Parkrun + Solve = 34:40
A tough one from Pedro with quite a few clues that wouldn’t be out of place in the 15 x 15. Well done if you negotiated it without incident.
I see some cutely-paired answers in the grid (HIGH + TIME, STAR + TREK, LAME + DUCK) but if there’s a greater unifying theme I’ve missed it. Someone will let us know if that’s the case.
Here’s how I parsed it. Would be delighted to hear your thoughts / complaints / corrections:
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in italics.
In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
| 1 | Famous actor, perhaps, one disembarking from flight (4) |
| STAR – STA |
|
| 7 | I note chin twitching in delicate situation (2,4,3) |
| ON THIN ICE – (I NOTE CHIN)* | |
| 9 | Part of ship’s company avoiding lucky charm (4) |
| MAST – CO (company) “avoiding” MAS |
|
| 10 | Man with skill beat object of infatuation (5-5) |
| HEART-THROB – HE (man) + ART (skill) + THROB (beat) | |
| 11 | Unexciting, but not entirely blameable (4) |
| LAME – Hidden (not entirely) in bLAMEable | |
| 12 | First-class area on ship: ascend, look all over the place (6,4) |
| SALOON DECK – (ASCEND LOOK)*
It’s the deck that’s on the same level as a ship’s saloon. Does that make it the first-class area? Not having done much (any) cruising, I’m not qualified to comment. |
|
| 16 | Some say she barely managed to change her husband’s mind (4,6) |
| LADY GODIVA – Cryptic def
I don’t think I ever knew whether Lady G was a figure from history, fiction or mythology. Seems to be a bit of each. But of course we’re all familiar with the story of the woman riding naked through the town as a form of protest against her hubby’s tax regime. One chap named Tom disobeyed the order to stay inside and draw the blinds, and that’s where we get the term Peeping Tom. Hard to blame Tom, I reckon we’d all have been a bit curious. Just glad we were spared the term Peeping Galspray. |
|
| 19 | Love: a term of endearment (4) |
| DUCK – Double definition
A duck in cricket is synonymous with love in tennis. |
|
| 21 | Rehearse attack with sword? (3,7) |
| RUN THROUGH – Double definition | |
| 23 | Merit retained by nuclear nations (4) |
| EARN – Hidden (retained by) in nuclEAR Nations
Need the verb form of merit here. |
|
| 24 | Bloke going round city returned with US lawyer to make notes (9) |
| MEMORANDA – MAN (bloke) going round EMOR [Rome (city) returned] + DA (US lawyer) | |
| 25 | Long journey ends in disappointment for the monk (4) |
| TREK – Last letters (ends) of disappointmenT foR thE monK | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Bowled over a scoundrel snatching one item of jewellery (5) |
| TIARA – A + RAT (scoundrel) “snatching” I (one) all reversed (bowled over) | |
| 3 | A story he made up for Scottish island town (8) |
| ROTHESAY – (A STORY HE)* | |
| 4 | US city last up for rebuilding (2,4) |
| ST PAUL – (LAST UP)*
Crossworders will be surprised to learn that LA and NY aren’t the only cities in the US. |
|
| 5 | Writer going round street to find restaurant (6) |
| BISTRO – BIRO (writer) going round ST (street) | |
| 6 | Excited, I start to gambol between rugby posts (4) |
| HIGH – I + G (start to gambol) between two H’s (rugby posts)
Rugby posts are H-shaped. You need to get the ball over the crossbar and between the uprights to count as a goal. (If anyone mentions Johnny Wilkinson in 2003 they will be banned from this website). |
|
| 8 | Beethoven symphony lifted heart around island area (6) |
| EROICA – EROC [CORE (heart) lifted] around I (island) + A (area)
That would be Ludwig’s number three I believe (or Google believes). |
|
| 13 | Former award for winning? Not the first (3) |
| OLD – |
|
| 14 | Very still warm weather? It’s not a clear outcome (4,4) |
| DEAD HEAT – DEAD (very still) + HEAT (warm weather) | |
| 15 | Nothing in this to assist in cleaner operation (6) |
| VACUUM – Double definition
