Solving time: 6:37
Can’t say that there was too much I got particularly stuck on here. I didn’t see my LOI 16a until all checkers were in place, and 3d might not easily leap out until a few checkers are present. But otherwise, fair to middling?
How was it for you all?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Detest curse in French article (6) |
| LOATHE – OATH (curse) inserted into LE (French definite article – (‘the’ in English)) | |
| 5 | Peter wrongly trapping a parrot (6) |
| REPEAT – Anagram [wrongly] of PETER containing [trapping] A | |
| 8 | Make less food, consuming little (8) |
| DIMINISH – DISH (food) containing [consuming] MINI (little) | |
| 9 | Conservative leaving ballet for Hamlet? (4) |
| DANE – C (Conservative) is removed [leaving] from DAN The question mark here denotes a definition by example. Other Danes are available. |
|
| 10 | Drink and kiss amorously? (4) |
| NECK – Double definition – not entirely sure why there is a question mark here, other than that NECK is an informal term for both definitions. | |
| 11 | Cross lively people in vacated terrace (8) |
| TRAVERSE – RAVERS (lively people) in the end-letters [vacated] of T{errac}E | |
| 12 | Human being virtuous — about time! (6) |
| MORTAL – MORAL (virtuous) about T (time)
Were you misdirected by ‘being’ appearing to act in its verbal capacity? |
|
| 14 | Some boots and a light shoe (6) |
| SANDAL – Hidden [Some] in boots and a light | |
| 16 | Fuel passion, romance and devotion primarily (8) |
| FIREWOOD – FIRE (passion) WOO (romance) then first letter [primarily] of D{evotion}
My last one in – nice IKEA clue |
|
| 18 | Ram and group of wolves (4) |
| PACK – Another double definition
Smooth surface where ‘Ram’ is treated as an animal, alongside the wolves |
|
| 20 | Not good imprisoning 50 without locks (4) |
| BALD – BAD (Not good) containing [imprisoning] L (50 – Roman numeral) | |
| 21 | Condemn Dune once shot (8) |
| DENOUNCE – Anagram [shot] of DUNE ONCE | |
| 23 | Newspaper: Echo? (6) |
| MIRROR – Double definition
Not sure that MIRROR and Echo are entirely synonymous – Echo is a repeated sound, whereas MIRROR suggests a reversed image. But, Echo being the name of many local newspapers, works well as part of the clue. |
|
| 24 | House easily built before cracking (6) |
| PREFAB – PRE (before) FAB (cracking)
The last word of the clue always makes me think of “Cracking cheese, Gromit!” Biffed this in flight, only parsing after completion. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Send up wicked old woman (5) |
| OLIVE – Reversal of EVIL (wicked) O (old) | |
| 3 | Very friendly extra-terrestrial in copse (7) |
| THICKET – THICK (Very friendly) ET (extra-terrestrial)
Collins Online describes THICK as ‘Very friendly (especially in the phrase ‘thick as thieves’) |
|
| 4 | For Spaniards, the One Priest (3) |
| ELI – EL (For Spaniards, the) I (One) | |
| 5 | Went through red here as tipsy (9) |
| REHEARSED – Anagram [tipsy] of RED HERE AS | |
| 6 | Daughter coming in to shave father (5) |
| PADRE – D (Daughter) inserted into [coming in to] PARE (shave) | |
| 7 | Is a name recollected? Not with this! (7) |
| AMNESIA – Anagram [recollected] of IS A NAME | |
| 11 | High Command demanding assignment? (4,5) |
| TALL ORDER – TALL (High) ORDER (Command)
The earliest example of TALL ORDER quoted by the OED is from 1893. The latest is from 1976: “Norwich Mercury 19 Nov. ‘You do not by any chance know of anybody with an old lion’s skin?’ she asked. A tall order indeed.“ |
|
| 13 | Paperwork finished without tears? (7) |
| ORIGAMI – A cryptic clue where ‘tears’ = rips and not watering eyes.
