QC 2729 by Orpheus

70 comments on “QC 2729 by Orpheus”

1. about 12 minutes but not all parsed.

   I have actually heard of NANKEEN only because it is one of the words that comes up in the NY Times Spelling Bee (their version of Polygon) a lot. I have never seen it outside of this context.

   A bunch of the clues I actually said out loud ‘oh is my old mate Gainsborough again…’ and ‘ports and Italian food, gotta be a Risotto’. Rural and Annul were two others I think we’ve seen recently.

   LATENT was tricky because it sounded like a word was ‘inside’ LA.

2. As an experienced solver, I found this quite easy, although I was forced to leave tradespeople and automaton until last, and then I carefully parsed automaton. I think I may have heard of sistrum, but I have no idea what it is.

   Time: 5:46

3. After a slow start I got going with PARSNIP quickly followed by ARMLESS (now THAT is my kind of QC clue!) and made good progress to finish in 7 on the dot. No particular problems, knew NANKEEN, left SISTRUM to Providence and finished with TRADESPEOPLE which by then, with all the checkers, was unmissable. Thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

4. Biffed PARLIAMENT, AUTOMATON, & HIPPODROME. We’ve had NANKEEN a few times, maybe not in a QC. ANNUL/annual looks familiar, too. DNK SISTRUM. LOI TRADESPEOPLE. 5:54.

5. 8:47. BYPASS was my COD. TRADESPEOPLE replaced Salespeople when my first idea proved a letter short.

   1. I biffed SALESPERSONS, which has enough letters, just not the right letters; so I pulled it out.

6. A little tricky here and there but managed to finish without any queries. Liked Gainsborough as I thought I was looking for a candidate.
   Thanks M and setter.

7. 8 minutes. SISTRUM was a forgotten word but fitted the wordplay and crossers so I felt pretty confident about it. I was helped by getting GAINSBOROUGH early and being familiar with NANKEEN. No other real problems and certainly a welcome, not too difficult puzzle after the tough QC’s last Friday and yesterday.

   Thanks to Merlin and to Orpheus

8. Had to pass over GAINSBOROUGH but still got eight on the first pass of acrosses and then must have done pretty well on the downs because there wasn’t much to mop up. Held up by AUTOMATON, HIPPODROME, TRADESPEOPLE and especially by LATENT – the shelter bit in particular. I’ve met – and remarkably retained – both SISTRUM and NANKEEN from previous crosswords. All green in 10.15.

   Never knew Las Vegas means ‘the meadows’ – thanks Merlin!

9. Same two NHOs as our blogger on my way to an 8½ minute completion, and same thoughts on TRADESPEOPLE too – a daunting anagram (especially if one is convinced it ends in S) so I left it to my LOI and by then it was not so daunting. A very enjoyable puzzle and something of a break after a few toughies.

   Many thanks Merlin for the blog
   Cedric

10. Always good to get the first one so rather disappointed to see Gainsborough immediately then fail to get any of the downs from it.

    Lasso came to the rescue then we built up a good head of steam to finish in a below par 18.06. As the son of a cockney, I always enjoy the East End clues and armless definitely COD. Tradespeople took all the crossers to unpick as we were sure that the plural def meant the s would be at the end – schoolboy error.

    LOI also latent, thinking it was something inside LA

    Another day of apparently more chestnuts to learn.

    Thanks Orpheus ans Merlin

11. 10 minutes.

    SISTRUM was clued very fairly but it may be interesting to note that this is only its second appearance in the TfTT era, the first having been in a Jumbo in 2019 defined as a rattle. Otherwise it appeared once in its plural form, SISTRA, in a 15×15 in 2022. On that occasion which was on my watch as blogger the definition was ‘ceremonial instruments’ as they were used specifically by the ancient Egyptians in the worship of their cow goddess, Bat.

