Hello everybody. A good start to the week by a setter who knows what a quick cryptic is. I’m short of time this morning so much appreciated that, but sorry for terseness. Thanks Alex!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Romans insist on changing conveyance (12) |
| TRANSMISSION — Once anagrammed (… on changing) ROMANS INSIST | |
| 8a | Old, dismal scent (5) |
| ODOUR — O (old) + DOUR (dismal) | |
| 9a | Radical doctor having wine with bit of cocaine (7) |
| DRASTIC — DR (doctor) with ASTI and the first letter or bit of Cocaine | |
| 10a | Survive abroad with pounds I have (7) |
| OUTLIVE — OUT (abroad) + L (pounds) + I’VE (I have) | |
| 11a | Philosopher not working in unit of US soldiers (5) |
| PLATO — We have not the ON (working) in PLATO[on] (unit of US soldiers) | |
| 12a | Showy decoration lacking hint of nuance (6) |
| GARISH — GAR[n]ISH (decoration) lacking the first letter of (hint of) Nuance | |
| 14a | Warm male with a sheep (4,2) |
| HEAT UP — HE (male) with A + TUP (sheep) | |
| 17a | Confronts first of famous champions (5) |
| FACES — The first letter of Famous + ACES (champions) | |
| 19a | Try holding new chic remodelled Italian dish (7) |
| GNOCCHI — GO (try) around (holding) N (new) + an anagram of (… remodelled) CHIC | |
| 21a | Ruin one strange gathering of old friends (7) |
| REUNION — RUIN ONE anagrammed (strange) | |
| 22a | Support from Victor accompanied by expression of pain (5) |
| VOUCH — V (victor) accompanied by OUCH (expression of pain) | |
| 23a | Uniform is rumpled, sad and tired after start of shift (12) |
| STANDARDISED — An anagram of (rumpled) SAD AND TIRED all after the start of Shift | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Road sweeping price (12) |
| THOROUGHFARE — THOROUGH (sweeping) + FARE (price) | |
| 2d | A boxing contest is concerning (5) |
| ABOUT — A + BOUT (boxing contest) | |
| 3d | Pulls small locomotives (7) |
| STRAINS — S (small) + TRAINS (locomotives) | |
| 4d | Popular act without doubt (6) |
| INDEED — IN (popular) + DEED (act) | |
| 5d | Pointed tip of short instrument (5) |
| SHARP — The first letter of (tip of) Short + HARP (instrument) | |
| 6d | Exile unpopular group of actors (7) |
| OUTCAST — OUT (unpopular) + CAST (group of actors) | |
| 7d | Fulfilled expert (12) |
| ACCOMPLISHED — Double definition | |
| 13d | Tell heads of regional engineering company of unusual new technology (7) |
| RECOUNT — The first letters of (heads of) Regional Engineering Company Of Unusual New Technology | |
| 15d | Turned without resistance and developed (7) |
| EVOLVED — [r]EVOLVED (turned) without R (resistance) | |
| 16d | Period of time before non-disclosure agreement programme (6) |
| AGENDA — AGE (period of time) before NDA (non-disclosure agreement) | |
| 18d | Toss coins for young family member (5) |
| SCION — Make an anagram of (toss) COINS | |
| 20d | Charlie and son cover up smell for friends (5) |
| CHUMS — C (charlie) and S (son) surround (cover up) HUM (smell) | |
A fun crossword and it seemed like what most people would call a quickie, albeit with a few crafty moments. I was totally fooled by GNOCCHI and PLATO took a while, especially as other countries (eg Australia) also have platoons so the US ref was confusing. Never mind, 9.01, thanks Alex and Kitty.
Agree, probably too much to wish for all QC setters to be standardised like Alex!
10 minutes, but only just. THOROUGHFARE and GARISH resisted my best efforts until the very last second.
Nothing to scare the horses, or anyone else: The SNITCH stands at 75, with only 5 of 46 solvers having a 3-digit NITCH. 5:28.
5.13
This grid sends me into a panic and sure enough I couldn’t immediately see any if the long ones round the edge. The others were more tractable fortunately for a very pleasant solve.
Ooh a nice quick one today! Needed some of the crossers to get the big ones but a day when lots of clues were write ins. All done in a speedy 14.20
Chums made me smile.
Thanks Alex and Kitty
That was a strange solve – neither of the 1s immediately came to mind so I worked my way through the acrosses and had very few at the end of my first run through. I then tackled the downs from the bottom up and everything clicked into place, finishing with AGENDA in a surprising 5.35.
Thanks to Kitty and Alex
11:32 but inexplicably went for scalp instead of sharp. Doesn’t parse but I’ve got to doubting myself and expecting stuff I won’t know. It was a good puzzle from Alex with just the right mix of generous clueing and stuff to think harder about. I particularly liked recount acrostic and agenda.
I also enjoyed ACROSTIC as, given its absence, I wasted zero time on it.
Notice the lack of comma between recount and acrostic 🙂
7.18 only slight wrinkle was initially going with SPIKE rather than SHARP.
