14:13, loads of anagrams to get you started in the top left corner. But some good ones in there, and the rarely seen Reverse Cryptic makes an appearance. Had to squint at that for a long time to figure out what was going on.
Has anyone tried the new Times Puzzle called Wordhunt? I tried it for the first time and solved it in 6, which I think is an unbelievable fluke.
Across
| 1 | Old church with concerning orange-brown colour (5) |
| OCHRE – O{ld} + CH{urch} + RE(concerning) | |
| 4 | Dignity of former PM accepting joke (7) |
| MAJESTY – MA^Y (former PM) contains JEST (joke)
With so many former PMs now, its hard to remember them all. There are currently eight living former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom. |
|
| 8 | Swooped, once DUP fragmented (7) |
| POUNCED – (ONCE DUP)* | |
| 9 | Foolish British host (5) |
| BARMY – B{ritish} + ARMY (host)
Host is an old word for an army, often used in the Bible, Heavenly Host, the Lord of Hosts. |
|
| 10 | Some VIP and Truss shifting portable gas cookers (6,6) |
| PRIMUS STOVES – (SOME VIP TRUSS)*
Truss, there’s another one. |
|
| 12 | I agree south coast resort has no banks (6) |
| RIGHTO – {b}RIGHTO{n} (South Coast resort)
Love this expression which might sound dated but is definitely worth using now and again. Kipling was the first to use it, I think it sounds very Australian now. |
|
| 13 | Still, tact is unusual (6) |
| STATIC – (TACT IS)
Spent too long on the near anagrams of TACIT and STASIS. |
|
| 16 | Removal of odd chaps interrupting alien visitor briefly (12) |
| ESTRANGEMENT – STRANGE (odd) + MEN (chaps) contained in ET (alien visitor)
Not sure what the “briefly” is doing there. Surely ET doesn’t need to be further defined? |
|
| 18 | Hand deliver a sermon, with no pressure (5) |
| REACH – {p}REACH (deliver a sermon)
There is the expression “Can you hand/reach me that book ?”, |
|
| 20 | Bohemian joints — they’re regularly ignored (7) |
| HIPSTER – HIPS (joints) + T{h}E{y}R{e}
Bohemian as nothing to do with Bohemia (now western Czechia), although Prague is now a pretty hip place. It’s down to the French who wrongly labelled unconventional artists after Roma (Gypsy) nomads they mistakenly thought were from Bohemia. |
|
| 21 | Meagre poster about Liberal (7) |
| SLENDER – S^ENDER (poster) contains L{iberal}
Sender for poster, as in someone who utilises the mail. And “slender” as in “slender margin of safety”. Nice misdirection all round. |
|
| 22 | Article about that place (5) |
| THERE – THE (article) + RE (about) |
Down
| 1 | Theoretically, Pope ran complex (2,5) |
| ON PAPER – (POPE RAN)*
Wikipedia is sometimes described as a project that “works in practice, but not in theory” |
|
| 2 | Priest at Eton is doing this in residential area (7,6) |
| HOUSING ESTATE – The lesser spotted reverse cryptic, rare in the QC. If you haven’t seen one, the answer (“housing estate”) is to be thought of as an actual cryptic clue, and there it is Priest at Eton housing (containing) “estate” | |
| 3 | Meet none cuter when travelling (9) |
| ENCOUNTER – (NONE CUTER)* | |
| 4 | Unassuming way of working with stone (6) |
| MODEST – MODE (way of working) + ST{one}
That would be stone, the weight, that particularly British measurement of 14lbs. 8 stones in a hundredweight, obviously. |
|
| 5 | He was patient and doctor? (3) |
| JOB – Double definition
Job from the Bible was a famously patient man. And of course a doctor is an example of a job (although they would call it a profession) |
|
| 6 | Rate the setter “terrible” in performative displays? (6,13) |
| STREET THEATRE – (RATE THE SETTER)* | |
| 7 | Fluctuate rapidly, and ultimately say to boy: “No!” (2-2) |
| YOYO – last letters of “say to boy No” | |
| 11 | Working actor not going topless immediately (2-3-4) |
| ON THE SPOT – ON (working) + THESP (actor) + {n}OT [topless]
“Thesp” is a camp (see below) word for a thespian, itself a pretentious word for an actor. |
|
| 14 | Camp erotic dancing back in vogue (7) |
| COTERIE – (EROTIC)* + {vogu}E
I though a COTERIE was just another word for a group. Collins says “a particular kind is a small group of people who are close friends or have a common interest, and who do not want other people to join them”. It lists “camp” as a synonym, which was news to me. |
|
| 15 | A new combination of notes cut short TV presenter (6) |
| ANCHOR -A + N{ew} + CHOR{d}
Chorus, Chorale are also combination of notes, but “cut short” usually means strip just one letter. |
|
| 17 | Heterosexuality restricts love god (4) |
| EROS – Hidden in Heterosexuality | |
| 19 | Bore sheltered from sunlight, naked (3) |
| HAD – {s}HAD{e} (sheltered from sunlight) [“naked”=strip outside letters]
Bore/Had a child for example. |
11:50 for me. I think alien “briefly” is simply a reference to ET being short for extra terrestrial, but agree that ET is so frequently used in cryptic crosswords that the qualifying adverb is unnecessary. Thanks for the explanation of army, which I did not understanding, and clicked send with some trepidation.
