Solving time: 8:02
I think this is Heron’s second visit to the setters’ enclave, the first being for QC3160 at the beginning of December.
I enjoyed the challenge, picking up six or seven acrosses on the first pass, however my eyebrows twitched once or twice during the solve due to a couple of synonyms which, I felt, pushed the boundaries a little (see 8a and 7d).
However, I did think that 2d, 5d and 16a were together worth the price of entry.
Interested to know what you all thought…
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 | Huge tunnel blown up with ammo (10) |
| MONUMENTAL – Anagram [blown up] of TUNNEL with AMMO | |
| 8 | Walk quietly from edge to edge of edge (6) |
| TIPTOE – TIP (edge) TO the first (or last) letter [edge] of E{dge}
I had a question mark over whether TIP and edge could be synonymous. |
|
| 9 | Break tea urn in temper (6) |
| NATURE – Anagram [Break] of TEA URN | |
| 10 | Starts to play energetic sport for country (4) |
| PERU – First letters [Starts to] of P{lay} E{nergetic} RU (sport i.e. abbreviation for Rugby Union) | |
| 11 | Ancient civilisation taking on European expansion (8) |
| INCREASE – INC~AS (Ancient civilisation) containing [taking] RE (on) then E (European) | |
| 12 | Clergyman who might be seen on board? (6) |
| BISHOP – gently cryptic – a BISHOP might be seen on a chessboard | |
| 14 | Choice of mixing up elixir’s first two ingredients (6) |
| OPTION – POTION (elixir) with the first two letters (ingredients) swapped around [mixing up] | |
| 16 | Notes similarity of hosts for the audience (8) |
| COMPARES – Sounds like [for the audience] COMPÈRES (hosts) | |
| 18 | Feature in techno session (4) |
| NOSE – Hidden [in] in techNO SEssion | |
| 20 | Mail runs entertaining article in paper (6) |
| MANILA – Anagram [runs] of MAIL gives M~ILA, containing [entertaining] AN (indefinite article)
MANILA paper is a relatively inexpensive type of paper, made through a less-refined process than other types of paper, and is typically made from semi-bleached wood fibres. The manila component of the name originates from manila hemp (also known as abacá leaves), which was named after Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Beginning in the 1840s, recycled abacá rope fibres were the main material for manila paper. Towards the end of the 20th century, papermakers replaced the abacá fibers with wood pulp, which cost less to source and process. Despite the change in production material, “the name and colour remain.” |
|
| 21 | Quickly pull on fashionable jacket (6) |
| JERKIN – JERK (Quickly pull) on IN (fashionable)
A JERKIN is a man’s short close-fitting jacket, made usually of light-coloured leather, and often without sleeves, worn over the doublet in the 16th and 17th centuries. The origin of the word is unknown. Thanks to Johninterred for the correct parsing. |
|
| 22 | Doctor omits blame in process (10) |
| METABOLISM – Anagram [Doctor] of OMITS BLAME
process as a noun here. Note that early doors, the answer in the puzzle was given as METABOLISE (which works as a verb but does not work with the wordplay) – this has now been corrected. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | He wanted some more cut fruit (5) |
| OLIVE – Remove final letter [cut] from OLIVE In the Charles Dickens novel, OLIVEr Twist, an orphan, driven by extreme hunger and forced by other workhouse boys, asks for another portion of gruel with the words, “Please, sir, I want some more.” |
|
| 3 | Account ruthlessly suppresses falsehood (7) |
| UNTRUTH – Hidden [suppresses] in AccoUNT RUTHlessly | |
| 4 | Regularly nervier the day before a festival (3) |
| EVE – Alternate letters of nErViEr | |
| 5 | Persistent chartered accountant after tax returns and debtor’s notes (9) |
| TENACIOUS – CA (chartered accountant) NET (after tax) all reversed [returns], then IOUS (debtor’s notes) | |
| 6 | Unit set fire to centre of forest (5) |
| LITRE – LIT (set fire to – past tense) then middle letters [centre] of {fo}RE{st} | |
| 7 | Servant returned company artwork (6) |
| FRESCO – SERF (Servant) reversed [returned] then CO (company)
Dictionaries appear to differ on whether SERF and servant are synonymous. A servant is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation, while a SERF was a partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights. |
