Perhaps trickier than average. The north end seemed to fill itself, but the South was much slower. Generally fair, but the US college was a bit below the belt, I think. 6 minutes 28 for me.
| Across | |
| 1 | Duke in court to secure expanse of trees (8) |
| WOODLAND – D meaning duke inside WOO (court) and LAND (secure, as in secure a contract) | |
| 6 | The first in bikini, seek permission to sunbathe (4) |
| BASK – B for bikini + ASK | |
| 8 | One’s stuck in quagmire, the story of my life (4) |
| BIOG – I inside BOG. | |
| 9 | Benevolent feeling competent solicitor should produce? (8) |
| GOODWILL – self explanatory | |
| 10 | Trio belt out opera text (8) |
| LIBRETTO – anagram (‘out’) of TRIO BELT | |
| 12 | Put out English with German (4) |
| EMIT – E + MIT (German for ‘with’) | |
| 13 | Prevent Richard speaking like a poet of old (6) |
| BARDIC – BAR (prevent) + DIC (sounds like ‘dick’) | |
| 16 | Ferocious types start to gather in rows (6) |
| TIGERS -G for gather inside TIERS | |
| 17 | One not to be trusted putting bar back (4) |
| LIAR – RAIL (bar) backwards | |
| 18 | Ineffectual person made to reform, coming into fortune (4,4) |
| LAME DUCK – anagram (‘to reform’) of MADE inside LUCK | |
| 21 | Fuming more than anyone, tasering wildly (8) |
| ANGRIEST – anagram (‘wildly’) of TASERING | |
| 22 | Flee berth? Nonsense (4) |
| BUNK – triple definition | |
| 23 | Lose temper in childish game (4) |
| SNAP – double definition | |
| 24 | Volume is difficult to support (8) |
| HARDBACK – HARD (difficult) + BACK (support) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Old bone on one antelope (5) |
| ORIBI – O + RIB + I. Not one I’d heard of. Spent a few minutes trying to make OKAPI work. Kneekap? | |
| 3 | Pet one worshipped rolling over (3) |
| DOG – GOD backwards. The chestnuttiest of chestnuts. | |
| 4 | Jargon a king understood (5) |
| ARGOT – A + R + GOT | |
| 5 | Restart of rugby game for ex-student? (4-3) |
| DROP-OUT – double definition. I was not aware of the rugby one | |
| 6 | Asked piteously about bird with deformed limbs (3-6) |
| BOW-LEGGED – BEGGED outside of OWL | |
| 7 | Member of platoon flogged? That is right (7) |
| SOLDIER – SOLD (flogged) + I E + R | |
| 11 | Where on reflection you may be speedily caught (5,4) |
| RADAR TRAP – cryptic definition. The refection being the radar waves bouncing off your car into Mr Plod’s speed gun. | |
| 14 | Go in van, moving to French city (7) |
| AVIGNON – anagram (‘moving’) of GO IN VAN. This is spooky. I went to Avignon on Monday, and what’s more, I went in my van! I didn’t get nailed by an 11ac, so far as I know. | |
| 15 | A lieutenant admitted to two churches and a US college (7) |
| CALTECH – A + LT inside CE and CH. We’ve all heard of Yale and Harvard but I think this is a bit obscure for the QT, personally. | |
| 19 | Engine’s time in dock (5) |
| MOTOR – T inside MOOR | |
| 20 | Misanthrope showing a little mercy? Nice! (5) |
| CYNIC – hidden word. Is a misanthrope the same as a cynic? I’m pretty cynical but I don’t hate the human race. Much. | |
| 22 | Front cover that can go either way up (3) |
| BIB – ‘either way up’ denotes a palindrome. Nice definition. | |
I’m rather embarrassed that, having yesterday waxed somewhat misty-eyed about gazing at antelope from my African classroom window, I’ve never heard of ORIBI. However, the ‘clueing was generous’, as the cleverer boys say, and I worked it out. Similarly with BARDIC and CALTECH.
So coming in All Green at about 25 minutes gives me a weekday success rate of 98.4% which, in contrast to last week’s paltry 80%, gives me cause for hope.
(I was undoubtedly helped by having an uninterrupted run this morning as Mrs ITTT has now retrieved some old American Airline earplugs from the depths of her handbag to block out the dawn chorus and so slept in.)
Both WOODLAND and HARDBACK had to be worked on but I enjoyed them both once they appeared. BUNK was my last one in. I think my favourite clue was BOW LEGGED.
Many thanks as ever to Teazel and Curarist.
Did you try the OKAPI first? I did!
