Solving time: 10:44
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My first blog for a Loon puzzle, though perhaps not my finest hour at the coalface, starting at 1a with an incorrect first word. I also struggled a somewhat to come up with 2d, 6d and 22a without a considerable number of checkers each. And, for my LOI 12d, I vacillated for some time before the answer became clear.
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That said, I think we might see a Quitch on the higher side today, maybe even over 100? What do 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 | Drilling large holes is really tedious (4-6) |
| WELL-BORING – Yoof-speak for something really tedious might be “It’s WELL BORING, man, innit?” . (The question mark after ‘innit’ is optional, depending on whether this is a question or a statement) . I was very slow off the mark here, initially bunging in MEGA-BORING… |
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| 8 | Redesign of big car at last gave protection at the front (3,4) |
| RIB CAGE – Anagram [Redesign] of BIG CAR then final letter [at last] of {gav}E . Mildly curious as to why Loon specified ‘at the front’. Doesn’t a RIB CAGE also give protection at the side and at the back i.e. ‘all-round protection’? |
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| 9 | Vital little Olivia is admitted to A & E (5) |
| ALIVE – LIV (little Olivia) inserted into [is admitted to] A and E . I’ll take it as read that LIV is a short-form of Olivia – can’t think of any Olivias known by this abbreviation – feel free to pipe up! |
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| 10 | Dull poet travels west (4) |
| DRAB – BARD (poet) in reverse [travels west] | |
| 11 | Company head shows resolve (8) |
| FIRMNESS – FIRM (Company) NESS (head) . I was slowed initially by dodgy typing for 7d resulting in this answer ending in R |
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| 13 | Move to east in Tokyo city (5) |
| KYOTO – Move the ‘TO’ in . Tokyo (meaning “eastern capital”), and formerly known as Edo, has been Japan’s capital city only since 1868 when the seat of the emperor moved there from KYOTO. Before then, KYOTO had been the capital since 794 i.e. more than a thousand years! |
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| 14 | Portion of kebabs at a yummy Malaysian meal (5) |
| SATAY – Hidden [Portion of] in kebabs at a yummy | |
| 16 | Cross newspaper boss is returning in entrance (4,4) |
| SIDE DOOR – ROOD (Cross) ED (newspaper boss) IS all reversed [returning] | |
| 17 | Dad’s two assistants (4) |
| PAPA – PA (Personal Assistant – abbreviation) PA (Personal Assistant – abbreviation) | |
| 20 | A time to go round stadium (5) |
| ARENA – AN ERA (A time) all reversed [to go round] | |
| 21 | Avoid furtive look back of female (4,3) |
| KEEP OFF – PEEK (furtive look) reversed [back], then OF F (female) | |
| 22 | Additional art on the wall outside college (10) |
| EXTRAMURAL – EXTRA (Additional) MURAL (art on the wall) . Literally “situated outside or beyond the walls of,” this adjective usually relates to activities organised by an institution e.g. a college or university, for people who are not students there. |
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| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Planet revolved rapidly we hear (5) |
| WORLD – Homophone/aural wordplay [we hear] of WHIRLED (revolved rapidly) . Not solved until I rethought the answer to 1a. . I have added the ‘aural wordplay’ comment as there may be some that consider WHIRLED and WORLD to be non-homophonic. |
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| 2 | City supporter idly sketches dogs (12) |
| LABRADOODLES – LA (City i.e. Los Angeles) BRA (supporter) DOODLES (idly sketches) . A LABRADOODLE is a crossbreed dog created by crossing a Labrador Retriever and a Standard or Miniature Poodle. . Australian breeder Wally Conron introduced the cross-breed to the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia in the hope that the combination of the low-shedding coat of the poodle, along with the gentleness and trainability of a Labrador retriever, would provide a guide dog suitable for people with allergies to fur and dander (a kind of dog dandruff). |
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| 3 | Bill right to leave holiday (4) |
