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) | |
3:48
Two great films in the long acrosses. Lots to enjoy in this gentle Monday puzzle – one where the first thought is almost certainly the answer. My only pause was for the mysterious ENIGMATIC where I wondered why it meant ‘all over the place’ (doh!).
Thanks Kitty and Trelawney
A quick- for me- 8 minutes.
LOI HOTSPOT.
Biffing ATTRACTED at 9d slowed me down.
An excellent QC. Lots of good clues, excellent surfaces.
David
I didn’t find it QUITE as easy as others, and was staring at my LOI for a good half minute. Yes – a genuine QC.
FOI COPPER
LOI ATTEMPTED
COD TOENAIL*
TIME 3:42
* Many will be feeling wild ELATION this morning, but my highlight was Dr.Spooner’s Manx cat in the blog. Thanks Kitty!
A gentle start to the week. From COTTON to HOTSPOT in 4:24. Not a PB but still a rare foray into sub 5 territory. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty.
Yet another PB here with 2:42, and what better company than Trelawney and Templar for it [edit: Kitty, sorry – I was misled by all of Templar’s congratulatory messages!]. I’ve finally dislodged the 2024 solve from the top of my Quick SNITCH top ten times, of which all others were 2025! I’ve been looking at getting a nice mahjong set for a while but haven’t really been able to justify it.
Monday gift from Trelawney! LOI was 9d where it took a while to get AUTOMATED out of my head. Fun start to the week. Thanks Trelawney and Kitty
How nice to join many others with PB ours was 11 minutes ) after a bit of a run of much harder ones. Good to have that variety.
A nice straightforward Monday solve to ease us into the week. All done in 11 minutes (I don’t keep records so no idea if that is a PB but it’s certainly up there). WEST SIDE STORY only partially parsed but otherwise all good.
FOI – 8ac THE WIZARD OF OZ
LOI – 12dn ACCESSORY
CODs – 11ac TOENAIL and 8ac THE WIZARD OF OZ
Thanks to Trelawney and Kitty.
I knew that if I completed it correctly in 12 minutes then those smarter than me would do it in less than 5. Thanks Trelawney for a gentle introduction to the week and Kitty for the blog. I can’t even read the clues as quick as some were solved!!
I also didn’t time myself. But managed to finish this while leaving my desk to grab some lunch! Either a really easy one- or I am getting the hang of this!
Very gentle. Coffee still warm. COD WEST SIDE STORY. Thanks both.
Trelawney is the only setter I can regularly complete and usually makes me laugh out loud at least once. Always fun. Thanks!
5:00 Another PB here!
PBs all round. Rarely under 10 mins but this was 6:49. No doubt there will be a price to pay later in the week.
Wow! The little pops of satisfaction from the playful clues ended in the large explosion of a 6-minute finish, a personal best for the year by over a minute. Loved the enigmatic mice, though I hope never to encounter them in my kitchen. The litigious elf came in second.
Congratulations to all the other PBs today. (I am editing out a rather confused part of my original comment.)
Thank you Trelawney and Kitty.
9.17 I was heading for a PB but I spent more than five minutes trying to justify AUTOMATED, and alphabet trawling for something else. I very nearly biffed it before seeing the really quite obvious ATTEMPTED. Congratulations to everyone with PBs and thanks to Kitty and Trelawney.
Thanks Kitty. I am happy to announce a new PB too. From COPPER to ACCESSORY in 4:10.
Feeling left out of the PBs today: congratulations to those who weren’t! We were nearly a minute over at 6:43 but not nearly enough was accounted for by staring blankly, wondering why we didn’t have the Congratulations screen, and realising that we’d missed out SEC. ATTEMPTED was the primary culprit. Maybe a second or third best anyway. Thanks, all.
10:40
Incredibly, my first one in was the last across clue. Picked up a bit of speed on the downs and returning to the across clues was baffled at why I’d not fared much better on the first pass.
Disappointed with myself as this feels like it should have been in my PB territory, circa a 2 min quicker solve.
FOI: CANYON
LOI: HOTSPOT
COD: ELITE
Thanks to Trelwney & Kitty
4:52, and only my third ever sub-5. Not sure if a PB as I used to do the puzzle on paper, timing myself with a watch, and all I have in my records are two other instances of “4 and something”, without the exact seconds count specified.
But beyond the fast times I and others are posting, this was a genuinely enjoyable puzzle with humour and a certain amount of guile. Thank you Trelawney – and Kitty for the blog.
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. ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️