I’m covering for Kitty this week as she is on holiday. I’m ashamed to say that after a flying start with the Latin phrase at 1ac I slowed down and ended up struggling to finish this one. I had all but one answer after 13 minutes but then needed another 6 on that alone to complete the grid. And after all that, as a seasoned beer-drinker, the wordplay should have been so obvious to me!
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 | Latin tutor’s admission of responsibility? (3,5) |
| MEA CULPA | |
| Cryptic. Latin for ‘My own fault’ / ‘I am guilty’. | |
| 5 | Hear, moving right to front, a flightless bird (4) |
| RHEA | |
| HEAR becomes RHEA [moving right – r – to the front] | |
| 8 | Omnivorous US hillbillies eating this? (5) |
| SUSHI | |
| Hidden [eating] in {omnivorou}S US HI{llbillies} | |
| 9 | Delighted Conservative, left outside (7) |
| EXCITED | |
| EXITED (left) containing [outside] C (Conservative) | |
| 11 | Fancy leaving wife for social worker? (3) |
| ANT | |
| {w}ANT (fancy – would like to have) [leaving wife – w] | |
| 12 | Repented raving about Charlie in previous case (9) |
| PRECEDENT | |
| Anagram [raving] of REPENTED containing [about] C (Charlie – NATO alphabet) | |
| 13 | Accept some stolen Dürers (6) |
| ENDURE | |
| Hidden in [some] {stol}EN DURE{rs}. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) was a German painter. SOED: Experience without resisting. | |
| 15 | Bachelor, a learner, keeping clear of wedding? (6) |
| BRIDAL | |
| B (bachelor) + A, L (learner), containing [keeping] RID (clear) | |
| 18 | “A Greek”, this leading chap? (5,4) |
| ALPHA MALE | |
| ALPHA (A in Greek), MALE (chap). The definition is &lit | |
| 19 | Go back with husband, a greedy fellow (3) |
| HOG | |
| GO + H (husband) reversed [back]. Our setter’s customary signature clue. | |
| 20 | Surprise the French after kick-off (7) |
| STARTLE | |
| START (kick-off), LE (the in French) | |
| 21 | Republican in silly plan (5) |
| DRAFT | |
| R (Republican) contained by [in] DAFT (silly) | |
| 22 | A risky venture? Help! (4) |
| ABET | |
| A, BET (risky venture) | |
| 23 | Brad in LA, or somewhere in Canada? (8) |
| LABRADOR | |
| BRAD (contained by) [in] LA + OR | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Same kit reused? That’s an oversight (7) |
| MISTAKE | |
| Anagram [reused] of SAME KIT | |
| 2 | Strength of a Hardy heroine from the south (5) |
| ASSET | |
| A, then TESS (Thomas Hardy heroine) reversed [from the south]. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. | |
| 3 | No big deal, as Norman put it after mix-up (11) |
| UNIMPORTANT | |
| Anagram [after mix-up] of NORMAN PUT IT | |
| 4 | Took a quick look, annoyed you might say (6) |
| PEEKED | |
| Sounds like [you might say] “piqued” (annoyed) | |
| 6 | Dishy school principal, an impetuous person (7) |
| HOTHEAD | |
| HOT (dishy), HEAD (school principal) | |
| 7 | Check car will be on time (5) |
| AUDIT | |
| AUDI (car), T (time) | |
| 10 | Strange career he led, this enthusiastic supporter (11) |
| CHEERLEADER | |
| Anagram [strange] of CAREER HE LED | |
| 14 | Corrupt deputy, half gone at party (7) |
| DEPRAVE | |
| DEP{uty} [half gone], RAVE (party) | |
| 16 | Boat that’s not so heavy (7) |
| LIGHTER | |
| Two meanings. The boat is usually a flat-bottomed barge for transporting goods. | |
| 17 | One recording beer drinkers downing last of ale (6) |
| CAMERA | |
| CAMRA (beer drinkers) containing [downing] {al}E [last of…]. This was the clue that occupied me for 6 minutes at the end of my solve and I shall never live down amongst those who know me not being able to think of a term that encompasses a group of beer drinkers. It should have been instinctive like ‘motorists’ = AA or RAC. For anyone who doesn’t know, CAMRA is the acronym used by the Campaign for Real Ale. | |
| 18 | Confused, as Columbus often was? (2,3) |
| AT SEA | |
| A straight definition and a cryptic nudge with reference to the explorer Christopher Columbus. | |
| 19 | Caught a lot of cattle, they say (5) |
| HEARD | |
| Sounds like [they say] “herd” (a lot of cattle) | |
DNF
17d did for me. I thought of CAMERA, of course, but that would mean E in CAMRA, and CAMRA made absolutely no sense to me.
