I made fairly heavy weather of this, though looking back it all seems straightforward. I came in at 7:58 but only after several last-ditch biffs.
| Across |
| 7 |
Drink after very final message (4) |
|
VALE – ALE after V, meaning farewell. |
| 8 |
Composer non-believer? In one! (8) |
|
PAGANINI – PAGAN + IN + I |
| 9 |
House by river with virtuoso poet (6) |
|
HORACE – HO (house) + R (river) + ACE (virtuoso). Roman poet 65-8 BC |
| 10 |
A cart led by good knight (6) |
|
GAWAIN – A + WAIN (as in the Hay Wain), with G for good at the front. One of King Arthur’s goons. |
| 11 |
A base for thieves maybe in port (4) |
|
ADEN – A + DEN (of thieves) |
| 12 |
A rise lad negotiated to be regularly paid (8) |
|
SALARIED – anagram (‘negotiated’) of A RISE LAD |
| 15 |
Islands where male meets females at matches (8) |
|
HEBRIDES – HE (male) + BRIDES (females at matches) |
| 17 |
Eg, London society — not so English (4) |
|
CITY – SOCIETY minus SO and E |
| 18 |
Run in country producing injury (6) |
|
SPRAIN – R in SPAIN |
| 21 |
Learner not the first person to be paid for work (6) |
|
EARNER – [L]EARNER |
| 22 |
One way of saying artist entered secretly (2,6) |
|
IN CAMERA – In came RA (Royal Academician) |
| 23 |
Mum with little hesitation leaving insect (4) |
|
MOTH – MOTHER minus ER |
| Down |
| 1 |
Pet — roughly speaking, a fool (8) |
|
CANOODLE – CA (roughly speaking) + NOODLE (fool) |
| 2 |
Keep check, receiving a word of thanks (6) |
|
RETAIN – REIN (check) with TA (thanks) inside |
| 3 |
See papa getting bothered over daughter being placated (8) |
|
APPEASED – anagram (‘bothered’) of SEE PAPA plus D for daughter |
| 4 |
Past glories initially making one very keen (4) |
|
AGOG – AGO (past) + G for Glories |
| 5 |
Some comedians were giving a reply (6) |
|
ANSWER – hidden word |
| 6 |
Worker, one not pro (4) |
|
ANTI – ANT (worker) + I |
| 13 |
US city gave lass shivers (3,5) |
|
LAS VEGAS – anagram (‘shivers’) of GAVE LASS |
| 14 |
Request measure leading to agreement (8) |
|
ENTREATY – EN (measurement used in printing) + TREATY. Crossword measurements to know: EN (about 6 typographical points), EM (two ens), and ELL (measure of length used in textiles, about 45 inches) |
| 16 |
President has soldiers once more out of India (6) |
|
REAGAN – RE (Royal Engineers, i.e. soldiers) + AGAIN minus I for India. |
| 17 |
Something shiny in church, see (6) |
|
CHROME – CH (church) + ROME (see, in its very crosswordy sense of diocese) |
| 19 |
Long wood (4) |
|
PINE – double definition |
| 20 |
Christmas story book lacking central element (4) |
|
NOEL – NOVEL minus the middle letter |
Too hard to be fun but CITY and MOTH were both excellent. Aids had to come out to justify GAWAIN. Only 4 on the first pass of acrosses, so I struggled throughout. Finished in 19.26 but as mentioned not without having to seek electronic reassurance.
I’ll get the ‘not what I call a quickie’ ball rolling by saying this puzzle, which I solved in 15.44, is not what I call a quickie. There were a few gimmes (SPRAIN, MOTH, LAS VEGAS, EARNER) but many others that really belong in the main puzzle. Having said that I found it clever, challenging and rewarding to solve so thanks Izetti, and thanks Curarist.
We really enjoyed this. Quite a tough solve but really satisfying as penny after penny dropped. Yes lots of biff then parse but in the end only vale was not understood as NHO that meaning.
All done in 26.36 although technically a DNF as we plumped for Yale hoping it was an unknown word for farewell and the y being the last of very.
Tough choice with many contenders but COD to in came RA
Thanks Izetti, and Curarist
Vale appears in Oz whenever a famous sporting personality dies, or sometime just retires. Sadly not all sports reporters are Latin speakers and often pronounce it as it appears, not as var-lay. It tends to undercut the solemnity of the occasion.