| BEAK – B |
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| 4 | Make new attempt to improve disposition of dieter (2-4) |
| RE-EDIT – Anagram [disposition] of DIETER | |
| 5 | Airmen flying over steamship narrowly avoided collision (4,4) |
| NEAR MISS – Anagram [flying] of AIRMEN over SS (steamship) . ‘over’ is apposite as this is a down clue. |
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| 6 | People employed to oversee party (6,6) |
| DIRECT LABOUR – DIRECT (oversee) LABOUR (party) . From an accounting point of view, DIRECT LABOUR costs are wages and related expenses paid to employees directly involved in the production of goods or services e.g. machine operators, assembly line workers, skilled craftsmen/craftswomen. . Indirect labour costs are generated by those who support the production process but are not directly involved in manufacturing specific products e.g. supervisors, maintenance workers, quality control inspectors. |
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| 7 | On vacation, Japanese runners enjoy island (6) |
| JERSEY – Removal of internal letters [On vacation] of J{apanes}E R{unner}S E{njo}Y | |
| 12 | Lovers nipping over road for wine (8) |
| BORDEAUX – B~EAUX (Lovers) containing [nipping] O (over – cricket abbreviation) and RD (road) . My LOI which I should probably have thought of sooner. |
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| 13 | Citadel has leaders of Kurdish architectural business excited (6) |
| KASBAH – Anagram [excited] of HAS and the first letters [leaders] of K{urdish} A{rchitectural} B{usiness} . A fortress, citadel or fortified quarter of a city. The Spanish alcazaba is from the same source. |
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| 15 | Rugby player Henry regularly put valuables here (6) |
| LOCKER – LOCK (Rugby player) then alternate [regularly] letters of {H}E{n}R{y} | |
| 18 | Thoroughly unpleasant legal counsel finally leaves (5) |
| AWFUL – Take {l}AWFUL (legal) then remove the last letter [finally leaves] of {counse}L | |
| 19 | Hairdo for every month (4) |
| PERM – PER (for every) M (month) | |
Yes, some thought required today. I bunged in boring at 1a but took some time before realising we were looking for ‘yoof speak’, even with WORLD in place. Didn’t know the meaning of EXTRAMURAL but the wordplay pointed to it so in it went. Liked the wordplay for KYOTO. KASBAH too. Couldn’t see DIRECT LABOUR and bunged in silent for direct, knowing it didn’t parse. Liked the inclusion of ‘rood’ for cross in SIDE DOOR but think it was a bit 15x15ish for a quickie. Well-tricky!
Thanks Mike and setter.
More than twice my median solving time, with a large chunk of that devoted to making something out of _I_E_T LABOUR. Arguably should have seen it more quickly but the term didn’t really resonate.
Entertaining puzzle otherwise. Thanks Loon and Mike.
My QC solving times are getting worse by the day this week. For years my target was 10 minutes, but about a year ago I extended this to 15 to allow myself more time to ‘admire the scenery’. Monday took me 16, Tuesday 17 and today’s was 18. I shall be interested to learn how others fared.
My LOI was KASBAH, put in without much hope but as the only word I could think of that fitted the checkers. I didn’t know it as a citadel and completely missed the wordplay.
I’ve a vague idea we had mention of ‘front’ in a previous clue to RIB CAGE. My query on today’s clue was why the setter chose the past tense ‘gave’ instead of the present ‘gives’ which seems more suitable to me in terms of the definition.
I suppose expressions like WELL-BORING are something we have to expect now that The Times puzzle has felt the need to get down with the kids. I mourn for both it and the English language!
It’s the last letter of ‘gave’ that’s included in the anagrist. (At last gave)
Ah, thanks. I’m sure I had that when solving but then forgot.
I didn’t know the words Rood and Ness and so I’ve learnt something today.
Took a long time to get Direct, Labour was straightforward. I couldn’t parse arena until the blog – thanks. A rather slow 53 minutes
Struggled all over the place. Glad to put it behind me!
Great puzzle – but I was beaten by DIRECT LABOUR in the end. A shame because I was doing much better than the snitch indicated I would until then.
