20:02. It was that sort of puzzle, where clue after clue I would ask myself, “Is that a thing?”, and eventually answer, “I guess that’s a thing.”.
| Across | |
| 1 | Problem with one prisoner is point of no return (7) |
| RUBICON – RUB + I + CON | |
| 5 | Fancy ring given to artist (7) |
| CHIMERA – CHIME + RA | |
| 9 | An unreal performance by Strummer? (3,6) |
| AIR GUITAR – cryptic definition | |
| 10 | Drunk / not willing to buy everyone drinks? (5) |
| TIGHT – double definition | |
| 11 | Crazy finance rules surrounding current protection product (4,9) |
| LIFE INSURANCE – anagram of FINANCE RULES around I | |
| 13 | Is Cyril Scott finally recollected as a writer of music? (8) |
| LYRICIST – anagram of IS CYRIL {scot}T | |
| 15 | I happen to be drawn in by whisky and choice steak (3,3) |
| RIB EYE – I BE in RYE
Happen = BE? I guess, like, “Where will the event happen/be?”, or something. |
|
| 17 | Cheapskate has yen for being unhappy (6) |
| MISERY – MISER + Y | |
| 19 | Bragger’s way of dealing with birthday candles? (8) |
| BLOWHARD – BLOW HARD | |
| 22 | At first, total beginner worked with a top, top cricketer? (7,6) |
| OPENING BATTER – T{otal} BEGINNER anagrammed with A TOP | |
| 25 | Quirky, picky, periodically retiring little ’un (5) |
| KIDDO – ODD {p}I{c}K{y} reversed | |
| 26 | Terrible, terrible actors bearing evidence of debt (9) |
| ATROCIOUS – anagram of ACTORS around IOU | |
| 27 | After starters of really excellent duck medallions, have lamb, perhaps (3,4) |
| RED MEAT – first letters of REALLY EXCELLENT DUCK MEDALLIONS + EAT (have) | |
| 28 | Japanese school getting hot in its most elevated points (7) |
| ZENITHS – ZEN + H in ITS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | House that is free around the centre of Marrakech (4) |
| RIAD – RID (rid) around {marr}A{kech}
Moroccan house with a garden in the middle. |
|
| 2 | Criminal’s endless desire to be involved in endless clamour (7) |
| BURGLAR – URG{e} in BLAR{e} | |
| 3 | Sound of train made by bird captured on tape (5) |
| CHUFF – homophone of CHOUGH | |
| 4 | Extremely sharp, odd taste in middle of fruitcake (8) |
| NATTIEST – anagram of TASTE IN {frui}T{cake} | |
| 5 | Gentle touch provides safekeeping and, finally, happiness (6) |
| CARESS – CARES (provides safekeeping) + {happines}S | |
| 6 | Italian team has to contend with series of probing questions? (9) |
| INTERVIEW – INTER + VIE + W (with)
When I saw the checking letters …I _ W at the end of this word, I started to get worried I’d made a mistake! |
|
| 7 | Royal princess from Europe with spirit (7) |
| EUGENIE – EU + GENIE | |
| 8 | Prepared a little bit, ultimately only to protect that place (2,3,5) |
| AT THE READY – A TAD {onl}Y around THERE | |
| 12 | Hit penned by gross, boorish Aussie musician in the 70s? (4,6) |
| GLAM ROCKER – LAM in GR (gross) OCKER (boorish Aussie) | |
| 14 | Certain hormone is implicated in my mood (9) |
| CORTISONE – IS in COR (my) TONE (mood) | |
| 16 | Prison time accepted by Wimbledon champ (8) |
| ALCATRAZ – T in ALCARAZ | |
| 18 | Relative in position to take on parental duties primarily (7) |
| STEPDAD – STEAD around first letters of PARENTAL DUTIES | |
| 20 | Tune left for John Lennon, for example (7) |
| AIRPORT – AIR (tune) PORT (left) | |
| 21 | In a state of shock? That’s funny, in a good way (6) |
| AGHAST – HA (that’s funny) in A G (good) ST (way) | |
| 23 | Electronic piloting system acquired by Delta, cannily (5) |
| TACAN – hidden in DELTA CANNILY | |
| 24 | A member of the family producing jumble sale sign? (2,2) |
| AS IS – A SIS | |
I too struggled when the wordplay unerringly led to words I did not know, like TACAN and RIAD. NHO Alcaraz but having lived in San Francisco for over a decade, prison ending in Z was a write-in. I’d forgotten that Liverpool airport is John Lennon Airport so that put me off fo a bit, although the wordplay was clear anyway. I didn’t know there was a bird CHOUGH but it pretty much had to be. I had trouble getting going bu then accelerated to the tape.