ORIGAMI being the Japanese art of paper-folding (from ori meaning “folding”, and kami meaning “paper”), relies on creating sculptures through only the folding or sculpting of the paper. If any cutting, gluing or marking of the paper is required, this is called KIRIGAMI. |
|
| 15 | Write uplifting melody for sea god (7) |
| NEPTUNE – Reversal [uplifting] of PEN (write) gives NEP, then TUNE (melody) | |
| 17 | Church officer in Daniel Deronda (5) |
| ELDER – Hidden [in] in Daniel Deronda | |
| 19 | Powder two firms initially allocated (5) |
| COCOA – CO CO (two firms i.e. abbreviation for company, twice) then the first letter [initially] of A{llocated} | |
| 22 | Pot knocked over — little crash? (3) |
| NAP – PAN (Pot) reversed [knocked over]
Collins Online has ‘crash’ as American slang for ‘sleep’ e.g. “I don’t think I should drive home, Mary. Would you mind if I crash here for the night?” So, a ‘little crash’ would be a short sleep or a NAP. |
|
Not the easiest of quickies of late, but nothing too difficult. Didn’t parse PREFAB so thanks for that. DIMINISH took a while to see but getting THICKET helped. FIREWOOD was my LOI initially thinking ‘libido’ was ‘passion’ since it fitted the checkers until ELDER went in. COD to ORIGAMI.
Thanks MH. Didn’t know KIRIGAMI so I learnt something.
OLIVE took me a moment (‘old woman’ says MA to me), otherwise straightforward. 4:45.
I am back in the crossword saddle after a few days of politics. I did indeed whip through this one, hardly parsing anything. Prefab was my LOI, and I could make nothing of the clue, so it was a pure biff. I did parse after solving – an unusually long literal for a Quickie.
Time: 6:03
Another DNF. I’ve gone from expecting to finish a QC in under 20 minutes to DNFing 3 out of the last 4.
Mirror for echo just seems wrong, and using a random newspaper name is almost as bad as a random persons name. I never saw origami either. I feel like with these clues you either see the answer or you don’t, you can’t work through wordplay to get the answer (I’d love to ban cryptic definitions from QCs).
7d is a great clue though.
Banning cryptics from cryptics would be an interesting move….
8.26. Like just about everyone else FIREWOOD (terrific clue) was my LOI while THICKET, OLIVE and DIMINISH were also late to arrive. Not exactly two thumbs up for ORIGAMI and the ‘without tears’ malarkey but all up a nicely pitched QC, thanks to Mike and Wurm.
11 minutes. On ‘echo / MIRROR’, words don’t have to be synonymous in every instance to be valid as crossword definitions, one would be sufficient. But in this case the overlap is more than that because echo and mirror can be used figuratively to mean exactly the same. My AI assistant has kindly provided examples:
Figurative Repetition: When something is said or done that is very similar to something else that came before, e.g. “His speech echoed / mirrored the sentiments of the previous speaker.”
Reflection of a Situation or Feeling: When something reflects or is indicative of a broader situation or feeling, e.g. “The low turnout at the meeting echoed / mirrored the general lack of interest in the topic.”
As Mike has pointed out ‘Echo’ has been the name of many a newspaper so it fits well with the surface reading, but in that sense it would not work as a second definition because it’s the same as the first. The figurative meaning is the one that counts.
Great input Jack. Thank you.
Thanks Mike. Fair to middling it was at 20:23. COD was PREFAB. Fab, a very 60s word: (my big sister generously played us her Fab Four records), and in Thunderbirds they kept saying FAB to each other, which I later discovered to be Gerry Anderson, the creator, just using a hip word.
Wasn’t Lady Penelope’s car FAB 1 (Worcestershire.) Parker drove it… or was it always being parked?
Fair to middling until the SW where we were blocked for about 10 minutes. Took ages to get mortal and mirror which then unlocked origami at 34.10
COD to repeat for the misdirection, was sure that with the anagrist it would some kind of eet
Thanks Wurm and Mike
After a bright start this week is turning into a bit of a nightmare. I had a complete brainfreeze on 10a and eventually chucked in an unconvincing ‘peck’ – despite it not matching either of the definitions – and wasn’t overly surprised to find a DPS on submitting.
Other than that a fairly middle of the road puzzle with the ORIGAMI/FIREWOOD/MIRROR combo proving quite tricky.
Thanks to Mike and Wurm
NECK was my last one in, and I nearly gave up on it. Neither meaning came to mind readily. Clearly didn’t neck enough in my not very misspent youth…!
I tried peck first too. A peck is 8 quarts, so quite a big drink, and is deffo a kiss too if not a very romantic one. Although TBH it is a “dry” measure.
