What a relief to have an accessible puzzle after last Friday’s Monster! I thought there was a lot of nice stuff going on here and enjoyed myself a lot, finishing in 20:46.
11 across caused me a lot of head-scratching, though. So much so that I had to ‘phone a friend.’ Actually, having had it explained to me, it was a Hit rather than a Miss in my book. An innovative clue type, where such things are at a premium. Of course, most people would just biff it anyway…
| Across | |
| 1 | Economical type — watch — in pursuit of pub profit (7-6) |
| BARGAIN-HUNTER – HUNTER (watch) after BAR (pub) GAIN (profit) | |
| 8 | Cut out large manœuvre by figure skater (4) |
| AXEL – AXE L | |
| 9 | Historic swindle involving Young Conservative baker (10) |
| PASTRYCOOK – Y (young) C (conservative) in PAST (historic) ROOK (swindle); one thinks of Alun Armstrong’s innkeeper ‘rooking the guests and cooking the books’ in Les Mis | |
| 10 | Consequences surrounding item of legislation for way of working (8) |
| PRACTICE – ACT (item of legislation) in PRICE (consequences; cunning!) | |
| 11 | Cloak that’s for chop? (6) |
| PONCHO – okay, this was the clue I couldn’t make head nor tails of. Thanks to V, who unravelled it for me: CHOP may be rendered as ‘P after CHO’ or ‘P on CHO’ > PONCHO! | |
| 13 | Who’s quiet, working to pilfer? (10) |
| SHOPLIFTER – a nice semi (I think) all-in-one; the whole clue gives you the solution, while every part of the clue (apart from ‘Who’s’) is used in the wordplay, as follows: SH (quiet) anagram* of TO PILFER | |
| 16 | Methodically search quantity of data stored on firm (4) |
| COMB – CO (firm) MB (quantity of data) | |
| 17 | Chamber group tour finishing early? Over (4) |
| TRIO – TRI |
|
| 18 | Secure northern European cosmetic treatment (4,6) |
| NAIL POLISH – NAIL (secure) POLISH (European) | |
| 20 | That woman’s following key Dutch artist (6) |
| ESCHER – ESC (computer key) HER (that woman’s); never herd of the fellow, but he sounded more likely than ALTHER, DELHER, ENDHER or TABHER | |
| 22 | Craftspeople showing outraged reaction about accepting shortened time (8) |
| KNITTERS – cunning wordplay again: a STINK is an outraged reaction; the clue ‘shows’ STINK reversed around (it ‘accepts’) TER |
|
| 24 | Each swirl of nostalgia overlooking old Saxon kingdom (4,6) |
| EAST ANGLIA – EA (each) NOSTALGIA* (minus the O); the five original kingdoms of England are typically deemed to be: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and East Anglia. If you are interested, a very readable account of this period is given by Marc Morris in his 2021 book, The Anglo-Saxons | |
| 26 | Number eight in cricket team in Somerset venue? (4) |
| BATH – if you go in at number eight, an impish scorer might refer to you as Bat H | |
| 27 | Daughter, having reserve and humour, had worked with the risk intensely (4,4,5) |
| DICE WITH DEATH – D ICE (reserve) WIT (humour) [HAD THE*] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dog drinks and pants (5,6) |
| BOXER SHORTS – BOXER SHORTS | |
| 2 | Reignited, temperature turned to carbon old item (5) |
| RELIC – RELI |
|
| 3 | Irish, excluding middle third, supporting current measure relating to frogs? (9) |
| AMPHIBIAN – AMP (current measure) followed by HIB |
|
| 4 | Rise of an aroma just beginning (7) |
| NASCENT – AN reversed SCENT (aroma) | |
| 5 | Skill rising when probing revolting part of plumbing (1-4) |
| U-TRAP – ART (skill) reversed (rising) in UP (revolting, as in ‘the natives are revolting’, i.e. in a state of insurrection) | |
| 6 | Possibly chance it over line of mechanical products? (9) |
| TECHNICAL – CHANCE IT* followed by L (line); I’ll leave it to sciency types to get their rubber gloves off and discuss the niceties of the words involved here | |
| 7 | Animal that jumps requiring a lot of space (3) |
| ROO – ROO |
|
| 12 | Final section of NY prison sentence after being out of prison? (4,7) |
| HOME STRETCH – ‘of NY’ here stands for what we normally find as ‘in Manhattan’ or ‘in Idaho’, i.e. it refers to a usage in the USA. What we in Britain call the home straight in the sport of kings is called the home stretch stateside. The wordplay (slightly cunning once more) is therefore HOME (being out of prison) followed by STRETCH (prison sentence) | |
| 14 | Observing the future, support first Conservative leaving in a rush (9) |
| PROPHETIC – PROP (support) HE |
|
| 15 | Criticise demure article being presented in bright colour? (9) |
| REPRIMAND – PRIM (demure) AN (article) in RED; I suppose it’s usually bright or brightish, but the attribution seems a bit arbitrary to me | |
| 19 | Evidence of poor penmanship: I especially note a good deal around end of book (7) |
| INKBLOT – |
|
| 21 | Give new life to King meeting bridge opponents and bridge partners (5) |
| RENEW – R (king) EN (East and North – opponents in contract bridge) EW (partners in the same game) | |
| 23 | Somewhat upset about iodine in bone (5) |
| TIBIA – I (iodine) in A BIT (somewhat) reversed [upset] | |
| 25 | Support anyone in difficulties at the outset (3) |
| AID – initial letters of Anyone In Difficulties | |
Had to reveal about 3 and looked up the artist, but enjoyed it all. COD BOXER SHORTS. Yes, confused by U TRAP but PASTRY COOK it had to be.