|
| 11 | Bring in social worker of influence (9) |
| IMPORTANT – IMPORT (Bring in) ANT (social worker) | |
| 13 | A biro’s broken making line on chart (6) |
| ISOBAR – Anagram [broken] of A BIRO’S
An ISOBAR is a line on a map or chart connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure. The etymology comes from the Greek words isos, meaning “equal,” and baros, meaning “weight,” indicating its function in representing equal pressure. ISOBARs are crucial for understanding weather patterns and are typically measured in millibars (mb) or hectopascals (hPa). |
|
| 15 | Hard-bitten drill-sergeant clutches strand of hair (7) |
| TENDRIL – Hidden [clutches] in Hard-bitTEN DRILl-sergeant | |
| 17 | Shape public relations ideology (5) |
| PRISM – PR (public relations) ISM (ideology) | |
| 19 | Pack contains four of these outfits (5) |
| SUITS – Mildly cryptic – a pack of cards contains four suits | |
| 21 | Work book (3) |
| JOB – Double definition | |
Slow quick,quick,slow, enjoyable puzzle, though not sure of ‘ISM’ in PRISM, biffed though not convinced , is ‘ISM’ in a dictionary? Too busy to check.
ism /izˈm/
noun
Any distinctive doctrine, theory or practice
ORIGIN: From sfx -ism
10:37 to finish this well-crafted, entertaining puzzle that seemed to have a bit of tooth but no huge difficulties. Thank goodness I learned “compere” from previous puzzles. So many good surfaces here that it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I especially liked the drill sergeant, OPTION, and TIPTOE. FOI NATURE, LOI TIPTOE. It’s true, “edge” for “tip” is an awful stretch, but I still liked it. I don’t have any problem with “servant” for “serf” as this is crosswordland, where technicalities generally lose out. I’ve even seen “servant” for “slave” in writings from centuries past.
Thanks Heron and Mike. Holy mackerel, “early doors”, never seen this bit of Britslang. I have been warned.
16:23 here, which put me surprisingly high on the list: having read the above I understand why. COD to OPTION today.
Thanks to Heron and Mike.
Careless DNF in 14 minutes today having also fallen for LAMINA, which almost worked but didn’t really. Oh well. Slightly frustrating but entirely our own fault for not pausing to check before the last letter went in. Thanks, Mike and Heron.
Am I allowed to say I just liked it, all done and all parsed. Of course never quick, and no pink squares on my newspaper. Sorry, it’s a minor pleasure, a paper to read newsprint (not MANILA) and unbroken ‘Biro’ not ISOBAR. Enjoy evening.
Agreed, re solving on paper. More relaxing and not subject to the vagaries of technology (or the temptation to check whether or not something is correct).
There are advantages in doing the qc on paper and doing it at dinner time!Generally a fun one with good cluing
Phew! I crossed the line in ~29 minutes, which is around average for me, but _A_I_A wasn’t yielding to my alphabet trawl and I was considering giving up. Strange, because ‘lamina’ occurred to me straight away and all I needed to do was swap the first and third letters. In the end it added 4-5 minutes to my time.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the challenge and it all seemed relatively doable for a run-of-the-mill solver like me.
Many thanks to Mike and Heron.
20 mins dnf – failed to get compares and gave in. Enjoyable tussle, with my smugness on spotting the hidden untruth, falling away by taking ages to get tendril.
FOI Monumental
LOI dnf
COD Tiptoe
thanks Heron and Mike
Another careless ‘lamina’, and I agree with Mike’s assessment.
I had no problem with NATURE for temper. In older literature temper can denote character (“He was a man of even temper”). Nothing to do with fits of temper!
17 minutes.
Poor performance as usual.
19:18 Didn’t get the tendril option.
TaMAH
Little more than half on 15 x 15. It just won’t happen for me with these puzzles. I don’t have what it takes and never will.
Time to quit.
It was still METABOLISE at 8:45pm on the app for a mighty head scratch. Probably too late to change now.
I thought there were a few clues and definitions more suited to the 15×15 in this but was balanced out by a healthy dose of hiddens and anagrams.
Cheers blogger and setter