Just the 4th Quick Cryptic from Juji and the third one I’ve blogged. I didn’t have any difficulties and finished in an under average 4:50. There are, however, a few clues that some may find tricky including a couple of unusual letter selection indicators, a lovely hidden word and a “cycling” clue. My LOI was 12D. Thank-you Juji. How did you all get on?
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill’s turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 131 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fissure’s opening in old path, naturally (2,6) |
| OF COURSE – First letter of Fissure in O (old) COURSE (path). | |
| 5 | Backing friends to strike (4) |
| SLAP – PALS (friends) [backing] -> SLAP. | |
| 8 | Fully pack possessions (5) |
| STUFF – Double definition. | |
| 9 | Head of museum restored relic, a wonder (7) |
| MIRACLE – (M{useum} relic a) [restored]. | |
| 11 | Knight, one with right jousting weapon to pierce opening (3,8) |
| SIR LANCELOT – I (one) R (right) LANCE (jousting weapon) in SLOT (opening). | |
| 13 | Exercise running back and forth (4-2) |
| PULL-UP – A palindrome [running back and forth]. | |
| 14 | Self-confident saint not right after wife leaves (6) |
| STRONG – ST (saint) {w}RONG (not right) without the w (wife). | |
| 17 | Reduction of temperature in dog with illness (11) |
| CURTAILMENT – T (temperature) in CUR (dog) AILMENT (illness). | |
| 20 | Bungling males I’d deceive (7) |
| MISLEAD – [Bungling] (males I’d). | |
| 21 | Lecture’s nothing to value (5) |
| ORATE – O (nothing) RATE (value). | |
| 22 | Reportedly negative to German figure (4) |
| NINE – Sounds like, [reportedly], NEIN (no; negative in German). | |
| 23 | Reversing bit of dissent, federation shows skill (8) |
| DEFTNESS – Reverse hidden in diSSENT FEDeration. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dismiss characters residing in your street (4) |
| OUST – Middle letters of yOUr [characters residing in] ST (street). A bit of a tricky letter selection indicator. | |
| 2 | Advise company a Parisian steals regularly (7) |
| COUNSEL – CO (company) UN (a in French = a Parisian) and alternate letters [regularly] of StEaL. | |
| 3 | Lamentable piece of bun for tuna tested (11) |
| UNFORTUNATE – Hidden in bUN FOR TUNA TEsted. | |
| 4 | Like retiring chap admitting love of Polynesian country (6) |
| SAMOAN – AS (like) [retiring] -> SA, O (0; love) in MAN (chap). | |
| 6 | Boozer in vicinity of 50, a colonel, toppled over (5) |
| LOCAL – L (50) A COL (colonel) all reversed [toppled over] -> LOCAL. | |
| 7 | Ripest bananas briefly acquire great reputation (8) |
| PRESTIGE – (ripest)* [bananas] then GE{t} (acquire) [briefly]. | |
| 10 | Rotten back tooth starts to emit reeks and cause trouble (4,3,4) |
| ROCK THE BOAT – (back tooth e{mit} r{eeks})* [rotten]. “Starts to” means take the first letters of the next two words. | |
| 12 | Small rodents turned up in coop, for example (8) |
| SPECIMEN – S (small) and MICE (rodents) [turned up] -> ECIM in PEN (coop). | |
| 15 | Lack of power to contain king’s fury (7) |
| OUTRAGE – R (rex; king) in OUTAGE (lack of power). | |
| 16 | Swear from top of precipitous rock shelf (6) |
| PLEDGE – First letter of Precipitous LEDGE (shelf). | |
| 18 | Removing covers, Irish gent is out of bed (5) |
| RISEN – Remove outside letters (covers) of {I}RIS{h} {g}EN{t}. | |
| 19 | Cycling bearing hot drinks (4) |
| TEAS – EAST (bearing) [cycling], here starting with the T, -> TEAS. | |
I had no idea what was going on in 10d until I biffed it, and I had to write down the anagrist letters, which I never do. TEAS also took me some time. UNFORTUNATE was an impressive hidden. 7:57
I parsed PRESTIGE as ripest and ge(t) for briefly acquire, as the anagrist and ‘great reputation’ as the definition.
