I found this hard, and ended up slightly over my target time for the year (now 20:26), mainly due to 1A.
Across
| 1 | Where electrician may be summoned more than is necessary (2,1,5) |
| TO A FAULT – Double definition
This is an odd expression. It originally was used to mean that this thing you are doing excessively would in less excessive quantities be a good thing, “nice to a fault”. However it is now also used as a plain intensifier . Best avoided IMO. |
|
| 5 | Rural establishment miles away? Miles! (4) |
| FARM – FAR (miles away) + M{iles} | |
| 8 | I grip banknote frantically as possible result of too much stress (8,5) |
| BREAKING POINT – (I GRIP BANKNOTE)* | |
| 10 | Long story capturing guest’s heart (5) |
| YEARN – Y^ARN (story) contains {gu}E{st} [heart=central letter] | |
| 11 | Records filled with recent indicators of inexperience (1-6) |
| L-PLATES – LP^S (records) contains LATE (recent)
These are the Red L signs that learner drivers are required to put on the car while under instruction. Dates from 1935! |
|
| 12 | Grumpy co-worker considering retirement? (6) |
| SLEEPY – Double def, both cryptic
Grumpy and SLEEPY are both members of the Seven Dwarves, who sing “It’s off to work we go” so are co-workers. |
|
| 13 | Run on your own? (6) |
| SINGLE -Double def
A SINGLE is a type of run in cricket. |
|
| 16 | Somewhat deterministic goals (7) |
| TERMINI – Hidden in deterministic
Collins has it as definition number 3, but I really struggled to find a phrase where “goals” and “termini” are equivalent. |
|
| 18 | Fable about inner strength, so to speak (5) |
| FIBRE – FIB (fable) + RE (about)
I have no idea what “so to speak” is doing here, clue works just fine without it. |
|
| 20 | Person noted for mimicking Monet, perhaps (13) |
| IMPRESSIONIST – Double def | |
| 21 | Grand, ancient Olympian’s quest? (4) |
| GOLD – G{rand} + OLD (ancient)
G=Grand as in a salary “He makes 60G/60 Grand”, although K is more common. Apart from that we have it as an abbreviation inside another acronym : G.O.P, GM (Grand Master) I couldn’t find an Olympian God who has a quest for Gold, Jason is a mortal, and Hercules only became Olympian after his death, not while on the quest for the Golden Apples. Edit, vinyl points out that the surface refers to a contestant at the Olympics, and not a god. |
|
| 22 | Code of ethics principally for broadcasting of songs etc (4,4) |
| FAIR PLAY – F{or} + AIRPLAY (broadcasting of songs etc) |
Down
| 1 | Small flap next to cat (5) |
| TABBY – TAB (Small flap) + BY (next to) | |
| 2 | Mean to state with certainty how old you are (7) |
| AVERAGE – AVER (state) + AGE (how old you are) | |
| 3 | Suggested cost of repacking is out of order (6,5) |
| ASKING PRICE – (REPACKING IS)*
Of course in economics Cost and Price are very different, and the difference is actually the basis for any market economy. But in this example it it the cost to the consumer, and the price to the retailer, so these are the same. |
|
| 4 | Solitary individual in large, empty laboratory (6) |
| LONELY – ONE (individual) contained in L{arge} + L{abroator}Y | |
| 6 | Very famous, legendary boxer suffers defeat in the end (1-4) |
| A-LIST – ALI (legendary boxer) + {suffer}S + {defea}T | |
| 7 | Artist lives surrounded by drunk mates (7) |
| MATISSE – IS (lives) contained in (MATES)* | |
| 9 | Liverpool FC flexed muscles in this area? (6,5) |
| PELVIC FLOOR – (LIVERPOOL FC)*
Great anagram! |
|
| 12 | Undercover operation involving data processing equipment in office (7) |
| SITTING – S^TING (undercover operation) contains IT (data processing equipment)
This is as in usage such as the Sitting President. |
|
| 14 | Girl eating cheese is an angel (7) |
| GABRIEL – GA^L (girl) contains BRIE (cheese) | |
| 15 | Officers regularly picked out old volunteers for big party (6) |
| FIESTA – {o}F{f}i{c}E{r}S + TA (= Territorial Army, volunteers) | |
| 17 | Drive off — or bike — up the hill, finally (5) |
| REPEL – just the last letters ” or bike up the hill“ | |
| 19 | Guard failing to open door (5) |
| ENTRY – {s}ENTRY (guard) [“failing to open” =omit initial letter] |
16 minutes, missing my extended target by 1 minute. The NHO PELVIC FLOOR took longest and I had to write the anagrist more than once before spotting the possible answer.
