Solving time: 11 minutes. Much of this was straightforward but I still managed to miss my target time by a minute. My QC solving times include parsing (unless otherwise stated) and I think it was the parsing at 14ac that was responsible for delay today, and actually the one I came up with whilst solving was not what I arrived at when writing the blog. I shall be interested to hear what others made of it.
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]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Neighbour on vacation initially lying back beside a river (4) |
| AVON | |
| A, then N{eighbour} + O{n} + V{acation} [initially] reversed [lying back] | |
| 4 | Wet fat (8) |
| DRIPPING | |
| Two meanings as in ‘dripping wet’ and the fat and other juices that drip whilst roasting meat and later solidify. | |
| 8 | Fashionable suit, to a great extent (2,6) |
| IN SPADES | |
| IN (fashionable), SPADES (suit – cards). ‘Spades’ is the highest ranking suit in some card games (e.g. bridge) so having a hand ‘in spades’ will outrank an identical set of cards of another suite. | |
| 9 | Revolutionary or reasonable man (4) |
| ROOK | |
| OR (reversed) [revolutionary], OK (reasonable). Chessman. | |
| 10 | 3 down, money earned catching cold (4) |
| PACY | |
| PAY (money earned) containing [catching] C (cold). The cross-reference is to ‘nippy’ defined as ‘brisk’. We do not appreciate cross-referenced clues, especially in the Quick Cryptic. | |
| 11 | Get near drunk imbibing English drink (5,3) |
| GREEN TEA | |
| Anagram [drunk] of GET NEAR containing [imbibing] E (English) | |
| 12 | Recognise the boil (6) |
| SEETHE | |
| SEE (recognise), THE | |
| 14 | Very good container, edge swapped around (6) |
| TIPTOP | |
| POT (container), then TIP (edge) reversed [swapped] = PIT. This gives us POT+PIT to be reversed [around] to make TIPTOP. It all seems very convoluted so if anyone can offer an alternative parsing or a neater way of explaining it they’d be welcome to try. | |
| 16 | Old relative an escort, embarrassingly (8) |
| ANCESTOR | |
| Anagram [embarrassingly] of AN ESCORT. I wasn’t sure about ’embarrassingly’ as an anagrind, but ’embarrass’ is in the Chambers list and it works in the sense of ‘disturb’. | |
| 18 | Map left inside vessel (4) |
| PLAN | |
| L (left) contained by [inside] PAN (vessel) | |
| 19 | Change in speed I thought (4) |
| EDIT | |
| Hidden [in] {spe}ED I T{hought} | |
| 20 | Killer, idiot repeatedly elected (8) |
| ASSASSIN | |
| ASS + ASS (idiot) [repeatedly], IN (elected) | |
| 22 | Author, really gutted, leaves say? (8) |
| GREENERY | |
| GREENE (author), R{eall}Y [gutted]. Graham Greene (1904-1991). | |
| 23 | American tug (4) |
| YANK | |
| Two meanings | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Ancient marker gripped by climber (7) |
| VINTAGE | |
| TAG (marker) contained [gripped] by VINE (climber) | |
| 3 | Cold and brisk (5) |
| NIPPY | |
| Two meanings | |
| 4 | Failure, however you look at it? (3) |
| DUD | |
| The cryptic hint tells us it will be a palindrome | |
| 5 | Person who examines prices, not fixed (9) |
| INSPECTOR | |
| Anagram [fixed] of PRICES NOT | |
| 6 | Vegetable’s standard cut (7) |
| PARSNIP | |
| PAR (standard), SNIP (cut) | |
| 7 | Who’s in empty room 12E (2,3) |
| NO ONE | |
| NOON (12), E | |
| 11 | Dog in tea garden, barking (5,4) |
| GREAT DANE | |
| Anagram [barking – mad] of TEA GARDEN | |
| 13 | Supporter distributed letters (7) |
| TRESTLE | |
| Anagram [distributed] of LETTERS | |
| 15 | Nothing helping speech (7) |
| ORATION | |
| O (nothing), RATION (helping) | |
| 17 | Drain ground, lowest point (5) |
| NADIR | |
| Anagram [ground] of DRAIN | |
| 18 | Pie lacking in colour (5) |
| PASTY | |
| Two meanings | |
| 21 | Voice, for example (3) |
| SAY | |
| Two meanings | |
5:15. A couple of tricky clues I thought. Hope to get back to my target times soon ie 5 mins. It seems to me that devices suitable to the main cryptic are being deployed more frequently. I think this is a good thing as it may encourage those that do not do the main crossword to give it a go.
I don’t seem to have had the same problems as quite a few others on this site. I was all complete and parsed in 16 minutes – a relatively good time for me. Having said that, I glanced at the clue as I entered TIPTOP and thought it parsed, but now I see that it doesn’t really work. I am also not in favour of cross-referenced clues, especially when the answers intersect. Other than that no quibbles!
FOI & COD- 4ac DRIPPING
LOI – 14 ac TIPTOP
Thanks to Mara and Jack
Late to it today with a change of routine. Top was bare for a long time. VINTAGE and ROOK really held me up – just coudn’t see that I had to separate ‘reasonable’ from ‘man’. All green in 17 after getting seven on the first pass of acrosses.
DNF. Just could not get NW corner. Not an easy QC again.
Back after a holiday so glad to have finished.
No problem with no one at all
Doesn’t Avon mean river anyway like beck does?
A depressingly slow start while waiting 15 minutes at the dentist. Only got started for certain with 12a and then worked through the SW and edged to the SE, and then the NE later waiting for my jaw to thaw. A DNF with 1a, 10a and 9a (forgot the chessman ruse). Did get in-spades although with a MER attached. . But once these missing answers came from this blog, then 2d and 3d fell easily. Not at all keen on Tiptop. A PDM for 7d No-one. Add me to those not like cross-referenced clues. Liked 22a greenery. I moved slowly with sudden bursts of speed which left me uncertain whether this was easy or really hard. The DNF settled that. Def needed the helpful blog today!
Too many numbers! Crossword Bingo! Please use the actual words.
If everyone did this, it would be a scroller’s nightmare!
I quite liked this one with a reasonable time of 17 mins. I agree with others about TIPTOP. Apart from that I parsed the rest of my answers which is a bit novel for me.
A quite speedy 10:14 for me. FOI DRIPPING. Echo the sentiments about the interdependent clues in the NW, leading to LOI PACY. COD NO-ONE: I thought the “12E” device was very clever.
Still in the SCC but thoroughly enjoyable. I think some of the comments are a little harsh as I didn’t see anything ‘wrong’ with any of the clues. A good Monday workout.
Late to this, but completed in 15 mins.
DNK “Rook” = man, but the wordplay was fair. Main struggle was unravelling 1ac “Avon” of all things and then finishing 2dn “Vintage”.
Contrary to the first comment I read, I quite liked 7dn “No One” and thought it was pretty good.
FOI – 4dn “Dud”
LOI – 2dn “Vintage”
COD – 7dn “No One”
Thanks as usual!
Bottom half 7 mins. Top half 27. That was tough.
Many years back a Cornishman told me that the River Avon meant ‘river river’. There are lots of them. Does Ouse mean similar? J
FWIW … there are a few River Bournes – although they don’t make the QC.
Living near Bournemouth, we have areas called Northbourne, Southbourne and Westbourne. But Eastbourne is 100 miles or so east in Sussex. There is also a Westbourne somewhere around the Chichester area.
Apparently this is because Bourne is a derivation of the old word “burn” which means stream.