Given the grid, the key to this one was getting 1a or 6d early on. I failed both at first glance, but then got each of them as soon as I had the first checker (the second letter of 6d being particularly useful!). With all those lovely first letters it then went quickly because there’s nothing too obscure, and I hope that there will be some happy punters today. 06:38 for me.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Criterion for judging small quantity and weight (10) |
| TOUCHSTONE – TOUCH [small quantity – “just a touch of milk please”] + STONE [weight]. “A criterion or standard by which judgment is made” quoth Collins. | |
| 7 | Fate’s more peaceful, as some would say (5) |
| KARMA – sounds like [as some would say] “calmer” [more peaceful]. No liability is accepted if this doesn’t work in your dialect. | |
| 8 | Insignificant man lion mauled (7) |
| NOMINAL -anagram [mauled] of “man lion”. | |
| 10 | Dreary routine in part of tyre factory (9) |
| TREADMILL – TREAD [part of tyre] + MILL [factory]. | |
| 12 | Go out and finally purchase two books (3) |
| EBB – E [finally purchase] + BB [two books]. B is not a particularly common abbreviation for “book” other than in Crosswordland but it’s in Collins and we see it a lot because it’s useful for setters. | |
| 13 | Live, eat and act properly (6) |
| BEHAVE – BE [live, as in “exist”] + HAVE [eat]. | |
| 15 | Go near rotting fruit (6) |
| ORANGE – anagram [rotting] of “go near”. Lovely clue. | |
| 16 | Completely pall? Not at first (3) |
| ALL – {p}ALL. | |
| 17 | Sorry tenant gets confused by representative (9) |
| REPENTANT – anagram [gets confused] of “tenant” next to [by] REP [representative]. | |
| 20 | Security is returning to enter warehouse (7) |
| DEPOSIT – DEPOT [warehouse] inside which goes SI [is returning]. | |
| 22 | Follows stories on the radio (5) |
| TAILS – sounds like [on the radio] “tales” [stories]. | |
| 23 | Ancient couple believe in the East End? (4,3,3) |
| ADAM AND EVE -the Biblical first humans and thus an “ancient couple”. The wordplay is Cockney Rhyming Slang [in the East End] for “believe”, as in “would you Adam & Eve it?”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Short stretch of intersection (5) |
| TERSE – hidden [stretch of] inside “intersection”. | |
| 2 | Sort of door and cookware found in university town in Kent (2-3-4) |
| UP-AND-OVER – U [university] + DOVER [town in Kent] inside which [found in] goes PAN [cookware]. Phew! “Up-and-over” doors are usually found on garages. | |
| 3 | What may be spoken in North India? (5) |
| HINDI – hidden [in] “North India”. Since Hindi might well be spoken in North India, I’m daring the Clue Police to give me a ticket for calling this an &Lit. | |
| 4 | Jaguar’s annual check-up perhaps upset cat (3) |
| TOM – read it upwards [upset] and you get MOT; if you drive a Jaguar (other cars are available, hence “perhaps” to indicate this is just an example) you will need to take it for an annual MOT. | |
| 5 | Relative anxious for material (7) |
| NANKEEN – NAN [relative] + KEEN [eager]. I now shamelessly crib Merlin’s explanation of what this is when he blogged it in July 2024: “a pale yellowish cloth, originally made at Nanking from a yellow variety of cotton”. He had NHO it then; did it stick? | |
| 6 | Fish meals on which one could make progress (10) |
| SKATEBOARD – SKATE [fish] + BOARD [meals, eg half board]. I definitely couldn’t make much progress on a skateboard before I fell off, but you see the sentiment. Cracking clue. (Teazel likes it too – he gave us “A platform for rolling fish on table” on 4 August 2022 (QC 2193).) | |
| 9 | Writer of words bitter, wrongly spelled in list (10) |
| LIBRETTIST – Anagram [wrong spelled] of “bitter” inside [in] LIST. | |
| 11 | Handled glasses: blimey! Ten get broken (9) |
