16:50 for me, and I think that was good going. Quite a few wry smiles as the last ones went in, well-played Teazel.
My earliest Cryptic Crossword that I came across was in Asterix the Gladiator. Asterix has persuaded them not to fight but to sit down and play word games. One Roman Gladiator comes up with this riddle:
My first is a Hundred, my second is a sign of the zodiac, my third is a Hibernian, my fourth is the Egyptian god of the son, and Julius Caesar loves my whole.
No word length is given, but all of the words are Ancient. Well played translator Anthea Bell, who translated it from the French
« Mon premier ouvre les portes, mon deuxième se boit, mon troisième garde les moutons et Jules César aime bien mon tout. »
There is a completely different one in the Latin version clued by “Julius Caesar does not love me” (Caesar non amat), the answer in “Vercingetorix”, the Gaulish god.
| Across | |
| 1 | Small northern town deprived of field is convulsed (8) |
| SHUDDERS — S{mall} + HUDDERS{field}
Huddersfield, Yorkshire town, where Rugby League and Harold Wilson were both born. |
|
| 6 | Fuss exceptionally loudly around area (4) |
| FAFF — FFF (exceptionally loud) contains A{rea}
Three Fs is much rarer in musical scores, when the composer ones everyone to play at maximum volume, where ff wouldn’t cut it. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture uses fff and even ffff for critical moments. Not that a cannon has much of a volume control. |
|
| 8 | Initially shaky piece of furniture is steady (6) |
| STABLE— S{haky} + TABLE (piece of furniture)
I was trying to make SETTLE work somehow, which works if the clue was just a double def (“piece of furniture is steady”) |
|
| 9 | A time nurse is to present herself (6) |
| ATTEND— A + T{time} + TEND (nurse)
And there I was trying to think of all of those abbreviations for nurses, RN, SRN etc. |
|
| 10 | Request garment fold to be shortened (4) |
| PLEA— PLEA{t} (garment fold) | |
| 11 | Annual charge for room from mum and dad (8) |
| PARENTAL— PA (per annum, annual charge) + RENTAL (charge for room) | |
| 12 | Extra condition for one in the saddle (5) |
| RIDER—Double def.
A RIDER clause is a provision that is not part of the main legal document, but still applies to it, so I guess it “rides” it? |
|
| 13 | Be obliged to keep pounds to divide (5) |
| HALVE— HA^VE (be obliged) contains L (pounds) | |
| 15 | Success saving the planet? Fail to convince any more (4,4) |
| WEAR THIN— WIN (success) contains EARTH (planet)
“Saving” is a rather odd containment indicator. |
|
| 17 | What’s afoot is a hit (4) |
| SOCK— Double def, a-foot could mean on your foot.
The a‑ prefix comes from Old English an / on, other examples are ashore and abed. |
|
| 19 | Prepare us some creamy dessert (6) |
| MOUSSE— (US SOME)* | |
| 20 | Crushed in sporting arena (6) |
| GROUND—Double def | |
| 21 | Questionable moment to lose head (4) |
| IFFY— {J}IFFY (moment, “in a jiffy”)
The exact origin of “jiffy” is unknown, but you can expect a local tour guide to come up with a cute folk etymology. “The Innkeeper at this pub here was a Frenchman called M. Joiffre, and he served pints very quickly, hence…” |
|
| 22 | Raising a glass to Browning (8) |
| TOASTING—Double def
Double def, I couldn’t get Tanning out of my head. The Surface refers to Robert Browning, top quote “Grow old with me, the best is yet to be” |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Very warm, the Spanish inn (5) |
| HOTEL—HOT (very warm) + EL (“the” in Spanish) | |
| 3 | Expert to wipe fingers lightly? (3,4) |
| DAB HAND—Double def, second definition cryptic
The reason for dab=expert is also not really known. |
|
| 4 | Girl, the middle of seven (3) |
| EVE— The middle letters of {s}EVE{n}
Eve wasn’t one of seven, she was an only child, and no mother either. |
|
| 5 | Sure China disturbed some marine life (3,6) |
| SEA URCHIN—(SURE CHINA)* [disturbed] | |
| 6 | Great pleasure keeping to mattress (5) |
| FUTON—FU^N (great pleasure) contains TO
I had a hard time getting this, but it is originally just a mattress in Japanese use, but in modern Western use it usually means a mattress on a folding frame that converts between a sofa and a bed. |
|
| 7 | Cooler, manage and flourish (7) |
| FANFARE—FAN (cooler) + FARE (manage)
“How did you fare?”/”How did you manage?”. This was my LOI. |
|
| 11 | Page merchant developed something to write on (9) |
| PARCHMENT—P{age} + (MERCHANT)* | |
