Solving time: 8:34
Is our porcine friend getting bolder? Two signature answers in this right-on-the-money QC? Be prepared for their next effort which may be a gridful of piggy product references…
Oink has conjured a tidy puzzle, full of interesting words, which perhaps took me a shade longer than it should have, thanks to my inability to solve 5d in good time.
Let me know how you all got on…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 8 | Cook uses Aga to make a bite to eat (7) |
| SAUSAGE – Anagram [Cook] of USES AGA
Ostensibly a porcine reference, though SAUSAGEs can be made from virtually all varieties of meats. Vegetarian and vegan SAUSAGEs are also available. |
|
| 9 | Sneak off with east European, heading west (5) |
| ELOPE – E (east) POLE (European) all reversed [heading West]
ELOPE probably stems from 1590s Middle Dutch (ont)lopen “(away from) run”. The sense of “run away in defiance of parental authority to marry secretly” is from the 19th century. There is also an earlier Anglo-French word aloper which complicates the etymology, meaning “run away from a husband with one’s lover” though it may be a modification of the Middle Dutch word. |
|
| 10 | Liberal MP getting stuck into booze (5) |
| AMPLE – Stick MP into ALE (booze) | |
| 11 | Walk like a duck at start of trip? Rubbish! (7) |
| TWADDLE – WADDLE (Walk like a duck) after first letter of [at start of] T{rip} | |
| 12 | Fraudulent thesis Don concocted (9) |
| DISHONEST – Anagram [concocted] of THESIS DON | |
| 14 | Vegetable some reap early (3) |
| PEA – Hidden [some] in reap early | |
| 16 | Endless uproar in port (3) |
| RIO – Take last letter from [endless] RIO |
|
| 18 | I wondered about cover in retirement (9) |
| EIDERDOWN – Anagram [about] of I WONDERED gives this mildly cryptic definition | |
| 21 | Porridge-maker beginning to overeat at breakfast? (7) |
| OATMEAL – First letter [beginning to] of O{vereat} AT MEAL (breakfast?)
The question mark is there as breakfast is one of several MEALs to choose from (though it is the most likely for the overeating of porridge). |
|
| 22 | One occupying seat in European capital (5) |
| SOFIA – I (one) inserted into [occupying] SOFA (seat)
SOFA is a Turkish word (derived from the Arabic suffah) first recorded in the 1620s meaning “raised section of a floor, covered with carpets and cushions.” The meaning “long stuffed seat for reclining” is recorded from 1717. The origin of the Bulgarian capital SOFIA is in the Greek word σοφία (sophia) meaning “wisdom”. Before 1879, the city was known by its Thracian name, Serdica, which was derived from a Celtic tribe called the Serdi. |
|
| 23 | Ideal position husband found in French resort (5) |
| NICHE – H (husband) found in NICE (French resort)
The fourth definition from Collins Online gives “a job or activity which is exactly suitable for you.” |
|
| 24 | Mostly respect a Liberal naval officer (7) |
| ADMIRAL – ADMIR Ultimately from medieval Arabic amir “military commander,” amiral de la mer “commander of a fleet of ships” is found in late-13th century Anglo-French documents. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | I defame a Sicilian perhaps (8) |
| ISLANDER – I SLANDER (defame)
Sicilians are from Sicily which is, of course, an ISLAND |
|
| 2 | A commotion behind you and me (6) |
| RUMPUS – RUMP (behind) US (you and me) | |
| 3 | Expose Teddy, might one say? (4) |
| BARE – Homophone [might one say?] of BEAR (Teddy) | |
| 4 | Notice article that makes you fume (6) |
| SEETHE – SEE (Notice) THE (article)
SEETHE comes from the Middle English sethen, from Old English seoþan “to boil, be heated to the boiling point, prepare (food) by boiling.” Its figurative use, implied in seething, “to be in a state of inward agitation” is recorded from 1580s. |
|
| 5 | Margate’s unlikely to become a name known to millions (8) |
| MEGASTAR – Anagram [unlikely] of MARGATE‘S
Though this was my LOI and I had four checkers, it took me ages [ok, a minute or so…. but relatively speaking, ages!] to see what was going on here! The meaning of STAR as “leading performer” is from 1824. The first recorded use of MEGASTAR referenced by the OED is from 1969: “This year, with megastar Spencer Haywood departed for the pro ranks, the Titans have accumulated a 1-6 record” |
|
| 6 | Delay robbery (4-2) |
| HOLD-UP – Double definition | |
| 7 | Two ambassadors causing outburst of amusement (2-2) |
| HE-HE – An ambassador is generally referred to, in the third person, as ‘His/Her Excellency’ abbreviated to HE, therefore two ambassadors would be HE HE… | |
