Well-balanced puzzle from Teazel, I solved at a slightly slower time of 13:22.
One NHO held me up. Here’s a picture, you can see the deadlight covers the porthole (seems a bit of overkill to me, but, I’m not a mariner)
I don’t think Teazel is one of the Ninjaphiles, and I didn’t spot anything.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | The French Revolution? (4,5) |
| COUP D’ETAT – Cryptic definition
Cryptic Definition. The expression is French of course. I found this hard because the enumeration is really (4,1,4), DETAT is never written without an apostrophe. |
|
| 6 | Find a space to leave a coat (5) |
| PARKA – PARK(find a space) + A
The word is derived from the very obscure Nenets language of Arctic Russia and is the only Nenets word that is used in English. |
|
| 8 | House and grounds where one may find game (5,4) |
| VILLA PARK – VILLA (House) + PARK (Grounds)
Very nice. It’s one of the oldest football grounds in England, and Aston Villa (currently 4th in the Premier League) play there. Odd to see those two PARKs juxtaposed in the grid. |
|
| 9 | Row of mountains resounded with echo (5) |
| RANGE – RANG (Resounded) + E{cho} | |
| 10 | Porthole shutter, not at all heavy? (9) |
| DEADLIGHT – Double def, the second uses the idiomatic modifier of “dead” for “very”. So “Very light”, not at all heavy.
I really struggled here with Doorlight (a door is a “shutter”, it shuts). OED tells me: A strong shutter or plate fitted to a cabin window or porthole to prevent water entering during a storm. NHO for me. |
|
| 12 | Compassionate, being English (6) |
| HUMANE – HUMAN (being) + E{nglish} | |
| 13 | At critical moment, energy in dancer’s toes (6) |
| POINTE – POINT (critical moment) + E{nergy}
As in “Get to the point!” Any dance terminology makes me worried, all I know is they are all French. We have had pas, plié and fondu in puzzles recently. |
|
| 16 | Card Peter played that may be put down for star (3,6) |
| RED CARPET – (CARD PETER)* [played] | |
| 18 | Freight to travel on passenger transport (5) |
| CARGO – CAR (passenger transport) + GO (travel)
This is a bit of a chestnut. |
|
| 19 | Mexican dish and a Chile stew (9) |
| ENCHILADA – (AND A CHILE)* [stew] | |
| 21 | Mum always very thin (5) |
| SHEER – SH (Mum) + E’ER (always)
Shh, keep quiet, stay Mum. And E’ER is one of those devices poets use when they haven’t got quite the right number of syllables. Best example: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Isaac Watts: which includes the beautiful line “Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?” |
|
| 22 | Entreat men to accept medical help (9) |
| TREATMENT – hidden in “Entreat men to”
Not sure about the indicator of [accept]? On first reading I thought it was an anagram of “Entreat men”, with “accept” being an anagram indicator, which makes about as much sense as most anagram indicators. On edit: This clue also appeared as To an extent, entreat men towards medical help (9) |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Meekly surrendered primitive shelter before row (5,2) |
| CAVED IN – CAVE (primitive shelter) + DIN (row) | |
| 2 | Shoulder burden of file transfer? (6) |
| UPLOAD – Double def
If you shoulder someone’s burden you are taking up their load? Collins doesn’t have any non-computer definitions, the OED has “to load up (rare)”. Guess it sort of works as a cryptic definition (and this is a Cryptic Crossword). |
|
| 3 | Slow speech from doctor with sharp implement (5) |
| DRAWL – DR (Doctor) + AWL (sharp implement) | |
| 4 | Squad of players not finishing drink (3) |
| TEA – TEA{m} (Squad of players) | |
| 5 | Start to speak, leaving opponent nowhere to stand? (4,3,5) |
| TAKE THE FLOOR – Double def
I started to think “Take the Fifth” might work, but that’s actually ceasing to speak. |
|
| 6 | Serviceman in foreign capital is nosy, amid high tension (6,6) |
| PARISH PRIEST – PARIS (Foreign Capital) + PRIES (is nosy) inside H{igh} T{ension}
A priest is a serviceman, as they take services. Very clever misdirection. |
|
| 7 | Set free, did a bit of running and finally departed (8) |
| RANSOMED – RAN SOME (did a bit of running) + {departe}D | |
| 11 | Police officer is man convulsed with greed (8) |
| GENDARME – (MAN GREED)* [convulsed with] | |
| 14 | Blooming group of actors is untouchable (7) |
| OUTCAST – OUT (Blooming) + CAST (group of actors) | |
| 15 | A poet, I fancy narcotic (6) |
| OPIATE – (A POET I)* [fancy] | |
| 17 | A table for celebrities (1-4) |
| A-LIST – A + LIST (table) | |
| 20 | Signal to line up for hearing (3) |
| CUE – Sounds like [for hearing] QUEUE (line up) | |
DNF
Gosh, that was a struggle. I’m delighted to see the QUICK Snitch has this at 140, about the 3rd hardest ever. Failed on COUP D’ETAT, PARISH PRIEST, DEADLIGHT, POINTE and RANSOMED. I can’t remember the last time I gave up with so many unsolved.
