I’m covering the QC blog today following the changes at the Club which have sadly lost us the services and witty contributions of Galspray who will be missed around here. Let’s hope his absence is only temporary.
I found this straightforward and completed it in 7 minutes, however the grid may be a little unfriendly for less experienced solvers as it contains 4 x 13-letter answers and 3 of them are 13-letter words, which is a little unusual. If those clues are cracked early they can really open things up by providing lots of checkers and it’s then a matter of filling in the gaps with the shorter answers that should mostly be easier to find. But if they remain unsolved for a while they may prove a major impediment to progress.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Match, perhaps, / easier to pick up (7) |
| LIGHTER – Two meanings | |
| 5 | Fighting to swallow iron biscuit! (5) |
| WAFER – WAR (fighting) containing [to swallow] FE (iron) | |
| 8 | Flimsy Italian buns thrown around street (13) |
| INSUBSTANTIAL – Anagram [thrown] of ITALIAN BUNS containing [around] ST (street) | |
| 9 | Serious eastern winds (7) |
| EARNEST – Anagram [winds] of EASTERN | |
| 10 | Support leader in bitter contest (5) |
| BRACE – [leader in] B{itter}, RACE (contest) | |
| 11 | Little / bit of time (6) |
| MINUTE – Two meanings | |
| 13 | Cooler close to cliff edge (6) |
| FRIDGE – [close to] {clif}F, RIDGE (edge). I struggled a bit to see ‘ridge’ for ‘edge but SOED mentions them both specifically as the junction of two upward sloping areas of a roof. | |
| 15 | Written backwards in telegram, magical letter from Greece (5) |
| GAMMA – Hidden and reversed in [written backwards in] {telegr}AM MAG{ical} | |
| 16 | Old article, quite shabby (7) |
| ANTIQUE – AN (article), anagram [shabby] of QUITE | |
| 19 | Selfish Indian opener is a contender, surprisingly (13) |
| INCONSIDERATE – I{ndian} [opener], anagram [surprisingly] of IS A CONTENDER | |
| 20 | Figure out, only about five (5) |
| SOLVE – SOLE (only) containing [about] V (five) | |
| 21 | Mountain always is found in France (7) |
| EVEREST – EVER (always) EST (is, found in France) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | French river, one entering mythology (5) |
| LOIRE – I (one) contained by [entering] LORE (mythology) | |
| 2 | Descriptive of good food, ginormous starter massive (13) |
| GASTRONOMICAL – G{inormous} [starter], ASTRONOMICAL (massive) | |
| 3 | Head of trade fit for the board (5) |
| TABLE – [head of] T{rade}, ABLE [fit] | |
| 4 | Turn peeled potato into middle of tureen (6) |
| ROTATE – [peeled] {p}OTAT{o} contained by [into] [middle of] {tu}RE{en} | |
| 5 | Strange brew in a drinking establishment (4,3) |
| WINE BAR – Anagram [strange] of BREW IN A | |
| 6 | Within the rules, blonde/fuddy-duddy partnership? (4,3,6) |
| FAIR AND SQUARE – FAIR (blonde) AND SQUARE (fuddy-duddy) in partnership give us this expression meaning ‘within the rules’. | |
| 7 | Ending in despair, two biblical characters help (7) |
| RELIEVE – [ending in] {despai}R, ELI + EVE (two biblical characters) | |
| 11 | Birds take issue with pastry dishes (7) |
| MAGPIES – MAG (issue – magazine), PIES (pastry dishes) | |
| 12 | Aintree desperate for apprentice (7) |
| TRAINEE – Anagram [desperate] of AINTREE | |
| 14 | Dog — a figure following cat, initially (6) |
| CANINE – A + NINE (figure) following C{at} [initially] | |
| 17 | This crossword setter supports the idea (5) |
| THEME – ME (this crossword setter) goes underneath [supports] THE | |
| 18 | Competition level terrific at first (5) |
| EVENT – EVEN (level), T{errific} [at first] | |
12:42, close to a PB, I think. Made good progress after slotting in the 13 letter clues early. COD 2d.
5 minutes dead with no great dramas – a bit like ITV.
I was home in 5.50 mins
COD 11dn MAGPIES
WOD 2dn GASTROMOMICAL
Small typo in 11d Jack.
FOI LIGHTER, LOI 17d, I think just because I’d overlooked it until then.
I thought this was going to be a struggle as I didn’t get my FOI until 15a, but then managed to solve reasonably quickly from the bottom up. LOI 10a, completed in 14 minutes with the imagery in 8a making it my COD.
Edited at 2017-09-01 07:47 pm (UTC)
Found this straightforward and finished in about 12 minutes.
Last two were Brace and Relieve.
Nice crossword. David