| 13 | Public watched, astonished (4-4) |
| OPEN-EYED – OPEN (Public) EYED (watched)
Nothing more to see here… |
|
| 15 | Girl meeting posh friend every year (8) |
| ANNUALLY – ANN (Girl) next to [meeting] U (posh) ALLY (friend)
U (posh) refers to “upper class”, a term coined in the 1954 by Alan C Ross, along with its opposite Non-U (those aspiring to be upper class). Popularised soon after through the writings of socialite and author Nancy Mitford. |
|
| 17 | Chooses to include single Conservative in scientific study (6) |
| OPTICS – OPTS (Chooses) to include i.e. insert I (single i.e. one) C (Conservative)
OPTICS is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light. |
|
| 19 | US city prosecutors admitting everything (6) |
| DALLAS – DAS (prosecutors i.e. District Attorneys) containing [admitting] ALL (everything) | |
| 20 | Where you might get blue shoe? (6) |
| OXFORD – Double definition, the first slightly cryptic
A “blue” is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at OXFORD and Cambridge universities in England. OXFORD shoes first appeared in Scotland and Ireland, where they were originally called “Balmorals” after Balmoral Castle. However, the shoes were later named OXFORDs after Oxford University. |
|
| 21 | All right to go round home making beastly noise? (4) |
| OINK – OK (All right) around IN (home) gives us our setter’s favoured soubriquet | |
| 22 | Oslo occasionally depressing me a bit (4) |
| SOME – I read this in two ways, depending on what the word ‘depressing’ is doing here.
Either “Every other even letter [occasionally] of OSlO ‘depressing’ ME i.e. pushing ME down into a lower position – apposite as this is a down clue” Or “Every other odd letter [occasionally] of I favour the first explanation… |
|
11:42 RUMPUS was my COD. In fact, considering who the setter was, I couldn’t help salivating over two of my favourites-pork RUMP roast and PEAmeal bacon.
You must have the chest of Noah Lyles – 11:43 for me
Photo-finish! I’ll sleep well tonight.
Nothing particularly difficult, although MEGASTAR and LOI OXFORD took some time. I’m glad I didn’t bother about ‘depressing’, just plowed ahead with SOME. ‘He-he’ hardly amounts to an outburst of amusement. 6:41.
Beaten by the crossers of SOFIA and OXFORD, which I should have seen given the number of times that particular shoe comes up in the 15×15. Enjoyable though.
Thanks setter and MH.
Great puzzle and a rare unaided finish in 45m. LOI OXFORD, and took a while to spot MEGASTAR, EIDERDOWN and Bare. Thanks!
Whizzed through this one to record a near PB of 5.28, a delay over OXFORD preventing me from going sub-5. A nicely-pitched QC from Oink I thought, and great blog Mike, very informative.
A bit of a delay over SOFIA and OXFORD at the end, but otherwise nothing to scare the horses (or the pigs).
I also blanked on SOFIA and OXFORD. Both should have been obvious but they added 4 minutes to my solving time, bringing it to 17 minutes.
EIDERDOWN defeated me, but it was great.
Great crossword and great blog.
5.12
I tap away on my phone so never normally know the setter till getting here. Not today though with OINK causing a nice smile, not least as the porcine one always produces excellent puzzles and this was no different.
No hold ups here other than peering at the ‘grist for MEGASTAR for a while wondering if I’d read the w/p wrongly.
Nice blog too
Classic breeze block on LOI Oxford, having whipped through this great puzzle. Lots of smiles and looking at an Olympic sized PB only to take minutes of alpha trawling to come up with the answer convinced it was something to do with depression/sadness, grrrr. Still, 16.36 is probably in our top 10 solves.
COD to sausage, great surface and the smile thinking it was definitely a pork one.
Thanks Oink, and Mike for the very informative, etymological blog
Great stuff. Ten on the first pass of acrosses gave lots of help on the downs. Held up briefly by MEGASTAR and but then had to alphabet trawl my way to OXFORD. As usual I didn’t take the x,y, z part seriously and went back to try OfF-r- before finally seeing it with a groan. Still fast, all green in 8.45.
I wrote out the letters ‘uses Aga’ in a circle and SAUSAGE lept out as my FOI. No problems other than having to write out the checking letters for MEGASTAR, OPTICS and LOI OPEN EYED to fill in the gaps.
I can only echo the previous comments – top quality puzzle at the easier end of the range but with a breezeblock for LOI OXFORD, where it surely had to start with ‘off’. Clearly not😂.
Finished in 5.58 with COD to OINK for the surface reading.
