Nothing to scare the horses, 11:59 for me.
Any time Fruit appears in a crossword or trivia a row ensues between botanical usage and common (or culinary) usage. From a botanical standpoint, a nut is defined as a dry fruit with a single seed. True nuts, according to this definition include: Chestnuts, Hazelnuts, Acorns.
Many foods we commonly call “nuts” are actually the seeds of drupes (fruits with a fleshy exterior and a pit containing the seed). Examples include Almonds, Cashews, Walnuts.
Peanuts, despite their name, are actually legumes, making them botanically closer to vegetables.
Lots of subtraction clues today, so you’ll see the “-” used as a minus, and the em dash “—” as a dash.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 1 | Fish, small one that sleeps (7) |
| SNAPPER — S{small} + NAPPER (one that sleeps)
A snapper is a large, sharp-toothed fish which is widely eaten around the world. |
|
| 5 | A party’s sent back drink (4) |
| SODA — A + DO’S (party’s) all reverses
Soda has different meanings around the world, and in the US it can be a marker for where you grow up. Its use for a generic carbonated drink is contrasted with “pop” (common in the Midwest and parts of the West) and “coke” (prevalent in the Southern United States) |
|
| 7 | Equestrian in condition (5) |
| RIDER — Double def
RIDER in a contract originated in the legislative process, over time, this concept was adopted by the legal profession and expanded to encompass any condition or constraint. |
|
| 8 | Go away, packing some current hair product (7) |
| SHAMPOO — SHOO (go away) contains AMP (some current)
I think “some” here is a truncation indicator, for Ampere. Although not really needed as Amp is the widely used abbreviation. |
|
| 10 | Enthusiast for fruit (3) |
| NUT — Double def
See preamble for more on NUT=fruit. |
|
| 11 | On one occasion having interrupted, referred to as egocentric (9) |
| CONCEITED — CITED (referred to) contains ONCE (on one occasion) | |
| 13 | Ship richly ornamented, but not old (6) |
| BARQUE — BAROQUE (richly ornamented) – O{ld}
One of several subtraction clues today |
|
| 14 | Grumble millions express (6) |
| MUTTER — M{illions} + UTTER (express)
“Utter” often used to clue “butter”, “gutter”, “shutter”. Worth remembering, especially as it can be indicated with “,say” |
|
| 17 | Mum’s eaten stewed game? (9) |
| AMUSEMENT — (MUMS EATEN)* [stewed] | |
| 19 | Quietly greeting character in Mykonos (3) |
| PHI – P (quietly, as in music) + HI (greeting)
“In Mykonos” just means Greek. |
|
| 20 | Ring in the month for Christmas spirit and decency (7) |
| DECORUM — DEC (month for Christmas) + RUM (spirit) contains O (ring) | |
| 22 | Share dealer, almost penniless (5) |
| BROKE — BROKE{r} (Share dealer) | |
| 23 | Ray is a fish out of river (4) |
| BEAM — BREAM (fish) – R{iver} | |
| 24 | What supports heads of trailing roses everywhere like lilacs in spring (7) |
| TRELLIS — Initial letters of words after “heads of”.
Of course a trellis does often support the heads of trailing roses, but I don’t think this means that it can be a “semi &li”, because that lilac business is not really part of a definition. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Season piece of wood as a good place to start (11) |
| SPRINGBOARD — SPRING (season) + BOARD (wood)
Surprisingly, metaphorical usage dates from as early as the 1700s. |
|
| 2 | Who might check movement of cash coming from Saudi to Russia (7) |
| AUDITOR — Hidden in Saudi to Russia | |
| 3 | Reach up at drifting item slowly moving earthwards (9) |
| PARACHUTE — (REACH UP AT)* [drifting] | |
| 4 | Take exception to gift papa has left (6) |
| RESENT — PRESENT (gift) – P{apa} | |
| 5 | Health resort in Spain, not at home (3) |
| SPA — SPAIN – IN (at home) | |
| 6 | Leading editor set up magazine, perhaps (5) |
| DEPOT — TOP (leading) + ED{itor} reversed [set up]
A magazine is an item or place within which ammunition or other explosive material is stored, hence a depot. The cartridge on a firearm and a publication came later, |
|
| 9 | Organisation’s instructions about actor’s part (11) |
| ORDERLINESS — ORDERS (instructions) contains LINES (actor’s part) | |
| 12 | Fair, quite flexible and competent (9) |
| EQUITABLE — (QUITE)* [flexible] + ABLE (competent) | |
| 15 | Earth goes beyond fossil fuel (7) |
| TOPSOIL — TOPS (goes beyond) + OIL (fuel) | |
| 16 | Consent to what one might do with unruly hair? (6) |
| PERMIT — Perm it.
