A neat puzzle from Hurley, which took me 07:26 and thus seems to me to be right on the QC money. Hope you all enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Drink tea with right university person? Indeed! (10) |
| CHARDONNAY – this was LOI for me because I think of CHARDONNAY as a grape, not as a drink. CHA [tea] + R [right] + DON [university person] + NAY [indeed – I struggled to see “nay = indeed” even after solving but Collins does give it, albeit as American usage – “nay (American English) adverb 1. and not only so but; not only that but also; indeed. – many good, nay, noble qualities”]. | |
| 8 | Get right away from ill-tempered animal (5) |
| MOOSE – take the R out of [get right away from] “morose” [ill-tempered]. I’ve only come across “morose” as meaning “gloomy” so this took a while, but “ill-tempered” is in the usual sources. | |
| 9 | Old news announcer welcoming Open University messenger (7) |
| COURIER – CRIER [old news announcer, as in The Town Crier -very good, I liked that!] contains [welcoming] OU [Open University]. | |
| 10 | Cleverly innovative, one using idea at the outset differently (9) |
| INGENIOUS -anagram [differently] of “one using” + an extra I [idea at the outset]. | |
| 12 | Somewhere to stay initially is needed now (3) |
| INN – first letters [initially] of “is needed now”. | |
| 13 | Dishonest scheme interrupted by resistance — get out fast! (5) |
| SCRAM – SCAM [dishonest scheme] including [interrupted by] R [resistance]. | |
| 15 | Getting rid of levying money for Government? No opening for that! (5) |
| AXING – take the first letter away [no opening for that] from “taxing” [levying money for Government, as in “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?” ©Pat McFadden]. | |
| 17 | Not permitted in public (3) |
| OUT – double definition. | |
| 18 | Out of order, moped near walking area (9) |
| PROMENADE – anagram [out of order] of “moped near”. | |
| 20 | Regularly visited, seems I have high opinion of country! (7) |
| EMIRATE – EM = every other letter [regularly visited] of “seems” + I RATE [I have high opinion of]. | |
| 21 | Spurious attempt to return on board bus (5) |
| BOGUS – to have a GO is to make an “attempt”; reverse GO [attempt to return] for OG and put it inside [on board] BUS. | |
| 22 | Irish footballer George by wine store, it’s said, in book bought by many (10) |
| BESTSELLER – BEST is Irish footballer George followed by SELLER, which sounds like “cellar” [wine store, it’s said]. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Important official translation of icon’s memoirs (12) |
| COMMISSIONER – anagram [translation] of “icon’s memoirs”. | |
| 2 | Included as part of exam on genetics (5) |
| AMONG – hidden. | |
| 3 | Diddle English female (3) |
| DOE – DO [diddle – setters love indicating “do” by words meaning con, deceive, trick – it catches me out most times] + E [English]. | |
| 4 | Tortilla chips, exotic nosh a Conservative tucks into (6) |
| NACHOS – anagram [exotic] of “nosh a” including a C [Conservative tucks into]. | |
| 5 | Strangely use mag repeatedly — activity that should be avoided (1,4,4) |
| A MUG’S GAME – anagram [strangely] of “use mag mag” [mag repeatedly – it took me a while to convince myself that this was really how it worked]. | |
| 6 | Minimal cover? Two-wheeler, not fully insured — not ideal at first (6) |
| BIKINI – BIK{e} [two-wheeler, not fully] + INI [the first letters (at first) of insured – not ideal]. Lovely clue with a clever definition and my COD. | |
| 7 | One breaking rules errs — art songs need rewriting (12) |
| TRANSGRESSOR – anagram [need rewriting] of “errs art songs”. | |
| 11 | Means of identifying someone in call beginning to play dead (9) |
| NAMEPLATE – NAME [call] + P [beginning to play] + LATE [dead]. | |
| 14 | Keep in mind tips from expert in wet weather (6) |
| RETAIN – ET = “tips from expert” going inside RAIN [wet weather, of which there is plenty on Mull where I am right now]. | |
| 16 | Maybe split second’s importance (6) |
| MOMENT – double definition. | |
| 19 | Guardian’s fury as side finally changes (5) |
| ANGEL – “fury” is ANGER; change the final R (for right) to an L (for left) [side finally changes]. | |
| 21 | See you later in Derby? Excellent! (3) |
| BYE – hidden. | |
A nice puzzle but a few tricky ones, including the two long anagrams going down, pushed me out to 10.35. I too was not fully on board with the morose/ill-tempered equivalence but liked many of these, including ANGEL, BIKINI and COURIER when I saw the crier reference. I had been dreading needing to identify some revered old BBC newsreader or some such. Thank you Hurley and Templar.
