Hi everybody. I really enjoyed this, and I suspect I won’t be alone. Trelawney keeps the difficulty down and the enjoyment up. It was close to personal-best-except-for-that-one-time-I-smashed-it territory for me, but I still found time to smile and appreciate the excellent surfaces.
Hearing about the dodgy inn in 13a, that the pub tea is awful (15a), how the restaurant employee drops one drink (1d) and seeing the huge drinks bill in 6d, the blog title naturally suggested itself. (When I solved 6d I was thinking that the drinks were very pricey, but on reflection maybe there were just lots of them. A more fun way of running up a large bill!) It could have been a more drinks-filled puzzle than it is: the optic 7a isn’t the kind you find in bars, 12a isn’t rum, and 3d isn’t necessarily a lager lout, although it is possible. All good fun – cheers 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 | Desire unknown nerd, a chocolate factory owner (5,5) |
| WILLY WONKA — WILL (desire) + Y (unknown, of the mathematical kind) + WONK (nerd – as seen in “policy wonk”) + A | |
| 7a | Choose interesting course primarily related to vision (5) |
| OPTIC — OPT (choose) + initial letters of (… primarily) Interesting Course | |
| 8a | Continuous noise by bongo, say, is mediocre (7) |
| HUMDRUM — HUM (continuous noise) by DRUM (bongo, say) | |
| 10a | Somehow help Ron to the top of the world? (5,4) |
| NORTH POLE — An anagram of (somehow) HELP RON TO | |
| 12a | Not even unusual? (3) |
| ODD — A double definition | |
| 13a | Vet ran dodgy inn (6) |
| TAVERN — An anagram of (… dodgy) VET RAN | |
| 15a | Positive pub tea is awful (6) |
| UPBEAT — PUB TEA is anagrammed (awful) | |
| 16a | Outlaw’s gang incomplete (3) |
| BAN — BANd (gang) without the last letter (incomplete) | |
| 17a | Rigid loop found in small shelter (9) |
| STRINGENT — RING (loop) found in S (small) and TENT (shelter) | |
| 20a | Spice up some rotten live news (7) |
| ENLIVEN — Some rottEN LIVE News | |
| 22a | Keen on covering footballer’s last start (5) |
| INTRO — INTO (keen on) around (covering) footballeR’s last letter | |
| 23a | Trade Monet works for art gallery (4,6) |
| TATE MODERN — TRADE MONET is anagrammed (works) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Restaurant employee drops one drink (5) |
| WATER — WA[i]TER (restaurant employee) sheds (drops) I (one) | |
| 2d | Fight to secure musical instruments (4,5) |
| LOCK HORNS — LOCK (to secure) + HORNS (musical instruments) | |
| 3d | Lout overturned dried grass on two ducks (5) |
| YAHOO — Upside down (overturned) HAY (dried grass) on O O (two ducks – zeros in cricket) | |
| 4d | Resistance unit owes him money initially (3) |
| OHM — We find the unit of electrical resistance in the first letters of (… initially) Owes Him Money | |
| 5d | King and a libertine admitting love for singing activity (7) |
| KARAOKE — K (king) + A RAKE (a libertine) taking in (admitting) O (love) | |
| 6d | Drinks bill extremely large in Arthur’s seat location? (5,5) |
| ROUND TABLE — ROUND (drinks) TAB (bill) + outer letters of (extremely) Large. A sneaky misdirection towards Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh | |
| 9d | Time during intervention for relaxing exercise (10) |
| MEDITATION — T (time) in (during) MEDIATION (intervention) | |
| 11d | Dear old partner lost in thought (9) |
| EXPENSIVE — EX (old partner) + PENSIVE (lost in thought) | |
| 14d | Country house contains an orchid (7) |
| VANILLA — VILLA (country house) contains AN. I have learned that the vanilla plant is an orchid | |
| 18d | Beatle starts to needle George in Brazilian city (5) |
| RINGO — Initial letters of (starts to) Needle George in RIO (Brazilian city) | |
| 19d | Polished off and defeated without leader (5) |
| EATEN — [b]EATEN (defeated) missing its first letter (without leader) | |
| 21d | Regularly avoided struggle (3) |
| VIE — Regular letters of (regularly) aVoIdEd | |
What fun. God bless you, Trelawney – you make my day!
