Izetti can sometimes be quite gentle but that’s not how I would describe today’s puzzle.
There were a few uncommon words or senses and the parsing of a couple of clues wasn’t crystal clear; I’d welcome comments about 3d amongst others. Still, always good to be challenged and to feel a sense of achievement with all answers in correctly. Finished with a bit slower than usual time of 13:16.
Thanks to Izetti
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Maiden, say, as sailor, big achiever (8) |
| MEGASTAR – M (‘Maiden’) EG (‘say’) AS (‘as’) TAR (‘sailor’) | |
| 5 | Objections about this fag end? (4) |
| STUB – Reversal (‘about’) of BUTS (‘objections’)
‘Fag end’ as in the end of a cigarette, which just to confuse things can also be a “butt”. |
|
| 8 | Maiden maybe in request for a large blanket? (8) |
| COVERALL – OVER (‘Maiden maybe’) contained in (‘in’) CALL (‘request’)
One of the harder ones. COVERALL isn’t a term I’ve come across for a garment or covering but is in Collins as “a thing that covers something entirely” and in Chambers and the ODE for “overalls” or a “boiler suit”. The adjectival sense, which I’m more familiar with, is only in Chambers. CALL for ‘request’ wasn’t immediately obvious either but is OK as in “A call was made upon the members for extra money to complete the building extension”. We’re only three clues in and ‘Maiden’, in its cricketing sense, has appeared twice already. The bowlers lose their line and length for the rest of the puzzle though. |
|
| 9 | Artist using mud mostly and egg! (4) |
| MIRO – MIR Not the first artist to come to mind (though he probably would be if you were in Barcelona) and I needed the crossers for this. Joan Miró, the Spanish (Catalan) painter and sculptor. |
|
| 11 | Fellow competitor running ablest team (10) |
| STABLEMATE – Anagram (‘running’) of ABLEST TEAM | |
| 14 | Silver in residence maybe what the lord’s demanded? (6) |
| HOMAGE – AG (‘Silver’) contained in (‘in’) HOME (‘residence maybe’)
I opted to attach the ‘maybe’ to the ‘residence’ bit of the wordplay rather than the ‘what the…’ def, thinking of say a football ground being the ‘home’ of a club, but not a place where someone lives. |
|
| 15 | See what’s in Hampshire garden (6) |
| REGARD – Hidden (‘what’s in’) HampshiRE GARDen | |
| 17 | Engineers getting something made for play (10) |
| RECREATION – RE (‘Engineers’) CREATION (‘something made’) | |
| 20 | A king getting in close (4) |
| AKIN – A (‘A’) K (‘king’) IN (‘in’)
All in plain sight. An alternative parsing would be hidden in A KINg but I can’t see a convincing hidden indicator. |
|
| 21 | Watch out! Ignoring article, Pinter play cycling without end (4,4) |
| TAKE CARE – I biffed this, but eventually remembered the name of the play. At a stretch another oblique cricketing reference: Pinter was a great cricketing enthusiast. |
|
| 22 | Exercises for body and soul? Unknown in the past, going back (4) |
| YOGA – Y (‘Unknown’) reversal (‘going back’) of AGO (‘in the past’) | |
| 23 | Felt awkward joining financial outfit in area of Paris (4,4) |
| LEFT BANK – Anagram (‘awkward’) of FELT then BANK (‘financial outfit’) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Mum joins church club (4) |
| MACE – MA (‘Mum’) CE (‘church’) | |
| 2 | End of trying — I have to yield (4) |
| GIVE – G (‘End of tryinG’) I’VE (‘I have’) | |
| 3 | Great sites for redevelopment according to schemes (10) |
| STRATEGIES – Anagram (‘for redevelopment’) of GREAT SITES
I don’t think ‘according to’ is part of the def but on the other hand I’m not sure what it is doing in the clue, as it’s not even necessary for the surface if ‘schemes’ by itself is the def. |
|
| 4 | Learner is bad, coming out with impromptu comments (2-4) |
| AD-LIBS – Anagram (‘coming out’) of L (‘Learner’) and IS BAD | |
| 6 | Vessel in good condition managed to support area (8) |
| TRIMARAN – TRIM (‘in good condition’) RAN (‘managed’) below, in a down clue (‘to support’) A (‘area’) | |
| 7 | They may provide support for librarians (8) |
| BOOKENDS – Cryptic definition | |
| 10 | Animal not heartless, having earlier been awfully kind (10) |