Slightly clunky second definition. Thanks Tina for prompting me to change my original parsing. |
|
| 17 | Unexpected error over variable astronomical model (6) |
| ORRERY – (ERROR)* + Y (variable)
“a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model”. Did they have to rebuild them all after Pluto was given its marching orders? |
|
| 18 | Start of month: turned up North American lizard (6) |
| IGUANA – IGUA [AUG I (August 1, start of month) turned up] + NA (North American)
We did some work with a software house in New Jersey that kept iguanas as office pets. They were a very cool conversation piece but on reflection I’m not sure it was such a great gig for them. |
|
| 20 | What doctor seeks, buttonholing one famous scientist (5) |
| CURIE – CURE (what doctor seeks) “buttonholing” I (one) | |
| 22 | What’s signified by tense in sentence? (4) |
| TIME – Double definition
Past, present and future are all signifiers of time. But what is time? Answers below please in twenty-five words or less. |
|
I couldn’t parse EROICA so thanks for that
I think VACCUUM is a double def. Nothing in this / thing that assists a cleaner operation.
Unless that makes it a cryptic def?
I nho ORRERY. Didnt get RUN THROUGH
And also LAME took me way longer than it should have. Complete d’oh moment there.
I liked HIGH. does the rugby post for H come up often?
Agree with you re VACUUM Tina, will amend my explanation now. Thanks for that.
I’ve seen the rugby posts for H before, not sure I would say it was often.
I was so pleased to see you labelled this as a tough one. I fail to get four in, including HIGH – I did think of this, but then thought: that’s a visual clue, not wordplay so it can’t be that – and didn’t put it in……………..
DNF, just could not see VACUUM. Tried to run through all possibilities for the 5th letter, did not consider UU. I was also slow on MAST, thanks for the explanation but it looks like a clumsy clue.
I always read Eroica as either “erotica” or “Erica”, both of which have high cryptic potential.
Always good to see a new device like H for Rugby post.
Actually I don’t get the Lady Godiva clue either.
Is it a play on the word ‘barely’?
Yes I believe so. It’s a pretty vague reference isn’t it? I’d have expected some mention of horseback or riding, especially in the QC.
Having a few checkers in place helps a lot of course.
Or chocolate…. Mmm chocolate
It’s not unheard of for today’s blogger to demolish a block of Cadbury’s whilst solving.
The image of Lady Godiva riding “bare”, ie naked, is pretty arresting isn’t it. And that’s the common understanding of the story. The earliest references to the story – which is based on the real woman Godgifu (“God-given”), wife of the Earl of Mercia in the 11th century – suggest that she was in fact riding “bare” as in unadorned, without jewellery and other markings of her status, thus humbling herself. More plausible, but less of a story!
Yes it is, being bare she managed to force a rethink. There’s not a lot to go on there, tough clue. I never got the Lady G story, like if everyone was forced to stay inside and not look what was the point of being naked?
Anyway this was a struggle, it took me 15.45 and as Galspray said a lot of these would cause problems in the 15×15. I was held up by thinking of a construction like El Paso for the ST PAUL clue, having a brain-fade re CURIE and thinking DUCK was only a term of endearment in the plural. In fact I still do.
But all good fun, thanks Pedro and Galspray.
I agree re DUCK Lindsay, have only heard ducks as the affectionate term. Pretty sure one of the characters on No 96 used to use it (apologies to the non-Aussies. Or non-old Aussies).
It turns out that there’s dictionary support for the singular, but what would they know.
What if you call someone an old duck, is that a term of endearment? 😂
Only if you’re a drake…
If a naked tree falls in the woods and no body is allowed to look at it…
Exactly! Or doing a nudie run but keeping your clothes on.