| LORGNETTE – I only fully parsed this when writing up. What I didn’t spot mid-solve was that it’s LOR for “blimey” – a shortened form of “Lord”. I’d have placed this as 50s slang (it’s all over Billy Bunter, for example – “Oh, sir! No, sir! Oh lor’— I — I — I mean, oh, jiminy!”), but now defunct. However, the Collins “usage frequency” graph actually shows a gentle increase since the 50s, peaking in 1999. The rest of the clue is an anagram [broken] of “ten get”. A LORGNETTE is essentially a pair of specs on a handle. It comes from the French “lorgner”, to squint. | |
| 14 | Man on edge, notice, finishing flight here? (7) |
| HELIPAD -HE [man] + LIP [edge] + AD [notice]. A lovely definition. | |
| 18 | Not one penny raised for climbing equipment (5) |
| PITON – read upwards [raised] you get NOT I P. | |
| 19 | Similar posts may get this (5) |
| ALIKE – if you post something on social meeja, you may get A LIKE. Or so I understand. (We used to have “like” buttons on TFTT, rather useful.) Really clever clue, COD from me. | |
| 21 | Sort of card, thin but not large (3) |
| SIM – S{l}IM; i.e. remove the L [not large] from “slim” [thin]. I always find “Think of another word and do something to it” clues a bit tricky. | |
I didn’t know the CRS for ‘believe’, but it was easy to infer. Also DNK UP-AND-OVER, which I biffed without parsing. 7:19.
interesting – I would have thought if you know any CRS you know that one
It would seem we’re on a roll with gentle quickies of late, fingers crossed it continues.
My initial thought for 1a was benchmark but one letter short of an answer, but the second clue I read gave TERSE so that led to TOUCHSTONE. I must admit I didn’t know it for judging criterion. I remembered SKATEBOARD as it’s seems to pop up regularly. LORGNETTE was known, although I’ve only thought of LOR with ‘Oh’ before it. Liked TREADMILL and HELIPAD. COD to ADAM AND EVE.
Thanks Templar, great informative blog as usual.
There was nothing too hard here, except maybe for lorgnette. I had never heard of up-and-over, but the wordplay was very clear and it was one of my first answers. I did put in MOT at first instead of tom, but touchstone took care of that.
Time: 7:38
Now that Templar has explained it ALIKE – my LOI which dragged me out of the 5s to 6.02 – is a rather clever clue. I enjoyed this one, there were a couple of ultra gimmes (like ALL, like EBB) but overall a well-pitched and fun puzzle from Teazel. I was pleased to see CRS making a welcome appearance, my memory is it used to be more prevalent but not so much these days.
One man’s gimme is another’s …. We needed both crossers to get ebb, [sigh]
So did I!!
A comfortable 12 minute solve for me. My only hold-up was my LOI ALIKE, but that was because I had inexplicably written REPENTENT at 17ac so I was looking for a word to fit E?I?E.
Got stuck on TREADMILL so invented the cORGNETTE which seemed feasible enough to leave until I remembered what the factory usually is. I only know NANKEEN from crosswords and had to get there via ‘sonkeen’ (keen for worry also only known from crosswords) – still entered NANKEnN though! Dimly recalled LIBRETTIST from previous puzzles but gentle clueing helped. So lots of head scratching and a typo crammed into my 12 minutes.
I like corngette 😂
A new type of hybrid vegetable perhaps? 🌽 🥒
I had the corgnette for a while too!
17.20 for a Teazel, we were on fire this morning😮
Right on the wavelength and enjoying a fine example of the setter’s art. Lots of candidates for COD, but the CRS takes the prize, would you Adam and Eve it!
This morning also the chance to get “that look” from Mrs RH when trying to say that lorgnettes are glasses that you handle, before the PDM of “oh, they’re glasses WITH a handle”. I was clearly very late to that party!
Thanks T for the blog and parsing of Hindi, we guessed it with only the last letter but couldn’t parse. With all the crossers in it had to be, but no idea why. Came here to get the groan “oh it’s a *&*#£ hidden !!!”