Yes, I found it harder than the blogger did. I didn’t help myself by not doing the easier clues first, but tried to solve the long anagrams instead. Only best seller was a simple biff. I correctly analysed the cryptic for a mug’s game, but still could solve it until I had nearly all the checkers.
Time: 15:36
13 minutes.
“Nay, nay , thrice nay!” ©Frankie Howerd.
Was sadly never allowed to watch as a lad, as Mum “ couldn’t stand that man”. Caught up somewhat later ( me, not Mum) – same deal with Monty Python – the long lost days of one TV and no recording.
“ The prologue…..”
I much preferred his stand-up to his acting roles – not that he ever stayed long in character. His Oxford Union show is brilliant.
I always took that nay as a negative whereas indeed I would interpret as “yes actually”, a term of agreement, indeed it is.
This took a while to get started but after a bit of dotting around, got into the flow for a pleasing finish at 17.41.
Thanks Hurley, really liked bikini too, and also the device for mugs game.
Thanks Mr T for the excellent blog and the LOL moment about Mr McFadden’s text.
[happy to have this bit removed by blog editor] if you’ve not seen it can I commend Monday’s Daily T blog on YouTube. Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley discussing the latest release of the Mandy texts, including Templar’s quote. It’s like watching 2 children in a sweet shop 😃
I found this tricky in places and was once again hampered by not seeing either of the 1s until late in the game.
I always think of tea being ‘chai’ rather than ‘cha’ so was spent time looking for chair…….. at 1a before DOE pointed me in the right direction.
Started with INN and finished with A MUGS GAME in 8.23.
Thanks to Templar and Hurley
I always think of it as being char, it always was where I come from.
I agree, it was always char for me in the East Midlands.
In The Times, cha is always tea and char is always “daily” or “cleaner” (or sometimes “fish”!).
14:17 distracted by ingenious Chardonnay bikini
Ta TAH
DNF failed to see MOMENT
Spent a long time on EMIRATE —that superfluous “visited” between “regular” and its target(“seems”) threw me. ERITREA looked possible.
so was jaded by LOI MOMENT. I didn’t consider a double def, and the second meaning isn’t very common (as in moment of inertia?). I was stuck on it starting MO or S, meaning something which could be split.
Slow on 1d as a few words seemed to fit: commissar, commissionaire
In the 1960s calling George Best either British or Irish could have been contentious. The great man generally stayed out of sectarian politics: smart move.
I don’t think “visited” is superfluous – it’s crucial to the phrase “regularly visited”, which is what indicates every other letter.
Weve had regular on its own to mean it too, but I agree the visited is part of the wordplay here.
Same for me. I’m relatively late to learn about cryptic crosswords so finishing bar one clue is a win for me. Took me about three days (of repeated short visits) and am in awe of folks who do these in under 15 mins! These postings are most helpful. Thanks!
Right on the money QC from Hurley today taking 21 minutes to finish.
I would have preferred to see ‘indeed’ with a question mark rather than an explanation mark but it works either way.
Tried to demote the COMMISSIONER to a COMMISSIONAIRE but fortunately it didn’t fit.
