Good morning, and we have a puzzle of considerable class this morning from Asp. There are two indicators for hiddens that caused me to think hard, in 8A and 4D, and a couple of places where I was not entirely convinced the wordplay was inch-perfect, but overall the succession of excellent surfaces and clever wordplay more than makes up for any minor misgivings one might have. And the genius of 18A, where Asp uses just 5 words of wordplay to give the definition, break the answer into two component parts and perform two operations on them – definitely my COD.
Overall I found this slightly harder than average, coming home in 13:46. How did everyone else get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
| 1 | Questioned former partner I named in break-up (8) |
| EXAMINED – EX (former partner) + AMINED (anagram of I named, with the anagram indicator being “in break up”). And a very neat surface with both former partner and break-up in the wordplay. | |
| 5 | Charged particle overcoming resistance in metal (4) |
| IRON – ION (charged particle) containing R (resistance), with the inclusion indicator being “overcoming”.
I have a charming little book from my childhood describing how atoms are made up. It is very much aimed at 8-10 year olds and bluntly states “Everything is made up of atoms and atoms are made up of three types of particles, called protons, electrons and neutrons”. And in 1964 when the book was published, that was considered the last word. Now, the Standard Model that physicists use contains a rather larger menagerie of particles, including quarks (which come in 6 “flavours”), leptons (also 6 types, including the electron and things like neutrinos), bosons, photons, gluons and so on. In all there are at least 25 types, and quite possibly more to be discovered. And no, I don’t know how many of them can be charged and so considered ions. |
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| 8 | Furious vegetarians lying about getting slimmer (5) |
| IRATE – A reverse hidden, in vegETARIans. The indicator for the reversal is straightforward enough, being “lying about”, but the indicator for the hidden is a bit more imaginative, as we have “getting slimmer”, as in losing the VEG… at the front and the …ANS at the back. Which is a new one to me. | |
| 9 | Modern movement in the main? (7) |
| CURRENT – A DD, the second part referring to the ocean. This usage of “main” is a shortened form of “main sea”, which in turn is a poetic or archaic term for the open ocean, and nothing to do with the “Spanish Main”, which was short for “Spanish Mainland”, and referred to the land forming the Caribbean coast, now parts of Colombia, Venezuela and central America. | |
| 11 | Reduced share (3) |
| CUT – A second DD, and a perfect example of the late Rotter’s rule that two word clues are usually DDs. | |
| 12 | Watch for one article in US magazine? (9) |
| TIMEPIECE – TIME (US magazine) + PIECE (one article).
I’m not sure the wordplay here entirely works, as the use of the word “in” suggests an inclusion – but while I can make TIM…..E as the outside, EPIEC does not work as the included part. Might one be bold enough to suggest to our esteemed crossword editor that “Watch US magazine with one article” would have been an acceptable alternative? |
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| 13 | Pain caused by running fast: it chafes to some extent (6) |
| STITCH – A hidden, in faST IT CHafes, with the hidden indicator being “to some extent”.
And a very nice surface, in which we have to lift and separate running and fast. Stitches are indeed often caused by running fast, but not exclusively, as one can get stitches with a slow jog-trot – and to make the definition “Pain caused by running fast”, as I was initially tempted to do, would have asked the ST of fast to do double duty. |
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| 15 | Valley is home to English boy (6) |
| GEORGE – GORGE (valley) containing E (English), with the inclusion indicator being “is home to”.
