A lot of subtraction(6) clues today, along with a couple of substitutions made this a challenging puzzle.
Definitions underlined in bold , synonyms in (parentheses) (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, other wordplay in [square brackets] and deletions in {curly} brackets.
| Across | |
| 3 | Hairy getting ship initially into UN harbour (8) |
| UNSHAVEN – UN + HAVEN (harbour) contains S{hip} | |
| 7 | Exists on old fruit (6) |
| OLIVES – LIVES (exists) preceded by [on] O{ld} | |
| 8 | Medicine re-ordered with pressure for new widespread disease (8) |
| EPIDEMIC – (MEDICI And I glanced at the anagram and came up with PANDEMIC, and the characteristic of a Pandemic is that it is widespread. An EPIDEMIC is a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in a specific area or population. Better would have been “…outbreak of disease” |
|
| 9 | Manage to go round one dilapidated historic site (4) |
| RUIN -RUN (Manage) contains I(one) | |
| 10 | What might make you choke — but not quietly (3) |
| GAS – GAS{p} (choke) Remove the P (quietly)
Interesting clue, which defied categorisation. The word “choke” does double duty, needed for both the definition and the word play. |
|
| 11 | Too similar to sage (8) |
| LIKEWISE – LIKE (too) + WISE (sage) | |
| 13 | Facilitate rental agreement, knocking off pounds (4) |
| EASE – {L}EASE (rental agreement), losing L=pounds
L=pounds (money) is already in the plural so only one L needs to be subtracted |
|
| 15 | Wasted item’s not good (4) |
| THIN – THIN{G} (item) – G{ood}
Yet another subtraction! |
|
| 17 | Small lawsuit involving introduction of needless penalty (8) |
| SANCTION – S{small} + ACTION (lawsuit) contains N{eedless} | |
| 19 | Violent whirlwind has ripped off flap (3) |
| ADO – {TORN}ADO (Violent whirlwind) – TORN (ripped) [off]
This is probably the hardest of the “takeaways” today, with a full word being subtracted, just using the construction “off”, which usually indicates an anagram. |
|
| 22 | Spy undercover in Smolensk (4) |
| MOLE – Hidden in Smolensk | |
| 23 | Arrogantly order excavation replacing centre of Dover (8) |
| DOMINEER – DO{V}ER with the V replaced by MINE (excavation)
This is construction where one letter is replaced with one word is not common, but it’s rather neat here. Especially with Dover clue in plain sense, rather than “port”. |
|
| 24 | Question tea party organiser when three characters go missing? (6) |
| MATTER – M{AD H}ATTER (tea party organiser)
The Mad Hatter from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was considered mad due to the effects of mercury poisoning, which was common among hat makers in the 19th century. The phrase “mad as a hatter” originated from this condition, as the mercury used in hat-making caused neurological damage. |
|
| 25 | Can tyres get shredded in race? (8) |
| ANCESTRY – (CAN TYRES)*
Defining these two as synonymous runs counter to the latest thinking, that “race is a social construct”. I’ll leave it there. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | With what mill produces, is hard to thrive (8) |
| FLOURISH – FLOUR (what mill produces) + IS + H{ard} | |
| 2 | Road event may take place here? (6) |
| AVENUE – A VENUE (event may take place here) | |
| 3 | Employed in university post vacated by Newton (4) |
| USED – U{niversity} + SEND (post) – N{ewton} | |
| 4 | Very little boy trapping insect (8) |
| SMIDGEON – SON (boy) contains MIDGE (insect)
Smidgeon comes from Scotland (like the midge). Scottish smitch, “very small amount; small insignificant person”. |
|
| 5 | Hostile state evacuated square (6) |
| AVERSE – AVER (state, say) + S{quare}E [evacuated] | |
| 6 | English eleven with time to go out (4) |
| EXIT – E{nglish} + XI (eleven) + T{ime} | |
| 12 | Fresh shoe insert needs trimming to begin with (8) |
| INSOLENT – INSOLE (shoe insert) + N{eeds} + T{rimming}
This use of FRESH is mainly American I think. “That waiter was a bit fresh to me”, meaning impudent or rude. |
|
| 14 | Burn slowly and decompose after seconds (8) |
| SMOULDER – S{econds} + MOULDER (decompose)
In the 18C the only form was “smouldering”, of which Johnson (1755) says ‘This word seems a participle; but I know not whether the verb SMOULDER be in use’. It was backformed after the dictionary appeared. |
|
| 16 | Local inhabitant innocent about beginning of troubles (6) |
| NATIVE – NAÏVE (innocent) contains T{roubles} | |
| 18 | Drum mostly filled with a fruit (6) |
| TOMATO – TOMTO{m} (drum) contains A
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” Attributed to Miles Kington, Time columnist and wit. |
|
| 20 | Seemingly only off in the middle of the day (4) |
| NOON – NO ON
I think this needs ON and OFF as nouns, such as in cricket. So “No On” would be “only off”. And also “NO LEG”, for that matter. |
|
| 21 | Soldiers being silly going topless (4) |
| ARMY – {b}ARMY (silly)
This is easy if you are aware of the Barmy Army, the English cricket fans abroad. |
|
15:15. I really enjoyed MATTER and TOMATO. I wondered if the clue for GAS, with its reference to choke, was maybe hinting at automotive engines too?