Thanks Templar.
11:28 for me so found it above average difficulty. I just couldn’t see the anagram at 1D and so had to reach for pen and paper. LOI was CHARDONNAY which was probably also my COD.
Thanks Templar.
In other news It’s the first day of the test match summer and it’s p@sing down here in London.
Tube strike, too.
10:22 for this enjoyable puzzle, only very slightly marred for me by the dubious Nay for Indeed in CHARDONNAY. The answer was clear though, and my default position on parsing I don’t understand or don’t think quite works is increasingly a shoulder-shrug and “I’m sure Collins will justify it somehow”, so in it went.
Nice to see George Best remembered. There have of course been good footballers from Northern Ireland since, but to have seen Best in his prime, as I was lucky enough to do, (and not just in his alcohol-ruined later life) is to understand why he is still regarded as the finest player the Province ever produced.
Many thanks Templar for the blog.
I dont think he would do very well playing for crosswordland as he would be their only player!
Really? How about Banks, Moore (= moor or more), Bell, Stiles, Peters, Hunt to name just 6 players from the England 1966 team? I remember seeing all 6 play and I’m sure setters could work them into a clue. But I am showing my age …
Though I was only a year old in July 1966, I have since been in close proximity to most of the England team, as follows:
Gordon Banks (speaker at a dinner when England were knocked out of the 1998 World Cup, losing 2-1 to Romania)
Jackie Charlton (on a train between St Albans and Farringdon around 2002/3)
Bobby Charlton (bit of a cheat – Palace v Manchester Utd around 1971 – I was still only around six or seven)
That’s three of them. Another six were accounted for when on holiday in Tenerife in 2000 – my wife and I had just arrived at our hotel (Hotel Botanico in Puerto de la Cruz) and stepped out to have lunch by the pool. There was a big party of people having an informal lunch at the next table, and after a few moments, I thought, that looks like Martin Peters, and sure enough, looking around the rest of the diners, I picked out Roger Hunt, Geoff Hurst, Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson, several with their other halves – nice to know they all kept in touch. We didn’t see them again after that, presumably the beginning of our holiday coincided with the end of theirs.
The only two that I never knowingly shared airspace with were Bobby Moore and George Cohen.
The 1966 World Cup winning team had, in many cases, names that were also normal words in English. In another guise (Raich), Hurley had a puzzle (7422) in the Independent on 30 July 2010 (anniversary of the Final v West Germany in 1966) which featured all the players’ names. The puzzle was repeated in the i newspaper (1378) in July 2015.
Hurley
Thank you Hurley for looking in! I shall now scurry away to find the puzzle.
What a pleasing puzzle. A MUGS GAME is just a brilliant clue – simple, clever and effective. 1A managed to sidetrack me twice – CHANCELLOR then some ( impossible) variant of CHAMPAGNE, before finally remembering the only possible alternative to tortilla chips, then engaging brain to decode 1A properly and slap forehead. Many other examples of very tidy clueing – thanks a lot to setter and blogger.
5:15 for me, which I guess is about median (though not mean) at the moment. I enjoyed all of this, and didn’t have too much trouble with the long anagrams. I will be drinking CHARDONNAY at the cricket today, so very fitting, and my COD.
Quite tricky in parts. I was lamentably slow to see DOE and my LOsI were A MUGS GAME (bifd) and CHARDONNAY. I thought BIKINI was a clever clue.
Just over the ‘score line’ today but a fair puzzle.
Thanks, both.
Always enjoy a Hurley, thank you, Hurley. DNK indeed = NAY, thank you Templar. Not sure about bus = BUS. LOI ANGEL. But really sorry, must raise a MER about EMIRATE, which is not a country but (I’m told) “a sub-national monarchy that forms part of a single sovereign nation. While the UK is a union of distinct historic countries, the UAE is a federal absolute monarchy made up of seven emirates. An emirate is a territory ruled by a dynastic Islamic monarch called an Emir. In political terms, an emirate functions similarly to a principality (like Monaco) or a state in a federation (like California), rather than an independent country”. I’m sure someone will argue with that?
