QC 2837 by Peridot

I think this is Peridot’s just third appearance. But no wavelength problems, 14:01 for me. Yes, not all your bloggers are speedsters, according to the Quitch, this is my average time.

Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.

Across
1 More toast spread in accommodation for some boarders (9)
STATEROOM – (MORE TOAST)* [spread]

Here the “boarders” are those who board a cruise ship, where staterooms are to be found.

6 Lettuce price cut (3)
COS – COS{t} (price)

In a Business Price and Cost are not the same thing. If you set your price at your costs, you don’t have a business. But colloquially when we go to a shop and ask “What does it cost”, means “what is the price”.

8 Given warning, related in garbled form (7)
ALERTED – (RELATED)* [garbled]
9 Put clock back for transfer (5)
REMIT – TIMER (clock) reversed
10 Little room in behind taxi (5)
CABIN – CAB (taxi) + IN.

Nice little clue, this.

12 Figure on going after sunken ship with prow missing (6)
RECKON – {w}RECK (sunken ship) + ON

“Prow” indicating an initial letter, as on a ship the prow is at the front (technical term: pointy bit).

14 Moral scruple could be lordship’s purpose? (5,2,6)
POINT OF HONOUR – Double def, second being whimsical.

I like this: a recently ennobled Lord rocks up in the House, and two old hereditaries say “What’s his Point of Honour?”. I think Boris made a few of those.

16 Meal served around a boat (6)
LAUNCH – LUNCH (meal) contains A
17 Competes to control western outlooks (5)
VIEWS – VIES (competes) contains [to control?] W{estern}

Not sure why “to control” is a containment indicator.

19 Protective layer inside  ship (5)
LINER – Double def
20 Bed crawling with lice making a level of noise (7)
DECIBEL – (BED LICE*) [crawling]

Decibels are a logarithmic scale, one of the very few in common usage. The Richter scale is another. A magnitude 5 earthquake is ten times more powerful than a magnitude 4 earthquake. And 50 decibels is ten times louder than 40 decibels.

22 Exist over a long period (3)
ERA – ARE(Exist) reversed [over]

I saw originally this as RE=Exist  (reversed) + A, and couldn’t see any RE that meant exist. Overthinking again.

23 Could be blooming old transatlantic vessel (9)
MAYFLOWER – Double def

A rose, that could be blooming, MAY FLOWER.

Down
1 Spots reported on headland providing ocean view (8)
SEASCAPE – SEAS (sounds like SEES=spots) + CAPE (headland)
2 Who’s in favour of a penny off income tax system? (3)
AYE – p{AYE}

PAYE is Pay as You Earn, what we call tax at source in the UK.

3 Scoffed portion of meat enthusiastically (5)
EATEN – Hidden [portion of] in meat enthusiastically
4 Captain’s directive — mix food with hearty red (5,2,3,3)
ORDER OF THE DAY – (FOOD HEARTY RED)*

The naval ORDER OF THE DAY refers to an official announcement or directive issued by a Captain to be read to all personnel under their command.

5 Middle-of-the-road company backing another in African country (7)
MOROCCO – MOR (Middle of the road) + OC (company reversed)+ CO (company)

Never heard MOR for middle of the road, and I’ve met many unimpressive people. According to Collins MOR is a type of pop music which is pleasant and not extreme or unusual. “Easy Listening”, I guess.

6 Ship’s officer potty about old queen (9)
COMMODORE – COMMODE (potty) about O{old} R(queen)

Commander fitted in here with the first two checkers, and ended with ER too.

7 Drunkards with books aboard ship (4)
SOTS – OT (Old Testament, books) inside SS (ship)

SOT (along with Rum, High) is a word I only ever see in Times Crosswords. First thing I think of for Drunkard, even though there are dozens of others.

11 Upholder of Trident ban I train in movement (9)
BRITANNIA – (BAN I TRAIN)* [in movement]

Very nice clue, good definition. Britannia is always picture holding a trident, which was added to symbolise the Royal Navy’s victories in 1797. The Roman original (which is visible on early British coins) had a spear.

