My first blog since a bunch of geeks decided to mess up the Times puzzles just for the hell of it The Times introduced its wonderful new format for the puzzles section, with the unfortunate side-effect that our trusty blogging template doesn’t work any more. Some bloggers seem to have found ways round this but I’m not technically adept and so I’ve had to do it manually, which has been rather time-consuming; please forgive resulting rough edges. I hope it’s clear enough. Definitions are underlined in bold as usual.
Nice puzzle from Mara. Nine full or partial anagrams; some very neat surfaces; a few gimmes. I don’t have a time, though – once I started solving in the new format I also started worrying about how I was going to produce the blog, and so while solving started messing around with the PDF version and other things I won’t bore you with, then dipping back in and out of the puzzle. I’d say slightly on the easy side of average.
Across
8 Tell on nobleman (7) – RECOUNT RE [on] + COUNT [nobleman].
9 It’s sweet, sweetie! (5) – HONEY Looking for a term of endearment which could also be described as something “sweet” I hesitated between “honey” and “sugar” and so solved 7d in order to get the last letter.
10 Do very little about river debris (5) – DROSS DOSS [do very little] going round [about] R [river]. I can’t find a dictionary which uses the actual word “debris” when defining “dross”, but they all contain some variant on “rubbish” or “refuse” so I guess that’s close enough. I needed the checkers, though. DROSS originated as a word for the scum formed on molten metal.
11 Fast Show (7) – EXPRESS Double definition. You either see a DD straight away or you draw a blank and wait for checkers; the latter applied here for me.
12 International student ultimately failed maths etc (4,5) – TEST MATCH Anagram [failed] of “maths etc” with T [student ultimately].
14 Rubbish, this and that originally (3) – TAT First letters [originally] of “this and that”.
16 Mug in short dress (3) – ROB Mugging is one form of robbery; others are available. The wordplay is “robe” [dress – probably best understood as the verb “to robe/dress”] without its last letter [short].
18 Source of money in construction of china pots (9) – CASHPOINT Anagram [construction] of “china pots”.
21 Are bus tours covering large country? (7) – BELARUS Anagram [tours, i.e. “moves around”] of “are bus” around [covering] L [large].
22 Sent back wine and one cold drink (5) – CIDER RED for “wine”; I for “one”; C for “cold”. Reverse it all [sent back]. Don’t do what I did and think it’s only “wine” that’s reversed, then stare at DERIC and wonder what sort of drink that is.
23 Spotless vessel into which French article is put (5) – CLEAN CAN [vessel] with LE inside it [into which French article is put]. Not POUNT then.
24 Country where a note is played (7) – ESTONIA Anagram [played] of “a note is”.
Down
1 Lender’s case for investment breaking new record (8) – CREDITOR “Case of investment” means IT (being the first and last letters of “investment”). That goes inside [breaking] an anagram of “record” [new record]. I think that this should have been clued as a definition by example, since a CREDITOR is simply a person or entity to whom money is owed: they might be a “lender”, therefore, but they might equally be a supplier of goods or services.
2 A burden, clue unlike this? (6) – ACROSS We all have our crosses/burdens to bear. It’s a down clue, not an across clue, geddit?
3 Outbuildings shut when dilapidated (4) – HUTS Anagram [dilapidated] of “shut”. They don’t get much easier than that, folks.
4 Fancy treats stopped (2,4) – AT REST A slightly tougher anagram [fancy] of “treats”.
5 Butcher and hack get a move on! (4,4) – CHOP CHOP “Butcher” is chop, “hack” is chop.
6 Eat whimsically, by the sound of it? (6) – INGEST Aural wordplay [by the sound of it] with “in jest” [whimsically].
7 Buds on potatoes — might these be peeled? (4) – EYES Definition with a cryptic hint (“keep your eyes peeled”).
13 Coat on a compound of iron in tubes (8) – MACARONI MAC [coat] + A [on a] + an anagram [compound] of iron. Ah, that sort of tube. A very satisfying solve and COD from me.
15 Trail out after disruption in class (8) – TUTORIAL Anagram [after disruption] of “trail out”.
17 Bovine male and alien shot (6) – BULLET BULL [bovine male] + ET [alien]. “Bullet” is one of the many meanings of “shot”, as in “not worth powder and shot”.