A pretty gentle offering I thought but a few clues that had to be assembled carefully: SPECIMEN, ROCK THE BOAT, CURTAILMENT, SIR LANCELOT. A fun quickie. COD to PULL-UP.
Thanks John and setter.
Oh yes. I got the parsing for PRESTIGE wrong. Thanks. Will fix.
I found this hard and needed 16 minutes to complete the grid, missing my extended target yet again. Still that’s an improvement on Juji’s #1 & #3 which took me 18 minutes. Only #2 was more respectable for me at 12. I also note that 3 of his 4 to date have appeared on your blogging day, John.
I think today most of my time lost was at the beginning as I took a while to find a clue where the answer jumped out at me so I could establish a foothold. I also needed several attempts at parsing SPECIMEN before getting it right. I’ve no complaints about anything though, and almost every surface reading is immaculate.
In agreement about the quality of today’s surfaces 👍
Yes, my only disappointment was that the setter didn’t find a way to have the rodents at 12dn turning up in the Co-op.
Quite slow to start but then it all came together with a delay at the end to justify SAMOAN – couldn’t work out what the ‘of’ in ‘love of polynesian island’ was doing. All wrecked by SPECIMiN – durr. So clearly not right now I’ve written in horizontally. Looks like I used the E twice in parsing and didn’t account for the rogue I – plus I must be saying the word wrong! Not all green in 10.56.
I found this fairly gentle going, with my biggest issues being IT related and I had to switch browsers mid-solve.
My one solving delay was with the parsing of LOI TEAS as I’ve slowly come to realise that ‘cycling clues’ are up there with spoonerisms as the ones I find most difficult.
No time today due to the aforementioned IT issues but I’d estimate it to be around the 6 minute mark. COD to UNFORTUNATE.
Thanks to John and Juji
10:13 WOE. I had SLEDGE instead of PLEDGE even though I (briefly) thought it odd that the “top of precipitous” gave the S, before just moving on. So COD has to be UNFORTUNATE.
Thanks to John and Juji
As noted above, some really lovely surfaces. Took a while get going then mostly steady with specimen LOI at a slighter longer than par these days of 21.21
COD to risen
Thanks Juji and John
Found this much easier going today (16 mins) – a welcome change from the last few days which have been tricky for this relative novice. A fun way to end the week. Thanks Juji and John.
I found that enjoyable and not too hard, but was dismayed to be greeted by two DPSs on hitting submit … I’d put “wets” at 19d in the sense of “drink” (doesn’t seem to be in Collins but Chambers has “5 colloq an alcoholic drink; a dram”). As I typed it I thought “that doesn’t really cycle west as I understand cycling”, but assumed it had a broader meaning! Oh dear. So 07:31 but WOE.
Great puzzle, COD to SIR LANCELOT. Many thanks Juji and John (you sound like a 70s folk duo).
PS on edit – Urban Dictionary has what I was thinking of – “wet. Marine and navy speak for any liquid substance. Often appended with either “hot” or “cold” dependent on type of drink. Hot Wet = Tea, Coffee, etc. Cold Wet = beer, coke, water, etc. “I’ve got the kettle on, fancy a hot wet ?”
I’m familiar with that meaning of wet too, most usually as in “Fancy a few wets?” as an invitation to join someone at the pub. I’m doubly glad therefore I thought of TEAS first, as Wets is an perfectly understandable answer.
Yes, but that would be an indirect anagram rather than cycling which is no no.
Yes, I’m not saying “wets” was valid – as I said, even while I was typing it I was thinking “this isn’t really cycling”! What a twerp – always listen to the warning siren.
