This was a long way from a smooth solve – having to leave clues for later all over the grid. It seemed to take ages, so when I finished with 12dn with the clock stopped at 12 minutes, it didn’t seem too bad.
I must say I’ve just thoroughly enjoyed going through the clues again for the blog and recommend a read looking for smooth surfaces with clever and multiple cryptic devices.
It felt like a pangram but a quick check shows G,H,V and W are missing. Breadman often seems to include a reference to bread/money (it’s
quid today) a la Oink – but then, I suppose, there are lots of words with those meanings.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Muscle ailing during army corps dance (9) |
| QUADRILLE – muscle (QUAD), ailing (ILL) during army corps (RE). | |
| 6 | British government abroad runs a judiciary initially (3) |
| RAJ – (R)uns, a (A), (J)udiciary. I suppose they could all be initial/first letters. | |
| 8 | Tins arranged by worker without delay (7) |
| INSTANT – anagram (arranged) of TINS by worker (ANT). | |
| 9 | Suddenly frighten fryer in charge (5) |
| PANIC – fryer (PAN), in charge (IC). | |
| 10 | Valerie cops everyone tipping over wine (12) |
| VALPOLICELLA – Valerie (VAL), cops (POLICE), all backwards (LLA). Quite a variety of parsing to unpick there. | |
| 12 | Sound of sheep eating grandma’s fruit (6) |
| BANANA – sound of sheep (BAA) eating grandma (NAN). Loved the baa – was expecting that to be a homophone of something like ‘you’. | |
| 13 | Type of grass father’s maintaining foremost in meadow (6) |
| PAMPAS – father’s (PAPA’S) maintaining (M)eadow. Another unusual one – father is usually just PA. | |
| 16 | Ancient tablet, pink and dry, son ate stupidly (7,5) |
| ROSETTA STONE – pink (ROSE), dry (TT – teetotal), anagram (stupidly) of SON ATE. A clear definition but I loved the parsing. | |
| 19 | Perfect date in Rome, mostly by a lake (5) |
| IDEAL – date in Rome (IDE)s – mostly, by a (A), lake (L), | |
| 20 | Huge number working beyond factory unit (7) |
| MILLION – working (ON) beyond factory (MILL) and unit (I). | |
| 22 | Tear fastener (3) |
| ZIP – double definition. | |
| 23 | Furry carnivorous mammal biting stump (6,3) |
| ARCTIC FOX – biting (ARCTIC), stump (FOX). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pound calamari, removing head (4) |
| QUID – calamari s(QUID) – removing head. | |
| 2 | Jack and Mark do not vote (7) |
| ABSTAIN – Jack (AB), mark (STAIN). Economical and super smooth surface. | |
| 3 | Artist capturing island and drowned valley (3) |
| RIA – artist (RA) capturing island (I). A long narrow inlet being a former valley submerged by the sea. | |
| 4 | Small illuminated atelier regularly visited (6) |
| LITTLE – illuminated (LIT), a(T)e(L)i(E)r. | |
| 5 | Awaiting or missing cough medicine (9) |
| EXPECTANT – ‘or’ missing from cough medicine (EXPECT)or(ANT). | |
| 6 | Learn working of the kidneys (5) |
| RENAL – anagram (working) of LEARN. | |
| 7 | One’s foolish when gripped by cards (7) |
| JACKASS – when (AS) gripped by cards (JACKS). | |
| 11 | Criticise a clerk, we hear, producing cigar (9) |
| PANATELLA – criticise (PAN), a (A), homophone (we hear) of clerk – teller. | |
| 12 | Composer somewhere in Germany briefly joins Australian (7) |
| BERLIOZ – somewhere in Germany briefly (BERLI)n, Australian (OZ). | |
| 14 | Argument after work upset new religious leader (7) |
| PONTIFF – argument (TIFF) after work OP upset/upwards (giving us PO), new (N). | |
| 15 | Salt put on waterproof surface of road? (6) |
| TARMAC – salt (the nautical one – TAR) put on (top of) waterproof (MAC). | |
| 17 | Doze, sheltered in special clothing (5) |
| SLEEP – sheltered (LEE) with special (SP) is clothing/around. I’ve just looked up SP and am surprised by how many things those initials can refer to. Submarine/shore patrol, Spain, Specific, Starting Price among others – including, of course, special. | |
| 18 | Antony cut in half unknown gemstone (4) |
| ONYX – half of Ant(ONY), unknown (X). | |
| 21 | Field northwards contains garland of flowers (3) |
| LEI – the contents of f(IEL)d going northwards/upwards. | |
Just inside the SCC today so happy with that. Fond memories of VALPOLICELLA and the PANATELLA ads (Rab C Nesbitt in particular) from the 80s. Enjoyable puzzle. RIA was new to me. COD to ROSETTA STONE. Many thanks to Chris and Breadman.
