A lovely puzzle from Orpheus, with plenty of trickery but no obscurities and all pitched at an accessible QC level. Hard as it is to predict the hive reaction, I came in below my average at 06:57 and so I hope this will produce lots of happy solvers. Fingers crossed and away we go …
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Engineers involved with plant’s rebirth (13) |
| REINCARNATION – Orpheus led me properly down the garden path here. “Involved” provoked in me, no doubt as intended, a knee-jerk reaction that this was an anagram, and “plant’s rebirth” is 13 letters … so obviously this was an anagram. Many fruitless attempts later – of course it isn’t an anagram! It’s RE for “engineers” + IN for “involved with” (not actually in Collins or Chambers but a near miss and fair enough, I think) + CARNATION for “plant”. 1-0 Orpheus. | |
| 8 | South American guerrilla leader’s second game (5) |
| CHESS – CHE is the customary guerrilla leader, generously clued today. The first S comes from the possessive in the clue (“leader‘s“, so CHE’S with a silent apostrophe) and the second S is indicated by “second”. | |
| 9 | Tenniel could be so merciful and forbearing (7) |
| LENIENT -anagram (“could be so”) of “Tenniel”. Sir John Tenniel was a Victorian cartoonist and illustrator, most famous for his illustrations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel. | |
| 10 | Husband in motor publicity initially enduring mockery (7) |
| CHARADE – H for “husband”, which goes inside (“in”) CAR AD for “motor publicity”, finishing off with E for “initially enduring”. Phew. Here “mockery” is used as a noun meaning an inadequate imitation of something. “A complete charade/mockery”. | |
| 11 | Failing of Scandinavian nomads, by the sound of it (5) |
| LAPSE – sounds like Lapps. | |
| 13 | Subtraction of money? It’s what we infer (9) |
| DEDUCTION – either a definition with a cryptic hint or a double definition, the first being by example. Take your pick. I’m not committing, I’ve used invisible underlining for the first half so I’m bulletproof. I’ve got enough points from the Clue Police on my licence already, thank you very much. | |
| 17 | Racecourse a northerner identifies? (5) |
| ASCOT – A + SCOT | |
| 19 | Fellow appearing repeatedly with a leguminous plant (7) |
| ALFALFA – ALF x 2 is the “fellow appearing repeatedly” (my first thought was a double F and I took a while to shake that off, so this was my LOI) + A (“with a”). “Leguminous” is a fantastic word. 2-0 Orpheus. | |
| 20 | Look closely at creepy-crawly crossing entrance to park (7) |
| INSPECT – INSECT around P (“entrance to park”). | |
| 22 | A legal right for a foreigner (5) |
| ALIEN -A + LIEN. As in the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, currently being dusted off across the Pond. | |
| 23 | Boxer’s dad securing time at last with rowing crew (13) |
| FEATHERWEIGHT – in my experience as an amateur boxer, a billion years ago, the FEATHERWEIGHTs were always very tough indeed. I think it came from a lifetime of being teased as the little guy. FATHER for “dad”, inside which (“securing”) goes E (“time at last”), then W for “with”, then EIGHT for “rowing crew”. Generous of Orpheus to including “rowing”, which made EIGHT a write-in and then it all clicked. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Elaborate style originally rousing one famous clown (6) |
| ROCOCO – RO for “originally rousing one” + COCO the Clown, fresh from his appearance last Saturday. ROCOCO is a style of art, decoration and architecture characterised by elaborate ornamentation and colour. The word is a playful corruption of the French “rocaille”, a style of decoration built around shell and leaf motifs. Orpheus loses a point here for not checking in the Setters’ Common Room whether anyone had used Coco recently. 2-1. | |
| 2 | Unusually nice lad in charge of N Atlantic island (9) |
| ICELANDIC – anagram (“unusually”) of “nice lad” + IC for “in charge”. | |
| 3 | Extremely concerned about upper-class celebrity’s sauce (7) |
| CUSTARD – CD for “extremely concerned“, which goes “about” U for “upper-class” + STAR for “celebrity”. What a good clue. | |
| 4 | Theme park feature’s period of ups and downs (6-7) |