Very nice. COD for me. |
|
| 18 | Relative confused when missing a run (5) |
| UNCLE — UNCLEAR – A – R{un} | |
| 21 | Crash into wreck being raised (3) |
| RAM — MAR (wreck) [being raised]
This is wreck, the verb. |
|
I thought this was a great QC, well-pitched (for my level) but with some really interesting clues. I also noticed the number of subtraction clues.
FOI SNAPPER
LOI BARQUE
COD EQUITABLE
A real quickie. Only CONCEITED held me up for a moment as I was in a bif-fest and saw ‘contented’ and ‘consented’ but read the clue again to make sure.
Thanks M and setter.
I was strangely slow on this one. Yes, the easy ones were write-ins, but I struggled with medium-level clues like parachute and depot. I ended up biffing shampoo, and then thinking a long time about orderliness.
Time: 10:18
10 minutes again.
I was delayed a little at 1ac where I had confidently written SKIPPER on first reading but was forced to rethink by the arrival of the A-checker provided by AUDITOR at 2dn. If it hadn’t been for the crosser my answer would have been valid because SKIPPER is a fish (aka brisling or sild) – not an obscurity at least in the UK as it’s one of the John West canned range of fish products marketed as ‘Skippers’ and served in a variety of sauces. Actually I think it would fit the clue more neatly because in addition to being ‘one that sleeps’, KIPPER is also a fish having been caught as a herring and cured.
Another delay was DEPOT where I had to rely on checkers and wordplay. I’m familiar with magazine as a cartridge holding ammunition, but I don’t recall coming across it as an armaments depot.
I also had SKIPPER as my FOI, but fortunately saw AUDITOR as soon as I hit the Down clues. I was thinking of mud skippers.
Me three (I was thinking of skipjack). Skipper as a fish is not, however, in either Collins or Chambers.
Actually you will find SKIPPER as a fish in Collins cross-referenced to the entry for ‘saury’, and it’s also in the SOED. But that’s a somewhat more exotic creature than the humble fish I had in mind which is documented in any number of sites online along with alternative names or relatives such as brisling, sprats and whitebait. Skippers can be found on the shelves of all good supermarkets.
Good spot Jack, thanks!
Nice puzzle, no major problems, I was held up towards the end by DECORUM, ORDERLINESS and EQUITABLE where I chose the wrong definition and thought it was an anagram of fair and quite. Got there in the end, 11.02, thanks Merlin and Joker.
Congratulations to Joker! Had to come here for Merlin to explain how to parse PARACHUTE. Not often an angram is the problem. Also enjoyed unravelling ORDERLINESS. Some problems were of my own making: whacked in ‘skipper’ to start and somehow entered SHAMtOO which held up DEPOT for ages. Found SPRINGBOARD difficult too for some reason. All green in 18.13.
Plus one for SKIPPER – thankfully the hidden AUDITOR was very obvious so didn’t derail me unduly.
+2.
A disappointing 19.57 – was off to a flyer despite having wrongfooted myself from the off by entering SKIPPER for 1AC. Then got completely bogged down with the right hand side of the board with LOI ORDERLINESS.
Not many stand out contenders but I would go with PERMIT for COD.
Ended up with a pink square having entered DDCORUM as a typo. So all in all a bit of a ‘meh’ start to the day. None of that is the Joker’s fault though, this was very accessible. Thanks Merlin for your efforts.
Slow to get started – the top half was largely unpopulated after the first pass – but then the answers began to emerge, until I was well breezeblocked working out ORDERLINESS. A real PDM when I realised that “organisation” didn’t mean company, but the holdup pushed me out to 12 minutes.