I grant that in the UAE, each emirate is a sub-national entity in the federation, similar to the states in Malaysia (whose rulers are variously sultans, rajas and the like). But Qatar and Kuwait – both sovereign countries – are ruled by Emirs and so presumably emirates.
Yes indeed they are. But they are different from the UAE: they’re independent nations, whereas the seven emirates of the UAE gave up their individual sovereignty in 1971 to merge into one federal country.
Fully agree! But the existence of Kuwait and Qatar as (a) emirates and (b) sovereign countries surely allows Hurley to use country as the definition for emirate? Though I confess that when “A can be B but is not always, and B can be A but is not always”, I get lost in terms like “definition by example”, and whether question-marks are needed!
(In passing I learn that Afghanistan is officially “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” so we could add that to the list too).
Yes that’s precisely the point: just because one emirate is a country, doesn’t necessarily mean another is. But then I see what you mean: from the point of view of the validity of the clue, it only needs one …. granted!
13:02
Failed to parse CHARDONNAY. I seemed to have an extra N, so intrigued to learn nay means indeed!
Otherwise no real problems.
Enjoyable puzzle. Took a while. Had to potter around the grid then completed RHS. Finally cracked the anagrams for 1a and 1d, which helped with the rest. LOI by a long chalk was DOE.
Liked EMIRATE, AXING, BIKINI, A MUG’S GAME and BOGUS. COD – well, it made me smile – BESTSELLER.
Thanks vm, Templar.
All done in a few seconds short of 45 minutes. LoI Chardonnay. That was constructed from cha and don plus r as it should be and a bifd nay. I found the NW the harder part. Seven on first pass (20 minutes) 14 after 30 minutes, then just worked with the crossers.
Thanks setter and blogger.
PS My eBook on cycling aerodynamics is now a free download from my floataero website with a buymeacoffee option to remunerate.
Just missed SCC with 19:26, but that’s not too bad considering how badly I was doing at first. First two in were INN and OUT. Almost could be a Nina. Really liked BIKINI. Thanks Hurley and Templar.
Got a bit bogged down here and there (MOMENT and EMIRATE being the main culprits) and didn’t fully parse LOI A MUGS GAME (thanks Templar). Elsewhere all went in fairly smoothly. Appreciated the surfaces for both MOOSE and COMMISSIONER, but COD CHARDONNAY. ‘Nay’ for ‘indeed’ didn’t particularly strike me as odd. Nice one Hurley and thanks for the blog Templar.
Had to reveal chardonnay which also gave me doe (clever clue).
Otherwise all plain sailing and enjoyable. Thanks Hurley and Templar.
oh no – panic – indirect anagram alert at 5d!
From DOE to MOOSE in 6:47. Usual smooth puzzle from Hurley. Thanks Hurley and Templar.
I usually find with a Hurley crossword that I need the full ten minutes of my target time to complete it. Today was no exception, and I think this was tougher than the norm needing 12.37 to complete. The long anagrams weren’t the easiest, and my LOI
A MUGS GAME probably took me the best part of a minute to get.
DNF.
Too hard for me. Wordplays just too difficult.
If these so-called QCs are going to be this hard then I will just stop buying the The Times.
I rarely find a QC I don’t enjoy but this, sadly, falls into that category. Perhaps it’s just me being unusually antsy today. I started badly with 1a, not because I got it wrong but because I interpret ‘nay’ as no. This made me tetchy and despite being reminded of the wonderful George Best I never really recovered.
Sorry Hurley, I’m sure it’s the fine puzzle that others enjoyed and I’m just a grumpy goblin. Thanks Templar for putting me right.
18.29 – spent too long looking for far more elusive words ending in ‘i’ than BIKINI.
