Hello all. Was this doubly difficult or was I doubly dense? For whatever reason, I took over double my usual time on this.
(16:12 if you want the details. The only time I’ve taken longer in recent years was just a month ago: I hope it doesn’t stir up horrid memories for you if I mention Breadman’s 2673, in which a mental block on a few answers kept me working until 28:55. That’s by far the biggest number on my spreadsheet – at least if we exclude infinity, given I’m no less prone than the next person to the odd dnf.)
Perhaps it was the hedgehog / portcullis grid. Or maybe it was the double definitions; one of them (5d) was my last in. I’ve noted before Mara’s liking for this clue type in his QCs, and here we have seven!
(When going through the doubles to count them, some names occurred to me and I felt compelled to complete the set. To go with Snow White Dove[tail], the Seven Double Defs: Woody, Sweetie, Smasher, Sheepish, Powerhouse, Champ and Ratty.)
Thanks to Mara. How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most 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 | |
| 7a | Record old emblem (4) |
| LOGO — LOG (record) + O (old) | |
| 8a | Joe Public, name very unusual (8) |
| EVERYMAN — An anagram (… unusual) of NAME VERY | |
| 9a | Bloke, one with chainsaw? (6) |
| FELLER — The first of our double definitions. Someone felling trees perhaps | |
| 10a | Drink that’s small within reach (6) |
| SHANDY — S (small) + HANDY (within reach) | |
| 11a | A piece of cake each — extremely scrummy (4) |
| EASY — EA (each) + outer letters of (extremely) ScrummY | |
| 12a | Revolutionary patrols a country (8) |
| PASTORAL — An anagram of (revolutionary) PATROLS A. Country here is an adjective | |
| 15a | Ordinal in chapel, even thicker (8) |
| ELEVENTH — Hidden in chapEL, EVEN THicker | |
| 17a | Pudding not very good (4) |
| DUFF — Two definitions | |
| 18a | Briefly talk about field event (6) |
| DISCUS — Without the last letter (briefly) DISCUSs (talk about) | |
| 21a | American man, vandal? (6) |
| BUSTER — Double definition | |
| 22a | Glass horse on front of cabinet broken (8) |
| SCHOONER — An anagram of (… broken) HORSE ON with the first letter (front) of Cabinet | |
| 23a | Run one competitive event (4) |
| RACE — R (run) + ACE (one) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Joint vote rigged in Irish parliamentary house (8) |
| DOVETAIL — An anagram of (rigged) VOTE in DÁIL (Irish parliamentary house) | |
| 2d | Muddled as a mammoth? (6) |
| WOOLLY — Double definition | |
| 3d | Animal burying first of presents in earth (8) |
| TERRAPIN — We are inserting (burying) the first of Presents in TERRAIN (earth) | |
| 4d | Dining room in home’s sumptuous (4) |
| MESS — The answer is found in hoME’S Sumptuous | |
| 5d | Live wire in generator? (6) |
| DYNAMO — Two definitions | |
| 6d | Group not allowed to speak? (4) |
| BAND — Sounds like (… to speak) BANNED (not allowed) | |
| 13d | Old songwriter has butchers dancing (8) |
| SCHUBERT — BUTCHERS anagrammed (dancing) | |
| 14d | Terribly close, far outside (8) |
| ALFRESCO — An anagram of (terribly) CLOSE, FAR | |
| 16d | Boy, one receiving gold medal? (6) |
| VICTOR — Another double definition … | |
| 17d | Leave sweltering region? (6) |
| DESERT — … and a final one | |
| 19d | Bird’s heading off — a very short distance! (4) |
| INCH — fINCH (bird) without its first letter (heading off) | |
| 20d | Good numbers coming up — one of those? (4) |
| SONG — G (good) and NOS (numbers) reversed (coming up). The definition refers back to the earlier part of the clue, so “those” should be understood as “those numbers” | |
A toughie which needed a couple of sittings but some great PDMs and ultimately very satisfying once The Gentleman and I had cracked it.
Some excellent surfaces.
COD 8A EVERYMAN
2D WOOLY
LOI DYNAMO
I put BASHER for BUSTER, turns out he’s English not American. Hey ho.
Thanks Mara and Kitty.
Like many we made a fast start and then decelerated markedly. At 16:50 about 30% slower in the end than our nominal average. LOI DUFF, unlocked by Mrs T spotting ALFRESCO to provide the F. Failed to parse SCHOONER but didn’t worry about it for too long. ELEVENTH was nicely hidden. I’d vaguely recalled Dail but didn’t pursue it until we had all the checkers as I was stuck on the misdirection of the ‘common enterprise’ meaning of joint. Overall I’d say tough but fair with some clever clues. Thanks Mara and Kitty!
38 minutes. A miserable performance. I’m so disillusioned that I can’t find the motivation to look at the big crossword. Every week starts in the same depressing manner.
I appreciate I’m not alone in having a bad time today.
After a surprisingly hard for me Monday 15×15 I sought sanctuary in the quicky. Usually 10 mins max when I do it: today 45. And its Monday…