13 I’ll leave writers at sea absorbing French article, one struggling (8)
WRESTLER – (WR{i}TERS)* contains LE (French Article)
15 Sunbathe with a drink after time getting fit (7)
TANTRUM – TAN (Sunbathe)+ T + RUM (drink)
17 Outspoken verse on developing coal (5)
VOCAL – V{erse} + (COAL)* [developing]
18 Sound of running water in ice field (4)
FLOE – Sounds like FLOW (running water)
21 A gesture of respect that’s far from stern (3)
BOW – Double def, BOW is the front (“pointy end”) of a ship, far from the stern (“square end”)

Its a heteronym, the words are spelled identically but have different sounds

89 comments on “QC 2837 by Peridot”

  1. 10:13 TANTRUM and COMMODORE were my favourites. At least ten clues refer to the sea or Royal Navy. Maybe another solver more skilled at Nina-discovery can make something out of them!

  2. Started well but slowed down in the bottom half, ended with 8.42. Thank you Peridot and also thanks to Merlin for explaining what was going on with WRESTLER (oh, the I leaves…) and ERA. It’s are backwards, who knew?

  3. 10 minutes. Nothing hard for me in filling the grid but I was puzzled by some of the answers and definitions.

    I wonder what is it says about me that I never heard of POINT OF HONOUR, nor of ORDER OF THE DAY as having to do with captains of ships. I would never have thought of STATEROOM on a ship either although now it’s been pointed out it rings a faint bell. For me the word brings to mind grand rooms used for formal occasions in royal palaces or at 10 Downing Street.

    I was also puzzled by Merlin’s reference to BOW as a heteronym but less so now that someone else has queried it.

    In my records I’m noting this as having a naval theme.

  4. Hit par of five for the first pass of acrosses and then bit better on the downs but I was never totally comfortable. Ended up with a long struggle over POINT OF HONOUR and then WRESTLER. Reminds me that I used to live near the Wrestlers on North Hill in Highgate – an excellent pub. All green in 16.46. Good one!

  5. 10.45 for me was going well but got held up at the end by the FLOE / LINER junction.
    Alas though two pinks on submission with the erroneous SPAREROOM doing for 1ac having lazily failed to check the letters in the anagram.

    It’s just started hammering it down in SE London and with a cold and dark walk to the station for the City commute in the imminent offing slightly demoralising- here’s hoping for a decent 15×15 at lunchtime.
    FOI: COS
    LOI: LINER
    COD: BRITANNIA

    Thanks for blog Merlin.

    1. A good steady solve on the tricky side that we finished in 22.15. Some nice clues, especially COD aye, what a very clever surface. Liner and floe also LOI here.

      We are 40 miles north of London and have 2 inches of snow on the ground that’s fallen in the last hour.

      Thanks peridot and Merlin

      Ps without giving things away, another of those days with odd coincidences where you finish one puzzle, move to another and find the same word!

      1. 50 miles north of London here where we had maybe an inch over the same time frame, but it’s turning to rain now and I suspect most will be washed away on the roads before long.

  6. This felt chewy in places and I struggled with fat fingers due to having spent an extra half hour on a snowy dog walk this morning after the little sh*t decided to disappear after a deer. He’s come back with a cut foot and a scratch down his nose so a trip to the vet is in the offing as well.

    I enjoyed the solve and noted that there were a lot of nautical references today which made me think that Rotter would have enjoyed this one.

    Started with COS and finished with COMMODORE in 8.52.
    Thanks to Merlin

    1. Deer chasing is so stressful. We fitted our retrievers with Tractive trackers on their collars – at least you can see where they’ve gone!!

      1. Funny you should mention trackers because as I was standing about contemplating whether to stay put or to try to go and find him I decided that the time had come to invest in some sort of GPS device.

            1. Cracking clue, Merlin. You’re a very good setter. You should submit a few sample puzzles to the Powers and see if they’ll add you to the list!

  7. Lovely, elegant puzzle. Maybe Peridot served in the RN, or perhaps has been reading Patrick O’Brian.

    I struggled with BRITANNIA because I was looking for another name for Neptune/Poseidon. Eventually the A from ERA arrived and the forehead was duly slapped. COD to WRESTLER, very good.

    All done in 07:40 for 1.2K and a Good Day. Many thanks Merlin and Peridot.

    1. I hope there aren’t any more Patrick O’Brien references to learn. They had TOPGALLANTMAST in the 15×15 a few weeks ago, it cant be too long before Futtock and all those knots.