Pi ❤️
A gentle but enjoyable start to the week, from WILLY WONKA to STRINGENT in 4.07.
Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney
A couple of answers, like YAHOO, were easily biffed from checkers (Y_H__), without, or with little, reference to the clue. 4:43.
Yes, a gentle start to the week, all done in 7:13. LOCK HORNS was my LOI as I needed the checkers, and I was indeed misled into briefly considering what Edinburgh had to do with the clue containing Arthur’s Seat, but otherwise no hold-ups.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
4:38 once the panic-biffed STRoNGEsT had been corrected! Reached last three of that along with ROUND-TABLE, BAN in 3min20 and when ring=O flashed through my mind, I went with it. No risk it, no biscuit.
Found myself marvelling at Trelawney’s ability to produce good surfaces and quick times as I typed in RINGO. Thanks to Kitty for the blog.
A scorching 4.40 gave me a new PB, so it can’t have been very hard. Thanks Kitty and Trelawney, fun puzzle.
NHO WONK but FOI. After all, there can’t be too many other well known chocolate factory owners. LOI LOCK HORNS
Pretty much on my par 21 minutes.
Thanks Kitty and Trelawny
Every day a learning day – NHO WONK meaning nerd or YAHOO meaning lout – but both obvious from the clues. Really enjoyable puzzle today – straightforward and fun. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
8 minutes, my best time since 13th May and very welcome after last week’s rather slow run.
A nice gentle start to the week, and some fine surfaces from Trelawney to enjoy. Thanks to you too Kitty.
FOI WILLY WONKA
LOI STRINGENT
COD TATE MODERN
TIME 3:13
So, as it was a Monday (and might be on the easier side) I’d submit to Leaderboard. I found the whole solve rather anxiety inducing tbh. To add insult to injury my typo (eEpensive) was costly. 7:35 with a pink square Doh! It would have been a crossword club leaderboard PB. Ho hum I won’t be trying that again. My sprint days are over; I’ll stick to a leisurely stroll from now on 😉
Ta Kitty and Trelawney
Fun crossword for a Monday. My only hold-up was ROUND TABLE as I assumed Arthur’s Seat was a location I was looking for. Surprised to find I can’t spell KARAOKE. Liked LOCK HORNS and MEDITATION.
Thanks Kitty and setter.
I usually find Trelawney offers a good puzzle but, looking back, he always took me to the mid-teens.
Today’s was an an enjoyable and well-pitched (true) QC IMO and, whilst I don’t time things as rigorously as I used to, it took me well under 10 mins (all parsed).
A welcome start to the week and a bit of a confidence booster.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
👏
Nice!
Same FOI, LOI and COD as Busman but not the same time! About 10 minutes for me.
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
Great puzzle. Really enjoyed being able to solve in one fast swoop. FOI WONKA, LOI LOCK HORNS. Liked many, COD EXPENSIVE.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
yes very gentle from Trelawney. A second best ever for me in 4:44. Missed out on the PB which is 4:32 by lazily wrongfooting myself with YOBBO for YAHOO causing me problem on the otherwise straightforward HUMDRUM.
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.
You and ND are 3rd and 2nd in the Personal Nitch column!!
Great start to the week, LOI ROUND TABLE: got the table bit but couldn’t get Edinburgh out of my mind for the rest. Even so, well outside the gates to the SCC, which makes a change.
Thanks, Kitty and Trelawney.
Great fun. A PB for me at 8:30. Enjoyed the surfaces and generally an excellent QC
I certainly found the right wavelength on this one. All bar two of the across clues went in almost without a thought and every single down clue went in on the first pass. With all the crossers in place the two remaining across clues, STRINGENT and LOI INTRO, went in straight away for a massive PB, 3:51, beating my previous mark by fully 43 seconds.
9:52 Felt could have been PB territory but slowed up with ROUND TABLE where I thought Camelot was involved.
