Solving time: 9 minutes
Dare I say mostly straightforward? I probably shouldn’t, but I found it so and I hope you did too.
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 |
|
| 8 | Not quite epic — large book summary (7) |
| EPITOME | |
| EPI{c} [not quite], TOME (large book) | |
| 9 | Device for measuring spirits — choose one carefully to begin with (5) |
| OPTIC | |
| OPT (choose), I (one), C{arefully} [to begin with] | |
| 10 | Separate answer section (5) |
| APART | |
| A (answer), PART (section) | |
| 11 | Bill ready to sing? (7) |
| INVOICE | |
| IN VOICE (ready to sing) | |
| 12 | Discomfort seeing letters, we hear — practise (9) |
| EYESTRAIN | |
| Aural wordplay [we hear]: EYES / “I’s” (letters), then TRAIN (practise) | |
| 14 | Slander most ugly, despicable, first of all (3) |
| MUD | |
| M{ost} + U{gly} + D{espicable} [first of all] | |
| 16 | Rebuke, however you look at it (3) |
| TUT | |
| The cryptic hint serves only to indicate that the answer will be a palindrome. An expression of rebuke, yes, but does that make rebuke and tut synonymous? | |
| 18 | Equipment mixed up as a trap? (9) |
| APPARATUS | |
| Anagram [mixed] of UP AS A TRAP | |
| 21 | After shake-up a ruler’s very strange (7) |
| SURREAL | |
| Anagram [after shake-up] A RULER’S | |
| 22 | Part of Robin Goodfellow’s game (5) |
| BINGO | |
| Hidden in [part of] {Ro}BIN GO{odfellow’s}. Robin Goodfellow is the alternative name of Puck, a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – this appeared in the Jumbo blogged last Saturday. | |
| 23 | Remorse of fellowship, taking time to replace diamonds (5) |
| GUILT | |
| GUILd (fellowship} becomes GUILT when T (time) replaces d (diamonds) | |
| 24 | English at back of ship referring to One Direction? (7) |
| EASTERN | |
| E (Eastern), ASTERN (at back of ship) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Ten years, not extremely degenerate (8) |
| DECADENT | |
| DECADE (ten years), N{o}T [extremely] | |
| 2 | Closing section is not applicable in dossier (6) |
| FINALE | |
| N/A (not applicable) contained by [in] FILE (dossier) | |
| 3 | Great deal, including fine attic space (4) |
| LOFT | |
| LOT (great deal) containing [including] F (fine) | |
| 4 | Queen referring to gain in an unusual way (6) |
| REGINA | |
| RE (referring to) anagram [in an unusual way] of GAIN | |
| 5 | It may help to remember version adapted to accommodate you (8) |
| SOUVENIR | |
| Anagram [adapted] of VERSION containing [to accommodate] U (you) | |
| 6 | Cheers up over drink, with minimum of ice included, in part of large building (6) |
| ATRIUM | |
| TA (cheers – thank you) reversed [up], then RUM (drink) containing [with…included] I{ce} [minimum of…] | |
| 7 | Brilliant to incorporate Mike’s highest point of achievement (4) |
| ACME | |
| ACE (brilliant) containing [to incorporate] M (Mike – NATO alphabet) | |
| 13 | Attempt to pack in a singlet is farce (8) |
| TRAVESTY | |
| TRY (attempt) containing [to pack in] A + VEST (singlet) | |
| 15 | Pay no regard to deduction from full price (8) |
| DISCOUNT | |
| Two meanings | |
| 17 | Vegetable change I propose initially (6) |
| TURNIP | |
| TURN (change), I, P{ropose} [initially] | |
| 19 | Steal from large building housing female by river (6) |
| PILFER | |
| PILE (large building) containing [housing] F (female), then R (river) | |
| 20 | Showy stuff put in selection boxes (6) |
| TINSEL | |
| Hidden in [boxes] {pu}T IN SEL{ection} | |
| 21 | Cereal close to oats in the past (4) |
| SAGO | |
| {oat}S [close to…], AGO (in the past) | |
| 22 | Centre of operations of inferior quality (4) |
| BASE | |
| Two meanings | |
Same thought re TUT, disapproval maybe but rebuke seems a bit strong, but I’m sure it will be in a dictionary somewhere. Nothing too difficult today, my only hold-up was EYESTRAIN where I saw ‘train’ for practise but was slow to see the definition being thrown by ‘letters’ thinking it was about something completely different. Liked the anagram SOUVENIR and the assembly of ATRIUM.