Yes I did. Thinking KAP might be an obscure bone!
Actually, I realized that an okapi is not an antelope, putting a stop to that idea. Knowing oribi did help.
You’re absolutely right. It’s a type of giraffe, but a common mistake – myself included and as much evidenced below!
I wish I’d paid more attention to that safari guide in Kenya … now I remember being told that! Oh well, I got there in the end.
Got to CALTECH through the cryptic and memories of Yeovil Tech but BARDIC, ORIBI and RADAR TRAP all eluded me. I know of radar guns and speed traps but I’ve not come across that combination. Overall, feel a right dunce, although I was close because I looked up ‘banric’ and at least I resisted trying to force okapi in.
Post Wikipedia browsing I am willing to acknowledge Caltech is beating Yeotech 46-0 on Nobel Laureates. But only we had PJ Harvey so I’m calling it a draw.
Like our blogger the top went in quickly for us with half done in 7 minutes, knew we were riding for a fall. Some trickier clues down south but all done in close to par 24.33 so good for a Teazel.
Mrs RH and I had a NHO each, argot for me and Caltech for her. Is bardic really a word? LOI bunk took a trawl but COD on working it out, always forget about triple definitions
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
The easy ones were so easy.
But there were soooooo many words I didn’t know
🙁
I don’t think CALTECH is very obscure. At least it pops up in a lot of media maybe because it’s in California.
I finished this in 7 minutes, less than half my revised target time, so I’d have to rate it as easy for me despite containing an unknown word CALTECH. But it was my LOI, so with all the checkers and wordplay to work with the answer wasn’t hard to deduce.
I also looked twice at ‘misanthrope / CYNIC’ but decided they probably share enough characteristics for the clue to work, and Collins Thesaurus has them as synonyms.
18:24
Had to certainly think for BARDIC and CALTECH. Also NHO ORIBI and tempted by OKAPI.
Always like a three word triple def. Nice job Teazel with BUNK.
2d was a choice between ORIBI, OTIBI or OFIBI. Fortunately I chose the former.
I found this puzzle similar to yesterday’s and finished in 25 minutes
Some of the clues took a bit of unravelling and I did wonder for a while if BARDER could be a word.
FOI BASK
LOI CALTECH
COD LAME DUCK
I found this Teazel offering quite gentle, and worked out CALTECH easily enough despite not having encountered it before.
FOI BASK
LOI BUNK
COD LAME DUCK
TIME 3:57
A solve of two halves with the top being very gentle but a little more thought was required for the bottom. Thought CALTECH was clued kindly enough to compensate for it’s relative obscurity.
Started with BASK and finished with BUNK in 7.26 with COD to SOLDIER for the PDM (ah, that meaning of flog!).
Thanks to Curarist
Got home in 9.09, the one after which John Lennon’s baby said she was coming on. He wrote that when he was about 12 I believe. I was held up by CALTECH and BUNK also took a while, but my LOsI were WOODLAND and DROP-OUT. Enjoyable puzzle, thanks Teazel and Curarist.
10:10 with BOWLEGGED my LOI, I’d been looking to include an anagram of ‘limbs’ (as I’m sure was the misdirecting intention). Nice work. I liked SOLDIER, HARDBACK and BUNK too.
NHO OROBI, BARDIC or RADAR TRAP (it’s a ‘speed’ trap round our way, albeit with a radar gun). CALTECH felt a bit unnecessary. GOODWILL felt like a bit of a Dad joke. I can’t decide if it’s a good one – but that may be oxymoronic.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
8:45 (Viking army led by Ragnar Hairy-breeches sacks Rouen and Paris.)
NHO of ORIBI. Liked the triple definition in BUNK. LOI was SNAP. CALTECH is known to me as being where Richard Feynman worked.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
Yeah I’m very surprised that CALTECH seems so unknown – I know this isnt the demographic for the Big Bang Theory sitcom (the characters all work at Caltech) (honestly who really is the demographic for that show)
But I thought it was def prestigious enough and famous enough through its alumni, esp Feynman!
I’ve only just closed Wikipedia now I’ve got to look up Richard flippin’ Feynman too.
