You can find a link to the crossword
here
and the answers below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as
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TfTT. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.
Before looking at the answers, if you would like some additional help, click the label below.
Hints and tips...
Some hints and tips:
- In 8A the "thinking match" is done on a board.
- 2D is a name for the plant after it has gone to seed.
- The Backs in 6D are not the parts of the Cambridge colleges by the river but may be found playing for Cambridge United.
- As well as appearing in Greek and Roman mythology, the twins in 7D, who are an example of "heteropaternal superfecundation" are also a pair of stars in a well-known constellation.
- Entirely coincidentally, the clue for 19D appeared in a Times crossword shortly after Phil had compiled his.
And click on this label to get the solution.
Solution and explanation of the answers...
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc,{deletions} and [] other
indicators.
Across
1 MC in fast car, artist in fairground ride (5,5)
GHOST TRAIN – HOST (MC) in GT (fast car) RA (artist) IN.
8 Thinking match is coming to a conclusion, blow the whistle (7)
ENDGAME – END GAME (blow the (final) whistle). The “thinking match” being a game of Chess.
9 Knock down a casual chap (5)
FELLA – FELL (knock down) A.
10 Close tight (4)
NEAR – Double definition. Think “mean” for the second.
11 Confirms what Goldilocks found (5,3)
BEARS OUT - Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. Ha ha!
13 In nightmares I try to take an exam again (5)
RESIT – Hidden in nightmaRES I Try.
14 Last year's winner fails to open as he's advanced in years (5)
OLDER - {h}OLDER (last year’s winner) without the first letter.
16 Repierce clumsily - it's more chilling (8)
CREEPIER – (Repierce)* [clumsily].
17 Old king to bid noisily (4)
OFFA – Sounds like OFFER (bid) [noisily].
20 Prize money could be super! (5)
PURSE – [could be] (super)*.
21 Odd outsider fails to finish (7)
STRANGE – STRANGE{r} (outsider) [fails to finish].
22 It'll stop the bleeding strange nit circulating (10)
ASTRINGENT – (strange nit)* [circulating].
1 Inexperienced politician (5)
GREEN – Double definition.
2 Clematis found on Captain Birdseye? (3,4,5)
OLD MAN’S BEARD – Double definition the second a cryptic hint.
3 The Farm oddly supplied players (4)
TEAM – Odd letters od ThE fArM.
4 Jacket for smoking? (6)
REEFER – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint.
5 It's not best to suggest French King is to return (8)
INFERIOR – INFER (suggest) ROI (French King) [to return] -> IOR.
6 Sandbags for The Backs after deluge (5,7)
FLOOD DEFENCE – FLOOD (deluge) DEFENCE (the backs in football).
7 One twin aids easy movement (6)
CASTOR – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint. Castor’s twin was Pollux. The ‘aid to easy movement’ is of items of furniture not the reputed effects of Castor oil, as I originally thought.
12 Slow trains found in bottlenecks (8)
STOPPERS – Double definition the second a cryptic hint.
13 Cooking instructions befuddled epicure (not acceptable) (6)
RECIPE – (epic{u}re)* [befuddled] without the U (acceptable).
15 Crones cavorting - this official may have to act (6)
CENSOR – (crones)* [cavorting]. Nice surface!
18 Watchful old consort losing battle at first (5)
ALERT – AL{b}ERT (old consort) without the first letter of Battle.
19 Press club (4)
IRON –
Double definition.
Thank you for this. It’s helping me to learn.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are finding these useful. That's what they're for
DeleteI dont get either tight or mean for near? (I thought it was from a tight match = a near match)
ReplyDeleteHi Graham. It is an old fashioned term. OED has for near "(of a person) mean; miserly." and for tight "not willing to spend or give much money; mean". I hadn't realised it wasn't modern parlance. I must be becoming an old fuddy-duddy!
DeleteVery enjoyable though thanks very much.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. It's feedback like yours that keeps us going.
DeleteWorking my way back through old weekend QC's and 59 doesn't seem to work?>
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Thanks for pointing that out. It was a duff link. Fixed now. Enjoy!
DeleteDecided to tackle this after the QC as I still have the 'student jumbo' to try out over the weekend... Had to give some. these some real thought as the clematis needed to be teased out from crossers (gardening not my thing); also somehow remembered the twins Pollux & Castor after staring at it for ages trying to figure out the construction; also had to rethink 1a from 'great-.... or something to 'ghost-...'; had to wait for the PDM for Al(b)ert. FOI 4d reefer LOI 7d castor COD has to be 11a bears out. Lots to like in this. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew. Glad you managed to get there in the end. Enjoy the student jumbo. It is really very gentle. I did it online and hadn't realised the "Skip filled squares" option was on until I had filled in most of the down answers... and then had to go back and correct them which must have added at least 2 or 3 minutes to my solving time.
