Times Quick Cryptic No 2941 by Shay

Author   rolytolyPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A proper toughie today with new setter Shay’s second outing.

I struggled with large parts of the NW and SE, which had to be hacked away at for nearly seventeen minutes – my slowest by a bit, for a bit.

Well done if you managed to get through all or even most of it, but I wouldn’t be disheartened if not, as the difficulty of a number of the clues was more of a decent-strength 15×15. And then when these clues intersect… well, you end up with a very tough solve.

Chalk it up as one of those fun learning experience things! There have been several such chastening puzzles over on the 15×15 of recent, so I’m well enough aware of the feeling.

Some excellent stuff along the way to soften the bruises, my favourite being the drunken dons at 11ac – cheers to Shay!

Across
8 Violent storm to bother sheltering Navy (7)
TORNADO – TO and ADO (bother) sheltering RN (Royal Navy). I was thinking the TO-DO was the bother, and was wondering what the A was doing.
9 Volunteer work, popular introduction to employment (5)
OPINE – OP (work) IN (popular) E (“introduction” to Employment). To volunteer, as in to offer up information.
10 Slight prod necessary at first (5)
SPURN – SPUR (prod) N (Necessary “at first”). Tough.
11 University dons stayed drunk for 24 hours (7)
TUESDAY – U(niversity) dons/wears/is clothed by an anagram (drunk) of STAYED
12 Clobber whoever spoilt latter half of film (9)
OVERWHELM – anagram (spoilt) of WHOEVER and LM (“latter half” of  fiLM)
14 Old man left mate (3)
PAL -PA (old man) L(eft)
16 Slippery character returned three letters from Middle East (3)
EEL – “returned three letters” from middLE East
18 Revolting rum in tiny mug (9)
MUTINYING – anagram (rum) of IN TINY MUG. Very good! I certainly fell into the trap of trying to unravel synonyms for phizog or hijack.
21 Some clever Andalusians open gallery (7)
VERANDA – “some” cleVER ANDAlusians
22 Roughly position head for doctor (5)
CAPUT – CA. (circa = roughly) PUT (position). Medical word for the head, and tricky if you don’t know it, especially as it crosses with an equally tricky medical-based clue at 15d.
23 Previously called with extremely dubious demands (5)
NEEDS -NEE (previously called) with DS (“extremely” DubiouS)
24 Fury after vacuous clerical mistake (7)
CLANGER – ANGER (fury) after CL (“vacuous” ClangeR)
Down
1 Lug instrument and books round room (8)
OTOSCOPE – OT (Old Testament = books) O (round) SCOPE (room). As in lug = ear, and scope/room for improvement.
2 Birds   squawk (6)
GROUSE – a fiendish double definition: squawk/grouse/complain
3 Man on board vessel housing wife (4)
PAWN – PAN (vessel) housing W(ife). Man = any chesspiece.
4 Cereal stuck in my beard (6)
GOATEE – OAT (cereal) stuck in GEE (cor/my/heavens above!)
5 Canine abdomen sadly containing tip of finger (8)
DOBERMAN – anagram (sadly) of ABDOMEN containing R (“tip” of fingeR)
6 Success upset sweet kid (4,2)
WIND UP – WIN (success) PUD (sweet/dessert) upset = reversed
7 Count is really disheartened (4)
RELY – “dishearten” = take the “heart” out of RE al LY
13 Effete old chap seized by desire (8)
WOMANISH – O(ld) MAN (chap) seized by WISH (desire). Borderline, at best, this, however good a clue it might be, even with tongue-in-cheek. Collins and Chambers don’t list the “effeminate” sense of effete required here, but it is in the OED.
15 Operating theatre’s closing for benefit of patients? (8)
LIGATURE – very good cryptic definition, referring to the tying up or “closing” in a surgical operation.
17 Fat peer regularly seen in pantry (6)
LARDER – LARD (fat) p E e R “regularly seen”
19 Canter about in daze (6)
TRANCE – anagram (about) of CANTER
20 Setter’s initially nervous after dog attack (6)
IMPUGN – I’M (setter’s, as in: setter is in a tough mood = I’m in a tough mood) N (“initially” Nervous) after PUG (dog). PUG can also be short for PUGILIST, often clued as BOXER, which can be slightly confusing.
21 Five naked gents let off steam (4)
VENT -V (five) ENT = “naked” g ENT s
22 Bloke is quiet after tea (4)
CHAP – P (piano = quiet) after CHA (tea)

