Solving time: 6:13
Medium-paced offering from Breadman and my second time in a row blogging him – this seemed a shade easier than the previous one (QC 2297) though I did biff a few such as 1a and 23a, only fully parsing post-completion.
How was it for you?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Period desk, at rear, seen on standard film from 1990s (8,4) |
| JURASSIC PARK – JURASSIC (a geologic period) PAR (standard) {des}K [at rear i.e. last letter of]
In this case, [seen on] means add the K to PAR. The Jurassic spanned from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 145 million years ago. |
|
| 9 | Check car temperature (5) |
| AUDIT – AUDI (car) T (temperature) | |
| 10 | Son during lunch perhaps expresses hollow complaint (7) |
| MEASLES – S (son) inserted into [during] MEAL (lunch perhaps) gives us MEA(S)L. Then add E{xpresse}S [hollow i.e. use only the first and last letter] | |
| 11 | Ship‘s guide going around in the morning (7) |
| STEAMER – STE(AM)ER – STEER (guide) going around AM (in the morning) | |
| 12 | Racecourse poems adapted (5) |
| EPSOM – Anagram [adapted] of POEMS | |
| 13 | Fake selection of pedometers at zero (6) |
| ERSATZ – Hidden in [selection of] pedometers at zero | |
| 14 | American occupying kerb bothered street performer? (6) |
| BUSKER – US (American) inside [occupying] anagram [bothered] of KERB | |
| 17 | Priest enthralled by Roman Catholic memorial (5) |
| RELIC – ELI (priest) inside RC (Roman Catholic)
ELI is the standard crossword priest – he acted as teacher to the prophet Samuel in the Bible. |
|
| 19 | I’m surprised one finally bought opulent headwear (7) |
| CORONET – COR (I’m surprised) ONE {bough}T [finally i.e. last letter] | |
| 21 | Republican in retail redesigned advert (7) |
| TRAILER – R (Republican) in anagram [redesigned] of RETAIL | |
| 22 | Greek character, railman, regularly skirts public house (5) |
| ALPHA – rAiLmAn [regularly = every other letter in this case] containing PH (public house) | |
| 23 | At sea, my one line breaking off — the work of a shark? (5-7) |
| MONEY-LENDING – Anagram [At sea] of MY ONE gives MONEY, then L (line) ENDING (breaking off – as in ‘breaking off a relationship’)
Shark i.e. a person who unscrupulously exploits or swindles others. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Disrobe, turning red, sun beginning to scorch (7) |
| UNDRESS – Anagram [turning] of RED SUN + S{corch} [beginning to i.e first letter of] | |
| 3 | One caught friend under car flooring without thinking (13) |
| AUTOMATICALLY – I (one) C (caught – cricket reference) ALLY (friend) all under AUTO (car) MAT (flooring)
‘under’ is used here as a positional indicator, this being a down clue. |
|
| 4 | A few embracing British melancholy (6) |
| SOMBRE – SOM(BR)E – SOME (a few) containing [embracing] BR (British) | |
| 5 | Diana, a butcher, minced steak (13) |
| CHATEAUBRIAND – Anagram [minced] of DIANA A BUTCHER
Thirteen-letter steak? What else was it going to be? Originally Chateaubriand (always with a capital C) was applied to the manner of preparation of the meat, the centre cut of a beef tenderloin roasted between two lesser cuts of meat which enhanced both the flavour and juiciness of the steak; however, by the 1870s at its introduction to the English, the term had transferred to the steak or cut of meat itself. |
|
| 6 | Book of maps finally cut short (5) |
| ATLAS – AT LAS{t} (finally) [cut short = missing the last letter] | |
| 7 | Type of goat, latest of livestock, remains on edge when lifted (7) |
| KASHMIR – Last letter [latest of] {livestoc}K + ASH (remains) + MIR i.e. RIM (edge) reversed [when lifted]
The Kashmir goat is a Himalayan breed yielding fine, soft wool, used to make cashmere. |
|
| 8 | Heard abject singing voice (4) |
| BASS – Homophone of [heard] BASE (abject) | |
| 13 | English rogue involved in odd mistake (7) |
| ERRATUM – E (English) then RAT (rogue) inside [involved in] RUM (odd) | |
| 15 | Man on board to secure big gun (7) |
| KINGPIN – KING (man on board i.e. chess piece) PIN (secure) | |
| 16 | Hard to get Mark to join Anglicans (6) |
| SCARCE – SCAR (mark) + [to join] CE (Anglicans i.e. Church of England) | |
| 18 | Get to know meadow near rising (5) |
| LEARN – LEA (meadow) + NR (abbreviation for ‘near’) reversed [rising – apposite as this is a down clue] | |
| 20 | Blue-green beverage left (4) |
| TEAL – TEA (beverage) L (left) | |
A bit better than yesterday, at 15:35. Fingers crossed I’ll be back to around 10 minutes by the end of the week.
It took me a while to work out the film – like Star Wars, I’ve managed to avoid seeing it in full, despite the fact that all the various versions / sequels have been watched with much regularity by the rest of the household! I’m pretty aware of what happens though 😅 No true escape.
FOI Undress LOI Bass (it nearly passed me by) COD Audit
Thanks Breadman and Mike
The biggie wasn’t too bad today (25 minutes), although I got one wrong
Getting worse, again: 6/24.
It was a tough one today Ian, so don’t get too down on yourself. There was a time when Breadman was arguably the ‘easiest’ setter (at least to me), but he seems to be less generous recently.
You can’t judge day-to-day by scores as setters change and even their difficulty changes in their setting.
I thought it was a tough one to break into and some highly convoluted clues
Hurray, first finish of 2023; taking over an hour in total.
Biffed a few then parsed them all except JURASSICPARK and KINGPIN. Thanks for the explanations Mike. And thanks Breadman for breaking my duck.
COD: MEASLES.
👏👏👏👏
Thanks Gary. Appreciated.
Well done #5 … not an easy one but you got it done and that should be a confidence builder 👍
Thanks #50. It was indeed as today’s is a completion too.
But I’ve learned not to get too confident!
Like Rotter, 11 minutes and no real problems.
Late to this after abandoning golf after 14 holes when very heavy rain arrived.
LOI was BASS after STEAMER.
COD to SCARCE -excellent I thought.
David
Website down? We’re we hacked along with US airspace and the Royal Mail? Could it be be the Russians after we ditched their blogsite? J
😃 best saved to last!
Very late solve today, held out for Crossword Club to re-emerge. 16 mins, but LOI my bugbear the -I-E type of answer. Think I was trying to fit—PE for too long. Earlier I went down the snake too, not being too well up on my Italian.