A very nice puzzle from Mara today, at I think the more friendly end of the spectrum (something of a relief after a few toughies in the last week or so). It was not without a few clues that required more thought though, and a couple of definitions which were perhaps a little loose. It helps to have one’s hiddens hat on, with no less than 5 clues using the technique.
I took 11:29 for the puzzle, though my LOI, 9D, took up at least 2 minutes of that and stopped me coming in under 10 minutes. 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 | Move on, through pursuing academic success (4,2) |
| PASS BY – BY (through) “pursuing”, ie after, PASS (academic success). | |
| 4 | So urge to resolve complaint (6) |
| GROUSE – (so urge)*, the anagram indicator being “to resolve”. | |
| 8 | Rule reversed by European PM of old (7) |
| WALPOLE – WAL (law or rule “reversed”) + POLE (a European).
Robert Walpole was Britain’s First Lord of the Treasury from 1721 to 1742. The post of First Lord of the Treasury, a senior minister of the Crown in charge of national finances, was an old one, but Walpole so expanded it (in particular combining it with the position of Leader of the House of Commons) that he became the undisputed head of the government, and is generally regarded as the country’s de facto first prime minister. (The post of First Lord still technically exists, but in practice these days is always held by the PM and has no separate function). |
|
| 10 | Sing badly, so bad tune awful, ultimately (5) |
| YODEL – the last letters (“ultimately”) of badlY sO baD tunE awfuL.
I did wonder briefly if the definition was “Sing badly”, but one can I presume yodel well, even tunefully, so we have to lift-and-separate sing and badly. |
|
| 11 | Lecture embraced by educator, a test (5) |
| ORATE – Our first hidden, in educatOR A TEst, with the indicator being “embraced”. Lecture is in the verb sense here, not the noun. | |
| 12 | Change usable with rupees in European country (7) |
| BELARUS – (usable + R)*, with the R given by rupees and the anagram indicator being “change”.
A slight MER at R for rupees, as that has never been the accepted abbreviation or symbol for the currency. The traditional abbreviation for Rupees is Rs, which is still the standard usage in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In India the government decided in 2010 that using Latin alphabet letters was a colonial legacy and discriminatory against those using one of the country’s many other languages, and changed the symbol to ₹ to provide a uniform symbol across all the country’s several different scripts. |
|
| 13 | Dimmer daughter heading for trouble in Suffolk town (3,6) |
| DIP SWITCH – D (daughter) + T (heading for Trouble) inserted in IPSWICH (Suffolk town).
These days I gather that a DIP switch is most likely to refer to a “Dual In-line Package switch”, which may mean something to those more technically competent than me, but for people “of a certain age” it probably brings more to mind the switch in a car to turn one’s headlights from full beam to dipped beam, to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers. I have to say modern drivers seem rather too often to have forgotten the etiquette, as I am regularly semi-blinded by oncoming cars with ultra-bright headlights full on. |
|
| 17 | “Farewell” here translated, one parting company (7) |
| CHEERIO – A complex construction, with HEER (anagram of here, the anagram indicator being “translated”) + I (one) all inserted into (“parting”) CO (company). | |
| 19 | Field throw (5) |
| PITCH – A DD, with the first meaning coming from, eg, soccer field / soccer pitch. | |
| 20 | Tree planted in California’s penitentiary (5) |
| ASPEN – Our second hidden, in CaliforniA’S PENitentiary, with the hidden indicator being “planted in”. | |
| 21 | Ghastly coat bear ripped (7) |
| MACABRE – MAC (coat) + ABRE (anagram of bear, with the anagram indicator being “ripped”). | |
| 22 | Employee seen in fear, nervous (6) |
| EARNER – Hidden number three, “seen in” fEAR, NERvous. To be an employee implies that one is being paid, so one is an earner. | |
| 23 | Steal coat (6) |
| FLEECE – Another DD. I think it was the late and much lamented Rotter who coined the rule that “two word clues are nearly always DDs”; I have found it invaluable ever since, and this is the second example of Rotter’s Rule today. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Meeting, something exciting for prisoners? (6) |
| POWWOW – POW (prisoners, specifically prisoners of war) + WOW (expression of excitement).
