Lots of double definitions and anagrams. Just crept inside 10 minutes again but it was very tight. POI 9ac gave the final crucial checker for LOI 3dn. Thanks Trelawney.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | First of my devious clues shows strength (6) |
| MUSCLE – (M)y, anagram (devious) of CLUES. | |
| 4 | Bring back space for uncultivated land (4) |
| MOOR – space (ROOM) backwards. | |
| 9 | Conscript‘s vessel found in river (7) |
| DRAFTEE – vessel (RAFT – I went straight for ark) inside river (our favourite DEE). I didn’t get this until I tried the double e at the end when it was easy. | |
| 10 | One arrangement is perfect (5) |
| IDEAL – one (I), arrangement (DEAL). | |
| 11 | Sister found in company oil container — that’s a puzzle! (9) |
| CONUNDRUM – sister (NUN) inside company (CO) and oil container (DRUM). | |
| 12 | Timid throw (3) |
| SHY – double definition. | |
| 13 | Foul, ultimately terrible, is within the rules (6) |
| LAWFUL – fou(L), terrible (AWFUL). | |
| 15 | Scale of wild dances (6) |
| ASCEND – anagram (wild) of DANCES. | |
| 17 | Cross following the man’s curse (3) |
| HEX – cross (X) following the man (HE). | |
| 18 | Just organised huge riots (9) |
| RIGHTEOUS -anagram (organised) of HUGE RIOTS. | |
| 21 | In speech, expresses disapproval of alcohol (5) |
| BOOZE – HOMOPHONE (in speech) of boos. | |
| 22 | Record is put with poem, part of a series (7) |
| EPISODE – record (extended play record lasting for about 8 minutes on each side – EP), is (IS), poem (ODE). | |
| 23 | Appropriate piece of filming (4) |
| TAKE – double definition. | |
| 24 | A head of state transmitted approval (6) |
| ASSENT – a (A), (S)tate, transmitted (SENT). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Lid came off, concerning doctors? (7) |
| MEDICAL – anagram (off) of LID CAME. | |
| 2 | Produce small puppet (5) |
| SPAWN – small (S), puppet (PAWN of e.g. the Kremlin). | |
| 3 | Large metal coin found outside a region of Paris (5,7) |
| LATIN QUARTER – large (L), metal (TIN), coin (QUARTER) outside a (A). | |
| 5 | Supervise poetry being put into Old English (7) |
| OVERSEE – poetry (VERSE) inside Old English (OE). | |
| 6 | Bank hosts a track-and-field event (5) |
| RELAY – bank (RELY) hosts a (A). | |
| 7 | Taunt jogger entering endurance race, initially (4) |
| JEER – (J)ogger (E)ntering (E)ndurance (R)ace. | |
| 8 | Witnesses aim to break close relatives? (7,5) |
| SIAMESE TWINS – anagram (to break) of WITNESSES AIM. | |
| 14 | Model reportedly knocks place of employment (7) |
| WAXWORK – homophone (reportedly) of whacks, place of employment (WORK). | |
| 16 | By the sound of it, abandon course (7) |
| DESSERT – homophone (by the sound of it) of desert. | |
| 17 | Custom religious garment (5) |
| HABIT – double definition. | |
| 19 | Delight in prescribing leeches (4) |
| GLEE – inside prescribin(G LEE)ches. | |
| 20 | Gas I located beneath Australia (5) |
| OZONE – I (ONE) under Australia (OZ). | |
12:36. FOI: MUSCLE LOI: WAXWORK COD: SPAWN. Liked DRAFTEE but the more I think of it I don’t think of raft as a vessel. Thanks for helpful blog!
Under International Admiralty Law a raft is classified as a vessel. Think Kon-Tiki. Think-on!
Thanks for information! Did read about Kon-Tiki years ago and that was indeed some vessel. I suppose Huck and Jim’s raft down the Mississippi was certainly a vessel too. I think I misled myself by thinking of the other meaning of vessel as a container , something hollowed out holding something inside. Most boats mimic this to have buoyancy but rafts I’ve known were just flat slabs. Will refer to International Admiralty Law in future for questionable maritime issues!
Collins and COED both define VESSEL as “ship or small boat” which I don’t think includes a raft. Like you I put it in without thinking, but even for those of us unfamiliar with Nautical law, we have to allow crossword setters to stretch definitions!
Biffed LATIN QUARTER. SIAMESE TWINS was an impressive anagram. 5:13.
I found this very heavy-going for some reason and needed 15 minutes to complete the grid. It’s a pangram, btw.
