Good morning, and this morning we have another excellent puzzle from the seemingly inexhaustible treasure chest of crosswords left us by Richard Rogan. This time he has signed it as Felix, and – entirely appropriately given the last letter of his signature name today – there is a theme in the puzzle that even I spotted, and which I found genuinely helpful with some of the later clues I entered. I’m not sure I’ve seen this particular conceit before, and I’m afraid I am going to have to leave it to others to say whether it is just a quirk for its own amusement or whether it signifies anything more than that.
I have to confess my usual response to themed or NINAed puzzles is rather mixed: there is a danger that in finding words that fit the theme, the setter is forced into some rather inelegant clues. Felix seems to have avoided this today; the puzzle is full of delightful and elegant clues, and while there are one or two which caused my eyebrows to begin the hint of a minor raise, as a whole I found it very addressable, coming home in 11.48.
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 | Choose to get rid of something ground-breaking (7) |
| PICKAXE – PICK (choose) + AXE (get rid of). Ground-breaking in the literal sense here – so often it is used as a metaphor, but here we are definitely considering a tool for breaking the ground. | |
| 5 | Bend cable (4) |
| FLEX – A straightforward DD, and one of several clues that I did not get at first but saw straight away when I came back to it having worked out the X-rated theme. | |
| 7 | Putting in case for sport (6) |
| BOXING – A second DD, the first definition perhaps more commonly referred to a “boxing something up”. | |
| 8 | Chest that briefly stores gold: unknown quantity (6) |
| THORAX – THA (that “briefly”, ie with the last letter deleted) containing (“stores”) OR (gold) + X (unknown quantity). The definition refers to an anatomical chest, not a wooden container.
My LOI, and another that I could not solve on the first pass, but by the time I returned to it I did know I needed to include an X in the answer. |
|
| 9 | Appear to mix when playing in ballpark (11) |
| APPROXIMATE – (appear to mix)*, the anagram indicate being “when playing”, and the meaning as in “a ballpark figure / an approximate figure”.
There seems to be a degree of agreement that (a) the use of ballpark to mean rough estimate dates from just after WW2, and (b) the ballpark in question is a baseball park, but other than that I’ve seen conflicting derivations for the phrase. One suggestion is that it comes from American missile tests in the 1950s: the size of the average US baseball field or ballpark is approximately 300-400 feet square, and any missile landing “in the ballpark”, ie within 150-200 feet of the target, was considered close enough to count as a success. So “in the ballpark” came mean “close enough”. Another source suggests the idiom originates from the habit baseball commentators had of estimating the number of people attending a game. That estimated figure became known as “the ballpark figure”. No doubt there are other derivations, and I await them in the comments! |
|
| 10 | Poor Alex’s teacher initially most careless (6) |
| LAXEST – LAXES (anagram of Alex’s, the anagram indicator being “poor”) + T (first letter, ie “initially” of Teacher). | |
| 12 | Praises former Trot less regularly (6) |
| EXTOLS – EX (former) + TOLS (every other letter, ie “regularly”, of TrOt LeSs) | |
| 14 | Men exit Merc waving revolver at building site? (6,5) |
| CEMENT MIXER – (men exit merc)*, the anagram indicator being “waving”. Nothing to do with firearms! | |
| 17 | Be obsessed about nine’s destiny (6) |
| FIXATE – FATE (destiny) containing (“about”) IX (nine) | |
| 18 | Arouse response reflecting some frenetic xenophobia (6) |
| EXCITE – A reverse hidden in frenETIC XEnophobia, with the hidden indicator being “some” and the reversal indicator being “reflecting”. | |
| 20 | Cross parents for the present time! (4) |
| XMAS – X (cross) + MAS (parents, specifically mothers) | |
| 21 | DOB, sex and name finally needed to work in part of plant (7) |
| SEEDBOX – (dob sex e)*, with the E coming from the last letter, ie “finally”, of namE, and the anagram indicator being “needed to work in”.
