So our first Saturday QC has landed – and I’ve been hauled out of retirement to fill the unexpected blogging space. It’s a pleasure to be with you once again. They say you never forget how to ride a bike – it turns out blogging is much the same. Very rusty at first but great fun – you should give it a go sometime (Templar is flying a standard from his charger and showing the way!).
I had hoped for a gentle reintroduction but found this not to be the case. I found this to be very challenging and took north of 15 minutes – which may be no bad thing with it being the weekend when there’s always an excuse required to delay the gardening.
Please find my explanations below – and let me know if I’ve missed a trick!
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Broken patterns in cathedral wing (8) |
| TRANSEPT – anagram (broken) of PATTERNS. | |
| 5 | Obscene Oxbridge sportsperson (4) |
| BLUE – double definition. | |
| 8 | Knock-out verse about Irish city (5) |
| KIROV – knock-out (KO) and verse (V – it seems most things can be reduced to their first letter) around Irish (IR – or in this case first letters). NHO KIROV – it’s about 500 miles north east of Moscow. | |
| 9 | Cop lied — somehow did his job? (7) |
| POLICED – anagram (somehow) of COP LIED. | |
| 11 | Vengeful cook spreading only brie on roll (5,6) |
| BUNNY BOILER – a reference to Fatal Attraction. Anagram (spreading) of ONLY BRIE after (on) a roll (BUN). An extra bit of difficulty having a synonym before the anagram – but I liked the clue. | |
| 13 | Unpopular time for power cut (6) |
| OUTAGE – unpopular (OUT), time (AGE). | |
| 14 | Plantagenet king inside unleashed war dogs (6) |
| EDWARD – inside unleash(ED WAR D)ogs. With apologies to the history buffs out there here’s a quick summary to get the rest of up to speed – the name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses; the Angevins who were also Counts of Anjou; the main line of the Plantagenets following the loss of Anjou; and the houses of Lancaster and York, the Plantagenets’ two cadet branches. The family held the English throne from 1154, with the accession of Henry II until 1485, when Richard III died. Right, there we are, so let’s carry on. | |
| 17 | Ferocious creature let in — beggar devoured (6,5) |
| BENGAL TIGER – anagram (devoured) of LET IN BEGGAR. | |
| 20 | Aquatic mammal seen in play regularly — big draw? (7) |
| LOTTERY – aquatic animal (OTTER) seen inside pLaY. | |
| 21 | One making new life abroad — former postman? (5) |
| EXPAT – jocular reference to Postman Pat (and his black and white cat). | |
| 22 | Not the white team according to report (4) |
| YOLK – I think the homophone (to report) of team is yoke (as in oxen). Presumably you can team/yoke two beasts together. | |
| 23 | Fastest guns to win this international competition? (4,4) |
| ARMS RACE – a gun is a side arm – so the fastest arm will win the race? Took a while to get and I wasn’t sure I liked it when I did. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Capture bear (4) |
| TAKE – double definition. Capture/take a position, bear as in bear/take the strain. | |
| 2 | Tumbler‘s performance involving wild boar (7) |
| ACROBAT – performance (ACT) inside which is and anagram (wild) of BOAR. | |
| 3 | Economy by good people shows redeeming quality (6,5) |
| SAVING GRACE – economy (SAVING) by good (G) people (RACE). | |
| 4 | Dad holding a fork out for fruit (6) |
| PAPAYA – dad (PA |
|
| 6 | Number close enough? (5) |
| LOCAL – as in local anaesthetic. Close enough I take to mean in the local area – so near at hand – although I’m not sure I was too happy about that. | |
| 7 | Drunken ordeal and party in fabulous place (8) |
| ELDORADO – anagram (drunken) of ORDEAL and party (DO). | |
| 10 | Lumbermen accepting fine: DA to direct piercing glare (4,7) |
| LOOK DAGGERS – lumbermen (LOGGERS) around fine (OK) and DA is, erm, DA. | |
| 12 | Book kept in PO Box for corporation (8) |
| POTBELLY – book (B) inside PO=PO and box (TELLY). | |
| 15 | Roman commander having a vice we hear? (7) |
| AGRIPPA – a (A), homophone of vice = gripper. Neat. History buffs – you can switch off again – this chap, amongst many other achievements I’m sure, apparently defeated Anthony and Cleopatra and was responsible for building the Panthenon – on edit should read Pantheon. | |
| 16 | Street philosopher one unlikely to give up (6) |
| STAYER – street (ST), philosopher (AYER). Apparently he promoted ‘logical positivism’ – I think I may have liked him. | |
| 18 | Beat up a Liberal in old province (5) |
| NATAL – beat (TAN) upwards then a (A) liberal (L). ‘Old’ as it’s now called KwaZulu-Natal. | |
| 19 | Line dropped from fashion — problem for looker? (4) |
| STYE – line (L) dropped from fashion (STY)l(E). The ‘looker’ being an eye. | |
Tough and fun. Submitted off leaderboard because wasn’t sure why YOLK was a homophone for team despite trying it out numerous times. And I wasn’t sure that KIROV existed. Liked BUNNY BOILER and numerous others. 10:06.
Many thanks Wiggly Woo and welcome back Chris!!
Templar
Obviously in the minority as I prefer the paper version. One of the perks of retirement is doing the QC with a leisurely coffee at breakfast. This was the first time I’ve done one online and it was enjoyable – but not as satisfying as using pen and paper! Thanks very much to Wurm and to Chris for parsing PAPAYA, YOLK and LOCAL which I had to biff. I’m just going to have to get used to a new Saturday morning routine.
I always complete using the paper version too but if I need to print I do so from the Times website online using a laptop. Someone was looking for guidance on printing. Go to Times online, on menu select Today’s sections, select puzzles, select crossword you want. Click on the three lines above timer, menu opens, select print. Hope this helps.
Thanks WHS.
Put it in the printed version please as it is what we pay for. Many people can only do it on paper for a variety of reasons and this looks like discrimination
Get rid of some of the other rubbish please to fit it in.
Hello. Thanks for comments. I’m glad you enjoyed the birth of the Sat QC.
It wasn’t written specifically for the purpose, I have to admit. Just me being me!
Cheers all esp Chris
Wurm