What a pleasant little crossword for the end of the week. Liked everything about this including the inclusion of our latest living person, ALCARAZ and one past, Mr Lennon. I was wondering if the latter might cause some problems for overseas solvers but the wordplay is about as generous as you can get. It’s the old SPEKE airport in Liverpool renamed in 2001 and became official the following year, well known to me as a Birkonian. CODs to AIR GUITAR, EUGENIE and OPENING BATTER, which is appropriate as India and Australia battle it out today and for the next five weeks. And back to the live coverage for me.
Thanks PJ and setter.
27.49 Some unknowns, but they were gettable from wordplay (RIAD, TACAN, the airport). Gentle for a Friday.
27.29, starting quickly but slowing towards the bottom with ZENITHS, KIDDO, ATROCIOUS and LOI STEPDAD among several to hold me up. Thanks Jeremy. India struggling in Perth, 4-51 at lunch on day 1. Both OPENING BATTERS are out.
From Red River Shore:
Well I’m wearing the cloak of MISERY, I’ve tasted jilted love
This frozen smile upon my face fits me like a glove
I can’t escape from the memory of the one that I’ll always adore
All those nights when I lay in the arms of the girl from the Red River shore
And we thought 4 for 51 was bad! 5/38.
Hilarious! This could be over in two days, and nobody can blame the pitch! Let’s hope ‘the best two teams in the world’ dig in to make it a decent game
It’s not the WACA, but it’s great to see top-class quicks bowling with hostility and getting rewards.
Wouldn’t mind Hazelwood and Bumrah opening the bowling for England.
Didn’t realise England were playing?!
Very, very slow to finish but enjoyable. Started fast with RUBICON, AIR GUITAR and TIGHT as write-ins. Slowed significantly but got the top out. The bottom SE corner got slower but the SW corner was the major hurdle. I saw the BATTER part of 22A but took ages to solve the rest. I finally got all the crossers for GLAM ROCKER but really struggled to solve it. After finally biffing the ROCKER ending, after a break for lunch, I recalled GLAM ROCK.
Thanks Jeremy
A groan at the ugly OPENING BATTER. Fish ‘n’ chips, anyone?
Otherwise, a very serviceable crossword. Liked CHUFF, didn’t know RIAD, but it sounded Araby enough.
19:49.
On edit: I forgot to mention I had a 6-second break for a phone call.
Agreed. Especially when AUTHORESS was deemed suitable through the week.
I once got into hot water in Hong Kong when I was asked to edit a speech by the secretary of the Hong Kong University Alumni association.
The speech mentioned the ‘Chairman’ of the association, who I happened to know and who was a woman.
I crossed the word out and suggested using ‘Chair’ or ‘Chairperson’, but was told in no uncertain terms that, whether the office-holder was a woman or a man, ‘Chairman’ was used because it was a traditional title and gender-neutral.
Which I knew, but….
Hmm … I seem to recall a 2-second interruption myself, to answer a question from one of the family.
What, not “I crossed the RUBICON” from his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways?
Too obvious?