Of course George need not be a boy; it can be the name of a male of any age, and even these days a female name too, usually as a short form of Georgia or Georgina. Although two famous female Georges in the literary world of the 19th century, George Eliot and George Sand, chose the name for rather different reasons: George Eliot was the pen name of novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), who felt her work would be more readily accepted if she adopted a male persona, while George Sand (1804-1876), who was born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, chose to be deliberately vague about her sex not only as a writer but in general life, wearing trousers and even smoking in public (not something ladies did). Which prompted Victor Hugo to remark “George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother”. |
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| 18 | Consumer holding back about counter-attack? (9) |
| RETALIATE – EATER (consumer) containing TAIL (back), and then all reversed. The inclusion indicator is “holding” and the reversal indicator is “about”, making the whole clue very efficient at just 5 words for the definition, two component parts and two operations. | |
| 19 | Boozer’s naked after dropping ecstasy (3) |
| BAR – BARE (naked) with the E removed (“dropping ecstasy”). Boozer as the place one drinks in, not the person doing the drinking. | |
| 20 | Displeased by anodyne broadcast (7) |
| ANNOYED – (anodyne)*, with the anagram indicator being “broadcast”. | |
| 21 | Hearing test (5) |
| TRIAL – Another Rotter-esque DD clue. When I only had the final L checker I toyed with Aural here (sounds like Oral, a test), but it does not really mean Hearing. | |
| 22 | Assemble leaders from most employers each time (4) |
| MEET – Made up of the first letters (“leaders”) of Most Employers Each Time. | |
| 23 | Raising awareness of how to behave (8) |
| BREEDING – Our 4th DD, and my LOI, as I stared for some time at the checkers -R-E-I-G before the penny dropped.
One could quibble that breeding (ie producing babies) and raising (ie looking after then once born and turning them into responsible members of society) are rather different operations, and there are sadly examples of parents who are rather better at the former than the latter, but it is clear what Asp has in mind here. |
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| Down | |
| 1 | Reorganise Venice’s exhibits (7) |
| EVINCES – (Venice’s)*, with the anagram indicator being “reorganise”. | |
| 2 | Separate section at end of article (5) |
| APART – PART (section) after, ie “at end of”, A (article). | |
| 3 | Suspect incited associate in the same way (11) |
| IDENTICALLY – IDENTIC (anagram of incited, with the anagram indicator being “suspect”) + ALLY (associate). | |
| 4 | Group of hard-bitten campaigners put up tents (6) |
| ENCAMP – Our third hidden of the puzzle, in hard-bittEN CAMPaigners, with the hidden indicator being “group of”.
Another quite imaginative indicator which I have not seen before, and am not sure I fully understand – does “group of” mean “part of”? Perhaps “Sub-group of” might have been another way of putting it? |
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| 6 | Source of venison and caviare? Not cheap, we hear (3,4) |
| ROE DEER – ROE (caviare) + DEER (sounds like dear, ie not cheap, with the homophone indicator being “we hear”).
I am not sure there is any significance in Asp’s use of the spelling of caviar with an e at the end; the reference dictionaries I consulted all suggest that caviar is much the more common spelling in English, although they do add “caviare is also correct”. All I can say is my spellchecker doesn’t like it, giving it the squiggly red underscoring. |
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| 7 | Ingredient in gunpowder can upset Royal Engineers (5) |
| NITRE – NIT (tin, ie can, reversed, ie “upset”) + RE (Royal Engineers).
Gunpowder is mainly a mixture of sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate, also known as saltpetre or nitre. I am not sure why potassium nitrate has two common names, but it is the second one we want here. |
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| 10 | Recipient of legal statement about gift and contents of deed (11) |
| REPRESENTEE – RE (about) + PRESENT (gift) + EE (middle letters, ie “contents”, of deed).
In contract law, a representee is the person to whom a representation (ie a statement of fact) is made. Not a word I knew, but the wordplay is very precise and enables one to construct the answer even without knowing the word. Given the fuss yesterday about the word Soudanese, also not a word I knew and one I was on record as suggesting was not appropriate in a QC, I suspect I stand ready to be accused of double standards in not minding Representee at all. But I think there is a difference between a word that I don’t know but which looks right, and one that I do know but which has a spelling that just looks wrong. (Retires quickly before too many brickbats are thrown at me for reopening yesterday’s cause célèbre …) |
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| 14 | Fashionable, affected teens characterised by deep feelings (7) |
| INTENSE – IN (fashionable) + TENSE (anagram of teens, the anagram indicator being “affected”). | |
| 16 | Regularly repair electrical connection for noise-suppressing device (7) |
| EARPLUG – EAR (every other letter of rEpAiR, given by “regularly”) + PLUG (electrical connection). | |
| 17 | Run framework to assist climbers? (6) |
| LADDER – Another DD, our 5th. Ladder as in a run in stockings. | |
| 18 | Millions supporting existing monarchy? (5) |
| REALM – M (millions) at the end of (ie “supporting”, as this is a down clue) REAL (existing). The question-mark is because this is a DBE, as all monarchies can be called realms, but not all realms are monarchies.