My first thought for the kiss was SNOG! Fortunately I waited for checkers.
I seem to be slightly bucking the trend here as I found this difficult and struggled to a 16:22 completion. I noticed that no less than 6 clues end in a ?, and since that usually signifies that the setter thinks the clue is slightly less than straightforward I think Wurm was at his most devious today. Certainly devious enough to stretch me! THICKET, TRAVERSE and PREFAB (ironically given my earlier comment, none of them ? clues) held me up the most but I was slow all round today.
Many thanks Mike for the blog.
Got breezeblocked by the NAP/PREFAB intersection. Otherwise, plain-ish sailing.
Pi ❤️
Fair to middling indeed, Mike – I breezed through until held up for a few minutes in the SW corner, finishing in 8:57. Some nice clues – FIREWOOD and ORIGAMI stand out – but COD for me is DIMINISH, as it uses MINI instead of L for little, for a nice change.
Thanks, Mike and Wurm
I do enjoy Wurm’s puzzles, they are full of ingenuity even when he’s dialling it back for us mortals in the QC.
I had loads missing after first pass through the acrosses but found the downs more accommodating and then mopped up. Like Plett I put “peck” first but fortunately saw the light. Chuckled at the PDM for “ravers” in TRAVERSE so that’s my COD.
All done in 08:14 for 1.8K and an OK Day. Couldn’t parse PREFAB so v grateful to Mike, as well as Wurm.
I also had pECK for a few moments before NECK came into view. But I had SNOG for long time (> 20 mins) before that, because it featured in a book of cocktail recipes Mrs R and I once had. I also know there are several cocktails with ‘kiss’ in their names, so I had little reason to doubt it.
Ditto re SNOG
Undone by the PECK – I did not see the light. Woe!
At the trickier end of middling, surely? Granted there were some write-ins, but there were quite a few where I still doubted my answer even after writing it in: Origami being a case in point. Mortal and Firewood were my last pair, bringing the 30min post into plain sight. CoD to 7d, Amnesia, for the amusing surface. Invariant
Too tough for me. Practically nothing on the LHS. At one point I wondered if ‘libedord’ could be a fuel (misspelled libido to fit checkers plus first letters of romance and devotion – sort of made sense at the time when I was desperate). Thanks to Mike for showing me where my vocab let me down: neck, mirror, woo (more seduce than romance to me before now) and thick. Miles off PREFAB too. See you tomorrow!
A mixture of straightforward and puzzling: PAN, MIRROR, DIMINISH and FIREWOOD (LOI) all took a while to unravel. 21:11 to finish.
Well, a very good start turned into a nightmare. I finished all but 2 in around 15 mins but came to a dead halt over ORIGAMI and FIREWOOD (I was not certain about MIRROR, either). They took me into the SCC for the first time since the middle of last week).
There were some very good clues, on reflection, but these two stumped me for some reason. I liked OLIVE, THICKET, TRAVERSE.
Thanks to both.
I thought of Origami with just the ‘a’ in place, but couldn’t see how it parsed . . . 🙄
Lovely friendly puzzle – thank you, Wurm. LOI PREFAB took a few extra minutes at the end. My amorous Mrs M supplied NECK but we aren’t sure of the drink; verb presumably, Mike?
Yes Martinů, NECK is an informal verb for drink e.g. “I’m not much of a drinker, but I don’t mind NECKing a few beers and getting caught up in the buzz of the World Cup.”
Thank you, Mike. NHO – but I have now. There are just so many words for “drink”!
A great QC today with some lovely clues – FIREWOOD & AMNESIA my CODs. Biffed PREFAB. Thanks Mike and Wurm.
12:53 for the solve. The right side went in nicely and the NW needed a bit of digging around in my mental dictionary. The last three in the SW took up the last 4+mins and only unlocked themselves when I began an alphatrawl for MIRROR which was one of the few papers I hadn’t named. With the I in place, ORIGAMI couldn’t be much else but I’m not keen on it as it took a good 2mins postsolve to try and unravel it. FIREWOOD LOI.
Very much enjoyed the clues for BALD, NAP, DANE, FIREWOOD among others.
Thanks to Mike and the wiggly Wurm
I got 13 fairly quickly then stalled.
Didn’t like 8ac, thought that a bit too cryptic for a QC. But there is always one like that.
