This is a tough puzzle and will probably provoke howls of outrage from some quarters. Sorry that this is a no-frills (and no time!) blog; I’ve been rather pressed of late and just cranked this out. Forgive typos. And indeed please forgive its appearance – in the classic way of late night endeavour, I have had an IT issue in which TfTT shut me out from the desk top for want of a security code (which it said it had sent but which never arrived), so I’ve had to reconstruct this blog on my phone.
Across
1 – NOVICE. A NOVICE is a trainee nun or monk and should have NO VICEs.
4 – SCORES. Triple (not double as I originally put – thanks gallers) definition – to scratch is to score; scores are lots/loads; and you could keep the score/record.
8 – SERGEANT MAJOR. Anagram (carelessly) of “jams generator”.
10 – IDIOM. IDIO{t} + M for millions
11 – GAINING. GAG (joke) around INN (pub) in turn containing I (setter)
13 – IMPATIENT. Anagram (writhing) of “intimate” including P (papa).
17 – NIRVANA. N (northern) + IR (Irish) + VAN (leaders) + A (start to anticipate). Tough.
18 – BRIAR. Hidden.
19 – QUEEN’S ENGLISH. The QUEEN’S ENGLISH is “proper” English and thus not what common people speak; hint from the year of her death.
21 – EFFORT. E (energy) + FT (paper) going round (rounds) FOR (for). Tough.
22 – PERNOD. NOD after PER (each).
Down
1 – NESSIE. Anagram (swimming) of “seen is”.
2 – VERSIFIER. VERIFIER (checker) checking (containing) S (society).
3 – CREAM. C (carbon) + REAM (paper).
5 – COMBINE. COMBIN{g} (mainly scouring) + E (middle letter of field). Tough.
6 – RAJ. Backwards hidden
7 – SPROGS. S (second) + PROG + S (second).
9 – NIGHTMARE. {k}NIGHT (headless man, as in chess man) + MARE (horse)
12 – INTUITION. IN (home) + TUITION
14 – PLAINER. Anagram (new) of NEPALI + R (king)
15 – UNIQUE. UNI (university) + Q (question) + U (you) +E (last letter of challenge)
16 – ORCHID. O (Oscar) + R (winner finally) + CHID (rebuked)
18 – BUGLE. BUG (hide microphone) + LE (the French)
20 – ELF. Every other letter of “tell off”, makes a change from imp
I agree this was on the hard side. No, it’s not mic in the middle of something, nor is it that famous sea-monster, the Seisen. I also put novice and erased it; when I came back, the cryptic was obvious. I did get stuck in the middle, with no answers for two minutes, and then it started to flow again.
Time: 11:35
Yes indeed this was hard. Much of my time was lost on the last two intersecting answers, but since my attempt at Shay’s most recent offering in March had been a DNF I was determined not to repeat that today, so I persevered and finished with 25 minutes on the clock. The two culprits were SPROGS and GAINING, but I had been generally slow throughout.
UNIQUE : You need a U, Templar, I assume from ‘yoU’.
Fixed, thanks
8:59
I thought, as I plodded through this, “There are going to be complaints”. I biffed a half-dozen, parsing post-submission except for NIRVANA (‘Northern Irish leaders’=NI, right? so what’s RVAN?) and COMBINE. Tough, indeed.
11 minutes. Started off thanks to the SERGEANT MAJOR anagram but never got a good run-on and several such as NIRVANA weren’t properly parsed.
I’ve never seen VERSIFIER in the real world and thought it may be a made-up word but the OED has quotations going back to the 14th century, so there’s no doubt it’s the real deal. I liked the ‘Suspicion of home schooling’, though no further comment!
Thanks to Templar for doing the blog under such difficult circumstances (and at such an ungodly hour) and to Shay
5:37. Good blog under duress Templar. FWIW I think SCORES is a triple definition.
Oh yes you’re right. I knew it must be but was too fuzzy to see it. Will fix. Thanks.
13-odd minutes for this toughie. Definitely one not to submit on leaderboard!
Genuine question here, Ulaca – why would you not submit to the leaderboard? I (perhaps incorrectly) believe you are a reference solver for the Quick SNITCH, so by not submitting, the SNITCH is less informative than it could be. Or is that wrong? Just curious.
I’m joking! I’ve been over 20 minutes and still submitted because, as you say, otherwise the SNITCH is a bit meaningless. But I’ve been sorely tempted…
Thanks for the blog in such tricky circumstances Templar. I found this one difficult, unable to parse several.
I know the monthly average time on the Snitch doesn’t really matter but I am starting to regret Monday’s typo. Four on the first pass of acrosses, then a little flurry and then hard yards. Getting UNIQUE led to QUEENS ENGLISH – which suddenly became clear once the Q was there but had me stumped until then – and that opened things up. Slow on NIGHTMARE too but spotting negotiate would fit allowed me to use the G to set GAINING. Stared at the space that became EFFORT for a while at the end. All green in 20.47.
