I enjoyed this. Lots of nice surfaces and pretty straightforward for the most part. I couldn’t parse SPORRAN initially, even though it was the obvious answer, and didn’t twig with SONG until afterwards. End result a tad over-par 7 minutes.
Across |
1 |
New-look squad a mere pretence (10) |
|
MASQUERADE – anagram (‘new-look’) of SQUAD A MERE |
8 |
Carry around air conditioning? That’s refreshing (7) |
|
BRACING – BRING around AC |
9 |
One with informal business by a Spanish island (5) |
|
IBIZA – I + BIZ (business, informally) + A |
10 |
More than six balls? (4) |
|
OVER – double definition, the second a cricket reference |
11 |
Lack of stuff? Don’t worry about it (2,6) |
|
NO MATTER – double definition |
13 |
Swamp-like planet extremely heavy (6) |
|
MARSHY – MARS (planet) + H[EAV]Y |
14 |
Oxford inspector left small piece of food (6) |
|
MORSEL – MORSE + L. Inspector Morse, fictional detective who had to investigate Mexico City levels of violent homicide in 1990’s Oxford colleges. |
17 |
After popular pet returns, I go quiet (8) |
|
TACITURN – CAT backwards + I TURN. ‘Popular’ is redundant |
19 |
Reverse middle part of Kiss tune (4) |
|
SONG – SNOG (kiss) with the middle letters switched |
21 |
Show up uninvited to stock market event (5) |
|
CRASH – Double definition. The first an abbreviation of ‘gatecrash’ |
22 |
Bear and cat dancing for show (7) |
|
CABARET – anagram (‘dancing’) of BEAR CAT |
23 |
Ensnare owl flitting around US city (3,7) |
|
NEW ORLEANS – anagram (‘flitting around’) of ENSNARE OWL |
Down |
2 |
Non-professional seen in team at Euros (7) |
|
AMATEUR – hidden word |
3 |
Seafood with no starter for pound (4) |
|
QUID – [S]QUID |
4 |
Christmas drink, for example, picked up award (6) |
|
EGGNOG – EG + GONG backwards |
5 |
Airman to upset cartoonist (8) |
|
ANIMATOR – anagram (‘upset’) of AIRMAN TO |
6 |
Kick out some of the Victorians (5) |
|
EVICT – hidden word |
7 |
Not too heavy without first large decoration (5,5) |
|
FAIRY LIGHT – FAIRLY LIGHT with the first L removed |
8 |
Top of bookshelf — space to put quidditch gear (10) |
|
BROOMSTICK – B[ookshelf] + ROOM (space) + STICK (put). The mode of transport used in the fictional game of Quidditch from Harry Potter. |
12 |
TV programme’s food includes pork pies, say? (4,4) |
|
CHAT SHOW – CHOW (food) with HATS inside. Pork pie being a type of hat, and not for once cockney rhyming slang for ‘lie’ |
15 |
Following short game, took off tartan accessory (7) |
|
SPORRAN – SPOR[T] + RAN. Pouch worn with a kilt. |
16 |
Shopkeeper is even more repulsive when talking (6) |
|
GROCER – sounds like ‘grosser’ |
18 |
Series featuring murderer outside hotel (5) |
|
CHAIN – CAIN with H inside. Cain is the biblical murderer who killed a quarter of the world’s population, i.e. his brother. |
20 |
Leader of orchestra regularly broke instrument (4) |
|
OBOE – O for orchestra + BrOkE |
What a lovely puzzle. So many really smooth surfaces. Was going really well until breeze blocked by fairy light which took almost 2 of our 12.52 which is close to PB territory
COD is tough as so many candidates but will go with quid for the smile
Thanks Squire and Curarist.
9 minutes. Nice puzzle. I was looking for a pangram but we are short of J and X.