‘Delighted’ seems something of a stretch for EXCITED.
Today’s 15×15 might be worth having a go at.
Thanks for the pointer, Kevin. After my disappointment with my typo in today’s QC, I recovered some composure by completing the biggie today. 42 mins -a good time for me, if a crawl for the experts. John.
It’s considered bad form to give answers, or hints, to clues in other puzzles from the same day, as once read they cannot be forgotten.
Oops! I have corrected this.
👍
I was flying! Zooming through!
But alas. I did not know Labrador was a place in Canada (but I won’t forget now. It’s near Newfoundland and both are dogs)
And Camera I had to RIAH (reveal in a huff, ha thanks guys) despite surely not many words fitting the checkers. Look I don’t think that it is unreasonable that I didn’t know Camra.
Oink has betrayed me. I really thought I was on for a good start to the week.
Always tmrw!
Sorry that you got horry-Bly meldrewed over on the 15×15 today. Just to let you know that your comments are highly appreciated and much enjoyed. Horryd oversteps with regularity, but doesn’t seem a bad sort, all said. I have a few scars myself.
Thanks Merlin! No, not a bad sort or I would have ignored him altogether or reported him or something.
Just frustrating 🙁
See my comments in “the other place” Tina. Basically mirroring exactly what Merlin says here. Keep giving as good as you get!
12:40. Enjoyed the device for RHEA and also liked DEPRAVE , ALPHA MALE and CAMERA(friends had explained the sacred mission of Camra to me several years ago). Thanks for explaining ANT from want, plus rest of informative blog.
Fortunately, I saw camera with only two checkers, but did not put it in until I had all three – CAMRA rang a vague bell. It was actually peeked that gave the most trouble, as I could not get peered out of my head. The idea of hillbillies eating sushi is rather amusing.
Time: 10:07
6.37
Not far off a couple of minutes on CAMERA which didn’t immediately spring to mind as a recording device nor CAMRA as beer drinkers though the latter only because it was unusual to see in a crossword, not that it was unknown
Some nice smooth clues in here as always from Oink. No particular aficionado of golf but UNIMPORTANT was nice if that was meant to be the reference
Thanks Oink and Jackkt
10.15 for me, which I was very pleased with – as Jackkt and I reverse our relative positions and average times, it doesn’t happen very often! MEA CULPA first in, then RHEA, followed by most of their descendants for a fast start. LOI CAMERA although I saw it virtually immediately (sorry Jackkt, didn’t mean to rub your nose in it). If PEEKED had been peeler, we could have name checked KOREA in the sixth tier. Thanks both.
A fast one for me at 16 minutes.
FOI: MEA CULPA.
LOI: CAMERA after the penny dropped. Like our blogger that took a chunk of my time.
Favourites for their surface and clever simplicity: ANT, AUDIT and also BRIDAL for the smile.
I take some solace from CAM{e}RA being your LOI too, and at least I have never been a member!
I joined Camra in 1972 when I was a student as I hated the gassy beers on offer everywhere. I found one pub that sold Wadworth. Can’t remember my studies thereafter.
Enjoyed the crossword. COD to ANT.
Wadworth 6X is one of the classics – and brewed not a million miles from you. I joined CAMRA a year after you while recovering, on my return to Cheshire, after 3 years in the Birmingham “Beer Desert”. One had to travel out to the Black Country for a decent pint (Stourbridge was especially good !)
Beer! So much more than just a breakfast drink.
I only drink when the sun is under the yardarm.
🤣🤣🤣
Busman, do you mean you didn’t enjoy Ansell’s, M&B, or even Watney’s Red Barrel??? 🙄
Perhaps I was there before you. Brum beer left a permanent mark on me. Not sure how much better it is now. I used to go home to Manchester for a drinkable pint in my youth. John
10 minutes for me – it is quite uncanny how often my times are close to Rotter’s. Camera not a problem, as I too was a paid up member in the 1970s, but the NE corner proved stickier. Having completed it I don’t really see why, but Hothead, Audi and LOI Excited all took time.
I too smiled at the thought of the hillbillies enjoying their daily sushi. And no doubt a tea ceremony in the afternoon.
Many thanks to Jack for the blog. A good start to the week.
Cedric
Very much on “the wavelength” today. I no longer time my solves as I find it more enjoyable not to but it was rapid for me.
One minor hold up was initially thinking 23a was an anagram of BRAD IN LA but the answer soon came to mind.
FOI MEA CULPA
LOI ABET
COD SUSHI
Thanks to Oink and Jackkt
DNF with CAMERA revealed in a huff after 20. Alphabet trawls didn’t reveal it, plenty of words seemed close. Is CAMRA still a thing? I thought the battles against Watneys Red Barrel and tied pubs were mainly won. Just about every pub I go to has a wide variety of craft beers, ciders, gins these days.
