Introduction
I was putting my older son to bed while trying this one, so I guess I can blame my poor performance on that, but the truth is that this puzzle really stumped me. I was only able to finish by looking up the definition of ‘bulwark’. (I should have remembered it from Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.)
Solutions
Across
1 | Slander American woman keeping keys (6) |
DEFAME – DAME (American woman) around (keeping) EF (keys, from the musical scale) | |
4 | School class cheers about layout of publication (6) |
FORMAT – FORM (school class) + TA (cheers) reversed (about) Wasn’t aware of this definition of ‘form’. |
|
8 | Girl detailed to receive plea [for] textile fibre (7) |
ACRYLIC – ALICE (girl) without the last letter (de-tailed) around (to receive) CRY (plea) This one really held me up. I guessed the answer but couldn’t see how the wordplay worked. |
|
10 | Lazy type this writer would ultimately enrol with hesitation (5) |
IDLER – I’D (this writer would) + last letter of (ultimately) ENROL (enrol) + (with) ER (hesitation) | |
11 | One of two writers [having] material rejected (5) |
ELIOT – TOILE (material) reversed (rejected) T.S. Eliot and George Eliot. |
|
12 | Poor unfortunate me, serving drink in inappropriate vessels! (7) |
MUGGINS – putting (serving) GIN (drink) in (in) MUGS (inappropriate vessels) Mugs, of course, being more appropriate for beer, rather than gin. |
|
13 | Trendy model? The opposite (9) |
INVERSION – IN (trendy) + VERSION (model) | |
17 | Starting-point for train-spotting, for example? (7) |
ANAGRAM – cryptic definition STARTING-POINT and TRAIN-SPOTTING are anagrams. |
|
19 | Brother — one who works in chippy, do we hear? (5) |
FRIAR – fryer (one who works in chippy) replaced by a homophone (do we hear) | |
20 | Greek poem, one backing Irish parliament (5) |
ILIAD – I (one) + reverse of (backing) DAIL (Irish parliament) | |
21 | Kids’ day centre user crossing river in New York (7) |
NURSERY – USER (user) around (crossing) R (river) in (in) NY (New York) | |
22 | Well-proportioned-sounding old cab (6) |
HANSOM – HANDSOME (well-proportioned) replaced by a homophone (sounding) A horse-drawn carriage. We have these in Central Park. |
|
23 | Money used to accommodate American relative (6) |
COUSIN – COIN (money) around (used to accommodate) US (American) |
Down
1 | Storage compartment [for] draughtsman (6) |
DRAWER – double definition This one threw me because we’d probably write it as ‘draftsman’ and I thought something different was meant. |
|
2 | A certain number reportedly lie about a bulwark, say (13) |
FORTIFICATION – FORTY (a certain number) replaced by homophone (reportedly) + FICTION (lie) around (about) A (a) | |
3 | Soviet statesman[’s] action mostly restricting leader of our bunch (7) |
MOLOTOV – MOVE (action) without the last letter (mostly) around (restriction) first letter of (leader of) OUR (our) + LOT (bunch) Vyacheslav Molotov, that is. |
|
5 | Outstanding old part of building (5) |
OWING – O (old) + WING (part of building) | |
6 | Rich woman in Limassol somehow restraining anger (13) |
MILLIONAIRESS – IN LIMASSOL (in Limassol) anagrammed (somehow) around (restraining) IRE (anger) | |
7 | Drive [of] husband engaged by board of directors (6) |
THRUST – H (husband) in (engaged by) TRUST (board of directors) | |
9 | TV employee arrived with painter on island (9) |
CAMERAMAN – CAME (arrived) + (with) RA (painter) + (on) MAN (island) Isle of Man. |
|
14 | Big fire in centre of Toronto consuming plant (7) |
INFERNO – IN (in) + middle letter of (center of) TORONTO (Toronto) around (consuming) FERN (plant) | |
15 | Disappear, / rather like a commercial vehicle? (6) |
VANISH – double definition The latter humorous: something that is like a van could be called ‘van-ish’. |
|
16 | Chap involved in scam, a colourful writer (6) |
CRAYON – RAY (chap) in (involved in) CON (scam) This is probably a chestnut but I loved it! |
|
18 | Travelled on horseback finally to cattle round-up (5) |
RODEO – RODE (travelled on horseback) + last letter of (finally) TO (to) |
The two divinest things that man has got,
A lovely woman in a rural spot.
namely,
The two divinest things this world can grab,
A handsome woman in a hansom cab.
8:15.
I suspect the newer solvers who have never seen the anagram trick, nor the ELIOT/TOILE chestnut, will not have an easy time of it.
QC 574 (May 2016) by Orpheus
One of two writers sending material up (5)
Orpheus recycling!
26:32. Now time for a late breakfast.
I thought this puzzle was excellent but very difficult for a QC.
David
Cod vanish.
Lots of other tough clues too, I thought. ELIOT, MOLOTOV and THRUST all took ages (MER at “trust” for “board of directors” – to a lawyer they are completely different things). COD INVERSION.
Hey ho, another day tomorrow!
Thanks Orpheus and Jeremy.
Templar
Anyway, a bit of a plod today – over 20 minutes, before I abandoned ship, so Not a Great Day. There were some nice PDMs: format and thrust took a while to reveal themselves for some reason, and I liked Molotov and vanish too.
FOI Drawer (I liked crayon diagoally opposite on the grid)
COD Muggins – a super clue
DNF
Thanks jeremy and Orpheus.
Altogether very difficult – I think I did better (relatively) with today’s 15×15.
Brian
I biffed FORTIFICATION, and came back to parse it afterwards.
FOI DEFAME
LOI CRAYON
COD ANAGRAM
TIME 6:23
COD to the aforesaid 17a – worth the entrance fee alone.
Jeremy, I think Central Park’s carriages are mostly landaus or similar. The Hanson cab was a two-wheeler, two-seater with the driver sitting high behind.
My thanks to Orpheus and Jeremy.
After a decent run last week, I have failed to get anywhere close to finishing today and yesterday’s QC!
I managed to get about 50% of the clues today and gave up after an hour. Despite this, the clues I did manage were enjoyable, specifically FRIAR, CAMERAMAN and DRAWER.
Even with a gun pointed at my head, I don’t think I would have ever solved 17ac ANAGRAM… Hopefully now I’ve seen this type of clue I may stand a chance in the future – it does strike me as slightly tricky for a QC, however.
Could do with a more accessible offering tomorrow!
Acrylic, Eliot, Molotov, fortification.
Thanks Orpheus and well done to our blogger!
Strangely, a lot of the other clues I knew straight away, although I didn’t get the parsing until much, much later. The NW corner comes to mind.
The SE corner went in quite quickly, with the major hold ups on 2dn “Fortification”, 17 ac “Anagram” (which I guessed) and the beforementioned 11ac.
FOI = 1dn “Drawer”
COD = 12ac “Muggins” (as I felt like one)
Thanks as usual
Thanks for the blog
Also not helped by putting in ACRYLAN which was the brand name. Did wonder whether Alan could also be a girls name
Diana
Banker = river (something with banks)
Party = Do or Lib, Lab, Con
Parliament = owls
Bloomer = flower (no you can’t take another step to get to river!)
Revolver = planet
Side = XI (eleven)
[enough already: Ed]
Irrational = pi or e (irrational numbers)
My logic was that the more I look at it, the more I won’t need it going forward as I learn some of these off by heart.