Don’t get me started on cycling puns…
I also found this at the easier end of the spectrum, finishing in 6:57. Very smooth surfaces (except, if I’m being fussy, the rather clunky ‘Lamentable piece of bun for tuna tested’) and a good variety of clueing techniques.
14:14 with LOI SPECIMEN, suddenly jumped out as I had been looking at the clue the wrong way around. “For example” is often what it says, or “eg” or “say”, not expecting it as the definition. Nice one, Juji. I also have always pronounced it as ending in MIN.
Not really a fan of “cycling” clues, but at least they’re not too bad, until a setter uses “cycling” as a definition of course, just to misdirect me again.
Great surfaces throughout. But I think the construction of “ Rotten back tooth starts to emit reeks” is a bit clumsy, it’s hard to see how the “rotten” refers to the outcome of “starts to”. That’s taking nested functions a bit far. I was sure the “er” had to be on the end.
COD PULL-UP. Always good to see a new palindrome. Like that South African bowler Markram, whom was described last week as “not just metronomic but also palindromic”.
A friend of mine has a tattoo reading PULL UP IF I PULL UP. Never ask why.
What a pleasure after yesterday’s ‘QC’. Maybe I was just on wavelength (or maybe just buoyed by having belatedly posted my comments on yesterday’s blog) but this was a smooth solve for me in 11.55.
I was held up by 4d until I realised the significance of the ‘of’ in the clue and I admit to biffing a couple (including ROCK THE BOAT) so I will now return to John’s blog and check my parsing of the rest.
Good clues, smooth surfaces and an enormous improvement over Juji’s three previous QC offerings which were very tough IMO.
Thanks to Juji and John.
Well that was a proper quick cryptic after yesterday’s horror. A very rare sub 10 at 7.28.
I’m not sure how setters are supposed to judge. I’m an experienced solver yet today’s QC took me 5 minutes longer (16) than yesterday’s “horror” (11 minutes).
Jack, I fully agree with you! My time today was barely a third of my time yesterday (over 20 minutes to just under 7). I’m sure it is for this reason that the crosswords are not given a difficulty rating as for example Sudokus are – it would be neither possible nor remotely useful.
Yesterday’s took me double today’s, and the subjective experience was certainly one of a monstering. The only thing I can say with any degree of confidence is that experienced solvers seem to be generally bad at estimating difficulty for less experienced solvers, and probably the other way round as well. I seem to recall that the crossword Ed said as much when he posted here a few months ago.
The only way I can think of assessing difficulty with any accuracy would be to submit the puzzle to a panel of testers of the appropriate level of experience.
Yes, you are right that Jason posted along those lines. But as the QC has a wider brief than just being a simple puzzle, the one thing I can say with confidence is that pre-submitting to a panel of testers wouldn’t resolve anything.
10:18 (Llywelyn ap Seisyll becomes King of Gwynedd)
LOI was SPECIMEN. COD to PULL-UP.
Thanks John and Juji
8:50 for the solve ⚡ No particular issues but noted there was some complicated clueing in there and that certainly added a few seconds here and there as I parsed answers (particularly specimen, outrage and deftness). Impressive on both the hiddens and for some reason PLEDGE made me laugh.
Needed that after a tough week on both the QC (1hr45) and the cryptic quintagram. Have a good weekend everybody.
Thanks to JohnI and Juji.
Edit: Thanks to Sawbill for the Weekender – 9:27 … I intially misread 24A as referring to the pointless Richard Osman!
Slowish start, but steadily everything came together and a faster than usual finish in 17:11. LOI TEAS!
Very nice indeed, another tricky but fair offering with clever clues – a perfectly-pitched QC, completed in 10:15.
Thanks J&J, and also Sawbill for the excellent weekend puzzle – very good!
I once received a school report that started “He is consistently inconsistent”, and the last two puzzles show I haven’t lost the knack. After being much slower than those I consider my peers yesterday, I turned in a very rapid 6:47 today, rather faster than my comparison peer group and even a rare sub-1K. No idea why …
As for the puzzle, much enjoyed and (as my time suggests) minimal hold-ups. ROCK THE BOAT the only one biffed and then subsequently parsed.