Managed to finish in 21.21 without much trouble. NANKEEN came up 10 days ago in a 15×15 puzzle recommended here for its solvability and where I first learned of this material, and it stuck. Couldn’t parse LORGNETTE but enough to Biff confidently. COD HELIPAD.
Thanks Templar and Teazel
A second QC DNF In a row for me. Very tricky I thought, only got about halfway through before giving in to the reveal button.
As a relative newcomer I cling to little rules like Blimey always meaning Cor … except it doesn’t, of course! Thanks for the blog as ever
If you’ve already learned (a) that “blimey” means “cor” and (b) that sometimes it doesn’t, because setters are sneaky, then you are well on the way to becoming a seasoned solver already, Alex! Welcome.
Never trust those mean sneaky setters!
I also thought this one was really hard (I always find Teazel hard) and am stumped as to why I am in such opposition to the snitch
A very odd solve as I struggled mightily at first, failing to get either 1A or 6D on the first pass. That made it difficult to get into the puzzle, and I was staring at a very sparsely populated grid for some time. But at about 9 minutes in both emerged, and from there on in, I was solving at speed for a final time of 13:48.
Some great clues, with LORGNETTE a particular standout. Did anyone else try to find an anagram of Blimey ten?
Many thanks Templar for the blog – sparkling time too!
Yes to trying to anagram blimey ten.
#MeToo
Add me to the ‘blimey ten’ group.
Made hard work of this with two clues causing most of the problems.
LORGNETTE is one of those words I can never remember and I wasn’t helped by thinking that the anagram indicator was ‘get broken’ so the answer remained a mystery for a while. My second issue (having carefully considered which side of the clue the homophone indicator was referring to) was confidently entering ‘mot’ at 4d.
Started with EBB and finished with TERSE in 8.57.
Thanks to Templar and Teazel.
I seem to be in the minority here as I got nowhere with this puzzle. My wavelength was so far off Teazel’s that our waves were cancelled out in a fit of destructive interference. Just….silence.
Pi ❤️
I finished, but slow and bitty, and was way off the vibe. No complaints on the clues but this just didn’t work for me today. SCC with a giant coffee and a big sticky bun as consolation.
Teazel always a difficult setter. I found this got easier as checkers appeared from other answers, unfortunately you won’t have gained that benefit if you were struggling to start 😢
A minority of at least two, which is the number of answers I achieved….
😂
physics of sound
I was desperate for 11d to contain OO …
I ran up and down that alley a couple of times too.
Bit of a stir fry for us. Plenty of flavours of all kinds and in the main, done and dusted quite quickly.
DNF – NANKEEN NHO plus stumbled on ‘anxious for’ > concern, worry, fret – did not look left to ‘keen’.
Lesson of the day 23a CRS
COD 15a ORANGE
Many thanks to Teazel and Templar.
A nice steady solve starting with TERSE and finishing with TOUCHSTONE. 7:31. Thanks Teazel and Templar.
Phew! Honour redeemed at last, and with a Teazel, too. POI LIBRETTIST which unlocked LOI EBB. NHO PITON or NANKEEN, but both had to be. Unsure of the parsing of HINDI but thought maybe North = HIND … oh it’s *hidden*, how really annoying of it. Thank you, Templar. And thank you, Teazel!
7:11, despite not immediately getting 1a or 6d.
I don’t think I had ever heard of NANKEEN before I started doing crosswords, but it seems to be the fabric of choice among setters.
Thanks Templar and Teazel
Only got a few of the across clues at first, but had more success with the down ones and progressed steadily to finish in 22:13 – not bad for me with a Teazel puzzle. Am now aware of NANKEEN, which seems to be a regular solution in the QC.
A steady and enjoyable solve so thanks Teazel and Templar. A bit irritated by Lorgnette, not so much because it is an obscure word, but because it relies on ‘lor’ probably completely defunct now but wasn’t exactly common even in the Billy Bunter era referred to. Cor, my and more recently gee used as pointers to expressions of surprise etc always feel a bit weak to me.
“Lawks a Lordy”! Griff Rhys Jones in The Young Ones ‘Bambi’
episode.
