Slightly above-par 7 minutes for me in this fun but rather two-paced offering from Mara. Plenty of simple clues, but many others I parsed only afterwards. Overall, I suspect many will find this a bit of a struggle.
| Across |
| 1 |
Bird, dog also heard? (8) |
|
COCKATOO – Sounds like COCKER TOO |
| 5 |
Extra part of room, or extension (4) |
|
MORE – hidden word |
| 8 |
First of buds imminent in flower (8) |
|
BLOOMING – B for buds plus LOOMING |
| 9 |
Deer with leg cut (4) |
|
STAG – STAG[E] |
| 11 |
Tenant is upset about losing money initially — monthly payment, say? (10) |
|
INSTALMENT – anagram (‘upset’) of TENANT IS around the first letters of Losing Money. I biffed this. |
| 14 |
Filly, say, kennelling a husky (6) |
|
HOARSE – HORSE placed around A. I like ‘kennelling’ as an indicator a lot. |
| 15 |
Best or otherwise, pulsating light (6) |
|
STROBE – anagram (‘otherwise’) of BEST OR |
| 17 |
Fruity little things peeled tennis gear off (10) |
|
TANGERINES – anagram (‘off’) of TENNIS GEAR |
| 20 |
Follow four letters from the editor (4) |
|
HEED – hidden word |
| 21 |
Failing isn’t rare for device with holes (8) |
|
STRAINER – anagram (‘failing’) of ISNT RARE |
| 22 |
Assignment while filling empty truck (4) |
|
TASK – AS (while) inside T[RUC]K |
| 23 |
Clerical author, reportedly? (8) |
|
PRIESTLY – sounds like (J.B.) PRIESTLEY. An Inspector Calls and all that. |
| Down |
| 1 |
Junior reporter on a Caribbean island (4) |
|
CUBA – CUB (reporter) + A. This is a bit of a chestnut. |
| 2 |
Bird runs into bovine (4) |
|
CROW – COW with R inside |
| 3 |
Manage to move inside tram (10) |
|
ADMINISTER – anagram (‘to move’) of INSIDE TRAM |
| 4 |
Fancy bringing leader of negotiations into lecture (6) |
|
ORNATE – ORATE (lecture) with N for negotiations inside |
| 6 |
Shaped end of wood then too sharp (2,3,3) |
|
ON THE DOT – anagram (‘shaped’) of [WOO]D + THEN + TOO |
| 7 |
Mutated, the gene I figure (8) |
|
EIGHTEEN – anagram (‘mutated’) of THE GENE I |
| 10 |
Every bit of newspaper coverage ultimately in Vogue (3,3,4) |
|
ALL THE RAGE – ALL THE RAG + E (end of ‘coverage’) |
| 12 |
Talk with jazz fan about film director (4-4) |
|
CHIT-CHAT – CAT (jazz fan) outside HITCH, short for HITCHCOCK. Another biff. Hitch for Hitchcock is a bit of a stretch, imo. |
| 13 |
Easy line composed in academic success (8) |
|
PAINLESS – anagram (‘composed’) of LINE inside PASS (academic success) |
| 16 |
Freezing ale (6) |
|
BITTER – double definition |
| 18 |
Some design a tooth that bites (4) |
|
GNAT – hidden word |
| 19 |
Equine sound in chestnut about right (4) |
|
BRAY – BAY (chestnut coloured horse ) outside R |
11 minutes. BRAY and PRIESTLY delayed me a good 2 minutes as my last ones in.
Alfred Hitchcock was known widely as “Hitch” by colleagues, friends, and fans, so it seems fair enough to me. Maybe less so for the younger set though.
Once again took ages, not sure why; i’ve got the worst SNITCH numbers so far. I missed the ‘cocker’ bit, being rhotic, but biffed COCKATOO anyway. 9:25.