Realm is having quite an outing at the moment; the word featured in QC 3068 by Teazel on 15 August, in QC 3061 by Jet Lag on 7 August and in QC 3038 by Asp himself on 11 July. And on no less than 4 occasions in the 15×15 this year as well. |
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| 19 | One book containing nothing for flipping pancakes (5) |
| BLINI – I B (one book) containing NIL (nothing), all reversed, given by “flipping”. And a very nice surface to end with, with images of pancakes being flipped. | |
At 12ac, perhaps the definition (by example) is “watch for one”. Then “in” is just a connection to the wordplay?
I think it’s as you say: ‘Watch for one’ is the definition, and ‘Article in US magazine’ would be a Time Piece, where article is a synonym of piece.
Interesting. But what then is “for one” doing? Watches, being worn on wrists, are always personal and “for one”, unlike say public clocks. Could not the clue then simply be “Watch article in US magazine”?
A watch is just one example of a timepiece, so ‘watch for one’. Maybe helps if you read it as ‘watch for example’.
Snap!
+1
That’s how I had it too.
“For one”, meaning “as an example of”.
So, timepieces: watches for one, grandfather clocks for another, and so on.
i don’t wear a watch, a ring, jewelry of any sort and definitely no “ink”. The trend in “wearables” really annoys me. Why mess with one’s body’s natural energy equilibrium? I guess the man on the Clapham Omnibus is unaware of perturbation theory :-).
That’s my rant for the day.
What about my mobile phone. I hold it when using it but that’s as close to my person as it gets (actually they, as I have a second one for social media).
Some quite tricky clues I thought today. BREEDING went in from the checkers which fitted with ‘awareness of how to behave’, but I missed the ‘raising’ bit. RETALIATE took a bit of thought to parse. Thought that BLINI should have been pluralised for ‘pancakes’ with an ‘s’ but after looking it up I discovered that the singular is just ‘BLIN’. Liked ROE DEER but nearly biffed RED DEER before double-checking the clue.
Thanks Cedric for the very informative blog and setter.
Very new to this site but already a big fan. Your take on 9A was rather poetic but I took it as reference to electrical current in the main – which was also rather good I thought.
Main almost always refers to sea in crosswordland
me too
I whipped through most of this, and then became thoroughly stuck on the last three: George, ladder, and breeding. It took me a couple of minutes to get going again, but suddenly I saw breeding and everything else because crystal clear.
I think our blogger should look to the job of a dog breeder, which involves raising the puppies once they are born.
Time: 10:00
Yes that makes sense – had not thought of that. Thank you.
Umm …human parents also have the job of raising children once they are born! (And it lasts longer than the 8 weeks for which one typically keeps a litter of puppies before handing them on with a sigh of relief.)
12 minutes with an answer missing i.e. BREEDING as I hadn’t considered that. My best guess to fit the checkers was ORDERING but was unconvinced on all counts so I couldn’t bring myself to write it in and wasn’t prepared to spend any more time thinking about it.
13:40 for the solve. A nice one to end the week on. Asp came in for a bit of criticism on previous puzzles but I thought this was a lovely example of what I want from a QC. I was ripping through it but, not without needing to think about the parsing of some. A couple of mins spent on my LOI GEORGE searching for the valley after Glen and Dale clearly weren’t fitting. COD for BLINI
Thanks to Cedric for another excellent blog and to Asp.
I found most of this fairly straightforward until being breezeblocked by BREEDING and GEORGE.
Finished in 7.37.