“Kyoto, the anagram lovers Tokyo” is a futurama gag I think about quite often
16 minutes. Quite hard. Stuck on _I_E_T for the first word of 6d, my LOI and was close to giving up when DIRECT occurred to me out of the blue; I’d never heard of DIRECT LABOUR as a thing, but DIRECT for ‘oversee’ seemed possible – et voilà, no pink squares.
I thought WELL-BORING was green paint-ish, but looking it up, it is in Chambers. Same MER as Mike at the def for RIB CAGE.
Thanks to Loon and Mike
19:29 although would have been happy to take a seat in the SCC this morning.
Found extramural direct labour via side door well boring.
Ta MAL
40 mins and was pleased to have been able to finish this.
Some very tricky (imho) clues today for a QC. Not sure how I managed to solve some.
LOI was nho DIRECT LABOUR. Got this from the cryptic and assumed it was a phrase.
Also nho LOCK as a rugby team player.
I agree with Mike on his comment about RIBCAGE.
COD SIDE DOOR. I chose this as I solved it from the cryptic alone, which pleased me no end.
Thanks Mike for the blog.
14:33 and as that time suggests, something of a struggle. WELL-BORING not a phrase that trips off the tongue for me, but like Jackkt I’m sure we must get used to such words in the QC. Less sure about KASBAH; both the word itself and the wordplay seemed more a 15×15 clue. DIRECT LABOUR also took a long time even with the checkers.
All in all not a crossword I was on wavelength for, but fortunately the many excellent surfaces rescued what could have been a trial and made the experience enjoyable. Many thanks Mike for the blog – but why (if I may ask) the full stops between paragraphs?
The spacing between paragraphs seems very inconsistent, Cedric, and I haven’t worked out/no one has told me how best to correct it, so I have used full stops for my last two or three blogs in an attempt for some consistency. However, I am not sure whether I find the full stops more irritating than the inconsistent spacing…
I hadn’t even noticed them!
I think the issue is due to slightly inconsistent use of <div> and <p> tags for surrounding paragraphs, particularly the way the WordPress software handles return characters.
For a less intrusive placeholder, you might try “ ”, which is the HTML code for a non-breaking space.
Ripped through the top half in a couple of minutes and then found that a different setter had added a fiendish bottom half. I struggled on almost every clue down there.
The Clash (“Rock the Casbah”) came to my rescue at 13d. The X from EXTRAMURAL gave away BORDEAUX. Eventually I remembered rood and the SIDE DOOR opened. Even then I had to spend a minute working out why “hooker” couldn’t be right at LOI LOCKER.
So the proverbial game of two halves, Brian, to end in 10:02 for a Sick As A Parrot Day. All good fun. Many thanks Loon and Mike.
PS I was going to suggest Liv Tyler as a well-known “shortened Olivia” but now I look her up I discover she was christened Liv and she’s the only Liv I know.
Yes, Templar, I too wondered about Liv Tyler and Liv Ullmann but they are both simply Liv.
WELL it all somehow went in (including KASBAH dredged up from somewhere) but it’s not the language I speak! NHO LOI DIRECT LABOUR, CNP several others. Liked BORDEAUX.
Golly – thanks, Mike – is cross = ROOD obscure or just difficult?
Some of my worst memories of school are being forced to play rugby – those scrums! sheer hell – but NHO LOCK.
CNP?
Sorry I use that to mean “could not parse” – is that naughty?
Not naughty, others use it, too.
Cross = ROOD comes up occasionally, Martinů – ROOD is an ancient word, but probably most used today in the name of the British monarch’s official residence in Scotland – Holyroodhouse Palace
Thank you, Mike. Yes of course you’re right and I have now found a previous occurrence. But I think my question remains: is it “obscure” or just “difficult”? A rhetorical one, perhaps!
In the Catholic Church, a ROOD is a large crucifix with statues of Our Lady and St. John, one on either side, placed over the entrance to the choir or chancel on a screen (a ROOD screen) or beam. It was often of richly carved wood, painted and gilded. The rood is also the True Cross on which Christ died.