  8. It was throwing it down with snow (haven’t seen snow here like this for many years, particularly in November) when I started but had calmed down when I finished 11:07 later. I liked all the naval references but couldn’t work out ERA, stuck, as many seemed to have been, thinking that the A in the clue had to be the A in the answer. Nice puzzle, not the easiest for me as the multiple word answers never come easily to me without checkers so I never get the across ones on the first pass.

  9. 13:19 for the solve!

    Peridot – puzzles editor as I recall. Nicely pitched QC although I was concerned whether I’d finish the SW or get the second half of point-of-honour.

    Spotted the nautical theme post-solve and that then made more sense of stateroom which I had thought might be related to executive boards.

      1. Not a coincidence.

        JohnI mentioned it in Peridot’s June puzzle “I hope he doesn’t mind me outing him but, as he explained over a beer or two on Saturday, Peridot is an anagram of his two-word job title with just the first initial of the first word…. I’ll leave you to work out the rest.”

        See https://timesforthetimes.co.uk/31052-2

  10. Nice puzzle, thank you, Peridot. LOI FLOE (PDM). None too sure about STATEROOM and COMMODORE (a lot of ships today! always prefer to be in water than on it) but trusted to the wordplay. As a collector of ‘bun’ pennies, liked BRITANNIA.

    1. I’m not a collector but I do have three bun pennies – 1871, 1892, and one I can’t read. I’ve got four Edward VII pennies too. They really feel like proper money!

      1. 1871 is quite a good one! If it’s at all nice (detail on Britannia’s shield?) it’s worth money. Agree, the rot set in with decimalisation, didn’t it ….

        1. How interesting – thank you so much. The 1871 one probably isn’t so good – Britannia’s shield is very worn.
          I really miss half crowns!

          1. Quite agree! Never forget the time when my generous aunt (still alive! 88) tipped me a halfcrown after a family lunch – made my day.

  11. Just started snowing here in Newport South Wales I can report, as we are now apparently meteorologists on the site!
    A nice puzzle which I think I did well to finish under target at 8.58, it seemed harder than my time suggested in solving. The only clue that gave a cause for concern was POINT OF HONOUR where I couldn’t quite get my head round the definition.

  12. 7.45

    Even I spotted the naval theme but then I have read all those Patrick O’Brian books an awful lot of times. Still no idea what a futtock is though.

    Rather liked the surfaces for the 1a and 4d and thought AYE was good too.

    Thanks Peridot and Merlin

  13. Fairly straightforward today, a one cup of coffee solve. POINT OF HONOUR is rather odd, but the only one that makes sense; guess those on the US might struggle with the British spelling! COD WRESTLER. P

  14. 6:36

    Didn’t notice the nautical theme at all, but now you come to mention it…

    Bunged in ORDER OF THE quite early, without bothering to check the anagrist – DAY turned up later on. Not particularly aware that POINT OF HONOUR is a thing either. I was on the cusp of writing down the letters of 11d (with four checkers in place) when it jumped out at me. Failed to parse ERA in flight.

    Thanks Peridot and Merlin

  15. Shiver me timbers and grog all round, but for possibly the first time I spotted the theme before the puzzle was completed and even used it to help with some of the latter clues. All ship-shape and completed in 11 minutes, though MOROCCO not fully understood (MOR = middle of the road?) and the nautical reference to boarders in the wordplay for STATEROOM also eluded me. Very good now it is explained to me.

    Many thanks Merlin for the blog
    Cedric

          1. 😂. There was also a group of that name: their hit “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” defines the genre pretty well…

            1. Aaagh! I was hoping no-one would mention that one – such an awful earworm. But to be fair, it doesn’t entirely define the genre. Back in the day, when I worked for a record company, there was a whole – and very successful – division for that type of music and some of it was pretty good. Vera Lynn was one of the biggest names. Also Joe Loss, Acker Bilk, James Last, Mantovani to name a few. And who can forget Manuel and the Music of the Mountains, which was a load of session musicians 😂

  16. 32:22
    Very nice puzzle and spotting the maritime theme helped with LINER.
    Particularly enjoyed COMMODORE and CABIN.
    Thanks Merlin for explaining the parsing of WRESTLER.