Edit: superfluidity of helium. Also worked at Cornell which looked like it would fit at first – spooky.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Feynman
I heartily recommend the book You’re Joking, Mr Feynman, which is a collection of anecdotes and tales about his life. He is a very smart, strange, accomplished man. It is very entertaining. (there’s iffy sexist bits but I find them in all biographies of brilliant men)
That is a wonderful book. Moreover, Feynman wrote the most beautiful love letter in human history. Which, I give up trying to link to properly. https://www.openculture.com/2013/08/richard-feynmans-letter-to-departed-wife.html
5:21. I stumbled through this somewhat thinking 6d started with BIG for a while (BIG HEADED fit the spaces I had but not the clue), but all became clear when I saw the TIGERS. No problem with CALTECH. I enjoyed the trio belting out the arias best. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
6.54
Top half flew in. Bottom half a bit slower. Is RADAR TRAP a thing? It seems so, but new to me. Liked BARDIC. As for the French town, I still well remember stepping off a train in 1985, pale from many a winter in northern climes and new to the continent, blinking in the August glare and soaking up the warmth of the sun. Perfection.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
8 minutes. At least CALTECH made a change from MIT, though thinking about it now, I always forget if MIT is a ‘college’ or not. Of the two less common words, I did remember ORIBI and BARDIC was gettable from crossers and wordplay. Favourite was the economical BUNK triple def.
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist
I did all but CALTECH in under 5 minutes so my potential personal best became a DNF! I’m crying foul though because I’ve never heard of it CALTECH (or ORIBI for that matter). I think for a quickie even if you don’t get the answer, when you see it you realise that you could or should have done! Thanks setter and blogger though!
09:29
Pretty good for Teazel. SE was difficult. Lame duck, bunk, bib, and cynic held me up.
COD woodland.
Caltech reminds me of Apu in the simpsons who graduated from the Calcutta Technical Institute.
Having tempted fate with my comments yesterday about a run of less challenging puzzles, it looked as though my words were coming back to haunt me as I started this very slowly. But the answers started to come and all finished finally in a respectable 12 minutes.
I share in what seems to be a rare degree of consensus so far with slight question-marks over BARDIC (is it a word?) and RADAR TRAP (like Mendesest I know of radar guns and speed traps, but not radar traps), a chorus of NHOs for ORIBI and some doubt that CALTECH is actually a word, but the wordplay for all of them was getable so they went in readily enough. LOI was the seemingly innocuous BIOG, as I was not expecting to find an abbreviation as the answer (and anyway I’d more readily use Bio as the short form).
Many thanks Curarist for the blog
Cedric
18:50 DNF with ORIBI corrected from OhIpI which I bunged in at around 14mins because I’m impatient.
Teazel comfortably extending his lead in my Annual NHO List with ORIBI and ARGOT. He now has 13 and Izetti, Orpheus and Breadman have some ground to make up with only 6 on the board each. Even so, Teazel really needs to work on his game if he thinks LIBRETTO, AVIGNON, BARDIC or CALTECH are obscure enough for me.
Nonetheless a pleasing week despite 3 corrected DNFs. If I’d sussed out the antelope immediately I’d have been under the hour for these five days but instead came in at 1hr02+
Amazing time. I don’t know how you’ve achieved it, but your progress is phenomenal. 👍👍👍👍
(I’m envious) 🤣
Thank-you.
How have I done it? Among other things I change my goals when things weren’t going well. At one stage it was all about completions. Then this year I said I was going to quit on any QC taking longer than 20mins so I didn’t build up frustration. Recently, I’ve just been going at them and not caring whether I succeed or fail.
Anyway I don’t think you’re that far behind .. Monday I was 8+ mins DNF, Tues I took 15mins while you were quicker at 13, yesterday was 8+ when you took 10.
It appears to me that you constantly demolish your confidence by nitpicking. One thing I learned from all my years of sportswatcing is how imperfect the best are. Man City have conceded something 32 goals and lost 3 games , Arsenal 26 goals and lost 5. They just aim to be good enough, not perfect.
Thanks New Driver. I’ll take that on board.
Have a good weekend. 😊
Nothing unknown today but a couple I had to think about. From DOG to BUNK in 6:43. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
I found this harder than average and finished in 17 minutes. This was not helped by biffing ANGSTIER rather than ANGRIEST.
I finished in 10:53 which is very good for me. I knew Oribi from having visited the Oribi Gorge in South Africa, where the small Oribi antelopes live.
No time due to interruptions but seemed about right. Good mix of follow the rules and gentle cryptics to get to the end. I liked CALTECH once I figured where to put A LT and CH the CE fell into place.
2 days in Ankara and have yet to come to grips with the language which is a pity as most locals haven’t reciprocated. Not much to see beyond work but a lot easier traffic than Istanbul from what I remember from a long time ago.
Thanks Curarist and Teazel.
A week with no typos and no ugly red blotches for NITCH or WITCH! A rarity indeed. All serene and green.
