I can scarcely be said to have finished this puzzle, but let us say it came to an end in 13:28. I’m not sure if it was actually that difficult, or if the puzzle just involved many words unknown to me. Or I was just way off the wavelength.
My conventions in the solutions below are to underline definitions (including a defining phrase); put linking words in [brackets]; and put all wordplay indicators in italics. I also use a solidus (/) to help break up the clue where necessary, especially for double definitions without linking words.
| Across | |
| 1 | Possible milk supplier [given] chips by Scotsman, perhaps (8) |
| FRIESIAN – FRIES + IAN
Dutch dairy cattle. |
|
| 5 | Reportedly crucial place for loading and unloading ships (4) |
| QUAY – homophone of KEY
This is the year I learned to pronounce this word. It’s come up a bunch in the Chronicles of Narnia, which I am reading to my children. |
|
| 8 | Impress popular writer (8) |
| INSCRIBE – IN + SCRIBE | |
| 9 | Criticism originally faced by the French / king (4) |
| FLAK – first letter of FACED + LA (‘the’, in French) + K | |
| 11 | Expert having tendency to conceal notes (5) |
| ADEPT – APT around D + E | |
| 12 | Old Arab nomad partially relishes a race north (7) |
| SARACEN – hidden in RELISHES A RACE NORTH | |
| 13 | Cut out PE without hesitation (6) |
| EXCISE – EXERCISE without ER | |
| 15 | Ravine [identified by] Tory touring a US state (6) |
| CANYON – CON around A + NY | |
| 18 | Noblewoman initially devouring undercooked / game (7) |
| DUCHESS – first letters of DEVOURING UNDERCOOKED + CHESS | |
| 19 | Qualm about king[’s] possible aircraft accident (5) |
| PRANG – PANG around R
This was hard for me. Couldn’t really see ‘qualm’ = PANG and didn’t really know PRANG. |
|
| 21 | Devotional carving kept in attic once (4) |
| ICON – hidden in ATTIC ONCE | |
| 22 | Jarring sound principally / associated with Neptune’s spear (8) |
| STRIDENT – first letter of SOUND + TRIDENT | |
| 23 | Carefully looked at fish, it’s said (4) |
| EYED – homophone of IDE | |
| 24 | Insecure shifting dunes at end of bay (8) |
| UNSTEADY – anagram of DUNES AT + last letter of BAY | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Destruction surrounding gear [in] warship (7) |
| FRIGATE – FATE around RIG
Didn’t see ‘destruction’ = FATE. Feels like a stretch. |
|
| 2 | Edition of magazine [for] children (5) |
| ISSUE – double definition | |
| 3 | Pretty sash adapted [for] dance in Scotland (10) |
| STRATHSPEY – anagram of PRETTY SASH
This was quite the guess. First I was trying more esoteric combinations ending with -STEP. I didn’t look up the answer but I didn’t submit it either. |
|
| 4 | Good queen supporting a British nun (6) |
| ABBESS – BESS under A + B | |
| 6 | Ill-fated United Nations woman entertaining king (7) |
| UNLUCKY – UN + LUCY around K | |
| 7 | Part of Canada that inspires our country? (5) |
| YUKON – YON (that) around UK | |
| 10 | Bike patron misplaced — a situation at Wimbledon, maybe? (5,5) |
| BREAK POINT – anagram of BIKE PATRON | |
| 14 | Ride round outskirts of Orpington [in] violent storm (7) |
| CYCLONE – CYCLE around first and last of ORPINGTON | |
| 16 | Like King Arthur’s men, losing head regularly (7) |
| NIGHTLY – KNIGHTLY without the first letter
I found this quite tricky. |
|
| 17 | Crystalline compound I demonstrated? (6) |
| ISATIN – I SAT IN
Never heard of it. |
|
| 18 | Energy [shown by] revellers at first in seedy bar (5) |
| DRIVE – first letter of REVELLERS in DIVE | |
| 20 | Neighbourhood accommodating new stadium (5) |
| ARENA – AREA around N | |
I must have got lucky with the vocab, as didn’t have any problems apart from the obscure isatin. Got all the parsing too, by no means a common occurrence. MER in this household about destruction- fate but my elderly Concise Oxford gives ‘death, destruction’ for fate. Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
DNF. NHO ISATIN or STRATHSPEY, can’t see how ADEPT fits (expert = apt??) Also FATE = DESTRUCTION not at all obvious, but FRIGATE guessable. Not a happy day.
As Jeremy shows, ‘expert’ is the definition. ODE, sv ‘adept’: ‘a person who is skilled or proficient at something’.
Yes sorry, I meant to say something about the part of speech to clarify.
I think “adept” is”expert” and “apt” is “having tendency”. If you’re adept at something you could be called expert in that field. I think adept=expert works as both adjective or noun. At first I couldn’t see tendency=apt but “having tendency “=apt works.