12. I had no problems other than getting started with my FOI being RURAL followed by GAINSBOROUGH leading to its hangers, seeing PARLIAMENT also helped.
    I thought NANKEEN was fairly clued and didn’t need much thought with the ‘N’ already in place.
    I got the hidden instrument without checkers as I had vaguely heard of it, which helped with the lower half leading to LOI TRADESPEOPLE.

13. Failing to get any of the first 3 clues, I thought I was in for a difficult session, but then it all just fell neatly into place during the Down clues, and was mopped up on the second pass. There were no NHO’s but then I’ve been doing cryptic crosswords for over 60 years – old stuff is fine, but it’s the modern words that sometimes flummox me!

    MER at GAINSBOROUGH. One would surely win a borough in a local council election, rather than a parliamentary one.

    FOI ARMLESS
    LOI AUTOMATON
    COD PARLIAMENT
    TIME 4:07

    1. I thought that too about ‘borough’ but then remembered a discussion about it here on a previous occasion. The dictionaries have the setter’s back covered:

       Collins: borough a town, esp (in Britain) one that forms the constituency of an MP or that was originally incorporated by royal charter.

       SOED: borough a town (as distinct from a city) with a corporation and privileges granted by royal charter; hist. a town sending representatives to Parliament. LME.

       1. Thanks Jack – and my O level history now reminds me of rotten and pocket boroughs.

14. I found this fairly gentle and a relief after a run of tough puzzles.
    No problem with NANKEEN, a word I associate with trousers worn by sailors for some reason – no idea if that’s actually a thing but it makes sense to me 😊.
    Started with STUN and finished with LATENT, where like others I was trying to fit something inside LA, in 5.54.
    Thanks to Merlin

    1. Nankeen trousers definitely ring a bell, though they resulted in a bad date for Charles Barry in 1817! Poor Miss Gibson. https://www.carolineshenton.co.uk/the-regency-chino/

15. Nice puzzle with some clever misdirection. Happy with a sub 30m finish.
    I thought SISTRUM was very fairly clued and recognised NANKEEN, probably from Patrick O’Brian’s novels.
    LOI and COD LATENT

16. Clickety-click all the way to 05:19 and a Red Letter Day. Had to revisit only AUTOMATON and LOI LATENT (where I really wanted “lacuna” to work). Hesitated over TACK as a “security device”.

    Many thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

    1. Old Jimmy Cricket gag : I went to buy a hall carpet last week. The salesman said it would cost £50 plus £7.50 for tax. I told to forget the TACKS and I’d glue it down…..

17. Enjoyable today. All finished relatively fast. The bottom half went straight in but GAINSBOROUGH (good clue) took a while to appear as I had put Tug instead of URN at first. Yes, I was sidetracked by RURAL/country too.
    I knew NANKEEN but biffed NHO the hidden SISTRUM.
    Smiled at ARMLESS, AUTOMATON, BYPASS.
    More puzzles like this one please.
    Many thanks, Merlin.

18. Almost my first sub-10 minutes solve, but delayed by the misdirection of ‘oddly’ in 13d and a moment of blindness for LOI TACK. Maybe too easy for some experienced solvers, but a reassuring test for us relative newbies – confirming that there are only a handful of cities in the world (and only two in the US), just a couple of ports, and that parents in Crosswordland are mercifully unimaginative in naming their children.

    FOI GAINSBOROUGH
    LOI TACK
    COD NANKEEN – satisfying to get a NHO solely from the wordplay

    Thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

19. With AUTOMATON I suspected that the fruit was tomato. So may I be the first to say that knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

    1. Ha!

20. Same as others, NHO SISTRUM but easy to see from the clue, the rest very gentle and finished in 6:14

21. That was a friendly one! Thank you, Orpheus. LOI LATENT. NHO NANKEEN but it had to be, and Mrs M knew it well and mocked my lack of GK, so there we are. Liked GAINSBOROUGH.