And your point is???
15:44 for the solve. Reached my LOI of LORGNETTE at 7:50 and then just no idea. Dug it out of the dark, cobwebbed recesses of my GK have unravelled the anagram bit and put it in with a shrug as I struggled to convince myself “Lor” was a good synonym for blimey. Ruined what would otherwise have been a very enjoyable solve where UP-AND-OVER, TREADMILL, SIM and ALIKE were appreciated.
Thanks to the Ts today 👍
Agree. Bemused that Templar says nothing was too obscure and then goes on to explain how obscure LORGNETTE is. With due respect, it is total claptrap of a QC clue IMHO.
14:32. Good progress until Last ones TERSE and TOUCHSTONE. I made up Truthstone as possible some amulet from Middle Earth, and nearly submitted before having one last think.
I am that Merlin who forgot NANKEEN, and this time it was a “known unknown”, I knew that I had come across it before. But couldn’t think of it until all the checkers.
I was expecting COR-GNETTE, but I know my Bunter. Waiting for “yaroo” next.
And I was thnking “Andover? That’s in Wiltshire not Kent”.
Excellent! And Up can be at uni. But the cookware is unexplained.
TRUTHSTONE was my undoing but I submitted before that last think.
Dear Merlin,
When did ‘ampshire ‘and over Andover to Wiltshire?
😀 good point.
It’s in Hampshire, actually, though close to Wiltshire.
Hampshire, even.
Very gentle, with some nice clues. Touchstone held me up for a bit – I knew the word, but not the meaning, I suppose. 7:59. Thanks T and T
A good puzzle. I did not find it as easy as some early posters but it was fair, clever, and with plenty of PDMs for me.
Unfortunately, I did not get 1a or 6d early on, indeed, I slowed over TOUCHSTONE and NOMINAL simply because I had stupidly entered MOT for 4d (d’oh!). Even then, I just managed to finish outside the entry door to the SCC.
I found it difficult to choose my favourite clues but TOUCHSTONE, UP-AND-OVER, and ADAM AND EVE were very good.
Thanks to Teazel and to Templar for a fine blog which helped me to parse one or two biffs properly.
A pretty steady solve here finishing in 8.44. A few errors along the way slowed me down before correcting them. I originally had MOT instead of TOM for 4dn, and I biffed the beginning of 11dn as COR having got a third letter R. I knew of LORGNETTE so it was soon corrected. I knew the word TOUCHSTONE without knowing its meaning, so it became my LOI.
DNF today with 5d, 10a and 11d stumping me. Annoyingly understood half of each clue, had NAN but couldn’t get KEEN, TREAD but couldn’t get MILL, and thought it was an anagram of ten get, but thought it would start with cor. No matter how many times I think there can’t be anymore synonyms for words, these clues always surprise me. Must remember NANKEEN if it’s appeared before. Thank you for explaining the clues
13 mins until LOI lorgnette. So I had my usual break and then bunged in the most likely word from the remaining 3 letters.
COD orange.
9:22
Enjoyable puzzle.
Nice to see criterion used correctly. Criteria as a singular and the even more irritating criterias as a plural seem to be ubiquitous now.
Thanks, T.
Started well, then got properly stuck with several clues remaining but soldiered on.
I had failed to properly read the clue for ORANGE -an easy one. Then I confidently inserted COR and tried to think of words for glasses with handles. LORGNETTE appeared and I picked up momentum after that to finish with ALL (looking for something harder) and HELIPAD.
18 minutes in all.
COD to ALIKE.
A good puzzle. I was just off the wavelength.
David
A lightning 7:19 for me today, solved on the TGV between Bordeaux and Paris. I should take trains more often! COD to Lorgnette, for the brilliant definition.
Thanks to Teazel and Templar.
Jealous of your train journey!
