Solving time: 5:49
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The first thing that struck me when reviewing this puzzle was the use of 8a and 10a – I wondered whether a theme might become apparent, but there doesn’t seem to be any other related answer.
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Overall, I found this to be on the gentler side, and avoided the 11d spelling pitfall by sticking to the cryptic. To my relief, the plant at 5d was straightforward once several checkers were in place. And the unlikely word at 23a was well signposted as an anagram.
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How did you find it?
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Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The tilde ~ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Location of oracle provided guidance for returning Greek character (6) |
| DELPHI – LED (provided guidance) reversed [for returning] gives DEL, then PHI (Greek character) . DELPHI (Greek: Δελφοί), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct in central Greece. It was the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. . Years ago, I was lucky (!) enough to holiday in Greece with my parents, which included a six-hour round trip from our base in Loutraki, to DELPHI. I’d like to say it was completely thrilling, but for a 12-year-old, it really was pretty dull. |
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| 5 | Fight unruly mob in violent act (6) |
| COMBAT – Anagram [unruly] of MOB inserted into anagram [violent] of ACT | |
| 8 | Exaggerate the merits of old poetry, line by line (8) |
| OVERSELL – O (old) VERSE (poetry) L (line) by L (line) | |
| 9 | Bucket of light colour, we hear (4) |
| PAIL – Homophone [we hear] of PALE (light colour) | |
| 10 | Sales promotion, one included by pushy person (4) |
| HYPE – Hidden [included by] pushy person . HYPE “excessive or misleading publicity or advertising,” (attested from 1937 American English), is probably a back-formation of hyperbole “obvious exaggeration in rhetoric“. . Both OVERSELL and HYPE in the same grid… |
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| 11 | After outburst of anger, editor softened (8) |
| TEMPERED – After TEMPER (outburst of anger), ED (editor) . Collins Online has it as American English “made less intense or violent, esp. by the influence of something good or benign“ |
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| 12 | Very fast northern city with any number getting lost (6) |
| PRESTO – PRESTO . PRESTO is a musical instruction, meaning to play “very fast (168–200 bpm)” |
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| 14 | Home team not out on the field? (6) |
| INSIDE – IN (Home) SIDE (team) . I am reminded of the following mirthful rules of cricket: . You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. . Each batter that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when they are out they come in and the next batter goes in until they are out.. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. . Sometimes you get batters that are still in and not out. . When a batter goes out to go in, the fielders who are out try to get them out, and when they are out they go in and the next batter in goes out and goes in. . There are two officials called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the batters who are in are out. . When both sides have been in and all the batters have got out, and both sides have been out twice after all the batters have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game! |
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| 16 | Aversion revealed by some Methodist as “terrible” (8) |
| DISTASTE – Hidden [revealed by some] in Methodist as “terrible” . Ignore the punctuation. |
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| 18 | Snakes idiot hides quietly (4) |
| ASPS – AS~S (idiot) containing [hides] P (quietly i.e. musical notation for piano) | |
| 20 | Vituperate about deceitful person (4) |
| LIAR – RAIL (Vituperate) reversed [about] . Vituperate is ultimately descended from the Latin vituperare “disparage, find fault with”. |
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| 21 | Changing situation with noon approaching? (8) |
| AMENDING – AM (i.e. morning) is ENDING (situation with noon approaching) | |
| 23 | Terrible hog, sir — like a monster! (6) |
| OGRISH – Anagram [Terrible] of HOG SIR . It’s in Collins Online. |
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| 24 | See beyond end of pub? Just about (6) |
| BARELY – ELY (See) after [beyond end of] BAR (pub) . ELY is the crossword setter’s go-to word for see/bishopric. The name is thought to derive from Old Northumbrian ēlġē, meaning “district of eels”. Before the Fens were drained in the eighteenth century, Ely was very much an island surrounded by marshland in which there was an abundance of eels. |
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| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Diplomat showing resentment, concealing nothing (5) |
| ENVOY – ENV~Y (resentment) containing [concealing] O (nothing) . Ultimately, ENVOY comes from Vulgar Latin *inviare “send on one’s way,” from Latin in “on” + via “road” |
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| 3 | Agent upset south-east American group of stars (7) |
| PERSEUS – REP (Agent) reversed [upset], then SE (south-east) US (American) . In Greek mythology, PERSEUS slew the Gorgon, Medusa, then saved Andromeda from being sacrificed to Cetus, the sea monster. PERSEUS and Andromeda were married and had six children. The end. . In the sky, the constellation of PERSEUS lies near to the constellations of Andromeda, her mother Cassiopeia, her father Cepheus, the sea monster Cetus, and the winged horse Pegasus. Some nineteenth century depictions of the PERSEUS constellation include Medusa’s decapitated head. |
