| 1 |
God and goddess embracing love, insatiable (8) |
|
RAVENOUS – RA O in VENUS |
| 6 |
Have no problem with account involving recording (6) |
|
ACCEPT – EP (Extended Play, in case anyone under 60 is tuning in) in ACCT; as a kid in the 60s, we had a number of EPs – one was by the novelty act, The Barron Kinghts. Brings tears to my eyes… |
| 9 |
Probably the most expensive target for climbers? (3-2-3-5) |
|
TOP-OF-THE-RANGE – extended definition – the second being whimsical |
| 10 |
Nurse, perhaps, with additional energy in vocation (6) |
|
CAREER – E in CARER |
| 11 |
Flooring brand to cover middle of hole? I’m not sure (8) |
|
LINOLEUM – pretty much a write-in for those who were at it in the 60s: hOLe in LINE (brand) UM. You might biff it from ‘flooring brand’ – which it was originally, but no longer is. Like ‘hoover’, I guess. |
| 13 |
Minor goddess following head of pantheon into danger (10) |
|
PERIPHERAL – P HERA in PERIL |
| 15 |
Reckon to lose first associate (4) |
|
ALLY – tALLY |
| 16 |
Speculation behind American support (4) |
|
ABET – A BET |
| 18 |
Novel supporting retreating, retaining restraint (5,1,4) |
|
ROMAN A CLEF – MANACLE (restraint) in reversal of FOR (‘supporting retreating’); refers to a novel about thinly-disguised real-life people. I’m currently reading one of the better known of the genre, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. |
| 21 |
Editorial intervention dismissing Democrat response (8) |
|
REACTION – REdACTION |
| 22 |
Part of security system — crucial option for accommodation? (6) |
|
KEYPAD – KEY PAD (option for accommodation – ‘my pad or yours?’) |
| 23 |
Success behind entertaining form of music reached worst level (3,4,6) |
|
HIT ROCK BOTTOM – ROCK (form of music) in (entertained by) HIT (success) BOTTOM (behind). Yo! |
| 25 |
Singer to show fear, losing heart (6) |
|
TREBLE – TREmBLE |
| 26 |
Supporter of monarchy in solitary, getting punished (8) |
|
ROYALIST – anagram* of SOLITARY |
35 minutes including 9 spent on my last two in, ACCEPT and CAN, the latter of which I felt was a bit dodgy but I couldn’t think of anything better.
The Barron Knights are still around minus the deceased Duke D’Mond. They were founded in 1959 in Leighton Buzzard, where I live, and have always retained their local connections. I think on a previous outing it was established that EPs are still issued but in what format I don’t know exactly.
My kids still copy the line they learned from me: “I don’t want to go to work, on me bike in the rain.”
‘so keep buying all our records/so we we won’t clock in again’
Memory is a wonderful thing
Personally I’m not a fan of “Scotch” being used in that way in the blog. Other than that, thanks for the explanations.
I am cursed to remember “Send the Searchers to Algiers for about a hundred years”
Lots of folk musicians issue EPs with 4 or 5 tracks in CD form to sell at their gigs. I have one by an excellent duo, Our Atlantic Roots (Laura and Mac), who live in Cornwall. She comes from Darlington and he comes from Virginia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5zNWF7gSNg
Jack, please tell me you remember the California Ballroom in Dunstable. The Barron Kmights performed there often. They signed an EP for me there in the sixties. More importantly, I met the mother of my first daughter there. Happy memories
A rather sluggish 26:44 which on reflection is very disappointing. Looking back this seems usual Monday fare so would be expecting 10 minutes less than that. Wasted a lot of time correcting unforced errors.
COD EUPHEMISTIC
Thanks blogger and setter.
EUPHEMISTIC…another unforced error?
Yes, it’s one of those days 🙄 (Thanks and edited)
8.20
Nice gentle start to the week.
My partner’s started doing the times2 (non-cryptic) crossword, so I’m getting used to looking for Ninas; we have TOP OF THE RANGE and HIT ROCK BOTTOM in appropriate positions today.
LOI TUB
COD RAVENOUS
A very rare sub 15 minute solve for me, exact time unavailable as my laptop froze and had to be restarted. Really liked this one, especially PERIPHERAL and HERBIVORE. Many thanks Ulaca and setter.
48 mins with some pretty tricky wp, I thought. None the worse for that though. A number unparsed too, so ta to our blogger for the explanations. Like jack, CAN went in with a bit of a shrug.
I liked HIT ROCK BOTTOM & KOOKY best.
Thanks U and setter.
Pleasant start to the week.
“Hit rock bottom” reminds me of the song by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran. Nice song – it came second in the Eurovision, but would probably have won if any other country had entered it.
DNF at 44 mins which is disappointing for a Monday.
I did think of BLETHER, but didn’t know it was Scottish, and wasn’t sure of the “holyrood” device, and didn’t really know BLEAR either.