Note: There’s something odd going on re this puzzle at The Times which may affect the SNITCH. Here are the two comments posted in The Times forum so far:
jackkt Fri 06 Dec 2024 04:37:29 AM
In today’s Crossword Club there are two links to QC 2852. One of them works, the other goes to an error page. So we have the access we need but the duplication needs to be removed.
kapietro Fri 06 Dec 2024 06:21:35 AM
I don’t get an error page. I get the same crossword again, but with a different list of solvers: 37 of us on this page and smarter 22 on the other page. They would need to be combined when removing the duplication.
correction: the “smarter 22” should read “another 22”
Yes on further inspection the error message only comes when I go to print one of them. It appears that behind the scenes the puzzle is linked to two different urls only one of which is active.
As a minor point, Trelawney’s name is missing the R in the blog title
Trelawney heading amended now.
7:23, very fast.
MASQUERADE went in first, then all of its descendants. BROOMSTICK also flew in. Leading to another raft of initial letters.
COD SONG, WOD SNOG
I’m on the leaderboard, but not on the SNITCH.. Anyway, I don’t remember anything but was sluggish overall, once again. 7:32.
Hi Kevin and all,
There are two versions of the Quick Cryptic on the Club site with separate leaderboards. The SNITCH is only picking up one, so if you’ve solved on the other, I don’t see your time. If you report your time in your blog comments (and the SNITCH knows your TfTT name is matched to your club name), your score should eventually be reported in the SNITCH leaderboard.
My apologies. I can’t think of any quick way to fix this, as monitoring both leaderboards would take quite a few changes to the code.
The ever-reliable Trelawney delivers again, with a puzzle of wit, sparkle and getable clues. So, fast and enjoyable for me, all done in 6½ minutes, with only minor hold-ups wondering what the word popular was doing in the clue for TACITURN and parsing CHAT SHOW, a clever clue that is my COD.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog and a good weekend to all
Cedric
I read popular as a nice little piece of misdirection. It certainly had me starting off by looking for a word that began IN.
But the SOED gives as its first definition of popular as ‘1. Prevalent or current among the general public; commonly known, general’.
So I think popular is fair game as a definition for cat.
It’s always good to see Trelawney’s name at the top of the puzzle and this one was of his usual high quality.
Started with MASQUERADE and finished with FAIRY LIGHT in 5.48 but with too many good clues to pick one out.
Thanks to Curarist.
Aaah, Trelawney! My favourite setter. Welcome, old friend. ❤️
Pi
Turns out I can neither spell SPORRAN nor read to the end of a clue to parse properly. A well-deserved pink square in an otherwise most enjoyable 12.54.
Thank you, Trelawney (can we please correct the spelling of his name in the heading?), for being a friendly setter. All done; LOI EGGNOG (DNK anything Christmassy about it, but Mrs M assures me).
CNP CHAT SHOW or SPORRAN, so thank you, Curarist. NHO pork pie hat, but Mrs M has – she ought to be doing these puzzles, not me, but she’s far too busy!
Here’s hoping the SNITCH doesn’t pick up my DNF, a careless CABERET giving me the DPS and a jolt of shame. Dear oh dear. Can’t even claim a fat finger, I just got it wrong. Would have been 06:38 but WOE indeed.
Great puzzle. IBIZA COD for me in a packed field. Many thanks Curarist and the Squire.
Down there over the Tamar, Trelawney is a great hero, subject of the eponymous Cornish “anthem”, and it seems he (must be the same guy, surely!) is just as feted amongst this community.
Give the man a pasty for this fine puzzle, and thanks also for the blog.
Nicely sub SCC with FAIRY LIGHT and SNOG as my head scratchers of the day.
I’m still relatively new at all this but I managed to fully complete this one in 40 minutes. Really really enjoyed it!
FOI – MASQUERADE
COD – CHAIN (I’m starting to spot some regular expressions, like CAIN for murderer)
Feeling chuffed this morning 🙂
Great stuff – keep going!
Heck yeah!
👏
Boom!
💪
Very well done 👏👏👏
Congratulations 🎊
Well done.
12:33
A fairly easy end to the week. The first few went straight in and thought a sub 10 was on the cards but the last few took a bit more teasing out including TACITURN (tried to include IN for popular) and the unparsed LOI CHAT SHOW.
