Another fair-to-middling puzzle, again with a couple of trickier bits.
I made pretty good progress with this, coming in at 5:33, about a minute quicker than yesterday. I was glad to remember PLANGENT from my extensive reading of high literature crosswords past – it’s quite a tricky clue otherwise. Some particularly good surfaces on show today (not least the plangent one), all much enjoyed – many thanks to Jalna!
| Across | |
| 1 | Unforthcoming of late, holding it back (8) |
| RETICENT – RECENT (late) holding IT “back” | |
| 5 | Excited and getting overly giddy at first (4) |
| AGOG – And Getting Overly Giddy “at first” | |
| 8 | Computer hypothetically retaining much when reconfigured (6,7) |
| TURING MACHINE – anagram (when reconfigured) of RETAINING MUCH | |
| 10 | Old judge to give a lecture (5) |
| ORATE – O(ld) RATE (judge) | |
| 11 | Dutch scholar’s problems are returning (7) |
| ERASMUS -SUMS (problems) ARE “returning” | |
| 12 | Timely question fed into an AI tool, say (6) |
| PROMPT – double definition | |
| 13 | Key on map is large. So what? (6) |
| ISLAND – IS L(arge) AND? (“so what?”, delivered sarcastically). A KEY is an island, the ON MAP bit is there for good misdirection. | |
| 16 | Once again begin to relax by painting, perhaps (7) |
| RESTART – REST (relax) by ART (painting, say) | |
| 18 | Snack bars brought back some of these facilities (5) |
| CAFES – “brought back, some of” theSE FACilities | |
| 20 | Somehow, not being alone is fixed (3-10) |
| NON-NEGOTIABLE – anagram (somehow) of NOT BEING ALONE | |
| 21 | Power cut that was a close call (4) |
| PHEW – P(ower) HEW (cut) | |
| 22 | Ringing spy to get hold of information (8) |
| PLANGENT – PLANT (spy) to get hold of GEN (info). OK, so I was pleased I was able to remember the word, but I see it’s appeared more than a dozen times since 2019 – admittedly with most clues defining it as “mournful” rather than “loud” or “resonant”. Too late now to know how on earth I would have defined it had I been given the word cold: isn’t that a line of medieval kings, or something? | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fixed allowance almost in proportion (5) |
| RATIO – RATION (fixed allowance) “almost” = dock the tail | |
| 2 | One blowing rent on a party (7) |
| TORNADO – TORN (rent, as in asunder) on A and DO (party) | |
| 3 | Think about constant working pattern (11) |
| CONTEMPLATE – C (speed of light = a constant) on (working) TEMPLATE (pattern) | |
| 4 | Singer’s selection with less feeling (6) |
| NUMBER – double definition | |
| 6 | Stern male storyteller (5) |
| GRIMM – GRIM (stern) M(ale) | |
| 7 | Wedding invitee loudly indulged in speculation (7) |
| GUESSED – sounds like, as in uttered “loudly” or audibly as GUEST (wedding invitee) | |
| 9 | Stylishness rendered in coat or suit common in the States? (5,6) |
| CLASS ACTION – with CLASS = with stylishness, anagram (rendered) of IN COAT | |
| 12 | Standard, cut vegetable (7) |
| PARSNIP – PAR (standard) SNIP (cut) | |
| 14 | A fine story, easy to relate to (7) |
| AFFABLE -A F(ine) FABLE (story) | |
| 15 | Turn round after extremely short walk (6) |
| STROLL – ROLL (turn round) after ST (“extremely” ShorT) | |
| 17 | From that moment, gluttony possibly leads to certain excesses (5) |
| SINCE – SIN (gluttony possibly) “leads” to Certain Excesses | |
| 19 | Climb without a track (5) |
| SCENT – ASCENT (climb) without A | |
Last one in PLANGENT for the very confident submit only to realise I put RETRO instead of RATIO. I can’t even explain what made me do that. I think the crossers were just too tempting.
Liked GRIMM, CLASS ACTION, PROMPT and 5 or 6 others. I quite liked this one.
I thought this was pitched well, or atleast how I like the quick cryptics- a mix of straightforward with a couple that wouldn’t be out of place in the main crossword.
12 mins