Missed 1a when I kept trying to make ZEALOUS work with Zeus. Went through short gods and goddesses and came up with Pan, Io but forgot about Ra.
Couldn’t get ACTUATE either, always miss the many meanings of ATE, a common set of letters.
COD HERBIVORE
A solid 29:40 for me. Enjoyable puzzle overall, I’d never heard of ROMAN A CLEF so I was pleased to get it from the wordplay alone. I wasn’t aware that blare could be a word on its own but I figured it made sense that it existed given “bleary-eyed”. Thanks setter and Ulaca.
I agree with our blogger’s enthusiasm this morning. A lovely start to the week. Really smooth surfaces and beautifully succinct throughout. RAVENOUS, PERIPHERAL, EUPHEMISTIC, SCHOLAR, LEAD CRYSTAL my faves today. 11 minutes.
Thanks to setter and blogger
CANT in 7d is more likely thieves’ cant or travellers’ cant. For Scottish travellers it was a mixture of Scots, Roma, Gaelic and a few other bits and pieces from across the globe.
That was how I read it.
14:21
More Mondays should be like this. Biffed ROMAN, never bothered to parse it. i couldn’t figure out what to do with ‘option’; crucial/KEY, accommodation/PAD, option/?
About 15 minutes.
– Relied on the wordplay for the unknown ROMAN A CLEF
– Thought 6d was going to be a+irelands* until I thought of ADRENALIN and saw how it worked
– Didn’t know BLETHER is Scottish
– Hesitated over MONIKER as I initially thought Mike was giving M, so I couldn’t account for the ‘ike’
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Career
LOI Moniker
COD Erasmus
12:56. I had somehow mistyped it TOf OF THE RANGE – so I’m left with no snitch prizes for one of my best ever times. But that’s a genuine typo so, personally, it counts!
Thoroughly enjoyed this. NHO BLETHER, my LOI, but couldn’t think of anything except BLEAR for OBSCURE, so it had to be. I think I have heard of ROMAN A CLEF before, so I managed to get that as my POI.
Nearly hit my target to get QC plus Real Deal in less than 15 mins today. The milestone must fall soon.
12.30, the only real hold-up being 1ac, with a vast pantheon to choose from, and “insatiable” being one of those words where you know what it means but have a hard time putting a synonym to it.
I had M AS KING until it couldn’t be, with a slight mer at Michael rather than Mike for M. Seemed to fit both definition and wordplay, and might do another time.
HERBIVORE and EUPHEMISTIC got big ticks from me.
18:14. Mondayish but non-trivial and good fun.
NHO the novel and didn’t fully parse rock bottom. LOI LEAD CRYSTAL, COD PERIPHERAL.
Not sure what “it” people were at in the 60’s, on the Lino. Maybe I’m seeing more euphemisms than are there.
Thanks ulaca and setter.
8:55. Neat puzzle. LOI REACTION. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
18:29. Very enjoyable, all the more so as several of the clues such as BLETHER and ROMAN A CLEF were barely known and needed some thought to parse properly. I liked the ‘God and goddess embracing love’ with such gusto in 1a.
8:09. I thought for a while this was going to be a tricky one, as relatively few answers went in on my first pass through the acrosses. But the downs proved easier and then it all fell into place. Nice puzzle.
My thanks to ulaca and setter.
I was unable to parse a few especially in the SE. 18a Roman a clef, missed the manacle. 14d Lead Crystal, total biff. 19d Moniker also biffed.
Steady solve to finish with the NHO KOOKY from wordplay and K*O*Y. 20 minutes. I liked the NINA of
TOP.. and .. BOTTOM if it was intended as one.
I had heard of ROMAN A CLEF, and I biffed it accordingly to finish off a very rapid solve – in fact my 4th best ever according to SNITCH.
LINOLEUM is a type of flooring, but not necessarily a brand.
FOI TOP-OF-THE-RANGE
LOI ROMAN A CLEF
COD KEYPAD
TIME 4:21
Great time!!
Sawbill
An enjoyable start to the week/month indeed! From OFFER to ACCEPT and CAN in 14:46. Liked HIT ROCK BOTTOM and BLETHER. Thanks setter and U.
First ever sub 30 for me although had to biff Moniker.
Lots to enjoy.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
A very pleasant Monday dawdle while eating breakfast – 20 mins. No problems with answers or wordplay, though I didn’t know BLETHER was Scottish. First in was TUB and last REACTION. Favourite two clues: to EUPHEMISTIC and MONIKER. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Fine except for ‘actuate’ which refused to emerge from the clue. I really like the clue for Roman a clef, had a nice poetry to it.
Not too difficult, although I was slow to come up with euphemistic and hit rock bottom. But top of the range was a write-in, and gave me lots of crossing letters. No trouble with can/cant, but I hesitated over blether – is that a word? The cryptic strongly suggests that it is.