Struggle with the longer anagrams when solving on phone but these came quite easily today once the crossers were assembled.
COD and LOI : ACCOMPLISHED
cheers all.
Very friendly one this morning, thank you Alex. LOI HEAT UP; knew it was ‘that word’ for sheep but always forget what it is! Couldn’t quite see why GNOcchi, of course, thank you Kitty.
Once again, only four Across clues remained after the first pass, including both of the 12 letter answers. A perfectly pitched QC. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
FOI ODOUR
LOI STANDARDISED
COD EVOLVED
TIME 3:25
Bravo Alex, a nice approachable QC!
Thanks Kitty.
Only two on the first pass of acrosses before ending up all green on exactly 10 minutes. Perhaps I should have spent longer trying to unravel TRANSMISSION!
A perfect QC with no biffing required. Clever clues with enough difficulty so it wasn’t an immediate write-in. Thanks Alex and Kitty
I know everyone likes a nice fast solve, I enjoyed it today too, but i want to stand up for the trickier crosswords: If every day was this easy I would lose interest fairly fast!
Well, I am sure there must be plenty of more difficult crosswords available.
Especially in the last few weeks, this was a welcome change of pace.
A proper QC helps newbies like me learn about cryptics. There have been a few people on this site in the past couple of weeks giving up with cryptics because of the difficulty.
If I didn’t have a subscription I probably would have done as well.
At least there is the 15 x 15 if someone wants a harder challenge.
It would take me at least 4-5 years to begin getting bored. Completion is only one challenge, how quickly I can do it would be another then whether could I do a write-in of acrosses then downs another.
Finished quickly and enjoyed. Slightly held up by LOI EVOLVED, until I thought of Revolved.
Liked lots inc 1a and 1d, FACES, VOUCH, AGENDA.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
Amazingly, the sun is shining here, despite earlier ‘Red Sky in the Morning’.
I remember the old verse from my 80s childhood …
Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight
Red sky in the morning, nuclear warning
Glad I only know ‘shepherd’s warning’. I am not usually up at sunrise but it was beautiful this morning. And indeed have just come back from a warm and sunny NT garden.
I used to go on family holidays to the Pembrokeshire coast and there learnt the cheerful saying:
Red sky at night, refinery’s alight 🔥
Just over 8 minutes, with only GNOCCHI and PLATO requiring serious cogitation. Both are clever clues, PLATO especially after I did very briefly wonder if GOFFI (off inside GI) was a philosopher. An enjoyable start to the week.
Thank you Kitty for the blog
Cedric
11:06.
Of the four outside clues it was THOROUGHFARE that held me up. When that went in LOI GARISH went in too.
COD GARISH
A well pitched puzzle to start the week. LOI AGENDA/GNOCCHI.
5:09
A refreshing Monday morning blast. The long ones around the edges all went in quickly which certainly helps! Liked PLATO. LOI SHARP.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
16:38
Struggled with the long answers around the edge but gradually filled in the small ones which provided the checkers to finish off in a hurry.
Had to biff HEAT UP as DNK tup was a sheep. LOI AGENDA.
Thanks Alex and Kitty – this was indeed a proper quickie – perfectly pitched!
A very enjoyable and satisfying 18 mins. I understood most of the clues.
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
5:31
Skipped the ‘ones’ at first glance so they ended up being L2I after GARISH had held me up through the 5’ barrier ( not a fan of ‘hint of’, but it’s now a familiar ruse).
Nice easy start to the week, thanks Kitty and Alex.
I was a little slow to get going with TRANSMISSION and a little slow to finish with ACCOMPLISHED. Indeed all the long ones held me up but not for too long. 6:54
9:55 and I felt I was going even faster than that. Need to work on my typing skills. I liked all four long ones round the edges; none of which went in easily
1a and 1d were too hard at first so ignored them. The rest went in fast except that I just whacked in 12a Glossy (should be garish) for no good reason, which made the LOI 13d spelled out Recount difficult. Enjoyed 1d Thoroughfare suddenly coming to me, with a PDM, with just a few letters. 1a Transmission was slower.
Gentle one from Alex today but, as ever, not in a particular hurry to finish. Struggled to parse GNOCCHI at first. LOI GARISH. Thanks Alex and kitty.
I don’t always finish these puzzles and if I do I very rarely complete them quickly, but I do enjoy them enormously. Cryptic solving benefits from practice, sometimes many years, and I don’t feel they should be made easier just so that people can do them from day one. That sounded like a bit of a rant – sorry, not my intention!
Believe me as a novice I certainly could not do these from day 1!
Ok!
Couldn’t see either of 1ac/d, so decided to just start filling in the ones I could see to get some crossers, and moving on immediately if stuck. I realise lots of you do this already, almost as second nature, but I normally prefer to spend some time thinking about each clue and, of course, parsing any answers. The end result was a 12mins solve, which I think is my quickest this year, but (and it’s a big but) nowhere near as much enjoyment. All things considered, I don’t think I will be repeating the experiment. Invariant
Interesting. I have enjoyed my last few QCs much more since I stopped timing them. And, I also prefer to mull over each clue for a while before moving on.