I liked GOODWILL best, and LIAR was my COD.
5:01
Managed to piece together CALTECH (NHO) and RADAR TRAP but NHO ORIBI or BARDIC, and dubious as to whether BIOG is a word. “Have you sent in your bio? (sic)” is quite common, but would that be allowed, either? Liked the clever BUNK.
Quite difficult. Had to reveal NHO CALTECH. I thought I was getting on well in the top half, though could not parse Okapi. Eventually returned to 8a and managed BIOG so was forced to rethink and biff NHO ORIBI.
Liked BARDIC, HARDBACK, LAME DUCK, BUNK, GOODWILL, among others.
Thanks vm, Curarist.
8:48
Held up by a careless LINE-OUT. I’ve been caught by many a speed trap and several radar guns, but I’ve never heard anyone refer to a LOI RADAR TRAP.
Nice puzzle though, thanks all.
This one took two cups of coffee! NHO ORIBI, like others I tried okapi. CALTECH was biffed, it just didn’t look right when first entered. COD HARDBACK. Triple definitions of BUNK was well done, thank you Teazel.
Add me to the “Is a RADAR TRAP really a thing?”, “NHO CALTECH”, “eye-rolling at BARDIC” and “oh so it isn’t OKAPI after all” piles.
The tough bits were tough enough to delay me to 08:04 after a flying start for an estimated 1.3K and a Reasonable Day.
Many thanks Teazel and Curarist.
Templar
Rather than “waves bouncing back” explaining “on reflection” in Curatist’s blog- might it be that radar is a palindrome ?
That was how I read it too
Managed to finish after looking up ORIBI (only ever heard of OKAPI), CALTECH (got it from clue but NHO) and finally seeing BARDIC and (COD) GOODWILL.
Hip or rib? Unfortunately I plumped for the wrong one, having spent 30 seconds tossing up the two! So I finished in 9:31 WOE 😥
Otherwise I didn’t find this as tricky as some of Teazel’s offerings and there are quite a few ticks and smiles along the way, so I will forgive him for the mysterious an-TEL-ope. But maybe a bit too obscure for a quickie?
I liked GOODWILL (although we’re having tremendous trouble with some solicitors over a will at the moment!), LIBRETTO, AVIGNON and ARGOT.
FOI Woodland LOI Oribi (not Ohipi), COD Dog (yes, a chestnut, but picked for purely sentimental reasons. My daughter has two rescue dogs that the entire family loves unconditionally – I’d say we’re the ones that roll over to indulge them 😅)
Thanks Teazel and Curarist. What a spooky conincidence, but how lovely to go to Avignon at this time of year!
I’m in good company with my OHIPI then! I was fairly sure it was wrong as I’d say the hip is a joint but didn’t want to spend 10mins trawling to then find out it was right. On another day (sigh) RIB would have sprung to mind immediately.
Yes, bone v joint? Unfortunately, I then got a little earworm of the old song Dem Bones. Probably not anatomically correct but Curarist will have ALL the answers 😅
A rare paper-solve today. Dare I say it but I found this fairly gentle for a Teazel. That said, he/she/they always includes something I don’t know – today it was ORIBI and I had to look it up to check it was a real word. No problem with CALTECH as I love Big Bang Theory (and also know about Feynman). Got BARDIC from wordplay. Sounded eminently plausible. LOI HARDBACK which held me up for quite a while as I was totally misdirected. It’s therefore COD 😆 Thanks Curarist.
This was the toughest of the week, at least for me, but others have seemingly found it more straightforward. I’m familiar with the names of Ivy League universities, but CALTECH was a new one on me. My LOI was ANGRIEST where it took me far too long to put the letters of the anagram in the right order. I staggered over the line eventually in 12.15, which was my only solve of the week over target.
My total time for the week was 46.04, giving me a daily average of 9.13.
DNF.
A very nasty one. Far too hard for me.
Also NHO ORIBI, but decided it was more likely than OHIPI. Tried to convince myself there was a word ENRAGIST (who would fume more than most?) until I got the crossers. Thought RADAR was the same on reflection, but that didn’t help with TRAP so accept it was just a cryptic definition. Thanks Curarist.
The SE proved tricky with Caltech, hardback, bib and bunk all connected. 11:30.
I was one of the many that had never heard of the antelope and spent time trying to fit okapi in. I also hesitated for a long time over BIOG – never come across that as an abbreviation for biography before. Happily I had heard of CALTECH and I’m pretty sure BARDIC has come up before, so they caused no problems. All done in 19 minutes and all parsed except for LAME DUCK which went in from the crossers.
