Hi all, and happy bank holiday if that applies to you. It’s good to see Wurm again so soon.
I thought a 8a was a very nice charade, but I’m struggling to pick out specific highlights even though I enjoyed this puzzle more than usual. In general I thought the definitions were nicely incorporated, not too plainly in sight but not so disguised as to push the difficulty sky high. For example 2d, does mean to burn in both surface and definition – but in the answer we find a bit more than the sunburn suggested by the surface!
Speaking of burning, we travel to the Devil’s island (20a), correspond with Lucifer (3d) and meet a beast at 18d. Add this to some injury/punishment (4a, 10a) and the aforementioned catastrophe (8a) and you can see why I chose the blog title. I nearly went with “on fire, then burned!” which describes my solve: I was on course for a near-record time when I found myself stalled for a more than a minute on a clue which shouldn’t have troubled me, 22a. I have occasional anagram blindness and it struck here. This is despite having solved enough crosswords to know perfectly well what “present time” is likely to mean. It is too hot!
I hope you are keeping cool and had as much fun as I did today. Thanks Wurm.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed part is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 1a | Returned raincoats and fleece (4) |
| SCAM — Backwards (returned) MACS (raincoats). A nicely disguised definition | |
| 4a | Cut shifting ale crate (8) |
| LACERATE — An anagram of (shifting) ALE CRATE | |
| 8a | The writer limited personal catastrophe (8) |
| MELTDOWN — ME (the writer) + LTD (limited) + OWN (personal). | |
| A catastrophe is what a kitty uses to indicate missing letters or possession … | |
| 9a | Quiet river untainted (4) |
| PURE — P (quiet) + URE (river) | |
| 10a | Cat in large wood (4) |
| LASH — The answer – a whip, not a feline – is found in L (large) plus ASH (wood) | |
| 11a | Leak from eastern embassy (8) |
| EMISSION — We get this answer from E (eastern) + MISSION (embassy) | |
| 12a | Coastal path announced for port (6) |
| BEIRUT — Sounds like (… announced) BAY ROUTE (coastal path) | |
| 14a | Team quits after Spanish article (6) |
| ELEVEN — EVEN (quits) after EL (Spanish article) | |
| 16a | Mike in Ford van to send signal (8) |
| TRANSMIT — M (Mike) in TRANSIT (Ford van) | |
| 18a | Stall closing early in Wellington? (4) |
| BOOT — BOOTh (stall) stopping short of its last letter (closing early) | |
| 19a | Biblical victim talented they say (4) |
| ABEL — ABLE (talented), soundalike (they say) | |
| 20a | Devil’s Island? (8) |
| TASMANIA — The island of the Tasmanian devil | |
| 22a | Cultivated hybrid at present time (8) |
| BIRTHDAY — An anagram of (cultivated) HYBRID AT | |
| 23a | Fuel container in Panzer say (4) |
| TANK — Two definitions | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Old woman in Greek island to burn (7) |
| CREMATE — MA (old woman) in CRETE (Greek island) | |
| 3d | Correspond with Lucifer? (5) |
| MATCH — A double definition, the second originally from a brand of matches but now generic (and increasingly archaic, but still going strong in crosswords) | |
| 4d | Pope the French love (3) |
| LEO — LE (the, French) + O (love) | |
| 5d | Seasoning minced not ground (9) |
| CONDIMENT — MINCED NOT anagrammed (ground) | |
| 6d | Sharp answer given in Tripos test (7) |
| RIPOSTE — The answer is given in tRIPOS TEst | |
| 7d | Tangled roots and trunk (5) |
| TORSO — An anagram of (tangled) ROOTS | |
| 11d | Guessed wrong date and times (9) |
| ESTIMATED — An anagram of (wrong) DATE and TIMES | |
| 13d | Lock phone, rented (7) |
| RINGLET — A lock of hair. RING (phone) + LET (rented) | |
| 15d | Schoolboy son Tallinn resident expels? (7) |
| ETONIAN — S (son), which E[s]TONIAN (Tallinn resident) removes (expels) | |
| 17d | Artist, two bishops, one Jewish scholar (5) |
| RABBI — RA (Royal Academician, artist) + B B (two bishops) + I (one). | |
| An artist, two bishops and a Rabbi walk into a bar. Is this some kind of joke? | |
| 18d | Live as good person or horrible one? (5) |
| BEAST — BE A ST (live as good person) | |
| 21d | Very last bit of salty sauce (3) |
| SOY — SO (very) + the last letter of (last bit of) saltY | |
Nice puzzle all solved although didn’t really understand “match”.
“Beirut” works well for me and a nice clue.
Thanks to our blogger and setter.
14:08, but with assistance for BEIRUT, which didn’t come to mind as a port, but which got a smile & my COD when I saw the answer.
Thanks to Kitty and Wurm.
Another towel chucker with Beirut outstanding. Ringlet took longer than it should because I’d put in able. At least Tasmania stopped me from bunging in bigot at 18d. Enjoyable puzzle.
FOI Scam
LOI dnf
COD Meltdown
thanks Wurm and Kitty
DNF. And I had a minor MELTDOWN about it when I looked at the answers after the fact. Some of them made sense in retrospect but others were (probably unreasonably) enraging.
Had a good start for me and was almost completed in under 15 but then hit a wall and made absolutely no progress on the remainder. Tough pill to swallow after a week straight of successful completions.