Nice puzzle, thank you Merlin for the blog
Cedric
An average paced solve with a couple of fishy problems.
I desperately wanted 1a to be ‘skipper’ but (prior to reading Jacckt’s post) was confident that such a fish didn’t exist so managed to resist the temptation to just bung it in. BEAM/bream was my other fish based issue as, regardless of how many times I see it, I am never confident of whether it’s an ‘ea’ or an ‘ee’ word – fortunately I went for the correct option so, maybe, I’m learning.
Started with SODA and finished with PARACHUTE (major forehead slap when I realised it was an anagram) in 8.17 with COD to SNAPPER for the clever misdirection.
Thanks to Merlin
12:23. FOI SNAPPER; I’m glad I didn’t see SKIPPER first. Remembered MAGAZINE in this sense from the recent ARSENAL clue by Asp, our new puzzles editor. Stuck on SHAMPOO so COD for the PDM
On edit at 12:35 – Correction. Asp (Jason Crampton) is our new Crossword Editor. Apologies to Mick Hodgkin (our Puzzles Editor) for the alarm and distress I may have caused him
A warm welcome to Asp as our new Crossword Editor. A rapid promotion only 4 months after his first puzzle for us! It’s a position we have missed a bit I think in the last few months, so hopefully better (or at any rate less disconcerting) times are ahead.
I usually like to reserve judgement but given Asp’s idea of a QC so far; I don’t feel this bodes well for us genuinely lesser mortals on the QC. It is possible however that the skillset of setting a puzzle vs those of editing / managing setters are different enough that he will turn out to be a good appointment.
(I will clarify that I have nothing against his setting other than I haven’t found it to put the Q into QC – 32min avg on 5 puzzles where last week was 14mins).
Apart from the “skipper” problem, I found this both friendly and enjoyable.
FOI “skipper”, then SODA
LOI EQUITABLE
COD BARQUE
TIME 4:22
A distracted solve today, my mind kept wandering to other matters. On several occasions I found myself reading the wrong clue which added to the general uncertainty. However, it all came together in the end.
Skipper went straight in, until it didn’t work, and PARACHUTE was too subtle for my dozy brain for some time.
When I reached TRELLIS my immediate reaction was “Mrs, of North Wales”. If this was yours too, I’m sorry I haven’t a clue about how to help you.
Ha! Great minds. Or tiny minds, take your pick.
FOI skipper, FOI correct AUDITOR (because I wasn’t quite sure of skipper and thought I’d try a checker – luckily for me I hit the only checker which showed the error!).
Bit of a steady plod today, not helped by needing all checkers for LOIs ORDERLINESS and SPRINGBOARD. COD to BARQUE, very good. Nice to see Mrs TRELLIS from North Wales popping by.
09:22 for an Undistinguished Day. Many thanks Joker and Merlin the nutter.
PS was I the only one to try very hard to make an anagram out of “fair quite”?
I toyed with the ‘quite fair’ anagram as well.
Likewise
13.42. I’m just dim this morning and my experience exactly mirrors Plymouthian’s.
…but your dim is much faster than mine!
10:00
I was on for a fast time but got bogged down by equitable and orderliness.
COD Snapper, amusement, or auditor. Permit seen lots of times.
Was so convinced it must be SKIPPER that I didn’t see the obvious hidden AUDITOR and tried to make INDITER fit the clue (clearly impossible!). Otherwise no problems. COD PARACHUTE. Thanks Merlin
Us too for SKIPPER followed by INDITER, but couldn’t see what writing a poem had to do with the clue!
It had to be a ship I’d NHO – not in English, anyway – scared me, but then I’m not a horse. Otherwise all fine, but a few CNP, so thank you, Merlin.
10:08
I’m yet another one who saw SKIPPER before SNAPPER.
COD to TOPSOIL.
LOI CONCEITED.
Thanks Merlin and Joker
I didn’t have any problem solving SNAPPER but SPRINGBOARD was a late solve and I was slowed down by those missing first letter checkers. PARACHUTE was my penultimate solve and COD for the imagery and the clever use of the anagrind ‘drifting’. I didn’t really unterstand DEPOT but from my limited French I remembered magasin = store so went with it. LOI in 8:44 was ORDERLINESS.
