Hi everyone. While Chris is busy grandson sitting, I am the first of those sitting in for him here.
A puzzle to phone a friend about? I ask because a cockney reference and no less than three dogs (two of them eating) made me think of dog and bone. I was almost tempted to take inspiration from Astro_Nowt and pen some suitable lines, but you are spared my doggerel!
I took a couple more minutes on this than on the previous Orpheus puzzles I’ve blogged. Did you find it tougher than usual too, or was I just dogged?
Thanks Orpheus!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics 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 | Beetle or spaniel eating husks, mostly (10) |
| COCKCHAFER — COCKER (spaniel) around (eating) CHAFf (husks) without the last letter (mostly) | |
| 8a | Duck found in a road bordering shopping precinct (7) |
| MALLARD — A + RD (road) next to (bordering) MALL (shopping precinct) | |
| 9a | Aquatic bird extremely eager to catch fish (5) |
| EIDER — The outer letters of (extremely) EagerR going around (to catch) IDE (fish) | |
| 10a | Male creature crossing railway, an African antelope (4) |
| ORYX — OX (Male creature) spanning (crossing) RY (railway) | |
| 11a | Possible home of a French girl in part of East London (8) |
| BUNGALOW — UN (a, French) and GAL (girl) in BOW (part of East London) | |
| 13a | Girl originally from Hebridean island (5) |
| FIONA — The first letter of (originally) From + IONA (Hebridean island) | |
| 14a | Deprived chap briefly kept by Napoleonic marshal (5) |
| NEEDY — ED (chap briefly) inside (kept by) NEY (Napoleonic marshal) | |
| 16a | Luxury food produced by male relative in a vast continent (8) |
| AMBROSIA — M (male) and BRO (relative) in ASIA (a vast continent) | |
| 17a | Dog eating primarily minced meat (4) |
| LAMB — LAB (dog) around (eating) the first letter of (primarily) Minced | |
| 20a | Game created by guerrilla leader’s son (5) |
| CHESS — CHE (guerrilla leader) + S (son) | |
| 21a | Metal grill making a rasping sound (7) |
| GRATING — Two definitions | |
| 22a | Slovenly old nurse left Derby at last, drinking coffee (10) |
| SLATTERNLY — SRN (old nurse), L (left) and the last letter of (… at last) DerbY around (drinking) LATTE (coffee) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Company doctor introducing old jazz group (5) |
| COMBO — CO (company) + MB (doctor) before (introducing) O (old) | |
| 2d | Sheepdog reportedly moves unsteadily, having upset stomach (12) |
| COLLYWOBBLES — COLLIE (sheepdog), homophone (reportedly) + WOBBLES (moves unsteadily) | |
| 3d | Persuade helmsman to skirt area (4) |
| COAX — COX (helmsman) going around (to skirt) A (area) | |
| 4d | Keenness more difficult for a Cockney, do we hear? (6) |
| ARDOUR — ‘ARDER (more difficult, for a Cockney), sound-alike (do we hear?) | |
| 5d | Coming out East, meeting and joining (8) |
| EMERGING — E (east) + MERGING (meeting and joining) | |
| 6d | Watering down of grown-up allowance, including wine ultimately (12) |
| ADULTERATION — ADULT (grown up) plus RATION (allowance) containing (including) the last letter of (… ultimately) winE | |
| 7d | Sleepy day arguments ultimately carry (6) |
| DROWSY — D (day) + ROWS (arguments) + the last letter of (ultimately) carrY | |
| 12d | Merry-go-round a man observed across river (8) |
| CAROUSEL — CARL (a man) seen around (observed across) OUSE (river) | |
| 13d | Future groom working in café (6) |
| FIANCE — An anagram of (working) IN CAFÉ | |
| 15d | Restless type of female the writer would understand (6) |
| FIDGET — F (female) + I’D (the writer would) + GET (understand) | |
| 18d | Evil spirit in marshland upset the old (5) |
| BOGEY — BOG (marshland) + the reversal of (upset) YE (the, old) | |
| 19d | Confront fine fighter pilot (4) |
| FACE — F (fine) + ACE (fighter pilot) | |
My first sub-ten minute solve in quite a while, so this was more on my wavelength than some recent QCs.
Amused by 16a, as it brought back memories of Ambrosia Creamed Rice, which I would definitely not classify as a luxury food.
Five. Hopeless.
Not a pleasant experience! Some solvers above (Pitcathlie, BUSMAN and possibly Kevin G) had finished the whole puzzle before I had even got off the mark with my first clue (CHESS). How is that possible? In the end, I struggled/fought my way to the finish (or so I hoped) in 56 minutes. Sadly, however, I had erred with my last two in. I put ‘sway’ (instead of COAX) and COCKsHAFER, and so ended up with a long and arduous DNF.
I had NHO the beetle, or the Napoleonic marshal, or LAB for ‘dog’, or SLATTERNLY (or SLATTERN for that matter), or the luxury food (except as a brand name), and I never parsed FIDGET. An awful day and definitely not a QC.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Kitty.
P.S. Mrs R knocked it off without any fuss in 23 minutes.
Er, Lab is short for Labrador😯 and Mrs R has probably mentioned that Ambrosia was the food of the gods.
fun but hardish solve late in the day
did like bungalow as clue. My stepfather said that a bungalow was built by a lazy person who said just bung a low roof on
Dnf…
Another tricky one I thought. Main stumbling block was 1ac “Cockchafer” – but it didn’t help that I put “Sway” for 3dn, thinking a “Swy” was some kind of old helmsman.
Struggled with a few others in the NW corner as well.
FOI – 1dn “Combo”
LOI – dnf
COD – 15dn “Fidget”
Thanks as usual!
Quite pleased to complete this one. Spent some time working out 1ac and 10ac, but a relief after yesterday‘s last clue horrors. Around the 25 min mark, so a steady solve.
COD 14ac
LOI 10ac
Thanks for the blog Kitty.
Ludicrously hard for me.
Took three hours and now I’m an hour late for bed.
Fine if you know the old chestnuts.
Didn’t really enjoy this at the end but had to keep going.