8.26, with LOsI being DOMINEER, INSOLENT and ANCESTRY in the tricky SW. ADO was a problem for a while as well. I’m not sure that on and off are nouns in cricket, they’re adjectives but sometimes for brevity we drop the word ‘side’. In the NOON case I thought we were talking about a switch. A friend says he cannot drink at lunchtime because he has no off switch, maybe we’ll rename him NOOFF. Thanks Joker and Merlin.
PS: 15×15 not too problematic today.
I found this more than a little tricky. Didn’t see the parsing for HATTER even though we’ve seen similar clueing for it before. Never heard of moulder for rot but it makes sense. DOMINEER took a while as I was thinking of pit for excavation. INSOLENT also slow to come, likewise LIKEWISE!
Thanks M. I think RACE should be underlined in 25a instead of the angrist.
Thanks, 25a fixed now
The first line of the old American marching song is ‘John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave’.
Thanks Jack. That rings a very distant bell from school in the 1950/60s.
Never thought of it as a marching song. As you no doubt know, Julia Ward Howe used the tune for ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’.
I have memories of it in old Westerns, directed by John Ford and his like, with troops marching along to it, but a couple of sites I looked at today to check the words referred to it as ‘marching song’.
I didn’t mean to imply that it wasn’t, just that I’d never thought of it as such.
That’s fine. It’s good to hear another person’s impression. I mentioned the Westerns because I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I became aware of the song way back in the 1950s when I would have been about 10.
Now got the tune of ‘John Brown’s body…’ on the brain.
Took longer on this than on the main puzzle (both 16 minutes +)! I finished with LIKEWISE (excellent clue), where I reckoned LIKE comprised the second part of the entry.
Pedants may point out that Carroll never referred to the character as the ‘mad hatter’, but we all do, and that’s good enough for me.
14 minutes. I found this hard and was rather surprised when I finished that I was still within my 15 minute target, if only just. No complaints though, as the puzzle was perfectly fair.
All the usual sources have ‘widespread disease’ among their definitions of EPIDEMIC, so the clue is fine. Of course ‘pandemic’ is also widespread, even more so, but there’s no room for confusion because there’s wordplay to be considered too. An ‘outbreak of disease’ might be confined to a small community e.g. a village or a residential home.
Really hard. The main cryptic is easier… This kind of quick cryptic puts people off rather than drawing them in. Sometimes QCs are well pitched, but it seems frustratingly inconsistent.
Misjudged
It was hard for me but it won’t put me off 🙂
Nine on the cryptic…makes no sense.
Sorry to be thick … what does “nine on the cryptic” mean?
Getting 9 correct on the 15×15
Thank you! So now I really am being thick: so why does it “make no sense”? Is 9 more, or fewer, than a number that would make sense?
The whole puzzle makes no sense. Hence only managing to solve 9.
Ah, I see! But that’s funny … Newsold and Amoeba, at least, are saying the 15×15 is easier than this QC! Now I have never yet got more than eight answers in the 15×15, yet I (amazingly?) managed to finish the QC today. So should I give today’s 15×15 a go, or not? The verdict seems split ….
