Hi everyone. It feels like some time since we’ve seen Oink, and certainly since I’ve had the pleasure of blogging a piggy puzzle. It seemed not so easy when solving but I actually came in comfortably under my inner target time, about a minute slower than my record.
Perhaps it’s Mondayitis, but I detected a rather negative flavour to this puzzle: nothing to write home about, disapproving, a conflict in A&E … not to mention the depressed astronaut hitting the bottle … but at least the 22a Muslim sounds cheerful!
My favourite clues are 1d and 4d.
Scanning the clues for the Oink trademark, I first wondered about 10a, perhaps even a 9a 10a, but then further down found the pig in 18d. Which this puzzle was not – I very much enjoyed it. Thanks Oink!
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 | Very small duck, nothing to write home about (2-2) |
| SO-SO — SO (very) + S (small) + O (duck – no runs in cricket) | |
| 3a | Queen Victoria was said to be so disapproving (8) |
| UNAMUSED — Two indications, the first from “we are not amused,” the remark attributed to Queen Victoria (although it seems doubtful she said it) | |
| 9a | Cut up nearly all tropical fruit (7) |
| APRICOT — An anagram of (cut up) all but the last letter of (nearly all) TROPICAl | |
| 10a | Look around lake for cover (5) |
| GLAZE — GAZE (look) around L (lake) | |
| 11a | Go into hospital department? I’m not sure (5) |
| ENTER — ENT (hospital department – ear, nose and throat, the most common medical specialism in crosswordland) + ER (I’m not sure) | |
| 12a | What one might inherit from European country (6) |
| ESTATE — E (European) + STATE (country). I think this also works if you include “from” in the definition | |
| 14a | A DIY book? (13) |
| AUTOBIOGRAPHY — Cryptic definition | |
| 17a | Time to give out paper hanky (6) |
| TISSUE — T (time) + ISSUE (to give out) | |
| 19a | Conscious of conflict in A&E (5) |
| AWARE — WAR (conflict) in A&E | |
| 22a | Muslim of a cheerful disposition, some might say (5) |
| SUNNI — SUNNY (of a cheerful disposition), as some might say | |
| 23a | Press agency reduced by 50 per cent? It was a long time ago (4,3) |
| IRON AGE — IRON (press) + AGEncy without the second half (reduced by 50 per cent) | |
| 24a | Unruly kids here screamed (8) |
| SHRIEKED — An anagram of (unruly) KIDS HERE | |
| 25a | Rock band cancelling opening in current circumstances (2,2) |
| AS IS — oASIS (rock band) taking away the first letter (cancelling opening) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | One often depressed astronaut hitting the bottle here? (5-3) |
| SPACE-BAR — Two indications, the second fanciful | |
| 2d | Walk proudly in support (5) |
| STRUT — A double definition | |
| 4d | Poor to benefit more? At last! (3,6,4) |
| NOT BEFORE TIME — An anagram of (poor) TO BENEFIT MORE | |
| 5d | Power of small child proclaimed (5) |
| MIGHT — A homophone of (… proclaimed) MITE (small child) | |
| 6d | Famous actor set up new company (5-2) |
| START-UP — STAR (famous actor) + PUT (set) reversed (up, in a down entry) | |
| 7d | Profound part of nationwide epidemic (4) |
| DEEP — The answer is part of nationwiDE EPidemic | |
| 8d | Beetle son caught — one from Egypt? (6) |
| SCARAB — S (son) + C (caught) + ARAB (one from Egypt?) | |
| 13d | Prey seen all over the place in these mountains (8) |
| PYRENEES — PREY SEEN anagrammed (all over the place) | |
| 15d | Article right about pub becoming solvent (7) |
| THINNER — THE (article) and R (right) around (about) INN (pub) | |
| 16d | Cause of betrayal initially disregarded (6) |
| REASON — Without the first letter (… initially discarded), tREASON (betrayal) | |
| 18d | Town’s WI nearly smothering scoundrel (5) |
| SWINE — Town’S WI NEarly is covering (smothering) the answer | |
| 20d | Gather a large number (5) |
| AMASS — A + MASS (large number) | |
| 21d | Takes drugs, American drugs (4) |
| USES — US (American) + ES (Es, drugs) | |
10 minutes. No problems.
