Just about par for me. Because this is Felix I’m racking my brains looking for the Nina, but I can’t spot it. Maybe the trick is that there’s no trick…?
| Across | |
| 6 | King and bishop visiting miserly comic character (2,4) |
| MR BEAN – R (king) + B (bishop) inside MEAN. Chancellor of the Exchequer 1997-2007 and Prime Minister 2007-2010. | |
| 7 | One’s got a large bill, we hear also prison (6) |
| TOUCAN – TOU (sounds like ‘too’) + CAN (prison) | |
| 9 | One had, close to collapse, a brainwave (4) |
| IDEA – I’D (one had) + E (end of ‘collapse’) + A | |
| 10 | Lie in bed, writhing: such awful food! (8) |
| INEDIBLE – anagram (‘writhing’) of LIE IN BED | |
| 11 | University books with girl’s stories (8) |
| UNTRUTHS – U (university) + NT (New Testament, i.e books) + RUTH’S | |
| 13 | Mediterranean island hotel based in the centre (4) |
| ELBA – hidden word: hotEL BAsed | |
| 15 | Chance meeting with a character abroad (4) |
| BETA – BET (chance) + A | |
| 16 | Lay-by for Americans and others, none parking on street (4,4) |
| REST STOP – REST (others) + O (none) + P (parking) + ST (street) | |
| 18 | Part of Mass some varied: sung avidly backwards! (5,3) |
| AGNUS DEI – reverse hidden word: varIED SUNG Avidly. Love a good RHW. | |
| 20 | Put down large assistance (4) |
| LAID – L + AID | |
| 21 | One giving out cards, but not giving away cars! (6) |
| DEALER – Double definition | |
| 22 | Man is upset about variable, brutal philosophy (6) |
| NAZISM – anagram (‘upset’) of MAN IS with Z (variable) inserted | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Wisdom of rugby union devotee, initially blocking change? (8) |
| PRUDENCE – RU (rugby union) + D (start of ‘devotee’) inside PENCE | |
| 2 | It’s bound to be useful to those in need of a fix (6,6) |
| REPAIR MANUAL – Cryptic definition. ‘bound’ meaning it’s in a binding, i.e it’s a book. | |
| 3 | Silent after moving sign up (6) |
| ENLIST – anagram (‘after moving’) of SILENT | |
| 4 | Directs cattle (6) |
| STEERS – double definition | |
| 5 | I’m thankful I left the last part! (4) |
| TAIL – TA (I’m thankful) + I + L | |
| 8 | Fresh anvil seizure to make for everyone (12) |
| UNIVERSALIZE -anagram (‘fresh’) of ANVIL SEIZURE. Goodness knows what the surface is supposed to mean. | |
| 12 | Waste no time — once in hospital, that is (3) |
| HIE – H (hospital) + IE. Old-fashioned word for ‘leg it’. | |
| 14 | Bachelor: most slimy, and most drunken! (8) |
| BOOZIEST – B + OOZIEST | |
| 16 | Artist and attorney extremely reckless, we detect (6) |
| RADARS – RA (Royal Academician, i.e. artist) + DA (district attorney) + RS (each end of ‘reckless’) | |
| 17 | Family in southern New York looking underfed? (6) |
| SKINNY – KIN inside S + NY | |
| 19 | Knowledge besetting Raskolnikov’s heart leads to depression (4) |
| GLEN – L is Raskolnikov’s ‘heart’ (i.e. middle letter), insert into GEN (knowledge). When there’s an obscure name like this, you never need to know who they are, it’s always the wordplay. | |
I did not find this so easy. I was afraid 2 down was going to be some sort of dreadful drug-user thing, but no, not in the Times. If I were the editor, I would have told the setter to find another clue for universalize. Anvil Seizure? That’s a Major Eyebrow Raise.
Time: 11:49
12:31 – fairly satisfying, but the DEALER clue was a bit too easy/riddle-like, I thought. Figured out that GLEN was a valley which I really should have known already.
9 minutes, so a welcome return to code green to finish the week.
I think 2dn may be straying on the verge of ‘green paint’ territory. Collins Cobuild gives examples of REPAIR MANUAL used in sentences but there’s no dictionary entry for it.
If there’s a theme or Nina here I can’t see anything to suggest it other than the setter’s name.
Was all set to ask what a ‘green paint’ clue was until I remembered the glossary! Now I know.
I enjoyed this, though some took a bit of figuring out and I came at at 12.03. Felt I probably should have been quicker, but not by a lot. No particular issues, agree re ANVIL SEIZURE and I’m not mad about IZE endings either. FOI MR BEAN, LOI BOOZIEST, thanks Felix and Curarist.
I grew up near Sparkford where Haynes Manuals are produced but I had no idea they were part of the REPAIR MANUAL genre. I took a while to persuade myself that ‘chance’ could mean ‘bet’ and couldn’t parse ELBA for ages until I realised it was right in front of me. Didn’t know I knew what Americans call lay-bys until REST STOP jumped out but it was getting the ooziest of BOOZIEST that took the longest. Quite glad to see the back of this one. All green in 19.
