Phew, that was Quite Challenging!
We had a range of tricky vocab, tricky wordplay and tricky crosswordese (even if you’ve seen them before, such as the JOY of 8ac or the VAC of 15d). Tough bits all over the grid made for a slow solve, and then I had a while at the end waiting for 6d and the last word of 8ac to make sense of themselves.
I finished a bit shy of the 15 minute mark, well over twice as slow as Tuesday’s QC done just before: I’d put this easily on a par with some 15×15 puzzles, so chalk it up as good practice if you found it a bit of a slog.
Many thanks to Juno!
Anagram indicators in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Divine messengers found in corners, moving left (6) |
| ANGELS – ANGLES = corners, move the L(eft) | |
| 4 | Led far, reorganised and spread out (6) |
| FLARED – LED FAR reorganised | |
| 8 | Climber using salesperson’s transport (10,3) |
| TRAVELLERS JOY – TRAVELLER = salesperson; JOY = transport. Transport for elation does crop up occasionally, along with the verb: enraptured, etc. = TRANSPORTED, or simply SENT. I hadn’t heard of the climber. | |
| 10 | Cut both large and small jumps on ice (5) |
| AXELS – AXE (cut) and then both L(arge) and S(mall). Dimly remembered, perhaps. Perhaps not. I’m surprised to see the term is named after Axel Paulsen (1855-1938), a Norwegian skater. | |
| 11 | People scoffing a jinx? (7) |
| MOCKERS – double definition: the first as in jeering; the second as in the phrase “put the mockers on”, meaning to thwart or bring bad luck to. | |
| 13 | Ace or idol somehow regulated by fan? (3-6) |
| AIR-COOLED – ACE OR IDOL somehow | |
| 17 | Belly wobbling bad sign (7) |
| ABDOMEN – BAD wobbling, OMEN (sign) | |
| 18 | Some change got from writer before church (5) |
| PENCE -PEN (writer) before CE (Church of England) | |
| 19 | I end reversing loco — as do they? (6,7) |
| ENGINE DRIVERS – I END REVERSING loco. “Loco” meaning both MAD and a TRAIN. | |
| 21 | One working for dictator perhaps using some trusty pistol (6) |
| TYPIST – “using some” trusTY PISTol | |
| 22 | Lancashire football team mostly played very fast (6) |
| PRESTO – PRESTO |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Amphibious vehicle trapped in stream traced (6) |
| AMTRAC – “trapped in” streAM TRACed. Another NHO: a portmanteau of AMphibious TRACtor. | |
| 2 | Stern detectives seen in burial ground (9) |
| GRAVEYARD – GRAVE (stern) YARD (detectives) | |
| 3 | Property rights one’s displayed in glass (5) |
| LIENS – I (one) is displayed in LENS (glass) | |
| 5 | Letter’s opening rewritten racily, like a poem? (7) |
| LYRICAL – L (Letter’s “opening”) RACILY rewritten | |
| 6 | Old British government in shock after revolution (3) |
| RAJ – to JAR = to shock, reversed. | |
| 7 | Rather dull line in food (6) |
| DRYISH – RY (railway = line) in DISH (food) | |
| 9 | Light opera’s intro one had satirised (9) |
| LAMPOONED – LAMP (light) O (Opera’s “intro”), ONE, ‘D = had (as in you’d, say) | |
| 12 | Risks conclusions involving annoyance (9) |
| ENDANGERS – ENDS (conclusions) involving ANGER (annoyance) | |
| 14 | Actor, late, ultimately resents prompts (7) |
| REMINDS – |
|
| 15 | Caution and worry after holiday is put back (6) |
| CAVEAT – EAT (worry) after VAC (holiday) is reversed/put back | |
| 16 | Drops exhortation to depart (4,2) |
| LETS GO – double definition, the second being LET’S GO | |
| 18 | Pair consuming port earlier (5) |
| PRIOR -PR (pair) consuming RIO (port) | |
| 20 | Pain of US private, quiet (3) |
| GIP -G.I. (US private) P (Piano = quiet). I’ve only seen it spelt with a Y, but the I is listed as an alternative. | |
There’s always someone with more to worry about than tough crosswords.
Go on donate to mriya.
You know you want to 🙂
DNF: I’d NHO the plant, and when the Y went in from DRYISH I was convinced that it was going to be IVY, which made RAJ ungettable. Didn’t manage to parse LAMPOONED, but like it a lot now it has been explained. Ho hum, bring on tomorrow.
Thanks to Juno & rolytoly.
Quite challenging, Roly? Extremely tough, IMHO. I solved this over a period of about 4 hours, there being several interruptions, but I got there in the end.
Total time = 68 minutes. rather embarrassing, but not a DNF.
Many thanks to Juno and rolytoly.
P.S. I can’t believe this was selected/accepted as a QC.
Well done for completing this one Mr R. With a QC like this, forget the time and just be happy you did it.
Well a late solve and a late comment – mainly because I finished this correctly in 25 minutes!!! Delighted with that.
Having seen a few that I would never normally get (I have only ever finished two 15×15 and rarely start them).. so Raj went in and Travellers Joy went in because I recalled the old man’s beard alternative from long ago. Great pleasure once having seen the drifts of seeds of that climbing clematis all over a path in glorious but distinctly ‘non beautiful’ fashion.
Gip yes Mer from me too. And I got Caveat (LOI) and Axels and Liens and Dryish and Mockers – phew what a day!!!
So I enjoyed this one!!
Thanks all,
John
Could not get ‘joy’ or ‘raj’ – glad it wasn’t just me who struggled with this one. 🤔
Very hard and took three sessions to finish it. Guessed LIENS (get table from clue) and TRAVELLERS JOY (thought I had heard of it somewhere).