Tough, clever, rewarding. I made a flying start in the NW and for a giddy moment hoped that this was going to be an entry-level Teazel, but after that progress was distinctly pedestrian. I thought that there were some excellent clues, particularly two of the three (three!) &Lits, and despite having gone miles over target at 13:20 I really enjoyed it. Hope you did too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Having these at Christmas is insane? (8) |
| CRACKERS – the simplest of &Lits to start us off. | |
| 5 | Not initially a polite address to woman or man (4) |
| ADAM – “a polite address to woman” could be “madam”; take off the first letter (“not initially”) and you have ADAM for “man” (either as a random name, or possibly as the traditional first man). | |
| 9 | Loud number is by Yankee (5) |
| NOISY – NO for “number”, IS for “is”, Y for “Yankee” (NATO alphabet). | |
| 10 | Some of the media, working, waste no time (5,2) |
| PRESS ON – PRESS = “some of the media” + ON for “working”. | |
| 11 | Source of money shortly provides pleasure (3) |
| FUN – a fund is a “source of money”; take off the last letter (“shortly”). | |
| 12 | Rebel is concealing name, demanding attention (9) |
| INSURGENT – IS has N inside it: that’s “is concealing name”. Then add URGENT for “demanding attention”. | |
| 13 | Object to being given another errand? (6) |
| RESENT – you might be sent on an errand, and if then given another one you might be RE-SENT. | |
| 15 | Prepare leftovers: hot, consume fully (4,2) |
| HEAT UP – in these days of ready meals it’s not just leftovers that you HEAT UP, so this should perhaps have been flagged as a definition by example, but it will do. H for “hot” + EAT UP for “consume fully”. | |
| 17 | Not manage to think straight, so find nothing to go with gin (2,3,2,2) |
| BE OUT OF IT – this caused me no end of head-scratching and is actually very good. The straight definition (per Collins) is “not alert or clear-headed; confused; muddled”. The cryptic part relates to the cocktail originally (and sometimes still) known as the “sweet martini” but more often called “Gin and It”: a mix of gin and sweet vermouth. Vermouth originally came from Italy and most brands had the word “Italian” prominently on the label, so the vermouth got shortened to “It”. If you were looking to make a “Gin and It” but had no vermouth, therefore, you’d “be out of It”. Ho ho! | |
| 19 | Loaf and maybe some baked beans here (3) |
| TIN – a double definition (I think). I couldn’t understand the first but a wiser head kindly pointed me to a definition of TIN in Collins which I’d somehow managed to miss: “8. (British) a loaf of bread with a rectangular shape, baked in a tin”. Thanks Jack! | |
| 20 | Where one has an elevated religious calling (7) |
| MINARET – our second &Lit, and my COD in a packed field. A MINARET is the tall, slim tower on a mosque from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer – thus a place from there is an “elevated religious calling”. Very good indeed, bravo. | |
| 21 | Jacket starts off the uniform, newly in colour (5) |
| TUNIC – the first letters (“starts off”) “The Uniform Newly In Colour”. | |
| 22 | Blowing hard, losing weight in a type of racing (4) |
| INDY – “blowing hard” could be “windy”; take off the W (“losing weight”) and you have INDY. The Mecca of American open car racing is the Indianapolis 500 and that gave birth to the phrase “Indy Car” racing. | |
| 23 | Flower’s unusual drainage (8) |
| GARDENIA – anagram (“unusual”) of “drainage”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Hold discussion about one’s evergreen (7) |
| CONIFER – to CONFER is to “hold discussion”; stick in an I for “one” and there we are. | |
| 2 | Arrange, being ill-intentioned, to get rid of Mike (5) |
| ALIGN – “Get rid of Mike” signifies removal of an M (NATO alphabet). After spending a while wondering whether “alice” could mean “arrange”, I realised that it was [m]ALIGN I was looking for, not malice. | |
| 3 | Vital approval for four flats, for example (3,9) |
