This took me 09:10 and so I would say is on the upper end of medium. But then again … I fell headfirst into the setter’s trap at 6d, so you may well have done better!
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Guy’s husband wearing baseball attire (4) |
| CHAP – CAP [baseball attire] is “wearing” (i.e. goes around) H [husband]. I toyed briefly with Mitt, being the only other piece of baseball attire in my ken. | |
| 3 | Corn periodically safe to eat and easy to swallow? (8) |
| CREDIBLE – CR [corn periodically] + EDIBLE [safe to eat]. A CREDIBLE story is one which is “easy to swallow”. | |
| 8 | Specimen is no longer enough (7) |
| EXAMPLE – EX [is no longer] + AMPLE [enough]. Very good. | |
| 10 | European head travelling west somewhere in Germany (5) |
| ESSEN – E [European] + NESS [head] going from right to left [travelling west]. | |
| 11 | Huge site is renovated to house British street paper (3,3,5) |
| THE BIG ISSUE – anagram [renovated] of “huge site is” + B for “British”. This may hold up some of our non-UK solvers, though I now learn from wiki that THE BIG ISSUE is sold on many non-UK streets, so maybe not. | |
| 13 | Fly from Athens, possibly (6) |
| HASTEN – anagram [possibly] of “Athens”. Ah, not an insect then. | |
| 15 | Be in control of bad credit (6) |
| DIRECT -anagram [bad] of “credit”. Lovely, smooth clue. | |
| 17 | Mark’s clever, in a manner of speaking (5,6) |
| ACUTE ACCENT – “mark” as in a punctuation mark, which catches me out every time. ACUTE [clever] + ACCENT [in a manner of speaking]. On edit – as Quadrophenia points out below, a better parsing is CUTE [clever] inside [in] A [a] + ACCENT [manner of speaking]. | |
| 20 | In France, LeBron is a big star (5) |
| CELEB – hidden inside “France, LeBron”. Celebrity and stardom do not always go together. | |
| 21 | Expert teams deployed (or recalled) (7) |
| MAESTRO -anagram [deployed] of “teams” + RO [or recalled, i.e. OR going backwards]. | |
| 22 | Very tall wife breaks piece of foot jewellery (8) |
| TOWERING – W [wife] inside [breaks] TOE-RING [piece of foot jewellery, apparently; no, me neither]. | |
| 23 | Phone purchases are priced pretty stupidly to begin with (4) |
| APPS – first letters [to begin with] of “are priced pretty stupidly”. Some apps are free, of course. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | They run fast and they play dirty, we’re told (8) |
| CHEETAHS – sounds like [we’re told] “cheaters”. | |
| 2 | Wow, a puzzle that has dead ends? (5) |
| AMAZE – the verb here, “to wow/to AMAZE”. A + MAZE. | |
| 4 | Once again cut grass with it (2-4) |
| RE-EDIT – editing does not necessarily involve cutting – sometimes the editing process might involve expanding a document. But I quibble. REED [grass} with IT. | |
| 5 | Maybe shift round to get seats offering a good view? (5,6) |
| DRESS CIRCLE – DRESS [maybe shift] + CIRCLE [round]. | |
| 6 | Surround bees flying around island, say (7) |
| BESIEGE – anagram [flying] of “bees”, going “around” I [island] + EG [say]. My LOI and added a chunk of time; I thought that “island, say” meant that I was looking for a homophone of an island. Middle stump, well bowled Jalna. | |
| 7 | Female from Reading regularly heading for Andover (4) |
| EDNA – EDN is “Reading regularly” + A. In his Monday blog Jack announced the forthcoming demise of random Christian names; can’t forthcome soon enough for me. | |
| 9 | Two or three prepare anaesthetic (5,6) |
| PRIME NUMBER – PRIME for “prepare” (that thing you can’t be bothered to do when painting) + NUMBER for “anaesthetic” (it makes you “numb”, ho ho). | |
| 12 | Don’t change that boy’s hats (8) |
| STETSONS – STET [“don’t change that” – stet is Latin for “let it stand”, used in publishing to indicate that no change should be made] + SON’S [boy’s; the apostrophe is silent]. The hats are named after their inventor John B. Stetson | |
| 14 | Extremely snobbish sanction having little depth (7) |
| SHALLOW – SH for each end [extremely] of “snobbish” + ALLOW for “sanction”. | |
| 16 | Small creatures found in silver mines (6) |
| VERMIN – hidden [found in] in “silver mines”. | |
| 18 | Thoroughly enjoy each place when climbing (3,2) |
| EAT UP – EA for “each” + “put” [place, as in “put/place the sofa over there please Charlie“] going upwards [when climbing]. | |
| 19 | Mary Somerville, for one, appears in first couple of science books (4) |
| SCOT – Somerville was a SCOT and a great C19 scientist, so the surface is excellent and gets my COD. A truly remarkable woman: among many other distinctions she has an Oxford college named after her, and was the first signature on John Stuart Mill’s petition for female suffrage. Her face currently adorns the Scottish ten pound note (widely rejected all over the rest of the UK). The wordplay is SC [first couple of science] + OT [books, as in Old Testament]. | |
I’d just like to apologise to Mary Somerville for not knowing who she was, if it’s any consolation she was my LOI. Otherwise a fairly straightforward solve, 6.58, thanks Templar and Jalna.
