Slow, quick, slow today. But mostly slow. I wasn’t on Hurley’s wavelength, particularly in the NW sector, where I was held up by getting neither 1 across nor 1 down until late on. Completed in 18:08, but needed a dictionary for 1 down, which I suppose makes this a technical DNF.
My first one in didn’t come until COMPANIONWAY, then the next few acrosses came quickly, and then I was back to slowness. A couple of the clues are harder than we normally see in QCs. I’m thinking of EVASIVE and SOLOIST, both of which have three word-play elements to handle.
On balance, I think this is a harder than average puzzle. But then I’ve thought that every day this week so far.
Definitions underlined in italics, wordplay indicators in square brackets, synonyms in round brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Be in charge of business group producing bedroom feature (9) |
| HEADBOARD – HEAD (be in charge of, a verb) + BOARD (business group). | |
| 6 | Port in Scotland? Indeed, right (3) |
| AYR – AY (indeed) + R (right). | |
| 8 | Surprise gangster somehow forgetting name initially (7) |
| STAGGER – Anagram [somehow] of GANGSTER without the N [forgetting name initially]. | |
| 9 | Quarrel a small bit (5) |
| SCRAP – A double definition.
I must be doing too many crosswords. The first thing that came to mind (with a rush of smugness) when I saw “quarrel” was “arrow”. But when I couldn’t parse that, I tried to convince myself that ASTAD was really a word… |
|
| 10 | Partner with means to provide ladder between decks of ship (12) |
| COMPANIONWAY – COMPANION (partner) + WAY (means). | |
| 12 | Case of tiny Post Office error in print (4) |
| TYPO – TY [the ‘case’ of TinY] + PO (Post Office). | |
| 13 | Trick Australian natives, we hear (4) |
| RUSE – sounds like [we hear] “roos” (Australian natives). | |
| 17 | In fair manner, Dean held envy to be wrong (12) |
| EVENHANDEDLY – Anagram [to be wrong] of DEAN HELD ENVY.
The “LY” part of this went in straight away, the rest had to wait for the crossing letters. |
|
| 20 | Tense about new jeering remark (5) |
| TAUNT – TAUT (tense) enclosing [about] N (new). | |
| 21 | Not straightforward the day before about returning official document (7) |
| EVASIVE – EVE (the day before) enclosing [about] VISA (official document), reversed [returning].
Not straightforward, indeed. |
|
| 23 | Period of excitement or dreary routine? (3) |
| RUT – Double definition, the first being the time of year when some animals (deer spring to mind) become sexually active. “Period of excitement” covers that beautifully. | |
| 24 | Prayer or stamps maybe this person’s interest? (9) |
| COLLECTOR – COLLECT (prayer) + OR. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Entertainer’s crowd (4) |
| HOST – A double definition.
I needed to resort to Bradford’s dictionary to find this one. |
|
| 2 | A mother, Conservative, passionate (7) |
| AMATORY – A + MA (mother) + TORY (Conservative). | |
| 3 | Appropriate hobby (3) |
| BAG – Another double definition, the first being “appropriate” in the sense of “to take”, and the second known only to me from Austin Powers’ “that’s not my bag, baby”. | |
| 4 | Endless hard tirade, notorious (6) |
| ARRANT – The middle two letters [endless] of hARd + RANT (tirade).
I didn’t know this meaning of “arrant”, so I needed all the crossers. I often forget that “endless” can refer to both ends of a word, so until I had HEADBOARD, I thought this was going to start with an H. |
|
| 5 | Girl’s progress in verbal communication (9) |
| DISCOURSE – DI’S COURSE (girl’s progress).
My last one in: I was looking at the wrong end of the clue and thought the answer would be a girl’s name. |
|
| 6 | Directional sign, oddly awry, leading to argument (5) |
| ARROW – the first and third letters [oddly] of AwRy, + ROW (argument).
Another one that held me up. I had the W from early on, so I thought I might need to make an anagram of “awry” and then add a letter, not thinking of the “not even” meaning of “odd”. |
|
| 7 | Gives money back rather early perhaps, as you say at the outset (6) |
| REPAYS – First letters [at the outset] of Rather Early Perhaps As You Say. | |
| 11 | Copper hit out, as foretold? (9) |
| PROPHETIC – Anagram [out] of COPPER HIT. | |
| 14 | Note series of items includes nothing for performer (7) |
| SOLOIST – SO (note, as in “do-re-mi”) + LIST (series of items) including O (nothing). | |
| 15 | More successful gambler (6) |
| BETTER – Another double definition.
Very MER (VMER?) at the first definition. Someone can be more successful without being better, surely? |
|
| 16 | Astounding university — learn in new way (6) |
| UNREAL – U (university) + an anagram [in new way] of LEARN.
This one brought Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books to my mind, but it turns out that I’m misremembering the Unseen University. |
|
| 18 | Crow found in index, ultimately (5) |
| EXULT – hidden in [found in] “indEX ULTimately”. Crow is a verb here. | |
| 19 | Close to being miserly (4) |
| NEAR – Another double definition. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use “near” in the miserly sense. I think it only occurs in one of the Patrick O’Brian books and in crosswords. | |
| 22 | Wonder regatta week contains (3) |
| AWE – A second hidden in three clues. Contained in “regattA WEek” | |
21:35
Held up at the end by NHO COMPANIONWAY and LOI ARRANT.
The Housman society is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.