Another DNF here – I gave up with one to go after about 12 or 13 minutes. Yes, it was 17d! Remembering isotopes and that sort thing, I got stuck on ISO + something! I was also thinking demonstrated = showed, rather than protested, so reached stalemate. Up to that point, I was tootling along at my normal pace.
STRATHSPEY came to me suddenly, as I too had initially pencilled in something + step.
It’s been a while but we have the same word appearing in the QC and the biggie, clued in a similar fashion. I always find it odd that the editor doesn’t swap puzzles around when that happens.
Funnily enough, although I thought the biggie was very hard, I did actually finish it, albeit in two sittings, as I went for a massage / torture in between. As my therapist looks after the British Olympic swimmers, I’d say I’m in very safe hands, but wow, it’s not like a session at a spa 🤣 I think I need a brain massage after today’s puzzles now!
Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy
Yep, today’s 15 x 15 is do-able with a bit of effort and a sense of humour.
Saracen was easy enough as they’re my local rugby team. Surprised they’re still called that in the current climate. Some fans wear a fez which is not really a lot to do with Saracens.
Exeter Chiefs no longer use the headdress associated with native Americans. They’ve found an old tribe from the West Country. J
I’d nho the dance, so invented the “shratystep”, which I think sounds fun. Also totally missed the “sit-in” meaning of “demonstration”, only being able to bring the “showed” meaning to mind. Wasn’t helped by ISATIN being completely unknown to me. A slightly grumpy DNF for me when I threw in the towel after 25 minutes.
Correctly guessed the dance but had ‘I sat on’ rather than ISATIN… Otherwise rather slow progress but all seemed reasonably fair to me. Finished in around 25 mins with much time spent on the dance and the compound. Interesting to hear views about PRANG. I also thought it meant a minor accident and didn’t know it had anything to do with planes. Took ages parsing SARACEN as hadn’t spotted the hidden. Liked ADEPT and YUKON. Bit of a slog today… Thanks all.
Wow! Despite my woeful time of 67 minutes, I still appear to have beaten a whole bunch of better crossworders above who recorded DNFs today. And, that was after an absolutely terrible start.
I typically work down the first half of the across clues in order and then the first half of the down clues, also in order. Today, that encompassed 14 clues (8 acrosses + 6 downs). Then, I normally move down to the lower half of the grid. Today, the 8-10 minutes it took me to work through those first 14 clues yielded absolutely nothing – not a sausage! I was seriously concerned at that stage. Fortunately, the bottom half was kinder and I finally started to make some progress.
CANYON and SARACEN were the first to fall (eventually) on my return to the top half and I was somehow able to build from them. I had NHO the Scottish dance, but did know STRATHSPEY as a whiskey/area. Nor had I heard of the crystalline compound. In summary, a real toughie from Orpheus, pitched right out at the limit of my ability.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Jeremy.
Held up by isatin but got it in the end having remembered sit ins of old
Parsed adept by apt plus d and e as notes
Hardish
DNF as ran aground on ISATIN – got as far as ISO then failed. FOI – QUAY. Clearly Orpheus has been on holiday north of the Border. Amused by PRANG – an RAF friend of mine once commented that any landing you walk away from is a good landing, irrespective of the state of the aircraft.
Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
Another struggle today. Somewhere around the hour mark but I see I wasn’t alone. I still don’t understand 7dn – why does inspire indicate one word contains another?
I twigged that 17dn was referring to a protest but ‘sat in’ is a bit of a stretch.
Either I am getting worse or these puzzles are becoming more and more difficult.
I think inspire means to ‘breathe in’
Thanks Tina
. . .because inspire can mean inhale/take in, so Yon (that) takes in UK to give Yukon.
Thanks Invariant
DNF
My Scottish dance did indeed end in STEP. Never heard of the compound either and went ISATON. The whole thing exceeded 30 minutes so way beyond my target 20.
I hope the setter is very pleased to have set a crossword that could not be completed by so many.
I don’t normally comment on the quickie but always read the comments- todays comments suggest some poor choices
Another DNF because of ISATIN. Does a word that obscure really belong in the QC? Guessed STRATHSPEY because it sounded suitably Scottish. Would that clue have been better without mentioning dance??
Beaten by ADEPT & STRATHSPEY. A couple whiskies down myself (assume Speyside has to be related to the dance) I couldn’t see past the anagram ending in STEP…
I had trouble with the Isatin but sort of got it.
Remembered prang from reading books about fighter pilots in the war when I was little.
The Strathspey is a beautiful slow dance (not a reel !). Scottish dance classes will be starting again soon wherever you live – give it a go it’s great fun and fab exercise for mind and body! Also very sociable and friendly. We are on holiday in Scotland just now and joined a class in the Western Isles for an evening of fun and friendship. No Strathspeys sadly but a great Duke of Perth reel.
Another catch up…and another dnf.
This time, 3dn “Strathspey” and 17dn “Isatin” both of which I’ve never heard of.
FOI – can’t remember
LOI – didn’t finish
COD – 1ac “Friesian”
Thanks as usual!