Isn’t Nirvana N for northern, ir for Irish, van for leading and then a start of anticpate
If only someone had written EXACTLY THAT in the blog. Oh hang on, they did.
Lol. Beware the sleep-deprived blogger!
Tough but completed in 24.20, which on reading comments here, were pretty pleased with. Bravo to Mrs RH who when I said what happened in 2022 immediately responded with “the Queen died” (had quickly discounted MMXXII as unlikely set of letters). Thanks Shay and Mr T
DNF, NE corner too much for me and even guessing the GA-G in GAINING I could not get either that or SPROGS.
No complaints – I’ve long accepted that Shay’s idea of what is a QC and mine don’t coincide much. One just moves on.
Many thanks Templar for the blog, especially given trying circumstances.
I found the NW tricky so moved to the bottom of the grid, which was much more accessible, and worked my way up. I must have tuned in to the wavelength on the way because I didn’t find this as tough as some early commenters.
Started with SCORES and finished with SPROGS in 6.46.
Thanks to Templar and Shay.
👏🏻
Wow what’s occurring? 10:34 with at least a minute contemplating nightmare sproggs. A BIFD fest TBH. So a very big
TaTAS
Well done, TC!
DNF for me today.
Plodded through and all in but one after about 15 mins, but just could not get 2D. NHO VERSIFIER and got hung up on Virgil. Annoying as I briefly started to second guess that verifier had two Rs. So close. Otherwise, really enjoyed it!
FOI NESSIE LOI SPROGS COD NOVICE
Thanks both.
17.45, and not one that I enjoyed.
5:47. Held up at the end by GAINING and SPROGS. I liked the triple definition, NIGHTMARE and EFFORT. Thanks Shay and Templar.
I liked this, and finished in little more than my usual SCC-adjacent time.
Had to think a little harder than usual and focus, rather than looking out the window, but it all seemed fair with nothing outrageous. I don’t keep records but I feel sure that this was my best Shay solve yet.
2D was my LOI and not a word I knowingly knew, but doable with all the checkers. SPROGS and PERNOD were among my favourites.
No point in my worrying about the time when Shay is the setter but just to settle down and enjoy the process. Which I did and narrowly avoided the SCC to boot.
Thanks Templar for your heroic efforts with the blog, I needed help to fully understand those you’ve mentioned as tough.
FOI SERGEANT MAJOR
LOI UNIQUE
COD INTUITION
Thanks Shay
Surprised myself with a 21min window seat finish – easily my best effort to date for a Shay. And if either of Sprogs/Scores had come to mind a little sooner it might even have been a sub-20.
A Novice Nessie write-in put me in a good frame of mind, as did write-ins for the two long answers. A biff then parse Unique eventually sorted the SW and likewise Bugle (in = on?) helped with the SW, just leaving those two in the NE.
CoD to Intuition in a strong field, and my thanks and sympathy to Templar – and Shay. Invariant
DNF – problems with NIGHTMARE GAINING SPROGS. Looking back, Shay is another setter to join Jalna, Juji, and Joker on my nightmare list.
I cannot believe that, amongst a group of slow Shay solves, I recorded 13.50 on one occasion. I have never got close to such a time since with this setter.
Thank goodness for Trelawney who provided the only bright spot, so far, in an awful week for me. Can Friday get any worse?
Thanks to Templar for a valiant effort under pressure.
DNF. I found this tough, and could not get the last three before my cut-off time (SCORES, COMBINE, SPROGS).
Pi ❤️
7:59, so above average – but I was quite happy with that time to be honest, because I thought this was a tough QC. NOVICE, SCORES, COMBINE, BRIAR, PERNOD and VERSIFIER are all relatively tricky clues. Couldn’t get NEOPHYTE out of my head until VERSIFIER came along!
But for me this was the right side of the QC line and I really enjoyed it.
25:51. Very tough. Several unparsed and a real struggle to finally fill in the gaps. No wonder there are some DNFs.
Enjoyable puzzle. Weirdly, I was on the wavelength today. Early solves like SERGEANT MAJOR and NIGHTMARE and ENGLISH helped, though I didn’t solve QUEENS until towards the end.
Other late solves were SPROGS and LOI VERSIFIER.
NIRVANA came to mind, thanks to checkers, and helped with UNIQUE.
Liked many inc PERNOD, BRIAR, and NESSIE and NOVICE made me smile.
Thanks vm, Templar. Noble of you to blog on your phone.
21 mins…
I think we’re definitely going through a hard spell – the last few weeks have provided some real toughies. 7dn “Sprogs”, 17ac ‘Nirvana” and 15dn “Unique”, whilst not necessarily difficult as answers, caused much head scratching for parsing. 13ac sent me down a completely different anagram rabbit hole until I resolved 2dn “Versifier”.