The word Powwow is an American First Nation word and traditionally meant an important social gathering for ceremonial and celebratory purposes. I am not quite sure how it got its modern colloquial meeting (in British English at least) of an informal business meeting to discuss something important, which seems some way from the word’s original meaning and cultural significance. |
|
| 2 | Couple at the dinner table spotted in black and white? (4,3,6) |
| SALT AND PEPPER – I was uncertain how to describe this clue, and in the end I think it is best seen as a pair of cryptic definitions. The first wordplay element refers to salt and pepper pots, often a matching pair, and the second refers to “salt and pepper hair”, a term used for a mixture of dark and grey or white hairs and often an uncomfortable time as one tries with increasing lack of success to pretend one is not going grey!
However one chooses to describe the clue, it made me smile and was my COD. |
|
| 3 | Catcalls heard, finished drinking session (5-2) |
| BOOZE-UP – BOOZE (sounds like boos, ie catcalls “heard”) + UP (finished). | |
| 5 | Ruling in play, originally overturned (5) |
| ROYAL – Hidden number four, and a reverse hidden this time, in pLAY ORiginally. with the hidden indicator being “in” and the reversal indicator being “overturned”. Very clever, but I am not entirely convinced that Royal and Ruling are sufficiently close synonyms for this to fully work. | |
| 6 | Illegal position of feet at dinner? (5-3-5) |
| UNDER-THE-TABLE – A classic lift-and-separate clue as we need to part Illegal from the rest of the clue, as far from being an illegal position, one’s feet are not only allowed to be but should definitely be under the table at meal times (unless they are “on the couch in front of the TV”, which is where my children seem to prefer eating these days). The resulting phrase is one of several “under” phrases for something less than 100% legit – eg underhand, under the counter and so on. | |
| 7 | Register silent manoeuvres (6) |
| ENLIST – (enlist)*, with the anagram indicator being “manoeuvres”. | |
| 9 | Play low bounces after spinning of bowler (5,4) |
| ELBOW ROOM – OOM (moo, or low, reversed, the reversal indicator being “bounces”) after ELBOW R (anagram of bowler, the anagram indicator being “spinning of”).
This was my LOI and it – or more specifically the second half of it – took a full 2 minutes, despite having all the checkers, as I took time to remember that in Crosswordland, “low” often means the sound a cow makes, and then more time over the definition. “Play” can mean looseness, eg on a steering wheel where small turns do not immediately translate into the wheels of the car turning, but from there to “elbow room” or space to move took me time to see. In the end I constructed the linkage “play” -> “wriggle room” -> “elbow room”, but it seems a bit of a stretch to me. |
|
| 14 | Development of coalpit in the news (7) |
| TOPICAL – (coalpit)*, with the anagram indicator being “development of”. | |
| 15 | Grate cheese rind initially into mushy peas (6) |
| SCRAPE – C R (Cheese Rind “initially”) inserted into SAPE (anagram of peas, the anagram indicator being “mushy”). I quite like mushy peas – an essential complement to fish-and-chips – but I’m not sure adding cheese to them would enhance the experience. | |
| 16 | Puff, brilliant idea (6) |
| WHEEZE -A DD, with the second usually seen in the phrase “cunning wheeze” – indeed, can a wheeze ever be anything other than cunning? | |
| 18 | Clean, not all water in sewer! (5) |
| RINSE – And we close with our fifth hidden, in wateR IN SEwer, with the hidden indicator being “not all” and the surface more than clever enough to permit Mara his exclamation mark flourish. | |
11:46. DIP SWITCH and ELBOW ROOM were favourites. Great blog, thanks, Cedric, I share your aggravation with drivers who neglect to lower their headlights!
Really struggled to get going and my FOI was 2dn, SALT AND PEPPER. I picked up speed in the lower half and finished in 12.01, with WHEEZE holding things up at the end. Nice blog from Cedric, very informative. Thanks for telling me why ELBOW ROOM and ROYAL were right. I try not to drive at night unless it’s absolutely necessary, especially in the country. I also remember the dip switch being a foot-operated button on the floor. Thanks to both, have a good weekend everybody.
10 minutes. Chambers has r = rupee{s}, so the setter is off the hook with that one.
15 down was a terrible thought before breakfast!
I was astonished by the volume of “hiddens”, as I’ve been led to believe that the Times rule is no more than two per puzzle. Easy enough puzzle, two straight passes did the business. I think I spent longer enjoying another excellent blog from Cedric. I was a little thrown by UNDER THE TABLE though. I associate it more with the after effects of a 3D!
FOI PASS BY
LOI WHEEZE
COD DIP SWITCH
TIME 4:39
As I recall, it’s one hidden per puzzle, 2 if one’s reversed, 2 for a Jumbo (3 if one’s reversed?). But there’s no limit for Quickies. I remember raising just this point years ago, and sure enough the next day’s puzzle had three.