New solver here finding this blog invaluable. I’m getting used to all the acronyms too but can someone tell me what SSC and PDM mean please? Thanks
Welcome Alison! There’s a glossary of the various arcane abbreviations and slang terms under the “Useful Links” heading somewhere on the page (where it appears varies from device to device). It’s here https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/glossary
Thank you! I’ve just scanned and am having a chuckle at a few 🙂
Welcome and definitely check out the glossary as Templar suggests (and other useful stuff on this site) You’re bound to have had a penny drop moment doing the QC and like most of us here you will most probably have taken longer than 20 minutes to solve it and be an honorary member of the best club in the world…the slow coach club. My favourite TLA is MER minor eyebrow raise🫤
Thank you. Definitely a member of the (extremely) SCC at the moment but learning every day 🙂
Welcome, you’re going to love it here! Looking forward to croissants and coffee with you in the Club.
Welcome!
Welcome to the fun Alison, but watch out – it gets very addictive 😅
4:23
Blasted through this with little pause for thought, everything I thought of more-or-less went in first time except for PITON where I studied the clue a little more closely. LORGNETTE plucked from the memory banks, probably from reading too much Wodehouse and Agatha Christie forty+ years ago.
Thanks Templar and Teazel
1a touchstone and 6d Skateboard were NOT in early for me, so slow (but steady) progress here. Literally a touchstone is something you rub gold on to estimate its purity from the marks. These days we rely on the hallmarks.
POI 23a Adam and Eve would be difficult for someone with no knowledge of CRS, but a write-in here.
LOI 1d Terse; I was characteristically slow to see this hidden.
Thanks Templar and Teazel.
Thanks for the touchstone lore, very interesting!
I had a very similar solve to Templar in that my FOI was KARMA which unlocked SKATEBOARD followed by TERSE which unlocked TOUCHSTONE. Then I was off at a great pace. EBB proved surprisingly tricky. Having dismissed cor for blimey but not blimey ten as the anagram fodder for 11d LORGNETTE I stumbled just before the finish line. 6:50 and thanks Templar
DNK Piton or Lorgnette. Reverse engineered lor’ for blimey once I had all the checkers and l..gnette as the only plausible anagram of ten get, but didn’t feel that comfortable with a less well known word being clued with, well, a less well known word. Piton was IKEA for dummies in its precision clueing so fair game for a QC imho.
Good brain exercise
Many thanks Teazel and Templar
ps 15:48
Got there in the end but found this quite difficult in places: SKATEBOARD, HELIPAD and TOUCHSTONE took a lot of working out.
COD to EBB which had me scratching my head until the PDM. I like clues like that.
Thanks Teazel and Templar.
11.54 Not much on the first pass but it was easier the second time round. I remembered LORGNETTE once I had most of the checkers and followed it with TAILS to finish. Thanks Templar and Teazel.
4:58
A rare sub 5’. Didn’t get TOUCHSTONE immediately but FOI TERSE led to a quick anti-clockwise solve with the only pause on LIBRETTIST, which had to wait for NOMINAL.
Thanks Templar and Teazel.
Wow, rapid! Well played Charlie.
Merci
DNF
Annoyingly I managed to unravel the NHO LORGNETTE from the wordplay but was undone by 1ac where I put the made up TRUTHSTONE. Pleased to get NANKEEN, a word I’ve never seen in real life but one that’s come up several times of late in crosswordland.
All done in 20 apart from LOI LORGNETTE.
A fine puzzle ruined by one clue. Such a shame. Around 30 minutes for 23 of the 24 clues, plus another 20 minutes of not solving LORGNETTE. So, a DNF and irritation/annoyance instead of pleasure.
I had NHO the handled glasses (tankards?) or LOR’ for blimey. Cor, yes. Gor (as in Gor blimey!), maybe. But LOR’? Whilst it’s enlightening to learn new words, I would suggest that some are simply too obscure for a QC.
So despite parsing the clue correctly and experimenting with LaR……, LeR……, LiR……, LOR……, LuR……, LyR…… and words like Largesse and Laryngitis/Laryngeal, I gave up and went outside to do some digging.
Many thanks to Templar for the blog.
Just under 10 minutes. Might have been quicker if I hadn’t persuaded myself that 1ac must begin with ‘tough’ before the penny dropped.