| ROLLER-COASTER – double definition. | |
| 5 | University abandoning yearly record (5) |
| ANNAL – ANN{u}AL. “The ANNALs of Tacitus” used to be standard stuff in school , as indeed was scratching out one of the Ns on the spine of the textbooks. | |
| 6 | Fish having organs of sight, reportedly? (3) |
| IDE – the IDE (aka the orfe) is a fish which shares a tank in the CrosswordLand Zoo with the eft and the smelt. It sounds like (“reportedly”) “eyed”, i.e. “having eyes”. | |
| 7 | Spice Girl supporting teachers’ union (6) |
| NUTMEG – ooo get you Orpheus, down wiv da kidz. A neat illustration of the need to lift and separate. NUT for “teachers’ union” + underneath (“supporting”) is MEG for the “girl”. I’m awarding a point for a 90s pop reference which isn’t Blur or Oasis, so 3-1 Orpheus. | |
| 12 | Strange gap in Nell’s wall surfacing (9) |
| PANELLING -anagram (“strange”) of “gap in Nell”. | |
| 14 | Arouse trendy sweetheart (7) |
| INFLAME – IN for “trendy” + FLAME for “sweetheart”. | |
| 15 | Row involving a restaurant’s first bill of fare (6) |
| TARIFF – TIFF for “row”, inside which (“involving”) go A and R (“restaurant’s first”). The definition surprised me but is supported by the usual sources. | |
| 16 | Titled man losing heart in Greater London borough (6) |
| BARNET – “baronet” without the central letter (“losing heart”). The North London borough of BARNET has held a fair since 1588, when it was first licensed by Elizabeth the First. It was originally for the sale of livestock and was the biggest such fair in Britain, with tens of thousands of animals being traded. Now it is for pleasure only. BARNET Fair is of course CRS for “hair”. | |
| 18 | Some unfortunate Ethiopian’s dentures, perhaps (5) |
| TEETH – hidden (“some”) in “unfortunate Ethopian’s”. What an excellent surface, bravo and COD from me. | |
| 21 | Health resort in southern Pennsylvania (3) |
| SPA – S for “southern” + PA for “Pennsylvania”, currently the world’s most famous swing state. | |
Now I know that ALFALFA is leguminous; fortunately I didn’t have to to solve. 5:18.
I wasn’t on the wavelength – yes, there were some easy ones that went right in, but the rest took a while. Roller-coaster and reincarnation should have been seen more quickly, and I couldn’t see how charade was mockery, even thought the even thought the cryptic clearly points to it. Lenient was a nice one, and I don’t think I’ve seen that neat anagram before.
Time: 9:33
That fish at 6dn did for me, I thought we were after a homophone for eyes, not eyed, and it turns out there is no fish called the ize. I sort of knew ide from these puzzles but I’ve not yet encountered the orfe. Anyway that’s a DNF in about ten, quite a tricky puzzle but no less enjoyable for that. Thanks Orfe-us and Templar.
Yes, I also had IZE!
As did many others below us. Eyes? Eyed? None so blind as those that will not see…
Yes, same here. I entered IZE, as the sense of the clue suggested it, rather than IDE (which I knew if).
Strange to see Lapps being used as it is considered a bit of an outdated/offensive term here in Scandiland
Perhaps the Times letters page can expect a strongly worded letter from the Sami Parliament in the coming days
But I’m sure no offence was intended by the setter and it was an enjoyable puzzle and my first ever sub-10 minute result
Is it no longer Lapland?
Is Lapland lapsed ?
Sapmi is the name that the indigenous people us and prefer
Though given there is a multimillion dollar tourist industry around Lapland I think that name will endure long after Lapp has fallen out of use.
9 minutes with two of those spent on my last two in, crossers INFLAME and ALFALFA, the latter only known of vaguely. ROCOCO is also very much a style of music coming between the Baroque and Classical eras. François Couperin, Rameau and some of JS Bach’s children were famous exponents.
Almost too distraught to comment! Found it hard but solved robustly to end up under 10 only to have bizarrely entered PANnELING and thereby wrecking the ALFALFA I’d been pleased with myself for solving. Two days in a row I’ve done someting similar. Now going to sob quietly while I finish my still warm coffee.