Haven’t done today’s but try yesterday’s. There was almost nothing that would have been out of place in the QC.
You’re right! Got five immediately. Amazing. Am in the middle of work now so mustn’t do any more but will definitely persevere later. Thank you!
Later: wow – ended up (mustn’t spend any more time on it) with 19/32, easily a PB. Very heartening – thank you.
Doesn’t make sense that my result in the 15×15 was better than in the QC. I’m an old dog trying to learn new tricks.
Totally agree
Odd experience for me. Absolutely flew through the first half including 8 on the first pass of acrosses – I even caught myself wondering if a top 10 time was on the cards. But then, even with all those checking letters I ended up taking 26 minutes. Had to work hard for SMIDGEON, SANCTION, LIKEWISE, ADO, DOMINEER, MATTER and TOMATO.
Some chewy bits but not serious hold ups however I forgot to go back to parse ADO.
Started with EPIDEMIC and finished with DOMINEER in 8.59.
Thanks to Merlin
Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow with LOI averse revealing itself 10 seconds short of 30 minutes.
Took a long time to get started and had to come back to several clues more than once. Domineer eventually biffed from the crossers then parsed.
Thanks Joker and Merlin, in 11a I think you mean like (similar to)
I’m probably being a bit thick this morning, but I’m struggling to equate QUESTION with MATTER.
It’s a question/matter of taste.
Fair enough, thx.
9 minutes. Enjoyable puzzle for me. I liked the virtually never seen MOULDER for ‘decompose’ at 14d and the word for letter replacement trick in DOMINEER. Took a while to sort out that ‘Too’ was the def for LIKEWISE after spending a while in vain trying to think of the name of a herb which would fit.
Thanks to Merlin and Joker
14.28, far slower than the main puzzle thanks to what felt like (and probably was) at least 10 minutes staring at _I_E_I_E
This is where my usually reliable pattern-recognition deserted me, not helped of course by being unsure where LIKE went. I thought of LIFELIKE, LIFETIME, TIMELINE, FIRESIDE, SIDELINE… It was only once I started desperately running through synonyms for SAGE that I reached wise m- and realised it had been an adjective all along.
Thanks both.
6:25. A tricky one from Joker today, but nothing unfair. LOI AVERSE after GAS. I liked LIKEWISE best. Thanks Joker and Merlin.
Tricky but fun taking 35:11.
For 10a I had GAG instead of GAS initially but 5d sorted that out.
Don’t really understand NOON. Scots saying ‘no on’ for off was as close as I could get to parsing it.
COD THIN.
Thanks Joker and Merlin.
If something is only off it has no on state.
Thanks, makes sense. Given the rest of the clue and the crosssers it was fair enough.
Just about managed that – thank you, Joker – though I’m reading Merlin to find out why USED and NOON, whose parsing escaped me. LOI DOMINEER.
Oh I suppose Newton = N is something in A level physics but I failed that not once but twice.
No, only off = “no on” is beyond me. Thank you, Merlin.
Very tough and I ended up submitting off leaderboard because I had gone 50:50 between ADO and AGO for my LOI. I couldn’t parse either but I’d been staring at A*O for a while and just wanted to finish! I guessed right for 12:07 and a Back To Earth Day after yesterday. (Still struggling to see “flap” for ADO but hey ho.)
Sticky elsewhere too, especially LIKEWISE, DOMINEER and TOMATO. COD to NOON. Well beaten today.
Many thanks Joker and special thanks to Merlin for explaining ADO to me!
11:19, with an odd mixture of write-ins and clues which I found much more chewy. Did not immediately connect question with MATTER (I even tried Hatter at first until the Barmy Army put me straight), or race with ANCESTRY, and ADO defeated me until the O checker gave it away. But it was the OLIVES/AVENUE pair that were my L2I and held me up the most – not sure why as I suspect most will have found OLIVES at least fairly straightforward.
Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
9’10” for this challenging puzzle. Agree with ulaca re the Hatter, but don’t agree we should accept misconstructions – from there it’s a short step to the nonsense of ‘alternative facts’. Will history record correctly that the millennium began in 2001?