I guess you could argue that the ET in this example is specifically talking about the scientific term “Extra Terrestrial” rather than the film. However, I agree that it is probably shortened in scientific circles as well, so the adverb probably isn’t needed.
Oddly, I didn’t bat an eye at host=army, but I have never once heard the term ‘barmy’.
The/An English cricket supporters club is called the “Barmy Army”
8:06
I had the same thought about ‘briefly’. Spent a good deal of time on 2d before throwing up my hands and biffing; it wasn’t until I’d submitted that I finally saw he hidden. A terrific clue, although there may be complaints (‘not appropriate for a QC’).
14 minutes. I think the wordplay at 19dn is {s}HAD{y} (sheltered from sunshine).
I’m not keen on the wordplay at 5dn. ‘Doctor’ is at best a DBE but it’s a dodgy example of JOB for the reason already mentioned by our blogger.
Yes—the tense is wrong in the clue if “shade” were meant!
I thought the doctor reference to job was as in a ‘bank job’ – a criminal act?
13:19 puzzled only by barmy hipster coterie.
TaMAD
Hey Merlin!
Followed your link to wordhunt (thank you very much… took me 25 to get it 😂) but I cannot find the puzzle in my online app or the puzzle app. That’s a bit odd don’t you think?
Any ideas?
For the moment it’s only on the website. They haven’t built the app version yet, I think because it’s still in beta form. This is the second iteration of the puzzle; the first version came out at the start of the year and this version has tweaked the game quite a bit – to its benefit I think.
Thanks to Merlin for the link – I remember reading about it in the puzzle’s newsletter, but obviously couldn’t find it as I don’t do any of the puzzle on the website. I had the same query as TC, so thanks to CS for the clarification. It’s my cup of tea, so I shall look forward to seeing it on the app in due course. I scraped in with a bronze – must do better!
Thanks
Hi TC. I received Wordhunt link via the Times Puzzles newsletter, enjoyable and worth signing up to. Go to:
My account > my newsletters
I’ve done the wordhunt, in both the old style and the new one, but didn’t bother reading the new instructions so didn’t realise until I failed abjectly today that you could go diagonally as well as up and down, which were the only two options in the old version. Doh! Back to the QC, thanks for the blog, Merlin — they’re were a couple of parsings that were beyond me, especially the reverse cryptic. Not my day for lateral (or any other direction) thinking.
I did OK until the end, but I could just not see estrangement for the longest time. Then I assumed that C was a valid abbreviation for camp, and that it was followed by an anagram of erotic. I pursued this idea for much longer than I should have. I must have spent 6 or 7 minutes on just those two.
Time: 14:02.
Raced through the top but then crawled through the bottom. Ended up with HAD after SLENDER finallty went in but minutes passed on ESTRANGEMENT, ANCHOR, HIPSTER and COTERIE. All green in 17.40. So not a good start to my defence of my lowest ever snitch average time.
MAJESTY took too long too, once I had the M and J I was fixated on Major and forgot all about May.
As Merlin says, a great bunch of anagrams that fell quickly to get started and a more or less top to bottom solve in 14.24. Didn’t parse the reverse cryptic but easily biffed from definition and a couple of crossers early on.
COD to righto, my dad was a “proper” cockney and probably used that word several times most days,although his pronunciation was more ride-o
Thanks Dangle and Merlin
11:27. Good AC which wasn’t too difficult, but like vinyl, I became stuck on ESTRANGEMENT at the end which took out my time to over 10 minutes. I liked HOUSING ESTATE (so no complaints from me), RIGHTO and the appearance of a couple of recent PM’s.