Thanks to Cedric and Asp
12:23 Held up by representee and breeding. Didn’t like breeding; aibu to call it a bit snobby? Trial took a while had sense in my head but sniffed at it in the end.
Ta C&A
I enjoyed this. It’s exactly what a QC should be. Perhaps Asp can be persuaded to gather some of the other setters together and demonstrate the level that they should seek to achieve. Thanks for the usual excellent blog Cedric.
FOI EXAMINED
LOI BREEDING
COD RETALIATE (once I parsed it afterwards!)
TIME 4:13
Like Plett, breezeblocked by GEORGE and LOI BREEDING. I hesitated long between that and “briefing”, but the latter seemed insufficiently cryptic. I now see that Collins defines BREEDING as “the result of good training, esp the knowledge of correct social behaviour; refinement”, so Asp is spot on.
All done in 07:42 for a Good Day. Many thanks Asp and Cedric.
DNF
BREEDING thought of but I couldn’t really see either definition. I can now…Quick until then but no cigar
Dnf…
Better than yesterday, and there were a couple of clues (“Breeding”, “Retaliate”) where I had the right answer – but I just couldn’t parse them properly.
Went through every possible combination of “Valley” except “Gorge” – so there was much chuntering when I saw the fairly obvious answer for 15ac.
FOI – 5ac “Iron”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 9ac “Current”
Thanks as usual!
Plodded along at a fairly good pace heading to a pre-teen finish, until, like Plett11, halted by GEORGE and BREEDING .
Half biffed 18a RETALIATE – slow to see tail as back. Likewise, 3a, IDENTICALLY – slow to align associate with ally.
Excellent blog Mr CS – and thanks ASP.
Tough. DNF (23a). I managed almost all of it slowly with quite a few biffs / cursory parsing. However, BREEDING was just a step too far for me on a Saturday morning after an excellent Friday evening. What a contrast the last two days have been after the first four.
Thanks both (although I am still awaiting the day I manage an Asp puzzle without breaking the SCC barrier). Need another coffee.
I managed 15 without using any hints and then another two after that.
Ions aren’t (atomic) particles in my book. They are atoms either missing an election or two or more or gaining an election or two or more.
I don’t recall Potassium Nitrate being referred to as Nitre in my chemistry lessons. I’ll keep that one for future reference.
I worked out representee having inserted xxpresentxx. That’s just following the logic.
Retaliate having thought retail from consumer and then the ATE from consumed.
Ate eat homophonic… I’ll get my coat…
Ions can be charged atoms (such as protons) or compounds, for example the calcium cation and acetate anion in calcium acetate (old terminology) or potassium cation and nitrate anion in potassium nitrate.
They are still not particles in atomic physics vanacular. But I expect setters are scholars rather than scientists. I’m rubbish at anything to do with classics.
The Latin crossword is definitely not for me.
11:46. FOI 1ac EXAMINED then a good run, but not without some tricky ones to negotiate, including IRATE, RETALIATE, TIMEPIECE and my LOI BREEDING. I enjoyed meeting GEORGE who hid for a while then suddenly appeared.
Lots of comments that this is the “right” level for a QC. I think it’s a step up from that. The Asp touch lifts it slightly (and very nicely) above par.
Thank you Asp, and thank you Cedric for the fine blog
So many good surfaces, my favorite kind of puzzle. I followed the crowd in getting stuck with GEORGE, spending too much time looking for synonyms of “boy” and “valley”. Finally decided it must be a name, started an alphabet trawl, and it popped into my head instantly, stopping the clock at 10:57.
Loved the naked drunk and the high-tech noise suppressor, and took REPRESENTEE on faith (also a great clue). The dishonest vegetarians tickled me too but I never saw the hidden. TIMEPIECE worked for me.
Thanks Asp and Cedric — great blogging as usual!
8:48
My average against Asp was more than 11 minutes going into this puzzle – the worst average against any of the regular setters and more than a minute behind the second worst, Cheeko. Didn’t feel that anything held me up particularly, except for LOI BREEDING. Had not come across REPRESENTEE before either, which gave me a few moments pause. Everything else tickety-boo.