| BENEVOLENT – VOLE (‘Animal’) N Is there an animal called a FICE? Probably not. |
|
| 12 | Hesitant to admit boy as domestic servant? (8) |
| CHARLADY – CHARY (‘Hesitant’) containing (‘to admit’) LAD (‘boy’) | |
| 13 | Lively male wearing coarse cloth (8) |
| SMACKING – M (‘male’) contained in (‘wearing’) SACKING (‘coarse cloth’)
I hadn’t come across this sense of SMACKING before. It’s in Collins as an adjective meaning “brisk; lively”, but not in Chambers or the ODE. Another one for which I needed wordplay and crossers. |
|
| 16 | Gas, more than enough? That’s too much! (6) |
| ETHANE – Hidden (‘That’s too much!’) in morE THAN Enough | |
| 18 | Girl leading a fete? (4) |
| GALA – GAL (‘Girl’) before (‘leading’) A (‘a’) | |
| 19 | Gregory’s kiss? (4) |
| PECK – Double definition
Gregory PECK the actor. |
|
Threw in the towel at 12.50 with the NHO gas ETHANE unsolved. Even after seeing the answer it took an age to realise it was a hidden, so I’d say that’s a pretty good hidden. I thought there were several others that I would class as difficult for a quickie, including COVERALL, TAKE CARE, BENEVOLENT, the baffling SMACKING and the rather quaint CHARLADY, of which we have none in Oz. Not sure about ‘according to’ in 3dn either. Thanks BR and Izetti.
SMACKING and MIRO between them stretched my solving time to 20 minutes which is 5 over my target 15. For MIRO as my LOI I had to work through a lengthy alphabet trawl and even though he’s come up before I wasn’t 100% sure I recognised his name when it occurred to me as an option.
I had the same query as Bletchers about the definition of STRATEGIES. If it’s ‘according to schemes’ I thought the answer ought be STRATEGIC but that wouldn’t fit the enumeration. I then considered both STRATEGICS and STRATEGIES, neither of which seemed to account for ‘according to’, so I decided to ignore that and went for the latter.
The deletion of a letter added a new dimension to the recently ubiquitous ‘cycling’ device at 21ac. Although swapping the two halves of the remaining letters works in this particular case, in this type of clue it’s useful to think of the letters in a circle, like a wheel, ready to be ‘cycled’. The answer can begin at any point, so start from each letter in turn travelling clockwise until you find the solution. Here’s an illustration which may be useful:
The intro to my 15×15 blog today has information about a folk music event recorded at The George in Southwark that may be of interest to some.
Thanks for the diagram. Yes, that’s a much more elegant (and correct) way of doing it than simply swapping the two words round.
Do you mean smocking as a cloth? I have not heard of one called smacking
If that’s a reply to me, Prof, I realised my error sometime within the past hour and deleted the reference but I guess you must have seen it just before I did that.
May have misunderstood the Prof, but Smocking is not a cloth. It is a sewing technique that gathers material in an attractive way.
Didn’t notice anything at the time, but ‘according to’ is definitely odd; unwanted, in fact. I was ridiculously slow in getting MIRO, trying to do something with MU-. No problem with COVERALL. DNK SMACKING. 9:30.
The ‘according to’ in 3D means ‘being given to’ or ‘being consistent with’. So the result of the anagram is consistent with the meaning of schemes. That works fine for me.
Raced through the NW corner but all thoughts of a quick time were quickly extinguished by the rest of the puzzle which were classic Izetti (hovering around the limit of my enjoyment). Some proper obscurities here for me (the Pinter play, CHARY, MIRO, SMACKING).
I think we had MEGASTAR very recently in another QC.
LOI ETHANE which took way too long to spot.
Thanks for the parsing of ETHANE, WP. Nice one, Don! 11 minutes plus change for me.
8:26 – nothing that took forever in terms of staring, but I didn’t know the play. Starting to get irritated by the ubiquitous ‘char’ family of words, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard used in real life. But everybody has different preferences.
