Solving time: 7:25
An intriguing puzzle with some cleverly assembled answers, particularly amongst the downs – in comparison, the acrosses seemed much gentler.
I particularly enjoyed working out 1d, 6d and 15d, but my COD today goes to 17a for the smile it put on my face.
How was it for you?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones]. The caret ^ indicates an insertion point in containment clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kind lady finally shot sweet thing (6,4) |
| BRANDY SNAP – BRAND (Kind) then last letter [finally] of {lad}Y then SNAP (shot i.e. a photograph) | |
| 7 | Send off for skirt, out of book (5) |
| ORDER – |
|
| 8 | Motive in About a Boy (6) |
| REASON – RE (About) A SON (Boy) | |
| 10 | University charging millions and millions for parent (3) |
| MUM – U (University) inserted into [charging] M (millions) and M (millions) | |
| 12 | Importing fish primarily, I create a fishy eatery! (9) |
| CAFETERIA – Anagram [fishy] of I CREATE A containing [importing] the first letter [primarily] of F{ish} | |
| 13 | Flog rubbish, banking last of cash (6) |
| THRASH – T^RASH (rubbish) containing [banking] final letter [last] of {cas}H | |
| 14 | Resident in Pune, pal is Asian (6) |
| NEPALI – Hidden [Resident in] in Pune pal is | |
| 17 | Delicate items with knowledge of feature, seemingly (9) |
| CHINAWARE – CHIN (feature) AWARE (with knowledge of)
Think the ‘seemingly’ is there only to improve the surface reading |
|
| 19 | Pop into orchard, a delight! (3) |
| DAD – Hidden [into] in orchard a delight | |
| 20 | Meat I am sadly returning (6) |
| SALAMI – IM (I am) ALAS (sadly) all reversed [returning] | |
| 21 | European city with nothing for lover (5) |
| ROMEO – ROME (European city) with O (nothing) | |
| 23 | Town he reviewed, dump generally (2,3,5) |
| ON THE WHOLE – Anagram [reviewed] of TOWN HE, then HOLE (dump)
I wasn’t convinced that dump = HOLE, however there are a few interpretations where if you squint enough, it works: 1) dump = rubbish tip, and hole = an excavated pit used for dumping waste. The meaning is essentially the same as both refer to a discard site rather than a physical shape. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sweeper with block bagging duck, most unfortunately (10) |
| BROOMSTICK – BR^ICK (block) containing [bagging] O (duck) and anagram [unfortunately] of MOST
Parsed post-solve. |
|
| 2 | Help girl having lost head (3) |
| AID – |
|
| 3 | Points in driest ground where 100 buried (7) |
| DIRECTS – Anagram [ground] of DRIEST containing [where… buried] C (100 i.e. Roman numeral) | |
| 4 | Unkempt individual, rapscallion initially getting into scrape (6) |
| SCRUFF – First letter [initially] of R{apscallion} inserted [getting into] into SC^UFF (scrape) | |
| 5 | A bit away from others (5) |
| APART – A PART (bit) | |
| 6 | Epicure, fellow cutting fruit (8) |
| GOURMAND – MAN (fellow) inserted into [cutting] GOUR^D (fruit)
From Old French gormant meaning “a glutton.” Different from gourmet, which emphasises an individual with a refined, discerning palate and is more often applied to the preparer than the consumer of the food. |
|
| 9 | 10 or 19, the same either way? (10) |
| PALINDROME – The numbers here refer to the answers to 10a and 19a, both of which are PALINDROMEs i.e. read the same forward as backward | |
| 11 | Alarming changes for minor (8) |
| MARGINAL – Anagram [changes] of ALARMING
Example: “There was only a marginal/minor difference between the two proposals.“ |
|
| 15 | English relative stuck in tree, hairy thing! (7) |
| EYEBROW – E (English) then BRO (relative i.e. diminutive of brother) inserted [stuck in] in YE^W (tree) | |
| 16 | European hand is shaken (6) |
| DANISH – Anagram [shaken] of HAND IS | |
| 18 | Story needing no introduction popular — encore! (5) |
| AGAIN – |
|
| 22 | Low satellite finally disappearing (3) |
| MOO – MOO |
|
This was a toughie for me and I found a lot of the clues quite convoluted, especially BROOMSTICK, and CHINAWARE. Didn’t like brand/kind in BRANDY SNAP. GOURMAND was a write along with a few others but ON THE WHOLE, I thought there were a few escapees from the biggie today.
Thanks Mike and setter.
9:36 for me. LOI was the easy APART, which I didn’t get to until the end for some reason. The only minor holdup was at EYEBROW. I was fine with dump=HOLE.
Both a hole and a dump refer undesirable towns in the US – I don’t know if you have that slang meaning in the UK. On the other hand, we don’t have that meaning of scruff in the US.
I liked the puzzle, but ran through it pretty quickly, parsing most answers,
Time: 7:52
13 minutes. A bit slow. No problem with ‘dump / HOLE’.