7.54
Seems I was slightly off the pace, but actually thought there were a few tricky things here.
Two superb clues though, especially for beginners showcasing very smooth surfaces and the basic anagram and hidden wordplay (TERSE and ORANGE).
Thanks Teazel and excellent blog as always Mr T (please do regale us with more anecdotes of the non-drunk glue-sniffer from Glasto ilk. Still chuckling about that 🙂)
Really enjoyable QC. Felt much more on wavelength than yesterday! LOI TERSE where I failed to spot the hidden, as usual. Only know NANKEEN from crosswords. LORGNETTE gets COD for the misdirection. LOR is incredibly old-fashioned, but on reflection it was clued by blimey, which is probably equally old-fashioned although still in usage (by me for one). Also liked KARMA 😆 The clue for LIBRETTIST seemed like gobbledegook on first inspection but the wordplay was actually fairly straightforward. Never parsed UP-AND-OVER. Many thanks Templar. Nice one Teazel.
Well, would you Adam and Eve it? It was the usual story – I got breezeblocked on my LOI after a whizz through what I thought was a very kind offering from Teazel. I went blank at 19d after 5:30, stopped the clock, went and made a sandwich and then the answer popped into my head. So it would have been a Red Letter Day if I didn’t count the short break! I liked TREADMILL, PITON and ALIKE.
FOI Karma LOI Alike COD Adam and Eve
Thanks Teazel and Templar
What was the sandwich that did the trick?
Just a simple salad one! It must have been the thought of all those vitamins that did it 😉 It didn’t help with the biggie though.
Quick today by my standards – all done and parsed in 13 minutes. Knew nankeen and lorgnette although I had to think carefully about the spelling of the latter. A lot of great clues making the choice of COD impossible.
FOI – 8ac NOMINAL
LOI – 17ac REPENTANT
COD – liked karma, Adam and Eve and skateboard.
Thanks to Teazel and Templar
11:48 All came out eventually with helpful checkers.
20 mins…
Back on the harder side again, but enjoyable nonetheless. Pure luck this wasn’t a Dnf, as 11dn was a total guess.
FOI – 3dn “Hindi”
LOI – 11dn “Lorgnette”
COD – 2dn “Up and Over”
Thanks as usual!
The Karma/Calmer homophone certainly won’t work in a rhotic accent of English – eg Scottish or Standard American – I think ‘as some would say’ is a concession to this, and makes the clue entirely fair. A nice crossword, many thanks as always.
TOUCHSTONE, SKATEBOARD, and TREADMILL (LOI) all proved elusive and I barely stayed out of the Slower Coach Club at 29:19. Hope there are still some croissants at this hour.
I enjoyed this, only getting a little frustrated with TREADMILL (great clue, maybe the excellent surface made it extra hard?) where I failed to separate “part of tyre” and “factory” for a long time. I feel as if I could almost have solved it faster by writing the words of the clue on separate slips of paper and putting them together in various ways. TOUCHSTONE held me up as I failed to think of STONE for weight. KARMA was hard for me, with my rhotic dialect and habit of pronouncing the ghost of an L in “calm”, but I see Templar won’t be taking my case. Never heard of this UP-AND-OVER thing. CODs BEHAVE and HINDI.
Thanks Teazel, you got me again; and thanks to Templar for the usual fine blogging.
PS: read the comments and I’m feeling lonely.
We were happy punters again today, 8:12, the third in a week down that end of our range. Helped by Mrs T remembering LORGNETTE whilst I was still in ‘Oh, it’s that thingy!’ mode whilst unhelpfully gesturing to indicate a handle. Didn’t have TREADMILL at the stage so otherwise I might have been feeling unfamiliar with CORGNETTE. NANKEEN we now know from prior crosswords but otherwise fairly straightforward. Thanks, all.
Nice gentle chug through, held up by having MOT/TOM the wrong way round (obvious in retrospect). I usually have more DNKs than others but knew them all today., partly from an elderly aunt who use to say “Dear oh Lor” several times a day.
I wonder if its increased usage is all those crossword setters using it?