I don’t think I will be the last DNF skulking into the SCC for a consolation drink today.
May vaguely recollect MIRO now, but mud> mir(e) was too big a jump. Should have got the boat, didn’t. Total brainfade on Pinter plays, but it was an insomniac solve. Might have solved TAKE CARE but might not even then. Did think of ETHANE as a gas that fitted, but too well hidden for my sleepy eyes to see it in plain sight.
Izetti was too much for me today: an SCC MER at MIRO but nothing otherwise I felt unfair. I think others may suggest otherwise.
Maybe I’ll try again later when I’m more awake…
Not even close. Hard definitions and tricky word play. Empty spaces where BOOKENDS, MIRO, TRIMARAN, TAKE CARE and ETHANE ought to have been. Had ‘buts’ not STUB (missed what about what doing, seemed to fit as part of definition, so well misdirected there) which made it even more impossible! Only four on the first pass – and quite pleased to have got as far as I did!
Just too difficult for us today and we have limited time so threw in the towel around 40 mins with Miro, take care and benevolent unsolved.
Thanks Izetti and BR for putting us out of our misery. Hoorah for a sunny day for a trip to London with our grandson.
Me and Izetti are gonna have words. Behind the back shed after school.
So many words I nho, not just as the answer but also part of the clue… Chary?
I will acknowledge the brilliance of ETHANE though. Completely fair and stumped me (ha! Cricket) totally.
I’m another who didn’t know SMACKING in the required sense, and I agree with others about the superfluous words in the clue for STRATEGIES – maybe Don will drop by and discuss this later, as he has been known to do in the past. I could certainly believe that they’ve appeared as the result of a typesetting error. Even with all my years of tackling his puzzles, I found this one comparatively tough.
FOI MEGASTAR
LOI BENEVOLENT
COD CHARLADY
TIME 5:34
Per my comment above, which I added after you posted, the ‘according to’ in 3D means ‘being given to’ or ‘being consistent with’. So the result of the anagram is consistent with the meaning of schemes. No superfluous words from Izetti!
Started well in the NW but this turned into a slog and ended in a DNF when I guessed ‘Diro’ for the unknown artist.
Eventually crept over the line well over target in 13+ minutes with LOI the excellent ETHANE.
Thanks to BR
Phew. Finished but struggled with BENEVOLENT, ETHANE and MIRO at the end. Diro looked odd so googled MIRO and there he was. Actually I struggled with most of this puzzle.
I did eventually think of carriage horses trotting at a SMACKING pace. Biffed TAKE CARE but, now it is mentioned, I remember the somewhat sinister Pinter play.
Now feel exhausted and it isn’t even 9 am.
Thanks vm for vital blog, BR.
Threw in the towel with at least six short, sheesh that was hard today.
Any clue like TAKE CARE that requires a tough literary reference then no less than three instructions, is going to beat me.
Surely a cigarette has a butt not a BUT. What’s next, cigaret? I had barely heard of MIRO bud mud=mire is common in crosswords. Has anyone, ever heard SMACKING in use? It sounds like the kind of word those excellent Olympic skateboard commentators might use, but I suspect it’s 50s vintage.
As the blog states, the fag end is STUB. The wordplay is BUTS (objections) reversed.
Lip-smackingly delicious. Suggests rapid mouth movements. Best I can come up with.
I do enjoy an Izetti and this was no exception but he certainly made me work hard at the end. TAKE CARE, ETHANE and SMACKING were the last three in.
How anyone was supposed to come up with VOLE for the animal in BENEVOLENT is beyond me.
Thanks BR, for 1a I parsed Meg as ‘maiden perhaps’ but your definition makes more sense.
I thought the same, with some amusement, but of course with an anagram of ‘been’ and a crosser and the empty ‘not’ at the end, BENE—-NT isn’t difficult to guess from there.
There are often grumps about random boys / girls names. Today we have random animal! How was I meant to get VOLE?
Tough, and requiring a lot of biffing. DNF with 2 missing (10d, 16d) after 30 minutes.