15×15 close to PB today as well.
All but 2 in the across pass, then all of the downs in order, 20A in seconds and then …
… ages later put in Strangest for 17a. Ho hum.
Very enjoyable whizz through thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
Phew, sub 20 after staring at LOI LOCK HORNS for about five minutes. HARPS and HORNS were both considered but, knowing the setter, I had a feeling that the answer wasn’t going to be a musical instrument.
Thank you Trelawney and Kitty.
Very well expressed, Kitty; sounds like a good advertising slogan. “Trelawney keeps the difficulty down and the enjoyment up”. Precisely! All good fun, only LOI STRINGENT needed an alphabet trawl. Slow to get WILLY WONKA, couldn’t stop thinking wishy-washy, and NHO nerd = WONK. DNK YAHOO was a lout, nor that VANILLA was an orchid. We all learn!
Your advertising slogan reminds me of a radio jingle that has stuck in my brain from the 1950’s.
“The values go up, up, up
And the prices go down, down, down.
Robert Hall this season
Will show you the reason –
Low overhead, low overhead.
I had to ask my dad what low overhead meant and so got my first economics lesson.
Is it a bungalow? 😜
Indeed!
Enjoyable puzzle with some very neat surfaces, but I knocked nearly a minute off my quickest time and this was my first sub-3 minuter. I don’t suppose I shall ever get close to it again unless Trelawney sets a similar puzzle.
I’ve still never managed a clean sweep of acrosses and downs, but I think this was the closest I’ve come to it – only missing 3 acrosses, then got all the downs, then filled in the missing acrosses, ending with UPBEAT.
2:17
Wow, were your fingers on fire as you were typing?
Ridiculous isn’t it? I do the concise in a similar kind of time unless I get completely stuck as is reasonably often the case.
Barely cryptic, but still such an enjoyable puzzle when read back – Trelawney has that down pat I think.
Wowsers! Nice to see you again, even if it was just to make us all jealous.
Nice!
A rare sub 10 for us! And what fun – biffing and parsing in tandem. We, too learned of the source of vanilla. Well, there we are….
Spelling karoake KARAOKE was a challenge..cannot confess to having tried the activity. Suspect that would be a greater challenge…and a daunting moment for those around me.
Thank you Trelawney and Kitty.
A nice gentle start to the week. From WILLY WONKA to STRINGENT in 6:11. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
Crikey! Positively flew through this and learnt a new word – NHO wonk. I don’t ever time myself, but this must have been one of my fastest solves.
FOI the wonky one
LOI stringent, having toyed very briefly with strongest from the crossers
Lots to like in this friendly puzzle to start the week
Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
3:41. Gentle but fun. I liked the awful pub tea. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
Managed to solve in 23 minutes! Really enjoyable puzzle, hadn’t heard of YAHOO being a lout, but the wordplay was nice enough to figure it out. Really liked HUMDRUM and FOI was WILLY WONKA, but had to be with it being one of my favourite books from childhood. Thank you for the blog 😁
I could not think of Willy Wonka for the life of me. I’d have got a few more with the checkers from that, as it was eight without much thought. Missed expensive also which should have been blindingly obvious.
Finished correctly in 30 minutes. Hooray ! First success for a while.
The chocolate factory owner was not the name that I had been using for him. Took a while to convince myself that 4 down (Resistance unit) was not Ahm.
Nice to start the week with accurate typing. Like others I was pretty speedy today coming home in 6.15. Eight on the first pass of acrosses followed by lots and lots of downs. Hit a panic thinking I need GK to get VANILLA and that a particular type of horn was going to be needed (only just realised I should have been considering harps too – thanks IanV). Finished up with STRINGENT, LOCK HORNS and ROUND TABLE – each adding valuable seconds!
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney for a fun puzzle and a great blog.
6d Round table had me stuck in Edinburgh until all the crossers were in and the penny dropped.
1a Willy W foxed me as I don’t remember reading it to my kids and I rather thought Charlie was the chocolatier. Perhaps Mr Terry had a given name of Wally? No, I thought not. I tried Wishy-Washy for a bit, as Martinu.
