Solving time: 9 minutes
My first blog of a puzzle by Jimmy whose 4th offering this is. His first was in May this year and he has produced one per month since then. I found it straightforward, but how did you do?
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Competitor withdrawing from race course after midday loses nothing (3-7) |
| NON-STARTER | |
| NO{o}N (midday) [loses nothing], STARTER (course) | |
| 7 | Thieves — or where they might end up (5) |
| NICKS | |
| A mildly cryptic hint supports the definition. NICK can be slang for prison or a police station, so both are applicable here. | |
| 8 | Following tabloid, see blemish on the face of a star (7) |
| SUNSPOT | |
| SUN (tabloid), SPOT (see). The Sun is a downmarket sibling of The Times. | |
| 10 | Raunchier novel creating terrible storm (9) |
| HURRICANE | |
| Anagram [novel] of RAUNCHIER | |
| 12 | I’m surprised Rothko gets regularly scratched (3) |
| OHO | |
| {r}O{t}H{k}O [regularly scratched]. Mark Rothko (1903-1970) was an American abstract painter. | |
| 13 | Hurry in Athens, travelling around (6) |
| HASTEN | |
| Anagram [travelling around] of ATHENS | |
| 15 | DJ cross during day before party (6) |
| TUXEDO | |
| X (cross) contained by [during] TUE (day), DO (party). ‘Before’ is simply a juxtaposition indicator, superfluous to the wordplay but adding to the surface. DJ stands for ‘Dinner Jacket’. | |
| 16 | Queen breaking a French vase (3) |
| URN | |
| R (Queen – Regina) contained by [breaking] UN (a, French) | |
| 17 | Stretching son with schooling (9) |
| STRAINING | |
| S (son), TRAINING (schooling) | |
| 20 | Add spice to starter of lamb, even in cooking (7) |
| ENLIVEN | |
| Anagram [cooking] of L{amb} [starter of…] EVEN IN | |
| 22 | Horrify a learner on TikTok or Instagram, say (5) |
| APPAL | |
| APP (TikTok or Instagram, say), A, L (learner). We had ‘TikTok or Instagram, say / APP’ in the puzzle I blogged last Tuesday. | |
| 23 | Material used when writing intro Yeats devised (10) |
| STATIONERY | |
| Anagram [devised] of INTRO YEATS | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Tastier sorbet, say, eaten by empty neighbour (5) |
| NICER | |
| ICE (sorbet, say) contained [eaten] by N{eighbou}R [empty] | |
| 2 | Malice admitted by gymnast in Essex (9) |
| NASTINESS | |
| Hidden in [admitted by] {gym}NAST IN ESS{ex} | |
| 3 | Drunk turned up and caught a Puccini work (5) |
| TOSCA | |
| SOT (drunk) reversed [turned up], C (caught), A | |
| 4 | Friend of Harry’s working under Rex (3) |
| RON | |
| R (Rex), ON (working). I understand this is a reference to Ron Weasley who is a best friend of Harry Potter. I’ve never read any of this stuff and have seen only the very first film (under protest). | |
| 5 | Old policeman with energy to become really angry (7) |
| EXPLODE | |
| EX (old), PLOD (policeman), E (energy), Dear old PC Plod, at least I knew this book character! | |
| 6 | Where roofers work for free (2,3,5) |
| ON THE HOUSE | |
| A barely cryptic hint precedes the definition. I lost some time here considering ‘on the slate’ before discounting it as it doesn’t quite fit either part of the clue. | |
| 9 | Utterly hot, moving about (10) |
| THOROUGHLY | |
| Anagram [moving] of HOT, then ROUGHLY (about) | |
| 11 | Explain cryptic clue, I see (9) |
| ELUCIDATE | |
| Anagram [cryptic] of CLUE, then I, DATE (see) | |
| 14 | Just one tango in vest (7) |
| SINGLET | |
| SINGLE (just one), T (tango – NATO alphabet) | |
| 18 | Classical piece penned by composer on document (5) |
| RONDO | |
| Hidden in [penned by] {compose}R ON DO{cument}. Here’s one of the world’s most famous Rondos (by Mozart) played to the gallery by Lang Lang. I think he was enjoying himself! | |
| 19 | Suggest merely going topless (5) |
| IMPLY | |
| {s}IMPLY (merely) [going topless] | |
| 21 | Tub or the box containing article, overturned (3) |
| VAT | |
| TV (box) containing A (indefinite article) reversed [overturned]. ”TV / box’ may be dated slang now but at one time it was common enough. | |
Very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Jimmy and Jack.
I started off quite quickly but slowed down to finish in 12:15, but I enjoyed the ride. I liked STATIONERY, TUXEDO and ELUCIDATE – I made that one difficult for myself by not writing the E very clearly and thought it began with a C for a while!
No problem with Ron – as others have said, having children of a certain age made that one a doddle. I must admit to having found the books somewhat overwritten and was glad when my son wanted to read them for himself! I saw the first film (which was quite fun), fell asleep in the second one and left MrB to take the kids to the cinema thereafter, until they were old enough to take themselves 😅 But I have to thank JKR for getting a reluctant reader into books. Prior to that, it had just been the Hornby and Lego catalogues, and the Beano 😂
FOI Non-starter LOI Stationery COD Hurricane (and anagram of the day!)
Thanks Jimmy and Jack
20 minutes
A thoroughly dismal performance, with STRAINING and RONDO taking forever.
I also got just one answer on the Quintagram.
Why can’t I do this?
Thanks for the blog.
A really enjoyable puzzle, thank you Jimmy. Challenging yes, and took me about 40 minutes but doable at my level (with some bits of hard thinking). And (hooray) nothing particularly obscure.
Spent best part of 2 hours on big crossword and failed again.
That’s over 2 hours in total today on cryptics and I feel like I’m going backwards.
17:46. It felt hard-ish but fair, and also a bit unusual in a very positive and entertaining sense. You old hands may have a better way of articulating this, but the wavelength (whether I was on it or not) seemed somehow different.
It’s my wife’s birthday today (or rather, posting shortly after midnight as I am, yesterday) so this post may or may not be benefiting from the insight conferred by too many G&Ts. Probably not, on balance.
17:21 no errors. FOI SUNSPOT, LOI RONDO. Joint COD NICKS (I like a good pun) and TUXEDO for the misleading surface. Thanks Jimmy and Jackkt.