Stupidly had BUTS early on for 5a which made 6 & 7 unsolvable until it was sorted out; the impossible-to-parse MIRO then dropped in easily from crossers (calling Miro an artist is a stretch for me, but that’s just personal taste!).
Some other very tough constructions – knew the Pinter play, but again couldn’t see how it led to the answer. Too many stages in 10d – solved only from the crossers and brute force (and yes, a vole is an animal, but isn’t that just a bit vague as a clue??)
Happy to be beaten by Izetti today- means I’m still learning.
FOI COVERALL
LOI SMACKING, but DNF
COD HOMAGE
Thanks for the much-needed blog!
Struggled with this despite some familiarity with referenced GK.
I had a Miro coffee mug from Barcelona (broke) and have always admired his work. Saw The Caretaker years ago and hated it. Not my cup of tea.
Liked ETHANE, cleverly disguised. Assumed ‘lord’s’ in 14a was another cricketing reference to Lord’s cricket grounds but didn’t see its relevance.
All in all something over 40 minutes and the coffee in the club has gone cold.
Thanks Izetti and Bletch
I don’t know if any of the setters read this but if they do can I make a plea for them to road test their efforts with their colleagues. A large blanket is a COVERLET but I knew that wouldn’t work! My Chambers doesn’t even have ‘coverall’ but My Oxford at least had it as an American term for overalls. Loads of other obscure clues or answers culminating in the last of all – a mid 20th century actor for goodness sake! Thanks Bletchley Reject though- you deserve a medal!
The Times setters use the Collins dictionary as source of definitive definitions eg
From Collins on line (web)
coverall
in British English
(ˈkʌvərˌɔːl IPA Pronunciation Guide )
noun
1. a thing that covers something entirely
2. (usually plural)
protective outer garments for the body
Thanks Simon. Even in Collins a coverlet is more about clothing than bedding isn’t it? I suppose you might argue that it could be a misdirection.
Izetti has been a lot more friendly recently but this was a throwback to his QCs of 2-3 years ago which I regularly did not finish, did not understand and (trigger warning for those who object when posters are honest and puzzles are criticised) did not like.
True old-style Izetti clues included obscure vocab (COVERALL, SMACKING – does it really mean lively?), and two if not three move wordplays (The Caretaker -> {the} caretaker -> caretake{r} -> TAKE CARE – biffed this, never parsed it, far too much going on for me; mud -> mire -> mir{e} -> miro, all to create a less than entirely well known painter). More surprising to me was the inelegant use of Maiden twice in the first three clues, and the strange AKIN which has the answer both as construction from wordplay and a hidden.
So a struggle, and a full 19 minutes to finish, and that having used a wordsearch to find Miro. And to cap a poor day, the app is still refusing to acknowledge my completions!
Many thanks BR for the blog.
Cedric
Joan Miró is one of the most famous artists in the world.
I’m sure Miro is well known in artistic circles. But “one of the most famous in the world” is a bold claim indeed, and even among just Spanish artists, I would suggest one might list the likes of Velasquez, Picasso, El Greco, Goya and Dali ahead of Miro in name recognition.
But as they say, one man’s basic GK is another’s NHO. And on this one I admit that art and artists is not a subject I know much about. My failing …
Not as famous as Harry Potter and Ron though.
Wonderful riposte!
🤣🤣🤣
DNF.
Gave up after 20 minutes. Glad I did. Just too ridiculously hard. Far too hard for a “Quick Cryptic”.
The struggle was mighty for the best part of 10 mins, and then it turned out I failed on SMOCKING, which I thought had something to do with cloth. SOCKING being “lively” and M being “male”. I knew it didn’t feel quite right.
My LOI was ETHANE though, which was tremendously well hidden. TAKE CARE was a complete biff.
Stumps well and truly shattered by Izetti today as I groped down the wrong line, and I’m trudging back to the pavilion to throw my bat at the wall. 🙂
DNF
Exactly my thought process on SMOCKING
I assume the unfortunate vacancy for a crossword editor has not yet been filled.
Started quickly but then very delayed by the final few. 22 minutes; LOI ETHANE. OTTANE had been my invention until I spotted the hidden.
I had assumed CHARLADY was SH…….Y and this caused a big delay.
SMACKING from the parsing; NHO this meaning.
