Lots to like here, although I found this trickier than normal from Trelawney. I solved on paper (unusually) & finished with all bar one parsed in 16:09. The three down clues in the NW corner all held out to the very end, as did the storyteller.
I particularly liked MISER (my COD by a mile, once I spotted what was going on), HOGWASH (how have I not seen this before?) and GAZEBO.
How did you all get on?
Definitions underlined in italics, wordplay indicators in square brackets, synonyms in round brackets, omissions in squiggly brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Arrived with reckless Yankee unwilling to be photographed (6-3) |
| CAMERA-SHY – CAME (arrived) + RASH (reckless) + Y (Yankee in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 6 | Average kind of music rewound (3) |
| PAR – RAP (kind of music), reversed [rewound]. | |
| 8 | Storyteller with a model from the east (5) |
| AESOP – A + POSE (model, reversed [from the east]).
I was convinced the A was going to be at the other end, and it wasn’t until I actually wrote out “POSE” backwards that the penny dropped. Aesop, storyteller from Ancient Greece, known for fables featuring animals. I’m pretty sure I had a Ladybird book of Aesop’s fables as a child. |
|
| 9 | Livestock initially lost by friendly agricultural worker (7) |
| PEASANT – P{L}EASANT (friendly), losing L [Livestock initially]. | |
| 10 | Grotesque sculpture of a gory leg destroyed (8) |
| GARGOYLE – Anagram [destroyed] of A GORY LEG. | |
| 11 | By the sound of it, female animals sleep (4) |
| DOZE – Homophone [by the sound of it], of ‘does’ (female animals). | |
| 13 | Hot candle jumping is an Olympic event? (9) |
| DECATHLON – Anagram [jumping] of HOT CANDLE.
I would pay money to see Olympic hot candle jumping. |
|
| 16 | Some seafarers a long way off (4) |
| AFAR – Hidden in [some] seAFARers. | |
| 17 | View alternatively found in place with a canal (8) |
| PANORAMA – OR (alternatively) in PANAMA (place with a canal). | |
| 20 | Pig getting clean? That’s nonsense! (7) |
| HOGWASH – HOG (pig) + WASH (getting clean). | |
| 21 | A thumbs-up online for uniform (5) |
| ALIKE – A + LIKE (thumbs-up online, as in Facebook etc). | |
| 22 | Briefly accompanying comedian (3) |
| WIT – Truncation [briefly] of WIT{h} (accompanying). | |
| 23 | Old Venetian mother with chocolate hugs police officer (5,4) |
| MARCO POLO – MA (mother) + ROLO (a brand of chocolate), encloses [hugs] COP (police officer). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Put some power into attack (6) |
| CHARGE – A double definition.
I was trying to find a way to add a “P” to a word for “attack” and get a word for “put”, no doubt exactly as Trelawney intended. |
|
| 2 | Time to abandon Mr Scrooge? (5) |
| MISER – MIS{T}ER: the full word of “Mr” without the T for time.
Not parsed until I came to write this up. Very clever indeed. |
|
| 3 | Scold person selling fish (8) |
| REPROACH – REP (person selling) + ROACH (a fish). | |
| 4 | Happy with lectures rejigged for classroom stand-in (6,7) |
| SUPPLY TEACHER – Anagram [rejigged] of HAPPY LECTURES.
“Teacher” went in quickly, but then I could not bring the British term to mind. My children always had “substitute” teachers here in the US. |
|
| 5 | Finally play organ for a period of time (4) |
| YEAR – Last letter [finally] of {pla}Y + EAR (organ). | |
| 6 | Group of soldiers also involved in scheme (7) |
| PLATOON – TOO (also) inside [involved in] PLAN (scheme). | |
| 7 | Scoundrel beginning to rescue aquatic creature (6) |
| ROTTER – First letter of [beginning to] R{escue} + OTTER (aquatic creature).
Could this be a reference to our esteemed blogger, TheRotter? |
|
| 12 | A doodler recreated mythical city (2,6) |
| EL DORADO – Anagram [recreated] of A DOODLER. | |
| 13 | Reportedly sketch board game piece (7) |
| DRAUGHT – Sounds like (reportedly) ‘draft’ (sketch). | |
| 14 | Nut bread we brought up (6) |
| CASHEW – CASH (bread) + EW [we, reversed]. | |
| 15 | Look over most of Bob’s summerhouse (6) |
| GAZEBO – GAZE (look) above [over] most of BO{b}.
