Hi all. I liked this offering from Hurley. There’s nothing wrong with the across clues (unless you wish to throw your dictionary at 11a in protest) but my picks today are all in the downs. The breakdown of 2d may be common enough but I thought the execution, with the twist in the tail, was deftly done. I almost always lap up a reverse clue, so 3d made me happy, and I also appreciated the Uxbridge English Dictionary nature of 12d. Thanks Hurley!
Timewise, I’ve finally broken my run of squeaking in under 5 minutes on Mondays (it was getting embarrassing after declaring that to be a rare occurrence!), taking a slightly more normal 0615 for this one. After a good start I slowed down towards the bottom of the grid. My last in was 13a, just because I got fixated on the definition being at the wrong end.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Formidable female needing attention, a little (8) |
| FEARSOME — F (female) + EAR (attention) + SOME (a little) | |
| 5a | Beat Manchester United, say (4) |
| CLUB — Two definitions, the second by example | |
| 8a | Confused situation — speak harshly (5) |
| SNARL — Another double definition | |
| 9a | Agent with old-fashioned hat: cold-blooded one (7) |
| REPTILE — REP (agent) + TILE (old fashioned hat). Tile as an old-fashioned slang term for a hat is one to remember, as it is still current usage in crosswordland | |
| 11a | Indifference of residents, it’s out of order (11) |
| DISINTEREST — RESIDENTS, IT is anagrammed (out of order). Disinterest meaning lack of interest rather than impartiality is in the dictionaries and, of the big three, only Collins has a usage note: “Many people consider that the use of disinterested to mean not interested is incorrect and that uninterested should be used” | |
| 13a | Regular payment covered by parent, a lifesaver (6) |
| RENTAL — The answer is inside (covered by) paRENT, A Lifesaver | |
| 14a | Government of right, for example, at times ignoring outsiders (6) |
| REGIME — R (right) + EG (for example) + tIMEs without outer letters (ignoring outsiders) | |
| 17a | Hens one’s let free to move after all (11) |
| NONETHELESS — HENS ONE‘S LET anagrammed (free to move) | |
| 20a | Drive to include Rhode Island put in danger (7) |
| IMPERIL — IMPEL (drive) containing (to include) RI (Rhode Island) | |
| 21a | Son, fast mover, finding allotment (5) |
| SHARE — S (son) + HARE (fast mover) | |
| 22a | Healthy hospital drink (4) |
| HALE — H (hospital) + ALE (drink) | |
| 23a | Lively priest I’d disturbed (8) |
| SPIRITED — PRIEST I‘D anagrammed (disturbed) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Football Association’s time is secure (4) |
| FAST — FA’S (Football Association’s) + T (time) | |
| 2d | Leave a musical group, never to return? (7) |
| ABANDON — A + BAND (musical group) + NO (never) going backwards (to return) | |
| 3d | One working on own initiative, describing letter S maybe? (4-7) |
| SELF-STARTER — The letter S could be described cryptically as the starter of Self, or SELF-STARTER | |
| 4d | Mother and artist welcoming popular boating facility (6) |
| MARINA — MA (mother) and RA (Royal Academician, artist) containing (welcoming) IN (popular) | |
| 6d | Learning about island river (5) |
| LOIRE — LORE (learning) around (about) I (island) | |
| 7d | About to interrupt swimmer’s short rest (8) |
| BREATHER — RE (about, concerning) going inside (to interrupt) BATHER (swimmer) | |
| 10d | One from past who could make corps see red (11) |
| PREDECESSOR — The answer can be anagrammed to give (could make) CORPS SEE RED | |
| 12d | Flaunt trade name? Sort of (8) |
| BRANDISH — BRAND (trade name) –ISH (sort of) | |
| 15d | Quickly prepared in street by worker maybe (7) |
| INSTANT — IN + ST (street) + ANT (worker maybe) | |
| 16d | Fold of skin initially described expertly with love and patience (6) |
| DEWLAP — The first letters of (initially) Described Expertly With Love And Patience | |
| 18d | Northeastern colleague in Asian country (5) |
| NEPAL — NE (northeastern) + PAL (colleague). This meaning of pal is supported by the dictionaries | |
| 19d | Dispute in fee fund, every so often (4) |
| FEUD — The answer is found in alternate letters of (… every so often) FeE fUnD | |
I didn’t do too well today. Probably less than half completed before I resorted to aids. Even with aids I couldn’t complete it today.
You appear to have done better than Mr. L-Plates!
A good one for me although I put LOIRE in with my fingers crossed (so to speak). SNARL took a while to get. Having to take a few hours break helped me with my last few solutions. I understand the comments about DISINTERESTED but didn’t think too hard about it as it was an anagram. My time of 14.56 was very satisfactory.
A referee should be disinterested but not uninterested in the game, i.e disinterest in the result would be indifferentce in modern usage.
Very enjoyable but tricky Monday workout. I usually struggle with Hurley so glad to finish. Well into SCC but still happy. Great blog!
18 mins so inside my target time and fully parsed so an enjoyable and on-wavelength day for me. I pondered SNARL for a while as I couldn’t think how to use it without ‘up’ but decided it must be correct.
I have spent most of my life being pedantic about word definition (reference ‘disinterested’ in today’s discussion) but have now decided that it is part of the beauty of the language that meanings (and sadly spellings) can move with the times. The one exception being the incorrect use of ‘less’to mean ‘fewer’.
Thanks Hurley for a nice start to the week and Kitty for a lovely blog.
Prof