Lots to enjoy here in this offering from Hurley. Apologies for the late appearance of the blog – mea culpa
The tone was set by 8a and not even a bit of self-directed ‘Aggressive behaviour’ induced by a few careless typos which sent me out to a time of 12:39 could spoil the enjoyment. GOALIE was my pick of the day.
Thanks to Hurley
Definitions underlined in bold
| Across | |
| 8 | Cleaner near sea in France, one seeking to please (7) |
| CHARMER – CHAR (‘Cleaner’) followed by (‘near’) MER (‘sea in France’)
No MER for MER – a word well known from the Charles Trenet song even if you’ve forgotten your French |
|
| 9 | Bay window, old, that is embraced by right and left (5) |
| ORIEL – O (‘old’) IE (‘that is’, abbreviation for “id est”) contained in (’embraced by’) R L (‘right and left’)
If you can lay your hands on a copy of Archæologia XXIII. (1831) 114 (who knows, maybe online – I haven’t looked) you can find out all about the derivation of this sense of the word in an “exhaustive article” by a certain Mr. W. Hamper. Thanks OED. |
|
| 10 | Entitlement agreed (5) |
| RIGHT – Double definition | |
| 11 | Aggressive behaviour at elevated level? (3,4) |
| AIR RAGE – Cryptic definition | |
| 12 | Woman’s with copper, thin, very powerful (9) |
| HERCULEAN – HER (‘Woman’s’) CU (chemical symbol for ‘copper’) LEAN (‘thin’) | |
| 14 | Cut Mike? That hurts! (3) |
| MOW – M (‘Mike?’ in NATO phonetic alphabet) OW (‘That hurts!’) | |
| 16 | Forgetting name, ring doctor (3) |
| RIG – RING (‘ring’) deleting N (‘forgetting name’) | |
| 18 | Get rid of trademark, being energetic person (9) |
| FIREBRAND – FIRE (‘Get rid of’) BRAND (‘trademark’) | |
| 21 | Note a ruler is very wet (7) |
| SOAKING – SO (‘Note’ in tonic sol-fa) A KING (‘a ruler’) | |
| 22 | Covering grand, dear! (5) |
| GLOVE – G (‘grand’) LOVE (‘dear!’)
Non-specific definition, but works OK for me |
|
| 23 | Edging, following stream (5) |
| FRILL – F (‘following’) RILL (‘stream’)
RILL is one of those words for ‘stream’ which occasionally comes up in crosswords and even – surprise, surprise – in real life. I don’t remember ever having seen “runnel” in crosswords though. Now, there’s an idea… |
|
| 24 | Medley from Carmel, angelic (7) |
| MELANGE – Hidden in ‘CarMEL ANGElic’ | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Twenty outside church by river, it’s a very hot day (8) |
| SCORCHER – SCORE (‘Twenty’) containing (‘outside’) CH (‘church’) next to (‘by’) R (‘river’) | |
| 2 | Place for aircraft no good in sea fog (6) |
| HANGAR – NG (‘no good’) contained in (‘in’) HAAR (‘sea fog’)
Fret not fellow humble solvers, the wordplay was clear enough to enable us to avoid the “hanger” trap |
|
| 3 | Must shift stain (4) |
| SMUT – Anagram (‘shift’) of MUST | |
| 4 | Speak about knight in flowery style (6) |
| ORNATE – ORATE (‘Speak’) containing (‘about’) N (‘knight’ in chess-speak) | |
| 5 | Handle boron OK in new format after doubts initially (8) |
| DOORKNOB – Anagram (‘in new format’) of BORON OK following (‘after’) D (‘doubts initially’=first letter of ‘doubts’) | |
| 6 | Days with siestas regularly — Royal Marines lay down weapons (6) |
| DISARM – D (‘Days’) ISA (‘sIeStAs regularly’) RM (‘Royal Marines’)
A jolly good clue |
|
| 7 | Golf learner at first using English stick (4) |
| GLUE – G (‘Golf’ in NATO phonetic alphabet) L (‘learner’) U (‘at first using’=first letter of ‘using’) E (‘English’)
Good misdirection, with ‘stick’ as a noun in the surface reading |
|
| 13 | In dishonest way, lay fur in slyly (8) |
| UNFAIRLY – Anagram (‘slyly’) of LAY FUR IN | |
| 15 | Naive, “dye” and “die” we confused? (4-4) |