Well, that’s probably more respectful than the entries in my phone app dictionary that offers
ta-ra, ta-ta, toodle pip, toodle-oo and chin-chin 🙂
11 minutes. I was slow to see HEBRIDES, CANOODLE and REAGAN.
DNF, defeated by the NW corner where unusually I could not see a single one of them, thus meaning no checkers to help. Not sure I understand VALE even when I see the blog, and HORACE will get some to bemoan that all dead people are fair game while some much better known living ones are not.
Otherwise a struggle and I second LindsayO’s comment; several difficult ones and in particular cluing see = Rome is tough for a QC.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog
Cedric
VALE is Latin. My Latin teacher at my (boys only) school might have said at the end of a lesson (but I’m not sure he ever did) Valete pueri.
Thank you John, and I now see the connection to (I am guessing) valedictory etc. But I made the mistake of assuming this was an English language crossword, pronounced it vail, and got nowhere …
It’s a foreign word which has entered the English language, and is thus completely fair in an English language crossword. See also karaoke, status quo, rani, tsunami, bona fide, guru, ad hoc, alibi, sushi and so on ad nauseam.
Yes, understand that now – just automatically read Curarist’s blog, thought “vail” and was stumped! All clear after John’s explanation, though I will have to take your word that it is now standard English, as I confess I’ve not met it before.
Yes but all the examples you give are words which are in (regular) use. Vale may be correct (it’s in Latin text books maybe) but it is by no means apt for a quickie in my opinion.
Latin wasn’t even offered at my (co-ed) school. And, in my O-Level stream at least, Shakespeare didn’t feature. Weird!
Posh schools have a valedictory dinner for leavers.
I went to a posh school where the list of leavers in the school magazine was headed VALETE. I’ve waited more than 60 years to find that useful.
Tough but fair, although I took a stupidly long time to see MOTH where I wanted to take the ‘er’ off ‘mater’ and magic up the final letter to produce a rare insect 🤦♂️.
My main issues were in the NW where CANOODLE/VALE were particularly tough, the latter of which was known but had slipped to the deepest recesses of my mind and I got fixated on more tropical islands than the HEBRIDES.
Started with HORACE and finished with VALE in 9.08.
Thanks to Curarist for the blog and Izetti for the challenging but enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Templar and New Driver, HEBRIDES was a write in for me because my brain still wants to spell it ‘hebredis’
Vale my great week though, defeated by Izetti once again. I didn’t get Canoodle, and nho IN CAMERA though that wordplay was very fair.
The only see I know is ELY and the only port is RIO 😂
You are not the only one grateful for the prompt when it came to 15ac
I chuckled when that went in – do you think they’re hacking our comms?
Think we all knew whose clue was best 😉
Well I just about managed this within target at 9.43, but it was a close run thing. I think it was certainly harder than average with the nw corner being particularly problematic. VALE was finally solved, which in turn released CANOODLE and finally HORACE. The term VALE meaning final message, came to me from a distant memory of my old school magazine publishing the names of those boys who were leaving the school , usually to go on to university.
My total time for the week was 50.10, giving me a daily average of 10.03, so almost smack on target.
10.02, surely?
Was that the sound of my old maths teacher turning in his grave? 🤭
This was a hard one with some clues that felt like we were in 15*15 territory.
Called a halt after 40 minutes with the whole of the SE unsolved and also VALE and CANOODLE.
MOTH was very clever and EARNER was so easy I discounted it.
Thanks Curarist and Izetti.
Dear Mr V, I salute you for pulling the plug before (hopefully) losing the will to live. I have just introduced a cut-off time (40 mins), but haven’t had cause to use it yet. I hope I have the courage to do so when the need arises … which, no doubt, will be quite soon.
17:02, and pleased to not be entering the SCC as seemed certain before taking a break, and seeing VALE. CANOODLE appeared in a clue recently, and I commented on it, so was in my mind. Likewise HEBRIDES, with Tina’s comments about Scottish Islands.
LOI CHROME, I thought ROME was church, but forgot I already used that bit. Never knew what IN CAMERA meant, but I knew that I didn’t know it, so maybe it meant “secretly”.
