Really enjoyed this. Not a puzzle with exceptionally polished surfaces, but just confusing enough to entertain.
There is not a single word in any of the clues or answers that is unusual or unreasonable, nor any really obscure crosswordese, so I hope you all came in below target. Nevertheless, it was a very mixed bag for me, difficulty-wise. A few answers just jumped out, most took a second look, and a couple were very reticent to fall (for no obvious reason now). I was pushed just beyond my averge solving time.
Definitions underlined.
Across |
1 |
Mother’s period home given to daughter, very bright person! (10) |
|
MASTERMIND – MA’S (mother’s), TERM (period), IN (home), and D (daughter). |
8 |
Passionate type of romantic relationship is doomed, initially (6) |
|
TORRID – first letters from (initially) Type Of Romantic Relationship Is Doomed. |
9 |
Seaman gets new beginning — he’s working in menswear (6) |
|
TAILOR – sAILOR (seaman) replacing the ‘s’ for a ‘T’ (gets new beginning). |
10 |
Genuine regret, after time (4) |
|
TRUE – RUE (regret) after T (time). |
11 |
Signs figure in harbour towns (8) |
|
PORTENTS – TEN (figure) in PORTS (harbour towns). |
12 |
Unfortunately goes to butt of jokes (6) |
|
STOOGE – anagram of (unfortunately) GOES TO. |
14 |
An accompanying person in Paris is stifling exclamation of surprise (6) |
|
ESCORT – EST (French for (in Paris) ‘is’) containing (stifling) COR (exclamation of surprise). |
16 |
First appearance of rime, peer curiously (8) |
|
PREMIERE – anagram of (curiously) RIME PEER. |
18 |
Jibing at heart when showing prejudice (4) |
|
BIAS – central letters from (at heart) jiBIng, then AS (when). |
20 |
Name that’s seen on door? (6) |
|
HANDLE – double definition. |
21 |
Good score for child’s term for flier (6) |
|
BIRDIE – double definition. |
22 |
Great hotel for swimming on the whole (10) |
|
ALTOGETHER – anagram of (for swimming) GREAT HOTEL. |
Down |
2 |
Love in the morning associated with us? (5) |
|
AMOUR – AM (the morning) and OUR (associated with us). |
3 |
Wreck party after hill exercise (7) |
|
TORPEDO – DO (party), after TOR (hill) and PE (exercise). |
4 |
Brought up the German wine (3) |
|
RED – reversal of (brought up) DER (‘the’, in German). |
5 |
Ultimately got free rein, mistakenly, to meddle (9) |
|
INTERFERE – anagram of (mistakenly) the last letter of (ultimately) goT with FREE REIN. |
6 |
Doctor, I have ambition! (5) |
|
DRIVE – DR (doctor) and I’VE (I have). |
7 |
Promote development of New Forest (6) |
|
FOSTER – anagram of (new) FOREST. |
11 |
Point about playground garden — an example to be followed (9) |
|
PRECEDENT – PT (point) containing (about) REC (playground) and EDEN (garden). |
13 |
Ultimate in smart town headgear (6) |
|
TURBAN – last letter of (ultimate in) smarT, then URBAN (town). |
15 |
Entertainment seen in ancient era, bacchanalian, recalled (7) |
|
CABARET – hidden in (seen in) ancienT ERA BACchanalian reversed (recalled). |
17 |
Communicators on the rise aim to captivate English Duke (5) |
|
MEDIA – reversal of (on the rise) AIM, containing (to captivate) E (English) and D (Duke). |
19 |
Assistant interrupted by second digression (5) |
|
ASIDE – AIDE (assistant) containing (interrupted by) S (second). |
21 |
Abridge on regular basis — that’s important (3) |
|
BIG – every other letter from (on a regular basis) aBrIdGe. |
Edited at 2021-11-03 07:50 am (UTC)
I rather alarmingly considered MASTER RACE AT 1a, TERRACE=period home. Even at submission I thought that “termin” must be some kind of mansion, did not see the “lift & separate”.
Maybe this
CABARET was fortunately a “hidden” as those As and Es can be mistakenly switched around and the vowels are all unches.
COD TORPEDO which I got by assembling as instructed.
Edited at 2021-11-03 10:13 am (UTC)
FOI 6dn DRIVE — gravel
LOI 20ac HANDLE — expletive deleted!
COD 7dn FOSTER — puddle — middle
WOD 12ac — all the world is a STOOGE!
17dn should be spelt ‘MEDJA’ innit!?
Rather liked some of the surfaces but otherwise agree with William’s thoughts on the puzzle
Presumably a chestnut (?) but the anagram for ALTOGETHER was clever
Thanks all
… with a pleasant solve and a finish under target at 9 minutes. LOI was 21A Birdie, where I took some time to see how the clue worked before realising it was a double definition. Otherwise few problems, much to enjoy.
Many thanks to William for the blog
Cedric
Thanks to William
FOI: AMOUR
LOI: TURBAN
COD: STOOGE
Thanks William and Hurley
Liked BIRDIE, STOOGE , TORRID etc. Failed to parse MASTERMIND and BIAS
Hope the frost and sun wake me up. FOI RED.