No problem with Hitch; see Jackkt above,
I too thought that using ‘Hitch’ for ‘director’ was pushing it a bit, but got the answer before I noticed so probably shouldn’t go on about it. I struggled with this, taking 15.47. Unusually for a QC I had to write out several of the long anagrams to solve them, and with LOI PAINLESS spent ages trying to make an anagram of ‘easy line’ equate to ‘academic success’. Began very slowly, with only a couple of acrosses in the top half going in. But all good in the end, thanks Mara and Curarist.
Same here with easy line. Mara IS the queen/king of misdirection
I found this quite tricky and it felt quite anagram heavy (although I’ve not gone back to count them all).
I didn’t like the use of ‘Hitch’ as I’d never heard of the director being referred to that way (as Jackkt says, it’s probably an age thing) and it made CHIT CHAT harder than it might have been.
I crossed the line in 10.18 and once again it was a NE finish for me with MORE and ON THE DOT bringing up the rear.
Thanks to Curarist
11 – too many anagrams
13:43. I got off to a fast start, just skipping some to keep up the momentum, but the ones I skipped took a lot of sorting out at the end. POI PRIESTLY and LOI PAINLESS where, like LindsayO above, I took “easy line” as an anagram and spent too long on it
A great start to the day for me. Untimed, but definitely a (not so common) day out from the SCC. Only really held up by my LOI, PAINLESS, where I spent too long trying to make an anagram out of ‘Easy line’ before re-parsing the clue.
Many thanks to Curarist and Mara.
It was all going so well, albeit with a fair bit of biffing, with just one left at 18.15. We then stared at “on the ?o?” For another 5 minutes before “trying” dot only to find it was right. Thanks Curarist for the parsing, we never saw that at all😧
Liked hoarse and heed, nice device for a hidden.
Thanks Mara
19:15 for another fail this week. Dived in with gRAY after tussling to think of PRIESTLY and PAINLESS after reaching the last three at 12-13mins. Pretty much seems to have been the story of my past 2-3months solving – getting held up for an disproportionate amount of the solve by the last couple of clues..
Four to the bad (MORE, ON THE DOT, CHIT-CHAT, PAINLESS), all just too difficult. Thanks, Curarist.
17m
Some toughies but could just be sore head. Last few were strainer, bray, priestly, heed, chit chat, and LOI painless.
COD Tangerines or On the dot.
But for the excellent Mara misdirection on my LOI, I might just have broken the 3 minute barrier – only 3 clues were left after my first pass. I’m currently 3rd on the leaderboard behind a neutrino and Verlaine. Any day when I finish ahead of Aphis99 is a good day as far as I’m concerned.
FOI COCKATOO
LOI PAINLESS
COD ALL THE RAGE
TIME 3:13
Finished OK. Lots of anagrams, maybe too many. Plodded about the grid solving fairly steadily, but slowed on LOI PAINLESS, trying the wrong anagrist.
Liked PRIESTLY, COCKATOO, CHIT-CHAT.
Hitchcock is/was often called HITCH, as Jack says.
MER Chestnut and Bay are two distinct horse colours, so not synonyms. Actually MajorER.
Thanks vm, Curarist.
26 minutes but a DNF thanks to COCKAPOO. It fitted but I couldn’t quite parse it which is a warning to be ignored at one’s peril.
Anagram heavy but then PAINLESS wasn’t one after all.
Biffed CHIT-CHAT like most people I imagine.
Thanks both.
Glad to see it wasn’t just me with COCKAPOO!
DNF today. I don’t mind being beaten by a QC as I often am, but I thought there were some poor clues in this one.
Do we now need to know the nicknames of famous people as well as their actual names? ‘Hitch’ seems a stretch.
Why does the clue for TANGERINE need the word ‘peeled’? That is loose cluing to me.
Bay and Chestnut are not the same.
Not impressed with this one from Mara.
Thanks Curarist for the help from the blog.
Prof
‘Cocker’ and ‘cocka’ are not homophones
Cocker and cocka are homophones for me (both second syllables rendered by schwa in connected speech) but not necessarily for everyone. I wonder how you differentiate between the two? Really interesting.
