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’.
Hit trouble with FRIGHT for “unkempt individual”, with R into FIGHT (=scrape). “He looked an absolute fright after the storm”.
And decided BLOOMSTOCK must be a type of brush. I thought “bloodstock”fitted, so was working from that.
Whenever I see feature I try “chin”, but I really don’t understand why setters use this.
COD PALINDROME
Collins: features – the individual parts of the face
Now see I think PALINDROME is the worst clue on the board, and by a distance. Easily biffed and learning the parsing did nothing for me
Agreed!
7.40. I found some of these quite hard but biff-friendly, and became aware of the complexities in ON THE WHOLE, BRANDY SNAP (v tricky) and GOURMAND only when I came here. Also missed that 10 and 19 were pointing us at PALINDROMEs. Thanks Mara and thanks for the blog Mike, I’m still a bit confused by 6dn because, as the blog observes, a GOURMAND is not a gourmet and I thought epicure was much closer to the latter than the former…
As ever, Mara’s puzzle is full of clever misdirection, so another morning of “oh that …..”. All done in an enjoyable 16.10 but needed Mikes help on a couple of parsings, thanks.
Like him, also had a big grin at COD chinaware, thanks Mara
Six on the first pass of acrosses after a long wait to get to MUM for my first one in. Bit dim on PALINDROME until I checked realised 10 and 19 meant clues not words and just slow to CHINAWARE. Made a right mess of BROOMSTICK, got ‘broom’ from sweeper then couldn’t make sense of the rest of the clue. Ended up all green in 13.41.
Plenty of gimmes to help with the handful of trickier clues (BROOMSTICK took a lot of fiddling around to unravel) and a big smile for CHINAWARE. No problem with dump/hole as they seem fairly interchangable to describe the various student houses I occupied in the dim and distant past.
Started with REASON and finished with ORDER in 6.55.
Thanks to Mike and Mara
17:31 Couldn’t thrash chinaware with that broomstick.
Ta MAM
BTW Closest W3W ///trash.unaware.broomstick
Oh, so easy when we read the blog.
15D EYEBROW- we dragged in Esau, echidna (prickly not hairy) and on we went -adding elm and elder to the mix – merrily off course for way too long.
The obvious BROOMSTICK was tricky for no reason. CHINAWARE and ORDER likewise.
Roundabout Here’s ‘clever misdirection’ comment summed it up for us.
Enjoyed – though BRANDY SNAP for whatever reason didn’t really please.
Thank you Mara and Mike H
4:58. I liked REASON and CAFETERIA best. Nice one Mara. Thank-you for that and Thank-you Mike for the blog
Couldn’t get either of the 1s to start with so slogged through the rest of it, returning every now and then to the 1s to see if they were now gettable. They weren’t, so after I’d solved everything else I sat and stared at them crossly.
BROOMSTICK came first, but more time lost trying to parse it (I couldn’t). Then BRANDY SNAP LOI. I didn’t like brand for kind, really, and to be honest found that a bit of a meh puzzle. I loved CHINAWARE, though!
All done in 08:51 for a Tough Day. Many thanks Mara and Mike.
Made heavy weather of this one but got there in the end. PDM with BROOMSTICK and wild guess with BRANDY SNAP helped. CNP ON THE WHOLE, though an early solve. Among LOsI were CAFETERIA, CHINAWARE (good clue) and PALINDROME.
Also liked EYEBROW, ROMEO and GOURMAND – though my dictionary confirms my thoughts that an Epicure is a person of refined tastes, i.e. a Gourmet rather than a Gourmand.
Thanks vm, Mike.
Lots of clever and misleading clues but tough overall and, towards the end, I began to get frustrated with the misdirection and slightly iffy definitions (see posts above).
Like Templar, the 1s did not drop out and I moved to the RHS which I found just a bit more approachable. I finished a slow-ish solve with BROOMSTICK, CHINAWARE, and EYEBROW.
I bifd then parsed a few and will now read Mike’s blog properly to tie up my parsing.
Thanks both.