 

139 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2941 by Shay”

  1. DNF with LIGATURE/CAPUT/OTOSCOPE unsolved, and doubt I’d ever get them, I’d never have believed CAPUT=HEAD, thought of OTOSCOPE but couldn’t justify in any way (and NHO it), and I might have gotten LIGATURE on a good day if I had the last crosser but it’s a tremendously unhelpful clue.
    Shay continuing the trend of newer setters overdoing the difficulty of QCs I think, I guess it must be hard to dial back to QC-levels and hard on the ego to leave out the real corkers. (The initial QSNITCH based on the fast solvers is running pretty high, so I think I’m justified in this comment.)

    1. I thought the clues were horrid, hardly ever indicating what meaning wad being sought. A few seemed ridiculous.

      1. Couldn’t agree more. The QC is meant to be entertainment, not an ostentatious “how hard can I make it?” vehicle.

  2. DNF
    Didn’t know CAPUT and if I knew LIGATURE I couldn’t remember it. I expect that quite a few people will be complaining about difficulty, and with some justification. The SNITCH is currently at a whopping 174–I doubt it’s ever been anywhere near this high before.

  3. 21.48

    Possibly one of my slowest successful solves but hopefully I’ll be welcome in the SCC.

    Tbf I can hardly keep my eyes open after playing cards too late but even so there were some clues here that might raise a few eyebrows (OTOSCOPE CAPUT and LIGATURE) with the last two causing particular difficulties even though CAPUT came to mind fairly early on.

    I liked it but I rather fear that might not be a universal view

    Thanks setter/RT

  4. A tough work-out, I was pleased to finish all correct in 16.21. I would have been a little quicker if I hadn’t tried to incorporate a tribute to Otis Redding in OTOSCOPE. My last two were GOATEE and GROUSE, the first appearing when oat arrived and the second coming as a vision. As roly says there’s definitely some taxing 15×15 material here from Shay but the clueing is helpful and it’s good to get whacked in the face with a piece of wood from time to time. Thanks to both.

  5. Very hard and not even close to finishing. On to tomorrow. On another point I think 13 down was an inappropriate clue I have may woman friends who would find describing an effete man as womanish as plain insulting and I agree.

    1. I am a man, and if I was described as ‘womanish’ I would definitely be offended.

    2. I thought that too. Tina formerly of this parish would have exploded, and Penny B may have words to say later.

      1. I didn’t comment at the time because we were away and I was solving (unsuccessfully) on my phone! Couldn’t cope with trying to comment here as well. But yes, I didn’t much like that one 😅

    3. Don’t know. In today’s world all the baddies are men, all the sound judgements are made by women – there must be a way of thinking that takes “womanish” as a compliment?

  6. I persevered with this and was rewarded with a visit to the SCC. A most congenial atmosphere, I must say. I will be back again, I dare say, if the run of toughies continues. No complaints, mind. Part of the rich tapestry of life and all that.

    21:32

  7. Nothing in the top half after 10 minutes so I’m ashamed to say I walked away. If only I’d tried to anagram the r not the f of ‘finger’ it could all have been different! Although reading David’s comment makes me think I’d just have sat here bewildered for longer.

    Thanks for Roly for taking me through it.

