Another lovely puzzle from Asp, perhaps a bit less stretching than previous offerings.
Lots of effective misdirection and devious wording made for a most enjoyable solve. Unfortunately my knowledge of birds is so encyclopaedic that it includes the little-known COPPER, the beautiful island parrot of Mesonesia, so that was my alternative answer for 17d. Seven-and-a-half minutes to get the Unlucky! sign, pretty much the same time as yesterday.
Lots of lovely surfaces as well, so good stuff indeed – many thanks to Asp!
| Across | |
| 7 | Open secret, but not to begin with (5) |
| OVERT – COVERT = secret, “but not to begin with” | |
| 8 | This woman’s moral principle disheartened dissenter (7) |
| HERETIC – HER (this woman’s) ETHIC (moral principle) “disheartened” = remove the heart / centre / middle letter | |
| 10 | Doctor claimed for examination she performed (7) |
| MEDICAL – anagram (doctor) of CLAIMED | |
| 11 | Element of ancient craft close to forgotten (5) |
| ARGON – ARGO (ancient craft) N (“close” to forgotteN) | |
| 12 | Tradesman opening regularly for business? (9) |
| LOCKSMITH – cryptic definition, with a play on this tradesman’s business being routinely “opening” things. | |
| 14 | What may help one drive and drink we hear (3) |
| TEE – “we hear” the same as TEA (drink) | |
| 15 | Period just before she was tempted (3) |
| EVE – double definition | |
| 16 | Find out when confident (9) |
| ASCERTAIN – AS (when) CERTAIN (confident) | |
| 18 | Sing awful melody with no hint of musicality (5) |
| YODEL – anagram (awful) of |
|
| 20 | Unsavoury character a cop let off (7) |
| POLECAT – anagram (off) of A COP LET. “Derogatory”, the OED informs, in case you were unsure. “A sexually promiscuous woman or (occasionally) man, a prostitute. In later use also as a more general term of abuse.” Although more closely related to dogs, they do indeed look a bit catlike; the origin of the POLE bit is most likely from Old French POULE, due to their supposed appetite for poultry. | |
| 22 | Ugly spectacle one witnessed reportedly (7) |
| EYESORE – can be “reported” or stated the same as I SAW (one witnessed) | |
| 23 | Company adopts radical belief system (5) |
| CREDO – CO. (company) adopts RED (radical). I’d always just assumed the RED = RADICAL was as a commie, but it was originally any political radical, be they revolutionary, republican, or anarchist. From red = blood, basically. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Poisonous substance eroded half my ground (12) |
| FORMALDEHYDE – anagram (ground) of ERODED HALF MY | |
| 2 | He repeatedly claims publicity account is a problem (8) |
| HEADACHE – HE HE (“he” repeatedly) claims/takes AD (publicity AC (account) | |
| 3 | Uncovered notice relating to the ear (4) |
| OTIC – in crosswordland, the “cover” of a word is its opening and closing letters, remove them here in the word nOTICe. | |
| 4 | Hot meal is high point when in Channel Islands (6) |
| CHILLI – HILL (high point) in CI (Channel Islands) | |
| 5 | Evangelist spread cheaper religion primarily (8) |
| PREACHER – anagram (spread) of CHEAPER and R (Religion “primarily”) | |
| 6 | Second means of identifying male animal (4) |
| STAG – S(econd) TAG (means of identifying) | |
| 9 | Censure argument against democratic state (12) |
| CONDEMNATION – CON (argument against) DEM. (democratic) NATION (state) | |
| 13 | Mount last stuffed big cat (8) |
| STALLION – anagram (stuffed) of LAST and LION (big cat) | |
| 14 | Former cabinet-maker and roofer (8) |
| THATCHER – double definition, the first referring to Margaret and political cabinet-making. | |
| 17 | Who manages to trap island parrot? (6) |
| COPIER – COPER (who manages) to trap I (island). To parrot = to copy, with Chambers listing the noun as an “uncritical repeater of the words of others.” | |
| 19 | Performance involving couple expected on time (4) |
| DUET – DUE (expected) on T(ime) | |
| 21 | Line part of suit in delicate fabric (4) |
| LACE – L(ine) ACE (part of suit, in cards) | |
I started off well, and thought that perhaps Asp has more sympathy for what makes a quickie now he’s editing the crosswords! But it got trickier and I slowed down for the last quarter, not that I’m complaining. I thought there were some terrific surfaces and quirky definitions, and it all seemed very fair and entertaining to me. I really liked MEDICAL, ARGON, LOCKSMITH, HEADACHE and LACE. And FORMALDEHYDE was a fantastic anagram.
I assumed the definition for POLECAT was just that they are very smelly – I didn’t know the other meaning that Roly flagged up and hope Asp wasn’t thinking in those terms.
13:59 – since Tuesday, each day has been approx five minutes slower than the previous one – please save a place in the SCC for me tomorrow! I don’t mind standing at the back.
FOI Overt LOI Copier COD Yodel 🤣
Thanks Asp and Roly
Yodel: Thijs van Leer (Focus)
Tee hee: less than a year now!
I may regret saying this but my feeling is that Fridays have been quicker than Thursdays this year, so fingers crossed for something a little easier tomorrow. Like you, my week has been getting slower by the day – although they’ve all been within my exasperation threshold.
Ah, the return of the Exasperometer – quite high today, it seems!
35:01
Nearly gave up on 2 occasions but my perseverance paid off.
Practically nothing in the SE corner as it took forever to get to FORMALDEHYDE (even though I instantly knew it was an anagram) as I had hardly any of the across checkers.
Then proceeded at pace until stymied by STALLION (the ‘STAL’ part) with no hope of getting LOI ASCERTAIN without the first ‘A’.
Some brilliant clues along the way though, loved: LOCKSMITH, EYESORE, HEADACHE, CONDEMNATION & LACE.
Thanks to Asp and rolytoly for the excellent blog
I forgot that I’d vowed not to attempt another Asp QC until there was clear and sustained evidence here that he/she had moderated the level of difficulty. After today’s debacle, however, I won’t forget again.
For the record, despite 65-70 minutes of hard graft this was a 5-clue DNF for me. I was beaten by OVERT, HERETIC, ARGON, HEADACHE and CONDEMNATION. I also found several other clues all but unparsable. Sorry Asp, but you’ve lost me.
Many thanks to Roly and respect to everyone who crossed the finish line unscathed.
Thanks to rolytoly and Asp.
10a Medical, I don’t understand, the def is “examination she performed?” Que?
20a Polecat. As others have mentioned I thought the unsavoury bit was that these animals stink, proverbially. Related to the skunk.
23a Credo. Thanks rolytoly for the origin of “red” (under the bed or not.)
1d Formaldehyde. DNK it was especially poisonous. Well down the wiki entry it says it is used as a biocide, so Asp is on firm ground here.
“examination she performed” .. you go for a medical, it’s an examination the doctor performs.
9.21 A similar time to yesterday. Many needed a second look but they were much easier with checkers. LOI CHILLI. Thanks rolytoly and Asp.
Fought my way through, but it was tough going.
7.04. A relief after my lacklustre performance yesterday.
36 minutes.
Another appalling performance. I really am hopeless. Don’t know how to improve times or level of enjoyment. Why can’t I do this??????? 😡
Very late solve, chewy (19:24) but a sweet puzzle with HEADACHE and YODEL particular favorites.
Thanks to Asp and to roly for the explanations, particularly THATCHER.