Solving time: 7:10
My average against Pedro is still up above 9 minutes, so I was pleased to find this at the slightly more accessible end of the spectrum. According to the Quitch table, 50% of Pedro’s grids have a NITCH value of 105 or more. There seems to be plenty of think-of-a-word-and-remove-one-letter clues today.
Whenever the H grid appears (the one with the big black H in the middle), it’s worth looking to see whether the setter has worked in a little bonus.
COD for me was definitely 2d – great word!
How was it for you?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Ambience? A most peculiar piano in this place (10) |
| ATMOSPHERE – Anagram [peculiar] of A MOST then P (piano) HERE (in this place) | |
| 8 | Suggestion from republican finance industry? (7) |
| BANKING – BAN KING is what a republican might suggest | |
| 9 | Start to patronise London airport skipping new destination for extended flight? (5) |
| PLUTO – First letter [Start to] of P{atronise} LUTO Luton Airport, which opened in 1938, was renamed London Luton Airport in 1990. It is still the fifth busiest airport in the UK, behind Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. |
|
| 10 | Be glum as motorcycle loses rear end (4) |
| MOPE – MOPE |
|
| 11 | Spray enveloping popular member of cabinet (8) |
| MINISTER – MISTER (Spray) containing [enveloping] IN (popular) | |
| 13 | Cordiality and warmth welcoming traveller at last (5) |
| HEART – HEAT (warmth) containing [welcoming] final letter [at last] of {travelle}R | |
| 14 | Missile transporter missing opening (5) |
| ARROW – Needed a (very short) alphatrawl to think of BARROW as a type of transporter e.g. a wheelBARROW |
|
| 16 | Intimidating blokes acting out of turn to begin with (8) |
| MENACING – MEN (blokes) AC |
|
| 17 | Unproductive, with no soil, with no carbon (4) |
| LEAN – |
|
| 20 | Cancel regular publication after second article rejected (5) |
| ANNUL – ANNU |
|
| 21 | Flexible element in the last ice-cap (7) |
| ELASTIC – Hidden [in] in the last ice-cap | |
| 22 | Foresight regarding Southern Channel Islands during change (10) |
| PRESCIENCE – RE (regarding) S (Southern) CI (Channel Islands) all inserted into PENCE (change) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Recording almost entirely useless, from America (5) |
| ALBUM – AL{l} (entirely) without its final letter [almost], then BUM (useless, from America) | |
| 2 | Answer not hard to see in golf? Male coming over, being patronising? (12) |
| MANSPLAINING – ANS (Answer) PLAIN (not hard to see) IN G (golf i.e. NATO phonetic alphabet), all topped [coming over] by M (Male)
Male is required in both the definition and the wordplay. Merriam Webster has MANSPLAIN as a verb that means to explain something to a woman in a condescending way that assumes she has no knowledge about the topic. The word exists in dozens of languages, including the German herrklären, French mecspliquer, and Italian maschiegazione. If you are still unsure, the chart in the following link might be helpful – Mansplaining, explained in one simple chart – BBC Worklife |
|
| 3 | Second family hide (4) |
| SKIN – S (Second) KIN (family) | |
| 4 | Meal for Macbeth? Witches bringing in good one (6) |
| HAGGIS – HAGS (Witches) containing [bringing in] G (good) I (one) | |
| 5 | Rare slip after arranging retaliation (8) |
| REPRISAL – Anagram [after arranging] of RARE SLIP | |
| 6 | Film comedian repaired broken statue (6,6) |
| BUSTER KEATON – Anagram [repaired] of BROKEN STATUE | |
| 7 | Regret a lot of painful argument (6) |
| SORROW – All but the last letter [a lot of] of SOR{e} ROW (argument) | |
| 12 | Very precise individual line in adhesive label (8) |
| STICKLER – L (line) in STICKER (adhesive label)
As an agent noun from stickle meaning “mediate” from the 1530s, a STICKLER was a “moderator, umpire, attendant on or judge of a contest,” which in turn, came from Old English stihtan “to rule, direct, govern, arrange, order.” The meaning of “person who contends or insists stubbornly,” about anything is recorded by 1640s. |
|
| 13 | Religious book extreme elements of holy men are loving at the outset (6) |
| HYMNAL – Outside letters [extreme elements] of H{ol}Y M{e}N, then initial letters [at the outset] of A{re} L{oving} | |
| 15 | Annoys park wardens, blowing top (6) |
| ANGERS – ‘top’ is apposite as this is a down clue. |
|
| 18 | Appropriate place, hot, in French resort (5) |
| NICHE – H (hot) inserted into NICE (French resort) | |
| 19 | Asian resort erected one experimental location (4) |
| BALI – I (one) LAB (experimental location) all reversed [erected] | |
13:11
Late to see ARROW, as couldn’t see how narrow or harrow would work.
Also very slow to see REPRISAL, had several attempts each time I hit a new checker, eventually needed 4 of em.
Add me to the One Pink Square brigade on the Big Board, shame as was a good time, too.
COD BANKING, probably a chestnut but still new to me. Immediately typed in R first, so good misdirection.
Quick today as son and granddaughter (12) insisted on helping me. FOI MANSPLAINING , LOI LEAN. Son got BUSTER KEATON, GD got LEAN, but she did have her father’s phone in her hand.
