Bjorn’s third puzzle is a cracker.
I could pretty much copy-and-paste the previous two blog intros, from Templar last October, and Kitty this January: “full of wit and tricks but still well-judged as a QC”; “I am nervously predicting a QUITCH of about 100 and some reasonably happy punters”; however, “With some clever misdirection in wordplay and definitions, this felt like the kind of puzzle which might sit better with experienced solvers used to more advanced puzzles.”
Yes to all of that. A puzzle replete with great surfaces, this was an absolute pleasure to solve. I came in at 6:11, so would repeat both Templar’s tentative quitch prediction, and Kitty’s caveat. Super stuff – many thanks to Bjorn!
| Across | |
| 1 | Britain’s No 1: Everybody Dance (4) |
| BALL – B (Britain’s “Number 1”) ALL (everybody). Wiki tells me that Everybody Dance is a fairly well-known disco song. Apparently it cost $10 to record, “which went on bribing the elevator engineer not to tell the manager they were recording in there.” | |
| 3 | 21 Amarula liqueur bottles (7) |
| LALIQUE – 21ac being CRYSTAL, the answer is “bottled” by amaruLA LIQUEr. Apparently amarula is a slightly fruity, caramel-tasting cream liqueur from South Africa, in case you’re wondering. LALIQUE should be slightly better known, but if not, sure it’s a hidden. Cross-reference clues are a lot more palatable when they read like a proper sentence, such as this. | |
| 8 | In New Year, Ali G set off Rocket, famously (7,6) |
| RAILWAY ENGINE – anagram (set off) of IN NEW YEAR ALI G. My LOI. The definition refers to Stephenson’s Rocket. | |
| 9 | Where I go after sampling alcohol periodically? (3) |
| LOO – Semi-&lit, where the whole clue is the definition, but only part of it is cryptic wordplay (as opposed to the entirety in a full &lit). Here the cryptic is “sampling” the “periodic” letters of: a L c O h O l. | |
| 10 | Starts to mull over Times, identifying frivolous theme (5) |
| MOTIF – the “starts” to the subsequent five words. | |
| 12 | Manipulated wife went fishing (7) |
| WANGLED – W(ife) ANGLED (went fishing). Etymology obscure, notes the OED, adding “Probably, like many other slang words, it was formed involuntarily, under the influence of an obscure sense of phonetic symbolism.” What a great way to describe how a lot of slang presumably originates. | |
| 14 | Mephisto? Ugh … I expect contains difficult question (7) |
| TOUGHIE – is contained by mephisTO UGH I Expect. | |
| 16 | Teams pick swindlers on a regular basis (5) |
| SIDES – pick/select the letters from S w I n D l E r S “on a regular basis” | |
| 17 | TV series (3) |
| SET – very neat double definition | |
| 20 | Small island renegotiated its financing (13) |
| INSIGNIFICANT – I. (abbrev. for Island) and an anagram (renegotiated) of ITS FINANCING | |
| 21 | Weep salt tears, completely transparent (7) |
| CRYSTAL – CRY (weep) and an anagram (tears) of SALT | |
| 22 | Got introduced to hard drug (4) |
| METH – MET (got introduced to) H(ard) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sort of orange got confused with amber (8) |
| BERGAMOT – anagram (confused) of GOT with AMBER. Of Earl Grey tea fame. | |
| 2 | Former PM rejecting British retreat (4) |
| LAIR – BLAIR (former PM) rejecting the B(ritish) | |
| 3 | Fell over punching Wally when drunk (3,3) |
| LAY LOW – O(ver) punches/enters an anagram (when drunk) of WALLY. I was a bit confused by this, thinking LIE LOW and FALL are hardly the same thing, but in fact we’re in the present tense, where to LAY LOW = to K.O. = to FELL. | |
| 4 | Piece of stair carpet where moths might descend? (7,5) |
| LANDING STRIP – a sort of cryptic hint to an oblique definition: a piece of stair carpet could be described as a strip of material on a landing; and a moth is a light aircraft, which would indeed land on a landing strip. | |