Everyone’s naked under their clothes
DUCK is commonly used as a term of endearment in the East Midlands of England.
Beat me to it John – particularly prevalent in and around Nottingham.
Thanks for that gents. There’s no accounting for the way some of these foreign types speak.
As Mark Twain said, “They spell it da Vinci and pronounce it da veenchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.”
And Leicestershire too, except it’s usually my duck (mi dook to rhyme with chook is the nearest I can get to spelling it phonetically!) I’d say ducks or duckie is more of an east London thing. Not sure if that helps though 😅
Brings back fond memories of my Grandma in Derby who was always saying ‘come on duck’ – but you have to say it with the right accent not a southern one like mine!
My great aunt from South London used to call me and my sisters “duckie”. May be cockney as well as Midlands term?
11 minutes after a very rare week (these days) of sub-10 minute solves. I was delayed by SALOON DECK because I spent too much time trying to biff it instead of taking the clue as a whole and realising it was an anagram. The other that delayed me was also nautical, and I needed an alphabet trawl to arrive at the answer.
I imagine that most orreries of interest were built before the discovery of Pluto in 1930. I needed wordplay to prevent me spelling it ‘orrary’.
Didn’t know of ST PAUL as a US city but it had to be and Wiki lists more than a dozen of them.
I imagine the one that is twinned with Minneapolis would be the best known. Which is another way of saying it’s the only one I knew.
Do we have a Star Trek theme?
Please elaborate Sawbill! I was never a Trekkie, so beyond the words STAR and TREK I don’t see anything.
Was Mr Spock part Vulcan part IGUANA? Was William Shatner HIGH?
Wait, did Michelle Phillips do a LADY GODIVA scene?
I am definitely no Trekkie but surely STAR + TREK in the corners must be a clue? I can see DECK, THROUGH TIME etc.
Nichelle Nichols
UHURA and KIRK intersecting in the SW corner?
If so that’s a very twisted Nina. Is there more to it?
No, I don’t think so. I think you were right in your blog. It’s just three paired words … which is a bit weak (unless I have missed others).
No, I definitely meant Michelle Phillips. Or am I misinterpreting your comment?
My comment? If so, I thought you were referring to the woman who played Uhura in “Star Trek”, Nichelle etc. NHO Michelle etc.
MP was the more pulchritudinous member of The Mamas and Papas who later in life played the part of Picard’s ex-lover (I think) in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Oh. Never saw ‘The Next Generation’.
Well this was a real slog, but I persevered and staggered over the line all green after about 34 minutes. Phew! VACUUM, MAST, LAME and MEMORANDA held me up most and LADY GODIVA and RUN THROUGH made me smile. Nice clues.
This rounds off a pretty good week with a 99.4% success rate so I’m happy with that, despite one or two visits to the Special Table.
No parkrun for me this morning as Mrs ITTT and I are away to Somerset to choose some new bedroom curtains, which are completely unnecessary if you ask me – (which nobody ever does) – so I’ll wish you all a great weekend.
Thanks to Pedro and Galspray.
Are those the curtains that were negotiated in exchange for you getting your new piano?
Ha ha! Sadly not. Those are being made especially and won’t be ready for 6 weeks. I’m trying to get off the peg ones for the bedroom with a heavy lining to help Mrs ITTT sleep in a bit longer. I’ve tried steering her towards Dunelm but she’s decided John Lewis is the place.
It’s turning out to be a long afternoon!
Found this very tough and needed 16 minutes to limp home, not all parsed. Surprised no-one has yet commented on Rothesay, a small town of just 4,000 souls on an offshore island – common GK for a QC? Best known perhaps because “Duke of Rothesay” is one of the traditional titles of the next in line to the British throne.
Apart from that, I struggled with Iguana (it doesn’t help thinking “1 Aug” not “Aug 1”), and Orrery (NHO), and Run through (very slow to understand how the clue worked), and Vacuum (clunky surface, and I was not expecting a UU in my letter search) – in fact the whole of the SW was blank for some time. But my “worst clue of the day” – nay month – goes to my LOI Mast: muddled wordplay, poor surface and most unhelpful checkers.