6.34 but once again a tragic pink square – I opted for ICE fish.
Work have kindly given me a second laptop for home/ personal use so was on that this morning and I reckon its worth up to a minute time advantage compared with completing on phone so that is now going to live next to the crossword chair.
Noticed [*admin edit] was a very similar clue in the cryptic quintagram this morning.
ALFALFA I think I have only ever heard of from doing Of Mice & Men for English Lit GCSE although memory may be playing tricks there.
FOI: REINCARNATION
LOI: ICE (incorrectly)
COD: NUTMEG which neatly avoided any wailing and gnashing of teeth associated with popular culture.
Good puzzle I thought cheers to Orpheus and of course Templar.
Sorry Jonathan, I edited out a word as some of our readers may not have looked at the Quintagram yet.
Thank you, Jack. Some of us catch up at the weekend and have still to embark on some of the weekday puzzles.
Completely agree re. the difference between solving on a phone and a laptop. As a (slowish) touch typist I reckon my average time would be closer to 10 minutes rather than its current 8ish minutes if I solved on a phone.
Any chance pen and paper would push you over 20 ? Asking for a friend 😉
It probably would as I can never find a pen when I want one 😊
One of those mornings where we were both right on the wavelength. Pretty much a top to bottom solve in 12.30. We don’t keep records but that’s a PB or very close to it. Once we got FOI, we solved all the rest at first go apart from reincarnation that we came back to after some crossers were entered.
Some great surfaces, and COD to Custard. NHO the ide but the word play was clear.
Thanks Orpheus and Templar for the great blog.
REINCARNATION and all its offshoots went straight in (helped by the recent appearance of the clown) and the rest of the puzzle followed in short order. Briefly toyed with not having a proofread so that I could sneak under the 4 minute barrier but decided that the annoyance of a DPS wasn’t worth it.
Finished in 4.18 with LOI INFLAME.
Top blogging Templar
Superfast touch typing today!
🔥🔥🔥
NHO IDE which was my downfall – even after an alphabet trawl. Otherwise seemed straight forward. Liked the SPICE GIRL called NUTMEG.
IDE is worth remembering. It appears more in crosswords than it does in the sea, more usually as a handy 3-letter part of a charade clue than on its own, as here.
It *definitely* appears more in crosswords than it does in the sea – it’s a freshwater fish!
So it is. Silly me for not checking.
Lovely puzzle, 8 minute solve, would have been much faster and approaching PB territory but I was held up by the same pair as Jack, INFLAME and ALFALFA.
The surface for 2D, “nice lad in charge…” is mildly ironic as Iceland is one of the few countries that has had multiple female presidents and multiple female prime ministers: two of each since its independence in 1944. The first female president, Vigdis, was the first female elected head of state in the world.
Many thanks Templar for the excellent blog.
Cedric
Add me to the list of those who had never heard of the IDE, and guessed that IZE might be a fish.
The Spice Girls are hardly “down wiv da kids”. Wannabe was released nearly 30 years ago. I remember structuring a lecture on Objectives and Constraints in radiotherapy treatment planning around the lyrics “tell me what you want, what you really really want.”
Irony …
8:13 for the solve!
First look at the Acrosses didn’t give much hope for a quick solve as only had 3 answers plus -EIGHT. I like that Orpheus gave us “rowing crew” it’s that sort of help we need to put the Q into QC. Then got six of the first seven Downs (apart from ROCOCO) and it all came together from there.
A nice mix of chestnuts and some challenging clues – felt like lots with precise clueing needing to be unravelled. Had fears on reaching my LOI BARNET that I was going to be stuck with difficult checkers but it occurred in seconds.
A real QC – thank you, Orpheus. LOI ROCOCO. Except IDE, NHO and impossible to guess from either the wordplay or I-E, couldn’t get nearer than to guess IzE.
Enjoyed this – thanks Orpheus and Templar. 7 mins so one of my best. 7d may need the word once to be accurate, but I expect people still recognise the defunct union.
Challenging. NHO IDE, but guessed from having I-E, and didn’t know ALFALFA, so a DNF.
08:25
T*&o doesn’t spoil a nice puzzle.