I was on the 12:30 raft from the RIVE GAUCHE to OLD SIAM
FOI 10ac for an IDEAL start
LOI 2dn SPAWN
COD 3dn LATIN QUARTER
WOD 8dn SIAMESE TWINS but the anagram was a bit obvious
Whatever happened to Steed and Emma?
8.07
Mixture of chestnuts and some clever clues with smooth surfaces.
Liked WAXWORK
SPAWN loi and needed some cogitation
Thanks Chris and Trelawney
I suspected a pangram early on after Q and J went in but didn’t need the help. I liked WAXWORK.
I made the mistake of trying to hurry in order to leave to get a train. My efforts took me 2 mins over target; I do better when I relax. I liked SIAMESE TWINS, LATIN QUARTER (needed crossers for both) and WAXWORK amongst others. Thanks to both. John M.
Lightning strikes twice with a fast finish for the second day running – 8 minutes today, which means I have done two consecutive puzzles in less time than I usually take for just one! All seemed to flow in smoothly, even the three homonyms which I often struggle with.
LOI 3D Latin Quarter, but mainly because I had earmarked it as “one to do later” and then forgot about it as the other clues formed an orderly line asking to be filled in, and by the time I returned to it I was on pangram-alert looking for the Q which definitely helped.
Many thanks to Chris for the blog
Cedric
Over target again today, slowing myself up with WINES at 21a (not bad, but not as good as BOOZE) and having mislaid my anagram hat.
FOI MUSCLE, LOI LATIN QUARTER, COD CONUNDRUM, time 12:47 for 2.5K and another Poor Day.
Many thanks to Chris and the Squire.
Templar
I initially put WHINE for 21a. I think WINES was a better wrong answer.
1153 (King Henry II invades England and establishes Plantagenet dynsasty)
11:53, so a better time than of late. FOI MUSCLE, LOI SPAWN.
For DRAFTEE I had an idea that this would be the river DEE, with the suffix EE for the accusative/passive ending. Pet peeve, people who use coin words like attendee, escapee, retiree. Although I did come across the excellent “jestee”, for “one who has jokes made about them”.
COD SIAMESE TWINS, smooth surface hid the anagram perfectly
“Escapee” has been part of the language for ages.
When I was in high school, in the early 1970s, I wrote a poem with the concluding line(s) (it was a prose poem first), “I glimpse the silent burial at sea of the escapees.”
25 minutes for this one. Latin Quarter slowed me down somewhat. But other than that it was pretty easy going for me.
Felt trickier than my time of 7.19 would suggest. Started with COD MUSCLE, skipped over the two long down clues until I had more checkers but otherwise made good progress before finishing with the tricky SPAWN.
It was one of those days when spending some time on a spell check paid off as I caught a couple of careless typos.
Thanks to Chris and Trelawny for an enjoyable solve
This was not a pushover. I looked at 2d several times before it became LOI and SPAWN was derived from an alphabet trawl. But 11 minutes on the clock so the rest went in quite quickly.
ASSENT was next to last.
Hard to find a COD as several contenders: I liked the surface for MOOR so COD to that.
David
Exactly 15 minutes today, so on target – just. Spotted the potential pangram early, which helped with LATIN QUARTER, although that was also helped by being one of the three or four areas of Paris that I think I know. LOI RELAY where I couldn’t get rally out of my mind, but couldn’t make it work. Thanks both.
Gave up and came here after just over 6 minutes. I was down to a pair of crossing clues after 4 minutes, but a double alpha trawl didn’t help me to spot either SPAWN or DRAFTEE. Had I got one, I’d probably have nailed the other. It was the raft that really did for me.
I should have adopted your decision to give up and come here. After 25 minutes I was faced with the same pair of crossing clues. It took me a further 19 minutes and multiple alphabet trawls to get SPAWN. DRAFTEE followed almost instantly.
Same with me. Relatively easy going until then!
‘I don’t believe it! ‘ Meldrew
8:23, but, a fat fingered OXONE. Should’ve gone to Specsavers or even proof read it! FOI, MUSCLE, LOI LATIN QUARTER. Thanks Trelawney and Chris.
I put in BOOZO for 21a which made Latin Quarter 3d impossible until I suddenly saw my BOO BOO.
Andyf
Dnf…
15 mins for everything apart from 9ac “Draftee” and 2dn “Spawn” which just wouldn’t come. For the former I went down the route of thinking the vessel was a vat or pot which didn’t help.
FOI – 4ac “Moor”
LOI – dnf
COD – 8dn “Siamese Twins”
Thanks as usual!
Quick then stuck on DRAFTEE, SPAWN, LATIN QUARTER (despite living 4 years in Paris). Also slow on SIAMESE TWINS – somewhat jarring out-of-date term – as I carelessly pencilled in 5,7 instead of 7,5, oh dear.