Many thanks Galspray for guiding us through a toughie.
Cedric
Thanks Cedric. Don’t think I knew ROTHESAY but it was an eight-letter anagram with seven checkers, leaving little room for doubt!
Yes, perhaps Pedro is allowed it then! I solved it from just the R: my solving order was 1A then 2D then 3D.
A visit to Rothesay was a very popular day out for the working classes of Glasgow in the late 19th century, who would take the paddle steamers down the Clyde to Rothesay on their day off. It was known as going “doon the watter” (“down the water” for those who don’t speak Glaswegian), which became a synonym for “going on holiday”. The habit also gave us the phrase “steaming drunk”, as the lads and lasses returned from Rothesay on the homebound steamers at the end of the day having imbibed merrily.
Rothesay is still well worth a visit for anyone in Glasgow with a day to spare. Unusually, one of the main tourist sights is the public toilets on Rothesay pier – they are a reminder of all those Victorian holidaymakers and their heavy drinking, and are enormous and fabulously ornate and decorated. Google “Rothesay Victorian public toilets” to see them.
40:05 🙄 Was that really a QC? Last five mins spent trying to parse MAST before giving up and bunging it in. NHO EROICA, ROTHESAY, SALOON-DECK and didn’t know the reason why LADY-GODIVA rode naked.
15mins into that I only had six answers and two of those were ST-PAUL and ORRERY which I would think are in some people’s NHOs and two were hiddens.
Not my idea of an enjoyable cryptic. Today was bif the answers then parse some convolution which makes it seem pointless in being cryptic.
Off to parkrun … hopefully that will be more fun. At least I’m guaranteed a faster time!
QCpr coming in at just over 1hr05. Another jog round to try and encourage my daughter along. Bought her chocolate milk as reward!
In parts this felt like I was attempting a GK crossword without the relevant knowledge and as a result it became a bit of a grind – EROICA, ROTHESAY (tricky with a couple of key checkers missing), ORRERY and ST PAUL were all unknown to me. VACUUM, MAST and LADY GODIVA also put up stiff resistance.
Started with STAR and finished with MAST in 14.54 with COD to HIGH.
Thanks to Galspray
A lovely example of a Times lite crossword, albeit at the harder end of the scale. It took me close to to 20 minutes but, looking back, it was hard to see why. Always a sign of a good crossword for me.
5:53 with most of the last minute or so on LAME, failing to see the hidden until I got to L on an alphabet trawl. Quite tricky in parts. Not a STAR TREK theme, I think, but just the paired 4-letter answers as noted in the blog introduction. COD to TREK for the surface. Thanks Pedro and Galspray.
Had to reveal MEMORANDA (had decided making notes meant a musical instrument – doh). Also had to check spelling of EROICA.
Very slow. Thought of STAR at the beginning but cd not parse originally.
LOsI HIGH, ROTHESAY, LAME. FOI CURIE.
Knew ORRERY, ST PAUL. LADY GODIVA was an early solve. Cd not parse SALOON – missed anagram😯. Various PDMs inc VACUUM, HEART THROB, TREK.
Exhausted now! Thanks vm, Galspray.
I seem to have bucked the trend this morning, sailing through two uneventful passes, and then quickly nailing my LOI. It helped to have all the required geographical knowledge. Is “blameable” really a word? I’d expect to see blameworthy which would improve the clue – definitely LAME.
FOI STAR
LOI MAST
COD LADY GODIVA
TIME 3:37
47:08 tough but fun.
Biffed but could not parse EROICA. Both ACE for heart and and ACRE for area were possible lifted candidates but I never thought of CORE for heart. Pretty difficult clue.
Also could not see where the I in IGUANA came from. Thanks Galspray for explaining it. A random month with a I at the start is not easy to come up with.