What’s LOI stand for please?
Since Mary has been dead for over 150 years, there’s no chance of her taking offence!
Last One In
There’s a Glossary under Useful Links where you’ll find explanations of the terms many posters use around here.
13:14. RE-EDIT, TOWERING, DRESS CIRCLE, ACUTE ACCENT, and PRIME NUMBER were most fun to solve.
Less tea, more solving required!
Thanks, a useful mantra- although the saying about old dogs and new tricks certainly applies to me!
DNK Somerville, but with the checkers not much choice. 6:39.
20:56. Plenty of COD contenders here, I particularly liked EXAMPLE, ACUTE ACCENT, and the surface of SCOT, but my COD is PRIME NUMBER which really amused me. FOI – THE BIG ISSUE, LOI – STETSONS. Thanks Jalna for an enjoyable challenge and Templar for the blog.
Was trying to fit MAN (island) into BEES for 6d before seeing what was going on. I parsed ACUTE ACCENT as CUTE=clever (as in ‘don’t get cute with me’) inside A + ACCENT with ‘in’ being the insertion indicator. THE BIG ISSUE is also available in Oz, so no problem there. NHO the Scottish lady but the wordplay was easy to follow, and thanks for the info’ Templar. CHEETAHS with similar clueing very recently, last week I think. Liked STETSONS.
Thanks T & J.
That was how I parsed ACUTE-ACCENT too
14 minutes. The LH went smoothly with only Mary S unknown, but she had to be a SCOT. The RH was slower with delays over my last two in, STETSONS and DIRECT. For a moment I thought I was going to be breeze-blocked.
Started right on par with five on the first pass of acrosses but then things picked up and I sped to an unexpected sub 10. The second in as many days only with more accurate typing this time. Enjoyed STETSON. HASTEN and CREDIT surprised me by emerging from Athens and credit – I do like a short anagram. In my very early solving days “number in theatre (11)” totally foxed me, including for a while after I’d read the answer, so I felt all nostalgic when PRIME NUMBER went in. All green in 9.49.
20.09 Held up by AMAZE …(yes, unnecessarily so…but there we are, another alphabet trawl until we realised the error of our ways) and DIRECT (too long trying to incorporate DEBT). ACUTE ACCENT made us smile, and we share Mendesest’s pleasure in heading straight to NUMBER.. (though we, less admirably, simply felt a little smug).
A very pleasant way to start the morning. Thanks to J and to T.
9.35. A pleasant start to the day.
I found this fairly gentle, but was solving on a tablet so had to be wary of fat fingers.
Only really got held up by my L2I, VERMIN and HASTEN where I missed the anagram and was looking for an insect.
Finished in 6.53 with COD to ACUTE ACCENT.
Thanks to Templar
We really enjoyed this and was surprised to see the clock stop at 26.15. We had to grope around a bit for a foot hold but once we got going seemed to be steady enough. I think we spent a lot of time parsing biffed answers but that’s an enjoyable way to spend our time and I that’s what we’re her for 😀 Thanks Jalna
I would give COD to re-edit for the misdirection of the definition, no not “once”, not “once again”, but “once again cut”!!