| KEY SIGNATURE – KEY is “vital”; SIGNATURE is “approval”. My LOI. I got KEY straight off but had to wait for all the checkers before SIGNATURE hove into view; my Grade 5 piano was a long time ago. Chambers: “the sharps and flats shown on the stave at the start of a piece of music, or at the beginning of a line, indicating the key it is to be played in”. | |
| 4 | One is defenceless on these, which the experienced know (5) |
| ROPES – our third and final &Lit, and another really good one. If you are “on the ROPES” you are “defenceless” (unless you are Ali, of course, playing “rope-a-dope” against Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle). And if you are “experienced”, you “know the ROPES”. Excellent. | |
| 6 | Proper to include son in lineage (7) |
| DESCENT – DECENT is “proper”, inside which we have S for “son”. | |
| 7 | Painter late in the morning rising (5) |
| MANET – I wasted time here thinking that I needed a three letter word meaning “late” inside M***A for “morning rising”. In fact the whole thing is “rising” (this being a down clue) to give you TEN AM, which could be said to be “late in the morning”. Clever. Everyone knows who MANET is – he’s the one who isn’t Monet. | |
| 8 | Deteriorate badly around noon: made to face another way (12) |
| REORIENTATED – anagram (“badly”) of “deteriorate” + N for “noon”. | |
| 14 | Disdained starter of salami: like some beef? (7) |
| SCORNED – S for “starter of salami” + CORNED, which “some beef” is. In my youth I thought that this meant the beef had been mixed with cooked corn; in fact the “corns” are coarse grains of salt used to cure the beef. | |
| 16 | Criticise a prophet, do we hear, for universal remedy (7) |
| PANACEA – a PANACEA is a “universal remedy”; the word-play is PAN (“criticise”) + ACEA which sounds a bit like “a seer”, if you say it fast enough in the right accent. (For the Ninja Turtles – PANACEA is the beautiful girl with whom Obelix falls deeply in love in “Asterix the Legionary”. Alas, she marries Tragicomix the actor and Obelix has to content himself with scoffing yet another boar.) | |
| 17 | Curb ambition to take in animal film (5) |
| BAMBI – Spoiler alert: the hunter shoots Bambi’s mother. My sister and I cried so much that our mother had to take us out of the cinema and I’ve never seen the second half. Curse you, Walt Disney. It’s a hidden word, inside “curB AMBItion”. | |
| 18 | Obese wife given a judicial opinion (5) |
| FATWA – Chambers: “a formal legal opinion or decree issued by a Muslim authority”. My long-ago comparative law studies taught me that fatwas from muftis have a long and distinguished history in Islamic law, clarifying points of importance or uncertainty . Thanks to Ayatollah Khomeini, however, most of us now think of a FATWA as a religious death warrant. Neat word play – FAT (“obese”) + W (“wife”) + A. | |
| 19 | Backing group of musicians in joint (5) |
| TENON – I’d never even heard of a “nonet” before I started doing crosswords; now it’s my first thought for a musical group. Reverse it and you have TENON, which is a sticky-out bit of wood shaped (using a tenon saw, natch) so as to slot into a mortise, thus forming a “mortise-and-tenon” joint. Those who also solve Big Puzzle saw a very similar clue on 11 March – “Musical group turning up that may be in the groove (5)“. | |
I have had a terrible week. Absolutely shocking. It’s a four day weekend coming up here though and I’m heading off grid so I hope I’ll come good next week.
I didn’t know how to pronounce PANACEA until today, so at least I learned (learnt?) something.
Actually with this one I learnt many things thank you for the very thorough blog!
Me too Tina. My worst week ever so far. At least I’m not alone ☹️
Sorry to hear that. May I suggest that you try my Weekend QC (see last Friday’s blog). Most solvers found it fun and at the easier end?
Thank you. I will certainly give it a try.
I can confirm that this was a very enjoyable puzzle!
Ah thank you! I will save it for when I come back.
I may have come across TIN in a 15×15 once, but in any case the beans made it pretty easy. I don’t recall much of the Disney film, but I do recall this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oUuRBnEkE
8:02.
😊😊.
Templar may need some counselling though if he clicks on the link!