| 5 | Queen ate sparingly after ignoring starter, complained pettily (8) |
| QUIBBLED – QU. (queen) nIBBLED (ate sparingly) after ignoring starter. QUIBBLE derives from QUIB, an obsolete word for a delaying or obscuring tactic in an argument, which itself comes from the Latin (ablative plural) for WHO, quibus, “a word of frequent occurrence in legal documents and hence associated with the length and unnecessary complexity of legal documents.” Love it! | |
| 6 | Calm First Lady back in Washington (4) |
| EVEN – EVE (first lady) and the “back” of washingtoN | |
| 7 | Play Wild Thing after glorious date! (7,5) |
| TWELFTH NIGHT – anagram (wild) of THING comes after TWELFTH ( |
|
| 11 | One entering French city — extremely tacky — full of visitors? (8) |
| TOURISTY – I (one) enters TOURS (French city), TY (“extremely” TackY) | |
| 13 | Dispose of junk around health resort (8) |
| DISPATCH – DITCH (junk) around SPA (health resort) | |
| 15 | Sixth sense originally identified after long observation (6) |
| ESPIAL – ESP (extra-sensory perception = sixth sense) and then Identified After Long “originally” | |
| 18 | Element of unknown since uncovered? (4) |
| ZINC – Z (unknown in maths) and then remove the “covering” letters of sINCe | |
| 19 | Puzzle that sounds corny? (4) |
| MAZE – sounds “LIKE MAIZE”, ie, “like corn”, or “corny”. Very inventive – I don’t think I’ve seen this twist on the homophone clue before. | |
Doable but by no means a doddle. Right up my street. Needed blog to explain LAY LOW and TWELTH NIGHT – many thanks Roly (great blog). LOI QUIBBLE after POI LALIQUE. Hadn’t considered QU for queen 🙄 Will add to list. Luckily never thought of hash so METH went straight in. COD LANDING STRIP which made me smile. Lovely puzzle. Thanks Bjorn.
It’s all been said. Great puzzle, great blog. Great weather, until the drought!
Entertaining, instructive and tough! Good 30 minutes by the end – but didn’t get ESPIAL so a dnf. I biffed TOULOUSE at 11d but INSIGNIFICANT and CRYSTAL put paid to that until TOURS suddenly came to mind. Moths landing on a carpet strip a delightful visual image! Thanks setter and blogger – despite the struggle, no grouse from me.
8.29
Interesting as I also took much longer to do this than other regular neighbours (Kevin and John D) but similar to others I’m often near to (Templar and Plett). Nothing particularly held me up other than ESPIAL which I had to squint very hard to solve (NHO) and the terrifying _A_E for MAZE.
But enjoyable. Thanks all
8.49.
16 mins…
An enjoyable puzzle from Bjorn. NHO of 2ac “Lalique”, but luckily it was a hidden clue. Thankfully, I didn’t fall for the “Hash” misdirection and went straight for the hard stuff of Meth for 22ac.
FOI – 1ac “Ball”
LOI – 5dn “Quibbled”
COD – 4dn “Landing Strip”
Thanks as usual!
I also assumed glorious twelfth meant the 12th of July, wouldn’t have occured to me that it might mean something else. Certainly a much more well known reference than the start of grouse hunting season, an outdated and irrelevant nod that would be.
Chambers: “the glorious twelfth: noun, Brit: 12 August, the opening day of the grouse-shooting season.” That’s just what it means, you don’t have to form any value judgment.
27 minutes.
Another appalling performance. So many easy clues where I looked for something more tricky.
I really am inept. No other explanation. 4.5 years at this and I’m still firmly in the SCC. Nowhere near good enough.
I can’t enjoy this if I’m not improving. My brain just doesn’t function in the right way for this, despite countless hours on the 15 x 15 in a desperate attempt to get better. ☹️
Just recording my time (late) for the Quitch’s records. 27:29, nearly double my average. Ouch, but a really good puzzle.
Only just done this puzzle as I’ve been away. Loved it! Full of humour, I thought. Have visited the Lalique museum in Alsace, which is amazing.