There was a lot of ‘going backwards forwards’ and some unknown but clearly clued terms but the answers kept on falling into place.
Lots to enjoy and this all flowed pretty smoothly for me – finishing with the long 3dn at 8:45. How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Team’s head managed with referee’s backing to switch teams (8) |
| TRANSFER – (T)eam, managed (RAN), referee’s backwards (S’FER). | |
| 5 | Small item and the first nine letters returned (4) |
| IOTA – the first nine letters – (A TO I) backwards. | |
| 9 | United supporters backing confused situation (5) |
| SNAFU – I remembered this from somewhere. United (U), supporters (FANS) all backwards. | |
| 10 | Tonic, and what are drunk with tonic by English (7) |
| GINSENG – what are drunk with tonics (GINS), English (ENG). | |
| 11 | That is full of cold? (3) |
| ICE – that is (I.E.) holding cold (C). An & lit. | |
| 12 | Modern milky coffee dairy brewed — I must go (6-3) |
| LATTER-DAY – milky coffee (LATTE), anagram (brewed) of DAiRY – missing the ‘I’. | |
| 13 | Great intelligence one found in part of family (6) |
| GENIUS – one (I) inside part of family (GENUS). | |
| 15 | Some extreme care needed to return arrangement of flowers (6) |
| RACEME – dnk this – it’s the arrangement of flowers on e.g. a foxglove. Some of the clue extr(EME CAR)e backwards. | |
| 17 | Sign of gold leading to plot (9) |
| AUTOGRAPH – gold (AU), to (TO), plot (GRAPH). | |
| 19 | Article that’s only 60 per cent there? (3) |
| THE – (THE)re. | |
| 20 | Public relations broadcast that is plain for Americans (7) |
| PRAIRIE – public relations (PR), broadcast (AIR), that is (IE). | |
| 21 | Be like men prejudiced against women going topless (5) |
| EXIST – s(EXIST). | |
| 22 | Watched you once being introduced to editor (4) |
| EYED – you once – ‘of old’ (YE) inside editor (ED). | |
| 23 | Uncovered runner injured skater in front of queen (8) |
| STREAKER – anagram (injured) of SKATER in front of Queen (ER). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sampling time with sparkling Italian wine — no good (7) |
| TASTING – time (T), sparkling Italian wine (ASTI), no good (NG). | |
| 2 | Silver copy that is wide open (5) |
| AGAPE – silver (AG), copy (APE). | |
| 3 | Cranium excavated, strangely grey — foul play? (12) |
| SKULLDUGGERY – cranium (SKULL), excavated (DUG), anagram (strangely) of GREY. | |
| 4 | What sometimes follows pieces of two-by-four? (5) |
| EIGHT – 2×4=8. Thanks to Alweard for the second definition – ‘what sometimes follows pieces (EIGHT – pieces of eight). | |
| 6 | Six balls, expected late (7) |
| OVERDUE – six balls (OVER), expected (DUE). | |
| 7 | Cross a new grand railway (5) |
| ANGRY – a (A), new (N), grand (G), railway (RY). | |
| 8 | Fall short of goal getting junior to a church one evening (12) |
| UNDERACHIEVE – junior (UNDER), a (A), church (CH) one (I), evening (EVE). | |
| 14 | Rarely treat in salt (7) |
| NITRATE – anagram (rarely) of TREAT IN. | |
| 16 | One who throws out voter has Liberal turning to judge (7) |
| EJECTOR – voter (E)l(ECTOR) changing the Liberal L to judge J. | |
| 17 | Topless model is more than enough (5) |
| AMPLE – s(AMPLE). | |
| 18 | One adept at spying and at taking in information (5) |
| AGENT – at (AT) holding information (GEN). | |
| 19 | Crowded hospital beset by parasite (5) |
| THICK – hospital (H) surrounded by parasite (TICK). | |
Thanks to all involved in setting up this new site . It’s a relief to be free from the annoying incomprehensible adverts. I enjoyed this puzzle although I always get stuck where you have to find the word and then change one letter (eg judge for liberal) and was confused by men prejudiced against topless women.
I was struggling to see AUTOGRAPH SKULLDUGGERY and EXIST but as is often the case they all fell in after a short break. Nice to complete after a disaster of an attempt yesterday.
Thanks setter n blogger!
After years of checking the site everyday but not contributing, I decided to take the opportunity of joining to experience the new format. I somehow managed not to register myself properly yesterday, but hopefully I am now fully signed in, and I thank Jonathan for his help in sorting it out.
I am one of the 10 minute target contributors, and never cease to be amazed at some of the quick times posted. I am a pen and paper solver which may be something of a handicap time wise possibly.
As far as today was concerned, I missed by limit by 43 seconds at 10.43, but was held up mostly by 9 across. An enjoyable puzzle by Joker who seldom disappoints
Welcome! I solve these on an iPad but tend to resort to paper for 15×15’s as I find that format easier – and it means I can dip in and out.
Under 15 but rushed and stuck in ergot for 4 down.
dnk raceme.
COD Eight
All done and parsed in 17 minutes today. A steady solve rather than getting stuck in any one particular area. NHO raceme, so googled it to make sure it was a real word before entering it. Nice xword, so thanks to Joker and also to Chris for the blog.
FOI – 1ac TRANSFER
LOI – 15ac RACEME
COD – 17ac AUTOGRAPH
A typical Joker puzzle today, I thought, with some neat tricks and a couple of chewy bits. COD to EIGHT, when I finally understood it, but I liked EXIST, ICE and TASTING too. Thanks Chris and Joker. 5:44.
Some fortunate ‘guesses’ for me, today.
I started well by getting both 1a (TRANSFER) and 1d (TASTING) straight away – quite a rarity for me. But I then had to jump around the grid a lot to keep the momentum going. By the quarter hour mark I had made good progress, but most of my solutions were disconnected. Then I had to start working hard.
IOTA came, but I couldn’t parse it. RACEME came, but I DNK the word. SNAFU was entered very tentatively, as I had NHO the acronym. AGAPE was my LOI, but I still went back and checked 16d. As I couldn’t make ‘elector’ parse, I embarked on an alphabet trawl and soon found EJECTOR. Phew! 41 minutes in total, which is not too bad for me with Joker.
Many thanks to Joker and Chris.
Great puzzle today. Did like snafu which I thought was RAF slang.
Struggled with the two long down clues and I wanted to put “mota” at 5AC (being Atom backwards) until I bothered to count the letters! Surprised to see SNAFU, although I thought it might be the polite version – Situation Normal, All Fouled Up.
Definitely at the back of the class for this one.
DNF! Struggled all day, got most but defeated by RACEME (NHO), EXIST and EJECTOR.
A good challenge, though – I was just not good enough to get these last 3.
It always irks me to see the “variant” (i.e., wrong! Ha) spelling of skulduggery (which has nothing to do with the cranium). “Due” in OVERDUE is clued with the same sense it has in the answer.
Under 15 minutes for another last-thing-in-the-evening solve. I thought there was something wrong with SKULLDUGGERY but didn’t know what. Thank you Guy above. I will always remember the “correct” spelling now.
My apologies to the project team for playing about with their baby. I have (if this works) anonymised myself so you won’t know it’s me
Thank you! These still take me a lot longer than 7 min but getting there.
For 18d, How is GEN information (GENeral Info)?
Correct! Collins has: C20: from gen(eral information)
Greetings to all, and thanks to those who organised this shiny new site.
I’m a day late commenting on this puzzle. Found it quite hard-going. Cheated on RACEME and IOTA. No racemes in GCSE biology (dumbing down in action!)