Grandparent duties now successfully and fun-fully completed, I’m back an ocean away. Should get back over more often.
A big thank you to those who covered for me whilst I was away. If anyone else fancies having a go then you’d be very welcome.
So to the puzzle:
I found this pangram fun and it took me fractionally under 13 minutes. Only your times will tell if this puzzle is medium difficulty as my time will be skewed by lack of practice.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Thanks Mike, when confronting stormy North Sea, for hat (3,8) |
| TAM OSHANTER – thanks (TA), Mike (M), anagram (stormy) of NORTH SEA. I’d have bunged in a couple of hyphens but I’m sure somewhere there’s a two word spelling. | |
| 8 | Lie high-class religious books near Old Testament book (7) |
| UNTRUTH – high-class (U), religious books (NT), Old Testament book (RUTH). | |
| 9 | Was guide around ancient city enticed? (5) |
| LURED – was guide (LED) around ancient city (UR). | |
| 10 | Position east of Charlie on European lake (9) |
| CONSTANCE – position (STANCE) east if Charlie (C) on (ON). | |
| 12 | One’s handling female’s doubts (3) |
| IFS – one’s (I’S) holding female (F). | |
| 13 | Substitute some workers at zoo (6) |
| ERSATZ – some of work(ERS AT Z)oo. | |
| 15 | Question, painting for example duck, size of paper (6) |
| QUARTO – question (QU), painting for example (ART), duck (O). QU stands for quart, quarter, queen, query and question. | |
| 17 | On reflection, reject writer (3) |
| NIB – reject – bin – on reflection (NIB). | |
| 18 | Overwhelming rush of pain besetting naval invalid (9) |
| AVALANCHE – pain (ACHE) around an anagram (invalid) of NAVAL. | |
| 20 | Poet‘s private room almost west-facing (5) |
| ELIOT – private room almost (TOILE)t facing west. Liked this one. | |
| 22 | Film in Europe initially engages bon vivant (7) |
| EPICURE – film (PIC) inside Europe (EU), (E)ngages. I’m missing the ‘R’ – anyone spot where it comes from? | |
| 23 | Jersey might be so closely integrated (7-4) |
| TIGHTLY-KNIT – a jersey/jumper might be knitted tightly. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Giant bird on banks of Amazon (5) |
| TITAN – bird (TIT) on top of (A)mazo(N). | |
| 2 | Medical officer Una carries special tent for Italian peak (5,4) |
| MOUNT ETNA – medical officer (MO), Una (UNA) holds an anagram (special) of TENT. | |
| 3 | Wrongdoing outside public house by inscrutable person (6) |
| SPHINX – wrong doing (SIN) outside public house (PH), by (X as in times by). | |
| 4 | Little weight in aluminium hand tool (3) |
| AWL – (W)eight inside aluminium (AL). | |
| 5 | Row stifles stray dog (7) |
| TERRIER – row (TIER) around stray (ERR). | |
| 6 | Lost ciders, concerning newsman, found again (12) |
| REDISCOVERED – anagram (lost) of CIDERS, concerning (OVER), newsman (ED). | |
| 7 | Cricket interval: one team munched Spam? (8,4) |
| LUNCHEON MEAT – cricket interval (LUNCH), anagram (munched) of ONE TEAM. | |
| 11 | Instruction from Edward, head lowered in auction (9) |
| EDUCATION – Edward (ED), the head (first) letter lowered down in auction = (UCATION). | |
| 14 | Relative in Spain agreed on jewellery (7) |
| SIBLING – in Spain the word for agreed = yes = (SI) on jewellery (BLING). | |
| 16 | Jack to mimic tracks, jesting (6) |
| JAPERY – Jack (J), mimic (APE), railway tracks (RY). | |
| 19 | Heard nicked criminal on trial here? (5) |
| COURT – homophone (heard) of nicked – caught. | |
| 21 | Tasteless stuff, whichever way one looks (3) |
| TAT – reads the same backwards as forwards. | |
I achieved a within target solve but unfortunately with a typo. I enjoyed quite a few clues including LUNCHEON MEAT, SIBLING and SPHINX. My LOI was ELIOT in 7:50 and one pink square. Welcome back Chris.