This is a tricksy apostrophe. It looks like it is a possessive (“the summerhouse belonging to Bob”), but in fact it is a contraction (“a word for ‘look’ over most of ‘Bob’ is {a} summerhouse”). |
|
| 18 | Friend in a fighter jet above capital of Oman (5) |
| AMIGO – A + MIG (fighter jet) above the first letter [capital] of Oman.
Now I come to write that explanation, I realize that “capital of Oman” could also be read to just mean “the only capital letter in Oman”. |
|
| 19 | Tree in Spanish resort cut down (4) |
| PALM – PALM{a} (a Spanish resort), truncated [cut down]. | |
Biffed PEASANT, DECATHLON, PANORAMA, MARCO POLO, MISER, SUPPLY TEACHER, CASHEW. Parsing afterwards, I inferred that ROLO (DNK) was a chocolate bar. I had never come across SUPPLY TEACHER until it showed up in a recent 15×15; which saved me a lot of time. I don’t see how “capital of Oman” could mean ‘first letter in “Oman”‘ other than inadvertently. (Of course it could mean RIAL or whatever their currency is called.) 4:56.
Yeah, I feel A Bit Thick™ for never thinking that one through before.
Just for info, Kevin, does your time include post-completion parsing of all your biffs? I am not sure what the convention is. Thanks, John.
P.s. O for the ‘capital of Oman’ seems fine to me.
My time is the time it took before I submitted; I usually, but not always, parse the biffed ones after. I don’t think there’s any convention.
Thanks. Good to know.
I try to complete my parsing as I go (unless I say ‘I parsed post-solve’ or, like today, credit the blogger with help). I also do my best to proof-read on my iPad as I go to avoid the ‘fat finger’ issue that blights one or two bloggers quite frequently.
It makes a difference to my times but I prize accuracy over extremes of speed – I will always be middle-of-the-road time-wise! John.
Dear Blighter,
I’m pleased you’re middle-of-the-road time-wise as I need someone still in view ahead of me.
With kind regards from trailing-off-the-back-of-the-pack time-wise Mr Random
You are too modest, Random. You didn’t do too badly today. Some of us have been doing the QC for longer than you and have hit a plateau. You are still getting quicker.
I just meant that I am usually content to be somewhere between the Formula 1 Club and the SCC (where I still have semi-frequent flier status). John
Capital letter = first letter. That’s how I saw it anyway.
11:41 I didn’t think I knew Rolo as a confection but looking at the images of its wrapper on-line I think I might well have eaten some as a nine- or ten-year-old. Apparently it has been manufactured by heavyweights Mackintosh’s, Rowntree’s, Nestle and Hershey at various times over its 85 year history.
Rolos were / are small chocolate toffees sold in a paper wrapped tube. It was a massive brand in the 80s with a famous TV ad round the slogan “Do you like anyone enough to give your last Rolo?”
Yes, if supply teacher had not appeared in the 15 x 15 last week I would have been stuck, but instead I biffed it instantly. I hope they have demand as well as supply! I also biffed camera shy, peasant, Marco Polo, and cashew. I was actually the ridiculously simple palm and rotter that gave me the most trouble.
Time: 9:39.
Lots of biffing to finish in 7:39. I’d totally forgotten about ROLOs although it didn’t hold me up since the answer was never going to be anything other than MARCO POLO (POLO is a mint in Britain too, as it happens, like lifesavers in the US). Only minor slip was biffing LOGGIA (LO for look and it means a summerhouse) before realizing my error when PANORAMA went int.
7 minutes, no problems.
☕️☕️ This was a very pleasant jog through, what was for me, a surprisingly straightforward puzzle today. I don’t do biffing as I like to chew each clue over and properly decipher the wordplay. That’s part of the pleasure of the morning QC for me. I’m in the jogging club, not the sprinters. All green in 16:39, so I was puffing and panting a little by the end.
MARCO POLO and REPROACH slowed me down a bit but I enjoyed ROTTER (nice to see one of us getting a name check in 7d. I wonder if this will become a trend with setters? It’d be fun if it did, although I think they’d struggle with me!) I also liked GAZEBO and GARGOYLE.
Yesterday’s storms totally passed us by in this little corner of Dorset despite forecasts of an impending tempest. It’s lovely and sunny and the morning chorus is in good voice.
A really nice puzzle from Trelawney. I never loved anyone enough to give them my last Rolo !
FOI CAMERA-SHY
LOI ALIKE
COD DECATHLON (mental picture made me chuckle)
TIME 3:37
No problems. Liked CASHEW, PANORAMA and SUPPLY TEACHER.