An enjoyable puzzle, which whilst not one that has us humming happily, triggers no complaints. Felt, as always, that we gained… and must remember – dead/late, diddled/do… getting better at recognising flags ( beginning, included, no opening, tucks into, changes, differently, initially) – this puzzle offered abundant examples.
Thank you Hurley and Templar.
I dabbled with Chartreuse for 1ac, before deciding that the down market Chablis substitute was a slightly better fit, albeit with a mysterious nay for yes. Sadly, despite the initial letter, 1d Commissioner still needed a few crossers to see. That turned out to be the same story for quite a few answers today: difficult until a crosser or two made them obvious. All very enjoyable though.
Loi Bikini meant it was a bit of a dash for the last window seat, but that clue still gets my CoD vote for the parsing.
My thanks to Templar and Hurley. Invariant
I didn’t understand your comment on Chardonnay, one of the traditional ‘noble grapes’.
As UK wine writer Rosemary George writes: ‘Chablis is Chardonnay, but not every Chardonnay is Chablis.’
I would expand that and say that Chablis is ALWAYS 100% Chardonnay (like Blanc-de-Blancs Champagne) but, in my experience, the quality of Chablis can vary considerably, especially at the lower-price end (relatively speaking!). Further, many 100% Chardonnay wines from cool-climate areas around the world (including some from parts of France outside Burgundy) are often at least on a par with most of the Chablis that I can afford, especially if given a decade or more in the cellar.
Of course a high proportion of Chablis is opened and drunk much too young, especially Grand Cru and Premier Cru examples which are often chosen because of the name and are broached when they are still ‘in nappies’.
. . .well, you’ve done a pretty good job in answering your own question!
I didn’t think I had asked a question. You’re too good at cryptics for me. 😀
10:52
Off the pace today (backed up by a Quitch of 90) – was surprised when I glanced at the clock and more than 8 minutes gone with still half-a-dozen to solve. Slow seeing COMMISSIONER, MOOSE, AXING, BIKINI.
Thanks Templar and Hurley
I enjoyed this but quite a few of the clues were iffy to say the least, and they didn’t need to be, in my opinion. An emirate might be a country rather than a state, a courier might bring a message rather than a package and morose can mean moody but we don’t think of it that way normally do we? I could go on but heh! Thanks though!
It took a while to get started today but once on the way the solve proceeded at a steady pace. All done in 21 minutes with BIKINI and INGENIOUS not parsed (meant to come back to them later but forgot).
FOI – 12ac INN
LOI – 16dn MOMENT
COD – 5dn A MUGS GAME
Thanks to Hurley and Templar
9:34
Some very satisfying wordplay in there, thankfully the football reference was one of the few I’d actually heard of.
This was a bit of a bunged in from definition fest. The clues that went in just from definition were EMIRATE, NACHOS, ANGEL and MOMENT(first definition). Quite a few others were semi parsed. An unparsed MOOSE was my LOI and my COD goes to BIKINI. 5:58 Thanks Templar.
9.21 BIKINI needed the checkers and I finished with INGENIOUS. I liked A MUGS GAME. Thanks Templar and Hurley.
17:58 – not bad for me. Biffed CHARDONNAY having seen the CHA(R) & DON bits: don’t like the NAY bit, and also MOROSE and BIKINI. Good puzzle, though.
Tough. Just over my target ten mins. LOI CHARDONNAY, really not a white wine person. Liked A MUGS GAME, typical of the complex wordplay here. Thanks both.
8 clues solved in 20 mins! – too distracted by last weeks maths crossword which is almost finished!
Hamlet’s first soliloquy:
But two months dead, nay, not so much, not two
But then I had always assumed “nay” meant no.
Another CHARTREUSE here, with the U for University being enough to dissuade me from the need to read on; a less forgivable (and what so far seems to be the only) TRANSGRESSER, which was a flat out spelling error, and actually how I think I might have spelt it out in horizontal format… oops. Other than that, a breezy and much enjoyed 4:45 – thanks Hurley and Templar.