Thanks Merlin and Joker.
I’m more with you than against you, actually, though I have a horror of the modern fad for ‘fact-checking,’ since there is so much selectivity about which ‘facts’ to check. I see the persona of the Mad Hatter as more of a matter of folklore than of misconstruction, but, as I say, I understand (and often call upon) the slippery slope argument!
10:57 (death of Macbeth)
I found MATTER quite a hard clue.
ANCESTRY was my LOI.
COD to NOON.
Thanks Merlin and Joker
Held up by DOMINEER, MATTER, ADO and EPIDEMIC, but eventually worked them out. 24:07 to complete it.
Took me a little while to parse TORNADO, ADO and AVERSE, but all fair. Thanks Merlin and Joker. (You have a couple of typos for 23A, Merlin)
I was a bit surprised to find this tricky, but I see I’m not alone. Ended up with a bunch of crossers all blank and had to think hard to get going again. MATTER seemed obvious from the definition but I couldn’t parse it, so thanks, Merlin, for clearing that up. LOI DOMINEER – great clue.
Like others I found this tough finishing in 13.34. I got off to the worst possible start by putting in PANDEMIC for 8 ac, probably influenced by the worldwide covid problem. Because of this 3dn was a problem until I backtracked and found the error. LOI was DOMINEER which must have been about a minute in solving.
Some very good clues. I had lots of interruptions from a couple of installers checking conservatory measurements for a replacement roof so I can’t post a time. It must have been high teens, though.
I liked SMIDGEON, LIKEWISE, MATTER, SANCTION, SMOULDER, DOMINEER, and my LOI INSOLENT. Unusually, I found the 3-letter answers difficult.
Thanks to Merlin and, of course, to Joker – a master at work.
There were some difficult parsings in this which held me up. My main problems were in the NE.
LOI GAS after AVERSE, only vaguely parsed as I wrote it in; saw it a moment after putting pen down.
15 minutes in total.
COD to AVENUE.
A sophisticated and enjoyable challenge.
David
14:03 for the solve. Pleased to get through that as felt it was tough which seems to be backed up by most people’s experience. Found it easier to bif-then-parse and still had 7 to get with two mins to go.
I had parsed GAS as something which might make you choke – with “not quietly” to mean you are gassing and talkative. Having read Merlin’s breakdown I’d originally thought it made more sense until he pointed out choke is doing double duty.
Took ages and DNF THIN.
Among LOsI were INSOLENT, SMOULDER, UNSHAVEN (COD), ADO, DOMINEER!
Really did not enjoy it as it was too much of a struggle.
Actually I did like MATTER, ANCESTRY, LIKEWISE.
Thanks vm, Merlin.
Much to difficult for me
From UNSHAVEN to ADO in 9:06. There was some very clever wordplay today. I particularly enjoyed SMOULDER which was a write in because I currently have a smouldering fire in my field in Mallorca and MATTER once I realised it had nothing to do with Boston and Samuel Adams. Thanks Merlin.
9:57
The Snitch suggests that this was pretty tough – I’d agree, was about two-thirds done after six minutes, but took a while to think of SMIDGEON which was enough to produce the domino effect and rattle off the last half-dozen, except for DOMINEER which took a little extra thought.
Thanks Merlin and Joker
That was quite tricky and took me over my target to 11:33. FOI was UNSHAVEN and LOI was OLIVES. Thanks Joker and Merlin.
We didn’t mind this too much. Not a quick effort – 21.46, however, like Roundabout Here, we navigated the grid at inconsistent speed. Took a while to correct HATTER/MATTER which of course made 21 D impossible.
LOI -DOMINEER
Encouraged by comments about today’s 15×15 we will head there, have never completed one nor are we yet close – however, that was the situation when we started QCs, which we now regularly complete.
Take heart newcomers.
Thank you Joker and Merlin.
I was pleased to finish this in 18 minutes as I thought it was tricky. Remembering my biff of yesterday which resulted in a DNF I refrained from putting in pandemic at 8ac because I couldn’t parse it. All became clear once I cracked 3dn.