18:40 – my slowest Trelawney of the year. And it was DNF because I bunged in BeArING before wading through 5mins of trawling to figure out BRACING – until I thought of AC for air con. Generally I was slowed up by trying to come up with a LAS/LOS American city, didn’t understand CHAT-SHOW, couldn’t parse FAIRY-LIGHT and anyone of my age or younger would say “No worries” or “No problem”. On the flipside I loved the SONG and BROOMSTICK raised a hearty laugh.
Anyway for those not coming back on Saturday (and Kevin) – have a good weekend 👍
11:31
I normally race through Trelawney puzzles, but struggled today.
Still enjoyable, just had to think through clues rather than writing straight in.
COD song.
thanks
An enjoyable puzzle. QUID was FOI, after which I did the rest of the top line down clues, then got MASQUERADE. I then went back to doing the acrosses in order. After a couple of passes, NEW ORLEANS was LOI. 6:35. Thanks Trelawney and Curarist.
A nice level to end the week, held up by SONG which was LOI after FAIRY LIGHT gave a lot of help. COD MORSE, distracted by thinking of Oxford as a type of shoe….
Finished correctly in 35 minutes. First success for a while. Hooray!
Fairly Light –> Fairy Light , I thought was very tough. Did not like this clue.
Taciturn took time also, even though my favourite pet is our Tabby ( I must go and check how it is doing in that box).
Had to look up Quidditch – apparently it is something to do with Harry Potter. Should references to children’s books be allowed in these puzzles ? I think not – except for Alice in Wonderland, possibly.
Grocer = repulsive ? Is that why Private Eye called Ted Heath ‘Grocer’ Heath ? I think we should be told.
No, I believe it was to do with Heath’s apparent interest in Common Market food prices. But the pun you mention has had good mileage in the media in recent days with reference to the alleged antics of the bald man who presents MasterChef.
Would that be Dr. Schroedinger’s box???
. . .I think you should play safe, and take the money rather than open the box 😉
11:34
Needed pen and paper to untangle MASQUERADE. LOI QUID.
I didn’t spot the duplication on the crossword club, but I did note that it gave me 842 points for an 11:34 solve, as if it was scoring the QC as a 15×15.
Thanks Curarist and Trelawney
GROCER made me laugh so much.
6:45
Came to a shuddering halt with about two thirds done, needing to write out the letters of 1a to see the obvious answer – that released the tension, giving me in quick succession QUID, ANIMATOR, NO MATTER and FAIRY LIGHT topped off by SONG. I liked CHAT SHOW.
Thanks Trelawney and Curarist
7.41. Lovely puzzle. I’ll never be a very fast solver as my brain just doesn’t work quickly enough, but it gives me some time to enjoy the clues.
I hear you!
Pretty straightforward with only CHAT SHOW and TACITURN causing brief holdups. A pleasant end to the week.
Gordon – for “Grocer Heath” read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Heath#%22Grocer_Heath%22
Thanks. Very good.
I made heavy weather of the first two puzzles this week, particularly Mondays offering, but things have improved in the second part of the week, and my time today of 8.10 is comfortably inside target. It took me a while to see how SONG was parsed although the answer was obvious. I join others in saying what a good puzzle this was, so well done Trelawney.
My total time this week was precisely 65.00 minutes giving me a daily average of 13.00. Just short of 24 minutes for Mondays puzzle didn’t help!
I found this much gentler than of late. Only slights hold-ups were NEW ORLEANS and CHAIN (only saw Cain post-biff 🙄). COD to FAIRY LIGHT for the festive smile. Thanks for the blog C.
Didn’t stop to parse POI CHAT SHOW (thank you, Curarist) but NO MATTER, 8:02 was our fastest for what seems a long while, despite taking quite some time to try and put IN into 17a. Thank you, Trelawney!
My fastest of the week at 13 minutes. Biffed several: CHAT SHOW, SONG and SPORRAN so thanks to Curarist for shedding light on those. Great crossword – thanks Trelawney.
FOI – 8ac BRACING
LOI – 18ac SONG
COD – 7dn FAIRY LIGHT
10 of which three were bifs
Best of the week.
Anyone have a better explanation for sporran please?