| WIDE-EYED – Anagram (‘confused’) of DYE DIE WE
Or even ‘Naïve’ if we’re being posh |
|
| 17 | Footballer, unusually agile, catching ball? (6) |
| GOALIE – Anagram (‘unusually’) of AGILE containing (‘catching’) O (‘ball’)
Or you could have the whole clue as the def. Semi &lit. Very good |
|
| 19 | Government, for example, involved in something frosty? (6) |
| REGIME – EG (‘for example’) contained in (‘involved in’) RIME (‘something frosty?’) | |
| 20 | Area certain to have plenty (6) |
| ABOUND – A (‘Area’) BOUND (‘certain’) | |
| 21 | Container for valuables — there’s a fee (just a little) (4) |
| SAFE – Hidden (‘(just a little)’) in ‘there’S A FEe’
Where’s Peter? |
|
| 22 | Impudence of female doubled in the end (4) |
| GALL – GAL (‘female’) L (‘doubled in the end’=last letter L repeated) | |
I think I might be in for another roller coaster week – 8:50 yesterday for the quickie, but I couldn’t wrap my brain round the biggie! Today I started off really quite well, and got about 80% done in under 10 minutes, but then oh dear! I finished up at 16:30, with the last five on an alphabet trawl at 11a. But I did the biggie in about 40 minutes.
It’s inevitable that whichever end of the alphabet I start at, the correct letters will be at the other end! I have seen AIR RAGE before, but it really didn’t click at the time. I often struggle with Hurley and don’t seem to be on his wavelength. TBH I found some of the surfaces today a bit clunky, but 17d GOALIE was a goodie.
FOI Charmer LOI Air rage
Thanks Hurley, and BR for an entertaining blog
GOALIE was always going to be “a goodie” in my book, as well. Back in the day, I used to be one.
8/26. Might it be possible for the bloggers to not put any of the solutions in the introduction please? I always come here for inspiration when stuck, because the blogger will often say if it an easy QC or a tough one or middle-of-the-road. That will that encourage me to persevere, or give up. Seeing the solution to an unsolved clue today was therefore very disappointing. Thank you.
Our policy on the introduction is that answers are not given in the short extract that appears on the front screen where the latest blogs are listed, but once you open a blog to view it you will see answers.
Had to start I’m the SW corner but got there in the end
Bit slow though
14:00
Struggled with the acrosses on first pass but then the downs seemed much easier (apart from putting DEWY EYED for naive before realising the anagram didn’t quite work) and it quickly fell into place. LOI AIR RAGE.
Like some of my fellow SCC members, I had hopes of a hat-trick of escapes. It wasn’t to be however as Hurley returned to his tormenting best.
But I did thoroughly enjoy the challenge and wasn’t too disappointed to be around the 25 min mark. HAAR presented no problems, having sat through several at Scarborough Cricket Ground. DNK ORIEL, but the word play was kind. Some excellent misdirection throughout.
FOI – CHARMER
LOI – ORNATE
PDM – SAFE
COD – RIG (threw me for a while)
Thanks for the great blog.
Nice solve. RIG was one of my later ones in. MOW took a bit of cogitating to get it right. I do hate it when I can’t even spot the three letter words 😀
Thanks L-Plates. Yes, MOW had me head scratching, although OW seems to have come up quite a lot lately.
All went in relatively easily but just could not get 20d ABOUND so a dnf.
For me bound for ‘certain’ and abound for ‘to have plenty’ don’t come easily.
Good puzzle though.
11:33. Everything went in pretty smoothly, I guess GALL and MOW were the only ones I had to think over carefully.