LOI was the mark after exhausting Twain, scar and others
Thanks Templar for the great blog.
7:53, but a decent bit of that on LOI BESIEGE (yes I too tried to find a three letter island to fit into the clue) – excellent clue and without that I’d have been on for a very fast time. Like others I confess to not knowing who Mary Somerville was, but as Kevin says, the checkers made the answer clear. Slight surprise at APPS being clued as phone purchases: not all apps are purchased and not all phone purchases are apps, so this feels loose to me.
Many thanks Templar for the informative blog
Cedric
Bang on 1xTemplar today also with 9:10. Alas can’t access crossword club this morning keep getting 404 type errors albeit the non CC digital version was accessible. Anyone else struggle?
I really enjoyed this puzzle, there was more than one really good cryptic definition. FOI and COD was CREDIBLE and LOI REEDIT.
Also nice to see NUMBER for anaesthetic – straight out of cryptic crossword school.
The STET in STETSON is something I used to see quite often as a junior tax adviser when having my prose edited by a more senior member of the team who had then changed his (or hers) mind. I still review things in manuscript but suspect if I was to deploy this it would meet with bewilderment.
Cheers all
11:02 for the solve. First pass went well and I was able to bung in CREDIBLE, EXAMPLE, THE-BIG-ISSUE and DRESS-CIRCLE once checkers were in place with barely a second look at the clues. Held up for last 2-3mins by ACUTE-ACCENT, STETSONS, DIRECT (LOI).
Good puzzle from Jalna and like the surfaces of EDNA and CELEB – LeBron James was a star attraction of the U.S. basketball team at last year’s Paris Olympics.
We had RE-EDIT just 17 puzzles ago on Jan 10th where Izetti gave us “Grass — it gets to change again (2-4)”
11:18
I also had BESIEGE as my LOI, falling into the same trap of looking for an island. I was also delayed by HASTEN, where I was looking for the wrong sort of fly.
Thanks Templar and Jalna
I failed on STETSON as it was my LOI and the crossers fitted for STATION. Once I saw that I couldn’t get it out of my head and my morning standup was nigh, so I put it in and hoped. Disappointed I failed to see STET for “don’t change that” as, back in the 90s, I worked with my Dad who was useless with a keyboard so he used to scrawl out letters that I’d type and they often contained scribblings out with STET written above…
Re 22ac: I didn’t read it as “Toe – ring” for “piece of foot jewelry”, rather, I read “Piece of foot” = TOE, “jewellery” = RING.
Yes but I found a picture of an actual Toe Ring in Wiktionary. 2 words.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/toe_ring
I put it into Cheating Machine.
Toe-rings are big in India! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_ring
Do Indians have particularly big toes? 😃
Just over 9 minutes for me which is slightly faster than normal.
Have tried to introduce my mother in law to the QC. I told her that there is only ever one place in Germany, ESSEN and the only film made is ET.
A decent middle of the Road puzzle as far as I’m concerned, and I wasn’t too stretched to finish in 8.20. I paused a little too long on trying to recall what Mary Somerville was famous for, before realising all that was required was her nationality.
Drew a worrying blank with both 1ac/d, but Creditable then gave a toe-hold to work on. It still took me some time to tune into Jalna’s quirky humour, but spotting Acute Accent and Prime Number opened up the bottom half of the grid, and the solve then became progressively more straightforward. Besiege was a satisfying pdm, but Hasten was anything but, and held out to the very end: I needed all the crossers to understand why a Tsetse or similar was nowhere in sight. By that time only the SCC aisle seats were left, but I’m satisfied enough with the finish. CoD, in a strong field, to 8ac, Example. Invariant
A great crossword with lots of clever, but within reach, clues. ACUTE ACCENT and PRIME NUMBER stand out but many others brought a smile. Completed in time available beyond my over-running hospital appointment.