A sporran is that little pouch people wear with kilts. So, accessory for tartans.
A game = sport
A short game = spor (the word sport. Shortened)
Took off = ran. Eg. The policeman took off after the burglar
So the word ‘ran’ – following – ‘spor’ =sporran
Blogger in training?
08:59. MASQUERADE held me up at the start and EGGNOG at the end but in between it was steady, if not speedy, progress.
It mightn’t look very exciting but my favourite was OVER. When I was a young ‘un, in Australia at least, an OVER was indeed ‘More than six balls?’.
Thanks to Trelawney and Curarist
Many thanks to Trelawney for offering us a clever puzzle which is actually a QC.
I have done all the QCs since #1 (with most times around 7-12 mins) until I stopped posting when I felt pushed to the periphery by the, let’s say, ‘quirkyness’ of many setters and the increasing proportion of ’15×15-standard’ clues. At least I managed to complete this one within my former time range!
I acknowledge that my times for my regular Crosswords elsewhere have increased marginally over the last year or more (age? brain rot?) but my QC times have often doubled (at least!).
I still derive great pleasure from many QCs. I marvel at the imagination and ingenuity of all setters and I truly appreciate what they achieve but my concern over the balance of difficulty and consistency in the QC came to a head on Mon-Weds of this week which, simply, put the tin hat on it. The comments from many esteemed solvers on this blog were very significant, I thought. When I see established, respected solvers posting times in the teens, twenties, and even DNFs (plus significant absences from the blog comments), I question whether the setters (and the Crossword Editor) have lost their bearings just a little too often, especially for overseas solvers and the ‘newbies’ the QC was supposed to encourage.
Trelawney has offered me encouragement that, perhaps, the QC is not yet dead. Sincere thanks.
Welcome back!
Thank you.
The mutual support, banter, and humour on this blog from posters world-wide still give me enormous pleasure.
I think it will be a huge challenge to recover the impressive balance of the first couple of thousand QCs but I still hope it may be possible.
Good to hear from you, OB.
Let’s hope Asp can turn things around, though RR is a pretty hard act to follow
If the blog doesn’t come up until US morning, I may or may not post, whether I had a good time or not. I have already solved the puzzle, gone to bed, and gotten up, so I may not even remember anything about my solve.
Good day to you, Blighter! It’s great to hear from you again and to know that you’re lurking out there somewhere.
I eventually took the same approach as you, for the same reasons, but didn’t disappear for long. When I returned I deleted my records and stopped timing my attempts. It’s more enjoyable now.
Do please continue to share your thoughts with us from time to time.
Great to hear from you OB – come back soon 😊
I think we’re all hopeful that there might be a bit more consistency among some of the newer QC setters from now on.
Lovely puzzle, thank you!
Very quick at the top but slower towards the bottom of the grid. I started with MASQUERADE and finished with FAIRY in 7:17. Thanks to all.
6:29 so definitely on the easier side for me. I chortled at GROCER as the grossest grocer ever (allegedly) has been splashed all over the UK front pages for a week and I, so far, only see one mention of it in the blog. I presume the puzzles are composed well in advance so perhaps Trelawney has contacts at the BBC. My LOI was FAIRY LIGHT.
Fairly gentle stuff from Trelawney, but Taciturn (no room for an In(n) then) and the parsing of Chat Show more or less guaranteed a place on the SCC, albeit a decent enough window seat. For some reason, now unclear, I had ‘picked up’ as an obvious homophone indicator for the first half of Eggnog, and was left wondering why Nog was an award. . . possibly a Norse one in honour of King Noggin? Anyway, CoD to Chat Show for the parsing. Invariant
Noggin the Nog – oh happy days ☺️ I think I might have to do a little You Tube trawl now!
Last year MrB and I went to the museum in Canterbury where they hold the Smallfilms archive – we spent a very happy time with Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine and, of course, all the Clangers 🍲🐲
I was wondering if anyone here would remember Noggin ☺️
Embarrassed to admit that, before rushing out this morning, I carelessly bunged in Los Angeles instead of NEW ORLEANS, so had to spend lunchtime correcting my errors in the bottom half.