A relatively simple solve today. No time, as I had to stop half way through to let a roofer look at a leaking chimney.
Did not manage to parse EPICURE, since I had film=EPIC, and then could not make sense of the rest. Many thanks for the blog and the subsequent EUR explanation.
A toughie today, for me. After my first pass through all of the clues, which took around 12-13 minutes, I had only solved six (and some of those were the shorties). This meant I was faced with great swathes of blankness to try to build on. However, I did eventually get a foothold and things started to ease up a little. After about half an hour I just had two to get (JAPERY and EPICURE). There followed a 10-minute hiatus, during which I stared and pondered and pondered and stared. I was on the point of throwing in the towel when I suddenly wondered if the whole thing was a pangram. Checking through, I realised I still needed a ‘J’, so I set about alphabet trawling JA___Y and that was enough to get me across the line. Thank goodness (for once) for pangrams!
Mrs R didn’t notice the pangram, but also didn’t need to as she finished easily in 23 minutes. She particularly enjoyed CONSTANCE, as she studied German at university and spent her year abroad in Friedrichshafen on the northern shore of Der Bodensee (Lake Constance).
Many thanks to Breadman and Chris.
19:46. Year before I was born! Had a lot of trouble thinking EPICURE= bon vivant and. realizing caught is pronounced COURT. Another who quickly entered PAP before correcting to TAT. LUNCHEON MEAT , SIBLING, and ELIOT were difficult too but had a good laugh when the latter revealed itself.
Spent ages on 14d trying to think of a jewel beginning with S when suddenly SIBLING jumped out of nowhere. The brain is a complete mystery. After that the remaining 5 fell into place with a rush and I was finished in 1.30.49 according to the timer.
I thought EPICURE was E plus PICTURE without the T but couldn’t make sense of it until reading the blog
Thank you Breadman and Chris.
Struggled with the SW corner and only got ELIOT (neat clue!) when left with E-I-T after finally seeing SIBLING.
Hopeless, as ever. Could only solve four clues in all, two across clues and two down. So I did what Invariant suggested recently, which is to fill in the across answers from the blog and then continue. I did this and solved another five down clues. Many thanks to Invariant for this tip.
I started when there was only the 15×15 and solved on paper. I would get the answers from the following day’s paper and try to work out why they were the answers. Too often I couldn’t so came to the blog. It’s a process but every clue is a satisfying puzzle to solve. Don’t expect easy – look for intellectually satisfying.
Glad to hear it helped
Had this QC come out yesterday then I could have been of service as I had a delightful curry supper in the Long Room at Lord’s last night and so could have asked whether the break was originally called Luncheon. I’ve always thought the word archaic but that’s a relative term in the MCC. J
Lucky chap!
I learned yonks ago that toilets was an anagram of T.S. Eliot.
Look again – it’s not.
Fairly hard with no idea of 20ac so dnf
Finished and fun, though firmly in the SCC. Very glad my wife knew EPICURE and JAPERY. Definitely a joint solve. And it’s definitely LUNCH for the cricket interval (well done Breadman)
Lots of words I only know from doing crosswords – ERSATZ, EPICURE for example – so this would have been very tough for me a few years ago. Now it only just took me into the SCC at 20:16, so quite pleased with that. Thanks Breadman and Chris.
DNF
Was on the lookout for the pangram after the top half went in fairly quickly but couldn’t find the K and was left with EPICURE, TIGHTLY KNIT and ELIOT unsolved.
I managed to solve this during the halftime break in the 🏴 v 🏴 match. For once, I was on the setter’s wavelength from the start. Despite one tough QC recently, Breadman is, for me, one of the gentler setters and so I tend to approach his puzzles with a positive mindset.
FOI – 1ac
LOI – 4dn
COD – 18ac
Welcome back Chris. Enjoyed your blog as always.