Hello all. Joker can sometimes be tricky but sometimes goes easier on the solver. For me, this came very much in the latter category. Your mileage may vary. I really liked 12d and 15d; admittedly these are two of the more complex ones but there are some plainer gems too, such as 5d. Thanks Joker!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, 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 | Heartily congratulating rugby players getting a round ahead (12) |
| BACKSLAPPING — BACKS (rugby players, the ones behind the forwards) + LAPPING (getting a round ahead, the round being a circuit of a race track) | |
| 8a | Work taking a long time — Parsifal, perhaps (5) |
| OPERA — OP (work) + ERA (a long time) | |
| 9a | One scheming young wizard, about fifty (7) |
| PLOTTER — POTTER (young wizard) around (about) L (fifty) | |
| 10a | Thanks on being fed last of the drink (3) |
| TEA — TA (thanks) having inserted into it (on being fed) the last letter of thE | |
| 11a | English and American work at key complex (9) |
| ELABORATE — E (English) and LABOR (American work) + AT + E (key, in music) | |
| 13a | Short of French cheese, only one piece of fromage (5) |
| BRIEF — BRIE (French cheese) + one letter of (only one piece of) Fromage | |
| 14a | Eminent lecturer returned around first half of term (5) |
| NOTED — DON (lecturer) reversed (returned) around the first half of TErm | |
| 16a | Distant US home rebuilt — a place in the country (9) |
| FARMHOUSE — FAR (distant) + an anagram of (… rebuilt) US HOME | |
| 17a | Bone carried by tribesman (3) |
| RIB — The answer is found inside (carried by) tRIBesman | |
| 19a | Begin once more to relax with music, say (7) |
| RESTART — REST (to relax) with ART (music, say) | |
| 21a | First pair of elephants together with antelope (5) |
| ELAND — The initial tow letters of (first pair of) ELephants + AND (together with) | |
| 22a | Abuse met at minster, unfortunately (12) |
| MISTREATMENT — MET AT MINSTER anagrammed (unfortunately) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Put sole initially in footwear for lift (5) |
| BOOST — We are instructed to put the first letter of (… initially) Sole in BOOT (footwear) | |
| 2d | Knight cold and hot over quivering Valerie (9) |
| CHEVALIER — C (cold) and H (hot), as seen on taps, above (over) an anagram of (quivering) VALERIE | |
| 3d | Modern painting restorers are concerned with this (5-2-3-3) |
| STATE-OF-THE-ART — Definition plus a literal interpretation of the answer: painting restorers are concerned with the STATE OF THE ART | |
| 4d | Look — a penny on fruit (6) |
| APPEAR — A + P (penny) on PEAR (fruit) | |
| 5d | I, perhaps, fix declaration (13) |
| PRONOUNCEMENT — PRONOUN (I, perhaps) + CEMENT (fix) | |
| 6d | Fanatic beheaded king (3) |
| NUT — Without the first letter (beheaded) cNUT (king) | |
| 7d | Finish after Friday, mate (6) |
| FRIEND — END (finish) after FR (Friday) | |
| 12d | How to make neat see-saw or yo-yo? (9) |
| ALTERNATE — How to make NEAT? One way is to change around the letters in (ALTER) NATE. To see-saw and to yo-yo both mean to fluctuate rapidly between two extremes, hence to alternate | |
| 13d | Earlier tidal wave carrying energy and force (6) |
| BEFORE — BORE (tidal wave – for instance the famous Severn Bore) carrying E (energy) and F (force), both abbreviations from physics | |
| 15d | In gospel truth this reptile goes backwards (6) |
| TURTLE — In gospEL TRUTh the answer is found backwards (this … goes backwards) | |
| 18d | Bathroom fitting I’d bet needs throwing out (5) |
| BIDET — I‘D BET must be anagrammed (needs throwing out) | |
| 20d | Almost miss out winter sports equipment (3) |
| SKI — All but the last letter of (almost) SKIp (miss out) | |
A miserable 24 minutes.
Poor performance today. Far too much biffing and not enough parsing means I really wasn’t on it and deserve another day in the SCC. Felt all at sea and had my usual Monday brain fog.
Despite this, had only 3 to get with plenty of time to avoid SCC (more luck than any vestige of skill), but took ages to get ELABORATE, ALTERNATE and – totally unforgivably – APPEAR. Amongst my many failings is a mental block when I see ‘on’ in a down clue. When will I get it through my thick skull that ‘on’ means before rather than after? Like a complete idiot, I put AP at the end until I realised my error. Had I been anywhere near competent with this clue, I may just have seen ELABORATE a bit sooner and so had the A for ALTERNATE. A self inflicted wound.
Very little satisfaction in this and an awful start to the week when I combine the lack of parsing and my SCC-level time. No doubt Snitch says it was easy (I dare not look).
Still only one SCC escape this year. Shocking.
Thanks for the blog.
PS Now looked at Snitch – thought so!
PPS Failed on Quintagram because I had never heard of TOURNEDOS. I really am quite ignorant.
Biffed 19a as Refrain – that held me up a bit but 20d was obvious…
11:42
COD state of the art.