14:29 here, with the south-east corner being the last section done: my last four clues were all in that corner of the grid. My average time, according to the Quick Snitch, is 14:32, and that tallies with how I feel about the puzzle: not too easy, and not too hard. As I wrote up the blog, I thought there were quite a number of anagrams (I count six), so I hope you all had your anagram hats handy.
As I often find, my LOI becomes my COD once I understand how it works. Step forward STARLESS, congratulations. I particularly liked the vaguely sinister overtones of the surface reading. (If you don’t know what LOI and COD are, may I recommend the excellent glossary?)
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Group of cows saving energy for bull? (8) |
| HEREFORD – HERD (group of cows) containing [saving] E for Energy and the literal word FOR.
E for energy as in E = mc2. Herefords are a breed of cattle. |
|
| 5 | Comfortable seat one’s lost in capital (4) |
| SOFA – SOF |
|
| 8 | Ears reshaped by source of light — surgical beam? (5) |
| LASER – L |
|
| 9 | Show insect on paper (7) |
| PAGEANT – PAGE ANT | |
| 11 | Shift interrupted by constant disagreement (11) |
| ALTERCATION – ALTERATION (shift) containing [interrupted by] C for constant.
c for constant as in E = mc2. |
|
| 13 | A god transfixed by university writer (6) |
| AUTHOR – A, THOR holding [transfixed by] U for university.
I think there’s just enough overlap between transfixed and holding, as in attention, for this to be fair enough. |
|
| 14 | An essential part of parasitism in the current circumstances (2,2,2) |
| AS IT IS – Hidden in [essential part of] |
|
| 17 | Gross pay one has blown in cafe (6,5) |
| GREASY SPOON – (GROSS PAY ONE)*
Do greasy spoons still exist? |
|
| 20 | Personal, cheese-coated chocolate cake (7) |
| BROWNIE – OWN (personal, as in “my own”), surrounded by BRIE [cheese coated].
I suppose you sometimes see cakes with a cream cheese frosting, but the concept of a cheese-coated cake is … unappealing to me. |
|
| 21 | Level path beyond first of pot-holes (5) |
| PLANE – LANE (path) after [beyond] the first letter of P |
|
| 22 | Still far from bumpy! (4) |
| EVEN – Double definition, the first as in “even so…” | |
| 23 | Dark ship in which evil alters (8) |
| STARLESS – SS (steamship) containing [in which] (ALTERS)*.
SS for ship is common, but I think “evil” as an anagram indicator is new to me. I didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on with this clue, which was my last one in. I got it from the crossers and the definition and then light dawned about how it worked. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | That man will torture! (4) |
| HELL – Double definition, the first missing its apostrophe. | |
| 2 | Others with skill go back to square one (7) |
| RESTART – REST (others), ART (skill).
Very neat. |
|
| 3 | Relative stoic, if runs off (5,6) |
| FIRST COUSIN – (STOIC IF RUNS)* | |
| 4 | Story about Dover, say? (6) |
| REPORT – RE (about), PORT (Dover, say). | |
| 6 | Old chap — one from SW Asian country (5) |
| OMANI – O (old), MAN (chap), I (one).
I had to take a look at a globe, but “SW Asian country” is spot on for Oman. |
|
| 7 | Treatment applied to host, as in shock (8) |
| ASTONISH – (HOST AS IN)* | |
| 10 | Insect, as customer squashed by King George (11) |
| GRASSHOPPER – AS (from the clue), SHOPPER (customer) below [squashed by] GR (King George) | |
| 12 | Material, bit angel tailored (8) |
| TANGIBLE – (BIT ANGEL)* | |
| 15 | Weight has horse in mood (7) |
| TONNAGE – NAG (horse) in TONE (mood). | |
| 16 | Rise beginning to affect Cologne? (6) |
| ASCENT – first letter of A Remember that setters are free to mislead with capitalization like this. |
|
| 18 | Some cancel operations and run away! (5) |
| ELOPE – hidden in [some] |
|
| 19 | County furniture? (4) |
| BEDS – Another double definition to finish with.
BEDS is a (fairly) standard abbreviation for Bedfordshire. But it isn’t in the first few four-letter counties that occur to me (“Kent? Avon? Down? Mayo?”) |
|
I found this very tricky in parts and think the setter has included some unreasonable wordplay to find the answers in a quickie. Transfixed as a containment indicator is a bit of a stretch in my opinion, again, in a quickie, ok for the 15×15. STARLESS also a bit convoluted with ‘evil’ as the anagrind. I think when it’s necessary to find the answer from the checkers then there’s something wrong with the wordplay. This could have been a really fun quickie to follow the last two days as all of the answers are simple words, with the exception of ‘as it is’ and ‘first cousin’ which were hidden and anagrammed respectively anyway.
Thanks D and setter.
