My third Mara in a row, a blogger’s hat trick. Starstruck’s “setter difficulty” table gives Mara an average rating of 91, and true to form the last two QUITCH scores were 100 and 83. I solved this one in 08:20, a fraction below my average, so I suspect it will score in the 90s. But if you got 1d quickly (I didn’t) it could go a lot faster.
Lots of fun with a couple of outstanding clues, I thought, at 8a and 18a. Thank you, Mara.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 7 | Try dissent, ultimately, for red card (5) |
| HEART – HEAR [try, as in what judges do – hear/try a case] + T [dissent, ultimately]. | |
| 8 | Roasting is what it is — ace! (7) |
| HOTSHOT – HOT’S HOT [roasting is what it is]. A brilliant clue and COD from me, bravo. I needed all the checkers. | |
| 10 | Instinctive turn, a lad briefly bamboozled (7) |
| NATURAL – anagram [bamboozled] of “turn a la{d}” – removal of the final “d” of “lad” is shown by “lad briefly“. | |
| 11 | Fly from central Germany initially, then east (5) |
| MIDGE – I got a bit tangled on this because I thought the M was “central Germany”, and then couldn’t parse the rest. Eventually I saw that it was MID [central] + G [Germany initially] + E [east]. I’m off to spend August in the Highlands and the word MIDGE does not fill me with joy. | |
| 12 | Something in back of car, fat round the middle (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE – double definition. Lots of cars now come without a spare tyre to save money: you just get a can of foam to inflate the flat enough to limp home. | |
| 14 | Hardened lot (3) |
| SET – double definition. | |
| 15 | Some priceless diamonds (3) |
| ICE – hidden [some] in “priceless”. | |
| 16 | Make a contribution soon and debit sorted (2,4,3) |
| DO ONES BIT – anagram [sorted] of “soon” and “debit”. | |
| 18 | Playwright partial to Osborne’s big retrospective (5) |
| IBSEN – a reverse hidden [partial … retrospective] in “Osborne’s big”. Another excellent clue: what a surface. Henrik Ibsen was an outstanding C19 Norwegian dramatist; A Doll’s House remains one of the most performed plays in the world. | |
| 20 | Follower bitter perhaps about job (7) |
| APOSTLE -ALE [bitter perhaps] going round [about] POST [job]. “Apostle” comes from the Latin for having been sent out, rather than following, so I did pause over the definition but Chambers has “any enthusiastic champion or supporter of a cause, belief, etc” and a supporter is a follower, so fair enough. | |
| 22 | Refined bloke, slippery character? (7) |
| GENTEEL – GENT [bloke] + EEL [slippery character]. | |
| 23 | Proper choice at junction? (5) |
| RIGHT – definition with a cryptic hint. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Holiday, time with actor Tom, generous (12) |
| THANKSGIVING – my LOI. I wasn’t sure which end the definition was, and for “actor Tom” I couldn’t get Mr Cruise out of my head. And it’s an American holiday, so it doesn’t really count anyway (I’m not bitter). It goes T [time] + HANKS [actor Tom, very good] + GIVING [generous]. | |
| 2 | Drat! Gear ruined clothing business (3,5) |
| RAG TRADE – anagram [ruined] of “drat gear”. Punctuation in a clue is almost invariably designed to distract and mislead. | |
| 3 | Celebrity’s heavenly body (4) |
| STAR – double definition. | |
| 4 | Cold spice, we hear? (6) |
| CHILLY – definition with a cryptic hint. The “chilly”/”chili/chilli” joke is so old that it goes back at least to 1847, when it appeared in Chapter 3 of “Vanity Fair” (Thackeray) – ““A chili,” said Rebecca, gasping. “Oh yes!” She thought a chili was something cool, as its name imported, and was served with some. “How fresh and green they look,” she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer.” | |
| 5 | Charge made, pets treated (8) |
| STAMPEDE – anagram [treated] of “made pets”. | |
| 6 | Drop off cabin (4) |
| SHED – double definition. | |
| 9 | Score after score, crystal clear (6-6) |
| TWENTY-TWENTY – as in 20/20 vision. A “score” is of course “twenty”. | |
| 13 | Foot and spleen put at risk (8) |
| ENDANGER -END [foot, as in the last part of something] + ANGER [spleen]. Tricky. | |
| 14 | Tea bag so damaged in act of destruction (8) |
| SABOTAGE – anagram [damaged] of “tea bag so”. Very neat. | |
| 17 | Zero improve — how might medicine be taken? (6) |
| ORALLY – O [zero] + RALLY [improve – the patient rallied a little today]. | |
| 19 | Dip in last of liquids, coloured fluid (4) |
| SINK – S [last of liquids] + INK [coloured fluid]. | |
| 21 | Monster or ghoul, rather eerie originally (4) |
| OGRE – first letters [originally] of “or ghoul, rather eerie”. | |
20a Apostle; DNK def as someone sent out so biffed it in happy ignorance.
1d Thanksgiving, I too was fixated on Tom Cruise, so not a quick one.
4d ChillY, unlike vinyl1 I put chilli, until the spare tYre put it right. Paused for a moment in case it was a US spare tire, like AndyPandy.
5d Stampede; was pursuing fees for ages.
CODs 8a Hotshot and 11a Midge.
My thanks to Mara and Templar.
What a twit! I put CHILLI in, being a bit annoyed by the US spelling of TYRE, only to discover that it was me who was in the wrong 😭 I just didn’t read the clue properly.
I’m clearly in the minority, as I didn’t much care for HOTSHOT, although I can see it’s a clever (too clever?) clue. The actor Tom I first thought was Hardy, who I think we had here recently.
Otherwise not much to report – I thought this was fine, I particularly liked IBSEN, and GENTEEL made me giggle.
8:38 but WOE FOI Heart LOI Hotshot COD Midge
Thanks Mara and Templar
I was convinced MIDGE was MANGE (centre and initial of Germany) although that’s a mite not a fly. Just couldn’t get hotshot, great clue.
5:42
Pretty gentle.
Thanks Templar and Mara
6:55 and our fastest for quite a while. Incidentally saw that mohn did this in 1:30! Incredible. I’m not sure I could type it in that quickly even if I knew all the answers. Like others, liked HOTSHOT and MIDGE. Thanks, Templar and Mara.
11 mins for QC.
Flying on 15 x 15 and then hit a brick wall as my usual incompetence came to the fore. Several answers incomplete after well over an hour.
How can I be doing so well and then so badly? Having read blog, I had at least three answers that I didn’t insert as I couldn’t parse them – idiot, idiot, idiot!!!!
Another day to forget (as usual). I’m not enjoying the journey.
8:24. I rather liked this one, HOTSHOT and IBSEN were both rather good, with lots more to like.
Like others, we were stuck on Tom ( Shout out for Tom CHAMBERS who was stuck in my head) so 1D LOI. 6D dropped easily as when we replaced our grotty old shed with an upmarket version, it seemed a crime to call it a SHED so it became our CABIN! HOT SHOT was also NFPd.