6:38 for the solve. No concerns – just held up for last minute in the NW where I couldn’t parse SO-SO and the APRICOT did a good job of misdirecting me to the tropics. Very much enjoyed the SPACE-BAR pun
Thank-you to Kitty and Oink who I can confirm it is a while since we’ve seen. They usually provide one puzzle per month but we only had one in late January and the one before that was Dec 10th!
(Note to Kitty – typo in the Queen Victoria quote)
Thanks New Driver – typo fixed.
Well done, ND, exactly 2 minutes ahead of me!
It’s good of you to give me these headstarts!
👏👏👏
A MER at SUNNI, quickly lowered as I assumed, correctly as it turns out, that some people rhyme it with ‘funny’ (I don’t). 6:30.
I don’t say it like that either, but as you have seen, Oink covered his back with “some might”.
We talk about people having a sunny disposition here
Ive often heard it pronounced more like “sooni” and assume that is what Kevin meant.
I assumed so too, but they say ‘sooni’ for ‘sunny’ Oop North so it can work that way too. I still think it’s best to take all such clues as aural wordplay and not worry about perfect matches. As far as I’m concerned the more outrageous the stretch to accommodate the homophone the better.
Exactly – I was brought up in Bedford where sunny rhymes with funny but here in Nottingham its often ‘soony’ with the oo’s like cookie
I pronounce cookie like “cucky”, and I’m from the north – so not sure that works.
I think the point is Sunni and sunny have different but matching pronunciations so the clue works
Totally understand the point and that the clue works – just highlighting the obvious, that we all pronounce things differently.
Sure
Perfectly pitched, 13m, so thanks Oink, and Kitty for convincing me that UNAMUSED was indeed a cryptic clue. Instead of SUNNI I started typing ISMAILI (sounds like ‘is smiley’), until I ran out of room.
Nice puzzle, thanks Kitty and Oink, 6.12 for me
Took a while for my Monday morning brain to wake up, but once I got going I found this fairly straightforward.
Started with ENTER and finished with ESTATE in 7.27.
Thanks to Kitty
Lovely puzzle to start the week- welcome back Oink! – and all done in 8:00, no hold-ups. UNAMUSED my LOI as I needed the checkers to be sure it really was that, and SPACE BAR the standout COD.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Mostly flew through this but hit mental blanks with the crossing MIGHT and GLAZE – both completely fair! Getting the pen and paper took me from a top 10 time into the realms of a still fast but not that fast 12.17.
A lovely puzzle. 25 mins for me. One pink square from a typo in my UNSMUSED. Would gave been faster if I had not put a typo in Pyrenees which left me looking for ages for a non existent answer for 25a.
Thanks to Oink and Kitty.
Many good clues (SPACE BAR, IRON AGE, SCARAB), kind of biffed SO-SO before equating SO = very. Guessed it was Oink when SWINE appeared, which was welcome. All in all, just short of 20 mins for a good start to the week.
Thanks Kitty and Oink.
Quick solve today. For some reason the piggy reference was my LOI, but knew it would be there somewhere! COD SPACE BAR. Thanks Kitty and Oink
Very nice puzzle taking 38:41 but as this was that at 2.30 a.m. due to a touch of insomnia the brain was perhaps even slower than usual.
Thanks Oink for the lesson on how to spell PYRENEES – I found three others.
COD to 1d and also THINNER
Thanks for the blog Kitty.
Trains late (wrong sort of frost) = espresso at station = 05:03 and a Red Letter Day. If it hadn’t taken me two looks to get SO-SO and three to get START UP that could have been a PB. Cuddawuddashudda.
Really good, witty puzzle, greatly enjoyed. SO-SO, APRICOT, GLAZED , SPACE-BAR and COD THINNER (where I was completely fooled by the type of solvent required) all worth the price of admission.
Many thanks Kitty and Oink.
7:31 (Bede finishes writing his Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
No issues today. AS IS was my LOI. SPACE BAR my COD.