Agree
I was not in form on this one, and struggled with clues that should have been obvious, like Beds and starless. I had the sofa clue completely backwards, believing I was looking for a capital. I did biff grasshopper and astonish, but I should have been able to parse them.
Time: 11:59
Left at the end with ASTONISH and STARLESS, both anagrams but it took forever to realise that. Enjoying seeing GREASY SPOON emerge from an unpromising beginning. Five on the first pass and never totally comfortable on the way to being all green in 14.19.
18 minutes suggests I found this on the hard side, but STARLESS was the only clue I recall causing a major delay. The grammar of the clue (in which evil alters) suggests that ‘evil’ is the grist and ‘alters’ is the grind but even before pursuing that it was clear it wouldn’t provide enough letters so it wouldn’t do. I’m happy to accept ‘evil’ as an anagram indicator because one of its synonyms is ‘corrupt’, but I’m still not sure the clue can be read in such a way to indicate that’s what’s going on.
In addition to ‘hold’, transfix can mean to pierce, spear, puncture, run through etc, so ‘transfixed by’ is fine as a containment indicator.
The scent at 16dn (full name eau de Cologne) takes its name from the French name for the German city where it originated, so it naturally takes a capital C. Cologne has since become a generic term for a type scent like ‘hoover’ for vacuum cleaner so it can take lower case, but I don’t think there’s any intentional misdirection going on here.
BEDS was not the first 4-letter county to come to my mind either, even though I have lived in it for the past 43 years!
Likewise on Beds here, I grew up and lived most of 50 years there before hopping over the border to Bucks.
I live 200 yards from that border.
Didn’t know the second meaning of ‘transfix’, so thanks. After reading the clue again, I think ‘transfixed by’ is using your second meaning, ‘pierced by’ rather than ‘held by’ as it’s the U that’s being inserted.
It was a write in for me as I used to work in Luton and now live in Bucks pushing up close to both Beds and Northants
As usual, when we see Mara I say “ King of misdirection” and so it was.
Enjoyable puzzle taking 24.10, about par for his offerings. Had no problem with understanding what we were looking for to eventually get LOI author. Came back to it several times throughout the solve but only writing -t-o- and looking for a god with a u in it did Thor finally come to mind.
Evil was the classic misdirection as we were sure it was the anagrist rather than the anagrind, so COD here too.
Wondered for a while if playant was some kind of special paper, until we finally looked at the other end of the clue.
Thanks Mara and Doofers
I found most of this relatively straightforward until getting stuck in the SE with TONNAGE (wrong end of the clue issues), STARLESS and LOI PLANE (no idea why I struggled with this one).
Finished in 8.26 with COD to HEREFORD for the PDM.
Thanks to Doofers and Mara
15:39. 15 seems to be my go to time this week. Agree evil threw me and after pdm (thank you checkers) I thesaurusised evil and saw wrong of course so fair play imho.
Page Ant held me up but what could be more Ronseal than insect on paper…?
Good puzzle; thanks Mara and Doofers.
13:15 with ALTERnATION. What a silly mistake. I knew the constant was C but then built the answer backwards from the checkers and alternation seemed good enough for shift and I mentally checked off N as one of the mathematical abbreviations.
What a great puzzle though. I really enjoyed building the answers to those clues and unravelling the anagrams. BROWNIE perhaps the favourite today as it I couldn’t believe my eyes when adding BRIE to –O-N– left me just needing to add the W to get the lovely.
Thanks to Doofers and Mara
It certainly left me hungry – cheese and chocolate…
And so close to Easter …
This is only for the most committed/experienced.
A bit chewy. And a couple of biffs (STARLESS, PLANE) required to finish in 30:50 – slow going.
Somewhat contrary to the above comments, I found this very straightforward – though admittedly with some biffing, as most answers were obvious (including starless, where I rather liked ‘evil’ as the anagrind). 7:42 – thanks Mara and Doofers
A rare solve of the QC for me. Squeaked under 10. Enjoyed it. Thanks all.
14:01 (Battle of Mynydd Hyddgen. Owain Glyndwr defeats English army)
A vey slow start, with only two of the across clues being solved at first pass.
I needed pen and paper to get TANGIBLE. LOI was TONNAGE.
Never seen evil used as an anagram indicator before, but it sort of works.
Thanks Doofers and Mara
Nothing untoward except for my DNF BEDS, which was just beyond my zone of knowledge even though I believe I have ancestral connections. So the towel went in at 13ish but a nice puzzle, thanks Mara and the Doof.
Usually find Mara difficult but this one was all friendly. Battled with the chocolate cake, never thought of a BROWNIE as a cake but of course it is. LOI ASTONISH. Some fun here with SOFA BEDS, and maybe the STARLESS HELL of a GREASY SPOON? Thank you, Mara and Doofers (but sorry, cannot accept Avon as a genuine county).