Struggled on inflame, alfalfa, and ide.
COD nutmeg, baby spice maybe.
I beat Templar to the window seat by 2 secs. I got off to a flying start by seeing REINCARNATION straight away but I slowed in the SE with PANELLING, INFLAME and LOI ALFALFA. 6:55
3:15. A gentle but neat QC from Orpheus. I started relatively slowly not seeing CHESS or CHARADE on the first pass through, but the rest fell in sequence. COD to CUSTARD. Thanks Orpheus and Templar. As for the 15×15 – that was a quite different story!
I thought all of the cluing was generous and I appreciated it. I knew IDE because it’s on my list of ‘crosswordy words’ I’ve learned since doing these.
I did not know the borough though and just left it.
We’ve a house full of covid and this is the first puzzle I’ve managed past 5 or so clues so either it’s easier or I’m getting better
Sympathy: hope you and yours recover soon.
Good to see you back Tina – hope you recover quickly.
While it’s unlikely to ever come up in the QC, I know you like our quaint English colloquialisms, Barnet is also cockney rhyming slang for hair. As in “Boris Johnson’s barnet is a right old mess today”!
If only someone had thought of mentioning that in the blog.
Apologies – if I only I had read it instead of figuring out the parsing for myself 😢 You didn’t mention the state of Boris’ hair today though 😄
Bad luck Tina. Get well soon.
The same thing is happening to many of my circle here on the other side of the world! You have my wishes for a rapid recovery and hope to see more of you here soon.
(Along with IDE, the borough went into my treasure chest of crosswordese a little while ago, though I think the CRS is not firmly in my memory yet.)
My first action at 1a was to put GENESIS at the end of it, but that didn’t hold water as none of the downs then fitted. Much later, like our esteemed blogger, I discovered it wasn’t an anagram after all. CHESS and IDE (seen them swimming in crosswords for a few years now!) were first 2 in. I then made heavy weather of the rest of the puzzle with LOI, ALFALFA holding out for ages while I considered AFFELLA and AFFELIA. 9:43. Thanks Orpheus and Templar.
Thought I was on for my first sub-15min completion but the IDE had other ideas. New one on me. Agonised over which of ISE or IZE was more likely to be a fish. Turns out its neither…
Beware the IDEs of crosswordese! There will be many more of them. Well done anyway!
Guilty as charged – I put IZE as well (which to me sounds a far better answer)!! Apart from that, all done in 20 minutes.
Thank you Orpheus for an enjoyable puzzle and to Templar for my ongoing education.
12 minutes, all parsed, which is one of my quicker times. I was only really held up by trying to remember Tenniel’s first name (until rescued by the crossers) and considering the possibility of affella as a leguminous plant.
FOI – 8ac CHESS
LOI – 19ac ALFALFA
COD – 1ac REINCARNATION
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
A fairly brisk 13 mins for me, 1A took some time to fall but I picked my way around the grid steadily. 4D was an early answer which helped with a number of others.
Surprising number of solvers who’ve not come across IDE before. It has appeared in umpteen crosswords down the years, and has been a favourite fish of setters probably because of its adaptability, beginning and ending with a vowel. Having said that I’ve never heard of it mentioned in anything other than crosswords. As so many have not come across it before, it perhaps emphasises how many contributors to the site are relatively new to crosswordland.
As far as today goes, it was a fairly speedy solve finishing in 7.45. As noted by others, my main sticking point was my final two answers INFLAME and ALFALFA. The latter held me up for about thirty seconds after I finally dismissed the probability of a word featuring a double F.
I was surprised how many people haven’t heard of IDE given that when I started almost 3yrs ago, posters were mentioning how often it comes up. But I’d say I can’t remember it coming up much in the QC for the past year or more.
Edit: look through the Search says it last came up in QC in Feb as part of IDEA. Before that June 2022 as part of IDLE and before that end of Nov 2021 when it was contributing to ASIDE which was about the time I started. Lots of search results for the bigger puzzle.
Those 3 answers showing its versatility
Good research, ND.
So, given that IDE is never used in real life and has rarely appeared here, it’s not surprising that so many of us fell over on this clue. OK for 15×15-ers maybe, but a real stretch for most QC-ers.
