9 minutes. How did you do?
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 now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Bosses to lead American fools (3,7) |
| TOP BANANAS | |
| TOP (lead), BANANAS (American fools). I’m not sure why ‘American’ as we’ve had this meaning for decades. Edit: Thanks to Mattkor for providing the intended parsing: TO + PB (chemical symbol for lead) + A (American) + NANAS. | |
| 7 | Returned books are an inspiration (5) |
| ERATO | |
| OT (books) + ARE reversed [returned] | |
| 8 | Alluring charm Olga ruined with rum (7) |
| GLAMOUR | |
| Anagram [ruined] of OLGA RUM | |
| 10 | Pundit ran amok in cricket game (3-3-3) |
| TIP-AND-RUN | |
| Anagram [amok] of PUNDIT RAN | |
| 12 | Yank in powerful boat (3) |
| TUG | |
| Two meanings | |
| 13 | Mischievous Zulu band quiet (6) |
| IMPISH | |
| IMPI (Zulu band), SH (quiet) | |
| 15 | Influence two females echo in performance (6) |
| AFFECT | |
| F + F (two) females + E (echo – phonetic alphabet) contained by [in] A~CT (performance) | |
| 16 | Swimmer in Ghasri periodically (3) |
| GAR | |
| G{h}A{s}R{i} [periodically] | |
| 17 | Devil about to damage one do-gooder (9) |
| SAMARITAN | |
| SA~TAN (devil) containing [about] MAR (damage) + I (one) | |
| 20 | Was monarch pelted reportedly? (7) |
| REIGNED | |
| Aural wordplay [reportedly] “rained” (pelted) | |
| 22 | Current arrangement just right (5) |
| IDEAL | |
| I (current), DEAL (arrangement) | |
| 23 | Basic reality in Milton to be changed (6,4) |
| BOTTOM LINE | |
| Anagram [to be changed] of MILTON TO BE | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Walk far from streetcar with parking (5) |
| TRAMP | |
| TRAM (streetcar), P (parking) | |
| 2 | Stormy signs poor in forecast (9) |
| PROGNOSIS | |
| Anagram [stormy] of SIGNS POOR | |
| 3 | Park keeper losing head in fury (5) |
| ANGER | |
| {r}ANGER (park keeper) [losing head] | |
| 4 | Ottoman officer edges away from infidel (3) |
| AGA | |
| {p}AGA{n} (infidel) [edges away] | |
| 5 | A person from eastern Europe protecting Saint Augustine? (7) |
| APOSTLE | |
| A, POLE (person from eastern Europe) containing [protecting] ST (saint). Augustine was a saint, but we have to leave that out of the definition in order to avoid double duty. | |
| 6 | Footballer in red? (4-6) |
| LEFT WINGER | |
| Two meanings. I’m tempted to have it as a cryptic definition. | |
| 9 | Corner at 90? (5,5) |
| RIGHT ANGLE | |
| This one is cryptic with reference to the 90 degrees in a right angle | |
| 11 | Tent fire disturbed India’s ancient queen (9) |
| NEFERTITI | |
| Anagram [disturbed] of TENT FIRE, then I (India) [phonetic alphabet] | |
| 14 | One Charlie blocking Iberian city entrance (7) |
| PORTICO | |
| I (one) + C (Charlie) contained by [blocking] PORTO (Iberian city) | |
| 18 | Brothel-keeper married first man (5) |
| MADAM | |
| M (married), ADAM (first man) | |
| 19 | Idea from Met about to seize heroin and ecstasy (5) |
| THEME | |
| ME~T reversed (about) containing [to seize] H (heroin), then E (ecstasy) | |
| 21 | Head in large cask turned up (3) |
| NUT | |
| TUN (large cask – often associated with beer) reversed [turned up] | |
Complete in just over 15 mins but couldn’t parse top bananas or aga which I sat staring at for a good 5 mins before crossing my fingers and biffing them both.
A shame I had put tap-and-run instead of tip-and-run. There is always tomorrow.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
Jack and Wurm I mean!
Little to add – quicker than normal. Biffed 1 across, nho impi but cluing was kind. Delighted to have ground out apostle – that’s the kind of clue that would have defeated me when I started out.
FOI tip and run
LOI erato
COD left winger
thanks Wurm, Jack and Mattkor.
Enjoyable and a not too hard 19.44. I did have to look up top banana though as the term was a NHO.
I was pleased to remember the terms IMPI and ERATO.
I like the NINA.
Thanks to Wurm and jackkt
My thanks to Wurm and jackkt.
1a Top bananas biffed.
5d Apostle, entered in ignorance unthinkingly, my thanks to Kevin Gregg.
Missed the NINA as usual.
Struggled somewhat with LOI TOP BANANAS which went in with fingers crossed, not having heard of it meaning bosses and hoping, but not being confident, that it was an American term for fools. Thank you Mattkor, for clearing up the parsing. Otherwise a little tricky but still done in a faster than average but by no means fast 11:10. Thanks, Jack and Wurm.