  17. Nice puzzle again today, although I did find it a bit easier than yesterday. Thanks for the blog Merlin. Like Cedric, the reference to ‘boarders’ completely passed me by (very nice and now COD). My dad frequently used to say ‘What’s the order of the day?’ when I was growing up, as a way of ascertaining plans that he might need to be involved in. He was a sailor, amateur only, but I never realised where this phrase came from until today. Also liked DECIBEL. Many thanks Merlin and Peridot.

  18. 12 minutes for me with LOI and COD TANTRUM- that kind of fit!
    A good puzzle.
    I could not parse ERA like many others it seems.
    David

  19. It’s such a rarity for me to spot a theme while solving so I’m rather pleased with myself! I started with the 1s and POINT OF HONOUR brought up the rear. I initially saw ERA as a hidden but did eventually parse it correctly and I panicked with the anagram fodder for BRITANNIA thinking the answer was going to be a NHO deity. 7:31 for a very good day.

  20. All ship shape and Bristol fashion, here in Cirencester, where it is snowing steadily, but not settling.
    Excellent themed nautically themed QC, which along with a not too difficult 15×15, has set me up for the day.

  21. —–ROOM and MOROCCO were first 2 in. STATE arrived after SEASCAPE and AYE were in place. ORDER OF THE DAY was biffed but POINT OF HONOUR needed more thought. LOI was BRITANNIA where I was also looking for a sea god for a while. 8:09. Thanks Peridot and Merlin.

  22. Just over 20 mins to solve this seafaring special. Couldn’t immediately parse quite a few, but successfully biffed them all.

  23. Enjoyable puzzle. Quite speedy but slowed suddenly at LOsI POINT OF HONOUR and MOROCCO. NHO MOR abbreviation either. Among others, liked STATEROOM (more toast!), FLOE, TANTRUM, and MAYFLOWER we had been discussing the other day.
    Yes, I pronounce BOW of a ship and bow to the King the same, but a bow tie is ‘boe’, of course.
    Gosh, snow sounds alarming.
    Thanks vm, Merlin. Interesting about DECIBELs.

  24. After a bit of a wobble a fortnight or so ago my cryptic learnings are seemingly back on track and enjoying the QCs again. For now!

  25. 16:05

    Medium difficulty. Didn’t see the homophone in SEASCAPE but couldn’t be anything else. LOI WRESTLER. A couple of pink squares where I changed a grey answer to black and the app decided to overwrite the wrong squares but I’m ignoring that.

  26. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that our setter today, who I understand is crossword editor, is also the answer to one of the clues in today’s Times2 crossword!?

  27. I found that fairly plain sailing and didn’t find myself out of my depth for once. I won’t go overboard with my praise for Peridot but it was a fun puzzle and certainly floated my boat.
    It’s miserable here in Wiltshire.
    Thanks Merlin

  28. 16 mins…

    All very nautical I thought – but enjoyable none the less. With regards to 22ac “Era”, I actually saw it as a hidden clue (rightly or wrongly), mainly because I was thinking exist=be and couldn’t see how else it would parse. Favourites included 2dn “Aye”, 14ac “Point of Honour” and 20ac “Decibel” – although that was mainly for the horrendous image it conjured up.

    FOI – 2dn “Aye”
    LOI – 13dn “Wrestler”
    COD – 15dn “Tantrum”

    Thanks as usual!

  29. 18:49, getting a little stuck on AYE (not British so just had to trawl until I found something fitting one end of the clue), ERA (no excuse!), and LINER (misdirected by “inside”).

    For the first time I’ve seen a theme without having it pointed out to me here (I see we are a club). Between clues and answers I count 13 direct references to ships, boats, and the sea. Add one if you include POINT OF HONOUR, a well-known depiction of a flogging on board ship. Add another for BRITANNIA, who rules the waves.

    Thanks to Peridot and Merlin!

  30. 14:54 with no errors. I think MOR describes pop groups such as Abba and Brotherhood of Man -both of which this middle-aged AOR (Album Oriented Rock) fan really likes.
    This was my best time for a Peridot so pleased with that. FOI – CABIN, LOI – WRESTLER, COD – TANTRUM. Thanks Peridot and Merlin.