I thought of Miro quite quickly but then thought : that’s tough for a QC, particularly when MU… might have been expected at this level.
So, happy to finish all correct. Quite tough and the odd MER.
David
A real struggle with this one, only just breaking 20 minutes at 19.24. I had to assume SMACKING was right even though I’ve never come across the alternative meaning, and after putting this in I had just three to get with just over nine minutes gone on the clock. A further ten minutes were required before ETHANE came to me, although I didn’t spot the hidden at the time. Next came TAKE CARE, which I should have got much earlier perhaps as the Pinter play came straight to mind, but I failed to deduce what to do to get to the answer. Finally, with a mighty sigh of relief BENEVOLENT at last occurred to me as a possibility, and it was then easy enough to parse. What a struggle!
25:59 for a rare visit to the SCC. Izetti at his hardest. Nevertheless I enjoyed it a lot.
BENEVOLENT held out for an eternity; very satisfying when finally spotted. ETHANE was my LOI – not expecting “that’s too much” to indicative a hidden and, in common with others, wondered whether OTTANE was a gas.
Thanks BR and Izetti
That was tough, but I slogged through in under ten only to discover (a) I’d fat-fingered AB-LIBS and (b) it wasn’t SMOCKING after all. As hopkin said, I knew it didn’t feel quite right …
The Crossword Club then flashed up my overall position, which I didn’t know was a thing, and to my great amusement I am #235, sandwiched between Dvynys at #234 and plett11 at #236!
Many thanks Don and Bletchers.
Well this blog has made me feel much better about my dismal performance on this one. Eventually stopped my watch on 48:38 having spent about half of that struggling with the NE corner. I wouldn’t have been so long had I not put in BUTS instead of STUB and when I saw that mistake I got BOOKENDS straightaway and then TRIMARAN fairly quickly. 9a eluded me even through an alphabet trawl with the first letter, but on doing the same with the third letter I came up with mud = silt. I am sure there must have been an artist at some point in history called SILO. Unfortunately then, a DNF for me, but I can’t remember ever coming across MIRO before and wouldn’t have thought of mire as a synonym for mud, so I’m not too upset with myself. A good workout anyway, so thanks Izetti and BR.
Haven’t been here for a while as life has got in the way, but wonderful to be back and find the regular gang. I loved today’s QC, although DNF due to MIRO (one of my favourite artists as well!) and the crossing TRIMARAN. All fair otherwise.
Thanks so much to BR for the blog. Even when not posting I do check the blog when I do a QC sometimes weeks after issue and always appreciate the effort taken in the blogging, you are all stars. Prof
Welcome back Prof!
Thanks for your kind words and for your explanation of the role of ‘according to’ in 3d, which I agree is probably what was intended.
Took a lot of perseverance today but eventually over the line! Knew MIRO and The CARETAKER but what really stretched me were my last three: RECREATION (doh), SMACKING (a light bulb moment when I finally thought of sacking for coarse cloth), then LOI ETHANE (biffed in desperation, only to find that yes, it was a hidden that I’d failed to spot). Well played Izetti! Great QC. Thanks to BR – also needed your help to parse TRIMARIN (thought of mint for good condition but rest didn’t make sense) and CHARLADY (NHO chary).
10.27
Fortunately changed SMOCKING to SMACKING. TAKE CARE shamelessly biffed (way too much w/p) then worked out; MIRO from somewhere. A tricky one.
Also found this tough and one pink square having NECK rather than PECK. I’d argue that both work, Gregory being Cockney rhyming slang for neck.
Thought ETHANE was nicely hidden but as a former chemist spotted it early. Messed around with char hand for a while and also smocking before alighting on the correct answer.
10:30
Hard to finish I thought – 2/3 done in about five minutes, then a trudge through sludge to eke out the remaining answers, not helped by entering BUTS at 5a. I recall a MIRO exhibition in Barcelona perhaps twenty years ago, I was unimpressed at the time, though having revisited a few pictures today, they look better than I remember.
Last three in were the difficult BENEVOLENT, the well-hidden ETHANE and the huge penny-drop for TAKE CARE (not really aware of any other Pinter plays so am glad that the resolution was within my grasp).