Thanks all, esp William.
Edited at 2021-11-03 11:31 am (UTC)
FOI TAILOR
LOI TORRID
COD HANDLE
TIME 4:50
Edited at 2021-11-03 09:29 am (UTC)
So, no time but a fast solve became a late crawl. I took a while to see my last few — PRECEDENT, HANDLE, and MEDIA (doh!). COD BIRDIE. Thanks to Hurley and William.
Today I finished the QC in 35 minutes which is good for me.
Some of my answers were educated guesses rather than using the wordplay :
PRECEDENT, TORPEDO, MASTERMIND, PORTENTS – so the analysis of the wordplay involved has been instructive.
I should not expect an easy QC every day, but is a relief to occasionally get one that I can finish correctly.
Your comments today are positive and more the sort of thing we expect of our contributors so please feel free to join in in a similar manner in the future.
Please sign up for a Live Journal identity (at no extra charge) or at least add a name at the end of your postings so we know it’s you.
Had booster 2 weeks ago so going to a museum today for a lecture to celebrate. A reminder of how the world used to be.
Thanks Chris and Hurley
HANDLE – groaned when I finally saw this as a double definition, rather than trying to construct an answer from constituent parts somehow.
BIRDIE – no excuses on this one, as a keen golfer this should have been a write-in
ALTOGETHER – bamboozled and misdirected by wordplay before finally spotting “for swimming” as an anagram indicator
PRECEDENT – EDEN for garden is so obvious. I can’t believe I missed it.
Overall a lovely puzzle without, as per blogger, any particularly obscure or outdated terminology. Thanks to Hurley and William both.
I like the idea of an AOD, Rotter, and agree with your (and dvynys’s) choice too!
FOI Torrid
LOI Handle
COD Tailor
Many thanks Hurley and William
I found today’s biggie relatively easy too – just a couple really foxed me. I probably should have persevered a bit more but have things to be getting on with!
I started by going through a name trawl in attempt to find one that had anything to do with a door. Only after giving up on that, did I start working my way around the door next to me!
FOI – 1ac MASTERMIND
LOI – 8ac TORRID
COD – 13dn TURBAN
Main hold up was the 17dn “Media” and 20ac “Handle” axis at the bottom. Nothing stood out massively for the rest, although I liked 3dn “Torpedo” and 21ac “Birdie”.
FOI — 1ac “Mastermind”
LOI — 20ac “Handle”
COD — 3dn “Torpedo”
Thanks as usual!
We were discussing the other day the idea of a SCS — a Satisfying Crossword Solve. This fits the bill perfectly!
Some easy clues but also some which required a little thought (at least from a beginner like me). After 15 minutes I had all but 5 clues in, and spent about the same time again filling in the blanks on my cruise back into the SCC.
Must remember:
Playground = REC
Exercise = PE
COD PORTENTS — there’s no way I would have managed a clue like this a few weeks ago, let alone months. Trust the wordplay!
Edited at 2021-11-03 12:05 pm (UTC)
Actually 27:59 seems quite a good time to me.
Still, a fun puzzle, on the easier end of the spectrum. Lots of “unpacking” to do in e.g. PRECEDENT, PORTENTS, MASTERMIND, ESCORT etc
BIAS probably my favourite, TURBAN LOI.
5:18
Edited at 2021-11-03 12:56 pm (UTC)
I spent at least 5 mins on precedent my LOI and pushed me into SCC with a typo too.
Also struggled a bit with turban and altogether, but on the whole a good challenge. Thanks William for explaining precedent, obvious once you know, and to Hurley
Edited at 2021-11-03 01:18 pm (UTC)
But the rest generally flew in with a few holdups along the way.
Thanks all
John George
Torrid was my last one in. I had torrid in my mind for a very long time, but did not think torrid meant passionate. Yet with the letters I had it seemed to be the logical answer.
Not timed.
Getting MASTERMIND at the outset really helped and I reached my half-way point in very fast time indeed. However, I slowed somewhat after that and ended up semi-alphabet-trawling BIAS, BIRDIE and PRECEDENT (my LOI) to finish.
That’s all for now, as Mrs R is with her parents again today – she is taking them for their booster jabs – but I will report back if she tackles the puzzle later.
Many thanks to Joker and William.
As others have commented already, no GK issues or other complexities but a neatly clued and well-pitched puzzle.
LOI 13 d “turban” and COD 1 ac “mastermind”.
Thanks to William and Liz.
Edited at 2021-11-03 03:36 pm (UTC)
I thought it was an excellent QC. It is ironic that I was held up by LOI BIRDIE, COD for me.
A golf clue which I took ages to see; and I had a birdie today (not that common for me).
Did not time the solve but about average for me.
David
I think your comment about this community being honest is so true. I’m sure it helps newbies to see oldies owning up to errors, DNFs etc. It certainly made a difference to me when I started. I also think it’s nice that there isn’t very much showing off here (despite what some people might think!) Sharing our experiences — good and bad — is what it’s all about 😊