Beck’s sixth outing, providing a quality puzzle pitched around average difficulty.
There is an error in the clue at 7ac that I didn’t notice when solving, indeed it looked perfectly fine and in it went without any checkers. But yes, a rare mistake – I hope it didn’t throw any more careful solvers off the scent for too long. The clue could have been “An irrevenant partly returned…” with an IR-REVENANT presumably being some kind of strange ‘un-zombie’ type creature. Ok maybe not.
A few tricky things going on elsewhere with a touch of slightly unusual vocab, but all clued very fairly, giving us a lovely QC, flowing and enjoyable. My main hold up was definition-hunting at the wrong end of the clue at 18d, and I needed that opening checker to unravel 17ac.
I’d put this around the low 90s on the Snitch; I managed it in 6:48. Lovely stuff – many thanks to Beck!
Anagram indicators in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Caught flexible person at the rock wall gym? (7) |
| CLIMBER – C. is caught in cricket; LIMBER is flexible | |
| 5 | Fool‘s involuntary movement (4) |
| JERK – double definition | |
| 7 | Somewhat irreverently returned? In your dreams (5) |
| NEVER – “Somewhat” often indicates a hidden, and “returned” indicates reversal: apply to irREVERENtly and we have a collection of letters that rather resembles the word NEVER. Shame, as it would have been a nice clue – I liked the “in your dreams / no chance / never” definition | |
| 8 | Alternative healer we anger furiously (3,4) |
| NEW AGER – WE ANGER furiously | |
| 10 | Shakespearean king, scratching head, is a good listener? (3) |
| EAR – LEAR (Shakespearean king) scratch the head | |
| 11 | We’re told the writer cried, getting looked at (9) |
| EYEBALLED – We hear the same as I BAWLED (the writer cried) | |
| 13 | Hot goal in rugby score (6) |
| TRENDY – END (goal) in TRY (rugby score) | |
| 14 | Thrash with entirely old power (6) |
| WALLOP – W(ith) ALL (entirely) O(ld) P(ower) | |
| 17 | Reinforce mysterious brotherhood (9) |
| CONFRERIE – REINFORCE mysterious. At least with all the checkers, if you weren’t quite sure of the word, there was no other plausible arrangement of letters. | |
| 19 | Nearly stylish life force (3) |
| CHI – CHIc = stylish, Nearly = remove the last letter | |
| 20 | Deliberately lose best sleeveless garment (4,3) |
| TANK TOP – TANK (deliberately lose) TOP (best). I didn’t know this tennis slang sense of TANK. The OED gives a Guardian quote from Jan ’79: “But it is ironic that Connors, a player generally considered too honest to ‘tank’ to anyone, should be the one to suffer.” Would that be the Australian Open then? No further information, and I’m intrigued! | |
| 22 | Am leaving US to find evergreen shrub (5) |
| ERICA – AM leaves |
|
| 23 | Dog food (4) |
| CHOW – Double definition | |
| 24 | Circle of friends needing somewhere to sleep next to Great Lake (7) |
| COTERIE – COT (somewhere to sleep) next to ERIE (Great Lake) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | State: “I make incision after join” (11) |
| CONNECTICUT – I CUT (I make incision) after CONNECT (join) | |
| 2 | Opposite, one new poem (7) |
| INVERSE – I (one) N(ew) VERSE (poem) | |
| 3 | Publican‘s skill in heavy drinking (9) |
| BARTENDER – ART (skill) in BENDER (heavy drinking) | |
| 4 | Some cash brought up for cheesemaker’s ingredient (6) |
| RENNET – TENNER (some cash) “brought up” = reversed | |
| 5 | Gossip starts to jar as well (3) |
| JAW – “starts” to Jar As Well | |
| 6 | Large ugly royal (5) |
| REGAL – LARGE ugly | |
| 9 | Repeat paid lecture randomly (11) |
| REDUPLICATE – PAID LECTURE randomly | |
| 12 | Humiliation in a cellar (9) |
| ABASEMENT – A, BASEMENT (cellar) | |
| 15 | More fortunate, and braver, after losing head (7) |
| LUCKIER – |
|
| 16 | Discussion item about radius line on a globe (6) |
| TROPIC – TOPIC (discussion item) about R(adius) | |
| 18 | A bit of emotion in the Beethoven symphony (5) |
| NINTH – “A bit of” emotioN IN THe | |
| 21 | Pronounced piggy pull (3) |
| TOW – heard the same as TOE (piggy) | |
I’ll NEVER understand how the mistake occurred – it’s not like it’s a typo, which one might forgive, as there’s no such word as irrevenently. The clue simply doesn’t work and I don’t understand how Beck ever thought it did. Only held me up about 20 seconds, as I had all the checkers, but even so it’s left me mildly disappointed.
I thought this was moderately difficult – until I checked the answers and realised that I DNF. Turns out that all my life I had thought that Connecticut was Connetticut. I should have read the clue more carefully. On the other hand, not reading 7A more carefully saved me a lot of time, as I “saw” NEVER straightaway and put it in without realising it wasn’t there. NHO Reduplicate or Confrerie but still got them. DNK Tank. Liked Ninth.
I really am stunningly incompetent!
DNF in 29 mins. Put TENNER instead of RENNET for 4dn and that ruined 1ac. Put CLIMBOT for this, knowing it was probably wrong (it’s a climbing robot).
No excuses, just another example of my ineptitude. There is seemingly no end to the ways I can find to mess things up. A stupid misreading of a clue that was a ‘schoolboy’ error.
Another week blown. No surprise there. Even had I finished, I wouldn’t have been satisfied with my time. I made this far harder than necessary and jumped around instead of solving it methodically.
One distant day in the future, I might actually achieve some measure of satisfaction with the QC, but, right now that is a long way off! It’s just frustrating beyond words.
Thanks for the blog.
PS To compound my frustration, I sailed through the Quintagram. Why can’t I do this with the QC – it should, if anything, be easier!
7ac got me stuck for a while. I spent ages reading the letters backwards in irreverently, wrote in “Never” then realised it couldn’t be right. Only when I got the V and it was the LOI did I try “never” again and it was correct. Came straight here to check what I’d missed with the clue. Turned out I hadn’t missed anything, BAH!
For 7a, I took “somewhat” to mean “some parts of”, i.e. ‘irREVerENtly’. When just these (capital) letters are reversed, they do make NEVER.