08:15 for me so I cautiously suggest that this one is right on the QC money and will be a QUITCH of about 100. There are seven anagrams, four double definitions and – provided your geography is better than mine – no real obscurities. I enjoyed it very much and hope you did too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Servant followed by worker in ceremony (7) |
| PAGEANT – PAGE [servant] + ANT [worker]. I needed the P before I got this because “page” wouldn’t come to mind – I cycled through “man”, “maid”, “cook”, “hand” and so on before moving on. | |
| 5 | Conclusion of prayer beginning to affect soldiers (4) |
| AMEN – A [beginning to affect] + MEN [soldiers, yes there are female soldiers too, there we are]. | |
| 7 | Time to join sailor Bill in USA (3) |
| TAB – T [time] + AB [sailor, i.e. Able Seaman]. I’d have said that “tab” for “bill” (as in “Let me pick up the tab for this”) was well-established on this side of the Pond too, but Collins, Chambers and COD all include some variant on “mainly American” so what do I know. | |
| 8 | Crazy singer who lacks love for George or Ira? (8) |
| GERSHWIN – anagram [crazy] of “singer who” without the O [lacks love]. The question mark indicates that we are looking for a definition by example. George and Ira Gershwin were brothers who (separately and together) wrote a string of hit songs and other wonderful music in the first half of the twentieth century. Until writing this blog I had not known that George died at only 38. | |
| 10 | Guide farm animal (5) |
| STEER – double definition. I needed all the checkers for this, because when I had just the initial S I thought of “sheep” and then couldn’t unthink it. | |
| 11 | Discharge with dishonour a bank worker (7) |
| CASHIER – double definition. “Discharge with dishonour” derives from Old Frankish but ultimately from the Latin quassare (to void); the “bank worker” derives from the French caissier (treasurer). I expected one meaning to be older than the other but no: the dictionaries give them both as C16. Funny that the same word entered our language twice in the same century but from two different routes and with two different meanings! | |
| 13 | More than one lesser actor runs on field (6) |
| EXTRAS – third DD in a row. The field here is the cricket field, of course. We had “extra” defining “no ball” only yesterday so hopefully this sprang to mind, even for the non-cricketers. | |
| 15 | Some robot to make base component (6) |
| BOTTOM – hidden [some] inside “robot to make”. Very neat. | |
| 17 | One’s behind the times — a very tricky situation (7) |
| IMPASSE – I’M [one’s] PASSÉ [behind the times]. I couldn’t see past IS = “one’s” for a while. | |
| 18 | Time for piece of music (5) |
| TEMPO – the TEMPO is the speed at which music is played and thus the “time” for it, the cryptic element being the play on having “time for”. I don’t think there’s any more to it than that. | |
| 20 | Canadian city hotel backed by a poet (8) |
| HAMILTON – H [hotel] followed by [backed by] A [a] + MILTON [poet]. LOI by miles, geography being my crosswording Kryptonite: I’ve heard of HAMILTON in Bermuda but not the one which I now know exists in south-eastern Ontario. Someone said the other day that poets are always Dante, which came in handy at 24a but not here. Once the checkers had excluded him and also “bard” I started racking my brains; Big John eventually surfaced but the whole process added 2-3 minutes for me. | |
| 22 | Greek character starts to cherish his independence (3) |
| CHI – the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet, clued as the first letters [starts to] of “cherish his independence”. | |
| 23 | Short communication about independent school (4) |
| ETON – “note” [short communication] backwards [about]. Oh my aching sides. The setters are definitely now trolling Merlin. | |
| 24 | A new poet quite slow in movement (7) |
| ANDANTE – A [a] + N [new] + DANTE [poet]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Bakery — its pies are cooked (10) |
| PATISSERIE -anagram [cooked] of “its pies are”. Such a good surface. | |
| 2 | Actor Clark, good and competent (5) |
| GABLE – this being the QC, Izetti kindly tells us we are looking for an actor called “Clark” not just an “actor”. G [good] + ABLE [competent]. | |
| 3 | Rain and gales upset Africans (9) |
| ALGERIANS – anagram [upset] of “rain” and “gales”. | |
| 4 | The car travelling around old country (6) |
| THRACE – anagram [travelling] of “the car”. Thrace was an ancient Balkan kingdom, conquered first by the Greeks and then the Romans. | |
| 5 | Residue of something burnt in wood (3) |
| ASH – double definition. | |
| 6 | Priest with First in Theology, one holy person favouring best people? (7) |
| ELITIST – ELI [Crosswordland’s go-to priest] + T [First in Theology] + I [one] + ST [abbreviation for “saint”, holy person]. | |
| 9 | Gym apparatus — leap on it Mr Mobile! (10) |
| TRAMPOLINE – anagram [mobile] of “leap on it Mr”. This took a while to come to mind since I think of trampolines as outdoor play for children rather than “gym apparatus”, but it’s a perfectly fair definition. Isn’t it a splendid word? Collins says “C18: via Spanish from Italian trampolino, from trampoli stilts, of Germanic origin”. What a mongrel. | |
| 12 | The nerd so wickedly diminished (9) |
| SHORTENED – anagram [wickedly] of “the nerd so”. | |
| 14 | Pole on ship in the afternoon tucked into hot food (7) |
| TOPMAST – I’m still scarred by Izetti including “orlop” in QC2415 (June 2023) but fortunately you don’t have to have read the Patrick O’Brian novels to know this particular bit of a ship. PM [in the afternoon] goes inside [tucked into] TOAST [hot food]. | |
| 16 | Name of woman with bad breath (6) |
| BERTHA – anagram [bad] of “breath”. Brilliant surface. | |
| 19 | Wine provided when chap keeps company (5) |
| MACON – MAN [chap] contains [keeps] CO [company]. Macon is a town in the south of Burgundy; the surrounding area is heavily planted with Chardonnay and makes wonderful white wine, especially Pouilly-Fuissé. | |
| 21 | Trendy name for pub (3) |
| INN – IN [trendy] + N [name]. | |
Another disappointing day.
18 minutes for a puzzle that most solvers completed far more quickly.
I struggle through the 15 x 15 and I’m still nowhere with the QC. ☹️☹️☹️
Thanks for the blog.
PS Failed on 15 x 15 by one letter after 90 minutes of toil. Absolutely no satisfaction in that. 😡
16d Hallie for halitosis?
FYI – setter has a sister in law living in Hamilton and another in Toronto!
Aha! Thanks for letting us know. Here’s hoping that neither of them moves to
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
That’s so cool. I actually lived in Toronto growing up and now live about an hour north of Hamilton, but I didn’t get the clue until I came here. Grateful for the help, as I’m still learning the art of Cryptic Crosswords!