Mr SR and I have never timed ourselves and I do think it would spoil our enjoyment. We always parse everything (brainpower and GK allowing, of course!) which we wouldn’t if chasing times.
In fact, when we started reading this blog, I didn’t twig the TIMES for the Times bit and thought people were being a bit boastful 🤦♀️
Ha! When I first started I thought the quoted times were in hrs:mins, and so didn’t feel too bad about my all day and more efforts. . .
😄
I didn’t find it quite as straightforward as nearly everyone so far has suggested, although I did finish under target at 9.12. It was the north east corner that looked rather empty after I had quickly completed the rest, and this turned a potentially quick time into a rather pedestrian one.
A proper QC and all solved, parsed and enjoyed over one cup of coffee. No time, as I have stopped recording, but probably an SCC escape.
Unfortunately, 1a (TRANSMISSION) remained unsolved until just before the end, so I missed out on six starting letters. ODOUR was my FOI and I then had to wait until FACES, GNOCCHI and REUNION until I really got going. The Down clues posed fewer problems and I continued to rattle along at a good pace (for me) until I reached my LOI (PLATO).
Many thanks to Alex and Kitty.
16.30 much enjoyed. Couldn’t parse PLATO without explanation above (but with P_A_O and philosopher it had to be…). Thanks Alex and Kitty
A very enjoyable 11:33 and a lovely start to the week. TRANSMISSION took me a while, and only as I contemplated this text box did it occur to me that we’re meant to be treating “conveyance” as a verb. Perhaps one day I’ll stop falling into that trap, but not today.
Thank you for the blog!
I had to write out the two long anagrams which slowed me down somewhat. Nevertheless all done and parsed in 16 minutes. A nice start to the week.
FOI – 8ac ODOUR
LOI -12ac GARISH
COD – 11ac PLATO
Thanks to Alex and Kitty
9 minutes. Only held up by LOI GARISH which I failed to parse. Thanks for that.
COD DRASTIC.
David
Thanks Kitty,
A nice puzzle simple enough for me to complete! Near record time as well around the 20 minute mark.
FOI: Odour
COD: Gnocchi
LOI: Garish – took a while on this, simply could not see it
12:40 with no errors. It seems I’m in the minority as TRANSMISSION was my FOI, the anagram resolving itself fairly quickly. LOI – ACCOMPLISHED, COD – GNOCCHI. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
I did this as a warm-up to my blog puzzle, and it fell pretty quickly. The only one I had trouble with was thoroughfare, which is probably a chestnut, but I needed all the checking letters. I did see gnocchi and Plato instantly, which made a fast time possible – well, fast for me.
Time: 5:52
Thank you Alex, a straightforward QC. much needed!
Just needed the explanation of try, in GNOCCHI, although I guessed it.
I always get on well with Alex, and this was no exception
08:33 and thanks to Alex for a good crossword at about the right level, and thanks to Kitty for the blog. I enjoyed THOROUGHFARE and INDEED as my clues of the day. LOI was OUTLIVE. Thanks again!
Thank you Alex for a very nicely pitched QC with enough clever clues to keep me on my toes e.g. GNOCCHI and PLATO.
COD HEATUP.
6:57. Smooth sailing!
A nice easy one to start the week.
Good to get this under my belt after mucking up the 15×15, which I should have finished.
Thanks Alex
A gentle start to the week. FOI was ABOUT and LOI TRANSMISSION. GARISH took a moment or two to parse. 6:08. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
very pleasant start to the week.
10 minutes of smooth solving with the double definitions falling nicely into place and the long anagrams eminently solvable. Lovely start to the week! More like this one please. Thanks Alex and Kitty
13 minutes of entertainment. Funny how the long entries on the borders intimidated me at first look, then were write-ins or nearly so (TRANSMISSION was my FOI). Slowed down by having to mentally reach for TUP, HUM, and that pesky -OUR instead of -or.
So many good surfaces, REUNION – Return of the Secaucus Seven maybe? – and GARISH were particular favorites. I couldn’t see “garnish” because I kept thinking the “ish” was clued by “nuance” or “hint of nuance”.
Thanks to Alex and Kitty!
Wasn’t ‘or’ Webster’s idea?🙂
I think you’re right, though I’m not very clear on the history of American spelling “reforms”.
Had I known this would be one of my fastest solves, I’d have properly timed it. Est 12 mins. Got most at first pass or on second pass with some checkers.
Thanks Alex and Kitty
06:13
I was a bit worried by the long words around the edge of the grid, and thoroughfare and accomplished were LOI.
COD drastic, good surface!
7.43 The four long answers all needed checkers but this was otherwise straightforward. Thanks Kitty and Alex.
10:49 here. Very enjoyable. Unusually, my COD is an anagram: I would never in a million years have spotted that TRANSMISSION can be munged into ROMANS INSIST, so bravo Alex.
Thanks to Kitty and Alex.