19 Nurse of some patients is terrified (6) – SISTER Hidden [some] inside “patients is terrified“. Nurses were originally called “sister” because they were nuns; the term has been phased out in Scotland but still seems to be used in England.
20 I eat after I order, primarily (6) – IODINE Oh the sneaky, sneaky trick of using a symbol from the periodic table as a definition; see also “He” cluing “helium”. You rotter, Mara. DINE is “eat”; that comes after I [I] and O [order primarily].
21 Bill, male (4) – BUCK Double definition. My LOI, since although BUCK for “male” came to mind pretty quickly, I couldn’t see why it also meant “bill”. Eventually I bethought myself of a dollar bill.
22 Lovely slice, last of cake (4) – CUTE CUT [slice] + E [last of cake].
8:49
Only three on the first pass of acrosses (TAT, CLEAN, ESTONIA) which meant starting the downs from the bottom up, where I made better progress. Had to write out all of the letters for CASHPOINT, after which I saw the IODINE trick. LOI BELARUS.
Thanks Templar and Mara
Small complaint, and apologies if this is something that can’t be helped due to the new format, but can we go back to having the answer a line below the clue here? I’m new to cryptic crosswords and I like to use this site to help with the solves by checking which part is the definition. Having the answer on the same line here has spoiled a bunch of answers for me.
It’s too early to say how things will look when the blogging problems are resolved but as far as I’m aware the intention is to produce a layout as close as possible to what went before. At the moment bloggers are having to implement their own workarounds so there will be some inconsistencies.
13 minutes for me; LOI BUCK with fingers crossed as Buck = Bill did not quite work for me.
The iodine clue was clever and , at last, I thought of the chemical symbol; this type of clue has defeated me in the past.
COD to BULLET which raised a smile.
David
PS 500 error now common for me and accessing this site has become hit and miss.
$10= 10 Bucks= 10 Bills.
13 minutes for me; LOI BUCK with fingers crossed as Buck = Bill did not quite work for me.
The iodine clue was clever and , at last, I thought of the chemical symbol; this type of clue has defeated me in the past.
COD to BULLET which raised a smile.
David
PS 500 error now common for me and accessing this site has become hit and miss.
… and it took me three goes to post my comments.
DNF in SE. Very slow. Not my day. Had to reveal CASHPOINT, but still failed on MACARONI. Biffed IODINE. Missed INGEST. Jesting isn’t necessarily whimsical though.
Did manage BUCK. Liked BULLET and CIDER.
Thanks, Templar, for much needed blog. Sorry you had such a battle.
Thanks to Templar, and my sympathies on the formatting.
Could not get started in NW, not even the 3d gimme Huts, which was completely blank until I got 16a Rob, so worked back from there. Of course as I solved, the clues seemed fair and easy, so what was the delay?
COD 18a Cashpoint for eluding me.
Nice puzzle, thanks to Mara.
20 mins…
Some sneaky, but enjoyable clues here. 12ac “Test Match” has scuppered me before and nearly did it again as did 13dn “Macaroni”. I wasn’t sure about 10ac “Dross” for debris, but it couldn’t be anything else. I know it’s been used previously, but a big clap to 20dn “Iodine” which left me in a temporary state of befuddlement as I tried to link the answer I had to some definition. There must be a word (probably German) to describe that moment where you are in a void, suddenly see the light and have a short lived feeling of euphoria over something fairly trivial.
FOI – 3dn “Huts”
LOI – 15dn “Tutorial”
COD – 20dn “Iodine”
Thanks as usual!
“Der Moment, in dem Groschen fällt” according to Google Translate
Found this very easy before grinding to a halt with BUCK (not parsed) and IODINE (parsed eventually). I liked INGEST. Many thanks Templar and Mara.
Like many here, got caught by the clue for Buck. I also had a slowdown with Rob, Bullet and Macaroni. Nice still.
16:36. Really bothered by the format but got everything in the end.
Another relatively quick one at 9:46. Held up, like others, by putting in SUGAR at 9a on the first pass. Quickly revisited when neither CHOP CHOP (which I think we had quite recently?) nor EYES would work. IODINE was constructed from wordplay and I was then happy to recall having seen similar ‘chemical symbol’ clues here previously. OTOH I don’t recall having seen ‘a compound of’ as an anagrind before (MACARONI) leading me to try and shoehorn rust in, though knocked that on the head quickly. Thanks, Templar and Mara.