Thanks Izetti and Bletch
Unusually, I found this relatively straightforward. SMACKING was the only way to use SACKING ( coarse cloth) and insert M (male). The Pinter clue was biffed, but is very neat. COD CHARLADY. LOI TRIMARAN.
Going along slowly but reasonably well (even spotted Ethane) until down to my last three: Charlady (had Shy for hesitant), Smacking (nho as lively) and Miro (nho). Finally saw that the ‘ar’ bit, that made no sense in 12d, belonged to ch-y to give Charlady. Smacking parsed, so I left that as was, albeit with a shrug. That just left Dir(t)o, Mir(e)o and Sil(t)o for 9ac (did I mention it was four letters?) No idea which one was an artist, so looked up Miro for a technical DNF after around 30mins. A case of ‘could do better’, eh Don ? Invariant
28 minutes. Too many that brought me to a dead stop, just staring at them, while the clock ticked on. LOI ETHANE, a blimmin hidden! Well done Izetti, and many thanks BletchlyReject for the blog
I like Izetti, but this was pushing it.
If the play doesn’t appear in the introductory section of the Pinter wikipedia entry then it doesn’t belong in a QC IMHO.
thanks BR and the Don
Quite simply too difficult for me. This was a disheartening experience, caused by a combination of inadequate crosswording skills and a lack of GK.
I somehow reached three-to-go after 30 minutes, but only as a result of some very lucky guesses. I’d NHO the word CHARY and still can’t quite accept that SMACKING is a synonym for lively.
I then spent a further 20+ minutes trying in vain to solve my three remaining clues, which were:
9a (MILO): NHO the artist, although I did think of dIRO (dirt without the t).
16d (ETHANE): Never parsed the clue and never saw the hidden.
21a (TAKE CARE): NHO Pinter’s play, never parsed the clue and alphabet trawling ___E _A_E proved too much of a challenge.
Outcome = DNF with 3 clues unsolved, after approx 51 minutes.
Thanks to Izetti and BR.
Thanks! Made me feel better about my very similar (non) performance. I’m used to artist being RA in a QC, but clearly that was never going to work here. And mud mostly would normally mean MU, but again not here. Gave up despondent.
First 2 in, MACE and GIVE, led to MEGASTAR, then I went back to the across clues. A reasonable first pass, but several gaps. Needed GALA, PECK and BENEVOLENT before TAKE CARE hove into view. NHO SMACKING in that sense. POI, MIRO, went in with fingers crossed. LOI, ETHANE needed an alpha trawl, then I saw the hidden! 8:45, which I thought was slow until I saw where I was on the Leaderboard! Thanks Izetti and BR.
I liked the pair of cricketing maidens in the 1st 3 clues. Sorry Cedric.
8a Coverall, whacked in Coverlet, but it didn’t work at all.
Totally ignored the complexity of 3d Strategies.
Confidently started to write Catamaran at 6d until it didn’t fit.
Found Joan Miro quickly at 9a, remembering a visit to Barcelona.
Entered 21a Take Care by biffing, having forgotten the play which I haven’t seen AFAIK…. Having scanned the synopsis I deffo haven’t seen it, about which I have no regrets. I know I have heard of it as “The Caretaker” is in the Cheating Machine, indicating it has likely been used in the past either as answer or in the clue.
13d DNK Smacking in that sense, but it seemed vaguely credible. Not in Wiktionary as far as I can see. I thought spanking has the required meaning so just bunged smacking in as a near miss.
No problems with unknowns, but had terrible trouble with LOI ETHANE, as I completely failed to see the hidden. SMACKING went in with some hesitation, till I thought of something going at a smacking pace, which then made sense, and I had COVER— for a long time before I deduced it had to be COVERALL, which I have only seen as a US overall. So quite a tricky workout, but as always, pleased to find it’s not just me… Thanks, Izetti, keep up the good work…
NHO SMACKING so put SMOCKING, hence a DNF, which is galling as the rest took 3 attempts, on and off, to get. Biffed ETHANE, then saw it hidden. Grrrr. Very difficult.
62.24 I was completely stuck in the SW. STRATEGISE hindered RECREATION and I took an age to spot the hidden ETHANE. Even simple ones like AKIN. I was pronouncing it like “aching” and thinking that’s not a word. It was a very hot night. Thanks BR and Izetti.
