Pretty flat out workwise at the moment so this is going to be no frills. Great puzzle, very funny, Jimmy is a terrific setter. No accurate time because of interruptions; I’d guess it was about my average.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Corpulent celebrities I caught having a resigned attitude (10) |
| FATALISTIC – FAT + A-LIST + I + C. Very funny surface, great start. There aren’t any FAT A-LISTers any more, though, because of Ozempic. | |
| 8 | Farm worker tucked into sherry, gutted to get diluted alcohol (6) |
| SHANDY – HAND going inside S{herr}Y [sherry gutted]. SHANDY is beer mixed with lemonade. | |
| 9 | Some euros I risked for powerful underworld figure (6) |
| OSIRIS – hidden inside “euros I risked”. Egyptian god of the dead. | |
| 10 | Love of the French lyrical compositions (4) |
| ODES – O for “love” + DES for “of the {in} French”. I found that unaccountably hard to see. | |
| 11 | Mark humiliating Cockney speaking unclearly (8) |
| MUMBLING – M for “Mark” (old currency, I think) + {h}UMBLING. Like Uriah Heep in David Copperfield (“When I was quite a young boy,” he tells David, “I got to know what umbleness did, and I took to it. I ate umble pie with an appetite.”) | |
| 12 | Begin touring upper-class, royal house (6) |
| STUART – START [begin] going round [touring] U [upper-class]. | |
| 14 | One US state or another which doesn’t have a river (6) |
| KANSAS -{ar}KANSAS – you remove the AR for “a river”. | |
| 16 | Baker might make this business revenue (8) |
| TURNOVER – double definition. | |
| 18 | Reveal posterior part of gizmo, once (4) |
| MOON – hidden in “gizmo, once”. For the innocents, it’s Collins sense 11: “(intransitive) slang: to expose one’s buttocks to passers by”. OK, I laughed. COD from me. | |
| 20 | Grandmaster capturing a piece in sacrificial stratagem (6) |
| GAMBIT – GM [grandmaster] with A inside [capturing a] + BIT [piece]. | |
| 21 | Literature penned by Gothic writer giving no offence (6) |
| POLITE – POE [Gothic writer, Edgar Allan] with LIT [literature] inside [penned by]. | |
| 22 | Working loom raised for convenience (6,4) |
| LADIES ROOM – anagram [working] of “loom raised”. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | A qualification for doctor catching one bug (5) |
| APHID – A PHD [a qualification for doctor] with I inside it [catching one]. Super clue. | |
| 3 | Cause of lapses and bad manners vicar periodically ignored (7) |
| AMNESIA – every other letter [periodically ignored] of “bad manners vicar”. Doing that in my head made me go cross-eyed. | |
| 4 | Climber coming from peaks of inactive volcanoes? Yes! (3) |
| IVY – first letters [peaks of] of “inactive volcanoes yes”. | |
| 5 | Maybe saw manufacturer talk more foolishly about nothing (9) |
| TOOLMAKER – anagram [foolishly] of “talk more” + O [nothing]. If only anyone knew if our Prime Minister had had a parent in this field of employment https://mydadwasatoolmaker.uk/ | |
| 6 | Complaint made by Conservative greeting Liberal Left (5) |
| CHILL – C [Conservative] + HI [greeting] + LL [Liberal left]. “Complaint” as in “illness”. | |
| 7 | Classical sextet and former queen turned up in capital (6) |
| VIENNA – VI [Latin for six and so classical sextet] + Queen ANNE backwards. This means nothing to me, ahhhh Vienna. | |
| 11 | Assessment of vehicle with current tax Edward’s driven (9) |
| MOTIVATED – MOT [assessment of vehicle] + I [current, from French intensité du courant] + VAT [tax] + ED [Edward]. | |
| 13 | 100 withdrawn from account, possibly? One has a large bill (6) |
| TOUCAN – take a C out of “account” [100 withdrawn] and anagram what’s left [possibly]. One of my life’s most memorable moments was floating on my back down a river in Costa Rica watching toucans stream overhead. I can confirm that they do indeed have large bills. | |
| 15 | More agile African runner goes round doctor on run (7) |
| NIMBLER – NILE [African runner, in the sense of a river] going round MB [doctor] + R [on run]. | |
| 17 | Well-known chemist in front of Boots during festive season (5) |
| NOBEL – B [front of Boots] inside [during] NOEL [festive season]. As in Alfred NOBEL, who invented first dynamite and then a peace prize. | |
| 19 | Wrong party for Trump (5) |
| OUTDO – OUT [wrong, “your calculations are out”] + DO. Another beltingly good surface, Jimmy’s on fire. | |
| 21 | Pastry that is after prawns for starters (3) |
| PIE – IE [that is] after P [prawns for starter]. | |
I agree – I thought this was a really entertaining crossword too. The smiles started straightaway with my FOI and carried onto the end, via VIENNA, NOBEL and the LADIES ROOM. And all done and dusted in 7:50., so much better than recent outings. Just seen that I was a tad quicker than Plett – that’s the first time for ages – albeit only by a couple of seconds! For a little while a few years ago, we plugged along together with Templar, then they shot off and I was left standing at the wayside 😅
FOI Fatalistic LOI Gambit COD Toucan
Thanks for the boost Jimmy, and the entertaining blog Templar. How you guys do this at 2 o’clock in the morning, I’ll never know 😊
An excellent fair puzzle which I thoroughly enjoyed completing in 3 sittings taking a total of around 40 minutes. Was convinced 6d was CABUL and that 9a was an anagram of EUROSI! Took me a while to see the hidden word which was my LOI.
Thank you Jimmy and Templar – great clues and explanations.
SCC for me but much enjoyed the challenge! I thought 2d might have been DRONE (Dr + ONE) ie bug of a sort for a while, but SHANDY put paid to that. Then I got POE for Gothic writer but failed to separate, and tried POETRY, POETIC, POESIE… aagh, until 15d NIMBLER put me back on track. VI for classical six no problem, but loi OUTDO took a good 5 minutes – I was sure that the Donald was involved! Fun clues, good anagrams, friendly hiddens. Thanks to Jimmy and to Templar
6.32. Almost a write-in, but none the worse for that.
12 minutes.
I found the big crossword very hard. Gave up with 5 unsolved (and one silly error) after 75 minutes.
Thanks for the blog.
15:11 for me. Like others have said, an excellent QC (and blog of course), so thanks Jimmy and Templar.
A very enjoyable QC from Jimmy. Needed crossers to help with TOOLMAKER, and OUTDO at the end held us up.
FOIs IVY & SHANDY
LOI OUTDO
COD MOTIVATED
Thanks very much Jimmy and Templar