It’s a gloomy Thursday here, the dog is curled up at my feet and the cat in front of the monitor and plonked on the keyboard, so apologies for any odd typos that appear.
The Don is with us today with a nice puzzle that seems to contain an awful lot of anagrams. I have had a bit of trouble with 12 down as I couldn’t square off part of the clue (see below) and I guess it will cause the newer solvers a bit of trouble, if it troubled an old fart like me. The answer is reasonably accessible, but the definition in the first part just doesn’t click with me. Maybe I have my dense head on this morning.
ACROSS
1 RESISTED – We start with a container clue. RESTED (was still) goes around (protecting) IS (island) with the remainder of the clue the definition.
5 STAT – Hidden (to conceal) inside ‘latest attempt’ is a word for a little piece of trivia.
8 CAMEL – A Wordsum. Arrived (CAME) + L (lake) = the name of an animal.
9 OFFHAND – And another OFF (just leaving) + HAND (worker) = lacking courtesy.
11 PERSECUTION – An anagram. ERIC SET UPON with suffering as the indicator gives a word meaning being put upon for religious reasons.
13 GERMAN _ This might be troublesome for some as well. GERMAN(E) – concise, to the point minus its last letter (briefly) gives the name of a European.
14 STATUE – Work of sculpture is the definition, STATE (say) around U (university).
16 SHAKESPEARE – A nice clue. The name of a famous writer is an anagram of SEEK A PHRASE.
18 EMERSON – The name of an (arguably) slightly less famous writer is an anagram of ME SNORE. Another clue to make you smile.
19 IVORY – Stuff that’s hard is the definition. OR (yellow, gold) inside IVY (plant)
20 LATE – This is quite a clever clue. It’s a sort of hidden answer, but the indicator suggests removing the outer letters. (PUPI)L AT E(TON).
21 MEANNESS – Lack of generosity is the definition. ANNE (Queen) inside MESS (muddle).
DOWN
1 ROCK – Double definition. A solid item or to sway back and forth.
2 SEMI-PERMANENT The explanation of this held me up longer than it should have done. I put the answer in from checkers and when I went back to it, thought it was an anagram of LONG-TERM PRIEST, which of course is complete rubbish. Long-term is the definition and it’s an unusual anagram where the words to be jumbled PRIEST and MEAN MEN are around the anagram indicator ‘working with’. Clever.
3 SOLAR PANELS An energy saving device is an anagram (excited) of A PERSON’S ALL.
4 EVOKES – One of the Don’s hallmarks is including a bit of religion to bash us heathens (after all, he does edit the Church Times Crossword, available on line if you want more!) and here’s today’s. EVE’S (The lady from the Garden of Eden’s) with OK (all right) inside (trapped).
6 TOAD IN THE HOLE – The name of a hot dish is an anagram (about) of I HAD HOTEL NOTE.
7 TV DINNERS – A cryptic definition, referring to food that was easy to prepare and could be eaten in front of the television, as opposed to at the table. Surprised PC dinners hasn’t taken off as a phrase.
10 FRUSTRATION – A wordsum. F (female) + RUST (dull) + RATION (part) = irritation at being thwarted.
12 EGGSHELL – And another wordsum. EGGS (Mine’s) + HELL (awful place) = something that is cracked with a spoon and is brittle. Can’t remember having encountered EGG = MINE but it’s a type of bond (a nickname for a hand grenade??). if you are keeping a dictionary of unusual words and meanings as I suggested a week or so ago, EGG (and OR) if you haven’t got them already, should be in there.
15 SPONGE – A double definition. The word for a scrounger and a type of cake.
17 BYES – And to finish, a double definition where one is a homophone (by the sound of it). Cricketing extras and a soundalike for purchases.
Thanks to Izetti for an enjoyable challenge. I’m off to tackle the puzzle’s bigger brother!
I think I have been caught out by TV as an abbreviation on a previous occasion so I only have myself to blame for that, but I take issue with 5ac which in my view has no place in a Quick Cryptic puzzle (or possibly any other) as the required meaning does not appear in any of Collins, Chambers, COED, OED, ODE, SOED or even the American dictionary.com. It’s not down to nuance of interpretation, it simply isn’t there.
Edited at 2015-10-22 10:01 am (UTC)
FGBP
Edited at 2015-10-22 01:54 pm (UTC)
Overall this puzzle was too difficult for me
Overall this puzzle was too difficult for me
Oh well better luck tomorrow hopefully.
To my mind , ‘stat’ is an abbreviation for either ‘statistic’ or ‘statim ( the latter being Latin for ‘immediately’)
L.
I think you could argue that this is another cricketty clue. People often talk about cricket stats and they become increasingly trivial. Eg only the second time a leg spinner has taken 0 wickets in the first innings and five in the second on his overseas debut or some such obscurity.
Hard today.
I was quite happy with Stat although might have preferred it in the plural.
My downfall I now see was 19a; I put IRONY which was a parsing problem but plant in a factory can be irony (e.g the ones being closed currently).I thought Y for yellow would probably work in Crosswordland.
Anyway, one wrong but an enjoyable challenge as ever. David
I actually finished this one which as a novice I don’t manage very often!