Thanks also to Pedro and a happy weekend to one and all.
FOI STAR
LOI VACUUM
COD LADY GODIVA
Quite liked the LADY GODIVA clue but then I did used to live in Coventry and so got reminded of the story every hour when the clock chimed in front of the massive statue of the lady in question. Struggled with St Paul, a city of just 300,000 residents (like Coventry) that I was never going to get until twigged it was an anagram and that led me to ROTHESAY – helped massively by the record (surely) 7 out of 8 checkers. EROICA and MAST were both just hard. All greeen in 21. Still not sure I needed the Saturday quickie in my life.
I’m not going to totally rule out a 13.14 5km time but I think the odds of a Galspray win in this week’s biathlon are looking short.
If you pull it off Mendesest I’ll come to Paris to watch you later in the year!
9:36
Slow to get started – just three in from the first pass of acrosses, but slipped into a higher gear thereafter. Nothing entirely unknown – ORRERY was somewhere in the back of my mind i.e. I knew it when I read the definition. Slightly puzzled by TIME – didn’t think that was Pedro’s finest. SALOON DECK held firm until all of the checkers were in place and even then, I didn’t notice that it was an anagram. Didn’t know ST PAUL as a city but can’t say I am surprised. LOI MAST.
Regarding ROTHESAY, I understand that Scottish nationalists (with a small ‘n’) do not regard Charles III as their king (or previously as their prince) and refer to him only as the Duke of Rothesay.
Thanks Pedro and G
Prince William is now the Duke of Rothesay (as well as Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and High Steward of Scotland, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. Not forgetting Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus, which he held before becoming heir to the throne.)
I was so pleased to see this labelled as a tough one. I fail to get four in, including HIGH – I did think of this, but then thought: that’s a visual clue, not wordplay so it can’t be that – and didn’t put it in……………..
Also didn’t get LADY GODIVA, MAST and OLD (I was trying to take the head off trophy, medal, laurel etc – but didn’t think of gold!!
I mostly manage to finish it, though not fast – so this was disappointing for me 🙁
Dnf…
Another shambolic Saturday. After 40 mins (and an age to get going), only had 8dn “Eroica” and 15dn “Vacuum” to get. But, I hadn’t heard of 8dn and, for some reason, put “Ran Through” for 21ac which pretty much stuffed me for the latter.
Whilst very clever, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the “H” rugby posts used before – not in a QC anyway. Definitely felt more on par with a mild 15×15.
Anyway, let’s hope I have more luck with my local football team his afternoon, and that we achieve League 2 play-off glory. Up the Bluebirds!
FOI – 4dn “St Paul”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 6dn “High”
Thanks as usual!
We had ‘between rugby posts’ in a 15×15 3 years ago. I don’t recall seeing it before that. The clue was blogged by Verlaine:
There’s a problem for all to see: ball trapped between rugby posts? (2-2)
UH-OH – U [for all to see (at the cinema), + O [ball] “trapped between” H and H [rugby posts!]
I’ve seen H=rugby goalposts somewhere before.
By the time I reached MAST – I was trying to figure out how the clue involved removing a U … lucky charm=horseshoe=U
I remember that one – thought it was brilliant!
DNF. Threw in the towel at the twenty minute point, unable to see VACUUM. I was also unable to see how MAST worked – thanks Galspray for the explanations.
I thought this was a tough one. Nothing out of my ken, but tricky to get the required answers. I biffed EROICA. STAR was FOI. I knew ST PAUL. Finished up with TIME, just outside my target at 10:03. Thanks Pedro and Galspray.
15:36
PRQC Double 47 minutes
Nothing too bad here but didn’t fully parse LOI MAST.
Is SALOON DECK green paint? It isn’t in wiktionary. However I never saw it was an anagram, so I let Pedro off.
I would have spiced it up at 8d EROICA by subtracting a T from erotica.