I’ve never been clear on the ‘rules’ as they apply to the QC but as it’s considered a learning / practice tool it makes sense to keep things as flexible as possible. It might be considered a good idea to have a puzzle with as many of one type of clue as the setter can fit in to help beginners get used to it.
[Edit: I see New Driver has pointed out below that The Guardian does that sort of thing with their new Quickie puzzle which is aimed at raw beginners.]
I found this quite tricky – only getting two of the hiddens in my first run through of the across clues. Things gradually came together but Mara definitely got the better of me today.
Started with ORATE and finished with FLEECE in 11.48.
Thanks to Cedric for the outstanding blog, especially for explaining 9d where I could see how the wordplay worked but had no idea what the definition was doing – eventually I assumed that there might have been a ‘theatrical play’ called ELBOW ROOM.
13:45 – held up by the pesky double defs in the SE and my inability to unravel anagrams (TOPICAL – I’m looking at you)
I wondered whether Mara was trying to do something like The Guardian has been doing with their Saturday QC for beginners – where there are only four types of clue. In this case, he has put three double defs in the SE (PITCH, WHEEZE, FLEECE), three hiddens in SW (ASPEN, RINSE, EARNER), three anagrams in NE (BELARUS, GROUSE, ENLIST) and three charades in NW (PASS-BY, POWWOW, WALPOLE).
Been a rough week on the QC for me but well done to everybody who made it through! 👍
Great spot of the geographical grouping! Quite the cunning WHEEZE but completely PASSed me BY.
Good spot that!
Excellent analysis-a model of forensic cruciverbalism!
Very observant ND – strange how I noticed all the hiddens but none of the other groupings. MrB has been having a go at the new Guardian Saturday quickie since it started, with varying results, but is finding having just the four clue types per crossword very helpful and rarely resorts to asking me for any clarification these days. Onwards and upwards – we’ll get him over here eventually 😅
Good luck to MrB. While the principles are the same – each of the different papers have a different style to their clues. Even when Izetti sets as Pasquale over there, I’m not sure I’d always recognise him. All good though for improving 👍
Just under 10 DNF
Thought this had some tricky elements but ploughed through before an embarrassing POWPOW to “finish”. Oops.
As always, I echo Plett and thus found that a bit tricky. I thought POWWOW was two words (or a hyphenated word), and struggled with some of the more elliptical definitions – “play”, “dimmer”, “ruling”. Very good puzzle and enjoyably Meldrewesque blog!
Done in 11:34 for a Sluggish Day. Many thanks Cedric and Mara.
Quite stretching and inevitably my last two were overlooked hiddens: ORATE and RINSE. I suspect my hiddens alert had switched off after the previous three.
Enjoyable puzzle and an enlightening blog. I had no idea where ELBOW ROOM came from until Cedric explained it.
just scraped in within 15 minutes. I’m fine with play = elbow room now that Cedric has explained it. I had assumed – like Plett11 – that Elbow Room must be a play, less well known than the Mousetrap. I liked DIP SWITCH
16 mins…
Compared to the rest of the week, this felt like a breeze. With regards to 2dn “Salt and Pepper”, I took the latter part to refer to the colour of the said items rather than anything to do with hair.
As noted above, it felt like there were a lot of hidden words compared to normal.
FOI – 4ac “Grouse”
LOI – 1ac “Pass By”
COD – 15dn “Scrape” – purely for the surface.
Thanks as usual!
12:49 (Death of Alexander II. Alexander III becomes King)
I enjoyed getting ELBOW ROOM. Add me to the list of those who assumed the definition referred to some dramatic work that I’d never heard of.
WALPOLE and POWWOW were my last two in.
Thanks Cedric and Mara
DNF, as needed help. Fast-ish then stuck in NW. Finally gave in and looked up PMs in the CCD for WALPOLE (good clue). That gave me POWWOW, but for 1a I’d put PASS it, so weakly consulted CCD for Catcalls for PDM BOOZE UP.
Liked all the ones I failed – and also DIP SWITCH, S & P. Thought UNDER THE TABLE very easy.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
21:14
Liked all the hidden words which, when you’re looking for them are the easiest clues. But after a quick start ground to a halt over POWWOW which had more Ws than I expected and LOI WALPOLE after my mental trawl of 20th C PMs drew a blank.