Well over my target but I’m calling this a win. I started briskly in the NW with MACE and was quite pleased to see MIRO straight away (his connection with Mallorca helped) and have just come back from a YOGA session so that didn’t ‘pose’ a problem. My unknowns were TAKE CARE (biffed) and SMACKING (relied on wordplay). I just averted a DNF belatedly spotting the hidden ETHANE, my LOI. Thanks BR for explaining TAKE CARE which I tried and failed to parse post submission. 10:19
DNF after 17:23. SMACKING seemed odd for lively but it was close enough and reasonably clear from the wordplay and checkers. Mrs T guessed POI ETHANE and it at least fitted the definition so in it went without us having seen that it was a hidden! That left us, after much headscratching and mental wordsearches with the LOI and NHO artist SIL(T)O. Trust the wordplay! Not! And I knew about MIRO but was just unable to recall him. Pah! COD TAKE CARE but that too needed the checkers before the penny dropped. A tricky one today but the odd DNF doesn’t preclude the enjoyment of these puzzles. Thanks BR and Izetti.
As above ETHANE gave me a DNF, rest went in ok but MIRO biffed : mud – mire pushing it a bit in my case for relatively obscure artist.
Joan Miró, obscure?! Have you never heard of Ernst or Dalí either?
Yes to Dali, not to Miro. Yes to Monet, Manet, Rodin and assorted other French artists.
Seeing the number of posters who had problems with Miro, I don’t think he’s as well known as you think!
I take it as meaning that posters here are less well-informed that I had assumed.
What about Magritte? Ever heard of him? Marisol?
I bet more regular solvers of the 15×15 would know the name.
True, but a late pipe from me to note that this is the QC. . .
That was my point. (Maybe I don’t understand the intended sense of “pipe.”)
A play on signal/ceci n’est pas. . .
14:36. Pleased to get through this in a decent time as I feared I wouldn’t even finish. I pondered COME HOME(from Pinter’s The Homecoming) before I remembered The Caretaker. True, as some commenters above point out, not the most exciting play ever(or comprehensible) but Alan Bates, Robert Shaw, and Donald Pleasence certainly put on a master class in acting in the movie version I saw. BENEVOLENT was my COD.
When I first started the QC years ago I’d just retired & was a crossword greenhorn as I probably still am & also I’m incredibly slow because I do it for pleasure & challenge rather than competitively. When I first came upon Izetti I had no idea that he was the Godfather of crosswords but I found I “got” him & warmed to him so I always greet his creations with confidence & a smile …… which helps immensely.
Thank you for another wonderful workout today.
I paused at 20 minutes in with 5 still to go and went away and did something else for half an hour. I then came back and made an admittedly rather half-hearted attempt at the recalcitrant 5 before giving up and coming here. The first major stumbling block was my incorrect entry at 5ac (I had BUTT) which made 6dn and 7dn impossible. Having amended 5ac I saw these two immediately but remained completely stumped by 9ac, never having heard of the artist in question. I also failed on 10dn and 16dn. On the plus side I knew the Pinter play so semi-biffed the answer to 21ac (wordplay just too complicated) and guessed at SMACKING from the wordplay, never having heard the word in the sense used. Beaten all ends up by Izetti today – thanks to BR for shedding light on my mystification.
FOI – 5ac the incorrect BUTT
LOI – DNF
COD – 12dn CHARLADY
12:46 here, but a technical DNF as I used aids for the two 10-letter anagrams after my first pass left me with a very lightly populated grid. With those two added, things progressed well, although I’m in the group that can’t see how “smacking” is a synonym for “lively”. COD to the brilliantly concealed ETHANE.
Thanks to BR and Izetti.
It did vaguely cross my mind to wonder if Homer nodded here briefly and confused smacking with spanking. A spanking pace is indeed lively, and of course smacking and spanking are relatively close synonyms.
Izetti is one of my favourite setters, but this was hard yards. Serious issues with Smacking/Smocking (DNF), then Coverall/Coverlet.
FOI 1d Mace
LOI 16d Ethane – when spotted as a hidden
COD 14a Homage