Thanks Kitty and Oink
Glad to see the date association back in your comments. I’ve missed then in some of your recent entries!!
I like the dates too. It’s a good job Simjit is a speedy solver because once the 20-minute mark is crossed there might be trouble…
Hear, hear!
Not taxing, but amusing. I don’t mind being not taxed if I’m amused. COD SPACE BAR.
How very annoying! What would have been a PB at 5.26 but banged in GRAZE for GLAZE without thinking. Grrrr. Jolly good blog as per.
I put in GLADE until I rethought.
4:21. Third fastest time, but seven seconds off my target.
There’s always tomorrow.
4:42 for me – like a greased pig, I suppose. Nice start to the week, thanks Oink and Kitty.
Ha!
19:27 to finish this entertaining puzzle full of witty clues.
By my standards, this was a veritable 12min sprint. At one point the long sought after (but never achieved) sub-10 even seemed possible, but then I looked at the clock (the kiss of death to a fast time) and didn’t spot the now obvious Autobiography until the crossers arrived, and so the chance was gone. Lots to enjoy from Oink, with the humour of Space Bar pipping the Egyptian beetle for CoD. Invariant
I think I’ve said this before, but, to use a football analogy, it’s like a defender having a mazy run from defence into the opposition box only to realise where he is and then skying it over the bar. Not that I’m recalling anything from experience of course 😀
Aarrgh never look at the clock! I feel your pain but well done today
On the wavelength and fast today, more or less non-stop solve, though did not get the should-be-obvious AUTOBIOGRAPHY until I had a few checkers. An encouraging, enjoyable puzzle.
Liked SWINE(!), REASON, IRON AGE, and COD SPACR BAR, among others.
Thanks vm, Kitty. I didn’t parse APRICOT.
Sunny, or Sunni, Monday puzzle, much enjoyed. It felt fast so I did look at the timer and was just under 12 minutes, which is rapid for me. If they told us in advance when there was a quick Quick one (yes, I know I could look at the Quitch thing but that’s just too much faff) then I might make a determined effort to achieve just one sub 10, instead of half solving whilst looking out of the window.
Anyhow, COD to the intergalactic boozer (cue Star Wars music) and thanks to Oink for all of it, and Kitty for the blog.
Your looking out the window sounds like my day-dreaming-condolences on the end of the great Cup run by your local side!
If we hadn’t rested a few for the 6 pointer relegation do or die game against Hull midweek I am sure we would have won… 🤭
It was great that we went ahead, that was our victory. 2 out of 3 Premier victims isn’t bad!
From SO SO to AUTOBIOGRAPHY in 6:56. COD to SPACE BAR. Thanks to all.
Might help if I stopped to think…
Like Kitty, we came in faster than it felt, though 8:55 in our case which is probably just upper quintile for us. We join others in having liked SPACE BAR. Thanks Kitty and Oink.
For once I started with 1a and 1d which turned out to be a good choice as I enjoyed them both.
4.33. A steady solve only held up by trying to parse apricot, which I didn’t!
COD to “Not before time”
I also felt that it was tough but was pleased to get a good time, 12:02.
Couldn’t Parse REASON or IRON AGE, so those were my last two. I had the “initially” linked to either the word before, B{etrayal} or the word after, D{isregarded}, but it linked to the only other word in the clue!
Thanks Kitty for unpacking those.
COD SPACE BAR
I zoomed through most of this but came a cropper in the NE corner. All lovely stuff from Oink, as ever, and I finally finished in 13:03.
Thank you for the blog!
50 minutes.
Lots of problems.
Managed to overcome them.
Lovely puzzle to start the week but I was constantly interrupted by an inquisitive granddaughter. I put enjoyment (of puzzle and granddaughter) before speed, parsed them all, and still avoided the SCC.
All my thoughts and likes have been listed by others above so I won’t repeat them.
Thanks to Oink (welcome back) and Kitty.
4.15 WOT
Genuine typo this time (DEEO) but a pink square’s a pink square. Shame – decent time.
Always like an Oink and this was no different – excellent puzzle.