Many thanks, Mike.
If you live anywhere Newbury, do go and see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Watermill. Amazing.
I’m not too far away – good shout, many thanks.
I should add that the final whipping and Crucifixion are shown in a stylised manner but some might find it too upsetting. 12 year old was OK as she is the calm academic type.
13:48
Biffed ATMOSPHERE straightaway which helped quickly fill in the middle. Had to think hard about LEAN and failed to fully parse BANKING and LOI ALBUM but both words fit the definitions and the checkers so hit submit.
DNF. It seems I am the only one who has NHO MANSPLAINING.
I’m sure one of the chaps will be along soon to explain it to you 😉
Touche
Then you don’t have a wife.
Diito on both counts. also could not see lean as unproductive or with no soil for clean (also with no oil, no stains, or anything else that might spring to mind). Particularly as it is an interim definition and not a final one.
12:09 for the solve which is bang on my average, but this did not feel like an average solve while doing it. I join several others in wondering whether LEAN really works for unproductive, and like Invariant I also felt there were slightly too many “think of a word and take a letter away” clues, but there were some excellent other clues to make up for those two minor misgivings.
Many thanks Mike for the interesting blog.
Approximately 10.03.
9:54
I struggled through this one, a fair number of clues biffed and retro-parsed, and not all easily -MANSPLAINING for one. I don’t think I’m a particularly Pedro solver, all fair but not hitting my wavelength. Happy to cross the line, undoubtedly an SCC sort of time.
Third time this week I’ve been stumped by one clue at the end, this time LEAN, didn’t know it could mean unproductive. Went for BEAN as thought that could be “Unproducitve, with no soil” 😄 Fave clues have to go to MANSPLAINING and PRESCIENCE. Got them from the checking letters, and then had fun figuring our the wordplay. Thanks for the blog 😊
20:08
Oh so close…
DNK HYMNAL and biffed LEAN with fingers crossed.
As Invariant, I liked a lot of this but some of it felt….stale?
FOI: HEART
LOI: ANGERS
COD: PRESCIENCE
Thanks to Mike and Pedro
Thanks Pedro and Mike Harper.
I thought this was quite hard, but I persevered and finished OK.
10a Mope. Went through a lot of real motor cycle manufacturers before the blindingly obvious moped struck me.
11a Minister. Never knew where the ER came from; I had Minist OK but the ER remained a mystery. Thanks Mike.
2d Mansplaining. I love the diagram, thanks Mike.
No chance of ever seeing the Nina.
Took me quite a while to get going (and to get across the line if I’m honest) but very much enjoyed. LOI LEAN, COD HAGGIS (brilliant). ALBUM and ANNUL took me the longest to parse post biff. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Finished correctly in 55 minutes.
I found this very hard work.
Doesn’t seem that these puzzles are getting any easier as the week grinds on.
The usual one letter wrong again after an enjoyable 30 minute solve. For some reason put a U instead of an S in MANSPLAINING!!
Thanks for the explanation on BANKING – I could not see that! Thanks Pedro and Mike
I found this a bit tricky, particularly LEAN, which required an alphabet trawl and didn’t inspire much confidence. Anyway, 16:17 in all.
Thank you for the blog!
21 mins…
Pretty chewy this I thought. On first pass I barely got anything, so it was a bit of scatter gun approach finding and solving the easy ones first. Upon reflection there seemed to be a lot of incomplet word clues (eg. A lot of….some of this etc…). I got 2dn “Mansplaining” but it took a while to parse and was the mental equivalent of rearranging tins in my cupboard.
FOI – 3dn “Skin”
LOI – 22ac “Prescience”
COD – 10ac “Mope”
Thanks as usual!
9.25 I had a very slow start and worked back up to finish with ALBUM. Thanks Mike and Pedro.
13 mins. Biffed several.
Now off to see if I joined the one-error club on the 15 x 15.
Update – 2 stupid errors in 15 x 15 so failed again, this time by two letters. Poor.
I found it far from gentle and was pleased to complete it (or so I thought).
Has to go down as a bad day. I never learn!
What a good puzzle, started with a bang with ATMOSPHERE and carried on from there. Over all too soon in 06:48 abc thoroughly enjoyed. COD to HYMNAL.
Many thanks Pedro and Mike (great Nina-spotting!).
Think I outperformed a little on this one, coming home in 12:32 and it would have been a bit quicker had LEAN not taken a while to reveal itself. Was amused to come across MANSPLAINING as I may have been guilty of that only yesterday, as I was explaining to someone how cryptic crosswords worked. Thanks Pedro and Mike.
Nice puzzle. Around half an hour to complete.
FOI hymnal
LOI album – couldn’t parse it so thanks for the explanation
COD banking
thanks all
A late solve for me and I found it decidedly tricky in places. My FOsI were MOPE and MINISTER and my last two were ELASTIC and ANGERS. LEAN had to be a bit of a guess and my COD was PRESCIENCE.
Time = 30 minutes.
Many thanks to Mike H and Pedro.
10:01, nothing to add
13:33. Got MANSPLAINING eventually but took even longer on STICKLER which should have been a write-in!
A very late solve for me, after a day when a 7am meeting wrecked my usual routine. All done in 15:46, COD to BANKING. Thoroughly enjoyed the comments here today too!
Thanks to Mike and Pedro.