| 12 | Rapidly read out “Dance cancelled” (4,3) |
| REEL OFF—REEL (dance) + OFF (cancelled)
I liked this one, I imagined this a sign on a Scottish Church hall. |
|
| 14 | Liberal with a turn at the bar, spend extravagantly (4,3) |
| LASH OUT—L{iberal} + A SHOUT (a turn at the bar)
This has come up before in these puzzles, I always called spending “splashing out”, and reserve “lashing out” for unreasonably berating someone. On reflection I think that LASH OUT can be used for spending if the speaker doesn’t approve. |
|
| 16 | Tiny state broadcaster is precarious (5) |
| RISKY—RI (Rhode Island, the America’s smallest state) + SKY (broadcaster)
This was tricky, as plenty of babyish words for tiny end in -Y, which led to me seeing the clue backwards. (teeny, titchy, dinky, mimsy) |
|
| 18 | Cold soon, as a general rule (5) |
| CANON—C{old} + ANON (soon)
I didn’t know this meaning of Canon, I thought it was just an authorised or accepted body of works. But the original meaning (from the Greek for a measuring stick) is “a general rule”, as in the canons of good taste or the canons of fair play. |
|
| 20 | Energetic person reported in Indian state (3) |
| GOA— Sounds like “goer” (energetic person)
Since the famous “nudge nudge” python sketch I am sure “goer” now has a different sense : “Is your wife a… goer… eh? Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge. Know what I mean? Say no more.” |
|
6:47
FUTON took me a while, ironically. There are two futons, actually: a mattress (shikibuton 敷布団), which you lay on the floor, and a duvet (kakebuton 掛け布団).
This was not too bad, but in the end I just couldn’t see fanfare, so I stopped the clock and went on to the main puzzle.
The puzzle is highly UK-centric, with faff, Huddersfield, lash out, and dab hand. As an experienced solver, I knew them all.
After finishing the main puzzle, I returned to this one and saw fanfare instantly, adding 1 second to my time.
Time: 11:18
6.57. I spent longer trying to figure out what was going on with Asterix up in the blog. The puzzle basically went straight in though WEAR THIN, my LOI, required all the crossers and was a clever clue I thought. Thanks Merlin and Teazel.
11 minutes. No problem seeing ‘flourish / FANFARE’ but took a moment to reconcile ‘manage / FARE’ along the same lines as our blogger.
4:42 for the Teazel, but still stuck on “O” = drinkable (or drunk) from the blog, assuming I got the other bits right.
I’m another that had to take a moment to convince myself ‘manage’ clued ‘fare’. Before that a solid seven on the first pass of acrosses and then lots of downs. Hold ups on the way included WEAR THIN -needed all the checkers which is a pity because I’d have loved getting that from the excellent clue – and the crossing IFFY / RISKY pair. All green in 10.34.
12:03 Got held up by Risky Sock Fanfare which got me thinking about what3words and ///risky.sock.fanfare is near Regina, Saskatchewan. I feel a foible coming on.
TaMAT
15:36, which was very good for me
I thought Teazel was being quite benevolent today despite having a brain freeze trying to think of ‘field towns’ other than Chesterfield.
Started with FAFF and finished with COD WEAR THIN in 5.21.
Thanks to Merlin and Teazel.
Sprinted through most of this, even with a question-mark over manage = fare in FANFARE, but well and truly breezeblocked by WEAR THIN. To say “Saving is a rather odd containment indicator”, as our blogger does, rather understates first my bafflement and then my reluctant understanding of what Teazel intended here!
Ten minutes or so until then, but a 16:08 completion when I finally cracked it. Many thanks Merlin for the blog.
Wakefield, Chesterfield, Sheffield … move on to the next clue.
Generally fast but got stuck on LOI RISKY (didn’t understand what “tiny state” was asking for and needed the blog for that) and the crossing GROUND/CANON. Ground feels a bit of a stretch for crushed to me, in that “ground” is turned into fine particles and “crushed” is just splatted, but I’m sure there’ll be dictionary support so I’ll just mutter into my coffee when I’ve got it.
All done in 06:04 for a Pretty Good Day. COD SHUDDERS. Many thanks Merlin and Teazel.
All pretty smooth, with no significant holdups. Couple of doubtful synonyms ( to me anyway) Fare/ manage, lash out/ spend extravagantly ( it means a violent outburst to me). Not sure convulsed/ shudders are quite the same tense. Liked SOCK.
Thanks to both – a pleasant start to the day.