22. Nice and straightforward, no unknowns, everything parseable. LOI LATENT, well disguised.

23. “Thomas Gainsborough, painter and chestnut creator.“ 😂

    Same 2 NHOs as others but still got them, delivering a satisfactory time (for me).

24. Bah, careless typo gave me NANAKEN, which overwrote ARMLESS to give me 2 errors.

    Notwithstanding my fat fingers, I liked the puzzle. Unforced errors on the cryptics are reaching epidemic proportions, whereas I’m error free for a month on the concise. It’s normally the other way round.

    5:18 but

25. As above. Satisfying to complete without too much grief, especially as I found yesterday’s a struggle.
    Thanks Orpheus and Merlin

26. 9:42 (Hywel Dda adds Gwynedd and Powys to his Kingdom of Deheubarth)

    Add me to the long list of NHO SISTRUM. I had heard of NANKEEN, mainly from other crosswords.
    COD to AUTOMATON.
    6d was a write-in from the old joke “What’s a Grecian Urn? Ten drachmas a week.”

    Thanks Merlin and Orpheus

27. 6:25

    Had heard of NANKEEN (though couldn’t pick it out of a line-up of various cloths) but not SISTRUM which at least was gettable as a hidden. TRADESPEOPLE was a tricky anagram which only slotted in once I’d added the first letter to all of the other checkers in place. Gentle on the whole though.

    Thanks Orpheus and Merlin

28. Worked out SISTRUM and NANKEEN from the clueing and zoomed through the rest for a very quick finish for me.

29. 11 minutes for me. LOI TRADESPEOPLE; like many others it seems , I assumed it would end in S, probably RS. So I had to wait for all the checkers to crack this. POI SPHERICAL for similar reasons.
    NHO SISTRUM but was confident from the clueing.
    RAVIOLI was my starter for 16a.
    Some nice surfaces. COD to GAINSBOROUGH.
    David

30. Nothing to frighten the horses here, with even the unknown SISTRUM fairly clued. I’ve come across NANKEEN fairly often in crosswordland otherwise it would have been unknown to me. I did hesitate a bit at TACK wondering if the definition was sharp enough, but as I couldn’t think of an alternative in it went. A pretty brisk 6.28 today.

31. Merlin says the brilliant Guardian April Fool on the Venus de Milo arms was “a few years ago”. I recall it very clearly because I fell for it, to my shame. So I can remember very clearly where I was at the time and, thus, I am sure it was about 38 years ago !!

    1. Someone needs to explain what that was all about…

32. 05:41
    Orpheus probably my favourite setter. Apart from tack where I couldn’t see the other definition, no hold ups.
    COD Gainsborough or bypass.

33. I found this one quite tough, especially 24. Seeing retailers being a plural I automatically assumed the answer would end in an S, and so put S in the last square. It wasn’t until Pumpa pointed out to me that a plural word doesn’t necessarily have an S at the end, that I reconsidered.

    I have heard of nankeen before but only through the QC.

    25:45

    My verdict: 👍
    Pumpa’s verdict: 🐈

34. I found this tricky but fair (except Nankeen?) and enjoyable. Got there in 38 mins with the help of quite a bit of checking along the way…

35. I knew NANKEEN from studying David Copperfield for O Level English and I can still remember the sentence in which it occurred i.e. ‘For some time Mrs Crupp could only lay her hand upon her nankeen bosom, and fortify herself against returning pain with sips of her medicine’. Isn’t it amazing what useless information the brain retains?

    1. I also knew NANKEEN from David Copperfield which I am currently reading for comparison with the recently read Demon Copperhead.

36. 5.46

    NANKEEN no problems after reading the O’Brian canon several times. Last two were GAINSBOROUGH and HIPPODROME the latter being my COD

    Thanks Orpheus and Merlin

37. Much gentler today. VHO NANKEEN and SISTRUM was fairly clued. Beginning to spot the chestnuts now, e.g. GAINSBOROUGH, RISOTTO, PARSNIP, LEAVE, ANNUL. Liked ARMLESS (new to me but suspect is probably a chestnut too!). Many thanks Merlin and Orpheus.