Thank you. Yes, I sort of knew (most of) that …. I’m trying to work out what this is all about. I think it’s this: that if you ask me what a rood is, I might be able to come up with “a sort of religious cross”. But if you clue “cross”, it’s a far cry to come up with rood. For example, you probably know rebec and zither are instruments. But would you clue them (in a QC, mind!) as merely “instrument”? Wouldn’t you qualify them with “mediaeval instrument” or “Hungarian instrument”? But if (on the other hand) you would judge “rood” as a more mainstream kind of cross than rebec/zither are instruments, then fine, I’ll stand willingly corrected.
12:59
Not a rapid solve, but no major hold-ups. I knew someone 45 years ago who often described things as WELL BORING, so not the newest of youth-speak.
LOI was DIRECT LABOUR, where the DIRECT took a while to see.
Thanks Mike and Loon.
Good to hear that others found this tricky. NHO ROOD, DIRECT LABOUR.
Agree re protection of RIB CAGE (was thinking more bumper bar…). The excellent blog showed all workings to be fair, however something about them produced, in our world, treacle underfoot.
19:55 – an amazingly fast time considering that I could not parse half of the answers. DIRECT LABOUR, WELL BORING, SIDE DOOR, KASBAH (amongst others) all pure biffs. Hard.
Started off with a confident dead BORING but quickly backed out of it and then made decent progress until left with the first part of 6d. After staring blankly at it for a couple of minutes I grumpily pulled up stumps as the 10 minute mark ticked round and came here for the solution. I thought DIRECT LABOUR was going to be a NHO but it does ring the very vaguest of bells.
Despite the DNF I rather enjoyed the solve and my COD goes to EXTRAMURAL.
Thanks to Mike and Loon
Like Templar, I made good progress up top, then slowed dramatically. WORLD and WELL BORING were easy starters. Eventually at around ten minutes, I had the first word of 5d left to solve, but it was 12:50 by the time DIRECT came from a multi alpha trawl. Not a phrase that trips off the tongue. Thanks Loon and Mike.
19:32
Just escaped the Club, with LOI BORDEAUX, “how can that end in X”? Was worried it might be intermural, or even intramural.
Also thought HOOKER must be right. Never knew what a KASBAH was, I thought it was a souk.
I really liked WELL BORING. Well clever.
DNF, slow and stupid today. Could not get DIRECT, LOCKER, DRAB (doh), just not my day, despite looking up BORDEAUX.
Liked PAPA, EXTRAMURAL.
Thanks for much needed blog, Mike. A bit shocked by WELL BORING.
Have met many badly behaved LABRADOODLES who obviously don’t have enough Lab in them
I had to explore the grid before making progress in the NE corner. It was a slog from there but with some flashes of inspiration.
I finished back in the NW corner with WELL BORING, WORLD, and my LOI BEAK. My last Loon puzzle had me inside the SCC limit by a couple of minutes but this time, (s)he tipped me just over the border.
An odd QC for me and a mix of less pleasure and more frustration than usual.
Thanks to both.
7.07
Missed plenty of stuff here but muscle memory seemed to DIRECT me to the correct answers, for a surprisingly above average (it seems) time.
Liked BORDEAUX.
Thanks Mike/Loon.
23:27 for the solve. I feel like I’m Ted Rogers in an episode of 3-2-1 trying to explain some of these “… the clue says the citadel has leaders of Kasbah architectural business excited … what makes you excited, perhaps a brand new car … and the leaders of Kasbah architectural business are K-A-B … perhaps it’s the brand new Ford Ka? But what’s that B doing? Should we putting the B-IN something? The first part of the clue mentions a citadel in the Kasbah. That’s a hot place where there’ll be lots of sand and dust flying around …and citadels keep things safe and secure what better way to protect your rubbish from foxes and rats … that right’s you’ve only gone and picked the booby prize … it’s Dusty Bin …”
Anyway, there were some nice clues in here JERSEY, LOCKER, PERM but also some I felt had escaped from the 15×15. NHO DIRECT-LABOUR and along with BEAK those two took me out past fifteen mins.
Thanks to Mike and Loon
Already looking forward to Ted Rogers guest-blogging some future QCs – imagine every clue blogged this way!