*not clicking*
Wicked and not like our recent candle clues
Awfully funny.
I had to submit off-leaderboard, as I couldn’t parse tin. I nearly put Monet, too, until I examined the cryptic. Most of the clues were pretty easy, as there weren’t a lot of long anagrams, and I saw reorientated immediately. I did biff a few at the end.
Time: 9:21
I found this very tough (16.10 worth of tough) but enjoyable, with some terrific clueing. Several of these – KEY SIGNATURE, BE OUT OF IT, ROPES, among others – felt like they had drifted in from the 15×15 and no doubt some will say they should go straight back there. Thanks T&T, I had similar experiences to Templar re MANET and TENON. Yesterday we had Lawrence of Arabia, today it’s BAMBI. I missed the hidden and I also missed the movie.
11 minutes.
I spotted the cryptic element in BE OUT OF IT right away but took a little longer to square the answer with the main definition.
INDY came easily from wordplay and checkers but I didn’t understand the racing thing. Although I have absolutely no interest in cars being driven round in circles I have actually heard of Indy Car racing but it didn’t come to mind.
Thanks to Templar’s blog for explaining 15ac where I was stumped trying to work out how ‘fully’ = UP, only to realise had I’d made the mistake of lifting and separating when I shouldn’t have. It’s still a recurring error for me although I have got much better recently at spotting it for myself, but not today!
Oh dear. Defeated yet again after 25 minutes by the final clue INSURGENT, which I incorrectly biffed as INSURRECT even though I suspected there was no such word. So two pinkies today making 0/4 successes this week – by far the longest run of failures I can recall.
On which note, I should’ve seen KEY SIGNATURE much more quickly, particularly as I’ve been practising the second movement of Beethoven’s rather aptly named Pathetique sonata (in 4 flats) recently on our ancient piano in an attempt to keep the aging neurons firing. It’s clearly not working.
However on another, brighter, note Mrs ITTT has finally agreed to my buying a brand new piano I’m delighted to say, albeit in a trade off with some rather expensive Sanderson curtains she’s been coveting for some time. It’s being delivered from Bath in two weeks so I’m in a state of high excitement – which may be why I’m performing so badly at QCs at present? I like to think so.
See my reply to Tina above. A new piano sounds very exciting.
How exciting! New Piano Day is right up there with New Bike Day. Your concession to new curtains is a no-brainer. You got a good deal there!
I have an old Clavinova as my playing is so bad that I need all the accompaniments to make a sound that is at least inoffensive to others, and doesn’t damage the environment. I play for my own enjoyment only. 😬
The new bike formula of n(n)=n(h)+1 doesn’t, unfortunately, apply to pianos due to space constraints.
I started off wondering whether the answer might be something to do with A flat major, but even I needed the initial K in order to get KEY SIGNATURE. Good to hear you’re practising op.13, ITTT; hope you’re using my lovely new edition published by Bärenreiter? (Help, is shameless advertising allowed in this blog?!) Thank you again for your comfort – I again found today’s difficult, NHO INDY or TENON. Even tried nonet backwards but thought no, that’s not a word – but it is!
I do remember TENON from my disastrous woodwork lessons at school when we were taught to make mortise and tenon joints. I never did master it.
Sadly my 2 volumes of Beethoven sonatas are very old having bought them in the 70s. I used to play the first movement too but my fingers are just not nimble enough any more sadly.
Do I take it you are a music publisher then or did you buy the Barenreiter edition? Either way, How very cool!!
I don’t think I was good enough at woodwork to get as far as even trying mortise and tenon joints – hence NHO.
I’m just the editor; Bärenreiter is my publisher. Enjoy: Beethoven was not primarily a melodist, but that is one of his most sublime tunes. My favourite bit is bars 37-46 – now that *does* start in A flat minor!
Oooooo congratulations on your new piano! Very exciting.
Thank you. It’s not something you buy very often so yes I’m very excited!
Haha no, once in a lifetime, if that, for ordinary mortals.