    2. starstruck’s scraper has read this and put you down for a ten minute solve, so you’re currently second on the WITCH table with 33 🙂

      1. Thanks for the heads-up, Templar. Sorted now, along with a couple of neutrinos who were standing out like green islands in a sea of red.

          1. Thanks for letting me know. I’ve now updated that score to 8:06, so it’s off your top 10 list 🙂

  8. My target time for QCs is 15 minutes. When I got to half-an-hour and still had two answers missing I decided it was time to throw in the towel.

    The ones I didn’t get would probably have occurred to me had they not been intersecting so that in each word I was missing a checker, nevertheless having seen the answers I feel the need to say that ‘squawk’ = GROUSE is a bit of a stretch for a QC. ‘Slight’ = SPURN is hard too, although the wordplay might have been helpful if I’d had the U-checker.

    I wasted time trying to solve LIGATURE from wordplay. The cryptic has been dressed up for the surface reading but that actually served as a distraction because only the first 3 words were needed and I had thought there was more to the clue.

    CAPUT was unknown but I was able to deduce it. The more familiar ‘kaput’ has a totally different meaning.

  9. As some who typically defends the harder QCs, I think it is only fair to say that, even by my standards, it felt this one went too far. While many of the clues were typical QC fare, I found other to be hard even by 15×15 standards. Like jackkt, I have a target time of no more than 15 minutes for a QC (10-15 minutes is typical), but this took me significantly longer than 30 minutes and the last four or five were a grim struggle.

    On the other hand, if I were to see the SNITCH for the 15×15 at that kind of level, I would know from experience that I am never going to be able even to finish it. So perhaps today’s QC is a good introduction to range of difficulty that awaits those who cross over into 15×15 world.

  10. Did a few clues in 10 mins, checked the snitch and gave up. I fail to see the logic in pitching a QC at this level.

  11. Threw in the towel at 40 mins and used aids to find what look like the usual suspects of otoscope, ligature and caput . Thanks Roly for the parsing of a few.

    As already said, some write ins and a handful where Mrs RH on top biffing form came up with the answer but we spent another 30 seconds or more trying to make sense of the WP

    Thanks

  12. Nope. DNF. DNE.

    Pi ❤️

    On edit: Actually, I did enjoy GOATEE and VENT. Made me smile. I just didn’t enjoy the puzzle overall.

  13. 21:43. A lot of this was straightforward, but the rest of it was tough. Enjoyable, but unexpected in the QC. MUTINYING was harder than it should have been, not just finding the right anagrist, but the word itself seems somehow improbable. I saw LIGATURE as a medical word that fitted the crossers but still took a while to make sense of it. LOIs CAPUT (from the wordplay) and GROUSE. I liked GOATEE and CLANGER but COD to the drunken dons on TUESDAY

    1. I agree Mutinying looks wrong… but I find it IS in Cheating Machine and it is real.

  14. Well, I am a doctor and my supercilium was partially elevated by a slight spasm of my frontalis muscle at caput. We often use capitis (as in referring to the head) such as tinea capitis caused by a fungus…scalp ringworm and pityriasis capitis… dandruff but when it’s a bonk on your bonce on the rugby pitch we request a HIA. Ligature and otoscope (very clever misdirection) PDMs
    19 minutes the somewhat contrived imho mutinying (It’s what they’re getting up to when the peasants aren’t revolting) Grouse and opine were fair but in the harder side of QC vocabulary perhaps.
    Enjoyable and many thanks Roly and Shay

    1. Your post caused me to engage in a complex motor function predominantly governed by the zygomaticus major and minor, thus effectuating the characteristic elevation of the oral commissures!

  15. This hard puzzle took me nearly 11′ (2+ x average). CAPUT was LOI, tried to fit ceph…Submitted off board as wasn’t sure, fortunately as I’d made a typo.

    As for WOMANISH, fhs.

    Thanks roly, and shay – maybwe all learn something.

