Time: 43.35
Straightforward but enjoyable puzzle, with one guessable scientific term for those of an arty bent; and a dish made from the underrated buckwheat.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Popular German car briefly ran making no noticeable sound (9) |
| INAUDIBLE – IN + AUDI + BLE(D). | |
| 6 | Terrible excursion around island with a decorator’s assistant (5,8) |
| PAINT STRIPPER – PANTS [terrible] + TRIP all around I, then add PER [a]. | |
| 13 | Prototype of fish found by a lake (5) |
| IDEAL – IDE + A + L. | |
| 14 | Whale that man’s painting, perhaps, coming back in group (9) |
| ORCHESTRA – ORC + HE’S + ART backwards.
I don’t think I knew that orca could be orc, but it had to be (and it is so). |
|
| 15 | Rally in park finished (7) |
| RECOVER – REC + OVER. | |
| 16 | To understand a person’s character is part of a tailor’s job? (3,3,7,2,7) |
| GET THE MEASURE OF SOMEONE – Double definition, the second with a cryptic hint. | |
| 18 | Try retreating to stop notorious superior (8) |
| ARROGANT – Reversal of GO in ARRANT [notorious].. | |
| 20 | Unexpectedly, Joe cries and shows great happiness (8) |
| REJOICES – (JOE CRIES)*. | |
| 21 | Back in Irkutsk, has cooked a dish made from buckwheat (5) |
| KASHA – (K + HAS + A)*.
Usually Kasha refers to buckwheat and/or the dish made from boiling it with water/milk. Buckwheat isn’t wheat and my preference is to cook it like rice and serve it with chicken, or even better, game such as guinea fowl. Cheap, nutritious; nutty and highly recommended. |
|
| 23 | Fourteen lines, ten with no structure initially rejected (6) |
| SONNET – TEN + NO + S all reversed. | |
| 24 | Disorderly scrap identifying mark (6) |
| RAGTAG – RAG + TAG. | |
| 25 | Notes about Republican meeting Conservative in bedroom (9) |
| DORMITORY – DO and MI [notes] around R, then add TORY.
Not an image that one wants to linger over. |
|
| 28 | Outspoken sex symbol, with discretion, shared glance (3,7) |
| EYE CONTACT – Homophone of ICON + TACT.
Nice clue. |
|
| 29 | Southern African announced where captive animals go? (4) |
| ZULU – Homophone of … ZOO LOO.
I’m sure the setter would be suggesting (s)he gets his/her coat at this point…. |
|
| 30 | Finish short of line in run (7) |
| COMPETE – COMPLETE without the L. | |
| 32 | Lying about Polish family with one item of swimwear (7) |
| BURKINI – Reversal [lying about] of RUB + KIN + I.
Swimwear for Muslims to observe hijab. Not to be confused with the less capacious mankini. |
|
| 34 | Love is expensive (4) |
| DEAR – Double definition. | |
| 35 | Old article covering study by lawyers (10) |
| THREADBARE – THE around READ + BAR. | |
| 38 | Labour’s leader infuriating when ignoring first note for approval (9) |
| LICENSING – L + I(N)CENSING. | |
| 39 | More drunk? Rubbish (6) |
| LITTER – Half way through the evening one might be lit. Later you would be litter. If the setter hadn’t already got their coat they really would have to now. | |
| 40 | Fellow left in pursuit of a scavenger (6) |
| JACKAL – JACK then L after A. | |
| 43 | Setter from the east encountered tourist in Cornwall (5) |
| EMMET – Reversal of ME + MET. | |
| 45 | Hypothetical particle binding most of protective framework in pancreatic hormone (8) |
| GLUCAGON – GLUON around CAG(E).
Knew GLUON but had to trust to the w/p for CAG(E) and the solution. A polypeptide hormone secreted by the pancreas. Rather more concrete than the GLUON, which is “a particle thought of as passing between quarks…”. |
|
| 47 | Have Ken, in advance, regularly peek inside until something changes (8) |
| FOREKNOW – EK inside FOR NOW.
Excellent clue #1. |
|
| 49 | Keen photographer sighs, desperate to take a wee (4-4,2,1,11) |
| KNEE-HIGH TO A GRASSHOPPER – (KEEN PHOTOGRAPHER SIGHS)* outside A.