14:36 … was very pleased to see, almost felt guilty, when Trelawney’s name came up. Agree with Doofers that this was harder than T’s previous ones or at least the last couple. At least four clues I couldn’t parse during the solve including MISER – which was very clever. Lot of bifparseables too. Very enjoyable to be done and dusted so quickly.
Well done L-Plates, excellent time. I was another who was glad to see it was a Trelawney. Some tricky ones but I biffed a few. A very enjoyable QC (which, for once, I managed to get to in my lunch break rather than in the evening).
I hesitate to ask … is that three escapes in a row? With today’s quick solve, you still had time to get a proper lunch!!
Well done #50 on a sub 15. That’s a great achievement.
Only real issues I had were looking for an aquatic creature starting with ‘rat’ at 7d and parsing MISER, which gets my COD for the PDM.
Other than that a top to bottom solve with lots to enjoy along the way, finishing in 6.10
Thanks to Doofers for the excellent blog
DNF for me with the NE corner causing trouble, having entered RAP in the grid rather than PAR. Eventually realised the error, but could not see PEASANT or ROTTER. With an R in last position the clue could have worked the other way round, the definition being the animal and a 5 letter scoundrel preceding the R.
As for PEASANT, “hand” for “agricultural worker” gave a lot of dead ends. Clock ticked over to 20:23, so time to press Reveal and go to work.
Also misspelled RAPPROACH, getting confused with “rapprochement”
I thought we had an Oink when I got to 20A, but I guess Oink doesn’t have a monopoly on porcine references. Lovely QC from Trelawney. I like MISER and the ‘Hot candle jumping’ best. Thanks Trelawney and Doofers. 3:48.
All but one done in under 4 mins, then 4o seconds or so trying to see my LOI REPROACH for some reason.
Otherwise, it was a visit to biff city for me. All clear enough in retrospect though. I liked HOGWASH, though it’s probably a chestnut & also PEASANT.
4:31
An excellent puzzle. I thought I would be in for a faster than usual time today but, in the end, was content to squeak in a few seconds under my 15 min target. All parsed within that time except for MARCO POLO (I had forgotten the Rolo of my youth, too).
Some very nice clues but most of them, together with my trip wires, have been mentioned above. SUPPLY TEACHER took too long to see (I needed pen and paper before ‘supply’ became obvious) and PALM was my LOI simply because I missed it. Too many good clues to pick out the best
Thanks to Trelawney and to Doofers. John M.
Nice puzzle. 6.5 mins, LOI reproach.
COD mister.
Fun puzzle which I too mistook for an Oink, since I was solving on my phone and thus couldn’t see the setter. Trelawney and Oink have quite similar styles, I think. Had to trawl for LOI ALIKE.
Loved the hot candle jumping but MISER just pips it to COD from me.
All done in 07:43 for 1.6K and a Good Day. Many thanks Doofers and the Squire.
Templar
7:20
All done bar four in about four minutes but then suffered brain-freeze over DOZE, ROTTER, MARCO POLO and PALM.
I’d been thinking ROTTER would begin RAT…, but DOZE hoved into view and solved ROTTER at the same time.
MARCO POLO which on reflection was quite easy, required piecing together leaving the tree and a quick alpha-trawl.
Thanks Trelawney and Doofenschmirtz
I like “hoved” – is that both a weak and a strong imperfect, both in one? I thought the imperfect was “hove”, but then what’s the present tense – hoves?
Hoves? I thought there was only one. It’s about 10 miles from here.
Surely that is Hove …. I fear we are wool-gathering?
TBH I’ve never really thought about it. It’s an alternative past tense/past participle of heave (might normally be heaved?) but guess you could say ‘was hoving’ as the imperfect?
Golly – isn’t that the continuous imperfect? Maybe I mean the preterite? – as in “I went”. My point, I suppose, is that I had thought that one says “it hove into view” (not hoved) meaning the past tense. But then (I admit) I’m unsure what the present tense would be; we don’t say “it heaves into view”, do we. Nice that you’re still up!
Fast mostly with lots of biffing. CAMERA SHY, SUPPLY TEACHER, EL DORADO and MARCO POLO all dropped in. Had to think about LOI ROTTER, as I, too, had the usual Rat in mind. Also slightly slower on CHARGE and AESOP. A witty puzzle, lots to like, like ALIKE, DRAUGHT, CASHEW and our friend HOGWASH. Shd have stopped to appreciate PANORAMA.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
I managed to complete this one quite quickly. Peasant held me up as I just could not decipher the clue.