Thanks to Merlin and Dangle
I enjoy an anagram but it felt (to me) as if there were a couple too many in this puzzle. Other than that an enjoyable solve.
Started with OCHRE and finished with JOB in a bang averge 7.34, but with HOUSING ESTATE unparsed.
Thanks to Merlin and Dangle
No time due to sleep/doze and repeat.
I didn’t gel with this puzzle and felt it was too anagram centric and a bit odd. JOB/Doctor didn’t work for me and a few others went in with a shrug.
Thanks Dangle and Merlin for wise insight as usual.
Incidentally, I did the grown ups crossword yesterday which was surprisingly accessible and completed all but one clue while waiting for MOT to finish. I was very pleased with my courageous effort. May have another go next year!
I think camp = coterie as in ‘in Blair’s camp or Brown’s?’ (that dates me)
Not as badly as “Hipster” which was probably last used outside of crosswordland in the 60s!
Oh I don’t know – it depends if you’re talking about low-slung trousers or the recent tribe with their bushy beards, check shirts and craft beer (the chaps at any rate!). They’re definitely 21st century.
I stand corrected – the recent tribe had evaded my – somewhat rusty – “up with it ness” radrar
Mostly a very rapid solve until breezeblocked by COTERIE which I didn’t understand at all and needed a letter search for. That pushed me out to 10:12 when it could have been much less. Other than that, no holdups, though I share the dislike of job = doctor and I struggled to equate Hand and REACH. Our blogger may say ‘There is the expression “Can you hand/reach me that book ?”’ but I can’t say I’m familiar with it.
Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
So many Prime Ministers … doesn’t help if you start your mental list with Walpole, of course. Fortunately YOYO reminded me of the utterly forgettable May, and that sorted out the NE corner in time for 07:16 and a Very Good Day.
Not impressed by JOB but thought HOUSING ESTATE was very good, COD from me.
Many thanks Dangle and Merlin.
5:33 today, very much on the wavelength. ON THE SPOT was LOI.
(also, 8 for the wordhunt!)
7:13 for the solve. Slowed by needing to check off the letters for nho PRIMUS-STOVES and ESTRANGEMENT at the end. Needed the blog to understand HOUSING ESTATES so thanks to Merlin for that and to Dangle for the QC.
Edit: 21 on the Wordhunt – it’s probably hard to do much worse. I may never bother to play again!
11:45
I took a while to see my LOI RIGHTO.
PRIMUS STOVES are fuelled by kerosene ( a liquid) rather than by gas cylinders, so I am not convinced that “gas” should be in the clue.
Thanks Merlin and Dangle
Great knowledge, you’re absolutely right and it’s what both Collins and Chambers say. That’s the sort of input I pay my sub for!
I agree with you but in defence of Dangle the paraffin doesn’t burn until it has evaporated into a gas.
All good (except CNP bore = HAD, thanks Merlin) until I reached camp = C-T-R-E, stared at that for about half an hour, thought probably anagram of erotic but one letter too many, gave up. Misery.
Oh, NHO ANCHOR but Mrs M (who doesn’t watch TV any more than I do) says it’s GK, so there.
Haven’t solved a Dangle yet.
24:03 – a bit slow, held up by COTERIE, SLENDER, ON THE SPOT and HAD, all of which took time and/or were biffed.
17:58
A bit of a biff fest with welcome help from all of the anagrams.
These included my first reverse cryptic, JOB (already commented on), HIPSTER which I did not associate with ‘Bohemian’ and COTERIE which I couldn’t decide if it meant ‘camp’ or ‘vogue’ – was that just me?
A little too much finger crossing I fear for me.
FOI: OCHRE
LOI: COTERIE
COD: RIGHTO
Thanks to Dangle with a bigger thanks to Merlin for the education.
HOUSING ESTATE is a really great clue! Fantastic stuff. 6:46. A very enjoyable puzzle.
22:05
The top half went in in no time but struggled at the bottom. Failed to parse HOUSING ESTATE. LOI REACH.
Bit of a struggle for me today and needed Merlin’s confirmation of my parsing of COTERIE, ESTRANGEMENT and JOB. HOUSING ESTATE very clever – did not see how that worked at all, but my COD.
11 minutes without any major problems. LOI was HIPSTER.
Could not parse HOUSING ESTATE so thanks for that.
COD to ON THE SPOT. There were others I liked.
But I also had the thought -too many anagrams.