Many thanks John for the blog, and I look forward to the Sunday Special.
Boom!
A fairly gentle one from Juji, with loi (and CoD) Of Course in place with plenty of time for a window seat. Outrage and Pledge also got well-deserved ticks as I worked through the clues, with just the parsing of Prestige causing problems – I couldn’t see how ‘great’ gave ‘ge’. What’s the opposite of ‘lift and separate’? Invariant
A relatively smooth 13 minute solve. I biffed ROCK THE BOAT and never bothered to parse it and I couldn’t parse TEAS but otherwise no problems.
FOI – 5ac SLAP
LOI – 19dn TEAS
COD – 13ac PULL-UP
Thanks to Juji and John
From OF COURSE to SPECIMEN in 7:10. Nice puzzle. Thanks Juji and John.
A nice even paced solve for me finishing in 9.35, with my LOI SPECIMEN. I made sure all was parsed before stopping the clock, although on one of my parsing efforts I got hold of the wrong end of the stick. 19dn was clearly TEAS, but I took this to be an anagram of SEAT which I thought just about passed as a synonym for bearing. This of course involves recycling the letters rather than the direction given, as Johninterred has pointed out.
I like to keep a weekly average of my times from Monday to Friday, but I’ve been thwarted today as Kitty’s blog from last Monday seems to have disappeared. So I’ll have to recalculate on a four day basis with a total time of 40.48, giving a daily average of 10.12, a few seconds above target.
Thanks to John restoring Kitty’s blog, my revised weekly figures recalculated show a total time of 51.47, giving me a daily average of 10.26, a few more sections above target!
I’ve no idea how it got there but I found Kitty’s blog in the bin . It is now restored along with all rhe comments
Thanks John, I’ll update the calculations in my comments
Finished just at the open door of the SCC. 20.12
Oddly, unlike most, slower in the main than yesterday. And very slow keyboard today. Jammed top of thumb in brand new v sharp vegetable peeler v early this morning. The extrication process is not recommended and the resultant inability to hit the space bar in the usual fashion is much missed. Am a ‘silly duffer’* as my grandmother would have said but a sad one nevertheless (*my choice of words were a little different).
Many thanks to Juji – much enjoyed and to John for his as always good blog.
I feel for you! Owwwwwwwwwww!
: ) thank you …. stupidity is so often rewarded
You poor thing. New veg peelers are surprisingly dangerous – I did something similar a few weeks ago and am still a bit wary of it!
Hope your hand gets better very soon 😊
Thank you – Himself has taken this as further reason to steer clear of the kitchen : )
17:39
Started quickly but was slowed by the bottom half. Failed to parse LOI TEAS but couldn’t think any other hot drinks that would fit.
This lovely puzzle all fell into place in 14:11. No breezeblocks for once
COD: PULL UP. Who knew it was a palindrome.
LOI: SPECIMEN.
Thanks Juji and John.
Great time #5 … second sub15 this fortnight iirc.
Bang on Juji’s wavelength and all done in 10 minutes which is fast for me! Liked the palindrome at 13a and enjoyed the ill mongrel at 17a! Don’t want to rock anyone’s boat but I wondered about MISLEAD equating with deceive: one can be misled inadvertently and I’m not sure that ranks as deception. Perhaps so if that’s the outcome? Highly enjoyable, thanks Juji and John for excellent blog
My sudden and unexpected patch of good form (luck?) continues with a 20-21 minute finish today. Still in the SCC, but most of the best seats were still available when I arrived.
I think SPECIMEN was my only unparsed clue, although I also didn’t pause long enough to work out every last bit of SIR LANCELOT. DEFTNESS was my CoD.
Many thanks to John and Juji.
