Lots of unusual vocabulary, but only one that left me competely reliant on wordplay and checkers (21ac). Perhaps not quite as pithy, original, or easy as yesterdays, but a fun and doable puzzle nontheless.
I will be away until the evening, but trust the regular commenters will help with any queries until then…
Definitions underlined.
Across | |
7 | Voyeurs going round — right? One checking out a house? (8) |
SURVEYOR – anagram of (going round) VOYEURS, then R (right). | |
8 | Old regret backing common currency (4) |
EURO – O (old) and RUE (regret) all reversed (backing). | |
9 | Wager about one game in Mediterranean capital (6) |
BEIRUT – BET (wager) containing (about) I (one) and RU (rugby union, game). | |
10 | Prays in eastern temple yard, initially displaying this? (5) |
PIETY – first letters from (initially) Prays In Eastern Temple Yard. | |
11 | Area by lake left for everybody (3) |
ALL – A (area), L (lake) and L (left). | |
12 | Summit held in Dover, Texas (6) |
VERTEX – hidden (held) in doVER TEXas. | |
14 | Free English parliamentarian trapped in extension (6) |
EXEMPT – E (English) and MO (parliamentarian) contained by (trapped in) EXT (extension). | |
16 | Stick together with Commanding Officer present (6) |
COHERE – CO (Commanding Officer) and HERE (present). | |
18 | Learnt to play horn (6) |
ANTLER – anagram of (to play) LEARNT. | |
19 | Second rook capturing one knight (3) |
SIR – S (second) and R (rook) containing (capturing) I (one). | |
20 | Player pitch regularly dropped in song (5) |
LYRIC – every other letter from (regularly dropped) pLaYeR pItCh. | |
21 | Contemporary black fuel containing derv regularly (6) |
COEVAL – COAL (black fuel) containing every other letter from (regularly) dErV. For anyone as ignorant as I, it means ‘of the same age’. Now that I see ‘medieval’ and ‘primeval’, this makes a lot more sense. | |
23 | Pickle or jam in army dining room (4) |
MESS – triple definition. | |
24 | Unusual red olive is a really bad one (8) |
EVILDOER – anagram of (unusual) RED OLIVE. |
Down | |
1 | See group developed self-critical conscience (8) |
SUPEREGO – anagram of (developed) SEE GROUP. | |
2 | Maintain one putting money aside must suffer initial small loss (4) |
AVER – sAVER (one putting money aside) missing the ‘s’ (must suffer loss of the first letter (initial) of small). | |
3 | Text rules announcing what could reduce the wages of sin? (6) |
SYNTAX – sounds like (announcing) “sin tax” (what could reduce the wages of sin). | |
4 | Rubbish about litre being a very generous measure of spirits (6) |
TRIPLE – TRIPE (rubbish) containing (about) L (litre). I had bunged in ‘double’ before realising just how generous we were being. | |
5 | Respectful at all times during split (8) |
REVERENT – EVER (at all times) contained by (during) RENT (to tear fabric, split). | |
6 | Host is extremely foolish going topless (4) |
ARMY – bARMY (extremely foolish) without its first letter (going topless). | |
13 | The old Republican is beginning to trust no practical person? (8) |
THEORIST – THE, O (old), R (Republican), IS, and the first letter of (beginning to) Trust. Horryd will not be happy. | |
15 | Set school work read badly (8) |
PREPARED – PREP (school work, if you went to that kind of school), then an anagram of (badly) READ. | |
17 | Abstain from school in little rising (6) |
ESCHEW – SCH (school) contained by (in) WEE (little) reversed (rising). | |
18 | Cold in truck in the far north (6) |
ARCTIC – C (cold) contained by (in) ARTIC (articulated lorry, truck). | |
20 | Art-song survived with verse missing (4) |
LIED – LIvED (survived) with ‘v’ (verse) missing. | |
22 | Child’s toy losing head in circular movement (4) |
EDDY – tEDDY (child’s toy) without its first letter (missing head). |
It was syntax that gave me the most trouble, even though it is a chestnut. I had entirely the wrong end of the stick, and was looking for a texting abbreviation. Then is saw it….
Quite liked SYNTAX, and ESCHEW is an under-rated word.
Thanks William and Joker.
The unknown COEVAL was a problem, but the main one came from having REVEREND at 5dn which prevented me from solving 18ac for ages, thus screwing up most of the SE corner. If only I had got to the ANTLER clue before the incorrect D-checker was in place!
Elsewhere I had to look several times at VERTEX – a word I surely knew but didn’t seem familiar.
