ParkSolve time = 33:17, comprised of a middling run time and a middling solve time on a beautiful Saturday morning.
Today’s entertainment comes to us from Orpheus and I think it lands perfectly in the sweet spot for a Saturday Quickie, challenging without being impenetrable.
Five double definition clues seems more than the usual allocation but that’s certainly not a bad thing.
And there’s a reminder in the third row of the grid of what has plagued many of my recent 15×15 solving attempts! Hope you managed to avoid such frustrations. Please let us know in the comments how you went.
(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 | Bachelor tucking into cooked trout — or flatfish (6) |
| TURBOT – B (Bachelor) “tucking into” (TROUT)* | |
| 4 | Standing sculptures Moore finally turned out (6) |
| STATUS – STATU |
|
| 8 | Single woman in charge of keeping books? That’s ridiculous (7) |
| IDIOTIC – I (one, single) + DI (woman) + IC (in charge) “keeping” OT (books, as in Old Testament) | |
| 10 | Slip made when urchin loses head (5) |
| ERROR – |
|
| 11 | Young creature associated with a Caribbean island (4) |
| CUBA – CUB (young creature) “associated with” A | |
| 12 | Panic leads to chap making chewy biscuit (8) |
| FLAPJACK – FLAP (panic) + JACK (chap)
I thought this was a word that some North Americans use for pancake, and apparently it is. Didn’t know about the British version, but I see it’s made from oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup, so save some for me please. |
|
| 14 | Descending cascade, a force in the north (9) |
| WATERFALL – Double definition
Another local term I don’t think I knew. “Force” is used in the north of England for a waterfall, eg High Force in the Durham Dales. |
|
| 18 | Calm down about stress (8) |
| RESTRAIN – RE (about) STRAIN (stress) | |
| 20 | Commotion in prison (4) |
| STIR – Double definition | |
| 22 | Manage to capture small wood (5) |
| COPSE – COPE (manage) to “capture” S (small) | |
| 23 | Half of them agitate to be ruler (7) |
| EMPRESS – EM (half of thEM) + PRESS (agitate) | |
| 24 | Reduce size of quiet skating area (6) |
| SHRINK – SH (quiet) + RINK (skating area) | |
| 25 | Stylish girl in outskirts of Coventry (6) |
| CLASSY – LASS (girl) in CY (“outskirts” of CoventrY) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Little person going around with nervous tic (6) |
| TWITCH – TITCH (little person) “going around” W (with) | |
| 2 | Colourful display of East End artist (7) |
| RAINBOW – RA (artist) IN BOW (East End) | |
| 3 | It’s a malediction: you can swear it! (4) |
| OATH – Double definition
Two definitions of oath are “a coarse or blasphemous phrase” (malediction) and “a solemn promise”. Interesting that they both involve swearing in one form or another. |
|
| 5 | Surprisingly he paints one treading the boards (8) |
| THESPIAN – (HE PAINTS) | |
| 6 | Sailor originally keeping an otter (5) |
| TARKA – TAR (sailor) + K A [first letters (originally) of Keeping An]
From Tarka the Otter, His Joyful Water Life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers, a 1927 novel by Henry Williamson. Haven’t read it myself so somebody else will need to enlighten us on what was so joyful about Tarka’s death. |
|
| 7 | Butcherbird makes us scream, turning tail (6) |
| SHRIKE – SHRIEK (scream) with the last two letters reversed (turning tail)
Birds, eh? One of our erstwhile commenters would no doubt have had something to say (in verse). |
|
| 9 | A nice role working in an Ulster town (9) |
| COLERAINE – (A NICE ROLE)*
On edit: Thought it was a nice clue anyway, but as per Jackkt and Busman below it’s probably a nod from Orpheus to the late Times Crossword editor Richard Rogan, who hailed from Coleraine. Nice touch. |
|
| 13 | Fish no guest relished at first unfortunately (8) |
| STURGEON – (NO GUEST R)* where R is Relished at first | |
| 15 | Correspondence for landlords? (7) |
| LETTERS – Double definition | |
| 16 | Dangerous reptiles surrounding union leader in plant (6) |
| CROCUS – CROCS (dangerous reptiles) surrounding U (Union “leader”) | |
| 17 | Reliable pianist ultimately out of practice (6) |
| TRUSTY – T (pianisT “ultimately”) + RUSTY (out of practice) | |
| 19 | Senior police officer, first-class (5) |
| SUPER – Double definition
A police Superintendent is often shortened to Super in the UK, as we all know from The Bill. Don’t think my man Frank Burnside ever quite achieved this rank though. |
|
| 21 | Work on a large gemstone (4) |
| OPAL – OP (work, short for opus) + A + L (large) | |
After yesterday’s mighty wrestle with words, this insomnia solve felt a bit unchallenging, other than having to work out what an Irish town name might be from the letters provided. No other big problems, all pleasant, no standout clues for me. Try to get back to sleep now.
Same, luckily yawns starting 🙂
9 minutes. NHO ‘butcherbird’ but knew SHRIKE which the wordplay led me to eventually as my LOI. I also knew FORCE as a waterfall, but only from previous puzzles.