EDIT: As Jackkt points out, Collins has for “seedbox” the definition “the part of a plant that contains seeds”, so the clue is absolutely spot on. All my worrying above was for Collins’ definition of “seed box”. Similar but not quite the same …
|
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Supporting expert (3) |
| PRO – Our third and last DD, the first meaning coming from “I support this / I am pro this”.
And two of the three DD clues conform to one of the more reliable rules of crosswords – Two Word Clues are almost always DDs. |
|
| 2 | Make ineffective little wave after Charlie (7) |
| CRIPPLE – C (Charlie in the NATO alphabet) + RIPPLE (little wave).
Cripple is no longer considered an acceptable term for someone with disabilities, but in the verb sense (“The government was crippled by the loss of its majority in the House”) it is still OK. |
|
| 3 | Difficulties with content of bags increase endlessly (5) |
| AGGRO – AG (middle letters of, ie “content of”, bAGs) + GRO (grow, ie increase, with the last letter deleted, ie “endlessly”). | |
| 4 | Medical specialism and alcoholic drink are interwoven! (7) |
| ENTWINE – ENT (medical specialism, ie “Ear, Nose and Throat”) + WINE (alcoholic drink).
But shouldn’t “interwoven” give entwined, past tense? |
|
| 5 | List of plants kept by Carol finally turned up (5) |
| FLORA – a second reverse hidden, in cAROL Finally, with the hidden indicator being “kept by” and the reversal indicator being “turned up”. | |
| 6 | Painter’s forename, you’ll infer, always missing first three letters (9) |
| ENAMELLER – A clue where you have to follow the instructions literally, and remove the first three letters from the wordplay components. This gives us |
|
| 9 | Bizarre chairman’s belief in non-government (9) |
| ANARCHISM – (chairmans)*, the anagram indicator being “bizarre”. | |
| 11 | Is inclined to accept an old monarch’s offers (7) |
| TENDERS – TENDS (is inclined to) including (ie “accept”) ER (any one of a number of former monarchs). A list of possible ERs would start with two Elizabeths and 8 Edwards since 1066, while from before the Conquest the roster includes Edward the Confessor, Edward the Martyr, Edward the Elder, Edgar, Eadred, Edmund, Eadwig and so on.
And I do know that so far I’ve only mentioned English monarchs, before anyone accuses me of overlooking King Edgar the Valiant, king of Scotland 1097-1107. |
|
| 13 | Charge one cent to get a black vehicle for hire (7) |
| TAXICAB – TAX (charge) + I (one) + C (cent) + A (from the clue) + B (black). Phew, 5 components in a 7-letter clue. | |
| 15 | Aims low: close to grass (5) |
| MEANS – MEAN (low, for example as in “a mean blow / a low blow”) + S (close to, ie last letter of, grasS).
Does Aims mean Means? I struggled a bit with this at first, but I think the pair “that jacket was meant for / was aimed at someone bigger than me” suggests that it can. It’s still IMO one of the iffier definitions in an otherwise very accurate puzzle, though no doubt others will find a much better example of mine to prove it 100% OK. |
|
| 16 | Girl rising in the morning the day before (5) |
| MAEVE – MA (a.m. backwards, ie “in the morning” rising) + EVE (the day before).
For obvious reasons we can excuse Felix for not being aware of our new crossword editor’s dislike of random men’s or women’s names in clue constructions or answers. |
|
| 19 | Uniform in Texas is a smart jacket (3) |
| TUX – U (uniform in the NATO alphabet) included in TX (2-letter abbreviation for Texas).
And Felix signs off with an extremely smooth surface indeed – though a ten gallon hat would run a tux close for the required uniform for a Texan. |
|
10:08 with no errors. Another great puzzle from the much missed Richard Rogan aka Corelli, Des, or, in this case, Felix, and possibly some other pseudonyms that I am unaware of. Also a new record (for me) as this is my fastest completion of a crossword set by Felix. FOI – APPROXIMATE, LOI – AGGRO, COD – ENAMELLER, but honourable mentions to the entire set of across clues. Thanks Cedric and posthumous thanks to Felix.
15:47. When it finally clicked that there were a lot of X’s about I was able to mop up the last few answers quickly. I was sure at first the definition was destiny in the clue for FIXATE so lost a lot of time there. I think what do you mean to do equates with what do you aim to do. Or maybe he aims to please/ he means to please.