18 minutes something so the SCC was clearly in sight. I wondered if ‘Loaf’ was a slang term for “money” (TIN) but apparently not. Some very good ones which I only half parsed in BE OUT OF IT and KEY SIGNATURE as well, so I was happy to finish despite the sluggish time.
Thanks to Templar and Teazel
As said by Templar some great clues that we enjoyed in a lengthy but fun 35.01
Be out of it took a long time of staring at “??” Out of it and only the PDM of Bambi being hidden 🙈 gave it to us. Thanks Templar for the parsing and also of tin.
Indy was LOI spent too long looking at it from the wrong end.
4 flats is A Flat Major, not to be confused with A Flat Minor which is what you get if you drop a piano down a mine shaft.
Envious of your new piano ittt, we’re hanging on to our daughter’s and I’m hoping to persuade Mrs RH for anew one when we move in a couple of years time. I’ve a suspicion curtains aren’t going to cut it!!
Have a great Easter everyone.
The old dad-jokes are the best! 😂
Well that’s what I think, but apparently not a view shared by my children 😉
This is what grandchildren are for! There is that magic window between the ages of about 5 and 8 where they (a) have not heard the jokes before, (b) understand enough to find them funny and (c) do not think it embarrassing to laugh with an oldie.
A Flat minor 🤣
I actually laughed out loud at the joke I have no idea if that says more about you or me
😂😂😂
Love it! This is the quality of post that keeps me coming back here!
I seem to have bucked the trend with this, finding it very straightforward and sitting 3rd on the leaderboard (it’s very early though!)
Thanks to Teazel and to Templar for his first rate blog.
FOI CRACKERS
LOI BE OUT OF IT
COD MINARET
TIME 4:07
This was a real frightener. I found it very hard, and gave up after 35m with 8 fully or partly unsolved. How demoralising.
Anyway, the sun is shining through the trees so I may step out to enjoy the sounds of nature…and try to block out the idiotic din of backfiring, badly-tuned cars which seem to be all the rage.
Happy Thursday. Pi
A high quality puzzle but at the trickier end of the spectrum.
Like our blogger I started off quickly in the NW but the early hope of quick solve soon disappeared, however it was more than made up for by the enjoyment of the PDMs as the the answers revealed themselves.
Finished in 11.53 with the NHO KEY SIGNATURE, my musical knowledge matching my ability as, compared to Templar’s stellar grade 5 piano, I was deemed not good enough to even sit grade 1 after 3 years of lessons at which point retirement seemed the sensible option 😂.
Thanks to Templar and Teazel
Tough one indeed but I didn’t know whether it was because I’ve been out of practise. Pleased (if you know what I mean) that others found it hard with some clues worthy of the biggie.
I didn’t know Gin and It but gave myself some wiggle room using “out of one ‘t’” (1T) from the more everyday G&T to parse BE OUT OF IT.
Thanks Teazel and Templar
11:29. A tough start, with only three of the across clues going in on first pass, but the down clues proved less resistant.
Held up on my LOI INSURGENT by having INSURRECT in my head; fortunately I could not come up with a meaning for URRECT that made sense, and finally spotted URGENT.
COD to KEY SIGNATURE.
Thanks Teazel and Templar
22:26, hardest of the week so far, by miles. And after a CRACKing start at 1a, too. Defiantly tried to get NAME to work for “not initially, + a + Me”
Also got PANACEA from Asterix the Legionary which is one of the best. Especially the Egyptian, Ptenisnet, who only speaks in hieroglyphs, including his name “tennis net”, and thinks the army is a holiday camp and then speaks in symbols found in Michelin travel guides. Absolute genius, including the translations by Anthea Bell, my favourite translator.
LOI MANET where I spent ages deciding that second letter. Also held up by INSISTENT (=demanding attention).
COD KEY SIGNATURE, and INDY also very good.
Top Blogging, Templar.
I wrote MONET and MANET to one side then read the wordplay which screamed out TEN AM so no contest.
A fellow Asterix lover which also meant I got Panacea
Glad I am not alone in finding this tough – I always overlook the possibility of &lit clues and with 3 of them in the puzzle I spent much time wondering what was going on. I had also not heard the expression Be out of it, but I had heard of “Gin and It” (though without being able to tell you what It was), and with that and the initial B checker there was little else it could be.
