Nothing too much to scare the horses here, apart perhaps from the US mountain. A bit of an American flavour to this, overall, I reckon. None the worse for that, though. We do need them, after all…
21:20
| Across | |
| 1 | Branch of science is obligatory and so complicated (12) |
| ASTROBIOLOGY – anagram* of OBLIGATORY SO | |
| 8 | Senior ministers lodge ineffective complaint ultimately (7) |
| CABINET – CABIN ~E ~T | |
| 9 | James reported error in part of school uniform (7) |
| GYMSLIP – sounds like Jim (diminutive of James) SLIP | |
| 11 | Strong in the future, say (7) |
| INTENSE – IN TENSE | |
| 12 | Republican ain’t travelling with queen in coach! (7) |
| TRAINER – R AINT* ER | |
| 13 | Delay? Cockney bloke’s on time! (5) |
| TARRY – T (time) ‘ARRY (as in England captain ‘Arry Kane) | |
| 14 | Splendid display of unlimited beer in kitchen cupboard (9) |
| PAGEANTRY – |
|
| 16 | US peak — top it in style (2,7) |
| EL CAPITAN – CAP (top, as in capped my contribution) IT (from clue) in ELAN; if you haven’t seen it, the documentary about the nutjob who climbed El Capitan (in Yosemite) ‘free solo’ is worth a watch. | |
| 19 | Benefit when including king in The Fifth Element? (5) |
| BORON – R in BOON; I take it that Boron has the atomic number 5 | |
| 21 | Lacking a roof, hospital department cuts operations? (4-3) |
| OPEN-TOP – ENT in a pair of OPs | |
| 23 | More expensive insurance payment? (7) |
| PREMIUM – double definition (DD); you see the descriptors premium, organic or fair trade next to a product, and you know it’s going to be expensive | |
| 24 | Bring home drinking article made of clay (7) |
| EARTHEN – THE in EARN | |
| 25 | Stadium hosting second large club (7) |
| ARSENAL – S in ARENA L | |
| 26 | Obsessive personality playing English song dug out for the audience (3-5,4) |
| ONE-TRACK MIND – ON (playing) E (English) TRACK (song) MIND (sounds like dug out) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Judge mishandled rare cases a little (7) |
| ARBITER – BIT in RARE* | |
| 2 | Residence in outskirts of third-rate French city (7) |
| TENANCY – T~E NANCY (city in Lorraine) | |
| 3 | Immediately in a tricky situation (2-3-4) |
| ON-THE-SPOT – I’d give this as a DD, even if it’s difficult to think of a context where the second sense can be used in a hyphenated form | |
| 4 | Fashionable rock fan’s last to leave metal bar (5) |
| INGOT – IN GOT |
|
| 5 | Greek character embracing a sexy dance (7) |
| LAMBADA – A in LAMBDA | |
| 6 | Telling cooks to produce fishing gear (4,3) |
| GILL NET – TELLING*; an angling device which does what it says on the label, trapping fish by their gills | |
| 7 | Top pilot owing money for America’s secret weapon (3,2,3,4) |
| ACE IN THE HOLE – ACE (top pilot) IN THE HOLE (owing money in the US, apparently; in Britain, we might say ‘in a hole’) | |
| 10 | Do lovers ply Samaritan for change? (5,7) |
| PARTY ANIMALS – PLY SAMARITANS* | |
| 15 | Group develop core tool for onboarding? (9) |
| GANGPLANK – GANG PLANK (develop core: core as in abdomen, so PLANK as in an exercise) | |
| 17 | V-sign from revolutionary very wrong after shelling (7) |
| CHEVRON – CHE V |
|
| 18 | Drug injection, crack, taken casually (3,4) |
| POT SHOT – POT (drug) SHOT (injection); ‘crack’, as in go or attempt | |
| 19 | In New York, drink case of beer that’s gross then go downhill (7) |
| BREWSKI – B~R EW (that’s gross!) SKI (go downhill) | |
| 20 | Was monarch set on fire again after losing it? (7) |
| REIGNED – REIGN |
|
| 22 | Shoot consumer inside shop and abscond (5) |
| PANDA – hidden; shoot consumer, indeed | |
15.03 Quick for me. INGOT, TARRY and EARTHEN were unparsed. I did like PANDA. Thanks ulaca.
I’ve certainly heard of BREWSKI and VHO ACE IN THE HOLE and EL CAPITAN (I’ve seen the ‘Free Solo’ film), though I was trying to get ‘capital’ to work as the second word in the answer for far too long. The only NHO is ASTROBIOLOGY, vastly less famous than astrophysics but a logical word nonetheless and actually my FOI. GANGPLANK was the LOI for a 20:06 finish.
32:02
Gosh, that was easier than some of the QCs we’ve been facing recently!
Quite a slow start. Despite seeing the possibility of ology and bio in 1ac, I completely ignored that they could actually be next to each other 🙄 Fortunately Gymslip and Party Animals gave me a foothold and it became a steady solve thereafter, finishing close enough to 30mins as to be a bit miffed at missing what would have been my first sub-30. However, given that El Capitan, Brewski and Gill Net were all nho, and Gangplank was unparsed, I really can’t be too disappointed. Invariant
36 minutes but exactly the same slip with TARDY, as in “Kiss me, ‘Ardy”! Silly of me as TARDY is neither a noun nor a verb as far as I know.
I thought it a bit tough for a Monday.
Not as easy as I was expecting, with plenty of unknowns – the mountain, the drink, the science, the net, the meaning of ACE IN THE HOLE and the number of the element. Luckily, I’ve seen ‘ew’ enough to plump for that as the most likely for 19d and BORON popped into my head immediately, no idea why. I got EL AN, so just had to think of something ending in T to fit in it, which wasn’t easy, as I had trouble with both POT SHOT and CHEVRON, thinking I needed –ERRON rather than VRON. However, all completed this evening after work in less than the usual time, so not complaining.
As mentioned above, ACE IN THE HOLE was a great Kirk Douglas film about a mine explosion and the newspaper men who come to cover it. I didn’t find this quite as easy as some seem to have. EL CAPITAN I know from one of the MAC updates. 16’51”. Now to see if I can do any more of Friday’s.
I’ll add my voice to the chorus of QCers here to say how much fun this puzzle was. I completed it in 31:46, not quite a PB for the 15×15, but fast for me. More importantly, it was chock-full of splendidly amusing clues. Loved the party animals and the panda.
Thanks to the setter and ulaca.
NHO Brewski, I knew El Capitan due to it being an earlier version of Mac OS (the current version is Sequoia) and I know that Apple names all the major versions after places (or geographical features) in California.
Apart from those everything went straight in. Unfortunately, my kids arrived after I had written in 1ac so I was interrupted for a time. I’m sure I would have beaten my 15×15 PB if it wasn’t for that.
20.46, but far too slangy for my taste.
Enjoyed being able to move along (reasonably) rapidly, without recourse to cheating ( I prefer to think of it as learning). Unfortunately put in TARDY, but that was my only mistake. Held up for a while on BORON and BREWSKI, but only a short while. Loved PANDA, which I didn’t see for ages, and the Do lovers, and EL CAPITAN , of which I took many photos on our big trip around the western coast of America (many moons ago, I hastened to to add). Much more my level than yesterday’s, so more please!