I’m too big a fan of Red River Shore I’m afraid. But it IS nice to have a choice!
CHUFF for Americans has nothing specific to do with trains (don’t they go “choo-choo”? Ha) and I remembered the bird but not that its spelling is different, so that clue was a bit confusing. But this topped off a good week of puzzles, even if yesterday’s seemed more of a Friday’s. I did take a break to eat before finishing, instead of waiting till the next morning like the two days before.
Much more familiar with choo-choo myself. Without the bird prompt, I think I would have pronounced chuff as ‘choof’ (rhyming with ‘woof’).
43 minutes but somehow managed to miss the anagram at 4dn. I guess I was in a hurry to finish, this being my last one left standing, and I plumped for NUTTIEST even though I couldn’t think of how it might fit the definition ‘extremely sharp’.
I was ready to quibble about LYRICIST defined as ‘writer of music’ but if one thinks of a lyricist as the person who writes words to music and squints a bit at the grammar it can make sense even if it’s somewhat devious and designed to raise the blood pressure of some solvers (i.e. me before I thought more about it).
NHO TACAN making its first appearance here other than in several Mephisto puzzles which the majority of us never look at.
RIAD as a type of house fooled me quite recently but I hadn’t remembered it. I can’t find that occasion in the archive yet I recall taking part in a discussion about it.
EDIT – I found it now, in a puzzle I blogged myself 25th April 2023:
Year in Moroccan home close to Marrakech city (6)
RIYADH – Y (year) contained by [in] RIAD (Moroccan home), {Marrakec}H [close to…]. SOED riad – in Morocco, a large traditional house built around a central courtyard, often converted into a hotel.
Sounds like you made my mistake and took odd taste as AT or TSE and tried to put it into fruitcake/idiot.
Interesting you mention Riyadh. I had no idea of the Moroccan house – had forgotten that puzzle – so guessed the royal house of Arabia (Ibn Saud perhaps?) was preceded by the house of Riad, from whence the city was named. Ignorance is a wonderful/terrible thing.
I’m not sure i would see that as ignorance. I would say “Sensitive to Arabic nuances.” Saud/Riad .. gotta be a connection somewhere..
DNF. I was amongst the NUTTIEST contingent, having not read the clue properly and taken fruitcake to indicate “nuts”. I have no excuse as NUTTIEST clearly doesn’t fit the definition.
I did the same, but fortunately thought better of it.
Nor does NATTIEST, which is a superlative not demanded by the clue.
“Extremely” can mean “most” and does sometimes in a cryptic clue, though here it often means instead to take the first and last letters of the following word.
26:47
Looking at Jeremy’s blog, I’m surprised it took me this long. DNK TACAN, of course, but didn’t need to. And DNK OCKER, or when glam rock was, or the exact name of the tennis champ; I got ALCATRAZ from the L and a vague recall of his name, and the Z gave me ZENITHS. I thought I got the anagram of NATTIEST but in fact hadn’t picked up the extra T.
12:57. Very nice CD for AIR GUITAR which allowed me to offset the mild harrumph on finding one of Fergie’s daughters in a Times crossword…
Now, now, one cannot afford to be too picky over the relaxation of the dead-person rule.
Living? I’ll have you know Princess Eugénie of Greece and Denmark is definitely dead! And “from Europe”!
39m 57s
I must be one of the few who knew TACAN but I did spend my entire working life in civil aviation..which brings me to 20d: the tagline for Liverpool (John Lennon) Airport is ‘Above us only sky’… pass the sick bag!
Re 19ac BLOWHARD, I wonder, have we ever had BLOVIATE? Jack will know.
Overall, if I didn’t realise we were in a brave new world of live people and modern terminology I do now.
If you read 12d as ‘boorish Aussie musician in the 70s’ (4,6), Rolf Harris fits perfectly! Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson, though, does not!
Thank you, Jeremy!
Thanks for introducing me to ‘bloviate’, Martin – handy for Scrabble.
