Time: 15:36
Music: Dead Can Dance, Into the Labyrinth.
I have had an annoying cold this week, and it seems to have impacted my solving. I felt very slow solving this one, even though my time was acceptable. I did get stuck for several minutes at the end on flick, carpenter, and passable, even though they are not really difficult. The whole puzzle was little more than a Quick Cryptic in a 15 x 15 grid, and I’m sure everyone will whip it off quite easily.
| Across | |
| 1 | Temporary profession of players (6) |
| ACTING – Double definition. | |
| 4 | Gently boils some carrots, immersed (7) |
| SIMMERS – Hidden in [carrot]S IMMERS[ed]. | |
| 9 | Any number packed into space wherein contest is held (5) |
| ARENA – ARE(N)A, a chestnut. | |
| 10 | Noticing old bishop helping at Mass? (9) |
| OBSERVING – O.B. + SERVING. | |
| 11 | Chief royal figure almost first to insult China (9) |
| PRINCIPAL – PRINC[e] + I[nsult] + PAL….been reading the news, have we? | |
| 12 | Arab maybe having a throat problem, we hear? (5) |
| HORSE – Sounds like HOARSE. | |
| 13 | Record middle of opera in box at La Scala? (4) |
| LOGE – LOG + [op]E[ra]. | |
| 14 | Craftspeople come in beset by grumbles (10) |
| CARPENTERS – CARP(ENTER)S. | |
| 18 | A son’s tried to develop skill (10) |
| ADROITNESS – Anagram of A SON’S TRIED. | |
| 20 | Endless pity for fraud (4) |
| SHAM – SHAM[e] | |
| 23 | Fraudulent American introduced by John (5) |
| BOGUS – BOG + US, where John is probably US slang, but bog is definitely UK. | |
| 24 | Holy father drinking coffee with late queen seen as sycophant? (9) |
| FLATTERER – F(LATTE)R + E.R. | |
| 25 | Concerned with commercial risk bearing returns with existing coverage (9) |
| ACTUARIAL – ACTUA(AIR backwards)L. | |
| 26 | Boy wanting more dance (5) |
| TWIST – Double definition. | |
| 27 | Study NT book in European country (7) |
| DENMARK – DEN + MARK. | |
| 28 | Vessel has possible indicator of nationality attached (6) |
| FLAGON – FLAG ON. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | A couple of pianos in a room associated with a type of singing (1,8) |
| A CAPPELLA – A C(A, P, P)ELL + A, an easy biff. | |
| 2 | Call after match creating rows (7) |
| TIERING – TIE + RING. | |
| 3 | Subtlety is absent from annoying individual (6) |
| NUANCE – NU[is]ANCE. | |
| 4 | Source of fibre and iodine girl’s eaten up (5) |
| SISAL – LAS(I)S upside-down. | |
| 5 | Drug hospital injected into leg — more needed externally (8) |
| MORPHINE – MOR(P(H)IN)E. | |
| 6 | I emerge after travelling — a settler in another land (7) |
| EMIGREE – Anagram of I EMERGE, really a French word as we would not normally use gender in English. | |
| 7 | Good university in Durham, say, to carry on without a break (5) |
| SEGUE – SE(G,U)E. A see that is not Ely! | |
| 8 | Customers initially order ungarnished beef (8) |
| COMPLAIN – C[ustomers] + O.M. + PLAIN. | |
| 15 | Fair exam ought to be like this? (8) |
| PASSABLE – Cryptic hint. | |
| 16 | Person who helps ruin one possessed by the devil (9) |
| SAMARITAN – SA(MAR I)TAN. | |
| 17 | African city family has to be housed in South Africa (8) |
| KINSHASA – KIN + S(HAS)A. | |
| 19 | Trendy leader’s deserting Sussex resort (5-2) |
| RIGHT-ON – [b]RIGHTON, another chestnut. | |
| 21 | Board sacking old, old president (7) |
| HARDING – H[o]ARDING. | |
| 22 | Possibly to do with parts of USA at last being reformed (6) |
| STATAL – Anagram of AT LAST. Obvious, but probably objectionable. | |
| 23 | Fifty in group exciting little interest? (5) |
| BLAND – B(L)AND. | |
| 24 | Digital means of projecting film? (5) |
| FLICK – Double definition; this one had me thinking for a bit. | |
The top half went in quickly, left to right and top down to the middle. Bottom half needed some thought, but then I had to leave it, with ACTUARIAL, ADROITNESS and PASSABLE unsolved until I had chance to look at the puzzle this evening. I also carefully had to check A CAPPELLO to avoid any errors- but all correct.
Thank you Vinyl and Setter. Nice start to the week.
Top half went in immediately, faster than the quickie, then got a bit bogged down and panicky, expecting a much quicker finish, and had to jump around the grid to complete. Personally, I like the word SEGUE, knowing it as a musical term, but STATAL is nasty. I would have struggled for the president had the clue been less obvious and since I was convinced ART came into 18a ADROITNESS was slow to emerge. However, LOI was ACTUARIAL, which I was so relieved to get after minutes of head-scratching, that I didn’t bother to parse it.
The flagon with the dragon is the brew that is true. Or is it the chalice from the palace? Danny Kaye in The Court Jester. 11’25” but should have been quicker. They don’t come much easier than that.
18:23. NHO LOGE, all the rest were quite straightforward. well constructed puzzle, with entertaining cluing. good start to the week. thank you both!
16:44.
COD: CARPENTERS
Segue is one of the words that you hear lots before you realise when you’ve seen it written down it is the same word, not that other weird word, pronounced SEG-OO. I remember having a similar experience with Phoebe out of neighbours in the early 1990s (saw the credits and made the connection), and Hermione from the Harry Potter books (worked that one out when there was an actress on TV called Hermione Norris and her name was voiced at some point). I somehow never fell into the trap with Picturesque though.
I’m not happy with Statal. That held me up for a while.
dnf 14:49
Fastest ever time with just 21d remaining. I don’t know my US presidents, so I put in Herring for fun and stopped the clock.
Feel very naughty straying here into presumptuous territory, but can’t resist recording a PB of 19 (from just 8 earlier) encouraged by a tip-off in the QC blog. Much of it very friendly, thank you.