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. | |
6:56
No issues though mildly irked by the Z in 8d. Nothing to add to the Gordon Brown nina theory other than I had a vague notion that he uses the word UNTRUTHS rather than lies, but maybe just my imagination.
Thanks Felix and Curarist
15 minutes on iPhone in doctor’s waiting room, so no Setter’s name, and didn’t search for a theme until I saw Felix’ name on the blog when I got home. Still didn’t find anything, so it is obliquely Felixesque, if it is there. Thanks both.
DNF, foiled by four clues in the NW corner (Mr Bean, untruths, repair [I had the manual bit] and enlist). Most of this one was excruciating, unfortunately – seemed vastly more difficult than the average QC.
Thank you for the blog!
I didn’t know that Mr. Bean was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
I guess a bean-counter would make a conscientious Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Given that this is by our crossword editor, I am looking forward to him explaining a wonderful Nina that I shall applaud. Otherwise the grid, word choice and poor clueing are not defensible.
My copies of The Times have had something other than the QC printed in its place all week. Has anyone else had the same problem?
Monday’s puzzle was OK, I suppose, but all four since then have felt like wading through treacle (I should have very strong quads by now). 54 minutes for me today, which makes my total for the week 3 hrs 50 mins. The only thing that defines this week as something other than a horror show is the fact that I did actually solve every clue. There were no DNFs.
Earlier in the week I listed the 12 (of 24) clues that I really struggled with. Today, however, it’s easier to list the 5 (yes, only 5) clues that didn’t really cause me any trouble – LAID, DEALER, RADARS, SKINNY and GLEN. Nothing at all in the top half or the middle of the grid came without a fight.
My last few in were BETA, TOUCAN and STEERS, at which point I breathed a massive sigh of relief.
Many thanks to Felix and Curarist (and let’s hope my copies of The Times are printed correctly next week).
15:40 on a ‘I’m really not in the mood for a Felix QC’. NHO of HIE. Slow to think of MR BEAN and NAZISM as a philosophy. Spent 3 minutes on LOI REPAIR MANUAL.
Finished but was a bit of a slog today. FOI MR BEAN, LOI REPAIR MANUAL, the repair part holding me up for ages. Remembered HIE from a line in Romeo and Juliet. Struggled to parse ELBA before belatedly spotting the hidden. I remember being interested to learn from a previous discussion that -ize was the British as well as US spelling so had no qualms with UNIVERSALIZE, although it still looks odd to me from a stylistic perspective. Thanks Felix and curarist.
Dnf…
Nowhere near to finishing today. When I think of a comic character, I don’t think of Mr Bean, even if you could argue he is (which I don’t, because I can’t stand him).
Definitely on the hard side. I had “Die” for 12dn, which I felt like doing after 30 mins. Apart from a few clues, nothing wasn’t obtainable, it was just difficult wordplay.
FOI – 5dn “Tail”
LOI – dnf
COD – 15ac “Beta”
Thanks as usual!
After years of knowing of Rowan Atkinson only as Mr. Bean, I was surprised to discover that he’s quite funny.
To be fair, it’s the character that doesn’t appeal, not Mr. Atkinson. Quite happy to watch Blackadder.
A real struggle to finish this today. Needed an hour off to reset the brain. NW corner proved the hardest with PRUDENCE LOI. Phew!
Did not enjoy! What’s abroad about Beta? Hie? Glen for depression? A US rest stop is more than a lay-by. Long hard slog to a DNF. Thanks for the enlightening blog!
Beta is a Greek letter/character, hence abroad
24.58 This was going well but then I spent the last fifteen minutes on ENLIST, BETA and REPAIR MANUAL. It didn’t help that I spent a while looking for words containing J, Q, W and X. Thanks to Curarist and Felix.
Glad to finish, a steady solve, repair manual last one in. Medium difficulty for us.
Computer crashed (died) this morning, hence no avatar – unable to achieve the process all over again (or, indeed, “log in” at all) without help.
Took ages to get more than half a dozen, and after an hour would have given up, but had a train journey so kept at it and eventually (in perhaps another hour) finished it all, though a few parsing queries so thank you, Curarist. FOI MR BEAN, COD AGNUS DEI, LOI TAIL (liberated by POI TOUCAN). Amused by UNIVERSALIZE because the only clue in today’s 15×15 I could do was UNIVERSAL.
I came to this late and had interruptions. Can’t blame them for my lack of enjoyment slogging through this QC.
Good in parts but not enough of them.
90 minutes for this and 0/5 for the Quintagram. Total, utter incompetence and humiliation. Two good times earlier this week just makes it even more embarrassing. How can I be so completely useless? I give up.
Don’t give up Gary! If you look at the Quitch you’ll see we had three puzzles over 100 this week, and yesterday’s was harder than anything we’ve had for weeks.
Thanks Templar, much appreciated.
Bloomin’ ‘eck GA … 1hr30 disaster 😬 But at least you persevered and got the solve.
Think you’re being somewhat harsh on yourself. Look through the blog and probably 80% of people found this hard today. I’m not sure why other than. perhaps the portcullis grid added difficulty. The clues and answers don’t seem that difficult on reflection.
As Templar points out the QSnitch highlights this as having been difficult. I’d say it was actually tougher than Izetti’s on Thursday. While that snitched slightly higher it had a lots of DNFs which mean those times don’t get counted.
The two 11-min solves you had on Monday and Weds are a fantastic indication of potential but the setting is too variable to be expecting to hit that standard every day. I know I’m not always the most mentally stable person for taking the rough with the smooth but I have been working on resetting my expectations, as well as checking how much mental resolve I’ve got before attempting them.
See you Monday 🙂
Thanks L-Plates. It’s the inconsistency that I struggle with. In football terms, from the Championship (11 mins) to whatever league York City (my local club) are marooned in (90 mins). There are days when I lose the plot completely, and this was one of them.
I’m glad I persevered to achieve a finish (and I eventually got two of the Quintagram clues).
I’ll be back on Monday, with absolutely no expectations.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 😊
Football provides a very good analogy. Because while you might think of being in the Premier League as a sign of having made it, some days you’re going to have to face Man City … other days you’ll be playing Sheff Utd, Burnley or .. ahem, Bournemouth 🤣
The question is what sort of team do you see yourself as?
Realistically, I’m just doing well enough to stave off relegation each season. Occasional good cup run. When we match up against Man City, we’re hoping to avoid getting tonked, keep the goals to a minimum and maybe even dream of getting a win. Invariably that is shattered within the first twenty minutes of the game! Hoping one day to start pushing for a European place …
Good question.
Probably mid-Division One for me, but capable of promotion, and definitely capable of a big cup upset on occasions. Friday was akin to being drawn against a Man City or Liverpool in the cup and being totally outclassed.
I hope Bournemouth turn things round. I like to see smaller clubs mixing it with the big boys and coming out on top occasionally.
Late on parade as usual.
I’ve never waded through treacle but I have waded through mud, and this was very much like wading through mud. Hated 8dn and 14dn.
The only bright spot was 2dn which like others brought to mind the Haynes series which I’ve always regarded as a good thing in a wicked world.
Finished, but timed on a calendar rather than a stop watch.
I would like to remind the editors of the original purpose of cryptic crosswords: A puzzle that should be possible to complete by someone of reasonable education without resorting to works of reference. So many of the recent submissions have fallen short of this. I think we’re getting to a point where only experts at the 15×15 will continue to do these puzzles. I offer these observations in the hope they will be a cause for reflection
There is a Nina in this: 19 down provides a clue.
But it’s linguistically obscure and wasn’t really intended to be spotted