And what in earth is a Luxury Crossword today? Gold plated grid?
I wondered that too, a Jumbo GK puzzle apparently, but something more than that? I don’t recall seeing anything in the Newsletter. Anyway it’s not for me as I usually struggle with 5 or 6 clues in the regular Monday GK puzzle.
A hint:
‘Win a £50 Harrods gift voucher with our Luxury crossword’
A bit tenuous but perhaps Harrods is still associated with luxury………
More to the point, every clue has some sort of ‘luxury’ connection.
Every clue is an advert
Sounds like someone has badly mistimed the promotion 😬
Don’t have any breakable objects to hand when you see 11D …
5:20. About an average time for me so I didn’t find it too hard. I wondered if a YALE could be a message for a while, until I saw the wordplay didn’t mean “take the last letter of very”. LOI CHROME. No modern figures like pop stars for Izetti with PAGANINI, HORACE and GAWAIN all better known to me than, say, the songs of Adele. Thanks Izetti and Curarist
Passed on six …. NHO “roughly speaking = CA” – what’s that? Nor fool = NOODLE (common in specific parts of the country, maybe?). Measure = EN is distinctly difficult, especially as it could equally be EM (like “unknown” = x, y or z, perhaps) – but ok, will learn! But the others (HEBRIDES, CITY, REAGAN, CHROME) were very clever, just too clever for me.
Latin studies of over half a century ago helped with VALE and HORACE!
I assumed ca was the abbreviation of circa, so about = roughly. Haven’t checked the books though.
CA is an abbrevo for circa, as I understand, meaning about, hence roughly…
Thank you both … in that case, what is the role of “speaking”?
I think it just helps the surface
yes, it helps the surface. And, I think, “roughly speaking” can mean “about”
An Izetti within 20 mins is a red letter day for me, and I thought I was about to have one, but after steady progress 17A/D slowed me down – both very good once I saw them – until minute 20, and a further 3 minutes before IN CAMERA finally came to me.
There must be an expression (no, not that, something erudite) for when you know what is going on, you know you will know what is required but it hides in the dark recesses of the brain and refuses to submit to parsing and logic. It is a phrase well known to me so no excuses, just frustration. So obvious, so elusive. Bah. Lots of clever stuff, fair as ever.
I know exactly what you meean, it’s often accompanied with “and I’m sure it starts with a T (or some other letter)”
I went over 10 minutes today at 11:09, exactly the same last three in as Jack
Some good stuff for sure so thanks Izetti (and Curarist) but definitely not a quickie. Summed up for me by vale – correct but ridiculous! It maybe the root of valediction but where else might you see or hear the word?
I’m pretty sure it was in The Approach to Latin, Book 1. . . 😉
DNF.
Far too hard for a Quick Cryptic.
Just one example:
“14 Request measure leading to agreement (8)
ENTREATY – EN (measurement used in printing) + TREATY. Crossword measurements to know: EN (about 6 typographical points), EM (two ens), and ELL (measure of length used in textiles, about 45 inches)”
EN ? Very obscure. I have some knowledge of fonts etc. from website design but never seen the term EN used. Does one have to have an expert knowledge of printing to do these puzzles?
There are certain short words and abbreviations that appear in puzzles because they are useful in clues like the one you mention, which is a charade – where the answer is broken into pieces each of which is indicated separately in the wordplay. En and Em are common parlance in cryptic crosswords precisely for that reason and are worth remembering.
Further to Gordon’s point, en and em spaces are never going to be a factor in website design, but they were essential back when compositors were working on trays of hot-metal type. Obviously irrelevant now. I always assumed the N and M spaces referred to the width of those letters in type-set text, just like we have en and em dashes still…
From my experience EN is common in cryptics. EM may be more common because it is used in web design.
I am disappointed that setters seem to have such reliance on obscure long-dead poets, dead languages and obsolete technology.
8:36 (Battle of Carhampton. Wessex defeated by the Danes from 35 ships)
I went against trend by completing this in less than my average time. ENTREATY was my LOI. I have remembered EM from previous crosswords, but did not know that an EN was half an EM. Another one to try to remember.
IN CAMERA was my COD.