The starless hell of a greasy spoon !
A song?
An Edward Hopper painting?
Love the idea of the Edward Hopper painting – the Chop Suey one fits the bill perfectly.
Good one! I guess I was probably thinking of Nighthawks.
5:38. I stuttered a bit getting going, but finished in just over an average time. LOI ASTONISH. I had a double take at “transfix” as an insertion indicator, but then I remembered that it could mean “pierce”. Thank-you Mara and Doofers.
A fascinating, clever puzzle.
A pity Mara is only rarely able to set a QC at my level.
Thanks to doofers.
Had to look up TANGIBLE as I was stuck. Then finished very slowly. A difficult puzzle.
Biffed HEREFORD but CNP. Liked (?) GREASY SPOON, AS IT IS, SOFA, BEDS (FOI). LOI PLANE.
Not my day but thanks Doofers.
6.51
HEREFORD foxed me until the F appeared whilst STARLESS went in completely unparsed. Never seen evil used that way before. So defo tricky in parts.
Thanks Mara and Doofers
This one stretched me to within a smidgin of my target time. HELL was FOI, but although I had HERD in mind, I wasn’t able to make the leap to HEREFORD until FIRST COUSIN arrived. STARLESS took a while to see. Needed TANGIBLE to see GREASY SPOON. TONNAGE was LOI. 9:54. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
Unlike many it seems I was bang on Mara’s wavelength for this very nice puzzle, with all going smoothly, even STARLESS (I didn’t give a second thought to “evil” as an anagram indicator – I’ve seen far more obscure ones). And then a grinding halt over LOI ASTONISH, where I got completely the wrong end of the stick, thinking that “Treatment applied” was the definition, “to host, as” the anagrist and “in shock” the anagram indicator. Wrong on all three counts! After convincing myself no anagram of “to host as” exists I regrouped, found the right parsing and finished in 9:53.
An excellent puzzle. Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
17:22
Got there, but it took a while. Not easy.
Thanks, D.
I thought this was the more gentle side of Mara as I found this quite straightforward, but it looks like I’m in the minority. Not timed, but a rare sub-20 mins finish with 11A being my LOI (and taking a couple of minutes to see it).
Thanks to Mara and Doofers
1a Herefords are specifically beef cattle. Took a while to see how it worked.
20a Brownie. In the QC I think brie is the only cheese on offer.
23a Starless, late PDM here too.
COD 10d Grasshopper.
Thanks to Doofenschmirtz and Mara.
Haven’t we seen feta in a QC?
I found this tough. With author I thought gold could have been in the clue.
I doubt greasy spoons still exist in their classic form due to health and safety requirements. My in-laws ran The Strand Cafe in Deal which will be familiar to any beach fisher persons. My father in law would add a tea bag to the large pot every time someone ordered a tea. I think he only emptied it once a day.
Now that’s tea.
They do exist, although they seem to be relegated to truck stops and areas you probably wouldn’t go to. Up here in Cumbria, the majority have been replaced by the upmarket breakfast, costing anywhere between £10 to £15 for various grains, avocados and spicy takes on a standard English fry up.
I found this to be an excellent puzzle by Mara with plenty of misdirection to keep us all on our toes. The ‘tailored’ part of the clue for 12dn was an excellent example of this, where I was trying to find a fabric as a solution to the obvious anagram. I was surprised to find I was inside my ten minute target at 9.20, as it seemed longer in solving. The clue to hold me up longer than anything else was STARLESS my LOI.
Great puzzle- unlike some commentators above I always feel at home with Mara, finished well within 30 min cut-off, walk dog time
I found this quite chewy in places but enjoyable none the less.
Held up at the end by STARLESS (finally spotted the evil anagrind) and BEDS which only came to light when I realised the S could make it a furniture plural.
Many thanks Mara and Doofers.
Liked this
Off to a flyer with Hereford and the NW corner mostly write ins. Then ground to a halt taking an improbably long time over LOI SOFA. All green in 10.42.
Thanks all.
Two sub five minute solves in a row, and I liked this one by Mara. No arcane knowledge required and all nicely clued, albeit evil as an anagrind was a new one, but rather a good one I thought.
So COD to starless for its originality.
Thanks Doof and Mara.
I had to skip over the 1s and started with SOFA (although my first thought was that well known comfy seat ‘caro’). I solved steadily clockwise but had to return to STARLESS, my LOI. I can’t say I was fond of ‘evil’ as an anagram indicator but I got there in the end. 7:31 with much to enjoy. Thanks Doofers.
9:07
Just three in from first pass of acrosses – better on the downs, but didn’t find it very engaging, preferring to pick off as many of the more straightforward answers as possible before tackling the trickier clues. Finally left with BEDS (assumed that 23a ended in the second S from SS) and then a minute or two trying to understand what to make of 23a.