I found this a little harder than usual. Some of the clues were easy, but I struggled with asking price and pelvic floor. A single is a run in cricket, but not in baseball!
After solving gold, I realized the literal refers to a contestant at the Olympics, and not a god. Yes, I was fooled, but you can always use the cryptic and ignore the literal.
Time: 9:22
From TABBY to FAIR PLAY in 8:52. Some thinking needed for this one! Needed the crossers before PELVIC FLOOR jumped out. Thanks Jalna and Merlin.
A good puzzle and a good test, all done in 10:30. I’m never really sure what TO A FAULT means or it when to use it, so I don’t. And I also found TERMINI = goals a bit of a stretch. But otherwise no problems, and the long anagrams were top class!
Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
Slow all over but had a particular struggle with 1a.
Started with FARM and finished with TO A FAULT in 10.18.
Thanks to Merlin and Jalna
just three on the first pass of across and then lots of thought needed to end up all green in 17 or so. TO A FAULT was LOI but REPEL was unparsed- thanks for pointing out what was in front of me Merlin!
You know you’re not at the races when LOI is 1a. That was a tough clue. In fact I found this a tough puzzle, but in a good way – thoroughly absorbing, and bristling with clever challenges. Great fun. COD to PELVIC FLOOR, which I got straight away but made me snort.
Got there in 11:56 for a Well Beaten Day. Many thanks Jalna and Merlin.
(Merlin, you’ve got a typo at 4d – “L{abroator}Y”.)
This has convinced me that I just do not get on with Jalna. I have only once had a decent time with one of his puzzles in recent months.
I finished but the pleasure evaporated as I battled my way into the SCC. 1a was my LOI and I had to write out the anagrist for two of the anagrams.
We are just wired differently, I suppose.
Thanks to Merlin for a good blog and for reminding me that some of the clues were rather clever.
It is after 9am and only 8 posts so I am assuming that I am not the only one who found this a bit much.
Seem to have got away with that though the paper is full of question marks (one of which, like you, was “so to speak”) so thanks, Merlin, for brilliant and essential blog. Forgot about the 7 dwarves! Ah, sENTRY. Confused by the bike – so that’s what it was.
After 2 outstanding solves in a row, this brought me back to normal. I was six clues in before I could start, but after that things improved, only two clues holding out after two passes (FIBRE was SLOI).
FOI SLEEPY
LOI TO A FAULT
COD BREAKING POINT
TIME 4:24
Not easy. Took me just over 17 minutes. TO A FAULT also LOI for me: fault could be associated with just about anything, so the electrician reference wasn’t that helpful. Took my time over PELVIC FLOOR and also SINGLE – but I’m always slow with cricket terms.
29:41 – well over my average time as I found this very difficult, having to biff a few and needing an alphabet trawl for some others. Many thanks for the much needed blog !
6:20 – about a minute over average for me, so yes, a little tricky. LOI SLEEPY – I should have remembered the dwarves sooner. I liked SINGLE and REPEL best. Thanks Jalna and Merlin.
Biffed FIBRE – couldn’t understand why it needed ‘so to speak’, but otherwise really enjoyed the clever clueing. SLEEPY my LOI, but COD when the penny dropped. Thanks Merlin and Jalna.
Very slow today, finishing in 16:30
I over-thought 5a, and put AFAR ( A FARM, take away the M, and AFAR can be miles…) and needed A-LIST to force a rethink.
I needed pen and paper to see PELVIC FLOOR, briefly doubting SINGLE when POLICE looked like it might be part of the answer.
FIBRE was my LOI.
Thanks Merlin and Jalna
You are not the only one to put in AFAR! I used the same logic.
I found this one to be very difficult indeed, only getting 3 answers in on my first lap. Some of these clues left me scratching my head, TO A FAULT being one of them. I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one.
I don’t believe for one moment that Wee Davie completed it in 1:40 🤔
First Lap: 3
Unaided: 18
Aided: 6
DNF: 0
Time: 43:50
Fastest real solver is Jason James at 2:27, followed by Chloe Hutton at 2:42. Both of these solvers have been in the Championship finals.
9:08 for the solve. I very much enjoyed that – couple of laugh out loud moments at SLEEPY and TABBY; and of course L-PLATES as I ripped mine up a couple of years back!
There were some tough parses in there but all was understood. TERMINI = goals, not sure but they are both the endpoints you are trying to reach so that’s good enough for me. Written out PELVIC FLOOR, FIBRE and SINGLE were where I ended up.