Thanks for the usual high-quality blog, Cedric, and for the puzzle, Asp
From my (rather lowly) perspective Asp is still having trouble tailoring his offerings to the typical QCer. Or maybe he’s doing it deliberately, which would be ironic given that, according to the puzzle editor’s weekly newsletter a few weeks back, he has asked the QC setters to “dial it back” a little. Mrs R says that “kettles and pots spring to mind”.
52 minutes for me, which I suppose is an improvement over my 70 minutes for Asp’s last outing, but however clever and precise his clueing (and I agree with our blogger that it was) it was still a hard grind and not something to enjoy over a cup of coffee. More of an assault course, really.
On the plus side, I must commend Asp for not including any really obscure words or off-the-scale GK, which I presume is why I eventually managed to fight my way to the finish line.
Many thanks to Cedric for (probably) the most comprehensive blog I have ever had the pleasure to read.
I share your views on Asp and his dodgy ‘tailoring’. I also agree with Mrs R’s perceptive comment on ‘kettles and pots’!
If it was indeed the Puzzles Editor’s newsletter then he is not the Crossword Editor / Asp. So no kettles will have been called black !
I wasn’t aware of the “dialling back” but I’d say it is generally a welcome move and I said yesterday that I felt things had generally hit the right level over the past few months. Puzzles can still be challenging and my gut feel is that it is mainly the quickest solvers who comment on TfTT, so if they are complaining about a puzzle not being Quick then that can’t be good for how long non-commenters are finding it.
Dear LP,
Re Pots and kettles: Just to say that the puzzles editor was quoting the crossword editor in the newsletter of a few weeks ago, so Mrs R’s comment still stands.
I see
A tricky 14:13, and that was without seeing that IRATE was a reverse hidden – clever – or being able to satisfactorily parse TIMEPIECE. Thanks, Cedric and Asp.
I thoroughly enjoyed this – I feel that Asp was definitely more little fish than poisonous snake * when he set it, although I did have the same MER as Cedric about the parsing of TIMEPIECE. However, having the read othe comments, I now see that the ‘for one’ was just a DBE, so the eyebrow has come down again!
Otherwise a very nice return to solving on paper after a week of sporadic solving online while on holiday in Dorset.
Lots of ticks – almost too many to mention, but stand-outs were STITCH, GEORGE, EVINCES and ENCAMP.
10:40 FOI Examined LOI Breeding COD Intense – oh, the dark tunnel of adolescence (© Clarice Bean, That’s Me) Thank heavens those days are long gone 🤣
Thanks Asp for a very nice crossword and Cedric for a very informative blog. And here is a little fact for you: I’ve just discovered that horned viper is another name for the asp. Also, that there is a type of fish called the asp that is related to minnows. It’s all connected!
DNF. Breezeblocked by GEORGE.
Exactly what a QC should be. Excellent puzzle
14:47. Approx seven minutes on GEORGE- finally saw GORGE as valley! Like Cedric I was tempted by AURAL.
DNF, failed on Breeding. Clearly my working class, left of centre tendancies blinded me to the second def in the clue. Didn’t find much rhythm with this one, but that’s why we need the variety.
FOI examined
LOI current
COD blini
thanks asp and blogger
My upper-middle class, rightist tendencies sadly didn’t help me a lot with the clue, but I did get there in the end…
Held up at the end by GEORGE, but it was a lovely clue. My usual leisurely plod around the grid. Much enjoyed, and an excellent blog to boot.
DNF. Entered NACRE for 7d despite thinking “I thought that was something pearly, hmm” and never spotted the mistake. That forced me to invent nonsense for 9a and 10d. Ho hum, there’s always the next one.
Thanks to Asp and Cedric.
21 min fail. Beaten by George, Breeding and Representee. Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Thanks Cedric for parsing a few I biffed and could not parse
Approximately 13.00. One of my longest QC solves.
I like your explanation of 9A CURRENT via main=ocean. I got to the same place via an electrical main, which seems less obscure.