Excellent clue #2. |
|
| 52 | Caption rewritten for car company (7) |
| PONTIAC – (CAPTION)*. | |
| 53 | Between New Year and summer in Bordeaux, have confidential meeting (4-1-4) |
| TETE-A-TETE – This is EAT [have] between TET [Vietnamese New Year] and ETE [summer in French].
Clever. |
|
| 54 | Subarctic forest periodically thawing close to tundra (5) |
| TAIGA – T + A + I G + A [close to Tundra]. | |
| 55 | Call to retreat in Balaclava, for example, at someone else’s expense (7-6) |
| REVERSE-CHARGE – A retreat at Balaclava would I guess be a reverse charge, so a double definition with cryptic hint.
I haven’t emboldened “Call” but arguably it is doing double duty both in the w/p and the definition. Such things don’t really bother me if the answer is clear but thoughts welcome. |
|
| 56 | Reportedly is aware of quiet bridge (9) |
| NOSEPIECE – Homophone of KNOWS PEACE. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Is at home with good girl — that should clarify things (9) |
| ISINGLASS – IS + IN + G + LASS.
A material, mainly gelatine, obtained from sturgeons’ air-bladders and other sources and used mainly to speed up the process of making beer clear. Well known to most of us I am sure often I suspect through doing these puzzles. |
|
| 2 | American chap called Earl buries old herbicide (5,6) |
| AGENT ORANGE – A + GENT + RANG [called] + E [earl] around O.
Nasty stuff. |
|
| 3 | Diamonds help to transform porcelain (5) |
| DELPH – (D + HELP)*. | |
| 4 | Ruddy bishop arriving imminently (8) |
| BLOOMING – B + LOOMING. | |
| 5 | Notices Charles concealing scab (6) |
| ESCHAR – Hidden.
I didn’t know this but easily deducible from the w/p. Not the same as a scab but close enough for our purposes. |
|
| 6 | Some early years of school transport company extremely tricky (10) |
| PREPUBERTY – PREP [school] + UBER [transport company] + TY.
I liked this one, wanting BUS for school transport and failing to lift and separate. |
|
| 7 | Eventually, neon light damaged bolt (2,3,4,3) |
| IN THE LONG RUN – (NEON LIGHT)* + RUN [bolt]. | |
| 8 | Conservative provided Trump lifts in illegal trade (7) |
| TRAFFIC – C + IF + FART all reversed.
I didn’t know the “break wind” meaning of TRUMP, but it is there. |
|
| 9 | Ten entertaining mistakes by fool in Frozen? (6-8) |
| TERROR-STRICKEN – TEN surrounds ERRORS + TRICK. | |
| 10 | Under control, having attacked king (2,5) |
| IN CHECK – Double definition.
“Having” here is a gerund with “attacked king” as its object (rather than the phrase being a past tense of “attack”). I think. |
|
| 11 | Vegan points out flag (6,5) |
| PAVING STONE – (VEGAN POINTS)*. | |
| 12 | Time runs backwards? Extraordinary (4) |
| RARE – ERA + R reversed. | |
| 17 | I go round every few days in celebration, it’s said, after my horse returned (8) |
| GANYMEDE – Homophone of EID [celebration] after a reversal of MY NAG.
The largest and most massive moon in the Solar System, orbiting Jupiter every seven days or so. |
|
| 19 | Either Chappell brother who captained Australia’s cricket team concerning Pope (9) |
| GREGORIAN – GREG OR IAN (CHAPPELL).
Loved this. By the time this blog is published the fate of the Ashes might have been decided. Let’s hope not (with apologies to our Australian supporters). Both superb cricketers – just don’t mention underarming. |
|
| 22 | Monitor temple and church, then arrange golf (8) |
| WATCHDOG – WAT [temple as in Angkor Wat] + CH + DO [arrange] + G [phonetic alphabet for GOLF].
MONITOR as a noun here. |
|
| 25 | Child departs giggling, having head scratched (8) |
| DAUGHTER – D + (L)AUGHTER.
Maybe a ? was needed here as not all daughters are children, of course. |
|
| 26 | Prompt current referee to conceal millions (9) |
| IMMEDIATE – I + MEDIATE around M. | |
| 27 | Getting rid of seating area in attack zone (8,6) |
| STRIKING CIRCLE – STRIKING + CIRCLE.
