Everything here went in pretty smoothly for me. There were a couple of clues (17A and 5D) that pushed me to the edge of my GK, but they still went in straight away because in each case the rest of the clue left no room for ambiguity. 17A came out of my horticultural knowledge black hole, but I vaguely remembered the plant in question and the cryptic was very kind. And in 5D I didn’t know the Scottish farm labourer (in spite of my Scottish ancestry) but the definition was so straightforward that the cryptic was almost superfluous. Thanks very much to Orpheus for a gentle start to the week.
My FOI was 1A, and I think my LOI was 18A. No particular stand-out COD but I’ll go with 4D.
Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.
Across | |
1 | Policeman left girl: thatβs the problem (7) |
DILEMMA – DI (Detective Inspector, policeman) + L (left) + EMMA (girl). | |
5 | Embrace European of substantial proportions (4) |
HUGE – HUG (embrace) + E (European). | |
7 | Lament extinct bird in Scottish mountain (6) |
BEMOAN – MOA (extinct bird) ‘in’ BEN (Scottish mountain, as in Ben Nevis). | |
8 | Proceed on horseback in American territory (6) |
CANTER – hidden word: ‘in’ AmeriCAN TERritory. | |
9 | Eg hotel booking giving rise to doubt? (11) |
RESERVATION – double definition. | |
10 | Stick publicity notice in this place (6) |
ADHERE – AD (publicity notice) + HERE (in this place). | |
12 | Part of school day β full stop! (6) |
PERIOD – double definition. | |
14 | Confined criminals given regular coaching (11) |
CONSTRAINED – CONS (convicts, criminals) + TRAINED (given regular coaching). | |
17 | Showy plant in lodging-place, one in borders of Zambia (6) |
ZINNIA – INN (lodging place) + I (one) ‘in’ ZA (the ‘borders’ of ZambiA). | |
18 | Authority to keep daughterβs cosmetic (6) |
POWDER – POWER (authority) ‘keeping’ D (daughter). | |
20 | Covered in writing fluid β and smelly? No way (4) |
INKY – |
|
21 | Huntsmanβs cry produced by friend in front of this house (5-2) |
TALLY-HO – ALLY (friend) ‘in’ T (front of This) + HO (house). |
Down | |
1 | Female creature drover regularly observed (3) |
DOE – DrOvEr ‘regularlyΒ observed’. | |
2 | Quick inspection from king in flowing robe, ultimately? (4-3) |
LOOK-SEE – K (king) ‘in’ LOOSE (flowing) + E (robE ‘ultimately’). | |
3 | Pit employee of little importance, do we hear? (5) |
MINER – sounds like (‘do we hear?’) MINOR (of little importance). | |
4 | A vice securing top of rotating light (3,4) |
ARC LAMP – A CLAMP (a vice) ‘securing’ R (‘top’ of Rotating). | |
5 | Old Scottish farmworker, initially identifying Asian language (5) |
HINDI – HIND (old Scottish farmworker) + I (‘initially’ Identifying). | |
6 | One gored badly crossing western forest (9) |
GREENWOOD – anagram (‘badly’) of ONE GORED ‘crossing’ W (western). | |
9 | Revolutionary undertaking, preparation for publishing (9) |
REDACTION – RED (revolutionary) + ACTION (undertaking). | |
11 | Passage from old religious pamphlet (7) |
EXTRACT – EX (old) + TRACT (religious pamphlet). | |
13 | Fugitive Garda finally found in part of airport (7) |
RUNAWAY – A (GardA ‘finally’) ‘found in’ RUNWAY (part of airport). | |
15 | Girlβs granny, extremely canny (5) |
NANCY – NAN (granny) + CY (CannYΒ ‘extremely’ (i.e. taking the ‘extremes’ of the word)). | |
16 | Horrify a friend, parking in the centre (5) |
APPAL – A PAL (a friend) with P (parking) in the centre. | |
19 | For example, oneβs initial self-importance (3) |
EGO – EG (for example) + O (One’s initial). |
Made it out of the SCC today with a just over 15 minutes solve. Canter was also my LOI, and managed to dredge Zinnia out of the depths of my brain. I did wonder if each letter had been used – Z, Y, & W were – but I think we’re missing v and j.
LOI: 17a. ZINNIA
Time to Complete: 37 minutes
Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 22
Clues Answered with Aids: 2
Clues Unanswered: Nil
Wrong Answers: Nil
Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 24/24
Aids Used: Chambers
I was not confident when I saw Orpheus as the setter, as I find his puzzles to be at the 15×15 end of the QC. However, today I was pleasantly surprised to find this one relatively easy. A few of the clues had me stumped, such as 17a. ZINNIA, a word that did not exist in my vocabulary. With the extinct bird of 7a, I immediately thought of dodo, and spent a few minutes trying to lever that word into the answer.