10 years ago COLERAINE might have given me a problem but it has come to my attention many times in recent years as the home town of Richard Rogan, our late crossword editor and QC setter who had many pseudonyms, most of them associated with Coleraine FC: Felix, Des, Oran, Marty, Kenny, and Rodney were all names of Club managers. He also set as Alconiere which is an anagram of Coleraine.
I found this fairly straightforward, which came as a nice change of pace after yesterday’s battle.
The second meaning of WATERFALL was new to me and I needed all the checkers before the vaguely known Irish town came to mind.
Started with TURBOT and finished with COLERAINE in 5.11.
Thanks to Galspray
A nice 19.37. A pretty steady solve with some nice surfaces, NHO butcherbird so needed a quick Google as couldn’t make the wordplay work.
Knew force from visits to several in Yorkshire but thought our overseas friends might find it tricky.
Liked flapjack, and indeed like it to eat too, but COD to RA in Bow.
Thanks Orpheus and Galspray
No horses frightened if I recall correctly.FLAPJACK is or was one of a set of words used to draw dialect borders; flapjack/pancake/griddlecake. I can’t remember any of the others. Well, there was the pronunciation of Mary/merry/marry. TARKA has been here before, a couple of times, so I (finally) knew it; never read it, of course, or heard of it outside these walls. We’ve had ‘force’ before, too, or I wouldn’t have known it. (It seems to me that I’ve learned nothing in the last several years except from doing these puzzles.) 6:58.
I found it a bit of a struggle this morning, TURBOT went in straightaway but then it was a slow trawl through to LOI STURGEON.
I’m not sure of this wavelength thing but several times I looked at the wrong end of the clue for definition and couldn’t make the wordplay work.
NHO of Tarka the Otter but the wordplay was clear.
I enjoyed the workout and all made sense in the end.
FOI 1ac TURBOT but never really got going after that, taking 17 minutes to finish. I haven’t read Tarka but I know he died at the hands of (teeth of?) otter hounds so we need to lift and separate His (a) Joyful Water Life and (b) Death. I liked STATUS and TRUSTY
An enjoyable puzzle, all done in 11 minutes with no real hold-ups other than a minor hesitation over agitate = press in EMPRESS. Force is one of the “northern England only” words from the years when the Danes ruled half of England; it comes directly from the Old Danish (and modern Icelandic) foss which does indeed mean waterfall.
I noticed the juxtaposition of IDIOTIC and ERROR, but I think it is a coincidence not a commentary on anyone!
Many thanks Galspray for the blog, and a good weekend to all.
Cedric
I’ve had a dodgy week, both on QC and 15×15. IDIOTIC ERRORS and numerous typos, plus more than one puzzle that has provided minimal enjoyment – so this was a satisfying coda.
I’m sure Orpheus has intentionally given us my COD as a tribute to Richard (see Jack’s post above).
I’ve never read Williamson’s book, but it’s a regular feature of general knowledge crosswords.
Thanks to Orpheus, and to Galspray for another excellent blog.
FOI TURBOT
LOI TARKA
COD COLERAINE
TIME 3:34
A very pleasant 30 minutes spent solving this puzzle which had a nice mix of clues.
I was fooled by some that could be read a number of ways such as 1d where ‘nervous’ could have been an anagram indicator for Tic.
COD to STATUS for the Moore reference.
Thanks too for the blog.
10:56 with an idiitic typo.
Held up by twitch and shriek.
COD rainbow/coleraine.
Same thoughts as Jack & Busman on COLERAINE, it’s also a good anagram and surface.
Definite change of pace cf yesterday’s QC.
LOI was STATUS after SHRIKE.
4:01
4:58
Sneaked in under the 5-minute wire with this gentle Saturday offering – didn’t know the second meaning of WATERFALL but bunged it in and cemented in place with crossers. Plucked the COLERAINE anagram out of the ether – only know of the place due to the existence of its football team.
Thanks Galspray and Orpheus
Nice one!
Dnf…
After yesterday’s shambles, this was definitely more reasonable – but I still struggled on the NW corner and failed to get 1dn “Twitch”, 8ac “Idiotic” and 11ac “Cuba”. All were solvable, so not sure why I struggled – although I’ve often found after a really hard QC psychological doubts appear and my brain turns to mush on some of the easier clues.
FOI – 1ac “Turbot”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 14ac (it’s a) “Waterfall”
Thanks as usual!
Finished and enjoyed. Very quick until NE where I had to think about LOI VHO SHRIKE. Luckily THESPIAN saved me from ERRORs.
FLAPJACKs are delicious. Thought of Slapdash but it didn’t parse.
Yes, come to think of it, I did know Force but not until I read the blog.
I have been to COLERAINE but not since I was about 12, when I was a weak player in the Cambridge House Ballymena hockey team.
Thanks vm, Galspray.
8:32
The most recent episode of “Mark Steel’s in Town” on BBC Radio 4 came from COLERAINE, so that came to mind more easily than it might otherwise have done.