Stumped in the end by AGA, but lots of new knowledge learnt, such as IMPI being a Zulu band, and about TIP-AND-RUN. Thanks for the blog 😁
From TOP BANANAS to APOSTLE (as lacking the GK re Augustine) in 6:00. What NINA? Will now have to go and look. Thanks Jack.
8:26
LOI was TOP BANANAS, unparsed. Thanks mattkor for making sense of it.
COD to APOSTLE.
Thanks Jack and Wurm
7.38 Mostly straightforward. LEFT WINGER and TOP BANANAS needed the checkers and I couldn’t think what AGA had been carved out of. Thanks Jack and Wurm.
8:25. GAR, IMPI and TIP-AND-RUN known only from crosswords.
Wurm is always hard for me, so I was happy to finish at all, in a hair under 16 minutes. It sure would have gone faster if I hadn’t somehow omitted to look at 14d PORTICO; also, I noticed the possible NINA as I put in TOP and then forgot to make use of it. Some NHO, VHO, and OHOH (once heard of here) knowledge had to be dragged out. I see I’m not alone in my failure to parse TOP BANANAS, an especially confusing clue since here in the US NANA is not “fool”, it’s more likely “grandmother”.
Liked ERATO and GLAMOUR, and COD to PROGNOSIS.
Thanks to Wurm and jackkt.
Just to confuse things more, I would say that Nana (pronouced Nanna) is a grandmother, while nana (pronounced nahna) is a twit, a fool, or a twerp. It definitely is quite mild and even quite affectionate 🍌
Aha, interesting!
A very quick (for me) 13 minute finish for this very approachable start to the week.
Interesting puzzle which we completed with a little help. Guessed aga, from Aga khan.
Enjoyed this, despite it taking me 17:33, over my average. Never parsed TOP BANANAS and don’t think I ever would have got NANAS = fools.
Thanks to Wurm and Jackkt.
7:18. Changed EFFECT to AFFECT when the former wouldn’t parse, and wondered about Augustine as an APOSTLE until Kevin reminded me of the English Augustine.
11 minutes: LOI, after careful parsing, AFFECT ;EFFECT had been waiting in the wings.
A very nice QC with lots of crosswordy stuff like ERATO which I have learnt doing these puzzles.
Missed all the clever nina-like stuff mentioned above and did not parse TOP BANANAS.
David
Liked this puzzle a finish but doubtful. We once had an AGA and re-adjusting to electric seems harder than one might imagine, now a pagan may be an infidel I suppose but is an infidel a pagan I thought in the Crusades the infidels were the Christians. My history is sketchy at best, assistance please.
These 500 errors make commenting a chore,takes nearly as long as solving the puzzle.
17:54 today. Never really got going.
… and thanks to the WordPress volunteers who are trying to crack the case. Hard to keep this show on the road, so very much appreciated.
Finished in the garden soaking up the autumn sunshine. So no time. Thanks all. Will try my hand at the big boys one now
Only Monday I know but still this is the first time I have done 15×15 and quick combined in under 20 mins. Thanks Setter and Blogger
Very well done!
9:22 for the solve. Seven answers going in during the last minute or so once I saw TOP-BANANAS and got LEFT-WINGER from that and then had the checkers for the Across clues over there. Nice little puzzle and as someone said above, much easier if you know your AGAs, NEFERTITI etc.
Thanks to Jackkt and Wurm
Struggled a bit and simply do not get Augustine. There is no definition of this word meaning apostle as far as I can see, and he was not an apostle. Dis not understand the reasoning in the blog. I may be missing something but strikes me as a really poor clue. But then I did struggle with the puzzle.
St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604 AD) was a missionary sent by the Pope to England and is known as the “Apostle to the English” for his role in re-establishing Christianity in southern England. While he is called an “apostle” in this sense—meaning a pioneering missionary—he was not one of the original twelve.
10 mins. Should have been under this today but wasted time on APOSTLE.
Day ruined by an appalling performance on 15 x 15. Nine errors or incomplete clues. Utterly useless! I just cannot read clues in the right way. Demoralising when the blogger recommended it as a good one for QC solvers to try.
Gosh, what a lot of NHO or HHO and one I disagree with! GAR, IMPI, AGA and ERATO which are not part of regular GK.
And Augustine doesn’t come in the usual list of apostles (Peter, James, John, Paul etc).
Bad start to the week.
Fine apart from aga/top bananas. Aga, could we not have gone with the cooking appliance here, not a word for an Ottoman officer? Needlessly obscure. Having revealed that clue I guessed top bananas because there was nothing else that fitted. Am I the only one who’s always known top banana to just be a phrase meaning well done? Never heard it mean a boss. To-pb-a-nanas was very hard wordplay as well.