I had one of those frustrating solves – not often a fault of the setter – where you rattle through most of it before getting stuck on the last one or two clues: here I had all but 8ac and 10ac polished off by the 6 minute mark, and then spent half the time again staring at two very gettable clues. Oh yes, and then came the Unlucky! sign thanks to a mis-biffed 11d. Let’s hope for a happier new year, and many thanks to Orpheus!
Across | |
1 | Parrot originally making a sound like a crow (5) |
MACAW – M (“originally” Making), A, CAW (sound like a crow) | |
4 | Reportedly how one may ill-treat a dog? (7) |
WHIPPET – sounds the same (reportedly) as WHIP IT. | |
8 | Heavenly body in need of a man-made hormone (7) |
STEROID – |
|
9 | Journalist given position in the French city (5) |
LEEDS – ED (journalist) given position in LES (the, French) | |
10 | Incident Elgar associated with pomp? (12) |
CIRCUMSTANCE – as in Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Sometimes helps just to read the words for what they are! | |
12 | Originally living under tree, like a wolf (6) |
LUPINE – L U (“Originally” Living Under) PINE (tree) | |
13 | Pulverised earth (6) |
GROUND – double definition | |
16 | Ditzy type can test briar, surprisingly (12) |
SCATTERBRAIN – anagram (surprisingly) of CAN TEST BRIAR. A briar can be either a prickly wild rose or a pipe made from its root, but the surface is mysterious as to which. | |
18 | Artist is easy at first to uplift (5) |
RAISE – RA (artist) IS E (Easy “at first”) | |
20 | Guards losing head finding gates, perhaps (7) |
ENTRIES – |
|
21 | Plant listening device in pub, catching English bête noire (7) |
BUGBEAR – BUG (plant listening device in) BAR(pub), catching E(nglish). Originally an evil spirit/creature said to eat naughty children. | |
22 | Astute woman in outskirts of Coventry (5) |
CANNY – ANN (woman) in CY (“outskirts” of CoventrY) |
Down | |
1 | Extraordinary claims surrounding university entertainment (7) |
MUSICAL – anagram (extraordinary) of CLAIMS surrounding U(niversity) | |
2 | Choosing the best job on the fruit farm? (6-7) |
CHERRY-PICKING – double-ish definition | |
3 | Thriller turned out down in hut (9) |
WHODUNNIT – anagram (turned out) of DOWN IN HUT | |
4 | Fairly broad bowl used by women’s organisation (6) |
WIDISH – DISH (bowl) used by WI (women’s organisation) | |
5 | Unhealthy part of rail link (3) |
ILL – “part of” raIL Link | |
6 | What we may have on our mind before work? (13) |
PREOCCUPATION – PRE (before) OCCUPATION (work) | |
7 | Throw drunkard over top of seawall (4) |
TOSS – SOT (drunkard) over = reversed, S (“top” of Seawall) | |
11 | Boat race oddly grips one — like spectacular flying! (9) |
AEROBATIC – anagram (oddly) of BOAT RACE grips I (one). Fits the definition slightly better than ACROBATIC. | |
14 | Extremely dodgy, unpleasant line of hereditary rulers (7) |
DYNASTY – DY (“extremely” DodgY) NASTY (unpleasant) | |
15 | Archdeacon always displaying specious refinement (6) |
VENEER – VEN[erable] (Archdeacon) E’ER (always) | |
17 | Caterpillar food? (4) |
GRUB – double definition | |
19 | Farm animal the present solver talked of (3) |
EWE – talked of = sounds like YOU (the present solver) |
FOI 1ac MACAW
LOI 9ac LEEDS
COD 11ac AEROBATICS
WOD 4dn WIDISH silly mid-on
FOI Macaw
LOI Steroid
COD Aerobatic
Thanks to Orpheus and the blogger.
Good puzzle, though. I’m not usually a fan of Homophone clues, but I liked WHIPPET.
I thought ACROBATIC would trip a few up, especially as the letter in question was not a crosser.
COD: The Double def CHERRY PICKING
FOI: macaw
LOI: widish
COD: cherry picking
Thanks to Rolytoly for today’s blog.
Thanks to roly
Edited at 2020-12-31 09:35 am (UTC)
FOI: 10a CIRCUMSTANCE
LOI: 15d VENEER
COD: 21a
WOD: SCATTERBRAIN
Time before use of aids: 60 mins
Total Answered: ALL
The last Times QC of the year, and once again I surprise myself by completing it. Took a little over an hour to do, but I was quite pleased that I did not resort to aids until the last 3 or 4 clues.
One of the clues I had to use an aid (Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary) was 15d VENEER. Chamber’s Crossword Dictionary did not have an entry under Archdeacon, but Bradford’s had “Rev, Ven(erable).” The word refinement made me think of an anagram, and with the letters already present, VENEER came to mind.