47:47 for a solve that was no amusement 🙄 Held up by SNAPPER / BARQUE / PARACHUTE trio for 30 mins until I spotted the parachute anagram. I used to really enjoy Joker’s puzzles but something happened to their clueing in the last 6-8mths and they’ve overcomplicated their QCs. The clues for SPRINGBOARD, AUDITOR, TRELLIS were classic Joker but the rest just felt like I might as well have attempted the 15×15
Edit after DT’s reply: On reflection, I actually suddenly remembered BARQUE and it was only when the U went in that I saw PARACHUTE was an anagram. To that point I’d been trying to anagram ITEM into -time or -mite.
agree, todays was just too hard, and I lost interest!
NHO barque?
I have heard of BARQUE but clueing it with BAROQUE subtraction is tough for a QC.
I usually say one of the strengths of Joker puzzles is they very rarely include NHOs and while that is still true for me today; it’s only just with SNAPPER and BARQUE on the edge.
I joined a lengthy queue of budding Skippers, before Auditor kiboshed any thoughts of captaincy, or even tins of brisling in tomato sauce. No matter, the rest of the puzzle was more forthcoming, though a similarly careless Adaptable (12d; almost works) needed Mutter to become (more) Equitable. Loi Conceited was a tip-of-the-tongue hold up that nudged me into a window seat finish. CoD to the drastic solution for unruly chestnut hair at 16d. Invariant
Another putting SKIPPER for 1a and then having to rethink. A fairly steady solve thereafter, although ORDERLINESS and CONCEITED took longer than they should have.
8.05
AMUSEMENT took a bit of time to see but did see SNAPPER. Liked BARQUE
Thanks all
Struggled with this. Eventually got there in 30 mins with quite a few unparsed. Felt like pulling teeth, but looking back it seems relatively straightforward.
Thanks to Joker and Merlin
I find subtraction clues so difficult!
If only they would take them away 😂
I join the ever increasing list of those that confidently put in SKIPPER. It took me longer than it should have to get AUDITOR as a result, as I was slow to realise 1ac was wrong. An excellent puzzle from The Joker as always with some really smart clues. Not my best day time wise at 12.54, not helped by taking so long on my LOI ORDERLINESS.
A middle of the road time of 18 minutes for me. Couldn’t parse PARACHUTE or UNCLE. I enjoyed this – some nice clues.
FOI – 7ac RIDER
LOI – 3dn PARACHUTE
COD – 15dn TOPSOIL. Also liked SPRINGBOARD, ORDERLINESS and PERMIT.
Thanks to Joker and Merlin
A fast start on the LHS and then slow on the right. LOI TOPSOIL.
Held up by DEPOT and failed to parse SHAMPOO whilst solving.
13 minutes in the end.
Some excellent clues: COD to EQUITABLE, runner up CONCEITED.
David
Luckily didn’t think of skipper so SNAPPER was FOI. Biffed SHAMPOO and needed blog to unravel (doh). Got into all sorts of trouble with TOPSOIL until a PDM. LOI was ORDERLINESS where I needed all the checkers to solve. I didn’t have any problems with BARQUE or PARACHUTE so just shows how different we all are. Nice one Joker, and many thanks to Merlin for another informative blog.
I managed to finish the 15 x 15 today so it must be on the gentler side! Would recommend.
Fairly tough, very fair, good fun!
Thanks Joker and Merlin
I had a strong start with both 1a and 1d coming quickly, and then my usual performance kicked in, finishing in 17:16. A fair old chunk of that was spent staring at what eventually revealed themselves to be ORDERLINESS and (LOI) CONCEITED.
Thank you for the blog!
Slow today, 22:10. Struggled with PARACHUTE, PERMIT (!), EQUITABLE, CONCEITED and my LOI ORDERLINESS. Not that there is anything unfair about any of them: on another day they might have gone in quickly. Ho hum, onto tomorrow.
Thanks to Joker & Merlin, particularly for reminding me of the word “drupe”.
I’m new to this. I usually get between two and 16 clues. I really enjoy reading these threads with the explanations.
A dyslexic scientist by education. Sales and marketing technologist by profession, now retired….and that’s not a cryptic clue.