  31. Decidedly tricky, but I got there in the end. And all clues fully parsed.

    My FOI was COS (STATEROOM didn’t arrive until much later), followed by CABIN and RECKON. LOsI were WRESTLER, VIEWS and POINT OF HONOUR. Along the way, my favourite clue was COMMODORE – probably for its surface, which made me smile.

    Verdict: Challenging, but doable (just).

    Many thanks to Peridot and Merlin (sub-15 minutes routinely counts as a “speedster” from where I sit – towards the back of the SCC lounge).

  32. I enjoyed that – lots to raise a smile or even a LOL 😄 A better time and no breezeblocking either.
    8:28 all parsed
    FOI Bow – yes the last clue, but I just happened to notice it! In his book, Alan Connor says you should start at the bottom right hand corner, although I can’t remember why, but it certainly kicked things off well for me today. LOI Floe COD Hmm a tricky one – I think I’ll plump for POINT OF HONOUR – very ironic!
    Thanks Peridot and Merlin

    I belted through the biggie today until the last one that Jack mentioned in his blog – I had exactly the same problem but luckily chose the right combination of letters! So if you fancy having a go but are happy to get one wrong (possibly), I’d recommend it.

  33. I was definitely on Peridot’s wavelength today, finishing in 13 minutes. Couldn’t parse COMMODORE but apart from that no problems. Enjoyable puzzle.

    FOI – 6ac COS
    LOI – 13dn WRESTLER
    COD – 24ac MAYFLOWER

    Thanks to Peridot and Merlin.

  34. Slow and steady – SCC territory – but a fun puzzle with a nautical flavour. Liked the commode in COMMODORE and the AYE out of PAYE. Flirted with BADGE OF HONOUR until BRITANNIA put paid to that – POINT then followed. ALERTED fine at 8a but not always a warning: you can alert someone to an opportunity or to a pleasurable event. Thanks to Peridot and to Merlin

  35. 8.30 We had more than an inch of snow in this part of Birmingham but it didn’t settle on the roads or pavements. I got off to a very slow start with this, but speeded up towards the bottom. STATEROOM and MOROCCO were the last two. Thanks Merlin and Peridot.

  36. 13:31. I spent some time trying to use TITANIC as the sunken ship for 12a. In fact, I wondered for a while whether there was a Titanic theme, but agree that it’s a broader nautical theme.

    Thanks to Peridot and Merlin.

  37. Friendliest quickie for a long time for me. Probably due to my boating background. Cheers Peridot and lots more with this theme.

  38. 9:36. Mostly very straightforward but POINT OF HONOUR kept me going for a bit. Not sure I’ve seen that used as a phrase before …
    But otherwise nice puzzle – thanks both!

  39. A very enjoyable 16:14. Couldn’t fully parse MOROCCO (which I’m inclined to argue was not my fault) or COMMODORE (which definitely was).

    Thank you for the blog!

  40. I give up with this!!!

    DNF in 14 mins, with SPAREROOM for STATEROOM. Dreadful performance. An unforgivable error. I am probably the only DNF today, which speaks for itself.

    Spent over an hour on big crossword with about 6 incomplete.

    What’s the point in doing this? I’m no good at it and get worse the harder I try.

    Depressed, discouraged and frustrated. Another week ruined!

    Replies are unnecessary as there is nothing that will cheer me up today.

    PS Now feel even more unhappy. Missed 3 on big crossword (all perfectly gettable) and one spelling error.

    Not sure where I go from here.

    1. Stick with it. For what it’s worth, I found the 15×15 really hard today. Spent ages, only got a few. At that point i read the clue, press reveal and either am satisfied i would never get it (eg 1 across) or smile at the setters ingenuity and mentally file it away.

      Setting a time limit is a good idea.

      See you tomorrow.

  41. 5:12. Spot on for a QC. Great clues and I loved the theme. Thanks Mick (Peridot) and Merlin. FWIW my sister is a Lt Commander in the Naval section of the CCF. She will love this one.

  42. Enjoyed this long coffee break.
    only clue I disliked was 15a. associating a fit more to epilepsy and shock rather than a peeved child. But reconciled tantrum with a fit of temper and my coffee break was finished.
    Here, 337 ish miles by car roughly NE of London, cold and wet and stubbornly refusing to snow.

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