I am informed that Peridot has only set once before, so this is a rare bird. When the first answer is ‘Setter’, you wonder if there’s going to be some sort of message, but I can’t see one. Heavy on the anagrams but enjoyable and fairly straightforward. COD 15dn
| Across | |
| 1 | One Barking High Street (6) |
| SETTER – anagram (‘high’) of STREET | |
| 4 | Regret holding “escape” and “save” (6) |
| RESCUE – RUE (regret) outside of ESC (‘escape’ key on a keyboard) | |
| 8 | Beginning to see, except when lacking light (7) |
| SUNLESS – S[ |
|
| 10 | Impenetrable contents of hidden secret (5) |
| DENSE – hidden word | |
| 11 | Figure lacking a horse (5) |
| MOUNT – [ |
|
| 12 | Turn over decisive factor in what’s fitting for head? (7) |
| CAPSIZE – cryptic definition | |
| 13 | Gate allowing one to enter until rest dispersed (9) |
| TURNSTILE – anagram (‘dispersed’) of UNTIL REST | |
| 17 | Greek character not favouring Italian wine (7) |
| CHIANTI – CHI (greek letter) + ANTI (not favouring) | |
| 19 | Small, tricky splinter (5) |
| SHARD – S + HARD | |
| 20 | Some volume of books teaching religion (5) |
| LITRE – LIT (books) RE (teaching religion) | |
| 21 | Put in shifts almost the whole of marriage (7) |
| NUPTIAL – anagram (‘shifts’) of PUT IN, plus AL[ |
|
| 22 | Dessert that’s frozen, or best whipped (6) |
| SORBET – anagram (‘whipped’) of OR BEST | |
| 23 | Ace fellow is a looker (6) |
| ADONIS – A + DON + IS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Source of oil in southeast unaltered (6) |
| SESAME – SE + SAME | |
| 2 | Sure it won’t get muddled? It’s hard to say (6,7) |
| TONGUE TWISTER – anagram (‘muddled’) of SURE IT WONT GET | |
| 3 | One choosing e-reader? (7) |
| ELECTOR – E-LECTOR | |
| 5 | Ultimately become parody, losing head (3,2) |
| END UP – SEND-UP minus the first letter | |
| 6 | Conservative faction getting share as payment (13) |
| CONSIDERATION – CON + SIDE + RATION. | |
| 7 | Level, containing the French football team (6) |
| ELEVEN – EVEN with LE inserted | |
| 9 | Sees coins, tossed, splitting (9) |
| SECESSION – anagram (‘tossed’) of SEES COINS | |
| 14 | Trendy drink I had is bland (7) |
| INSIPID – IN + SIP + I’D | |
| 15 | What may cover Pisces or Libra (6) |
| SCALES – cryptic/double definition. Nice. | |
| 16 | Goes off seat, second to last (6) |
| ADDLES – SADDLE with S for second put last | |
| 18 | French city hosting English relation (5) |
| NIECE – NICE with E inside | |
TONGUE TWISTER is an excellent anagram. I also like DENSE and SETTER. Thanks all.
I did not find this as straightforward as our blogger, jumping all over the grid trying to find answers in a rather bitty solve. I started on the wrong foot with 1A as I didn’t see “High” as an anagram indicator (it is now added to the several thousand other such words on my list), and I continued to be well misled – eg I thought “ultimately become” gave the opening E in 5D, which made the rest of the clue ungettable until I unwound that thought, and “second to last” in 16D meant moving the second letter of a word to the end, not the first.
So a bit of a struggle. But perseverance brought a 13 minute completion in the end.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog
Cedric
8 minutes. 1ac set a high standard I thought, and was pleased it continued throughout.
We found this a bit of a game of 2 halves. Lots went in quickly but about a third took a lot of unpicking. In the end felt pleased to come home in 27 exactly.
COD to scales, very clever but tongue twister anagram is brilliant too.
Took a long time to see that high was an anagrind so setter was LOI just after NHO lector.
Thanks Peridot, and to Curarist for the blog, we needed your help parsing the al in nuptial.
I had to jump all over the grid much more than most and it took me a while but I did finish this one! I don’t know how long because I did it in bits and pieces.
I liked TONGUE TWISTER a lot.
17:16
LOI was 1a as I also didn’t see High as an anagram indicator, I still don’t see why. But for any canine clue SETTER is worth a try.
Also slow at 1d where I thought “in SE” was going to be a containment indicator.