Thanks Jalna and Templar
Quite straightforward for a Jalna, I thought. Nevertheless, I managed to put in CALEB when faced with C-L-B, thinking it was the name of a star, despite seeing it was a hidden! DOH!
From CREDIBLE to SCOT (I didn’t know of her either) in 6:53. Thanks Jalna and Templar.
DNF. Could not beat the googly: BESIEGE, kept trying to make BESET fit somehow.
Also came up short on STETSONS where I would never have recalled STET (that’s pretty obscure), and tried HE’S and HIS for “that boy’s”. Disappointing as I am a hat guy, and have several Stetsons in my collection (of, ahem 50). And Stetson don’t just make the eponymous cowboy hat, but a lovely range of others.
COD PRIME NUMBER
50! . . .and there was me thinking half a dozen (not counting the fez) was beginning to get a bit out of hand
50, incredible.
men:hats women:shoes?
8:57
It seems that Mary Somerville has been largely forgotten, though the answer was plain enough. STETSONS held me up the longest at the end.
Thanks Jalna and Templar
Most of it was just about ok, but ACUTE ACCENT really too difficult; “mark” can be so many things, and if also full stop, comma, umlaut, apostrophe etc., too wide open to be findable. But only IMHO, of course! Couldn’t get STETSONS either, which didn’t help.
CNP TOWERING, but surely it’s actually quite simple as JimBob says above. The other CNP was BESIEGE, quite tricky, that.
Sorry about Mary Somerville (distant cousin of mine), DNK she was SCOT but assumed it.
Manner of speaking – a cute accent – anyone – anyone -Bueller?
Female singer / song writer 1970s…half a fish half a conductor.
Changed my methodology. Quick double parse to see what I can solve then use the pencil to insert the solutions and attempt to decipher the clues before coming to the blog.
I wondered about this, but then Clever in the clue is unaccounted for. TBH I was slightly dubious about CLEVER = ACUTE. Now I think again I offer this parsing:
Mark’s clever, in a manner of speaking:
Mark = Acute Accent. Clever = CUTE, IN a manner of speaking = (insert in) A (a) ACCENT (manner of speaking) like so:
A-CUTE-ACCENT
Not sure if this is what you were drivig at, Nutshell?
Yes essentially that. It came up when I was talking to a French person about spelling and there was an acute accent. I commented that’s a cute accent, as you do.
Quadrophenia provided a breakdown above of the clue which I agree with. Think of cute=clever as in “Don’t get cute with me”
Ah yes, I didn’t see that. That is exactly what I was thinking, but Quadrophenia explained it far more succinctly than I.
After a couple of decent (for me) times this week, Jalna has put me back in my place. I didn’t find it as easy as most of the bloggers above (and was certainly surprised by the low SNITCH). Some very nice clues, with hindsight, but I never seem to get on Jalna’s wavelength and rarely manage to finish his puzzles quickly. I tipped into the SCC today.
I did like STETSONS, BESIEGE, PRIME NUMBER, HASTEN, and ACUTE ACCENT.
I’m glad I was not alone in failing to recognise a toe ring (really??). A small raise of eyebrow with EAT UP, too. One can ‘eat up’ without ‘thoroughly enjoying’. I was often told to ‘eat it up’ as a child and did so only under sufferance.
Perhaps I was not helped today by getting a tax demand mid-solve……
Thanks to both.
DNF. Very dim not to have got CHAP. Hence also missed CHEETAHS and AMAZE.
Quite a tricky puzzle, but plodded through the rest after a pause. I only manage a few at first. FOI APPS.
Took ages to see Athens was an anagram.
STETSONS made me smile. (Stet used frequently in my early employment)
Also liked TOWERING, DRESS CIRCLE, SHALLOW, PRIME NUMBER. ACUTE ACCENT. Yes, luckily, good old ESSEN again. Biffed SCOT.
Thanks vm, Templar.
Very slow to start with but it got a little faster as the grid started to fill (mostly at the bottom). Finished in 21 minutes. Same comments as others regarding 6dn and the unknown Mary Somerville.
FOI – 3ac CREDIBLE
LOI – 6dn BESIEGE
CODs – liked EXAMPLE, CHEETAHS and PRIME NUMBER
Thanks to Jalna and Templar
Got there, but it might have been better not to have carelessly put MENTORS in instead of the correct MAESTROS, and have to correct it.