I always thought they missed a trick by not calling it the Lennon & McCartney Airport. ‘This bird has flown’ would have been altogether a more elegant tagline, if they really wanted one.
I first heard the term ‘bloviate’ used by the Washington Post in connection with a former adviser/assistant to Trump in his first term by the name of Sebastian Gorka.
I like your alternative tagline!
They probably didn’t want to name the airport after a living person.
As an atheist, I find that tagline absolutely wonderful!
Agreed
Ha!
Fail. Another victim of 4d, like Pootle putting in NUTTIEST because of the ‘fruitcake’ association, and choosing to ignore the anagram. Annoying, but vocabulary now expanded by two words, for the few days I remember them anyway.
9.44
An enjoyable one to end the week. Didn’t know TACAN but everything else was familiar. I also considered NUTTIEST, but thankfully tore myself away.
Thanks both.
34 mins so pleasantly quick for a Friday. Stuck on NATTIEST/NUTTIEST for a few secs but luckily jumped the right way. Much to Madame’s annoyance, I have always called ALCARAZ, rather unkindly, ALCATRAZ so no probs there!
My problem came at the hormone as I had bunged in KIDDY instead of KIDDO, which left my LOI as C-R-I-Y-E. Finally saw my error and normal service was resumed.
Opening batsman yes but, opening batter… hmmmm. I liked GLAM ROCKER.
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
18 minutes, all known apart from TACAN which was handed on a plate. I liked OPENING BATTER. for the late life confirmation. Back in 1964, up at Oxford, this Lancastrian used the word BATTER, to be snootily told that it was a BATSMAN. No longer, KIDDO. This puzzle played to my strengths. Thank you Jeremy and setter.
Nice anecdote
Mostly enjoyable; all done and dusted in about half an hour. Wishing to believe that the Times could not be so vulgar as to include one of Fergie’s sprogs, I chose to interpret 7dn as referring to Princess Eugenie of Greece and Denmark (d. 1989)
Then there’s the consort of Napoleon III.
18:09
The stars aligned for the end of the week following yesterday’s DNF. I failed to parse 22A and thankfully revisited 4D to avoid NUTTIEST to finish.
Very best weekend wishes to all and thanks to plusjeremy and the setter.
O Chatterton! how very sad thy fate!
Dear child of sorrow — son of misery!
(Sonnet to Chatterton, Keats)
30 mins pre-brekker on IPad. LOI the NHO Tacan, but generously clued.
Ta setterand PJ
Quicker today than yesterday .. no nhos, son-in-law is a commercial pilot, but had forgot RIAD. Fortunately didn’t matter. I swear we had a clue exactly like 24dn recently… but it’s hard to search for!
I decided it must be the Empress Eugenie, anything so long as it wasn’t Fergie’s podgy little daughter ..
18:13. Held up for a long time by having BATTING OPENER for 22A which made 12D, 18D an 23D impossible. NHO TACAN and hadn’t remembered ALCARAZ as a tennis player until I saw ALCATRAZ. LOI ZENITHS I liked CORTISONE best. Thanks Jeremy and setter.
Disconcertingly straightforward for a Friday – I was done in just over 10 minutes.
– Didn’t know the chough bird, but I didn’t have to for CHUFF
– Also didn’t know gr=gross or ocker=boorish Aussie, but GLAM ROCKER was clear enough
– NHO TACAN but the cluing and checkers made it obvious
Thanks Jeremy and setter.
FOI Rubicon
LOI Alcatraz
COD Air guitar
Re ‘ocker,’ on my first visit to Australia in 1978, I went into a bar near the venue of that year’s Victorian Open (just outside Melbourne, where I was staying with my aunt) to get a drink before heading home for supper.
I went up to the bar (there must have been a dozen or so patrons there already) and asked for a pint of beer.
