Solving time: 7 minutes. Today our porcine setter references himself directly! I hesitate to say that this is easy, but most solvers will be familiar with most of the answers and the wordplay seems fair, even generous on occasion. One problem may be the portcullis grid, but I hope you overcame this and all did well.
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 |
|
| 7 | Posted a little money to LA resident, did you say? (4) |
| SENT | |
| Sounds like [did you say?] “cent” (a little money to LA resident) | |
| 8 | Crackpot relation from the east (8) |
| ORIENTAL | |
| Anagram [crackpot] of RELATION | |
| 9 | Pulse fast, extremely ill (6) |
| LENTIL | |
| LENT (fast – the period leading up to Easter), I{i}L [extremely] | |
| 10 | Australian natives given OK to return, unfortunately (6) |
| KOALAS | |
| OK reversed [to return], ALAS (unfortunately) | |
| 11 | Produced cheese from the east (4) |
| MADE | |
| EDAM (cheese) reversed [from the east]. A chestnut based on the old cracker riddle “What cheese is made backwards?” | |
| 12 | Mistake by colonel resulting in breakdown (8) |
| COLLAPSE | |
| COL (colonel), LAPSE (mistake) | |
| 15 | Painter unexpectedly catching river turtle (8) |
| TERRAPIN | |
| Anagram [unexpectedly] of PAINTER containing [catching] R | |
| 17 | Jill’s partner? He’s a sailor (4) |
| JACK | |
| A cryptic hint referring to the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill precedes the main definition | |
| 18 | Sibling has run out? Damn! (6) |
| BOTHER | |
| B{r}OTHER (sibling) [has run out] | |
| 21 | Emaciated family in South American city (6) |
| SKINNY | |
| KIN (family) contained by [in] S (south) + NY (American city – New York) | |
| 22 | Painting of Manila so contrived! (4,4) |
| MONA LISA | |
| Anagram [contrived] of MANILA SO | |
| 23 | Cardinal scratching head still (4) |
| EVEN | |
| {s}EVEN (cardinal number) [scratching head] | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Foolishly angered English traitor (8) |
| RENEGADE | |
| Anagram [foolishly] of ANGERED, E (English) | |
| 2 | Woman acquiring rubbish work of art (6) |
| STATUE | |
| SUE (woman) containing [acquiring] TAT (rubbish) | |
| 3 | Paper that identifies a jester? (8) |
| FOOLSCAP | |
| I thought we needed to add an apostrophe and a space to read the cryptic hint in the second part of the clue, but then I found this in SOED: foolscap – a fool’s or jester’s cap, usually hung with bells. Also, a dunce’s cap. I was going to quote the paper-size but it’s not standard in all countries. | |
| 4 | Grunt, having nothing to write with? (4) |
| OINK | |
| 0 INK (nothing to write with). If our setter had been feeling less generous, he might have followed The Guardian style when self-referencing and clued this as “I have nothing to write with”. | |
| 5 | Some outflank Arabs in city (6) |
| ANKARA | |
| Hidden in [some] {outfl}ANK ARA{bs} | |
| 6 | Looking up a little information (4) |
| DATA | |
| A + TAD (a little) reversed [looking up] | |
| 13 | One calling out from back of court? (8) |
| LINESMAN | |
| One of several officials who preside at tennis courts | |
| 14 | Supporter of Elizabeth II? (8) |
| SECONDER | |
| SECOND ER (Elizabeth II) | |
| 16 | Try again to practise with last two missing (6) |
| REHEAR | |
| REHEAR{se} (practise) [with last two missing] | |
| 17 | Judge was taken ill in prison (6) |
| JAILED | |
| J (judge), AILED (was taken ill) | |
| 19 | Instrument set up in video booth (4) |
| OBOE | |
| Hidden and reversed [set up in] {vid}EO BO{oth} | |
| 20 | Raced around island in wet weather (4) |
| RAIN | |
| RAN (raced) containing [around] I (island) | |
Many linesmen are actually women but even they are now being replaced by ‘Hawkeye’ technology in the larger tournaments.
A very enjoyable puzzle which took me just over 7 minutes. Most of my would-be comments have already been said, though I wonder if Seconder has been seen before; it is a very clever clue and could have featured in any puzzle in the last 70 years! Were it not for Oink it might have got my CoD.
I agree that Linesman is now a slightly outdated term, but these crosswords have had many older ones, ranging from archaic to obsolete, so no complaints from me.
Many thanks to Jack for the blog.
Cedric
8.23, quickest for a while. I spent ages yesterday solving SECONDER in the 15×15 from last Saturday week, so that was a huge help. Nice puzzle.
LOI was LINESMAN- I have to confess I don’t really get the clue. While obviously you can interpret it as meaning a court of law, it doesn’t really seem cryptic to me.
You make a very good point. It’s barely cryptic, if at all. As blogger I should have called that one out!
I took it as a reference to the person calling out a foot-fault, to fit the ‘back of court’ reference, but in any case as you say barely cryptic.
Is there a rule saying EVERY clue must be cryptic? If I were a setter, I’d like the chance to bowl the occasional googly to catch out the sleepers. But as a mere mortal I shall probably be caught napping next time!
No real problems with this one: all green in 10:53, well inside my target 15:00. LOI and COD SECONDER, which I don’t remember seeing before.
Thanks to Jack and Oink.
22 minutes, which is definitely fast for me – especially as I’m visiting my parents and having to sort out all sorts of medical, financial and general chaos.
I started slowly and feared the worst, but things started to fall into place as the time wore on. In the end only EVEN went unparsed. This is particularly embarrassing, as we had a reference to a cardinal number only last week and I have a maths degree.
Many thanks to Oink (great self-reference) and Jack.
Gentle puzzle. Held up briefly by parsing Skinny, otherwise straightforward. Loved Oink – definitely top of the clue charts. Good start to the week.
9:23
A very rare sub-10 (my target is 20 minutes) so this goes down as very easy. Only hesitation was LOI REHEAR.
I seem to have found this one harder than most people today, and was stuck for a long time staring at 14d before finally spotting it to finish in 26:06
Good fun
Fairly east but did like oriental
My usual Monday brain fog descended when I looked at 7 and 8ac, but saw 9ac straight away (for once remembering what fast usually means in QC land!). Didn’t find it too taxing thereafter and finished well inside the SCC cut off.
FOI – LENTIL
LOI – REHEAR
PDM – ORIENTAL
COD – SECONDER
Great blog as always, thanks Jackkt