I too will be GLAD(ys) to see the back of girls names. Sad in a way though because LOI EDNA was my late mothers best friend. Edited for ludicrous typo.
Actually it was EDNA today.
16d Vermin, I was going along fairly quickly and nearly wrote Ermine, which is another hidden and they are weasels so quite small. Fortunately the 1st E was in the wrong place.
19d Scot. I’ve checked and Mary Somerville is in my Cheating Machine already, but I had forgotten about her too. She must have been mentioned here before or she would not be in CM.
32:48
I found this really tough going. Not easily biffable, every clue needed teasing out to see what was going on. Held up by having CHEATERS and ERMINE (which I think is an equally valid answer) on first pass. The last bit to fall was the NE with CREDIBLE and, inevitably, LOI BESIEGE.
I was another to struggle with this. Only got a few at first pass, but gradually got going with a couple of guesses and limped home in 37:10!! Obviously I don’t share Jalna’s wavelength.
I think Jalna is starting to drift towards the Teazel style of riddle clues – not something I would encourage.
No. Just no.
As someone who’s been doing these for months, not years (or decades?) I was not even close to finishing this one.
Some of them I could (perhaps should) have got, but some I only just understand even having read the blog!
And yes, the sooner we get rid of random ‘Edna’s and the like, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Another newbie, I thought I was the only one. I tend to skip through the first pass. If I don’t see it in a few seconds I move on. I just go linearly through the across and then the downs. Next check if any checkers help, and hopefully biff a few. Then revisit all the unsolved. Finally use the pencil (on the app) to write in the answer and see if I can decipher the parse from there. Most days I get six or more, occasionally a little as two, and occasionally double figures. My PB is 17 (!) I’m too old to have been labeled dyslexic. The only way I passed English O Level was to avoid words I couldn’t spell and use words that were in the question text. More of a scientist than a scholar. 🙂
You are on my wavelength. Just started having a go at the QC and yes some days are better than others. Hopefully it’s not ten thousand hours to become reasonably good. I get what I can and then work backwards with a view to picking up more tips. My brain is definitely not wired the right way but I get tremendous pleasure when I manage a few and even more when I read how the answers are arrived at. Headgear was one mistake today instead of Stetson. Onwards and upwards. Love reading all the comments and bathing in such esteemed waters! Thanks to all.
I must have missed the comment in Templar’s blog when I read it earlier or I would have commented.
A point of clarification may be required as there is no new rule or guidance discouraging the use of names as answers to be entered in the grid, for example EDNA clued as ‘female’ in this puzzle, and 1dn clued as ‘girl’ in today’s 15×15. The names are not ‘random’ because they are supported by wordplay which can only lead to one possible answer in each case.
The new guidance (as quoted in the intro to my QC blog on Monday) asks
setters to avoid using male and female names as wordplay elements when clued as ‘girl/boy/woman/man’.
Thanks for clarifying that jackkt – I was wondering if it would qualify as ‘random’. Like you I didn’t think Edna would being the solution.
Oh rats. I’d forgotten that rather important distinction. Thanks Jack. I’ll just have to carry on moaning about the use of names as answers then!
It took me 6 months to break out of the SCC. Three years ago, I only managed to complete 3 of February’s QCs in under an hour and only successful on 8 of 20 puzzles with an average of 1hr26 spent on them.
Much of it seems to me to be practice to get used to the typical words and synonyms which come up in these puzzles. I got some of the QC books for Christmas/birthday plus do puzzles in other papers.
I do a talkthrough solve of The Guardian’s QC every Saturday detailing my approach to solving. Perhaps that can help. You can find last week’s here … https://youtu.be/oBjYPTvZggA … there’s a link in the comments if you want to attempt the puzzle for yourself
Oh yeah, that’s the way it is when you start. You’re where I was a year ago. I (almost) miss the adventure of that time of learning.
Goodbye Edna, don’t let the door hit you on the way out…. on reading jackkt’s clarification, come back Edna, all is forgiven!