Never noticed the X’s; if I had, I might have been quicker to get THORAX. 9:10.
I was a bit worried about an error, as I put in several unparsed answers. However, enameller turned up correct, and taxicab could hardly be anything else. Yes, all the X answers sped things up.
Time: 9:13
14 minutes. I didn’t notice a theme or Nina other than all the across answers clues contain X. That’s enough in itself, but if there’s anything more I shall be interested to find out.
‘Aim / mean’ works when both refer to intention or purpose, e.g. I didn’t mean / aim to offend you.
The clue to MAEVE is not in breach of any new guidelines, at least as relayed to us by Mick Hodgkin in his Newsletter on 26th January:
Jason Crampton…is encouraging setters to avoid using male and female names as wordplay elements, at least when clued as ‘girl/boy/woman/man’).” This will be music to the ears of those who complain regularly about the use of “random” names in wordplay.
MAEVE is the answer, not an element of wordplay, and isn’t random because the wordplay takes us to it.
I’m not sure where you looked, Cedric, but in Collins online and my printed edition the first definition of seedbox is: 1. the part of a plant that contains seeds. A Google image search on ‘seedbox poppy’ brings up some striking examples where the seedbox on a plant is particularly noticeable, especially when the delicate petals have died off and dropped or been blown away.
Ah, I have checked again. There are two separate entries for seedbox in Collins Online! You have quoted the one for “seedbox” and I originally looked at the one for “seed box”. A classic error of the Internet search age – I found seed box and assumed that was the only entry; whereas if I had a paper copy I’d have immediately seen both entries. Thank you and blog amended!
13:15 for the solve. Nice enough puzzle from Felix and I must admit to breathing a sigh of relief to get through it in a decent time. I never found his puzzles easy – clues like APPROXIMATE=ballpark, THORAX=chest examples of where I would have struggled in the past. I liked the revolver at the building site!
MEANS and FIXATE last in, adding perhaps a minute. Was trying to do something with low=moo for a while. The X for FIXATE was more of a confirmer that 9=IX and where to put it.
Mention of Crossword Editor reminds me that we haven’t seen a puzzle from Asp all year. I’m not sure what to make of that given how many puzzles RR used to put in, other than it suggests there is a solid rotation of setters able to provide 300+ puzzles for the year.
Edit: parksolve coming in at 37:35
Very clever to be able to do this whilst producing a top quality puzzle.
The first three across clues went straight in at which point I realised that there was a likely theme going on which made a number of the across clues a lot easier than they might have been.
Started with PICKAXE and finished with ENAMELLER in 7.15.
Thanks to Cedric, I particularly enjoyed the thoughts about the origins of ballpark, and to RR.
From PICKAXE to ENAMELLER in 8:01. Nice puzzle. Thanks Felix and Cedric.
Excellent. I saw the theme after THORAX and that made the rest of the acrosses a bit easier. SEEDBOX was the only word that I wondered about but the anagrist confirmed it.
14:56. I saw the X device early, and this helped with BOXING.
I liked the literal instructions for ENAMELLER, sometimes we just need to be told what to do.
COD THORAX
Quite a fun puzzle, I thought. Not quick, but a steady solve, and I never noticed the X theme. Like ND, I thought CEMENT MIXER very clever.
Pi ❤️
7:22 but if I’d spotted the theme (I never do) I wouldn’t have wasted a minute or two at the end trying to justify ROWING at 7ac.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Cedric and posthumous thanks to Mr Rogan.
I still bear the scars of Breadman’s puzzle in Jan 2024 which gave us a choice of BOXING or ROWING with “Scrapping an Olympic sport (6)”; so looked twice at today’s clue
Enjoyable QC from one of the great setters, but agree with Cedric about the wording of 4D – ‘interweave’ instead of ‘are interwoven’ would be more correct. Also MER at MEANS = aims, but accept comments above. Interesting notes on the derivation of ballpark. Thanks Cedric
The two strands entwine.
The two strands are interwoven.
That’s what I thought too. I think Cedric’s underlining may need extending by one word.