I was surprised to take a long time over 15d VACUUM. It seems really easy after you’ve got it.
LOI 19a DUCK but only because there are a lot of D??? words including “dear”; needed the Curies (remember Pierre too; they shared the first Nobel prize) to get to duck. Seems a normal endearment to me; “ducks” I recognise but would be even less likely to use.
13.00 on the dot. This was challenging but entertaining. I was pleased not to get stuck. HIGH bamboozled me until I had the aitch checker. Many of the clues were parsed afterwards, but I never did figure out TIME. I liked RUN THROUGH. Thanks galspray and Pedro.
Finished in 12.13 which is very fast for me. I found the grid design very helpful, particularly for 3 down where the checkers provided most of the answer. Parkrun was 14 seconds slower than my last outing.
This felt a bit of a slog but got there eventually. LOI MAST – couldn’t parse this at all so unsure whether correct. Thought HIGH was clever. Slow to spot the anagram in SALOON DECK. TIME struck me as an odd sort of clue because I hadn’t spotted that it was a DD until I saw the blog (doh). Took a while to parse EROICA. COD to ORRERY because I read the clue and thought ‘say what?!’ then very gradually saw the light. Thanks galspray and Pedro.
I hope the rest of you enjoyed it, but it was a dismal waste of twenty minutes for me and possibly a new personal worst. Thank you for the very helpful and much-needed blog!
19:34 Spent most of it on MAST, almost giving up several times, then returning for another look. Finally I thought to separate ship’s company( curse the apostrophe!) and could envision CO in part of a ship. I liked IGUANA and BISTRO. I think LADY GODIVA might have been a late 1960’s release by Peter and Gordon? Why would I remember such an insipid song?
Well done matey … keeping the SCC at bay!
Well remembered. When I read that, ‘Please lock me away’ came instantly to mind. 60 years ago and yet still deep in the memory.
The lyrics of Lady Godiva are quite amusing – just looked them up.
I enjoyed the crossword, but thought MAST and LAME undid the good work. Maybe ‘not half blameable’ would have been more QC-esque.
Ta Galspray and (not entirely ) Pedro
Looks like I picked a difficult one to return to after a few (cold and wet) days abroad, and I certainly came across very similar solving problems to others. However, I also had another disastrous shot at on-line solving (old dog etc), so I have two perfectly good excuses for taking 28:47. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week. Invariant
I got on ok with this one other than mast where I dropped cast in to finish it off. Am I the only one to put DEAR IN FOR 19ac as it means love and is part of endearment. I eventually saw the light as the crosser had to be CURIE.
DNF – usually I’ll go back to a crossword (and Killer Sudoku Deadly’s) that I am struggling with, over a few days, but sometimes as today, I sense however long or often I look at a clue I won’t get it. Here I was right, I never would have got EROICA.
COD 1A STAR
And as mentioned above, thanks Pedro for bringing back memories of my Grandma and thanks Galspray.
Unusually for me, I found this okay, albeit not quick, finishing in 20m. I suppose it helped that I once attended a scout camp on Bute, whose “capital” is Rothesay. During the camp, to earn a badge, I had to sail with some colleagues to a far shore on the Cowal Peninsula, and camp overnight. By the time I arrived, the midges were so bad, we just crawled into the unerected tent like it was a giant sleeping bag and passed out. To add to the grief, my younger self had forgotten about the tide so had to wait 3 hours in the morning to refloat the Wayfarer dinghy. Halcyon days!
All done in 9:10, with the last two minutes spent on MAST and TIME, where the “prison” sense of “sentence” didn’t come for ages.
I thought the tough clues were partially compensated for by a helpful grid: I dredged ORRERY up from the depths only with the help of the crossers, and as for ROTHESAY…
My grandmother, who was from Stoke on Trent, habitually used “duck” as a term of endearment.
Thanks to Pedro and Galspray.