Up here in the Lakes, they’ve tried to market a “Bownessie” for Windermere – not really sure it has caught on.
FOI – 1dn “Nessie”
LOI – 13ac “Impatient”
COD – 21ac “Effort”
Thanks as usual!
Hard spell indeed – April has been stinky. Not looking forward to tomorrow’s given that they are intended to get harder as the week goes on.
37:27 for the solve! Ripped through 3/4s of it in 9mins then fifteen mins of crickets before the NE opened up with COMBINE which allowed me to see the other four around it (SCORES, GAINING, SPROGS, NIGHTMARE). Another ten mins to unlock the NHO VERSIFIER where I thought “checking” meant it is obstructing rather than containing and only got there when I tried the S for society that I’d discounted.
Pleased with the early going but those last twenty mins were spent alphatrawling and using logic (i.e. plural S on the end of SCORES, -ING on getting/GAINING) to get to the answers. Always an enjoyment killer to get down to brute forcing. Anything I may have enjoyed in the beginning was long forgotten by the end.
Thanks to Templar for banging together the blog. And to Shay – all parsed so there is a brightside.
Edit: when I say “all parsed” – I had assumed Versifier was a French poet pronounced Ver-Sif-e-ay but quick read through the comments points me to it being a word for someone who creates verse.
I found the NE corner quite tricky, but solved it, then ruined it by mistyping COMBIME. Drat. Seven thirty one WOE. Thanks Shay and Templar.
Ha! Merciless for the blogger, indeed, so well done and thanks, Templar. But actually I managed to complete it (LOI GAINING) though I have four parsing queries which I shall now hope to see answered above.
Yes indeed: all thanks are well-earned. Leaders = VAN; paper rounds = FT round …; assumed university = U but of course it’s UNI; VERIFIER + S; thanks for all.
Thanks for the blog under difficult circumstances! Sounds like a nightmare
BTW I believe the correct parsing for GAINING would be GAG containing INN containing I
Thanks Odo. I’ve unpacked that a bit more.
12:57
EFFORT only seen after pausing, doing something else for half an hour, then coming back to it.
COD to NIRVANA.
Thanks Templar and Shay
Never heard of VAN for VANGUARD, nor CHID for CHIDE. Way too hard for my pea brain generally. Gave up pretty quickly – sob.
Toughest of the week by some distance, and I’ll forgive myself for a poor finishing time of 14.15. I spent well over two minutes on my final two in the ne corner before solving COMBINE, and SCORES then quickly followed on.
Another slightly on the tougher side but all correct and parsed with cuppa still above blood temperature.
Liked SPROGS, ORCHID, NIGHTMARE, NIRVANA
Thanks Shay and Templar
Any enjoyable DNF for me.
I didn’t find it too bad to be honest, though I was plodding along slowly. I did need a little more help than usual to get to the end.
I lost it on SPROGS. I tried to work the clue out but just kept coming up blank. I even asked an ant that I found wandering about on my desk, but she didn’t know either.
First lap: 7
Answered (no help): 17
Answered (help): 7
DNF: 1 (7d)
Time: 41:06
14:06, not including a break towards the end to reset my brain, and it was almost far worse. Couldn’t parse NIRVANA for the life of me, didn’t understand QUEEN’S ENGLISH, VERSIFIER took forever (not helped by a suspicion that Virgil was somehow relevant), and I probably biffed more than I didn’t. Perhaps Jason has been grumpy for the last couple of weeks, hope he cheers up soon if so.
Thank you for the blog!
13:46
Wow. That was unexpectedly tricky. Three in from the first across pass (SERGEANT MAJOR, NIRVANA, BRIAR) and just RAJ, ELF and a tentative IN to begin 12d for the first down pass, so had to work very hard to make progress. Left with the horrid VERSIFIER and four in the NE – a tentative GAINING which I couldn’t parse for a long time; a shrugged COMBINE (not aware that a COMBINE harvester is EVER known solely as a COMBINE i.e. without the harvester i.e. COMBINE is not defined by harvester. Am I wrong?); SCORES (needed the C checker to see this); and finally, SPROGS (tricky without the initial S).
Having said all that, I did enjoy it!
Thanks Templar and Shay
Thanks to Templar for his heroic effort! DNF and Did Not Enjoy much either. Started at the bottom (apart from SERGEANTMAJOR) and worked up. Couldn’t get NESSIE, NOVICE or CREAM, and put in SPRIGS for SPROGS ( as in sprigs/scions of say, the aristocracy). A MER @ ELF – only ever heard of naughty child= imp). I think avoidance of Shay for me in future.
I didn’t have great difficulty with this, although I had to back out “nissei” at 1D, and only parsed VERSIFIER later.
FOI SCORES
LOI SPROGS
COD BUGLE
TIME 3:43