COD TONGUE TWISTER, very good anagram and surface.
High = drunk, or any number of drug-related euphemisms.
I thought of it as “high” as in “rotting”.
I found this really tough. Only three on the first pass of across, not much more on the downs and then pretty hard throughout. I was reduced to putting in the parts of clues I was sure about on the way to fully solving – like the SE in SESAME. Found all of the NW hard but enjoyed finally solving each of SETTER, SUNLESS, SESAME and MOUNT. Still don’t understand SCALES apart from the Libra bit. All green in 22.02.
Libra is the star sign meaning weighing scales
Pisces is the star sign meaning fish
Fish are covered in scales?
Got it! Easy once it’s pointed out – thanks!
I had a very slow start and thought this was going to be a real stinker but I gradually tuned in and eventually finished only a smidge over average.
A top quality puzzle with plenty of smiles and satisfying PDMs along the way with SCALES just pipping TONGUE TWISTER to COD.
Started with DENSE and finished with RESCUE in 8.36.
Thanks to Curarist and more from Peridot please Mr. Crossword Editor.
Libra is the star sign meaning weighing scales
Pisces is the star sign meaning fish
Fish are covered in scales?
A lovely, if undemanding, puzzle. SCALES was a close runner-up for COD. Thanks Peridot and Curarist.
FOI RESCUE
LOI CONSIDERATION
COD TONGUE TWISTER
TIME 3:31
4:16. Nice one. I liked SETTER, TONGUE-TWISTER and SCALES most. I hope he doesn’t mind me outing him but, as he explained over a beer or two on Saturday, Peridot is an anagram of his two-word job title with just the first initial of the first word…. I’ll leave you to work out the rest. Thanks Peridot and Curarist.
Aha, so that’s Peridot
P Editor I reckon, though I can’t work out what P might be!
It’s one of those puzzles!
This reminded me we had an interesting puzzle when the position changed, with a ‘handover’ theme. Set by Parkin who never set for us before or since. QC2128 if anyone wants to look it up. 5th May 2022.
Oh hopkin. You’ve let Jack down, you’ve let the blog down but most of all you’ve let yourself down 😉
Hahhahaha! How dim can I be?! In my defence I landed into LHR at 1 this morning, and was up at 6:30, so joining the dots was not easy. I considered “print”, “programme”, “professional”!. If only I’d read john’s account of Saturday’s drinks in Borough, I’m sure the penny would have dropped.
SETTER and NUPTIAL put in unparsed as I didn’t see the anagram indicators. Also biffed ADDLES as I couldn’t work out ‘second to last’. COD SCALES. Thanks Peridot for a great puzzle, and Curarist for much needed blog.
7:49, found it a bit harder than yesterday’s
A good mix of clues, 1ac was clever, it must be hard to get the balance right in a QC
All of the above. Slowly worked my way around from the top R corner until I got back to LOI 1A. Liked SCALES and SORBET and more.
Thanks Curarist and Peridot.
DNF.
Gave up almost immediately. Just too hard. Went straight to the answers. Absolute disaster for me.
11:04
Slow to get going, with only a handful of across clues solved on first pass.
LOI was SETTER, failing to see that High Street meant an anagram of street was required.
Liked ADDLES and SORBET
Thanks Peridot and Curarist
A DNF after an hour with 5 unsolved.
I found this very hard with most of the clues requiring close study and a lot of unravelling.
Could not see LITRE even with the crossers and RE at the end which doesn’t say a lot for my solving powers.
Every day is a lesson
Thanks Peridot and Curarist.
Lots to enjoy but this was poorly pitched for a quickie in my view Thanks though!
DNF – we really struggled to get any traction today but really enjoyed the ones we were able to solve.
Back to blighty after a few days mooching round the dusty ruins and tavernas of Rhodes. I didn’t do any of the puzzles while I was away, as trying to solve on a phone winds me up so much – much respect to those who do it on a daily basis.
Nice easy return for me anyway, I thought the setter might be new, but actually just rare.
TONGUE TWISTER and SETTER both vg, as others have mentioned. ADDLES was LOI, but I did go back to SETTER, as I had biffed it.
4:50
I agree with you re solving on the phone.
It’s not so bad! Not as quick as a PC but you get used to it. Ish.
I have 14 (count ’em) 14 errors on the cryptic leaderboard currently. I think they’re all but 2 down to submitting on phone. Difficult without opposable thumbs!