Just about an hour in two sittings. Looked up Drawlight on Google to see if it meant anything to do with a porthole and saw Deadlight so technically a DNF but I’ll take it as I eventually got everything else. I knew my French CSE1 would come in useful one day!
Thanks Teazel and Merlin.
Having read the comments and seen the qsnitch I don’t feel too bad about my DNF. DEADLIGHT (of course, NHO), PARISH PRIEST (serious mis-direction and totally vague foreign capital!) and PARKA (see comments above about find a space = park).
A definite DNF.
I have been trying some QC from early 2023. They do seem easier than some of the more recent ones.
COD Parish Priest.
Nho deadlight. Tried several other d…lights but didn’t even think of that one.
Many thanks for the blog. It really did help me make sense of today’s crossword.
Really cool to see VILLA PARK as a Villa fan myself!!
Totally, utterly fed up and disillusioned.
I gave up after 50 minutes.
Had RELEASED for 7dn, which meant I missed the ever so easy RANGE and HUMANE.
I would never have got PARISH PRIEST and I put DRAWLIGHT for DEADLIGHT.
Perhaps now you will understand why I say I don’t belong here. I do not have the brain. I knew RELEASED was wrong, but couldn’t see what else it could be. How incompetent is that?
Only Tuesday and I have 2 DNFs in 80 minutes. How can I be so bad?
I got just one on the Quintagram and 3/5 of the real crossword.
Is there really any point in going on with this when I am so inept? I don’t know how to improve. I spend hours on this and get nowhere. I don’t think those of you who are good at this can have any understanding of how frustrating it is to be so bad.
PS Any fragment of satisfaction I might have got from working out some of the real crossword was immediately doused when I read the blog (‘straightforward’) and the initial comments (‘not very tricky’).
I give up! My confidence is shot to pieces.
Don’t forget those who are good at QC will finish first and hence will post first.
Not criticising the posting of times, but I do wonder if these fast times going up early deter other ordinary solvers from posting their more sedate attempts. It certainly does me; especially when I have a resounding DNF.
Have you tried the periodic quick cryptic on reinterred blogspot com?
They are definitely much easier.
Thanks, I’ll take a look.
Well this was a rather late in the day solve for us and it was certainly a below par 15:41 but, having now scanned the comments and looked at the Quitch it seems we didn’t do too badly. LOI and COD PARISH PRIEST. Thanks Merlin and Teazel.
We’re were another DNF with 2 not done. NHO deadlight – we considered drawlight and doorlight but they didn’t parse; couldn’t solve “ransomed”. But knew “pointe” and had a sudden flash of inspiration for coup d’etat.
FOI – caved in
CsOD – parish priest & red carpet
Many thanks Merlin for the helpful blog.
I don’t see anything cryptic about 1 across. It’s just a French term for a revolution
Yeah, no thanks. Took a break from these during a very pleasant holiday, and clearly picked a poor day to return. Fingers crossed for a QC tomorrow.
Thank you for the blog!
Waitrose have stopped handing out free copies of The Times to their loyal customers. I’m going to miss solving these crosswords as there’s no way I can afford £2.80 a day to buy a paper.
Boo Hoo
Not shopping at Waitrose will save you far more than that