    1. And I suppose a cruel Cockney would be artless… (sorry)

38. 7:14
    Despite not knowing NANKEEN or SISTRUM, the real hesitation came from 23a. I managed to guess TACK correctly, but have only heard it used in what I now think might be a redundant context, as in “I think I need to change tack”. I agree that I’m not sure whether even beginners should be learning new vocab in this environment, but it’s always nice to collect a new word or two so shan’t complain.

    1. Yachtsmen often need to change tack according to the wind, of course.

39. 11 mins…

    I enjoyed this, even if I also had the same reservations about a “borough” relating to a parliamentary candidate. 3dn “Nankeen” is one of those things I’ve only learned from doing crosswords.

    FOI – 8ac “Stun”
    LOI – 7dn “Hippodrome”
    COD – 11ac “Armless” – although 7dn gave it a close run for its money.

    Thanks as usual!

40. A good start with 1ac and 2d going in with very little delay. The rest followed without too much trouble (I knew Nankeen and nho Sistrum was flagged clearly enough) right up until loi Latent. Like others, I got hold of the wrong end of the clue (no surprise there) and was looking for something to go inside LA. The delay put paid to a chance of a sub-15, but I’m still happy with a comfortable sub-20 for this friendly QC. CoD to 2d, Automaton, with its upper class fruit. Invariant

41. From GAINSBOROUGH to TRADESPEOPLE in 6:44. NHO SISTRUM. Needed crossers for TACK. Thanks Orpheus and Merlin.

42. A few minutes in and very little in the board, so I thought I was in for a long, hard slog. However, the bottom half of the grid was more forthcoming and my pace picked up significantly.

    I DNK SISTRUM or NANKEEN, but they were well-clued. My L2I were AUTOMATON and STUN, which enabled me to confirm my faintly pencilled NANKEEN. Time = 22 minutes.

    Thanks to Orpheus and Merlin.

43. Erm, Merlin – a typo in blog at 11a
    Pretty straightforward today.
    FOI 8a Stun
    LOI 9a Parsnip
    COD 1a Gainsborough

44. 9.34 Another slow start but the bottom two-thirds were quick. I did know NANKEEN and SISTRUM rang a bell. I entered LOI TACK without being sure how it worked as a security device but the blog explained it. Thanks Merlin and Orpheus.

45. Felt like we were going through it at a canter but 10:21 is still a way off our best. Helped that I’d heard of NANKEEN. NHO SISTRUM but it was easy enough with some checkers. Held up by typing in raviolo at first, which didn’t make sense and doesn’t even contain RIO! Rushing too much. Thought TACK was a bit of a stretch for a security device but it had to be in the end. Thanks, Merlin and Orpheus.

46. 9:14, for a rare sub-10 finish. My COD goes to TACK for the definition: I was sent entirely the wrong way by that one.

    Thanks to Orpheus and Merlin.

47. 20ish mins. Latent causing problems, not helped by my misspelling of Automaton. NHO of Nankeen and Sistrum but they fitted and so in they went.

    Thanks Orpheus and Merlin

48. Nice puzzle today, thanks Orpheus.

49. If I’d timed carefully I might have escaped the SCC. Lovely puzzle showing I’ve learnt a thing or two (like port is nearly always “RIO”). SISTRUM was obviously NHO but suitably obvious from the hidden and crossers.

    And the HIPPODROME I know is in Caen and is a horse racing venue. Definitely not a music hall!

    1. Absolutely! All the ones I know in France are for horses, as the Romans intended. I gather from Mr G that Birmingham has a musical one. One lives and learns.

50. Technically William Tell was not an archer but an arbalist. Caused arguments here!

    1. I didn’t know that word but I knew Tell used a crossbow and wondered if that qualified him as an ARCHER.

       1. No it doesn’t IMHO.

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