Given the grid, the key to this one was getting 1a or 6d early on. I failed both at first glance, but then got each of them as soon as I had the first checker (the second letter of 6d being particularly useful!). With all those lovely first letters it then went quickly because there’s nothing too obscure, and I hope that there will be some happy punters today. 06:38 for me.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Criterion for judging small quantity and weight (10) |
| TOUCHSTONE – TOUCH [small quantity – “just a touch of milk please”] + STONE [weight]. “A criterion or standard by which judgment is made” quoth Collins. | |
| 7 | Fate’s more peaceful, as some would say (5) |
| KARMA – sounds like [as some would say] “calmer” [more peaceful]. No liability is accepted if this doesn’t work in your dialect. | |
| 8 | Insignificant man lion mauled (7) |
| NOMINAL -anagram [mauled] of “man lion”. | |
| 10 | Dreary routine in part of tyre factory (9) |
| TREADMILL – TREAD [part of tyre] + MILL [factory]. | |
| 12 | Go out and finally purchase two books (3) |
| EBB – E [finally purchase] + BB [two books]. B is not a particularly common abbreviation for “book” other than in Crosswordland but it’s in Collins and we see it a lot because it’s useful for setters. | |
| 13 | Live, eat and act properly (6) |
| BEHAVE – BE [live, as in “exist”] + HAVE [eat]. | |
| 15 | Go near rotting fruit (6) |
| ORANGE – anagram [rotting] of “go near”. Lovely clue. | |
| 16 | Completely pall? Not at first (3) |
| ALL – {p}ALL. | |
| 17 | Sorry tenant gets confused by representative (9) |
| REPENTANT – anagram [gets confused] of “tenant” next to [by] REP [representative]. | |
| 20 | Security is returning to enter warehouse (7) |
| DEPOSIT – DEPOT [warehouse] inside which goes SI [is returning]. | |
| 22 | Follows stories on the radio (5) |
| TAILS – sounds like [on the radio] “tales” [stories]. | |
| 23 | Ancient couple believe in the East End? (4,3,3) |
| ADAM AND EVE -the Biblical first humans and thus an “ancient couple”. The wordplay is Cockney Rhyming Slang [in the East End] for “believe”, as in “would you Adam & Eve it?”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Short stretch of intersection (5) |
| TERSE – hidden [stretch of] inside “intersection”. | |
| 2 | Sort of door and cookware found in university town in Kent (2-3-4) |
| UP-AND-OVER – U [university] + DOVER [town in Kent] inside which [found in] goes PAN [cookware]. Phew! “Up-and-over” doors are usually found on garages. | |
| 3 | What may be spoken in North India? (5) |
| HINDI – hidden [in] “North India”. Since Hindi might well be spoken in North India, I’m daring the Clue Police to give me a ticket for calling this an &Lit. | |
| 4 | Jaguar’s annual check-up perhaps upset cat (3) |
| TOM – read it upwards [upset] and you get MOT; if you drive a Jaguar (other cars are available, hence “perhaps” to indicate this is just an example) you will need to take it for an annual MOT. | |
| 5 | Relative anxious for material (7) |
| NANKEEN – NAN [relative] + KEEN [eager]. I now shamelessly crib Merlin’s explanation of what this is when he blogged it in July 2024: “a pale yellowish cloth, originally made at Nanking from a yellow variety of cotton”. He had NHO it then; did it stick? | |
| 6 | Fish meals on which one could make progress (10) |
| SKATEBOARD – SKATE [fish] + BOARD [meals, eg half board]. I definitely couldn’t make much progress on a skateboard before I fell off, but you see the sentiment. Cracking clue. (Teazel likes it too – he gave us “A platform for rolling fish on table” on 4 August 2022 (QC 2193).) | |
| 9 | Writer of words bitter, wrongly spelled in list (10) |
| LIBRETTIST – Anagram [wrong spelled] of “bitter” inside [in] LIST. | |
| 11 | Handled glasses: blimey! Ten get broken (9) |
| LORGNETTE – I only fully parsed this when writing up. What I didn’t spot mid-solve was that it’s LOR for “blimey” – a shortened form of “Lord”. I’d have placed this as 50s slang (it’s all over Billy Bunter, for example – “Oh, sir! No, sir! Oh lor’— I — I — I mean, oh, jiminy!”), but now defunct. However, the Collins “usage frequency” graph actually shows a gentle increase since the 50s, peaking in 1999. The rest of the clue is an anagram [broken] of “ten get”. A LORGNETTE is essentially a pair of specs on a handle. It comes from the French “lorgner”, to squint. | |
| 14 | Man on edge, notice, finishing flight here? (7) |
| HELIPAD -HE [man] + LIP [edge] + AD [notice]. A lovely definition. | |
| 18 | Not one penny raised for climbing equipment (5) |
| PITON – read upwards [raised] you get NOT I P. | |
| 19 | Similar posts may get this (5) |
| ALIKE – if you post something on social meeja, you may get A LIKE. Or so I understand. (We used to have “like” buttons on TFTT, rather useful.) Really clever clue, COD from me. | |
| 21 | Sort of card, thin but not large (3) |
| SIM – S{l}IM; i.e. remove the L [not large] from “slim” [thin]. I always find “Think of another word and do something to it” clues a bit tricky. | |
Enjoyable puzzle – luckily, I was more or less on the wavelength today. I had to go out having left various clues unsolved but all came together on return this afternoon.
LOsI SKATE BOARD, KARMA. Also slow on LORGNETTE – had to visualise the glasses on a stick before solving. And slow to see the ORANGE anagram. But other clues I managed to assemble from the parts, for a change, like UP AND OVER , PITON and HELIPAD.
ADAM AND EVE an early solve.
Thanks vm, Templar.
My comment does not appear but thanks, Templar.
It does appear!
Slow at first, then the clues fell into place quite quickly for us. 30 min, good for us.
5.37. It’s very satisfying when a puzzle hits a personal sweet spot.
A long M1, M25 and M11 drive for a day out in Bethnal Green for an exhibition meant only a small Costa on my way home and was surprised to rattle through this. A setter I usually find tricky gave us a gentle one today – has he been nobbled?
FOI 7a Karma
LOI 9d Librettist – didn’t help myself by entering the answer for 11d…
COD 23a Adam and Eve – since Bethnal Green was my destination for the day
I found it hard to get on the setter’s wavelength today. I stopped the clock at 30 mins with 6down and 7 ac unsolved.
COD ALIKE. One of my few write-ins.
Thanks for the blog Templar. Much needed by me today.
Tricky for me, booting me back into the SCC with 24.15. It started slowly, sped up in the middle and then ground to a halt after I bunged in CORGNETTE with a shrug.
Thank you for the blog!
The usual nightmare.
29 minutes of angst, frustration and ineptitude. When it takes 3 passes to get ORANGE, that really does say it all!
Thanks for the blog.