Literally no one had any idea what was going on with those clues from 3-2-1. I can still remember the glazed looks of ordinary couples trying to comprehend what he was talking about, miffed by missing out on an inappropriate speedboat.
And if the couple on 3-2-1 didn’t win the speedboat it got given to Bullseye to use as a prize!
There is a story that the clues were deliberately obscure so that they could be applied to multiple prizes! Thereby allowing them to avoid giving away too much over the course of the series. How true this is? Who can say.
Certainly a toughie today from Loon, but an enjoyable one as far as I’m concerned. I felt relatively sharp today, but still finished a few minutes outside target at 12.07. Couldn’t get past DEAD BORING for a while, and it was only eventually working out WORLD that put me on the right path. Thought of KASBAH as a possibility but left it until the end to make sure I could parse it before stopping the clock. I also hesitated for a while before writing in EXTRA MURAL because I thought it unlikely that a wine would end in an X. Ironic when I think of the number of bottles of Bordeaux I’ve demolished!
I found this very tricky, with several not parsed, including the NHO DIRECT LABOUR. HOOKER wasn’t parsed either, unsurprisingly, as LOCKER makes slightly more sense (though I certainly wouldn’t leave valuables in one!) if I had known ‘lock’ as a rugby position! KASBAH also went in from definition alone. Perhaps I wasn’t in the mood, but I didn’t enjoy wading through clue after clue without the satisfaction of clever wordplay or PDMs, though BORDEAUX and EXTRAMURAL were good.
28:00
Found that tough going. The RHS just about went in ok, though NHO DIRECT LABOUR, but the left had me struggling for ages. Tried Venus for the planet and very boring, neither of which parsed and only when I figured out RIB CAGE, which wasn’t the most generous definition (protection from the front) did the rest fall into place.
10.54.
Yes, quite tough going – 27.50. NHO DIRECT LABOUR, along with others, and thought Kasbah was a street market. Also put HOOKER in for LOCKER, although I couldn’t see why it should be, apart from a rugger position. Liked WORLD and BEAK and BORDEAUX. Thanks to Mike and Loon. Oh, BTW – what is the 15 x 15? I do the Times hard copy, not online, and I don’t see it there. It sounds like a step up from the QC before progressing to the Cryptic, which I generally fail to finish. Any info gratefully received.
The 15×15 is another name for the Cryptic
Ohhhhh, I see. Many thanks Amoeba.
Tough but fun. Don’t know my time as started on the iPhone on the train and finished on the iPad at home, but around 30 minutes.
Not all parsed especially Kasbah and Side Door where I could only assume the setter had spelled Rude wrongly, but I was wrong of course and it was a different type of Cross.
COD KYOTO which was rather clever.
Thanks Loon and well blogged Mike.
Dnf…
Had everything in 19 mins apart from 6dn “Direct Labour”. No matter how hard I looked, it just wouldn’t come, which was slightly annoying. Only other hesitation was thinking 1ac was “Dead Boring” rather than “Well Boring” – but that’s probably a northern thing. A good puzzle though.
FOI – 9ac “Alive”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 2dn “Labradoodles”
Thanks as usual!
35 minutes but not quite correct as put in HOOKER even though it made no sense – submitted and then quickly changed to LOCKER when the error was highlighted!
A very enjoyable solve thank you Loon with a couple more not parsed – SIDE DOOR and JERSEY (obvious now thanks Mike).
A major DNF. I gave up after 55 (increasingly tedious) minutes with 6 clues unsolved – WORLD, LABRADOODLES, KASBAH, SIDE DOOR, LOCKER and ARENA. Several other clues took absolutely ages to get, including WELL BORING, DIRECT LABOUR, KEEP OFF, EXTRAMURAL, BORDEAUX and PERM.
I was utterly beaten by Loon and have no idea how anyone could have breezed through this.
Many thanks to Mike for the blog.
11 mins but DNF due to a lazy HOOKER. I always forget Lock having only ever known them as just Second Row. This is why I don’t submit QCs to leaderboard, this was quite tough and deserved more effort than I gave it.