Thanks to Merlin and Jalna
I smiled when I solved 11a, which was quite early on in proceedings. RANDOM has appeared a few times, so it’s high time you were featured.
Absolutely! Hope all is well with you
Yes, my first thought was: I hope ND sees this today 😊
Haha #50 that was my first one in and I knew you would be commenting. Nice to be recognised at last and with your recent times the L-PLATES can be safely consigned to the bin.
Had to make an appearance of course! Wondering why you refer to me as #5 when you’ve got the V and I was L!
Whoops bit of a brain fog #50!
Must be tired out after doing all these QCs.
I was a bit slow throughout this, but particularly with my LOI, where I was left with F_B_E, and all I could see was ‘fable’, which was of course the first word of the clue! The penny dropped eventually. PELVIC FLOOR was brilliant.
Thanks both.
A few interruptions but still out of the SCC which is good enough for us.
Another meaty, fun challenge. Thank you Jalna!
On reading the blog (thank you Merlin) why so slow we ask ourselves.. but that seems to be the sign of a clever, distracting setter. Devious even.
Many smiles (SLEEPY, PELVIC FLOOR and more).
Much enjoyed. Have toddled off happy.
16.49 I found the bottom half tough and finished with SITTING, where I didn’t understand the definition. Thanks Merlin and Jalna.
Five on the first pass finishing with 15 after 30 minutes. I missed the Liverpool FC anagram.
Slow to get going, and very slow to finish but ended up all correct, thanks to taking a short break before LOsI SITTING and SLEEPY (groaned at that one).
GABRIEL FOI. Liked IMPRESSIONIST, FIBRE, L PLATES and ENTRY.
Thanks vm, Merlin.
Definitely not at the races today, struggling from the off with this puzzle from Jalna. All the way down to SINGLE to get my first answer, and only three answers on my first pass of across clues. PELVIC FLOOR seemed to take for ever to come to me, even though I’ve heard of the expression. I eventually crossed the line with SITTING in 18.30, my slowest time for quite a while.
Found this a real struggle and thought I was going to be defeated again by Jaina. But I kept at it and finally finished in about 30 minutes. Last one in was FAIR PLAY – which I never parsed.
I usually find multi-word answers are a good way in when I’m struggling with the big puzzle, so I lingered too long over 1ac before moving on to Breaking Point, which in contrast jumped out. After that, Asking Price and Pelvic Floor gave me enough crossers to build up the grid for a satisfying 22min solve, though my loi was still 1ac.
A good test from Jalna, with Lots of CoD candidates, but Pelvic Floor stands out and will be re-used when I next see a couple of my friends who are Evertonians. Invariant
Very much not on the setter’s wavelength for this one, stumbled to a 23:25. Really didn’t expect to see an answer sharing three letters with the first word of the clue for 18a which was my LOI.
19:38
None on the first across pass (but I was subject to distractions).
I found this an IKEA crossword as opposed to IKEA clues, circling the grid to gradually get the checkers and then scratching my head to work out the next answer.
No problems with TO A FAULT but my LOI went unparsed – thanks Merlin (Dwarves!)
A great work out and another learning day.
FOI: AVERAGE
LOI: SLEEPY
COD: BREAKING POINT
Thanks to Jalna and Merlin
13.09 but with a typing error. A tough workout for a Quick Quiptic.
11:35 for a puzzle that was very much to my taste. After a few days struggling to find dedicated crossword time, and therefore not getting much pleasure from them, this was an enjoyable way to restart the routine.
Liked TABBY and L-PLATES but CoD to SLEEPY for the smirk factor.
Thanks Jalna and Merlin
An interesting experience for me, where I didn’t exactly get stuck but just slowly lost the will to live. Eventually stopped with the SE corner largely unexplored (and SETTING unparsed, because it was wrong, as the blog helpfully explains). I don’t think I usually feel that way about Jalna’s puzzles so perhaps I’m just having an off day.
Thank you for the blog!
I made that tougher than I needed to. I just wasn’t on Jalna’s wavelength today.
Some good clues COD TABBY
Thanks to both
Excellent crossword. Must be one of the slowest fully completed I have ever done, but no very long hold-ups. Also 100% parsed as I went which is unusual. Putting AFAR in for 5a as a write in, didnt help with 6d, but fortunately Matisse was also a write-in. Penultimate was Sleepy, great clue!. LOI fibre, obviously an anagram of Fable if you have __B__, must be homophone then from “so to speak” (also no idea what it bought to the party) then inner strength must be an “n”, eventually the dreaded double alphabet trawl did the trick. Thanks to Jalana and Merlin. Also thanks John for the password reset.
