Some quite tricky things going on in an inventive puzzle from Orpheus: I was a 9:30 DNF, with a couple of optimistic guesses at 20ac before giving up and clicking on the answer. I was held up elsewhere in the SW, with 12d needing a bit of thought, and both elements of 13ac being closer to a guess than peripheral knowledge. I vaguely remember struggling with long answers like 2d and 3d when I first started these things, and I certainly needed them today for the tricky 1ac. Nice one – many thanks to Orpheus!
Across | |
1 | Ethnic group eccentric’s source of information on course (8) |
RACECARD – RACE (ethnic group) CARD (eccentric, rake, etc.) | |
5 | Brandy and stuff going west (4) |
MARC – CRAM (stuff) “going west” | |
8 | Group of languages used in urban tutorials (5) |
BANTU – “used in” urBAN TUtorials | |
9 | Mail worker’s position at head of staff (7) |
POSTMAN – POST (position) at head of/in front of MAN (staff, as a verb). The ” ‘s ” is possessive in the surface reading and a contraction of “is” for “equals” in the cryptic (also in 1ac). | |
11 | Bury loose cash where motorways cross (11) |
INTERCHANGE -INTER (bury) CHANGE (loose cash) | |
13 | Goodman, for example, consuming large fish (6) |
BLENNY – BENNY (Goodman, for example) consuming L(arge). | |
14 | Folk regularly request small vessels for wine, say (6) |
FLASKS – FL (FoLk “regularly”) ASK (request) S(mall) | |
16 | Bar Eritrean eccentric, one holding up 1 down? (11) |
TRAINBEARER – anagram (eccentric) of BAR ERITREAN. Train as in a trailing dress. | |
18 | A requirement one’s retained for cake flavouring, perhaps (7) |
ANISEED – A NEED (a requirement) with I’S (one’s) retained. I’m not sure I’d thank you for an aniseed flavoured cake. (Well I would, but I’m not sure I’d mean it.) | |
19 | Books ambassador left outside lodging-place (5) |
HOTEL – OT (Old Testament = books) has HE (His Excellency = ambassador) and L(eft) outside. Tricksy construction. | |
20 | Sound made by piano technician? Something fishy here (4) |
TUNA -“sound made by [saying]” TUNER (piano technician). Tricky enough, with options aplenty and an oblique definition. I was thinking things like ting and tank. | |
21 | Moderated rage displayed by top journalist (8) |
TEMPERED – TEMPER (rage) by ED[itor] (top journalist) |
Down | |
1 | Formal garment initially receiving award (4) |
ROBE – R (“initially” Receiving) OBE (award) | |
2 | Concern for others — that’s something to think about (13) |
CONSIDERATION – double defintition | |
3 | Put up with features (11) |
COUNTENANCE – double definition | |
4 | Provide information about sound of gunshot (6) |
REPORT – double definition | |
6 | Silly idiot ran trams — in this capacity? (13) |
ADMINISTRATOR – anagram (silly) of IDIOT RAN TRAMS. “This” refers back to the running/managing of trams. | |
7 | Study poetry? The opposite (8) |
CONVERSE – CON (study) VERSE (poetry). To con for to study crops up frequently enough. | |
10 | Award given to student for exceptional erudition? (11) |
SCHOLARSHIP – somewhere between an &lit and a double definition. | |
12 | Remove painting by Kandinsky, possibly (8) |
ABSTRACT – double definition. To abstract as in to extract. | |
15 | Stick one’s nose in, hearing gong (6) |
MEDDLE – “hearing” MEDAL (gong) gets you the answer. | |
17 | Good young fellow, and contented (4) |
GLAD – G(ood) LAD (young fellow) |
Edited at 2021-07-29 05:53 am (UTC)
Try again tomorrow.
Edited at 2021-07-29 06:11 am (UTC)
Edit: I forgot to say that I would have no problem with BANTU defined as ‘language’ as that’s what it is. But to define it as ‘A language’ would clearly be wrong.
Edited at 2021-07-29 12:37 pm (UTC)
Happy to leave this one behind and hope for better luck tomorrow.
Thanks to Roly for the blog
It helped I saw the long anagrams
25 minutes with an interruption to brew the tea.
BW
Andrew
… and rather surprised to see the clock stopped at only 11 minutes. The long clues were tough, and 16A Trainbearer was a guess as while the word is understandable enough, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it used in real life. Also NHO Kandinsky so 12D Abstract another “guess from checkers”.
10D Scholarship another one to cause me to pause, for the different reason that it seemed too simple, indeed barely cryptic. Take the question mark out and I would say it wasn’t cryptic at all!
Many thanks to Roly for the blog
Cedric
Edited at 2021-07-29 08:05 am (UTC)
COD MEDDLE, a chestnut I think, but topical during these Olympics. Canoeing?? Wow, what a sport.
Edited at 2021-07-29 10:30 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-07-29 10:38 am (UTC)
Biffed ABSTRACT, NHO BLENNY but had to be.
Wd not put ANISEED in a cake, possibly in a bun?
SCHOLARSHIP seemed not cryptic but then there is a double def.
Very slow today!
Thanks, Roly, as ever.
I always forget Brandy=Marc so spent a while thinking about snap or pans going west but couldn’t make it fit. I guessed Blenny but managed to get the other parts in a reasonable 15 minutes.
Didn’t need to use aids anywhere else (no problem with BLENNNY, and MARC came quite quickly), so I think I’ll pat myself on the back. Especially as others found it tricky.
I don’t usually bother with a COD but I thought 7d was really clever.
FOI – 8ac BANTU
LOI – 1ac RACECARD
COD – 20ac TUNA
Tough but fair, though Benny Goodman took a while to dredge. Though it was CONSIDERATION and COUNTENANCE that finally gave me the crossers for LOI RACECARD.
11:48.
Like several others above, I found today’s puzzle rather challenging. In fact, I am quite surprised I made as much progress as I did. I am slowly making some progress with Teazel, but Orpheus remains my nemesis. I am yet to achieve a 40% success ratio with this setter, since I started (01/06/20).
Unfortunately, Mrs Random is otherwise detained today, so I am unable to report on her experience. She will catch up in due course.
Many thanks to Orpheus and to rolytoly.
Aniseed in a cake ? Not for me thanks. An ingredient I’ve religiously avoided since effectively losing an entire weekend courtesy of most of a bottle of Ouzo !
FOI MARC
LOI/COD RACECARD
TIME 4:41
Didn’t really enjoy this. Found the answers way too long and cumbersome for a QC. In addition, couldn’t even countenance the thought of aniseed in a cake.
FOI — 1dn “Robe”
LOI — dnf
COD — 21ac “Tempered”
Thanks as usual!
FOI ROBE, LOI CONSIDERATION, COD TUNA even though it was a pale rip-off of Phil, time 10:31 for 1.25K and a Decent Day.
Many thanks Orpheus and roly.
Templar
More care next time — but this is going to take weeks if not months to get over…
DNF — after 40 minutes. 3 unanswered- Marc — annoying clue in my world. Tuna — clever but just a little too much deception maybe? And Meddle — still didn’t see it despite being tripped up by this in the past.
But had to look up Trainbearer — I could only see Brain……. which didn’t work.
Actually on reflection, not a good QC because of Marc and Trainbearer (and Tuna needs a tweak IMO)
Thanks all
John George
Edited at 2021-07-29 06:46 pm (UTC)
I normally give up if I’m not there by 30 minutes but with just racecard, countenance and Marc to get I persevered. But golly, that was tough. Blenny, Bantu and trainbearer all stretched my vocabulary to the limit.
Edited at 2021-07-29 08:50 pm (UTC)