARANTELLA so parsed it as “a lively dance” with the last letter being given by “over” ie TARANTELLO 🙁
Nearly 100 comments already. And to think the doom-mongers were predicting a negative impact on feedback after a switch to UK-breakfast time posting!
Same problem words as many others, ( catch, token, mien and especially motorboat- with its complex parsing). But started off well with LORIS in off the bat, and then filled in the whole LHS in minutes. The RHS proved much more resistant however, as I didn’t persevere with the parsing of BALLADEER, put GOATHERD instead of NEATHERD (D’uh!) which prevented the clever LABOUR INTENSIVE from revealing itself. 8d straight in, as did Old and Middle English at Uni in the early 60s. Enjoyed what I had.