Try this one: Honestly, I felt like getting my Taser out – (musician)
Welcome! You haven’t said how many letters your answer should have…
Welcome!
10:50. LOI DEPOT, COD’s TOPSOIL and PERMIT.
SNAPPER was FOI. I was delayed by EQUITABLE, CONCEITED and ORDERLINESS. Also PERMIT which was LOI. 8:19. Thanks Joker and Merlin.
I beg to differ with your judgement (“nothing to scare the horses”) of this QC, Merlin. I eventually made it to the finish line, but it took me more than 50 minutes to do so. Almost twice as long as my average (in normal times).
Biffing KIPPERS caused me no end of trouble in the NW corner and, reworking it to SKIPPER just extended the problem. Elsewhere, ORDERLINESS, MUTTER and (the NHO) BARQUE held me up. EQUITABLE was my LOI.
All in all, I struggled virtually everywhere around the grid and I breathed a big sigh of relief at the end.
Many thanks to Joker and Merlin.
A steady solve over a couple of cups of tea and cake, but needed to dart around the grid, using the checking letters.
LOI was the clever DEPOT.
Thanks for the blog, and thank you Joker
Dnf…
Wasn’t sure if it was me or this was on the harder side – more than likely a bit of both. Chucked in the towel after 30 mins with at least 5 clues to go, primarily around the NE corner. NHO of “Barque” as a ship nor 6dn “Depot” for a magazine. For 13ac, I made up a fish called a “Scamper”, which sounded plausible at the time, but made a mess of 8ac “Shampoo” by thinking the current element was “AC”.
FOI – 7ac “Rider”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 22ac “Broke” – nice surface.
Thanks as usual!
Not easy for me and well into the SCC. Convinced for ages that 11a had to be —-HEADED until DEPOT gave the game away. Enjoyed PERM IT at 16d and 4d RESENT when I finally got the parsing. So many subtraction clues, enjoyed BAR(O)QUE and UNCLE(AR). Foi SPRINGBOARD which got me away on the left, but ORDERLINESS took a while. Hard pounding. But fun – thanks to Joker and to Merlin
9.38 I thought this was moderately tricky. I liked PARACHUTE and didn’t spot the anagram until I’d finished. BROKE was LOI. Thanks Merlin and Joker.
19:28 for me. I’m finding the QC quite challenging at the moment, can’t really figure out why…. nothing particularly leapt out at me as difficult, nice puzzle and thanks both.
Very late to the party after another Complicated Day with no quiet puzzling time. Thus the 23:18 it took me to sort out this enjoyable puzzle. Why in the heck I biffed something totally irrelevant for SHAMPOO (I no longer recall what), I have no idea, presumably just the ambient noise level. It certainly made the otherwise gettable ORDERLINESS hard!
Thanks to Joker and Merlin! Great blogging today. (I never would have thought of SKIPPER but I guess now I’ve been warned!)
Struggled to get a foot hold at the top, but the SW corner proved easier, then worked our way round. We were another SKIPPER, and discovered INDITER was also a word but couldn’t parse it. Eventually came here to find the SNAPPER.
FOI 5A SODA;
LOI BARQUE and INDITER!
COD 16D PERMIT.
Another dreadful performance – 34 minutes of suffering. There’s another week ruined!
Failed to complete big crossword after 90 minutes. 6 clues unsolved. If it was ‘gentle’, I really am wasting my time here.
I simply can’t do this. Having now read the blog for the big crossword, I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of finishing. Very, very depressing.
I spend 2 hours+ each day on this and I see no sign of progress. My brain isn’t wired in the right way to ever think about succeeding with these puzzles.
☹️
Very full day. I managed to complete the QC, but biffed something else (forgotten what!) instead of CONCEITED. Nobody has complained that Conceited and Egotistical are not synonyms, so here is my MER. Also the worst thing you can do to unruly hair is PERM IT (LOI).
Not an easy puzzle, imo.
Liked BARQUE, TOPSOIL, DECORUM, SNAPPER, among others.
Welcome, Asp, new editor, and also new solvers.
Thanks vm, Merlin. Cd not parse all, e.g PARACHUTE.