Thanks Izetti and Curarist
A very different experience for me – 7:15. Must be all this good Italian food and wine! I did have the GK which helps, and only really slowed down on my LOI. A borderline Red Letter Day. Don’t think I’ll bother with the luxury puzzle 👎
FOI Vale LOI Canoodle COD Salaried
Molte grazie Izetti e Curarist
Off to Bavaria now 🇮🇹🇩🇪
Well played! PS can’t believe you’re still swanning around in nice places, all right for some
Ooh, got a few more days to go! Just leaving a wonderful hotel in the middle of Prosecco vineyards and then on to Bavaria for a couple of days before a last flying visit to Salzburg! Back to reality after that 😅
Mmmmmmmmm. I’m tagging along in my dreams.
Oh, and well played!
14:03, an enjoyable puzzle and a bit of a tussle, particularly my last two in: CHROME, finally recalling Rome as the Holy See, and then MOTH, which I had been looking at all wrong. COD PAGANINI and WOD CANOODLE
*whispers* I didn’t think it was too hard, though the NW corner trio CANOODLE/RETAIN/ADEN took a while to fall. I eventually got there by deciding that “pet” had to be CAT, writing it in and then immediately seeing CANOODLE.
All in vain, though, because when I hit submit I got 07:43 with a side order of Dreaded Pink Square … I’d fat fingered CHROMR. Hey ho.
I very much enjoyed that. COD to PAGANINI, eluded me on first pass, easy with checkers, lovely elegant clue. Many thanks Izetti and curarist.
So what’s the convention on a fat fingered R? Given you knew the answer can you still claim the solve?
Nope, I go into the sad pile on the Quitch stats marked “Ref solvers excluded with errors” (11 today).
I’ll go one beyond Templar and say this was one of Izetti’s easier puzzles (at least for me it was)
All but two done in 4 then a minute and a bit to get first VALE and then (d’oh) CITY, which was much easier than I thought it was. Even if you don’t know the word, trusting the wordplay with the pretty simple construction of V + ALE shouldn’t raise your heart rate too much. I trusted the wordplay on yesterday’s beast of a 15×15 and got the unknown PRONUNCIAMENTO, and I wasn’t that sure about the NUN :-).
IN CAMERA & CHROME were my C’sOTD.
5:16
trusted the wordplay (final letter of very) and turns out yale isnt a message
There were a couple of difficult choices. There are 2100 sees or dioceses. ROME is better known for other reasons. PAGANINI was a virtuoso violinist and he was also a composer among many others.
I imagine Rome was chosen because of its importance as ‘The Holy See’. Wiki has details for anyone who want to know more.
Well, this Friday Izetti certainly lived up to expectations: a stiff test, but an enjoyable one, as seemingly impossible clues slowly made sense. A very slow start, getting all the way down to Gawain before the pen was required. In fact the grid was still pretty sparsely populated after a full first pass. Paganini (obvious, really) finally opened up the NE, but the NW corner was a different story. I just couldn’t see how to get a foothold until Ho R Ace came along, quickly followed by Vale and memories of Latin homework. Even then, time spent desperately trying to start loi 1d with Cat, meant that the 30min post was in full view before the Canoodle pdm. CoD to 22ac, In Camera, for the typically smooth Izetti surface. Invariant
This wasn’t too bad for a Friday when I eventually got going. My FOI was SALARIED! I had to leave the NW corner until the end of the solve. VALE to me means OK in Mallorca so I was quite happy to extend the meaning to encompass farewell. HORACE and GAWAIN were unknown but seemed likely from the wordplay. I knew of the port ADEN but not it’s location (Yemen apparently). My LOI was IN CAMERA and my COD goes to CITY. 8:44
Well I enjoyed it. I thought it was not very difficult, not a single pencil mark on the page. One man’s meat etc.
COD In Came RA
13:35 so pleased to finish Izetti off so rapidly. Held up by vale (had amen in a Hail Mary first time pass) and not helped being unable to digest that chewy rough noodle…ho hum still not a bad time methinks
Ta Izetti and Curarist (ps are you a cardiologist? Phil ……. being the cryptic?)
I went for MUTE (=mum) at 23ac, figuring I didn’t know the insect I needed to remove UM or ER from, but surely one exists.
