Hello everyone. The reliable Trelawney has done it again. I haven’t much to add, except that I noticed rather a lot to eat. Not so much for vegetarians, but plenty for big cats – especially ones big and bold enough to take on those mysterious giant mice in 13a. 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 | Police officer’s coin (6) |
| COPPER — Two definitions | |
| 4a | Buddy cooked, eating last of bacon (6) |
| FRIEND — FRIED (cooked), talking in (eating) the final letter of (last of) bacoN | |
| 8a | Classic film fazed Horowitz badly (3,6,2,2) |
| THE WIZARD OF OZ — An anagram of (… badly) FAZED HOROWITZ | |
| 10a | Oscar returning bad martini garnish (5) |
| OLIVE — O (Oscar) + in reverse (returning) EVIL (bad) | |
| 11a | Wild lion ate part of foot (7) |
| TOENAIL — An anagram of (wild) LION ATE. | |
| This is also what the Reverend Spooner’s Manx cat had | |
| 13a | Mysterious giant mice all over the place (9) |
| ENIGMATIC — GIANT MICE anagrammed (all over the place) | |
| 17a | Seafood primarily put in stew for popular nightclub (7) |
| HOTSPOT — The first letter of (primarily) Seafood put in HOTPOT (stew) | |
| 18a | Pretentious person is tricky problem (5) |
| POSER — A double definition, methinks. [Strokes whiskers] | |
| 19a | Mae, perhaps, teams with Conservative in musical (4,4,5) |
| WEST SIDE STORY — WEST (Mae, perhaps) + SIDES (teams) + TORY (Conservative) | |
| 21a | Din from bit of sports equipment (6) |
| RACKET — Another pair of definitions | |
| 22a | Partially scan yonder gorge (6) |
| CANYON — The answer is contained in (partially) sCAN YONder | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Fabric from baby’s bed not flipped (6) |
| COTTON — COT (baby’s bed) + NOT reversed (flipped) | |
| 2d | Head of state’s power over inhabitant (9) |
| PRESIDENT — P (power) above (over) RESIDENT (inhabitant) | |
| 3d | Best Mahjong piece turned up on table, finally (5) |
| ELITE — TILE (Mahjong piece) written upwards (turned up) on the end letter of (… finally) tablE | |
| 5d | Socialist encountered holding a steak, say (3,4) |
| RED MEAT — RED (socialist) + MET (encountered) containing (holding) A | |
| 6d | Mythical creature emails law firm at first (3) |
| ELF — Initial letters of (… at first) Emails Law Firm | |
| 7d | Amaze two Zulus in valley (6) |
| DAZZLE — Z Z (two Zulus, using the NATO alphabet) in DALE (valley) | |
| 9d | Tried another treat, initially enticed (9) |
| ATTEMPTED — First letters of (… initially) Another Treat + TEMPTED (enticed) | |
| 12d | Extra playing soccer, say (9) |
| ACCESSORY — An anagram of (playing) SOCCER, SAY | |
| 14d | Deadlock writer’s no longer fashionable (7) |
| IMPASSE — I’M (writer’s) + PASSÉ (no longer fashionable) | |
| 15d | Bathroom feature display heard regularly (6) |
| SHOWER — SHOW (display) + hEaRd regularly | |
| 16d | A crony ruined drawing implement (6) |
| CRAYON — A CRONY anagrammed (ruined) | |
| 18d | Dad’s thanks for Italian food (5) |
| PASTA — PA’S (Dad’s) + TA (thanks) | |
| 20d | Brief moment with most of splinter group (3) |
| SEC — All but the last letter of (most of) SECt (splinter group) | |
Excellent qc. Really enjoyed this
A Monday treat. A PB of 5:11 here. The “perfect solve” is still a target, but I only missed 3 of the acrosses and none of the downs on my first pass, which feels like it is the closest I’ve been.
Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
05:12. Friendly puzzle. looking for films with a z, I immediately thought of The Dirty Dozen before realising the error. I thought I fairly raced though but it’s clear that others did too! lovely start to the week.
Very fast, for us. The frequent anagrams helped.
First off: congratulations to everyone who got PBs today 👏👏👏
The error 500 is proving to be a real pain! I lost count of how many times I tried to open the blog today and then I lost my post (again). I know people behind the scenes are trying to resolve it, but can anyone explain why it’s happening?
Before it crashes again, I’ll just say that this was a fun way to start the week!
6:53 FOI Copper LOI Impasse COD Enigmatic
Thanks Trelawnay and Kitty
+ 1 for the Error 500s today 😕
15:46 my fastest online time, I think. Most went straight in but the longer anagrams were helped by the checkers. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
6:05 for my solve. Stumbled to get to ELITE, ATTEMPTED and OLIVE for the last 25% of my time. No complaints – good puzzle as always from the Squire.
Thanks to Kitty and Trelawney
A quick 15:11 solve. Pretty straightforward I thought, no problems.
No time as I did this one on paper but it has to be among the easiest ever.
Thanks Trelawney, it’s nice to be made to feel competent once in a while.
And thanks Kitty too.
I really wish I hadn’t come here and had to read about how easy you found this and how many PBs there were. It made a bad day even worse.
I had a total nightmare, taking 25 minutes, over half spent on ATTEMPTED. That is how inept, incompetent and incapable I am. Where do I go wrong?
Four short on an apparently easy 15 x 15 to add a final kick.
Don’t reply please. There’s really nothing you can say to make me feel any better about such an abject failure. How can I be so bad at this? A disaster and a humiliation. ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
11.45! Very pleased even if I did appreciate that this meant most of you clever clogses would be under 5 minutes. Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty. Lots of fun.
4:56, new best 🙂