I was also held up by Insurgent – I read the clue completely the wrong way round and thought the definition was “demanding attention” and the answer therefore Insistent, which left me looking for that well known rebel Istent before the penny dropped.
That apart, a steady but quite slow solve for a final time of 13 minutes, and a chance to play my new game of using as many of the answers as possible in a sentence which makes at least some sense. This time I had images in my mind of Noisy Fatwas being issued from Minarets by a Scorned Insurgent called Adam against the hunter who shot Bambi’s mother. Which is the very definition of Crackers.
Many thanks Templar for the blog
Cedric
🤣
6:26. Rather tricky in parts. I remembered SPLIT TIN loaves of bread so I surmised you could also get a whole one. I enjoyed the groan-worthy PANACEA best. Thanks Teazel and Templar.
6.54
Excellent blog Templar
Same for the puzzle – liked ROPES and BE OUT OF IT in particular.
12:40
Feels like a tough week to me. Had nothing for a couple of minutes until the 17’s went in. Despite starting with those, it was the SW that held me up at the end with INDY, MINARET and finally SCORNED.
Nice blog and puzzle
Thanks
Golf course closed again today- yet more heavy rain -so I had time for an earlier than planned look at this QC.
Once again, it felt like a 15×15 with fewer clues. I took over a minute to get started and failed to get 1a quickly, thinking of TURKEYS.
Once I had a foothold, DESCENT FOI, I made progress until a halt in the SW.
LOI was SCORNED -good clue-and I was slow to get INDY and BAMBI. Got MINARET quickly but thought that’s tough for a QC.
16 minutes in all so much quicker than yesterday.
A good puzzle but not one for beginners.
David
Having regularly read this column, often to find the final answer that eludes me, I thought it was about time to contribute. This was challenging but completed eventually in about 20 minutes, I can’t be bothered to start timing my efforts. COD Manet, LOI Be out of it – I couldn’t work out the gin connection so thanks for the explanation.
Welcome!
Welcome aboard! Now you’ve broken your duck, do keep posting. The more the merrier.
Took a while, but got there in the end. SW corner caused most difficulty until I guessed BE OUT OF IT, as nothing else seemd to fit, and then the B gave me the key to spotting BAMBI which gave the I for INDY and the M for MINARET. Phew! Definitely very much on the hard side today.
The toughest of the week by some distance I thought. Even so I wasn’t a million miles away from my target time with just two to do, 3dn and 12ac. I guessed that 3dn had a musical connection, and that a pianist might have a head start in solving it. As I’m not I struggled. Eventually after nearly three minutes of head scratching INSURGENT came to me, and the additional letter allowed me to recognise that SIGNATURE was the missing second part of the answer to 3dn. In the end I just managed 12.57, but don’t feel in the circumstances that was too bad.
A good puzzle for those with a good few years of solving experience, but I would imagine it will create a few DNFs for those relatively new to the game.
…. and also for some not quite so new to the game these days I’afraid, Mr Pandy.
(P.S. Come on Newport County!)
Away to Colchester United tomorrow, I live in hope! 🫣
DNF. Like Templar I raced through the top half of the grid even getting KEY but then slowed and came to a halt in the SW corner. Belatedly seeing the hidden BAMBI helped move things along although unlike Templar I didn’t rate the MINARET clue. FATWA was constructed from the wordplay as despite the familiarity of the word I didn’t know the actual meaning of it (Thanks to Templar for the explanation, now I know why the word is familiar to me) . With 10:20 on the clock I had to retire as I couldn’t get SIGNATURE.
Dear Mme D,
If you had wasted another 500% of your time (as I did) you may have found it (as I did). However, you appear to have made better use of the time you did actually spend (whereas I didn’t).
Good luck tomorrow!
Dear Mr SRC,
In truth, after a cursory alphabet trawl I decided I didn’t know the answer….a musical flat never occurred to me. The end of the tax year for my company/me required my mathematical prowess so I did indeed make better use of the time. Good luck tomorrow….it is GOOD Friday!