23a Monet’s appearance in the anagrist for Tate Modern was clever.
Wow, lots of scorching times today. Mine didn’t even make my top ten – I fell into the “must have something to do with Edinburgh” trap; couldn’t see LOI LOCK HORNS without the checkers; and put “yobbo” instead of YAHOO (then stared at it for a bit, realised it couldn’t parse and saw the light).
All that pushed me out to 05:36, which only just squeaked into the top 100 and it’s not even 11am yet!! (Another amazing stat – the Lord Verlaine did this in 01:40 …)
As others have said, all done without compromising the quality of the surfaces so hearty round of applause for The Squire and many thanks Kitty.
11:22
Nice start to the week. Struggled to see MEDITATION as exercise, but I guess an exercise doesn’t need to be physical. LOI EXPENSIVE.
Managed to squeeze in a rare sub-15, despite losing time wondering where the dried grass had gone in Yobbo 🙄. As others have said, this was a perfectly pitched QC from Trelawney, with the smooth surface of 17ac, Stringent, getting a nose ahead of Round Table at the line. Invariant
35 mins.
Whizzed through this apart from SE corner.
An enjoyable QC.
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
I too learned today that Vanilla plant is an orchid. But this was a great QC true to its quick theme. Thanks!
Really enjoyed the puzzle. Perfect qc imho
4.36
Nothing to add. Congrats to all those with scorchio times!
Good fun. Also misled by the Arthur’s seat clue into thinking of Edinburgh – even after seeing that the second word must be TABLE! 7:17.
Well done to all those who managed a PB. I am not amongst you, having been breeze-blocked at the last by LOCK HORNS, coming in at 11:31. Maybe next time.
Thank you for the blog!
11 minutes all parsed which is my fastest time for a while (I have in the past gone sub-10 but that was before I lost so many brain cells). Learned that wonk = nerd and that vanilla is an orchid.
FOI – 1ac WILLY WONKA
LOI – 16ac BAN (nearly overlooked this and then had to persuade myself that it wasn’t bin as in bin Laden)
COD – loved the extremely large drinks bill and also the fight for the musical instruments.
Thanks to Trelawney and to Kitty.
3:23
A PB over here too, chipping 19 seconds off my previous best (QC2668 – 6th May 2024 – also set by Trelawney). Tons of biffing, didn’t wait to parse some of the more obvious answers – WILLY WONKA, TATE MODERN, NORTH POLE – very minor hold-ups only for Arthur’s seat not being anything to do with Edinburgh, and thinking carefully about the spelling of KARAOKE. I’m sure this puzzle has made us all feel very UPBEAT this Monday morning!
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney
24 minutes, which is good for me, but biffing YobbO cost me a few minutes. Alphabet trawling b_M_R__ for a word meaning mediocre wasn’t a rewarding experience. In fact, why does Lout lead to YAHOO? Did the setter change his mind about the clue but then forget to change the definition?
Otherwise, an entertaining and achievable QC.
Many thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
Google gives Yahoo as ‘a rude, noisy or violent person’… AKA a lout…
Evidently it comes from a race of brutes in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels…
And that’s at least one thing I’ve learnt today!
I should have gone really fast but didn’t, missing obvious ones like lock horns and expensive. Willy Wonka was a giveaway, but the Tate Modern required a little thought – is that a thing? I’ve had difficulty with karaoke before, so have learned the correct spelling.
Time: 6:22
8.26 I was slow to spot KARAOKE. ROUND TABLE took a couple of minutes at the end. Thanks Kitty and Trelawney.
8:58. A pleasant canter!
Excellent crossword, enjoyable in being just ( not completely)tricky enough to reach satisfying conclusion. LOI STRINGENT, – looking for ‘den’ rather than ‘tent’
Tried the 15x 15 first; nearly finished it.
This was a pleasant QC. All done bar one in 6 minutes.
I needed a further three to dismiss Strongest and find STRINGENT.
As people have said, Trelawney has a knack to set high quality puzzles that are fun and, for many, quick to solve.
David