DeleteThanks for sorting out "near" and the link
DeleteHa ha indeed for BEARS OUT- very droll, my COD. I thought FELLA was going to be FLOOR before I realized "casual' could make FELLA out of fellow. OFFA was tricky as I didn't think of noisily as a homophone indicator and just thought it somehow was connected to the F's(loud?) in the middle of OFFA. Anyways OFFA always seemed more likely than Lear, John, Cole, Saul or any other 4-letter kings. NHO the OLD MAN'S BEARD or the GHOST TRAIN but figured them out. Thanks, Phil (and John), challenging but very enjoyable(and educational)!
ReplyDeleteAlso re CASTOR I only thought of CASTOR oil and missed the furniture connection. Only vaguely aware of Captain Birdseye but assumed he was an elderly chap with a beard!
DeleteDecidedly tougher than most Saturday Specials in my view, and a rare DNF in 15 minutes as I had Canter for Castor. I spell caster wheels with an E, so never thought of the second meaning, and I reasoned that a canter was an easy movement, even though I could not parse the twin.
ReplyDeleteBears out and Old man's beard also took teasing out, and Endgame (it is surely not just chess that has endgames?), and the non-U element in Recipe, and ... in general, this was a toughie.
Many thanks Phil for the puzzle and the work-out.
Very puzzling. I posted a comment 15 minutes ago and it has disappeared. Any clues John? Can repost ...
ReplyDeleteI don't know why but blogger classified it as potential spam. Now unspammed it.
DeleteThank you
DeleteReposting:
ReplyDeleteDecidedly tougher than most Saturday Specials in my view, and a rare DNF in 15 minutes as I had Canter for Castor. I spell caster wheels with an E, so never thought of the second meaning, and I reasoned that a canter was an easy movement, even though I could not parse the twin.
Bears out and Old man's beard also took teasing out, and Endgame (it is surely not just chess that has endgames?), and the non-U element in Recipe, and ... in general, this was a toughie.
Many thanks Phil for the puzzle and the work-out.
Cedric
I was stuck in the NW until I worked out that PUFFER for 4d had to be wrong (though still a good answer I thought) after which it all fell into place.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed doing this on a lazy Sunday morning with BEARS OUT the best clue. Thanks Phil and John.
Amusing and enjoyable. Failed on CASTOR as I biffed Castle as in chess movement and changed OLDER to Oldie. Oh dear. Was unable to parse OLDER. I now see I should have looked at the Hints. Also had to look up IRON, oh dear again.
ReplyDeleteLiked OLD MANS BEARD which is magnificent in the hedges around here at the moment. Also liked BEARS OUT (COD), ALERT, OFFA, among others.
Thanks vm, Phil and John.
Old Man’s Beard is called Traveller’s Joy in the summer. CW.
DeleteSorry, that was me, Countrywoman.
ReplyDeleteSome very tough clues IMHO, which led to a 58-minute DNF despite seeking help (something I would never dare do during the week) by checking the validity of a couple of letters on the way through.
ReplyDeleteI DNK that OLD MAN'S BEARD was a clematis and I had pufFER as the jacket for quite a while. I also never twigged that AL(b)ERT was the consort, nor did I fully parse ENDGAME (Is it chess?).
Towards the end, I was forced to seek help with INFERIOR, which enabled me to solve FELLA. But I came to grief with CASTOR and OLDER. Despite being sports mad, I have NHO the word gOLDER, so I had OLDie. And I have no idea why CASTOR is a twin, so I had CASTle, which connected with OLDie. My logic was that a rook (CASTle) in chess is one twin and castling aids movement of that piece. So, GOLDie/CASTle seemed fair to me - and still does.
Many thaks for the entertainment, Phil (and John).
I have just realised that last year's winner would be hOLDER (not gOLDER). However, gOLDIE still works (as does CASTle), so my solutions to these clues still seem fair to me.
DeleteBad luck with those two. Goldie is the Cambridge second boat in the boat race. Did they win last year? I don't know, but they won this year when Cambridge had a clean sweep of the boat races. Ingenious logic for CASTLE, but much too clever for a QC, I think! Yes ENDGAME is a chess (i.e. thinking game) term.
DeleteVery enjoyable despite being on the harder side. BEARS OUT is my clue of the month (at least). Thanks Phil & John,
ReplyDelete- Doofenschmirtz
Thanks. I thought BEARS OUT was one of Phil's best too.
DeleteThanks to all of you who have commented. The hardest part of setting a QC (for me at least) is deciding whether what seems straightforward to me will be equally clear to the solver. OLD MAN'S BEARD was a good example of me getting it a little wrong. I'm working on my next one - I'll try to avoid the obscure stuff!
ReplyDeleteI didn't think it was too obscure at all, certainly not compared to some of the things you get in the QC in the paper. I remember them having one word that wasn't even in the 14 volume OED. It was only in the Scottish version - now that is obscure!
DeleteTotally out of synch with these at the moment, so apologies for the late comment.
ReplyDeleteThis took me an age to complete, and whilst I did think it was on the more difficult side, it was partly down to me biffing “Blazer” for 4dn. As a result, the whole NW took an age too decipher - hampered by my inability to see “Ghost Train” for 1ac and my lack of knowledge of “Old Man’s Beard” for 2dn.
Enjoyed 7dn “Castor” and particularly enjoy seeing it in the winter sky.
Thanks,
JamesEd46