A plethora of geographical questions here (10, 11, 12, 22 across and 4 and 5 down), which together with some very simple hidden and other relatively easy clues made for a fast time, at least for me, at just inside the 10 minute mark. My favourite clue (CoD) today is 14a, and my word of the day (WoD) is a toss-up between 19d and 14d. I’ll try to use them both during the course of the day, maybe in the same sentence.
I have finally hit pay dirt in my investigations into the numbers of the QCs that I blog. 1093 is quite special, in that it is a prime number, and together with 1091 and 1097, it forms a prime triplet. It is also a happy prime and a star prime. It is also the smallest Wieferich prime. Finally, 1093 is a repunit prime in base 3. If interested, google '1093 number' or look it up on wikipedia to discover more.
I hope you all enjoyed it. I’ll be interested to see your comments.
Across
7 A daughter taking long time to see truism (5)
ADAGE– A (a) D{aughter} and AGE (long time)
8 Half of scheme ignored by artist – extremely lurid colour (7)
EMERALD– {sch}EME (half ignored) RA (artist) and L{uri}D (extremely)
10 Main feature of German city church (7)
ESSENCE– ESSEN is the German city and CE is church (from C{hurch of }E{ngland}
11 Aides with name for island mountains (5)
ANDES– swap N{ame} for I{sland} in AIDES to get ANDES – couldn’t be simpler!
12 Catty set I abandoned in Rome once (4-5)
CITY-STATE – Anagram (abandoned) of [CATTY SET I]. A CITY-STATE refers to a sovereign state, also described as a type of small independent country, that usually consists of a single city and its dependent territories. Rome was such a state until I don’t know when, probably until the last stages of the unification of Italy when Rome became its capital in 1871, but I’m happy to be corrected by more knowledgeable commentators
14 It’s nailed low down (3)
TOE– Nice cryptic definition that made me smile when I got the answer
15 Shelter wrapped in fleece (3)
LEE– Hidden (but not very well) in {f}LEE{ce}
16 One profiting illegally from tennis equipment and beers uncovered (9)
RACKETEER– RACKET (tennis equipment) and {b}EER{s} (uncovered, i.e. remove first and last letters)
18 Some fun duenna finds excessive (5)
UNDUE– Hidden (barely) in {f}UN DUE{nna}. Well done if you knew that DUENNA was a kind of chaperone – I didn’t and needed to look it up after solving.
20 Expose firm; note result (7)
OUTCOME– These modern days, to OUT someone is to expose them. This is followed by CO (firm) and ME (note, as in Do, Ray, Me)
22 US city jeans so fancy (3,4)
SAN JOSE– anagram (fancy) of [JEANS SO] to identify the economic and cultural centre of Silicon Valley
23 Hundred have high opinion of old car (5)
CRATE– C (hundred) and RATE (have high opinion of)
Down
1 Paintings sale row – court involved (12)
WATERCOLOURS– Anagram (involved) of [SALE ROW COURT]
2 Visible from Veronica’s settee, container for recording (8)
CASSETTE – Hidden (this time more effectively) in {veroni}CAS SETTE{e}
3 Clergyman’s article located in study (4)
DEAN– A (article) inside (located in) DEN (study)
4 Information on girl in Swiss city (6)
GENEVA– GEN (information) and EVA (girl)
5 Middle Easterner seen – able, flexible (8)
LEBANESE– Anagram (flexible) of [SEEN ABLE]. Did you know that Lebanon is the smallest recognised country on the entire Asian continent?
6 Monsieur with help, servant (4)
MAID– M (common abbreviation in France for Monsieur) and AID (help)
9 Potential heir ends date with lower expectations? (12)
DISHEARTENED– Anagram (potential) of [HEIR ENDS DATE]
13 Buildings expert certain to include volume Roy brought up (8)
SURVEYOR– SURE (certain) containing V{olume} with ROY reversed (brought up in a down clue)
14 Not drinking alcohol, Peg to speak briefly (8)
TEETOTAL – TEE (peg, as in golf tee) with TO (to) and TAL{k} (speak briefly). In the old days of the Royal Navy, every sailor was classified as either TT (teetotal), UA (under age) or G (grog) as an indicator of their entitlement to draw the tot, the daily rum ration.
17 Exclamation of admiration about fine English stove (6)
COOKER– The exclamation of admiration is COR!, which is about (or surrounds) OK (fine) and E{nglish}.