12:40 TYTBAS
20 mins…
Tricky, I thought – with a big nay to “nay” for me on 1ac. I agree that 6dn “Bikini” was very good.
FOI – 4dn “Nachos”
LOI – 11dn “Nameplate”
COD – 6dn “Bikini”
Thanks as usual!
Lots of good clues and misdirections here and I ended up in the SCC but with a smile on my face at loi BIKINI. Of course – insured not ideal at first has to provide the INI ending (took ages to work out!) At 8a I got MOOSE for entirely wrong reason – I thought of VAMOOSE meaning clear off or get away (and I had M-O—-). Enjoyed 22a and 14d, in fact whole grid was a fun challenge. Thanks Hurley and Templar
10:43 here. I completely missed that my parsing of CHARDONNAY left an N unexplained. For once the long anagrams came quickly: in fact, all the downs went in first try with the exception of ANGEL. BIKINI also my COD.
Thanks to Hurley and Templar.
27 minute DNF.
Couldn’t get MOMENT. Spent longer on that clue than the rest put together. I still don’t understand it, but nor do I want an explanation.
3 straight fails. Where is the fun in that?
I gave up golf because 1 bad hole would ruin 17 reasonable holes, and this is just the same. Every day I fail by 1 or 2 clues that are completely impossible for me.
I’m on the point of giving up. There’s no pleasure in this when I fail every day. I just don’t have the brain for this and I find it humiliating not to finish.
Please don’t reply.
PS Miserable fail on the main crossword. Got just over half. ☹️☹️
Yay! This resident of the SCC happily worked through this and finished with a comfy chair in the SCC.
Impressed by 5d, thinking surely not USE MAG MAG anagrammed . . . but it was. Nice one Hurley!
And like others not impressed by NAY = indeed. For me NAY is negative and “indeed” is positive.
An unsatisfying finish in 15:17 for us as we ended up biffing LOI MOMENT, being unable to see the double definition. Thanks, Templar and Hurley.
10:14 which I had put down to a fried, post-work brain making heavy weather of this but then noted I had the same stumbles as others above: CHAR-NAY, MOMENT, MO(R)OSE and biffing INGENIOUS without spotting the anagram. Given I can spend 7 or 27 minutes on Hurley with the penny dropping more satisfactorily, I’m inclined to say it was me.
Thanks to Hurley & Templar!
C. 25 mins. Thought I had scorer at the end of 1d, but couldn’t make sense of the remaining letters. Needed Chardonnay to sort that out! Some nice wordplay in this one.
FOI Bestseller
LOI Moose
COD bikini
thanks Hurley and Templar
10:14 and manage to avoid getting stuck by ignoring the NW corner for a while. I’d forgotten “cha” for tea. It seems there’s only so much room in my brain-attic (as Sherlock Holmes put it) for odd bits of British slang, and if something doesn’t come up in a puzzle for a while, it gets chucked into a storage unit to make room for other things. FOI MOOSE, LOI COMMISSIONER. BIKINI was rather intricate and only parsed after the fact. COD A MUG’S GAME.
Thanks Hurley and Templar.
I am so chuffed I found this doable. Enjoyed it thoroughly.. Driving down into Belfast one day my husband pointed out a large mural of George Best & asked our granddaughter if she knew who George Best was. “Oh yes”
she said “he’s the airport man”! (We renamed our smaller Belfast City Airport “George Best City Airport “ after George died. She has been well & truly enlightened now!
I started this yesterday (the day of publication), and really struggled. Eight clues still to solve, including 1a and 1d, when an interruption at the 32 minute mark (mercifully) stopped play for the day.
Coming back to it this afternoon brought much better luck and I polished off those seemingly impossible eight clues in just five minutes. Total time = 37 minutes.
FOI: INN
LOI: MOMENT
Thanks to Templar and Hurley.