Thanks Doofenschmirtz and Mara
19 minutes all parsed which is quicker than my norm for a Mara puzzle. After the first run-through I had quite a lot of the left-hand side complete but almost nothing on the right. The SE corner was the last to fall.
FOI – 8ac LASER
LOI – 23ac STARLESS
CODs – 20ac BROWNIE and 10dn GRASSHOPPER
Thanks to Mara and Doofers
9:07 coincidentally.
LOI BEDS.
Enjoyed this and the blog, thanks all.
Enjoyed this but it took as long as the last two combined; 17 mins. Found some clues baffling as many others did but came down on the right side more by luck than judgement.
Very nice puzzle full of misdirection and lovely devices… but sadly a big fat DNF for me! Ended up revealing STARLESS (doh) and took an absolute age on TANGIBLE, PAGEANT and TONNAGE. Did not even consider evil as an anagram indicator, but I will know for next time 😁 Never sure how to read ‘transfixed’ – piercing or containing? – but luckily I could biff this one, and thanks for blog explanation. Liked BROWNIE. Many thanks Mara and D.
DNF. Could hardly get a single one of these clues.
If this is a puzzle of average difficulty, then I would not like to see a tough one.
12.10 I needed all the checkers for PAGEANT. They looked implausible before the penny dropped. STARLESS and BEDS held me up at the end. Thanks Doofers and Mara.
22:15
All but one completed in 12 minutes. Unfortunately one of those was Seat for county furniture. That made LOI STARLESS all but impossible and cost me 10 minutes figuring out where I went wrong.
Another SEAT here. Fortunately I seem to be getting less stubborn.
9:30. BROWNIE was my favourite.
I too liked this Mara and (just about) avoided the SCC. HERD had to be part of 1a, so that fell nicely, and the F helped greatly with FIRST COUSIN, so I was away. STARLESS my loi. Greasy spoons, eh? Known a few in my time! Fun, chewy here and there, but eminently fair clues. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
I progressed well from the start and was on target for a day out from the SCC …. until the SE corner intervened. GRASSHOPPER, BEDS, PLANE and STARLESS conspired to prevent me escaping, although I did cross the lane in 21-22 minutes or so. Given my loss of form (or increase in difficulty of the QC) over the past 6-8 months, I am still very pleased with today’s effort.
It was nice to see GREASY SPOON make an appearance. A bit more my level than mythological Greek gods and the like.
Many thanks to Doofers and Mara.
13 mins…
It’s not often I can say I’m having a good week, but I am. Obviously plenty of time for it to go downhill from tomorrow.
A good puzzle from Mara with a variety of clues. As an ex-auditor, the concept of material = tangible wasn’t too obscure.
FOI – 1dn “Hell”
LOI – 17ac “Greasy Spoon”
COD – 2dn “Restart”
Thanks as usual!
This felt hard but provided about the average time of amusement, 16:00. On review it looks much easier than it was, but ain’t that always the way. I liked the cheesy chocolate cake, yum? STARLESS held me up for a long time at the end, not assisted by BEDS and of course the anagrind looked like the grist and vice-versa. Point to Mara.
Thanks Mara and Doof.
17:11. Held up by FIRST COUSIN, and GREASY SPOON. LOI TONNAGE where I was looking for just an H.
Also tempted with BRIOCHE, where OCH is some Scottish expression that might fit.
8.22. I don’t expect ever to dip under 5 minutes, so kudos to those who manage to.
23 minutes.
A poor performance characterised by angst, panic and the usual sense of inadequacy. I am way behind those I was once on a par with. As soon as I hit difficulties the stress sets in and I lose the ability to think clearly. I must have taken a dozen passes at ALTERATION, AUTHOR & ASTONISH.
Did ok on 15 x 15, but that’s little consolation when I struggle so much with the QC.
Not feeling optimistic about tomorrow.
Thanks for the blog.
Gary, you can complete a Times 15×15 – what more proof do you need that you can do cryptics?! It sounds like you put far less pressure on yourself to compete with others when you do the biggie and solve more easily as a result. Some stress in life is unavoidable but solving a crossword should NOT be a source of stress. Really, stop worrying about everyone else and you’ll probably find solving QCs a lot more enjoyable.
Thanks fabian. I’ll do my best to follow that excellent advice. 👍
DNF, found it very difficult, managed about half of the puzzle, so tried working backwards from the answers to see if I could figure out the word play. Clues were very clever and all made sense, and thank you for the blog for clearing up any confusion
I really enjoyed that. I think I fell for every single trap on this. The settter has played me like a fiddle. It prevented a fast time and this was the toughest of the week but nothing that kept me pulling my hair out for too long.
COD: BROWNIE – combining two of my favourite foods. I guess it was personal for me.