😞
SO-SO was FOI and AS IS would’ve been LOI except that it revealed a careless PYRENESE which had to be corrected. 6:46. Thaks Oink and Kitty.
Didn’t find this as easy as others and finished in my usual one coffee time. Held up inexplicably at the last by APRICOT/SPACE MAN. Leisurely and enjoyable plod otherwise. I always want to put two Ns in PYRENEES but luckily I had all the checkers. Hopefully I’ll remember the spelling now. COD SPACE BAR 😆 Thanks Kitty and Oink.
A beautifully pitched puzzle IMO, coming home in 12.36. Thanks to Oink, and Kitty for the excellent blog. COD to space-bar.
Most enjoyable: thank you OINK. Just under 11 minutes, which is as quick as I can ever do..
A pretty straightforward start to the week, and no real problems encountered with a finish in 7.13. Thanks to Oink and to Kitty for the excellent blog.
15:11
Held up in the NW looking for a tropical fruit and taking a while to see the clever SPACE BAR. Otherwise fairly straightforward. LOI GLAZE.
4:40
Enjoyably gentle start to the week. Momentary pauses for a few – needing all of the checkers to enter LOI NOT BEFORE TIME.
Many thanks Oink and Kitty
I started out really fast in the top, but slowed down in the bottom. Not before time is not a US expression, and I was too slow on autobiography. Apricot was my LOI, and I didn’t parse it.
Time: 7:27
I wanted to finish this quickly as I had other things to do. Turned out that was the wrong frame of mind as I got stuck in the NE. I stopped after 20 minutes.
Coming back to the puzzle I still needed a fair amount of time to get MIGHT, START UP, ESTATE, GLAZE and LOI UNAMUSED.
Nothing unfair. In fact an amusing high quality puzzle as others have observed.
COD to SPACE BAR and ticks for several others.
David
56 minutes to get through today’s. Found it to be a steady one, with no big gaps between figuring out the clues. SPACE BAR was definitely my favourite clue today. Many thanks for explaining the clues
Did no-one get held up by SO-SO or SPACE-BAR? They were my last two in by some margin. I had SO-SO written in faintly for quite a while, but just couldn’t parse it. And, as I couldn’t parse SPACE-mAn, a long alphabet trawl ensued. I crossed the line eventually, but in not far short of 40 (rather than just over 30) minutes.
Many thanks to Kitty and Oink.
My last two also- great minds!
SPACE MAN was very tempting – deliberately I suspect.
Space bar is a chestnut if you’ve been around a while.
Encouragingly straightforward – it is Monday! Likes SO-SO – biffed it immediately but took a while to parse. Thanks as ever.
All bar one done in 12 minutes but I then spent a further 2 mins on my LOI and COD – 1dn SPACE BAR. I also liked autobiography and Sunni. FOI was 1ac SO SO. A most enjoyable 14 minutes.
Tanks to Oink and Kitty.
For me, moderate difficulty but I got there in 18 minutes. SOSO and UNAMUSED went straight in and I perked up, but the middle of the grid held me up and 4d (aptly) took me ages! Initially I entered PAST AGE at 23a thinking that Press agency gave me PA, but REASON made me rethink and press suddenly took on a new meaning! Clever clues, great fun and in Suffolk the sun is shining bright. Thanks Oink and Kitty
10 mins…
Fastest time for quite a while, and probably one of the more straight forward QC’s as well. Some amusing clues, including the usual porcine reference.
FOI – 1ac “So-so”
LOI – 21dn “Uses”
COD – 1dn “Space Bar”
Thanks as usual!
9:11 A fun Quickie that cheered me up after an inordinately long slow struggle with the Biggie. Like so many others, COD to SPACE-BAR
10.07 This flew in until I was breezed-blocked for five minutes by NOT BEFORE TIME. I might have been quicker had I noticed it was an anagram. Thanks Kitty and Oink.
Slower than we should been, and ended up with space man for 1d. we felt we should have been quicker.
21 min finish. Held up in the NE corner, slow to see Start up. And couldn’t parse Glare until Glaze shimmered to my rescue. Thanks Kitty and Oink