What I was more confused by in this clue was the purpose of the exclamation mark. There was actually another one in this puzzle, after the cryptic definition of XMAS, where some setters might have considered putting a question mark, but I can’t see the purpose of this one at all.
11:46 and, yes, it was very helpful to have spotted the X’s early. I think ENTWINE works if you take “are interwoven” as the definition, as in
The strands are interwoven
The strands entwine
I came back to PICKAXE as soon as I’d seen the X’s, so that is my COD. It must be the first time I have ever spotted a NINA/theme in time to benefit from it
Very clever! Once I had twigged what was going on, the previously problematic across clues became much easier to solve. About 24 minutes.
A brilliant puzzle to immerse oneself in on a quiet, relaxed Saturday morning.
I enjoyed it more when I stopped worrying about my time (certainly above 20 mins) and just got on with it.
The early realisation that there were going to be plenty of Xs did help. It did mean that some of the clues were crowbarred in somewhat in order to achieve this -always a risk when Ninas are involved.
For once, that didn’t bother me; I was carried along by the setter’s imagination and skill. Too many fine clues for me to list*. In any case, Cedric’s fine and detailed blog makes this unnecessary. Thanks, Cedric.
* However, I must say that I was rather tickled by MAEVE (despite the contravention of the recent ruling on ‘random names’.
See Jackkt’s comment above, which explains why MAEVE is not a contravention of the ruling at all.
Oops! For once, I did not read all the posts before adding my two pennorth.
I was just picking up on Cedric’s comment. Perhaps I should have said ‘dislike of’ rather than ‘ruling’.
Great fun for a Saturday morning once I spotted the Nina which helped considerably with the remaining across clues. ROWING for 7a was but a fleeting thought.
Fastest time of the week at 28:52.
Thanks for the blog Cedric.
I don’t normally see Ninas, but this one was hard to miss! It certainly helped with PICKAXE and BOXING, where the X was not indicated as such. I found the bottom half easier to break into, so worked my way upwards steadily, with LOI however, FIXATE, where I was looking for a word for destiny as the solution. Was also trying to get ‘moo’ into 15d. I often have trouble with low=mean, though it’s perfectly valid – just not the first 20 things I think of!
DNF Disaster.
Might have helped a little if I had not marked off 14a as 7,4 instead of 6,5, especially as MAEVE was a clue I did solve.
Puzzled by SEEDBOX so thanks for explaining that one – I could only think of Calyx.
Will draw a veil over the rest of my failures.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
Spotted the theme with the second X as I started to solve Acrosses in sequence. Felt pleased as I never spot Nina’s and usually look for a pangram in vain.
A good mix of not so difficult clues once all the cross clues entered.
JCOD ENAMELLER and THORAX.
Put DEEDBOX without thinking before changing it to SEED.
Thanks Cedric. Thanks Felix for posthumous gift.
SCC again, but only by a second, and I’m probably a bit slower on my phone than on paper. COD to PICKAXE. Thanks all.
10:29
Only spotted the multitude of Xs three-quarters of the way through, but doing so certainly put me on the right track to finish the puzzle. I didn’t think it was especially difficult but I did seem to take rather longer than usual to get through it. Having said that, I enjoyed some of the scenery, my LOI ENAMELLER being my COD.
Thanks Cedric for the entertaining blog
12:17
Spotted the X theme in time for it to help with THORAX and BOXING.
I wondered whether the list of monarch beginning E was missing any Kings of Gwynedd, Deheubarth etc., but the only ones I could come up with were from Powys in the 7th century, where there was an Eiludd and an Elisedd. Wikipedia tells me that Gwynedd had a King called Einion Yrth ap Cunedda (Einion the Impetuous) in the 5th century.
Thanks Cedric for an entertaining blog
Honourable mention to the saintly Queen Edith, 1045-1066.
As luck would have it, I started this in the NE corner with Flex and then just worked steadily clockwise round the grid. Mixing up the across and down clues meant that, yet again, I didn’t spot the Nina and consequently hesitated over loi Xmas, before bunging it in to scrape a sub-20. Joint CoD to the predictably overlapping Entwine/Thorax.