19 Starts to drizzle awfully, new kit wet (4)
DANK– First letters (starts to) D{rizzle} A{wfully} N{ew} K{it}
21 Friar’s sweets for schoolchildren (4)
TUCK– Double definition, the first the famous Friar from Robin Hood, and the second the sweets available from a TUCK shop.
I have finally hit pay dirt in my investigations into the numbers of the QCs that I blog. 1093 is quite special, in that it is a prime number, and together with 1091 and 1097, it forms a prime triplet. It is also a happy prime and a star prime. It is also the smallest Wieferich prime. Finally, 1093 is a repunit prime in base 3. If interested, google '1093 number' or look it up on wikipedia to discover more.
I hope you all enjoyed it. I’ll be interested to see your comments.
Across
7 A daughter taking long time to see truism (5)
ADAGE– A (a) D{aughter} and AGE (long time)
8 Half of scheme ignored by artist – extremely lurid colour (7)
EMERALD– {sch}EME (half ignored) RA (artist) and L{uri}D (extremely)
10 Main feature of German city church (7)
ESSENCE– ESSEN is the German city and CE is church (from C{hurch of }E{ngland}
11 Aides with name for island mountains (5)
ANDES– swap N{ame} for I{sland} in AIDES to get ANDES – couldn’t be simpler!
12 Catty set I abandoned in Rome once (4-5)
CITY-STATE – Anagram (abandoned) of [CATTY SET I]. A CITY-STATE refers to a sovereign state, also described as a type of small independent country, that usually consists of a single city and its dependent territories. Rome was such a state until I don’t know when, probably until the last stages of the unification of Italy when Rome became its capital in 1871, but I’m happy to be corrected by more knowledgeable commentators
14 It’s nailed low down (3)
TOE– Nice cryptic definition that made me smile when I got the answer
15 Shelter wrapped in fleece (3)
LEE– Hidden (but not very well) in {f}LEE{ce}
16 One profiting illegally from tennis equipment and beers uncovered (9)
RACKETEER– RACKET (tennis equipment) and {b}EER{s} (uncovered, i.e. remove first and last letters)
18 Some fun duenna finds excessive (5)
UNDUE– Hidden (barely) in {f}UN DUE{nna}. Well done if you knew that DUENNA was a kind of chaperone – I didn’t and needed to look it up after solving.
20 Expose firm; note result (7)
OUTCOME– These modern days, to OUT someone is to expose them. This is followed by CO (firm) and ME (note, as in Do, Ray, Me)
22 US city jeans so fancy (3,4)
SAN JOSE– anagram (fancy) of [JEANS SO] to identify the economic and cultural centre of Silicon Valley
23 Hundred have high opinion of old car (5)
CRATE– C (hundred) and RATE (have high opinion of)
Down
1 Paintings sale row – court involved (12)
WATERCOLOURS– Anagram (involved) of [SALE ROW COURT]
2 Visible from Veronica’s settee, container for recording (8)
CASSETTE – Hidden (this time more effectively) in {veroni}CAS SETTE{e}
3 Clergyman’s article located in study (4)
DEAN– A (article) inside (located in) DEN (study)
4 Information on girl in Swiss city (6)
GENEVA– GEN (information) and EVA (girl)
5 Middle Easterner seen – able, flexible (8)
LEBANESE– Anagram (flexible) of [SEEN ABLE]. Did you know that Lebanon is the smallest recognised country on the entire Asian continent?
6 Monsieur with help, servant (4)
MAID– M (common abbreviation in France for Monsieur) and AID (help)
9 Potential heir ends date with lower expectations? (12)
DISHEARTENED– Anagram (potential) of [HEIR ENDS DATE]
13 Buildings expert certain to include volume Roy brought up (8)
SURVEYOR– SURE (certain) containing V{olume} with ROY reversed (brought up in a down clue)
14 Not drinking alcohol, Peg to speak briefly (8)
TEETOTAL – TEE (peg, as in golf tee) with TO (to) and TAL{k} (speak briefly). In the old days of the Royal Navy, every sailor was classified as either TT (teetotal), UA (under age) or G (grog) as an indicator of their entitlement to draw the tot, the daily rum ration.
17 Exclamation of admiration about fine English stove (6)
COOKER– The exclamation of admiration is COR!, which is about (or surrounds) OK (fine) and E{nglish}.
19 Starts to drizzle awfully, new kit wet (4)
DANK– First letters (starts to) D{rizzle} A{wfully} N{ew} K{it}
21 Friar’s sweets for schoolchildren (4)
TUCK– Double definition, the first the famous Friar from Robin Hood, and the second the sweets available from a TUCK shop.