I was diving all over the grid to finish this one, with a very poor return on the first pass of the across clues. I was hoping for a complete week of sub ten minute solves, and thought this one had screwed it, but I finished speedily and managed to cross the line in 9.35. I’ll give my COD to CAPSIZE although TONGUE TWISTER was not far behind.
My total time for the week was 39.34, giving me a daily average of 7.55. I’ve been trying to break the weekly average of 8 minutes since I started to record weekly averages, and today I finally achieved it.
8:51
Mislaid glasses means I don’t perhaps see everything as clearly first time round. Appalling start with just two and a bit acrosses – much better on the downs to give plenty of checkers for the second time round. TONGUE TWISTER went in off the bat, but I was slow with SECESSION and SHARD before LOI ADDLES.
Thanks Curarist and Peridot
New setter (for me) but loved his wavelength and finished in 10 minutes! Rare for me. Lots of clever wordplay and the anagrams were fun. Liked scales, sesame and setter and “beginning to see, except when” was genius to me (a mere beginner). More from Peridot please, and thanks to him and to Curarist.
From SETTER to SECESSION (unknown) in 7:21. I really liked TONGUE TWISTER, SCALES and also INSIPID for the story. I often find trendy drinks either bland or disgusting.
Amazed everyone found this so easy – couldn’t do it at all. After battling over an hour, using all my reference lists compiled over the past year or so, I managed a total of seven. Nor am I kicking myself over any of the remaining 17 – wouldn’t ever have got any of them – won’t even begin on all the NHOs!
Tricky in places. Last two in were SETTER which was biffed (failed to register high as anagram indicator) and ADDLES which was parsed post-submission. Liked SCALES, END UP and CAPSIZE. Many thanks C and Peridot. Great QC.
5.49
I’m in the “top quality” camp but interesting some have struggled.
Thanks Peridot and Curarist
Started slowly with the across clues, speeded up with the downs and then struggled to fill in the gaps. All done and parsed in 17 minutes which was ok as I had thought at one point it was going to be much slower. I very much enjoyed this once I got onto Peridot’s wavelength.
FOI – 4ac RESCUE
LOI – 20ac LITRE
CODs – CAPSIZE, TONGUE TWISTER and SCALES
Thanks to Peridot and Curarist
Fairly easy to start with but DNF LITRE (annoyingly) and v slow SHARD and ADDLES.
1a and 1d FOsI which is always encouraging, though did not know High was an anagram indicator. Also biffed TONGUE TWISTER early on.
Liked INSIPID, ADONIS, SCALES, CAP SIZE, END UP. Couldn’t parse all, eg TURNSTILE, MOUNT (a bit dim there), so thanks vm, Curarist.
25 mins…
Got there in the end, but had real problems with the NW corner. Didn’t see the 1ac “Setter” anagram for quite a while, and nearly put “Hatter” or “Nutter” to equate to “One Barking”. Dnk “Secession” for ‘splitting’.
Some good clues overall though.
FOI – 5dn “End Up”
LOI – 9dn “Secession”
COD – 15dn “Scales”
Thanks as usual!
11:30. Favourites were ADDLES, CAPSIZE, and SCALES.
As usual Plett’s entry could have been mine. Struggled then got my eye in to the new bowler and suddenly it all came with a rush.
Excellent puzzle, very witty. COD to SCALES. All done in 08:39 for a Decent Day.
Many thanks P Editor and Curarist.
Templar
10:15, with a similar experience to others. A bit jumpy, and two minutes trying to solve SHARD and ADDLES – like Cedric, I was looking for a second letter to move in 16d, and at 19a, I got the S (obviously), but a synonym for tricky. Well, for some reason that seemed quite HARD! Bizarre … But I thoroughly enjoyed this – SETTER, SHARD and SCALES got ticks and SORBET made me smile.
FOI Rescue LOI Addles COD Tongue twister (but Scales was a very close second )
So thanks to Peridot (more anagrams like these please!) and thanks to Curarist – perhaps you were on the right track with your initial thought! How many aliases is MH hiding behind, I wonder?
Got off to a slow start until I hit the wavelength. TONGUE TWISTER was first in and a big help. Took a minute to see the anagram indicator at 1a. LOI was SCALES. 7:20. Thanks Peridot and Curarist.
Unusual, interesting, tough and had excellent surfaces.