DNF in 31:45 because, while I thought of MAST, I couldn’t parse it, and I went with the vague possibility that SALT could be parsed as def 1: “part of ship’s company” and def 2: “avoiding [by throwing it over your shoulder] lucky charm”. That would be a terrible clue, but I couldn’t see the actual parsing. That’s the second time recently (maybe in the 15×15?) that I didn’t understand what “avoiding” meant in a clue. But not sure I would have thought of MASCOT anyway.
I was dull today anyway. I’m yet to reliably remember that “flight” clues “stair”, “US lawyer” clues “DA”, and “ends in” should always get me looking at final letters.
Many enjoyable clues though. I particularly like HIGH, TIME, and DUCK. I had to put in ROTHESAY on faith, and needed the crossers to keep me from putting ORERRY (another fun surface).
11:47, and I’m not WOEful either! Phew. Not much to be said that hasn’t been already said – it was OK, although BISTRO made me smile. I had visions of Giles Coren wandering the streets of north London looking for a place to eat 😉
FOI Star LOI Time – unfortunately it wasn’t a straight RUN THROUGH from 1a to 22d despite appearances.
Thanks Pedro and Galspray
What an interesting QC! Reference has been made to some being more 15×15 fodder but if any of these were implied: 7a 10a 12a 16a 21a 24a then for me they just sailed into place. Happily knew 4d St Paul from many years of travelling to the Twin Cities, and had the GK for 8d Eroica (needing only the C to eliminate ‘Choral’ as the only other 6 letter option and get the parsing). Liked 15d Vacuum. Really struggled with 9a Mast so that was a biff and thanks for the blog!
FOI 12a Saloon Deck
LOI 9a Mast
COD 21a Run Through
Tough, all been said above. TIME was a bit LAME, wasn’t it? LOI MAST, hard clue.
11:39 and still in the top 100! Definitely tough. No QUITCH on Saturdays though 😔.
Thanks Pedro and Gallers.
Templar
Glad others found tricky- first one in a while I couldn’t actually finish – short of ST.PAULSand SALOON DECK,gave up at 35 mins, embarrassingly,was having a good week, as well
DNF would never have got EROICA. Really enjoyed the rugby post clue and also VACUUM.
We did this early this morning before setting off for Bristol for the weekend.
If you come this way, really recommend the Ss Great Britain with the Brunel museum alongside – awesome and awe inspiring.
All said above and like others glad to see it labelled as a toughie. 41.33 with LOI lame not coming up in a long alpha trawl before the PdM of “oh it’s a hidden” ggrrrrr
Having got the y at then end the first part of 16a got fixated on it being Mary someone but really like the answer when we saw it
Thanks Galspray for parsing of eroica and mast which we biffed.
Found this quite tricky for a Quickie – however, all completed, but failed to parse either MAST or TIME, so thanks, Galspray, for the help…
DNF here from Schiphol. Biffed CUT THROUGH without really thinking and also failed on 9a. Guessed at SALT (part of ship’s company). Corrected to MAST on a further go but with no clue on how it was PARSED so thank you for the explanation, galspray. No problems with DUCK, ORRERY or LADY G but I think we’d have needed a crossing M to get to MAST. Thank you, Pedro.
9.55
Late entry here and pleased to sneak in under 10 minutes, all green
I like a tougher one and here I knew the GK including ORRERY but still biffed a few without full or any understanding – here’s looking at you TIME
Very enjoyable blog, thankee Galspray and to Pedro too
Sentence,as in prison sentence= Time
Thanks Martin, just saw this. Yes I was aware that that was how the clue worked and I should have specified that in the blog.
My comment about the meaning of time was just a bit of whimsy. I note that nobody took up the challenge!
No time to look at this yesterday, and managed all the clues without biffing for once. Pleased I wasn’t the only one to try to make CHORAL fit for Beethoven’s symphony – coral (island) with H – seemed almost plausible, but knew I was on thin ice with it. Thanks Galspray, particularly for the interesting info about Lady Godiva!
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