Parksolve time about 44 minutes (pulled up lame on the run but the solve was fairly quick).
Wurm has again provided us with a neat little challenge. My personal favourites were GAMEKEEPER, RACE, CASINO and CINDERELLA. Four different clue types, but all with neat surfaces.
I’m blogging on a borrowed laptop as I got Crowdstruck yesterday. Not sure if I’ll be able to respond to comments so I hope I don’t have too many stuff-ups in the parsing. In any case I’d still be delighted to hear how you found it all.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics.
In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
| 1 | Pressure to consume carbon-rich fuel (4) |
| PEAT – P (pressure) + EAT (consume) | |
| 7 | Film artists a Romanist riled (9) |
| ANIMATORS – (A ROMANIST)* | |
| 9 | Bobby grabbing hot meat slice (4) |
| CHOP – COP (bobby) “grabbing” H (hot) | |
| 10 | Wretched Dicky spied and wired message (10) |
| DESPICABLE – (SPIED)* + CABLE (wired message)
The abundance of possible anagram indicators (wretched? dicky? wired?) made the definition more difficult to spot. |
|
| 11 | Like one area in largest continent (4) |
| ASIA – AS (like) + I (one) + A (area) | |
| 12 | Vessel not exactly broad in the beam? (6,4) |
| NARROW BOAT – Cryptic definition
Not the greatest cryptic clue we’ve seen, unless I’m missing something. |
|
| 16 | Who stops poacher in match? Goalie! (10) |
| GAMEKEEPER – GAME (match) + KEEPER (goalie) | |
| 19 | Live with a rook: ferocious creature! (4) |
| BEAR – BE (live) + A + R (rook)
I thought the definition was a bit rough on the likes of Yogi and Gentle Ben, but of course “bear” is also used to describe an uncouth or bad-tempered person. |
|
| 21 | Heroine recalled being beaten about at home (10) |
| CINDERELLA – (RECALLED)* about IN (at home)
Excellent clue. The surface tells a Cinderella story of its own. “Recalled” seemed an unlikely candidate for the anagrist and I’m sure most of us were looking for a reversal of some kind. (..AMME..? ..SSET..? ..ECILA..?) |
|
| 23 | People in Derby perhaps? (4) |
| RACE – Double definition
A race for three-year-old colts and fillies, with the boys being asked to carry a bit more weight than the girls (even in this day and age!). Such races are conducted around the world and are usually regarded as a “championship” for 3yo’s. It all originated with “The Derby” which has been run at Epsom Downs in Surrey since 1780. |
|
| 24 | Ordered at Ship get some pasta (9) |
| SPAGHETTI – (AT SHIP GET)*
Regrettably, for my entire childhood this was something red that came in a tin. Another time, another place. |
|
| 25 | Italian coming into church gives quote (4) |
| CITE – IT (Italian) coming into CE [church (of England)] | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Character shown in Somerset hospital (5) |
| ETHOS – Hidden in SomersET HOSpital | |
| 3 | Can adept somehow perform like Astaire? (3,5) |
| TAP DANCE – (CAN ADEPT)* | |
| 4 | Face extraordinary skiers (6) |
| KISSER – (SKIERS)*
Only familiar to me from the term “a smack in the kisser” which to be fair I haven’t heard for half a century or so. Also I understood it to mean the mouth specifically. That’s supported by most references on the net, but face gets the odd mention as well so Wurm’s good name remains unimpeached. |
|
| 5 | Better to enjoy an evening here? (6) |
| CASINO – Cryptic definition
A more pleasing example of the pure cryptic I think. The plausible surface distracts the solver away from the required meaning of “better” (one who bets). The type of trap that one gets better at avoiding after years of painful experience. (Come to think of it, this last sentence could also act as the definition!) In this case of course having the necessary checkers in place was particularly helpful as well. |
|
| 6 | To Greeks at first a Roman habit (4) |
| TOGA – TO + G (Greeks “at first”) + A | |
| 8 | Revolutionary at large shown in Sun leader (6) |
| SULTAN – LTA [AT + L(large) reversed (revolutionary)] shown in SUN | |