Thanks Peridot and Curarist
This felt faster than our 12:55 (around our average) showed it to be. Liked TONGUE TWISTER and SCALES but CAPSIZE was COD for me. A lot to like. Thanks, Curarist and Peridot.
36.28 That was painful. I had a typo in TWISTER which gave L_S_E for LITRE and I had BROWSER where ELECTOR should have been. Having sorted that out I spent the last ten minutes wondering why High Street was SETTER. The penny eventually clanged. A nice puzzle spoiled by a hangover. Thanks Peridot and Curarist.
DNF. Another failure: SETTER – didn’t see high = anagram and couldn’t work out ADDLES or NUPTIALS. A poor day, again.
Had to resort to pen and paper to penetrate TONGUE TWISTERand TURNSTILE,biffed ADDLES, failing to understand moving of ‘s’ indicator. Apart from that fairly standard effort
25:10 (pretty average time) with many enjoyable tussles along the way. TONGUE-TWISTER a genius anagram, which my uncharacteristically well-oiled anagrammotor produced more or less instantly. On the other hand I simply could not see SHARD for the longest time, was looking for something devious rather than simply HARD. Today I learned ADDLE=rot.
Did anyone else get hung up on 9d SECESSION trying to make SCISSION? It made for a very long unraveling. My inner support staff was so pleased with themselves for thinking of it that I couldn’t let go.
Great puzzle Peridot! Thanks for blogging Curarist!
Very slow to get going, but crossed the line with a growing sense of delight and admiration for the setter’s art in a little over 25 minutes. No random names to guess, no specialist terminology from chess or cricket, just the joy of playing with more-or-less common words for a thoroughly satisfying end to the week.
FOI TONGUE TWISTER (I try to get the big anagrams in early)
LOI SETTER – largely a guess
COD SUNLESS – so simple and elegant!
Thanks to all concerned.
Oh yes! The absence of cricket clues was a bit like an annoying itch that goes away, and then you forget all about it.
27:26 here, showing that I struggled. The NW corner was almost entirely blank (only had TONGUE TWISTER) until the end. MOUNT was the first to succumb, but I was so convinced that 1d was a “this in that” clue that even after seeing that SESAME fitted I was looking up ESAM as a source of oil… The penny dropped with a clang that you probably heard in the UK.
Thanks to Peridot and Curarist.
11:39
Par score, no real hold ups.
LOI addles.
Liked: setter, capsize, tongue twister, and addles.
I found some of this impossible so didn’t finish – I just wasn’t on Peridot’s wavelength. Not my day.
I found the last third of this puzzle extremely hard. The entire NW corner, plus a couple lower down and (my LOI) ADDLES, which stumped me completely. I DNK the meaning and never saw how to parse the clue. I guessed that ‘second to last’ referred to the S in last and that ADDLE must be some sort of seat. Luckily, I found only two other words that fitted the space (adults and idylls) in my extensive alphabet trawl, neither of which fitted the bill.
Time = 45 minutes. Slow, even for me these days!
Many thanks to Peridot and Curarist.
very slow solve and with one error at 3d. we were pleased to have finished what seemed to be a tough puzzle
Great puzzle but a DNF – couldn’t get beyond Spall for 19a which frustrated 16d Addles, and messed up 18d Nantes (again) and that spoiled my earlier correct 20a. Probably a bit too much in a hurry today.
FOI 1a Setter
LOI correct 20a Litre
COD 12a Capsize.
9/24. Don’t feel quite so bad now I’ve seen that lots of the experts struggled.
A distressingly unproductive start but decent ending, for 18:55 overall. I’d be grateful if someone could elaborate on how “almost the whole” becomes “AL”, as I’m just not seeing it.
Thank you for the blog!
WHOLE – ALL
Almost the WHOLE – AL
Oh, I see – thank you!
👍
25 minutes.
The usual ham fisted performance. As always, I overcomplicated several clues. Combine that with a spelling error, and I am in the SCC again. Almost a DNF as I nearly put SUNSETS for 8ac (that’s how clueless I am).
A nightmare week. 119 minutes, 2 DNFs, only 1 SCC escape. No sign of improvement and so no enjoyment or satisfaction. Too fed up/pessimistic to even think about looking at the big crossword. After the sheer agony of missing out on a fantastic week by one wrong answer last Friday, my level of motivation has taken a nose dive and shows no sign of recovering.
Thanks for the blog.
Welcome to the SCC, and have a stiff drink!