FOI – 9ac RUIN
LOI – 23ac DOMINEER
COD – 25ac ANCESTRY
Thanks to Joker and Merlin.
33:56
Gosh, that was tough. Only slightly faster than yesterday’s 15×15. Olives and tomatoes weren’t front of mind when mentally scanning through the fruit aisle at my local Tesco’s.
The last 10 minutes was spent trying to figure out my last 4, SMIDGEON, GAS, OLIVE and LOI AVENUE.
I found this tough, spending 5 minutes more than on the 15×15.
Took me a very long time to finish this rather tricky puzzle. LOI LIKEWISE and COD for the misdirection. Couldn’t parse ADO or NOON (thanks Merlin). Held up along the way by ANCESTRY (oh, that kind of race), DOMINEER and ARMY (oh dear). Top half went in much more quickly than bottom half. Thanks Joker. I think I may head over to the 15 x 15 having read the comments above.
17.13 Slow throughout. I went up every blind alley. SMIDGEON and GAS to finish. Thanks Merlin and Joker.
24:32 with no errors, struggled today and was so unsure about GAS, AVERSE and LOI- DOMINEER that I was half expecting some pink squares. Relieved to see all green. I’m surprised at the comments on the 15 x 15 as I have only completed 50% of it at the time of writing despite the snitch rating of 60. I’ll go back to it later, hopefully a break will refresh my brain cells. FOI – EPIDEMIC, COD – LIKEWISE. Thanks Joker and Merlin
Edit, now completed 15 x 15 in 1h 4m 32 s which is not a bad time for me.
Dnf…
Not teeing up to be a good week this. Had everything after 25 mins, but just couldn’t see 23ac “Domineer”. Not a synonym that easily comes to mind, but obsessing with “Dig” for excavate didn’t help either. In common with a few above, not keen on too many “subtraction” type clues.
FOI – 1dn “Flourish”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 18dn “Tomato” – good surface and clever clue.
Thanks as usual!
We were rather slow today at 14:33, held up primarily by the crossing of POI 12d and LOI 17a, not helped by having an ‘aha’ moment and biffing INNOCENT for ‘fresh’, even though it doesn’t parse. Being then stumped on 17a we revisited 12d. INSOLE is obvious once you have it but it eluded us for far too long. I was misdirected by looking for an insert that would need trimming (a deletion) at its start but mostly had a mind block on shoe inserts. Thanks Joker and Merlin.
Another one who found the 15×15 much more accessible than today’s QC.
Thanks for the blog.
Ditto
A couple of irritating clues for me – insolent ( sorry but I buy the London times) and ancestry ( doesn’t work imo). Some good bits though – thanks all!
Used to domineer a do at noon? Sanctions? 16 min but a real tester so understand the concerns.
Ta both
17m
Hard.
Main crossword was pretty easy.
joker definitely mixed up his assignments.
COD likewise
About 14 minutes, breezeblocked by NOON (I never did get to grips with it), TORNADO and LIKEWISE.
FOI Olives LOI Likewise COD Insolent
Thanks Joker and Merlin
The biggie only took a couple of minutes more! That doesn’t happen often 😊
Extremely difficult. Well over the hour again, but at least I finished (unlike yesterday).
I started averagely, slowed significantly during the mid-phase and virtually ground to a halt with 6-8 clues still unsolved. My LOsI were INSOLENT, SMIDGEON, ADO, GAS, LIKEWISE and MATTER.
The QC should be a relatively brief enjoyable interlude in one’s day, not an assault course for the toughest solvers.
Many thanks to Merlin.
45 minute DNF.
Put LIFELIKE for LIKEWISE.
An appalling performance. Anyway, enjoy the laugh at my expense. Coming here for my daily humiliation is such a great way to end the day.
I’m beyond help with cryptics. I just can’t do them and it’s stupid to pretend otherwise. I have tried so hard and got nowhere. I am truly inept. This week – 78 minutes and 2 DNFs.
Why is it that others improve and, despite spending ages on the 15 x 15, I go backwards? Can someone explain because it is driving me up the wall? I hate being beaten by anything, but I cannot see how I can improve, particularly when I see others with such great times. People I was once on level with are now so far ahead of me. ☹️