Also found the NE corner challenging until the penny dropped with RHEA. I was trying to make it more complex than it was.
COD AT SEA
I was at a Music Gathering in the Green Dragon Hotel at Hardraw, near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales, last weekend, and on the Sunday evening a delegation from CAMRA arrived to present the landlord with a certificate for his achievements in providing excellent ales and a welcoming pub. I can confirm that the Theaktons Best Bitter was fabulous! The landlord was rather chuffed!
CAMRA is very much still a thing, though the focus has shifted towards preventing pub closures, and organising beer festivals.
Is CAMRA still a thing?
Very much so. A pub I consider my local (though not actually my nearest) has won CAMRA’s best pub in the county award for the past 8 years.
When I was studying at the London College of Printing in the 70s, Roger Protz (editor of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide) was one of my lecturers – he was very enthusiastic about beer even in lectures about copyright law
Thanks Jack for explaining my LOI CAMERA. I had no idea what was going on with the parsing. Bit of a biff fest today starting with MEA CULPA so I was surprised to see that I only just made it inside my target. 8:46 with my COD to ANT.
As per my reply to Merlin, CAMERA was a write in for me. MEA CULPA was FOI, and ABET LOI. 6:32. Thanks Oink and Jack.
34MIN30 DNFed on PEEKED, having put peeRed (backup answer peeVed).
I got held up for the last 10+ mins because I’d put EXCLUDE instead of EXCITED which was blocking HOTHEAD and AUDIT . I had EXCLUDE for outside (EXUDE for delighted with C=conservative, L=left which doesn’t quite parse perfectly but comes close).
Thanks to Jackkt and Oink 🙂
A speedy start but a slow finish. Started with MEA CULPA and the rest of the top swiftly followed but the bottom proved a bit more stubborn with DEPRAVE and LOI LABRADOR being the main culprits. CAMERA needed some thought but was worth it for the PDM.
A day where proof reading proved essential for the avoidance of a pink square for AIDIT. Finished in 8.54 with COD to HOTHEAD for making me chuckle.
Thanks to Jack for filling in
This was a quick one for me but I have no time and it was technically a fat-fingered DNF – CHESRLEADER. Very frustrating. I might even have beaten Rotter today!
Thanks to Oink and Jackkt for an entertaining start to the week. John M.
Terrific puzzle, with smooth surfaces and a few stiff challenges. Top setting.
If only Oink had said “bearded beer drinkers” I’d have twigged straight away … as it was, it took a trawl and then a “why the heck could that be right?”!
FOI MEA CULPA, LOI & COD CAMERA, time 08:10 for a Very Good Day.
Great fun. Many thanks Oink and Jack.
Templar
All right – you’ve outed me. I have both a beard and a beer belly 😂
Fast and curious to know why I struggled with NE. AUDIT for Heaven’s sake.
Thanks Oink and all.
Began fast with MEA CULPA, easy puzzle, I thought, but eventually stuck in SW so DNF DEPRAVE, ABET, CAMERA.
Favourite clue LABRADOR, of course. Also liked ALPHA MALE, SUSHI, AUDIT, among others.
(Also failed on PEEKED , oh dear. Too hasty.)
Thanks vm, Jack.
“You can’t forgive and you won’t forget, we did something that we both regret – MEA CULPA” ( Mike & the Mechanics).
Couldn’t find any fault in this puzzle from our porcine friend, although I sympathise with those, especially abroad, who didn’t know of CAMRA.
FOI MEA CULPA
LOI LABRADOR
COD SUSHI (ROFL at the image !)
TIME 4:22
Stuck on ABET for a while, which was my LOI.
The CAMRA good beer guide was an ever present on my father’s bookshelf, so that wasn’t a problem.
I think I liked STARTLE best.
6:28
Camra came immediately to mind when I read ‘beer drinkers’ so the answer went straight in. I thought this clue might cause a problem or two however, and similarly I thought the Latin phrase at 1ac might be a problem even though it was my FOI.
A good solid puzzle from our porcine friend, and I was pleased with my time at 8.10. I was surprised to find it was as quick as that, as it seemed longer in solving.
A quick start in the NW, but struggled with two or three clues lower down and just missed a sub-20. As with others, my main hold-up was 17d, Camera, despite knowing about Camra – some variation on Taper was just too tempting for far too long. Bridal was another one where I lost time on the parsing. Good puzzle overall. Invariant
12 minutes apart from CAMERA which required another 4.
David
4:16 this morning. A gentle start to the week from Mr Bacon but a rather odd start from myself. After FOI 1 ac “Mea culpa”, I solved and parsed 4 d “peeked” then somehow convinced myself it only had five letters – a strange version of Monday rustiness? Anyway revisited it later with crossers in place and realised I was right all along.