An odd mix of a lot of write-ins and a few very difficult clues with unknown bits to them. I’ve come across IN CAMERA on here, but I’d forgotten it entirely and wouldn’t have been able to say what it meant. No doubt the printing measurement EN has come up before too, but had also been long forgotten, or at least forgotten. I wondered about CANOODLE, but didn’t put it in as it was ages before I saw how it fitted the wordplay, and then there was only 7a to get, which I finally put in, not expecting it to be right, having done an alphabet trawl and come up with nothing that I knew to be either a drink or a final message, but at least VALE satisfied the wordplay. Stopped the watch on exactly 38 minutes, about half of that spent on the last two. Anyway, thanks Izetti and Curarist.
Can anyone help reconcile, the comments here generally agreeing that this was very hard, my own experience of the crossword being the hardest one I can personally remember with multiple NHOs and the qitch score of only 100?
My guess is that the number of DNFs is at an all time high? Does that alone explain it?
The people commenting on this blog and the people whose solving times contribute to the SNITCH are not the same universe of people – there’s overlap, sure, but it’s not complete. If you look on the SNITCH, anyone with a Personal NITCH that’s green found it easier than usual, which looks to be roughly half of the solvers, which (roughly) suggests that you might expect a SNITCH score not far from 100. In particular, most of the faster solvers – who don’t tend to comment here – found this easier than usual. The number of people who have made errors today is not currently significantly different to the rest of the week (there’s a “Ref solvers excluded with errors” total near the top of any given day’s SNITCH page).
Everything you’ve said is correct but it still doesn’t quite satisfy my curiosity
*Why* is the consensus here seemingly different to the quich score? What is different about commenters here (as a group) and reference solvers? What do we find difficult that reference solvers find less so?
Experience for a start. Some people here have been doing crosswords for decades. If you’ve seen a clue before, it’s a lot easier the second/third time you see it.
But the commenters here seem to be saying it’s harder than average, what you say (unless I’m misunderstanding) would explain the opposite?
A few of the reference solvers do indeed comment on this site, but the majority of comments are from less experienced solvers. This is particularly true as the day goes on, with people who have struggled dropping by to ask questions about clues etc. Hence it’s always going to be hard to judge the difficulty of a puzzle just from the comments, which it why we are lucky to have the Snitch/Quitch.
Perhaps, to add to what Invariant is saying, some of the clueing/vocab was more on the lines of a 15×15 rather than a QC, which would bring it more into the wheelhouse of experienced solvers yet at the same time being more of a stretch for people who normally stick with the QC.
If you compare today’s result with Wednesday’s, the quitch is very similar but today’s took three times as long to get 50 reference solvers. I think you are correct in suggesting that there could be a lot of DNFs shortening the tail of the distribution, or at least multiple sittings.
On edit: just seen Mohn’s (12:23) response, which is perfectly sound, but I do think non-reference solvers soon get into difficultly with slightly harder puzzles. I have no explanation for why the reference solving rate is so different for puzzles with a similar quitch.
Further edit: I’ve just noticed that Starstruck uses a dynamic scale for the abscissa in the Snitch/Quitch, so my comment about the solving rate is meaningless.
Dear Blue92, I suspect that some of our faster solvers choose to submit off the leaderboard when the QC is more challenging and they’re not sure they’re 100% correct. This would protect their personal average rating, but would also keep the QUITCH artificially low. Also, the QUITCH does not capture the times of those, like me, who solve on paper.
5:37
I am firmly in the ‘fairly gentle’ camp today, virtually a twice round write-in fest, with only VALE and CANOODLE requiring engagement of turbo brain cells, but then I had heard of all of the words which perhaps tripped up one or two.
Thanks Curarist and Izetti
Just under five minutes, so obviously in the groove today. Nice puzzle, COD to Hebrides as it made me smile.
I drew a total blank with the first few clues, but then ADEN came to my rescue. I regrouped and RETAIN and HORACE jumped out at me. I smiled when HE-BRIDES appeared after recent discussions. CANOODLE and VALE took a while longer, then the rest of the puzzle dropped in without too much angst, apart from LOI, MOTH, which needed a U-turn in the thought processes. 8:26. Thanks Izetti and Curarist.