David
25:42 after being bogged down in the NE and SW with what turned out to be not particularly difficult clues. HOUSING ESTATE is very clever. did not know there is a name for that sort of clue – thanks for that Merlin. I agree with Chris Lord’s earlier post about ‘camp’ as a synonym for ‘coterie’ – often used in politics.
Rather slow in parts today, though I did finish…..except for HAD (put Hid). Struggled with COTERIE, ESTRANGEMENT and ANCHOR(PDM) which gave me HIPSTER. Luckily knew JOB was patient but was mystified by Doctor.
Liked HOUSING ESTATE and MAJESTY, among others.
CNP ON THE SPOT
Thanks vm, Merlin.
I put HID as well, but wasn’t happy with it.
Nice stroll through again. Thanks to Dangle and Merlin. Had a quick stab at Wordhunt, looks good. The strategy is difficult, as whatever letter you start with there is an 80% chance that it wont be in the target word at all.
I don’t know what it was about this puzzle, but although I did not find it too difficult, I really did not enjoy it. It just seemed really bland to me. Perhaps it’s me.
First lap: 9
Answered (no help): 23
Answered (with help): 3
DNF: Nil
Time: 29:21
I was surprised by the spelling of RIGHTO. Always thought it was ‘Right Ho’ – largely because of the wonderful Right Ho Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
From OCHRE to STREET THEATRE in 6:30. Started at a gallop in the top half, but slowed up down under. Thanks Dangle and Merlin.
I wasn’t at my sharpest today, and my time of 14.30 reflected that. I was pretty slow from the start and one paced throughout. I did however take time to parse HOUSING ESTATE before stopping the clock; a pretty neat clue that took me a while to fathom
All done and dusted in 18 minutes, which is jolly fast for me, except that I still haven’t parsed HOUSING ESTATE and ON THE SPOT. I will try to figure them out before reading Merlin’s blog. Everything else was parsed as I went along, although I daresay I have missed some subtleties.
Many thanks to Merlin and Dangle.
My thanks to Dangle and Merlin.
I like Dangle.
5d Job, I was very foxed by the doctor; that bit of help was very unhelpful for me. Doesn’t it need a ? as def by example?
11a On the spot, missed the thesp so biffed.
14d Coterie, I was unaware of that def.
15d Anchor, I assumed Chorus lost 2 and shrugged.
17:24, a bit longer than my average. I think it felt tricky largely because some of the definitions were a bit unconventional rather than because the clues themselves were inherently difficult, if that makes any sense (it may well not). With the glaring exception of HOUSING ESTATES, which I biffed without any idea of what was happening.
I tried Wordhunt once, got it in six, and decided to retire on a high note.
Thank you for the blog!
The combination of notes in 15D is CHORD, not chorus or chorale as these are musical works.
This one took me ages (approx 18 minutes as I solve it in hard copy but enjoyable .
Thanks to Dangle and Merlin.
Late and slow today. 12 and two halves which presumably means I’m getting better at spotting Ikea clues.
Despite giving the old wireless a good thump, Dangle and I are still operating on different wavelengths. To cap it all, Estrangement and Coterie then put up a BEF level rearguard that left me looking at a standing room only (over 25mins) slot on the coach. And while I’m here, muttering to myself, surely Immediately and On The Spot are second cousins at best?
CoD to the admittedly excellent Housing Estate, the parsing of which I did spot – though not ‘immediately’. Invariant
I agree. On the spot is when you corner someone in a verbal spat and they have no escape. Put someone on the spot to give an answer. Also under pressure – dum dum dum diddy dum dum etc..
How about ‘I asked for a quote and he gave me one on the spot’?
. . . ok, maybe first cousin 😉
I am suppressing my inner Sid James but it is an almighty struggle.
Ha ! The first version of my comment said: And while I’m at it. . .
I hope you’re not having to cope with an inner Kenneth Williams…..
A rapid start thanks in no small part to the numerous anagrams. Then ground to an ignominious halt. Totally breezeblocked for several minutes before finally staggering over the line in 18:30.
Liked HOUSING ESTATE, RIGHTO and HAD
Didn’t like JOB.
Thought COTERIE might be clever but couldn’t parse satisfactorily.
Thanks Dangle and Merlin
9.45 The bottom half was much harder than the top. “Removal” for ESTRANGEMENT seemed an unusual definition, but it’s in the dictionary. Thanks Merlin and Dangle.
No exact time but it was probably around the 23 minute mark. Several biffed and COTERIE entered with a shrug as the only word I could fit in. I always struggle with Dangle and that was true again today. Some of the definitions seemed rather stretched to me.