| 13 | Grass over lovely Cambridge Backs (3) |
| RYE – Last letters (backs) of oveR lovelY cambridgE
And indeed Cambridge is lovely. Why would you go to that other place? |
|
| 14 | Repeatedly exclude one cold and brutal (8) |
| BARBARIC – BAR (exclude) repeated + I (one) + C (cold) | |
| 15 | V-sign changes? (6) |
| VARIES – V + ARIES (sign)
I did some googling to see if there was anything interesting I could say about Zodiac signs or astrology in general. There’s not. |
|
| 17 | Blue planet close to Mercury (6) |
| EARTHY – EARTH (planet) + Y (“close” to mercurY)
Earthy and blue both meaning a bit oo-er. |
|
| 18 | Serving includes ram’s heart for taste (6) |
| PALATE – PLATE (serving) includes A (rAm’s “heart”) | |
| 20 | An Aberdonian say in Berkshire town (5) |
| ASCOT – A SCOT (An Aberdonian, say) | |
| 22 | Gone numb (4) |
| DEAD – Double definition | |
7 minutes. No problems.
14 minutes, lots of problems.
I found this a difficult puzzle to get to grips with: some clues were write-ins and others seemed to make no sense. I looked in vain for some clever wordplay to help with CASINO – I overlooked that it could simply be a cryptic clue – and I also thought KISSER was mouth not face. Both went in with a shrug, the former only when I had all the checkers. Same with CINDERELLA, which I never parsed and got from checkers alone. LOI was VARIES, found after an extremely long alphabet search.
So a stop-start solve, no real rhythm – but at least I got there in the end. Many thanks Galspray for the blog and a good weekend to all.
Cedric
Read the explanation for CASINO and still couldn’t get it and then the penny dropped. Someone who bets…. Of course!
No real challenges except parsing CASINO which I pondered for ages before realising that I must add Better to Flower in my mental compendium of Gotchas. Memories of running around Epsom Downs in my youth. No time but I put it at the easier end of 20 minutes. Sunny weekend beckons at last.
Thanks Galspray and Wurm
Add number to your compendium. It’s in mine, though I keep forgetting to consult it, like today.
Yes. Curarist always comes to mind!
Flew through most of this but the NE brought me to a grinding halt.
KISSER had to be dredged from the depths, spent and a long time trying to anagram ‘dicky spied’ until TOGA showed me the error of my ways and had brain freeze on LOI SULTAN.
An enjoyable start to the weekend which I finished in 6.35 with COD to Cinders.
Thanks to galspray and I hope you get your IT issues sorted soon.
Laptop now sorted, but I’d hate to be in the shoes of the CrowdStrike employee(s) responsible for that teensy little C-00000291-00000000-00000033.sys file.
All I can say is it wouldn’t happen in the mainframe world.
I used to have to do 3 weeks of prep sending system details and check results to the boffins before I was allowed to do a system software upgrade to an EMC Storage System! Fortunately I’m using Malwarebytes AV on my PCs so wasn’t affected. I’ve hacked the registry on my desktop machine so it thinks it’s a corporate system and doesn’t do updates without asking first.
Not sure that’s what saved you John. This wasn’t malware, it was a regular code update provided by, of all things, a cybersecurity company. A company trusted enough by huge enterprises (like the one I work for) to regularly deploy such updates across every Windows device in the organisation.
It’s mindblowing to me that such a thing could happen but then, like yourself, I come from a different galaxy in the IT universe.
I’m assuming it’s a security product that lots of coporates use, but is it a component of the Windows OS or part of a user selectable AV or Firewall product. I’m running Windows 10 built in firewall with Windows Defender turned off and Malwarebytes providing Anti Virus checking etc. All these products have to interact with the core OS so as you say whoever released that file will not be persona grata! It can’t be a quick fix either as each individual system has to be booted into safe mode to access and delete the rogue file.