7:57
Plenty of interruptions in such a short time today – each of cat, wife and daughter managing to put me off my stride within the space of fifteen minutes. There were a few I didn’t fully parse before bunging them in – ROCK THE BOAT, PRESTIGE and DEFTNESS. So far Juji has been confined to Fridays and Saturdays – I wonder if that is a reflection of their puzzles being a tad trickier?
Thanks John and Juji
A satisfying solve today after yesterday’s DNF due to the unknown CATERWAUL! Completed within the duration of a cuppa – about 20 minutes (I like lukewarm tea!) Talking of teas, I couldn’t parse this one but now understand the cycling reference so thank you Roly. Some clever hidden clues especially 3d and 23a, so thank you Juji too.
12:51. Got there in the end.
A game of two halves, finished correctly but slow in the south. Among the LOsI were CURTAILMENT (COD), Teas (CNP), and DEFTNESS, belatedly saw hidden.
Also liked SPECIMEN, SIR LANCELOT, and RISEN, among others.
Thanks vm, John.
20 mins…
14 mins for everything apart from 19dn. I thought this might be “Teas”, but couldn’t for the life of me parse it. I then spent another 6 minutes on an alphabet trawl, where I came to the logical conclusion that Teas could be the only answer. Looking at the blog it now feels fairly obvious.
The rest were fairly reasonable – although the hidden word in 3dn “Unfortunate” gets an honourable mention. I was looking for an anagram and it was literally staring me in the face.
FOI – 8ac “Stuff”
LOI – 19dn “Teas”
COD – 3dn “Unfortunate”
Thanks as usual!
ROCK THE BOAT stumped me, but a more QC appropriate puzzle than yesterday’s slog
I didn’t bother to parse half of them, aiming for speed. Biffed specimen, rock the boat, mislead, prestige, and Samoan. The rest were pretty easy.
Time: 6:37
15 after a late start. I’ll need the blog to parse the ones I’m missing I think.
Thanks setter and blogger
A quick (for me) solve at 8:07 if you ignore my fat-fingered SOMOAN, and very enjoyable, though I biffed ROCK THE BOAT and could not understand OUST. OURST, anyone? Really liked UNFORTUNATE, in spite of the clunky “tested” in the surface, and SPECIMEN.
Thanks to Juji and John.
14:30, my first on-target finish of the week. COD to CURTAILMENT, partly because it reminded me of Stephen Maturin’s explanation for why the dog-watches are shorter: “they are curtailed”.
Thanks to Juji and John.
I started well but went to the dogs in the bottom half, finally finishing in a not-bad-for-me 15:32.
Thank you for the blog!
Took my usual of 30 minutes, found it very enjoyable. Thank you for the blog as couldn’t quite figure out how TEAS, SIR LANCELOT or SPECIMEN worked, but it was clear from the checking letters. Thank you for the blog 😁
DNF TEAS. Just didn’t think of ‘east’ as ‘bearing’ for some unknown reason. Some lovely clueing, especially ROCK THE BOAT and STRONG 😆 Still took me a while but very much enjoyed. Many thanks.
7.16 This didn’t feel quick but it was a steady solve. ROCK THE BOAT and SPECIMEN were biffed. LOI DEFTNESS. Thanks John and Juji.
No danger of us breaking any records today but 7:45 is still very firmly in Q C country in our world, even accepting that there were a couple of clues which we didn’t fully parse. A couple of clever hiddens. Thanks, John and Juji.
10 mins
13:13 and like many if my esteemed commentators I took had no idea how such a fine specimen was put together but thank heavens for the BIFD
Thanks both
I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable. Several ‘head scratchers’ but pitched just right for a QC in my opinion. Thanks to Juji and John
Approximately 11.11.
Loved this QC. Thank you!
Back home extremely late last night but in the morning this was inviting attention (since there’s still nothing in Saturday’s newspaper). All eminently doable, thank you, Juji. LOI TEAS. Just a couple of difficult parsings: HO push-ups but never PULL-UPs, and it had to be SIR L but the SLOT defeated me. Thank you, John.