I wasn’t happy about WIT = comedian. Surely wit is what a comedian has rather than what he is.
Oh supply teachers. We had fun with them when I was a bin lid 🤣
Have heard it said “Oh, he’s a wit” about someone who is funny. Whether you’re happy about it or not, remember it because it will come up again.
Isn’t Spooner – the well-known inhabitant of cryptics – thought to have intended to compliment someone by attempting to call them “a shining wit”?
Thought this a nicely constructed puzzle, thank you, Trelawney.
For once, didn’t need the blog, but always read through it and appreciate the time taken to produce it, thanks Doofenschmertz.
Brilliant 👍 Have gone off Spoonerism since they started popping up in crosswords I’ve been doing but that is fab
All done and parsed in 10 minutes, and quite surprised to see the level of biffing by others here as I thought this was a well constructed and very fair puzzle – a model of a good QC in fact. Perhaps with rolos and supply teachers it was slightly Brito-centric, but no more than many others.
COD to Marco Polo, because of both the memories of rolos it brought back and the concept of an “old Venetian mother”, which conjured up lovely images – and if anyone is ever writing a book on how to solve cryptic crosswords, it would be the archetypal example of “lift and separate”!
Many thanks to Doofers for the blog
Cedric
8:17
Fun puzzle; no dramas.
Thanks, d.
A bit under 8 minutes. Yes, good to see one of our bloggers get a mention. I fell for the “insert a p into ‘attack'” trick so I needed the crossers to get CHARGE. Same comments as others about SUPPLY TEACHER which was a foreign term to me until last week.
‘Hot candle jumping is an Olympic event?’ Just you wait- it’ll only be a matter of time.
Thanks to Doofenschmirtz and Trelawney
12 minutes and a pleasant romp though the park, although ROTTER held me up a bit (SLOI) as I was also looking for it to start with RAT. LOI was PALM. Thanks Doofers, and Trelawney -a nice start to this Wednesday morning.
Back in the SCC at 23:46, although in many ways this was more straightforward than yesterday. Lots to like with GARGOYLE, DECATHLON and MISER amongst my favourites. FOI CAMERA SHY, LOI PEASANT (which took for ever, even with all the crossers). REPROACH also took for ever because for some reason I couldn’t get reprove out of my mind. Thanks doofers and Trelawney.
A disappointing time of 9.30 that should have been much faster. I was on schedule for a time of about five and a half minutes with only two to do when 1dn eluded me for ages. It wasn’t helped by the fact that I had biffed ALLEGORY for 10ac (don’t ask!) even though in retrospect it didn’t parse and didn’t even fit the anagram. On realising a mistake had been made I returned to 10ac, but then read the clue for 9ac by mistake and wondered why the answer wouldn’t come to me!
Hoping for better on the 15×15!
15:21 Was on for a fast time but came to a grinding halt with PANORAMA which I eventually biffed, failing to spot the ‘panama canal’ reference entirely. CASHEW also took a while for some reason. Always forget bread = cash. Liked MARCO POLO, MISER and REPROACH. DECATHLON made me smile. Many thanks all.
A slow start, not helped by initially considering but then rejecting Aesop, and going down the Rat route with 7d. A swiftly seen ( but not heard 😉) Supply Teacher helped pull some time back, but loi Alike absolutely crushed any lingering hopes of a sub-20 – just couldn’t see it for ages. A few too many biff then parse answers to ever feel really comfortable, but this was still an enjoyable test from Trelawney. CoD to Miser by a nose from Reproach. Invariant
I was belting along here on the way to a possible sub 5 finish when I got pulled up short by AESOP, ALIKE and – especially – REPROACH 😟 Still I found this the easiest crossword for some time and finished in 7:21, parsing along the way and enjoying some entertaining clues, inc PEASANT, ALIKE, MISER and CHARGE. I’m with ITTT – biffing doesn’t hold any attraction for me. Part of the fun is the puzzling 😊 That’s not to say that there haven’t been many occasions when I’ve found the answer but don’t fully understand how, especially in the biggie!
FOI Camera shy LOI Reproach COD Decathlon
Thanks Trelawney and Doofers
. . .ITTT ?
Is That The Time.
Ah, 👍
Abbreviation somewhat easier I felt!
