It’s my turn to come off the blogging team substitutes’ bench again today for this crossword of the year – or is it just the year of the crossword? Yes, we’ve reached Quick Cryptic number 2021! But it’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary, just a regular neat QC from Mara today, although it was only when writing the blog that I noticed how many double definitions we had in the Down clues. I liked the dastardly spanish supporter, but COD to 17D; is it a reference to sleaze perhaps? My LOI was 24A being slightly puzzled at first by who is hugging what. You need to take care to identify the definition correctly in 13D. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be much to frighten the horses. Well not to me, anyway, as I got through this 4:31. Thank-you Mara. How did the rest of you get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and “” other indicators.
Across | |
8 | Different part of America: no, the reverse (7) |
ANOTHER – Hidden in, “part of”, AmericA NO THE Reverse. | |
9 | Sound feature: one installed (5) |
NOISE – NOSE (feature) with I (one) inside, “installed”. | |
10 | Belgian city banishing an idiot (5) |
TWERP – AnTWERP (Belgian city) without, “banishing”, the AN. | |
11 | Darwin’s survivors set it out in newspaper (7) |
FITTEST – (set it)* “out” in FT (Financial Times; newspaper). | |
12 | Penny I invested in bust we chose, artwork on display (9) |
SHOWPIECE – P (penny) I inside, “invested on” anagram of, “bust”, (we chose)* | |
14 | Young setter, maybe, changing nothing by going back? (3) |
PUP – A palindrome, “changing nothing by going back”. And Mara is not referring to a member of his profession, but a dog, of course. | |
16 | Backing achieved today (3) |
NOW – WON (achieved), “backing” -> NOW. | |
18 | Round chapel Sir dashed (9) |
SPHERICAL – (chapel Sir)* “dashed”. | |
21 | Cold in head of boy going fast (7) |
BRACING – B (boy) RACING (going fast). | |
22 | More dull, rug sent back by Queen (5) |
TAMER – MAT (rug) “sent back” -> TAM, ER (queen). | |
23 | Time to access food in tin, for example (5) |
METAL – T (time) inside, “to access” MEAL (food). | |
24 | Attack tree-hugging oaf (4,3) |
LASH OUT – ASH (tree) being hugged by LOUT (oaf). The hyphen makes all the difference to the wordplay. |
Down | |
1 | Awful rat, Spain supporter (8) |
PARTISAN – “Awful” (rat, Spain)*. | |
2 | Very damp, old township (6) |
SOWETO – SO (very) WET (damp) O (old). | |
3 | Posh nuts in store (4) |
SHOP – (posh)* “nuts”. | |
4 | Sweet little thing (6) |
TRIFLE – Double definition. | |
5 | Swimming in water after ending in brook, jumpers say? (8) |
KNITWEAR – “Swimming” (in water)* “after” “ending in” brooK. | |
6 | Surrender? I don’t know! (4,2) |
GIVE UP – Double definition. | |
7 | One side went (4) |
LEFT – And another double definition. | |
13 | Boy slips all over the place, perhaps (8) |
POSSIBLY – (boy slips)* “all over the place”. | |
15 | Equality inspires leaders on official list in opposition (8) |
POLARITY – PARITY (equality) including, “inspires”, first letters, “leaders” of Official List. | |
17 | Fortune made breaking the law (6) |
WEALTH – “Breaking” (the law)*. | |
19 | Embrace Cambridgeshire city in a big way (6) |
HUGELY – HUG (embrace) ELY (Cambridgeshire city). | |
20 | Ordinary park (6) |
COMMON – Yet another double definition. | |
21 | Sign one’s expecting minor collision (4) |
BUMP – and another | |
22 | Check river in Hampshire (4) |
TEST – And what better to finish with… a double definition! |
The only real hold-up then was not knowing (or more likely having forgotten) that there’s a river named TEST.
Hard to go past WEALTH being achieved by breaking “the law” as COD. Lovely piece of clue-setting, seems like it should be a chestnut, but I don’t recall having seen it before.
Thanks John and Mara.
Edited at 2021-12-07 08:23 am (UTC)
FOI 3dn Posh all over the SHOP!
LOI 2dn SOWETO I was inexplicably diverted, for a short while, to TOLEDO but I should have taken more notice of the ‘township’.
COD 5dn KNITWEAR – might have been a tad shorter perhaps?
WOD 10ac TWERP
I also liked 18ac SPHERICAL but it was NQT. At 1dn nice to see BELGRADE get a mention.
Edited at 2021-12-07 07:47 am (UTC)
FOI ANTWERP, very nice clue to start off with.
COD WEALTH, great anagram. But BUMP and FITTEST made me smile as well.
My only confusion was trying to be too clever with “Soke” for damp/township at 2d, as in the Soke of Peterborough. Maybe the Cambridgeshire city from 19d was still stuck in my brain.