Interesting indeed. Hard to explain as they are totally different sounds to me. The ‘er’ in cocker is like the ‘ir’ in bird. The ‘a’ cocka is like the ‘a’ in above. This is the problem with homaphone clues. Some are obvious and some just don’t work!
Best advice might be to stop taking them so seriously. Very few (if any) words in English sound exactly the same to everyone.
Good advice. Normally they do not bother me but in this case it may have contributed to why I failed to solve that clue. Perhaps just sour grapes on my part! Have a good weekend Jackkt. Prof
I don’t think either of us were taking anything too seriously. I happen to find speech sounds really interesting, but do appreciate not everyone does 😉
My MER with clue is I never heard anyone call the dog a “cocker”.
It’s short for Cocker Spaniel.
Yes, I just never heard them referred to as simply cockers. Looking on the internet though I see cockers everywhere!
Yup, you need to be careful looking that sort of thing up on the internet …
24:37
Very slow, but unlike yesterday, stuck with it after crossing the 20 min barrier. Had real trouble with ON THE DOT and ALL THE RAGE. Mara’s misdirection of “easy line” caught me as well. My anagram hat was non functional today.
No-one tempted by COCKAPOO.?
Didn’t understand why PRIESTLY was reported, I know now I have been misspelling him up until now.
COD HEED
At least 2 of us with COCKAPOO!
Cocktail tempted me from tail and dog both suggesting follow.
A game of two halves. A quick start then bit of a deceleration and a painful fight for the last couple.
ON THE DOT was biffed, PRIESTLY was a late PDM, BRAY was a stretch, I biffed CHIT-CHAT (thanks for the parsing, curarist, I didn’t see the ‘hitch’ – a Mara quirk too far for me). Finally, I failed to see PAINLESS (the wrong anagrist, like Countrywoman and others) but I just lost patience. The last two took me well into the SCC and the pleasure of some of the early clues failed to make up for the pain of my last few minutes.
I have enjoyed recent Mara puzzles, finding them tough but fair but this one was not one of his best IMO.
After 13 minutes bunged in LOI STAG just to stop the clock. It had been my first thought.
I had several unparsed and am slightly surprised to see all correct.
I agree with our blogger and others- some tricky stuff here. It would have taken me much longer to parse everything and despite having seen Leg =Stage before, that was far away from my thinking.
Nothing wrong with the puzzle.
COD to PRIESTLY.
David
12:55 for what seemed like a slow solve on what was in the main a relatively straightforward puzzle. But not entirely straightforward, and add me to those trying to make an anagram out of Easy Line, and also, rather more briefly, out of a husky in 14A. Great misdirection from Mara, especially the former!
I also biffed CHIT-CHAT (NHO Hitch for Hitchcock, but it was quite guessable) and struggled with my two LOIs EIGHTEEN (clever anagram) and ON THE DOT – I’m not sure now why this took so long, as the parsing (once one sees it) is not obscure. So all in all I made slightly heavier weather of this than perhaps I should have.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog, and for those not returning for the Saturday online-only QC, have a good weekend.
Cedric
Thanks Curarist – glad its not just me that raised an eyebrow at Hitch. Anyway reasonable puzzle which I completed in 10:42 which is kust below my average.
FOI CUBA
LOI: EIGHTEEN – starte dto write out the ltters and then the penny droppped that we werent looking for a solid / shape
COD: PAINLESS – for the misdirection.
Cheers
Horners1974
I think my brain forgot to wake up with the rest of me today. Struggled all the way with this one. Trying to use “easy line” as the anagrist for my LOI, 13d, wasted ages. ADMINISTER and ORNATE took far longer than they should have, and the latter persuaded me to follow COCK with APOO instead of considering the wordplay carefully. Drat! So a very sluggish 16,28 WOE. Thanks Mara and Curarist. Doesn’t bode well for the 15×15, but off we go into the fray………
On edit: I think I may just get another coffee before I start!
5:44
Blasted through this with only a short pause for PAINLESS where I had been looking for an anagram in EASY LINE. No problem with HITCH – anybody of a certain age that has a remote interest in film would know this.