Thanks to Mike
Thanks Oik for an on par quickie. I came home pretty much bang on 20 mins. Probably spent longest on LOI MEGASTAR which was clearly an anagram. Liked RUMPUS, ELOPE and EIDERDOWN. Long ago I visited a friend who referred to their children’s play room as the ‘rumpus room’.
Thanks Mike for the insightful blog.
We call informal living rooms that can be closed off ‘rumpus rooms’ in Australia. They have a TV etc or sometimes that’s where the billiards table goes
A proper QC from Oink, and a nicely instructive blog from Mike. What’s not to like?
FOI SAUSAGE
LOI OXFORD
COD MEGASTAR
TIME 3:48
6:25, I thought for a while I might be headed for my first ever sub 5 minute QC, but the last few slowed me down especially my LOI OXFORD (I see I wasnt alone there)
Same as many others – very fine puzzle, romped through most of it only pausing to smile at the brazenness of Oink actually cluing OINK, then held up by the SOFIA/OXFORD pair which turned a very fast time into a still more than respectable 8½ minutes.
Many thanks Mike for the excellent blog.
Cedric
Not that long ago, one of the other setters had OINK in their puzzle. Very confusing
Failed on OXFORD, oh dear.
Otherwise much enjoyed.
Thanks, Mike.
4:39. Nice one. Held up for ages at the end by OXFORD. Doh. COD to the excellent EIDERDOWN. Thanks Oink and Mike.
A nice quick one today. SAUSAGE to MEGASTAR in 10:31. Held up most by OXFORD.
My first thought at 13dn was “wide-eyed” meaning “astonished” a and I wasn’t sure that “open-eyed” means the same. But I guess it does, even though it (mainly?) means something else (clear sighted, perceptive).
I liked RUMPUS and TWADDLE
9:34, of which the last three minutes were spent on OXFORD, convinced I was looking for a shoe beginning with OFF.
Thanks Mike and Oink
20 of the 26 clues solved during my first full pass through the grid, which is some sort of world record for me (as long as the boundaries of my world don’t extend beyond my solving chair). Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite maintain the pace with my remaining six clues, but I polished them off quickly enough to avoid having to enter the SCC. Time = 18 minutes, which is fast for me.
My last two clues were OPEN-EYED and OXFORD, both of which required some alphabet trawling. I always feel I have failed in some way if I have to resort to trawling to solve some of the clues.
Nice to see TWADDLE make an appearance, but I most enjoyed ISLANDER.
Many thanks to OINK and MIKE H.
Nice puzzle; thank you, 21. LOI (PDM) OXFORD.
What a great clues OXFORD and SOFIA must be – a quick scan shows nearly everyone had them as their LOsI, or couldn’t get them. SOFIA was my POI, then it took a full minute to get OXFORD.
Well done Oink, and thanks to Mike H.
4:49
12 minutes – almost made a pig’s ear of 12d but got there after a bit of head scratching. Stylish puzzle.
Thank you Oink and Mike
Another Oxford dunce here, eventually solved by a long alphabet trawl accompanied by the obligatory slap of the forehead as I wandered into the SCC. No such problem with SOFIA, but MEGASTAR and EIDERDOWN tested my mental anagramming somewhat.
Some may seethe at 15D for both a name and U=posh, but I’ll not cast the first stone. Nice puzzle, and I’m going back to the blog to consolidate all that varied knowledge into my brain cells.
18 minutes. I’ll join the club with SOFIA and OXFORD as my LOI’s too; my brain had a melt down when I couldn’t get them straight away. SOFIA took a long time, going from W to E across the European capitals and I then thought of every other sense of ‘blue’ before getting the correct one for OXFORD.
Thanks to Mike for the usual educational blog and to Oink for a puzzle which was certainly no doddle to finish.
Straightforward today, apart from LOI OXFORD, wich needed an alpabet trawl to get.
Managed todays in what i consider roughly average at 13 mins but had a pink square for a WIDE-EYEy typo. I have been getting a lot of silly mistakes recently so I even did a proof read! Gah
Can someone clarify for me what the anagram indicator is for MEGASTAR?
Is it ‘unlikely’? or ‘unlikely to become’
In my opinion, the anagram indicator is ‘unlikely’.
The words ‘to become’ seem to be merely for surface readability.
Other opinions welcome, of course.
Yes. “To become” is a pukka linking phrase between wordplay and definition. See here.
Just over five minutes elapsed with just 20dn to do. I spent as long again looking at it but the answer would not come. At 10.30 I stopped the clock to see what this seemingly obscure word was. Having discovered it was OXFORD I was mad with myself, because it is old chestnut in crosswords, usually in the clue rather than the answer itself perhaps. In two alphabet trawls I somehow managed to bypass X twice.