Finished it! (… over an hour, though). FOI GARGOYLE, COD MARCO POLO, LOI PEASANT which (like mozbadel above) delayed me for about 20 minutes staring at it. GAZEBO, PALM and ALIKE held me up, too, but otherwise this was a very friendly QC. Thanks to Trelawney – also to Doofers for his amusing comments; surely we had HOGWASH (and EL DORADO, for that matter) very recently? It had to be AESOP, but I never saw “from the east = reversed” before, so my parsing had two Es.
Izetti gave us HOGWASH in early April (QC 2368). It’s interesting to note the subtle difference between his clue “Pig clean? Nonsense!” and Trelawney’s “Pig getting clean? That’s nonsense!”.
EL-DORADO came up last Tuesday (Breadman – QC2386) and elicited some discussion about whether it was heavenly. Clued as “The Spanish artist entering Charlie’s heavenly place”
But also interestingly Trelawney used it in his January 5th QC (#2303)!
Clued then as “Adore old ruined city that’s fabulously rich” but very differently today with “A doodler recreated mythical city”
Well done on your solve Martinů 👍
Thank you so much, how kind – but I keep wondering how many years it will take me to approach the kind of impressive timings you are all coming up with. I’m full of admiration for your ability to recover the date when a word last appeared – surely you haven’t created an alphabetical archive of every word since you started?
It occurs to me: if you can recover the date of SELLER / CELLAR (about a month ago?), we could see which one of you it was who “taught” me that the convention is that the definition is always given at either the beginning or the end (rebutted on Monday by Kevin Gregg who said I was “taught wrong”).
Stick with it. Although I am usually in the SCC, it’s amazing how quickly your times start to come down when you start to understand all the word play and common abbreviations. I began about 2.5 years ago and regularly took well over an hour. I still have some very bad days with the QC, but I have improved a lot in a relatively short space of time. Today was a good one for spotting some common devices, helped immeasurably by the excellent blog.
I agree today’s blog is excellent. I think I knew today’s “devices”, given enough time to think – it’s the speed of PDMs that needs to improve. But thank you for your encouragement.
I’ve been at these for just over a year. The Times publish books of their old QCs and I got a couple of those – one for Christmas, one for birthday last year. Particularly good if you have people nagging you as to what you want for a present!
It’s good extra practice and I never checked my solutions until I’d completed a grid. That meant, as I progressed I was able to go back and complete unsolved grids and get some extra satisfaction. Still about 6 unsolved across the two books!
Looking up words. The location may vary according to device, but when viewed on a PC/laptop there is a Search field and button in the column on the right of the page towards the top. Alternatively at the very top RH of the page next to your user name there is a search field indicated by a magnifying glass which you can use instead, just type in the word and press Enter. Note this searches all previous TfTT blogs but not the comments. The latest occurrence will usually be at the top of the items returned. If you want to look up a two-word answer, use double quotation marks.
Thank you – it works! Sorry I’ve been out this evening so this is now rather late – maybe too late to catch you all. Answer: it was 7th April, and it was Cedric Statherby who (kindly) gave me the guidance (which Kevin Gregg rebutted – sorry, am I causing trouble and strife here?!), corroborated (casually, if you like) by the authoritative Johninterred, also by Jim R who said “always at the beginning or end”. But no worries; I do accept that this is not inviolable, and we must always have an open mind. Thanks to all.
I would say that generally the definition is either at the beginning or the end of the clue, but not always! Best to assume that occasionally you’ll see a device like the one under discussion and it’s not breaking any rules, it’s just not so frequent. That probably doesn’t really help you while getting to grips with this pesky pastime – sorry!
CAMERA SHY and PAR going in straight away led to thoughts of a very quick time, but my hopes were soon dashed when I wrestled with their connecting down clues. Still, my progress was sufficiently sprightly to hope for an SCC escape … until I came to my last four, that is. REPROACH, ROTTER, WIT and DRAUGHT delayed me by close to a quarter of an hour at the end, and I ended up crossing the line in 29 minutes.
My favourite clues were MISER (for its cleverness) and GARGOYLE (for the word). REPROACH had me exploring fish consistent with RaP_O_C_, and ROTTER had me exploring aquatic creatures consistent with RaT_E_. I biffed Wag for the comedian, which led me to a long alphabet trawl of D_A_G_g before I saw and corrected my error. Frustrating, but anything under half an hour is still fast for me.
Many thanks to Trelawney and Doofers.
A well-constructed puzzle from Trelawney which I felt I should have completed more quickly than the 16 minutes I actually took. I wasn’t helped by initially putting ‘rap’ and ‘does’ in at 6ac and 11ac respectively, which meant I had to leave the NE corner for a while pending further inspiration. Eventually cracked it by seeing PLATOON at 6dn.