Without batting an eyelid, the barman yelled out to the assembled company, ‘This Pom just asked for a PINT of beer!’
There’s an ocker for you.
(In case you’re wondering, ‘glass’ and, if I remember correctly, ‘schooner’, would have saved my blushes.)
No “schooners” in Melbourne in 1978 – glasses (200 ml) and pots (285 ml), the latter very close to half a pint. Schooners are in Sinny.
But Australia is a land of “banter” even today, much of which is racist or homophobic. Embarrassed, but not surprised at the abuse you received 50-odd years ago. Apologies, from one semi-civlised ocker.
Honestly, I didn’t (and don’t) consider it abuse.
Strangely, that morning (apologies to those who have heard this story, which I told a few years ago), a courtesy car stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. When I asked the moustachioed driver what his connection with the tournament was, he said he was a player, Rodger Davis.
When we got to the entrance, he wound the window down and said, ‘Player and caddie!’ Got me in for free!
Funny – Australian Open, and Wimbledon in the clues juxtaposed, I thought you meant tennis. At Kooyong, in the suburbs near Hawthorn. While Australian Open golf, with Rodger Davis and caddies, would’ve more likely been at Royal Melbourne, in the suburbs near Sandringham. Where I grew up. Probably had a drink in that pub. Managed to blag a game at Royal Melbourne once – course was too long and difficult for me, but absolutely stunning. Same bloke designed that as Augusta, I believe, a Scotsman: Alister MacKenzie.
According to the Golf Australia website, it was played at Metropolitan Golf Club.
After two consecutive DNF’s I was just relieved to finish this, but I took a lot on trust. I consider BATTER a total abomination, had never heard of the tennis player, and just accepted the wordplay for RIAD and TACAN.
FOI RUBICON
LOI NATTIEST
COD AIR GUITAR
TIME 13:22
I’ve always wanted to go to the Masters in Augusta, just so I could mention the word ‘spectator’ as often as possible. (Well, also for the golf and the exercise.)
Come on Phil, don’t go all Cestrian on me. Geoff Pullar and Peter Marner were batters. Batsman is the abomination.
An abomination!? Wow. What would you rather non-male cricketers were called?
For me, it’s a matter of freedom of choice and freedom from censorship. Commentators should be as able to refer to batsmen or batters.
Whatever a batter is, it is not an “abomination.” Just another word, for heaven’s sake
Regardless of sex, the player who faces the first ball of the innings is the opening bat. A “batter” is somebody involved in a game of baseball.
⚾️
18’05”, no issues apart from nho RIAD.
Thanks jeremy and setter.
12.30
Nice rock ‘n’ roll end to the week with Simple Minds and The Stones yesterday; Lennon, Strummer, AIR GUITAR and GLAM ROCK today.
It just goes to show how out of touch I am with tennis nowadays, having heard of Carlos Alcaraz only as an Argentinian footballer.
I had a letter printed in The Times in 2006 bemoaning the fact that the operators of our local airport, Doncaster-Sheffield had chosen to name it after Robin Hood, rather than a real-life alternative such as Jeremy Clarkson or Peter Stringfellow. The airport is now defunct (as is Stringfellow).
10.24
Beaten to a sub-10 by having to wait for all the checkers to confirm the NHO TACAN.
ALCATRAZ was a gimme having already solved an almost identical clue in another place this morning.
Snap. 1a in today’s Telegraph cryptic.
18:32
Much enjoyed but plenty missed.
Failed to parse:
BURGLAR – entered only once all four checkers were in place
CHUFF – forgot the bird was a ‘chough’ – genuinely wondered whether there was a bird called a CHUFF and what on earth the aural wordplay was for
NATTIEST – missed the anagrist
GLAM ROCKER – write-in though couldn’t remember the exact term for an uncultivated Aussie
OPENING BATTER – I bunged in OFFSPIN BOWLER at first, but couldn’t work out what the first ‘top’ would be doing
NHO:
TACAN
Thanks PJ and setter
15:11
I was slowed by the two Z words in the SE corner and finished with NATTIEST where after much deliberation I eventually dismissed the idea of putting something in NUT and went with the correct answer which fitted the definition although I couldn’t fully parse it. I think the use of fruitcake was a deliberate trap.