GUILT not immediately obvious having to first see ‘guild’ and then change the last letter. It gets my COD.
Thanks Jack and setter.
I’d say disapproval is a gentle rebuke so therefore is under the rebuke superset
If it’s doubled up it’s certainly disapproval: tut tut.
PDF version was missing 22D – a rare and small transgression, but.
Well, it was mostly straightforward. At the end, I got stuck on the souvenir/eyestrain/travesty/guilt chain, and had to work hard to finish. The obvious guilt was the one that gave the most difficulty.
Time: 10:03
9:35. I thought this wasn’t too hard, but GUILD for ‘fellowship’ and parsing EYESTRAIN didn’t come straight away, as Quadrophenia and vinyl1 found. . Maybe not exactly the same, but TUT is close enough to ‘rebuke’ for me; for what it’s worth, the ODE has both noun and verb forms as well as the more usual exclamation sense.
Thanks to Hurley and Jack
9:38 GUILT was my LOI
Tricky. Partly of my own making by parsing EASTERN and then writing in ‘astern’ anyway with the N of DISCOUNT hiding my error. That made both BASE and TINSEL tricky – the hidden was the key to unpicking that. Also struggled with EYESTRAIN and REGINA. Four on the first pass of acrosses and then lots of pauses to parse on the way to being all green in 16.37.
7.22, a fair and entertaining puzzle. LOsI were GUILD and EYESTRAIN, which were quite tricky. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
Going well with just 2 left after 14 minutes but eyestrain and souvenir took us to 19.05 which included a hunt for paper and pencil to write out the letters!
COD to tinsel, took all the crossers to spot it, very well hidden
Thanks Hurley and Jack
9:31 WOE
I made hard work of this and with the benefit of hindsight can’t see why so I’ll put it down to a case of Mondaymorningitis. I had particular difficulties EYESTRAIN, SOUVENIR, FINALE and LOI EPITOME.
Finished in 9.48
Thanks to Jack and Hurley
Not that straightforward. EYESTRAIN and GUILT at the trickier end of the QC spectrum and I had to wait for all the crossers to get REGINA. 13:36.
13:23 Held up by epitome and Regina having missed a write-in at 1d. I was grid hopping rather than employing my usual methodical across then down approach.
Thought hiding tinsel was clever.
Thanks Jack and Hurley
17.20 for a faster than usual solve, helped by a generous grid and helpful contributing fillers. LOI EYESTRAIN which took a while for ‘EYES’ to click.
An encouraging Moday puzzle. Thanks Jack and Hurley
I found this enjoyable, apart from my difficulty seeing EYESTRAIN and EPITOME. This last answer eluded me and I DNF at 18 mins because I had a deadline to get to an appointment.
Annoying but my fault for trying to squeeze in the QC knowing I had to finish quickly.
Thanks to both.
I wrongly biffed EPISODE which was disappointing. COD “Eyestrain” but I was very proud of myself for spotting “Tinsel” relatively quickly.
Bang on the money as far as I’m concerned for a QC, as is nearly always the case for Hurley. In the end I was taken over target by EYESTRAIN which took me a minute or so to solve, taking my finishing time out to 10.37.
I didn’t find this easy at all, taking almost 30 minutes. EYESTRAIN, GUILT, TUT, EPITOME, SOUVENIR all taking a while to get. Clearly I wasn’t on the right wavelength today.