That was tough – yes it ‘s not been a good week for me.
8:20
Completed before falling asleep last night, pleased to see the Snitch up high (115 at present) which would normally have suggested a time of 10 mins or more for me. TIN slightly unnerved me when first trying to justify the answer, though I do recall TIN loaves (working as a teenager in Sainsbury perhaps helped with that?). I liked MANET but COD to ROPES which was an amusing pdm.
Thanks to Teazel for the puzzle and to Templar for the enjoyable and informative blog
The QSNITCH is mildly interesting, but it always fails to capture the extent of the carnage going on among the ‘less proficient’ solvers when the going gets properly tough. Our more capable solvers invariably overcome difficult clues with relative ease (or decide not to submit) and it’s their times that go to make up the QSNITCH.
Well I seem to be in the minority here finding this fairly straightforward, especially for a Teazel. A steady solve from CRACKERS to KEY SIGNATURE. Couldn’t parse BE OUT OF IT never having heard of ‘gin and it’ and realised I biffed INSURGENT and didn’t ever return to parse. Many thanks for the informative blog Templar. Apparently I didn’t see the second part of Bambi either. Thanks Teazel.
DNF.
Gave up after 20 mins.
Just too hard.
Quite a nasty one, I thought.
I wonder what the public opinion is on what constitutes an &lit. clue.
I always thought that &lit clues are those where the clue acts as _both_ definition and wordplay.
My all-time favorite comes from the Magpie puzzle by Botox:
Up and coming area, one with grass and public transport (8)
I think this is so good that Chambers should replace the current definition of SUBTOPIA with it.
Thus, the first two you called &lit, I’d call ‘cryptic definition’ and the last one — ‘double definition’.
Agreed, no &lits today. Bit of a bugbear for me.
&lit
Cop in male form (9) POLICEMAN
The entire clue is the definition – a POLICEMAN is a “Cop in male form”. The entire clue is also its WORDPLAY – the answer is an anagram of (COP IN MALE) with “form” as the anagram indicator.
Far too difficult for Pumpa and I. Really got nowhere with this one. Disappointing.
17ac pretty much describes my condition today!
Took 11:25, LOI was INDY – NHO Indy Racing so luckily Windy gave it away
Cod definitely the Minaret, liked that one
As Tony Blair used to say, Things can only get better. (But then came Gordon Brown, then David Cameron, …)
Dnf…
Shambolic performance from myself – particularly around the SW corner. Some I think would have struggled with whatever, but I should have got 3dn “Key Signature” and 13ac “Resent” at least.
FOI – 6dn “Descent”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 3dn “Key Signature”
Thanks as usual!
“Shambolic” – Such a great word!
We could band together and form the SCC (Shambolic Crosswording Contingent).
That was nothing like a QC, IMHO. Far too many intractable clues for me, resulting in my worst performance for a long time.
I grafted away for 66 minutes and still ended up with a DNF. 3 clues remained either unsolved or incorrect: FUN – I could only think of Fee, (m)ALIGN – I could only think of mALIce, and MANET – I inadvertently wrote MoNET.
I very nearly threw in the towel with several more unsolved clues – BE OUT IF IT (IT for tonic? Really?), SCORNED (I could think only of SpuRNED and ShunNED), MINARET, INDY, TENON and (my LOI) KEY SIGNATURE. In summary, that was a complete disaster, from start to finish. Well, almost from the start as I did solve 1a (CRACKERS) quite quickly.
Many thanks to Templar for his blog, butI’m afraid not today to Teazel as he totally misjudged his offering.
Spent a while wondering if i’d get any words, but ended up finishing it somehow.
So well done Teazel, and definitely Templar
26:35
Only slightly over par, and an enjoyable time solving. I know I’ve seen the “gin and It” thing here once before in my four months or so of QCing, but the lore didn’t come to mind. I could also swear the DECENT/DESCENT thing has been around once before too. Maybe they popped up during my forays into the back catalog.