From SAUSAGE to OPEN-EYED (not something commonly heard) in 6:39. OXFORD went it straight away but I was slow to see SOFIA (until the F made an appearance) and slow to solve EIDERDOWN which gets my COD.
Finished correctly in 50 minutes. Hooray !
After a couple of lean days this was more of a fleshed out puzzle.
Definitely not the pig I thought it was going to be.
Well done, Mr K!
👏👏👏
Same hold-up as others with my final pair of Oxford/Sofia. Doubly annoying, as I guessed that blue referred to a sports award, but promptly started to think of possible sports rather than Universities. Nudged into the SCC for a window seat near the driver. Invariant
Finely discovered that Biarritz is on a completely different coast to the one I thought, and is closer to the Pyrenees than the Alps. Anything with “-itz” on the end always sounds vaguely alpine in my book.
👍
Oxford was a hold up. Excellent crossword and very good blog. Thank you I always learn something from an informative blog.
A great QC. Set at the right level. All but one for me which is steady progress.
Same as others – held up by OXFORD/SOFIA, but also by the excellent EIDERDOWN. MEGASTAR was LOI but easy enough with all the checkers. Informative blog. Many thanks.
Thanks for your comment on yesterday’s puzzle. I’ll persevere and see if things improve.
Another held up at the end by OXFORD. SAUSAGE was FOI. 7:18. Thanks Oink and Mike.
12.33 Mostly quick. EIDERDOWN took several minutes and then OXFORD and SOFIA went straight in to finish. I should have remembered that the only shoes in crossword land are Oxfords and brogues. Thanks Mike and Oink.
Enjoyed this too.
Also defeated by oxford.
Tried to squeeze loafer in – would make a great clue answer.
Having been rather out of it for the last week or so (ended up in hospital last week with a nasty infection!), I am slowly getting back to normal, and managing to finish the crosswords, albeit with somewhat less gusto than usual. So my favourite setter gave me a real boost today -6:58 with lots of smiles along the way.
It took me a little while to warm up – on reflection, I have no idea why I didn’t see SAUSAGE, ELOPE or AMPLE straightaway, but I didn’t! I’ll blame the bug. However, OINK wrote itself in – as soon as I’d finished OATMEAL and NICHE, I could see what the answer to 21d was, but it was still entertaining. I really liked EIDERDOWN, ISLANDER and DALLAS too.
FOI (and WOD) Twaddle LOI Rumpus COD Megastar
Many thanks Oink for the fun, and Mike for the excellent and informative blog
Get well soon Penny!
It’s good to see you posting again, Penny.
All the best from Mrs R and me for a full recovery.
Glad you’re back, have a good recovery!
Here’s hoping you have a quick recovery Penny 🤞
Have a quick recovery Penny!
You were missed, but 6:58 suggests you are well on the way to a full recovery !
Thanks everyone for your very kind comments 🤗 What a lovely bunch of people you all are!
Bad luck. Glad to hear you are recovering.
Hope all goes well ❤️
4.14 so well inside my five minute target.
Great puzzle I thought, only really held up by Oxford. LOI was rumpus, but only because it was the last one I looked at.
COD to EIDERDOWN.
Didn’t need Pumpa’s help with this one.
I felt that blue shoe = Oxford was a rather obscure clue which marred my overall impression of an otherwise nice QC.
18:30
My verdict: 👍
Fine and dandy apart from OXFORD, which I should have solved a lot quicker than I did
It took us two too a long while to get to LOI OXFORD, even though we are relatively just down the road these days. Nevertheless, very happy with 10:52. Great puzzle and blog. Thanks to all.
Dnf…
11 mins for everything apart from 20dn “Oxford” which just wouldn’t come. In hindsight, it is fairly obvious – but I haven’t see “blue” for Oxford/Cambridge in quite a while and it’s not my first choice of shoe. However, quite enjoyed the fact that Oink had the audacity to put his own name into an answer.
FOI – 1dn “Islander”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 18ac “Eiderdown” – and not my first thought of “endowment”
Thanks as usual!
Lovely QC and a very happy meander into my usual seat in the SCC. Feeling pleased because I got SOFIA fairly easily. But the LOI was (of course) OXFORD (With smack of forehead when finally solved). Thanks Oink.
Beaten by OXFORD and my phone, loved EIDERDOWN and RUMPUS.
Thanks Oink and Mike!
Fastest solve for many a week, like others, held up by Oxford but the only alternative was offers which did not seem right. Enjoyable puzzle.
11:34 here, but held up in a different place than most people, it seems. ISLANDER and DISHONEST were my L2I: can’t believe I’ve never seen the first one before, and I’m just lousy at anagrams for the second.
Thanks to Oink and Mike.