I thought it an average level of difficulty today, with many write-ins and a few trickier clues. There seemed to be a lot more clues than normal of the format ‘take letters out of this word’ or ‘add letters to this word’ eg 17a, 18a, 21a, 23a, 17d, 20d.
The clue to LEARNER is probably the most obvious I have ever seen. COD was IN CAMERA for me.
Thanks Curarist for blog.
Ha! I was stumped for ages by EARNER. I was looking for something starting L involving first person (ADAM or EVE). Obviously there was much kicking myself when I saw it.
Challenging, varied and witty: all the hallmarks of an Izetti, in my limited experience. My prep school magazine had Salvete and Valete to the new boys and leavers, on the back page, and one spring term only one boy left: so it was Vale. Once read, never forgotten. But NW corner defeated me: even with all the crossers I failed to get HORACE and CANOODLE: grr, how obvious it now seems! Loved IN CAMERA (my COD) but PINE was fun and so was HEBRIDES (once I had discounted Antilles). Knocking on the SCC door today: please let me in!
DNF in 25 minutes. REAGAN, CITY, CHROME, VALE and HORACE took a while but I was completely stumped by CANOODLE. It’s a word my mother uses so I really should have thought of it. Thanks Curarist and Izetti.
The AI (Crossword Genius) solved all but two in 4 minutes (VALE and MOTH). All parsed successfully apart from NOVEL.
Failing by two is still a fail … but that’s amazing! What are the mechanics, Merlin? Do you scan the whole puzzle into CG then press “go” and sit back and see how long it takes? Do you have to type all the clues in one by one? (surely not).
Just take a picture and press solve. Simple as that. You do need to subscribe though.
Wow, that sounds extraordinary. And slightly worrying!
The full portcullis grid signalled the likelihood of a tough-ish solve ahead, and so it proved. I came in in 34 minutes, which whilst a little over my new target (30 mins), was thankfully inside my new cut-off time (40 mins) and I breathed a sigh of relief.
SALARIED and SPRAIN were my first two in, but the Down clues proved more fruitful. Despite not being able to parse ENTREATY, I’d completed the RHS after 12 minutes, but had only APPEASED and SPRAIN on the left.
Progress on the LHS was much slower. HORACE was parsed, but NHO. NOEL and IN CAMERA were known, but never parsed. My last two in were CANOODLE, where I was completely bamboozled by the wrong type of pet, and RETAIN, where I spent quite a while trying to parse dETAIN.
Thanks to Izetti an Curarist.
Dnf…
I thought it was hard. My own (personal) reasoning as follows:
a) a difficult NW corner – a lot of people start here – if it’s hard to begin with it can affect the performance/confidence for the rest of the puzzle.
b) slightly more obscure GK: Latin, Composers, Poets, Knights etc.
c) tricky word play
Saying all of that – had the majority after 20 mins, just couldn’t get a couple of clues in that before mentioned NW corner and 22ac “In Camera” (which I still need to understand the definition).
FOI – 11ac “Aden”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 23ac “Moth” – took me far longer than it should – but brought a smile when it did.
Thanks as usual!
I guess most OSA trials would be held, at least partly, ‘in camera’ to prevent wider disclosure of information of use to this country’s enemies.
Agreed a wide vocabulary/general knowledge was required today. I knew Aden (my Dad was posted there just after WW2) but didn’t think of CANOODLE. Not sure I’ve heard it used in the last 50 years (Or noodle for fool).
I sometimes think 71 is not old enough to do these crosswords!
As a man in the middle, neither an elite solver nor a beginner, I solved this one in about my average time, fitting for an average-difficulty puzzle according to the QUITCH. I had a little trouble with vale and canoodle, which I parsed as C + A NOODLE. The other clues were not difficult for experienced solvers, although I did nearly biff mute where moth should go.
Time: 9 minutes.
But Vinyl, you blog and complete Mephistos. To my mind that puts you firmly in the elite solver bracket.
I mean in terms of speed. Yes, I know a lot, but it takes me a long time to remember. I solved this puzzle in 9 minutes, but Mohn was well under two minutes.
I do better in Mephisto because knowledge is more important than speed there.