LOI GROCER because I couldn’t read my own writing. More haste, less speed.
Belated PDM with BROOMSTICK helped too. Liked CHAIN, MARSHY, IBIZA, QUID, among others.
Could not parse CHAT SHOW, SPORRAN, or SONG/snog!
Thanks vm, Curarist.
Trelawney knows how to set a QC and I breezed along happily until, coming off the final bend into the finishing straight, I ran into an unwelcome patch of quicksand. CHAIN, TACITURN, CHAT SOW, GROCER and NEW ORLEANS all conspired to make my performance much more ordinary than it would otherwise have been.
Many thanks to Trelawney and Curarist.
9.12 A nice puzzle. BROOMSTICK, NEW ORLEANS, SPORRAN and LOI SONG took some work. Thanks Curarist and Trelawney.
P.S. The Quitch picked up this time so I did the neutrino thing on the other copy of the puzzle and took 1.39. My PB on the concise crossword is 1.30. So I can do that faster than a cryptic I’ve literally just finished!
14:38 to solve this smooth and amusing puzzle.
I’m still a novice, evidently, since I’m scratching my head over the question mark in the clue for OVER. It’s a straight double definition, neither of them cryptic, and it’s not needed for the surface. Why is it there? (So different from its jokey neighbor NO MATTER, my favorite clue today along with NEW ORLEANS.)
I took a long time for FAIRY LIGHT (cute!) since I’ve probably seen the phrase but was never sure what it meant. Never watched Inspector MORSE so wasted some time thinking about shoes and shirts. Biffed BROOMSTICK and CHAT SHOW and went back to parse after finishing. I feel poor old OBOE has earned its retirement.
Thanks to Trelawney and Curarist!
Good QC.
I misread 19a and entered SNOG which caused a shock when I was about to enter 15d Sporran, and it didn’t fit. I can’t think of any words fitting s?n?r?n, and nor can the Cheating Machine.
7:09
Steady solve of a very nice puzzle.
Thanks Trelawney and Curarist.
A Jimmy and a Trelawney back-to-back! What a nice way to end the week. Probably should have been under ten minutes but I’m happy enough with 10:56. My COD is FAIRY LIGHT, which made me smile.
Thank you for the blog!
7:56 here, very speedy and enjoyable for me. The only minor holdup was thinking that 19a was the hidden STUN, despite not being happy about the definition. But SPORRAN showed that that couldn’t be right. LOI FAIRY LIGHT, can’t pick a COD today, too many good ones.
Thanks to Trelawney and Curarist.
10:42. I thought EARTHY first for MARSHY but saw sense after getting BROOMSTICK.
Nice puzzle which we glad to finish in a good time for. Thanks Trelawney.
The end of the week has been much happier than the start: started on Monday with a DNF, then about 16, 12:42, 7:50 and today – 7:24! Less than 1K – by the skin of my teeth, and again the first for a very long time. Another fun puzzle with quite a few giggles along the way – FAIRY LIGHTS made me feel all festive, and I liked CHAT SHOW and CABARET. Obviously the gross GROCER made me think of the latest TV scandal.
FOI Masquerade LOI and COD Song – a real PDM combined with a LOL when I twigged that one 😅😘
Thanks Trelawney and Curarist
Late in the day to this (after a grandson’s Christmas concert) so settled down and raced away until a fatal 12d GAME SHOW, which stymied me for MARSHY and for TACITURN. Took an age to rethink and correct, so back in the SCC once again. Liked OVER, enjoyed the hiddens and found the anagrams solver-friendly for once! Thanks to Trelawney and to our excellent blogger
10:32 but one typo (no excuse for the careless mis-spelling of CABERET) so technically a DNF. I commented yesterday that I always enjoy Jimmy’s puzzles and that also applies to Trelawney. I consider them to be my favourite compilers. FOI – IBIZA, LOI – CHAT SHOW, COD – SONG with honourable mention to GROCER. Thanks Trelawney and Curarist.
Enjoyable puzzle. I couldn’t get very far with the 15×15 today, but this was a very pleasant solve.