Another first rate puzzle from the RR archive: If only he hadn’t been fixated on Dickens for so long. Invariant
Great puzzle. Made steady progress. The X theme definitely helped me solve LOI BOXING. Many thanks for the blog. All done and dusted in what seemed about a normal ‘one-coffee-sort-of-time’. Liked the clues for PICKAXE and CEMENT MIXER. Thanks as usual.
Slow, steady but very much enjoyed. When himself spotted the ‘X words’ our pace improved from that of snail to tortoise and we moseyed along very happily. Thought all clever with particular mention to ENTWINE (though agree with the tense issue) and XMAS. NHO LAXEST though it had to be…
Blog, comments all edifying as always.
DNF.
For some reason I did not think of Xmas.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks for the blog
Oh Felix, so much fun, and a theme even I couldn’t miss. A couple of rookie mistakes took my time out to 14:22, which didn’t lessen my enjoyment, mind you. FOI FLEX, LOI BOXING (I wonder if the answer is more salient for those living where Boxing Day is a thing), COD CEMENT MIXER for the surface.
We miss you Felix! Thank you Cedric.
10.48 WOE. I biffed ROWING at the end having missed the very obvious theme. Oh well. Thanks Cedric and Felix.
Able to complete this one after my struggle yesterday! Took me about my average of 2 hours, but very pleased I managed to spot the use of Xs in the across answers. Thank you for explaining the clues!
Kudos to you, especially as the Quickie Snitch is above average today, currently at 109.
Where can I find the quickie snitch? I can find it for the regular cryptic but for some reason can never find it for the quick one
Here: https://quick.xwdsnitch.link/
This is wonderful, thank you! Quite amused with the fact I couldn’t get into yesterday’s one at all, and it seems to have been a lot easier 😀
I was struggling with this one until I realised that every across clue had the X in it. Whilst I accept this is probably the most obvious “theme” of any crossword I’ve ever tried (outside of holiday themed offerings such as the Christmas cryptic jumbo), I did still feel quite smug that (a) I spotted it and (b) it helped me finish the last 4 or 5 (having dismissed the anagram on 9ac on first pass thinking the anagrist to be implausible because of the X).
Maybe one day I’ll spot a pangram during the solve and it will help me get the last couple of awkward clues…
Struggled to 13 something. Done in two somewhat sleep deprived sessions (jet lag). Enjoyed the Xs. Didn’t enjoy past tense for TWINE and don’t think ENAMELLER is very good for painter. Excellent blog.
Many thanks Cedric; RIP RR.
11:52 here, with the last two minutes spent on ENAMELLER, until I finally just did as I was told. The X theme helped me discard WARP at 5 across before it became a problem.
Thanks to Cedric and RIP RR. What a talent.
12:30. BOXING would have taken me ages if I hadn’t spotted the eckses! lovely puzzle.
27 mins…
Definitely x-rated from Felix and a great puzzle. Overall, just pleased to have finished a Saturday grid, although if I hadn’t got bogged down with 6dn “Enameller”and a few clues in the SE corner, it could have been even quicker.
FOI – 1dn “Pro”
LOI – 21ac “Seedbox”
COD – 20ac “Xmas”
Thanks as usual!
9.18. Needed a little thought.
Laxest???
Laxest?
As soon as I saw the second X, I wondered if that was going to be the theme, and so it was! But before that, as FLEX was my FOI and Felix was our setter, I wondered if there was going to be some fun and games in that direction.
I felt very sad when I saw it was an RR puzzle – even though unlike many of you, I was never lucky enough to meet him, I feel as if we all knew him in some way.
But as usual, he gave us lots of fun – I really enjoyed the whole thing and there are so many brilliant clues: CEMENT MIXER, XMAS, APPROXIMATE in particular, but my COD wins because it is also Anagram of the Day.
10:17 FOI Flex LOI Cripple COD Anarchism
Thanks Felix and Cedric
Spent about 35 mins +with reveals here and there to complete the grid.Cheating??Well i don’t see myself as the next Mark Goodlife or Simon Anthony,so who cares!