FOI – 1ac CAMERA SHY
LOI – 3dn REPROACH
COD – 2dn MISER which I couldn’t parse at all until seeing the blog (thanks Doofers)
A pleasant stroll from CAMERA SHY to PANORAMA with no particular hold ups. I missed the ROLO reference as I had enough checkers to biff old Venetian. 7:16. Thanks Trelawney and Doofers.
A super fast solve with just two biffs parsed post submission i.e MISER and MARCO POLO. LOI ALIKE in 5:59.
15 mins…
I really enjoyed this, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d done it before. Certain clues obviously come up quite a bit, and maybe it’s just pure coincidence, but I had a weird deja-vu throughout the whole thing.
Anyway, I liked 1ac “Camera Shy” and the rolo referencing Marco Polo for 23ac.
FOI – 6ac “Par”
LOI – 19dn “Palm”
COD – 2dn “Miser”…no contest here
Thanks as usual!
A treat from Trelawney. I loved this QC, which was very doable but also made me think. I did a lot of biffing (beginning with CAMERA SHY) and had a good day with the anagrams.
COD to the brilliant MISER. Like others, wanted to insert rat for the start of 7dn, but had PDM moment for ROTTER ( a nod, I hope, to our excellent blogger). My LOI was PEASANT. This took some brain power to see. Also struggled for a while with 17ac, thinking that the reference to canal meant Venice (silly mistake because Venice has many canals and not just the one – d’oh).
Very pleased with my time of 15 mins.
Thanks for the blog Doofers, excellent as always.
Great time 👏👏👏
Thanks Penny.
Great time Gary. Very impressed.
5.53
No problems
Thought SUPPLY TEACHER was v good
Thanks Doofers and Trelawney
10.21 DNF. I put DOES for female animals, realised the other meaning meaning was wanted and quickly “corrected” it to DOSE rather than DOZE. PEASANT and ROTTER took three minutes at the end. An enjoyable puzzle.
Ah! I rest my case. I used the method I was “taught” (pace Kevin Gregg on Monday?): that sleep, not female animals, is at the end (and neither at the beginning), so the definition had to be sleep. Comments, anyone?
It’s certainly normally the case that the definition is either at the start or the end of the clue. But cluing conventions like this aren’t iron laws of the universe, so don’t be outraged if a setter occasionally violates one, particularly if it helps form a very smooth surface reading.
Thank you, point taken.
Sorry – I replied to Martinu above before seeing your much more succinct explanation!
I would assume with homophone clues that the required answer is either at the start or end of the word; and the cluing homophone is somewhere in the middle. Then come on here and rant if it isn’t!!
PS Have seen it once where both ends of the clue had one of the words. It caused no end of confusion and required very careful reading of the grammar and even then, that was slightly ambiguous.
Thank you – this has all been most interesting and instructive. I wonder if the setters will try to be more careful in the future – or not, perhaps? It would (after all) be a pity if we were seen as being unduly proscriptive.
A perfect QC IMHO. First finish this week. The gloss was only taken off by Supply Teacher and the shame I feel about what we used to do them in the 70s. J
Fairly quick solve for us with an enjoyable puzzle.
Late to this today. Speedy but could have been speedier. But if Rotter himself was slow on ROTTER I’ll let me off. All green in 8 for a rare sub 10. Good one!
Well done – I didn’t want to be the first to rub his nose in it, but I too was amused that “Rotter himself was slow on ROTTER”. Well – we had SMETANA not so long ago; perhaps MARTINU will be set one day and then I’ll be on the line myself…………
7:36 (Óengus, King of the Picts, defeats Dal Riata).
My last two in were WIT and DRAUGHT. I originally had WAG for 23a, on the basis that WAG could be a brief way of referring to an accompanying person, but spotted my error on seeing that a T was needed for DRAUGHT.
Thanks
Slowish as both courses needed tonight
Did like hogwash
A good challenge much enjoyed after a busy day on holiday in Cumbria, average time.
FOI CAMERA-SHY, LOI PEASANT, COD MISER, biffed quickly, but took ages to parse. Thanks Trelawny and Doofs.
Busy day but finally got to the puzzle this evening and all finished in 43 minutes.
I tried it parse 9a as Pheasant for the livestock animal with the h somehow being removed. Thanks Rotter for a much better explanation. Also for explaining Miser.
COD to ALIKE which was also LOI after a lot of alphabet trawling before the PDM.
Thanks Trelawney.