Another quite challenging QC.
Perhaps I was bang on wavelength yesterday, but at 8:24, today’s took me a good couple of minutes longer. I was slow to get 1ac, which foxed me with the unusual appearance of WOLVERINE and KLINGON, and there were plenty of tricky things going on elsewhere.
Lovely puzzle, with some cracking clues on offer – many thanks to Pedro!
| Across | |
| 1 | The standard greeting in the Magic Circle? (4,6) |
| HOWS TRICKS – Cryptic definition, gettable enough when you get it, but I was dithering over OPEN SESAME, despite it not making any sense. | |
| 7 | Oxford college that is surrounded by old hands? (5) |
| ORIEL – IE (id est = that is) surrounded by O(ld) and R+L (hands) | |
| 8 | Quiet conclusion still to occur? (7) |
| PENDING -P (Piano = quiet) ENDING (conclusion) | |
| 10 | What could replace a super tom at work? (9) |
| MOUSETRAP – anagram (at work) of A SUPER TOM, with the literal referring to a TOM, as in a male cat. Chambers tells me a TOM can also mean a big bell (which cropped up last week) or a prostitute (which didn’t). So, your choice whether the surface is referring to a very loud electronic chime or a sexbot. | |
| 12 | Leave a region of India (3) |
| GOA – GO (leave) A | |
| 13 | Excellent source of fibre, very much recalled as weaving material (6) |
| RAFFIA – AI (A-ONE = excellent) F (“source” of Fibre) FAR (very much) all reversed, or “recalled”. FAR = VERY MUCH for example in far better/very much better. | |
| 15 | Stone expert adopting new position (6) |
| STANCE -ST(one) ACE (expert) adopting N(ew) | |
| 16 | Source of charge? Electric current working (3) |
| ION – I (SI unit for electric current) ON (working) | |
| 17 | Environmentalist’s new arrangement of igloos etc (9) |
| ECOLOGIST – anagram (new arrangement) of IGLOOS ETC. I would draw a significant distinction between environmentalism and ecology, but Collins says an ecologist can also be a “person who believes that the environment and natural resources should be preserved, etc.” | |
| 20 | Permanent support for shoemaker in capital of Greece (7) |
| LASTING – LAST (support for shoemaker), IN, G (“capital” of Greece) | |
| 22 | Control importing sulphur and other material for plastics (5) |
| RESIN – REIN (control) importing S(ulphur) | |
| 23 | Running in all directions, playing tennis with peer (10) |
| SERPENTINE – anagram (playing) of TENNIS with PEER – nice word and nice clue | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sources of High Art In Kyoto University? (5) |
| HAIKU – &lit: the “sources” of the subsequent five words provide the wordplay; and a literal definition. | |
| 2 | Most of long review panned superhero in film (9) |
| WOLVERINE – anagram (panned) of LON (“most” of LONg) and REVIEW | |
| 3 | Thanks Republican turning up to make a point (5) |
| TAPER – TA (thanks) REP(ublican) “turning up” = reversing | |
| 4 | Unspecified number admitted to fashionable bar (3) |
| INN – N (unspecified number) admitted to IN (hip, fashionable) | |
| 5 | Leader against housing large alien species (7) |
| KLINGON – KING (leader) ON (against) housing L(arge). As in leaning something on/against the wall. | |
| 6 | Conservative claim: more changes regarding business (10) |
| COMMERCIAL – anagram (changes) of C(onservative) CLAIM MORE | |
| 9 | Memorial — most sombre example? (10) |
| GRAVESTONE – the GRAVEST ONE could be the most sombre example | |
| 11 | Post Office ruined our trip — a mixture of things (9) |
| POTPOURRI – PO (Post Office) and an anagram (ruined) of OUR TRIP | |
| 14 | Penalties seem reduced by 50 per cent? This shows subtlety and tact (7) |
| FINESSE – FINES (penalties) SE |
|
| 18 | Newspaper possibly involved in reorganisation (5) |
| ORGAN – “involved” in reORGANisation | |
| 19 | No opening for paper in topical matter (5) |
| ISSUE – no “opening” for tISSUE (paper) | |
| 21 | Leading politician I upheld as a rascal (3) |
| IMP – PM (leading politician) I “upheld” = reversed | |
Like the majority, feel this was easier than yesterday’s and the SNITCH is consistent with that view. COD to MOUSETRAP. LOI SERPENTINE, which I’d left while I tackled 1ac to enable NW corner to be solved.
A succession of trickyish QCs, and this was another. I thought ORGAN was poorly clued – though I hesitate to say it, as I quite often randomly try to ‘clue’ words I see around, and how infrequently can I come up with anything sound, let alone concise and humorous!! How dare I criticise! And there were a few smashers – SERPENTINE, GRAVESTONE, MOUSETRAP for three. All round, an excellent puzzle for which much appreciation!
22 mins…
Compared to my usual reference points above this doesn’t seem too bad a time, although it was definitely on the harder side. For some reason I thought 1ac might be “Open Sesame” until I got some checkers. Similarly, I nearly put Geologist for 17ac. It would have been a national disgrace if didn’t get 5dn “Klingon” – although 2dn “Wolverine” took a bit of time and felt somewhat specialised for a QC.
FOI – 3dn “Taper”
LOI – 23ac “Serpentine”
COD – 9dn “Gravestone”
Thanks as usual!
Didn’t expect to see WOLVERINE and KLINGON in any standard crossword,maybe it’s an age thing,ialthough my spellchecker seems to be aware of them
1a Hows tricks; I was tempted by High something but nothing ever came of it.
13a Raffia, I thought far=very much was weak, but the blog has put me right there.
1d Haiku. I don’t get this. Where is the def? A haiku may be arty but the clue is far too wordy to even approach a def. I put it in but MER.
2d NHO the superhero. HHO wolverine (animal.) LOI as only fitting word (from Cheating Machine) using all the anagrist.
3d Taper. Rep=Republican was a stretch I think.
5d Klingon; wasn’t aware you have to be a trekkie to do this Xword. Never properly parsed, but had to be from the crossers. Added to CM.
COD 9d Gravest One.
Thanks Pedro & Roly.
re 1d – Haiku is the first letters (aka ‘sources’ in this case) within the clue.
I thought this QC was, in the main, a stinker, but am suffering from sleep deprivation over the last couple of nights so maybe that’s a contributory factor…
I saw the initials which is why I put it in but I still don’t see a definition. No mention is made of poetry anywhere. The answer can’t be anything else but I think setters are required to give a hint of what the solution is.
BIFD gravestone and Klingon and parsed on reading so thanks Roly. 18:25 so in the harder side methinks. Ta Pedro
There’s Klingons on the starboard bow! I guess they actually are, as the clue is on the right and at the front of the puzzle 😅
Anyway, B for Better today. In fact, I found this pretty user friendly, as well as good fun, probably helped by the fact that I had the required GK. I did get a bit stuck with HOW’S TRICKS though – it took the KLINGON to sort that one out for me. I liked both of them a lot though, as well as the lovely HAIKU.
8:35 FOI Oriel LOI How’s tricks COD Mousetrap
Thanks Pedro and Roly
19 minutes. OK-ish.
Usual struggle on 15 x 15. Haven’t checked blog yet, but 5 unanswered and, at a guess, 3 incorrect.
Despite trying desperately to enjoy cryptics, I still feel only frustration and disappointment. I’ll persevere.
Thanks for the blog.
PS Now seen the Snitch score for both puzzles. Depressing.
9.50. Tricky indeed.