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| 4 | Anger evident in Israel regularly (3) |
| IRE – Alternate [regularly] letters of Israel | |
| 5 | Lion cub playing with me in plant (9) |
| COLUMBINE – Anagram [playing with] of LION CUB ME . AKA Aquilegia, the name COLUMBINE likely originates in the dove-like appearance of the sepals (columba being Latin for dove). |
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| 6 | Dad stuck in tree after climbing another one (5) |
| MAPLE – PA (Dad) inserted into [stuck in] EL~M (tree), all reversed [climbing] . The definition ‘another one’ refers back to the earlier use of ‘tree’ . The use of ‘climbing’ as a reversal indicator is apposite as this is a down clue. |
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| 7 | Flavouring, a requirement, is being included (7) |
| ANISEED – A N~EED (requirement) with IS being included | |
| 11 | Philosophical system briefly associated with every single Irish politician (9) |
| TAOISEACH – TAOIS{m} (Philosophical system) without its last letter [briefly] associated with EACH (every single) . TAOISEACH (pronounced ‘Tee-shukh’) is an Irish word meaning ‘chief’ or ‘leader’ and is the official title of the Prime Minister of Ireland. |
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| 13 | Attacking gang, having imported help (7) |
| RAIDING – R~ING (gang) with AID (help) inserted [having imported] | |
| 15 | Doctor snarled defamatory words (7) |
| SLANDER – Anagram [Doctor] of SNARLED | |
| 17 | Bones sailors found on island (5) |
| TARSI – TARS (sailors) I (island) . Plural of TARSUS – a cluster of seven articulating bones in each foot. |
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| 19 | Board left under piece of glass? (5) |
| PANEL – L (left) under PANE (piece of glass) | |
| 22 | Decline or end of the B&B? (3) |
| EBB – End of {th}E, then B and B | |
TAOISEACH was never going to be easy, although biffed without actually knowing how to how to spell it (incorrectly)only one outstandingwhen delivery doorbell rang
8:37. A gentle Izetti I thought. COD to AMENDING. I liked BARELY too.
As xwordnumpty says above, temper can mean “harden”, but here it needs to mean “soften”. A contranym? to add to the list Merlin gave us yesterday?
Thanks to Izetti for an enjoyable puzzle and thank you Mike for the fine blog
6.08.:Not as stellar as yesterday, but quick by my standards.
9:59, with LOI AMENDING.
Thanks Izetti for the kind cluing of TAOISEACH, which left no room for doubt about the spelling.
Thanks Mike and Izetti
13:16 here, happy to find that I can now spell TAOISEACH without any crossers, which is entirely due to doing these puzzles and participating here. COD to AMENDING, very neat.
Thanks to Izetti and Mike.
6:45 for the solve. That is, of course, ignoring the typo in TAOsSEACH. Nice puzzle from The Don and enjoyed the INSIDE and AMENDING humour. Obviously wouldn’t be an Izetti without an NHO (Columbine) … struggling to fit a “just one more question sir” joke into my commentary.
Posting late due to atttempting the 15×15 this afternoon. Scored 9 in my twenty min allocation but didn’t get much further than that. Hadn’t drunk my Perseverance Potion this morning and the dearth of checkers did for me. Even struggled to parse 4-5 in the immediate aftermath which must be an indication of its step up.
Anyway, thanks to MikeH for the blog and to Izetti for an enjoyable QC.
Well I’d be mortified if I couldn’t complete an Izetti however long I took, they are the most elegant of all to me. So I did have just a little squint at anything about Irish politicians, and bang, it wasn’t Greek philosophy I should be scrambling for it was Chinese, in a crossword that began with DELPHI! Cry defeat, oh dear!
Struggled at the end in the AMENDING/EBB/BARELY region, but otherwise not too difficult (11min).
“End of pub” misled me, like Mike L above, into thinking of “b”, when apparently “beyond end of” = “after”. Wonder if “end of” was included as cheeky misdirection? The surface seems to work without it.
COLUMBINE the only new word for me.
The AM ENDING “situation” was quite cute; I was also amused by OGRISH.
Thanks to Mike for the blog.
DNF. Try as I might (and I tried hard for several minutes at the end), DELPHI just never came to mind. I got LED, but failed to reverse it and embarrassingly, given I have a maths degree, I forgot about PHI.
Prior to that, however, my progress was steady and I arrived at what I hoped would be my LOI in around 31 minutes. Neither quick, nor slow for me.
I had to trust the wordplay for TAOISEACH, but never parsed BARELY.
Many thanks to Mike and Izetti.
13 minutes.
Can’t compete with my comparators. Thought I’d done well until I came here.
I really enjoyed this as I did it, and even more when I reread the clues and could savour the surfaces. Everything was so neat and clearly signposted! My COD was picked precisely because of the combination of good instructions and super surface. And I did it in a quick time too – I think Izetti was being very benevolent today 😊
It was certainly better than yesterday – I kept getting interrupted and couldn’t get back into the swing of things, so didn’t finish any of the crosswords – quickie, 15×15 or concise. A disastrous day 😅
7:05 FOI Delphi LOI Amending COD Taoiseach
Thanks Izetti and Mike – another excellent blog
Solved 15 x 15 in 2.5 hours. And this is meant to be fun? 🤣
Many lucky guesses, little real skill.
07:44. Nothing too worrisome provided you can spell TAO IS EACH. Good fun.
Some enjoyable ones but overall a crock of sh*t.