I”m not sure what’s gone wrong but Chris posted another blog for yesterday’s puzzle (1125 by Orpheus) instead of today’s. He said in his intro that he is on a walking holiday and short of time so I’ve taken it upon myself to blog 1126 on the assumption that he won’t be available to write another one at this stage. This will be a very brief effort but further explanations can be added later if needs be.
Solving time: 11 minutes
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Made inroads before cold gets bitter (8) |
| SARDONIC – Anagram [made] of INROADS, C (cold) | |
| 6 | Group of aquatic creatures circling new water feature (4) |
| POND – POD (group of aquatic creatures) containing [circling] N (new) | |
| 8 | Inflammatory complaint on The Observer’s cover (4) |
| STYE – A superb cryptic definition! | |
| 9 | A bad smell in theatre creates disruption (8) |
| SABOTAGE – A + BO (bad smell) in STAGE (theatre) | |
| 10 | Case of cider safe to consume — honest! (8) |
| CREDIBLE – C{ide}R [case of], EDIBLE (safe to consume) | |
| 11 | Keen opera singer making return (4) |
| AVID – DIVA (opera singer) reversed [making return] | |
| 13 | Cook to catch geese, stuffing with European dairy product (7,6) |
| COTTAGE CHEESE – Anagram [cook] of TO CATCH GEESE contains [stuffing with] E (European) | |
| 16 | Previously held in detention centre (4) |
| ONCE – Contained by [held in] {detenti}ON CE{ntre} | |
| 17 | One travelling much lighter, we hear (8) |
| WAYFARER – WAY (much), FARER sounds like [we hear] “fairer” (lighter) | |
| 19 | Decorative item of heraldic gold: call National Trust (8) |
| ORNAMENT – OR (heraldic gold), NAME (call), NT (National Trust) | |
| 21 | Loathe keeping promise (4) |
| OATH – Hidden in [keeping] {l}OATH{e} | |
| 22 | Processed cereal for breakfast, perhaps (4) |
| MEAL – Two meanings | |
| 23 | Antisocial cat comes back and I go off (8) |
| TACITURN – CAT (reversed) [comes back], I, TURN (go off) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | How no-one concludes part of the day (9) |
| AFTERNOON – A bit convoluted this, but I think the idea is that the ending of ‘no-one (i.e. the ‘e’) comes after noon, so AFTER NOON is ‘how no-one concludes’. Perhaps someone can express this more succinctly? | |
| 3 | Fear uncoiling adder (5) |
| DREAD – Anagram [uncoiling] of ADDER | |
| 4 | Beans go rotten in food container (7) |
| NOSEBAG – Anagram [rotten] of BEANS GO | |
| 5 | Clever to support clubs in lead (5) |
| CABLE – C (clubs), ABLE (clever) | |
| 6 | Disillusioned vets might admit to this particular dislike (3,4) |
| PET HATE – A straight definition preceded by a cryptic hint | |
| 7 | Horse and badger (3) |
| NAG – Two meanings | |
| 12 | Senior police officer reformed prison etc (9) |
| INSPECTOR – Anagram [reformed] of PRISON ETC | |
| 14 | Wrong tone to adversely affect digital growth (7) |
| TOENAIL – Anagram [wrong] of TONE, AIL (adversely affect) | |
| 15 | Vault over most of ice that’s hidden (7) |
| CRYPTIC – CRYPT (vault), IC{e} [most] | |
| 17 | Wife and husband scoff grain (5) |
| WHEAT – W (wife), H (husband), EAT (scoff) | |
| 18 | A relatively short distance in train (5) |
| AFOOT – A, FOOT (relatively short distance) | |
| 20 | Eggs run out before start of Easter (3) |
| ROE – RO (run out – cricket), E{aster} [start] | |
Thanks for parsing AFTERNOON, jack – I tried for ages (after seeing what the answer must be) to understand it, but in the end shrugged and wrote it in.
Quite a stiff challenge for a QC, I thought, with (eg) STYE and SABOTAGE and AFTERNOON being above my pay grade, but none the worse for that. I enjoyed the wrestle, thanks Hawthorn.
(By the way, did anyone else spot that Verlaine did yesterday’s QC in 1:50? That’s one minute and 50 seconds. The guy’s unbelievable!)
Jack, thanks for stepping in because this one needed a blog as far as I was concerned! Much appreciated. One thing – in 17ac you say “way” = “much” and the homophone is that “farer” sounds like “fairer” = lighter. In my head, though, the homophone was “way” sounds like “weigh” as well, so “wayfarer” sounds like”weigh fairer” = “much lighter”. I may be offbeam though!
Templar
I sort of see what you mean about ‘weigh’ but having looked into it I think mine is the intended interpretation as illustrated in this entry for ‘way’ in the SOED:
way: much, to a considerable degree. (Usu. with a compar. or superl.) Orig. US. M20. ▸ b Extremely, very. slang. L20. “He was way overdressed, for August”, “You’re way prettier than she is”.
Edited at 2018-07-03 08:36 am (UTC)
Templar
1) his stopwatch/computer runs really slowly.
2) He’s developed an algorithm based on Steven Hawkin’s voice gizmo that fills the grid when he blinks at it.
3) He really is that quick.
There is a 4th possibility that the time was 1 hour 50 minutes, but that’s the least likely explanation.
Thanks to jackkt for a very good blog at short notice.
PlayUpPompey
A STYE is an inflammatory complaint affecting the eyelid (Observer’s cover).
On my return I found AFOOT quickly(very clever clue) and then looked again at the last two. I thought of Sabotage and nearly rejected it; then I saw the parsing. So Lead had to be Cable (another clever clue with a lot of options to confuse the solver). About 25 minutes in total.
Well done Hawthorn and thanks to Jack for the emergency blog. David
Time to take a break and come back later
much appreciation to all!