I already know that it will bamboozle me again, a year from now.
I don’t think the teachers’ union NUT exists anymore!
Ah, but it does in crosswords! Too useful to discard, along with SEN, which also doesn’t exist now.
And ICI
DNF – ize for IDE and needed Templar’s help to understand it was a homophone of ‘having organs of sight’, not just ‘organs of sight’ 🙄 Wanted REINCARNATION to be renaissance for far to long but it was just too dang short (and didn’t parse). Everything else went in pretty smoothly. I liked ALFALFA (and now know how to spell it – I always thought it was alfafa!). Thanks Templar and Orpheus.
Finished correctly in an hour. First success for a while. Orpheus is not a lenient setter.
The only reference to alfalfa that I have read is from Catch-22 , it concerns Major Major’s father. :
“His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn’t earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major’s father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done.”
Many thanks for the Catch-22 reference, GK. An excellent paragraph.
😯
In my choir if singing a piece by heart and we forgot words we were told to sing ALFALFA repeatedly as the visual of the mouth moving with this word was credible for any text.
🤣
I can’t wait to share this tidbit with my fellow singers.
Would it work with “Ides are great”?
So easy I ended up biffing most of it from the first sight of the definition. However, wasted a while trying to think of Tenniel’s first name before getting it was an anagram and stupidly shoved in INFLATE as my LOI, so DNF and serves me right!
11 mins…
Nearly a rare sub-10 if it wasn’t for the 14dn “Inflame” and 19ac “Alfalfa” combo. One of those puzzles where everything just seem to go in on first glance. Had to think for a few seconds whether “custard” is actually a sauce – of course it is, but it didn’t seem right somehow.
FOI – 1ac “Reincarnation”
LOI – 19ac “Alfalfa”
COD – 18dn “Teeth” – just because it made me laugh.
Thanks as usual!
Same with me- I wouldn’t usually think of CUSTARD as a sauce.
A friendly enough puzzle to come back to after a week’s holiday in Rotterdam. Off to a flyer with a Reincarnation write-in, and then made good use of all those first letters. It did however take me a long time to remember Sami, so it was doubly annoying to then realise that the answer to 11ac was Lapse. Still, I can have no complaints about a 15mins solve, with CoD to 7d, Nutmeg, mostly out of relief that no knowledge of pop was required. Invariant
I also got off to a flying start, but with REsurrection. Finding I still had a blank cell at the end of the word felt like bursting out of the blocks in front of the field, only to come a cropper at the first hurdle.
Running out of space is even worse – no chance to recover by just switching to a plural !
. . .then again, there’s usually a reason why it doesn’t parse 🤔
5:28
A quick blast around this very accessible grid from Orpheus. Most answers went straight in, but slightly held up by the INFLAME/ALFALFA crossing.
Thanks Templar and Orpheus
9:07 I was interested to read so many didn’t know ALFALFA( from Arabic al-fasafasa). In many parts of the world it is called Lucerne, dubbed the “Queen of fodders”. Where I lived in southern Ontario hayfields were sown with a combination of clover, Timothy grass and alfalfa, the latter being the most nutritious.
First sub 20m in a long time except that it was a DNF thanks to IZE.
Not alone I see and it didn’t spoil my day or an enjoyable puzzle.
Will try very hard to remember it.
Lovely puzzle, very accessible for me despite the DNF that came from a failure to get ALFALFA.
Agreed with comments on the fish – surely eyes rather than eyed???
Very enjoyable solve. Thanks to Orpheus and Templar
I came here thinking I had probably earned a day out of the SCC, but then found that I hadn’t gone back to complete 6d (IDE). I knew IsE and IzE were both wrong, but moved on before doing an alphabet trawl and then forgot to return.
That oversight aside, I found this a relatively straightforward offering from Orpheus, whom I usually find is a very challenging setter.
Good to see CHESS making an appearance, especially as the (biennial) world championship gets underway next week in Singapore. It’s a best-of-14 contest between Ding Liren (current champion) of China and Gukesh D (challenger) of India. They play their first game on Tuesday.