FOI – 6ac BASK
LOI – 2dn ORIBI
COD – liked GOODWILL and DROP OUT best
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist
Well, I got there, but only with some very lucky guessing. ORIBI, ARGOT, BARDIC and CALTECH were all NHOs in the Random household. Unfortunately, Mrs R guessed incorrectly on three of them. I finished in 31 minutes and Mrs R’s verdict was “I don’t want to waste any more of my life, so I’m going outside to re-plant the raspberries”. My verdict? It wasn’t a QC.
Thanks to Teazel (I suppose) and Curarist.
Surely a modest celebration at outdoing the infamous Mrs SRC is in order…? We promise not to tell her.
Surely “fortunately Mrs R guessed incorrectly on three of them”? The family point is yours!
Family points coming my way are not quite as rare as hens’ teeth, but neither are they common. It’s a sufficiently unusual occurrence for me to treat each one with care, polish them up from time to time and admire the (pathetically) small collection.
Yes, I am not sure that SRC is really that sad about Mrs Random’s incorrect answers.
18 mins…
Another fingers crossed moment with 2dn “Oribi”, but couldn’t see what else it could be (not knowing any other three lettered bones). Main hold up was 22ac “Bunk” which required an alphabet trawl. With regards to 15dn “Calctech”, not the most obvious – but with the ubiquitousness of social media and tech start ups, there always seems to be some connection between a founder and this institution somewhere.
FOI – 3dn “Dog”
LOI – 22ac “Bunk”
COD – 9ac “Goodwill” – although, in my experience, solicitors are never that benevolent.
Thanks as usual!
11:33. I liked the two-parters- GOODWILL, WOODLAND, and HARDBACK.
3d brought G K Chesterton to mind, with Father Brown saying he likes a dog as long as it is not spelled backwards. Like many, I slowed down in the bottom half so 35 minutes: tasering took me an age because I thought it must end in -ing! Suddenly saw the light. Goodwill was great, so too the Spooner feel to lame duck. The wordplay gave Caltech, vaguely familiar. Many thanks Teazel and Curarist.
Wow, this recording thing certainly helps, it seems! Under 8mins for the second day in a row which is way, way faster than what this Russian usually clocks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdA4t28Qc_U
Upd. After reading the comments, I see that I was very lucky to write in BIOG before thinking about OKAPI/ORIBI.
10:12
Feline interruptions today made this a less than smooth experience. Never heard of the educational establishment nor the rugby term. Some others held me up – BARDIC, AVIGNON, WOODLAND.
Thanks Curarist and Teazel
8.08 in a state. That is, another hangover, leading to a fairly quick time again. RADAR TRAP and SNAP were the last two. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.
Slow but complete. Worked through many bones before finding one that sounded feasible to create an antelope. Liked LAME DUCK, struggled with ANGRIEST, pleased to work out CALTECH before I recollected the institution.
41:14 – ORIBI was not known but fortunately got the right bone. ARGOT pulled from depths – for some reason I always think it means INGOT.
BARDIC / CALTECH crossers held me up for a bit, but all in all a good puzzle.
Feeling rather dull today but at 19:31 didn’t make it into the Club. CALTECH is familiar to me so no excuse for persistently mis-parsing the clue until the penny dropped. Yes 3D is an old dog, but the clue has a lot of charm for a dog-worshipper like me. I might have heard of BUNK for flee once, long long ago, but couldn’t bring it to mind, so it went in unparsed.
An enjoyable solve, thank you Teazel, and the heartiest laugh of the morning came from Curarist’s comment on CYNIC, so much respect to you.
5 mins over target, wasn’t sure about ORIBI and didn’t think BARDIC was a word. Good week going to pot
All done in a pleasing 8:32, with no major delays. Luckily I’d heard of the antelope, and CalTech isn’t obscure to this California resident! That’s also my COD, for the feeling of satisfaction when I realized where the lieutenant had to go. Just beats my LOI, BUNK.
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist.
Though I hadn’t heard of the antelope I knew an okapi wasn’t one and we weren’t tempted by OJAWI. Once we finally had the middle ‘I’ ORIBI was an obvious, and fortunately correct choice. Mrs T spotted CALTECH which I was struggling with. Rather liked BUNK. RADAR TRAP seemed a logical answer without fully understanding how it worked so thanks for the explanation, Curarist, we were wondering whether the whole thing might be a palindrome. We came in at a relatively speedy 10:09, almost two minutes faster than yesterday despite the higher QSnitch so we were clearly on the wavelength. Thanks, Teazel.