Add me to the growing list who initially had some doubts about TUT, and was held up at the last by EYESTRAIN, which needed a letter search for the Y and S (the -TRAIN ending was fortunately well signposted). But all done in 9:31 for a good start to the week.
Many thanks Jack for the blog. I think your assessment of “mostly straightforward” is spot on for me too.
Yes, “mostly straightforward” is exactly right. Amazed to find LOI EYESTRAIN is a word, but there it is. We had OPTIC a few months ago; just couldn’t remember what it was, until SOUVENIR unlocked the initial O and it came. Agree slight MER at TUT, but it had to be. Thank you, Hurley and Jack.
14.13 – very happy – last two EYESTRAIN and SOUVENIR. A fun work out. Did not know OPTIC in context of a spirit measure – and had rarely thought of the origins of SAGO, only as a component of ‘Sago Snow’ one of my mother’s nursery puddings …never seemed snowy to me. Brothers told me it was frog spawn, and therefore always ate my portion.
Thank you Hurley and Jakkt – a lovely start to the week
12:19
Held up at the end by GUILT. Alphabet trawls are slow when the letter U is needed.
Thanks Jack and Hurley
3:41 but with “dissount” 😞
COD TINSEL
Agree it was mostly straight forward. DECADENT was my FOI and GUILT my LOI. I biffed ATRIUM and parsed it post solve. EYESTRAIN was my penultimate solve. 7:39 Thanks Jack
Very nice stroll through, same ones slower as have already been mentioned, but no real holdups. DNK that definition of Epitome. Thanks to Hurley and jackkt.
15:29
LOI EPITOME, quite a few other words looked likely, and v=volume gave pause. Lucky to start my Alphabet trawl for EYESTRAIN at the end as X looked possible. Hadn’t seen TRAIN= practice, so was not sure which end of the clue I was working on.
Letter substitutions like GUILD/GUILT do my head in, I can’t really remember which definition or letter I am supposed to be switching around.
COD INVOICE
6:18
Slowed at the final hurdle seeing REGINA and EYESTRAIN, otherwise a gentle opener for the week
Thanks Jack and Hurley
I saw TUT / REBUKE as a verb as in “he tutted” / “he rebuked”. I agree not the best, but I’d say good enough for a Monday QC.
I initially put EPISODE in but doubted it strongly. Changed it before I got any pink letters though.
9:31 for the solve. Making me the 3rd – along with Blue92 and Cedric – to have the time – what are the odds of that!
I don’t think of TUT as a rebuke, just an expression of disappointment. I suppose on some level it’s a rebuke but I’m so used to my mother tutting about anything and everything; I would never take it personally enough to feel rebuked!
Good puzzle where I always felt there was just enough help to keep things moving along. Nice to see REGINA coming up as we’re always using the abbreviation in Crossworld. TINSEL a good hidden and EASTERN I rather enjoyed when it appeared because I hadn’t been able to do it in my head despite knowing there was E and STERN or aft involved.
Thanks to Jackkt and Hurley
If we were competitive we’d now have to take it to penalties!
Hey, it took me 9:31 too- well, 9:31 plus another 40 seconds!
Good enough for me – you can be in the club too
19:01
Very pleased to miss the SCC, and would agree with AndyPandy – spot on for a QC.
Share the reservation of others re TUT. Biffed TINSEL – just didn’t see it hidden.
FOI: OPTIC
LOI: ATRIUM
COD: EYESTRAIN
Thanks to Jackkt and Hurley
14:13
Yes, mostly straightforward but couldn’t work out LOI EYESTRAIN and had to resort to an alphabet trawl.
A struggle. My brain is obviously still in weekend mode. This took me 26 minutes and there seemed to be very few write-ins. However I got there in the end which I didn’t think I was going to for a while.
FOI – 9ac OPTIC
LOI – 20dn TINSEL – completely missed the hidden.
COD – 11ac INVOICE – a bit of a chestnut but makes me smile every time.
Thanks to Hurley and Jack.