I got off to a flying start with the two across clues at the top (LOATHE and REPEAT) going straight in. Unfortunately, only one (ELI) of their six dependent Down clues followed quickly and my early burst of speed was over. Progress was more sedate after that and, on a number of occasions, I wondered whether the finishing line would ever come into view. It did, I’m pleased to say, and I crossed it a little before my (rather loosely applied) limit of 40 minutes.
On the way I had to rely on a biff-then-parse approach to some clues and I never did make the link between ‘little crash’ and NAP. So, I found this a challenging QC, one that I am pleased to have solved.
Many thanks to Mike and Wurm.
Some tough clues. 16 minutes.
I’m in a rush and bunged in PECK as my LOI.
Never mind.
David
Not an easy puzzle, but not too difficult either. I had to make several passes with lots of gaps gradually filling up. LOATHE went straight in and I eventually arrived at FIREWOOD after ORIGAMI. 10:26. Thanks Wurm and Mike.
I must be massively on Wurms wavelength as all green in 5:39 to enter my top 5 of all time. LOI was MORTAL. there was a couple of biffs along the way. Thanks Mike for explaining ORIGAMI.
Top work, H’74! And on a far from easy QC.
Boom!
14m
Done in 2 parts again, second sitting to finish off thicket, firewood, tall order, and mortal.
Liked repeat, origami, dane, and prefab.
No trouble with this one, a steady solve had me finishing in 6.30, although it actually felt quicker than that. Perhaps FIREWOOD and my LOI TALL ORDER pushed the time out a little, but still a more than satisfactory time for me. I almost put in PECK for 10ac just acting instinctively on seeing the word ‘kiss’. NECK was not an expression I would have used in my youth for kissing, I just feel it somehow crept into our vocab some time later, probably from American tv and films.
Nice puzzle with some chewy clues. I was stuck in the SW until TALL ORDER unlocked the rest: 34 minutes.
Liked NAP and PREFAB among others.
Thanks both.
9.18 WOE
Very similar experience to Plett1 – I knew PECK didn’t feel right but who’d have known there are two synonyms for kiss ending _ECK? (Answer – everyone else 🙂)
Very slow start then held up in the SW at the end.
Thanks Wurm and Mike
There are currently no fewer than TWENTY reference solvers excluded with errors on the QUITCH – that’s a lot of pecks!
21 mins…
Got absolutely nothing in the NW corner to start with and ended up completing most of the RHS before anything went in on the left. 13dn “Origami” should have gone in quicker than it did (there can’t be that many words that end in “i” that aren’t “ennui” or Italian dishes).
Overall, I thought it was middling to difficult.
FOI – 5ac “Repeat”
LOI – 10ac “Neck”
COD – 22dn “Nap”
Thanks as usual!
Safari, tsunami, fungi, bonsai, sushi.
I agree with most others in that I found this to be the right difficulty for a QC. Liked the RAVERS, FIREWOOD and PREFAB particularly.
Finished the puzzle before the cuppa.
Thanks Wurm and Mike
Fairly slow, but I don’t time them. 1a Loathe went straight in and I wondered for a while what kind of French curse was loa!
13a Origami; I was uncertain about tearing so thanks Mike for the research, and Wurm for the puzzle.
I managed to finish this with the exception of pan/nap, which I still failed on despite having the first and last letters. Only in a crossword would thick be a syonym of friendly, but that could possibly be because I am thick in the more commonly used sense.
From LOATHE to FIREWOOD in 7:09. The SW corner was the slowest part of the solve and ORIGAMI was obviously the answer after I solved MIRROR. I didn’t rate the cluing for ORIGAMI. I used to do a lot of origami as a youngster and don’t remember any paper tears. COD to PREFAB. Thanks Mike.
I thought that was the point – if you tear the paper it isn’t origami, it’s kirigami?
Thanks….I didn’t realise there was such a thing as kirigami and I skipped over Mike’s explanation in the blog.
My quickest for ages, I dont actually time but I hadn’t finished my coffee. Very much in the enjoyable range. Knew crash from student days where it was common. Thanks to both as always.
SCC today 20:22 and a typo firewood dog
Was thinking star sign for house in prefab, took too long on the correct guesses for oath and moral and done by the pure cryptic again of origami.