This is a reference to hockey, where the striking circle is the area in front of goal from where the ball must be struck in order to score. |
|
| 28 | Writer turning blonde, somehow, to give courage (8) |
| EMBOLDEN – Reversal of ME + (BLONDE)*. | |
| 31 | Top lay reader works for one ahead of the game (5,7) |
| EARLY ADOPTER – (TOP LAY READER)* [works]. | |
| 33 | Composer re-edited Anchorman IV (11) |
| RACHMANINOV – (ANCHORMAN IV)*.
The ANCHORMAN franchise is a media franchise initially constituting three films though there have been four podcast series. Must confess to this cultural icon having completely escaped my attention (the franchise not the composer). |
|
| 36 | Cost when monarch and his son stripped of third of land (6,5) |
| ASKING PRICE – AS [when] + KING + PRI(N)CE.
From the seller’s point of view COST and PRICE are different but from the buyer’s I guess they are interchangeable. |
|
| 37 | Very alcoholic beer including drug, at last, for violent wind (6,4) |
| STRONG GALE – STRONG ALE around G.
Not green paint: a Strong Gale is classified as Force 9 on the Beaufort Scale. |
|
| 41 | For example, cow illustration is small (5,4) |
| LOWER CASE – LOWER [for example, cow] + CASE. | |
| 42 | Braggarts primarily seen in hats (8) |
| BOASTERS – S in BOATERS. | |
| 44 | Relatively small row about European in space (7) |
| TEENIER – TIER around E inside the printers’ space EN. | |
| 46 | Free punch during meal, after starter cancelled (7) |
| UNHITCH – HIT in (L)UNCH. | |
| 48 | Bar extremely short brown skirts (6) |
| TAVERN – VER(Y) in TAN. | |
| 50 | Readily available patent number withdrawn (2,3) |
| ON TAP – PAT NO reversed. | |
| 51 | Argue in flipping crapshoot (4) |
| SPAR – Reverse hidden. | |
A slew of DNKs: 3d, 5d, 19d, 31d, 45ac, POI 32ac, LOI 27d. GANYMEDE took me a while because I’d thought that ‘eid’ rhymed with ‘aid’. COD to KNEE-HIGH … All daughters have (or had) parents, so they are (were) all children.
I have no recollection of solving this one but the almost complete absence of queries and workings on my printout suggests I found it mostly straightforward. I used aids for my LOI, the unknown GLUCAGON making its very first appearance here today with unhelpful wordplay relying on another obscurity in the wordplay, and I failed to parse ON TAP and EYE CONTACT.
Almost done in 31 minutes but the last few took another 16 minutes. LOI (appropriately) was COMPLETE. A few took a while to parse, but I got there in the end. KASHA, GLUCAGON and ESCHAR all known but derived from the wordplay. Favourite was KNEE HIGH TO A GRASSHOPPER. Thanks setter and Dvynys
Started well but found the last half-a-dozen very difficult to get- STRIKING CIRCLE, STRONG GALE, GLUCAGON, PONTIAC and LITTER being the main culprits. But having had trouble with the 15x15s this week I am delighted and relieved that I managed this one eventually unscathed! Thanks to the setter and blogger.
I’m in two minds about GLUON being described as hypothetical. Certainly gluons are not directly observed, because they can’t be, but they are nonetheless a fundamental component of Quantum Field Theory and in that sense are no more hypothetical than many others. A genuinely hypothetical particle might be a graviton or tachyon.
I did this one today, immediately after yesterday’s, so had the odd experience of solving almost identical clues for the same unusual word in quick succession!
45a was horrible, an obscurity leading to an obscurity. The original print edition clue had enzyme as the last word. The following week The Times published a correction, saying the last word should have been hormone. Wouldn’t have helped me.
Also didn’t know burkini, kasha, taiga, isinglass, eschar, wat, striking circle, and couldn’t parse 17d.
Favourite 19d – and I thought I knew nothing about cricket.
Worst clue, clearly 45a but if it wasn’t for that it would be 27d – solvers should not need to know technical terms of an obscure sport.
An enjoyable puzzle with several really nice clues which made a couple of oddballs forgivable.
Same as everyone else, I really liked 19d even though I know very little about cricket. 49a (knee high etc) was fun – a lot of clue for “wee”. 41d was a clever use of Lower.
45a is arcane, but easy enough to work out from the word play. Not sure about “lying” in 32a – and a missed opportunity to use “Reverse Polish” to tease us computer dinosaurs.