6d PREOCCUPATION took me a while. I kept alternating between thinking the clue meant something you might be thinking of, or something worn on the head. I then started to consider the prefix “PRE”, and the rest came to me thanks to the letters already in place.
Watch out Tim Moorey! I’m catching you up.
Happy new year, and do let everyone know when you achieve your first unaided solve (it will come).
Hey ho. Great fun puzzle and lots to enjoy.
FOI MUSICAL, LOI VENEER, COD WIDISH, time 1.75K but DNF.
Many thanks roly and Orpheus.
Templar
WOD LUPINE – wolves slinking around in a forest.
Diana
Thanks Orpheus and Roly for untangling the not so obscure after all.
An excellent and deceptive puzzle. I must try harder!
David
NY resolution: stop rushing, check.
Thanks to Orpheus and rolytoly
I really rather like double definitions and there were some nice ones today – chestnuts for the old hands, I suspect, but chuckle-raisers for me. I’m thinking of GROUND, 13 across, and GRUB, 17 down. Neat. I also really liked EWE, 19 down which is short but smart.
I needed the blog today to remind me that “in need of” can mean without , or missing. STEROID, 8 across, was my second one in and I could see the connection to asteroid, obvs, but even then missed the instruction to lose the initial A.
On the final day of 2020, I was wondering if there would be some kind of Nina today about horror, plague and ghastliness but there doesn’t appear to be .Still the time spent looking for one produced some amusing moments including MUSICAL CHERRYPICKING, which sounds like some kind of parlour game.
Thanks so much, Roly, for the blog, and thanks, too, to Orpheus.
Happy New Year to you all, my cruciverbalist friends. May 2021 be a kind space for you.
Thankfully I parsed 11d and did not fall into the trap.
FOI Macaw
LOI Veneer
COD Canny
Zoomed through then came to a halt on WHIPPET and PREOCCUPATION (clever clue) which dawned eventually, along with WIDISH.
Got EWE and CIRCUMSTANCE, no probs.
Weirdly I know that Archdeacons are Venerable. Must have learnt it at school, ditto Lupus = wolf.
COD WHODUNNIT
Thanks vm, Roly, and all the bloggers. Happy NY to all.
Luckily, I also saw some of the long answers early which helped no end for the other clues. 4dn was interesting as I totally misread/mispronounced “widish”. Maybe it was because I was reading it vertically, but I saw it as “widdish” and thought it was some historic word for “fairly”. Only when I read the blog did the penny drop!!
FOI – 1ac “Macaw”
LOI – 15dn “Veneer”
COD – 4dn “Widish”
Thanks as usual and a Happy New Year to everyone in advance.
FOI WHIPPET
LOI CIRCUMSTANCE
COD MACAW
TIME 3:10 (but not to Yuma)
6d: PREOCCUPATION
20a: ENTRIES
21a: BUGBEAR
15d: VENEER
The solutions to these clues were all connected in the grid and I guessed that getting any one of them may well crack the others. This was indeed the case, but I refuse to use aids when tackling the QC, so a seriously frustrating time ensued. In fact, I got BUGBEAR ten seconds after I’d decided to give up and had put my pencil down. I have had to learn to be patient in the 7 months since I started these QCs.
Many thanks to Orpheus, with whom I have only a 1:3 solve rate (and none quicker than 40 minutes) and also to rolytoly for the clear explanations (especially of VENEER, which was my LOI and which I never did really understand).
I wish a happy new year to all who contribute to and read this blog.
Couldn’t remember Venerable. Thought that was a monk like Bede. But then I though His Excellency was the Pope but turns out to be an ambassador. I guess they’re all listed somewhere.
All of which made a mess of the SE of Tier 4 proportions.
HNY. Johnny
Thanks to Orpheus for an enjoyable end-year QC and to rolytoly for a fine blog. Happy new year to us all. kap
Being a volunteer at the Elgar Birthplace museum, I had no trouble with 10a. I was also tempted by ‘acrobatic’ but studied the anagrist carefully and the penny dropped.
Last ones in were, as with others, veneer and preoccupation. The first because I couldn’t remember the honorific for Archdeacon. I often find I have to write out the checkers for down clues as I can’t see the answer when they’re vertical.
Here’s to a better year than the last one….
Edited at 2020-12-31 04:21 pm (UTC)
I “saw” Acrobatic for 11D but checked it carefully, which saved that one, and originally entered Macau for 1A before that made 3D Whodunnit impossible and forced a rethink. But it was 6D Preoccupation that took me the most time to see, even with all the checkers, and was my LOI.
Many thanks to Roly for the blog, and a Happy New Year to all.
Cedric