  16. Well that was a toughie for my birthday. Twice my normal time and used Crossword Solver for otoscope to finish. Enjoyed the fat peers and the blog. Thank you

  17. I chose the wrong day to re-engage with the QC. I think Shay has mistaken ‘quick cryptic’ for ‘smaller version of cryptic’.

    Jackkt’s comment above is as polite, yet pointed, criticism of the misjudged toughness of this puzzle, as I could imagine. It is far more effective than any rant I might try to compose.

    LIGATURE, CAPUT, OTOSCOPE, MUTINYING among others, oh please…

  18. Well bang goes my new resolve after the discussion last week to look on the bright side, see hard QCs as learning experiences, welcome the diversity, all part of life’s rich tapestry, etc, etc, apply your favourite cliché here. It is only Shay’s second puzzle for us, so extenuating circumstances and excuses and all that as he/she finds the right range, but this was quite simply a failure to understand the QC brief. I did finish it, in 19:53, and given the performance of many much better solvers than me I am both pleased and surprised at that time, but I did not enjoy the experience.

    Several pretty dodgy definitions – SPURN = slight, for example, and GROUSE = squawk (they are totally different in my book, with a grouse more of a grumble), and WIND UP = kid (again, not very close IMO). Several really difficult words – I have never used CAPUT to mean head in real life, nor even heard of an OTOSCOPE. I did not like WOMANISH clued as effete; it’s not in keeping with the spirit of the age. Cluing RELY as count was devious; the two are equivalent only when followed by the word ON, and without the on it was a tough one to see. And so to my LOI LIGATURE, which I spent an age on looking for a clever wordplay before realising no, there is no wordplay at all. Not my favourite type of clue as I never see them.

    Many thanks Roly for guiding us through this one.

    1. “nor even heard of an OTOSCOPE”

      Compare and contrast:
      “cedricstatherby:
      24 March 2021 at 11:45 AM
      … struggled with 20A Otoscope. Which I like many had NHO but will now never forget.”

      😉

      1. Classic “in one ear and out the other”! And there is probably a technical term for that, no doubt starting with OTO- …

        2. Prompted by Templar’s search into past QC comments, I looked up Shay’s first QC (2907). My reaction included the following:

          ‘A clever puzzle and a welcome new setter. Next time I see his name, I will make sure I have plenty of time and am in a mood to relax and enjoy even more lateral thinking than usual.
          Thanks to both. Don’t make your next QC any harder, please, Shay.’

          And some fell on stony ground……. 🙄😁

  19. This puzzle had me looking for my old seat in the SCC. Definitely one of the hardest I can remember and I had to resort to alpha trawls for a few clues to find any word that would fit checkers and then reverse engineer the parsing – GROUSE being a fine example.
    Started with PAL and finished with WIND UP.
    Thanks to Rolytoly and Shay

  20. In the end I put in CAPUT, with no great conviction, which gave me LIGATURE. Then I finally saw GROUSE and SPURN to complete the grid. I’ve never seen MUTINY used as a verb before, I thought you took part in a mutiny, didn’t know you mutineed (or mutinyed?) This took nearly 20 minutes for me, definitely on the extreme side of difficult for a QC.

    I also thought COD was the drunken dons.

  21. My longest effort of the year resulted in giving up at 50mins. I had five left as I entered the SCC – OTOSCOPE, SPURN, GROUSE in the NW and CAPUT, LIGATURE in the SE. I unconvincingly unravelled the two in the SE at 45mins but eventually admitted defeat in the NW. On reflection, pleased to get what I did in 20mins.

    Thanks to Roly for the blog and to Shay for the workout. Didn’t really need the latter as going for a 2-mile fast run in a bit and then off to the gym this afternoon to try and deep squat 100kg (15+ st). Nice sunny day here, so at least that is something to enjoy as we encounter the Vernal Equinox.