ZENITHS gave me the heebie jeebies as I though the Japanese school was going to be the definition. Without the Z the prison was tricky as there are now so many more tennis players to choose from, although muscle memory made me try ASHE first.
17.51, believing I remembered RIAD from somewhere, though I’m impressed by the setter’s placing it in Morocco like that.
A number 1 cricketer is an OPENING BAT. No argument. Otherwise it’s cutting into a stuffed pancake. (On reflection, maybe for India and Australia there’s not much difference).
And as for tennis: I’m okay recalling Federer, Djokovic and (grudgingly) Nadal and almost anyone before their time, but the current crop (there’s one called Alcaraz?!) are a world away. Tennisistas stopped with the Williams pair, and I couldn’t tell them apart.
For the benefit of overseas contributors, both Thomas and Ivor definitely go CHUFF, Thomas with a Scouse accent. And I’m quite surprised that choo-choos apparently don’t.
TACAN of course from Mephistos, where it’s a setter’s handy filler.
As for KIDDO, I’d venture that a little ‘un is a KIDDIE. A KIDDO is rather more grown up.
Was our setter trying to be deliberately provocative, perhaps?
Yes, Thomas certainly CHUFFed, but, as I remember him, Ivor had a rather odd PSSSHHH-TI-KUH; at the time I put this down to some oddity in the set up of the steam chest or valve mechanism of narrow gauge Welsh 🚂 locomotives.
1d Riad, had forgotten. When I looked at the Wiki entry all came flooding back to me. I would like to claim NHO 12d Glam Rocker, but Glam Rock was already in Cheating Machine, so I can’t. DNF for this. Didn’t quite believe Kiddo or Opening BatTER or As Is, but they are now in CM. NHO Alcaraz, (now in CM) but I see I ought to have done as despite his youth he has made a big splash.
25:15. I didn’t know OCKER or TACAN and aaumed RIAD was the name of a Middle East royal family. But all the answers were gettable.
COD: RUBICON.
50 mins.
Fun puzzle.
Thanks, pj.
22.28. I had to pause over whether ‘Alcatraz’ was spelt with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’, but chose correctly. Dodgy spelling is often my downfall.
Excellent puzzle to finish the week but unfortunately pink squared due to two silly typos. COW to Air Guitar. I’d have thought Alcaraz more obscure than the recent controversial Hodgkinson. I was racking my brain for 70s musicians until I saw the “ocker” part.
Thx Jeremy and setter
RUBICON was FOI and I vaguely recalled RIAD, but waited for AIR GUITAR to confirm before entering it. The top half populated nicely, but the SE caused a bit of brow furrowing. TACAN was unknown, but had to be. POI, ZENITHS , allowed me to speculate on the identity of the tennis player as the prison was known. 18:28. Thanks setter and Jeremy.
41 minutes and generally OK. But I couldn’t understand what the word ‘certain’ is doing in 14dn. It seems to me the clue would have been fine, nay better, without it. On the ‘batter’ matter, we are now told that the correct term is ‘batter’. Makes perfectly good sense to me, quite apart from its availabilty for both men and women. We didn’t talk about a bowlsman so why should we have talked of a batsman? In 12dn Alan Border crossed my mind early on.
23 – easier than yesterday, though similarly dithered over NATTIEST/NUTTIEST and never saw the anagram (at least not all of it). RIAD familiar enough from the Homes section of The Times a few years back when it seemed every week featured a trendy celeb buying one in Fez or Marrakech. What are they into these days, I wonder (not really).