Very much needed the blog as am a QC-er.
So thanks all.
19.18 Quick for me. I figured out the parsing of KNITTERS after I was done but PONCHO didn’t make any sense. Thanks ulaca.
51:33
A rare venture into the grown up crossword from my usual efforts on the QC prompted by the low snitch score.
There’s really nothing here that wouldn’t be out of place in the QC and yet it still took so much more time. Perhaps I was just expecting it would be harder than it was making me reluctant to biff first parse afterwards. LOI PASTRYCOOK as that one I did biff, initially putting PASTRYCHEF.
A couple unparsed, so thanks to our blogger. My excuse: I skipped lunch and am now hungry, so a completed grid in 16’30”, even with the unparsed pair left dangling, is good enough for me. Kitchen here I come!
Cracking fun puzzle. All done (and parsed, except for you know what) in 17:47. Thanks v much ulaca.
WOD to PASTRYCOOK, which always reminds me of the Old Boys consulting the Head in Stalky & Co: “Young blood who had stumbled into an entanglement with a pastry-cook’s daughter at Plymouth; experience who had come into a small legacy but mistrusted lawyers; ambition halting at cross-roads, anxious to take the one that would lead him farthest; extravagance pursued by the money-lender; arrogance in the thick of a regimental row— each carried his trouble to the Head; and Chiron showed him, in language quite unfit for little boys, a quiet and safe way round, out, or under. So they overflowed his house, smoked his cigars, and drank his health as they had drunk it all the earth over when two or three of the old school had foregathered.”
6:35 Nice easy one today. COD to BOXER SHORTS. I’m not sure East Anglia can be described as a Saxon kingdom. Anglo-Saxon yes, and I can see why “Anglian” couldn’t be used in the clue, but I doubt if most subjects of said kingdom would have identified as Saxons. No doubt some historian will disabuse me of that notion…
Didn’t occur to me at the time, but that’s a valid point – completely separate Urheimats.
Nearly completed in my QC time of (gaah) 28 mins, two left. The rather pedestrian PRACTICE and U-TRAP, where I guessed U- GRIP. The revolting=up device seems obscure.
I started off with the BARMAN DODGER, a term I just made up for an “economical type” who never gets his round in.
Thank you for a good laugh at your barman dodger!
Like Bazzock above, I can’t help feeling the setter slipped up when he/she defined RENEW as GIVE NEW LIFE to. It’s a mistake, surely. Apart from that, much enjoyed and finished in 16 or so.
Held up by putting T Trap….which does exist in plumbing…and used revolting (reverse) pt as standard shortening of part. All looked good…for a while.
It’s all very well having these fancy parsings such as for ‘poncho’, but does that mean the idea that the surface should make any sense whatsoever goes out the window?
And an ‘impish’ scorer might refer to ‘Bat H’, but I can assure you they would only do it once.
Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me if Chambers contained a reference to it.
39:23 for the solve! Couldn’t fully unravel PONCHO or KNITTERS
Can anyone explain why hunter=watch?
It’s a sort of pocket watch with hinged front and back covers.
Thanks for the explanation ChrisJ
I disagree with 24A. The Angles were not Saxons. East Anglia was an old Anglian kingdom.
Enjoyed this, as it was almost within my grasp, for a change. Failed on COMB ( NHO MB for stored data) and BATH (too clever!). Happy to get BOXER SHORTS, SHOPLIFTER and PROPHETIC all parsed, and most of the rest. COD to the cleverly constructed DICE WITH DEATH.