A very good puzzle from Hurley, I thought. Of middling difficulty (probably): I would have come in about a minute under my target had there ever existed an artist called “Lision”, but it took me up to the 11 minute mark to get that nonsense out of my head and remember ‘possibly the most influential painter in history’ for 22ac, who cropped up in a puzzle I blogged about a year ago, also by Hurley. Bits that stood out for me were the bonus &lit surface reading of 3d, the “tea break” at 16d, and the bit of light relief at 24ac. Very enjoyable indeed – many thanks to Hurley!
| Across | |
| 4 | Attacks engulfing quiet area of running water (6) |
| RAPIDS – RAIDS (attacks) engulfing P (quiet). | |
| 7 | Copilot I misrepresented as MP perhaps (8) |
| POLITICO – anagram (misrepresented) of COPILOT I – a politician (or person with strong political views) that the OED says is now used mainly in a derogatory sense, and who am I to argue? | |
| 8 | Once more afforded Soho? Odd places only (6) |
| AFRESH – every odd letter of AfFoRdEd SoHo. | |
| 9 | Costing a lot, went ahead — like some churches? (8) |
| STEEPLED – STEEP (costing a lot) LED (went ahead). | |
| 10 | God’s tough order — each disheartened (4) |
|
THOR – take the hearts out of T |
|
| 12 | Requiring 50 to be accommodated? Annoying (8) |
| NEEDLING – NEEDING (requiring), with L (50) being housed. | |
| 15 | Very hot and of current interest (about right) (8) |
| TROPICAL – TOPICAL (of current interest) around R(ight). | |
| 18 | Feature of car in Middle East port (4) |
| TYRE – double definition. I was imagining the fair city of “Boot” before a checker came to the aid of my memory. | |
| 20 | Star skater is spoilt (8) |
| ASTERISK – anagram (spoilt) of SKATER IS. | |
| 22 | One of great strength protecting island painter (6) |
| TITIAN – TITAN (one of great strength) protecting I(sland). (Rather than “Lion” around “Is.”) In QC 558, the clue was “Titian added here surprisingly (9)”, with the answer being “red-headed” (from the hair colour he favoured in his paintings). | |
| 23 | Macro, tho complicated, can be discussed here? (4,4) |
| CHAT ROOM – anagram (complicated) of MACRO THO, with the definition referring to a place where you can discuss the difficulties of cash and carry shopping, or close-up photography, or even something to do with computer coding. | |
| 24 | Tiny pastry? It could make you cry! (6) |
| WEEPIE – WEE (tiny) PIE (pastry) – ho ho! | |
|
Down |
|
| 1 | Unpleasant person Liberal exposed (4) |
| LOUT – L(iberal) OUT (exposed) | |
| 2 | Dangerous area of wood, English, elevated part (8) |
| FIRETRAP – FIR (wood) E(nglish) TRAP (“part”, elevated). | |
| 3 | Instrument initially very intimidating, one loves it now (6) |
| VIOLIN – initial letters of Very Intimidating, One Loves It Now – lovely surface reading. | |
| 4 | Band’s assistant or aide, put another way? (6) |
| ROADIE – anagram (put another way) of OR AIDE. | |
| 5 | Starter of prawns as alternative to king’s meat (4) |
| PORK – P (starter of prawns) OR (as alternative to) K(ing). | |
| 6 | Referring to trendy wear of French person giving autograph? (8) |
| DESIGNER – DE (“of” in French) SIGNER (person giving autograph). | |
| 11 | Daughter left home taken in by fast mover, uncompromising (8) |
| HARDLINE – D(aughter) L(eft) IN (home) taken in by HARE (fast mover). Interesting surface reading… | |
| 13 | Woman from Nevada (3) |
| EVA – “from” the letters of nEVAda. | |
| 14 | Settled European artist extremely rarely interested in writing (8) |
| LITERARY – LIT (settled) E(uropean) RA (artist), “extreme-ly” RarelY. I think we can rule this one out of CoD contention. | |
| 16 | I must leave Riviera resort after tea break (6) |
| CHANCE – “I” leaves NICE (Riviera resort) after CHA (tea): chance = break = opportunity. | |
| 17 | Part of shibboleth — a little deadly (6) |
| LETHAL – Part of the letters of shibboLETH A Little. Great word, shibboleth. | |
| 19 | Thin person’s desire to get parking for husband (4) |
| WISP – WISH (desire) to get P(arking) for H(usband). | |
| 21 | Pulls up studious guy (4) |
| SWOT – TOWS = pulls, going “up”. | |
At least 7ac POLITICO was a write-in. Otherwise some obscure cluing:-
24ac WEEPIE my COD! – 19dn WISP and 11dn HARDLINE.
WOD TITIAN
Spent most time on 5 clues:
Tyre – dnk the port
Asterisk – was thinking celeb or celestial object
Titian – LOI
weepie – COD
wisp
Edited at 2017-07-20 05:12 am (UTC)
I just remembered the clue that delayed me was my LOI at 2dn where I had written in E, TRAP quite early on but the 3-letter ‘wood’ simply refused come to mind, possibly because I’d be more likely to refer to the wood of a fir tree as ‘pine’. I was also distracted by ‘area’ in the definition as to me a ‘firetrap’ brings to mind a place, possibly an enclosed one, rather than an area which suggests something wider. Of course it was all perfectly fair in retrospect.
Edited at 2017-07-20 05:49 am (UTC)
Held up at the end by 18a. Completed in 24 minutes. COD 24a
Thought Hurley missed an opportunity with 16d. ‘ I must leave biscuit after tea break’ would have been an amusing surface reading. 6.40
Edited at 2017-07-20 11:13 am (UTC)
I see the comments on here are rather thin on the ground today. I wonder if the number of comments correlates with the difficulty of the puzzle.
Crispian