I’ve never heard the SHRIKE referred to as a Butcherbird, but it was the only bird that fitted the clue.
Thanks Orpheus and Galspray
Had to make a couple of passes before the answers started flowing. No problem with WATERFALL as I’ve visited High Force on the Upper Tees many times as well as Hardraw Force near Hawes. I’ve even got pics of me (as a teenager) and my Dad at the very edge of the main drop looking down, before ‘elf and safety of course. Anyway TURBOT was FOI and the constructed Butcher bird was LOI. 6:46. Thanks Orpheus and Galspray.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=higb+force+waterfalls&id=589B7AB5987894F10352E502F664D28F65DC190C&FORM=IQFRBA
14:41, which was a relief after yesterday’s disaster. Thank you for the blog!
DNF. My initial doubts over a failure to parse Waterfall faded as everything seemed to fit, even the eventual Coleraine. That only left a few to tidy up in the NE corner, (T)error looked plausible, but Status took a long time to see, which just left Flapjack and Shrike. Got the first, but the bird was saved by the 30min cut off bell. Tarka the Otter was a junior school leaving present (those were the days, eh?) Well worth a read, just a shame about HW’s politics. CoD to RA-in-Bow. Invariant
No problem with force for us northerners. Knew shrike as a butcherbird. A steady solve in 11:20. Thanks, galspray and Orpheus.
It took some pondering today to finish in 22:30, what with several unknowns–COLERAINE, butcherbird, TARKA, FLAPJACK in the British sense, force in the northern English sense, TITCH–holding me up. Actually, I see from the comments here that I must have seen COLERAINE before, as RR’s anagrammed nom de plume.
My own IDIOTIC ERROR was grabbing the wrong sense of “about” in 18a, leading to a hopeless biff of EMPHASIS that then had to be thrown out by my better angels. tERROR for “urchin” seems like one of those very stretchy synonyms the setters love to fool me with. Loved RAINBOW.
Thanks to Orpheus and galspray!
Held up for ages by TWITCH, RESTRAIN and SHRIKE (NHO). Managed to finish without error but felt a real struggle. Nothing to do with puzzle, just in possession of a brain on go-slow today. Needed blog to parse COPSE (see what I mean!). Liked TRUSTY. Many thanks Orpheus and galspray.
10:39. So much easier than yesterday’s, and a great relief! COD goes to TURBOT. thanks to Orpheus and Galspray!
12.03 Mostly quick. The watery meaning of force was new to me. FLAPJACK, SHRIKE and STATUS needed a second visit and SUPER and RESTRAIN held me up for three minutes at the end. Thanks galspray and Orpheus.
21:10. Everything was fair and gettable but I suffered from August sluggishness. Still it was nice to get to sample some of the new pastries in the SCC.
OMG 😱
2.06NDs
The apocalypse is nigh!
Oh my-well played, sir!
Richard Rogan’s pseudonym for Independent crosswords was “Bannsider”.
Coleraine FC are known as “The Bannsiders”
There’s an important river to remember – the Bann.
What a pleasant relief after yesterday…Carelessly entering 4a Statue led to problems with 7d Shrike (which I wouldn’t have easily seen anyway). Took a few moments to see the parsing of 14a with Force=Waterfall but familiar enough with the term.
FOI 1a Turbot
LOI 18a Restrain
COD has to ne 2d RA in Bow – so lovely!
Solved this while rather stressed in the queue for the last ferry to Arran, having booked as a passenger but changing plans meaning I’d like to get the car on as well … but it’s fully booked and I’m second in the stand-by queue … 😵💫
❤️ to COLERAINE. Quite a few little hesitations (didn’t know WATERFALL= force; wrong end of the clue for STATES; couldn’t see LOI SUPER without all checkers etc etc). Got home in reggo enough 08:39 for a Stressed Day. Wish me luck!
Many thanks Orpheus and gallers.
Good luck!
Thank you! I made it! 51st out of 54 allowed on … squeaky bum time but I’m on board, phew
16:13 here, a little over target. Held up in the NE corner, where I’d forgotten the word SHRIKE, couldn’t see why ERROR would be right and hadn’t a clue on STATUS. Fortunately had a PDM on STATUS and the others followed. Still not convinced by “terror” as a synonym for “urchin”, though.
Thanks to Orpheus and galspray.
Anybody heard of a Butcherbird – really? Just had to put in Shrike as it couldn’t be anything else, but always frustrating to have to guess at random esoteric GK. I’ll never remember it for next time either.
Another thing – a flapjack is nothing like a biscuit (you cook it once). Biscuits are not chewy, they’re crisp. “chewy biscuit” is like “steely cashmere”. I’ve put my tin helmet on though to counter the raft of dictionary entries which I’m sure will claim otherwise – all wrong.
12.50 – enjoyable Saturday offering.
NHO Coleraine, and I initially guessed Caloreine, but before I checked the answers, listened to some of “Mark Steel’s In Town” on Radio 4 at Sunday lunchtime, and the featured town was Coleraine! Still a DNF because NHO Shrike and forgot how to spell Shriek.