I felt so slow and dull (how could MOTH and CITY take sooooooo long?) that I was surprised to be left knocking at the door of the Club, at 18:04. HEBRIDES should have been so easy but I could not get BERMUDAS out of my head. Funny, I don’t think of PAGANs as nonbelievers, but believers in something else. Or a motorcycle gang. Loved VALE and IN CAMERA! (No I never studied Latin.) CANOODLE had me thoroughly fooled, you win, Izetti.
Thanks to Izetti and Curarist!
15:33. CHROME held me up longest, although my first guess MITE meant I was slow to get MOTH too. IN CAMERA and AGOG were favourites.
Ah, but then a mite is not an insect, it’s an arachnid. It was my first thought too until I remembered they were more like spiders.
A strange mix of very easy clues mixed in with some rather tricky ones – right up my street. Took a while to get going but the grid did eventually fill up in around average time for me (1 x coffee). Quite a few biffed then parsed (GAWAIN, PAGANINI, IN CAMERA, HORACE). Never did parse LOI CANOODLE (thanks C, had forgotten CA = circa/roughly and had vainly searched for a homophone). ADEN held me up too and VALE was a PDM. I really enjoyed this one. Thanks Izetti.
In the end I think we did OK with 16:10 but it certainly felt tough throughout with the SE corner being the last one to fall and ENTREATY LOI.
VALE was our first one in, I don’t know where I knew it from but it was vaguely familiar and the wordplay helped greatly. There were a few others that required some dredging and there were certainly points at which I thought we might have been amongst the DNFs. I know that Izetti has a reputation here but we normally do much better with his / hers. Satisfying to finish it though. COD IN CAMERA. Thanks to Izetti and Curarist.
BFS*. The NW corner went poorly for me, and the NE corner saw little progress. Slim pickings in the SW corner, and a disappointing SE corner. Other than that it all went very smoothly.
Thank you for the blog!
* Barely F__ Started.
Hilarious. May today go better!
20:15
Medium difficulty. Just over my 20 minute target though that was largely due to the time taken changing my grey biffed answers to black. Main hold up was the NW corner, CANOODLE, RETAIN and LOI VALE which I didn’t understand but was clear from the wordplay.
Defeated by Canoodle, despite biffing Vale and having all the checkers. Found this difficult but all the more rewarding when solving the delightful City, Paganini to mention but a few. Thanks Izetti and Curaist
Late to the table today, but a satisfying puzzle from Izetti, as usual, with a short period of wondering whether it might be a DNF, as I found myself with a couple of pairs that wouldn’t give – CANOODLE and HEBRIDES in the NW and CITY and CHROME in the SW, but eventually, applying myself to the wordplay brought the required answers to mind. Perhaps a bit more contrasting than usual, with some very easy answers and some decidedly tricky ones.
We’ll, it is Friday! It’s a while since I’ve tackled an Izetti, and I enjoyed it – though, like some others I found the NW quarter intractable until I suddenly saw VALE and it began to unravel……On the whole, definitely on the hard side of moderate. COD – VALE and runner up AGOG. Thank you Curarist and Izetti.
I’m intrigued by the comments today. It seems many thought this quite hard with several clues worthy of the 15×15. I just settled down to tackle an Izetti – always harder but always very fair. I was rather surprised by a couple that I thought barely cryptic eg 21a Earner, but so many were delightfully constructed that I savoured the challenge. Yes the NW fell last but really not that difficult (a non-Latin Grammar School student here).
Would love more like this – pitched to work through at leisure. Nothing really impenetrable, and all fun to solve.
FOI 12a Salaried
LOI 7a Vale – dim memories of Shakespeare…
COD 8a Paganini – tried Puccini once I had the ini but immediately saw the correct answer.
My week was already in ruins but this delivered the final kick.
28 minute DNF as put YALE for 1ac. That just about sums up my sheer inability to do this. I am completely, utterly and irredeemably useless!!!
Even by my dreadful standards, this was a hideous week. 143 minutes, 1 DNF and just 1 SCC escape.
Why do I bother? I don’t have what it takes and I never will.
No doubt I’ll return on Monday for another exercise in humiliation.
PS Bad day on big crossword. 60% in 75 minutes. Truly abysmal.
I have no idea how to improve or how to derive pleasure from this any more. Why do solvers who never seem to tackle the big crossword routinely beat me? Why do I get worse the more time I put in?