Liked EPISODE, DESSERT, MOOR. Always encouraging to solve 1a and 1d straight away, but pride came before a fall.
Thanks, Chris.
All was going swimmingly at the 25-minute mark – only 2d (SPAWN) and 9a (DRAFTEE) to get. I deduced both S for small and DEE as the river almost immediately, but it took me nearly 20 more minutes to break through with SPAWN. DRAFTEE was then obvious, but it’s a word I have never seen or heard used and which seems very contrived to me. Cue: much harrumphing on my part. Total time = 41 minutes.
Many thanks to Trelawney and Chris.
DRAFTEE heard and used all the time in the US, at least back when there still was a draft, which I spent several years dodging.
Bone spurs, Kevin!?
Dodging the draft during the Vietnam series of atrocities was the only humanly responsible, morally correct thing to do.
Fortunately, I, with flat feet and false teeth, was 4-F. Else I would’ve gone in there and sung,
“Sarge, I’m only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I got eyes like a bat, and my feet are flat, and my asthma’s getting worse
Yes, think of my career, my sweetheart dear, and my poor old invalid aunt
Besides, I ain’t no fool, I’m a-goin’ to school
And I’m working in a DEE-fense plant.”
Stalled for five whole minutes on DRAFTEE, SPAWN and DESSERT. All green in 17 with several satisfying moments of realisation. Loved WAXWORK.
DNF. Had the right side completed in about 10-mins even having put “vault” in for relay and being ready to get on the blog and rant about its “pole vault” and “vaulting” is gymnastics, not TandF !!!
The left side came together and I had 4 four left around the 22-25min mark. Then nothing for a further 25-mins so gave up and came to the blog. Saw DRAFTEE (had figured out the DE-EE part but couldn’t think of the vessel whether it was transport or a vase/urny thing) and that gave me LATIN-QUARTER and BOOZE but SPAWN evaded my wearied state.
I’m not a fan of the homophone clues. Maybe related to being a visual learner.
FOI JEER
COD TAKE (just never saw appropriate the right way on first read but think that was typical of many clue defs today)
Thanks to Chris for the blog breakdown and Trelawney for a mostly enjoyable QC!
Small niggle but, since the online version changed recently, I’m forever putting in a word and finding it’s wrong. Because I cannot get used to the cursor jumping to the next gap, I have to re-enter the whole word.
If you go the the menu top right (3 horizontal lines) you should see ‘skip filled squares’. You can change this to red and you’ll then re-type any filled in letters.
I realised it was a pangram quite quickly but it didn’t seem to make much difference to my solving. I wandered around the grid a bit aimlessly but finished a tad under 9 minutes with a few smiles along the way – MUSCLE, WAXWORK and GLEE were nice, but I’m with Countrywoman re 8d – I didn’t much care for either the clue or the answer.
FOI Muscle LOI Ascend COD Conundrum
Thanks Trelawney and Chris
Fairly tough for a quick cryptic I thought and finished just outside target at 10.30. I would have made it but for WAXWORK and DESSERT which held me up at the end.
Nice to get back to my crossword routine after spending the extended weekend at Centre Parcs Nottingham. On the first day (Friday) my wife and I decided to reacquaint ourselves with the pleasures of cycling after a break of over 20 years. Within 15 minutes my wife came off her bike and face planted the tarmac. I suggest any fellow 70+s consider whether it’s a good idea to recreate their youth if the result is a nine hour experience at A and E finishing at 3am !
Your poor wife.
Enjoyed this; thanks Chris and Trelawney. Spent ages on the twins, partly because I looked for (5,7) letters insteadbof (7,5). FOI MUSCLE, COD MUSCLE, for it,s super surface, and because it might have been a bit too devious on anothr day.
24:06
The first few were easy but WAXWORK took far too long and had to work through the alphabet for LOI SPAWN.
Struggled with this for 20mins, but then had to go out with a couple of answers still to find ( no, not those ones). Came back this evening, and still took another 5 minutes over Booze ( oh the ignominy!) and Dessert. CoD to 3d for the parsing, a nose ahead of 24ac, Assent – lovely surface. Invariant
Not too hard until I was left with 2dn. Took ages to get spawn. Rather frustrating but a very enjoyable QC.
Took a while, especially DESSERT which I just couldn’t see. A good challenge.
DNF – scuppered by DRAFTEE and LATIN QUARTER. No quibbles with RAFT as a vessel as an excuse…. Just couldn’t see it and was searching for French words for the district of Paris. Quelle domage.