I may be wrong (frequently I am) but wasn’t horryd involved in that wonderful advert with Gregor Fisher???
I’m sure you’re right. Meldrew / Horryd was reminiscing about the Hamlet ads recently, also the Strada one!
Well within target today. FOI QUID quickly followed by Quickstep which unsurprisingly I couldn’t parse and had to delete. Like Chris I had problems with BERLIOZ and needed all the checkers before I could commit. I knew of RIA as it is a useful scrabble word. ARCTIC FOX was my LOI which I biffed and eventually parsed after submitting (but it still gets my vote for COD). 7:33 for a very good day.
Top to bottom, pretty much. Only got stuck on ARCTIC FOX.
FOI QUADRILLE, LOI MILLION, COD EXPECTANT, time 06:43 for an estimated 1.5K and an Excellent Day.
Many thanks Breaders and Chris.
Templar
Good one for me today after some really poor attempts. Had heard of everything except RIA which was very clearly clued. Didn’t manage to parse everything – I’m just happy to get the right answer. Which is probably not quite in the true spirit of Crosswordland. Sorry.
There’s nothing to apologise for AT. Enjoyment is the only yardstick so if you are content not to worry about every parsing whilst solving, so be it. It may be useful to come here afterwards and find out how the missing parsings work if you have ambitions to solve quicker or increase your enjoyment, but only if you feel like doing so.
Today I have come closer than ever to finishing a quick cryptic! I actually had quadricep for 1A but eventually realised I must have made a mistake so I looked at the blog to see that the correct answer was quadrille.
That enabled me to finish the crossword by getting 4D, 5D and then 10A.
Many thanks.
Good work – and on a tricky day. It’ll all come good with practice.
Well done! Pleased to hear you didn’t throw in the towel. Onwards and upwards 😊
Well done Ian – echoing PennyB’s thoughts that glad to hear you didn’t throw the towel in
If “biffing” is writing the answer without tackling the wordplay, what do you call it when I wrote in the NHO RIA from the wordplay? I don’t know if one can still buy VALPOLICELLA, but it is at least 20 years since I drank any. I knew and parsed everything, but little came quickly, so I would agree with those who found this on the tricky side. FOI QUADRILLE, whch would have been a NHO but for Alice, LOI PANATELLA, a word I just knew, but had forgotten the meaning; COD ARCTIC FOX – clever surface. No problem with BERLIOZ – my late wife sang his requiem with a few hundred others in the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago. I wish it had been Brahms’s or Mozart’s. Thanks, Breadman and Chris.
Anti-biffing? Or actually exactly what you did: solving from wordplay 👍
My daughter plays a game known as anti-Countdown. She just says the first word that comes into her head that has three or four of the letters on the screen, with some very entertaining results on occasion 😅
😁
A lovely puzzle from Breadman – lots of mental quick gear changes needed meant plenty to admire and savour in the clueing. Needed Chris’ blog to complete some of the parsing. NHO 3d Ria but was generously clued so went in and that’s another word learned.
FOI 1d Quid – needed to convince me Quadrille was correct and needed better parsing
LOI 5d Expectant – expectorant wouldn’t fit anyway but needed to re-read the clue!
COD – too many to choose from! I liked 15d Tarmac among many others.
A lot of biffing but successful conclusion in about 12 minutes.
Did like banana
Finished one after a few near misses recently. RIA was a nice reminder of O level geography lessons on glaciation.