I didn’t feel it was super difficult though nho TIN for loaf . It would have gone faster, but my anagrammamotor needs an oil change, and although I knew full well that it couldn’t be relevant, I spent a few seconds on A-flat major and F minor. Really I should sweep the cobwebs before doing the QC!
Many thanks to Teazel and Templar!
Terrible – 4/26.
I thought the rule was that if a clue began with “some”, then that told you that it was a hidden word clue. But that hasn’t applied today with 10a, PRESS ON. I wasted a lot of time on that one.
Often, but not always! Most “rules” are guidance, sometimes toyed with to make solving even more challenging.
This was a toughie. ALIGN and CONIFER went in first and allowed me to get CRACKERS. A biffed WARM UP delayed my DESCENT but was corrected when I REORIENTATED. BE OUT OF IT was biffed and I didn’t hang around to parse it. Liked MINARET. TIN was LOI. I’ve heard of a loaf tin, but not TIN on its own for bread. Scraped in under my target at 9:58. Thanks Teazel and Templar.
Did quite well, but stuck on SIGNATURE, despite the checkers. Am not musical (tho attend concerts etc) and NHO of Key Signature. If the clue had said Vital *written* approval, it wd have been a better hint, imo.
Otherwise I rather enjoyed this one, though it took me a while to get going. Liked INSURGENT, ROPES (COD), BE OUT OF IT, MINARET. SCORNED made me smile. TENON v clever.
Thanks vm, Templar.
Hard work, but enjoyable. Groan of the day to PANACEA. Seeing “flower” in 23A I of course assumed I was looking for a river, clever me, only to realise that the answer was, um, a flower. Plenty of other minor misthinkings, but arrived intact at the SCC, tested but having enjoyed the exercise.
New roof thoroughly tested for wind and rain resistance today. Crazy weather.
Struggled through and then spelled GARDiNeA wrong. NHO KEY SIGNATURE so that didn’t help my mood. Glad I didn’t do Sawbill;s puzzle last weekend, I’ll try that tomorrow to improve morale afer two days of puzzles I haven’t really enjoyed.
Well this certainly felt harder than average. 1a went straight in but was followed by a bit of a drought, a welcome acceleration and then what seemed like an age to see the final triplet of 3d, 14d and 17a to finish in a well off the pace 17+ minutes. Enjoyable nevertheless. Thanks to Teazel and Templar.
14.20 Another tricky one. KEY SIGNATURE took a while even after I’d thought of musical flats. It was followed by MINARET, TIN and RESENT to finish. Thanks Templar and Teazel.
Have I misunderstood the definition of &lit or has the blogger?
I would describe 20a as a cryptic definition and 20d as a double definition (both cryptic)
I seem to be in the minority today as I found this easier than usual. 10:45 is a fast time for me. COD to MINARET, very nice misdirection.
Thanks to Templar & Teazel.
13:59 including pesky interruptions.
Really liked minaret, ropes, and bambi. Got used to being woken early by the muezzin in the middle east.
14:19 I first thought of agreement for SIGNATURE but crossers disabused me of that silly notion. BE OUT OF IT was my COD. I wondered if loaf and TIN were both words for either head or money but I learned from the blog that bread is the link.
I’m a relative newbie (gradually improving after a few months) and one feature I really appreciate is the comment section – so thank you all for much erudition and lots of fun. I took about 20 minutes for this one and put insurrect for insurgent so dnf – but I’m learning! Gin and ‘it’ was an Edwardian phrase and was my COD, but panacea was fun.
Sounds amazingly good progress. Welcome!
Good fun and nicely testing. Some really lovely clue. COD Ropes.
Loved the explanation for Be out of it!
Thanks for grid and blog. What fun@
Well into the SCC, something like 40 mins and definitely hard work but (for me) a real sense of satisfaction in cracking the clues. Really liked KEY SIGNATURE and MANET (when I finally got them). And I knew all the words 😁
A grinding finish @ 50 mins. But proud to have stuck it out my 3 dart finish was: Be out of it, Tenon and Tin. Many of the clues made me smile. Thanks Teazel
toughish but managed to finish once on the same wavelength