Fat fingers spoilt this one with a random extra ‘l’ in TAIL.
Bit of a ho-hum puzzle that I found tricky in places and underwhelming in others. As already mentioned UNIVERSALIZE was a poor clue – surely Felix could have come up with decent anagram fodder using a ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’, unless he needed it for the so far undiscovered nina. Also didn’t particularly like REPAIR MANUAL or OOZIEST for most slimy.
Crossed the line with LOI the NHO HIE in just under 10 minutes – but a pink square so a DNF
Thanks to Curarist
17 minutes for a puzzle I found difficult to start, difficult to finish and difficult to enjoy. FOI was not until Hie, and much of the rest were just as tricky to extract. NHO Rest stop, but it fitted the checkers. Universalize a very poor surface (and it hit my bugbear of -IZE not -ISE to boot). Glen for depression seems to me weak. And then I came to the NW corner which stayed pretty much virgin territory for a very long time. Prudence was a struggle with its multiple moving parts, Mr Bean should not have taken so long and LOI Repair Manual was IMO an awful clue – as Jack says, a green paint clue, and anyway these days instruction manuals are usually on the internet and not bound at all. I can’t remember the last time I bought something with full printed instructions.
I don’t usually find Felix this difficult or this uninspiring, so I can only presume that either he or I just had an off day. Or possibly both of us.
Many thanks to Curarist for the blog and a good weekend to all.
Cedric
There’s little future in worrying about -IZE endings as it’s the standard Oxford spelling as described here:
The Oxford spelling affects about 200 verbs, and is favoured on etymological grounds, in that ‑ize corresponds more closely to the Greek root, ‑izo, of most ‑ize verbs. The suffix ‑ize has been in use in the UK since the 15th century, and is the spelling variation used in North American English.
They list -ISE as an alternative but -IZE is always first.
All of which I accept, and having studied Greek I should be more swayed by the etymology which as you say points unequivocally to -IZE. But it does not stop me preferring -ISE, which I think on balance is more common in British English (so I am not entirely alone in this). Nobody says one’s pet bugbears have to follow logic, provided one accepts that they are just that, bugbears not rational positions.
I also prefer -ISE but am resigned to -IZE turning up from time to time.
I am used to ISE from long residence in the UK, and thought I understood the subtleties until I saw Morse tell Lewis, in a particularly disgusted Morse
“isn’t this obvious?” tone, that the writer of a note they were studying was clearly ignorant and uneducated (which turned out to be correct) due to using the ISE rather than the IZE form.
I remember that incident in Morse, Paul, as I have re-watched the whole series quite recently. Morse was of course speaking as ‘an Oxford man’ and a cultural snob who was actually not half as clever as he liked to think. He was always correcting Lewis’s grammar but there were moments (rare, but to be savoured) when the canny Lewis caught him out breaking one of the rules he had just expounded, and corrected him back. I should mention that I’m only going by the TV programmes, as I have never read any of the books where his character may be different.
Yet another DNF with loads of empty squares. No fun at all, with obscurities like HIE, UNIVERSALIZE etc causing particular frustration. Needed the blog – thanks Curarist – though I think the 6a explanation should show R instead of K.
Not a good end to the week.
Thanks for the spot – fixed
13:44. Took ages to get going and was starting to panic, think idea was FOI.
Gradually picked up speed and only held up by LOI repair manual. Had manual straight away but still needed a couple of minutes for repair.
Liked untruths, hie and COD booziest.
I think the definition for Hie includes “once”.
I never spot Ninas and have no idea what’s going on here, though if you look hard enough at 11, 13 and 15 across you can see Babe Ruth. OK it’s Ruth Babe. I told you I wasn’t very good at this.
I share the general apathy to this one expressed above. REPAIR MANUAL is surely a green paint clue, though maybe I’m just annoyed with it because it pushed me over 10.
All done in 11:06 for a Grey Day.
Many thanks Felix and curarist.
Templar
Not my finest hour or part thereof.
It all makes sense when you have all the answers which I didn’t have at the time. DNF.
Thanks ex ex Curarist and Felix
😂
Breeze blocked by REPAIR MANUAL, though would probably have got it much quicker if the crossers were reversed.
I quite liked assembling PRUDENCE and the reverse hidden in a plausible surface for AGNUS DEI, but wasn’t sure about whether a block of metal could have a seizure.
8:29
Didn’t so much solve this as fail to not complete it, just. Time; pah! A mere concept. COD AGNUS DEI, v clever. Various other clever clues from which I wasn’t clever enough to derive much enjoyment.
NW was the last section to complete, tied myself in knots thinking of comic characters a la Beano or Disney rather than taking the obvious “mean” from the clue and inserting the R and B.
3D failed to see that silent was the anagrist until far too late on, and so it went.
A bad week for me generally in QC land, but I’ll be back on Monday to try again.
18:47 First US Postage Stamp produced
Stamps on my mind as I made a point to see the 1856 1c British Guiana stamp that was on show in London this week.
