| 1 |
Style of rap starts to generate almost overwhelming dread (7) |
|
GANGSTA – G[enerate] ANGST A[lmost]. A style not much favored by our senior blogger. |
| 2 |
Chaps in team, number climbing on Scottish island above loch lacking depth (3-11) |
|
ONE-DIMENSIONAL – MEN inside SIDE + NO upside down + IONA + L. This has got to be the most convoluted cryptic ever, at least in a daily puzzle. |
| 3 |
King and leader of armada chat in boat (5) |
|
KAYAK – K + A[rmade] + YAK. A rather small boat for such an important conference. |
| 4 |
Propose an item broadcast after drama (8) |
|
NOMINATE – NO + anagram of AN ITEM. |
| 5 |
Long stretch of trip in Europe (4) |
|
PINE – Hidden in [tri]P IN E[urope]. |
| 6 |
Destroy order, losing time after time (9) |
|
ERADICATE – ERA + DIC[t]ATE. |
| 7 |
Impure hero, sort mistakenly made head of religious community (6,8) |
|
MOTHER SUPERIOR – Anagram of IMPURE HERO, SORT. |
| 8 |
Cross in past hour, upset, then relieved (6) |
|
HYBRID – BY H upside-down, then RID. |
| 14 |
Dreadful in operation, ignoring first in command (9) |
|
DIRECTIVE – DIRE + [a]CTIVE. |
| 16 |
Area guarded by soldier perhaps on border, a thing that’s abhorred (8) |
|
ANATHEMA – AN(A)T + HEM + A. |
| 17 |
Reject racket broken by seed (6) |
|
DISOWN – DI(SOW)N. |
| 19 |
Dean set to work in part of London (4,3) |
|
EAST END – Anagram of DEAN SET. |
| 22 |
Bird that’s black and yellow, not caught (5) |
|
RAVEN – [c]RAVEN. |
| 23 |
Mere share (4) |
|
POOL – Double definition – mere as a noun, share as a verb. |
Thanks, vinyl. I think 21a is lead = STAR + an anagram (rest)* = TERS
Well, I told you I biffed everything! That includes the blog.
Thanks for the correction.
22:34 for me, but with a break in the middle to peel some apples for an apple pie, so actual solving time was less by maybe 5 minutes. So very Mondayish (and lots of biffing for me too). I couldn’t see at a glance how HYBRID worked but with checkers and “cross” it was always going to be the answer. My LOI was INSECURE, but only (I think) because I never looked at the clue until I was almost done.
Enjoyed this and didn’t mind figuring out the IKEA clues, but don’t get No=Drama in NOMINATE.
Japanese Noh drama, also spelt No.
Thank you.
Just over 20 with a couple of interruptions, so mostly quite easy but some held me up for a while. Like others I found biffs aplenty but was delayed by trying to make an anagram of ‘lead rest’ and having to do a tedious alphabet trawl before POOL appeared. I’m not fully convinced by the HYPBRID cryptic but what the heck. Thanks V.
From Love Minus Zero/No Limit:
The bridge at midnight trembles, the country doctor rambles
Bankers’ nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring
The wind howls like a hammer, the night blows cold and rainy
My love she’s like some RAVEN
At my window with a broken wing
There is a great version by Joan Baez:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnPlCdMl_D8&list=RDMnPlCdMl_D8&start_radio=1
Nobody sings early Bob like Joan.
15:59
What Starstruck said. (I started with (leadrest)* but soon gave that up.) I biffed a bunch, parsing post-submission, except for ONE-DIMENSIONAL where I didn’t bother.
26 minutes. A pleasant confidence-builder to start the week with new hope. I didn’t know TICK as an arachnid but that was the only unknown today.
10’59”, pleasant solve. With crossers, biffed GLOCKENSPIEL, WELL-MANNERED, MOTHER SUPERIOR.
A good Monday, thanks vinyl and setter.
29 mins finishing with the convoluted WELL-MANNERED, not helped by having bunged in DIRECTION at 14d.
Can’t say I particularly enjoyed this one. No unknowns but a lot of tricksy wp.
Ta V and setter.
I biffed STARTERS. STICKING was on even shakier foundations. Otherwise, a steady solve. COD to DISOWN.
7:30. Lots of biffing today, including a careless DIRECTION, which held me up a bit at the end.
11:07. Held up for an extra minute+ at the end by LOI HYBRID, taking too long to discard the idea that the answer had an X in it having earlier tried and failed to get RELAXED to work. Thanks Vinyl and setter.
22:22 one of my fastest times.
Wasted time on the non-anagram “lead rest” which looked like very hopeful letters.
Got ONE DIMENSIONAL from bottom up seeing IONA+L and biffing from there.
So a tick has eight legs ? And there are some arachnids that aren’t spiders. New to me. As for Noh (apposite anagram of NHO) it even has a variant spelling ? Sheesh, fortunately not really needed, but glad I didn’t try to parse that one.
LOI WEARISOME.
COD HYBRID, that “cross” was well-hidden
I was undone by DIRECTIVE where I had DIRECTING. Same parse but that ‘in’ as a link word at the end does also produce ‘in command’ as a possible definition which would support the latter solution. Which left me with a very odd combo for what turned out to be WELL MANNERED. As I now had ‘in command’ firmly in mind, the correct solution eluded me for some time contributing to a 16 minute time that should have been quicker.
Thanks to setter and blogger