I agree with Sandy about the original airport tagline, but I also like the proposed alternative. But perhaps it would have been more in keeping with Lennon’s sense of humour to use “Man, I had a dreadful flight” (cf after the chorus in Getting Better “It’s getting better all the time” when you can hear him sotto voce: “It couldn’t get much worse”, although I believe the actual BITUSSR lyric was by McCartney).
No problems for me even with the obscurities. It’s weird about TACAN though. This was a write-in for me because I am sure I saw it just the other day. I thought it had come up in another crossword and again as a hidden (hence I also found it quite obvious then although at that point I don’t think I had heard of it before, unless maybe on a YouTube flight channel). But Jack is always correct in his searches for past words and he says above that he couldn’t see that it had come up before. I do sometimes pick up a Mephisto but I haven’t done so for several weeks having had a lot on, so it would have had to have been here. I am wondering if I might have had a spooky premonition dream about solving the clue but if so it would have been much more detailed than my normal dreams because I can remember writing it in and finishing the puzzle and then jumping over to the dictionary to verify that it was correct. No, of course I don’t believe that really but I don’t have any rational explanation available at the moment.
But all that aside, a very enjoyable puzzle and blog and set of comments. Thanks setter and Jeremy and everyone else for the usual banter, Dylan lyrics, poetry etc.
ALCATRAZ is in the Daily Telegraph crossword today as well, clued very similarly.
Under 25′ which is quick for me so certainly not Fridayish. KIDDy threw me a bit but CORTISONE was reasonably straightforward and corrected my error. After a “surely not!” when Rolf Harris popped into my head, sense prevailed, though I completely misparsed GLAM ROCKER (G for gross, ROCK for hit surrounded by NHO aussie slang “LAMER”). I also assumed RIAD was a NHO Middle East royal family. I’ll take the win though, thanks Jeremy and setter.
Somewhat surprised that RIAD was generally a NHO. I have been to Marrakech a couple of times, staying in a delightful RIAD one of those times, but I’m sure I knew the word before visiting. But then a couple of people above had heard of TACAN, so it’s swings & roundabouts I guess.
Mostly dealt with in short time, but 4 or 5 at the end held me up. I finished with ZENITHS after thinking of the prison and then remembering the tennissist. RIB EYE took much longer than it should have done.
16:45
Very pleasant end to the week and a 5/5 which is a major improvement on last week’s 1/5!
As ever much thanks to the bloggers as I don’t always comment but nearly always read their work, and to the setters.
Have a good weekend everyone.
15:16
A steady solve with a couple of biffs which slowed me down (FIRE INSURANCE, RAID?) and the same unknowns as others (RIAD, TACAN). Otherwise this was a welcome relief after yesterdays travails. For once I can’t blame my customary sore-head Friday as it all fell into place quite nicely.
Thanks to both.
I too, thought of Rolf, but dismissed the idea. Had all but four clues done within an hour. Got stuck in the SW.
Strolled into Cirencester, and walked around the market. Had a coffee, and finished it. Liked KIDDO clue.
4/5 this week all correct. If it wasn’t for yesterday’s stinker, might have had an all correct week.
One of the few to know of TACAN, but not exactly what it was. Didn’t know Alcaraz or Riad. Remembered chough as a bird though no idea of its pronunciation. No strong opinion on batter/batswoman/batsman. Good puzzle but no real standout COD. Thanks blogger and setter.
7.06. Straightforward. Made up RIAD. Thursday definitely trickier than today.
18.43
Great blog and always nice to see so many anecdotes.
Last two were KIDDO and STEPDAD which I must confess to not seeing the precise parsing for.
As a former insurance company employee, the correct term is Life Assurance as we are all assured of dying whether we are an opening batsman or woman. Whereas, we insure against the risk that something may or may not happen.
Technically I agree but your ex colleagues are still selling lots of life insurance though, are they not? Try googling it …
I found this the easiest of the week but struggled with Monday’s offering. Curious.