        1. Apologies – skim read it quickly and thought it said you’d done it in 50 mins for your longest effort of the year. Seems like most of us flunked this one. As an aside, I enjoyed a 45km cycle in the sun prior to doing this – although I can’t blame tiredness for my attempt.

          1. Tough puzzle indeed. It’s been a lovely sunny day down here on the South Coast so I can imagine how nice that 🚲 was

  22. Definitely not quick today. NHO CAPUT but it had to be. Biffed OTOSCOPE and parsed later. Also biffed LIGATURE but could not see why, so thanks Roly for explanation of a clever clue.

  24. Gave up after 10 minutes. I could have got away with biffing LIGATURE, but the clue for OTOSCOPE has no place in a QC.

      1. I didn’t think it was that hard, and now I know why – we had exactly the same clue bar one letter from Wurm in QC1837, March 2021! (“Lug instrument and books round room”). It was your LOI then, Phil, but you solved in 05:05 nonetheless and said you’d “thoroughly enjoyed” the puzzle 😉

  25. Some interesting clues including a few good ones and some ridiculous ones at this level. I won’t add to the comments on either category because it has all been said by fair-minded posters above (I thought jackkt and Cedric were impressively restrained). This was my slowest ever QC solve (and I resorted to aids for the last few).

    Roly, you really drew the short straw having been assigned to blog this one – very well done and thank you.

    Thanks, Chay, for a good laugh (once I had settled in to it). If this is a QC, my name is Rumpelstiltskin.

  26. Yep. A toughie! From TORNADO to RELY in 17:56. I’ve had OTOSCOPEs shoved in my lug holes so I knew what it was when I finaly untangled the wordplay. Sheesh! Thanks Shay and Roly.

  27. Hope Jason has his tin hat on …

    Hoo boy. What a struggle. For CAPUT I first wrote in “circa”, but couldn’t make any sense of it apart from meaning “roughly”. When IMPUGN gave me the P I then broke it down to CA + PUT, but had no idea of the definition despite having done quite a lot of Latin. That T then gave me LIGATURE, and like Jack I had been thoroughly misled by the length of the clue.

    That left me with -R-U-E, at which point I was interrupted by a ticket inspection. Since tickets are now on my phone that meant switching away from the app and when I switched back we were in a tunnel and the puzzle had disappeared. As soon as it came back I saw GROUSE straight off, so my subliminal mind had obviously been churning away!

    My time was 13:19 and although that’s well into the red zone I’m pretty happy with it. COD to GOATEE, which I thought was fantastic.

    Many thanks Shay and Roly.

  28. As an (ex) doctor I too fell short on LIGATURE and OTOSCOPE but CAPUT went in quickly (recollection of babies’ head at birth). Several others inc TUESDAY, SPURN etc took a long time to chew before making any progress and couldn’t have managed without checkers. Made no progress in NW and slowly made my way down to the SE, putting my extended lack of pace to jetlag before consoling myself that I was out of my depth and needed Roly to come to my rescue. DNF Will start my day today with a glass (or two) of champagne to celebrate reaching five years beyond my allotted 3 score + 10, having spent much of yesterday in pre- celebration mid-flight to the sunshine state. Too much information!
    Thanks all and Shay

    2. Happy birthday and congratulations on the milestone – try your best to enjoy the sunshine!

  29. Thanks but no thanks for me! Quite a few obscure or at least tenuous definitions with the the setter forgetting it’s the London not the New York Time ( we don’t say gee!!) and potentially offensive answer at 13d

  30. 15 Down :
    “Operating theatre’s closing for benefit of patients? (8)
    LIGATURE – very good cryptic definition, referring to the tying up or “closing” in a surgical operation.”

    I think that this is a very poor clue. Tying up at the end of an operation (such as tying up a duodenum) is not the same as closing. Not at all. Closing would imply a suture (i.e. stitching up), just as I feel that I have been stitched up by this puzzle.