27 ish mins. Single and Fibre stalled me and then both came in a flash. Also took me far too long to parse the biffed sleepy.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Jalna and Merlin
An about average 12:45 for us. We’d ventured TO A POINT on first sight of 1a but it doesn’t really work and the penny dropped once we had LONELY at 4d. I quite liked the clue. Our LOI was GOLD where we were slow to separate ancient from Olympian’s. FIBRE required some forced thinking because fable fitted the checkers and it was a touch difficult to put out of mind. Thanks, Merlin and Jalna.
On other matters still getting ‘too many requests’.
16:14 for me, with no major hold-ups, just clues that needed thought. I misremembered the dwarf’s name as Snoozy (go figure), but when 3d was clearly an anagram without a Z, I had to reconsider.
Thanks to Jalna and Merlin.
Solved after playing golf with a big fan of Liverpool FC.
That didn’t help me much with the clue.
Quite tricky in places and could not fully explain SITTING or FIBRE(LOI).
Not timed but over my average. Some good clues mixed in; COD to SINGLE.
David
I would have been a lot quicker if I hadn’t confidently put in AFAR at 5a which was my FOI. Got SLEEPY straight away and hats off to PELVIC FLOOR for the chuckle. 8:44 Thanks Merlin
10:57. A most enjoyable crossword that all went in pretty smoothly. Lots to like including SLEEPY, SINGLE and IMPRESSIONIST.
Thanks to Jalna for the fine puzzle and thank you Merlin for the blog
Solved in two SITTINGs, each separated by several hours, but I still couldn’t shake off my usual breeze-block shackles.
Session 1: 11 solutions in 13 minutes
Session 2a: 11 solutions in 9 minutes
Session 2b: 9 minutes for my last 2 clues
Those final two clues (__E_P_ and __T_I_G) were finally cracked open when the connection between Grumpy and SLEEPY and the type of co-worker dawned on me. I sometimes see connections like this almost instantaneously, but it never ceases to amaze me how some solvers here must never have to spend more than just a few seconds doing so.
Many thanks to Merlin and Jalna.
Slow to start and it didn’t improve! I eventually crawled over the line and into the club in 25 minutes. Couldn’t parse REPEL (doh).
FOI – 5ac FARM
LOI – 17dn REPEL
COD – 9dn PELVIC FLOOR
Thanks to Jalna and Merlin
23:30
Not sure which was trickier, the crossword or accessing this blog. Anyway, it seems to be working now.
Pushed well into SCC territory by the top left, YEARN, TABBY and LOI TO A FAULT.
Not on Jalna’s wavelength so a struggle to finish. Don’t like long anagrams.
I was feeling very Dopey this morning when I accidentally cleared my time from my phone before I’d read the final result. Consequently I have no idea how long it took. But it all seemed to go in quite smoothly, although not fully parsed (FAIR PLAY), so I’m Happy to guess it was around my average 10-11 minutes. I liked the anagrams for BREAKING POINT and PELVIC FLOOR very much. I also really enjoyed the surfaces for A-LIST, MATISSE and GOLD.
FOI Farm LOI Sitting COD Sleepy
Thanks Jalna and Merlin
Nowhere near. Gave up with more than half the grid blank. No comfy chair in the SCC for me today. Well beaten.
37 minutes to finish but there were no real holdups and it didn’t feel slow as I worked out and parsed each clue. I liked this puzzle and it gave a lot of pleasure.
FOI: L-PLATES
LOI: SITTING
COD: PELVIC FLOOR
Thanks Jalna and Merlin
12:43 on the clock as I submitted this thought-provoking puzzle – but the last minute or three were spent in convincing myself that SITTING and FIBRE were correct. There’s nothing like a cryptic clue for exposing cognitive blind spots.
I liked many of the clues, and particularly the SLEEPY and Grumpy show. PELVIC FLOOR an impressive anagram.
Thanks Jalna and Merlin.
12 mins…
Compared to some above, I thought this was more on the average side. There were some good clues though, including 12ac “Sleepy” and 18ac “Fibre”. I didn’t get the parsing of 12dn “Sitting” until I read the blog – now it makes sense.
FOI – 1dn “Tabby”
LOI – 12dn “Sitting”
COD – 12ac “Sleepy”
Thanks as usual!
16:38. very tough, got stuck in the end with FOBRE. lovely puzzle. thanks both.
16:38. repeating post as previous didn’t seem to work. great but tough puzzle. thanks!
A miserable 18 minutes. Hard to get enthused after yesterday’s disaster.
3 short on 15 x 15 in just under an hour, so yet another failure. More than disappointing! 😡