I never find Teazel easy and today was no exception, with this providing enough challenge to push me over target at 10:42. Good fun and I hope you enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Material confiscated by Interpol yesterday (9) |
| POLYESTER – hidden inside “Interpol yesterday“. | |
| 6 | If turning black, don’t tell the truth (3) |
| FIB – FI is “if turning” + B for “black”. | |
| 8 | Leading visitor, Virginia is most uncertain (7) |
| VAGUEST – VA is “Virginia”, and it comes before (“leading”) GUEST for “visitor”. | |
| 9 | Small island’s equipment for divers (5) |
| SCUBA – S for “small” + CUBA for “island”. | |
| 10 | Working alone, like Captain Hook? (6-6) |
| SINGLE-HANDED – OK, I laughed. Don’t judge me. COD from me. | |
| 12 | I work with Russian initially — him? (4) |
| IGOR – cryptic definition (I think, the Clue Police will no doubt be down on me like a ton of bricks though). I + GO for “work” (“does it go?”) + R for “Russian initially”. IGOR is a stereotypical Russian name. | |
| 13 | Damage muscle say in race (4) |
| TEAR – “race” as in “tear about”. | |
| 17 | Evangelist on behalf of heathen is breaking limits of deceit (12) |
| PROPAGANDIST – PRO = “on behalf of” (dulce et decorum est pro patria mori), PAGAN = “heathen”, the “limits of deceit” = DT (first and last letters) and IS goes inside DT (“breaking”). Phew! | |
| 20 | Teacher confused Barbie no end (5) |
| RABBI – anagram (“confused”) of “barbi” (“Barbie no end”, i.e. without the last letter). | |
| 21 | Captivate neighbours at table with song (7) |
| ENCHANT – EN are the “neighbours at table” because they are East and North, who are next to each other at the bridge table (sneaky!). CHANT is “song”. | |
| 23 | Drunkard periodically shouts (3) |
| SOT – every other letter (“periodically”) of “shouts”. | |
| 24 | Splendid tomb of mother lined with gold only (9) |
| MAUSOLEUM – MUM for “mother”, inside which (“lined with”) is AU for “gold” and SOLE for “only”. Quite tough. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Place flags as quiet welcome (4) |
| PAVE – P for “quiet” (as in “piano”, musical notation) + AVE for “welcome” (Latin; e.g. ave atque vale). | |
| 2 | Getting behind installing insulation (7) |
| LAGGING – lovely double definition. Such a good surface, bravo. | |
| 3 | We must support English lamb producer (3) |
| EWE – WE after E for “English”. | |
| 4 | Secure last of potent anaesthetic (6) |
| TETHER – T for “last of potent” + ETHER for “anaesthetic”. | |
| 5 | Having had a break to take in contents of gallery, got going again (9) |
| RESTARTED – RESTED for “having had a break”, into which (“to take in”) goes ART for “contents of gallery”. I took a while over this, thinking that “contents of gallery” would be “aller”. | |
| 6 | Discovered nothing in kitty (5) |
| FOUND – O for “nothing”, inside FUND for “kitty”. | |
| 7 | Fortified wine, an unknown make? (6) |
| BRANDY -BRAND Y could be “an unknown make”, ho ho. My eyebrows are levitating at the definition, however. Fortified wine is wine to which a strong distilled spirit has been added (for example port, madeira, sherry). But that is not what BRANDY is: it is wine which has been distilled, not fortified. Totally different. | |
| 11 | One of the elements that may bring Gemma ruin (9) |
| GERMANIUM – anagram (“that may bring”) of “Gemma ruin”. A semi-conductor, named by Clemens Winkler in 1886 after the country of his birth, Germany. | |
| 14 | In danger, as a condemned witch may be (2,5) |
| AT STAKE – double definition, the second whimsical. | |
| 15 | Electrician after a second stops and leaves van (6) |
| SPARKS – I seem to remember that Commonwealth/former colonies solvers may struggle with SPARKS for “electrician”. Good luck all. S for “second”; PARKS for “stops and leaves van” (which is a bit of a stretch; could have been any other vehicle. And you can park without leaving the vehicle.) | |
| 16 | Leaders in game are unusually full of tea and cake (6) |
| GATEAU – GAU are the first letters of (“leaders in”) “game are unusual”. TEA then goes inside them (“full of tea”). | |
| 18 | In area of influence old Republican was effective (5) |
| ORBIT – O for “old”, R for “Republican”, BIT for “was effective” (Collins sense 7 for “bite” – “to take firm hold of or act effectively upon”). | |
| 19 | A cat, a tiny thing (4) |
| ATOM – A + TOM. | |
| 22 | Finish off the henhouse for Bill’s partner (3) |
| COO – take the last letter off COOP and you’re left with “bill & COO”. Very good! | |
10a LOL Single Handed; had to share with Mrs AF. Judgement not relevant, we SHOULD laugh at disabled figures of fun.
LOsI 13a Tear/14d At Stake. Good when they finally dropped in. I had tried to put something into the TT (Tourist Trophy.)
5d Restarted. I was trying to use (g)ALLER(y) also.
7d Brand Y. I was laughing too much to notice the error. Of course it is a spirit, not a fortified wine.
15d POI Sparks; if you stop and DON’T leave the vehicle that is waiting (wrt parking law.) Wiktionary says Sparks is esp the radio officer in the (implied British) merchant marine.
I enjoyed this. Thanks Templar & Teazel.
Never do it on line so times not really relevant
Always enjoy Teazels humour and today was no different
Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful.
17 mins but forgot to complete 22dn. Had C and second O but didn’t notice gap between them. I had initially put BEN and failed to spot that my crossing out meant another letter was required.
A fail is a fail, whatever the cause. Even had I spotted my oversight, I’m not sure that the answer would have come to me in time to avoid the SCC cut off, so a miserable performance all round.
I completed the big crossword (took ages of course) but that’s little consolation for failing to finish the QC.
Thanks for the blog.
So, completed both the biggie and the QC (with one letter missing) but your performance is still ‘dreadful’ – when are you going to be happy?! Just saying 😉
I did this hours ago but have only just got round to posting. I really enjoyed it. It’s been Quite a Good Day – 8:23 for this and about 40 minutes for the biggie. I think I may be on the mend!
I thought this was quite easy for a Teazel – he is often my nemesis 😅 SINGLE-HANDED made me chuckle too, T. I also liked POLYESTER (well only as a clue), RABBI and FOUND. I didn’t fully parse ENCHANT – bridge is a mystery to me.
FOI Polyester LOI At stake COD Coo
Thanks to both the Ts 😊
13:14 with no errors. I’m always pleased to beat my target (13:23 – if this seems a bit random it’s because 13:22 or better scores 700+) especially when the compiler is Teazel who I find to be one of the more challenging setters. FOI POLYESTER, LOI AT STAKE, COD SINGLE HANDED. Thanks Teazel and Templar.
On reflection, think I agree with you, David P, if I have understood the possible workings of clues correctly? Brandy could be ‘something that fortified wine’?