Magnus Carlsen (the long time and current world no. 1) of Sweden voluntarily relinquished the title a few years ago.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
14.01 First one in RENAISSANCE, which wasn’t long enough. Mostly quick after that but I was completely breeze-blocked by ALFALFA and INFLAME. I spent a while wondering if ALIALIA was a plant. Thanks Templar and Orpheus.
Having previously drawn a broad axe parallel between our times and those of the ‘Roundabout Here’ duo, we failed miserably today… coming in at 19.20, though humming at start and end.
Needed Wiki help to find the borough, UK geography being one of many topics that slow our progress.
Throughly enjoyed the blog, chortled off at the end, minded to say decision to do the puzzle late rather than never, to a have been ‘a wizard wheeze’ a phrase unexpectedly appearing from back reaches of the brain, presumably triggered by the reference to childhood via Alice in Wonderland (and himself voicing a few quotes).
So, Jennings?… Molesworth? The ‘real’ rather than Disney style Pooh Bear? Such wonderful phrases linger .. does anyone read those books anymore? Are they in Skool libraries?
Thank you Orpheus and Templar
. . .if this book should dare to roam, box its ears and send it home 😉
Jennings and Molesworth still make me laugh, even though it’s more than forty years since I first read them.
15 min fail. Ise as a fish anyone? Roared through the top half and then slowed to a snails, featherweight pace.
Thanks Templar and Orpheus
Lovely QC which I thoroughly enjoyed despite following mistakes. I too am an IZEr, hoping that the IZE was one of those amazing fish that are so well photographed in the David Attenborough series. Now I know. Second, I failed to separate plant and rebirth in 1a and confidently filled in REGERMINATION. Great for NUTMEG and IZE (not) and ANNAL, even for ROCOCO, but 2d, 3d and 4d stymied me for a good ten minutes until ROLLER COASTER had to be, and 1a needed a rethink! Got there in the end and (just) avoided the SCC. So many fun clues, difficult to choose but NUTMEG and BARNET vie for COD. Many thanks Orpheus and Templar
4.13
Quick one here helped by being a chess playing now ex-lawyer but mainly as a previous undoing meant I knew how to spell that thing with the ls and fs.
Nice puzzle; lovely blog
Our experience was a little different to yesterday’s : it felt faster but we came in slower at 10:54. There was a small compensation in that, like Kevin, I learnt that alfalfa is a legume.
Lovely QC and a comfortable seat by the (very necessary!) fire in the SCC. It’s cold here in Poole, even snow this morning.
And yay, I knew IDE. I’ve done QC’s long enough to have learnt that particular fish that only swims in crosswordland.
Oh dear. 13:01 but with 2 errors. Add me to the list of people hoping the IZE was a fish. But I seem to be the first to miss the perfectly well-known LIEN in favour of the invented SIAN as a legal right. Nitwit. Ah well, on to tomorrow.
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
11 minutes on the train.
I knew IDE was a fish but still put in ISE on first pass; but it did not pass muster so I corrected it.
LOI was PANELLING.
A nice puzzle. COD to ALALFA for reminding me amusingly of that word.
David
6.24
There is an ICE fish, which seemed an almost acceptable homonym of eyes. MER that ‘having organs of sight’ is a synonym of eyed. Thought it might be HELTER SKELTER before other checkers appeared. Otherwise no problems. Thanks Templar for great blog.
Like “bug-eyed” or “four-eyed”, I guess. You had to take “having” into account to see (ho ho) how it worked!
Thanks!
DNF IDE, as *I’d*forgotten it.
Apart from that I was fairly fast until stuck at 14d and 19a. Once I solved INFLAME, then ALFALFA sprang to mind. I used to read the lovely Richard Scarry books with my children, eg What Do People Do All Day, and Farmer Alfalfa featured.
Liked all the long ones, and NUTMEG, CUSTARD.
MER at TARIFF =bill of fare. Maybe used in olden days.
Thanks vm, Templar.
Love the scoring again, Templar! Unfortunately it’s 1-0 to Orpheus versus me because I forgot about the Crosswordland fish Ide and put Ise. Shame because I got all the rest very quickly. POI Panelling and LOI Lapse.