Time: 15:00
15.18
Excellent puzzle. Held up here at the end wanting BAN(T) and struggling to see ACCT for “account”. Liked RAVENOUS. More like this for the beginning of the week. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
19-ish, so not too hard. What about Busman’s time, wow! TBH I did this several hours ago and can’t really recall the details but it was enjoyable, thanks Ulaca.
From The Times etc:
Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And ACCEPT it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
20′. Lots of blethering where I came from, albeit not Holyrood (in fact I wonder if its more west of Scotland than Edinburgh?). Also was very close to entering “abut” and I almost convinced myself that it worked until ABET popped in. Nice puzzle, Mondayish but with a bit of style.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
A steady and enjoyable solve, only to fall at the last. A breeze blocked Keypad became Keytab (which, surprisingly, does apparently exist as a security feature). The short of funds tab behind the bar being the accommodation bit. . . Invariant
Nice start to the week, but ‘easier’ rather than ‘very easy’ methinks.
Never seen account abbreviated to ‘acct’ – it’s always ‘ac’ otherwise why bother?
Very enjoyable puzzle, spoilt by a one letter error with PREQUiL (the “segment of film” bit of the clue made me stick in IL, against my better judgement.
Liked HERBIVORE and EUPHEMISTIC.
Thanks you our excellent blogger, and setter.
17:56 Nice and straightforward. Was tempted by”blather” but couldn’t make it fit.
COD EUPHEMISTIC.
Wish I still had my Rolling Stones Five by Five e.p.
Thanks to ulaca and the setter.
I wondered whether ‘blather’, ‘blether’ and ‘blither’ (as in ‘blithering idiot’) were different versions of the same word. As I wrote above, I didn’t know BLETHER was Scottish.
17.59 My quickest for ages with biffs of LEAD CRYSTAL and RAVENOUS. I liked BLETHER. Thanks ulaca.
I started very well with many going in without too much deduction needed, but a sticky middle period took my finishing time out to 36.50. I deliberated over my LOI ROMAN A CLEF for quite a while before trusting the cryptic direction.
11:30 – not too demanding but elegant and not a pushover by any means. Prolonged pencil chewing over the last one in, REACTION.
In contrast to most above, I found this very much not on my wavelength, and puzzled over a half-empty grid for ages, then two or three would fall by biffing once one went in through parsing. Horrible time spent over the EUPHEMISTIC anagram and ROMAN A CLEF was a biff once the R, M and N were in near the end. I put in LINOLEUM, took it out, then put it in again later when it finally made sense. Not seen ACC-T before – only AC – as Tunbridge Wells solver says, ‘why bother?’ However, I did like the long ones and HERBIVORE and got there in the end.
Mm, no other women posters so far… I sometimes find that happens when I have a particularly un-friendly (to me) un-wavelength puzzle. Does that say anything about female versus male brain workings?
Not sure that there are many of us here at all! But I agree that this seemed impossible at first and not particularly Monday-ish. I struggled to get started and only managed 3/4 of it and gave up on PERIPHERAL/HERBIVORE/ADRENALIN and also ROMAN A CLEF (even thought I knew that phrase I didn’t understand how the clue worked).
I wonder if there are any female crossword setters? Often I think that it’s simply down to chance that your personal general knowledge is in tune with the puzzle.
If you do the Quick Cryptic, there are two female setters – Alex and Heron, that we know about. And there are at least 4 or 5 regular commenters for this blog that I’m aware of. But there’s no doubt we’re in the minority.
I frequently don’t get to a 15×15 until the day after, or longer, as I’m primarily a QC solver. But thought I’d weigh in to say I finished in something close to an average time, that is to say, a longish time for a Monday puzzle. Enjoyed it and didn’t find it especially unfriendly, though I got stuck on the final five or six and had to come back after a day in the garden.
Put BLETHUR because couldn’t get obscure = blur out of my head, and it doesn’t work anyway. Silly me!
Otherwise all good.
17:30 which is very quick for me.
33:36
Not easy. Never heard of the novel. One better best forgotten.
29:35. I spent an an inordinate amount of time on my LOI REACTION. otherwise a lovely puzzle.
24:52 for the solve. A few went in unparsed as I was doing it (ravenous, ally, can) but all parsed afterwards with the exception of LEAD-CRYSTAL where I couldn’t see the stall part.
Thanks to Ulaca for the explanations and to the setter
15.39 so definitely a Monday puzzle. Still provided plenty of entertainment.
25 minutes, with KEYPAD, KOOKY and ACTUATE holding me up at the end.
Thanks Ulaca and setting
Dnf as I put kettle instead of keypad- the police use kettling during crowd control, and accomodation without a kettle would be very poor.
12’47” on Wed. He was keen, off up the high street like Barry Sheene.