  31. I absolutely loved this puzzle – really very, very much – but I as I travelled here afterwards I knew it would be in for a pasting in the “not a QC” club. And there we are. One man’s QC is another man’s rant, and all that.
    Difficult to choose a COD, but I’ll go for LIGATURE, with GOATEE and the lovely TUESDAY close behind.

    15:33. Thanks, Shay, this was superb; and thanks, Roly.

  32. I found this very tough. Finished in 44:23, which is up there with my slowest times ever. Officially, I had an error, but it was a straight typo (WIID UP, gaaah), so I’m claiming the solve.

    Liked the drunken dons very much, thanks to Shay and rolytoly.

  33. 14:39
    I found this enjoyably tough, with OTOSCOPE and GROUSE both delaying me at the end.

    Thanks Roly and Shay

  34. This almost turned into a regular 25min solve. . . except I was still short of five at that point. And what a five they turned out to be. Otoscope and Spurn came at the start of the second sitting, and Ligature at its end, but nho Caput and the (approptiate) Grouse remained beyond me.
    I actually enjoyed quite a few of the clues, and the surfaces of Impugn and Opine were excellent, but CoD goes to Clanger for smile.
    Probably for the best if I leave it there. Invariant

  35. It’s all been said already and I knew there would be complaints of too difficult, but 3 specialised medical terms in a QC? Even some of the medics appear to have failed on them! Got OTOSCOPE (come across before) and CAPUT (eventually, but without understanding it), but had to use aids for LIGATURE – as Jackkt says, the second part is redundant and therefore confuses. The SPURN and GROUSE crossers also took far too long owing to over-vague definitions. COD to TUESDAY – excellent!

  37. DNF

    Defeated by CAPUT and LIGATURE. I did pencil in caput but didn’t know the definition so took it away again. Would have been well over time anyway as I must have spent 10 minutes on OTOSCOPE.

    I’m heartened by the stratospheric Snitch score.

  38. 9:34

    I’m with Daipugh and Simjt in thinking that this was an excellent puzzle – stretchy in the right places, with a different kind of challenge from Shay. While on the slower side to fill out the grid, there were some satisfying answers – held up at the end by the CAPUT/LIGATURE crossing where I chose to solve in tandem to satisfy both answers – CAPUT unheard of with this spelling and definition, but once the wordplay was understood, LIGATURE seemed to be the only way to go at 15d.

    Thanks Roly and Shay

  39. DNF OTOSCOPE – NHO, and WIND UP and RELY.
    Need CCD for SPURN.
    Biffed CAPUT, and TUESDAY – CNP the latter.
    Did not approve of WOMANISH. But liked GOATEE, PAWN, LIGATURE, and, kind of, GROUSE ( we nearly all had a grouse today – not a squawk.)
    Had to start in SW with EEL and LARDER.
    Not fun but thanks for much needed blog, Roly.
    Later: read through the comments. Even Kevin posted a DNF, phew.

  40. Proud of myself by stopping before even reading half the clues, saving myself further negative thoughts.
    I am definitely a solver who has no aspirations to move on to the 15 squared. I’m wondering whether I am in the majority or the minority for the QC?
    What Cedric said as usual – Jason, please take note.
    Thanks Roly

    1. I think there a quite a few of who like it here and have no desire to move up to the 15×15.

      1. Agreed, Countrywoman1.
        However I do, very occasionally, venture into the more exalted realms of the 15×15 when a kind poster tells me on this blog that it is easier than usual. This happened just last Monday and I finished in a PB (much less time than I spent on today’s QC). It left me feeling that I am perhaps not quite as mentally decrepit as the QC often makes me feel, nowadays. 🙄

    2. Like you. I have no aspirations to move to the 15×15 and becoming increasingly frustrated by puzzles like this

    3. I generally complete the QC in about 20 mins, anything less than 15 is a Red Letter Day. That is as much time, having done Polygon etc, as I feel I want to devote to exercising my brain on paper. Even an “easy” 15 is going to take me 40 mins plus to wring what i can out of it. There is a definite step up to 15 type clues, and I dont feel sufficiently motivated to take that step.
      Maybe when I am ancient and confined to my armchair I will be more inclined – but then probably too far gone to be able to do so!
      Clearly however there are a regular band of clever people who routinely smash through the QC as light warming up on their way to tougher things. Good grief, some of them even go and do The Guardian and other stuff elsewhere! Do they not have gardens, bikes, boats etc to attend to?!