Getting the longer anagrams quickly, helped as ever.
I was another CAMRA member in my youth when Scotland was a real ale desert. One exception was the delightfully named Grave Diggers near Murrayfield Rugby Stadium where sorrows were all too frequently drowned in the form of McEwan’s 80 Shilling Ale after another Scottish defeat…plus ca change…
Liked 15 ac “bridal”, 18 ac “alpha male” and 19 d “heard”.
Thanks to Oink for the puzzle and Jack for the blog
Late to this one. Before coming here I thought I’d missed out on a quick one but heartening to hear others struggled with my last two too. LABRADOR and CAMERA. Loved the place in Canada clue, it was all there in plain sight but just out of reach. Wasted ages with ‘taper’ for on recording which is sort of close to ‘topers’ for drinkers, only gave up on the when the dog revealed the A. A cracking puzzle. All green in 17.
Dnf…everything after 15 mins apart from 17dn.
How embarrassing that after spending a day at the London Beer Festival last week I couldn’t get “Camera” 😲
The rest went in fairly easily and I even managed to resist biffing “pig” for 19ac.
FOI – “Mea Culpa”
LOI – dnf
COD – 17dn “Camera”
Thanks as usual!
Big DNF for me today with CAMERA, EXCITED, ABET and AUDIT (especially shameful as I was an auditor back in the day) all unsolved. Also needed blog to see parsing of ANT (many thanks). Hoping for a better performance tomorrow! Thanks all.
37 minutes for me, with ABET being my LOI. However, it was the NW corner that caused me most trouble – ASSET, SUSHI and ANT to be specific.
I had that well-known Canadian city LAPITTOR written in faintly, at least until I got the two middle checkers. It’s surprising how one can nearly convince oneself of the existence of a non-existent place when one wants it to be true.
Many thanks to Oink and Jack.
Managed to complete this one but I did need a bit of help with 7d
Struggled with 23a for a while. I’m not sure “somewhere in Canada” is the definition. I think it is more correct to say “in Canada”. Surely the “somewhere” is an anagram indicator. Otherwise “Brad in LA” would be LBRADA (and then OR).
You should always ignore punctuation in clues, as nine times out of ten it’s there to deceive – as is the case here. Jackkt’s parsing is spot on.
I’m not sure I understand the “Brad in LA”. How does that work if it’s not an anagram of BRAD in LA = LBRADA anagrammed + OR?
As Jackkt’s parsing shows, it’s not BRAD in LA (=LBRAD) + OR, it’s BRAD in LA OR.
Is “in” not an insertion indicator then? If not, what is the purpose of “in”?
Thanks, Kevin. You posted as I was writing.
‘A Brad in LA’ is an LA BRAD. There’s no containment/insertion and no anagram.
Ah, I see. Like Brad is a resident of LA and so can be known as LA Brad. That makes more sense to me. Many thanks. 👍
Though this interpretation is arguably also correct, I don’t think that’s what Kevin’s saying – he’s saying that “in” is the insertion indicator (which also appears to be what the blog’s saying) with BRAD being inserted into LA OR, not just into LA.
Oh! Of course! How dumb of me! Seems I was trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be. 🤣
Many thanks. 👍
Started off at a great pace with a lot of answers going straight in until I was left with around half a dozen (mostly on the right hand side) which required greater thought. At 15 mins I had one to go – yes, you’ve guessed it, 17dn. Stared at this for a long time with no result so resorted to aids for a rather belated PDM. Also managed to put in PEEPED at 4dn, having considered both PEERED and PEEVED, so a DNF on that score as well. Not a good start to the week.
FOI – 1ac MEA CULPA
LOI – DNF
COD – 6dn HOTHEAD
Thanks to OINK and Jack
Only problem was 4d for which I had PEEPED even though I thought PIQUED was better for annoyed somehow this did not translate into PEEKED.
DNF as ran aground on CAMERA. A good start but then with a minor hold up in NE followed by interuptions with weekend guests departing and various incoming task lists from SWIMBO, lost the plot and gave up.
Also nearly gave up on camera.
COD labrador.
Firstly I do like the chat in the blog. Not a beer drinker though
Stiffish in places but a write in nevertheless
Back after a week of hiking in delightful Pembrokeshire. Attempted 4 of the QCs from last week over the weekend – varying degrees of success.
Found this QC tricky but enjoyably so. Like others, struggled to see camera for ages, but finally dredged up CAMRA from the deeper recesses of my mind.
Thank you for the blog – I needed it to parse 11ac.
Did most fairly easily, but needed a bit more time on the bottom section (DEPRAVE and ABET) and to parse BRIDAL. No piggy reference from OINK?
There is one – HOG 🙂
Hog.