Solving time: 6:49
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A steady solve today, I think, and we might be looking at some quick times. There appear to be only three anagrams, two of which are the long answers across the top and the bottom of the grid.
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I did like the construction of 19d which is one of only two English words still in use ending in these three letters.
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What did you think?
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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 | Hard fact: knob moves in two directions (4,3,5) |
| BACK AND FORTH – Anagram [moves] of HARD FACT KNOB . I was in two minds as to whether the definition should include the word ‘in’. I have included it as one might say that a pendulum moves BACK AND FORTH, or that a pendulum moves in two directions. |
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| 8 | Something obscene turned stomachs (4) |
| SMUT – TUMS (stomachs) reversed [turned] | |
| 9 | Noisy party helping to make British indignant (7) |
| SHINDIG – Hidden [helping to make] in British indignant | |
| 11 | Spartan tea sure to be replaced (7) |
| AUSTERE – Anagram [to be replaced] of TEA SURE | |
| 12 | After port, yes to German wine (5) |
| RIOJA – After RIO (port) JA (German for ‘yes’) | |
| 14 | Heartily sick by middle of siesta, colder than anyone (6) |
| ICIEST – Middle letters [Heartily] of {s}IC{k} by middle letters of {s}IEST{a} | |
| 15 | A hunger to be settled (6) |
| AGREED – A GREED (hunger) | |
| 18 | Brief indication of echo in old type of rock (5) |
| GLEAM – E (echo – NATO phonetic alphabet) in GL~AM (old type of rock) | |
| 20 | Allow woman to grab a polisher (7) |
| LEATHER – LE~T (Allow) HER (woman) containing [to grab] A | |
| 21 | Tap mindlessly fast (7) |
| RAPIDLY – RAP (Tap) IDLY (mindlessly) | |
| 23 | Proceeds of robbery in large room picked up (4) |
| HAUL – Homophone [picked up] of HALL (large room) | |
| 24 | Creator sighs about self-made man’s story (4,2,6) |
| RAGS TO RICHES – Anagram [about] of CREATOR SIGHS | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Before two lots of bad weather, a king makes truce (9) |
| ARMISTICE – A R (king) before MIST and ICE (two lots of bad weather) . ARMISTICE “temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement of the parties,” was coined by the French in the 1680s, on the model of Latin solstitium (i.e. solstice) “the point at which the sun seems to stand still,” |
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| 3 | Small pets nervous people would have? (7) |
| KITTENS – Double definition, the second of which alludes to the metaphor whereby very nervous people are deemed to be “having kittens” . This term apparently stems from a medieval Scottish superstition. Women, suffering pain in pregnancy, were assured by witches that its cause was not a growing child but kittens inside the womb, and that only a magical potion could destroy the brood and thereby alleviate their suffering. |
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| 4 | Street filling requirement made cosy home (6) |
| NESTED – ST (Street) inserted into [filling] NE~ED (requirement) | |
| 5 | Father swallows false information in handbill (5) |
| FLIER – F~R (Father) contains [swallows] LIE (false information) . Not seen it spelt this way before, as a synonym for a handbill – think FLYER is more usual in the UK? . Collins Online suggests that this spelling is American English. Comments welcome… |
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| 6 | Short journey, free (3) |
| RID – Shorten RID{e} (journey) by removing its last letter | |
| 7 | Stranded on mountain with nothing to drink? (4,3,3) |
| HIGH AND DRY – HIGH (on mountain) AND (with) DRY (nothing to drink) . The term HIGH AND DRY originates from nautical terminology, referring to ships that were beached or stranded above the waterline, unable to float until the tide returned. The earliest recorded instance of the term appeared in a 1796 article in The London Times. |
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| 10 | Shirker, one reluctant to go after degree (10) |
| MALINGERER – LINGERER (one reluctant to go) after MA (degree i.e. Master of Arts) . MALINGERER is attested from 1761. To MALINGER meaning “to pretend illness to escape duty,” comes from the French malingrer “to suffer,” a slang word that probably also at one time meant “pretend to be ill,” possibly as a blend of mingre “sickly, miserable” and malade “ill.” . The sense evolution in French would be through the notion of beggars who feigned to be sick or exhibited sham sores to excite compassion. |
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| 13 | Start hotel on river, where all are welcome (4,5) |
| OPEN HOUSE – OPEN (Start) H (hotel) OUSE (river) | |
| 16 | Strikingly explicit chart I start to check (7) |
| GRAPHIC – GRAPH (chart) I, then the first letter [start to] of C{heck} | |
| 17 | Team member finally asleep on bed (6) |
| PLAYER – Last letter [finally] of {aslee}P on LAYER (bed) . ‘on’ is apposite as this is a down clue |
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| 19 | Middle Michigan is on Daylight Saving Time (5) |
| MIDST – MI (Michigan – two-letter postal abbreviation) on DST (Daylight Saving Time) . Again, ‘on’ is apposite as this is a down clue . There are 9 English words ending in DST, of which 7 are considered obsolete or archaic: COULDST, SHOULDST, WOULDST, SAIDST, DIDST, HADST, KYDST. The two words still in use today are MIDST and AMIDST. |
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| 22 | Physical exercise good for leg (3) |
| PEG – PE (Physical exercise) G (good) | |
Most of this went in straight away, but GLEAM took ages and I finished on 18:58. Thanks Teazel and Mike.
Thank you to Teazel and Mike. As a beginner, I was pleased to almost finish in about 30mins. All the anagrams came quickly, but I got stuck on the end as I had put in ‘gneis’ (yes, I now know it has 2 s’s) for the old rock. Glam never occurred to me, as I’m so old that glam seems like fairly recent rock to me. So I was stuck with S-D-T for 19d, plus the HI I thought was the middle of Michigan. Oh yes, malingerer held me up too, as I’d tried to start it with BA. But all in all, pretty pleased to get all but 2 clues.
I always think of flyer as an advertising leaflet and flier as someone who flies, so I put in FLYER at first until it became clear that it couldn’t be.
Absolute garbage of a cryptic,in the same league of those tasteless tabloid cryptics.Totally NO CLASS!