Edited at 2021-10-20 04:45 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-10-20 05:48 am (UTC)
Liked EVILDOER, although I kept seeing Deliveroo in there.
TIPPLE looked good as a large measure, with TIP=rubbish.
Went through my capitals but only thought of European ones, and there aren’t many of them.
Forget to go to the Levant for BEIRUT.
LOI LYRIC (unparsedj
COD SUPEREGO
WOD ESCHEW
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him ESCHEW evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 1 Peter 3:11
32 minutes but relied heavily on aids for the last 6 or 7 clues, so disappointed there. However, today’s QC was a much better puzzle than Mara’s awful offering yesterday.
This happens a lot – when I’m not quite on, I sometimes can’t get any answers at all. Then they come in a rush, and the whole thing falls – or the whole thing minus one or two clues.
Finished in 9.13 with my COD going to SYNTAX as it made me chuckle when the penny dropped.
Thanks to william
This is definitely a puzzle I would have taken one look at a year ago and thrown away without any clues answered, so I’m pleased with my progress.
The majority of down clues also yielded and I had all but the SE corner in within 14 minutes.
I had the wordplay written out for COEVAL but didnt write it in as it didn’t seem like a real word. I couldn’t work out ESCHEW despite having all the checkers.
For some reason I couldn’t see EDDY, but not sure why in hindsight.
Edited at 2021-10-20 08:11 am (UTC)
Pleased to solve COEVAL, smiled at SYNTAX.
Honeymooned in BEIRUT ( days of yore).
Slow to see the obvious SIR.
May need a TRIPLE tonight.
3D Syntax may be a chestnut but new to me and much enjoyed. Sometimes not being an experienced solver who has seen it all before has its plus side!
Many thanks to William for the blog
Cedric
ESCHEW was clever and took longer to parse than to enter my head. PREPARED didn’t drop out as soon as it should have done- we didn’t call it ‘prep’ at my school. EVILDOER needed crossers and COEVAL was a satisfying solve when I got the parsing. EDDY and SYNTAX brought smiles but I took too long over my LOI, ARMY. Many thanks to Joker and William. John M.
Edited at 2021-10-20 09:51 am (UTC)
I spent as long on the NE corner as the other three combined. LOI ARMY, FOI ALL, COD, for its surface and misdirection, ANTLER.
DNK 20dn “Lied” nor 21ac “Coeval”, but the wordplay was fine.
FOI — 2dn “Aver”
LOI — 5dn “Reverent”
COD — 3dn “Syntax”
Thanks as usual!
Unlike Jack I conceded with several unsolved- Antler, Syntax and Army ….. I must remember Barmy Army! and Reverent.
NHO Coeval but it had to be.
Now know how to spell Beirut although will probably forget!! Aver just made me see that Beruit didn’t cut it!
25 minutes and conceded.
Mostly good fun
Thanks all
John George
Like many above, I had NHO COEVAL, nor had I come across LIED as any sort of song, or SUPEREGO. In fact, weren’t some hyphens missing: SUPER-EGO? CO-EVAL? EVIL-DOER? Also, like Cedric and lichdb above, I struggled with AVER, ARMY and EDDY – all words with the first letter removed.
Mrs Random was operating in cruise mode today, finishing in 30 minutes. I think she is still trying to warm herself through after running down to the seafront (approx. 7 miles) and then standing around getting cold in very blustery/showery conditions to watch me swim. Actually, the water was slightly warmer today (at just under 16°C), but it would have to be positively tropical for her to be persuaded to get in.
Many thanks to Joker and William.
Keep us updated.
Whizzed through, then came to halt with 4 or 5 remaining, mainly in the SE corner. Thankfully I quickly realised that my carelessly biffed MODERN for contemporary was the problem. Deleted it, which gave ARCTIC immediately, then COEVAL went in from wordplay, then EDDY and PREPARED, then I spent too long remembering that host=ARMY, which was my LOI.
7:49.
FOI Surveyor
LOI Reverent
COD Evildoer
Thanks Joker and William
My time was in no man’s land at 13.30 mins.
FOI 2dn AVER
LOI 20dn LIED
COD 24ac EVILDOER
WOD 21ac COEVAL
NHO 12ac VERTEX — sounds like a brand of men’s underwear
We found this one to be quite tough going but we got there is the end. We hadn’t heard of COEVAL or LIED but worked them out eventually and it took us ages to get ARMY. We were all done in 29 minutes.
FOI: EURO
LOI: ARMY
COD: EXEMPT and SYNTAX
Thanks William and Joker.