A pleasant start to the week.
Thanks to astartedon
FOI: HUGE
LOI: CANTER
COD: CONSTRAINED (amused us)
Thanks to Orpheus and Astartedon.
Ps weβve just completed (except for one clue) todayβs 15×15 in 49minutes. Itβs almost certainly on the easier side but itβs our best ever effort.
Edited at 2021-08-09 08:09 am (UTC)
Thank you all,
Diana
Edited at 2021-08-09 08:07 am (UTC)
3:41.
Edited at 2021-08-09 08:18 am (UTC)
Everything else slotted in straightaway, so an encouraging start to the week. TALLY HO barely cryptic.
Liked INKY and many others.
Thanks vm, Don.
Edited at 2021-08-09 09:06 am (UTC)
Ye ken ess?
Iβll gie ye a steen ahint a lug!
Ye cannae see green cheese!
Hud yer wisht!
Lang may yer lum reek!
Iβm sure there must be others.
Once you get over the βnonsenseβ you may like thisβ¦ not for the faint-hearted mind!
Interesting xword β plenty of gimmes but fingers crossed for the unknown (though generously clued) ZINNIA. And slightly surprised by the definition for REDACTION. But liked INKY and LOOK-SEE
Thanks Orpheus and Don
Also had a discussion with someone else on another site about the increasing use of βperiodβ in this country β not necessarily as βfull stopβ, but as an expression added at the end of a sentence to mean βend ofβ or βfactβ.
FOI β 1dn βDoeβ
LOI β 17ac βZinniaβ
COD β 20ac βInkyβ β simple but fun!
Thanks as usual!
FOI – 5ac HUGE
LOI – 7ac BEMOAN
COD – 14ac CONSTRAINED
Thanks to setter and blogger
An interesting mix with a few gimmes β eg ADHERE and MINER, and others rather more tricky β BEMOAN (I could only bring roc to mind, and that was mythological anyway) and INKY (not helped by the fact that initially I entered redacting). Also didn’t know hind but as everyone has said, it was easy enough to see the answer.
FOI Doe
LOI Inky
COD Extract
Many thanks Orpheus and Don
Off to have a go at the biggie now β hope all the comments above don’t jinx it π
I think βHuntsmans cry (5-2)β must rate as one of the easiest clues for some time.
COD REDACTION
I can’t claim to have parsed every clue fully as I went along (e.g. I didn’t spot CANTER was a hidden, and I mostly biffed TALLY-HO and REDACTION), but I felt confident enough at the end to put my pencil down and come here.
As with Teazel last Friday, I came to a juddering halt with just four clues to go. However, whilst Friday’s last four took me more than half an hour, today’s took just 4 minutes. Once it had dawned on me that both ‘lodging-place’ and ‘one’ could be inside Z____A, ZINNIA quickly came to mind. That was the catalyst for me then to solve NANCY, INKY and REDACTION without too much further anguish.
Many thanks to Orpheus and astartedon.
Edited at 2021-08-09 12:07 pm (UTC)
Kevin β A jocular unit of speed invented by the SCC, in which they compare their times to one of their faster solvers.
TALLY HO brought back memories. When I was a youngster I was involved in a case with one of the oldest silks then at the Bar; he lived alone in a grand house in Cheyne Walk with a large staff of Filipinos to whom he had taught the entire vocabulary of English hunting calls. Very eccentric fellow.
FOI DOE, LOI REDACTION, COD ARC LAMP, time 06:35 for 1.75K and a Very Good Day.
Many thanks Orpheus and Don.
Templar
Slight delay at 5 ac where my first thought of “farsi” had to be replaced by “hindi”.
COD 20 ac “inky”.
Incidentally my time appears to have survived a server failure crash in the Crossword Club website, just as I was submitting.
Thanks to Don for the blog and to Orpheus, in a generous mood today
The bad news was that I had “nanny” at 15D. “NINNY” would have been more apposite (stomps off, muttering oaths under his breath….)
Having watched a Verlaine video or two β www. Twitch. TV β search for opheliafailure β I can see how the likes of him and Phil and others make the super-fast times β congratulations Phil for today!!
I had a panic over the LOI β Bemoan β because I was not familiar with Moa, but fortunately Ben Nevis came to mind to rescue meβ¦
As others Hind NHO for Scottish farmworker but it had to be.
I liked the stinky Inky.
So thanks Orpheus! Even made me smile today!!
Thanks all
John George
Thanks all round as usual
… and little to add to earlier comments. 8 minutes for me, with (like many others) 5D Hindi biffed β NHO Hind. But it was generously clued.
20A Inky my COD, a very nice clue.
Many thanks to Don for the blog
Cedric