Thanks Curarist and Mara
I really didn’t think I would complete this, LOI Painless which I now see was very gettable but I didn’t get it quickly. Ironic that the def is “Easy”, and that (line)* is anagrammed.
41mins but used thesaurus.
LOI painless. Straightforward in retrospect but I tried to make an anagram of easy line for far too long. Some later answers were biffed and I missed hitch totally, getting the answer with cross checking letters.
I enjoyed this. FOI and COD was cockatoo
Thanks to Curarist and Mara
Terrific puzzle. Done like a kipper by Mara for both my last two – PAINLESS and ON THE DOT – one of them I thought was an anagram but it wasn’t, and the other one I didn’t think was an anagram but it was! Top cluing.
09:17 for a whisker below K and a Decent Day. Many thanks Mara and curarist.
Not the easiest today, and I think I was on form to finish just under target at 9.47. Probably a full minute spent on my LOI PRIESTLY, even with all the checkers in place it took me far too long to see it.
My total time this week was 43.24, giving me a daily average of 8.41, so a very good week for me with only Thursday being a missed target day.
Slow, but got there in the end – I also fell into the EASY LINE trap. Biffed CHITCHAT – reading this blog I also think Hitch is a bit of a stretch. Couldn’t see MORE for some time. Needed that second mug of tea to complete the grid. Liked Cockatoo and Priestly (after I remembered alternative meaning of clerical). So much excellent misdirection – thanks M and C.
DNF. Five in a row.
Ridiculously hard for a so-called “Quick Cryptic”.
Just lost my first comment so will try again, but more succinctly! Found this fairly straightforward and solved at my usual leisurely pace. Liked COCKATOO (homophones are usually my favourite clues) and PRIESTLY. Recognised needed a -ness sort of word early on so held up only briefly by PAINLESS. Many thanks to Mara and C.
Out of the club for the first time this week with a 19 minute solve. I thought it was going to be much faster as all bar 3 or 4 of the acrosses went straight in but the downs were trickier. Is there anyone who didn’t spend time trying to anagram easy line? I certainly spent a couple of minutes on it.
FOI and COD – 1ac COCKATOO
LOI – 19dn BRAY
Thanks to Mara and Curarist
I occasionally used to solve some of these but today, typical of recently, had to give up with 6 left after half an hour. Even aids didn’t help.
Like nearly everyone else, I spent far too long playing around with Easy Line before the (far from) Painless answer arrived. Loi On the Dot also took ages, and was a parsing save that displaced a wild On the Job (which might just be Sharpish, but only if viewed from a distance). Throw in a slow Priestly Bray and All the Rage, and I ended up being thankful that a quick start meant the 30min post could remain distant. No problem with Hitch, and no surprise therefore that Chit-Chat is my CoD. Invariant
16:17 I had to confirm after solving that donkeys are indeed in the equine family. My first thought was donkeys bray but equine refers to horses. In François Truffaut’s book from his lengthy interviews with Hitchcock he discusses how although the English-speaking world referred to him as Hitch, in France he is always Monsieur Hitchcock.
Ironically my last one in was painless…
Liked this overall… couple of trickier ones… bit of an animal theme too…? Thanks Mara and Curarist
18 minutes. Doing well before having to get the pen and paper out for the ‘Easy line’ anagram which wasn’t an easy anagram after all, as many others appear to have found.
Thanks to Curarist and Mara
15:25 with no errors. I always enjoy Mara’s puzzles and today was no exception. I was another who was fooled by the misdirection on PAINLESS for too long until I realised that academic success could be pass, then I saw it almost immediately. I also took far too long with LOI – ON THE DOT which was obvious once the penny dropped. FOI PRIESTLY which was the only across clue I got on my first run through, COD – COCKATOO but also liked PAINLESS and ON THE DOT when I eventually solved them. Thanks Mara and Curarist
Another DNF. Bother, or something similar.
Scratched along reasonably well but never got near PAINLESS or ON THE DOT.
