5:39. A decent time for a tough puzzle, with the last several seconds dithering over whether I might have 21 across wrong. In any case, it’s a great word I hadn’t heard of and I intend to use it more often in everyday speech.
My conventions in the solutions below are to underline definitions (including a defining phrase); put linking words in [brackets]; and put all wordplay indicators in italics. I also use a solidus (/) to help break up the clue where necessary, especially for double definitions without linking words.
| Across | |
| 1 | Wizard banner returned / and brought in (7) |
| GANDALF – FLAG reversed with AND inside
Tricky wordplay here! |
|
| 5 | Mark one [in] staff that represents authority (4) |
| MACE – M + ACE
I hadn’t known about the association with authority. Normally I associate maces with centaurs. |
|
| 7 | Way / too old maybe to be presented in theatre (6) |
| STAGED – ST + AGED
Very fooling. This was one of my last in and didn’t make sense of it til writing the blog. |
|
| 8 | Check / more unusual protective coating (6) |
| CHROME – CH + anagram of MORE | |
| 9 | Provide food and support — grub (11) |
| CATERPILLAR – CATER + PILLAR
This feels like it should be a chestnut, but I’ve never seen it before. |
|
| 10 | Happened to fit iron in ring (6) |
| BEFELL – FE in BELL | |
| 12 | Not one criticism of thin wine? (6) |
| NOBODY – NO BODY | |
| 14 | African country that may produce erotic video (4,7) |
| COTE DIVOIRE – anagram of EROTIC VIDEO
Côte d’Ivoire, that is. |
|
| 17 | Riddle / that had many variations (6) |
| ENIGMA – double definition, the second a reference to Elgar’s Enigma Variations | |
| 18 | Voracious eater[’s] place at head of table (6) |
| LOCUST – LOCUS + first letter of TABLE
Once again, easier definition than wordplay. |
|
| 20 | Boundary [is] square (4) |
| FOUR – double definition, one relating to cricket, the other to math(s)
Forgive my ignorance of cricket, but near as I can make this out, ‘boundary’ here refers to a type of stroke (where the ball goes out of said boundary), and ‘four’ is another name for this stroke, so named because one scores four runs for such a shot. Makes sense, sorta like if we called a home run in baseball (with bases loaded) a ‘field’ or a ‘four’. |
|
| 21 | Female, busy type, finally down [in] drinking den (7) |
| SHEBEEN – SHE + BEE + last letter of DOWN
For the record, Chambers defines ‘den’ as “a haunt of vice or misery”, which made me laugh out loud. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Become somewhat fidgety (3) |
| GET – hidden in FIDGETY | |
| 2 | Close match that’s not put on till late? (7) |
| NIGHTIE – NIGH + TIE
The wordplay here eluded me but it must be a chestnut. |
|
| 3 | Tree [is] more bare, having top removed (5) |
| ALDER – BALDER without the first letter | |
| 4 | Dissenting group force lawsuit (7) |
| FACTION – F + ACTION | |
| 5 | Painting artist stuffed into Scottish chimney turned up (5) |
| MURAL – RA in LUM reversed
LUM being one of those words you should know. |
|
| 6 | [In] university, arrived to speak / on card game (9) |
| CAMBRIDGE – homophone of CAME + BRIDGE | |
| 9 | [In] street unending / party getting louder and louder (9) |
| CRESCENDO – CRESCENT without the last letter + DO
I tried following the wordplay but then just biffed it from the music definition (I’m a musician). Hopefully you did, too, because CRESCENT is not likely to come to mind. |
|
| 11 | Spooner’s crazy convicts [have] mildly pornographic publications? (3,4) |
| LAD MAGS – switching the first letters of MAD LAGS | |
| 13 | Gusto shown over half of cheese roll (7) |
| BRIOCHE – BRIO + first half of CHEESE | |
| 15 | Fierce type good in row (5) |
| TIGER – G in TIER | |
| 16 | Worth siting university in dale (5) |
| VALUE – U in VALE
I was thrown a bit by ‘siting’ but it was easily ignored. |
|
| 19 | Star has gone down? Not quite (3) |
| SUN – SUNK without the last letter | |
Very pleased to finish one after a poor run but it wasn’t quick and required 3 visits.
Knew SHEBEEN but struggled with CAMBRIDGE.
Love a Spoonerism and the wonderful anagram of COTE DIVOIRE.
First thought of ‘ring’ for square boundary thinking of the boundary of a square boxing ring but quickly jumped to FOUR.
Saw my second ever live game of baseball this summer and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience but would stick with cricket as my preference although not as hooked on it as others. John Paul Getty on comparing the two games: “I always tell my American friends that baseball is to cricket what checkers is to chess.”
Thanks Teazel and Jeremy
Just under 10 minutes this morning, so quite pleased with that, as I often struggle with Teazel. A slightly raunchy crossword today, what with erotic videos and LAD MAGS!
Quite a few ticks today – I liked MACE, CHROME, ENIGMA and MURAL a lot.
FOI Gandalf LOI Sun COD Nobody
Thanks Teazel and Jeremy
total failure
only 6 clues in
After some decent times recently, I thought I was getting to the point where I could realistically aim to avoid the SCC. It seems my confidence was misplaced. I was somewhere around 50 mins for this. I just couldn’t get going. When I eventually did, I had a good run before taking an eternity to get 4dn and 12ac.
I am truly in awe at some of the times posted above. I’d hoped to come on here and see comments about how desperately tough it was, but most of you seem to have had little trouble.
Hoping for better tomorrow.
Thanks for a very helpful and informative blog.
Another designed to kill off the weak / newbies. Why on earth should I know LUM? Or SHEBEEN? And COTE DIVOIRE? And I’m not sure of 12a where one answer is a six letter word and the other answer is 2,4.
In despair
I didn’t know SHEBEEN either but that’s why we’re doing cryptic crosswords. You should know CÔTE D’IVOIRE because knowing the countries of the world is a reasonable thing. (IVORY COAST might be more familiar to you.)
As for LUM… well, ya got me there 😉
Keep going Dave. This was a hard one today. I didn’t know lum or shebeen, and not that long ago I would have been feeling like you. It does get better slowly if you can learn the abbreviations (of which we had quite a few today) but above all the wordplay indicators. That is why the folks who do the blog are so brilliant. Seeing how clues work when you found them unfathomable is a huge part of the learning process.
I can’t find no. 2233 by Hurley. Is there a problem with the site, please?