Solved in 40 minutes. A really good puzzle, with fab clues, like MACARONI and CASHPOINT. My COD goes to IODINE, when it clicked I felt rather smart for figuring it out. Thanks for the blog 😁
11.08 Exactly the same time as yesterday. It felt easier but I was slow at the end on TUTORIAL, CIDER and IODINE. Thanks Templar and Mara.
Loved the clever IODINE clue as I find science based clues are pretty uncommon in the QC.
12:34, a pleasingly consecutive time. COD to IODINE for the PDM.
For people struggling with the new format, if you access the puzzle via the “Crossword Club” tile rather than the “Quick Cryptic” tile, it is still using the previous format, at least for now. You lose the “reveal” button and may be just postponing the pain, but possibly there will be a fast refresh cycle to address some of the feedback.
Thanks to Templar and Mara.
We had Bolivia for 21a and scared for 19d which did not help. Mixture of tricky and gettable clues. Tricky.
First off, many thanks to all the bloggers for putting up with this **** and battling on. Secondly, thanks to the team behind the scenes at TfTT for trying (and surely succeeding) to resolve all these issues. I just wish the team at the Times would do the same. I print off the quickie and the biggie and solve on paper so that makes life a bit easier, and do others via the Crossword Club, but it appears they’re going to mess around with that too.
Not a lot to say about today’s puzzle: I’ve pulled a muscle in my shoulder and neck – again – so found it a bit difficult to concentrate, but I thought this was fine. I liked EXPRESS, TEST MATCH and CIDER (MrB’s favourite, along with red wine!).
10:58 FOI Express LOI Iodine COD Macaroni
Thanks Mara and Templar
16:28
The top half seemed much easier than the bottom. Kicked myself for not getting IODINE from the definition, I, straightaway but that held me up as, for some reason did TUTORIAL. LOI INGEST.
Very little time to comment today, so just to say that I crossed the line in 27 minutes after a very slow start (hardly any clues solved after 10-11 minutes). Not sure why I had such trouble at the beginning or why I (miraculously) switched into overdrive part way through.
Many thanks to Templar and Mara.
Odd really nothing conked me out completely unlike yesterday. ??s for CREDITOR and HONEY and ROB maybe but if it goes in and is believable I’m happy, by the way I do parse! Thank you Mara. Oh and I don’t solve online far too nervous for that!!
19 min finish, with all parsed except Iodine (but with the I and dine, in place- pretty confident). 12ac Test Match was my FOI so relieved to get a sub 20 min time. Thanks all
15:24, which is about my average, struggling with INGEST, MACARONI and IODINE.
Thank you for what sounds like a particularly painful blog!
Not too easy and not too hard (though I was slower than yesterday, at 18:07). A fine puzzle, and Mara really had me with IODINE, my COD. I must be getting acculturated as TEST MATCH went right in. BELARUS and ESTONIA so near to being neighbors gave me pause, but I don’t see anything in the way of a related Nina. I hesitated to put in BUCK because of the flagrant Americanism.
Ha, Cedric describes my behavior at CIDER, but I went him one better (one worse) and thought I would cleverly try for some other three-letter word for wine, and ended up staring at CESIC.
Thanks Mara, and many thanks to Cedric for slogging through the technical difficulties to produce your customary entertaining blog.
I got to 18 eventually. Didn’t get Iodine possibly because I am allergic to it. I think they use it in CT scan dyes which would account for three days of looking like a red blob after a scan.
Thanks T and M
Time and Materials
I share the same view as Templar regarding the new format.
A poor 15 mins.
About 2/3 on 15 x 15. Why can I solve hard clues and not get the obvious ones? Drives me mad!!!!😡
Thanks for the blog.
I had “Do SS” for Do very little, SS as in a very little clothing size… although realise that XS might be more common for that. Doss of course makes perfect sense though!
Thanks for the blog. Was I the only one who got ‘MENIAL’ for 17D, instead of BULLET?
Admittedly a stretch, but I was thinking of the other definition of ‘bovine’ as in ‘basic and unintelligent’. Then M for male, and alien ‘shot’, as in damaged.