Dangle’s fourth puzzle and it’s another good one. There are a couple of tricks we don’t often see in these parts, but also a good spread of reasonably straightforward ones to provide checkers and help us on the way. I really enjoyed it and hope you did too. It took me 07:28 which is below my average, so I’m guessing a QUITCH around 90. [On edit: it ended up at 97.]
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Service providers in Scottish town protected by those in charge (3,7) |
| LAY READERS – AYR is our Scottish town, and it goes inside [protected by] LEADERS [those in charge]. In the Church of England, a LAY READER is a person who is not ordained (and therefore “lay”) but is licensed by a Bishop to perform various functions, including the conduct of some religious services. So they are “service providers”, ho ho! | |
| 8 | Jack delivered part of church (5) |
| KNAVE – another word for the “Jack” as a playing-card. It sounds like [delivered] “nave”. | |
| 9 | Bishop is primarily made to take appropriate sacrament (7) |
| BAPTISM – B [bishop] + IS [is] + M [primarily made] containing [to take] APT [appropriate]. Phew! BAPTISM is one of the seven sacraments in the Church of England (and cannot be performed by a lay reader, save for emergencies). | |
| 10 | Resolve to put off excavation (9) |
| DETERMINE – DETER [put off] + MINE [excavation]. | |
| 12 | Tree has changed (3) |
| ASH – anagram [changed] of “has”. | |
| 13 | Hairdresser’s in small town on a regular basis (5) |
| SALON – every other letter [on a regular basis] of “small town“. Collins says “a commercial establishment in which hairdressers, beauticians, etc carry on their businesses”. | |
| 15 | Starting late, winter is unsettled still (5) |
| INERT – tough clue; my POI and took me a while to see. It’s an anagram [unsettled] of “winter” without its first letter [starting late]. A very neat trick. | |
| 17 | Part of brutal routine (3) |
| RUT – hidden inside [part of] “brutal”. | |
| 18 | Grange Hill’s opening bores distant timid individual (9) |
| FARMHOUSE – H [hill’s opening] goes inside [bores – remember this trick if you didn’t know it, because it comes up quite often] FAR [distant] MOUSE [timid individual]. Am I allowed to say that I thought this was a rather clunky surface? I think I am. A grange is (per Collins) “a farm, especially a farmhouse or country house with its various outbuildings”. It probably helped to get this if you listen to The Archers but there are many buildings called “Grange Farm” in Britain. | |
| 20 | Disinfect lists in church (7) |
| CLEANSE – LEANS [lists] inside CE [in church]. | |
| 21 | Taxi returned to Italian explorer (5) |
| CABOT – CAB [taxi] + OT [to returned, i.e. going backwards]. Giovanni Caboto was an Italian explorer who sailed from Bristol and landed in Newfoundland in 1497, commissioned by Henry VII. His name was Anglicised as John Cabot and I had forgotten (or never knew) that he was Italian. | |
| 22 | Plague pees client off (10) |
| PESTILENCE – anagram [off] of “pees client”. For those of us who had to advise insureds or insurers on how Covid fitted into the terms of their business interruption policies, this rang a bell. Ma’s out, pa’s out, let’s talk rude. Naughty Dangle. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | I distract elk roaming in national park (4,8) |
| LAKE DISTRICT – anagram [roaming] of “I distract elk”. Given that you only had to swop the “a” for the “i” to see “district”, this wasn’t too challenging! Lots of nice first letters if you saw it quickly. | |
| 2 | I agree to eat a starter of toasted fungus (5) |
| YEAST – YES [I agree] containing A [to eat a] + T [starter of toasted]. | |
| 3 | Before and after evening drinks (3) |
| ERE – hidden [drinks] inside “after evening”. I tried very hard to justify “pre” here, influenced by my children’s vocabulary of “pre’s” as meaning “the drinks you have at home before going out for the evening”, but it didn’t work, principally because it was wrong. | |
| 4 | Calling briefly for leather protector (6) |
| DUBBIN – “dubbing” [calling] without the final g [briefly]. My LOI because I haven’t come across this word for a very long time. Eventually I remembered it, because I am old enough to recall that back when hiking boots were made of leather you used to look after them by painstakingly rubbing in DUBBIN (a sort of greasy wax). Nowadays my boots are made of Goretex, weigh next to nothing and keep out water effortlessly. | |
| 5 | Helen rips pants and top up (9) |
| REPLENISH – anagram [pants] of “Helen rips”. Quite an image. | |
| 6 | Bad behaviour when driving to Leeds, perhaps, is illusion (6) |
| MIRAGE – if you were driving to Leeds you might well be taking the M1 motorway, and if you got angry on the way you could be said to be suffering from M1 RAGE … what a lovely clue, COD from me! | |
| 7 | A politician affected by temperature on stage (12) |
| AMPHITHEATRE – A [a] + MP [politician] + HIT [affected by] + HEAT [temperature] + RE [on]. A clue of many parts. | |
| 11 | Gang fight with a sword put to one side (4-5) |
| RING-FENCE – RING [gang] + FENCE [fight with a sword]. | |
| 14 | Spread foam over someone using metalworking tool? (6) |
| LATHER – a definition with a cryptic hint. A lathe is a “metalworking tool” so someone using a lathe could be called a “lather” (but never is). | |
| 16 | Harry, after taking coat, is in French nick (6) |
| ARREST – ARR is “Harry” without the first and last letters [taking coat – in other words, you remove its “coating” – sneaky and tricky!] + EST [is in French]. Excellent clue, worth the price of admission on its own. | |
| 19 | Civic headwear scratches head (5) |
| URBAN – {t}URBAN. Not an “owler” then. | |
| 21 | Company left in depression (3) |
| COL – CO [company] + L [left]. The lowest point of a ridge between two peaks. | |
I enjoyed that but found parts of it tricky, taking me 18:19. I’d have done better if I hadn’t parsed 18a as putting “GH” inside a word for “distant” to get a timid individual. Only myself to blame.
For anyone who doesn’t already know the Cracking the Cryptic channel on Youtube, their Friday crossword videos are very good for learning to spot tricks like “bores” and “after taking coat”.
Thank you for the blog!
Very enjoyable puzzle. No problem with dubbin as I remembered my Dad putting dubbin on his football boots. Add me to now having the Grange Hill theme tune stuck in my ear!!
Really nice clue Harry losing his coat – perhaps that will stick in my mind and replace the tune in my ear!
Thanks Dangle and Templar
Agree on thinking Dubbin a brand name. As a kid I always had to use Dubbin on my football boots. Actually this clue and its answer has evoked quite an emotional memory for me with regards to my parents and my care of those boots before I was 12 years old (when I quit school football because my glasses kept getting broken)
No time to report – two sessions and easily 30 minutes plus – but very enjoyable having managed to complete this
Completed today’s, only had MIRAGE where I couldn’t figure out the word play, turns out it’s quite a funny clue! Thank you for the blog 😁
17 minutes. I suppose that’s ok but I can’t pretend I enjoyed it. Too much stress/angst/frustration etc. Took ages to get first clue and still no good at spotting the straight definition.
Only 1 on Quintagram and failed by 7 on 15 x 15, which I suspect was ‘easy’, so still a bad day.
Thanks for the blog.
PS As I thought, the boffins found the 15 x 15 easy. Why do I bother when I am so clueless? So many clues I see the wrong way round and I have no means of rectifying that. I just cannot read the clues correctly.
Was I the only one who got the L at the start and the R near the end of 1A (3,7) and thought it must be LAP DANCERS?
Well, they do provide a service of sorts…