Some 51 mins for the QCPR double today.
11.52 I also assumed that ELBOW ROOM was a drama. I was lucky to spot the hiddens quickly except for ORATE. That was followed by WALPOLE and POWWOW to finish. Thanks Cedric and Mara.
First time poster, longtime lurker.
I found this straightforward – 7.13 for me which is about as quick as I ever go but thanks to blogger for explaining Elbow Room which I got from wordplay but couldn’t really see how the definition worked.
Powwow was last one in after mucking around with parole.
Cheers
Horners
Welcome, it’s great to hear from you.
Yes, I also first tried ‘parole’ and then also tried ‘pardon’ before seeing the light with POWWOW.
P.S. Do please share your thought with us again.
Hello Horners – a great time! Hope to hear from you again 😊
excellent puzzle and a very helpful and informative blog. Many thanks
Quite tricky in places but, for once, my last few clues didn’t hold me up for too long.
Time = 27 minutes, so just inside my half-hour target.
I got going with GROUSE and YODEL, but then had to wait until the bottom of the grid and the Down clues before further progress was made. Fortunately, neither of the two longest clues, SALT AND PEPPER and UNDER THE TABLE, held out for too long, so I found I had a good number of checkers to build on.
My last three in were all in the NW corner – WALPOLE, POWWOW and BOOZE UP.
Many thanks to Mara and Cedric.
DNF as revealed WALPOLE which then gave me LOI POWWOW. Found this tricker than others it would appear. Very enjoyable overall. ELBOW ROOM, MACABRE and CHEERIO biffed then parsed. Very surprised by the number of hiddens, and that I spotted them for once. Many thanks Cedric.
Probably best described as a ‘steady’ solve for us. Nothing immensely difficult but 12:50 is no better than our average. Thanks for the informative blog, Cedric, and for the explanation of ELBOW ROOM as we also had shrugged it away as a NHO stage play.
A better day than yesterday, when I really struggled on both the quickie and the biggie. But tbh I didn’t really love this one – nothing stood out as a COD and I was surprised at quite how many hiddens there were. Sorry to be a GROUSE!
We have been rewatching The Fast Show recently – the originator of Cheesy Peas, I think! A few years ago, we were in a pub in Alnwick where they served their version – it was interesting, but maybe not to be repeated. I certainly didn’t try this at home 😂
8:33 FOI Grouse LOI Wheeze
Thanks Mara and Cedric – a really informative blog
11:40, with a fair old chunk spent on ELBOW ROOM. I first decided that it was probably “elbow seam”, which I assumed was a cricking term on the reasonable grounds that cricketing terminology is weird. CHEERIO put paid to that idea, so I then joined the others in assuming that it was a play, though wondering where on earth the “OOM” was coming from. Some day I will learn to think twice when I see “low” in a clue.
Thank you to Cedric for the blog!
Edit: elsewhere today, the subject of AI cropped up in association with cryptic crosswords. I thought I’d put this one to Copilot and this is what it came up with:
===Start Copilot response===
The answer to the cryptic crossword clue “Play low bounces after spinning of bowler (5, 4)” is **ELBOW ROOM**.
Here’s the breakdown:
– **Play**: The definition part of the clue.
– **Low bounces**: This cryptically refers to “oom” (a sound associated with low bounces).
– **After spinning of bowler**: “Bowler” is anagrammed to “elbowr”.
When you combine these parts, you get “elbowr” + “oom”, forming “ELBOW ROOM”, which means sufficient space to move or work.
===End Copilot response===
I mean, if you ignore the completely made-up bit about “oom” it’s a pretty decent effort. Certainly did better than I did, as it at least got the meaning of the definition right!
Ahahaha I love how Copilot just straight up made stuff up
Pushed into the SCC by this one: done in 20:50. I liked all the hiddens: probably my favourite clue type since once you’ve spotted it, there’s no doubt that it’s right.
Thanks to Mara and Cedric.
Oh, and add me to the list of people who assumed there is a drama called “Elbow Room”.
Not too testing until I got to WHEEZE, at which point my solvent had nearly run out and it took far too long to unstick from the clue.
I am now off to write a drama entitled “Elbow Room” to tout around “as mentioned in The Times”. Bound to be snapped up purely on that basis, surely.
13:04 no errors. FOI GROUSE, LOI ROYAL (took too long to spot the reverse hidden), COD DIP SWITCH. Always happy to score 700+ (only achieved 800 once so far) Thanks Mara and Cedric