Separate product. As for user-selectable, if you’re on the corporate network you get the updates under the covers, usually in blissful ignorance.
Just reading that it was all caused by not checking for a null pointer in a C++ program. Quelle surprise.
🤯
Do you have the link to where you read that? Just curious
On Twitter, so clearly an impeccable source!
https://twitter.com/perpetualmaniac/status/1814376668095754753?s=46
Or possibly not so impeccable. That tweet gets destroyed by this (more plausible) analysis….
https://twitter.com/taviso/status/1814762302337654829?s=46
By a lucky chance my laptop was turned off on Thursday night and I have not had occasion to turn it on again since. Would any expert out there be able to offer an opinion on whether it is safe to turn it on again yet? in other words, has the rogue code been disconnected?
Many thanks
Cedric
Cedric, if you don’t have CrowdStrike installed you have nothing to worry about.
If you do, you should boot your laptop in Safe mode and just rename the offending file, then reboot normally.
The file name is the one I mentioned above. Google will tell you where to find it.
Thank you. Very reassuring for us non-techies.
CASINO also LOI in 10 minutes only after all the checkers were in place. I knew I was looking for a gambling reference and after ASCOT and Derby kept thinking it would be horse-related!
5:27. The two long ones, LOI DESPICABLE and CINDERELLA held me up the most. I thought NARROW BOAT a bit feeble as it is barely cryptic. I liked the blue planet, though. Thanks Wurm and galspray. Off to the Bedford River Festival now. It was lots of fun when we went the last time it was on, two years ago.
I share Cedric’s view on KISSER. I found this distinctly tricky, and eventually biffed my LOI (thanks Galspray).
FOI CHOP
LOI SULTAN
COD CINDERELLA
TIME 8:33
DNF. Just could not see CASINO. The old “better” misdirection did me. Spent a long time worrying about NARROW BOAT, thinking I was missing something.
Laptop fine, though. So there’s that.
Same as Merlin, a DNF thanks to CASINO. I read the blog and still didn’t get it until suddenly…….! Now my COD.
Otherwise lots to enjoy on a Saturday morning after a chilly swim.
Sounds like you’re not the only one Ian so I’ve added “one who bets” to the explanation. One of those ones that goes from “impossible to see” to “blindingly obvious” at the drop of a penny.
Quick, quick, slow, slow, but finished. PDM with CASINO just as I was about to give up. Also struggled with SULTAN and DESPICABLE.
Other PDM: VARIES
I couldn’t parse CINDERELLA but it had to be. No problem with KISSER.
Liked TAP DANCE, GAMEKEEPER, EARTHY. Yes, NARROW BOAT nv cryptic.
Thanks vm, Galspray. Wasn’t the Derby founded by Lord Derby? Can’t remember.
Probably the Sultan of Derby.
🐎
I biffed in VARIES when I noticed that the definition might be CHANGES but I did not notice my birth sign “ARIES” !!
6.57
No problem with CASINO (nice clue though) but like Phil SULTAN went in and came out at the end as I struggled to see the parsing.
VARIES my COD
Off to the northernmost reaches of Sweden tomorrow and off the grid for a few days. Been mentally preparing for no daily crosswords and Wordle (streak of 903 about to disappear) for some months. Much harder than the training for the walk …🙂
Sounds like quite a trip! Good luck and enjoy the digital switch off.
Thanks! Seven days of the Kungsleden. Will report back
Goodness gracious great balls of fire. Unless that’s a typo above, today I am faster than Phil for the first time ever. And almost certainly the last, so I’m off to buy a lottery ticket.
I found that straightforward until my last three – DESPICABLE, where I got confused by all the anagram indicators but in the end revealed itself quickly simply by typing in DESPI to see what it looked like and the penny dropped; VARIES (a-ha!); and then LOI SULTAN, which I don’t think is a great fit with “leader” as a definition – “ruler”, “despot” etc fine, but not convinced by “leader”. And the wordplay was on a different level from any other clue, proper 15×15 escaper.
