Hi everyone. Trelawney is a setter who knows how to keep the difficulty level in check, so I am expecting many happy campers today.
Perhaps because I could smell a PB in the air, I had a moment near the end when I forgot how to type and had to have a few goes at it … and then found I had inexplicably entered some rubbish into another of the entries. So no record for me. (Actually I was quite far off my best time because on checking my just-for-fun-and-the-love-of-stats spreadsheet I’ve been reminded that once upon a Trelawney I broke the 3 minute barrier. My previous best had stood for so long I’d actually forgotten that!)
My award for Clue of the Day goes to the Hull resident in 12d, a cute definition which made me smile. Thanks Trelawney!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most 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 | Carelessly put down cheap wine (5) |
| PLONK — We start with a double definition | |
| 4a | Send away detectives and teacher (7) |
| DISMISS — DIS (DIs: detectives) and MISS (teacher) | |
| 8a | Some squires ponder answer (7) |
| RESPOND — Some squiRES PONDer | |
| 9a | Poets cooked pasta sauce (5) |
| PESTO — POETS anagrammed (cooked) | |
| 10a | Very dark sports field beginning to let in support (5-5) |
| PITCH-BLACK — PITCH (sports field) + the first letter of (beginning to) Let in BACK (support) | |
| 14a | Film a big tank by a tower, ultimately (6) |
| AVATAR — A + VAT (big tank) + A + toweR, ultimately | |
| 15a | Almost sense an exotic bird (6) |
| TOUCAN — All but the last letter of (almost) TOUCh (sense) + AN | |
| 17a | No central American nation accepts extremely peculiar award (5,5) |
| NOBEL PRIZE — NO + BELIZE (central American nation) takes in (accepts) the outside letters of (extremely) PeculiaR | |
| 20a | Booze held back by predicament (5) |
| CIDER — This is contained backwards in (held back by) pREDICament | |
| 22a | Praise, in an insincere way, is less exciting (7) |
| FLATTER — Two definitions | |
| 23a | English nap — back to front — most relaxed! (7) |
| EASIEST — E (English) + SIESTA (nap) with its last letter moved to the beginning (back to front) | |
| 24a | Planet hater gets confused (5) |
| EARTH — HATER is anagrammed (gets confused) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Component of snare turned over (4) |
| PART — TRAP (snare) reversed (turned over) | |
| 2d | Expel leader abandoning medieval event (4) |
| OUST — The first letter is leaving (leader abandoning) jOUST (medieval event) | |
| 3d | Kenya’s leader currently with one lanky smart alec (4-2-3) |
| KNOW-IT-ALL — Kenya’s initial letter (leader) + NOW (currently) + I (one) + TALL (lanky) | |
| 4d | Take off edges of drainage tube (6) |
| DEDUCT — Exterior letters of (edges of) DrainagE + DUCT (tube) | |
| 5d | Drain liquid from a tree (3) |
| SAP — A double definition | |
| 6d | Example of fashionable posture (8) |
| INSTANCE — IN (fashionable) + STANCE (posture) | |
| 7d | Supplying baby’s beds upset monarch (8) |
| STOCKING — COTS (baby’s beds) reversed (upset) + KING (monarch) | |
| 11d | Prehistoric period began with zero struggles (6,3) |
| BRONZE AGE — BEGAN with ZERO is anagrammed (struggles) | |
| 12d | Hull resident ran cable haphazardly? (8) |
| BARNACLE — An anagram of (… haphazardly) RAN CABLE. Resident on the hull of a ship. Chambers defines the barnacle as “a cirripede crustacean that adheres to rocks and ship bottoms” (and cirripede is now my WOD!) | |
| 13d | Island pub awful, so heading north (8) |
| BARBADOS — BAR (pub) + BAD (awful) + SO going upwards (heading north) | |
| 16d | Academic exposed City to make money (6) |
| PROFIT — PROF (academic) + cITy without its outer letters (exposed …) | |
| 18d | Kerfuffle starts to seem terribly insignificant really (4) |
| STIR — Initial letters of (starts to) Seem Terribly Insignificant Really | |
| 19d | Principal part of the foot (4) |
| ARCH — Another double definition | |
| 21d | Regularly arouse regret (3) |
| RUE — Alternate letters of (regularly) aRoUsE | |
Very enjoyable. 6:51.
18 minutes and very satisfying they were. Biffed HEBRIDES until it didn’t work with AVATAR and NOBEL PRIZE, so BARBADOS it became! PLONK was plonked down just like the cheapest wine bottles were on Parisian tables of my youth – I always thought that was the derivation (finer wine bottles were caressed by the waiters). Lots of fun clues and excellent blog – thanks Trelawney and Kitty
A gentle and entertaining start to the week with a true QC.
FOI 8a Respond
LOI 4d Deduct
COD 23a Easiest
5.41 with barely a pause.
Plonk, booze and an awful pub – I wonder what sort of weekend Trelawny had! (Yes, I do know these are set way in advance really😅)
Anyway, I thought it was fun, but no PB for me.
8:03 all parsed
FOI (and a big smile) Plonk LOI Flatter COD Barnacle
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
On edit: I forgot the cider and, of course, the toucan was the Guinness symbol for years too! It must have been a hell of a weekend 🍻
🍷
This was one of those solving experiences where I repeatedly said to myself, now, wasn’t that easier than you thought? So I felt my time of 13:49 shoulda coulda woulda been shorter. But then I would have had fewer minutes of fun. Anyway, hey, I’m gardening here.
Liked EASIEST, KNOW-IT-ALL, BRONZE AGE best.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty. Cirripede! Also sub-3 minutes!
I must be getting there as it was SW that I stalled on, and it appears to have required effort from quite a few others.
Sub 5-mins which maybe a PB for the QC.
Certainly on wavelength today as I seemed to guess every other word before I had even read the clue.
I’m with the blogger BARNACLE also being my clue of the day.
Cheers blogger and setter.
A very disappointing 11 minutes (given the Snitch score and the times achieved by my comparators).
Failed by 2 on 15 x 15. Out of my depth general knowledge-wise.
Not quite a PB at 5:58. Since I think we had a clean sweep all the way through, perhaps for the first ever time I’m not sure how we’ve managed to beat that previously (though by just 9 s) as we always solve on the phone and my keying was unusually good this time. Perhaps we just spent more time with one explaining the parsing to the other before moving on. I think it will be another age before we touch that! Thanks, Kitty and Trelawney.
10:37, another excellent puzzle from my favourite compiler (what happened to Bjorn, my second favourite?). The following will seem similar to other comments but, FOI – DISMISS, LOI – EASIEST and COD has to be BARNACLE. Thanks Kitty and especially Trelawney
Two days later and Bjorn is back with his third puzzle, and I’m pleased to say it is up to the high standard of his previous two. I’ve left a comment so won’t repeat myself here.
Love the cap on Hull. Great misdirection–especially for a Yankee who has to figure out exactly where Hull is first.