20 mins…
Bang on my average time, although I would have been quicker if I’d not got stumped by 19dn “Bray” and 23ac “Priestly”. There was more than a raised eyebrow at “Hitch” for “Hitchcock” – I can’t personally recall him ever been referred to by such a contraction.
FOI – 1dn “Cuba”
LOI – 19dn “Bray”
COD – 10dn “All The Rage”
Thanks as usual!
13.07 Mostly quick but I spent ages stuck in the “easy line” trap and more time on PRIESTLY and LOI ON THE DOT. A very good puzzle. Thanks Curarist and Mara.
7.40. I must be on good form today as my time is quicker than a number of the regular solvers who usually beat me hollow.
5:33. About an average time for me. I’m another who didn’t know the director was known as HITCH, but it was fairly obvious so I didn’t mind. A bit of an unbalanced puzzle. 8 1/2 anagrams (if I’ve counted them correctly) is at least 2 1/2 and probably 3 1/2 too many. It wouldn’t past muster in our Weekend Quick Cryptic series and the Chambers Crossword Manual suggest a maximum of 6 in a 15×15 grid. At least “easy line composed” was only half an anagram, with easy being the definition, but it had me fooled for a while. Thanks Mara and Curarist.
Failed with PRIESTLY. 10 mins on the clock and I couldn’t come up with an author that sounded like office work!
How does FOLLOW = HEED??
If you ‘heed’ someone’s advice, you ‘follow’ it. Hope this helps.
Having wasted time yesterday failing to anagram “law not” into something useful, today I wasted time failing to anagram “easy line” into something useful. Oh well, back in the SCC at 20:48, which is 2^11. I bet nobody comes in with a larger power of 2, so presumably that means I win. Is there a prize?
Thank you for the blog!
Incidentally, you clearly can’t have a time of 40:96 so I did a bit of maths, and the next available larger power of 2 is 6:55:36 (2^16). If anybody is prepared to spend almost seven hours on this puzzle then I will cheerfully accept the silver medal.
Deja vu. Like yesterday raced through this with all but 2 clues remaining after 25mins. PAINLESS and ON THE DOT then took an excruciating 12:45 to tease out. Have completed 2 on the trot in good times for me, I fear for tomorrow!!!!
13:31 for us so just a little slower than par. Yes there were a lot of anagrams and, though I haven’t been back to check, going through it felt as if there was quite a range of anagrinds to boot. As experienced by others, a MER at ‘Hitch’ and time spent (the misdirection appreciated though) looking for an anagram of ‘easy line’. LOI ON THE DOT which we found harder than we should have done. In summary, the little grey cells were enjoyably stretched so thank you, Mara and Curarist.
Well, I didn’t spend seven hours on it, but my LOI felt like it would bring me close to it! Yes, I too did not find it PAINLESS.
After seeing CUBA before I’d even sat down with my print-out, I hoped I might be in for a reasonable solve, but it was not to be. That was it – the rest was a very erratic solve which took me close to the SCC. Then I got stuck on 13d, so went off to do other things for at least a couple of hours. It did come to me eventually, but only after – in despair – I went to The Crossword Solver to find an anagram that wasn’t there, and had a rethink. Boom! Very frustrating. At least I know who Hitch was, although I’ve only seen a couple of his films – much too scary for me.
FOI Cuba LOI Well, Painless I suppose, because I did work it out eventually, but not sure it really counts! I won’t call it a technical DNF, because in my book, if you have to refer to aids to get help, then it doesn’t count. So a real DNF 😂
Thanks Mara and Curarist
20 minutes.
A horrible week – 2 hours, 24 minutes with 2 DNFs and no SCC escapes.
Other people do this daily and improve. I do it daily and go backwards. That drives me crazy.
6.37
With all the checkers; CAT for jazz fan; and the definition I didn’t even work out that HITCH was the missing bit, but that is why I make more mistakes than others…
Thanks Mara and Curarist
Over 37 minutes to do this “Quick “ crossword. PAINLESS and CHIT-CHAT the last ones in after some other ponderings.