Anyway, Wurm is a brilliant setter and it was a really good puzzle. All done in 07:42 for a Freak Day.
Many thanks Wurm and Gallers.
Freak-ing fantastic!
5:34
For a change, I completed just after midnight UK time, and for a short time was 2nd out of 3 in the table – I imagine that is not the case anymore. Almost everything here was a write-in – took a few extra moments to see DESPICABLE and my LOI SULTAN but all-in-all a pretty relaxed start to the weekend.
Thanks Wurm and Galspray
Well I found this really hard and definitely needed two coffees (large and drunk very slowly) to get over the line. Several problems: CASINO (dearie me), SULTAN, VARIES, PALATE (I know). All seem blindingly obvious now. We’ve had EARTHY recently, luckily. Favourite was LOI VARIES. Lovely to have a longer than usual coffee break 😉 Thanks galspray – I did enjoy your comment about astrology.
9:25 (coronation of Æthelstan)
I wasted some time on 10a looking for an anagram of”Dicky spied” before realising what was needed.
LOI was DEAD.
Thanks Galspray and Wurm
Another who spent ages on the wrong anagrist for DESPICABLE, but got there eventually. Also held up by SULTAN and LOI CASINO. Had to write out the anagrist for ANIMATORS too. 9:01. Thanks Wurm and Galspray.
17m
Easy until it wasn’t… with despicable, palate, cinders, dead, and sultan all taking me over par.
COD Casino.
I found that quite difficult while doing it but finished in 11:27, which is quick by my standard. For a couple of minutes at the end I thought I was going to be thwarted by 8d, but the checking letters suggested LTA and then SULTAN became more obvious.
Thank you to galspray for the blog!
15:15. Needed the blog to understand the parsing of SULTAN and DESPICABLE. I almost entered RICH in desperation before RACE appeared. I think I was well into my teens before realizing SPAGHETTI was Italian, as our canned version of choice was branded Franco-American.
The gap is closing up …
Mon 21:10 – 19:01
Tues 9:14 – 8:47
Weds 10:52 – 10:17
Thurs 16:36 – DNF
Fri 12:09 – 11:51
Sat 11:15 – 15:15
Our running speed is also very similar as I have an Achilles-calf strain 🙄
Yes, should be a very competitive second half of the year- too bad re Achilles/calf strain- at least I have little to worry about on that score!
9.22 DNF with a typo in FOI ETHIS. I was pleased to get CASINO with no checkers. I feel like I’m learning something, however useless! DESPICABLE, SULTAN and DEAD were the last few. Thanks galspray and Wurm.
No time as half was done before starting the early shift this morning and the remains when I got home. Overall felt quite straightforward – my comments have mostly been made by other earlier solvers. Only CASINO really proved a problem – totally unparsed until I got here, thanks Galspray.
The one thing that struck me was that this used exactly the same grid layout as yesterday’s. Maybe it’s not that unusual to more experienced solvers, but I did like the almost self-solving 3d and 14d in each case!
And no IT issues – entirely Mac here. Gave up on PCs after Windows 95, never to return.
I was slow, 17:57. But the comments about spaghetti took me back to the days when “spaghetti on toast” was a thing. Just me?
That’s exactly what the red stuff in the tin was for Doof!
We had lots of things on toast when I was young – all generally made by a company beginning with “H”.
Got through most fairly easily then stuck for ages on DESPICABLE, CASINO and SULTAN. Not helped by initially transposing E and I in despicable.
Thanks setter and blogger
19 mins…
Started off well, but inevitably slowed down as I went down the grid. I wasn’t struck on 12ac “Narrow Boat” either, but there were still plenty of other clues to enjoy.
FOI – 1ac “Peat”
LOI – 5dn “Casino”
COD – 5dn “Casino”
Thanks as usual!