Did not enjoy this puzzle for many of the reasons already given. Two minutes for FOI, LOI REPAIR MANUAL.
3D was a clever clue constructed so that it could be read as an anagram of (SIGN UP)* just as easily, especially when my first two checkers were an N and I.
When I was a choirboy we had a dyslexic chorister who thought it was “Angus Die”
COD MR BEAN
Nothing held me up much. I liked IDEA and INEDIBLE. I can’t see the Nina either. Thanks Felix and Curarist. 4:28.
14:56 (Death of Edmund Tudor)
Held up by PRUDENCE and LOI BOOZIEST.
Thanks Felix and Curarist
Began to think I would never finish this but eventually came home in just under 45 minutes. All seems reasonable, once finished, but it was like blood out of stone. Maybe not one of Felix’s finest, and certainly not one of mine – possibly the reverse. Many of the same comments/issues as already expressed. Must do better! Thanks curarist and Felix.
It’s just occurred to me that both MR BEAN and PRUDENCE are words associated with Gordon Brown. Now I’m starting to see incomplete names of other politicans of that era – Milburn, Prescott, Cable (who made the Mr Bean remark) Gah. I need to stop staring at it…
DNF Disaster. Most depressing.
WRT the Nina. If you look at the ‘orphaned’ letters on the periphery of the grid you will see IMPREST (or REST), NEAP, PDM, ABU, BAD, YET.
No idea if there is any link so I will shut up now!
“Imprest neap PDM Abu bad yet” at least makes more sense than “Fresh anvil seizure to make for everyone”!
After 4 years of QCs I seem to be developing PRUDENCE and getting the IDEA, managing to finish this during one REST STOP. I found those beyond my RADAR to be fairly clued.
FOI IDEA
LOI BOOZIEST
COD STEERS for its surface and succinctness.
Thanks Curarist and Felix.
Started ok but eventually struggled to complete this. It took me 21 minutes all told, with everything parsed except ELBA (can’t believe I didn’t see the hidden). Struggled with BOOZIEST, UNIVERSALIZE (ugly clue for an ugly word, although I have no particular aversion to -IZE endings) and the first part of REPAIR MANUAL. I never look for ninas as I can never spot them anyway
FOI – 7ac TOUCAN
LOI – 2dn REPAIR MANUAL
COD – 18ac AGNUS DEI. Also liked 5dn TAIL
Thanks to Felix and Curarist
Despite one or two interruptions from Mrs ITTT and Stephen, the cat, I successfully waded through today’s offering in 29:56.
No real stand out clues for me but I did especially like UNTRUTHS.
9.10
Quite tough and pleased to finish under 10 minutes.
Hadn’t noticed the surface for the anvil. Now I have…oh dear. Hope Myrtilus isn’t looking.
Thanks all
Yuck. What a horrible QC this was. Parts I enjoyed. Parts I did not.
Didn’t like 8d or 12d amongst others.
Even the cat hissed at this QC.
Like others, I found this tough, struggling to cross the line at 15.49 with my LOI being GLEN. It didn’t help that I initially put my FOI which was TOUCAN in the wrong squares at 6ac.
Poorish week generally for me with three days well over target. My total time for the week was 58.46, giving a daily average of 11.45. In my defence, I don’t think it helps in trying to solve a crossword with the Ryder Cup on the box.
I started this with one eye on the Ryder Cup so was never going to time it. But it would have been a long time on this particular QC.
I broke off to get my Covid jab with UNTRITAS at 11a with a huge question mark. And 12d ,my LOI , was no help.
I saw UNTRUTHS on my return by thinking of more random girls’ names; not my favourite sort of clue, but actually this one is quite good.
LOI From parsing only -HIE; never heard of it.
A tough QC.
David
31:42 was beginning to lose the will to live by the end.
It’s meant to be quick but when is it ever going to be quick if you have to rewrite Raskolnikov on a piece of paper and count through the letters?!? There were a bunch of clues where I added 20-30s having to think through the parsing rather than instinctively understanding it.
Enjoyed ENLIST. UNIVERSALIZE horrible to unravel. Couldn’t think of or spot ELBA. Couldn’t think of the REPAIR part of MANUAL until LbOI. NHO HIE (albeit from Curarist’s description maybe it’s when people “hie tail it out of here” but I’d always assumed that to be high-tailed.
Have a good weekend everybody 👍
PS I take the “Fresh anvil seizure to make for everyone” is a surface alluding to some form of Communism where the blacksmith’s anvil was seized so that everyone and anyone can have horseshoes or whatever 🤷♂️
I like that explanation- makes perfect sense to me!
11:31. I groaned but enjoyed BOOZIEST and OOZIEST. Hmm, maybe we’ll even see snooziest, newsiest, bluesiest or flooziest some day? PRUDENCE was my favourite.
Started in the middle with HIE. Finished with UNTRUTHS. I used to own quite a few Haynes Workshop Manuals. They may still be lurking in the garage! As usual I can’t spot any theme. 7:11. Thanks Felix and Curarist.