All good fun though and thanks Mike and Yes Wurm
Managed to finish today’s puzzle, one that I found very fun. Feels quite apt finishing one today, as trying for tickets to see Inside No 9 when it goes on tour, and the episode ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’ is what got me into cryptic crosswords. I also had 16a as my final clue to enter, but was stuck with that, and 13d and 23a, but when it clicked for those clues it felt very satisfying. Spent to long on THICKET, as I had THICKET for copse, but then wondered where ET went into it to make a word meaning very friendly! Thank you for the blog 😀
Almost nothing on the left-hand side after the first pass. Eventually Eli followed by diminish unlocked the NW but unfortunately I never managed the last three in the SW – mortal, firewood and origami being the culprits. With hindsight (always an exact science) I should have got all of these but I was over my 30 minute cut-off point and had begun to lose interest.
FOI – 9ac DANE
LOI – DNF
COD – 11dn TALL ORDER
Thanks to Wurm and Mike
Lovely QC and a leisurely solve with lots to enjoy along the way. Stand out clues for me were ORIGAMI and PREFAB, both of which took me a while to unravel, but I also liked OLIVE and DIMINISH. NECK was luckily a write-in for me. Interesting to learn about kirigami. Thanks Mike and Wurm,
12:56 and saved from a DNF by Mrs T shouting out NECK just as I was about to type in peck as our LOI because we’d spent a long time being unable to think of anything else (we rejected snog early on because we didn’t know it as a drink). COD THICKET.
7.27.
I didn’t feel as if I was on the right wavelength for this. However as I finished in my average time of 30mins, I must have been.
Enjoyed ORIGAMI and BALD.
Thanks Mike and Wurm
21:54
Thought I was on for a good time with all but the NW corner completed in 10. But got stuck with DIMINISH, THICKET and MORTAL before seeing the checkers and wanting to put TIMELORD for LOI FIREWOOD.
DNF – tried and tried and failed to get PREFAB
10a NECK (NHO) a lucky biff..suspect more due to roving background rather than from any puritan streak..
Much enjoyed – and under 13 minutes before accepting defeat…which for us is speedy.
Thank you MH for information blog and Wurm for the challenge.
10.07 Quick until I spent three minutes on LOI FIREWOOD. ORIGAMI was a biff. I’d forgotten the rules. Thanks Mike and Wurm.
This was a moderate QC rather than easier for me – origami, thicket, firewood, traverse were hard to parse. Parsed origami after I read the blog. Enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks.
15:05 ORIGAMI, TALL ORDER, FIREWOOD and MIRROR took the longest but were very rewarding to crack.
Are you okay these days? Posting later in the day. And this is the 5th day in a row I’ve been quicker than you where normally it’s never more than 1, maybe 2 at a stretch.
Well, most of the year Ontario and London are 5 hours apart so I see the QC at 7pm( when it’s midnight in London and starting the next day). However the last couple of weeks we had switched to Daylight Savings Time and England hadn’t yet so I didn’t see the puzzle till 8pm. Thus the blog wasn’t coming out till an hour or more later and I was usually retiring for the night around then! I think we’re back to 5 hour difference so I will probably be posting earlier now( i.e before going to bed). As for you more consistently bettering my solving time I think that’s just down to you making steady incremental progress acquiring more of the devices/tricks/GK used by setters – and remembering them! I am a little more dilettantish and don’t think I can make myself concentrate/focus nearly as well. That’s not to say my times won’t be better on certain days but I think the trend is definitely in your favour!
I see. Well, as long as you’re okay that’s the main thing. We’ve had a run of the ‘original’ setters and I seem to have tuned into most of them – I guess we must be due puzzles from the newer ones so that will level the playing field.
Much appreciate your concern!
13:05.
But surprised to see a pink square for PECK, rather than NECK. But I guess Peck is a dry measure, not a liquid measure.
Another disastrous day.
42 minute DNF. Put PECK for NECK, and couldn’t get either MORTAL or TALL (got ORDER). Still haven’t got a clue how ORIGAMI works. I don’t want an explanation!
I’m sure the rest of you found this easy, so have a good laugh at my total inability to do this. Being the person who is bottom of the class seems to be the only role I can perform here.
Why can’t I do this? What do you all have that I don’t? Why is all that time spent on 15 x 15 failing to produce any return? I wish I could quit, but I can’t.