  41. DNF, failing on otoscope, grouse, spurn, capital and ligature. A couple of those I feel I should have got but I was losing the will to live as I approached my cut-off time of 30 mins. Not sure I would ever have got caput or ligature no matter how long I devoted to the task.

    FOI – 8ac TORNADO
    LOI – DNF
    CODs – 11ac TUESDAY and 4dn GOATEE

    Thanks to Shay and especially to Rolytoly.

  42. Nearly but not quite today. Could have chucked in CAPUT as a wild guess but didn’t, didn’t get LIGATURE. Ikea-ed together most of the clues and felt pleased with those, but this was a beast.
    If the 15ers were breaking sweat, the QC only band like me are deep in the mire.
    Some of the definitions seemed borderline at best: grouse = squawk??
    Many thanks Roly, some thanks to Shay…

  43. Undoubtedly the hardest and least suitable puzzle in the seven or eight years I have been attempting the QC. I can usually finish but eight proved beyond me today. I seldom comment but ALWAYS await the top hat and Cedric’s measured verdict. Spot on as usual.

  44. Gave up after an hour. Same beefs as others before me. Particularly put off by the second half of LIGATURE clue which serves no purpose at all and is actually offputting, surely everything that is done in an operating theatre is for the patients benefit, so I was looking for some other activity that might be more beneficial than the usual health improvement.

  45. 20:23. Hard but with some great clues. I think I only got LIGATURE from watching crime shows where marks on neck or wrist prompt one of the investigators to mention that some sort of LIGATURE was used. I come down on the side of unreserved gratitude towards the setters!

  46. I wasn’t on Shay’s wavelength at all and gave up with 6 clues unanswered. When I saw the answers I was at least able to parse them but like Cedric I thought some of the links were tenuous at best. The fact that I came up with ‘bird up’ as a synonym for success instead of WIND UP for kid at 6d probably says everything about my solving skills today. I failed on SPURN, GROUSE, GOATEE, CAPUT, LIGATURE and the aforementioned WIND UP. Thanks Roly.

  47. Clearly in the minority but I really liked this one despite the fact that I couldn’t finish (beaten by SPURN/GROUSE). No problems with the medical terminology and LIGATURE raised a smile. COD GOATEE for the brilliant surface. Tough but enjoyable, but then I don’t care whether I finish or not (journey not the destination and all that stuff). Appreciate the variety of opinions expressed on this blog and the respectful way they are communicated. Many thanks to Roly and Shay.

  48. My, gee, cor -that was hard.
    I sat down late to this and was able to continue over lunch. Nearly gave up with SPURN and GROUSE the big problems. STAIN would not leave my mind, but could not parse it.
    Having got those two I bunged in LIGATURE (long since noted down) which at least bore a distant resemblance to the clue. I came here expecting it to be wrong. A poor clue I think.
    In the end all correct in 49 minutes-about four times my average.
    I normally don’t mind difficult QCs but this was overwhelming.
    Any sign of MUTINYING?
    David

  49. 35.48 I worked until 1am last night and decided to knock off the QC before going to bed. I thought I must have been more tired than I felt because about a quarter of it made no sense. So I paused and retired. It still didn’t make any sense this morning. I finally ground through it this afternoon. LIGATURE, CAPUT, GROUSE, SPURN and OTOSCOPE were the last few. Thanks rolytoly and Shay.

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