FOI – 1ac OCHRE
LOI – 14dn COTERIE
COD – of the clues I managed to parse ANCHOR was my favourite. Now it has been explained to me HOUSING ESTATE must take the prize.
Thanks to Dangle and Merlin.
Middling time taken to solve and parse fully, so cuppa still warm at the finish. MER at the gas powered Primus stoves. Loved HOUSING ESTATE.
Thanks Dangle and Merlin
7:03
Pretty swift but for the last half-dozen. Not sure from where I dragged up PRIMUS STOVES – never used one. RIGHTO is the sort of thing my recently-deceased (aged 97) father would have said. Had to dig deeper for COTERIE, HIPSTER, and LOI ESTRANGEMENT.
Thanks Merlin and Dangle
A slow 19.04 for us, largely due to >5minutes on HAD BARMY COTERIE.
NHO REACH in context of ‘reach me a book..’
15d ANCHOR – cut SHORT > took off S and T…>HOR – thank you Merlin for showing error of our ways.
Not difficult, yet not as enjoyable as some. Anagrams are welcome, however, perhaps not this many.
Thank you Dangle and Merlin.
A pretty quick 9:22 but arguably a bit lucky as we didn’t realise we’d actually finished when we entered our LOI COTERIE. I’d meant to go back and check HOUSING ESTATE, which was surely correct though we had no idea how it worked. Had we actually stopped and stared we’d have fruitlessly spent a lot more time. Many thanks, Merlin, I’m not convinced we’d ever have spotted the reverse cryptic. Also not convinced by ON THE SPOT / immediately as a couple of others remarked. Minor quibble though. Thanks, Dangle.
A little tougher than of late but I still crept inside my Qsnitch average. MER at Bohemian = HIPSTER. Hippie yes, but “one who follows the latest fashions”? I think not.
I spent too long trying to justify “hid” for my LOI.
FOI OCHRE
LOI HAD
COD HOUSING ESTATE
TIME 4:03
I hadn’t thought about it much – with those terms you are entering 50s and 60s Crosslandia (a term invented by my other half to denote words only ever used in crosswords) – hepcat, anyone? But you’re quite right – Bohemian was always a term for arty people, not ‘dedicated followers of fashion’.
. . . is she a fan of Sibelius by any chance ?
He, actually. It’s probably not obvious from my photo, as I was dressing up, but I’m female. We both like Sibelius (who is currently Composer of the week on Radio 3, and whose 2nd Symphony’s 1st movement is also at this moment playing on the radio by an extraordinary coincidence), but whether that was the unconscious inspiration for the name, I couldn’t say.
Oops!
Dangle didn’t disappoint – a pleasant and not too problematic crossword, that unfortunately I had to leave off with two left to go to work. When I came back to it I got COTERIE and then ESTRANGEMENT pretty much straightaway. Liked the reverse cryptic and COTERIE with its suggestive and misleading surface.
21 mins. Only housing estate unparsed. Needed all the crossersbefore coterie came to mind, but have heard of a camp as a group of people, so made sense when I got there. Barmy took a lot of letter cycling before the penny dropped
FOI ochre
LOI coterie
COD righto
thanks Dangle and Merlin
17 mins…
Made good progress on this, although my time was impacted by 14dn “Coterie”, which took much longer than it should have.
Have to admit, 2dn “Housing Estate” was left unparsed.
FOI – 1ac “Ochre”
LOI – 14dn “Coterie”
COD – 11dn “On the Spot”
Thanks as usual!
21:47 here, continuing to push my average time up! A few too many anagrams for my taste, but HOUSING ESTATE was worth the price of entry by itself.
Thanks to Dangle and Merlin.
I still don’t get on very well with Dangle and today was my worst time for quite a while! I didn’t parse HOUSING ESTATE – and yes, I do question whether the quickie is the right place for such clues, although I guess we need to learn how to do them if we want to progress to the biggie. I can’t do them over there either 😅 Count me in as another who thought JOB for doctor was weak. Otherwise, everything else was parsed and I liked the surface for PRIMUS STOVES – separating the VIP and Ms Truss made me smile ruefully! No problem with RIGHTO – I don’t think it’s particularly Australian, and in fact use it quite a lot.
13:04 FOI Ochre LOI Coterie (I thought about it quite early on, but was trying to incorporate the G from dancing into the anagram – don’t know why) COD Hipster (there’s a very amusing book in the Ladybird series for grown-ups about that particular sub-culture)
Thanks Dangle and Merlin