NHO Direct as a type of Labour, thanks for that.
KASBAH was excellent. Entertaining, thanks Mike and Loon.
DNF
Wow! – brought back down to earth with a very large bump!
Only 6 solved in the first 12 minutes followed by a slow grind around the grid.
Threw in the towel after ~32mins in the belief I had no hope of getting any further with 4 and 2 half clues unsolved: WELL (BORING), KEE(P OFF), WORLD, LABRADOODLE, DIRECT LABOUR & LOCKER.
Oh well, onwards and upwards!
FOI: SATAY
LOI: DNF
COD: RIB CAGE (for the misdirection of the last in ‘gave’ not in ‘at’)
Thanks to Mike for the education and Loon for the large bump.
Judging by some of the comments above my time of 19 minutes after a very slow start was half-way decent. I didn’t stop to parse LABRADOODLE or BORDEAUX as the checkers made them obvious, but couldn’t parse SIDE DOOR as I didn’t know the meaning of rood.
FOI – 9ac ALIVE
LOI – 17ac PAPA
COD – 13ac KYOTO
Thanks to Loon and Mike
In days gone by, local authorities used their own works organisations – known as Direct Labour – to carry out construction and maintenance of housing and roads. Now most of this work is done by contractors through competitive tender.
Excellent puzzle.
Much too hard for me, giving up after 22 minutes with three unsolved (LOCKER, KEEP OFF, DIRECT LABOUR) and KASBAH unparsed. NHO LOCK (in that context) or DIRECT LABOUR. Not a great crosswording week for me so far, fingers crossed for a better performance tomorrow.
Thank you for the blog!
10.53 DNF with a foolish biff of HOOKER at the end. KASBAH was also biffed. Thanks Mike and Loon.
Struggled with this one but got there in the end. As with other solvers, I found DIRECT LABOUR difficult and it was LOI. Also thrown for a time because I always thought SATAY was more Indonesian than Malaysian, plus, as someone whose name begins ‘Wh’, I’m firmly of the opinion that WORLD and WHIRLED are not homophones.
DIRECT LABOUR did for me as it seems for others – I was thinking of bouncers, compères, DJs and the like, thoroughly misdirected by party. So a DNF and an SCC, and my first attempt at a Loon. Only got WELL once WORLD and those strange dogs were in place, having started with VERY but knowing it had to be wrong. Are beaux always lovers or might they be debs delights, as we used to know them (“He’s my beau for the evening”)? Only asking. Usual thanks.
I found this more straightforward than yesterday, which isn’t saying much! Could not get 1a or 1d until the very end. Groaned aloud when I finally saw WORLD, and then LOI WELL BORING which gets COD. Couldn’t quite parse KASBAH and slow to see LABRADOODLES. No probs with DIRECT LABOUR (worked as an auditor many moons ago). The only way is up. Thanks all.
I am an Olivia and it’s always Liv or Livi – same for all the other ones I’ve met. Never Oli. And everyone always tries to shorten you straight away to Liv.
Thanks for piping up Liv/Livi/Olivia 🙂
Gave up after an hour with 7 unsolved (16a, 21a, 22a, 6d, 12d, 13d, 15d). I saw the SNITCH and knew I would never solve them all.
A very poor 25 minutes, with last 5 or so spent on DIRECT. Can’t say I enjoyed it.
Held up in particular by LOI KASBAH. DNK it meant Citadel and spent ages on the parsing.
BORDEAUX also a struggle.
Quite a hard QC.
David
3 wrong answers on 15 x 15. Again, well over an hour and a huge amount of frustration.
DNF, so pleased to read many others found this difficult.
After last week, I was hoping that a good level of QC had been found. Unfortunately this offering has muddied the waters somewhat.
I’m another that didn’t know LOCK and it wasn’t included in the lists if rugby positions I looked up either. Pooh
I’m at a loss as to how “on vacation” means only the first and last letters. Never come across that one…
Just seen your comment… Of course you are meant to think “on holiday” but to vacate means to stop occupying or leave – hence vacation can also mean removing everything. It comes up quite regularly in crosswords.