I took an hour to complete (and DNF) on a couple of this week’s 15x15s. I can highly recommend it if you’re missing the adventure of first year learning … 😜
Yes, I’ve been dabbling there too. Lots of fun and frustrations!
I enjoyed 1 down, but much prefer cheats to the Americanism cheaters. I’d rather Jalna didn’t encourage it!
09:11
LOI stetsons.
Liked towering and dress circle.
What part do the ‘dead ends’ play in 2 down?
When you are working your way through a maze there are lots of dead ends.
A maze … has dead ends! eg Hampton Court Maze
I found this hard but enjoyable. 46 mins. BESIEGE was LOI. Stetson took a while as I tried to make an anagram.
Looking back the clues are all fair. Prime Number and Acute Accent are my joint COD.
Thanks to Jalna and Templar.
All correct in 16 minutes. Much enjoyed the cute clue at 17a and the wordplay at 9d: NUMBER for anaesthetic made me smile. Not sure toe rings were much in vogue in our postwar growing up years but maybe they are fashionable now. Parsing of 14d held me up as I tried to work out which meaning of sanction applied: sanctions in the news nowadays are always bans – but I’ll sanction Jalna to use the opposite! Many thanks setter and blogger.
Dnf…
20 mins for everything (or so I thought), but just couldn’t get 2dn “Amaze”. There was a good reason – I’d put “Caps” for 1ac, thinking it was “Chaps” with the “h” wearing away to reveal “Caps”. Why I didn’t see the most obvious answer I’m not sure. A good puzzle though, with some clever clues, including 5dn “Dress Circle” and 9dn “Prime Number”.
FOI – 7dn “Edna”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 6dn “Besiege”
Thanks as usual!
15:55. I got caught up on a few at the end. ACUTE ACCENTS, BESIEGE and STETSONS, all of which were excellent clues. thank you both.
A lot to chew on, but no frustrations, made for an enjoyable 18 minutes. EXAMPLE raised a smile, and in general the surfaces were very good. I DNK THE BIG ISSUE so needed all the crossers, and worried it might somehow be “tissue” for a bit. After being warned about “number” by the group here early on in my QCing development, this may be only the first or second time I’ve run into it.
I appreciated the reminder about Mary Somerville, and have just ordered a joint biography of her (with Émilie du Châtelet) from my local library.
Thanks to Jalna and Templar.
17:01 here. Liked this one a lot, COD to ACUTE ACCENT. Add me to the list of people who parsed TOWERING as W in TOE + RING, rather than W in TOE-RING, not that it matters in the least.
Thanks to Jalna and Templar.
We found this difficult, and did not finish.
I get this puzzle in the Globe and Mail about 6 weeks after it’s published in the Times. The clue for 6 Down was misprinted badly. ” Surround bees flying around end of hive, say.” Very cryptic indeed.
An interrupted solve done in two sessions and not timed.
But I found it slow going.
LOI VERMIN after AGPITS dismissed without thinking of anything better for a long time.
ACUTE ACCENT was tricky and held me up a lot.
COD SCOT for the history lesson.
David
DNF. Threw in the towel after about 14 minutes. Stuck on expecting Mark to be some sort of stain I was unable to see that it was ACCENT that was needed to follow a surmised ACUTE. Further, without the former’s T I couldn’t work out what was going out with LOI 12d until it was revealed – frustratingly, I’ve used ‘stet’ myself many moons ago.
A very enjoyable puzzle for me. Needed the explanations to confirm EATUP and STETSONS . Thanks to Jana and Templar
A pleasant solve before going out to try and see the exhibition we couldn’t get into on Monday – it was worth it 😊 I liked HASTEN and DIRECT. I knew of Mary Somerville in relation to the college, but not much else about her- what an impressive woman! Not much else to report.
10:05 FOI Essen LOI Stetson COD Dress circle
Thanks Jalna and Templar
13.20 The top half was quick but MAESTRO, VERMIN, EAT UP and ACUTE ACCENT took many minutes at the end. Thanks Templar and Jalna.
30 min + finish. But I was in a pub. LOI Stetsons, also took along time to get but not parse acute accent. COD Dress Circle. Thanks Templar and Jalna