I also thought ‘supporter’ would be something like scaffold, bannister etc. so a bit slow to see PARTISAN
15×15 pretty tough, but this QC was great, and thanks john for sub-blogging.
At least it wasn’t bra for a change.
Indeed. I approach these crosswords differently now as I once did. I used to see defeat as a sign of my lack of intelligence, and therefore would become very despondent.
However, now I look at it from an educational slant. Each time I attempt the crossword, I am learning more, and, of course, I’m gaining experience. I do sometimes get frustrated when I cannot answer a majority of the clues, but I’ve learnt not to take it personally.
…I cannot believe it… I’m always pleased to be sub 4K and delighted to be sub 3…but at 11:13 I’m just over 1K! Oh joy! Something to do with ‘wavelength’ I guess. Thanks John and Mara (and Kevin for making my morning!)
I think I’ll avoid the grown up puzzle today. Not enough time.
… and a true QC with nothing unfair or too obscure. All done in 12 minutes, though my heart was in my mouth after my failure at the last hurdle yesterday as I approached my LOI 7D. -E-T did not look promising, but fortunately the DD was kind and the answer emerged before too long.
COD definitely 17D Wealth, alas all too accurate that one very good way to riches is to break the law!
Many thanks to supersub John for the stand-in blog
Cedric
Thanks to Mara for an accessible but clever QC and to John as usual. John M.
Edited at 2021-12-07 09:25 am (UTC)
Liked FITTEST, PUP, BUMP, NOW. The TEST is a lovely river.
Thanks all, esp John.
A v good puzzle I thought. I liked TWERP and WEALTH, though I reckon I’ve seen it before. LOI was POSSIBLY, which is also a good clue.
7:00
Special mention must go to: 10ac “Twerp”, 11ac “Fittest”, 24ac “Lash Out” and 21dn “Bump”.
I’m guessing for seasoned solvers some of these are old chestnuts, but I always enjoy simple clues with a great surface.
FOI — 3dn “Shop”
LOI — 15dn “Polarity”
COD — 17dn “Wealth” — so true for some!
Thanks as usual!
Edited at 2021-12-07 11:34 am (UTC)
PS. I do hope Templar drops by later with the result!
Edited at 2021-12-07 12:09 pm (UTC)
Thanks to John for filling in and to Mara for a good workout.
FOI – 8ac ANOTHER
LOI – 19dn HUGELY
COD – 2dn SOWETO – made me smile
Thanks to Mara and John
LOI 2 d “Soweto”. Tried briefly to find a six letter name beginning with “v” but in crosswordland, if that is looking unpromising, try using “so”.
COD 11 ac “fittest” – Darwin’s survivors. Also 17 d “wealth” brought a smile or was it a sigh of resignation?
Thanks to John for a succinct blog off the bench and to Mara for a fine QC.
FOI NOISE (I actually biffed ANOTHER on the second pass, and only spotted the excellent concealment afterwards).
LOI POLARITY (ANOTHER post-solve parsing).
COD LASH OUT (I’d have been clueing one of my efforts with “The French are noisy and react angrily”).
TIME 3:57
My immediate reaction on seeing 1a was to look for a reverse hidden – but it was more obvious than that! Clever misdirection. Inevitably, I focus in on clues which feature my name, but I did like 12a SHOWPIECE.
FOI Another
LOI Polarity
COD Wealth – it may be a chestnut, but it’s still a good one
WOD It was TWERP the other day, and still is 😅
Many thanks Mara and John the sub
I remembered WEALTH as familiar though I’m hardly a seasoned solver. I can also recommend practising the law, rather than breaking it, as a reasonable strategy for accumulating wealth!
FOI PARTISAN, LOI SOWETO, COD BRACING, time 11:03.
Thanks Mara and John.
Templar
I enjoyed, TWERP, SHOP, POLARITY and BUMP (my LOI), but my CoD goes to POSSIBILITY. Given the semi-awkward grid design, I was very pleased to get 1d (PARTISAN) and 18a (SPHERICAL) quickly and without any checkers. These both helped me progress at what for me was quite a breathless pace. And, for once, I did not suffer any real brain freezes – a pleasant rarity for me.
Mrs Random is currently working on Friday’s Corelli, before turning her attention to today’s QC.
Many thanks to Mara and John.
And I think this was a great crossword because although not easy, all clues were accessible after thought (and as the checkers assisted) which often doesn’t happen for me.
Like Rotter, not too happy about Polarity definition but still….
Enjoyed Bump as my COD..which was also my LOI
Thanks all
John George
I enjoyed the crossword though, I thought the clueing was clever and interesting and quite funny. Thanks.
FOI: PARTISAN
LOI: KNITWEAR
COD: SOWETO
Thanks John and Mara.